Posts Tagged ‘band condx’
News: Olivia Digital Modes on HF
July 25th, 2026 | 
Author: Greetings Olivia and digital mode operators,
GREAT NEWS! WEBSITE UPDATE!
Here are the big three new features:
Live spotting is now available!
- Live Olivia spotting. Just like on POTA and other sites, this is a live show and tell of your activity either by self spotting, or spotting stations you copy. Dedicated live spot page, you can view even on a cell phone.
We are excited to announce a major new feature now live on OliviaDigitalMode.org: an interactive Live Station Spotting tool designed specifically for our digital HF community. Inspired by popular spotting platforms like DXWatch and POTA.app, this system makes it easier than ever to see who is active on the bands, find open Olivia QSOs, and share your own station reports in real time.
Come Join the Live Spotting of Olivia Digital Mode
Whether you are hunting for a contact or tracking band openings across different bandwidths and tone counts, the new spotting tool brings several powerful capabilities straight to your browser:
- Real-Time Live Feed: The spotting page automatically refreshes every 15 seconds, ensuring you always see the latest on-air activity without needing to manually refresh the page.
- Smart Spot Grouping: When multiple operators spot the same station, the system automatically groups those reports together into a single clean line. Instead of duplicate entries cluttering your view, you will see the station, frequency, mode, and a list of all operators who spotted them.
- Timeframe Visual Highlighting: You can easily filter for fresh activity. By selecting a window of 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 hour, brand-new spots are visually highlighted so you can jump on active signals immediately.
- Flexible Display Options: On the dedicated spotting page, you can choose how many spots to display at once (from 10 up to 250 rows) and toggle between a grouped callsign layout or a detailed chronological log.
- At-a-Glance Homepage Widget: A lightweight summary widget on the main homepage shows the top 5 to 10 most recent spots the moment you arrive on the site.
- Fast Performance and Historical Archives: Active spots stay on the main board for 12 hours to keep queries ultra-fast. After 12 hours, spots automatically move to a historical archive where they remain available for band activity research and propagation analysis.
To keep the spotting board reliable and free of spam, posting new spots will require a simple, free operator account. When you register, you will just need to include a short note for the site administrators to verify your callsign and approve your posting access. Once approved, you can log in anytime and share spots whenever you are on the air.
- Live Calendar of Olivia Events. I have now put live the active calendar functionality on the site, and seeded it with possible calendar events. I will start planning our upcoming events – which require YOUR input on such things as, monthly sprints, special events that you want to do, and, our quarterly QSO parties.
- Feedback form. This is a community website. Now, you can leave feedback; what would you like on the website. What should be different? What is not working? What is working? Please leave us feedback.
Come be a part of this conversational digital mode!
Unexpected Surprise: What Are The Odds? ATNO DXCC
I have a story for you. All of it is true, but I have not changed my name.
Wow! I am always amazed at those moments in my amateur radio hobby when spontaneous joy is had by unexpected events.
Iran worked as ATNO DXCC 2022-APR-14
On Thursday, 14-April-2022, at about 17:30 Universal Time (UT), the unexpected occurred, and it started by accident.
I have been reorganizing my radio shack. Once I moved my main transceiver (the Icom IC-7610) from one desk to another, and had it back in operation, I left it tuned to a random frequency, in the CW mode. It was just sitting there, hissing away with the typical shortwave sounds of a frequency on which no one was transmitting. And me? I was going about reorganizing my radio shack.
After a while, I heard the start of a Morse-code CW signal; the operator was sending a CQ call–a transmission that invites a response from anyone who wishes to have a QSO with the calling station. What I heard was, “CQ CQ DE EP2ABS EP2ABS…”
NOTE: This transceiver, my Icom IC-7610, is listening with the new antenna—the 254-foot doublet up at 80 feet–that was raised up into the air here at my QTH by a fine crew from Hams in the Air.
I looked up EP2ABS on QRZ dot com, because I did not know from what country/entity the EP2 prefix on callsigns belongs. I was excited to see that EP2 is from Iran!
I started answering his CQ call, “DE NW7US NW7US,” for at least ten minutes; each time he sent his CQ, I answered. Finally, I heard him answering me, “NW7US NW7US DE EP2ABS 5NN…”
I answered back, sending my signal report, “5NN 5NN DE NW7US TU”
Soon after that simple exchange, he confirmed our QSO by posting our QSO to Logbook of the World (LotW).
Thus, by accident–as I had simply left the transceiver tuned to a randomly-selected frequency and stayed on that frequency listening while doing my chores–I heard the Iranian station calling CQ. What are the odds!?!?
This is my first QSO with Iran, another All Time New One (ATNO). How cool!
