Confusion

Just a few days before Xmas Holidays ARRL gave us a present. A new entity for the DXXC! And what is the name of the baby? St Barthelemy island with prefix FJ. The activation was immediate by OH2BH and OH0XX and the call FJ/OH2AM shows up. These old wolves knew better what would happen and they were ready.

But the question is how many entities are they now in the DXCC list? It seems that neither ARRL really knows yet. As you can see in this page extract ARRL gives two different numbers (337 and 338). What is the correct one? You have not to worry a lot about this. Make the contact and you will know later the answer.

Good news

I gave up with 6E4LM. No chance for me and most Europeans I think. It seems that these guys they have no idea for propagation patterns or they do not like to make QSO with EU. Sorry if I am so bitter but so many days on the air and I have never heard them. Fortunately check my old logs I found out that I have XF4 cfm from some previous expedition. So no big deal.

But the real good news is that I worked E4/OM2DX CW on 40m this morning. This is a real new one for me, and I worked them the real first day of operation. Of course they are in the neighborhood and that makes job quite easier. So now I have 325 countries, just 2 countries away of Honor roll. And 3D2AG/P, Rotuma, it is ante portas…I hope it will show up next days. By the way sun is waking up. December did not have a day without sunspots. It seems that 2008 will be a very interesting one. Happy New Year to every one!

Wanted!

These guys are really wanted. As soon as the Dxpedition of 6E4LM had announced, I thought that it would be relativity easy to work them. Many operators and enough equipment to activate three full stations. It is a new one for me and so much wanted. But they are there more than a week now and I never heard them. What is going wrong then? I saw some sporadic spots in the cluster mostly from USA stations and that is all. Europe has not heard a whisper yet. I am getting anxious and I have a bad feeling that it will turn out to be very hard for me to make a contact. Does anybody have any info what is going on out there? We urgently need some hope.

Under a sleeping sun

The winter is coming with big paces. The temp outside the shack dropped to one digit numbers and it is very nice sitting in a cosy shack in front of your microphone. The sun is still sleeping and propagation poor. Nobdy knows yet when the 24th cycle will start. So it is a challenge trying to catch a new one. 6E4LM is going to show up in the next hours.

Spiros, SV8CS, is already in Morocco for CQ WW CW contest. They will run the test with Stefano, IK2QEI from Safi with CN3A call. So far all the antennas are up waiting the big event. Check the photo. SV8CS will be also active in 2m and 6m EME as scheduled. I will pass any recent info in the well known chat rooms. So take a look there.

By the way the EPC PSK63 was very cheerful. All the members were present. I made 401 QSO and 511000 points. My best score ever in a PSK contest. Comparing with TARA Rumble I had made only 64 QSO, it was a great deference.

Party

The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the EPC PSK63 QSO Party. The objective of the competition is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world by using the BPSK63 mode. Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit. Rules in EPC club page.

PSK mode is my favorite among digital ones. Our club invites you all to join the party on Sunday 18^th November. Last year it was a very nice party. My friend Spiros, SV8CS took the first place worldwide but this year is very busy to prepare his expedition to Morroco for CQ WW CW contest and EME activities, as CN3A. So I will be alone in the party. Please keep me company and have a drink with me. Propagation is not so good but participation counts.

Halloween

I intend to spend next weekend in my shack joining the great CQ WW SSB contest. I remember three years ago this time, I was in USA. I visited 5 states in that trip: Massachusesetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Illinois and Indiana. All were wonderful, especially Vermont. Fall had given all these marvelous season colors to trees and flowers. Cold and rain were present. Halloween time had dressed towns and villages with special costumes. For a stranger it is was a really good time to be there.

But most of all these things I remember well my visit to HRO ham shop in Salem, New Hampshire. Salem is a small village just 40 miles north of Boston. I got my FT1000MP Mark Field from there! Only $1750, no VAT at all in this state. The guys were very friendly with me. George Varvitsiotis, the owner of the shop, is also Greek and probably that was an additional reason to be so good with me. Anyway I left the shop with the best impressions. I was really so happy with my purchase that all the else seemed insignificant details to me. Back to the hotel I got it out of the boxes and put it in my suitcase. And so it came all the long way back to Greece through four different airports fortunately without any problem.

