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I always like reading about the challenges that people set themselves in Ham Radio. Challenges come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Keith, G6NHU’s QSO365 project has rightly attracted a lot of attention.Here’s a fun one, too, that I read about yesterday. Nick, N1IC has set himself the challenge of making contact with each of the 50 states of the USA using D-STAR, in 50days. You can read about Nick’s progress hereI’m certainly going to look out for Nick on D-STAR. I won’t be able to help him with a new state, but it’ll be nice to say hello.

I always like reading about the challenges that people set themselves in Ham Radio. Challenges come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Keith, G6NHU’s QSO365 project has rightly attracted a lot of attention.Here’s a fun one, too, that I read about yesterday. Nick, N1IC has set himself the challenge of making contact with each of the 50 states of the USA using D-STAR, in 50days. You can read about Nick’s progress hereI’m certainly going to look out for Nick on D-STAR. I won’t be able to help him with a new state, but it’ll be nice to say hello.

I was playing around in the RSGB’s 432MHz activity contest last night (enjoyable but no-one terribly distant worked) when I saw a tweet go by, from AI4RI, I think, asking if anyone knew any tools for mapping the grid squares that they’ve worked at VHF.I use the Winlog32 logging program, written by Colin, G0CUZ which has some grid mapping capability built in – although it does not overlay the squares onto a map.Another tweet from AI4RI quickly appeared saying that he’d found the WorkedGrids software from VE2ZAZ. I’d seen it mentioned before but not tried it. The software installed quickly and I was able to point it at an ADIF file that Winlog32 had created. If you have a logging program that keeps the log in plain text, ADIF or Cabrillo then you can use WorkedGrids to scan the file automatically and plot your grids on a map. Winlog32 keeps the log in an Access database so I had to create an ADIF export and point WorkedGrids at that.WorkedGrids setup allows you to select which bands you are interested in, I chose 50,70,144 and 432MHz, but you could just as easily select other bands. Having done that, a basic but effective map was displayed, showing the grid squares I’d worked on each band.I seem to remember that DX Atlas by Afreet Software – as used by the FSDXA’s 3B9C expedition some years ago has a similar capability.

I was playing around in the RSGB’s 432MHz activity contest last night (enjoyable but no-one terribly distant worked) when I saw a tweet go by, from AI4RI, I think, asking if anyone knew any tools for mapping the grid squares that they’ve worked at VHF.I use the Winlog32 logging program, written by Colin, G0CUZ which has some grid mapping capability built in – although it does not overlay the squares onto a map.Another tweet from AI4RI quickly appeared saying that he’d found the WorkedGrids software from VE2ZAZ. I’d seen it mentioned before but not tried it. The software installed quickly and I was able to point it at an ADIF file that Winlog32 had created. If you have a logging program that keeps the log in plain text, ADIF or Cabrillo then you can use WorkedGrids to scan the file automatically and plot your grids on a map. Winlog32 keeps the log in an Access database so I had to create an ADIF export and point WorkedGrids at that.WorkedGrids setup allows you to select which bands you are interested in, I chose 50,70,144 and 432MHz, but you could just as easily select other bands. Having done that, a basic but effective map was displayed, showing the grid squares I’d worked on each band.I seem to remember that DX Atlas by Afreet Software – as used by the FSDXA’s 3B9C expedition some years ago has a similar capability.

UK radio amateurs have the opportunity to apply for a special callsign to mark the occasion of the forthcoming royal wedding.It’s all quite simple. G4VXE would become GR4VXE, GW5NF would become GR5NF, MM3JFM would become MR3JFM and so on. In order to do this, you need to apply, through the RSGB to OFCOM for a Notice of Variation (NoV). The only information you need to provide is your callsign and a contact e-mail address.The special callsigns can be used between 29th April and 9th May 2011.You can read about how to apply and the conditions of the variation hereI’ve applied, so it will be a bit of fun to use GR4VXE for a few days. Who knows, I may even fire up the HF transceiver…

UK radio amateurs have the opportunity to apply for a special callsign to mark the occasion of the forthcoming royal wedding.It’s all quite simple. G4VXE would become GR4VXE, GW5NF would become GR5NF, MM3JFM would become MR3JFM and so on. In order to do this, you need to apply, through the RSGB to OFCOM for a Notice of Variation (NoV). The only information you need to provide is your callsign and a contact e-mail address.The special callsigns can be used between 29th April and 9th May 2011.You can read about how to apply and the conditions of the variation hereI’ve applied, so it will be a bit of fun to use GR4VXE for a few days. Who knows, I may even fire up the HF transceiver…

I love reading about VHF openings and operation in other parts of the world.I just found this fascinating post by OM Satheesh, VU2WSM regarding an opening from Oman to India on 145MHz.