Day #178 saw me just working the higher bands, I spoke to DO8ABS, EW6DX and IZ5ENZ on 10m and HA5JI, YO5OHY, SP7HKK and HA6NL on 6m. Day #179 was the day of the lightning strike but luckily for the project I’d worked W4DXX, Eric on 20m in the morning before leaving for work. It’s unusual […]
Category: Amateur radio
QSO365 struck by lightning, future in jeopardy
At around 17:05 yesterday (28th June) my house suffered a very near lightning strike. My wife and daughter described it as a very bright white flash and a simultaneous bang which sounded as though a huge goldfish bowl had smashed right behind them. My neighbours have described a feeling of something going through them and […]
Days 175, 176 and 177 – I’ve now worked 100 DXCC entities
I’ve done a fair bit of data over these three days, largely but not exclusively down to a contest at the weekend which was 75 baud RTTY and PSK63. Day #175 didn’t include a contest though but I still had a go with some PSK – I worked SP3SLO (Paul), F8KHR (Dom), OK1DOZ (Beda), UT1PA […]
A magazine article on the future of amateur radio and my thoughts about it
A recent correspondent in the letters section of an amateur radio magazine admits to having “caught the bug” of amateur radio, agrees that there should be a proper licensing test of operating procedures and the use of appropriate instruments to prevent interference, but “cannot really see the point of everyone having to learn basic electrics […]
Days 172, 173 and 174 – Svalbard?
On day #172 I switched the wireless on to find it still on 20m from the last QSO of the previous night and so I tuned around to hear RA3PCI, Sergey calling CQ. It would have been rude not to answer so we had a chat and then I moved to 40m to work J48O, […]
Days 169, 170 and 171 – WSPR on 6m and Contestia
I started day #169 by working a couple of Special Event stations on 40m, I worked MU/EA1SA followed by GB0GCR and GB2MOF then I had a contact with EA3PT, Jordi on 15m. I then had RTTY QSOs on 20m with TF5B, Billi and PI65ALK. It was the 6m Trophy contest and so I gave away […]
Why do I get so few replies to CQ calls?
Over the last few months I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon. Why is it that I can call CQ on the HF bands and not get a reply for ages? I’ve noticed that I can call for ten minutes and finally have a reply from someone who gives me a good signal report, “Five and nine plus […]
Days 166, 167 and 168 – /p operation
On day #166 I started off after work by working DJ3HJ, SK7BQ/P, PC11AMBER and F/G3PGK/P on 40m SSB. It was a nice long chat with F/G3PGK/P, Colin who was on holiday in France. I learned that he has a cat called Bonzo and he learned a couple of things – One was that I don’t […]
40m WSPR on my new loop aerial
Last night I thought I’d see how well my 40m horizontal delta loop was performing by running some WSPR overnight with just five watts – I can’t go any lower with my radio, the lowest setting is five watts. After one transmit period this is where I’d been seen. That’s pretty good. I left the […]
Days 163, 164 and 165
Day #163 kicked off with a few QSOs in a 144MHz contest – Not as many as I’d have hoped but conditions were pretty dire and although I tuned around for nearly an hour, I only managed to work five stations who were G3NYY/P, TM7T, G0UTT/P, G2XV/P and MI0AYR/P. After that I worked DL0YLC, Connie […]
