Thanks everyone for the advise.  I will take it all into consideration as I setup my station, hopefully in the next week (as I look outside and see the snow flying), or two.

As far as my little quote about LoTW, I never thought anything about it until I saw another post a few weeks ago about someone that was looking for qsl #100 so he could send in his DXCC application.  Somebody said that he should work on digital modes to get the verification quicker.  It made sense to me that if everything is done on computer for QSO that all that it would take would be a quick click of the mouse to get the QSO submitted to LoTW.  I have no proof besides that.

I'm wondering what band/mode combinations would yield DXCC the quickest?  I know that CW would probably get me to 100 the quickest, but then I have to wait on confirmation.  On the other hand working digital might take me a little longer to get to 100, but with LoTW I could probably get the confirmations quicker.

I've recently moved to a QTH where I can setup a perminant station so I want to setup a challange for myself:  How quickly can I earn DXCC on a single band or mode (I'm not saying that I won't be using other bands/modes, I'll just be focusing on s single band and/or mode).

Any feedback would be great

kc9atj

it does not need to have section information, but the mobile station doesn need to give his information for where he was when the QSO happened.  So for the first example, the CA hame needs to put on his card somewhere that he was portable/mobile in OR so that the QSL card would count for OR credit.

As a side note, there has been at least one reported case of WAS by contacting the same person who was moble in all 50 states.

I'm trying to build a tester for higher frequency (1 ghz) swr test/db loss.  My idea is to have an oscillator feeding into an swr meter, hook a piece of coax (which is what I'm testing) to the meter and a dummy load to the other end of the coax.

I have found a VCO that cover's all the frequencies that I have to test.  Now my question is can I just apply a voltage to the VCO (testing to find the right voltage for the test that I need to do) and build a small amp to boost the signal up to minimum threshold for the meter, or do I have to build a circuit around the VCO to stablize the voltage?

The VCO that I found for this application is a Crystek Corp CVCO55BE if that is of any help.

kc9atj

I'm trying to build a tester for higher frequency (1 ghz) swr test/db loss.  My idea is to have an oscillator feeding into an swr meter, hook a piece of coax (which is what I'm testing) to the meter and a dummy load to the other end of the coax.

I have found a VCO that cover's all the frequencies that I have to test.  Now my question is can I just apply a voltage to the VCO (testing to find the right voltage for the test that I need to do) and build a small amp to boost the signal up to minimum threshold for the meter, or do I have to build a circuit around the VCO to stablize the voltage?

The VCO that I found for this application is a Crystek Corp CVCO55BE if that is of any help.

kc9atj

anybody know of anybody that produces something like the MFJ-259 for the 900-1.2GHZ range?  If not, how about a way to do similar test fairly cheap/

KC9ATJ

I've always thought that it would be interesting to do a JOTA contest.  It would be kinda backwards from any other contest that I know about where you make the contact and leave, but the longer you talk to the scout(s) the more points you rack up.  The contester would have to log the start of the contact and the end of the contact.  The points would have to be something along the lines of 1 point for a minute long QSO, 100 points for a 5 minute QSO, and 1000 points for a 10 min QSO (the minimum for the Radio Merit Badge) (got to make it worth their time to stay and talk).  The multipliers would be for the different ranks and awards that the scout has (Tiger Cub, Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Weblos, Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, Life, Venturing Bronze, Venturing Gold all worth 1 and Arrow of Lights, Eagle, Venturing Silver, and possible some others worth two).  The multipliers would work the same as a QSO Party (you talk to three 1st class scouts, that only counts as 1 multiplier).

This is one of those things I've thrown around in my head for years.  I think it would give contesters incentive to talk to the scouts.

Just my $.02

kc9atj

Congrats on DXCC

If it was me, I would be at the rig working on trying to get the next endorsement (150 I believe) and not standing by the mail box.  But then again what do I know, I've only worked 2/confirmed 1 in my 9 years of being licensed (I've never had a good spot to setup and never had a good antenna to use at my parents house.  Live in my own house now and will hopefully be setting up my equipment soon).

kc9atj

another idea would be to go to a VE session and hand out copies of QSTs that you don't want anymore.  Unless you know that it is going to be a big session, just take a dozen or so issues from different eras that you have in your collection and hand them out to people that pass the test.  Or you can bundle them up if you really want to get rid of them quickly.  If you hand it out when they are getting started, you might end up with someone that enjoys homebrewing or building antennas.

Just and idea

kc9atj

I was wondering if anybody here has been to or has plans to visit the Peoria Hamfest on the weekend of Sept 18?  I am going to be in town that weekend and was wondering if it is even worth going.  I'll only have a few hours here and there to go.

kc9atj

I just sent you one too

Joel
KC9ATJ

That's the exact same setup I had when I was running my 730

and here is a link to all the information

http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges/2010_mb_signaling.aspx

The BSA has announced, as part of their 100 year celebration, the reintroduction of the Signaling merit badge.  This can only be earned from April 1 thru December 31 of this year.

The requierments are as follows:

1.Make an electric buzzer outfit, wireless, blinker, or other signaling device. Send and receive in the International Morse Code, by buzzer or other sound device, a complete message of not less than 35 words, at a rate of not less than 35 letters per minute.
2.Demonstrate an ability to send and receive a message in the International Morse Code by wigwag and by blinker or other light signaling device at a rate of not less than 20 letters per minute.
3.Send and receive by Semaphore Code at the rate of not less than 30 letters per minute.
4.Know the proper application of the International Morse Code and Semaphore Codes; when, where, and how they can be used to best advantage.
5.Discuss briefly various other codes and methods of signaling which are in common use.

A few of these requierments should be easy to knock out, the only one that might be a problem would be the Semaphore requierments.

A statistic that I've heard for years is that after surveying former boy scouts, they found out that 75-80% (I don't remember the exact numbers) have a life long hobby that they got introduced to by working on merit badges as a boy scout.  That means that if you would work on this in conjuction with the radio merit badge, you might be able to get a few cw ops out of it.

Joel