We´ve been busy backstage...
The last couple of months have been quite busy for me and my station and a whole new set of experiences took place.
I guess one of the most important is me upgrading my license in Dominican Republic to Superior class. That´s why you are going to see me as HI8O from now on, instead of my long standing call sign of HI8SMX. I will truly miss it, but changes are inevitable and this one will turn out for the better.
This takes me to a second milestone for me: my participation in the CQ WPX Contest 2021. Albeit it was a short participation of just a couple hours (enough to make it official) I wanted to try my first contest and live the experience, test the radio and see what it´s all about. Oh! what a great experience it was. I decided to do One Operator, Single Band, Low Power to keep things simple, as it was my first time on a contest. I didn't do too bad according to the raw scores: 91 qso´s, 18,190 points good for 175/460 World, 22/104 NA and 1/1 HI (jajaja). I did noticed that my new call sign is great for contest, short and easy.
Another interesting thing is my upgrade to Extra Class in the US. I went from KB8SMX to KB8SM last month and I´m quite excited with this. Again I sat the online exam with GLAARG and I´m still amazed
with their organization and excellent platform. I was so satisfied that I decided toapply for VE myself and I´m happy to say that I am a GLAARG VE at your service.
With these changes on both licenses it was a necessity to update my social media as I wanted to utilize both call signs on all my operations, so I needed to come up with a plan to be able to promote both call signs and maintain things simple. I then decided to create a new brand, one that allows me to use both call signs, promote my activities with each one indistinctively and that was easy on my friends.
And that´s how hamworldonline was born. This account combines all my activities, either with HI8O or KB8SM and any other future call sign, with just one handle for all social media and a new redesigned logo and lot´s of fun projects on the drawing board (including apparel for my personal use).
That´s where I stand today. Now, I tackling some changes on the setup of my station, specifically the incorporation of an automatic antenna disconnect that´ll allow me to connect and disconnect antennas remotely and even automatically with Node Red and weather forecasts.
If you haven´t done it, look for @hamworldonline on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook Page and make sure to follow us.
73, Santiago
HI8O + KB8SM