AmateurRadio.com

It’s always good to hear from Julian, G4ILO. However, an email received today was of immediate interest. I’d posted a couple of weeks ago that I was having problems getting WSJT-X to work, on account of the stuttering audio.

Julian kindly emailled this morning to ask whether I’d got it going yet, because he’d heard of someone else having the same problem. And better still, he related how the person had fixed the problem, changing the output audio device to Direct-X.

I received the email at work today and frankly was tempted to remote control to my PC at home and have a play, but alas it was a busy day. However, this evening, I popped up to the shack after supper and had a look.

Sure enough, I had a ‘Direct X’ output available for my audio, so I mapped WSJT-X’s output to that and wondered. And hoped.

I called HA3LI who was calling CQ with a huge signal on 14MHz JT9-1. It sounded good on my monitor receiver. No stuttering…. And then, magic of magic,HA3LI came back and we completed an easy QSO.

Just as good, looking at the HAMSPOTS site, my signal was also copied by VK3AMA and KE5SSH.

It looks like I am in business. I am so pleased! Thank you Julian!

After yesterday’s disappointing session on 15m PSK31 I tried JT9-1 again. The new JT mode showed its superiority by giving me two contacts with Japan. I nearly worked more as one JA replied to my CQ but disappeared after I sent his report. I was also spotted on HamSpots by two other JAs whom I have never seen on my screen. Another nice contact was with HS0ZBS. This is not the first time I have worked Thailand, but all my contacts with that country have been on 15m.

In another direction I worked PJ2MI – a familiar callsign. Checking my log we first worked in 2003 using PSK63 – quite an achievement as I would have been using my K2 and 4W output. More recently I have worked Jose using PSK31 and JT65A. On 20m I worked K8CZC who from the look of his eQSL would have been using low power (QRP).

I had a meeting to attend this evening, so I wasn’t able spend too much time behind the K3. But after I got home, I did run downstairs to fire up the rig. 30 Meters seemed active, so I camped out there for a bit.

In short order, I worked 9A6C in Croatia and CN8KD in Morocco. I nabbed both these stations with QRP power levels. I threw out my call a few times for A45XR in Oman. But by that point, he had been spotted on the Cluster and the pileup was enormous. Even though I have never worked Oman before, I did not up the power and jump into the fray. I was just too tired.

A little bit up the band, OK did hear ER1OO, Wlad in Moldova. I tried him a few times, but I kept on getting “W3L?”. It was obvious that he was having difficulty hearing me. Not wishing to torture Wlad any further, I pulled the Big Switch for the night.

No commitments for tomorrow night, except for the 80 Meter Fox hunt, which is the very last one for the 2012/2013 Winter season. Maybe I will hear some more good DX before the hunt begins.

I’ve done pretty well this season. I am going to miss the hunts, and will eagerly await the 20 Meter Summer season.

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

Today I hiked in Old Hill Village on the west side of the Pemigewasset River. I worked Macedonia, Italy and W0RW pedestrian mobile in Colorado. This was a fantastic outing.

Coming down the hill alongside Needle Shop Brook, there was still snow and ice. But once in the old village, the road was dry. This is the most amazing spot with 3500 acres of fields and trees which form a flood control reserve for the Franklin Falls Dam. After walking 1/2 mile north I turned east through a field toward the river.

Imagine having a place like this… all to yourself… to roam, to breathe clean air, to enjoy nature… and to play radio.

I setup at the edge of the field, not 60 feet from the river. I tossed a line over a pine branch and sat down in the warm sun. I hooked up the HB-1B with 4 watts on 20 meters to a half-wave wire rising straight from the backpack to the branch overhead.

At the bottom of the band I heard Jane Z320G from Macedonia calling CQ. I answered and we exchanged quick 599s. This was generous because I had to send my call several times before he copied. There was strong QSB. Next I went up the band and heard Pietro IZ2EWR finishing another QSO. The Italian station was very strong and well worth waiting for. Pietro gave me a 579 and sent, “UR QRP FB.”

Before calling it quits, I dialed up to the QRP frequency, 14.060. What a nice surprise to hear Paul W0RW calling CQ. Paul in Colorado, was pedestrian mobile. We were both weak to each other, but were able to complete a contact. Paul gave me a 339 and he was 449.

With cool temperatures in the mid-30s and a wind gusting to 15 MPH, it was a bit nippy in the shade. But in the warm sun, surrounded by blue sky and some trees for a wind-break, it was perfect. This is a place I love to ride my bike in the warmer weather. I’ll be back many times in the glorious weeks ahead.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been playing some 28MHz JT65A in the late afternoon and early evening. The band hasn’t been great but there have been plenty of reports from South America and good to see some other stations too.

I was looking at the PSK Reporter website and the mapping of stations that had heard me and those I’d heard. As I looked at the Pacific Ocean, where I haven’t been heard in the last few days, my mind went back to my first QSO with Hawaii on 28MHz.

It was probably back in the late 1980s or maybe early 1990s. I was living in Cheltenham in a house with a garden around 9 feet wide by 20 feet long. I had a Butternut vertical up (26 feet tall). I had to retreat into the house to get it to an angle such that I could then walk out into the garden and get it to the vertical plane!

At the time I was very active on CW on HF. Late one afternoon, I heard an individual sounding morse signal on the bottom end of 28MHz. It was Nose KH6IJ. Nose was probably the most famous operator from Hawaii at the time and I was thrilled to hear him. Even more thrilled and surprised when he came back to my call. We had a brief QSO – a really nice one.

I doubt I have worked Hawaii on 28MHz from the UK since – I don’t chase these things anymore. But it’s always a thrill to work half way around the world.

Wind forward to this evening. I googled KH6IJ and I found a really fascinating article about him, with lots of facts that I didn’t know before. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did!

I checked the JT9 operating frequencies and downloaded a new version of the programmer but I was still seeing the same old calls so I switched to PSK31. 15m seemed quite lively. There were a few JA’s, a couple of stations from China and one from South Korea. Later on I heard a sation in Indonesia. But could I work any of them? Could I heck.

I did manage to make a couple of far eastern contacts: Alexander RD9OA from near Novosibirsk, and Lee BG6CJR from Ningguo in China, but I failed to make any impression on the others. All I got was a couple of QRZs then they called CQ again. Together with the antics of some of the Russian operators – sending their calls over and over and over again so the DX had no chance of hearing anyone else call – it got a bit frustrating. I was running 40W but it didn’t seem to be enough to reach stations I was getting solid copy on. If I didn’t have to go stealth I think I’d be seriously considering a KPA500 at this point! It must be nice to flip a switch and blast over the top!

Some of the Russians seemed to be in a rush. One actually sent PSE SHRT K to me as if trying to have a friendly QSO would keep him from something more important. DX seems to bring out the worst in many operators. Sheesh, it’s only a hobby.