Updated Amateur Radio Countries/DX Entities

I took a look at the Logbook of the World today and found that I have 57 confirmed DX entities now that confirmations from the CQWW DX Contest are starting to come in. Here is my list of confirmations via Logbook of the World:

ALASKA	AL1G
ANGUILLA	VP2E
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA	V26F
ARGENTINA	LV5V
ARUBA	P40ZB
AUSTRALIA	VK4KW
BAHAMAS	C6APR
BARBADOS	8P5A
BELIZE	V31MW
BONAIRE,CURACAO (NETH ANTILLES)	PJ4E
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLAND	VP2V/SP7VC
CANADA	VA3DX
CANARY ISLAND	EF8R
CAYMAN ISLANDS	ZF2AM
COLOMBIA	HK3O
COSTA RICA	TI5N
CRETE	SV9CVY
CUBA	T42T
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	HI3TEJ
ENGLAND	M6T
FERNANDO DE NORONHA	PS0F
FINLAND	OH8L
FRANCE	F5RQQ
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS	HC8A
HAITI	4V4JR
HAWAII	NH7C
HONDURAS	HQ3Z
HUNGARY	HA5BSW
IRELAND	EI3IO
ITALY	IU8ANT
LITHUANIA	LY8O
LUXEMBOURG	LX1AX
MADEIRA ISLANDS	CQ9T
MARTINIQUE	TO8Z
MEXICO	XE3N
MONTENEGRO	4O3A
NETHERLANDS	PA9JO
NORTHERN IRELAND	GI5K
NORWAY	LN9Z
POLAND	SP5KP
PORTUGAL	CT1ILT
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA	ZS3Y
ROMANIA	YO9HP
SAINT MARTIN	FS5KA
SCOTLAND	GA2MP
SINT MAARTEN, SABA, ST EUSTATIUS	PJ7/AH8DX
SLOVENIA	S53F
SPAIN	EA1EEY
SVALBARD	JW8DW
SWITZERLAND	HB9FAX
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS	VP5/WB2REM
UKRAINE	UT7UV
UNITED NATIONS HQ	4U1UN
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	N1API
US VIRGIN ISLANDS	KP2M
VENEZUELA	YV4A
WALES	GW4BLE

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Boar's Nest Exercise

An exercise named Boar's Nest has been taking place in the afternoons this week in the SEALORD Special Use Airspace off of the Georgia Coast and in the Coastal MOAs and Townsend Range in Southeast Georgia. Players have been the 117th ACS, an Air Control Squadron of the Georgia ANG, F-16s from the SC ANG, F-15s from the FL ANG, B-52s from Barksdale AFB and B-1Bs from Dyess AFB. With both air-to-air activity and air-to-ground activity, it has been very interesting to listen to.

STEALTH (117th ACS)
STRIKESTAR (E-8C, 16th ACCS)
MACE 3# (F-16C, 169th FW); 141.825 V14
DEMON 5# (F-16, 169th FW); 143.250 V16
FANG 0# (F-15, 125th FW); 234.800 Aux 6
SNAKE 0# (F-15, 125th FW); 253.700 Aux 7
DARK 41/42 (B-1B, Dyess); 341.750 a2a

DOOM 2#, 3#, 4# (B-52H, 2nd BW)

SKULL 2# (B-52H, Barksdale)

284.500 - SEALORD North Primary
120.950 - SEALORD North Primary
350.675 - SEALORD N. TACTS Range
358.150 - Savannah CRTC Discrete
335.975 - JSTARS Discrete
228.400 - Townsend Range Control
364.200 - AICC

225.725 - JSTARS Discrete

328.025 - JSTARS Discrete

372.150 - JSTARS Discrete

381.000 - JSTARS Discrete

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

South Carolina Air Guard unit wins international F-16 competition

by Master Sgt. Richard B. Hodges
South Carolina National Guard

11/4/2009 - MWAFFAQ SALTI AIR BASE, Jordan -- The South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing was named the overall winner of Falcon Air Meet 2009, a three-nation F-16 Fighting Falcon competition, held here through Nov. 3.

