My holiday weekend was a lot of fun with ham radio activities ranging from confirming LoTW Qs and eQSL Qs, to a breakfast with the Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club, Five Cities DXers, and Contesters, to logging DX stations and, lastly, starting my outgoing QSL project. I haven't seen a card from the W3 Bureau in at least a year or more, figuring, if I want to improve my odds at receiving a DX QSL then why not be proactive and send mine.
LoTW and eQSL
Currently, I have uploaded 7,269 Qs into the LoTW database and 3,145 Qs are confirmed. My average rate of return is one LoTW credit per 2.31 Qs in contrast 7,632 Qs are uploaded at eQSL with 1,434 Qs confirmed. My average rate of return is one eQSL credit per 5.32 Qs.
LoTW average rate of return is 1 LoTW credit per 2.31 Qs.
eQSL average rate of return is 1 eQSL per 5.32 Qs.
I enjoy both systems because each supports different award programs. I recommend eQSL services when pursuing awards sponsored by CQ magazine.
Breakfast
Five Cities DXers and Contesters plus the Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club gathered for breakfast at a local restaurant. I enjoyed chatting up with other hams and making plans for next weekend. Also, Cal Poly Amateur Radio Club recently licensed a record number of future enthusiast in addition the club is planning to install a new tower as well.
Bureau
Is there a problem with our bureaus or is it me? Does it seem like DX QSLs are taking longer to arrive in one's mailbox via the bureau? I'm really curious if the number of volunteers needed to process QSLs has fallen over the years?
Or, because I sent a SASE with a pound worth of return postage, the time to collect enough cards is substantial.
Computer Log
An HL2 station went into the log in addition to a ZF2 station. I'm observing when South America goes into night fall and it's sunrise in Asia, 10m goes aggro around 2200UTC until sunset.
I'm totally enjoying Cycle 24 numbers and its influence on the ionosphere.
Turn on, tune up, operate.
