NJ2X

January 5, 2026

250th Anniversary of the United States of America - QRZ Award Earned!

Today, I earned the QRZ award that began on January 1, 2026, called the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America. I completed more than the required 250 US radio contacts on January 2, 2026; though, it took until 2026-01-05 18:48:37 to reach 250 confirmed contacts and earn the award. I am the 180th radio amateur to earn the award.

Flag of the United States of America

250th Anniversary of the United States of America

NJ2X was among the first 180 people to earn the award

A big THANK YOU to QRZ for promoting amateur radio by sponsoring innovative and fun awards. I really enjoyed kicking off the New Year by celebrating the birth of our great nation with amateur radio. I am looking forward to helping other radio amateurs earn this award by answering their calls, logging and confirming the contacts. See you on the radio.

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

January 2, 2026

Reached 2200 US County Confirmed Contacts

I was excited to see today that I hit a new county hunting milestone with having completed 2200 confirmed contacts. A big thank you to Ron (W7SHA) in Chautauqua County, KS for being my 2200th US county. This is a great way to start the new year (2026).

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

250th Anniversary of the United States of America - QRZ Award Earned!

250th Anniversary of the United States of America - Day 1 update

QRZ.com has created a new award called, '250th Anniversary of the United States of America' that began on January 1, 2026. I was delighted to see it appear on the QRZ.com website and I decided to dive in to see how fast I could complete the award. I confirmed 100 entities on 1/2/2026 20:40 UTC.

I noticed this morning several stations that have started using '250' when calling. Fun!

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

January 1, 2026

2025 - A Ham Radio Year In Review

2025 was a great year to be alive. It was also a great year for amateur radio with excellent sunspot activity and conditions. One of my favorite radio activities is radio fox hunting. I ran several fox hunts in 2025. I really enjoy hiding the transmitter and helping people new to radio fox hunting learn how to use simple techniques and equipment to find it. I love seeing their happy faces when they find it. So much fun!

Here are a few of my radio related statistics as of 12/31/2025. I find it satisfying to review statistics like these to see how I am progressing. The truest contest is not with others, but with your former self, as learning and growth quietly reshapes who you become.

LoTW

18,341 QSO records
12,434 QSL records
Award progress

DXCC Challenge Award = 880 / 1000 = 88%
WAS FT4 = 50 / 50 = 100% complete

QRZ.com

Leaderboard

Most Band-Countries Worked = 893
Most Countries Worked = 190
Most Confirmed QSOs = 13,354

Award progress

12 Days of QRZ (2025)

Completed 40m, 20m, 15m, 12m, 10m

Grid Squared Award (out of 32,400 possible in the world)

United States Counties Award - My ultimate goal is to work all 3,143 US Counties (located in the 50 States + DC). I am 70% there. It has become increasingly difficult to collect new counties. The hunt continues.

For 2026, I plan to continue working many more DX band-countries toward my goal to earn the DXCC Challenge Award and confirm contacts with at least 100 new US counties. QRZ has a new award called the '250th Anniversary of the United States of America' that I am looking forward to complete in celebration of the birthday of our great nation. I remember the wonderful 200th Anniversary in 1976 and I am delighted to see the 250th arrive. I am proud to be an American. I have never made a contact with an AF (Armed Forces) station. 2026 is going to be my year to do so. If you are an AF station, lets set up a scheduled contact. I would love to have you in the log on our 250th Anniversary.

My homebrew 80m Skywire antenna was destroyed in a big windstorm that took out a couple of redwoods back in 2023. I have a new replacement 160m Skywire antenna that I plan to hoist up into the trees in 2026. Looking forward to having access to 160m and making contacts. See you on the radio.

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

November 18, 2025

Completed all Maine Counties with NU1D in Somerset County, ME

A big THANK YOU to Seth (NU1D) in Somerset County, Maine. Seth is an outstanding radio amateur and helped me with a 20m FT8 contact to complete contacts with all 16 Maine Counties. We tried 40m phone and could faintly hear each other though not well enough to make the contact. 20m opened up and we were able to make the contact easily on FT8.

Maine State Flag

NJ2X completed contacts with each of the 16 Maine Counties

This coast-to-coast contact brings my total number of confirmed Us County contacts on QRZ.com to 2,159 counties (69% of the total 3,143 US Counties).

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

November 10, 2025

Connecting the RCForb Client to HRD

I recently upgraded Ham Radio Deluxe to the new V6.9. I have been enjoying playing with the new and improved HRD. I thought a good test would be to configure HRD 6.9 with the Remote Hams RCForb client so that HRD can control remote stations. RCForb is a free Windows-based software that enables remote control of amateur radio stations via the RemoteHams.com platform. Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) is a comprehensive software suite for amateur radio operators, offering rig control, digital mode operation, logging, satellite tracking, and rotor control — all in one package.

HRD can be configured to remotely control stations that are on the RemoteHams.com platform. This is the ultimate way to play radio with remote stations and worth the effort to configure if you are a HRD user. Fortunately, the configuration process was fairly straightforward. I documented the steps in case it would be helpful or of interest to other radio amateurs.

RCForb Client in action

How to connect HRD 6.9 to work with the Remote Hams RCForb Client

0. Launch RCForb and connect to a remote station. Choose a station that will allow you to connect and at least listen. The make and model of the remote radio does not matter.

1. Configure RCForb Virtual K3. Set the COM port to a port that is not being used (e.g., COM99). This setting can be found under the Virtual Devices menu. RCForb uses the Virtual K3 setting for radio control purposes regardless of the make or model of the remote radio.

2. Configure RCForb Virtual HRD. Use the default CFG 7809. This setting can be found under the Virtual Devices menu.

3. Close RCForb and restart the application. This is necessary for the COM port setting to become visible to HRD.

4. Start HRD. If HRD is already running, close and restart it. This is necessary for HRD to recognize COM99.

5. Open HRD Rig Control.

6. Click New in HRD Rig Control.

7. Settings:

Company = Elecraft
Radio = K3
COM Port = COM99
Speed = 38400 (default)
Auto Start

HRD Digital Master = checked
HRD Logbook = checked

8. Click Connect. This will connect HRD to the remote RCForb station and enable control from within HRD. Viola!

9. Test the configuration by attempting to change the remote station tuning from within HRD Rig Control.

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

November 3, 2025

Upgrading HRD from v6.80.372 to v6.9.0.17086

I was excited to read the recent announcements about the newly released enhanced Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) v6.9. I am particularly grateful to the HRD team for replacing the database since the legacy MS-Access database had been a source of occasional trouble and performance issues.

The folks at HRD made the upgrade super easy. The only challenge encountered was with Windows blocking HRD Wizard.

HRD Upgrade Steps

1. Download HRD software v6.9.0.17086 (27-Oct. 2025)

2. Run the downloaded HRD software

3. Run the HRD Setup Wizard