Goodbye 2009

Two days left. I post this diagram as a postcard wishing you Happy New Year. It sows clearly the trend, through the whole 2009, of a recovering sun. If continuous like this, smiles will come back to the dx-ing world. More info to:http://spaceweather.com/

Speaking for dx I have just received the TX5SPA (Austral Is) qsl card reaching with this the 332 current countries. I hope for one or two more during 2010. See you next year!

SDR remote

Simon Brown (HB9DRV), the author of legendary HAM RADIO DELUXE, made recently an other interesting program. SDR-RADIO is a remote console that can control an SDR receiver remotely  through a network connection. You have all the bandwidth of 150KHz on your screen.

Denis (SV8RV) gave me the chance to test the software, controlling his SDR-IQ from my shack. It gave me   fantastic results! Everything worked smoothly. Functionality and audio just perfect. Like having the receiver next to me. This would be a really powerful tool indeed, combined with an SDR receiver, installed in a quiet site. Take a look on the snap above.

Sunspot record

Circle 24 reached a maximum SSN record today. Number 43 is the biggest ever in current circle. So Merry Christmas dear fellow hams and enjoy Santa Claus gift.

Heavy weather out of my door

As the Christmas approaches and the 2009 is going to an end, it is time to relax and enjoy the days with ham happenings. Weather is bad of course but who cares. Clouds are permanently on the sky and the storms follow one after the other. The space weather is really nice instead. Flares, CMEs, sunspots…we have almost everything but not favorable dx conditions yet. Sooner or later they will come.

Today I had a surprise, talking to Mike (SV8KOM) who is in UK. The QSO took place via D-STAR system (SV8S local repeater). D-STAR connecting people… in case propagation does not.

I wish to all of you Merry Christmas and a happy New Year with lot of dxing.

BTW TX3A  is coming first dxpedition of the year 2009 in the DX World petition. The “unbelievable couple” deserves your vote.

 

http://dx-hamspirit.com/dxpedition-of-the-year-2009/

After contest

Participating in a contest, so big as CQWW CW, it is always a great experience. Both my station and my location can not compete the big guns but it is always a nice chance to work in cw many dx entities and fill some missing slots. So I made 275 QSO working with long breaks. The 10m band was closed (only 3 contacts). The 15 was the most DX band. The 40 and 20 the most crowded.  Speaking about contest I stopped by  K3LR page to admire a real big gun. Take a look on his operating room and the huge amount of awards on the wall.

I meet him almost in every contest. Recently I got his QSL card via bureau.

As CW is not my favorite mode, I should  mention several tools that technology gives to every operator to assist him during the contest. CwSkimer is one of them. Excellent software with tremendous abilities of decoding many calls simultaneously. On the other hand reverse beacons make a great job monitoring the propagation in every band in real time. My friend Denis (SV8RV) has a station  dedicated to these projects, using the QS1R SDR receiver. Denis is living in the same island and his offer is much appreciated. Look for his reports on the sites reversebeacon and pskreporter.

After that you already know that I join every contest proudly assisted!!