Looking back at 2009

Today is the last day of 2009.
A good day to look back at things that happend this year.
I was pretty active during contesting and also in daytime i was looking on the clusters and listening on the bands for new DXCC's and prefixes.

In the Netherlands we have 2 clubs named the VERON and the VRZA.Both they have some kind of competitions.

The VERON has the Region-Competition.For this only QSO's made in HF Contesting counts.
Every 25 QSO's is one point and after 100 QSO's it's every 50 QSO's for one point.
This contest is not for OM's serparate,but for all the OM's from that Region.In my Region this year 10 OM's where active during some of the contests this year.Total we got 24519 QSO's,good for 663 points.With this we got the 12th place this year.
My score in this contest was with 10985 QSO's and 326 points good for the 9th place.But as i said before,this doesn't count,it's the total of the region what is important.

The VRZA has more competitions.Not only for HF but also for VHF/UHF.
In this competition all DXCC's and QSO's counting between the 15th of Januari untill the 14th of Dezember.One DXCC and prefix only counts one time.
I was active on HF in 4 competitions,DXCC's Phone,DXCC's Digimodes,DXCC's CW and Prefixes.

Last year i also was active in these 4 and got then:
DXCC Phone - 2nd (172 DXCC's)
DXCC Digi - 2nd (166 DXCC's)
Prefixes - 3th (1343 Prefixes)
DXCC's CW - 6th (140 DXCC's)

This year results are:
DXCC Phone - 2nd (199 DXCC's)
DXCC Digi - 2nd (180 DXCC's)
Prefixes - 1st (1716 Prefixes)
DXCC's CW - 1st (180 DXCC's)

In all 4 i was better then in 2008 and also got 2 times the 1st place.There are not much OM's that are in this competition,but every year more are also getting active.
For the 1st and 2nd places i did get prices as well.



For the 1ste place in the CW section i am very proud.The other as well ofcourse,but CW i do operate via Computer.

Every year i try to work all DXCC's again.
This year i got a total of 228 DXCC's worked in mixed mode.
10M - 103 DXCC's + 20M - 227 DXCC's + 40M - 116 DXCC's
In SSB:
Total - 194 DXCC's + 10M - 83 DXCC's + 20M - 188 DXCC's + 40M - 83 DXCC's
In CW:
Total - 180 DXCC's + 10M - 72 DXCC's + 20M - 172 DXCC's + 40M - 88 DXCC's
In RTTY:
Total - 173 DXCC's + 10M - 26 DXCC's + 20M - 172 DXCC's + 40M - 77 DXCC's
In PSK:
Total - 94 DXCC's + 10M - 25 DXCC's + 20M - 91 DXCC's + 40M - 25 DXCC's

Also i did manage to work all the 6 continents on all the three bands.

On LoTW i got now 4 DXCC certificates for the modes: Mixed,Phone,RTTY and 20M.
This month i also applied for the CW Certificate,got 115 DXCC's confirmed when i did apply.Now few days later i have 120 confirmed.
Also some very nice DXCC's where comfirmed via direct QSL:
3D2GM,3XM6JR,9Y4D,E21YDP,TL0A,5U5U,4S7BRG,FM5AN,VU7NRO,etc etc.

Also in 2009 i was active together with my dear friend Jelle,PD5JFK,from the Windmill the "Eendracht" in Gieterveen.First time we used our calls /P and in August we had PD6MILL.
Also in 2010 we will be active from the Windmill during the Dutch Millday,in May, and perhaps also again later in the year.
Also we activated PD55EA,55th aniverary from the Museum "Ellert and Brammert".This i did together with mark,NL10092.He's busy for his licence and hoping to get it in March 2010.Then i will do exam for the Full Licence.

In 2009 i also started with some WSJT mode on 20M,made already a few QSO's.
Also new for me is WSPR,very nice mode to check propagation,but also good for antenne's.
Some great modes by K1JT

I had alot of time this year for the radio hobby.I hope that this will change in 2010.
I got a back operation this year in June and are still recovering from this.In 2010 i got new exam to see what i can do again,what kind of job i mean.

I want to wish all of you a very Happy,Healthy and DXfull 2010.
Hoping that the DXgods will give us loads more sunspots and better propagation.
Hope to see you all down the log......cheers.

9A CW Contest

After the OK DX RTTY i went to the 9A CW contest.

The contest already started saturday at 14:00 UTC.

As i do CW via Computer,i can only work the strongest stations.But still i manage to work some nice DXCC's.

I did work 7 stations on saturday evening on 40M already.

Sunday i did start at 10:00 UTC on the 40M band again.Worked only EU stations and went after one hour to 20M.

Here also mostly EU stations with some nice openings to Asiatic Russia.

At 11:23 i was able to work Frank,ZM2B.He is also active during contests and this was my 3th QSO with him already.Also got his confirmation already in via LoTW.

Later propagation also was open to NA and i did manage to work a few from the US as well.

