SV8RX

eDxNetManager: The evolution

2012-01-08T10:24:00.001Z

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

2012-01-06T12:48:00.001Z

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…

Breaking News

2011-12-30T09:36:00.001Z

Yaesu splits from Motorola!!

At least all the Amateur radio division comes back to the original owner. The news goes around the world. I paste here from RRRL pages the following:

“After four years under the Motorola umbrella, Yaesu has split from that company. According to Vertex Standard President and Chief Executive Officer Jun Hasegawa, effective January1, 2012, Motorola will keep the Vertex Standard Land-Mobile Division, while the amateur, marine and air-band will be under the Yaesu Musen banner. The new company will be known as Yaesu USA here in the US.

“This reorganization will allow us to concentrate in amateur, marine and air-band business, which will better leverage and align the strengths of our entire business operation,” Hasegawa said in a press release dated December 27. “We believe that there is an exciting opportunity to evolve our organization to meet the needs of the Amateur Radio, Marine equipment and air band telecommunication industries by continuing to provide specialized services and the highest quality products.”

Hasegawa explained that the new company’s name will be Yaesu Musen, “a name our business partners have been familiar with for over 50 years. We are delighted to bring you the legacy of trust, quality and solid customer service that has always been associated with the Yaesu Musen company name.”

While Yaesu Musen will have a new Japanese address, the address and phone numbers -- as well as the US operations and sales organization -- for Yaesu USA will not change. Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, will remain in charge of Yaesu USA’s sales division.”

2012 will be a different year for sure…..

MD200 DUAL CORE

2011-12-29T12:41:00.001Z

This is my MD 200 microphone recently modified by SV8YM, adding a new FET electret mic element to it, suggested by W2ENY. (You can see in the picture the small element installed on the top of the original one). So in the same microphone I have two options now. The only thing I have to do now is to change position on the small switch located on the base of MD 200A8X in order to have modulation A or B. The tests of new element are very promising, delivering a very decent audio. The whole modification is quite easy and inexpensive. I have to give my compliments to YAESU that had this nice idea in the first place adding this option to their top quality microphone.

Have a Happy and prosperous dx New Year.

Running CQ WW SSB 2011

2011-10-31T17:01:00.001Z

It was a really busy week end. The propagation was extremely good, especially on the upper bands. But the 40 meters gave us good openings too. So we enjoyed a very interesting contest, recalling the good old times. The 10 meters was my favorite band, where many exotic calls were heard. Till the next meeting, I wish to all contest community to have a nice time.

Here is a picture of my shack just before the contest began…

*Update: After running already two CQ WW contests with FTDX 5000D I do not regret at all the money I spent on it.

Here comes the sun…

2011-09-27T17:05:00.001Z

The end of September is always marked by the CQ WW RTTY contest. It is a test that I usually participate. This year we enjoy an excellent propagation condition with the SFI up to 190. The 10m band was open all day long. I was lucky to work many exotic call signs. At last our star delivers enough energy to have descent propagation. Yesterday I worked NH7O on 28450 ssb!

As we just passed the fall solstice, the 6m band is alive again for long distance TEP contacts. I worked several stations from Africa like 5N7M (Ivan), TR8CA (Alain) and ZS6CCY (Bill). Bill is actually a beacon to me. I hear him every TEP season. You can hear him too.

As the summer goes bye…

2011-09-03T17:52:00.001Z

Summer means for me mostly 6 meters. It is almost traditional to participate every year in the 6m Marathon. This year I worked 71 entities which is a slightly better result than my previous attempts. Here is a graph showing my year by year progress.

I was happy of course that my friend Spiros (SV8CS) took the first place worldwide with 111 countries! Next year we will try again.

Btw I spent the last week of august in London.It was really very refreshing. Take a look at the video. It is taken from the upper deck of a traditional English bus in Bayswater rd, central London.

The fall is coming and so do many major expeditions. Enjoy!

Update: Here is Spiros diploma for 8th Marathon on six meters.

Slick and efficient

2011-08-12T17:28:00.001Z

Most of the members of FT group had commented the lack of a remote control program for FT5000, such one that FT2000 already had. It seams that Yaesu was working upon it and today released it. Even though there were several third party options to control the rig from your PC, a native solution is always more interesting.

My first impressions, after playing with it a few hours, are very positive. It is really beautiful and easy to get familiar with. Every button is working just as the real one on the transceiver. The s-meter is readable in every function. You can use your right or left click on your mouse to rotate every nob on both directions. Even the menu is accessible remotely.

P.S. You can download it from Yaesu official page. Well done YAESU!!!

A great day…

2011-06-29T16:10:00.002Z

29 of June 2011! Today happened something I could only dream. A real SSB Japanese pileup on 6m. I shared this experience with my friend Spiros SV8CS who was also in the frequency. It will be something to remember in the years to come.

50.115MHz	09:50	JF6TAC	SSB
50.115MHz	09:51	JH6CDI	SSB
50.115MHz	09:52	JA6TEW	SSB
50.115MHz	09:55	JH6DRH	SSB
50.115MHz	09:57	JA6UOU	SSB
50.115MHz	09:58	JA5AUC	SSB
50.115MHz	10:00	JH4IFF	SSB
50.115MHz	10:30	JH6NKZ	SSB
50.115MHz	1031	JA6WFM	SSB
50.115MHz	10:33	JI6QKM	SSB
50.115MHz	10:35	JRRAH	SSB

FTdx5000 digital filters part II

2011-06-12T17:31:00.001Z

Here it is an other example, showing the immense power of FTdx5000 DSP processors. Actually there is a very weak CW signal absolutely buried under noise. After engaging the Noise Blanker and Digital Noise Reduction filters, the SV3BSF beacon on 6 meters is emerged from nowhere!!!

FTdx5000 equalizer settings using MD200

2011-06-09T09:55:00.001Z

I give you here some tentative settings to start with, using the audio equalizer of FTdx5000 and the MD200 microphone. Even this is a personal matter of course, I would like to share them with you, in case that someone is interested. These settings gave me a good audio clarity and enough talk power. I have to thank my friend Nick (SV7BVS) for his patience, listening every one of them and making corrections.

FTdx 5000	AUDIO	EQUALISER	FOR MD-200
MENU	VALUE 1	CODE	VALUE 2
104	200-2800	TX BPF	100-2900
151	100	EQ FRQ	200
152	5	EQ1 LVL	6
153	10	EQ1 BW	10
154	1300	EQ2 FRQ	1500
155	10	EQ2 LVL	4
156	7	EQ2 BW	3
157	3200	EQ3 FRQ	3200
158	5	EQ3 LVL	10
159	10	EQ3 BW	5
160	200	PE1 FRQ	300
161	5	PE1 LVL	3
162	10	PE1 BW	10
163	1400	PE FRQ	1500
164	7	PE2 LVL	9
165	8	PE2 BW	8
166	3200	PE3 FRQ	3200
167	5	PE3 LVL	5
168	10	PE3 BW	10

MIC GAIN	50		45
PROC	25		25

FTdx5000 digital filters efficiency

2011-05-31T09:17:00.001Z

I have been playing with the FTdx-5000 almost 3 weeks now. What can I say about it? Just… WOW! I thought it would be a new toy in my collection but it is definitely quite more than that. It is really an excellent and efficient instrument of dealing with noisy today’s bands. Watch the video to have an idea what this terrific rig is capable to do.

Speaking for dreams…

2011-05-07T14:35:00.002Z

Sometimes so many, I wonder what people need to be happy.It depends on who you have in mind, it is an spontaneous answer… but let me tell you my theory about it. The happiest period of one’s life is obviously childhood.Why? Because they have no preoccupations and they have a lot of toys to play with. The adults we have a lot of preoccupations and no toys. And what can we do to fix that? Just buy a toy from time to time.

That’s exactly what I did. I bought myself a toy!

SW8NAG on the top of the box. He looks in high moods as he reflects mine. It is the exciting moment before the unpacking. Soon the interior of this box will be sitting comfortably on the desk of my shack, promising to give me many happy hours of cooperation. It is going to continue Ft-1000 mkv’s legacy. Today it is really a special day as the annual Marathon of six meters begins. I will run it, using this new weapon and I hope getting better results t5his year.

And here it is, already installed! First QSO with SV3KH. Perfect!

And now I am anxious to find out why respectable reviewers called it “gold standard”. Something tells me that it will be an easy job.

And yet it moves…

2011-04-28T08:00:00.001Z

There is no doubt that our Sun is finally got alive. There is no need to watch the charts or count the spots any more. The upper bands say everything. Especially the six meters is full of surprises. Magic band justified its nickname at last. Lots of TEP QSO with Africa stations it is a routine during March and April. So we reasonably expect very good openings during sporadic E season as well. Please join the party.

Accordingly 10m band is in very good shape. Dxpeditions after many years are logging great numbers of QSOs in this band and finally we are hearing them. So everything is more exciting… Good news for our hobby that make us to forget a bit the unpleasant events around the world.

But let’s focus….

The “gold standard” is obviously a dream. However, what maters is if this dream could be true.But we must have dreams first, in order to expect to be true.

Well, there are some more steps to be done to get this goal, but we are still walking, aren’t we?

Still going bad…

2011-03-24T17:52:00.001Z

It seams that things are still going wrong globally this year. Too many unpleasant events around the world. Most of them out of ham radio world, but severe ones to affect it. We are just sitting speechless waiting when things will get better.

A thing that kept me busy last days was the good TEP openings. Yes we are near the equinox and the sun is active enough to give us the opportunity to work again long distance stations on 6m. This is an example of how I caught ZS6CCY on my 5 elements mono, a couple of days ago.

It is nice that whatever is happening, hams always have a window to open in order to have fun.

Early 2011

2011-03-05T09:49:00.001Z

This year started bad. The awaited DX0DX didn’t make it. That was a shame. On the other hand the VP8ORK turned out to be a complete disappointment. Lack of propagation gave space for lot of complains. We had many expectations without fulfillment. My sadness stirred up memories, some decades back, from a hobby of my youth. The picture gives a clue of my activities that time. I made this little boat by myself. She gave me lot of nice little trips around my island. I wish to all of you good winds through the rest of 2011.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

2010-12-17T08:20:00.001Z

My friend Michael (SV5BYR) recorded our RTTY QSO we had yesterday in 30m band. I post it as a season greeting card to all of you.

