2024 highlights, 2025 goals

   My usual post at the end of the year, a overview of 2024 and looking ahead to 2025.

DX

For me hamradio is all about DX. Working remote countries or islands. The further away the better. I like listening the noises and crackles on the band as soon as conditions are there. I especially like the far away DX signals that come from over the northpole, they are most times echoing and a bit shaky. This year we were at top of the solar cycle and working DX was very common. Even the 6m band opened with F2 propagation at the end of this year. Again, like last year, I counted 17 ATNO's. Most of them from the Pacific area. On 60m I counted 16 new ones and on 6m an incredible 12 new ones. Actually this was a very good DX year and I doubt I will equal this in the years ahead.

6m/4m

Highlight of the 6m band DX this year was my CW contact with XU7GNY from Cambodia. After a very bad ES season we finally had some F2 propagation. A lot of DX could be worked including east coast Australia, which I only heard. I missed some DX as wel, like the 4S7 stations that were strong at times but unfortunatly I had no luck reaching them. It took me a few days and carefully timing to work the VU4A DXpedition on the Nicobar & Andaman Isl. It is unfortunate most 6m DX these days is on FT8. But on the other hand it has advantages such as easily working remote and let the computer call. For me that is the key to work the DX since I still have to work for a living and cannot do fulltime radio like some others seem to do...

Antennas

The halo waiting in the
corner of our garden

Everything hamradio is about antennas. We all hope to have the best antenna possible which is most times some compromise after all. I didn't have the time to finish some antenna projects this year. I have so many. At least the multiband halo needs to be finished. I wish I could finish the quad project at some point. I'm still tempted to put the 3 band 3Bmox in the tower if I get it right on 10m. And besides that I have a lot of other projects in mind.

CW

Steady I go on my quest to learn morsecode. But it takes time. It goes very very slowly. I really see improvement compared to this time last year though. I even made some short CW QSOs without the computer. Although, if I hear CW on the band I can only decode a few letters and not what is been said/signed. In contests you know what you can expect, but not in a "chat" QSO, which is to me very difficult.

Personal 

My dad in front of a large
inmarsat antenna.

Last year I wrote that my dad would not be around for very long. The doctors gave him about half a year. He died at the end of July, which was about a year after he was diagnosed with cancer. He always was a big support and always very interested in my hobby. I'm glad I could let him hear my efforts learning CW at the end of his life. He was always very interested when I worked a new DXCC. It was always like that, no problem to drill holes in the house to mount brackets for a mast. Or get on the roof to mount antennas. Even when I caused RFI at the neighbours and  made the TV unhappy he was not angry and never forbid me my hobby. He only told me to take other people in account when using the radio at certain times, and I did. He had a very positive mind and actually I saw him seldom negative in my life. I can tell a lot about him but I think that this is not belonging to my blog. He will be missed very much though.

2024 goals

My goal for 2024 was to make a CW contact without the use of a computer. And I did... It is always good to have a goal in this hobby. My goals for next year? Make more CW contacts and do some more CW contests. I will continue with CW learning and keep you informed on this blog. I always thought by myself that it would take about 3 years to learn at my age. So far I've done the first year, 2 to go. Other goals are finishing the build of an attic in my house and starting to build a new bedroom, not hobby related but very neccessary. Lot's of family belongings are now packed in my radioshack and that's not what I want. It will take time though....like everything takes time.

Well, my dear blogreaders, have fun with the hobby and stay positive. I wish you all a very good, prosperous and healthy 2025.

My quest to learn CW (13)

On my way with a speed of 28/13wpm. In the mean time I watched some YT videos about learning morse and about ICR. I think I will get it but it will at least take another year.

I'm now pushing myself decoding plain text training with a speed of 28/15wpm. And I train hamradio abbreviations in the "word training" module. I even decoded till 50wpm, do you believe it!

Teri KO4WFP wrote me a very friendly and helpful e-mail in which she pointed me to some video lessons setting up the site https://morsecode.world/ to train ICR. I will dive into that in the next year. From what I saw in the first lesson it is something I was looking for.

