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.