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.

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.

CQ WW Contest

In the past weekend,28-29 Nov,was again the CQ WW CW contest.

I also was active during this contest with MixW as my CW decoder.

I started at 0:00 UTC saterday and worked on 40M untill 4:00 UTC.

In this time i got 97 QSO's logged.After this i went to bed for a few hours.

At 9:00 UTC i was present at the radio again,starting on 40M.At 10:23 i did switch to 20M and made multies from zones 14,15,16,17,18 and 20.

Around 11:00 UTC i did check the 10M and i did hear some low signals.Little later o could work zones 15,33,35 and 38.As new DXCC on 10M i worked A25NW.

The 10M wasn't open for more at my end,so i jumped into the 20M again.Did work VK6AA for zone 29.Worked my first station from NA around 11:45 UTC...after this more followed.

After 18:00 the 20M went death,so again to 40M.Last QSO made was as 0:33 UTC.....Bedtime.

Sundays i started again at 9:00 UTC on 40M.After a while i found out that 10M was also some activity and went there.Made 6 QSO's,all new multies.

After this again to the 20M and later checking 40M as well.Because we can have differend propagation on 40M in daytime,i got some more new multies again working ON,LX,TF,OZ and G stations.Back to 20M after this till 18:00 UTC again...while the band went death again.

Was active till 0:00 UTC...till the end of the contest.

I wasn't active all the time...had some breaks to do something else.Also have three Husky dogs that wanted to enjoy a walk outside as well,hi.At some time,mostly between 19:00-22:00 Utc,i went for a break as well.Had also some extra QRM on the 40M this periode and as was too early to get NA stations for me on 40M.So i was QRX for that time and started again around 22:00 UTC.

Worked some very nice DXCC's again in the contest and also some New ones on the bands.

Got new B7P China on 40M.Also HC8GR as new one on 40M.

Other nice calls worked:

6Y1V,A73A,P49Y,KP2M,V26K,D44AC,8P5A,NP4Z,PJ4A.

My goal was again to get more point/QSO's as in the year before.

Total QSO's now are 554,but got some dupes as well.

Total points are 165.958

Last year i got around 90.000 points,so my goal was made more then that.

CQ WW Contest

The past weekend was the CQ WW Contest in SSB.

The days before the 10M band was very much open,so hoping that also during the contest this was going to happen...

And we where lucky...10 Meters was very much open now as well.

My goal was to get more points and QSO's then in 2008.That year i had just a little under 50.000 points.I wasn't very long active that year,so this year i planned to be longer active.

Saterday the propagation on 10M was better then sundays,but still stations could be worked.

Also 20M was wide open.Mostly my s-meter was above S9....

Some nice calls worked:

On 10M: OT5A,P33W,5B8AD,YC9MDX,9K2HN,SU1KM,ZS9X,3DA0WW,HZ1PS,PW5G,LT1F,6W1RY,

ZP8VAO,A47RS,4U1ITU,EE9K,ZS4U,JY5CC,5F8RU,C31CT.

On 20M:

FS/K1XM,4U1UN,4U1ITU,ZY2C,DP1POL,5R8FU,HC8A,C31CA,VK8PDX,PJ4K,7Z1SJ,A73A,

3DA0WW,HT2N,9Y4D,SU1KM,8P5A,HB0/HB9AON,TO7A.

On 40M:

HK1KXA,EE9Z,VP5T,OY3AA,V26B,VP5DX,GJ2A,4U1ITU,TF3CW.

My results:

Total QSO's: 516

Total points: 201.238

Contesting September

My contest results in September.

RUSSIAN "RADIO" WW RTTY Contest 5 Sept.
Total QSO's: 200
Total points: 127420
Remarks: Nice propagation again.Worked 38 DXCC's.DXX's like JA,A71,TF,SU,OZ,HI,FM etc.

ALL ASIAN DX (SSB) 5-6 Sept.
Total QSO's: 54
Total points: 2090
Remarks: Nice to work so many Asian OM's.Not very easy for me with 25 watts.Worked UA0,JA,VU,UN,5B,4X,7Z,EX,EK,TA.

IARU Fieldday Reg I (SSB) 5-6 Sept.
Total QSO's: 50
Total points: 4848
Remarks: Nice to see/hear so many fieldstations on air.

WAE DX (SSB) 12-13 Sept.
Total QSO's: 108
Total points: 12744
Remarks: Worked some nice DXCC's like C4,A71,4L0,4X,SU,7Z,PY,PZ,PJ4,JA,3V8,9V,A61,V5,YB,HK,TA,OA6,NP4,HI.Beside these alot of NA stations as well.

CQ WW DX Contest (RTTY) 26-27 Sept.
Total QSO's: 528
Total points: 293944
Remarks: I did really good in this contest.Propagation also good.Worked alot of nice DXCC's again.Also the PKW MHF1e40 40m dipole workes great.