Autumn…time for DXing

Autumn is deeply established. The leaves are yellow, temperatures are lower and Greece is still alive. So do we! And very busy actually. PT0S is on the air, not as successfully as in previous expeditions, but conditions on the rocks are difficult and propagation rather poor. George and Thomas are doing their best as always.

But the big event of the year is coming next. I mean the major  expedition that  the whole amateur world is waiting anxiously. The 11th most wanted entity, Campbell island (ZL9HR), will be on the air quite soon. Tommy, VK2IR top of the team, reports that all preparations are under control and as scheduled. The expedition has been organized by Hellenic Amateur Radio Association Of Australia, known as H.A.R.A.O.A.

We wish them, with all our heart, ZL9HellenicRadio to be a great success.

6m Marathon 2012

Here are the results of this year 6m Marathon. I got 11th place with 83 different entities, 12 more than last year. Let see if we will achieve our goal of over one hundred nest year. Till then I wish all of you an interesting DX winter.

SDR IQ and FTdx5000D marriage

It was time to exploit the IF output of my FTdx5000D to establish a descent pan adapter for my trx. I chose the SDR IQ to do the job. The SM-5000 is  good but rather insufficient. It is just an indicator I would say. An SDR receiver gives a much bigger amount of information. It is really a must-have.

In the picture you can see SpectraVue software in the left screen. From now and then I will not only listen a QSO but I will  watch it as well!

Mrs Bharathi in person

Usually, the SV8S D-Star repeater keeps on silent. But yesterday afternoon, quite unexpectedly, VU2RBI, Mrs Bharathi, the famous radio amateur of India, showed up calling CQ in our local repeater.  We had a real cordial digital QSO. After a wile, Spiros, SV8CS joined us. It was a very exiting experience indeed.

There are times that D-Star technology rewards you for countless hours of monitoring….

The last hamfest?

Last weekend I was in Athens in the hamfest of 2012. Here are some snaps of the event.

SV8RX,SV1CC,SV3KH,SV1BKT,SV8OMF

SV7JAP,SV7LYG,SV3MSK,SV8RX

SV1GH,SV7JAP in the front of SV1HK shop!

Café RX with SV1GH and SV1FJF

Unfortunately  this may be  the last hamfest organized by RAAG. Economical and others reasons make it very difficult for another hamfest to take place in the future.

Speaking of new breed..

A Yaesu new transceiver is on the go. Actually it is a a downgrade of FTDX 5000 and it is beautiful. Rumors say that it will have down conversion receiver as its bigger brother does and a full digital display. The name of it FTDX 3000. Take a look to the tentative specs. It seems an interesting proposition.

Yaesu stroke back!

Spring time, time for 6

The spring finally arrived dear fellows. So did the Marathon on 6m. The space weather is favorable and the traffic is high.  In the mean time tow major dxpeditions are active simultaneously. Yemen (7O6T) and Somalia (6O0CW) giving logs a rush. We will have a promising summer…

By the way this is the most recent photo of Kenwood proposition on high end class  transceivers. Isn’t it   adorable?  Welcome to our community kid.