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 […]
One of the new local Foundation licence holders recently did the Intermediate course and exam and as part of her practical assessment, she built a capacitance meter which I’m sure helped her pass the course. Well done, Caroline! I fancied doing the same as it’s a handy piece of test gear that I’ve never owned. […]
I’ve not been specifically chasing new DXCC entities for a while and because of this, I’ve only picked up four since 2015. I know there’s been some interest surrounding the 3C0L and 3C1L DXpedition to Annobon and Equatorial Guinea respectively over the last few weeks and although I missed out on working 3C0L, I was […]
Strange as it might seem, I’ve never put in a good solid single band entry into the CQ WW SSB contest. If you look at the recent addition to this site, my contest results page then you can see that I came third (out of three) in 2013 for my 15m entry, first (out of […]
My challenge to work DXCC on 17m using FT8 is coming along nicely – I’ve now worked fifty separate entities as follows. Although I’m not going to go out of my way to get them confirmed because Logbook of The World and the DXCC award system doesn’t differentiate between different data modes, it’s good to […]