Three years now I have this transceiver in front of me serving me in all great ham events. And many times, in the middle of a QSO as I stare its display, I recollect all this wonderful time I spent to USA and mostly just the time I got the opportunity to acquire it.

October in the shack

The first clouds after months appear in the sky. Some of them dropped even rain. What a nice feeling the changing of the season. Ham radio keeps me pretty busy. Unfortunately the propagation was very low. Sun spots refuge to appear to cheer bands a little bit up. So the Tara Rumble PSK contest turned out to be a great disappointment. I join Rumble every year but this was my worst one. Only 67 QSO, no USA, no Japan, no VKs this time. On the other hand some rare DX showed up the first days of October. It needed to sweat to work some of them but everything went ok after all. ACOM1000 helped a lot. Two new ones 3C7Y and H40MY among them left me happy, as I am approaching the final target of ARRL Honor Roll. Actually I have 321 countries confirmed till now in LoTW. With a little luck and better propagation I hope to get it in a couple of years. Be healthy all of you and enjoy the hobby.

The mother of contests

Last weekend we had a lot of fun with the CQ WW RTTY contest. It’s the biggest in the world. Every year a lot of stations participate from every place around the world. Some expeditions go there on purpose, just to have a good score. So it is a very good opportunity to work rare dx station on RTTY. That is exactly the reason I participate. I have no any chance for championship but I always enjoy it.

I always use the MixW, which it is an excellent tool for this job. This year I made 532 qso’s in all bands and 293643 points. This is my best score ever, so I have all the reasons to be happy. Rare stations on RTTY were heard and worked, like: 9U0A, HC8N, VK9LA, PZ5RA, KH6ND, D4C, KP2/NP3D and many others I cannot recollect. Some of them sent already the logs to the LoTW, which I found an excellent idea. Even propagation conditions were poor without sunspots on the sun and SFI lower than 70, I had no trouble working all these exotic stations. So let promise a sked for next year when situation will be much better. Till then we have a lot of marvelous event to join. So stay tuned.

And now what?

"The on-line log has now been updated to include all QSOs up to 03:31Z today, when 3B7C closed down. There are now 135,718 QSOs in the log....Thank you for all your kind comments on the DXpedition and your good wishes for the team's safe return. I have passed these on and they have been much appreciated by the team."With those words the pilot station of 3B7C wrote the epilogue of this tremendous dxpedition. In our island, Zante, 6 stations have worked them. Their calls are: SV8CS 24, SV8RX 23, SV8KOK 10, SV8DOU 8, SV8KOM 8 and SV8AXZ 1. The first 5 of them succeeded to get in the 100 Greek list. All these days, that it lasted, we had a lot of fun, trying to work as many slots as possible. We are all good friends and during this contest type event we had a lot of bets. So we are going to meet now to analyze the results and celebrate our achievement drinking lager.
And now what is next? What else the huge CQ WW RTTY Contest during this weekend. So I have again to shout the well known cry: See you in the pile ups!!!

Hunting 3B7C

What an expedition! It looks like a road roller. Too many stations active simultaneously in all bands in all modes for as long as 18 days. They have as a target to beat the 168,772 QSO record of D68C. I think they have good possibilities to succeed. The huge amount of equipment, big antennas, linears, and the plenty of very experienced operators guarantee big scores for sure.

“Our strategy is to run maximum power on as many bands as possible. We will have big monoband antennas on all bands 30m to 6m and verticals on the remaining bands. This way we will be heard everywhere in the world at some time of the day or night. We will also be active for around 18 days covering three weekends. By adopting this strategy we should be able to give at least one contact to anyone who wants one anywhere in the world.”

With these words describe their plan the 5 stars DX group (http://www.3b7c.com/). It is a very well organized expedition indeed.

So far they are working perfectly with absolute control of frequencies and QSO running. They are far away comparing with similar expeditions. I put here a list with bands I have already worked, with the notation that we are just at the beginning. There are 12 days left.

By the way they have promised digital modes after 15 of September. It deserves a special note the way they present their online logs and statistics. It gives a contest spirit to hams they want to work them. Good luck with them. See you on the pile ups.

Goodbye summer

Summer is dragging its last days. After three periods of high temperatures and the biggest fires that stroke Greece last 100 years, it is going to live us, fortunately. This week, temperature dropped dramatically to 15-20 degrees, quite low for the season in Greece. Anyway this weather development gave us the signal to leave cottage and come back to main QTH.

