AmateurRadio.com

If you’re a VHF/UHF enthusiast, you’ll know what I mean when I say that there are CQs you make, which you don’t expect to be answered.

And so it was last night, around 2030 local time as I was driving back from the gym to home. I knew that 50MHz had been lively earlier on the evening as I heard a CT station on FM as I drove up from the station. As I drove out of the gym, I could hear a local QSO (local to Italy, that is, with no callsigns) fading up and down on 50.500.

I wondered if the band was still open – so as I drove out along the main road, I tried a CQ call on 51.510 – completely expecting silence to be the only reply. But there was a signal – which completely caught me by surprise with its’ strength – but I didn’t have the volume set right. I thought it was a local and asked for a repeat. It was EA2DVT!

Although Alejandro was obviously having some problems copying me, we were able to have a nice QSO as I drove home. A real surprise and pleasure!

The FT8900 seems to have a bit of an intermittent fault though. A few times recently, I have had reports of interference on the audio. Baz, G8DOR thought it was something to do with the PA. The issue seems to be temperature related and only seems to happen for a short time. The suggestion seems to be that there might be a dry joint somewhere in the PA. It will be interesting to see if it occurs on both sides of the radio (the FT8900 having two distinct radios in it) – at the moment, I’ve been using the right hand side. I’ll switch it over to the left and see if that changes things.

Tomorrow should be interesting. I don’t know if it’s just TV weatherman hype, out what, but I overheard the forecast for tomorrow, and I heard the possibility of three inches (7.5 cm) of rainfall.

So I stopped at Home Depot and picked up an old fashioned cylindrical type rain gauge. I installed it on the back deck, where it will be out in the open and not shielded in any way. It will be fun to see how much rain we actually get.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 55 is now available for download.

Join Tommy and George as they relive their Excellent Adventure to Dayton Hamvention 2013. See what goodies we brought home, George’s award, visit with Midnight Science, Joe Eisenberg K0NEB, Bob Heil K9EID, Ray Novak N9JA, and more.

We also announce the very lucky winner of the Field Day Giveaway contest who’s receiving the Icom IC-7200 plus a custom shop paint job and accessories from GigaParts, MFJ, and Heil Sound.

1:12:02 of Hamvention fun.

Download

View in web browser: YouTube

Today there has been a really big Sporadic-E opening on 6m which lasted for several hours. In fact it is still going on as I type this.

This snapshot of activity from DXMaps gives an idea of what the opening was like at its peak. The whole of western Europe must have been covered by a reflective Sporadic-E cloud!

From DXMaps I could see that the opening extended up to 2m for a time, though I didn’t hear anything myself. Unfortunately my QTH is poor for VHF so conditions have to be exceptionally good for me to hear any 2m DX let alone work it. So 6 remains my favourite VHF band.

I made several 6m contacts on SSB and several on PSK31. The most interesting call was LY44WFF, a DXpedition to Klaipeda, Lithuania KO05oi which is quite a rare square so I’m told. Best DX on PSK31 was probably David, 5B4AHY.

I never quite know how to answer calls on 6m PSK31. Some operators seem to use quick, contest style operating while others reel out their name, QTH, EPC number and so on. I prefer the quick format myself, with the aim of getting the contact completed before the conditions fade out. But if someone wants to exchange a bit more information I try to do that too.

A station operating RTTY was an unwelcome presence among the PSK just above 50.250. One RTTY station came up right smack on top of someone operating PSK63. Surprisingly I got perfect copy of the PSK63 station which was straddled by the RTTY signal! Surely it is time to abandon this old, wide, slow outmoded mode?

And are close to the Central New Jersey area this Saturday, please make sure to stop by the annual Raritan Valley Radio Club hamfest this Saturday morning.  We are located in the parking lot of the Piscataway High School on Behmer Road in Piscataway, NJ.

We are conveniently located, not far at all from Rte. 287, the New Jersey Turnpike, Rte. 1 or Rte. 78.

The hamfest has been “gaining steam” over the past few years, and turnout by vendors and sellers has been on the increase every year.  This year should be no exception. In addition to all the “stuff” that will be up for sale, there is usually some kind of neat demonstration of something going on, as well as VE testing. As a special treat, Alan W2AEW is usually in attendance, so if you’re a fan of his oscilloscope and test equipment videos on YouTube, there’s a pretty good chance you’d get the opportunity to meet and chat with him.

My main duties for the day will be to assist with parking cars and serving as a VE. But I’ll probably have the KX3 in the car, so if you want, and if you twist my arm gently, I could be persuaded to demo the KX3 along with my drive on mast mount and the PAR. Or, if you’d like to just shoot the breeze about QRP for a while, I’d be more than willing to accommodate.

The weather forecast for Saturday is in a word, BEAUTIFUL!  If you’d like more info, be sure to visit www.w2qw.org/ham fest.htm.

Hope to see you there!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least.