AmateurRadio.com

I took the morning on Saturday April 5th to take part in the RaDAR Contest. RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio which of course endorses and promotes activities on the go and quick set up of active amateur stations.

The contest was a 4 hour time block and had various categories. I chose to do the portable QRP option taking my radio and antennas and snowshoes to get to where I wanted to be. The time frame for this RaDAR Contest was from 1400-1800z, so I left the house it was -12c. Grabbed my gear and put my snowshoes on and hiked to my spot to attempt to make my first 5 qsos before I would have to pack up, walk another km and then set up again and make 5 more contacts before doing it again. Well as the Propagation Gods would have it the bands were not great and there were a few other QSO Parties and contests on as well with Europe and Polish Stations quite loud on 15 and 10 meters. I was running a VX-1210 at 5 watts with a Chameleon Whip antenna. Exchange was call, Name Report and Grid Locator with other operators to gain points.

I worked Phil N1EP in Maine on 15 meters with a great report both ways, I then called CQ a number of times while listening to the Blue Jays and Whiskey Jacks singing while the heat of the sun slowly got warmer and warmer, remember I started at 10am local time..a slight breeze was about but the sun was great, as it has been a long winter. I then moved to 10 meters and heard a station calling CQ, it was Alex UR0EV from Ukraine, he heard me at 5 watts and we exchanged reports, Alex was a 579 and he gave me a 559, great report for a 10’ mil whip and 5 watts. That was all I was able to work as the snow was getting soft now by noon and I had to snowshoe back and the snow was sticking to the bottom quite well making them heavy. If you went off the trail the snow is still waist high and not easy to get out of..

The following pictures show the trail I was on, my setup of the VX-1210 and Chameleon mil whip all sitting on my snowshoes. All I know is it has been a long winter and we are not out of it yet, cabin fever is setting in big time for everyone up this way and spring cant arrive soon enough, let alone summer..I too needed to get out and operate portable again to keep things moving.

I walked on bare ground for the first time in four months today. It was glorious. I worked Iceland, Ukraine, Belgium and a bunch of stations in the Missouri QSO Party and a few in the QRPARCI Spring Contest.

The river is swollen with spring run-off. A couple of kayakers have just left for the three mile run through the rapids to Franklin. I hiked along the old rail trail that runs alongside the river. Parts of the trail are snowy still. It’s still squishy in many places. But it’s 52F and a perfect day for the first real spring outing.

I hiked about a mile and whistled back and forth with a chickadee as I went. I turned through a gate toward a farmer’s field. I tramped through eight inches of snow on the way to a warm spot I knew would be free of snow. The sun had melted all the snow in a warm corner of the field, and I sat down under a large pine tree. The rest of the field was still covered with six inches of white.

I had tossed a line over a pine branch and was using the KX3. I tuned a 33 foot wire with the earchi.org 9:1 unun and the internal tuner on the KX3. Rather than detailing each QSO, I’ve attached my log below:

6 Apr-14 1921 21.037 N0M CW 599 599 MO
6 Apr-14 1922 21.039 N0O CW 599 599 MO
6 Apr-14 1924 21.042 W0E CW 599 599 MO
6 Apr-14 1927 21.060 N4BP CW 599 599 FL
6 Apr-14 1932 14.006 TF3JB CW 599 599 Iceland
6 Apr-14 1940 14.025 UR9IDX CW 599 599 Ukraine
6 Apr-14 1942 14.062 AB8FJ CW 599 599 OH
6 Apr-14 1945 21.018 ON4IA CW 579 599 Belgium

I operated for about 25 minutes and had a fantastic time in the warm sun. The little thermometer attached to my backpack read 65 degrees in the sun!

As I made contacts around the world, I could see the last remnants of the long winter melting before me. Most of the snow in the open areas will be gone in 10 days or so. It will linger for several weeks in the woods. I will get out every chance I have.