The South Carolina team, which represented the U. S. Air Force's Central Command and the U.S., won three of the four main events as well as the Top Overall Maintenance Award and the Top Overall Competition Award. Other nations competing in the annual event were Jordan and Belgium.

"I could not be prouder of what the South Carolina Air National Guard accomplished here at this year's Falcon Air Meet," said Col. Michael Hudson, commander of the 169th Operations Group based at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C.

This is the first time since the Falcon Air Meet began in 2006 that an Air National Guard team has been selected to represent the United States at the competition.

"Everyone worked very hard for a long time to prepare for this competition and the results show that they accomplished what they came to do," Colonel Hudson said. "We want to thank the Jordanians for their gracious hospitality. It was very helpful to train with and engage in friendly competition with our friends from Jordan and Belgium. We hope to return soon to Jordan for a future Falcon Air Meet."

The mission of the Falcon Air Meet is to train through friendly competition with the air forces of the U.S., Middle East nations and other F-16 users from around the world.

The meet was inspired by Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein and first organized in 2006. A main goal of the competition is the improvement of the relationship of Jordan with its partners and the promotion of stability in the region.

"I want to thank everyone, both deployed and supporting back at home station, for their hard work and dedication in preparation for our competition in this year's Falcon Air Meet," said Col. Scott Williams, commander of the 169 Fighter Wing. "We all learned about each other's capability to support one another and fight side-by-side as coalition partners. We not only competed to bring out the best in each other, but we also shared maintenance and operations practices and gained a renewed understanding of our key allies."

Members of the Colorado Air National Guard served as "White Force" judges for the meet as they have done in all previous years. Colorado ANG officials were instrumental in the formation of the first Falcon Air Meet in 2006. They were asked to participate as judges for the event, because of their state partnership with Jordan, a partnership formally established in 2004.

The six award categories announced at the closing ceremonies of the Falcon Air Meet 2009 were:

-- Large Force Employment (Air-to-Ground Competition): A two-part competition in which a flight of F-16s were tasked to drop inert Mark-82 500-pound bombs on a target at a precise time. Later, the jets uploaded live Mark-82 bombs and engaged a ground target. The judging parameters were airspeed, dive angle-of-attack, release altitude, accuracy (aim point) and time-on-target. Each F-16 carried two bombs. This event was won by the South Carolina ANG team, which scored 190 points of a possible 200.

-- Scramble Launch and Intercept Competition: This event required pilots and crew chiefs to work together to safely launch an alert aircraft in the fastest time possible and then for the pilot to conduct an intercept mission. In this close competition, only 10 points separated the first place South Carolina team and the second place Royal Jordanian Air Force team.

-- Formation Arrival Award: This event required a four-ship flight of F-16s to arrive over a designated target in a symmetrical formation. It was won by the Royal Jordanian Air Force with a perfect score of 100 points. The RJAF pilots showed "good formation and action," and their arrival time over the target was precisely to the second. The South Carolina team was second with a score of 95.

-- Weapons Load Competition: Two air-to-air missiles were uploaded to an F-16 with the greatest speed, safety and reliability. This event also was won by South Carolina.

-- Top Overall Maintenance Award: This event, which was based on the overall results of the Scramble, Weapons Load and Sortie Generation, was won by the South Carolina team.

-- Top Overall Competition Award: As a result of having won four of the five competition categories, the South Carolina team was awarded the top overall award and named winner of the 2009 Falcon Air Meet. The awards were presented by His Royal Highness Prince Feisel Bin Al Hussein.

Situation Report

I've almost settled into living into two places. Most of time is being spent in Brunswick, GA with a couple of days a week in Savannah, GA. I'm settling into a routine in Brunswick and I've finally had the time to play a bit of radio. I'm not set up well for Amateur Radio yet, just some portables and the mobile for VHF/UHF; I'm still waiting a bit to set up something for HF operations. Scanning on the other hand, has been progressing well.

