My 10,000 Hour RadioSport Challenge | 9,754 - 92 = 9,662 To Go

Perhaps, RadioSport is game of mastering specific skills measured hour-to-hour and event-after-event? Why sit in the merciless, unforgiving chair for an entire weekend? It is intrinsic drive motivated by personal reasons either for the glory of the Box, notching new entities, beating last year's score, or for the sheer fun that is ham radio to mention a few examples.

Practice. Practice. Practice.
The path to mastery is practice and from practice one gains experience. The benefit of experience is hard won knowledge validated in the real world. I've reached a plateau where the slogan, a jack of all trades and a master of none, does not apply. Perhaps, in certain ways, mastering a game requires a single minded approach, perseverance, and long hours of thankless practice.

Keep Moving Forward.
I've also learned a challenge like this one does not lead to immediate satisfaction. The goal is to keep moving forward and measure success after each RadioSport event. The question I ask of myself is, "What did I learn this time?"

The ARRL International DX CW event taught me that I need to improve my understanding of propagation and have a propagation play book. I stumbled to find band openings. I failed to take advantage of long path and maximize short path.

Conclusion.
My basic recommendation if one wants to master an event is practice and continue practicing. The results will follow.

Contest on!

My #hamr Update

What is going on inside the shackadelic? I miss blogging and searched around for a little #hamr inspiration. I re-discovered a few disgarded goals in the process. Locally, a few of us are hot for our awards like DXCC first one hundred, Worked All States, JARL sponsored awards, eQSL sponsored awards, IOTA first one hundred, and CQ magazine sponsored awards. We like friendly competition here in the Five Cities.

The Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club is planning its 2nd Annual Field Day event, shirts and hats for club members, and registering with the league because we totally dig ham radio. One member recently installed a new radio and amplifier while another discovered how much fun RTTY can be. Lastly, another member designed our club logo and it radiates like phased verticals on the beach.

I spent my California rainy weekend collating my traditional QSL cards against different awards. I have 27 confirmed countries for DXCC and 41 confirmed states for WAS with 49 confirmed at eQSL. I'm working on eQSL DXCC and first three hundred prefixes in addition JARL sponsored JCC and JCG.

Inside antenna lab, I re-routed my radial system and look forward to deployable tape measure radials at the south end of the system. I want thank the staff at QST magazine for running the article on tape measure radials. Lastly, I'm using my Outbacker Joey vertical on VHF with positive results on FM simplex into the Five Cities.

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.