AAØO Year in Review 2023
12/31/2023
This was a much lighter year for blog posts, things have become traditional, went to the Florida Contest Group Contest dinner in Orlando for Hamcation, I won a HT Heil headset. I got 1st place in WCF for the RTTY Roundup somehow, I’ve done much better other years and not gotten first. I did complete a goal from last year of adding a second antenna, the Loop on Ground antenna, it’s not great and don’t use it much.
I skipped Dayton this year as one of my friends gave me a ticket to a Spartan Race at Tampa Stadium that weekend, which started me on a new hobby, CrossFit. In October I updated my FlexRadio against my better judgment and it ended up with a broken Ethernet chip later that day, that was out of commission for 2 months while it got repair for $900, not happy about that. In the interim I picked up a Hermes-Lite 2 SDR which I still need to get more time with (and make a blog post).
The club station finally got completed this year, I’ve done a couple CW contests there. I stepped down as Club President after 4 years. It’s nice to just attend the meetings again without having to be “on” the whole time. I’m still the VE Team Lead. We also did a few POTA activations at Sawgrass Lake Park with the club.
- 1,388 QSOs (19,393 lifetime QSOs)
- 12,635 LOTW confirmed QSOs (+1,122)
- DXCC mixed 194 (+9)
- DXCC 10m 67(+15), 80m 63(+4)
| Band | Count |
|---|---|
| 20m | 393 |
| 15m | 360 |
| 40m | 307 |
| 10m | 171 |
| 80m | 116 |
| 17m | 14 |
| 60m | 9 |
| 30m | 7 |
| 12m | 5 |
| 2m | 3 |
| 70cm | 3 |
| Mode | Count |
|---|---|
| CW | 1228 |
| RTTY | 100 |
| FT8 | 50 |
| FM | 6 |
| SSB | 2 |
| USB | 2 |
More FM than SSB, lol
| Call sign | Count |
|---|---|
| K3WW | 11 |
| CY0S | 8 |
| ZF1A | 7 |
| VE3MGY | 7 |
| W8FJ | 7 |
| K3MM | 7 |
| AA3B | 7 |
| N5RZ | 7 |
| PJ2T | 7 |
| TN8K | 7 |
| 8P5A | 7 |
| TI7W | 6 |
K3WW wins again, lots of DX this year
| State | Count |
|---|---|
| PA | 66 |
| TX | 58 |
| CA | 45 |
| NC | 31 |
| IL | 30 |
| MD | 30 |
| TN | 27 |
| NJ | 26 |
| MN | 23 |
| MA | 23 |
TX took over 2nd place from CA
| Country | Count |
|---|---|
| Canada | 96 |
| Spain | 29 |
| Fed. Republic of Germany | 28 |
| Italy | 28 |
| Brazil | 20 |
| Argentina | 20 |
| France | 20 |
| Slovenia | 18 |
| England | 15 |
| Hungary | 13 |
Spain edged out Germany this year
| Call sign | Distance | Country | Band | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3B9KW | 16468 | Rodrigues Is. | 10m | CW |
| 4W8X | 16221 | Timor-Leste | 17m | FT8 |
| 3B7M | 15927 | Agalega & St. Brandon Is. | 12m | FT8 |
| 3B7M | 15927 | Agalega & St. Brandon Is. | 30m | FT8 |
| 3B7M | 15927 | Agalega & St. Brandon Is. | 20m | FT8 |
| 3B8M | 15922 | Mauritius | 10m | CW |
| 3B8M | 15922 | Mauritius | 15m | CW |
| 3B8M | 15922 | Mauritius | 20m | CW |
| VK7GN | 15278 | Australia | 20m | CW |
| VK1A | 14587 | Australia | 20m | CW |
Goals:
I’d like to get more use out of the Hermes-Lite SDR. I’d like to run more on CW instead of S&P. Still need to update my QSL cards, but I hardly ever get them anymore except from the Bureau. 10m has been pretty good so I’d like to get more DX there, we’ll see. Like to do more POTA, I’ve got a road trip planned so I should get some then, I’ve done all the close by parks.