Mellish Reef in the Coral Sea

This week I was happy to add to my logbook three contacts with VK9MT.  The well-planned and excellently managed dxpedition was operating from a tiny sliver of coral and sand about 500 miles northeast of the Australian coast, a barely-there island called Mellish Reef.  It was a new one for me (number 306!), and when they had to suddenly cut their time out there short because of threatening weather, I was especially happy I had been able to log them.  Now, as I write this, the exhausted team faces several days of rough sailing, trying to steer clear of the tropical storm that chased them off the reef in the first place.  We wish them godspeed and offer our thanks for their time, effort, and considerable personal investment in placing Mellish on the air for us.

There’s another reason I was so pleased to get a few brief contacts with this particular group and QTH, though.  Mellish Reef is located in the Coral Sea.  In May, 1942, a key naval battle was fought in the immediate vicinity.  The Battle of the Coral Sea actually changed the course of warfare since throughout the battle neither fleet ever laid eyes on the other.  All fighting occurred between airplanes flying off the decks of carriers, something that had never happened before.  The battle also was a tactical victory for the Allies.  It not only stopped the Japanese march to the south toward Australia but it also left the Imperial Navy two carriers short.  They were damaged at the Coral Sea conflict and unavailable for the historic Battle of Midway, a key factor in the first clear-cut Allied victory of WWII.

The Allied tanker USS Neosho ablaze after coming under attack in May 1942 in the Coral Sea, near Mellish Reef

I am now writing a book about a little known side story to the Coral Sea battle.  It is the tale of the sinking of two ships, a destroyer and a tanker, which were mistaken by the Japanese as an aircraft carrier and escort, an error that helped the Allies prevail in the battle the next day.  Just over 100 men were left clinging to the listing deck of the hulk of the tanker, awaiting rescue that would not come for four days.  Another nearly 200 men abandoned the ships and ended up adrift on life rafts without food, water or shelter.  By the time the rafts were found nine days later, only four of the men were still alive and two of them soon died.  It is an amazing story of human perseverance and bravery, but also one about how what happens in war is so often determined by error, coincidence, and sheer luck.  How many of those men might have survived if they had somehow found their way to Mellish Reef?

As an author, I look for human stories everywhere.  For certain, when I work a fellow ham anywhere–around the corner or on the other side of the globe, engaging in a rag chew or in a quick “59 TU” contact–I am always interested in what Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story.”  What is it like there?  What else happened there?  What does the OM do for a living?  What stories is he willing to share?

Remember when brave and resourceful ops put South Sudan on the air before most in the USA even knew a country with that name had been hatched?  I was recently thrilled to work the dxpedition FT5ZM on Amsterdam Island.  Now that part of the world is at the top of the headlines with the Malaysian passenger jet search.

Tonight, as the guys who worked so hard to give us a QSO from remote Mellish Reef continue their rough ride to what we all hope will be a safe return home, I can’t help but think of the other stories that have played out down there in that roiling, dun-colored sea.

73,

Don Keith N4KC

www.n4kc.com

www.donkeith.com

TX Factor, the UK’s first TV show dedicated entirely to amateur radio has certainly taken off. Episode 1 which launched back in February has seen over 22,300 downloads and the latest release has been viewed more than 7,400 times in the past 14 days. We’re extremely grateful to the amateur radio world for helping to propagate the news of this TV show and to help us achieve a large and appreciative audience. It’s made it all worthwhile!

If you’ve not yet watched an episode, then head over to www.txfactor.co.uk to see what’s on offer.

We’re always on the lookout for ideas for future show topics, so do let us know of any ideas we could consider for future inclusion.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our emailing list or YouTube channel to make sure you get notification of each new episode. Talking of which, episode 3 will be available in mid-May. The show features the famous Military Wireless Museum in Kidderminster with curator Ben Knock G4BXD and the king of kite aerials Roger Stafford G4ROJ. Mike Marsh visits the Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally and Bob takes a look at the new offering from FlexRadio Systems.

