[Elecraft] TX5K

[Dyarnes]

Hi All,

Apparently they are starting to shut things down--a bit early it seems!  My 
DX cluster had a note that the 160/80 antennas are down now!  Nothing on 
their blog about that.  Supposedly they still have almost 2 days to go.  At 
this moment they only have 40 SSB  up and running!

I guess I've worked them everywhere I can.  I have them on all CW bands 
(except 6 meters, of course), and all SSB bands except 80 meters (and 6 
meters).  Also on 3 digi bands--30, 20, and 17.  19 band slots in all.  It 
has been fun snagging them, and the Elecraft stuff here all performed just 
great!  I'm particularly please with how much easier things are now that I 
have the KAT500.  With my antenna situation here it really makes a big 
difference.  Clipperton isn't so far away that it is a big deal to work 
them, except the competition is ferocious.  The folks who worked them 
running QRP have much bigger bragging rights.  Well done!

The real kick in the pants is working them on RTTY without a computer!  That 
feature in the K3 (and the KX3) is sooooo cool!  This time around I just 
loaded a couple of memories with the ID info and the report info.  I've done 
it with direct paddle input in the past, but using the memories makes it a 
snap on DX stuff.  I wanted to try it with the KX3, but the competition was 
so heavy, and my antenna so inadequate, I had to go to the K3 with a bit 
more power.

Working them on 160 SSB, but not 80 SSB was something of a surprise.  I bet 
I'm in just the wrong spot propagation wise for 80 meters.  I could even 
hear some of the Europeans working them.  Guess I should have started trying 
a lot earlier!

The TX5K website is pretty slick!  You can see confirmation of your QSO 
within just a minute or two.  These DXpeditions get fancier all the time 
with this logging info.

Anyway, I had fun.  Hope a lot of other folks did too.

Dave W7AQK