CTRI CG members;
I went up to HQ in Newington this morning to archive some more QSL cards. I didn’t have lots today, and I finished before 11:00 AM, so I decided to walk across the parking lot and give W1AW a try.
Joe set me up on 10-meter phone and turned me loose. I spent about 30 minutes practicing managing a pile-up. I started by calling CQ about 3 times, and that’s all it took, I had a good pile of operators calling me, and it was difficult to grab a call-sign.
At any rate, after about 30 minutes, I had about 30 stations in the log. For my first attempt, that felt pretty good.
Now, here’s an opportunity to get some practice: If you would like to operate W100AW, just show up. It’s first-come, first-served, but the league would very much like to keep the station on the air as much as possible this year. The rules they are using are just the same as the regular guest operations; mornings from 10:00 to 12:00, and afternoons from 13:00 to (I think) 15:30. Joe will patch you from the transceiver of your choice to the appropriate antenna, show you how to turn the rotor, and then let you go to town. They are using N1MM as the logging program, which most of us are familiar with.
I didn’t work anything exotic, but I sure had fun. I plan on operating at least once per week between now and our time for the W1AW/1 event. I might even figure out how to handle a phone pile-up by the end of April!
Give it a try. You might just enjoy yourself! 73, Mike, K1DM (if you want to share a ride – let me know, maybe we can work something).
