<<<reposted from 20forbeers>>>

And that's all she wrote.

Decided to post on main as I've just finished for a clean sweep!

The 13 Colonies Radio Event is an annual ham radio event that starts 7/1 09:30
and runs through 7/8 23:59 where you have 13 special call signs, one in each of
the original 13 colonies of the United States. There are some Bonus stations, one in Philly (WM3PEN) one in England (GB13COL) and one in France (TM13COL) too.
The idea is to "collect" a contact with each of the 13 and bonus if you can and
you can use any mode, (morse code, voice, digital) on most any band (1-??Mhz) just not 60m (5 Mhz) or non direct path ie repeater, VOiP (echolink,d-star) but
you can use satellites.

Each Colony station is a K2# so NY was K2A, VA was K2B, RI was K2C... et al.

Well I got my last one K2E Delaware this morning (Friday 7/5) and been
working for big chunks of time every day since it started Monday. Probably over 8 hours of actual radio time this week. It's not a contest, there are no scores posted, or prizes but you can send for a certificate showing what you managed. My first logs of this event on QRZ.com are from 2015, and I think I have a certificate from before that, so I've been at this 'ritual' for at least 10 years and this is probably my 1st clean sweep. I also did it all QRP (4 watts power) and all on one band 40m (7Mhz,) and all in one mode CW (morse code.)

Ham radio is mostly a paper chase. I took a few vacation days and made it a whole week off to play radio this 4th of July. Silly? Maybe, but I've been at this radio game since 1993. I've only had to use my license once for the common
good on 9/11. In the age of Cellphone it seems wild to think 68' of wire a few watts and a telegraph key are even still a thing.

So, if anyone else is working it I hope it was/is fun and you're getting what
you're after out of the event. I managed to work a few POTA (parks on the air) stations, and have a few nice QSO's (conversations) with other hams doing neat things in their shacks, and I even worked W1AW live as someone was there at the
mothership this week. I was reminded that I might want to get a Bug this week too, so maybe adventures in radio will go there next, the semi-automatic key.

I'll keep you posted, now if you'll excuse me I'm on vacation and I'm finally going to have that glass of beer I promised myself when I made it!

Best 73,

de N2QFD AR SK..

N2QFD{Queen City BBS}:// "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?" - Craig Ferguson

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
# Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)
* Origin: Ham Inter-network Echomail Gateway. (432:1/100.0)