Morse Code Walkie Talkies

 I follow Mike N4FFF and Becky N4BKY (the HamRadio Duo) on YouTube for a while now. Most of their videos are about morsecode and POTA. It is really fun to watch and see that these people enjoy this hobby a lot. Today I found this video that is a link between morsecode and the 11m CB and previously the 11m Ham band. I wrote about this in a very populair article on my blog here:

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2022/10/history-of-11m-ham-band.html

I found their video really fun to watch and worth to publish on my blog!

#60m Burundi worked

 

Propagation was really low today. At least when I cam back home from work. I closed my station early but saw later in the evening the 60m was wide open. So I switched everything on to see lots of (DX) signals on 60 FT8. I managed to work 9U1RU from Burundi for the first time on this band.

Superstation a gamechanger for VarAC

 

Today is the first day the new Superstation "contest" game for VarAC has been released. It is a beta version so it probably contains bugs. I really think this will be a game changer for the use of VarAC.

Yes, this is a kind of contest game. The real reason this is made is to support real human to human QSOs. I just ran it for a few hours and already noticed some things I didn't expect:

1. The program knows somehow you're chatting with a real person or not, I made a QSO with 4Z1AC's AI chat assistant and she didn't count for the game!

2. You need a locator for the distance to show. The further away, the better it is. I expected the distances to add. But it is really about the longest distance (DX). Always be shure the opposite station gives the locator. To be shure give the command <LOCR>.

3. Not really clear from the instructions. The <roll> broadcasts are for others. If you do a <roll>  broadcasts other stations that run Superstation can get extra levels/points. It is also to show that you're playing the game.

If you're interested and you already run VarAC be shure to watch the videos to understand some of the game. I don't know how this is developing but I think this could be getting popular.

If you're not familiar with VarAC. It is a digital mode with a lot of possibilities. Not only chatting but you can send/receive Vmail and e-mail. You can also install an AI chat assistant. Play games like tic-tac-toe or 4 in line. It is really a fun digital mode software. If you're able to install WSJT-X and work with FT8 you can also install VarAC, easy as that.

VarAC: https://www.varac-hamradio.com/

Superstation: https://www.varacwednesday.net/superstation.html

Videos about Superstation can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@K3JSJ

Update 18 Nov. 2025: I was not right about the <roll> broadcast. Jason K3JSJ contacted me and told me to change it to <ROLL> (Roll in capital letters). And yes, now it works. And it is not only for others but to get extra points yourself. I was toally mistaken about this.

Check out a new picture of the game:

I think it looks awesome! Rolled the dice 3 times (max. for one day) and got two upgrades!

Jason told me this first contest is held till 30th of this month. They will ask for logs and evaluate how things will develop. After that there will be another contest date announced. 

Friese 11 steden contest 2025 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. 

Van te voren al een paar keer met mede blogger PE2V Vincent over gehad afgelopen week. We hadden er zin in. Meestal is dit een feestje en zijn de contacten makkelijk te maken. Maar in het begin na 15 minuten roepen maar 1 contact (PA3JD Joop). Tja, toen was het wel duidelijk, dit ging een moeilijke contest worden. Toen ik over de 80m band draaide hoorde ik eigenlijk maar een paar stations en ook nog heel erg zwak. Terecht werd opgemerkt door Jonnie PA2JO dat dit voor de echte doorzetters zou zijn, net als de echte Friese 11 steden tocht op de schaats! Op gegeven moment was er echt helemaal niks meer te horen, alleen de eeuwige ruisvelden zoals ik dat dan maar noem. Bijna werd besloten om toch maar gewoon een pauze te nemen en te gaan eten. Maar heb toch doorgezet. Uiteindelijk 10 van de 12 multipliers kunnen werken met 33 QSO's in totaal. De signalen waren zeer zwak en er zat veel QSB op. De moeilijkste multiplier was PE1ET/P uit Bartlehiem, dat was echt net op het randje van verstaanbaarheid. Het laatste QSO was met PE2V Vincent, dat lukte ook nog maar net. Dit was echt 3 uur lang hard werken om toch nog wat QSO's bij elkaar te krijgen. Ik denk dat de meeste stations de moed al hadden opgegeven, of ik heb ze gewoon niet kunnen horen.

