It is always good to see someone having a go. Especially an electronic parts distribution company, something that can benefit our hobby.

Read the story below:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teen-turns-500-ebay-side-31700456?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqDwgAKgcICjCprqAJMK6gcDDCqJUC&utm_content=bullets&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=AYRtylYUOteSGP8ytmQ9N0wy0vei9ouxxHaq6bHpBRr7wrIGdoneje7rQdjNDRHwT_LSjba0i6FY9qjuETwDHAnokgkM&gaa_ts=6588c6f2&gaa_sig=Xe6g3-6uFkLuk7NVHYRANjHe6GIrGyYQ9o91-BLGd-Vkj-CyNgaLgOkmqo4opTG1xtrGnCGlALoxZzgWSZLobw%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR03aljBTG2wgFMGXa8SuGK6Ftt0AFpPMB9rCCh2dAwI3f0f-Xo6RBl-8N4 

Website for Switch electronics: https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/

Special Event Week: Dec 24-Dec 31, 2023

The 1st annual Olivia Digital Mode on HF Winter QSO Party, celebrating 20 years of Olivia.

The Olivia Digital DXers Club (we’re on ClubLog!) is holding the first annual Winter Olivia Digital Mode on HF QSO Party, starting at 00:00 UTC, 24 December 2023, and ending at 23:59 UTC, 31 December, 2023.

Minimum logging requirements:  Callsign worked, Band (or Frequency), Mode (I.e., Olivia 8/250, or other variations), Time QSO Started.  You can log more than that, but for the sake of the certificate, please send at least the minimum information per QSO, to NW7US (email is on QRZ profile).  Logs can be any common method, from an .ADI file, to a screen shot.

Full details are on our website:
https://OliviaDigitalMode.org

Olivia, a Multi-Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) radioteletype digital mode, is an amateur radioteletype protocol designed to work in difficult (low signal-to-noise ratio plus multipath) propagation conditions on shortwave radio (i.e., high-frequency, or HF) bands. The typical Olivia signal is decoded when the amplitude of the noise is over ten times that of the digital signal!

Here is an introduction to the Olivia digital mode:

73 de NW7US

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who have stopped by and visited the blog. 

Listen Now

Spin the Random Topic Wheel (Segment 1)

• Year-End Roundtable

• Star Trek or Star Wars

• HF on a Budget

This Weekend in Hedonism (Segment 2)

• Cheryl’s Recipe Corner!

• French Toast Casserole

• Description

• This is a recipe that is great for Holiday mornings, when you don’t have time to cook breakfast, but want a nice breakfast for the table.  You can tweak it in many ways.  Add some fruit, small chunks of cream cheese… make it adult and add a touch of rum with some bananas and coconut!

• Ingredients (Casserole)

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 1 (8 ounce) loaf crusty French bread, cut into bite-sized pieces, or more as needed

• 2 cups milk

• 6 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Ingredients (Topping)

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, or to taste

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste

• Powdered Sugar

• Maple Syrup

• Directions

• Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish. Make the French toast: Stir brown sugar and butter together in a saucepan over medium-low heat until butter is melted and sugar has dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes. Pour butter-brown sugar mixture into the prepared baking dish. Scatter French bread pieces over top in a 1 1/2- to 2-inch layer. Whisk milk, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl until well combined. Pour over bread pieces, then press bread down with a spatula so the bread absorbs the liquid. Add any fruit (fresh or frozen), cream cheese, etc on top.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate, 8 hours to overnight. When ready to bake, remove French toast from the refrigerator and discard plastic wrap. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make topping: Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the French toast. Bake in the preheated oven until casserole is browned and bubbling, which takes 50-60 minutes, covering with aluminum foil at any point if the top is browning too much. To serve, cut into squares and invert onto serving plates. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with maple syrup, if desired.

• Cheryl’s Mixed Drink Corner

• Pineapple Whip Mimosa

• Description

• How about a nice fruity mimosa to go with your french toast casserole?

• Ingredients

• 1/4 c. sugar, for rimming champagne flutes

• Pineapple wedges

• 1 c. pineapple juice

• 1/3 c. coconut milk (not canned)

• 1 bottle champagne, cava, or prosecco

• 1 whipped topping, for serving

• Directions

• Pour sugar onto a shallow dish. Run a pineapple wedge around 6 champagne flutes and dip in sugar. Set aside. In a tall glass, stir together pineapple juice and coconut milk until combined. Pour into champagne flutes and top off with champagne. Garnish each flute with whipped topping and a fresh pineapple wedge.