Warm wishes for Good DX, Health and Happiness during 2011… strictly in this order!

ARCALA-what a station!

2010-12-15T19:12:00.001Z

This is the QSL card of Arcala radio, the biggest ham radio station in the world. I got it recently confirming our contacts in several bands and modes, mostly for QSO made during contests. Note that I never asked a QSL from them, but a big station is big in everything.

The other side of the pile up

2010-12-11T08:48:00.001Z

Some times it is very difficult to imagine what is going on in the other side of the pile up. Take a look to this sort video that Vicky (SV2KBS) sent me from Kermadec (Raoul island) recent major dxpedition.

Vicky in action

Come back safely Vicky!

Chasing Kermadec

2010-11-22T08:11:00.002Z

To chase a rare dx it is a very common thing for this station. Especially these days with so many helping tools in our disposal, it is a kind of routine. But last Kermadec expedition has a particular interest for Greek amateur community: Vicky (SV2KBS) is a member of the team! I already spoke to her in 17m band. It is nice to hear a Greek voice coming so far away. Actually 18120 Km away! No matter what it is a really great expedition. Propagation permitting they are going to a big success. Near 30000 QSO during the three first days of operation it is a guarantee for that.

I wish them all good luck and coming back with a record.

DxNetManager- A very cool tool!

2010-11-18T16:00:00.002Z

I was honored to be a beta tester of new software that George Ross (SV2AGW) created lately.I play with it a couple of weeks and I can definitely say that I love it. In the following lines I am just sharing with you my impressions of this cool program.

If you used to participate a local network for rag chewing or an international one, chasing a DX station, this is the very tool you need. It will help you to manage all the traffic of stations that break in or leaving the frequency. It is very convenient especially if you deal with big groups.

Additionally there is a history tag in which DxNetManager keeps statistical records for previous sessions of the net. So you can see how much participation a call has or when was it the last time he broke in. You will never forget names or other details for people who occasionally join the net. So you can address them always in a friendly way and that has a lot of fun. The software keeps detailed call database that you can update continuously.

Doubtlessly you will love it too from the very beginning you will start using it. Finally it is freeware. Go here, download and enjoy it.

Local real time weather added

2010-11-16T18:14:00.001Z

A new addition to the blog. This is a real time local weather reading. There two links to click in the right side bar of the blog in order to watch a lot of details of local weather parameters.

These are just some examples of what you expect to see.

All these are made with the help of Cumulus, a very effective software of managing weather stations. Mine is a DAVIS Vantage PRO2 actually. So please enjoy.

Autumn activities

2010-09-28T17:31:00.002Z

This is a photo that sent me my good friend SV8AXZ. Just a typical view from a ham’s window. But it tells everything about season, the island and hamship.

I am writing these lines with the hangover of CQ WW RTTY 2010 contest still prevailing in my ears. Too much traffic, too many dx stations, good propagation especially in 40m. I worked 25 states in this band. A lot of improvement since last year. I really enjoyed it. It seams that circle 24 is uprising for good, at last.

And now a big surprise! The veteran contester of our island SV8CS, the man who inspired all us to the ham spirit, send me this snap.

It is his i-phone, decoding a QSO of mine, during the contest. It takes the audio from his transceiver speaker. It can transmit also the same way. It uses a small program of IW2NDH called MULTIMODE. You can find it in the app store clicking here. No matter how SV8CS watches everything….

A summer surprise

2010-08-18T08:18:00.001Z

Last weekend, 2 great Greek amateurs made a quick visit to our island: SV2KBS (Victoria) and SV3AQR (John). I had spoken many times with them through the radio but I never had the opportunity to meet them. Tasos, SV8YM brought them to my second QTH, the well-known cottage, and we spent a lovely couple of hours having a friendly chat about ham projects, antennas, dxpeditions, etc…

Speaking of dxpeditions, during the meeting, Victoria made an amazing disclosure, announcing her participation to the upcoming great ZL8X event this November. Victoria is very active recently. (Falkland, Easter, Lord Howe, to name some of her activities). So Kermadec will be a new success of hers. Well done Vicky!

PS: In the photo from left to right: SV2KBS, SV8YM, SV3AQR, SV8RX

Running the Marathon

2010-07-07T07:55:00.001Z

Every year I join the Marathon on 6m band. My intentions are not to get first, as I have not the equipment I would like to, but to have fun and keep an eye on propagation differences year by year as we approach to the circle 24 maximum. Actually I have achieved the following scores:

Year	Countries
2007	42
2008	52
2009	61
2010	67 till now

It is obvious that propagation is increasing steadily on magic band. This result is expectable of course, but it is nice to document it by numbers.

I have to mention here an exceptional QSO I made a couple of days ago with JL8GFB (Man) 9200Km away, using a ringo vertical and 150w. This is exactly all I have in my second QTH I was that morning. I really enjoyed this contact. Here is the cfm in a chat dialog after QSO done.

“06:43    SV8RX George    JL8GFB Man did you copy any other Greek stations this morning?
06:44    JL8GFB Man    SV8RX George tnx QSO, only u and Costas here
06:45    SV8RX George    JL8GFB Ok Man Tnx!
07:03    SV8RX George    JL8GFB Man You have to know that you have very sharp ears. I used only 100w and a ringo vertical antenna!
07:04    JL8GFB Man    SV8RX FB George many tnx for info!”

So nothing is impossible in magic band! Good openings.

Athens Hamfest 2010

2010-05-30T20:16:00.001Z

An alternative TX ground for FT-897D

2010-05-27T13:14:00.001Z

Just in case you need a TX ground to operate your linear and the CAT/LIN connector is engaged in CAT position (Menu 020).

That was exactly my complain with this Yaesu transceiver! I prefer to use CAT commands to manage all transceiver operations from my computer especially when I operate the digital modes. No way to PTT the linear with such configuration. I had to use a foot switch to do that. Not so neat as I would like. I read several proposals in the internet addressing this issue. None of them was satisfactory for me. So it took me a lot of time till find a solution.

Finally the resolution, even not obvious, is quite cool and easy! In the back panel of the radio there is a female stereo 3.5mm jack called ACC (number 5 in the schematic). You can use this to have TX ground for your linear without sacrificing CAT! If you are interested just follow the procedure.

Open the top cover of the FT-897D and locate the jumper in the back right side (circled in the picture). By default this jumper is set in “TX REC” position. Change it to “TX GROUND” position, as sown on the board, and your work is done. Now instead the TX request feature, described in the operating manual (not very useful to me), you will have a nice independent PTT for your linear.

Finally you need to wire a male stereo jack as seen in the schematic.PS. The same procedure is applied to FT-857D also. Many thanks to SV2JL and SV8YM they opened my eyes.

IC 7000 additional treatment

2010-04-24T06:51:00.002Z

My good friend Tasos (SV8YM) posted recently a further protection treatment for IC 7000 driver transistor. You can find more details about this in his blog. All these mods were made to my IC 7000 with absolute success. It is working perfectly so far. Tasos is trying hard to do something that ICOM should do in the first place: Make this little machine reliable!

Talking to Yoshiki

2010-03-29T13:42:00.007Z

“Hi, I am Yoshiki, 9 years old, living in Yokohama Japan.I have JA-call sign (JF1UCV), and QRV in Japan.I am visit KH0 and am enjoying the contesting from AH0BT with my dad/W1FPU.I like contesting, that's very COOL than Nintendo-DS.-------I am planning to join next CQ WPX SSB contest as SOAB Rookie category. Please call me !!!”

That is exactly how he describes himself in QRZ.com. It was a pleasure meet him as KH0UA in the CQ WPX contest last weekend. Personally, I was surprised by his skills dealing with the huge pileups and giving 4 digits numbers. I have a feeling that he will doubtlessly win the Rookie category this year.

Working the test I have to mention the thrill of exchanging numbers with the legendary OH8X, probably the biggest club station in the world!

Good propagation, big numbers!

TEP came back!

2010-03-22T07:40:00.004Z

I spent last weekend in my second QTH. I am not prepared for 6m band operations there. Shame on me! You can imagine my surprise to hear ZS6NK (Paul) on magic band using my 160m dipole. I worked him as well as ZS6JON (John) with these wires and 50watts. I checked that I could hear them on my mobile antenna too. For a moment I heard Z22JE (Dudley) but not worked him. What a propagation! TEP was missing for years. It seams that it came back for good. If you think how many possibilities has an RF signal to reach your receiver, you can realize that everything is possible.

Schematic taken from http://www.hamqsl.com/solar.html

Spring Ham activities

2010-03-20T10:26:00.002Z

Last week was too busy. Propagation on upper bands is great recently. What a relief after so may year of quietness. On the other hand a several events and tests took place that are worth to mention. Let start with the QSO between ISS and a Greek school of Athens. I was stacked to 145800 to listen Timothy. J. Creamer KC5WKI speaking to children and replying all their questions. Great signal from the spacecraft up to 59 to a vertical antenna. And great job from RAAG that organized and contribute to make this contact real. These days, Denis (SV8RV), made significant progress in remote transceiver controlling front. He used the TS-480 and the Radio Remote Control 1258MkII by SM2O. The result was totally satisfactory, even with small bandwidth networks. During the test we listened a QSO between VP8LP and SV2KBS in 10m band. This hardware is a really killer product for this type of operation.

Finally my friend Spyros (SV8CS) came back from Montichiari, where he participated in the recent CTU as a lecturer. He has with him his daughter Anna (SW8NAC), who was the younger attendant of the Contest University. More details for the event you can find in this blog. From the left: K3LR and his XYL,IK2QEI YL, SW8NAC and SV8CS.

Vintage taste

2010-03-11T13:25:00.001Z

This is the oldest device in my shack. It has about the same age with me. It is a signal generator made in fifties by TESTGEAR (ACTON) LTD, a small family business company. (You can find info about them following this link ). It came to me totally unexpectedly. It previously belonged to an Englishman ham who past away recently. A relative of him, who is a good friend of mine, she picked up from his shack and thought to bring it to me as a gift. I have not to say how much I appreciated this gesture. Thank you Moira. It was in a good cosmetic condition but I was curious if it was still working after all these years. So I unscrewed the back to see what it looked inside. With a great surprise I found out that the interior was still in excellent condition too. Shiny tubes and pretty capacitors! Take a look! What a construction? This is the pre-transistor era.

