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13 Colonies time!
2 July 2013 | by Yessiree! If it’s close to the 4th of July, then it’s time for the 13 Colonies Special Event!
The 13 states, which were the original 13 colonies (Can you name them? How’s your history?) will be on the air until 12 Midnight on Saturday evening/Sunday morning of this coming weekend. They will have special call signs from K2A to K2M.
If you participate, a very special certificate (suitable for framing) can be yours. Work all 13 colonies and your certificate specially will be marked to denote the Clean Sweep.
Log summaries can be submitted via snail mail with the suggested donation to obtain the certificate.
Just this evening, I was able to work the following eight states/colonies on 40 Meters – NY, SC, DE, RI, NJ, MA, VA, NC. I also heard the NH station, but his pileup was something akin to the crowd trying to work Spratly. I also heard the GA station, but he was very weak. GA is usually super loud here in NJ, maybe he had his beam turned away from the NorthEast and I was hearing him off the side.
NY and NC were worked via CW – the rest were worked using that SSB mode. I got a kick out of working K2I, the NJ station. The operator was Mike KA2FIR, who I’ve worked before. When I finally broke the pileup, he came back to me with “W2LJ, we’ve run into each other before. Aren’t you that QRP guy?”
My reputation precedes me!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
5 Responses to “13 Colonies time!”
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I’ve done this in previous years and have knocked off all 13. Not sure I will attempt it this year. Propagation is just too poor and too many stations participating. When listening, it seems the 13 colonies are just working up and down the coast of the….13 colonies. (With an occasional long haul F layer thrown in on 20 meters….)
This was my 2nd year with the 13 Colonies SE and I was able to start at the beginning this year and got a clean sweep plus WM3PEN at just a smidge over 2-days into the event.
This is one of the best run events I’ve come across … save for conditions, but each OM I contacted was doing very good in dealing with the variables and some fussy operators.
I was able to get a couple on CW, but had an SSB backup for each … just in case. My CW is still on the QRS side, even after being licensed since the early 1970s.
73,
Nolan K.
KI5IO
Good for you, Nolan! – glad you made a clean sweep in just over 2 days. And glad you counted on your QRS CW for some of the contacts. I can identify with that!
Cordially & 73, Chuck, K6ZIZ in N. California
Got 10 of them and the Pen station, all 20 phone. Some have had huge pileups but several are operating many hours a day (including Georgia) and eventually one gets through. Still looking for VA, MD and PA, though. Great fun and a terrific idea. I was very impressed with how KU2US ran K2A. A model of how to handle big pileups fairly and quickly. Believe he was one of the originators of this event. Happy 4th everyone!
I look forward to working this event every year and the XYL knows I’m buried in my shack and only come out for a sandwich and rest room breaks. This year the propagation was not great but, I managed to get all 15 stations on SSB and/or PSK. A couple of states opted to use more recent forms of digital and let SSB slide for a while, which caused huge pileups when the SSB station for that state was posted. This is all volunteer, and worth the fun and some frustration to get ’em a myself I would be missing the U.K. station this year,since I could barely hear him on SSB. He magically appeared 557 on PSK 63 on 40 mtrs and responded to several of us here in the states. PA seemed to be the most elusive here in Florida, while WM3PEN in Philly wss an easy catch. Great fun and a lot of hard work by dedicated operators. Thanks to all of them! Ken Villone-KU2US always puts on a good show. I’ll be back next year, hoping the newer operators come to understand what “operating split” means and what “Up 5” refers to. It’s always a learning process for the newbies and up to the more seasoned and experienced hams to help them out.