Thanks, I have bookmarked that link now.  I'll also check out the dxwatch link.

If you can do the electronic download, then save that file and burn a new CD whenever you need?

7 total. I am just beginning . . .

I am on again today. Again 40 was very regional this afternoon. I knew there was a FL QSO party happening but I could not hear anything from FL. I switched to 20 . . heard FL finally. Still on 20 and I have made two contacts with stations in Switzerland in the last 20 minutes. They re also having some sort of contest.

I figured that . . . I just find it amusing . . . but looking at the big picture, there is no real reason that I need to be in a hurry since I have a whopping 7 contacts in my HRD log . .

Wayne

I am getting LOTW setup . . . Being a computer person, but not an experienced Ham, I find it a bit ironic that to setup LOTW, you have to wait for a post card to arrive in the snail mail. Wonder why they couldn't just email it to me . . . Identity verification maybe . . .

That's quite a list. Any recommended ones?

Thank you! That helps

Thanks for the info . . . I am in NW Arkansas. I belong to a local club but it's different than Arkanhams. I might go visit a meeting of their's as it's about 20 miles away.

So I guess I understand I log but the outstanding question is this: If I use N1MM's software and I am answering QSO party calls from say Michigan and Florida on the same day, do I log those to different "logs" or files in N1MM or log them in the same log file? Not knowing anything about N1MM software I don't know how it works yet. I'll download it this week and play with it.

The I assume I would submit the logs to the same place as the participants following those instructions?

I still have a lot to learn. I have to figure out LOTW also but that's another day.

Wayne

I just posted part 2 of my home brew Buddistick build. Part 1 is there as well. It works great!

http://k5unx.wordpress.com

I got on HF for the first time this weekend. I spent several hours Saturday on 20 meters and Sunday on 40 meters then 20 meters.  I noticed a couple things which I am sure varies depending on propagation and time of day etc.

40 meters seemed to be more regional while 20 meters seemed to be more distant. While listening on 20, I would hear someone in CA talking to someone fairly close to me ( < 150 miles ) but I could not hear the close station. I do understand why so I am not asking that question. Sunday on 40 meters I landed on 7.195 and heard a strong bunch of signals of people that were regional, < than 300 miles away and a couple with in 5-10 miles. So from my very limited 2 day's worth of experience 20 meters was good for distant stations while 40 was better for in a little closer.

On 20 I heard, Argentina,  Mexico, Turkey, Spain and all over the US. On 40, the contacts I heard were all US but included stations closer in but nothing outside the US other than Canada.

So is my experience common?

Thanks for the info. That was helpful. Being new to this, there is a lot of learning to do. 

I am new to all this. Just got my antenna built (homemade buddistick) this weekend and got on 20 and 40 meters for a while Sat and Sun for the first time. I heard a lot of State qso parties and answered a few calls mainly to see if people could hear me and make sure things were working. 

I have some logging questions as I have not started logging yet for real. I would like to so I can keep track of states, countries etc.

I understand if I was participating in a State QSO party, I could use n1mm's software. However, how would I log answering other peopled requests for their participation? For example I answered some MI qso party folks, and a couple Rookie Roundup calls. Do I log those somehow? In my general log which I have not started yet? On a weekend like this, I wouldn't think I would need to log all those in separate programs . .

I did write down these contest contacts in a text file on my laptop but that's not a long term solution.  I have logged a couple general contacts in qrz.com logbook but I don't want to use that long term as I may not have an internet connection all the time . . .

I do have HRD installed on a laptop but it seems I also need a qrz subscription?? I know this is not really a contest question but if someone could answer, that would be nice.

Just got on HF today, listening to 20 meters and hearing QSO parties.  I see there are some state specific logging programs. Can you log these in HRD? Does it generate the serial number?  

Just trying to learn some of this as today is my first day on HF.

They guy I heard was in N Dakota. He was referring to his county as "designation MTN". So I assumed that maybe most counties had a "designation". Thanks for the Link!