Holy DX cluster from the holy land

 The Holy Cluster is built and design by the israeli group of developers and supported by the Israeli Association of Radio Communication, the IARC.

Don't know how I found this but it seems to be quite new. Looks very clear to me. It has some useful filters on board.

There is a holycluster bugs report and wishlist. So there is room for improvement. The name chosen for this DX cluster is a bit strange. It probably refers to the "holy" land name for Israel.

Difference between Inv-L and Inv-V on DX this morning

 Decided to monitor my own signal on 60m DX via a webSDR in ZL. The inv-L was clearly the winner this time. I've experience it before, especially on DX. This morning the diffence was from totally no signal on the other side of the world with the inv-V to -11dB signal with the inv-L. I could follow my own signal till 08:30 UTC way after sunrise. You can see part of the inv-L on the picture above. The wire goes up from down the right corner and up into the tower. Part of the horizontal wire can bee seen from the tower up. I wonder how much the tower disturbes the radiation pattern since the wire is close to the metal structure. 

Another advantage is that I have less interference from my neighbours solarpanels on the inv-L.

#60m Dominica worked

 

#60m Bangladesh worked

 

 

Have been trying for hours yesterday. I had him almost but he didn't see the report. Today I managed to make a valid contact with signals just on the edge.

CW 28/12wpm finally

 

It might not be a big deal for others but for me is. I started at this speed 2 months ago and finally got 100% for the first time. Up goes the speed to 28/13wpm. How long will it take? 

#10m ARRL contest review

 

While writing this the contest is still going on. But for us here in Europe the 10m is closed right now.

It was a great experience this weekend with interesting contacts. There was very good propagation which was noticeable from the atmosphere on the noise especially in the morning. The strange thing is that the propagation was between us and uninhabited parts of the world. Those moments I heard stations from Brazil over the longpath but unfortunatly they didn't hear me.

Last year I did more CW compared to SSB, it was all about propagation. This year I did more SSB because it was fun and there were a lot of SSB stations active. However I did chase some DX on CW as well. At first I chased fellow blogger VE9KK, I could just hear him between a lot of CW signals and to me it was difficult to make the QSO. But it seems Mike had a better receive as me. We did make the contact though. I also worked fellow blogger N4KGL on CW which was the first time I think. Previous blogger OQ5Q Franki was worked on SSB backscatter and my neighbour PA0O who also has a blog has been worked as well of course. 

red=CW green=SSB

I have to confess that I didn't have enough self-confidence at the start of the contest to not use the computer decoding CW. The speed of most CW transmissions was overwhelming and so I used CW skimmer at the start. At Sunday I finally had the confidence that I could do without the computer decoder since most of a QSO I did without it. I even did run a couple of times on 20wpm. And most stations came back at the same speed which is controllable for me. It is still difficult to decode a call the first time but most of the time the second or third time did the trick. I had the idea most stations understood and had the patience to complete the QSO. It was a lot of fun.

I probably made some mistakes because of course I didn't work Spratly Island. Will have to check the log before uploading.  However I did work some nice DX. I missed a lot of DX as well. Most of the contacts, like always, are with the USA. 

I had one very strange encounter with a station from India with the SES call AT2025. I had to listen for it a few times and decided to make the contact. I was asked if I could tell something about the difference between summer and winter conditions. From QRZ I read that this station is studying winter propagation and monitor solar cycle activity. So if you ever hear him give him a shout and tell him what you think about it.

I would have liked to spend more time on this great contest. But time is always limited because I have other things to do as well. As a HAM you always have to balance your time between the hobby and other things. That's life. Overall it seems I was contesting for about 15 hours this weekend. Best DX was with VK4DX not surprisingly it was on CW.

I certainly look out for the next 10m contest in 2025. It is one of my favorits. I hope to do even more CW next year. 

Reminder, 10m ARRL contest this weekend!

