Category: FT8

I’ve worked 300 DXCC entities

It’s been a while since I posted any updates here, not because I’ve got nothing to say but because I’ve been busy working on the station and playing radio. My new aerial is up but I’m not going to say anything about that now, that’s for a future update. I’ve had a good year so […]

Review of 2022

QSOs made: 2,022DXCC entities worked: 141New DXCC entities worked: 4Total DXCC worked and confirmed: 286 Solar cycle 25 is really starting to ramp up now and this is demonstrated clearly by the fact that for the first time in many years, the country I’ve worked the most is the USA with 436 QSOs. Unsurprisingly, 15m is […]

QSO365 #3 is complete – Ten QSOs per day in 2021

Number of QSOs made per band during QSO365 #3

I’ll kick off with the statistics for the whole of 2021 and then go into the details. QSOs made: 8,265Unique QSOs made: 5,776Average QSOs per day: 22.6Days missed: 0 <- This is the most important statistic, it means that QSO365 #3 was a success. DXCC entities worked: 168New DXCC entities worked: 1Total DXCC worked and […]

Amateur radio picture of the week

FT8 key down

Over the weekend I was operating in the World Wide Digi DX contest and I wondered if I could get a screen capture of my TS-890 just as I started transmission. I reached over and as the radio went into transmit, I hit the screen capture button and this is the result. As you can […]

Being in the right place at the right time

G6NHU works 5I3B on 20m FT8

I happened to look at my emails and noticed that someone had posted to an email reflector I’m a member of that 5I3W (Tanzania) was on 20m SSB. The post had been made just a few minutes earlier so I switched on the wireless and tuned to the appropriate frequency. I was just in time […]

Entering the Batavia FT8 contest

Map of stations worked during the Batavia FT8 contest 2021

Oh this is going to bring the haters to the fore! Not only is it an 48 hour contest but it’s a 48 hour contest using FT8. Mind you, as it’s FT8, it only takes up a few kHz of the spectrum in an area that’s not used for SSB or CW so it shouldn’t […]

150 DXCC entities worked on 17m FT8

Map of stations worked on 17m using FT8

Wow! That’s taken a while. Back in August 2017 I set myself a challenge to work DXCC on 17m using just FT8. At the time, I described it as ‘the new FT8 mode’ and it really was in its infancy back then. I completed that challenge in March 2018 and then quietly set myself another […]

Accurate time keeping on an Apple Mac running macOS Big Sur for FT8, FT4 and WSPR

ChronyControl

2023 update – This still works with macOS Sonoma and Apple Silicon. I’ve been using Apple computers for many years now and even though I’ve made a couple of previous blog posts about keeping the clock accurate on a Mac, those methods have never really been needed and I posted them as a sort of […]

Hexbeam is fixed, DXCC 2021 and general updates

Yaesu FTM-300DE monitoring the QSO365 YSFReflector

I posted back in January to say that the 17m element on my Hexbeam had snapped in the storms and was causing problems. It took over three months before everything came together to allow me to get the mast down and repair it but I managed it last weekend, just in time for the CQ […]

I’ve had a busy January

There’s been lots going on in my life throughout January but that hasn’t stopped me playing radio – I’ve made a point of sitting in the shack for a few minutes every day just to take my mind off of other things and as a result, I’ve managed nearly 550 QSOs so far working 73 […]