Total QSO's where 70.

Total DXCC's on 20M 16.

Total DXCC's on 40M 14.

Total Points 4830.

OK DX RTTY

The past weekend i was active in two contests.

Started with the OK DX RTTY and when this was finished i also did some in the 9A CW.

The OK DX is a 24 hours contest.Started at 0:01 UTC on Saturday morning untill 23:59 UTC.I started around 6:30 UTC.

First on 40M,because seemed that the propagation was good on that band.Worked only Europe and at 7:00 UTC i went to 20M.

Here i saw that there was some nice prop to Asia.Worked Asiatic Russia,Kazakhstan,China and a few stations from Japan as well.

At 8:30 UTC i was back on 40M,looking for some new Multi's.Propagation was good into Europe.Big suprise was to work K1SFA and NC4CS around 9 UTC.Normale it's very early in the morning,or late in the evening to work NA on 40M.Little later also K4XD and P40YL where logged.

At 11:00 UTC i went back to 20M again.Mostly Europa now.P40YL worked at 12:05 UTC.After this more NA stations worked.Also nice to work VK6HZ in the contest.Very difficult to work was HQ2T,but after some minutes i was able to work them.

Around 16:00 UTC the band started to close..but still i was able to work a few NA stations.

Also YV5AAX just came up suddenly very strong.Always nice to work him in the contest as well.

Think that Aldo is one of the most active QM's in YV land.

From 17:00 UTC it was only 40M for me to operate.

Until 19:00 i worked only EU,after that i could see and work some NA stations as well.

Last station logged was at 23:45 UTC....

Total logged 291 QSO's.

ARRL 10meter Contest

The past weekend,12-13 Dec.,was again the ARRL 10M Contest.

Always a very nice contest,but.....as the band is not always open....also difficult.

The question was if it would be open for the contest weekend.

I was also active in 2008 and want to try to get a better result this year.

I started at 9:00 UTC.Got my first station logged at 9:17.This was 9H6A on CW.

So it seems that the band is ok for Europe.As i can use the computer for CW mode,i always try to do mixed mode in the contest,so also this year.

Propagation wasn't very good,i got 10 QSO's logged till 11:12 UTC.Mostly EU,besides C4N.

At 11:16 i did copy ZS6GF on SSB with real 5/7.After worked him i got 3 more stations from South Africa,ZS6JPY,ZS6BRZ and ZS9X.

Very strange to get the propagation to ZS,but not less happy with it,hi.

Wasn't active the whole afternoon and last station logged on saterday was at 17:37.

Still not bad...had now 26 QSO's logged...

Sunday i started at 8:30 UTC.

Started to listen on the CW and worked H2E at 8:34.

Was active till 10:00 UTC,because we had to go somewhere.Still worked 14 stations in this time.We where back at 15:45,worked 3 stations and then it was diner time.

After diner again to the radio and.....propagation was open to SA.

Got very strong stations from Brasil,Argentinia and also Uruguay.They where sometimes 5/7-9 but with strong QSB.It was just a job to work them fast,before the propagation would drop again.

Did work:

PY5KA,AY4D,LR2F,PY1BMB,ZX5J,LU1HF,CX5BW,PY1NB,PY2SEX,PQ5B,CW5W,PY5RB,

PY0FF and PY2LSM.

I did work PY2SEX on CW and on SSB.

At 19:00 UTC i had to qrt and thought that later the band would be closed.

But when i looked at 21:54 i could still hear 3 stations very loud.They where European stations,but i didn't have them in my log,so i worked them.

Very strange propagation on the 10M band in this weekend.

Total i got logged 74 stations.

On CW 29 qso's and 17 DXCC's

On SSB 45 qso's and 15 DXCC's

Total points in N1MM where 6592

My goal was again made.I got more QSO's logged as in 2008.Also more points then ofcourse.

It was very nice to see that the band was open with nice openings on saterday to ZS and on sunday to SA.

Also it was strange to work UK stations in this time of the year on 10M.

Also nice to work PE4BAS in the contest.

I hope that in 2010 propagation will increase and that the ARRL 10M Contest will be even a bigger succes as it was for me in 2009.

TARA Melee contest

The past weekend,5th of Dezember,was again the TARA Melee contest.

This is not a very big contest,but i saw more stations active this year,as in 2008.

Last year only got 56 QSO's as well....so this year the goal was to get more then that.

I started in the morning around 9UTC and was active till 23:59 UTC.

First looking on 40M,then going to the 20M band.

Propagation wasn't very good that saterday.

Still made up to 153 QSO's,worked one dupe.

Nice calls worked:

E21YDP,ZC4LI,TF3PPN,TF3IGN,P40YL,A61OO,NP4BM.

Total worked: 38 DXCC's 21 US States 3 CA provinces

Total on 20M: 31 DXCC's 21 US States 3 CA Provinces

Total on 40M: 25 DXCC's 5 US States 0 CA Provinces