Just curious what place I ended last year. According to my own blog archive: https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2023/12/arrl-10m-contest.html I only made 150 QSOs last year. Not that much but I ended 2nd in my own country. I hope for some more contacts this year. Although I already foresee that time will be limited at least on Saturday. I have some more important things to do. And there will always be another ARRL 10m contest next year. Well, I hope to work some of you readers and fellow bloggers. If you hear me, give me a shout. You will be always 59 or 599 ;-)

#6m propagation 10 december

 

XV9T and DU0A had strong signals this morning around "peak" time. Jaap PA0O who is about 20km south of me also received DU6/PE1NSQ with strong signal while I did not see him at all. That's how spotty 6m propagation can be. I took a view on 6m several times this morning but only about 10 minutes around 9:45 UTC there was some F2 propagation. I also tried for America in the afternoon but nothing seen from the west.

With the upcoming 10m ARRL contest should I move to 10m now? I did in the past but right now 6m has my interest. I really think it is magic to see stations from 8000-9000km away on VHF, because that is what 50MHz is...

#6m propagation 9 december/FT8 hate campaign

 

And again PSKreporter does not diplay what else I've seen. DU0A from the Phillipines this morning but not on the map. XV9T was not visible but was spotted south of my QTH. Several HC (Ecuador) stations were visible in the early afternoon. Only one is diplayed. I would love to work them but todays propagation was really too short. From what I've seen on the DX cluster is that later this afternoon there was pretty good propagation between Germany and the USA/Canada.

FT8 hate campaign

Long time blogger EI2KC Anthony finally updated his blog. I hope he will continue to do that but I'm afraid he is too busy with his other hobby/work and being a well known writer of books about Irelands history. Certainly his post is worth reading I think.

The picture on the left covers his blogpost. There are a lot of people that are angry about how HAMradio changed in the last 10 years. They think that the FT8 operators are lazy people that automate DX chasing. Those that use FT8 know that even with this mode it is not always easy, at least we are always depending of propagation. And propagation is not always there, especially not on the 6m band. Besides that you have to know how the software works and how to connect everything to your radio. It is not as easy as connecting a mike or a key to your radio. Operating FT8 also needs a few tricks to reach the DX, some of them can be found on the world wide web. But there are also tricks that are kept secret because if too many knew it would not be working anymore. The big question is: what kind of people are moaning all the time about FT8ers and build a hatred campaign against it? What is the use of it? Digimodes will never go away and will increase in popularity. No one can stop it.

Yes, I'm also a big user of FT8. 90% of the DX plays at FT8 on 6m, so that's the mode to use for that band. Not that you really have to be on FT8 to work DX on that band. I know some stations that still use exclusive CW/SSB on 6m DX and luckily if propagation is good enough the DX stations still call CW and SSB on 6. Even when some people think I'm a lazy DXer I also still learn CW and enjoy it a lot. I even made a CW DX contact to Cambodia this year, a DXCC that was not on FT8 at that moment. So whatever mode it takes, use what you need to contact the DX. And don't judge the FT8 digimode for nothing.

Remember that this is just a hobby... most people take it far too serious. There are more important things in life. Have fun is my advice!

#6m propagation 8 december/IBP/CW contact

 6m propagation today

Sorry for the wrong date yesterday. I made the post after midnight and so I made a mistake. Todays propagation was a lot worse. Only XV9T Eddy from Vietnam was heard.

It seems that whenever there is F2 propagation Eddy can be heard in Europe. Strange no other station has been heard DX wise. Eddy must have a very good location, antenna and enough power.

International Beacon Project

OZ9QV Jan wrote about an encounter he had with a beacon that not belonged on 28.200MHz. It seems that this is the frequency the NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project uses since the seventies of last century. Have I ever heard of it. Oh yes probably, but forgot about it as well. I did a search on the internet to see what it is all about. Pretty interesting, you can do al kind of experiments with it as well if you like. Find a lot of info on the IPB website. I decided to take a look on 28.200 CW today to see what I could receive and compare it to the propagation forecast found on the site.

Between 12:45-12:48 UTC I received 4U1UN with all 4 tones, 4X6TU with 3 tones, CS3B with 2 tones, LU4AA with 1 tone and OA4B with one tone. Propagation forecast was S2 for all except OA4B the forecast was S1. 4S7B forecast was also S2 but not heard. My receive antenna was the gainmaster halfwave on top of my tower. I did another receive at 16:08 UTC, now ZS6DN was heard with 1 tone, CS3B with 3 tones and LU4AA with 3 tones. Not a bad result.