We’re currently building up a resource library of extracts from past shows which may be of interest to those who haven’t managed to watch an entire episode.

And if you can’t wait for the next episode, there is now TX Talk, a section of the web site where regular audio features on all aspects of amateur radio are uploaded. Right now, there’s an exclusive interview with FUNcube Project Manager Jim Heck talking with Bob McCreadie about the prospective changes to the FUNcube satellite’s transponder availability.

Agentschap Telecom – which is the Dutch version of the FCC – has decided to cancel the registration of my Dutch call sign PA2BX. And besides me also the calls of some 197 other Dutch radio amateurs who live abroad. Their reason being that since we don’t live in the Netherlands anymore we also don’t use the radio spectrum for which we need to be registered.

They already did so on March 12th, sent out letters to the operators involved on March 14 and then on March 19 informed the VERON, the Dutch Amateur Radio Society member of the IARU, that they were intending to do so. I don’t think I have to explain that I am very disgruntled with all this, and no doubt with me many others. At first sight it seems the AT doesn’t have any legal grounds to take this action and all is not lost, because I can always register again. But for now I cannot claim that I hold the call PA2BX and I cannot operate either in the Netherlands or with a guest licence in many other countries. These civil servants sure know how to waste time and money thinking of silly things like teasing us amateur radio operators.

…and another….and another.

My first ever serious outdoor QRP operation yielded two additional firsts, namely first Trans Pacific QRP QSO and first US CW QSO on 12 meters. KZ5OM a.k.a. K6III was the one who made it possible, and my “thank you” QSL card was mailed to him directly. I didn’t know that Jerry is very active within the SKCC or the Straight Key Century Club. So in his e-mail back he suggested me to join the SKCC, get on the sked page and have another QSO with him. Also because I would be very welcome there.

Always being obedient I filled out the form on the SKCC web site and a couple of hours later K9JP mailed me my life long SKCC number: 12107.
Only after logging on to the sked page did I understand what Jerry meant by being welcomed. Immediately some ops wanted a QSO with me and I got mail asking for skeds. I hadn’t even hooked up my J37 yet, so on Saturday I did and my first every SKCC QSO was with VK4TJ, another very active SKCC member. On Sunday Jerry was also on line and we had our second QSO, although this time not QRP.

Chatting with others on the sked page is lots of fun and the atmosphere is very relaxed there. For now I am only one of three SKCC members in Taiwan and I know the others aren’t very active, so it’s no surprise I am so popular. The SKCC is also very popular, something I did not know. I became member on March 27, with number 12107. As I write this it is March 31 and already 23 other hams have joined after me, brining the total to 12130 members (minus a handful of SKs). Adding almost 5 members a day is quite impressive for a club dealing with such an old communication system.

The SKCC is about straight keys. I have two: my trusted J37 and a Junker NATO issue key. Never liked the latter because of the clicking sound it makes when you release the handle. It is German quality though, and if I don’t start using it I will probably never start liking it. So off came the banana connectors and on went a 5.25 mm jack. Four years of postponing, but done in 15 minutes. But I do like my various paddles and switching between paddles and a straight key meant switching jacks on the back of my IC-7200. Not convenient at all. So on Sunday afternoon took out the materials I had already prepared a long while back and finally made the switching box I had in mind. A year late, but an hour of drilling, fitting and soldering later I had the job done.

So thank you Jerry, it’s all your fault. Because of our QSO I am now member of the SKCC, had a lot of fun on air, started using my Junker key and finished a project.

This is to let everyone know that Wednesday night, Joe Walsh WB6ACU is going to be co-hosting TWiT.TV’s HAM Nation with Bob Heil, Gordon West and Leo Laporte. Will be a blockbuster show with several in- studio guests. Joe will be introducing a new Contest/Dx segment anchor that is joining the show. Watch live and fasten your seat belt!