Note: This is a testimony to the work from the crew that did the fine work of getting this antenna installed. Here is a video presented by Hams on the Air:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9AH7OYjrk[/embedyt]
73 de NW7US dit dit
How Did You Fare in CQ WW CW Contest Weekend?
Man, lots and lots of Morse code on the ham bands, this weekend. The CQ Worldwide CW Contest weekend was hopping with signals!
How did you do this weekend? How were conditions on the various contest bands?
Comment here and your report may make it into the propagation column in an upcoming edition of the Radio Propagation column in CQ Amateur Radio Magazine.
Here are a few moments as heard at the station of the CQ Amateur Radio Magazine propagation columnist, in Lincoln, Nebraska (yeah, that’s me, NW7US).
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWCbtIOJmLI[/embedyt]
Here are the results of my dabbling with the Icom rig and this contest:
NW7US's Contest Summary Report for CQ-WW
Created by N3FJP's CQ WW DX Contest Log
Version 5.7 www.n3fjp.com
Total Contacts = 55
Total Points = 8,979
Operating Period: 2019/11/24 10:23 - 2019/11/24 22:51
Total op time (breaks > 30 min deducted): 3:58:46
Total op time (breaks > 60 min deducted): 4:45:17
Avg Qs/Hr (breaks > 30 min deducted): 13.8
Total Contacts by Band and Mode:
Band CW Phone Dig Total %
---- -- ----- --- ----- ---
80 8 0 0 8 15
40 7 0 0 7 13
20 25 0 0 25 45
15 15 0 0 15 27
-- ----- --- ----- ---
Total 55 0 0 55 100
Total Contacts by State \ Prov:
State Total %
----- ----- ---
52 95
HI 3 5
Total = 1
Total Contacts by Country:
Country Total %
------- ----- ---
Canada 6 11
Brazil 5 9
USA 5 9
Argentina 3 5
Costa Rica 3 5
Hawaii 3 5
Bonaire 2 4
Cayman Is. 2 4
Chile 2 4
Cuba 2 4
Japan 2 4
Mexico 2 4
Aruba 1 2
Bahamas 1 2
Barbados 1 2
Belize 1 2
Curacao 1 2
Dominican Republic 1 2
French Guiana 1 2
Haiti 1 2
Honduras 1 2
Martinique 1 2
Montserrat 1 2
Nicaragua 1 2
Senegal 1 2
St. Kitts & Nevis 1 2
St. Lucia 1 2
Suriname 1 2
US Virgin Is. 1 2
Venezuela 1 2
Total = 30
Total DX Miles (QSOs in USA not counted) = 151,407
Average miles per DX QSO = 3,028
Average bearing to the entities worked in each continent.
QSOs in USA not counted.
AF = 83
AS = 318
NA = 124
OC = 268
SA = 137
Total Contacts by Continent:
Continent Total %
--------- ----- ---
NA 32 58
SA 17 31
OC 3 5
AS 2 4
AF 1 2
Total = 5
Total Contacts by CQ Zone:
CQ Zone Total %
------- ----- ---
08 13 24
03 7 13
09 7 13
07 6 11
11 5 9
13 3 5
31 3 5
04 2 4
05 2 4
06 2 4
12 2 4
25 2 4
35 1 2
Total = 13
Update: Propagation Forecasts for CQ WW (SSB and CW) DX Contest Weekends
Are you participating in this year’s CQ World-Wide DX Contest, either the SSB weekend (this coming weekend, October 28-29, 2017), or the CW weekend (November 25-26, 2017)? The CQ WW is the largest Amateur Radio competition in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October (SSB) and November (CW) with the goal of making as many contacts with as many different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible.
Space Weather and Radio Propagation
I have updated my forecast on the expected propagation conditions during both the SSB and CW weekends of the 2017 CQ World-Wide DX Contest. I will publish a new update for the CW weekend, when we get closer to that November weekend.
The link to the latest update is: http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2017/10/cqww-dx-contest-propagation-update.html
Good luck!
73 de NW7US dit dit
Magnitude X8 X-ray Flare of Sept 9 2017 (2nd Biggest in Cycle 24)
The sun erupted with an X8 solar flare, one of the largest of the current solar cycle (Sept. 10, 2017). Its source was the same sunspot region that produced an X9 flare last week. We show this in two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light at the same time, and each reveals different features. Both are colorized to identify in which wavelength they were observed. The coils of loops after the flare are the magnetic field lines reorganizing themselves after the eruption. The video clip covers about six hours.