…And finally it is working properly as at the first day out of the box, still producing decent signals. Wow!

Now, there is a real question. What can you do with it when the modern transceivers have a stability of 0.05ppm? Practically nothing. Just admire….

IC-7000 driver unit instability problem UPDATE

2010-02-25T13:35:00.001Z

This is an update by SV8YM to the recent mod he uploaded to mod.dk. So I have to post it for anyone that could be interested.

“After my first experiences with this problem, I had proposed a simple preventive measure, consisting of adding a gate series resistance to the driver unit, which apparently suffers from instability with destructive results in many cases.This update is the result of further study of the problem. It attacks the problem in a more efficient way,taking more measures to reduce the instability but also taking measures to prevent the destruction of the driver unit.The update consists of two parts, the first about improving the original modification, and the second about taking extra steps to ensure better stability and protection of the transistor in the driver unit. One can perform just the first part which is very simple. The second part is quite a bit more complicated and requires lifting the PA PCB and performing more alterations and additions to the circuits - but it offers considerably more safety.

PART 1: IMPROVING THE FIRST MOD'S EFFECTIVENESS

The first mod required the addition of a 10 Ohm resistor in series with the input (gate) of the PD55015 LDMOSFET in the driver unit. After studying the circuit's behaviour and experimenting, I finally , changed the resistor’s value to 1 KOhm (see schematic below) which offers much more stabilising action with just a modest decrease in power output (~5%). So, if you have already done the first mod, change the resistor to 1000 Ohm. If you haven't yet done it, refer to www.mods.dk for the full description of the first mod,but use an 1000 Ohm resistor , instead of 10 Ohm. Resist the temptation to tamper with the service menu to compensate for the small ~5% loss in output power – it's really not worth it.

PART 2: ADDITIONAL PREVENTIVE MEASURES

The second part attacks the problem from different angles. It requires considerably more effort and skill. This part is for the more experienced technicians, so detailed instructions (e.g. "lift the PA PCB by desoldering... and then..." etc., will not be given here. Please be extremely careful.

1) Modification of the drain - gate negative
feedback network of the driver unit

Lift the PA PCB and remove the driver unit. The drain - gate negative feedback network flattens the gain vs frequency response of the broadband driver amplifier stage. It uses a capacitor (C101,10nF and a resistor (R102, 100 ). Change the capacitor to 0.1 μF, 50V. This lowers the range of frequencies for which the network provides negative feedback, stabilising the amplifier there also. Apply a thin film of silicone grease to the heat sink's surface and tighten the driver unit's fastening screws well when replacing the driver unit.

2) Addition of an extra bypass capacitor

This part requires adding an extra tantalum bypass capacitor across C305 (470 F, 16V PA UNIT). Locate the capacitor's leads (see photo and schematic diagram) and solder a 47 F / 35V tantalum capacitor across the electrolytic. Observe the polarity!!

3) Addition of a driver unit protection fuse

Adding a fuse to the 13.8VDCline feeding the driver transistor's drain improves the chances that even if the instability occurs, the transistor will survive. (There won't be any fireworks and smoke, in any case!). Locate L302 on the PA UNIT (see the schematic diagram that follow for diagrams and photos). Unsolder it and transfer it to the of the PAUNIT (as shown in the service manual), soldering only the lead that connects it to the node with C305 and L301. Then solder an 1.5 A, fast-blow 20mm glass fuse to the free lead of L302 in the way shown in the photo, soldering the other end of the fuse to the PCB trace that L302 used to connect to (it's the "b" line with 13.8V on it). Use a small piece of wire to solder the fuse to the trace. Don't locate the fuse elsewhere using long wires! Do it exactly as shown. Lay the fuse flat on the PCB.Use a small piece of thick paper or plastic sheet to insulate the end of the fuse soldered to the free lead of L302 from the PCB trace under it. After you have finished, cover the fuse with a piece of electric tape to prevent shorting the 13.8V line when replacing the rig's covers.

FINALLY, 4) Lowering the idle current of the driver unit

In order to lower the gain of the class A driver stage, also reducing
its thermal burden without seriously affecting its linearity at the RF
drive level used, we can lower the idle current via the service menu. The service manual procedure sets the idle current of the driver unit at 1A. Reducing it to 0.6 A produces no ill effects on linearity (as measured in a two-tone test in SSB). Follow the procedure at page 4-3 of the service manual, "transmitter adjustment". Set the current at 0.6 A as per the instructions and exit the service routine.

This concludes the mod. Good luck! Enjoy using your IC7000!”

The diagrams that follow refer to the fuse addition

Talking to Angelo (W8ERN)

2010-02-18T16:52:00.001Z

Some QSO are exceptional. And that was with Angelo this evening. It is several days now that propagation permits easy contacts with USA stations in 15m. So it could usually be a routine QSO, but Angelo surprised me. He answered my call speaking Greek! This excited me enough to have a quick search in the net for his call. What I found, it was a really impressive site of his. Live log in real time, audio clips of QSOs, S-meter watch, statistics and many other interesting info. It is unbelievable what one can do with internet nowadays. We had a very friendly chat with Angelo and I hope to meet him again soon. As for you I recommend a visit to his site: (http://w8ern.myqsx.net/). It is really worth it!

Working WPX

2010-02-17T07:45:00.001Z

Last years I always participate in big contest events. Except the fun it is a great opportunity to check propagation and collect some precious wanted slots. So I had been anxious for CQ WPX RTTY test especially this time as the sun showed some evidence of awaking recently. Finally I found out that it was my best ever try with 852 QSO in the log and scoring about 1,420,000 points. Actually in 15m I logged more dx QSO than European. This happened for the first time. The 10m band was soulless though. Anyway it seems that propagation definitely is increasing. So good DX to all of you.

IC 7000 usual failure!

2010-01-20T14:49:00.001Z

I have just received an email from my friend Tasos (SV8YM). He describes what is the reason of a usual issue on IC 7000 transceivers and what is the cure on his opinion. Besides he will publish this mod in a proper site I think it is very important to post his whole letter in my blog. It is not a secret that I suffered from this problem twice.

“IC-7000 driver amplifier self-oscillation problem

The IC-7000 is a very popular rig, and rightly so, since it combines many desirable features in a small, light transceiver. I was surprised when some of my friends reported that their rigs had literally gone up in smoke!
Actually, one of them had died TWICE with the same symptoms (scorched driver unit). Later I found out that this phenomenon has also been reported by other users on the Internet. The whole thing reminded me of my experience with my FT-817 (which, by the way, still goes on strong).
As I undertook to fix my friends' rigs, I decided to implement the same self-oscillation preventive measures to their IC-7000s, as the failure mode had a strong resemblance to that of my FT-817 final amplifier.The problem probably lies with self-oscillation of the common driver stage of the TX amplifier chain. A series resistance
of a few ohms is placed in series with the input (gate) of the FET amplifier, by cutting the appropriate PCB trace. The photos and schematic explain the modification. It is very simple to do, and can help prevent this "smoking" failure mode, without any side-effects and at negligible cost.

THEORY OF OPERATION: This mod lowers the Q of the copper trace circuits feeding the driver amplifier's input, therefore
quenching any tendency of the stage to self-oscillate at some VHF frequency, with destructive results.

IMPLEMENTATION: After removing the covers, locate the driver unit's input trace (SEE PHOTO), cut it carefully and scrape the solder resistant enamel to expose the copper surface. Then, solder an 10Ohm (or so...) SMD resistor across the cut of the PCB.That's all!

IMPORTANT: After you have finished, carefully check and clean all of the springy ground clips on the PCB. Also, clean carefully and apply a thin protective film of grease or vaseline to the points on the covers where the grounding clips of the PCB make contact. The deterioration of this grounding scheme due to oxidation of the inside surface of the covers has been proposed as a possible reason for the driver unit self-oscillation and destruction.

Disclaimer: This mod requires delicate SMD soldering. Perform
at your own risk. Although the mod is based on proven engineering
techniques and worked perfectly for me, I can't guarantee that it will
work for you.

Tasos Thomaidis sv8ym@raag.org”

Thank you Tasos for all. BTW see in the photo below, how the driver unit will look like if this failure happen to you too. My IC-7000, after mod, is working perfectly so far.

CQ CQ D-STAR

2010-01-19T09:00:00.001Z

It seams that a new habit is coming up nowadays. Kohji was calling CQ in our local D-Star repeater. His voice was clear and loud without any delay despite the long distance trip through the networks. Chatting with him I found out that he is living in Hiroshima in an apartment on the 12th floor of a skyscraper. No way for any other ham activity except through D-STAR system. I did not realize before that such a case could exist. Anyway it was charming talking to him owing to new technology.

Soon after I found his QSL card in my eQSL inbox. I wish you many DX Kohji…

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-30T09:04:00.001Z

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

2009-12-23T17:40:00.001Z

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

2009-12-20T08:33:00.001Z

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

2009-12-17T10:43:00.001Z

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

2009-12-01T10:00:00.001Z

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!!

DXing goes on….

2009-11-25T13:23:00.002Z

XR0Y is over. Team is back safely. It was very difficult to copy you. Propagation was very bad, especially for me with a hill blocking me all the west side. In the photo Vicky (SV2KBS) making new friends in Easter Island. Nice snap indeed!

TX3A going QRT this weekend. A grand finale with CQ WWCW contest. What an expedition. My favorite one with great difference from any other. Look their amazing installation and how they managed to deliver big signals around the world. By the way it is the first dxpedition ever sending the logs to the LotW simultaneously with the online logs. This is a progress. It was also quite interesting the lack of any negative comment in the cluster. It seems that they doubtless earned everybody’s respect!

In the mean times new kids on the block show up. VK9XX makes a lot of noise. Good signals in every band, mostly because their bearing is eastward. Fortunately no obstacle in this direction. So a new slot competition has arisen. I count 6 already.

Italian guys are on the air from Ghana. Their call 9X5TT. Good signals also. So there is plenty of pleasure around and the weekend is near.

