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!

DX, CONTEST and other stories

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

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!

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

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.