13 Colonies Special Event: The good, bad, and ugly
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2023
- On our July 2023 livestream, Joe and I talk about the 13 Colonies Special Event. Did you participate? Get a clean sweep? What are your thoughts.
13 Colonies Special Event: www.13colonies.us/
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#13colonies #specialevent - Наука та технологія
Used 20 watts. Landed 4 stations and had a good time. Enjoyed every minute.
I did a clean sweep using SSB, CW, and FT8.
I got the Clean Sweep and the Wm Penn station, but missed my shot at GB13. Saturday morning I heard him tuning up, asking if the freq was in use. I had no idea the event was even a thing at that point and left the radio to do other things. If I'd waited another 2 minutes lol. Never did hear the Frenchie. Saw them on FT8 quite a few times though.
I agree that some of the behavior was appalling, especially on 20m, but that is the sad state of human nature today. What I found even worse though was some of the call stations were actively encouraging the bad behavior. Later in the event when more call stations started going by the numbers it seemed to go much smoother. All in all though I had way more fun than I thought I would and I will be better prepared for next year :)
I managed to get a clean sweep in the last minute when I worked K2I on 20m phone. At first I couldn't hear him, but either conditions changed or the operator changed antenna. He was a bit close as he was in Maryland and I was in neighboring Virginia. I also got TM13COL on 20m CW with no pileup! Thank God.
Clean sweep with my Xiegu G90. Waiting towards the end was a key strategy. 20 Watts SSB. N9MOE
I was able to work all 13 Colonies plus the (3) additional bonus ones within the first two days doing FT8 . I have to say I was “very lucky “, propagation was excellent in Arizona. Definitely a fun contest if you’ve never tried it before. I worked all 13 Colonies last year, however, it took me just about all the days available. 73
Swept digi, I'm still working on ssb. Having hard time with K2G and K2K. Great fun. last year had clean sweep dig and phone
I've never worked an event before. K2L was activating the park next to my house so I looked into it. I got on Friday the 7th at 4pm and had a clean sweep by 8p and hit WB3PEN. I had a blast working some on SSB and some on digital. I designed and printed my first QSL cards so I could exchange for ones from the event. So far I've gotten 3 QSL cards back. I'm looking forward to doing more.
I was able to get a clean sweep on both SSB and CW. Got TM13 and PEN on CW and PEN on SSB. One or two of the 13 on FT8. Even got a few on CW mobile. I heard GB13 a couple of times on SSB, very weak. Didn't even try. Nothing on CW from GB13. TM13 was fairly active, much easier to get. I used the cluster to track down a couple of the last stations that were hard to find (K2I). I tried to search for stations when I had a chance to operate at the top of the hour. Sometimes caught them just getting started. It's a lot easier to do that way than chasing the cluster late to the party. Another fun event though.
13 Colonies is a great event. I managed to get all but GB13COL. All CW at 5 watts.
I activated as K2E. Almost exclusively FT8, which had some lids too (calling me 50 times is excessive). I operated SSB on day 1, things were ok, but after that , sheesh! Nonetheless I had a great time!
I managed to play for a few hours as well, clean sweep and all 3 bonus stations, 12 FT modes, 3 in SSB.
I run 100 watts. The pile-ups were tough. I did get a clean sweep plus the bonus stations. TM13COL was a bear! I finally got them on the last day on FT4.
I agree! The actions of some of these operators were embarrassing!
There have been a couple disappointments this year. I have found on SSB that I just can't hear the stations K2K and K2G, even when I find where they have been spotted and I can tune in that frequency but I hear people giving their callsign but I cannot hear the special event operator. One of the two described above is unable to control his pileup and he has completely lost discipline. The other has a schedule posted but there's no SSB coverage for the last 36 hours of the event. This is the first time I have experienced this in four years. I can't really complain, because there's no way I can handle these types of pileups myself. I have great admiration for the way some of these operators are able to maintain order. I'm glad that all these folks are willing to give their time. I think this is a fun and important event. Tim
K2K may have been overwhelmed. But the hunters were extremely rude causing intentional QRM, and wouldn't even let him speak. I tried for a while but knew I wasn't up to par with the rude stations cutting in when he's calling for 5s etc. I gave up for the night. The next day around UTC 16:00 I found him on again and completed my clean sweep... K2K if you read this I appreciate your effort I couldn't imagine working that crowd without military protection lol. 73
I had 12 of the 13 (needed RI) and finally managed to get him 1 hour before it ended. Living 30 miles away from RI makes it very hard with the skip. 40M was in my favor at 11PM EDT.
