…and a Happy New Year

Microham “micro Keyer II” was  what Santa brought to me this year. Obviously he was advised by my friend Nick (SV3SJ/F5VIH) who knew well my desires. Keyer II, siting on the top of FTDX 5000D, will be its precious companion from now and then. Happy New Year to all of you.

Merry Christmas

Dear fellows, after several years of faultless operation the tube of my ACOM 1000 had to be replaced. My good friend and very capable technician, Tasos (SV8YM), offered to to do the job. The photos show characteristically what he found out as soon as he took the cover off. Everything was covered under a huge amount of dust. Fortunately the dust didn’t affect operation.

 

After careful removal of the dust and several hours of conditioning the new GU74B the ACOM 1000 was fully operational again. Many thanks Tasos.

Merry Christmas to all.

Who said that an expedition is an easy task?

The boat of ZL9HR crew in rough seas. Actually they are safely anchored  right now south of Stewart island, waiting for the weather to calm down. It is obvious that it isn’t just a game. The thoughts of all of us are with them.

Autumn…time for DXing

Autumn is deeply established. The leaves are yellow, temperatures are lower and Greece is still alive. So do we! And very busy actually. PT0S is on the air, not as successfully as in previous expeditions, but conditions on the rocks are difficult and propagation rather poor. George and Thomas are doing their best as always.

But the big event of the year is coming next. I mean the major  expedition that  the whole amateur world is waiting anxiously. The 11th most wanted entity, Campbell island (ZL9HR), will be on the air quite soon. Tommy, VK2IR top of the team, reports that all preparations are under control and as scheduled. The expedition has been organized by Hellenic Amateur Radio Association Of Australia, known as H.A.R.A.O.A.

We wish them, with all our heart, ZL9HellenicRadio to be a great success.

6m Marathon 2012

Here are the results of this year 6m Marathon. I got 11th place with 83 different entities, 12 more than last year. Let see if we will achieve our goal of over one hundred nest year. Till then I wish all of you an interesting DX winter.

SDR IQ and FTdx5000D marriage

It was time to exploit the IF output of my FTdx5000D to establish a descent pan adapter for my trx. I chose the SDR IQ to do the job. The SM-5000 is  good but rather insufficient. It is just an indicator I would say. An SDR receiver gives a much bigger amount of information. It is really a must-have.

In the picture you can see SpectraVue software in the left screen. From now and then I will not only listen a QSO but I will  watch it as well!

Mrs Bharathi in person

Usually, the SV8S D-Star repeater keeps on silent. But yesterday afternoon, quite unexpectedly, VU2RBI, Mrs Bharathi, the famous radio amateur of India, showed up calling CQ in our local repeater.  We had a real cordial digital QSO. After a wile, Spiros, SV8CS joined us. It was a very exiting experience indeed.

There are times that D-Star technology rewards you for countless hours of monitoring….

The last hamfest?

Last weekend I was in Athens in the hamfest of 2012. Here are some snaps of the event.

SV8RX,SV1CC,SV3KH,SV1BKT,SV8OMF

SV7JAP,SV7LYG,SV3MSK,SV8RX

SV1GH,SV7JAP in the front of SV1HK shop!

Café RX with SV1GH and SV1FJF

Unfortunately  this may be  the last hamfest organized by RAAG. Economical and others reasons make it very difficult for another hamfest to take place in the future.

Speaking of new breed..

A Yaesu new transceiver is on the go. Actually it is a a downgrade of FTDX 5000 and it is beautiful. Rumors say that it will have down conversion receiver as its bigger brother does and a full digital display. The name of it FTDX 3000. Take a look to the tentative specs. It seems an interesting proposition.

Yaesu stroke back!

Spring time, time for 6

The spring finally arrived dear fellows. So did the Marathon on 6m. The space weather is favorable and the traffic is high.  In the mean time tow major dxpeditions are active simultaneously. Yemen (7O6T) and Somalia (6O0CW) giving logs a rush. We will have a promising summer…

By the way this is the most recent photo of Kenwood proposition on high end class  transceivers. Isn’t it   adorable?  Welcome to our community kid.

Triathlon has born!

It all started in August of 2011. That was about when it occurred to Mike, SV5BYR that a big Greek Contest was missing from international Ham Radio Contest Calendar.  By the end of September this idea became mature and so the  "Triathlon" was born! A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. And as you have already guessed, it is a Greek word. We had to change a bit the name to Triathlon Dx Contest to match our activity. Actually, trying here to simulate the original Triathlon athletic event, we involved three major ham radio modes, SSB, CW, RTTY. It will be a 24 hour non-stop event divided in three sections, each one devoted to a different mode. There are some tentative rules of the contest that you can take a look. It will take place every Saturday, the 1st full weekend of February, debuting on 02-02-2013.In this point we have to mention all the Greek amateurs who are working to make this event alive: SV1DPI, SV1NK, SV2AGW, SV2DCD, SV5BYR, SV7JAR, SV8CS, SV8RX, SV9GPV, SV9DJO…

There is still a lot of work to be done and more details to be announced. Stay tuned! Of course there too many contests already but they are not all the same!

Till the show begins keep your eye on:

http://triathlon-dx-contest.blogspot.com/

The island we live in

Take a look to the gorgeous views of the  island we live in.  
Video by Chris Mileas, paramotor expert.

First TEP of the year!

That old man is my first TEP of the year on 6m. His call ZS6A and we are about 7500Km apart. South Africa is the usual suspect for TEP propagation on the picks of sun cycles. So nothing extraordinary but it always gives me good feelings when it starts. It is something like ham swallows, sort of speaking. Spring is coming!

eDxNetManager: The evolution

The DxNetManager evolved! It got an e in front of it. Its creator (SV2AGW) had the brilliant idea to exploit cloud computing and that  is exactly what e means. The whole database is located to a server somewhere in Mississippi, USA. So it can be shared by anybody who is online. You can see all the nets that are actually active  and join your favorite one. For the time being it is working only for Greek nets in any HF frequency. Click the link to download and enjoy.

Get it from here.

Update: Now there is also a web version available if you like. There is no need of installation for this one. The URL is: http://edxnet.sv2agw.com 

Real Vintage

This is a forgotten snap taken back in 1985. We are sorry for the guys who have no call signs. The picture came to light again after a deep digging in SV8CS’s archive. All these black hair are grey or white right now but still active and operational.

HNY to all of you…