49F with clear skies as I headed out for my pre-dawn walk this morning. I like this weather, a lot, but I see it’s supposed to warm up a little next week. I hope the official kick-off to Autumn nips that in the bud quickly because it’s been particularly nice weather for walking outside and for skipping lawn mowing duties.

The house is quiet at the moment, but that belies the busy that’s just under the surface. We will be celebrating two of our granddaughters birthday’s in a few hours so things are about to get manic around here and likely stay that way until sometime late this afternoon.

I jumped into the K1USN SST yesterday afternoon. It’s mostly the same people worked over and over again, but I enjoy the practice and the camaraderie. My score is perpetually in the lower half of the bunch, but I keep coming back for more. The last few weeks my hopes have been inflated by good runs in the opening of the event, but each time tapering off quickly. My Dad and I used to go fishing in a lake and would haul them in quickly for a few minutes then it suddenly would stop. He always said we must have “fished them out” again. The SST feels the same to me. After about twenty quick contacts it slows to a trickle and seems “fished out”.

The prior evening I spent thirty minutes in the NCCC FT4 Sprint where I put twelve in the log this week. The format seems unusual and I like that FT4 is being promoted, but after two straight weeks I don’t know if I’ll be back for this one again. Only 12 scores were reported this week and mine was once again scraping the bottom.

I still can’t believe that John, K3WWP has started using his new IC-705 in place of the Elecraft KX3 to maintain his long contact “streak”. It seems odd enough after all these years that I’ve been checking his diary daily to discover his impressions using the new equipment and making such a big change to his normal routine.

There are a bunch of QSO parties this weekend, including the popular Washington State Salmon Run. You certainly won’t run out of things to do on the radio. But as previously noted, today is well filled for me and pony rides and birthday cake with the grandkids beats more filling the log so you will have to enjoy it for me. Good luck!