CW contact

Photo found on Pinterest

Once and a while when I feel to do so I turn my dail and wander over the 10m band. Now I learn CW I really want to be able to make QSOs. But most CW I hear is way too fast for me and still is unreadable without the help of a computer, something I don't want. I want to do it like in the old days when CW was the way to communicate for HAMs. When listening today I finally found a station that did send slow enough CW for me. But it was hard to copy, he was probabely using a straight key. Even after 5 times CQ I came not further as CQ POTA DE KB2. So I remembered POTA stations most time spot themselves on a POTA site. I quickly found the site to cheat a little and found the correct call. It was KB2GKC from US-10044 Hyde Hall Historic Site. Now it was time to try calling him. But first of all I wrote down what I would send to him because I was afraid I would be forgetting what to do and panic. So I wrote down GA TU 599 BK and hoped he would only send his report as well. To finish I would send BK PE4BAS TU 73. Hope that it was correct? This is what I came up with after looking at some POTA videos in the past. So, there it goes I did send my call with 18wpm, but KB2GKC struggled with my call and I had to repeat it several times before he got it. Not easy because even sending my call is not even easy for myself :-). But I kept to the script and finished the contact. Hopefully I can do more such contacts, I really like it. A lot more fun as working a new DXCC on FT8.

#6m propagation 7 december

 

And once again PSKreporter does not show everything. I also decoded TL8ES briefly but it is not shown on the map. XV9T Eddy from Vietnam seems to be having propagation to europe daily.

Henk PA2S recently wrote some interesting thoughts about cycle 25 and 6m propagation. You can find it here.

#60m Andaman & Nicobar Isl. worked

 It's my lucky day...

Took me a few hours. But he finally saw my signal. Some say/write that FT modes ar "lazy" operators modes. Automatic TXTing. I disagree. If only we only had CW I would have done it with CW. It is what suits me best to work the DX.

#6m Andaman & Nicobar Isl. worked

 

What can I say. The picture speaks for itself. I finally worked VU4A. He appeared, we made contact, he disappeared. That's how the magic goes...

#6m propagation 4 December

 How special is it, we got F2 propagation on 6m every day since how many weeks? It keeps going... although some days are better as others.

A lot of stations heard but nil contacts made. I operate remote at my job breaks. This time best DX was just after the break so I was listening but not calling. As you can see on the map there was again propagation to VK3. Will we see/hear ZL soon?

Heard: VK3FZ, VK3KJ, BA4SI, XV9T, DU3LA, DV1IIW, DU0A, DU6MOT, 9V1XX, 9M2DA, YE6YE, UK8AEA, UN4PG, UN2E, UN7LZ and VU4A. Why VU4A is not displayed again is not known to me. But this time I made a screenshot:

Will have another try tomorrow...

#6m propagation 3 December

 

Again an interesting day on 6m. Although I didn't work new ones I was just unlucky. I did see them for shure. And again PSKreporter does not report everything I see. Like VU4A from Andaman and Nicobar Isl. which I did see, multiple streams, for quite a time. TL8ES was seen briefly, too short to make a contact. Although I was spotted by Elvira. There was a very short opening to the USA, at least from here. But it was very strong for a moment. I worked fellow blogger WW1L. 

Other stations I worked today: UN7LZ and UN7PNF from Kazakhstan. I was also spotted in Australia again.

Regular 6m DXers know that propagation can be very spotty on this band. You can work some station and someone 20km away cannot. Unfortunatly for me F2 propagation is a bit less spotty and since many stations are calling I have less chance to make the contact. I noticed that with VU4A, they seemed to be heard across Europe. You also need a bit of luck, the luck that you are some of the first calling towards the DX. It's fine with me, what would be the fun if every contact was easy. 

#6m propagation 2 December

   This post is also voor archive purposes. 

Despite the relative low sfi and sunspotnumber F2 propagation on 6m continues to be good.

But unfortunatly PSKreporter is again not reporting everything I've seen. Here a screenshot from my phone.

