<div style="color:black;font: 10pt arial;">
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Hello DXers,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">I’m
addicted to FT8. My wife says I’m addicted. And W3KX, Jack, said that it can be
addictive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">My
persona is such that I can’t seem to do some things in moderation. I was heavy into competitive bass fishing a
few years ago; and now into FT8, especially DXing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FW1JG</span>. Worked Wednesday on 15 FT8 at 2219Z. He soon uploaded to LotW. I have old QSL cards for 10 and 20 phone. No DXpedtion, he lives there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">30 meters.</span> My Carolina
Windom needs some maintenance, so I used my 30-ft vertical with six radials only
in the southern half, firing up on 30 meters on Wednesday night. It loaded with my tuner, but I was unsure about
how I would get out with 200 watts and an inefficient antenna. But my first QSO was with 3C3CA, giving me
confidence that it was working okay. (The 3C on 30 gave me him on five bands,
10-30, missing him on 17.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Then I quickly
worked UA6AKW, 4Z5UY, and KL7CY. I was
completing a QSO with S52RZ at 0510Z when I was shocked to get a call from JA9GPG
because there were no JA’s in the Band Activity; and secondly, my poor antenna. A new one on 30. I later worked ZL/OE1HLB, NH6JC, and NH6WD,
and went to bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Got up
early and turned on the rig, deciding to leave it on 30 just to see if there’
was anything going on. I was surprised to see Robert, 9N7AA, calling
CQ. With my crappy antenna lashup, I didn’t
think I had a chance, but he answered me on the second call at 1222Z. Wow, FT8 is amazing!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Starting
at 1222Z, in 10 minutes I worked 9N7AA, RA9AJ, JA7UKM, VK3AWA, JF3DRI, and V31MA. I later worked VK6WX, UI6I, UA9LT, VU2FGQ, two
JA’s, and a bunch of Europeans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">I saw
where 8U0OE was calling 1Q7FZU whoever that is.
The 8U is India. Called the 8U several
times. No QSO. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">I am
now at 143 DXCC confirmed on LoTW, starting at zero on Jan 14, with probably at
least another 10 more yet-to-be-confirmed countries that includes S01WS, EX9MLE,
T88ED & T88MB, two 6Y’s, 4O4, DP0 (Antarctica),
T77C, FS/VE3EQM, HH75RCH, Z62NS, and 7X.
My big miss was ET3AA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">UB0Y in
Kyzyl in Zone 23. </span> Worked Sergey last
week on 20 FT8. His QRZ.com page says
that he uses a FLEX 3000, and that he QSLs via the Bureau. (We need a good active station in Zone 23
that does contests.) Sent an email encouraging him to get into LoTW. No reply.
Thinking that he may not do English very well, I had my wife, who is
Russian, compose a message in Russian using her mail.ru address. She received a reply where he said that he had
trouble registering on LoTW. Sent a
message to Bart Jahnke who replied that UB0Y has a certificate but had not
completed the registration. Sergey said
that his problem was that he did not find Asiatic Russian in the location
list. He obviously is doing
something wrong becasue may Asiatic Russian stations use LoTW. Several more
back-and-forths with my wife, Sergey, and Bart with no solution yet. Still working on it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Not
sure if UB0Y is into contesting, but I will encourage him to get into DX contests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Kyzyl
has about a 120,000 population. A search
of Russian stations in Kyzl results in a small number, less than 15. Looking at their webpages and the number of views,
most have a very small number indicating inactivity. UB0Y has only 1248 views, indicating that he
is not very active either. The number of
views would increase greatly if he got into contests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">73<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">W3ICM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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