Being in the right place, at the right time, has it's advantages. And with a little patience and persistence, I've got HB0 in the log. Finally.

So a follow up to my previous post... While I still haven't worked either 3A, C3 or HB0 as of yet, I did manage to get somewhat close to HB0... HB9TTX on JT65 the other night. Thought I'd take a quick peek to see where he was in Switzerland and wouldn't you know it, 4.5 km away from the Liechtenstein border! ARGH!!! I have worked Switzerland before and have it confirmed, but I'm sending away for Manfred's card. Wonder if I should ask him to drive down the road and cross the river into Liechtenstein and work me from there. Heh.

I'm very interested in small European countries. Geographically smaller countries. Not micronations that nobody recognizes such as Sealand, but such countries like the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (LX), the Principality of Monaco (3A), the Principality of Liechtenstein (HB0), the Republic of San Marino (T7), the Principality of Andorra (C3), the Republic of Malta (9H), etc. I'm not sure what the fascination is, but they are interesting nonetheless. Perhaps it's the country's physical size. Perhaps it's because I want to visit there one of these years.

CQ Field Day de VE3OW. I was as per usual, on 40m SSB this year. Running the tent this year was fun. Looking forward to doing it again next year. I set a goal of 1200 Q's for us (40m tent - myself, N8FM, VE3EXT, VA3ETR and VE3VFF) to obtain, and we fell short. Two years ago, we hit 1199. I wanted to hit 1200 last year, however due to severe weather (and the fact that the band was crap), we hit 762. This year, a total of 1072. Not too shabby considering. Next year, definitely need to hit 1200. If you're so interested to review, stats for the 40m SSB tent are below:

Finally, the tower work that I needed to complete is done. A special thanks to the following:

VA3VS, Bob
VE3ZO, Chris
VE3RHZ, Richard
N8FM, Steve
NM8W, Craig

And especially to Richard, who actually climbed up the tower after we had it back up to make that final adjustment to the antenna.

Less than 6 hours until the start of the 2012 CQWPX SSB contest. Shack is all ready to go, all that's left is to update N1MM, and do a final couple of checks. I'll post up my soapbox after the contest. Here's hoping that the propagation gods smile on us.

I've spent the past 9 days in VE4-land. A much needed vacation, and Christmas is always the best time to go home. One thing that I did notice on the day that we left, is that my HF beam has become out of alignment - 90° out of alignment to be specific. Obviously, being in Manitoba has hindered my efforts in getting that fixed, but this will take priority upon my return.

With the help of N8FM and NM8W, we set out to run VA3UG as a Multi-Multi station this year. All band, low power. Or, at least, that was the original plan.

Only 6 days until the start of the 2011 CQ WW contest. I spent a part of the day at the VE3WHT shack where myself, Steve N8FM, and Craig KD8NJZ will be operating as a M/M station. Low Power, M/M to be specific. N1MM has been networked between all of the stations, and we're pretty much all set and ready to go. Here's to hoping that 10m stays open as well as it has been as of late.

I'm quite the procrastinator. My shack still isn't 100%. However, that being said, I'm almost there. 6m is hooked back up, and for once, there's little to no noise on the band! Quite the improvement from summer, where 6m was nearly unusable. Now, all I need is a band opening.