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 I put my WSPR transmitter to work over the past 24 hours to get an idea of the conditions of the bands before the ARRL CW DX contest. The Kp index was anywhere from 3-4, not the greatest but it's something we have no control over. In this contest, North American stations can only contact DX stations. Below is a 24-hour breakdown of the activity on the bands that I can operate on (10m-40m) and also the Kp index over the past 24 hours as well. I did check the solar weather and it looks as if things are going to calm down slightly over the weekend. In a nutshell, 20 and 40m will be my go-to bands with sprinkles of 10 and 15m. 

The new extended hours were a nice addition to the contest, and for me, it's a very relaxing event. At VE9KK, this was a CW event, and I kept my speed in the 22-26 wpm range. It was not a very busy event, and I checked in now and then on Saturday and Sunday. One nice surprise was that on Saturday evening on 40m, I had a call from 4Z4DX from Israel.

This weekend is the annual Winter Field Day event, and I have only started participating in it within the last few years. I am one of those who participate from my nice warm shack and not the wintery outdoors. I have worked outside all my life and feel I have had my fair share of the winter wonderland. This year, Winter Field Day has some major changes. 

1. The event was previously 24 hours long but has now been updated to 30 hours, from 1600 UTC to 21:29 UTC. 

2.  Your location does not have to remain in the same place throughout the contest. If you are set up at a certain location you can now pack up and move to another location. For some winter means snow and very cold weather. Let's say conditions change (or whatever the reason) you now can pack up and change location. 

3. In the past, there were objectives that could help your score, such as operating 100% on alternate power. The new change is that these objectives are now multipliers. Also, check the Winter Field website, as some new objectives have been added. 

I hope to make contact at this weekend's event with some of my readers.

I got up this morning to -14F that good old Arctic air flow doing a number on the thermometer. Our heat pump was doing its best to keep up and keep the house warm. I did need to put on the space heater in the shack as it was just a bit too chilly for this old guy. I set up for the morning CWops mini-test at 9 am local time....well, I thought I did. I started my Win4icom radio control software and it would not connect to my rig, all settings were gone! I entered all the comport and settings again and got it a go and things connected. Great ready to go.... not so fast, now N1MM+ could not connect and seems all settings were gone there too. I fixed that and seems all things were a go....not so fast, I went to log a contact and was greeted with "cannot log contact no frequency is indicated" Sure enough N1MM+ was not tracking the radio frequency at all. I restarted N1MM+ and all was well and I finally was up and running about 15 minutes into the contest. Now this rarely ever happens, in fact, I can't remember the last time it did. I am willing to have a trade-off like this now and then for the excellent support these programs give my contesting adventures. 

In the end I made 70 contacts and had an enjoyable time. 

Faulty connector

Two years ago I made a 1:1 isolation choke with some RG316 coax and wrapped it around an FT240-31 core. At one end of the RG316, it was fitted with a proper mini UHF to PL 239 connector. At the other end after wrapping the RG316 coax around the FT240-31 core, I soldered a regular PL-259 connector....Kinda Gerry rigged it. Today I installed a new monitor arm for the monitor that displays my Icom 7610 screen and while mounting this arm I had to move some wires and connectors at the back of the radio. Everything was done I wanted to ensure the monitor was working correctly and displaying my Icom 7610 display. While doing that I bumped my keyer and noticed my SWR went off the scale! I tried it again with the same results. 

Opposite end.

 On Wednesday it was time to see if I could uphold a New Year's goal I had set for myself. Each Wednesday is the CWops Mini test for 1 hour at 1300 and 1900 UTC. I have been taking part in this weekly event for a few years now. I found it greatly helped me increase my confidence with higher speed code, becoming more familiar with my N1MM+ keyboard commands and building on my hearing the code and moving that to typing it. 

 
The code speed in the CWT's as they are called on average goes from 32wpm to 36wpm. There are times when your pushed and speeds can rise to 40 plus. I have always searched and pounced for contacts during this one-hour mini-contest. There have always been these apprehensions to run or call "CQ CWT". The mini-contests are always very well attended and these ops have an excellent grasp on CW. In the past, I have tried for a short while to run and it has been a lacklustre event for me from plan nerves and getting from ears to brain to keyboard flustered. I found once this happens things go downhill for me very fast. I then in defeat go back to search and pounce. I have been practicing over the past year with code contest programs, I have been very active in CW contests running and now it was time to commit to running in the CWTs. During the morning CWT at 1300 on Wednesday I warmed up my ears, and brain and searched and pounced for about 15 minutes. Then it was time to find a clear spot and send out "CQ CWT VE9KK". Unlike in weekend CW contests when I ran this time I felt a bit nervous. You never know the speed someone is going to come back to you at. I am perfectly fine with that as I want to improve and if you send "??" or part of a call they will slow down and all is well. 

In the 1300 UTC session, I ran for 20 minutes and actually, I was very surprised it really went off very well. Sure I did ask now and then for a repeat, had a typing breakdown due to nerves and now and then hit the wrong macro key sending the wrong message. In the 1900 UTC session, I ran for 30 minutes and it was better but as I was in the swing of things we had a power outage! 

Looking back I did ok and better than I expected, I am very glad I took the plunge and I know over time I will get better and the nerves with calm down as well. Now I know some readers will think "What is the big deal". That is very true but for me, it is like I am playing High School football and was picked up and placed in the NFL. In my humble opinion these ops are the cream of the crop when it comes to CW contesting and to be honest I find it intimidating. But one week down and 51 more to go or thereabouts!

 Beginning the year with a little plate of DX. On Friday while I was practicing with a CW contesting program I also had running in the background DX Heat. I saw E29TGW from Thailand spotted on 20m from a U.S. station. A lot of the time when I see and check out these spots I am met with static. I turned on the radio and spun the VFO to his frequency. He was there but weak and now and then he popped up to an S3. The best thing was he was calling CQ and no one was there to answer him. I dropped my call a few times and he came back to me and I was in the log. 

Next I saw 7Q2T from Malawi Africa who was spotted on 10m and so I dialed him up and this signal was strong and operating simplex. He was in the log in no time and so within 15 minutes I had 2 ATNO's  in the log. It was now time to get back to CW contest practicing.