AmateurRadio.com

To my surprise I have been asked to be a mentor to someone who wants to get their ticket. My wife works with the public and she was chatting with this gentlemen and they were sharing info about their hobbies. It came to light that he was interested in getting his ham license. Julie told him I would be more than happy to help him on his journey.  At first I was excited....not that I am not now but it's been over 20 years since I received my license and things sure have changed from then. I want to sit down with this individual and see what it is they
are looking for in ham radio....strictly VHF/UHF, upgrade to HF and are they interested in code? The meeting to find all this out will be this weekend over coffee. In the mean time I have been on the Internet looking up what is now involved for one getting their Amateur radio license here in Canada! I found out that it sure has changed and in a very good way. It seems to me at first glance anyway that the study materials  exhibit a more practical aspect of the hobby. Sure the regulations are still a part of the exam but there is more on antennas, propagation and even setting up a station. I can see for me this is going to be a learning experience as well. I will have the opportunity to brush up on my theory and who knows learn some new "stuff" about antennas, feed lines, radio equipment, the regulations and the theory! Wish me luck..........

Well it's now Sunday and I just don''t know where the week has gone it does not even seem like the weekend has begun but it's almost over! It has just been "one of those weeks" I have not been able to get any radio time in....for that matter really not to much of anything has been done this week. It has been a busy week but as I look back can't really say anything was started or completed. As I have reported in my blog I am

This is the powerport box without the battery

making my Elecraft K2 portable so I can use it in the car and the out of doors when the warmer weather comes. I ordered a case from the Powerport store the case I ordered was the Radio box. It's been 4 weeks now and no case has arrived I tried to email them regarding this as I was emailed when the case was shipped. I then read on their site that they do not respond to emails just (long distance) phone inquires.  I wanted to wait until Friday just to see if it came in....but nothing. I then ordered some very nice Sony head phones for my portable op's from Ebay....and again 5 weeks have past and nothing. I did email them and was told they were shipped but they will ship another pair on Monday......It's just been one of those weeks!

I just came across some info regarding a replacement for the road warrior FT-817 it's the mystery FT-818? I have read some comments on blogs that wrote about the FT-818. Some seem to be drooling while others see it as wishful thinking. I did try a link on one blog that boasted of a Yahoo group for the FT-818 but it did not exist. The "up coming rig" sure does boast of some very impressive improvements.

• All mode, all bands 1.8-1296MHz with 5MHz and 70MHz
• 5W RF (2W 1296MHz)
• 3.5AHr Li-Ion battery pack (2hr charging)
• Built in random wire and whip auto-ATU
• Full colour OLED display
• Multi-function DSP noise reduction
• RF Speech processor

BUT Yaesu has not even hinted about this rig...nothing at Dayton....and well check out the Icom IC-7000........seems to me the FT-817 has had a photo shop crop job done to it! What do you think is the the FT-818 fact or fiction?

Unbelievable.....there is a review out on Eham regarding the Elecraft KX3. I was doing a Google search of the KX3 last evening to see what was new. I came across a link to Eham Matt Zilmer, W6NIA posted a great field tester review of the up and coming KX3. Now please correct me if I am wrong but how many of the "other" ham radio manufactures field test their rigs with hams who are not employees?? Ok I get it if you have read my blog I am just an Elecract fanatic... guilty.....but do post a comment if you can come up with a ham gear manufacture who field test rigs with fellow hams or were emails are answered sometimes within the hour or that day....I'm getting side tracked.....Matt gives a technical overview of the rig then moves onto his opinion and finally the nuts and bolts of operating the rig and bragging of his contacts. If you are a follower of my blog then you may have read my post KX3....need or want....there I decided to stick with my Elecraft K2 rig and not spend the bucks on the KX3. But as time goes on and as the rigs get the hands of the eagerly awaiting hams its going to be hard to resist one!

Action on 20m

Since my setup does not allow me to be even close in the top running I try to come up with some goals before each contest,I find it makes the contest more interesting. Since this contest hosts a load of DX and the ARRL is offering a Diamond DXCC  challenge certificate for 2012 I decided to begin my DXCC country collection. During this contest I was not concerned with the number of contacts, concerned about spending to much time on making a certain contact or my hourly QSO rate. I was set on DXCC country hunting and working toward the 2012 DXCC award.

Relaxing and contesting

Well as you know I was not on the air on Friday as the speed and pileups were just out of this world. So I managed to get things done around the house and hit the air on Saturday at 9am local time. At that time I found 10m to be dead but 15 was great! I was able to make 10 contacts on 15 meters with 500mW's...it's funny I am contacting folks who give me their power as 1KW and I am getting to them with 500mW's. Any way the conditions were great but I did take a break at around 1800 UTC as things were slowing down on 15m at that time and not yet picking up on 20m's. At around 1930 UTC I was back at it again but this time on 20m's for some reason I did try 500mW's but it was just not doing it so I slowly made my way to5 watts. That seemed to be the magic power for 20m. The bands were alive and healthy out this way and I had a blast!! I have been on a total of  7.43 hours and made 252 contacts (all DX contacts that is) that breaks a record here of almost 34 contacts per hour. I have not started to log contacts for the ARRL DXCC diamond jubilee so this was the contest for me to get that rolling. Up to this point I have 50 contacts toward the certificate.  Sunday is another day and I plan to get up early to pounce on some 10m contacts and 50 more DXCC's......dreams are free as they say..........

Before you knew it 00:00 came and the ARRL international CW contest was a go. During my first 1/2 hour 20m was open but only to non DX to me. So it was off to 40m's and it was alive and hopping! Here at VE3WDM the contest power is 5 watts or less. The band was crowed and the pileups long I did give a few DX stations a call but the KW powered stations going back to the DX really gave me no chance. I did hang in for the whole 1/2 hour but it was just not happening to night. I shut the rig down for the evening just to crazy out there, once the contest adrenaline cools I will get back on. I am looking at Saturday to give 10m, 15m and 20m a go for some DX soup.
Until then....contest on!!