Lots of VK3, VK5 and VK8 also. Unfortunatly it was very busy on the frequency and I was not able to make any contact. When propagation is good I'm only a very little pistol so to say.

The only contacts I made at a earlier time were: DU0A Philippines and UN9LEI Kazakhstan.

#6m Sierra Leone worked

 

Lucky me. I was waiting and able to make the contact before the pile-up appearred.

My quest to learn CW (12)

 It's the number 12  monthly post. That means I'm seriously learning CW now for a year. And I did make progress. I might not be able to make a decent QSO on air or follow it at all. But I experienced that I can decode most calls in a contest and numbers in morse code. 

Last month I was writing about finishing lesson number 40 at 28/12 wpm. I thought it would take another few days. But till now I'm unable to finish it without errors. My last attempt had only 1 fault, so close to that 100%.

I keep going but the lessons are less important now. I do a lot of plain text training on a speed of 15/15 wpm. It is far above my abilities right now and most of the time I only have 70-80% right. It doesn't matter, some day I'll get it.

I got some info from PE2V Vincent's blog that there are some CW contest going on through the week. It would be nice to partake in them but through the week is a bit difficult right now. So I keep contesting in weekends.

#60m Sierra Leone worked

 

Got a message yesterday that 9L5A was active on 60m. Unfortunatly I was not at home and missed the new one. You can't have everything! But I was lucky today...

Monitored 6m as well. But was not so lucky. Tried for this same station from Sierra Leone. It was very strong but the pile-up was very large and I had no luck in contacting this DXCC. Have seen a few other "new ones" as well which I couldn't contact. TL8ES from Central Africa and TI2AA Costa Rica. Well, tomorrow is another day with new opportunities...

@CQWW DX CW Contest review

 

Not much time for this contest this year. Operated about 6 hours. I concentrated on DX only. Did listen a lot. And didn't use any CW decoder on the computer for the first time in this contest. Only headcopy. Worked fellow blogger VE9KK on 10m. I heard him on 15m but very weak and did try but Mike didn't hear me. Fellow blogger VE3VN has been worked as well on 10 and 20m. I also heard EI2KC on 10m backscatter, he has a blog but doesn't update it much. Worked him a few times in the past but no contact this time.  Strange I worked a lot of interesting DX but the highlight are always the familiar stations. I worked my neighbour station PA4O who was on the Azores as CT8/PA4O for this contest on a few bands. Total number of QSO's was 76, but it doesn't matter to me since I was not working the majority but only the nice DX. 

Fun fast hamradio project

 

I had to order some parts on Amazon and remembered I read about a fun project in the SARC Communicator from September-October 2024. To get free postage I ordered the items I needed a few days ago. This is about the famous HamClock. Normally this can be run on a computer with Linux OS. A bit difficult when you use Windows. Yes you can run it with virtual machine like hyper-v, virtualbox or vmware. But then it only runs on that virtual machine. Wouldn't it be great if this clock would run on any phone, tablet or computer you have at your home. And yes, this is possible with a small RaspberryPi Zero2W and a small microSD card. That is really all you need. You follow the instructions from the description in the SARC communicator and there it is...HamClock via local WiFi...

Just a few things I noticed:

* After configuration and updates of the OS (step 3) the Pi is not rebooting after you quit the raspi-config program. You need to disconnect the power and power it up again.

* Before step 4 you need to connect again via SSH. Do that with the command: 

ssh pi@hamclock.local

* Step 4: Copy the line to install hamclock and paste it in the terminal screen doesn't work in Windows. You need to type it yourself.

* After installation I had to wait a moment before something came up after I entered: hamclock.local:8081/live.html. And I noticed when I closed my terminal screen the pi did boot again. Had to wait till hamclock was working again.

So, this is really a fun project and I will go on now with configuring hamclock reading the users manual: https://clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/HamClockKey.pdf

Found another setup page with interesting tips from G6NHU: https://qso365.co.uk/2024/05/how-to-set-up-a-hamclock-for-your-shack/

Update 21-Nov-2024

Configured hamclock with the help of the G6NHU post second part. 

