52 for 52 - Week 2

Week 2

Week two started with the last day of my kids' Christmas vacation from school, so we went on a little adventure to Thermopolis to visit Hot Springs State Park, Legend Rock, and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

If you are ever able to go, you should check out the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. They have a lot of exhibits, even though the space is somewhat small compared to larger museums. There are many specimens from Wyoming, and many that were collected right in Thermopolis.

One extremely interesting fossil is the "Thermopolis Specimen," an Archaeopteryx fossil that is really cool, as long as you know what you are looking at.

Here is a link with some more information on the Thermopolis Specimen.

The end of week 2 came with more POTA activations and my first POTA Rover Award. I activated a total of six entities on January 11th. My first activation was just after UTC rollover. It was pitch black, and the wind was making sounds that were creeping me out, so I got out of there as quickly as I could, which is why I only have a photo of the road on my way out.

POTA Activations

I activated Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis and for my next activation and my first time visit we went to Legend Rock. Then the following weekend I made a late night visit to Lake Cameahwait but didn't stay too long because I was super creeped out by the sounds of the wind. The next day my family and I went to Sinks Canyon and activated a couple of two-fer parks.

Totals

My second week of 52 for 52 was pretty successful. I was able to activate 5 times (with three two-fer activations) and I was able to get my first Rover award.

52 for 52 - Week 1

Week 1

The first week is the shortest, only four days, but fortunately, I was able to meet my target. This week was pretty fun. I only worked on WSJT-X modes, but I was able to reach Japan, Cuba, and even Australia (although it hasn't been confirmed yet). I am learning how to operate SSB as well, but I haven't had luck getting anyone to hear me on the other side yet.

POTA Activations

Totals

This is the first week of 2026. I want my week to start on Sunday and end on Saturday. Because I don't want to have a super short week for the start of the year, I will include January 1-3 in week one numbers. 

52 for 52 - Week 0

Week 0

This is the start of my radio logs. I had some UHF/VHF radios, but I hadn't really started keeping a log until I got on HF. I got a Xiegu G90 for Christmas and a Radioddity HF-008. I wasn't able to make any contacts on Christmas Day until after UTC rollover, so even though the local time was still Christmas Day, it was Dec 26th by UTC, so that is what I am going with for my recording purposes.

My first POTA Activation. While I was working toward my general license and deciding what I wanted to do once I had it, I found Parks on the Air. I have decided to try to do as many POTA activations as I can. My first Activation was a two-fer at Lake Cameahwait/Sand Mesa, known locally as Bass Lake.

It was crazy to see the lake open. There was just a tiny amount of ice around the edge, but it created some super cool reflections on the lake.

Totals

This was my first week with my radio and actually only ran from December 26th to December 31st since I didn't make any contacts on Christmas day by UTC time.

52 for 52 - A radio challenge

Beginnings

In September, I got a ham radio license and decided to get my general ticket and start operating on HF. While I was working toward my license upgrade, I decided to set myself a challenge to help me become a better operator. I decided I needed an ambitious goal to help to maximize the gains and keep me working hard. I decided I wanted to make contacts each and every day, but that's a pretty ambitious goal, and I am uncertain if I will be able to maintain it. So instead, I decided to make contacts each week. This then created the question of how many? Just one contact isn't quite challenging enough, so how about 52? That's enough to make me have to work hard to get there. It is also enough that I can't just fire up the radio, make a quick contact, and then go back to bed. I want to force myself to become active; I want to get practice operating and setting up my equipment. I don't think I will be able to get 52 contacts in a single day, so I will have to remain active for multiple days each week to meet the goal.

The Rules

1. Make 52 contacts each week for the entire year
2. Use any mode or band you feel like, as long as it is a licensed amateur band (FRS & GMRS don't count, but HF, VHF, UHF, and even licensed Meshtastic do).
3. Keep a log with standard QSO information, UTC date/time, signal sent, signal received, band, and mode
4. Date is based on UTC time
5. Weeks are based on ISO-8601, but only contacts on days in 2026 count toward the total.
6. Contacts made during a contest, POTA activation, SOTA activation, or similar count as long as your callsign was used. Any contacts attributed to a club callsign do not count toward the totals, unless the operator's callsign was also exchanged or could be identified through a serial number or similar.
7. That's it.

Tracking

To keep track of the contacts I make each day, I plan on using a simple chart. I will just record a total here. I don't think I will have too much difficulty hitting these numbers, especially if I can do one or two POTA activations per week.

I will add new columns as necessary, but this is what I will start with.