The Ukrainian DX contest is this weekend. W4HOD will be working SSB for the contest.  We should have a new 20 meter antenna up for this contest.

Worked All Europe (WAE) RTTY contest is this month, the second full weekend. Saturday, November 14, 2009, 0000 UTC until Sunday, November 15, 2009, 2359 UTC. This will be a new contest for W4HOD. It should be lots of fun.

In 2008, W4HOD won the plaque for Multi-Multi SSB in the Alabama QSO Party. Shown is club member Don Huey, KA4NDY receiving the award from Jim Johnson, KC4HW of the Alabama Contest Group.

At least I wasn’t last!

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Call: W4HOD
Operator(s): AA4YL
Station: W4HOD

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Loachapoka, AL
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
——————————
160:
80:
40:  10      7        7
20:  31     14       29
15:  20     53       20
10:
——————————
Total:  61     30       56  Total Score = 13,244

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

My first experience with a big SSB DX contest. Great fun and
thanks for the contacts. Looking forward to more power and better antennas next year!

The recent K4M DXpedition knows a great digital interface. Look on top of the Icom transeiver. They are using a RigExpert interface. The same interface used by W4HOD with great success. By the way, no RTTY contester at W4HOD chews tobacco.

The State of Alabama is now issuing a newly designed amateur radio tag. The new tag was issued beginning in May. The design is a fairly radical departure from the former design, but I think it looks very good

To receive your amateur radio tag, just present your FCC license to your local motor vehicle license official and they will do the rest.

http://www.revenue.alabama.gov/motorvehicle/amradio.htm

On a recent visit to the Loachapoka post office to check the W4HOD mail, there were a stack of QSL cards waiting. KA4PKB and AA4YL spent a couple of hours filling out cards and stuffing envelopes. We mailed 17 DX cards though the ARRL outgoing bureau. It cost $2.50 and the postage on the envelope, not a bad deal at all.

There should be a stack of cards coming in from the CQ WW RTTY contest soon. Plus, there are two RTTY contests next weekend, the NCJ RTTY Sprint and the Makrothen. Both of them should be fun!

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: W4HOD
Operator(s): KA4PKB, AA4YL
Station: W4HOD

Class: M/S LP
QTH: Loachapoka, AL
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Pts  State/Prov  DX   Zones
————————————————
80:       11    11       9            1     3
40:      197   317      40          40   18
20:      151   347      24          45    17
15:       65    178       4           29    14
10:
—————————————–
Total:  424  853      77      115    52  Total Score = 208,132

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

Great contest. The IC-746 Pro and MFJ 998 tuner worked flawlessly. Best score
for W4HOD yet. Lots of fun.

KA4PKB and AA4YL will be operating the CQ WW RTTY contest this weekend. We are using the club call W4HOD and operating from the QTH of KA4PKB. The R8 is up and we have a long wire for 75 meters. We are using the IC-746Pro, RigExpert Plus and logging with Writelog. Hope to see you on the bands!