Volgend jaar doen we gewoon weer mee en we hopen maar dat de condities dan weer wat beter zijn.

Morse invaders top list

 I'm a huge fan of morse invaders. Since there is the RX training I really, really set my goal to get into the wall of fame. The best 10 scores. Today I finally managed to get into the list at place 7. I can tell I started at 18wpm. And it is pretty consistent, till you reach a top score, when the speed is going up to about 25-28wpm I think. At that speed I still managed to hear some words. It was a big challenge for me for shure it I feels pretty good I came this far.

From KE6EEK on the morse invaders site:

· If you make it to the scoreboard, your callsign will automatically be part of the word pool.

So if you play RX training on morse invaders expect to hear my callsign ;-)

Meshtastic experiments

Meshtastic is a decentralized wireless off-grid mesh networking LoRa protocol. The main goal of the project is enabling low-power, long-range communication over ISM radio bands. It operates at broadcast power levels which do not require a license to use. It is designed around exchanging text messages and data in off-grid environments, with potential applications in IoT projects where a decentralized communication system is needed without existing infrastructure.
  

  Since a few weeks I'm experimenting with Meshtastic. Basically this is a mesh network build with small low power transceivers that are working in at the 868MHz ISM band (for Europe). Every radio in the network is transmitting again what they receive. You can buy these cheap small radios at Amazon or Ali express or similar webshops. Of course it works best if you got one on a high point in the open air. Meshtastic is experimental. It works but not really reliable. There is also a limit to the distance you can reach. So you need a lot of nodes te let the mesh network grow and work. It is the hype at this moment and if you like some technical challenges and tinkering this is a lot of fun. For more info you can find a lot on the internet including a lot of youtube videos about this topic. The fun is that you don't need any license to operate a Meshtastic node. So you will encounter people that are not licensed radio operators but just like to tinker with this. I know people are experimenting with BBS like software/programming. And some have integrated Meshtastic with their Home Assistant system.

PE4BAS solar node

  Well, a few weeks ago I thought of stepping into this Meshtastic hype. So I bought 2 cheap Heltec Lora32 V3 devices so I could test things. I decided to make a node at my job and one at home or mobile. I soon discovered the whole node could connect to the internet. Have tried it and seen it but that's not my thing. I disconnected it from the internet again so everything purely works on-air. Soon I saw a familiar call on one of the maps, it was PE9DX Johan. He has a Meshtastic node in his car and because of his job, and drives through the province. So I contacted Johan for more info and he submitted me to a Meshtastic app group with lots of people that experiment with it. It is fun and I discovered that there are a lot of amateurradio stations that experiment with Meshtastic as well. Unfortunately there is not much activity in my neighbourhood so I decided to build a solar node and put it on a mast to extend my range. But although I received some further away stations I still couldn't get my signal be heard.

  Luckily I was able to have a nice chat via Meshtastic with someone in my area. But still, we both couldn't connect to the rest of the mesh. While thinking about it I came up with two solutions. The first one was to install a directional antenna. The second one was to relocate the solar node. I chose the second option and installed it now on top of the flagpole in front of the house. The advantage is that it really has free sight to the closest nodes in the mesh. And it worked. I can finally send messages to the provincial mesh network. My node location finally appears on the map, which is not the exact location of course. But good enough to get the idea and location for others. Unfortunately this node is only working when the sun shines. The battery cannot be charged without sun. It's the time of the year. So I might think about another solution for the time being. Best option would be a few more nodes in the neighbourhood. We'll see how things will turn out in the future.

Interesting links:

Official site:

https://meshtastic.org/

Dutch site: 

https://www.meshnet.nl/

Regional site:

https://tovvel.nl

Site planner:

https://site.meshtastic.org/

Range of my device. It is very local. Actually it is a miracle that we can just reach other Meshtastic nodes. The nearest node connected to the provincial mesh is in Appingedam. So the ranges will just overlap each other.

Be warned, this is a little addictive. Have fun!

PA-beker 2025 CW/SSB review

 This is a Dutch national contest which is quite populair here in the Netherlands. The CW part is held on Saturday and the SSB part on Sunday. Because it is a Dutch party and not much of international interest I will write this post in Dutch. Of course everyone is free to translate it to your own language.

