April 1: right at the end of March, FT4JA on Juan de Nova made a big splash on the bands with several stations QRV simultaneously on different bands and modes. I've worked them on 3 bands and 2 modes already so the pressure's off.
I continued listening on 3534 while sipping coffee and catching up with emails. Slowly VK0EK's signal crept up in strength (just about audible on QSB peaks, that is) until I thought I might be lucky enough to hear him sending my call & report, so I started sporadically calling him … and in due course I caught a snatch of “FB” coming back. From that point, it took roughly 5 minutes more to complete our QSO at about 1815z, 15 minutes before our dawn. I thought he’d got everything OK after about 2 minutes but the DXA website showed he’d logged ZL2FB so I carried on calling/correcting until finally he got ZL2IFB and confirmed my full call on-air. I think he gave me 559. I gave him 259 at first, then 359 towards the end.
See if you can even make him out at all on this nearly 8 minute long stereo recording. He’s transmitting on 3534 on the right channel, QSX down 1 on the left channel. My sidetone is silent on the recording but maybe you can guess roughly what I’m sending from the QSK gaps in the received signals.
Through the VK0EK website, I sent them a message asking them not to stick slavishly to their published frequencies which may be unusuable in some locations due to local QRM. They will soon be spotted on DXcluster wherever they transmit anyway. Isn't it time for DXpeditions to stop using predetermined fixed frequencies? Just like the rest of us, they should listen carefully for a clear frequency before transmitting but even if the frequency is clear their end, they are unlikely to hear local QRM at the far ends such as QRM from computer gear, switchmode supplies, broadband, grow-lights, plasma TVs, receiver sproggies and whatever - some of which will be there 24x7. On top of that, they ought to be listening on their TX frequency for DQRMers or accidental QRM from other pileups,and should shift away accordingly.
April 8: I was thrilled to make a RTTY QSO with VK0EK on 30m this evening, or at least I thought I made a QSO - they were very weak with me at the time and marginal copy even with GRITTY:
However the QSO didn't appear in their online log so an hour later I gave it another bash on 30/RTTY and this time was rewarded with this friendly DXA message:
I have been quite cynical about real-time online logging but thanks to this little incident, I'm now a fan - provided the system is sufficiently reliable not to lose QSOs anyway.
April 9: CQ Mag's report on my entry in the 2015 CQ WW CW contest shows that I did pretty well, though not perfectly:
563 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)
555 Final QSO after checking reductions 8 QSOs deducted
1592 Claimed QSO points
1520 Final QSO points 72 points lost
305 Claimed countries
305 Final countries
127 Claimed zones
127 Final zones
432 Claimed mults
432 Final mults Yay! No mults lost this year
687744 Claimed score
656640 Final score
4.5% Score reduction
1.4% Error Rate based on claimed and final qso counts
3 (0.5%) calls copied incorrectly
0 (0.0%) exchanges copied incorrectly
5 (0.9%) not in log
1 (0.2%) duplicates (Removed without penalty)
2 (0.4%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)
I'm pretty happy with that. Not sure what happened with those 5 not-in-log QSOs: perhaps I need to invest a few extra milliseconds checking that the other guy confirms/completes the QSO, and fair enough. When in full flow in the heat of a contest, there's a natural tendency to press ahead as fast as possible. I should be more careful next time.April 13: I've received a batch of QSL cards from the ZL bureau including quite a few from the UK. Oh boy, the bureau system can be slow! I'm currently looking at a card from John G3WZT for the first of our many 80m QSOs way back in October 2007. According to my log, I sent him a card via the bureaux on the day of our QSO, so the round trip has taken 8½ years!April 14 is a yellow-dot day. I've stuck another yellow dot on my world map because Nicolas FT4XU confirmed our 20/SSB QSO on LoTW, my first and so far only QSO with Kerguelen Island. Thanks Nicolas, that's current DXCC country 326 confirmed, hopefully soon to be 328 when VK0EK and FT4JA confirm.
- QEX Jan/Feb 2009 pages 21/25 - describes the experimental setup
- QEX Jan/Feb 2009 pages 48-52 - explores why having just a few radials gives such poor results
- QEX March/April 2009 pages 29-32 - compares buried against elevated radials
- QEX May/June 2009 pages 38-42 - answers the perennial question how many radials are needed for a vertical?
