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With the help of PC4T’s tutorial I made this graphic in excel. The blue line represents my signal at Casey TI2/NA7U and the green line represents Casey’s signal at my QTH. The strange thing is that I did not receive Casey after around 01:52 UTC. But of course it could be he only listened after that time. Peak on 30m was around 02:50 UTC after that you see propagation is going up and down slowly sloping downwards. Sunset greyline at Costa Rica is at 23:20 UTC if I’m not mistaking. You see a small rise of my signal being received by Casey at that time. Casey’s signal peaked also at that time, but is difficult to see as the graphic is 3D. So I quickly made another graphic showing this. Besides WSPR on 30m I did some 10m too for 2 days, I’ve been heard in 23 DXCC now and even logged a all time new one Kazakhstan bringing me at 64 DXCC on WSPR all band. 

Does anyone out there have any suggestions for an Android or iOS smartphone app to help learn Morse code and improve speed and accuracy?  I’ve been poking around the App Store and Android Market.  There are MANY choices and I’m hoping someone will be able to save me a little time and frustration.

Something’s come over me lately.  I’ve had this renewed interest in learning Morse code.  Well, not really “learning” — more like “re-learning.” I had to learn the code when I became licensed twenty years ago, but like most things I studied at the time, I promptly forgot it after the test was over.  What a shame, really.  I honestly viewed it as an antiquated, useless requirement.  I never imagined that I’d ever want to use it.

I’m looking for a new challenge.  For me, I think that challenge is QRP CW.  I love this hobby.  There are so many aspects that it literally can take a lifetime to explore them all.

Never Quite Good Enough, Yet!

A few days ago I had a CW chat with a guy in Illinois; nothing note worthy about this, yet! W9XS, Ron is a VFB CW operator as evidenced by his perfect code even though he was mobile at the time of our QSO. I complimented him on his fist and he replied that he has been doing code ever since his novice days, so fast code was no problem for him. I said I was not that good a code operator to be able to drive a car and do CW at the same time, to which he replied, “I’m on a bicycle, not in a car”!

My mouth literally dropped open. /M on a bicycle and churning out perfect code. He uses an Icom 706M2G for his bicycle/m work and there is a photo of him on his bike at his QRZ web site. Look him up. I greatly admire this man! We ended our chat just as he pulled into his drive way, he said over the air.

I have been trying to become a good code operator ever since I became a ham. I’m better than I was, but no at good as I want to be. My problem is that I get distracted with other things, modes, ham radio building projects and CW takes a back seat. Once again, I determine to reach my goal of becoming a good code operator. I’ve done this before, only to become distracted yet again.

This time for sure!

de AA1IK

Geezer on the porch in Steinhatchee, Florida

Combined result RTX Saturday

I left WSPR running at 10m this weekend. Although there was a huge difference between propagation at Saturday and Sunday. Since my computer chrashed a couple of months ago this was the first time that I installed WSPR again and Saturday around 10:00 UTC I was finally on air with my usual 1W. A little late as I already heard several Japanese stations with big signals on both 10m and 12m. Anyway, my WSPR signal was heard from Australia to Africa and North and South America. I could note several new DXCC and I count 18 till now on 10m WSPR that received met 1W signal. As always I received a lot more, and there was something that was conspicuous. There were stations that transmit with 50W and stations that transmit with only 0,1W. I did remember what Paul PC4T wrote about the QRO stations that appear on JT65A as well. Then I thought why? Why is someone using that much power on QRP modes like WSPR and JT65 or even PSK? I think it is a matter of confidence. Confidence in your station and in your antenna system or even the propagation. Probabely someone that has no confidence in it will use more power so he is certain to be heard. It could also be something else, like a wall of QRM/QRN in very populated or industrial areas. Imagine you always have to struggle with S7-9 QRM on all bands and you occasionally spot something on WSPR or JT65? Using QRO could be a scream for others to do the same so it’s finally possible to QSO or spot a WSPR signal. I don’t know, I hope someone that use more then 5W on WSPR or JT65 can tell his story why? Most confident station this weekend on 10m was N4AU with 0,1W over 7337km (4559mls) my report -6dB. No confidence at all had DF4PV who was transmitting 50W and had a signal of +2dB. Later he switched to 10-1 and 5W, probabely gained some confidence after all.

I understand the reason for split operation when you run a DXpedition. Without split operation you probably wouldn’t be able to hear a thing apart from the big guns shouting for attention. Unfortunately for a little fish like me the split is too wide, most of the time. My classic TS-130V has a RIT of only 2 kHz. Nowadays many operations choose splits of 5 or even 10 kHz, even for CW! Never mind, I’m already glad to be able to hear them.

Today, however, 10 meters was open again and after tuning around I found a 53 signal from T32C. Nice, but I heard them before, so no big deal. But it became nicer when I noted he was working a split of 0 kHz and he was calling out CQ because there were few takers. Out came my mike and with the 12 Watts I am putting out on 10 meters he gave me a 59 report. Yeah, right! I gave him the honest 53, but I don’t think he noticed.

Of course, when my TS-440S is fixed I have a 1oo Watts and wide  RIT/XIT again, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet. I got the missing parts yesterday and spent tonight putting the VFO#5 back together again. No luck, still lots of dots on the display saying that the PLL won’t lock and I’m measuring 8 Volts where I should be measuring 5 Volts. The search for the fault continues……unfortunately.

Still like the QSL side of the hobby. Last time I attended the local radioclub there was  pile of QSL cards waiting. Along them a long awaited card from ZD7X Tom who was operating from St.Helena in 2007. I got him confirmed now on 20, 17, 12 an 10m. When setting up WSPR this morning I heard a lot of Japanese stations booming in on 12m and 10m. But since I got a father-daughter day today I had no opportunity to make a QSO. Left WSPR on at 10m.

In the year that I was a ham in Europe I found that there was always a fellow radio nut available to talk with. I am not picky, so when I wanted to have a rag chew I did it in any mode available (except CW, because my keying is still painfully slow) and on any band. I found the French and Norwegians the nicest to chat with, despite the language difficulties.

Here in East Asia the bands are rather empty, especially in the day time. A simple wire dipole won’t get you far if the sunspots are non-existent; you need something better. So I do feel a little bit lonely sometimes when I scan the bands and there is no one out there. But with the old CB whip on the balcony, 15 Watts to put into it, I do need some spot on the sun to get somewhere. Tonight I did get somewhere however: 10 meters was open to Europe and I had two successful QSO’s with France and Germany in psk31. Alas, only 599 exchanges. But 17 meters was also open and I had to smile when I heard VK4BX having a QSO in SSB with a German station. After all, I am BX2ABT and my Dutch call is PA2BX. So I called him and immediately felt like I was back in Europe: steady signals, good modulation and we both wanted to chat. Of course we both commented that the combination of B and X is the best in the world, no question about it. 10 Minutes later I felt  like a million dollars and the tiredness of the work-week was totally gone. What a great start of the weekend and all because of a 10 minute chat with Chris. Cheers, mate.

By the way, if you have had contact with BV100 then remember that coming Monday is the 100th birthday of the Republic of China, the reason for the special call. Over here we call it “Double-10 day” and there are a lot of celebrations planned. If you haven’t worked them yet then you have till the end of the year. Zai jian from Taiwan.