Configured the colors for 60m red and 6 orange. Those are my favourite bands at the moment. I really love flexibility of this clock. The cluster works really well. And solar data / VOACAP are really up to date. The little Pi computer is enclosed in a case which was in the package I bought. I power the Pi via a free router USB port. The fun is that I can configure a kind of ECO switch on this port so the Pi will be off when I sleep and start up again at 4 am. 

Update 26-December-2024

Small issue. After a providers update of the internet router I could not access hamclock anymore. A ping to hamclock.local gave nothing back. I decided to e-mail the writer of the project in the SARC communicator VE7ZAL Adam. I was surprised I got an answer withing a few minutes. He suggested to check my router to see what the IP address was through which the pi was connected to the router. So I checked that and pinged it to see if something came back. It did. Another solution could be reset the router, I did not try that because I'm not the only one using internet here. But I can access hamclock now by using the IP adres:8081/live.html. It looks like the browser finds it a lot faster now as well.

Update 03-January-2025

Since my hamclock is off at night and starts up again early in the morning I noticed that sometimes I was not able to access it over the network. Unfortunatly lately hamclock was updated a few times, this is not an automatic process. And you need to approve by clicking YES. It seems if you don't do it and leave it alone it will not start the hamclock software. In the mean time I did a reset on the router but still hamclock is only accessible by using the IP number. I'm not shure what issue this is?

Friese 11 steden contest 2024 review

   This contest is open for international traffic but overall it is a Dutch QSO party in honour of the great Frisian 11 cities skating tour. The contest is only on 80m. Goal is to work the 11 multipliers + extra multiplier. 12 in total. And of course work as many stations as possible. Because it is not really interesting for international readers I write the review in Dutch which can be translated to english if you wish to read it.

Het was, zoals elk jaar, weer een gezellige contest. Helaas waren de condities op 80m wat aan de magere kant. Daarom besloten om gewoon tussen de middag te gaan eten. Dat heeft wel zo een 45 minuten gekost en daardoor waarschijnlijk wat minder stations gewerkt dan mogelijk was. In totaal 52 QSO's gemaakt en 11 multipliers kunne werken. Bolsward ontbreekt maar was schijnbaar wel aanwezig. Het is altijd jammer als je een multiplier mist. Maar ik was zeker niet de enige. In deze contest kun je gerust tussendoor een QSO maken, het gaat er erg relaxed aan toe. Zo heb ik tijdens de contest toch even wat langer gesproken met PE2V Vincent, PF5T Frank en PA3JD Joop. En na de contest nog even wat ervaringen uitgewisseld met PA2JO Jonnie en PA3ECY Maarten. Dat maakt de contest wel wat leuker. Ik heb de hele contest mijn eigen signaal bekeken op de webSDR Twente. Daarop was me direct al duidelijk dat het signaal wel een stuk minder sterk doorkwam als andere jaren. Maar ondanks dat bleef het wel verstaanbaar. Het enige buitenlandse station dat ik werkte was ON5ASB uit Lier. Hieronder het kaartje met gewerkte stations.

#60m South Cook Isl. worked

 

It took me some time. E51SGC could be seen on/off (QSB) but then at the right moment in greyline he finally saw my call. Happy with it because with strong European signals on the band the weak signals from the Pacific are usually covered.

#6m propagation 14 november

 

Only monitoring today. DX was very weak and very short time to see. Others made it to 4S7 I saw. No trace from 4S7 here. I also see stations that make contact with S9Z (Sao Tome & Principe) but no traces here.

#6m propagation 13 november

 

Ok Bas, why all these maps with DX that can be worked all the time? Yes, I do post these maps with DX on 6m these days. For someone that has no or limited knowledge of radio and propagation it might be something weird. But for the 6m band DXer it is very interesting. My 6m setup consists of my IC-7300 max output about 70-75 Watt going to a 5/5 element YU7EF combi yagi on 14m height. It is not the best setup but for now it is working with a bit of luck. Today PSKreporter seems to be working again for RX spots. I received XV9T on FT8 with signals above +10dB but still was not able to connect to him. ET3AA was briefly seen with -16dB on 50310KHz FT8 after I saw a spot on the cluster. Unfortunately my signal was not seen anywhere outside my own country today. That proves that propagation is not always reciproke. Normally propagation on 6m is very rare in wintertime except in the solarmaximum were F2 propagation like on HF can occur. The nice thing is that F2 is holding on for weeks now. You can see DX on 6m almost every day.

