Sparks's Journal

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1. 38,000 Miles per Watt endorsement

   Earlier today I made contact with Bert, F6HKA, at a distance of 3,845 miles.  We first made contact on 15 meters using 5 watts.  The band conditions were so good that I hooked up the K1 and we made contact on 17 meters.  That 17m contact was made with …

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2. SKCC 1,000 Miles per Watt Award

   Update

   It would appear that my K1 is stuck transmitting 6 to 7 watts no matter what the power output setting is.  I can only assume that the contacts I made for this award were not made using 100 mW but rather 7W.

   I have already responded to the award …

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3. SKCC: I now have my Centurion!

   I received the following message from Ron Bower, AC2C, after submitting my SKCC award log last night:

   Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Gather 'round and pay heed to the news of this
   day!
   
   Let there be celebration to recognize a fellow SKCC member who
   has advanced to the Centurion level of …

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4. DXCC Update for 2011

   The ARRL processed my DXCC Award update for 2011 in record time this year.  Since I received the Mixed DXCC award last year I have added 14 new entities to the confirmed list bringing my total up to 115 current (116 total).  Here's the running total including year 2011:

   TYPE …

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5. DXCC Mixed Awarded

   We stopped by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) on our road trip to submit my application for DXCC Mixed. The application was processed while we were at lunch and upon our return I was awarded my DXCC Mixed with 102 entities confirmed. The breakdown by band is as follows …

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6. DXCC Entities #100 and #101 confirmed!

   Well, I finally received QSLs for DXCC entities 100 and 101!  HD2A sent his card for our 15m contact thus confirming Ecuador for number 100 and then YN2EA confirmed our contacts on 15m and 20m for Nicaragua and entity number 101.

   It's official, I now qualify for DXCC!  Woot!  Only …

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7. New DXCC entities in the log

   Got lucky today. Saudi Arabia and Lebanon managed to make their way into my logbook today. Needless to say I was very excited to put them there. I also received confirmation, via LoTW, from New Zealand for a contact that I made a couple of weekends ago. So that puts …

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8. Kudos to the ARRL WAS Awards desk...

   Kudos to the ARRL WAS Awards desk for quickly processing my application for Worked All States (WAS) - Basic.  I sent in the three QSL cards, representing the three states that I didn't have confirmed via the LoTW, to the ARRL for checking.  Exactly one week after sending the cards to …

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9. IARU's Worked All Continents - RTTY Award

   On October 20th I completed my application and sent my cards to the ARRL for verification that I had met the requirements for the IARU's "Worked All Continents" award. Exactly seven days later I not only had my cards returned but also had my certificate as well. Now that is …

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