Zaterdag: vandaag meegedaan aan de CW PA-beker. Voor het eerst met mijn contest callsign PA6G. Van te voren weer goed geoefend met Morserunner. Het opnemen van CW gaat steeds beter. En in deze contest word vaak rond de 20 wpm geseind, dat is prettig vooral voor beginners. Op 80m eerst wat S&P gedaan om zelfvertrouwen op te bouwen. Daarna een tijdje runnen. Dat ging op zich prima, alleen was er geen aanbod. Zo ie zo vond ik 80m niet echt druk. Dus maar naar 40m. Dat ging een stuk beter. Ook daar weer wat S&P maar al gauw gaan runnen want dat brengt echt veel meer QSOs op. Weer een paar bekenden gehoord uiteraard. Waaronder PA0O en PE2V. Jammer dat veel stations deze contest links laten liggen voor de WAE RTTY contest. Maar goed dat is een keuze natuurlijk. Morgen proberen we het in de PA-beker SSB.

Zondag: vandaag het SSB gedeelte van de contest. Ook vandaag weer een bijna uitgestorven 80m. Waren de condities dan echt zo slecht? Bij mij waren de signalen van de tegenstations prima. Maar goed misschien hoorde ik minder als wat er in werkelijkheid on-air was? Op 40m ging het erg goed. Maar om half twaalf had ik bijna iedereen wel gewerkt denk ik want er was eigenlijk geen aanbod meer. Dus mooi on 12 uur gestopt, tijd voor het middag eten. Ik moet schrijven dat ik wel eens een betere PA-beker heb meegemaakt. Ik had het idee dat het aantal deelnemers wat minder was als voorgaande jaren. Maar ik kan het natuurlijk ook mis hebben...

Ook dit jaar helaas toch stations die niet goed gekeken hebben naar de contest regels. De PA-beker heeft strikte regels qua frequentie gebruik. Zit je er buiten dan telt het QSO niet mee. Ik let er zelf redelijk goed op als ik ga roepen. Maar zag nu bij het indienen van het log dat ik toch 2 QSO's had buiten de contest frequenties.

Help asked investigating a feedline coupler

 A feedline coupler, an unusual name for this unusual antenna tuner...

It looks old doesn't it. But what is old? And how old could this tuner be? Let's look at the inside...

This tuner has some wiring and components that are from another century. Does anyone know when?

It is made to tune a open line. The current owner did try it on several bands and it tuned best on 15m. But I guess that's depending on what kind of antenna is used.

There is no diode inside to rectify the current for reading on the meter. In this case a heating element is used. The current owner used this with 100W and saw the meter just going up a little. According to him there should be a lot more input power to have a good reading.

More details:

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.It is a fascinating piece of equipment I think. And...so far we cannot find anything about or like it on the internet.

So I ask readers of this blog to play Sherlock Holmes. I don't know the answers but have questions:

Where was this feedline coupler used?

Is it a commercial build or is it homemade?

Why did they use a heating element?

What year was this made?

Audio enchancement trouble in W11

 

  If you work with digimodes, like me, audio settings are important. Now, with a recent upgrade of my computer I was not immidiately aware of audio input problem. For several days I had almost zero noise on 6m. I normally see some noise in the waterfall of JTDX (or WSJT-X) but not this time. At first I thought it was the change of the coax choke at my 6m antenna. But strange enough I saw noise on the IC-7300 waterfall. So after some thinking I was shure something between the radio and computer was wrong. Or some filter setting was not right. There are so many variables. So I tried some filter setting and every time I changed filter the waterfall changed to normal for 2 seconds to return to "quiet" after that. 

I played some with the audio settings in W11 but had no time this morning. I thought it was some volume problem but still the waterfall looked not as what it used to be. I tried some contacts on 10m and it went well, working and receiving 6O3T on FT8 was easy. But still on the "low" noise 6m band it looked like a noise reducer or noise blanker is "on" and disturbing the noise I normally see equally over the waterfall.

After digging into W11 soundsettings again I finally found that there is a new audio enchancement feature which is set automatically on. I quickly switched it off and everything was normal again.

I'm shure others can have this problem as well. Although you will not notice this immidiately when you are looking at a crowded frequency. The only thing you notice could be traces that look odd. But you will see it especially on an empty frequency. Just my tip of the day....just check your settings.

