Pat, KF8EXX, has been burning up the bands with his Yaesu FT-710,
CushCraft R-8, and tribander. This week he passed the 100 mark on
LoTW confirmations and has submitted his DXCC Application.
All of this has been achieved using only CW and SSB modes. But, on
2026-06-18 I made a trip to his QTH and FINALLY managed to get
WSJT-X working on his laptop. It took purchasing a license for a
Virtual Serial Port Emulator from Eterlogic so that the COM port
from his radio could be split to work with BOTH Logger32 and WSJT-X
at the same time. JTAlert was also installed so that QSO's from
WSJT-X are immediately uploaded to Logger32. Once all that was
working, we made a half dozen QSO's and when I checked PSK Maps the
next day, here is were in the world he was heard:
812 reception reports were logged by PSK Maps in his brief operating
period (mostly on 15-M) with stations in at least 56 countries
including
VK6KC
in Western Australia (nearly the opposite side of the Earth!) -
11,341 miles away. Not too shabby for 100-watts to a vertical!!!
Once he starts using FT8, the world will open up for him for
certain and his DXCC totals will take off!
As an aside, he received his first SWL card from F-10444 in France
reporting on his QSO with a UA6 station on 20-CW. Pat had never
heard of anything like this so this was a learning experience. We
got a QSL sent back to the French SWL station in short order.
Next I configured N1MM+ for him and in a bit he will participate
for the first time in the WV QSO Party. It is so much fun to work
with someone with the "Ham
Radio FIRE"
burning so brightly in him!
He is learning fast too. He made a QSO with 9K2ES for what (at
that time) would have been Country No. 100. He checked the online
log for 9K2ES and saw a QSO for "F8EXX" - it looked like the first
letter of his call was missed by the Kuwait. On his own (at my
suggestion) he emailed 9K2ES and a fast response told him the log
would be corrected!
73, Clark, W8TN