The unbelievable couple

2009-11-04T11:16:00.001Z

George (AA7JV) and Tomi (HA7RY). They are already in Chesterfield. We will hear them on the air as TX3A for a month or so. Two men dxpedition focused on low bands as usually. Their style is out of question. Among other they navigate by themselves across the ocean curing rig and fuel in their small boat. During transmission breaks they fish their lunch in the clear sea. They are two but so effective. If they are as successful as with Mellish reef, many other ambitious dxpeditioners should learn from them. I wish them good luck and good luck to me to work them, as TX3A is a new one and I need it badly.

More info in their page.

ISS=International Sea Station

2009-10-29T11:40:00.002Z

It is not the well known spacecraft. It is a masterpiece of technology that will explore the oceans in the near future. Maybe it is an irrelevant topic but I assume that hams are always sensitive to technology developments.

SeaOrbiter is a spectacular project and a life dream of French architect Jacques Rougerie. It is under construction right now and it is expected to launce in 2012.

The new Calypso will be a huge contraction of 51m tall. The 2/3 of it will be under water giving unbelievable stability to the vessel. She will have no engines to move. She will drift with ocean great currents instead. Many pressurized laboratories will be continuously under water collecting data for biodiversity of deep seas. Plenty of experiments will take place during her long trips, giving to science many answers. Due to the special living conditions of the crew even NASA is interested.

For more info about this promising project click here.

PS. BTW the XR0Y team members are in their way to Santiago. Good luck Vicky!

Good news!

2009-10-27T18:45:00.002Z

I am in the pleasant position to present you my new harmonic Nick (13 years old). He got the call SW8NAG. My friend’s Spyros (SV8CS) daughter Anna (12 years old) got the call SW8NAC. It was a double shot. They must be be the youngest amateurs in Greece right now. I wish both of them many many QSO in the days to come.

On the other hand bands woke up recently. I had the chance to check it during the CQ WW SSB contest last weekend. Especially 10m band was open all day long. Many DX stations worked. At last just as we got used that such a thing would not happen again. Of course there is an explanation for that. Solar flux got the maximum of circle 24 so far! Ionoprobe looks like this today. Very exciting indeed.

To not forget. FT5GA sent already theirs logs to the LoTW. Any complains now? And finally my favorite dxpeditioners (look previous post) AA7JV and HA7RY are on their way to Chesterfield, a new one for me! What a wonderful world.

And now Midway Atoll (K4M) on the air

2009-10-12T11:49:00.001Z

They are safely landed! After several postponements, finally they did. The agony is over.They have only a few days of operations but they are many and very experienced ones. They will work with several stations many hours every day. From now and then our antennas point 18 degrees.

So good luck guys, see you on the pile ups and wish you big big logs!

DX, CONTEST and other stories

2009-10-03T09:03:00.001Z

At the beginning of October I have a lot to report. The FT5GA is continuing for 3rd week. The qso are running better now, I have to admit, but still there are complains. I worked them 9 slots so far and so I have not any. Yesterday I worked the frogs on RTTY on 30m! (I really like this nick name and I use it not to mock them).

But new kids show up on the block. TX5SPA, 3D20CR among them. The first of them seems a bit difficult for us but workable. Last weekend we had the CQ WWRTTY contest, one of my favorites. Even we had very heavy weather in south Ionian sea those days I really enjoyed it. Propagation was quite better than previous year. Is that a good sign or was it just a coincidence? I heard a lot of Japanese and American stations mostly in low bands. The most exciting moment was the call of P29CW on my QRG. It was a real surprise for me. Finally I discovered that behind this cal sign was VK2IR, who is a Greek guy, Tom Horozakis, usually living in Sydney. Thank you Tommy. Sometimes our hobby is really wonderful. As I run this contest just for fun such surprises are more than welcomed. BTW here are my statistics according to MixW contest filter.

As many other dxpeditions are coming soon and as propagation seems to bend back, it will be a very exciting winter!

Working FT5GA

2009-09-23T07:01:00.001Z

They started badly. Lots of lids and idiots on their frequency mocking all the time the activities. It is going to be a tradition for major dxpeditions. People complaining and nagging almost about everything. But by the time, things are going better. Even sun seams to help (SSN 26 today). Anyway there is plenty of time left and I am sure that finally many hams will have the chance to work them. Especially third week it will be much more easier. So stay cool guys. Save energy for the upcoming peditions. And don’t forget we have CQ WW RTTY contest this weekend.

DX season started!

2009-09-16T09:01:00.002Z

Writing these lines the FT5GA expedition has already started transmissions. I am back to main QTH again and so I am a little better organized for the occasion. Sorry if this post looks like a dx bulletin, but I will make with your permission a list of upcoming dxpedions. I have to notice that even I have already 330 current dx countries CFM, there are thee new ones among them!

1. FT5GA 15/09-8/10 GLORIOSO (http://glorieuses2008.free.fr/)

2. TX5SPA 28/09-12/10 AUSTRAL (http://fo2009sp.pl/) NEW ONE

3. TX5SPM 16/10-22/10 MARQUESAS (http://fo2009sp.pl/) NEW ONE

4. K4M 9/10-19/10 MIDWAY ( http://www.midway2009.com/)

5. XR0Y 31/10-15/11 EASTER (http://rapanui2009.org/) Greek member in the crew SV2KBS YL Victoria

6. TX3A 23/11-6/12 CHESTERFIELD (http://www.tx3a.com/) NEW ONE

FT5GA gang taken from their web page:

So I wish you all a good harvest!

A few days left

2009-08-29T07:45:00.001Z

The fall is coming and we prepare to move to our winter QTH. This is sad. We will really miss the cottage. Writing these lines it occurred to me that I have never show you my little shack here.

Main transceiver is TS-480HX. Not too many Dx-ing during summer but a lot of rag chewing.This year I had my best score in 6m though. I worked 61 countries instead of 52 and 42 previous years. Not to forget to add a snap showing me and SV3SJ enjoying summer delights.

Now he he will be in France already. Have a nice winter Nick.

As the summer goes by…

2009-08-17T09:10:00.002Z

Although summer is going to end, we are happy. No much radio activity must be said as the sun got to sleep again. It is a 38 spotless day streak as I am writing these lines. Even though I can hear KH7XS every morning in my wires. On the other hand we have many good friends on the island. SV2HJQ, SV2AGW and SV2DCD among them. As George and Leo usually come the second fortnight of August, they herald the come of fall. Actually we had some rain just to confirm the fact.

SV3SJ is expected too and probably SV1GH if things go right. There is nothing better than amateur friendship! I am still living in the cottage enjoying quietness and nature. Well… and beers of course. The weather is nice most of the time, a little bit strange but acceptable.

By the way the photos have taken with my new Nikon D5000. To be honest I have not played yet a lot with my new toy. But the snaps I took, just as a beginner, are very satisfactory.

A strange summer

2009-07-17T05:35:00.001Z

It is really a strange summer this year. It is wet and not hot. Both of them unusual. During June we had heavy rains and till now the temperature did not rise more than 35 degrees. Such a thing had to happen several years. I spend the days in the cottage and I get lazy as every summer. I use my little shack with my wire antennas. Even though the rig is enough to understand strange propagation behavior in the bands, especially in magic band. It was full of surprises this year. I worked TN5SN (SSB) and JL8GFB (CW). The last one was so clear and loud not distorted signal that made me think that the JE1BMJ theory of Summer Solstice Short-path Propagation should attract more attention. Actually the 21th of June I could hear loud signals in 6m 2 hours after midnight.

But now all this activity, that reminds me F2 propagation and not sporadic E layer, it is decaying as a hot summer day in the cottage. Of course, we have other activities that can fill the gap. Let say Punta Basta…the little beach bar I drink beers every summer. We have to relax a bit as many major dxpeditions are scheduled for autumn.

Space, Sun and Ham

2009-05-18T16:30:00.002Z

This is the photo of the year in my opinion. Taken during Hubble recent repairs at 14th of May, it gives a compact message of what technology and collaboration can do. Among else our blue planet Earth is easily recognizable in the casket reflection. To create this 3D effect, digital artist Patrick Vantuyne of Belgium combined two slightly offset photos taken by spacewalker Andrew Feustal. It is a really beautiful picture with a sound meaning.

In the mean time, sun seams to wake up. The SFI is 74 after a long time bellow 70 and some tiny spots appear from time to time. It’s activity is very low but at least there is a trend upwards. Anyway last predictions agree that cycle 24 will be a small one. Its maximum is expected at 2013 with a number of no more than 90 spots. After big expectations we are ready for landing. Finally sporadic E in 6m meters seams stronger and more frequent than last year. So no matter what we have something to play with.

Sporadic-E came back

2009-05-08T05:10:00.001Z

6m propagation came back on time this year. First big event took place in May 2 with sort path opening with prefixes as 4Z, 9A DL. Yesterday we had a wider one with calls like CT3, EA and so one. Magic band has good mood this year. Take a look in yesterday opening as it was observed in real time by DX- Sherlock.

By the way this a good tool watching the sporadic E openings. You will find it following the link: http://www.vhfdx.net

A few days to the cottage

2009-04-28T09:02:00.001Z

We spent a few days to the cottage to say welcome to spring. Things turned out to be quite different than expected. Spring did not came on time. It was very wet and looked like more as winder. Even the fireplace was acceptable!

The plants, as you can see, were not prepared for such a weather but I remained cool and relaxed. I do not know, nobody knows actually, if there is any correlation with the prolonged sun minimum. By the way the signals were not too bad in my portable wire antennas. So no reason to complain at all. It was a nice break anyway.

VK9GMW: a different style dxpedition

2009-04-06T08:07:00.001Z

The sun continues its leisure. It behaves exactly as the stoke market: When you believe that it has got a minimum it is going lower. We had great expectations for VK9LA but it turned out to be difficult to get heard. At least to Europe. Under such hostile propagation conditions, two incredible guys,AA7JV and HA7RY went to Mellish reef. Their equipment is very simple but they are quite noisier than expected. Their camp is just a small tent on the sand. They are working only with 12V DC from batteries and their power does not exceed the 500 watts. Their antenna system is very small also as you can see in the pictures. In spite of all these they deliver good signals. In the same time between transmissions they catch fish to fresh up their meals!

I love their shack inside the little tent and their high tech illumination system, hi hi. By any means it is the more likable dxpedition of the year. Congratulations guys. This is a real ham spirit!

