K3Y 2016-2021, Weird key failure, VOAProp fail, odd email from the ARRL and more!!

Well, back again. It has been interesting times.  

I remember a story a college history professor told us on our first day of class: 

"The old king had died and his son, who was not well like by one of the old kings advisor was to be crowned. At the ceremony Each person present was to say a few "flattering" remarks to the new king. The old advisor couldn't think of anything nice to say about the new king. So he thought about it for awhile and realized that the most interesting times in history were those of great turmoil. So when it came time for the old advisor to speak, he said "May you live in the most interesting of times".

For myself, I rather live in boring times, thank you very much!!

K3Y Events

Here it is February and the K3Y event has been over for about 2 weeks now. I ended up doing pretty good this year. I got the grand sweep and had 91 band slots with over 100 K3Y operators worked. My best year so far. The only thing I would have liked to do was to work 160M. But I have been too lazy in putting up an antenna for160M.

The below link is a google spreadsheet of my K3Y band map for the years 2016-2020.  I was actually able to use the skcc_skimmer to generate the band map for each year. Since my SKCCLogger file has all my contacts since Jan of 2015, all I had to do was set the K3Y_YEAR parameter to the year I wanted and relaunch skimmer. I then cut and pasted the chart into a text file and then imported the text file to Open Office spreadsheet. Pretty cool!

Click here -> K3Y 2016-2020 

Below is the band map for 2021 K3Y. Already sent in my SASE for my QSL card!

Key Failure

Had a very strange key failure recently. One morning I was all set to answer a CQ, but no transmit. I was able to narrow it down to my VibroPlex key, very strange. So I got out the old Ohm meter and started poking around, looking for a broken wire or loose connection. Plug was good, had continuity from the contacts all the way to the plug, except for the ground terminal, which tied to the base/paddles. So no contact between the paddle and the terminal post. So how can this happen?? What it turn out to be, was the screws that secure the paddle assemble to the base were loose. All I had to do was tighten the screws and all was good. Go figure!!

The two screws on the left had to be tightened

Log File corrected for K3Y

Back in 2016 and 2017, I missed logged all of my K3Y contacts. I erroneously put K3Y as the call instead of using the operators call. This royally screwed up my log. Fortunately, the comment block had the operators call along with the SKCC number, so I was able to set things right. It probable took about  an hour to fix, so all is good now.

Awards

Since I moved back to MA in 2018, I started to work on another LoTW CW WAS award. I finally got it last month. NV was my last holdout. Thanks to Tom W4FLL!!

I also have  received my Tx25 award.

Email from ARRL

So I received this email from the ARRL on Jan 17. I thought it was odd, especial the last paragraph. That is until I watch "60 minutes" on Feb 14 and there it was. Enough said.

ARRL on the Purpose of Amateur Radio

Inbox

ARRL Web site <memberlist@www.arrl.org>	Jan 17, 2021, 2:42 PM
to me

ARRL on the Purpose of Amateur Radio For over 100 years amateur radio and ARRL — the National Association for  Amateur Radio® — have stood for the development of the science and art of  communications, public service, and the enhancement of international goodwill.  Amateur Radio’s long history and service to the public has solidified the  well-earned reputation that “Amateur Radio saves lives.” Amateur Radio Operators, due to their history of public service, their training,  and the requirement that they be licensed by the FCC have earned their status  as a component of critical communications infrastructure and as a reliable  resource “when all else fails." Amateur Radio is about development of communications and responsible  public service. Its misuse is inconsistent with its history of service and its  statutory charter. ARRL does not support its misuse for purposes inconsistent  with these values and purposes.

VOAProp fail

Twice now when Windows does an update, VOAProp kind of disappears. It is there on the tool bar, but does not display. It turns out I have to uninstall VOAProp and delete all the remaining files manually and then reinstall. A nuisance but at least it is back.

All for now see you soon 73!!