During summer only a little ham radio activity took place. The portable situation, you can see the wire antennas on the picture, does not give many possibilities during low propagation periods. So we continue the 6 meters marathon. We got 42 countries this year. Not bad. Next year we will go better. We also participate in the SARGT RTTY contest. It was a nice experience indeed. We made 230 qso, as a multiband operator. Lots of exotic callsigns were heard and worked, even with portable conditions.

By the way the ACOM1000 returned strong and healthy. It took only a week to be fixed and come back. The problem was a leakage of a capacitor in the main PCB (the picture shows these capacitors). Not a big deal indeed. As I had commented, it had to pass through children’s illnesses before go to real service. But the ACOM service was quite fast and friendly. My compliments to Stan (LZ1IU) and his great company. Now I feel ready for the WW CQ RTTY contest at 29-30 of September weekend.

Back Home

Well, all good things have an end. I am back to Greece a month now. The way back was very easy. My Garmin navigator Nuvi 350 drove me all the way to Ancona ferries without any mistakes. From the entire trip, about 9 hours of driving with our Citroen Picasso, we kept in memory the figure of Mont Blanc with its astonishing glacier. It was very spectacular indeed as we passed by. To all of us, SW8KOJ (my XYL) and two harmonics Nick and Nena, this scenery will be unforgettable. We came back to the hot climate of my country and it took me several days to get used of it. 25 degrees it is quite a big difference. Actually we have a very hot summer this year. Plenty of big fires all around the country make the TV news very unpleasant. The country seams paralysed. Due to this situation everything it is easily postponed for tomorrow. My posts followed this rule.

Among the unhappy things, my brand new ACOM 1000, after a few days running, presented children’s illnesses and I had to send it to Sofia for repair. Stan, LZ1IU assured me kindly that he will take care of it. I hope everything will go well and my baby comes back home healthy and ready to shout again. Unfortunately I will go without its company in the IOTA contest this weekend.

On the other hand it is summer and we live in a Greek island, a dreamy vacation destination for many people around the world. Then I should be not a nagger. Let’s go to a lovely beach, get some cold beers to cheer us up and forget all misery. 24^th cycle where are you any way?

Friedrichshafen! Part 2

"For three days Friedrichshafen was the meeting place for amateur radio operators around the globe: 18,100 visitors from as far away as Australia and California came to the HAM RADIO, which finished on Sunday", with these words the organizers of exhibition commented the end of the event. A huge number of visitors indeed. One of them was me! You can get more infos and pictures in ham radio fest page: http://www.hamradio-friedrichshafen.de
But let me continue my story. Nest day, Saturday, I decided to visit the second section which was occupied by the great firms and shops they represented them. YAESU, ICOM KENWOOD TEN TEC and others were there. Big shops as WIMO, APPELLO, CONRAND participated also. All the new equipment in front of you. Too many things to see and admire.
I had a plan coming here: to try to find if it were possible to buy an ACOM1000. I was not quite sure that they would have any in stock. This fantastic amplifier became my dream for the last two years. So I was very anxious snooping around the shops to spot one. Finally I was lucky! I found it in WIMO and after a 2 minutes purchase negotiation, and with the help of a little trailer they borrowed me, I had it in the trunk of my car. After that I was quite happy and everything I show henceforth, it looked to me more beautiful.
I admired the new TEN TEC OMNI VII and ORION II, I loved the famous HIBERLING, I impressed with FLEX radio 5000 and so many other masterpieces of nowadays technology.
In the same place I found the kiosks of amateur associations and clubs, ARRL, DARC, BAVARIAN CONTEST CLUB, RAAG and several others. In the kiosk of RAAG , I met a lot of greek hams that came all the way from Greece just to join this great fest. At noon we traditionally consumed a lot of wurst and bier and we exchanged promises for the next year to come back again.
The fest would close next day but Nick and me we decided that we had seen already enough and that it was time to return back to St Genis before getting dark. Well, not before visiting the campus with those terrible vehicles that amateurs from all over the Europe came along with. Those were our last impressions. Soon we left behind us this amazing place and with our precious cargo in the trunk we got the way back.

