Like always this is my last contest before the summer and before I dismantle the horizontal loop antenna. Unfortenately I was a little exhausted from work last couple of weeks. No time for radio except once and a while with my little Baofeng HT on the bike. Besides that family life is getting more and more important as our little QRP Anneli is growing up fast, that means less time for the radio hobby. Anyway I had a difficult start at Saturday having no patience to work real DX, I was so tired I stopped at about 150 QSOs. Sunday was a lot better after a reasonable night sleep, although I didn’t have time till the afternoon I made 410 QSOs in the end with 80 DXCC in total on the list. Working a new DXCC (number 200) was my goal and at the end I managed that. I worked Z21BB (Zimbabwe) and TO7BC (Mayotte Isl.) both on 10m as “new” all band DXCCs. As the propagation was really good I concentrated my efforts on the high bands. I left 40, 80 and 160m for Sunday evening as I didn’t expect to hear many “new” DXCC for me at those bands. One thing did surprise me and that was a QSO with Japan on 20m Saturday evening I heard several VK stations as well on that time, very unusual and I guess it was all longpath propagation. I think I missed a lot of stations as well since I coudn’t be on the radio early in the morning, but as always I had a lot of fun in this DX contest.

You can find a log analysis here…

Some highlights:

10m: JA0JHA (Japan), B7P (China), V55V (Namibia), TR8CA (Gabon), PZ5P (Surinam), Z21BB (Zimbabwe), TO7BC (Mayotte), YB8Y(Indonesia), 

15m: VP52V (Turks & Caicos Isl.), JT5DX (Mongolia), TO5K (Martinique), KP2TM (US Virgin Isl.), WH7M (Hawaii)  

20m: JE1ZWT (Japan), 9Y4W (Trinidad & Tobago)

80m: UP2L (Kazakhstan)

Bas, PE4BAS, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Groningen, Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

At the weekend I noticed that the CQ WW WPX phone contest was on. I’m not a fan of phone contests – hollering your call into a mic over and over again is not my idea of fun – but I thought it might be interesting to see what I could hear or work on 10m when so many stations were on.

In the end I only made a handful of contacts. It was just too manic for my current state of mind. I couldn’t remember the serial numbers I was given before typing them into the log, so I would have to wait for the station I worked to make another contact and see what the next serial number was. I much prefer CW contests using a code reader to print up the exchange so that I can just double-click the information to enter it error-free in the log.

I’ve just started my final cycle of chemotherapy and it has knocked me back a bit. So I think I’ll stick to pastimes like WSPR and JT65 that have a more relaxed pace until I’m feeling better.

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

I registered with RS Components for a Raspberry Pi board (when they get released) and whilst I’m not expecting one this side of the summer it was nice to get an update from them. If the truth be told I’m having too much fun activating summits in at the moment. Especially now as we seem to have a warm spell. It certainly makes a change from hail and snow I had on Scafell Pike a couple of weeks ago. Anyway see below for the update from RS:

Welcome to the latest Raspberry Pi update from RS Components!

Much has been happening behind the scenes since you received our last update, not least the start of compliance testing on the Raspberry Pi.

Why are we doing this? Compliance testing is an essential part of bringing any electronic product to market. The Raspberry Pi is being tested to make sure it conforms to all the regulations that apply to electronic devices around the world. This means that we can be sure the Raspberry Pi we deliver to you meets the correct standards and is as safe as you would expect any electronic device you purchase to be.

We’re working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to manage the testing process as quickly as possible, while ensuring all tests are carried out to guarantee safety. More information is being posted on the Raspberry Pi website , as well as on our own FAQ pages rswww.com or DesignSpark. We’re also regularly tweeting updates on progress. Follow @RSElectronics on twitter to catch the latest news.

Alongside this, we’ve also been contacting the first group of people who registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS, to help us plan delivery of the initial batch of boards. In next week’s update, we’ll provide more information on how we’re managing the queue and the order process.

RS Components

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

Series Five Episode Seven of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• RAFARS AOTA event
• London 2012 Games Final Update
• VO-52 to return soon
• 'Birthplace of Radio' awarded City status
• BBC highlight problems with PLT
• Complete collection of QRPp Journal is online
• DXCC Online
• Special Callsign for Naval Social Event
• HMS Collingwood Amateur Radio Special Event station
• Ham moves to 'ideal' North Dakota

Martin M1MRB gets ready for Spring with his Radio Spring Cleaning tips and Ed Durrant, VK2ARE provides an intro to the HF bands.

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

My antenna…

 

…didn’t wake you up at 3 AM last night with loud music.

…doesn’t mind it when you leave your curtains open and walk around naked in your house.

…doesn’t rev up its engine for two hours like Joe does down the street with his old Mustang on Friday nights.

…won’t pollute your water well.

…didn’t mess up your TV yesterday, but the signal coming out of it may have.  Sorry about that.  I can fix that if you’ll let me.

…won’t drive up over the curb and over your flowers and shrubs.

…doesn’t belong to a gang.

…isn’t as cute as the woman next door, but my antenna didn’t call the township office like the woman next door did when you didn’t get a building permit.

…will never be on a sexual predator list.

…doesn’t bark at everything that moves.

…is a technological sculpture…well, to me, at least.

…is a gathering place for birds, when they’re not over at your bird feeder.

Come to think of it, my antenna is a pretty good neighbor.

I really enjoy kit building I find it to be a nice pass time when the propagation is not co-operative and the bands are slow. With kit building it's a learning curve starting out with basic kits and moving up to kits that
contain SMT components....I have yet to dive into that pond. There sure is a reward when you have spent time

Replacing a cable

assembling a kit and then to see it work is  a great feeling.
Recently I had to open up my Elecraft K2 to add an internal antenna tuner and battery. I had not had the top off the K2 for some time.....I was amazed at all the components to which I thought..."I actually put all this together" For those of you who build kits like me you have run into times when things just don't go as planned. I have soldered components in the wrong  place. There has been solder run onto two pads instead of the one the solder was intended for and so on. I would bet there are a lot of kit builders out there who have their own stories.  As kit builders we all have our "tools" from soldering stations to multimeter's

Hakko at work

and everything in-between. One tool I purchased about a year ago and really don't use all that often but when used it sure has gotten me out of many binds. The "magic tool" as I call it is the Hakko 808 desoldering tool. In the past I have used the hand pump, hand bulb and soldering iron and bulb combo. These did an ok job but at times all had failed me. The Hakko 808 is very efficient at removing soldering mistakes and at the same time saving the component if placed in the wrong location. The Hakko heats up very fast, the vacuum pump is powerful, maintenance is minimal lastly its very user friendly for filter changes. I know that solder mistakes only happen now and then but it's sure great having the right tool for the job at hand.

The finished product

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

As I was driving home last night, I was looking around on 28MHz SSB as I usually do. In addition to the ‘usual’ South Americans that I’ve been hearing for a few weeks there were a couple of fairly weak French stations. This interested me as I suspected I was hearing them via Es propagation. If that’s true, then with any luck we will start to hear more Es on 28MHz and then hear it rising in frequency towards 50MHz and beyond.

This afternoon, in celebration of the gorgeous weather, Julie and I decided to go up White Horse Hill, which is about 10 miles to the south of where we live. Although it was a little misty up there, we had a great time walking, listening to the skylarks, watching the buzzards and picking out some of the local villages. I took my Icom E-92 handheld and had a tune around on 145 and 433MHz. I was particularly pleased to have a nice 145MHz simplex contact with Mike 2E0YYY/P who was on the Long Mynd in Shropshire. I suppose the distance between us was around 80-90 miles.

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