Photos taken from their site:http://www.vk9gmw.com/

Bearing 92 degrees

2009-03-21T10:26:00.003Z

Update 23-03-20009: The European gang landed safely to SYD. Tomorrow they will fly to Lord Howe. Let show begin! (Photo taken from their blog)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

This is the sort path to VK9LA from my QTH. I am speaking about the Lord Howe expedition that will take off next week.This island looks like a dreamy paradise on earth.

Although I have this entity already confirmed, I will try to work them in any possible band. The expedition seems to be very well organized and it has a great interest for Greek hams because of the participation of Vicky (SV2KBS). We wish good luck to all. They will make happy lots of amateurs they will work them as a new one. Propagation is very low of course but I hope that the good equipment they have got with them, it will resolve this issue. For more info and news take a look to their blog from time to time (http://vk9la.info). There are not pictures published yet but I found those to Google earth.The Ball’s pyramid, a nearby islet, is a really nature monument, 562m steep high above the ocean. So meet you all in the pileups!!!

ITX: the new standard for tiny PCs

2009-03-12T08:01:00.003Z

Strong enough but tiny and flexible. This the description of the new trend in desktop PC. I was very tempted to see the result. I was always attracted to small configurations. That is why I got The EeePC of ASUS. But this is an other thing: to build a small PC all yourself choosing parts and put it together. Dennis (SV8RV) showed me the way. We discussed a lot and I made up my mind. I chose the well known tiny ITX mobo of INTEL D945GCLF2. This little thing has the ATOM 330 CPU (dual core) already installed and audio and graphics subsystems as well. Important: serial port, parallel port, 6 USB ports and 1GBit Ethernet are included.

For the case I found attractive the proposition of MOREX 3310. Take a look how nice it looks. And also quite practical. It needs only 13.8V to work. This a voltage that is very popular to hams. All power supplies have it and our cars also.

All the voltages are produced from the internal power supply. No fun need. The total power does not exceed the 50W.

You have to attach a HDD drive of 2.5 inches and a RAM of one GB you and the PC is ready to service. As operating system is better to prefer windows XP or LINUX because are light and reliable. You can even boot from a sick USB whatever operating system you want. The result is really a beauty. Especially if you need a dedicated PC for digital operation that will perform perfectly without claiming a lot of space on your desk. Have in mind that it also perfect for portable operations and its cost just 200$.

Here is the toy finished, which I can not hide, I am proud of. You look its back next to my microphone for realizing size. Admire the connectivity plurality.

Illuminating meters

2009-03-08T11:07:00.001Z

It is very common and it happens in every shack sooner or later: a meter gets dark unexpectedly. It is very annoying when it strikes. The good old ones lamps have a period of life. Unfortunately they can not work for ever. Usually their life is quite sorter than the equipment that the meter is embedded. No big deal you can say. Just change the bulb. It is obvious. We all do this from time to time. My friend Tasos (SV8YM) had an other idea instead: To use a bright LED in the place of a bulb. LEDs can give a cold light for many years without any sign of fatigue. But there is a small problem. Their light is focused because of the lens they have. You have to sand the led to eliminate this effect. You must destroy completely the lens and leave the LED with a rough surface in order to defuse more light. You must also add a resistor of 470 Ohm in order to reduce the voltage from 13.8V to what the LED usually needs that is quite lower. The result is perfect and you have not to worry any more about it. Take a look. The upper meter is illuminated by a bulb and the lower by the LED!

Hams never bore

2009-02-17T09:13:00.001Z

I made 870 qso last weekend.This is a small score for such a big test as CQ WPX RTTY. Thousands of participants for all around the world. I met guys that gave me numbers more than 2000. Such big event is not just fun. It is an experience. Even with low propagation conditions I worked a long list of dx stations. Take a look: YN2S, P49X, ET3AA, NP3U, 6K5AQY, XW1B, D4C, 9M2MT, DV1JM, PZ5RA, HI3TEJ, FM5CD and FG1PP. In the end, just an hour before closing, I had a nice surprise. A long skip appeared in 80m that let work a few multies from NA and Caribbean.

In the meantime K5D is alive. A task finished, an other starts. ..and I said to myself what a wonderful world! We never bore.

What a monster

2009-02-11T09:11:00.001Z

The first month of 2009 had passed without significant deference in propagation. The sun remains still and sleepy. Recently I had the opportunity to check it during the EPC WW DX PSK125 party. Although there was a lot of traffic no dx stations appeared. I only worked ZL3RG, PZ5RA and WP3UX. Under these circumstances you can not compete Russians in this contest. and I do not have the antennas of CCF (Contest Club Finland)… Take a look and admire. Three elements in 160m and on the top five elements on 80m!

And here OH2BH (Martti) next to the rotator of the monster.

Anyway even with low propagation conditions dx is present. We worked VP8YL’s successfully and we hopefully wait for K5D tomorrow. And we have the CQ WPX RTTY CONTEST this weekend. So fun is all around…

Chasing E44M and other dx

2009-01-09T16:38:00.002Z

Just with the breaking of new year we found ourselves chasing DX. Year 2009 came without too many fireworks. There was no mood for celebration during the global economical crisis. Focusing in the ham community we had an other reason not being happy: A snoring sun in its third sleeping year. Nevertheless, even with low propagation, E44M opened the new year dxpedition series. Fortunately this activity takes place in our neighborhood and so even under big pileups, the job was not so difficult for us. Any way the operations are going to end soon, so I wish all the team good luck and safe return home. (pictures taken from E44m dxpedition forum).

But we have more: on January 17 VP8YL, a team of YL will be active from Falkland islands. This is a great event and as we have a Greek lady in the group, SV2KBS Victoria, it makes things even more interesting. I wish them a big success. Finally we have to mention the big event of activation of KP5 (Desecheo) on 12 of February. This is a major dxpedition with well known operators. No doubt it will attract a lot of attention as Desecheo entity is number 5 in the most wanted counties list of 2008. We are anxious to hear them on the air.

So sun willing the new year will make a very good start!

A farewell to 2008

2008-12-30T08:42:00.004Z

2008 is going to an end with a spotless sun. This prolonged minimum is very annoying indeed. I hope that sooner or later sun will wake up and do its duty. By the way we have results for EPC PSK63 party 2008. Very big scores! Too many participants as the active members are more than 5000. No chance to get a descent place. I just got the first place in Greece. Not a big deal. But let forget all as the post is to wish you a Happy New year 2009 with a lot of radio activity, many dx and happy contesting time!

My Racal Ampligard Headset

2008-12-10T12:44:00.002Z

A few days ago I found this piece of surplus in eBay. I bided it and finally got it. Nice equipment from the past. I wired it for YAESU, no big deal, and I put it on the air. It works perfectly. Well, it needs a bit more mice gain and the transmit audio is a bit of small bandwidth but no other problem. It is a proper headset for contesting or other heavy traffic operations in SSB. In construction it looks like a Roll Royce vs a sevy, compared with the trendy Heill sets. It is really amazing how they were manufacturing such things in the past.

CQ WW CW TEST

2008-12-01T10:54:00.002Z

Last weekend of November! The CQ WW CW contest keeps alive the radio amateur bands. I am not really fond of CW mode. I never hid my love for the digital modes, mostly PSK. On the other hand with SCIMMER and so many decoders in our disposal, CW became just another digital mode. Still it remains the only one that human brain can decode. What machine can not handle, brain helps and the one confirms the other. So the game becomes more interesting, at least for guys like me who are not skilled cwers. With these thoughts in mind I decided to join the test this year. My tool was the MixW2, updated to the v2.19 beta. It run all the contest faultlessly.
I made more than 2 hundred QSO. I worked easily rare DX entities that otherwise it would be very difficult to work. I give you a small list: PJ2T, D4C, KP2M, HC8N, B1Z, AH2T, 3X5A, 5H3EE, 9J3A. Also I worked many stations from USA, Japan and Africa. I spent a really great time. Well maybe my score was low but I had a great time... and I found out that finally my dicision was right.

EPC PSK63 PARTY

2008-11-19T16:05:00.003Z

This week end I joined the party of European PSK Club. I spent a nice time. Furthermore I never hid my love to digital modes. Even though the propagation was low, I made 500 qso mostly with EPC members and just a few dx. Spiros, SV8CS, just a couple of years ago, took the first place with 451 qso. But the situation has change since then. The members now are more than 5000 and I am afraid that my five hundred qso are not enough for a leading place. Any way I dad a lot of fun ruining the party. Among contacts were members from America Australia Japan and Africa. Well the club is spreading. Last year I had 400 qso but I unfortunately lost my log due to technical problems. Some people lost some points because of that and I feel sorry. But this time my log came safely to the contest manager. Long Live PSK!

Global Tuners

2008-11-01T08:39:00.003Z

Global tuners is a well known site with receivers from all around the world that you can control through the internet. Recently, among the other receivers two Greek ones added. So you can find in the list SV2BWM and SV1BTL stations, available most of the time. In the picture you see the second one tuned in 15m, listening VQ9RD. Beyond the fun, using such a station it is an excellent tool chasing a DX, as you can check where it is heard in real time. Cluster does the same job but with much less fun regardless it does not say always the truth. I really cannot understand people who refuge using technology to extend their possibilities. It is so exciting.

Sniffing VK9DWX

2008-10-22T09:36:00.003Z

This morning, even with a blank sun, propagation turned out to be favorite to work VK8DWX in 12m band. Suddenly it occurred to me to open CW Skimmer to sniff its transmission. Excellent tool, as you can in the snap. Even with 3KHz spacing it could copy almost all activity. Some people are sceptic about what machines can do. Some other, among them and me, they just use them.

DX came back

2008-10-19T08:47:00.004Z

The 24th cycle seems that accelerates during the last days. Two groups of sunspots simultaneously...that's great news indeed. This alone it would be just an interesting statistical event. I do not know if there is any connection but a lot of DX stations are heard recently. T33Z, 5U5U, 9L1X, D44AC, TO5DX, C56YK, TN5SN, and of course VK9DWX. The last one is a major DXpedition organized by BCC and delivers big signals in any band or mode. So I can claim for sure that DX came back. Enjoy it.

