Watching all the little things

I've been exchanging emails with George Briggs (K2DM / VP2MDG), a fellow who recently returned from Montserrat's Gingerbread Hill and had left some equipment there. One piece is a Mosley CL-33 tribander as pictured on his QRZ page.

It was this antenna that was mentioned a previous blog entry as a temptation for our crew. I had said that I would use the antenna if it were available without guilt or remorse. I'd just count it as local materials. As it turns out, this beautiful antenna is disassembled and packed away. While George has graciously offered to allow our group to use it, I think it will likely be left in storage, thereby quashing this dilemma.
It has been nearly three weeks since our last conference call. I knew this period would be idle and had planned for it as best I could. The time between Thanksgiving and the first of the new year (November 25 - January 1) is almost always consumed by commitments to family and friends, as it should be. My goal was to have all the long lead time items and items that are largely out of our control (like licensing) behind us by now. We did that. We still have many activities and tasks to complete, but they are all work we can do on our own. For example, I would like to get our new call signs registered in all the interesting places such as QRZ.COM, the Logbook of the World, HamCall.net, and eQSL. I think this is the current state:

Call	QRZ	LoTW	HamCall	eQSL
VP2MFF	Y
VP2MHF			{old}*
VP2MRD	Y	Y	Y	Y
VP2MVG		Y
VP2MVO	Y	Y		Y
VP2MST	Y	Y		Y
VP2MTC			Y	Y

* There is an entry present but it is for a former owner of this call sign.
I've also made it a point to put the QSL routing information in a number of places. This probably sounds like tedious busywork but it is all part of ensuring that those who work us get the most enjoyment from that experience. They will find our calls in the popular lookup tools, they will find their QSOs in the popular online QSLing systems, and they will find the QSL routing information in the likely places. In my view, it is consistent with the slogan we've selected for our trip, "No rare, but well done!"
I'm still wrestling with this head cold. I stayed home from work today in hopes that some sleep might turn the tide on this thing. Needless to say, I've not done anything with equipment, packing, weighing, or sorting these last few days. I'll try to pick that bit up again this weekend.