AmateurRadio.com

This was a question I was asked earlier today. Someone thought it was an exotic digital mode. It is not.

GDX means “best DX in the UK” , nothing more.

If you live in the UK it is probably a phrase you know. If you live outside the UK then it may be a phrase you’ve maybe never heard of before or were too embarrassed to ask.

In the same way ODX means “best overall DX”.

UPDATE 1545z:  Just 6m locals and GDX this afternoon. No Es here since CN8LI lunchtime.  May be more teatime?

CN8LI (2113km, Morocco) spotted my 1W ERP twice around 1200z today on 6m. This is the first real DX (Es presumably) today.

G4HBA (189km) is the best GDX so far today. He was spotted at -27dB S/N at 1138z when running 10W with 2Hz Doppler, so maybe some aircraft reflection?

Recent 6m WSPR spots today

Last night my new Win 8.1 Dell PC decided it needed to install updates. I chose to  switch off until restarting this morning. It said “Loading Windows updates. Do not switch off your computer”. Being a good boy, I obeyed and waited as it got to 81% complete …… and waited, and waited, had breakfast, went for a walk, had more breakfast and still it said 81%, please wait. In all it had now been 1 hr 40 minutes!

At this point I was about to ring up that nice Dell man in India when I decided to turn off the PC and try again. THIS time it sailed through 81% and reached 100% complete in no time. PC works fine! What the heck was going on?

Tuning around this morning, 50MHz hasn’t been massively open, but there have been some interesting signals popping up. First thing as I was drinking my first coffee, I worked IK6HIR from JN63 who came up quite nicely for a while. I6WJB was heard calling CQ DX, so I didn’t call him, but he was a decent signal.

Although I don’t use clusters much these days – especially on HF, this Es season I have been looking at dxheat.com which is a very nice web based cluster and allows me to filter everything except 50 and 70MHz spots. I noticed a 70MHz spot fly by of Martin GM6VXB on 70MHz meteor scatter. I tuned to the frequency in question and did get a short burst from him, but not enough for a QSO. Hardly surprising, given my vertical antenna.

Returning to 50MHz just before getting some chores done, I tuned around the CW end and SV5DKL (KM46) was coming through. With the small antenna, I don’t work SV, SV5 or SV9 very often from here, so dropped in a few calls. Signals were quite weak and then, in typical Es fashion peaked up to S7 or so and I was able to sneak a QSO in, which was very nice. The distance is just under 2900km, which I think is ok for the setup here (SV5DKL was doing all the work, of course)

As I frequently do, when I work someone, I tapped his callsign into Google and found that Efstathios has a very nice blog, with information about his operating and QSOs, particularly on 50MHz.

Series Seven Episode Twelve of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss RSGB teaching radio in UK schols, and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) anf Colin (M6BOY) are joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for an International Roundtable.

• RSGB to develop links with school
• ILLW set for another good year
• New pirate stations in Ukraine conflict
• HamDisk now in Beta testing
• VK9 going on a DXvacation
• Spain's ham radio king to abdicate
• Honor Roll DXer, Assistant ARRL Director H.O. Townsend, K5CX - SK
• Swiss 5 MHz Experimental Beacon Project
• Sligo 2m voice repeater
• Antarctic radio ham now online
• Philadelphia area Hams celebrate 4th July holiday with 13 Colonies Special Event
• International Museums Weekend 2014
• Guest operation in Brazil during FIFA 2014 World Cup
• USB driver update for Icom D-STAR repeaters
• South African RAE results released

Series Seven Episode Twelve of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss RSGB teaching radio in UK schols, and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) anf Colin (M6BOY) are joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for an International Roundtable.

• RSGB to develop links with school
• ILLW set for another good year
• New pirate stations in Ukraine conflict
• HamDisk now in Beta testing
• VK9 going on a DXvacation
• Spain's ham radio king to abdicate
• Honor Roll DXer, Assistant ARRL Director H.O. Townsend, K5CX - SK
• Swiss 5 MHz Experimental Beacon Project
• Sligo 2m voice repeater
• Antarctic radio ham now online
• Philadelphia area Hams celebrate 4th July holiday with 13 Colonies Special Event
• International Museums Weekend 2014
• Guest operation in Brazil during FIFA 2014 World Cup
• USB driver update for Icom D-STAR repeaters
• South African RAE results released

My friend Tony, KD8RTT, is an Extra from Cleveland, Ohio. He has launched a new YouTube channel and is giving away prizes to four lucky hams who subscribe in order to get new followers.

Tony is a sophomore studying engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.

It’s always great to see a young ham jump so enthusiastically into the hobby. From his recent trip out to Hamvention to operating maritime mobile from a Disney Cruise, Tony has done a fine job documenting his ham adventures on video.

Great job with your videos, Tony. Keep up the hard work!