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A few months ago I wrote about a time issue I had with a program called meinberg NTP. It suddenly stopped sync time on my laptop. I went back to Dimension4 and have no problems since. Now, I installed meinberg NTP on my desktop as well, using it for JT65-HF, WSPR and other digi mode programs. But last week it stopped sync the time on the desktop as well. So back to D4 I thought, so I downloaded it and installed but although it told the clock has been synchronized it didn’t really update the computer clock. I’ve tried everything to get it working, installed it again, did a restore of Win Vista, seaarched on the internet. But could not solve the problem. I wanted to get active again with JT65, but with the clock out of sync that is impossible. I found a atom time clock on the internet and updated the clock myself. But found that was not the solution. I came across NetTime then and just thought to give it a try. It seems to be working as I can make and receive JT65 again. Strange things happen if you use windows…..

Results after a QSO with Japan and USA on 20m with 5W on the loop antenna.

I had a little sked last Sunday morning with PA3GNZ. And although this sked didn’t work out I had my HT on receive at the 70cm coversity channel. Now at a certain time I received 2 radioamateurs, the conversation went on and seems that one of them did not hear about the coversity channel before. He, like many others, thought he was being repeated by the PI2HVN repeater. It was the case as you can verify it at the internet and the other amateur told him that. It seems they had a chat before because the one mentioned earlier wishes to know more about coversity. Now, the other amateur told him to go back to skype so he could explain. And gone they were.

So what do we need radio for? Or is this the end of amateurradio (as we know it)?

In last years blogpost about this 11 cities contest I told about this movie I didn’t see then. But now I have and I can recommend watching it. I don’t know if there is a english version or a undertitled one. The story is really nice, I would certainly watch it again. Now for over the past week we did have foggy weather. Actually since last Saturday we only had fog, other parts of the country did see the sun last week. But here in the north it seems the sun cannot break through. Is it a forecast for a very cold winter? Like the winter of 1963? I was not born then but heard stories from my father, and experienced the 1979 winter myself with temperatures of -22 Celsius and snow that sticked to the windows so you couldn’t look outside what was happening. Well  to get back to the topic, the Frysian 11 cities contest is tomorrow between 10:00-13:00 UTC on 80m and 2m. The 11 cities from  this famous iceskating tour are the multipliers and you can work a extra multiplier which is Bartlehiem  . A total of 12 multipliers is possible. You can find a english document with the rules on this page. Although most are calling in dutch everyone worldwide can participate. I will also regulary call in english for those that want to participate from outside the Netherlands and will only particate on 80m.  It’s also a good chance to obtain the Friesland Award if you like.

I‘ve been busy to set up to 84m horizontal loop again today. The XYL was not too happy with this. First it is a ugly thing in her garden and second we are still busy to finalize building the new bathroom and I should have spend time for that too. But then, the PA-beker contest is only this weekend, the bathroom is still there next week. It’s  always a struggle to divide time between so many things especially when you got a hobby. Well, I always thought the militairy glasfiber mastparts I have to build the supporting poles of the loop antenne would be unbreakable. But the first mast snapped when I tried to get it up. Anyway, I got some spares and the next one did hold it. The loop is up again. Now, a test on 80m didn’t work out, I called several times but no one replied. I heard PA0PSA and YT2SS calling but they didn’t hear me. So I switched to 40m, a  few calls to 9A6DX and we had a nice chat. Report 5/5 with 5W into the loop is not that bad. A quick modulation report guide me to another setting of the Turner +3B mike I now have connected to the Yaesu. I hope I’m ready for tomorrows PA-beker contest.

N1MM on the right VFO B…

Well I decided to use N1MM for the upcoming PA-beker contest event. So first thing of all the preparations I have to do before I’m ready is to connect the FT817 to N1MM. That is done by the famous ZLP modem I described earlier in my blog. The problem only is that my laptop assigned the modem to virtual COM port 11. First problem, N1MM only knows 8 COM port assignments. Luckely someone had encountered that problem before and to solve this you only have to follow the N1MM help document on this subject. Once it was solved I had the FT817 communicating with N1MM. Next problem is that N1MM only reads VFO A, VFO B shows 0,00 MHz even when I switch to VFO B this does not change. I asked for a solution in some internet forums and discussed the problem with PE2KM who has a FT817 as well. Kees tried the same set up with his radio and has exactly the same issue I have. Now I’m in contact with one of the programmers I think on the N1MMlogger yahoogroup to see if we can solve this problem as apparently Ham Radio DeLuxe does read both VFOs and I can switch between them.

HRD left VFO A, right switched to VFO B

Plaque I received yesterday

The CQWW SSB is as always the beginning of the small contest season for me. I did a lot of contests in the past but since family life keeps me busy I choose to participate only the important ones. Some of those are only important for me as a Dutchman like the PA-beker contest, Friese elfstedentocht contest and the PACC. I placed myself 2nd in the PA-beker and 4th in the Friese 11 steden last year and this month I’ll try to improve myself, I guess it’s going to get difficult. Next thing to do is to set up the horizontal loop again, after that I will see if there is time and room for any improvements on the station. Anyway, one thing is for shure I really want to have fun that’s the most important thing. First contest coming now is the PA-beker contest which is purely a contest inside the Netherlands, I will participate again in the QRP section with my FT-817. Only this time I will use N1MM as contestlogger instead of the PA0FLE contestlogger I used in the past. Hopefully it will help to beat my score of last year.

Last years declare:

Place / Call  / Region  / QSO  / Multiplier  /  Score

That means if I want to be at first place I need approx 120 QSO and 60 multipliers. Looks easy, but I can tell you it’s difficult to make so much QSOs in 2,5 hours especially when QRP.

Incredible! Worked 20 !!! new band DXCC on 10m in the CQWW contest last weekend. That’s a lot. Propagation was very good especially on the 10m band. I actually made a wishlist before the contest with the help of the announced DX operations list of NG3K. Did not work everything fom the list as for example the PJ and A52 stations were constantly in a pile-up and I didn’t want to waste time with so many nice DXCC to work. But at last I did QSO with a few of the list. I even made a incredible QSO over the northpole to Alaska on 10m another first on that band. And no, I don’t work with a large beam but with a simple vertical made partially from Aluminium foil! I don’t have a lineair amplifier as well and did make all QSOs with 100W. I was not on the radio  the whole weekend, so I missed opening to Oceania. I was simply not able to be on the radio on the right time as family duty calls. But after all I cannot complain I made 450 QSO’s, 200 of them were made on the 10m band. And I was almost jumping in the air….I made my first QSO with XE zone 6 after years of trying on various bands. 

Some highlights on 10m, of course I made some QSOs on other bands too:

10m: JH4UTP (Japan), ST2UOK (Sudan), JT5DX (Mongolia), A92GR (Bahrain), BX100 (Taiwan), BD3NCK (China), VU2PAI (India), JY4NE (Jordan), C5A (Gambia), PZ5MM (Surinam), HI3TEJ (Dominican Rep.), P40W (Aruba), 8R1EA (Guyana), A73A (Quatar), A61BM (UAE), AA4V/VP9 (Bermuda), XE1CQ (Mexico), YV5NEA (Venezuela), HR2DX (Honduras), VP2MDG (Montserrat), WL7E (Alaska), 5H3EE (Tanzania), 7Z1SJ (Saudi Arabia), FY/F5HRY (Fr.Guyana)

I didn’t mention the countless northern American stations I worked on 10m. Imagine what would have happen if I used a beam, I think I would have doubled this list !!!