QSOs

1.8 MHz activity

On 160 m the prime season runs from late autumn to early spring. One of the most difficult propagation opportunities occurs near the winter solstice, where it is occasionally possible for U.S. stations to contact Japan via long path. From the information we've been able to find, we have the largest number of unique 160 m long path JA QSOs of any U.S. station. (Many more have been achieved from eastern Canada.)

50 MHz activity

On 6 m the prime season runs from late May to mid-August every year, plus October and November at the peak of intense sunspot cycles. U.S. stations can contact Europe during openings that can typically begin near U.S. sunrise and end near U.S. sunset (it is much more complex than this, e.g., with both a peak morning time and a peak afteroon time). On rare occasions, the opening begins long before U.S. sunrise but - in those cases - the opening usually extends past sunrise. Once in early June 2018, a short opening began about 4 hours after U.S. sunset (which was about 4 hours before U.S. sunrise).

CW activity, 1996 through 2021

For about twenty-five years the station operated primarily on CW. This included contest activity (e.g., CQ WW and WPX), and the World Amateur Radio Day (18 April each year) and World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (17 May each year) events from 2008 to 2021.

CW became less popular after 2021 because of the widespread use of FT8. The station still makes CW QSOs, but its logs since then are dominated by FT8 contacts, especially on 160 m and 6 m.