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ARRL Field Day 2024 – meeting prep

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January 15th saw eight IslandHF Radio Association members meet for coffee, Tim Bits (thank you, Pierre) and the first discussion about and preparations for the ARRL Field Day in June, June 22-23, 2024, specifically.

Since IslandHF is a relatively new radio club it has no history of Field Days. This meeting was about visioning the event and starting the discussion of how we do it. Bottom line – with lots of work.

What is truly exciting though are discussions about partnering with the Canadian Arm Forces specifically the Royal Canadian Navy. CFARS (Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System) is a big thing with the Navy. So the ARRL Field Day 2024 will be a very special event.

Nothing like a good instructor

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It was a cold January Saturday morning in Victoria, BC. Any morning below zero Celsius is cold. But what better time to learn how to use N1MM+ radio contesting software during a CW contest?

David James was my instructor. The contest was the NA QSO Party. My mission was to survive CW operators sending 30 wpm. My weapon? My instructor’s ears. He’s darn good when it comes to CW contests.

We quickly fell into a rhythm where he would pick out the dits and the dahs (I tried to help… yah, right) and give me the call sign. My fingers would flash over the keyboard. We’d sneak a peak at QRZ to confirm the operator’s name (part of the exchange) and the state/province (also part of the exchange), and David would yell “hit it!” whereupon I would quickly depress the Enter key on the keyboard. Now “log it!” he would yell even louder.

It was all great fun. I even made a contact with Amanda KB0JSH in Indianapolis. After confirming the contact she sent me a TU and 88’s – love and kisses. My heart melted.

Below is the N1MM+ log showing our efforts using the IslandHF club call sign VA7IHF. Thank you, David.

What a great hobby. Now I must get back to my code practice.

DX Engineering Catalog

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When I was in high school, I loved reading two catalogs: HealthKit and Allied Radio. I could spend hours dreaming of all the things I could do if only I had more money that I earned on my paper route. Yesterday I received a catalog from DX Engineering, enclosed with the antenna I had ordered from them. It is surprisingly thick and full of ham radio goodies. I would like almost everything in that catalog, and when asked if I have any Christmas wishes next year, I will know how to answer!