Some notes about DX chasing from both sides – written by an operator who has over 19,000 contacts in 8 years from a choice DX location, and many more thousands from the U.S.

There is no doubt that chasing, and better yet catching, DX is a fun and rewarding part of the hobby of Amateur Radio. The game is to put as many different country entries into you log as possible. However, a few inconsiderate operators can make it difficult to impossible for everyone else. In fact, a few bad operators in a country can cause a DX station to avoid working a band when it is primarily open to that country or region as has happened to Italy and Spain, to name a couple of the worst in my experience.

Of course there are many well mannered and considerate operators in both Italy and Spain, but there are a seemingly growing number of rude and overbearing operators there who poison the DXing for everyone else. For example, as a DX station I have established that I will say “QRZ” when I am finished with the previous contact. I will guarantee that if the band is open to Italy or Spain there will be from 2 to 6 or more stations calling while I am still in QSO with the previous station. Their vocal minority is just as bad about ignoring directed calls from DX stations to other parts of the world. To be fair, other parts of the world, including the United States can be just as bad.

As a DX station, I want to make as many contacts as possible so that everyone gets a chance. I have enough problems with interference of all types that I may not copy you very well. IMPORTANT: If I want anything beyond my signal report, I’ll ask. If I didn’t ask, but told you my name then an appropriate response from you is ONLY 1) signal report and 2) name. Again, if I have time to ragchew, then I’ll give more information; and more importantly I’ll ask for more info from you. Otherwise, PLEASE NOTE, you are just taking up time that I could be spending giving one or two or three more stations a DX contact.

This ragchew rule applies double or triple to the small SSB “DX Window” on 75 meter SSB. If you are stateside (or elsewhere) and operating from 3790 to 3800 (*ARRL recognized); or from 3775-3800 (recognized by the rest of IARU Region 2 and all of IARU Regions 1 & 3) then you are in the SSB DX Window. If I want the weather in New England or New York then I’ll ask. If not, please give someone else a chance at DX. And please, do not hang around to ragchew with your East Coast or Southern buddies on 75 or 40 meters just because you have sunrise. We can still hear you farther west, and you prevent us from hearing the Pacific region.

DXpeditions are some of the worst violators of common sense and courtesy in my experience. Apparently the pure difficulty of the adventure is sufficient reason to believe in your own importance. The band plans seem to have been pulled out of a hat (being nice here)! NO DX station, no matter how rare as the right to the entire band. A number of recent Dxpeditions have been on 12 meters at 24.935 and other frequencies “listening up” or “listening up 5 to 20”. Put 2 or 3 DX stations on 12 or 17 meters and there was no place for anyone else ! Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back….give me the whole band and I can make many thousand contacts as well!

Some other DXpeditions in the past have been almost as thoughtless. It is not uncommon for a DXpedition to call CQ on 3790 say, and listen up 5 to 10! Hold on there! That’s the entire *ARRL SSB DX window for 75 meters that one station is using. A suggestion for the future: Call outside of the window and listen to a SINGLE frequency inside; or call inside the window and listen above or below the window. Or better, tx and rx outside of the window. If your are rare DX, then we’ll find you!

I have personally had to “go split” when operating in the 75 meter window from a DX location when the number of callers on my frequency prevented calling stations from hearing me. It is not unusual for me to listen outside of the ‘window’, or even down at 3745 if that happens to be an open frequency. I do not find it useful to listen “5 to 10 up/down”. If I cannot make out some calls on 1 rx frequency, then I can seldom make them out when they are spread all across the band. To each his or her own, but it does say a lot to me about operator skill.

