Fourteen-year-old Daniel Bradke, W2AU, of Niskayuna, New York, will
operate as part of the VP5X Contest Group for the CQ World Wide CW contest
November 29-30. Bradke was the winner of a competition sponsored by the VP5X Contest Group, headed by David Kopacz, KY1V.

"Daniel's essay, operating skills and enthusiasm have moved our contest
team to select him to be our first annual VP5X Young Ham Team Member,"
said an announcement on the VP5X Contest Group Web site
http://www.vp5x.com. That means an all expenses-paid trip for the contest DXpedition. [Wow]

An Amateur Extra class licensee since age 11, Bradke can handle CW at 30
WPM. He's a member of the ARRL, the Yankee Clipper Contest Club
http://www.ycc.org and FISTS http://www.fists.org .

(Via ARRL)

Many larger contests occur during the next few months. Even if you are not a contester, contests do give those of us on the HF bands some great opportunities for both DX and domestic contacts.

There's a chill in the air, that elusive DX is out there lurking in the bands, it's up to you to find it and snatch one more for the log. May your DX be good DX.

Today there are approximately 682,000 Amateur Radio operators in the United States and more than 2.5 million worldwide. Learn more about Amateur Radio on the ARRL site, www.arrl.org, or by calling the League's toll-free number 1-800-32-NEW HAM.

New Countries worked

Picked up two new ones for the log today:

D44AC Cape Verde on 30 Meters

and

V47WW St. Kitts on 12 Meters.

I also worked HR5/F2JD: Honduras a few days ago on 30 meters but that's old news.

May your DX be Good DX.

New FISTS award

Sending out my log today for the FISTS platinum award. This award took me two years to complete.

Ever wish you could go to one website to get all of your contesting and DX info? Well, there is a place, it is: Contesting.info. Check it out. What I like best about the site is that it's a great resource if your looking for QSL managers or QSL direct info.

FISTS Winter Sprint

I had fun participating in the FISTS Winter Sprint today, as always. I operated at my usual leisurely pace but still managed to rack up some new numbers and made some new friends as well. The bands were in ok shape from 40 M to 10M I had no problem hearing and being heard. I could have done better I suppose, I was hoping for a few DX FISTS, but not this time ... For the most part, I had fun and enjoyed the event.

Here is an excerpt of the log:

START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CREATED-BY: N3FJP's FISTS Contest Log 1.0
CONTEST: Winter Sprint
STATE-PROVINCE-COUNTRY: NY
CALLSIGN: N2IJ
FISTS-NUMBER: 6596
CATEGORY: QRO
QSO-POINTS: 150
TOTAL-MULTIPLIERS: 21
CLAIMED-SCORE: 3,150
STATE-MULTIPLIERS: NY NJ MD AL NC FL MS
NM TX CA MT MI OH IL CO IA MN MO NS ON SK
STATE-MULTIPLIER-TOTAL: 21
COUNTRY-MULTIPLIER-TOTAL: 0
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1706 559 WB0B 559 IA LARRY 2916
QSO: 14000 2003-02-07 1715 599 WD9EMF 559 IL VIC 8574
QSO: 14000 2003-02-07 1723 559 KB6NU 599 MI DAN 9342
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1738 559 KB4BAI 599 MI JOHN 2158
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1740 559 NOUR 599 MN JIM 2561
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 1751 599 WA5ZJK 599 TX GLENN 4978
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1815 599 W4GAC 599 FL JOHN 7875
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1825 559 N2ED 599 NJ ED 2454
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 1832 599 K6TTX 599 CA ALLAN 4600
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 1838 559 VE5DX 599 SK JERRY 4554
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1844 559 WB0PYF 599 MO RAY 7986
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1846 559 K5PTC 599 TX BOB 9725
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1852 599 K7ZYV 599 MS CARL 3426
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1856 599 N5XZ 599 TX AL 2635
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 1905 559 KC7EQW 599 CA DENNIS 8675
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 1910 599 W0CGV 599 CO JOHN 9366
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1920 599 W2KFQ 599 NM HARRY 9322
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 1930 559 K4UE 599 AL DON 8116
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 1934 559 KF3DC 599 MD KEN 6521
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 1940 559 K8CI 599 OH DICK 5270
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 1946 559 VA3EWP 599 ON VINCE 8070
QSO: 14000 2003-02-07 2005 579 N9BOR 559 IL MIKE 4594
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 2023 599 W4FFF 599 NC RICK 9700
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 2028 559 WB2FXK 599 NY JACK 918
QSO: 7000 2003-02-07 2032 559 N2ED 559 NJ ED 2454
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 2035 599 KN9X 559 IL DAN 8671
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 2037 599 KG5U 599 TX DALE 5881
QSO: 28000 2003-02-07 2044 599 K5TCC 599 TX DOC 7400
QSO: 14000 2003-02-07 2055 599 VE1ZAC 599 NS JEFF 22048
QSO: 21000 2003-02-07 2059 559 N7YY 599 MT BERNIE 4595
END-OF-LOG:

Final Farewell

The Amateur Radio Community Joins in Mourning Loss of Columbia Astronauts

The flags of the United States, the ARRL and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) fly at half staff today at ARRL Headquarters as the Amateur Radio community has joined the rest of the world in mourning the loss of the seven shuttle Columbia astronauts. Through the Space Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) and--more recently--the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) programs, amateurs have enjoyed a special relationship with the astronaut corps, many of whom are licensees. The ARISS program is a joint effort of AMSAT, ARRL and NASA.

Via the ARRL

Seven Heroes

Lost while serving mankind.

The american Radio Relay league reports that three of the crew members on the scientific mission were also Amateur Radio operators.

The seven STS-107 crew members during training: Seated in front are astronauts Rick D. Husband (left), mission commander; Kalpana Chawla, KD5ESI, mission specialist; and William C. McCool, pilot. Standing are (from the left) astronauts David M. Brown,KC5ZTC; Laurel B. Clark, KC5ZSU; and Michael P. Anderson--all mission specialists--and Ilan Ramon, a payload specialist representing the Israeli Space Agency. [NASA Photo]


Full story via the ARRL .