#6m propagation 11 november

 

Excellent propagation with east coast USA and Canada. Unfortunatly still PSKreporter is missing some DX spots. Saw several HK stations, HC2FG and VU2CPL only RX.

PA-beker contest SSB 2024 review

 

   This blogpost will be in Dutch since there is no info that is interesting for foreign readers.

   Weer een leuke contest met best veel aanbod en veel bekenden. De condities op 80m waren niet geweldig. Meerdere malen kreeg ik van stations te horen dat de signalen zwak waren en de ruis hoog. Iets waar ik verder geen last van heb gehad.  Op 40m echter waren de signalen sterk, diverse stations met S9+30dB. En ook heb ik een aantal QRP stations kunnen werken. Het laatste kwartier zat de hele band vol en kon ik nauwelijks een plekje vinden, uiteindelijk is me dat wel gelukt op 7099,9 KHz net binnen de bandlimieten van de contest. Ik vraag overigens altijd of een bepaalde frequentie vrij is, meestal vraag ik het zelfs enkele keren. Toch op 40m ook een beetje vervelend (Duits?) station dat eerst net onder me zat te praten met volgens mij zijn buurtstation. Ik zat volgens hem te breed en hij had last van splatter. Vertelde hem dat ik minstens net zoveel last van hem had waarop dit station door de QSOs begon te bleren als een klein kind. Kinderachtig hoor! Als ik kon zocht ik een andere plek, maar tijdens de contest is zo een lege plek niet eenvoudig te vinden. Gelukkig hield de ellende niet lang aan en de nederlandse stations kwamen er vrij goed overheen. Ik doe in principe niet mee om te winnen maar voor m'n plezier, al doe ik wel mijn uiterste best om zoveel mogelijk QSO's te maken. Ik vond het resultaat best redelijk te noemen al had ik op 80m wel wat meer willen werken. Tot volgend jaar maar weer...

Volgende week zondag is er nog een gezellige lokale contest. De friese 11 steden contest op 80m. Daar ga ik zeker weer aan meedoen. Uitwisseling is regionummer en woonplaats, vooral bij rare plaatsnamen zorgt dat voor veel hilariteit. De 11 steden + klunplaats Bartlehiem zijn de in totaal 12 multipliers. Heb je even tijd? Doe gewoon mee, al is het maar voor de lol!

First CW contest without CW decoder

 

   I just wanted to try this small local CW contest without using the DX cluster and without a CW decoder on the computer. Just decoding with my own mind. And it went reasonable well. Even that well that I found the courage to run for the last 5 minutes ;-). Participation was only the last hour of the contest.

But it was confusing at times. I really had to adapt on some stations. Why calling with CQ PA DE PA... etc. or CQ PA PA.... The double PA is really confusing. In my opinion just send CQ TEST. 

Another panic situation was when neighbourstation PA0O wanted to direct me to his 40m frequency. Oh my, this went way too fast for me and it was unexpected. I didn't know what to do. Alle went well in the end...

Tomorrow is the SSB part of this contest in which I will participate the whole contest. I hope to have time next year to participate in the CW part as well for the whole duration of the contest. I think I really like CW contesting. If only I get faster in decoding CW.

#6m Philippines worked

 

Unfortunatly missed the RR73 from 4G1G. Will see if I'm in the log after all? However I was not really satisfied with this contact.

Luckily I was able to work fellow Dutchman DU6/PE1NSQ an hour later. There was more DX on the bands but you need to be there to work it. I work remote during breaks on the job. I can't be on the radio all the time.

PSK reporter looks like it is broken? It doesn't report everything anymore. Certainly not what I received today. Only a few that picked up my signal.

Todays heard DX: JA (Japan), UN (Kazakhstan), EX (Uzbekistan), VK3 (Victoria, Australia), DU (Philippines), BA (China), VU (India), VK8 (Northern Territory, Australia), XV (Vietnam), N1 (USA), VO (Canada).