Month: October 2011

Days 302 and 303 – CQWW SSB weekend

This weekend was the CQWW SSB contest, arguably the largest HF contest of the year and it was an event I’d been looking forward to for some time.  Last year I just gave away a few points using a relatively low and inefficient aerial but with the beam up, I knew I was going to […]

Days 299, 300 and 301 – Three new DXCC entities in the log

Just a few QSOs for these three days but there are some good ones – On day #299 I first worked PT2CM and SZ7SER on 20m SSB and then EI9HX and 9A8DX on 40m. On day #300 I had 3 QSOs and all 3 were new DXCCs for me.  They were all on 20m and […]

Days 296, 297 and 298 – I finally worked T32C

Day #296 was the day of the aerial work although before we started tearing my aerials down, I had a quick ‘banker’ QSO just in case things didn’t go well.  I worked JG1WNO, Hiro on 10m JT65 early in the morning. After all the work was done and my beam was up, my first QSO […]

Which HF amplifier?

Now the beam is up and that project is almost completed I’ve decided that the next addition to my shack should be an HF amplifier but I don’t know which one to go for. I can read reviews from now until my eyes fall out but I’d like views and opinions from people who actually have, […]

Days 293, 294 and 295 – First SSB contact to VK

Conditions have been great over the last couple of weeks.  I’ve not been going out of my way to have long strings of QSOs though, just tuning around and picking people off as I feel like it. On day #293 I spent most of my time on 10m working A65EE, Adil, ZS6CX, Glen, RD3ZV, Alex, […]

Mast is up, beam is up – It’s all done in time for CQ WW SSB

The crowds descended on my QTH again today in order to finish what we started back on the 10th September, just six weeks ago.  Today we had Chris, M6GSD, Tony, G0MBA, Colin, M1EAK, Yan, M0YNK, Bill, G0OAX and Chris’ son, Dean here. To start with, Chris drilled the holes to mount the chemical anchors for […]

I’ve got a new callsign – KB3WPE

I just checked the FCC website as I’ve been doing most days since I passed the FCC Technician and General class exams and discovered that yesterday I was issued KB3WPE.  

Now this is what you call a pulley!

As has been well publicised in this blog, Yan, M0YNK has been constructing most of the hardware to go with my mast.  I popped into his workshop on the way home tonight to find him working on a pulley for me.  Originally we’d bought one which wasn’t man enough for the job and Yan had […]

Days 290, 291 and 292 – A QSL card in the post

I had three QSOs on day #290, I worked MX0BCQ, Kevin and 2E0OTL, Gary on 40m SSB and then had a JT65 QSO on 20m with IW1PUR, Roberto. Even less on day #291 despite the current good conditions – I spoke to KF3B, Alan on 15m SSB and NU1O, Chris on 10m. I arrived home […]

Days 287, 288 and 289 – A bit of (almost) everything

There’s a bit of everything in this update.  Variety is the spice of life! I only had two QSOs on day #287 though, I first worked KD4FNI, Glenn on 15m and then I heard EA3JW, Jim calling CQ DX on 40m.  I wound the power down to 10 watts and asked if he’d mind working […]