- QEX July/August 2009 pages 15-17 - concerns grounds for a topband vertical
- QEX Nov/Dec 2009 pages 19-24 - concerns grounds for a multiband vertical
- QEX Jan/Feb 2010 pages 18-19 - concerns grounds with missing sectors
Whereas most amateur articles and books offer subjective impressions, modelling of uncertain quality, and folk-lore, Rudy has painstakingly completed full-scale scientific experiments and careful analysis – a very impressive body of work. It takes a bit of effort to study each article but, hey, we’re supposed to be self-training engineers!April 15 is another yellow-dotter thanks to Tim M0URX, QSL manager for VK0EK, who kindly uploaded my QSOs to LoTW today:That's 327 of the 340 current DXCCs confirmed and another step closer to Honor Roll for me. Not too long ago, I could have expected to wait several months, maybe a year or more for my Heard Island QSL card/s, and a few dollars of my donation would have gone towards the postal costs. I'm still hoping for a single postcard from Heard to add to my QSL card album, but to be honest I'd be perfectly happy with an electronic image that I can print myself.
April 21: a few times while chasing EP2A for new band-slots the past couple of days, I've noticed their signal strength suddenly drop. I guess they might be changing antenna directions, tripping amplifiers or have a fault somewhere, or is it something to do with propagation? Conditions are poor and their signals generally weak or very weak with me, but thanks to them I've worked Iran on 30 and 15m. I heard them on 80 just after dawn this morning, then on 40m too, working Europe ... but maybe tomorrow I'll get up early enough to catch them.
April 23: FT4JA has confirmed on LoTW, so I'm now at 328 current ...
Thanks lads!
April 24: more shack wallpaper!
Last night I read about the HG225 special event stations currently on-air, celebrating 225 years since Samuel Morse's birth on April 27th 1791. There is an award for contacting HG225 stations whose suffixes spell out SAMUEL MORSE. I've logged all but A already, so I'm hunting for HG225A to complete the set. He was spotted on 17m this evening but far too weak to work. I could barely even tell that he was there at all - just the feintest whiff of a carrier.
April 25: bingo! With HG225A safely in the log on 20m SSB (!), that completes the full house for SAMUEL MORSE. Odd that they weren't all running CW exclusively but never mind: it was a fun little challenge, achieved in 1½ days. Happy birthday Sam! Cool that his middle initials are FB.
April 28: a WinKeyer3 chip from K1EL arrived today to replace the WK2 in my WinKey USB. It was a doddle to swap the chips: earth myself with an antistatic wrist band, remove 4 screws and open the case, open the battery box cover and remove a battery, gently lever out the WK2 chip and press in the new one, replace the battery and cover, re-assemble the case and test it. The WK3MGR utility makes it easy to set it up including the memories. For good measure, I printed out and read the WK3 datasheet to find out what it can do. Of all the changes from WK2, one alone made it well worth the few dollars and time it cost me. Now if I want to interrupt a message being sent, I just tap either paddle and it immediately stops sending: previously hitting the dot paddle achieved nothing - I had to press and hold the dash paddle, waiting for the keyer to finish sending a character before it would stop. It doesn't sound like much but it was frustrating in practice. I use QSK all the time so I soon hear if the DX station starts to transmit while the keyer is sending a message. Now, I can tap the paddle to interrupt sending and catch more of his transmission ... always in the hope it's me he's calling!
April 29: what a pleasant surprise! Today the postie delivered a fancy engraved metal plaque for winning the assisted low-band high-power CW section of the Scandinavian Activity Contest 2015:
Thanks SAC!
Another nice surprise this evening was catching Bob 9H4RH on 30m. Bob is a retired Yorkshireman who runs just 3 watts output. We've had 4 QSOs so far on 30m since 2011, every one quite remarkable due to his QRP setup. Maybe next time I'll try calling barefoot. As a card-carrying member of the G-QRP-Club I really ought to try going below 5 watts.
April 30: having unsuccessfully stalked him on RTTY all week, Harald XT2AW was spotted on 20/CW this afternoon ... and this time I could hear him OK. I was straight in there, ahead of the cluster crabs but beaming due North when usually the band is wide open to the South through East. Still, I called and surprise surprise Harald heard me first call. I gave him 559 and received 599 in return. Brilliant, thanks very much Harald! We swapped a few brief words of greeting and parted company. Straight after our QSO, Harald called CQ VK/ZL and worked a VK I think, then the frequency went quiet. I spotted him and emailed my KiwDXer pals. Several VKs and ZLs went through in quick succession, thanks to (most) others on the frequency waiting patiently on the side.
Shortly after, I saw an unusual spot for D90HE/3. Logger32 wrongly identified the DXCC as Angola (D3) whereas I soon caught his IOTA reference and figured he was using a special call on an island in Korea (HL3). He was quite weak with me and suffering severe interference from Mike F5IN CQing nearby, evidently oblivious to the Korean. I called him a few times, confusing poor Mike who I guess eventually twigged why I was unsynchronised and apparently ignoring him (sorry Mike!). Although I didn't contact the Korean, it was a pleasant diversion from the usual slog to complete my month's work.
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