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As the title reads, my 2012 Challenge of having a QSO a Day is on the way to the half way mark.  One more month and we’ll close out the second consecutive quarter, six months and 50% of the year having completed a QSO each day. 

I have admit, the fun really does continue.  I worried that either I might get bored or find it “a chore” to get down to the shack each and every day.  However, I’ve settled into a routine and it works nicely. 

I use UTC as my time and date.  During this time of year, 0000z occurs at my local 6 PM.  I usually get home from work by 5:30, we eat and then I head down to the shack usually around 6:30 PM (0030z).  I log my contact(s) then spend the rest of the evening with my wife.  We did have some nice band conditions during parts of May and I would head back down to the shack for 30 minutes or so around 0400 UTC. 

During much of the work week, I’m mainly concentrating on getting my one QSO worked and logged.  However, on the weekend (when I’m not working on the new shack) I’ve been working special event stations and having fun in the various US State QSO parties taking place on the bands.  By the way, have you listened to my new weekly PARP Plus edition podcast?  PARP Plus is released on Monday evenings (0000z).  Each episode is around 15 minutes in length and I provide a rundown of all the activities taking place in the week and weekend ahead.  The PARP Plus edition covering this week and this coming weekend is available now.

Also, the path to DXCC continues to add up.  This month I worked a total of nine DX stations with three being new DX entities.  The new DX added in May was Bulgaria, New Zealand and Turkey. 

I also decided to map my May QSO’s.  I’m using a web tool created by K2DSL called ADIF to Map to create the image below. 

Finally, May was a productive month for work in the new basement ham shack.  As I updated you all earlier in the week, the drywall work is done and the texture process is also complete.  We picked up paint and paint supplies last weekend and hope to get started next weekend.   It’s all finally starting to come together and I’m very pleased with how it looks.  It’s going to be a fantastic ham shack, home office and man-cave.

The QSO breakdown for May is as follows: 

Mode
Number QSO’s

JT65
61

SSB   
37

PSK31
1

Additional notes of interest:

DX Stations Worked in May – 9

New DX Entities in May – 3

Total QSO’s for 2012 – 577

Total consecutive QSO days – 152

Days left in 2012 – 214

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

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