To find the audio enhancement settings in Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Sound, select your output device (like "Microphone"), and disable the "Enhance audio" toggle.

Morse Invaders now with RX mode

KE6EEK upgraded the morseinvaders website with RX mode!

 https://www.morseinvaders.com/

It is really a fun game to play. And you learn and can improve your morsecode at the same time.

My quest to learn CW (23)

 And steady we go...

Have been training with 28/22 wpm but it was just a step to far I think. So I train with 28/20 wpm now. I do mostly plain text training which shows between 60-100% accuracy depending on how long the sentence is and what words are used. Words like "the", "you", "it", "in" and "is" are now easy. But words like "sometimes" or "something" are hard to decode. Anyway it is fun to try and get better every time. Do one lesson per day,  random code groups of 5 with 28/20wpm. I score about 60-80% now and think it is not bad compared to what I did last month.

CWOPS intermediate course

However I miss the interaction. I need feedback on my learning. And although a few people motivate me through the comments on this blog. I miss the contact with people that want the same as me and are beginners as well. Learning the code and make real QSOs on air. So, I wrote PE2V Vincent for information because he's one of the volunteers at CWops. He kindly send me an e-mail with all the links to the pages for application. So I did, and I will start with a CWops intermediate course in January 2026. In the mean time I already started with some homework assignments and already am at session 8 day 2.  

Of course I will continue writing about my learning experience on this blog!

#CQWW DX SSB 2025 review

Contest: CQWW DX SSB 2025

Category: SO AB LP

TRX: IC-7300 100W

Antennas: 4 el 10m LFA, Inv-V 2x22m, 3-band Halo.
 

Well, I'm still recovering of this weekend. The CQWW contest was a blast. I could not be on the radio the whole weekend due to other obligations. But still I managed to make 900 QSOs in total. I stopped early Sunday evening because I was very tired, otherwise I could certainly make 1K QSOs. However, what is the benefit of an extra few QSOs against some rest before the new work week?

This was also the first time I used my contestcall PA6G. I really liked it. No mix up with EA4BAS anymore, the short callsign is easy to call after every exchange. When calling S&P I noticed that calling Papa Alfa Six Germany instead of Golf in the end helps a lot. In short: it was a very good choice to have a contestcall, it has a lot of benefits. I still have to get used to it in CW though.

Propagation was very good this weekend. On 10m I managed a few small pile-ups with Japan in the morning and USA/Canada in the afternoon, rate about 80 QS/hr. On 80m I was spotted several times, rate was about 120 Qs/hr. I think that is not bad for a modest station with only 100W. As a matter of fact, I think if I would be able to be on for the whole weekend I could get a score like a high powered station. It is all a matter of get the right (free) spot on the band to run and get spotted by others. You need to a little bit lucky as well, but it is also operating practice. Some think it is just a matter of being the strongest but I disagree. You can't beat propagation, even not with large antennas and a lot of power. Although a good station helps of course.

Still can't find a reasonable mapper. This map is made with Global Overlay Mapping by EI8IC. I wanted to make a map at the worldradioleague site I previously noted but it seems those 900 QSOs are just too much and the map is not showing. But below are at least some statistics from that site.

I really miss the adventureradio site for this. It was a really good site but the creator had to stop because of map issues. The site is still online but is not loading the map. 

Anyway, I had great fun. I didn't do as well as last year due to other obligations. But there will always be a next one. It was a nice experience to work with my new contestcall for the first time. I'm certainly very happy with it. Till next year. 73 and good DX.

#60m Angola worked

 

I guess D2A has a lot of static on his side. I got the idea his receive is being disturbed. This one took me 1,5 hours of calling. It was also difficult at times to receive D2A due to nearby signals from Europe. But in the end I made the QSO.

Superstation - A new VarAC game

 

Not yet out! But currently in progress. I'm on the beta team. I think this will be a nice addition to VarAC. VarAC is a great way to communicate but it needs something like this to get more populair. People want to play games, compete and collect things. All people are collectors in some way.

What is Superstation?

Superstation is Global VarAC Game that is played over an extended time frame. Everyone in the world participates on an equal footing.

The purpose of the SUPERSTATION game is to increase the number of VarAC QSOs and to encourage more DX activity. A typical game will run over multiple weeks although a game can be run at any length.