I'm unable to run outside antennas where I'm at in Brunswick, so I use a Radio Shack mag mount scanner antenna on top of a DVD rack. At first I attempted to use a Uniden BC796 as the radio, but it's reception left much to be desired. I now connect the antenna to my Uniden BC396 portable with much better results. In addition to the obvious public safety on the Glynn Co. 800 system I've been able to monitor Townsend Range with ease from inside as well as the FLETC TRS, Glynco Jetport, Malcom McKinnon Airport, and the Jacksonville Center Brunswick and Jekyll low sites. While taking my afternoon walks, I can easily hear the above as well as some of the SEALORD SUAs off of the Georgia coast with the BC396 using a Diamond RH77CA antenna.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Countries/DXCC Entities Confirmed

I was just looking at the countries/DXCC entities I have confirmed on the ARRL's Logbook of the World. In just about a year of operating on HF I've have 51 countries/entities confirmed on LOTW. I don't think that's too bad for someone who is not a hardcore DXer or HF operator. Here is a list of the countries that I have confirmed:

ALASKA	AL1G
ANGUILLA	VP2E
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA	V26F
ARUBA	P40ZB
AUSTRALIA	VK4KW
BAHAMAS	C6APR
BARBADOS	8P5A
BONAIRE,CURACAO (NETH ANTILLES)	PJ4E
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLAND	VP2V/SP7VC
CANADA	VA3DX
CANARY ISLAND	EF8R
CAYMAN ISLANDS	ZF2AM
COLOMBIA	HK3O
COSTA RICA	TI5N
CRETE	SV9CVY
CUBA	T42T
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	HI3TEJ
ENGLAND	M6T
FERNANDO DE NORONHA	PS0F
FINLAND	OH8L
FRANCE	F5RQQ
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS	HC8A
HAITI	4V4JR
HAWAII	NH7C
HONDURAS	HQ3Z
HUNGARY	HA5BSW
IRELAND	EI3IO
ITALY	IU8ANT
LITHUANIA	LY8O
LUXEMBOURG	LX1AX
MARTINIQUE	TO8Z
MEXICO	XE3N
MONTENEGRO	4O3A
NETHERLANDS	PA9JO
NORTHERN IRELAND	GI5K
NORWAY	LN9Z
POLAND	SP5KP
PORTUGAL	CT1ILT
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA	ZS3Y
SAINT MARTIN	FS5KA
SCOTLAND	GA2MP
SLOVENIA	S53F
SPAIN	EA1EEY
SVALBARD	JW8DW
SWITZERLAND	HB9FAX
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS	VP5/WB2REM
UKRAINE	UT7UV
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	N1API
US VIRGIN ISLANDS	KP2M
VENEZUELA	YV4A
WALES	GW4B

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

CQWW DX Contest

This weekend, I used the CQWW DX Contest to add some DX stations to my logbook and pick up a few new countries in the process. Overall, I had 83 contacts most of which were on 20 and 15 Meters. 15 Meters seemed to work the best for me this time; 20 Meters was just so jam packed and busy that it was hard for me to get through the big gun stations with 100 Watts and a G5RV. I found the easier going on 15 Meters both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The highlights were working New Zealand and the United Nations Headquarters, both early Sunday morning on 40 Meters.

The new countries/DX entities I picked up this weekend were:

Montserrat
Chile
French Guiana
Norway
Moldavia
Scotland
Cape Verde
New Zealand
United Nations Headquarters


Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Monitoring In Brunswick

I'm just about settled in Brunswick and I've had the chance to break out the scanners and do a bit of listening. I've been able to monitor some Fire/EMS traffic on the Glynn County TRS and some MilCom.

Listening to the Glynn County and Brunswick Fire Departments has been an adjustment. They use different terminology than I'm used to listening to from Chatham County and Savannah and they dispatch somewhat differently. I'd describe it, but I'm still in the process of getting a grip on it.

In the realm of MilCom, I've been able to catch some F/A-18s from Beaufort over the weekend and some JSTARS activity today. Monday is typically a slow day for Beaufort, so I haven't been able to ascertain how well I can hear the W-157 traffic (but it shouldn't be much of a problem). It is also worth noting that I heard some MARAUDER AH-64s from the SC ARNG working Townsend Range from I-95 at Exit 38 last week. Given the the AH-64s typically fly relatively low level, this could be a sign that there will be good listening to Townsend Range from here in Brunswick.

Stay Tuned, More to Come (Albeit it may be slowly...)

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT