Running the Marathon

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

An alternative TX ground for FT-897D

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

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

“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!

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

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.