Ten General Rules for Maximizing Your Number of DX Contacts

1. Listen first. If you do not copy the DX station, then you will NOT work them. By calling or tuning up on frequency you may very well make my LID list though.
2. Listen for instructions from the DX station. Are they listening “up 3” or “down 5” or “up 5 to 20 — UGH!”? Or are they ONLY listening for Europe, Asia, S. America, or another area. Don’t call if you are not in the area of the “directed call”. (see #4 below)
3. Do NOT call when they are working another station. Even a moron can understand that this actually slows down the contact rate for everyone! And, personally I do not take or recognize “tail-enders” who call before I have finished a QSO. I always say “QRZ” when I am ready. It’s just my way of trying to bring order to chaos. ***If you ignore instructions and I copy your callsign then I will NEVER put you in the log, except maybe IW0zzz RS 00 “Lid”
4. This is a hobby. It is NOT life and death! *Truth be known, YOU are NOT that important to get into my log, no matter where you are and no matter where I am!
5. As a DX station I have a listed QSL Manager for a number of good reasons. If you choose to ignore that, good luck on getting a card…ever.
6. If you are a serious DXer you probably have Internet access and access to the DX Summit spots. Please do NOT call CQ on my spotted calling or listening frequencies. What are you thinking
7. If you are on a DXpedition and have real-time access to spots, please pick a frequency that is NOT already in use. I really don’t care what you announced LAST WEEK as “your” frequencies. **This goes double or triple for your listening frequencies — DO NOT listen on frequencies already in use. You can also ask if the frequency/frequencies are in use. See number 4 above.
8. Keep your calls short! Timing is more important than the number of calls. I hear many stations continuing to call AFTER I have given a report to a different station and am trying to get my report.
9. Make sure that your transmitted audio is very clean; not too low pitched and not distorted! Turning up the mic gain to drive the ALC over scale will NOT make you louder!
10. If you can’t or won’t play by the rules, prepare to be ignored!

In the famous words of late LA resident, Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Good DX and good luck in ham radio!

Take a front-seat view of the Sun in this 30-minute ultra-high definition movie in which NASA SDO gives us a stunning look at our nearest star.

This movie provides a 30-minute window to the Sun as seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which measures the irradiance of the Sun that produces the ionosphere. SDO also measures the sources of that radiation and how they evolve.

SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 Kelvin (about 1 million degrees F.) In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation.

The distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph and the Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 miles per hour.

Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space. Moreover, studying our closest star is one way of learning about other stars in the galaxy. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Charged particles are created in our atmosphere by the intense X-rays produced by a solar flare. The solar wind, a continuous stream of plasma (charged particles), leaves the Sun and fills the solar system with charged particles and magnetic field. There are times when the Sun also releases billions of tons of plasma in what are called coronal mass ejections. When these enormous clouds of material or bright flashes of X-rays hit the Earth they change the upper atmosphere. It is changes like these that make space weather interesting.

Sit back and enjoy this half-hour 4k video of our Star!  Then, share.  🙂

73 dit dit

Stories you’ll find in our April, 2016 issue:

Let Portable Antennas give you a Noise-Free Vacation
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF

An increasing cacophony of mostly man-made RF noise on our HF bands makes it ever more difficult to hear particularly weak incoming stations, sometimes to the point of making reception of favorite shortwave or ham DX stations all but impossible at home. Keith shows us how you can take a break from noise using portable antennas that really work.

What You Should Know before Investing in an Antenna
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Whether you are a relative newcomer to amateur radio, SWLing, TV DXing or VHF-UHF scanning, or are a seasoned card-carrying veteran, only you will know the antenna parameters best suited for your amateur station or listening post. Your own passions, needs, capabilities, real estate, budget and a jillion other factors inform your antenna choices. Richard helps sort out the options and explains how to get the most S-units per dollar spent in pursuit of DX.

Wi-Fi Radio Primer Part 1
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

Always a hard-core shortwave radio listener, Thomas likes the tactile experience of turning the knobs of the shortwave, tuning in stations across the globe. So, when online listening became popular, it never occurred to him to give it a try. Then, at the 2012 Winter SWL Fest, an excellent presentation on the merits and technologies behind Wi-Fi radio intrigued him. After downloading and installing the Pro version of the TuneIn radio app, he had to admit, it was a pretty powerful listening experience…one he could easily get used to.

