Take a Moment and Say Thank You when Hams have a nice QRZ page

Often I drop hams an email thanking them for their nice QRZ pages.  Just a quick note thanking them for our QSO and mentioning what I liked about their write up.

It was John VO1BE’s straight forward fly fishing pictures in the waters of Newfoundland that got one of my last thank you emails.

It is really nice to share a bit about each other, though with so many QSOs being fleeting FT8/FT4 quick-QSOs you have to make an effort to look them up.

I’m rethinking my own QRZ page to reflect some of the uniqueness of where I live. Presently my page is all about either radios or what could be taken as boring “brag-about-self” drivel.

Another task for my list!

73

Steve
K9ZW

And the QSO Counter Goes Around, and QSO Quality vs Quantity

Round numbers again

Seems I was on the air a bit more than usual, and knocked out another 1000-count bunch of QSOs.

Largely split between FT8 and FT4, a couple new QRZ-tracked countries were in the bunch.

There seems to be some confusion about whether working a lot of stations has more or less merit than a Zen-garden approach of singular QSOs.

This is arguing for arguing’s sake, as they both are simply awesome!

I think it is entirely possible to be in both “bulk QSO” and “Zen QSO” camps. Just as I both admire a singular blossom for it unique beauty and also admire fields of flowers in bloom, an amateur should hold some appreciation for various types of QSOs.

FT8/FT4 QSOs in my mind are “commodity QSOs” whether each actual QSO is not particularly special nor unique.

There is no QSO-specific craftsmanship to apply like there is in a CW or Phone QSO.

It would be peculiar indeed for a ham to “treasure” one FT8/FT4 QSO over any other FT8/FT4 QSO, excepting the rarity/QTH of the other station. Its a commodity contact.

Yes I can appreciate both these commodity QSOs and the phone QSOs I worked hard to break a pile-up or had a thought provoking rag chew.

Kind of enjoy switching back and forth – maybe that is why I am good with a comfort-food everyday meal and a nice special one?  Maybe it is because I like to eat?

In the end it is all good…

73

Steve
K9ZW

How Many Countries Have you Actually Communicated with?

Perhaps you are like me, finding a big variance between the various logging systems concerning your “country count?”

Or differences in your total QSO counts?

In my situation as of Nov 6th 2023:

LoTW (*)      41,111 QSOs  with 185 DXCC Countries
eQSL (**)     43,414 QSOs with 169 DXCC Countries
QRZ              45,015 QSOs with 210 DXCC Countries
Paper            ?? QSOs (digital not there) with 239 DXCC Countries confirmed, more contacted without confirmation yet

(*) = last LoTW upload was 29th Sept. 2022 (my automatic LoTW uploading hasn’t worked!)
(**) = count doesn’t include my KB9GPN (pre-Extra Class) QSOs, or early K9ZW QSOs

DXCC reflects only countries that have confirmed on that particular system, and the paper one only includes what I remembered to check off as confirmed.

The recorded the confirmed numbers and calculated percentage:

LoTW  (*)      24,951 confirmed  – a 61% rate
eQSL    (**)   21,364 archived as confirmed – a 49% rate
QRZ                32,740 confirmed  – a 73% rate
Paper              unknown – confirmation rate slightly above 73% but not exactly calculated

(*) = last LoTW upload was 29th Sept. 2022 (my automatic LoTW uploading hasn’t worked!)
(**) = count doesn’t include my KB9GPN (pre-Extra Class) QSOs, or early K9ZW QSOs

Now first takeaway is that I need to load the last year’s worth of QSOs into LoTW which would bring the QSOs logged there up by 6900 for a guesstimated 48,011 count.  If the same confirmed ratio continues it should add about 4200 more confirmed for roughly 29,160 confirmations (QSLs as LoTW likes to call them).

Second takeaway is the various systems will never reconcile with each other.  Not in total QSOs or specially in what is confirmed.