Friedrichshafen! Part 1

The ferry left us in Ancona (Italy) at 12:00 local time on Wednesday 20th of June. It took us 21 hours sailing from Patras. And after a 9 hours driving we arrived to St Genis (France) near Geneva. We met there my friend Nick (F5VIH alias SV3SJ) who lives there. The most impressive thing was the difference in temperature. We left Greece with 36 degrees and we found France only in 12 degrees and raining. This weather kept along all the 8 days we stayed in the area. According to the plan on Friday morning Nick and me we drive an other 480Km to Friedrichshafen. It was the first time I was visiting such a huge event. Friedrichshafen Messe is a well organized place for any kind of manifestations or fairs. Once a year it accommodates the Ham Radio festival every last weekend of June. It is located in the center of Europe in south Germany near the beautiful city of Konstanz. Actually you have to take a small ferry to get across the lake to rich Friedrichshafen.
The exhibition is separated in two big sections. One with the surplus stuff and the other with the kiosks of well known firms and shops as well the radio amateur organizations from all over the world. The first day we decided to visit the surplus section as the stock disappears very quickly. This exhibition is very popular. Pileups of hams go there every year to meet each other and collect useful things for their hobby.
Walking around the corridors we met with Patrick (F6IRF) and Philippe (F6IFY) both members, as Nick, of CN2WW contest group. You can get info about their activities in the following link: http://cn2ww.blogspot.com/. We have a lot of fun together. By the end of the day we went to Weingarten, a nearby village to spend the night.

Greek Hamfest

Last Sunday the Greek hamfest took place in Athens. Organized by RAAG in a new place this year, it left us generally good impressions. We met there lot of hams all around the country. Eyeball qso with SV1GH, SV1BLD,SV2JT, SV3XO, SV3HK, SV3KH, SV3ALA, SV2DCD, SV9ANK, SV9GPV, SV9GPJ and many others. Nice place, nice people, nice time. Four hams from Zante Island travel to Athens to join this event: SV8RX, SV8KOM, SV8AXZ and SV8RV. We came back with cheerful memories and some goods we found there. Next hamfest I visit it will be a very big one: the European Hamfest in Friedrichshafen. Keep tuned.

Traveling blogs

Traveling blogs belong to another thematic topic. I always liked those who were traveling around the world, knowing new places as well people and their cultures. Recently, bloging gave to them a great means to write and let us know their experiences. Probably there are many blogs of this type. I have already given you the link of godimitris. Recently I spotted another similar one (www.theworldoffroad.com). In both of them the heroes are Greeks, but the stories are written in several languages. Except the texts with their adventures there are also plenty of photos and videos from many exotic places they are visiting. All of them live, freezing the facts and publishing them in the same time as they are living them. I spend a lot of time reading all this stuff, imaging that I am a member of their crew. I wish also they had a radio with them, so we could have some contacts in our way.

50MHz Marathon

Recently I started participating in the 50MHz marathon. It is a great idea of contesting in 6m. All info is located in the page http://6m.dy.fi (The Six Meter Marathon 2007 5th of May to 5th of August, as described exactly). I have worked 18 different countries till now. Not a so good score but the whole fun is the competition! So if you find the idea interesting just join us.
Here they are my contacts:

date:__	time:__	dxcc:__	call:__	mode:__
10/05	1653	UT	UR0MC	ssb
13/05	1430	DL	DQ5R	SSB
13/05	1434	HB	HB9ZCV	SSB
13/05	1434	F	F5RBB	SSB
20/05	1640	SU	SU1SK	SSB
21/05	1520	SV	SV8AXZ	SSB
21/05	1523	I	IZ7FLS	SSB
21/05	1525	CT	CQ0ODX	SSB
22/05	1556	A7	A71EM	SSB
13/05	1628	EA	EA3IE	SSB
23/05	1001	TA	TA7A	SSB
23/05	1714	YO	YO8MI	SSB
23/05	1843	EA6	EA6CC	SSB
24/05	0748	SP	SP9LCV	SSB
24/05	0800	OK	OK2KR	SSB
24/05	0801	OM	OM3ZAS	SSB
24/05	0805	HA	HA6NF	SSB
24/05	0812	YU	YU7AZ	SSB

EU PSK DX contest

Poor propagation comparing with the previous years. In spite of this, a lot of guys participated and the party had a lot of fun. It was very nice to meet around old men members of the EPC club. I made only 181 contacts in all bands and I got 45708 points. No USA stations heard this time and very few from far east and South America. We hope next year things will go better.

