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Now that the PJ operations have been underway for a while, you’d think that the pileups would have started to die down a bit. In some cases they have, but I was kind of surprised to see how big some of them remained. I guess it varies depending on band, propagation, and where you’re located, but this morning I saw PJ2T spotted on 17m CW and I figured I’d give him a call. He nice and loud, but he had a huge pileup. This is what my bandscope looked like.

By way of explanation, what you’re seeing is that I was tuned to 18.07201 MHz, which was where PJ2T was transmitting. I was set to call him split on 18.073Mhz. The big pile of green and light blue on the scale represents the other stations that are calling him. The scope was configured so that each white vertical line represents 10KHz of space. What you can see is that the callers for PJ2T were spread out over around 20Khz of space. Those of you who are DXers will appreciate how big that is, but normally for a “routine” DX operation you might see callers spread out to 2, 3, or maybe 5KHz. It’s only when a really “rare one” comes on that you typically see something like this. (Hence my reference to P5, North Korea, in the subject.) Oh, and keep in mind that these are only the callers that my radio can hear. Imagine what it must sound like on his end? I do want to say that the operator is doing a terrific job.

As a reminder, I’ve been collecting web sites and other internet presence information for the PJ DX operations on a special page here.

Now that the PJ operations have been underway for a while, you’d think that the pileups would have started to die down a bit. In some cases they have, but I was kind of surprised to see how big some of them remained. I guess it varies depending on band, propagation, and where you’re located, but this morning I saw PJ2T spotted on 17m CW and I figured I’d give him a call. He nice and loud, but he had a huge pileup. This is what my bandscope looked like.

By way of explanation, what you’re seeing is that I was tuned to 18.07201 MHz, which was where PJ2T was transmitting. I was set to call him split on 18.073Mhz. The big pile of green and light blue on the scale represents the other stations that are calling him. The scope was configured so that each white vertical line represents 10KHz of space. What you can see is that the callers for PJ2T were spread out over around 20Khz of space. Those of you who are DXers will appreciate how big that is, but normally for a “routine” DX operation you might see callers spread out to 2, 3, or maybe 5KHz. It’s only when a really “rare one” comes on that you typically see something like this. (Hence my reference to P5, North Korea, in the subject.) Oh, and keep in mind that these are only the callers that my radio can hear. Imagine what it must sound like on his end? I do want to say that the operator is doing a terrific job.

As a reminder, I’ve been collecting web sites and other internet presence information for the PJ DX operations on a special page here.

Last weekend at the RSGB’s convention, my friends at the Five Star DX Association (FSDXA) announced their next expedition to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) – T32 in the Pacific Ocean. The team aim to arrive 28th September, 2011 and depart 26th October, 2011.

The plan is to operate under the callsign, T32C. You can read more about the expedition at the official T32C site

I was very honoured to be invited to join the team, by Neville, G3NUG, though sadly I had to decline.

Having been involved on the inside of an FSDXA dxpedition before, I am absolutely certain that this will give DXers the very best opportunity to work T32. Hopefully, over the coming months, we’ll be able to bring more insights into the forthcoming operation.

You can see their first press release here

Yesterday I finished building the QRSS beacon kit board. The keyer chip sends the wrong callsign but it that was no reason not to build the kit. It’s a very easy kit to build although there are no fewer than five toroids to wind which is a lot for such a simple project. Some people hate winding toroids though I find them easy to do and can’t see what all the fuss is about.

The only other slight difficulty with the  kit is that the potentiometer for setting the output power has leads that are too big for the holes in the PCB. This is mentioned in the instructions, where it is recommended to use component lead offcuts to extend the originals. My junk box was supplemented a few months ago with a Maplin bargain pack of assorted potentiometers and lo and behold it yielded a wirewound trimpot of exactly the right value that perfectly fitted the PCB holes. So I used that instead.

When the board was finished I powered it up using my bench power supply and PM20 QRP absorption wattmeter. In the photo I have breadboarded a regulator from 9V down to 5V as I was toying with the idea of running the beacon from a rechargeable PP3 battery (the board will fit into a case I have which has an integral PP3 battery holder) and wanted to see how much heat the regulator would dissipate.

I found that I could get a maximum of just under 100mW from the beacon with about 120mA current drawn. This is a little less than the specification. The instructions suggest that a bit more than 100mW should be possible, but the shortfall isn’t enough to worry about. For longer battery life I will run the beacon at 50mW which draws a current of around 65mA.

To get the transmitter on frequency and set up the mark/space frequency shift I used my K3 and QRSS VD software. The signal, even on the dummy load of the power meter, was very loud which was helpful getting it into the ball park. I had to disconnect the antenna, switch in the attenuator and back off the RF gain to reduce the signal to a level where I could fine-tune the frequency and see what the signal would look like on the air.

And here it is, sending G4LIO! It’s a bit frustrating not being able to connect it to an antenna and put it on the air because of the wrong callsign. I’ve been promised a new chip and I practically snatched the post out of the hands of the postwoman but it hasn’t come yet. In the meantime I can think about putting the beacon into a nice box. Forget winding toroids, for me that is the hardest and least enjoyable part of any constructional project!

144-MHz SoftRock Ensemble II VHF by KB9YIG and VE3NEA Rocky 3.6.  Yup, that’s W3APL/B (off the back of the beam) and WA1ZMS/B in the same waterfall.  How cool is that?!  More later…  This has many implications for many projects!

Alerted by posts by Patrick, WA0TDA and Steve, GW7AAV, I see that Wouxun have announced an entry into the mobile rig market, with their KG-UV920R rig covering 144/432MHz.

Based on the coverage that Steve mentions in his post, there is FM receive from 65-220MHz – so this rig could receive on 70MHz too! In fact, reading the posts, I was wondering whether Wouxun will, in time, consider a 70MHz capable mobile rig.

The Wouxun portables have proved excellent and I am looking forward to hearing more about the mobile rig in due course.

I didn’t spend too much time on the radio on Tuesday evening, as the cats were requesting entertainment again – which was a pleasure to provide! Being the second Tuesday of the month, it was the 432MHz Activity Contest and there was still some tropo around. The best DX for me was DF0MU in JO32 – which I was more than happy with. It was also good to work GD8EXI (IO74) – the first time I have worked GD from Longworth on 432MHz. Interestingly, like last month, he was at his strongest when I was beaming southeast. A reflection, perhaps? I was also pleased to hear some northerly IO93/IO84 squares which are less common for me.

Oh. And a special mention to the contester, whose callsign I will not mention, who when I called him first, he only got my suffix. No problem. He asked if I could give my prefix. No problem, I did. Then he proceeded to moan that he hadn’t got my full callsign! I seem to remember mentioning when I wrote the contest column in RadCom, that it’s best to be nice to the people who call you – otherwise they might not call you again. This gentleman won’t be hearing from me for a while, then!

Tropo seems to have faded down mostly now, although there was something weak on 145.650 this morning, either GB3PO or ON0WV – I couldn’t tell. Apparently the forecast for the weekend could be favourable for more tropo. Let’s hope so!