Third is early choices made end up causing logging issues for years. I didn’t even log for a couple years, then had a squirrely mess of random paper logs, various logging programs than came and went, and then periods where any logs were not retained or disappeared in computer crashes.  I also set some online logging up in an overly complex way that is hard later to undo.

73

Steve
K9ZW

K9ZW QSL Hiatus – Stated November 2022 and Expect to run 6 months or so

My direct QSLing is on temporary Hiatus.

Actually the slow down started around Thanksgiving 2022, as I planned to take a QSLing break due to a planned temporary time load that included helping various family while they dealt with medical things.

That extra help ended up running more than two months, and included managing other’s affairs while they healed.

Then QDure dumped over ten thousand domestic QSL cards into the ARRL bureau system, who arranged freight so I could at least retrieve the cards. So in my office is 50kgs of completed cards awaiting envelopes and postage.

While doing double duty a lot of my stuff evened up put on hold, with a couple items needing attention before QSLing resumes.

And the QDure cards need to be processed. I have an idea of a system to start whittling away at the mountain of cards, and hope I will be allowed to bulk mail outgoing cards in say 1000 card lots.

I will keep posting logs to eQSL and QRZ.com. Periodic LoTW uploads will happen, maybe every other month or so.

Direct QSLing largely is on hold until I catch up though.

73

Steve
K9ZW

EZNEC Antenna Modeling for All of Us

I missed this while it was happening. I was looking to update my old software to model my new antenna configurations and found out about the change.

As Roy W7EL decided to retire, he made public his EZNEC antenna modeling software (compiled form only).

https://eznec.com/

There is also some neat stuff on NEC-5 end, where there is a collaborative update to the latest version (NEC5 X11) thanks to some great ham inputs! https://eznec.com/NEC-5.htm

The AC6LA add-on AutoEZ is something I plan to check out. https://eznec.com/AutoEZ.htm and https://ac6la.com/

AutoEZ is interesting as it an an Add-On to EZNEC which in also in essence an Add-On to NEC.  AutoEZ appears Excel-based, EZNEC is Visual Basic 6 (obsolete version) with some Fortran modules,  and the core NEC compiled Fortran (Intel Visual Fortran with the mkl math libraries).

Below the “–” line I will include some background from either Roy W7EL (website archived copy or QRZ.com) or a QSO Today Podcast interview he did with Eric 4Z1UG.

Well worth checking out all of these programs.

Also a series of dedicated books by ON5AU that should be considered if you are going to put EZNEC to work:

http://www.on5au.be/EZNECPro7.html

http://www.on5au.be/advanced_modeling_book.html

GL and 73

Steve
K9ZW

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The Awesome QSL Drawings of Jeff K1NSS Heading to Print

K9ZW New QSL Card Proofs

Jeff K1NSS is a QSL card artist that you may enjoy checking out part of his portfolio at: https://www.jeffk1nss.com/

He had done designs for me back in 2015, most which never ended up being printed for a variety of reasons including moving and a need my end to be more focused on health.

I asked Jeff K1NSS to update the 2015 designs, and to create several new designs. All the updates are done and two of the three new designs are finished.

After reviewing several QSL printing services (I had previously had quotes from local printers) I’ve select QSL Concepts to print the first six cards. They are at: http://qslconcept.com/usa/

QSL Concepts “Fab” VE7FBN got it right away that I had ready to print front/back artwork. While Canadian based QSL Concepts uses a USA based affiliate for cards being delivered stateside.

I was able to tag the cards into a pricing program focused on clubs, and anticipate the new cards arriving about ten business days down the road (might be sooner!).

This batch of card designs includes:

• A retro boat-anchor voice card
• Two new designs based on a concept I have to accommodate my FlexRadio operating conditions, one in B&W and one in color
• A digital mode card
• A Washington Island QTH card emphasizing my operations from George W9EVT’s monster-shack
• A Washington Island card intended for guests at the W9EVT monster-shack which I will give to George W9EVT