One of the biggest complaints on our local repeaters is that people are quiet with very low audio. Often they’re using the cheap Chinese handheld wirelesses such as the Baofeng UV-5R or similar which have a reputation for being quiet. There are well documented ‘fixes’ available such as drilling out the microphone hole. However it’s […]
Over the years as I’ve operated QRSS and WSPR, I’ve noticed that my original TS-590S and then the replacement TS-590SG have always been slightly off frequency and suffering from a little drift. This frequency inaccuracy was barely 30Hz which seems minuscule but when monitoring a section of the band which is only 200Hz wide, the […]
My last update on this challenge was back in October and I did very little towards it until the New Year. Since the last time I posted about this, I’ve worked an extra 27 DXCC entities on 17m using just FT8 taking me up to my current total of 77 entities worked. This brings my […]
In 2013 I was issued a Special Contest Callsign (SCC) and used it very successfully for a number of contests which you can see on my Contest results page. Because I wasn’t active in the qualifying contests very much after that, I couldn’t renew it when it expired at the end of 2016. Part of […]
I’d just like to record my annual stats as extracted from ClubLog for 2017 As is normal for me, most of my QSOs were data. The majority of those were RTTY although a fair few were using the new FT8 mode. I’m not unhappy with those figures, especially when you consider how poor the HF […]
What a difference five years and nearly half of a solar cycle makes. Last weekend I entered the OK DX RTTY contest and upon checking my log, I realised it’s been five years since I last operated in this contest. In December 2012 we were approaching solar maximum and conditions were excellent. Five years later, […]
Two or three years ago I had a browser tab sitting open on the Hendricks 41dB Step RF Attenuator from Pacific Antenna/QRP Kits in California. For some reason I never ordered one and when I finally remembered that I was going to get one, they were out of stock. I dropped them an email back […]
Back in 2011 while I was working my QSO365 project (the reason why this blog started), I reached 100 DXCC entities worked and although I applied for the award, I don’t think I ever actually posted the certificate on here. The general DXCC award is for the “mixed” category which means that you’ve worked and […]
When I work a contest, most of the time I’m calling CQ and I always work duplicates. If someone calls me and my log flags that they’re a duplicate, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I work them again. Some operators flatly refuse to work duplicates but I think that’s a mistake and I’d […]
I’ve written a couple of times in the past about various digital voice modes and if I’m honest, I’ve been quite scathing of them. I make no secret of the fact that I’m very happy to use repeaters for local natter but don’t like the idea of linking remote repeaters together via the internet to […]
