AmateurRadio.com

Via Ronald ZB2B comes news of a new 28MHz beacon from Gibraltar on 28.170

This should be very useful for us here in the UK – I’m looking forward to hearing it!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I'll have to admit that I didn't spend much time on the radio these past few days. I have too many hobbies, so there, I have confessed. This past week, I was fortunate enough to get to play in the Texas Open Pro-Am tournament on the Wednesday of tournament week. I played with Martin Laird during that tournament, who was the eventual winner of the PGA Tour event, so it was a busy week filled with golf. I also have my own rock/blues band called, The No Refund Band, www.norefundband.com . We are the real deal, we released a CD last September that is getting worldwide play. You can find it on iTunes or Amazon. I play rhythm/lead guitar. We had a show last Friday, that further reduced my radio time, but it was fun and a great time was had by all.

So things have calmed down a little and I will get back to the radio thing as soon as I recover from last week.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

PSK31 activity in last 2 hours

RTTY activity in last 2 hours

JT65 activity in last 2 hours

JT9 activity in last 2 hours

ROS activity in last 2 hours

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

When you use software regularly, thing become natural. Especially when you can find errors in your work and they need correcting. Over the past few evenings I have spent several hours trying to correct inconsistencies between the schematic and board on my first PCB project, the MSFduino.

There’s nothing fancy about the MSFduino. Its what I’ve started calling my shack clock project. Its a cut down version of the popular Arduino uno and a 60khz receiver with an LCD to display the date and time.

I got so frustrated in the end I started all over again. That made life an awful lot easier. So easy in fact that I wrapped up the Gerber files in a nice zipped package and sent them off to be prototyped. Seeing as this was my first attempt I have agonised a bit about getting it right but in the end I just had to press the send button.

Here’s hoping

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

No time to do lots

There was many things to get done this evening (far from being done) and not much time to do them. I had emails to answer, two reviews to write for Eham, get some radio time in and post on the blog! So I was shocked this evening to find 20m alive and well. The wind has died down out this way and that means the 230kv lines outside the house had stopped moving about. They sure were giving me loads of interference right across the band. That is for another days blogging complete with YouTube action as well. This evening I first ran across 9A2N from Croatia  and his signal ranged from S4 to S7. I gave him a go with 1 watt, then 2 watts but I was able to make the contact with 3 watts.

 I  then found LZ833MBB...how is that for a call!!! This call is a special event station call and is in honour of Bulgarian Saint Martyr Knyaz Boyan Bylgarski.. I was able to work this Bulgarian club with just 1 watt.
Finally I moved on to 9A7R who is from Croatia as well and again got my contact in with just 1 watt. This evening the high flux and sunspot numbers sure are starting to pay off. I am going to have to get in on the action again tomorrow but for now it's off to other items on the check list.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

It seems that whilst 6m is still a bit low on the G7KSE listening list (Nothing to do with it still being freezing cold here and me thinking its still winter) but others have had a bit more success. The latest 6 and 1o report has been uploaded here and is available.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

On Sunday I went with Derek 2E0MIX to the NARSA radio rally at the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool. Olga came too to keep an eye on me and make sure I remembered to take my tablets on time. She also took the photos (which is why there isn’t a picture of her, oops!)

G4ILO and Derek 2E0MIX

 It was good to be able to do something I would normally have done in years gone by. I met friends and also people who only know me (and Olga!) from my blog, spotted my callsign badge and came up to say hello.

G4ILO and Hylton G6AVL

I didn’t go to the show with any specific goal, just to have a look round. The only thing that I would have liked to go home with was the magnificent Kenwood TS990S on the Waters and Stanton stand. It was in a plexiglass cage so I was unable to get “hands-on” or even get a decent photograph of it.

There seemed to be surprisingly little interest in this very expensive radio. I suppose most people looked at it, realised it was unattainable and moved on. I dropped a few hints to Olga that it would make a nice present for my 60th birthday in a few weeks time but she, ever practical, pointed out that it would be too big for my operating desk. Oh well, it was worth a try!

Waters and Stanton were also showing a number of Elecraft products, including the K3 and KX3. It was good to see these excellent radios on display at this show for the first time.

G4ILO and Jim G3ZPD on the Workington Radio Club stand

WOTA (Wainwrights on the Air) didn’t have its own stand but I was pleased to see that Workington Radio Club had a poster about WOTA on their stand.

Discussing WOTA

It was good to meet some of the people I had worked on activations and put a face to the call. Several people came up to thank me for starting WOTA, saying that it had given them a new interest or got them visiting parts of the Lake District they would never have gone to before. It isn’t often that you get a chance to change people’s lives but for some activators and chasers WOTA has done just that. (I suppose some of the credit should go to SOTA (Summits On The Air) for having the original idea.)

It was a good day out. Thanks to Derek for the ride.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].