Nice... I got a clean sweep as well All 14 on the same day July 2nd - 8=FT8 - 6=SSB 73's John/W8JES
I got them all this year...100 watts and a DXCommander out of Florida.
kc3tmc here: i got all 14 in the US. gb and tm were very limited on time on the air in the ssb frequencies. they seemed to be mostly digital. hope that changes for next year
"work on your technique"
Missed 3 colonies but got the 3 bonus stations - all on FT8 and FT4. Didn't find the spotter page to be much help. My biggest frustration with 13 Colonies is that, since I live in one, I'm too close to many of the stations so they end up in my skip zone - even on the lower bands.
Nice work Michael. I hope to be on the K2E team next year. Been wanting to do for a few years now, but the timing just hasn’t matched up for me.
I manages to get all 13 colonies, WM3PEN, GB13COL and TM13COL by 00:02 UTC on the 4th of July despite the Facebook etiquette of a lot of the operators.
13 Colonies was a first contest for me as I only got into HF a month ago and I had a blast. Now that I heard what you had to say regarding people and their lack of manors, yes, that's very true as I heard the same behaviour. I'd be really annoyed if it prevented me from getting a clean sweep, but it didn't this year. Patience is definitely needed though, like you said!
It's an event, not a contest
I was able to make a "clean sweep" contact on SSB. There were many disrespectful lids on the air....the ones who repeat ther call over, and over, and over again without listening....the ones who call before another exchange is completed....calling out of turn when they specify a call district. People need to LISTEN first for a few minutes before they begin calling. Oh well...I guess this is part of the instant gratification culture when people see the frequency on the spotting page, spin the dial, and immediately begin calling.
A big problem with spotting networks is the 'alligator syndrome.' The operator is unable to hear the calling station, but they know it's on frequency, so they constantly call irregardless if the station hears them or not. Messes it up for everyone.
No clean sweep here this year, but I did get the all three bonus stations. But it was still fun to try. Better luck next year. Take care and 73. Vic de KE8JWE
Got all 13+wm3pen SSB 100w from the west coast. It’s pretty hard from over here.
I managed 😊Clean sweeps on phone and digital, but not a CW op yet. Some people said they never saw GB13 on CW all week.
I got all 13 but didn't try for the bonus stations. It was a mix of digital and phone, some I got on both modes.
I only worked 4 out of the 16 only via FT8. They were loud into Hawaii but it was only 1 way.
I managed a clean sweep back in 2018.....90% SSB....dont even bother anymore.
Got them all (and 3 bonus stations) with a combination of satellite and 100 W and a wire SSB. For HF, the worst I heard were ops repeatedly yelling the last two letters of their call sign over and over as the pile up waned.
I got the clean sweep last year… was so appalled with the bad actors, I skipped this year entirely!
Several were tuning up on frequency.. very frustrating!
For the most part it was a good event but it seemed some treated this it as blood sport event and some contacts were hard to get due to this.
What antennas did both of yall use? Thanks in advance.
I have two antennas at home. A G5RV with a peak at about 30 feet and a 74 foot end fed random wire in a sloping configuration. I switched between the two depending on which one was less noisy at that point in time.
@@KB9VBRAntennas cool. I’ve been thinking about the g5rv. Using a ocfd currently
73. KQ4GDB
The G5RV is a good antenna. It fits in my limited space well and with an external tuner you can get great results. A while back I talked about that antenna on the livestream, you can watch it here: ua-cam.com/video/prqogfcV28E/v-deo.html
@@KB9VBRAntennas I’ll watch it. I’ve noticed there are good quality and bad g5rvs
Just saw a Facebook post with a ham doing a POTA with the ground plane being a foil backed thermal camping blanket instead of woven wire. Curious if you have tried that setup, it folded up to almost nothing. KO4SVF
I haven't tried a foil blanket, but really anything conductive should work as a ground network.
Thirteen colony ops that are experienced contestors NEVER have to call by the numbers
I would tend to agree. Although when you are being swamped by 2's, 3's and 4's, it's good to take a break and give the weaker 6's and 7's a chance to get the station.
I gave up after hearing some guy with a 2x2 yelling Drill Instructor nonstop. After about 10 minutes I realized phone was a waste of time.
Yes horrendous behavior. People lost their minds.