Ham Radio – A contact sport

We’re virtually at the bottom of the 11 year solar cycle, but my mind is on DX. Kinda sounds crazy for a guy with a simple HF mobile antenna system (High Sierra Little Sidekick screwdriver-type antenna) and just as simple home QTH antenna (Butternut HF6V 6 band vertical). Here are a few reasons my ham radio thoughts have turned to DX today.

• I received a new shipment of DX QSL cards from the WØ buro. There wasn’t any all that rare in there, but I still get excited everytime I get an envelope from the buro.
• While mobile, I heard a huge pileup this week from the new country of Montenegro. The DX community was introduced to the newly formed Republic of Montenegro via a large contingent of hams operating in DXpedition mode. Cool.
• I sent the go-ahead to ANwireless to ship the base section and asked about delivery of the tower and mast itself.