SUPERSTATION is different from any other amateur radio “contest.” There is an element of a card & dice game, promoting QSOs that are more than simple exchanges, and demonstrating the DX capabilities of the mode. All amateurs around the world are invited to participate.

https://www.varacwednesday.net/superstation

I can't go in more detail is the game is not yet there. But I'm excited!

Update 29-Oktober-2025: After I discovered on social media the beta is already been out I asked why I didn't get the software to test as beta tester. Now one of the developers told me that he never saw my application as betatester. But I have an e-mail with all the documentation and a welcome from the same person? It seems they just forgot me. I'm really disappointed. But at least we will soon get the public beta software.

NTC partake with N1MM logger

   Last thursday it was time again for the NTC QSO party. And despite I wrote in the last post about this that I didn't want to use N1MM+ logger with all its features I just did. I wanted to know if it would help me making more QSOs. And actually, yes it did. I made 6 QSOs on 80m and 7 on 40m. It helped that I already had a name through the logger. Although I worked a NM (Non Member) which name I copied well. Not really important for me but I ended 10th of 17 participants in the electronic section. Not bad at all. I have to say I copied the contest exchanges well but some also keyed text to me which I didn't understand. I guess it was something like "have fun" or "tnx for the QSO". I even dared to call CQ NTC on 80m a few times. I got some stations back to me, actually I found it easier to "run" (call CQ)  compared to "S&P" (Search & Pounce). I did the keying myself and didn't use the automatic keyer from N1MM. I messed up a few times, but I guess every beginner has this and no one gets angry about this with CW. Looking forward to the next NTCQP. 

Upgrading Windows

 I'm shure there are more Hamradio operators out there that had the same issue as me. You got a good computer but it won't upgrade to Windows 11 because the system seems not to be compatible. I have been looking for a solution for quite a while since I was aware that Microsoft would not forever support W10. Now with the upcoming end of support the 14th of Oktober I really need to upgrade. But how? And would I loose my software? 

Well to make a long story short. You need a 8Gb USB stick which is capable of format to NFTS. You can download the lastest W11 for free from Microsoft. Download the ISO version for your language. You also download a tiny piece of software called Rufus. This Rufus program basically changes something in the installation file so you can install W11 on most computers with W10 without loosing anything. To see how it works just look for in on YouTube.

It works wel for me and upgraded 4 PCs including the shack PC without loosing anything.

#6m Mali worked

  Didn't feel well today and stayed at home. It gets better now. I noticed some spots from TZ4AM Jeff who is in Mali, Africa. As far as I know Jeff is only doing CW/SSB. So it is difficult to get him. You need more luck compared to FT8. I did hear him a few weeks ago for a short time on SSB but never on CW. This time I got lucky and worked him after a few calls. Just in time because he faded fast into the noise keying 73..

PA6G contestcall

 

Announcement: From today on I will use the callsign PA6G in contests. It is shorter and especially for CW much easier to decode. 

Many know about our efforts with PA6AA as contestgroup. We did the first historical "explorer" section in the CQWW SSB 2023 in the Netherlands. The explorer section is now called multi-distributed like in the CQWW WPX contest. This also led to a discussion if this was a legal way to use one callsign on several locations. At first we had permission. But later on we got the message that it was illigal. Unfortunately this led to many discussions and some cancellations which also involved other special event- and conteststations. We still try to convince our government to change the rules. 

PA6AA still exists and is the contest callsign of PB7Z. Another member PA5OES now has the contest callsign PA6F. Since I noticed some stations have trouble with my callsign in CW I thought of a shorter call for contesting. PA6G is sounding nice in CW in my opinion. G is the first letter of my province Groningen. As written on the QRZ page of PA6G I will only do digital QSL for this callsign. 

My quest to learn CW (22)

Daily practice continues... 

Now train with 26/20 wpm after I had about 90% correct a few times at 26/18 wpm. It is like I have to start all over again.

Average about 60% correct all the time. Same counts for plain text training. I also use an app on my phone called morse maven. I have the idea I learn more from morse maven compared to my daily lcwo training. I also make/made some CW QSOs on about 16-18 wpm with the begali paddle and have the idea it gets better every QSO. Although I try to find stations that are only make short QSOs. To make a complete QSO exchanging name, QTH, Rig, Antenna and WX is just a step too far. But I'm shure I will get there at some point.