Talking to Mitchel

2008-10-11T15:06:00.002Z

The 10m band is open more frequently last days. Is that a sign of emerging 24th cycle? We would like to believe so. Anyway, in such an opening this afternoon I had a QSO with a station ZU6M in 28.495MHz. His name was Mitchel and his voice was very delicate. So during the QSO I was tempted to take a look to qrz.com to get some info for my interlocutor. And suddenly I realized that I was talking to an 11 years old boy from South Africa. What a nice surprise indeed! I felt like this young gentleman was ready to get the baton from me. And I would be very glad to give it to him. It was really one of most distinctive moments of my amateur career and very difficult to forget. What else are going to bring us cycle 24?

Wow!....What a test

2008-09-29T16:42:00.005Z

The big events of fall in ham radio are the CQ magazine contests. This weekend we had the CQ WW RTTY contest. Every year a lot of people are traveling to hot spots as Caribbean, North West Africa, Galapagos and so on, just to have the best conditions to win the test. On the other hand a lot of hams around the world are waiting to contact with exotic call sign and rare ham radio entities just sitting in their ordinary shacks. The bands get on fire for 48 hours. I cannot express the feeling of having so many stations on the air on usually quiet bands. You can change thoroughly your opinion about propagation just participating in this event. I made 811 contacts in SOAB category, 300 more than last year. Among them very rare dx countries. That is exactly the reason I join the test every year. And I can say this one was a very rich one. Spiros (SV8CS) was working only in 15m and during the contest we had a lot fun chatting about how the things were going. By the end of weekend we found wide open the 10m band, a band that is dead for years. It kept an hour or so but it was enough to work South America and Caribbean stations and the famous HC8N. What a pleasant surprise! MixW was a real performer and the FT1000MP as well as the ACOM1000 worked without complains. But most of all what made the difference this time was the Honor Roll plague in front of me....

Autumn

2008-09-18T06:11:00.004Z

Heavy weather above my antenna system. Autumn is here. We had the first thunderstorm of the season with 60mm of rain just in a few hours. It was very welcomed of course after 4 tedious quite dry months. Fortunately I had no casualties in the shack.
But the event that sealed the start of Autumn was my 60th birthday and the present of my XYL, SW8KOJ: a lovely TM-D710. Thank you very much my dear and many Happy Returns to come and share.

Just before Autumn

2008-09-12T07:40:00.007Z

The summer is over. It has left some of its heat behind but it is clear that is gone. So I am back in my main shack again after a long vacation time. Everything it looks perfect except of propagation conditions. By incidence today, after a very long period, sun appears a tiny spot (Uaoo...). The 24 circle is very lazy and denies stubbornly to start and the worst we have to live with that. As the future is not so promising, let me focus in the past. With your permission I will review some results of my previous ham activities.
The greatest is the Honor Roll achievement. Of course we celebrated it a bit early but now I have the proofs. So after of almost 30 years of DX hunting I am officially listed in Honor Roll with 329/333 entities. I proudly show you the ARRL matrix, the Lapel pin and I invite you to share with me my happiness for this achievement.
In the contesting activities I have to present you my certificate in World Wide RTTY WPX Contest as 1st in Greece and the 6th position worldwide in the spring EU PSK DX Contest. Well obviously I am not a big gun but no doubt I am a little pistol!
During summer we continue testing D-STAR with SV8CS, SV8RV and SV3KH. The real fun will start with the installation of a D-Star local repeater.
Finally I wish to all of you a nice winter and lots of such moments in your ham career.

DV sequel

2008-08-02T07:32:00.003Z

Well D-Star is a new toy. Recently Spiros, SV8CS got a IC-92 too. So we enjoyed several nice contacts in DV mode. For the first time I heard digital voice decoded by my little handy. It isn't like FM but the quality is prety acceptable and it doesn't tire your ears. And it is very cool to watch all this data on your screen like callsign, sort messages or GPS spots during the QSO. Finally you get a feeling that you are crossing a border in communications world. I suppose a similar feeling hams had turning from AM to SSB. In the mean time Denis, SV8RV, who is in W6 land right now, made a lot of noise accessing the SZ1SV repeater from San Francisco. An other milestone! We have just to wait for a D-Star repeater in our area. In the photo you can see also my Eee PC 900 near the IC-E92D on my shack. It is so small and portable that it will be an excellent companion for it. I really feel sorry for all these technophobic folks. They don't know what they really loose. The summer is going...and the sun refuses to get up.

Au bord de la mer

2008-07-30T18:06:00.003Z

August is near! The middle of the summer. The six meters band is dying for this season. No major dxpeditions around, no spots on the sun. For now and then I will spend the time in my favorite beach bar relaxing, enjoying cold beer, eating light meals and swimming in fresh sea water. But bad habits can not be cut. The forgotten hand held got alive and keep me company again. I have to give reports to good old friends how things are going describing what is moving in the beach and finally invite them to join me. Actually you are all invited.

D-Star. First tests

2008-07-14T08:31:00.003Z

D-Star is a new standard in digital communications developed by ICOM. Its popularity is increasing rapidly recently. So I decided to give it a try and now I know why. Coming back from Friedrichshafen I brought with me a new toy: The IC-E92D. My good friend Denis, SV8RV, had the receiver and the decoding software to do the job. It is really an other world. The picture is talking itself. Dedicated calls by callsign, messages, GPS data, automatic replies, internet connection and many other things are available to play with. In my first feeling DV mode came to give a push to the boring local VHF and UHF frequencies. So it is very welcome.

Hamradio 2008 part 2

2008-07-08T15:03:00.008Z

The next day was dedicated to the surplus segment of Messe. It is a place of great interest for hams. We made several kilometers around the booths in three different huge buildings. I had a mission to find Gabi, HA1YA, to tell him a message from my friend Spiros, SV8CS. Fortunately it turned out not a difficult task. Gabi was a nice and very friendly guy besides he is a very efficient constructor of linears and transverters.
I show too much vintage stuff, but I could not buy many desirable things as I had to fly back home and so the baggage weight was limited. I restricted myself to small things like ferrites, connectors and the similar. Finally I could not resist the temptation to get the digital ICOM IC-92D. D-STAR is the name of the game. But this is an other post....

Plenty of Antennas
Fuel station
Me (left) and Gabi (right)
Flying over the Mont Blanc

Hamradio 2008 part 1

2008-07-07T08:49:00.004Z

It is a really big event in ham radio world. Probably the biggest in the world as the Dayton is not in its best days recently. I was lucky to be there for a second year in a row....and I was impressed as the first time. Among the others I met two vips: ON4UN and OH2BH. But let start from the beginning. We start the trip from Geneva to Friedrichshafen Friday at noon. We are two on the road, me and Nick (SV3SJ, F5VIH) in his brand new Twigo. It took us 4.30 hours to get there, so we had enough time to take a look in Messe before close. We were in high spirits with the help of a couple Hefen Weis we drunk on the ferry from Kostanz to Meersburg. The weather was excellent and the Zeppelin was flying that is traditionally an indication of good weather hi hi. Inside the Messe the things were about the same as last year and the feeling of being there also the same. I noticed that several new companies and dealers were added and in the surplus segment the absence of Russian guys. We spent the night in Weingarten after a noisy diner in Immenstaad with a bunch of French people, most of them members of IARU contest. It was an enchanting evening with a lot chat for coming projects. Hefenweiser kept us company once more time.

On the road to Messe
IC-7700 new addition to ICOM family
Kuhne stand

LHC@CERN

2008-07-04T16:53:00.004Z

Besides the nice hobby I share with you, I am a physicist. There is a big event that is going to take place very soon in Physics. Probably the biggest physics experiment of all till now. The particle accelerator LHC (the biggest of the world) will start to work in a month at CERN. This huge machine will accelerate protons in two beams with opposite direction and energy of 7TeV each. So the protons collide with the huge energy of 14Tev. The products of collision are new particles, some of them never registered till now. For this job there are four detectors. The biggest of them, called ATLAS (in picture), is a cylinder of 24m diameter and 46m length. The whole machine is in a tunnel 27Km long and 100m below the surface. There is a great probability this time to detect Higgs, the most wanted particle of last decades. Whatever it happens after all, particle physics will get a big kick for sure.
So I could not resist taking the chance to visit CERN and take a look how things are going just before the hugest scientific experiment starts. It was a really unbelievable experience for me and very convenient in the end of this visit to make a little trip from Geneva to Friedrichshafen. More details about that in my coming posts.

HAM RADIO 2008 is coming

2008-06-20T05:52:00.002Z

See you in Friedrichshafen!!!

Run a Marathon limping...

2008-06-05T06:47:00.002Z

It is like a tradition every spring to focus on magic band. Last years I participate the 6m Marathon of OH3AG. The objective of the Marathon is to work as many DXCC countries as possible between Saturday May 3rd, 2008 at 00.00 UTC and Sunday August 3rd, 2008 at 24.00 UTC on six meters band. I am not a big gun. So I have not any chance to win. In addition this year I had bad luck. My IC-7000 gave up its service. It burned the drive section twice and now is for a second time for repair. Very delicate fancy little machine. I would not dare to recommend it for any serious use. My good friend Spiros lent to me his FT857 to do the job. I thank him a lot for his generosity. Anyway it has a lot of fun to run a Marathon limping. Take a look to the results so far. I wish to all participants good luck!

EU PSK DX contest

2008-05-23T06:19:00.003Z

Last weekend I played the EPC annual PSK31 contest as I usually do every year. First impression: No propagation yet! No DX stations, no surprises. Just the usual suspects. Even though it was a pleasure running it. I met all good old friends of EPC community. Of course it is a digital contest. You have not the warmness of a phone QSO but still it nice to see all these familiar call sings to parade on your screen. Any way I did 303 QSOs! Quite better than 162 of last year. But still not enough for a winning place I am afraid. Never mind what it matters is participation.

What is going on with the sun?

2008-05-10T05:51:00.013Z

We all are waiting for sun to wake up. But thing are going slow. So slow that a new option of a very weaker 24 cycle than previously prediction. Some people speak that a new Little Ice Age is coming. Take a look to the following articles:
.................................................................................

link1

Predicting the nest solar age

Solar prediction is a problematic exercise as there are no proper physical models that allow predictions of even the next cycle. Therefore predictions tend to be based on statistical inference with little in the way of physics or modelling involved. For example, longer solar cycles tend to be followed by a weaker cycle.

