VK land – Signal heard

On day #63 as I went to bed I put my station on the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network running just 5 watts on 28MHz.  I’d jokingly said that I expected to be heard in Australia with a signal strength of +20dB.  Well, it’s easy to confuse plus and minus isn’t it! When I got […]

Days 61, 62 and 63 – Data, data everywhere

Three days absolutely stuffed full of data contacts.  Don’t worry though, I do pick up the microphone on day #64 and that will be in the next blog entry. Day #61 was another of my long days out, I left home at around half six in the morning and wasn’t expecting to be home until […]

Days 58, 59 and 60 – Lots more data

I’ve not picked up the microphone at all over the last few days and am really having a good time working the data modes, almost exclusively JT65.  I explained how JT65 works in my last blog post and I’m getting more interested by the mode every time I read about it and operate using it. […]

Review – February

February was a very enjoyable month, things have settled into a regular pattern and I’m still going strong in my quest to have a QSO per day.  I’ve had less contacts in February which I put down to me operating in less contest situations which isn’t a bad thing.  Less contacts, better quality! As I […]

Days 55, 56 and 57 – Data!

Over these three days I had 21 QSOs and only used the microphone once!  The one time I used it I called a contest station who only wanted to work French stations so I tuned away. On the afternoon of day #55 I had a delivery from Slovakia.  This parcel contained a microHAM USB Interface […]

Days 52, 53 and 54

A fairly quiet three days because my kids are away and so it’s just the wife and me at home. On day #52 I first worked OZ3FD, Henry on 80m when I was running just 10 watts and then I had a chat with Jim, MM0SMD in the fantastically named “Dufftown”, Scotland. I did a […]

The Archers and Camilla – A rant

Strange title?  Not radio related? Correct.  No apologies though. I listen to The Archers, I’ve listened to The Archers for more years than I care to remember and I like it.  For fifteen minutes a day my mind goes to Ambridge and I think it’s great. For a while now the press (specifically the BBC […]

Days 49, 50 and 51 – Three new DXCC entities

I’d just arrived at work on day #49 when my mobile phone rang, it was Yan, M0YNK with exciting news.  He’d just arrived outside his work QTH and had noticed that 10m was a little lively.  In fact it was more than a little lively as I could hear in the background, it was very […]

Days 46, 47 and 48

Day #46 saw two QSOs, first I spoke to EA3WD, Vic near Barcelona on 40m and then I moved to 80m and worked DF0AF, Klaus  who was operating a special event station commemorating five years of the First Assistance Samaritan Team. I also had two QSOs on day #47, both on 80m with DF2DD, Carsten […]

What’s this?

I collected my old component rack from my mum’s loft a couple of weeks ago and in one of the drawers I found two pieces of breadboard with the same thing built on each of them.  I built these when I was in my early teens and that’s quite obvious from the quality of the […]