Sporadic E! Great openings

The most exciting ham events of this period they are the great openings mostly in 6m band due sporadic E . Almost every afternoon lot of European stations are being heard and the band is full of life. Last Sunday, 13-05-2007 I made 41 QSO using a long wire and the good old one IC-7000. I was in my second QTH and no beam was available but that turned out to be no obstacle. Later in the evening, Spiros (SV8CS) and me we went to our special location up to the hill chasing ST2A but we aren' t so lucky. Never mind, next time will be! Instead we worked a bunch of IT9's in 2m.

BS7H challenge

The most crowded DXpedition of the year. Very difficult to work it in Europe and USA I think. Only Japan was happy I am afraid. Making alive a so rare entity it is really a mess. Lot of QRM makers all the time in the frequency and huge split rage made things worse. On the other hand I realize how difficult the situation was for the team upon these tiny rocks. Somebody said that Scarborough reef will disappear soon due to the warming effect of the planet. So it was the last chance to work it. I did it only on 17m SSB and 20m SSB so far, spending several hours of shouting. Now only two days (I will try 15m tomorrow) of operation have left. I wish them good luck and safe journey back.

PS. The contact in 15m finally done!
The snap is from the 1995 expedition.

First sporadic of the year on 6m

Yesterday evening, entirely unexpectedly, the 6m band opened. I worked EA6SX on 50.130MHz at 15:35Z with very good signal in my 5 elements beam. This was the first 2007 opening and I really enjoyed it! After months of absolute quietness in the band this first burst was very welcomed.
By the way, I must report the contact on 17m with 5W0SV, Vagelis form American Samoa. As the dxpedition in Swains Island is already finished with great success and the team is under preparation for the back home journey, we have to say that all of us in Greece we feel proud of you Vaggelis.

New kid in the hood

This Sunday we spend a very nice morning in the shack of Spiros, SV8CS. Theotokis, SV8AXZ, also joined us.The reason was the brand new FT-2000 by YAESU he got the previous day. The new shiny transceiver, object of desire of many hams, it was just in front of us. After several touches of the dial and the bottoms just to get the feel of the new machine, we started to explore it deeper. Actually it is an astonishing rig. The digital facilities is the most worthy addition comparing with FT1000MP that prevailed the previous decade. The display is a beauty. At last very bright and colorful. The needle power meter is also welcome. The software that controls the rig it is also very well done. The receiver, helped by awesome digital filters delivers a very smooth listening. The only thing I would like to be kept from its predecessor FT-1000MP Mark V, it is the mechanical heavy feel of its dial. Well Spiros I wish you good DX with your new toy and I am sure that you have a lot of things to discover playing with it in the next days.

Get prepared

As spring already started, we are waiting for the first sporadic E openings in 6 and 2 meters. This year we had the idea to install antennas for those bands on the top of a hill almost 500 meters high. In the first snap you can see SV8CS, our gaffer and in the second you see me with the rig on the table. The photos are taken just after installation. There is an other member, absent from any picture. He is SW8KOR and he is responsible for all metal work. Our mast is armed with a 17 elements beam for 2 meters and a 3 elements for 6 meters. No bad for a portable operation. The place is located almost in the highest point of the island and there are no obstacles in any direction.
As our island (ZANTE, KM07KS) is located in south Ionian Sea we expect good results with this setup, especially with European stations and who knows with some DX. So we are anxious now for the first alarm by DX robot.

Things are going better

After Windows Vista successful installation, some other good things happened recently making me happy. First I made the contact with N8S, I was waiting for so eagerly. Actually I spoke with Vagelis SV2BFN in 18.150 on Friday 6 of April. I had only a dipole for this band that turned out to be pretty enough for the job.Vagelis was very cool in spite of all tiredness that such a big project implies. I wish to him and the other members of the team great success. On the top of all them, my flagship FT1000 Mark V Field, thanks to my good friend's Tasos SV8YM treatment, came back to service and took the central place in my shack again. A burned regulator of 5volts in internal power supply was the reason of malfunction. It was delivering only 3.9Volts to the jog dial instead of 5 required with result scanning down continuously. Now it is working perfectly!It took me a couple of days to get familiar with it. Many things were forgotten. It gave me the feeling of a new rig. Tasos I am much obliged to you.
So after a bad start 2007 came back smiling to me. I hope to keep on like this till the end.

