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.