AmateurRadio.com

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I have decided to add an additional page to my blog giving access to the KX3 videos. This way they are available for anyone who is interested. This way you do not have to go and search all through the blog to find them. For that reason the 4th video is not on the front page of my blog but rather on the KX3 video page and you will find the tab at the top of the blog if you wish to go there for a look.

Well the KX3 is almost completed and this is the 3rd of a 4 part assembly video of the radio. In this YouTube video I go over the problems I had with the ATU installation, the roofing filter board issue and the battery holder oops I had and needed to correct before there was damage. The build is almost complete but have a look and either get excited about purchasing one or pick up some pointers before you do  your build.

Part two of the KX3 build is up on YouTube, in this video I go over some of the troubles I encountered and how they were solved. The radio begins to take shape and looks more and more like a KX3.

This is my first time using Imovie  with my Mac computer to edit a video. There are many great things that can be done using this program, things that over time I am going to have to learn. This is part ONE of a four part series. I am working on the editing of part two now and hope to add more flavor the the movie. Part ONE is a little long but now I have the hang of how to edit and shorten them.

Some time ago I blogged about the Captcha's one would have to deal with when trying to leave a comment on some blogs.  Over time Captcha's have changed and not for the better. I can remember when they were simple......a pain but still simple to solve. Then I guess cyber bots became smarter so the Captcha's  became harder!!  The new Captcha's had a "wave" to them along with upper and lower case letters. Then as fate would have it the dam bot's did it again became somehow smarter....the Captcha's then had an UNCOOL way of blending their letters together and burring them to boot, oh and lets add numbers now too.
So my latest Captcha rant is......this week I was going to post a comment on a blog and on the comment page it contained the Captcha  along with the comment box. There was the blur, the wave and numbers as usual so I filled in the maze and then added my comment. I proceeded to hit the post button I was then informed my Captcha attempt did not match....surprise surprise!! I was instructed to hit the back button and try again. To my surprise my comment was gone and I had to start all over again!!! Is this the NEW Capthca....mess up and your punishment is to start all over again. I guess from now on I am going to  have to add but another step to my comment process, highlight and copy the comment in case I am punished and have to start again and maybe again and again....you get the idea.
I am stepping off my soapbox now........thank you.

This weekend it was my intention to get some DXCC's into the books and the weekend is not over yet and there is still time....but.....the bands were alive with the Worked all Germany contest. On Saturday morning and mid morning 10m was alive with DL calls. I have been reading over the past few weeks how great 10m  WSPRing has been. I wanted to give QRPp operations a shot and 10m seemed wide open to Europe. Below are the result from my Saturday and Sunday morning QRPp contacts.
1. HA3FTA ( I know it's Hungary not Germany) 200mWs          22,776 miles per watt.
2. DK9PY                                                          100mWs           39,565 mpw.
3. DJ1MM                                                          500mWs            8,405 mpw.
It was now time to start dropping the power lower.
4. DL2DX                                                              50mWs         82,857  mpw
Below was the best distance of the day for Saturday the conditions started to change on 10m and contacts were getting harder and harder to make. Besides it was time to get some things done around the house. 
5. DL1NUX                                                           40mws        101,702   mpw.

For the first time in over a week I found time to wind up the Elecraft K3 and get on the air. In many blogs I have seen WSPR reports of great conditions on 10m, that would be great if I was retired and home during the day....but........I wanted to see how conditions were in the evening. I was very pleased I was able to hear no problem the DXpedition of 3B9SP on Rodriguez Island  This is a small island off the coast of Africa. They were armed with 3 Elecraft K3's and 2 Elecraft KPA 500 amp's. They had a very strong and clean signal here on 20m but the pileup was large. I was able with the help of my P3 to see the stations in the pileup 3B9SP was going back to but I still was not able to break the pileup for a contact.    I then turned it over to 30m which for me most evenings had been a very good band for contacts. I came across HK1MW in Columbia and again a very good signal here into VE3WDM. Columbia is not all that far from my QTH (ham radio speaking that is) and 30m has always been good to me. I gave him a go but there was nothing and the conditions were starting to change as well with lots of fading. Besides my goal for the last 1/3 of this year is to get the last 19 countries for my DXCC Jubilee award. I already have Columbia so it was time to move on. The cluster was showing A45XR out of Oman now I have not had to much luck at all with that region....no luck meaning never hearing them.
I would not advise this while driving but he did make the contact!!

  I gave it a go and there was Chris loud and clear!! He was operating split and with my dual receivers in the K3 I was able to hear both sides of the adventure. It was great the band was not at all as busy as with 3B9SP so I gave him a go...and a go......and a go......until in the wink of an eye he was gone just replaced with static. Well that was my Thursday evening of ham radio. I will say I did have a blast and did miss getting  on the radio.