The closest thing to a scientific consensus on solar prediction comes from the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel, consisting of members of NASA, NOAA, ISES and other US and International representatives. In March 2007, they released a consensus statement for the amplitude of the upcoming cycle 24. Their position:

"In light of the expected long interval until the onset of Cycle 24, the Prediction Panel has been unable to resolve a sufficient number of questions to reach a single, consensus prediction for the amplitude of the cycle. The deliberations of the panel supported two possible peak amplitudes for the smoothed International Sunspot Number (Ri): Ri = 140 ±20 and Ri = 90 ±10."

In other words, cycle 24 may be larger or smaller. The cycle is expected to begin in early 2008 and predictions are largely speculative until it begins. The one thing we do know is when Solar Cycle 24 begins, the warming sun will add to the global warming trend as it heads towards solar maximum, nearly doubling the projected temperature rise from greenhouse gases from 2008 to 2012 (Camp 2007).

link2

Lessons from past global climate changes
Proponents of CO2 as the cause of global warming have stated that "never before in the history of the earth has
climate changed as rapidly as in the past century, proving that global warming is being caused by anthropogenic
CO2" “:Our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this. Today’s climate
pattern has existed throughout the entire history of human civilization” (Gore, 2006). Statements such as these are
easily refutable by the geologic record. Figure 5 shows temperature changes recorded in the GISP2 ice core from
the Greenland Ice Sheet. The global warming experienced during the past century pales into insignificance when
compared to the magnitude of at least ten sudden, profound climate reversals over the past 15,000 years. As shown
on Figure 5, the temperature in Greenland changed abruptly:
• 1. About 15,000 yrs ago, a sudden, intense, climatic warming (~12° C; ~21° F) caused dramatic melting of
large Ice Age ice sheets that covered Canada and the northern U.S., all of Scandinavia, and much of northern
Europe and Russia. Sea level that had been 120 m (~400 ft) lower than present rose quickly and submerged
large areas than had been dry land during the Ice Age.
• 2. A few centuries later, temperatures again plummeted (~11° ; ~20° F) and glaciers advanced.
• 3. About 14,000 years ago, global temperatures rose rapidly (~4.5°C; ~8° F) once again and glaciers
receded.
• 4. About 13,400 years ago, global temperatures plunged again (~8°C; ~14° F) and glaciers advanced.
• 5. About 13,200 years ago, global temperatures increased rapidly (~5°C; ~9° F) and glaciers receded.
6
• 6. 12,700 yrs ago global temperatures plunged sharply (~8°C; ~14° F) and a 1000 year period of glacial
readvance, the Younger Dryas, began.
• 7. 11,500 yrs ago, global temperatures rose sharply (~12° C; ~21° F), marking the end of the Younger
Dryas cold period and the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age.
• 8. 8,200 years ago, the post-Ice Age interglacial period was interrupted by a sudden global cooling (~4° C;
~7° F) that lasted for a few centuries.
• 9. About 1000 AD, global temperatures rose several degrees to begin the Medieval Warm Period, which
lasted a few centuries, then ~12300 AD dropped ~4°C (~7° F) in ~20 years.
• 10. About 1600 AD, global temperatures cooled several degrees at the beginning of the Little Ice Age,
which lasted about two centuries.
Figure 5. Abrupt global climate changes in the past 15,000 years. (Modified from Alley, 2004)
Magnitude and significance of previous global climate changes
All ten of the global climate changes described above were far more intense (12 to 15 times as intense in some
cases) than the global warming of the past century (compare them in Fig. 5), and they took place in as little as 20–
100 years. As shown on Figure 5, the global warming of the past century (0.8° C) is virtually insignificant when
compared to the magnitude of the earlier global climate changes.
Not a single one of these sudden global climate changes could possibly have been caused by human CO2 input
to the atmosphere because they all took place long before human CO2 contributions to the atmosphere began. The
cause of the ten ‘natural’ climate changes that occurred earlier could easily have been the same as the cause of
present global warming.

...........................................................
So are we heading to a new Little Ice Age or Maunder Minimum as it is called? There only clues. It happened in the past (1645-1710) and it will happen again to the future. I am afraid that many of us we will live so long to see what really happen. But even though, it is not a good news for amateur radio activities.

SURPRISE

2008-04-23T13:00:00.002Z

Looking today traffic on 30m I had a new surprise. My signal, just 1w output on a vertical, was reported by K1JT station 7829Km away. Amazing! I have already told you that WPSR is very funny playing with as funny is propagation in early 24.

Playing with WHISPER

2008-04-18T14:32:00.008Z

"WSPR (pronounced "whisper") stands for "Weak Signal Propagation Reporter." This program implements transmitting and receiving for a digital soundcard mode called "MEPT_JT", an acronym for "Manned Experimental Propagation Tests, by K1JT". This is the initial release of a GUI-based version of the program."
With these words, Joe Taylor, this brilliant mind that honors our hobby being a ham himself, describes his tool for checking propagation by snooping very weak signals around the world. I installed it and played with it like a toy. It is really amazing to decode transmissions i HFof only 1 watt or so from thousands miles away. Among real DX stations I "heard", as you can see in the snagit snaps, it was Patrick, F6IRF. I did not really know that he was involved and it was a good surprise for me. It reminded me the bottles of beers we shared last year in Friedrichshafen fest.

So give a try to WHISPER! It deserves it and after all it has a lot of fun.

Cheers and beers...

2008-04-02T14:59:00.004Z

I do not usually post personal moments but this is an exception. We gather together to a cozy place just to celebrate my Honor Roll achievement. It was a very nice evening telling stories about past and planing future ham plans with a lot of beers in between. Call signs that honor me with their presence: SV8CS, SV8AXZ, SV8DOU, SV8KOK, SW8KOR, SW8KOU and SW8KOJ. I thank them all as that moment was a goal of a life time trip and I was very happy having them with me breaking the tape.

In the other hand last weekend I played a lot with CQ WPX CONTEST. The propagation was fair, especially in upper bands. I listened mostly on 15m and 10m and I heard many well known calls as 8R1K, 5D5A, 6V7E,WP2Z, 8P1A, FG/OM3LA, ST2KSS,ZD7X, 9V1YC,C01R, D44C,E20WXA and finally my friend Sardjana YB2ECG whom I usually meet in every digital mode contest and it was the first time I heard his voice. In other words I spent a very interesting weekend.

23 vs 24!

2008-03-28T18:14:00.004Z

Well it seems that I was a little optimistic about solar cycle 24. The recent activity belongs to cycle 23! Unbelievable but true. Read the following note taken from NASA page and you understand what is really going on.

Barely three months after forecasters announced the beginning of new Solar Cycle 24, old Solar Cycle 23 has returned. Actually, it never left. Read on.
"This week, three big sunspots appeared and they are all old cycle spots," says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. "We know this because of their magnetic polarity."
Earlier today, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this magnetic map of the sun:

It shows the north and south magnetic poles of the three sunspots. All are oriented according to the patterns of Solar Cycle 23. Cycle 24 spots would be reversed.
What's going on? Hathaway explains: "We have two solar cycles in progress at the same time. Solar Cycle 24 has begun (the first new-cycle spot appeared in January 2008), but Solar Cycle 23 has not ended."Strange as it sounds, this is perfectly normal. Around the time of solar minimum--i.e., now--old-cycle spots and new-cycle spots frequently intermingle. Eventually Cycle 23 will fade to zero, giving way in full to Solar Cycle 24, but not yet.

Meanwhile, on March 25th, sunspot 989, the smallest of the three sunspots, unleashed an M2-class solar flare. Flares are measured on a "Richter scale" ranging from A-class (puny) to X-class (powerful). M-class flares are of medium intensity. This one hurled a coronal mass ejection or "CME" into space (movie), but the billion-ton cloud missed Earth.

While the CME was still plowing through the sun's atmosphere, amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft heard "a heaving sound" coming from the loudspeaker of his 21 MHz shortwave receiver in New Mexico: listen. It was a Type II solar radio burst generated by shock waves at the leading edge of the CME. A thousand miles away in Virginia, David Thomas recorded the same emissions on a chart recorder he connected to his 20 MHz ham rig: look. "What a pleasant surprise," says Thomas.

We could get more of this kind of activity in the next 7 to 10 days. It will take about that long for the sunspots to cross the face of the sun. The sun's rotation is turning the spots toward Earth, which means the next CME, if there is one, might not miss. CME strikes do no physical harm to Earth but they can cause Northern Lights, satellite glitches and, in extreme cases, power outages.

The real significance of these spots is what they say about the solar cycle, says Hathaway. "Solar Cycle 24 has begun, but we won't be through solar minimum until the number of Cycle 24 spots rises above the declining number of Cycle 23 spots." Based on this latest spate of "old" activity, he thinks the next Solar Max probably won't arrive until 2012.

Stay tuned to Science@NASA for solar cycle updates.

Welcome 24

2008-03-28T06:29:00.008Z

The sun waked up at last. As a permanent space weather watcher I had to see so many sun spots for months. the solar flux is better than 80 and the new trip started for good. No doubt the 24 cycle is here and loud. Be patient to see the results in propagation terms. But of course it is a bit early for that.

Writing these words an other major expedition that kept us company for several days is QRT. The 9X0R was a well organized, well equipped and having great operators. The recent expedition in Rwanda by German guys does not affect at all their popularity. Especially their online log even with some glitches and not real time as they expected, it gave them a great push. I worked them in 19 of 20 slots they showed up, but there are many they worked the whole 20.

By the way tonight we have little party, celebrating my Honor Roll. Well, not yet achieved as 3 final cards are missing (the entities have been worked and it is a matter of QSLing), but who can wait to drink some beers for that? You are all invited!

TX5C...EPILOGUE!

2008-03-19T07:31:00.011Z

"TX5C went QRT 1400z March 15th 2008, two days earlier than originally planned. Due to both weather and sea conditions, the Captain of the Shogun determined that an earlier departure was required to ensure the safety of his crew and our team. We began moving equipment offshore two days prior in challenging conditions. By the time the last team members were extracted from the atoll late in the day, all but one of the zodiac spare propellers had been broken on the reef. The Shogun pulled anchor at 0130z March 16th and as the sun set, the team watched Clipperton Atoll slowly fade from view."