I would like to welcome more members in my perseverance CW group on LCWO. 

Only 3 members is not much. We can discuss our achievements and we can see each others scores on lcwo. I hope members can learn from each other and encourage others as well. You don't have to be as fanatic as me. But if you are determined to learn morsecode it would be great to welcome you as a member. 

ATNO DXCC #300 V6D Micronesia

 Finally I worked my 300th DXCC on the HAM bands. And it was on one of my favourite bands 10m. Best of all it is on my now favorite mode CW. It took about 30 minutes. And proof was instantly there. The benefits of the internet. I'm certainly happy with this great milestone of 300 DXCC. Only a few very difficult ones to go ;-)

First FreeDV contact

 After reading the blog from VK3TPM Peter and watching his videos about FreeDV I decided to give it a try for the sake of experimenting. I took some tinkering to get it all working, especially the CAT control. Till I finally realised that CAT control is only working as soon as you hit "start" in the software. Anyway, FreeDV is a nice digital addition. Kind of DAB radio for HAMs. It is funny to hear someone speak on HF without any noise. Screaming in the mike, like we use to do on SSB, is not helping. Just speak like you do when someone is sitting beside you in a quiet environment. Watch part of my first contact with FreeDV on 40m with DK8EQ Uli. 

NTC QSO party - finally some success

 

   Last month I wrote about this party and the struggling to make QSOs. Or at least to decode some of the calls and exchanges. Most keying went way too fast for beginners like me. I have the idea a few of those stations did read my post because I had the idea this time I was actually able to decode more of the code.

I have a work around now. If I hear a call I now look for it on qrz.com to get an idea of the station and the name. Then I try to figure out if the name I hear is the same name I read on qrz.com. And of course I try to figure out the NTC number. So far that worked, only not for PI4NTC which is the club call. But after a few overs I figured out the name was THEO. The numbers went quite easy, the only number I had to search for afterwards was the one from PA7F. Luckily there is a list of members on the NTC website. And yes, if you use a contest program like N1MM this could automatically be filled in. But that is what I want to avoid. I really want to do all or most of the decoding with my own brain in this contest.

   The result. 6 contacts on 40m and 2 contacts on 80m. I did only S&P. Of course I know that you can make much QSOs with running. But it was my goal to make just a few more as previous editions. Find the scoring results here: https://pi4ntc.nl/ntcqp/ntcqp-2025-09/ I did not even finished as last ;-).

Thanks to all the ops that made CQs on a reasonable speed for beginners. I did appreciate it. And sorry for any mistakes I made. Overall I think I did pretty good this time and of course this is very encouraging to do better the next time.

#60m St.Pierre & Miquelon worked

Just before going to the job I though I check out 60m for this new on band one. I managed to get a free space in the split pile-up and it took 3 times calling before I got a reply. 3rd new one on 60m in a short period. The fun is that DXing is still possible on this band even when sunspots will go low in the next years.

Harvesting power from our sun

     Last year I wrote about the extension of my solarpanel setup with an additional 11 solarpanels. I estimated that this second setup would give me about 1000 KWh/year. But it became a bit more. I figured out that the first 5 panels would be payed for when I would reach 1705 KWh in total. Today I reached 1706 KWh in about 1 year and 3 months. I also wrote that I thought it would take 3 years to get to a break even point. When next year will be as good as this year I will reach that point in 2,5 years. I'm very happy about it because the rules in the Netherlands will change in 2027. At this moment we get the same price for the electricity we deliver to the grid as the price we have to pay for a KWh. At least extra power you don't use for example at the middle of the day is extracted from the power you use. For example you use 14 Kwh over 24 hours and your solarpower above what you use is 10 KWh in the same time you just have to pay for 4 KWh. So actually the electricity provider is a large remote battery. Of course this gives a lot of problems on the powergrid especially in high populated parts of our country. That's why the government decided this will be over in 2027. So, I was just in time buying these second hand solar panels and have to think what to do in the next year and before 2027. Best thing is to use the solarpower directly. That means use the electricity when the sun is there. I've been thinking about an electrical boiler, actually I already got one for free from my sister. In the Netherlands the most common way of heating your water is with gas which is getting very expensive in the last 10 years. Another option is a way to hold the elctricity in batteries and use it when the sun is not there. Both need to be "charged" when the sun is shining and delivering power of course. There are some smart systems available but a little expensive right now. I'm also thinking about off grid electricity for part of the property, like electricity in the garage, gardenhouse and glasshouse. Secondhand equipment can be bought, just have to find the right gear.

