Category: Amateur radio

Days 240, 241 and 242

I’ve become a bit lapse in updating the blog with QSO details and so I’m a few days behind here – I’ll try and catch up over the weekend.  But just because I’m not writing the blog doesn’t mean I’m not using the radio. On day #240 I first worked a few more stations on […]

Operating portable with homebrew aerials

One of the things I love about amateur radio is the fact that there are so many facets to the hobby that there’s always something new to try.  At the meeting of the Colchester Radio Club last month there was a talk by Kevan, 2E0WMG about operating portable with lots of photographs of him operating portable […]

Days 237, 238 and 239 – some JT65, RTTY, SSB, PSK31 and even some FM

I’ve noticed that my operating tends to go in phases, sometimes I’ll work just 40m, or other times I’ll be operating exclusively on SSB and at the moment I’m in a datacomms phase where a huge chunk of my time is spent operating the data modes. So to kick off, on day #237  I first […]

Review – August

A good number of contacts made this month and the second highest number of DXCC entities worked mean that things are going well here at QSO365.  I’m still behind on my QSL cards though and am slowly working to catch up.  I enjoy writing cards but it is getting a little tedious so once I get […]

Days 234, 235 and 236

It’s holiday time now so I’m spending a little more time on the wireless.  Of course, because it’s holiday means that I’m out and about doing stuff during the day and taking time late at night when I’d normally be in bed to play radio. I’ve had an update from John at Aerial-Parts of Colchester to […]

Building a dummy load

Dummy load in oil

Some time ago I decided that I really ought to have a dummy load in the shack.  I used to own a very good BNOS load a long time ago but I really have no idea what happened to it.  At some time it probably was either sold or stashed in the loft, I really […]

Days 231, 232 and 233 – RTTY!

There was a Sporadic E opening on 6m on day #231 and so I was pleased to work HA3LI, Ali, IZ5EME, Marco, IW4AOT, Peter, IK4ASR, Davide and IZ3SQW, Mirko using just my homebrew indoor half wave dipole.  I then switched over to 40m and spoke to GP3ZPE/P, Paul on Guernsey and then worked a couple […]

JT65A, working DX with low power

Over the last few months I’ve mentioned JT65, or to be more precise, JT65A a lot and it’s fair to say that I’ve had a lot of QSOs using it.  In fact, at the moment it’s probably my favourite mode of operation.  I explained about how a contact is made using JT65 in this blog […]

Days 228, 229 and 230 – One more new DXCC and plenty of JT65

My last QSO on day #227 was a new DXCC so it was a nice surprise for my only contact on day #228 to be another new one – I worked Eduardo, CO8LY in Cuba on 17m PSK31. I had a lot more contacts on day #229 though, I started off by talking to IV3SUS, […]

QSO365 has a new sponsor – Aerial-Parts of Colchester

I am very pleased to announce that I have a new sponsor on board in the form of Aerial-Parts of Colchester.  I blogged a while ago saying that I was considering using a lighting/CCTV camera mast to replace my current scaffold pole but while that would have provided sufficient strength and stability, the mast itself […]