The expedition wend worse than anticipated due to the weather and other causes. The target of 100,000 qso was not approached. It turned out to be quite more difficult to operate as they want in this remote place of the world under a fierce nature and extreme temperatures. As for me my qsl card is on its way to N7CQQ to be cfm. And this is the last step as you Know. The 9X0R and 5T5DC are just routine exercises.

The last one!

2008-03-06T06:58:00.005Z

They are already on the island. Tomorrow we will start hear them on the bands. Hopping that the propagation will help as it does with Ducie, we will work them to many bands. So warm the machines up! As for me this is the expedition that will complete my Honor Roll and for this reason I will love it and remember it the years to come. Here are their first words from the battlefield:
"We are on Clipperton Atoll! It's 0133z as we write this. We had a successful landing and have loaded quite a bit of our camp gear to the island. Our base camp is set up and we're all tired but full of enthusiasm! In the morning we will begin the construction of our operating stations on the north side of the island exactly where we had hoped to be able to land. We are excited about this as this location will provide the best paths for us to work the world. We will update this page in the morning in more detail but we wanted you all to know we are safe and are on the island."

Fireworks at Ducie Island!

2008-02-25T16:05:00.004Z

Copying from Ducie page......

"On 2008 February 25 Monday at 0437z, after 13 days 7 hours and 37 minutes of continuous operation, RA0ALM contacted the Ducie Island expedition on the 10 MHz band for the expedition's 168,723rd contact.

According to documents maintained by Jari Jussila OH2BU, this contact breaks the record for the largest number of contacts made by any radio expedition. The record was previously held by the Five Star DX Association's expedition to the Comoros Island (D68C) during 2001 Feb 8-28.

A few moments later, the pre-moonrise starry skies above Ducie Island sparkled with a barrage of flares launched from the deck of the M/V Braveheart in celebration. The thirteen operators and six Braveheart crew congratulated each other with handshakes, hugs, and some strong coffee. But deep pileups of European and North American stations were still calling. Soon the seven on-duty operators were back in front of the radios, while the others crept off to their cots to catch up on sleep in the cool of the evening.

The Ducie Island expedition has broken other expedition records in recent days, including:

largest number of RTTY contacts, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition of 2007 April.
largest number of SSB (voice) contacts, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.
largest number of contacts on the 40m band, previously held by the Libya 5A7A expedition of 2006 November.
largest number of contacts on the 30m band, previously held by the St Brandon Island 3B7C expedition of 2007 September.
largest number of contacts on the 17m band, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition.
largest number of contacts with North America, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.
largest number of contacts with South America, previously held by the Peter the First Island 3Y0X expedition of 2006 February.
largest number of contacts with Africa, previously held by the Rodrigues Island 3B9C expedition of 2004 March-April.

As this message was transmitted by Iridium satellite from Ducie Island, the expedition contact total crossed 170,000 contacts... and continues to increase at about 415 contacts per hour. Most contacts now entering the logs are with European stations during their morning twilight period. In an hour or so the focus will shift to North and South America, east Asia and the Pacific, where it will remain until dawn at Ducie Island."

Congratulations dear folks. You gave us very nice moments indeed. And now next station Clipperton...the terminal one!

Ducie online log promised today

2008-02-14T06:44:00.002Z

Actually it was booming on 80m this morning. The online log first upload is promised for today at noon. I am publishing some late news as they request it.

News #14- 2008 Feb 13

I just had a telephone call with Carsten (DL6LAU) on Ducie Island. The reason we did not get any update or online log from the island is that they had no time until now because of a big workload to setup the stations and antennas. They plan to go "online" in the next 6-12 hours so we expect the first online logs around noon on Thursday. Please be aware that the data connection via Iridium is very sensible so it can last a long time to upload the online logs.

After 1,5 days of operation they have now about 28,000 QSOs in the log (about 17,000 after the first 24 hours!). They already started RTTY operation on 20m with over 700 QSOs at the moment. In some days we expect also RTTY operation on 30m.

Antenna construction is still in progress. Some antennas for 12m and 10m are missing. Today they are at the installation of the Beverage antennas for the low bands.

All team members are in a good shape (except some sunburns) and they have a lot of fun. A problem is the extreme heat during the daywhich makes it nearly impossible for the night operators to sleep.

Tomorrow we will get some more news from the island. Please stay tuned.

We would be delighted if DX editors would publish this information as widely as possible and DXers bring it to the attention of their clubs and fellow DXers.

WPXRTTY TEST

2008-02-13T16:28:00.002Z

I spent last weekend running the CQWPXRTTY contest. As a single operator I was 30 hours active chasing mostly dx stations. It was a really cold weekend, so I enjoyed it very much sitting all that time in my cozy shack. Even with a spotless sun propagation was not bad. MixW worked faultlessly again. I worked 605 qso and over 600,000points. No bad at all. The main target was not the championship of course. In comparison I had done 532 qso in CQWWRTTY last September. Several USA, VE, JA and VK stations were heard. P40X was in the log also. A welcome surprise it was also the qso with my friend Patrick, F6IRF. Patrick is a devoted CW operator so I did not expect him to join the test.

By the way two new expeditions start this week: VR6DX (Ducie) and TI9KK (Cocos). Both have nice signals in 80m and 40m in the morning, but no chance the rest of the day. With so low sun activity it is amazing we can work them. So no complains….and the next month I am anxious to work the TX5C (Clipperton). This is a very important for me as it is the real last one to get the Honor Roll with 329 entities. So folks it will be a really exciting spring.

New Year, New Gadgets in the shack

2008-01-14T09:37:00.000Z

Every new year comes full of promises for dreams fulfillment. But some time you have to help a little bit to make this true. I think that gadgets are actually extensions of ourselves. You choose them for specific reasons. You feel more complete and more confident just using them in the every day routine. It is a kind of sophisticated toys for adult.But let me tell you what is this little introduction all about: Just to present you my new gadgets.

1. My new weather station. It is a DAVIS Vantage PRO2 wireless. All sensors are integrated to one unit and transmit data to console in a very efficient way. (First and only weather station in its class to use frequency hopping spread spectrum radio technology to transmit weather data wirelessly up to 1000' (300 m)).
I installed the ISS (Integrated Sensor Suite) up to my terrace just under my HF antennas. Fortunately the whole system turned out to be RF proof, an issue that my old Monitor II suffered a lot. The isolation between sensors and console protects the later from static that under bad weather conditions make provoke severe damage. But a weather station without a data logger and proper monitoring software it is absolutely useless. DAVIS has made great job on this part too. Data logger keeps data for 50 days if you choose one record every 30 min (there are many options upon this interval). WeatherLink, as they call the provided software, it does very well its job and can convert the older data bases to the new format. This weather station is a really mature product and quite compatible with HAM environments.

2. My RigExpert AA-200 Antenna analyzer. To say the truth I have not test this instrument as much as I want. First impressions are very good. I have to say that it is very good looking and gives the feeling of a well and toughly manufactured item. It is powered by a rechargeable Ni-MH battery pack 1800mAH and it has autonomy of 2 hours of continuous metering or 20 hours in stand by mode. It can also connected to a PC though a USB port. Connected to a dummy it gave me a R=50.1Ohm and reactance 0.2Ohm. My trapped dipole for 40m and 80m gave me this nice SWR diagram centered to 7080KHz. Magnify to see details. No bad, isn't it? If it is so accurate as I expect this is the ultimate tool for the serious amateur. Anyway I will come back with full review when I have much more measurements.

3. Finally I will add a small review for my ACOM1000 linear amplifier. This is not quite new but it need some time to test a linear.

What can I say about this state of the art piece of radio equipment? There are so many good reviews that I feel I have nothing to add. But let me do just a few simple comments. I work with it more than six months. I have participated in several contests during this period. Among them there were some very demanding ones, as CQ WW RTTY for example. Lots of hours of continuous working without any complain. Every time I am sitting in my shack beside my ACOM1000 I feel proud and full of confidence. Before I get it, I knew that it had a very good reputation, but my cohabitation with it, it is beyond my expectations. What are its hot features?
a. Absolutely silent (whisper fan, vacuum relays)
b. Very easy tuning (attenuator in order to tune with full driving power)
c .Withstand 3:1 SWR transmitting with full power (no external tuner required)
d. Excellent liquid crystal control monitoring 12 parameters
e. Very smart and efficient protection circuit
And some words about service. I need it only once. A minor problem resolved in a couple of days. People in ACOM are very friendly and really helpful. Simply the best service I have ever experienced in my 30 years amateur life.

At last sun wakes up

2008-01-13T05:22:00.000Z

I am transferring comments from NASA information site about space weather. There is clear evidence that cycle 24 begun. Ladies and Gentlemen enjoy it.

Jan. 10, 2008: Hang on to your cell phone, a new solar cycle has just begun.

"On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared—and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24," says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Above: Images of the first sunspot of Solar Cycle 24 taken by the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). [Larger image] [Movie]

Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles. Lately, we've been experiencing the low ebb, "very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind," says Hathaway. "Solar minimum is upon us."

The previous solar cycle, Solar Cycle 23, peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms. That cycle decayed as usual to the present quiet leaving solar physicists little to do other than wonder, when would the next cycle begin?

The answer is now.

"New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot," explains Hathaway. "Reversed polarity" means a sunspot with opposite magnetic polarity compared to sunspots from the previous solar cycle. "High-latitude" refers to the sun's grid of latitude and longitude. Old cycle spots congregate near the sun's equator. New cycle spots appear higher, around 25 or 30 degrees latitude.

The sunspot that appeared on January 4th fits both these criteria. It was high latitude (30 degrees N) and magnetically reversed. NOAA named the spot AR10981, or "sunspot 981" for short.

Sunspot 981 was small--only about as wide as Earth, which counts as small on the grand scale of the sun--and it has already faded away. But its three day appearance on Jan. 4-6 was enough to convince most solar physicists that Solar Cycle 24 is underway.

Strange but True: While Solar Cycle 24 has begun, Solar Cycle 23 has not ended. Both cycles will coexist for a period of time, perhaps a year or more, as one dies down and the other comes to life. In the months ahead we may see old-cycle sunspots and new-cycle sunspots on the sun at the same time.

Confusion

2007-12-20T14:43:00.000Z

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

2007-12-15T10:22:00.000Z

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!

2007-11-30T06:50:00.000Z

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

2007-11-23T16:59:00.000Z

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.