Upgrading to Vista!

I had got a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate one month ago. I hesitated to install it due to several potential issues with software and hardware. Vista upgrade adviser was not so optimistic. Recently I experienced a great failure with my good old one windowsXP. They refuse to boot farther the initial logo. They did not open even in safe mode. After that, I had two options. A: format and install XP again. B: give Vista a chance. I decided to go to the second option. I was prepared for a great adventure and I was very anxious for the results. After a few hours of “heavy” work I show in front of me the band new desktop. Unexpectedly everything went very well. All my programs are working perfectly and the hardware as well. Here it a list of items, mostly of ham interest, that worked without problems just in case that you would like to know.
Software: MixW2 V1.8, DXatlas, Ham radio deluxe, ARSWIN of EA4TX
Hardware: EA4TX PCI card for digital rotation, Netmos PCI parallel and serial ports, Skystar 2 digital TV with a new driver, Canon scanner LIDE 60 with a new driver, HP desljet 970Cxi and phosmart 7960
Actually I did not find any difficulty for the transaction. My compliments to Microsoft. The new operational system is a big step beyond, especially the GUI. There are many differences that you cannot notice in the first glance and they are doing your jobs easier and safer. Do not hesitate to install it. It must be the smoother transaction than ever between operational systems of Microsoft.
So I am looking forward to log SWAIN Island with Vista!

What kind of minimum is this?

CQ WPX gave me a lot of fun last weekend. Lot of DX worked especially in upper bands, 15m and 10m. It was better than BARGT. The only area that was missing was NA. South America, South Africa and Far East delivered very good signals simultaneously during mid day. I will give you some examples.

10m

ZS5NK, 3DA0EI, D69XCLU1HF, CQ9K, PP5AMP, YB0IR, 5R8FU, A52AM

15M

B7M, 9N7JO, A52AM, VQ9LA, 9M8Z, 9V1YC, D44AC, TU2CI, ZP5MAL, XR3P

It is a matter that is very welcome but it also needs a kind of analysis. Unfortunately I am not a specialist. The minimum of the 23 circle! No spots at all in the sun! But still upper bands wide open. Is it new or it happened again before? And what have we to expect when the new circle 24 arises?

After all this recent activity we have great expectations for good propagation conditions from Swain Island next week. Vangelis, SV2BFN and the other guys of the gang start their long trip on Wednesday 28 of March to LA, Hawaii and Swain. Last step by a boat will be 24h long. The schedule for launch is 4 of April. Keep tuned at their page. Have a nice trip to all. We are waiting to hear you on the air. Enjoy your pileups!

On the road again

A minor operation of hernia kept me out of radio activity for several days. As I already said 2007 did not start smoothly. Several failures of the rig and the operator of the station gave general truble and turned shack quiet. Now I am back again and I hope that we have finished with surprises for this year.

I realy enjoyed BARGT contest this weekend. It was a very interesting come back. Even in the minimum of 23 solar circle I met and worked a lot of DX stations, like LU,CX, ZM,JA,E21,YB, HL, ZS and others. But most of all I was happy to work the famus station of ON4UN. It was a a fresh air for me and very recovering all this activity in RTTY for 48 hours.

At last a new one. Spratly Island!

2007 did not start so well. My main transceiver, FT1000mp Mark V Field had a control unit failure. Suddenly it started scanning the frequency downward. Till now I did not find any way to fix it.
Last week I got a heavy flu and kept out of the shack. But today I have reason to smile again.
I worked DX0JP in RTTY in 20m. That was great, cause it was a new one for me in any mode.
......................................................
DE SV8RX SV8RX SV8RX k
DPCVKSKJYAQSSV8RF SV8RXUR 599-599 SV8RX DE DX0JPIKBS
DX0JP DE SV8RX 599 599 SV8RX
RFUYXJGSV8RX CFMX6,1 DE DX0JQLQPIK
.......................................................
That was excactly what I decoded...I wish to you, many such happy moments