HF Radio Operations

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I upgraded my amateur radio license from Technician class to General Class this past Saturday. The FCC ULS showed by upgrade by Tuesday afternoon, so I was able to drop the /AG designation quicker than I thought I would be able to.

Over the week, I've done some HF operating to exercise my new band priveleges. I got a warm welcome from the Georgia Cracker net on 3.995 LSB and the South CARS Net on 7.251 LSB on Sunday morning. I've also developed a routine of checking into the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300 USB in the afternoons (as I type, I'm monitoring them handling emergency traffic from a 41' Sloop in the North Pacific).

Sunday was also the California QSO Party, so I was able to collect a number of California contacts over my first weekend with HF privleges.

I've also managed to work a bit of DX on 20 meters and 15 meters:

CU2A - Martti in the Azores
TI2CCC - Gene in Costa Rica
JW8DW - Karl in Svalbard (Yeah, I had to look it up too!)
KP4ZY - Jose in Puerto Rico
FG/DM2KJ - Jens in Guadeloupe
IZ6BXV - Tony in Italy
IW3SNW - Giorgio in Italy
SV9CVY - Mike in Crete

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net