• Russ’s Drink Corner

• Canadian Club Classic 12 Year Blended Canadian Whiskey

• Description

• If you’re looking for more complexity and a bit more personality, Canadian Club® Classic 12-Year-Old is for you. With a more robust barley profile, it’s a nice step up from 1858 or Reserve. This award-winning blended spirit is aged for 12 years in seasoned, char-treated oak bourbon barrels. Canadian Club is now a Beam Suntory brand.

• Details

• Mashbill: Corn, rye, malted rye, malted barley (undisclosed ratio)

• Proof: 80 (40% ABV)

• Region: Windsor, Ontario

• Color: Autumn gold

• Nose: Soft, creamy, fruity and firm, caramel, brown sugar, crisp saltiness, butterscotch

• Taste: Creamy vanilla in balance with rich wood and luxurious honey, toffee, hint of rye spice

• Finish: Long and dry with enduring presence of butterscotch

• Price: $20 (750ml)

• Rating: 85

Segment 3 (Announcements & Feedback)

• See You in 2024!

Segment 4 (New Subscribers, New Supporters & Live Participants)

• Facebook

• CW Tillman

• Derek May

• Daniel Hernandez

• Cody Lay

• Instagram

• jonathan.radabaugh

• Mastodon

• @PA0ETE

• Discord

• CW

• Dr_Volt_Iceland

• Live Chat

• AlleyKitten, KZ4CN

• Gene, BX8AAD

• Joel, KC0YEW

• Tony, K4XSS

• Mike, K6GTE

• Russ, KC5CNT

• Steve, KJ5T

• Darren, VK6EK

• Ted, WA0EIR

• Ken, VA7WY

• Don, KC9ZMY

• Jon “Maddog” Hall

• CW, KF0OLO

Music (Segment 5, Optional)

• Raining Tacos (on Christmas Eve)

• Creator: Parry Gripp

Olivia is the digital communications mode on shortwave (high frequency sub band, or, HF) for amateur radio operators who want more than the “Check Propagation” FT8 mode. This video is an introduction that was presented to the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society ( https://www.rars.org/ ) on December 12, 2023, presented by Tomas Hood, NW7US

Olivia information can be found, here:
https://OliviaDigitalMode.org

Olivia, a Multi-Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) radioteletype digital mode, is an amateur radioteletype protocol designed to work in difficult (low signal-to-noise ratio plus multipath) propagation conditions on shortwave radio (i.e., high-frequency, or HF) bands. The typical Olivia signal is decoded when the amplitude of the noise is over ten times that of the digital signal! It is commonly used by amateur radio operators to reliably transmit ASCII characters over noisy channels (slices of high-frequency spectrum — i.e., frequencies from 3 MHz to 30 MHz; HF) exhibiting significant fading and propagation phasing.

The Olivia digital modes are commonly referred to by the number of tones and the bandwidth used (in Hz). Therefore, it is common to express the Olivia digital mode as Olivia X/Y (or, alternatively, Olivia Y/X ), where X refers to the number of different audio tones transmitted, and Y refers to the bandwidth in Hertz over which these signals are spread. Examples of common Olivia modes are, 8/250 (meaning, 8 tones/250-Hertz bandwidth), 16/500, and, 32/1000.

The protocol was developed at the end of 2003 by Pawel Jalocha. The first on-the-air tests were performed by two radio amateurs, Fred OH/DK4ZC and Les VK2DSG, on the Europe-Australia propagation path in the 20-meter shortwave radio amateur band. The tests proved that the Olivia protocol (or, digital mode) works well and can allow regular intercontinental radio contacts with as little as one-watt RF power (when propagation is highly-favorable). Since 2005, Olivia has become a standard for digital data transfer under white noise, fading and multipath, flutter (polar path) and auroral conditions.

Olivia can perform nearly as good as the very popular WSJT mode, FT8, and better than FT4.

See you on the waterfall!

73 de NW7US

 The weather here for the weekend was not too great so why not spend some time on the radio? I found the Croatian 9A DX contest to take part in. The solar forecast was not promising but I thought why not spend a few hours on the radio on Saturday and see what happens? Turns out the contest was busy and I managed to practice my CW contesting.  

Below are the results: