Heavy weather out of my door

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

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

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

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

 

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

After contest

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

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

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

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

DXing goes on….

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

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

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!

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

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!