Piggy-Bank Ham Radio Part 1
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

After hearing someone bemoan the “high cost” of amateur radio and how such a “prohibitive expense” was preventing many from becoming hams, his knee jerk reaction was, “Really?” Sure, if you’re referring to a super-mega-über contest station, then he might agree, but just to get started, you don’t need deep pockets—just some preparation and some well-placed effort. Cory outlines a “cheap and dirty” way to start enjoying HF—with the basic Technician class license. Just as ham radio itself has no barriers as to age, the ideas he shares can work for anyone, whether you’re a student, retiree or somewhere in between.

Multiple FTA Satellite Reception Techniques Revisited
By Mike Kohl

The most cost effective way to get into Free-to-Air satellite reception is with 75 to 90-cm antennas for most Ku-band reception because they’re cheaper and shipping costs are less. But needing to monitor multiple FTA satellites forces a decision about whether to use multiple Ku-band antennas linked together with a DiSEqC switch, or to motorize one or more antennas. Which Ku-band satellites do we actually watch on a regular basis? After the busy Galaxy 19 satellite at 97 degrees West, what satellites do we need continuous access from on a 24 hour basis? Mike shows us how to properly set up a motorized Ku-band dish or use a DiSEqC switch.

Scanning America
By Dan Veenaman
Growing Acceptance of TETRA

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
The 2016 Political Season

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Uncovering U-2s on HF

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
US ALE Smorgasbord

HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Digital Destinations

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
The Meteor Shower Nobody Saw—Revisited—Again

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Home-Brewing and Kit Building Isn’t What It Used To Be—But It’s Almost What It Will Be!

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Last of the Standalone DRM Portable Radios?

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Season of Lights (Aurora)

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Clandestine Stations Alive and Well

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
The Queen’s Birthday, KBC Cutback and VOA Tibet

Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Radio Action on the Great Lakes Returns

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Spring Remedies

Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Sound and Light: The Mitchell Lumitone 1260

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Multi-banding a Single Antenna: Several Routes Beckon

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

I’m fairly new to this amateur radio community and I’ve already learned a lot. What excites me about it, beyond making contacts, is the making of parts and equipment. Homemade or homebrew items are sprinkled liberally around the community. I appreciate what I have learned and I’m excited to learn more.

So, here’s my problem:

I went through a couple of radios, mainly mobile radios, until I found suitable base radio for starters. After my young son decided to play with my adjustable power supply, he fried my Yaesu 8900, beyond repair. I took it to a local operator, who, after careful investigation and minor repair, declared the radio dead. He offered his condolences and offered that he might be selling a radio, not that he was trying to force me to buy it. I inquired about this radio. It was a Kenwood TS-2000. Looks nice and has a lot of buttons. He told me he was going to take it to the local ham fest to sell and if it didn’t he’d make it a good deal for me.

As fate would have it, the radio didn’t sell. Indeed, he sold it to me for an undisclosed amount that was more than a good deal for me. He added an HP DPS-1200FB server power supply to avoid the incident to which my Yaesu had succumbed. I was happy and overwhelmed. This radio was more than I ever imagined, and I’m still learning about it after almost a year.

Eventually, I discovered that VOX is very useful for HF work. So, I added a cheap computer studio mic and went to work on HF. Then, there are the local nets on the local repeaters. While not forbidden to use VOX on the repeater, setting things was just a bit tricky. So, I opted to use the supplied Kenwood dynamic push-to-talk mic for repeater work.

Now, the two mics are in play. Any time I switched between the repeaters and HF, I also switched mics. I had to disconnect one and attach the other, which, besides being cumbersome, just made me worried I’d eventually mess up the connectors.

Behold! The idea for a microphone selector switch was born.

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