I bought one (can't remember the manufacturer) that only allows you to set the 3 U.S. time zones, but it also had a "offset" that you could program. Sooooo, what I ended up doing was setting it to EST w/the appropriate offset for GMT. There is an interesting problem though whenever the clock tries to synchronize with WWV between 0000-0500Z...What is happening is that the clock tries to synchronize whenever it gets to time 0200 and unless the EST is after 0000, the clock resets to 0000. After 0000 EST, the clock will synchronize to the correct GMT.

The standard is time on, but if you have the room on your QSL card then <start time> - <stop time> can also be used for those longer QSOs. You may have other reasons for your ~10% QSL RoR. Have you been sending the correct number of IRC's (for some countries, it takes more than 1 to get a return letter)? Are you including an SAE? How long has it been since you mailed some of those cards? It can sometimes takes months or years to get some cards back.

Agreed! Jump in there and give it a try...You may not be able to work 100% of what you hear and you may not get 5BDXCC in a year, but you'll get some DX nonetheless. Try calling CQ DX sometimes too; the DX (yes, sometimes even the rare/semi-rare ones) might come looking for you.

If you don't already, you might want to give CW a try; by your descriptions I assume your troubles are with SSB pileups. I've found that it's a lot easier to work DX on CW being a "barefoot" than it is on SSB. You might also want to give the WARC bands a try, you get a lot less competition there usually - and it's easier to be the "first" to find the DX too.

That info may not necessarily be out of date. However, I'd recommend getting signed up for the DX-QSL mailing list (go to www.qth.net) and posting your query there if you want to see if more recent info is available.

Unless you are operating from, or a QSL manager for, a rare IOTA or DX location it's unlikely you'll get many direct requests at all, much less w/foreign money inside. I have in 16 years of hamming received 2 (one from Brazil, one from Poland), and was surprised as heck both times.

Steve's point is well taken. I've assisted on one DXpeditions' QSLing chores and it is indeed annoying to have call/contact info split between the sides. I do have callsign/contact info on the back of the card, so there is not I hope any features on it the QSL mangers will find annoying.

73 and moooooo...
Scott
KK7JS

Personally I prefer a nice picture with minimal information on the front (i.e. call/location) and everything else on the back. I also bought thru Octavia (see my card at www.qrz.com) and though it took them a long time to get me the cards, the wait was well worth it. They let me design the back of my cards the way I wanted to...Since I like to chase DX and often get multiple band/mode QSOs, I made it so that I can place up to 5 QSOs on a single card.

I believe that VP6 (Ducie Is.) now tops the most wanted list. Although that will fall once a DXpedition can get out there to operate.

My own picks would be (not necessarily in this order):

KP1, KP5, KH1, KH7K, CY9, VK0(Heard Is), 9N, 9U, ST, 3C0, TN, PY0S, and 3Y (Peter Is.).

One additional note...You might want to take a look at a recent discussion on the "Elmers" forum regarding QSLing in general;

http://www.eham.net/forums/Elmers/10549

It has some good tips there.

73
Scott
KK7JS

The ARRL website (www.arrl.org) has all the info you'll need.

Try these links:

http://www.arrl.org/qsl/qslout.html

...for info about sending cards out thru the buro, and

http://www.arrl.org/qsl/qslin.html

...for info on how to receive your cards from a buro.

Hope this helps.

73
Scott
KK7JS

A comment about one point:

a) wait for activity on the band

This is not necessarily the way to go, especially if you do any operating on the WARC bands. I've recently been calling CQ on 17 and 12 meters, with few or no other audible stations on the band, and been getting lots of responses. Some of them have even been from uncommon or semi-rare DX (S. Cook, Turkey, Romania, Israel to mention a few). I don't operate a powerful station here either, just a vertical and 100w.

Keep trying those CQ's, don't get discouraged. You may have better luck now as we head out of summer and into what looks like a good propagation fall/winter.

Absolutely! My first CW contest experience was the now-defunct Novice Roundup. It's always nerve-racking trying something out for the first time, especially something that can be this fastpaced. Glad you had a good time, and try to be on for the largest of all CW contests - CQ WW CW during the last weekend in November. 73 and have fun!

I'd be curious to know what kind of rig you have. A friend of mine used to live about 1/2-1/4 mile from an AM station. He had no trouble with interference - as long as he used his FT-1000MP. The other radio he had, an older model Kenwood, didn't do so well. The AM station would transmit at full power from 0600-2100 local time; and on the Kenwood the interference was s9+20 at all times on all freqs.

Rob,

They all look like Kalingrad (UA2). Hope this helps.

73's
Scott
KK7JS