#60m Palestine worked

 

After a first unsuccessful first attempt I managed to make a valid QSO the second attempt. The pile-up was and still is huge. It is a miracle I made the QSO after all.

#60m Sint Maarten worked

First contact with the straight key

   Thought of calling CQ and making a contact with my straight key this evening. Something I've never done before. After a few CQs on about 15 wpm (I think??) nothing was coming back to me. So I decided to search for someone to QSO with. Then I found EA3PO unmistakingly calling CQ on 20m with a straight key on a speed slow enough that it was readable for me. I decided to key my call but he was not responding. So I tried again slowly EA3PO de PE4BAS K. Now he was coming back to me. Don't know exactly what he was keying but heard my call and a report. I thought I heard his name something like CESG, I was sure it was wrong but that is what I heard. After all it should be CESC short for Fransesc. But that is what I found out after the QSO. I hope he did hear my keying well, I think so because he repeated my name and did say something else which I didn't decode. It is so frustrating that you hear someone "talking" and you want to understand but you don't. Anyway, I did make the contact and that is what counts after all. I think I better concentrate on training words that are common in a QSO. Like TNX FER CALL UR ES RST RPT CALL NAME QTH HW? any other words? I found that many operators send BEST DX when they say goodbye.

TF2MSN Odinn

 So unfortunate that a nice HAMradio operator has died last month. I didn't know him personnally but Odinn was my first ever contact from Iceland back in 1987. We exchanged QSL cards.

Odinn was living on Vestmannaeyjar Isl. back then. This all happened on CB (11m). Contact made in FM with a converted 22 channel radio. This CB radio was modified by myself and had 54 channels, that's why my callsign at that time was DD54. I remember that there was a lot of fading on his signal and I could barely understood what he was saying. It was so special to me that I went to my dad and asked him to listen to a station from Iceland for the first time. My father, as always interested, but not his hobby ;-). Anyway, I had several QSOs with Odinn later on when I had a SSB radio.  And when I became a HAM I really enjoyed working him after I discovered he also went to HAMradio. We always had a chat about the good old CB times. It is sad we lost him. He will be remembered!

CQ WW digi

 Participated in this FT8/FT4 contest for a few hours last weekend till I reached 150 QSOs. Interesting to see that many interesting DXCCs could be worked without much effort. 

Testing the mapping feature from WorldRadioLeague.com. Not perfect, but it looks nice. I only did 10, 15, 20 and 40m. Did not participate over 16 hours like is written on the side of the map. I think that the time between the first and the last QSO is 16 hours. But in between I was off for at least 10 hours to sleep and do other things. On 40m my call was being used by another station. Strange to see your own callsign calling while it is not you. This station even made some QSOs. I don't see what the fun of this is? Same thing happened to one of my hamradio friends on 40m as well. 

My quest to learn CW (21)

 My quest continues.

Try do do my daily CW training but due to circumstances I'm not always able to log in at LCWO. However I do practice everyday some days multiple times.

Concentrating on decoding sentences I do the normal course once a day. Still 25/18 wpm is too fast for me. 80% accuracy is one of the best scores. However when I train plain text training on 26/20 wpm my rate is higher.

The goal is to make QSOs of course, Well, that's another story. I made some QSOs in Sweden as SM/PE4BAS/P. And yes it worked out. But I had help from the CW decoder in the (tr)uSDX. I don't have that with the IC-7300 and I refuse to run a CW decoder on the computer. Without the decoder I have to rely on my own brain and that makes me less confident. Yes, I hear stations calling but am afraid I will not be able to understand what they key as soon as I call them. I also tried to call CQ on 16 wpm to hopefully get an answer with the same speed. But so far this didn't work out. Well, I struggle but that is normal I guess. I just continue with it.... I'm shure at some moment in the future I will get it.