Beaming East…

Well mostly…December was a really productive month. In the end of 2013 several  dxpeditions from south Asia kept us busy. S21ZBB, XZ1J, VU7AG to name some of them. And to resolve what I mean saying busy, I am giving you the a club log snap for VU7AG.

Now we all will turn a little bit South as the big event of 2014 is coming. FT5ZM, number 4 in most waned list!! It is  starting on 24 of January. Good luck with them.

In the mean time do not forget work Santa Claus OF9X transmitting remotely from the famous ARCALA radio station.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

ANTENNA MANTAINANCE

Please take a look. Apart from SV8YM who is working on the mast of STIGMA FM broadcasting station you can also admire the gorgeous scenery of our island. The video has been taken by the hexacopter of SV8KOM on the top of Spopos mountain.

An exciting weekend

The last weekend of September, except for a farewell of summer,it  has a different meaning for me. Yes, it is the famous CQ WW RTTY contest! It became a tradition to join this great ham event every year. This time it was quite exciting and full of surprises. To say the truth I am not interested in the competition but I really  love the game.

BTW a storm is approaching..let me unplug the antennas. Autumn is here.

New band, new mode

As the summer is going by, a new band emerged. Two Greek stations, SV8CS and SV3DVO are transmitting on 136KHz almost every night. It is a  band given to us recently. So there is a lot of space for experimentation. Here is a receiving report of these stations in OPERA 8 mode using an active mini whip antenna.

On the other the hand traditional bands are not going well. Propagation is unstable and usually  suffering of strong QSB. The 24 sun cycle is turned out to be the faintest for one hundred years. The diagram shows the big deference with the recent cycles 21, 22 and 23. The comparison is disappointing.

There are rumors that the next cycle will be very faint as well. What a pity. Unfortunately, it seems that the golden era of  radio is over.

Athens Ham Fest 2013

A really nice ham fest this year. Many people to talk to, much hardware to please your eyes. Even the new flagship of Kenwood TS990s was there available to play with.

Unfortunately the recent passing of my good friend SV1GH keeps me  far away from being enthusiastic about the event. Farwell dear Tony.

Magic band, magic season…

It is well-known that there are several modes of propagation on 6m: Sporadic E, multi hop sporadic E, TEP, F2, etc. To have all these modes combined in the same time is very rare. And this  is what is happening recently. Calls like ZS,VK,FR,3B8,3DA,V51,Z21,9J,7Q and almost whole Europe heard and worked during the first three weeks of May. I have to admit that it is the first time I participate in such a party. The only missing till now are North or South America and Far East stations of course. But we expect them later on. Everything is possible. So stay tuned and enjoy!

Spring, TEP and other stories

We left spring solstice a week behind already, but unfortunately TEP is not so strong as expected. Of course several stations have been heard already as FR4NT,3B8CF,V51YJ and several ZS6. But those are the usual suspects. It seams that the second peak of cycle 24, predicted in previous post, it is late if it ever comes.

Last weekend we were occupied with the usual spring repairs in second QTH of SV8CS. In the photo you can see SV8KOU, SV8CS,SV8DOU (left to right). I call it the “periscope”, as it is located on the top of a hill 560m high and absolutely open 360 degree around. Keep in mind that it covers all bands from 160m to 70cm and it is fully remote operated. Powered by 800AH batteries or fuel generator if need it, it is a very respectable tool indeed. Now we are loaded with the finger on the trigger. The only thing we need is the target!

What is going on with the sun?

Sun is very quiet last months. This year should be the maximum of solar cycle 24, but solar activity keeps declining. The most part of radio community is somehow disappointed because of that.  Was this unexpected? Not quite. Don’t worry. There is hope.

The quiet has led some observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark. Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center has a different explanation: 

"This is solar maximum," he suggests. "But it looks different from what we expected because it is double peaked."

You can read the whole article here. Let’s hope that Dean is wright and a second peak is on the way!

IC 730 restored

The IC 730 was my first transceiver back to early eighties. This transceiver belongs to a romantic era of my radio life. Unfortunately someday I took the wrong decision to exchange it to a more modern TS 440. I truly regret for this choice ever since. Recently thanks to my friend SV1GH I have it back to my shack just to remind me my very start. The photo has been taken in SV8YM lab, who undertook the task to align  and restore it in order  to make it fully operational again. Now it is sitting comfortably in its place like it never left.