Last weekend I was pleased to take part in the UK DX BPSK63 contest – This contest was RTTY in 2012 but has changed to PSK63 this year. I generally prefer operating RTTY to PSK but there’s no doubt that PSK63 is quicker than RTTY and more stations will fit into the available bandwidth. This […]
QSLing – Is this in the spirit of Amateur Radio?
In April last year I made two QSOs with a group of people on a DXpedition to an African country, this was a new DXCC to me and after the trip I looked up the callsign on qrz.com where it listed a QSL manager. I checked that callsign on qrz.com and it confirmed that he […]
Amplifier broken? Aerial broken? Coax broken? What?
On 29th December I attempted to have a go in the World Wide Iron Ham contest. I wasn’t planning on a big entry but was just going to run for a couple of hours to have a break from the Christmas festivities. I fired everything up as usual but when I started transmitting, my Acom 1000 displayed […]
Statistics and look back at 2012
To start with, here are the statistics for 2012, this includes QSOs made using G6NHU and GO6NHU. QSOs made: 10,078 Unique QSOs made: 5,531 DXCC entities worked in 2012: 223 New DXCC entities worked in 2012: 75 Total DXCC worked: 237 Using ClubLog I can break the stats down into three different modes. Using VQLog […]
Statistics – December 2012
I’m back above the corresponding months figure from last year with nearly 800 QSOs in the log for December. I only managed to work one new DXCC entity this month, that was the ZL9HR DXpedition to Campbell Island. I did have one QSO on 20m using SSTV which is a mode that I last used […]
OK DX RTTY contest 2012
At the beginning of each month, I take a look at the contest calendar and get a rough idea of what I’m going to take part in, whether I’m just going to give away some points or whether I’m going to make a serious entry. The data contests attract my attention more than any others […]
Building a set of 5B4AGN bandpass filters
For the Martello Tower DXpedition to Herm, I borrowed two complete switchable 5B4AGN bandpass filters, we had one connected to each radio to prevent the two stations interfering with each other and they worked very well. I’d decided before we went to Herm that I wanted to build a set of these filters myself and […]
Shaving – A step back in time
No, you’ve not inadvertently clicked on a ‘Men’s Grooming’ website, this is still my amateur radio blog but I thought I’d write about something that affects 50% of the population, ie the male half. The daily chore of scraping whiskers from our faces. I almost forgot that many radio amateurs are bearded. If you’re bearded […]
Statistics – November 2012
This is the first month of the year where my QSO total is lower than the same month in 2011 and I put that largely down to the fact that I’ve been very busy at work this month and have had a number of late evenings and weekends where I’ve been working so my time […]
Data (RTTY/PSK) contesting – The anatomy of an ideal QSO
I like contesting. I like data contesting and I operate a lot in data contests. I don’t generally have the time to dedicate to making a winning entry although for the big events, I’ll try and make a good score and aim to finish high up in the table. I’ve done well enough though and […]
