Band conditions were no where near as nice as the weather here today. 38F with clear blue skies and lots of sun when I took my morning walk — sweatshirt weather. The HF bands were much less inspired and after a couple of hours of looking for DX I wound up with precious little to show for the effort.

This evening I put the KX3 on the kitchen table and managed to work a few park activations using 10 watts of CW. Most notable POTA contact being VA7OM who was activating Rolley Lake Provincial Park (VE-3237) in British Columbia about 60 km east of Vancouver, almost 1900 miles from here.

Afterwards I called CQ on 20 and had a nice QSO with Jim, N0IPA in Sedalia, Colorado. Unlike the typical contest or DX exchange, it was my first honest-to-goodness CW chat in a long while and I wasn’t at all pleased with my sending. I could blame it on using a new paddle, but it seems obvious to me that I need to touch up those skills with a daily CW chat.

So let it be written, so let it be done.