I had hoped for better results
I got to the park on time, right before Noon (1600 UTC). I allowed my TomTom GPS unit to bring me up to Jockey Hollow via a new route which I had never taken before. This brought me up through the Great Dismal Swamp, which is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge. It is truly a beautiful area and as I was driving through, I could see herons and egrets and all sorts of birds in the marshes. Seeing that the Great Dismal Swamp is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, I was wondering why it's not listed as one of the NPOTA WR entities. A little Googling revealed that the Swamp is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and not the National Parks Service. That's a shame because that would be a really beautiful area to set up a portable operation from.
Anyway, I got to the Park and got set up, which by now, only takes me a few minutes. After so many lunch time QRP sessions, I could do this in my sleep, or with my eyes shut.
Since I was planning on operating some SSB in case there was a lack of activity, I brought along my big, heavy Werker deep cycle battery. I figured that this way, I could operate for an extended period of time at the 10 Watt SSB level if I needed to. And boy, did it turn out that I needed to!
The first thing I did after setting up was tune to around 14.061 MHz - the neighborhood of the QRP Watering Hole. I was shocked by what I heard - wall to wall CW signals! There was literally nowhere to sit where there wasn't a station calling "CQ TEST". I didn't realize that today was the RUDX, the Russian DX Contest - and boy, it filled the band!
I went on up to 17 Meters and heard some Europeans that were very loud. Knowing that meant the band was wide open, I easily found a clear spot at 18.082 MHz and proceeded to call "CQ NPOTA". The band was wide open, but as it turned out, there wasn't much if any activity. I worked K0IG right off the bat and then ...... nothing.
Not wanting to waste too much time, I got out of the Jeep and switched from the Buddistick to my 40 Meter Hamstick. I went down to 7.037 MHz, called CQ and was greeted by the normal NPOTA pileup. I was stoked and began to work station after station. The only bad thing was that the initial pileup lasted for only a few minutes, and then I began the monotonous routine of calling "CQ NPOTA" and waiting minutes in between answers.
Getting bored, I decided to give 20 Meters another try. Off came the Hamstick and up went the Buddistick. I called CQ for a bit and got a couple of QSO completed on 14.060 MHz, but it was tough. The stations calling me were loud, but their calls were being blanketed by even louder DX stations. Those guys had to be using mondo power. How much do they allow over in Europe, anyway?
Sitting there, disappointed as heck, I was ready to pack it in and head home a bit early. Then an inspiration occurred that maybe I should give 20 Meter SSB a whirl. Even though I'm not an avid fan of SSB, I decided to give it a shot. I was rewarded with a small run of about a dozen stations before that too, ended up petering out.
I had gone up to HP28 with a spiral notebook, thinking I would fill pages with call signs. After all, my outing to TR23 in January netted me over 80 QSOs. For some reason. I was thinking I would break that record easily. Just the opposite happened! I ended up with only 27 QSOs - but you know what? I discovered that a bad day of Amateur Radio is STILL better than a good day at work. So I'm a happy camper, anyway.
This only gives me more incentive to go back up to HP28 later this year, but this time throw a wire into a tree. I know that's kind of verboten, and on Facebook, someone actually related how they were asked to leave a park the other day for doing that. With that in mind, just before I left, I went to the visitor center and explained that I was an Amateur Radio operator and what NPOTA was (she knew what it was, by the way) and asked if there was any prohibition about wires in trees. She said as long as it was temporary, and would cause no damage and would not interfere with anyone else's visit, that they were OK with it.
So when I got back to the car, just for the heck of it, I attempted to launch a line over a limb just to see how it would go. 30 plus feet on the first try.
I'll be back, Jockey Hollow!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
I had hoped for better results
I got to the park on time, right before Noon (1600 UTC). I allowed my TomTom GPS unit to bring me up to Jockey Hollow via a new route which I had never taken before. This brought me up through the Great Dismal Swamp, which is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge. It is truly a beautiful area and as I was driving through, I could see herons and egrets and all sorts of birds in the marshes. Seeing that the Great Dismal Swamp is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, I was wondering why it's not listed as one of the NPOTA WR entities. A little Googling revealed that the Swamp is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and not the National Parks Service. That's a shame because that would be a really beautiful area to set up a portable operation from.
Anyway, I got to the Park and got set up, which by now, only takes me a few minutes. After so many lunch time QRP sessions, I could do this in my sleep, or with my eyes shut.
Since I was planning on operating some SSB in case there was a lack of activity, I brought along my big, heavy Werker deep cycle battery. I figured that this way, I could operate for an extended period of time at the 10 Watt SSB level if I needed to. And boy, did it turn out that I needed to!
The first thing I did after setting up was tune to around 14.061 MHz - the neighborhood of the QRP Watering Hole. I was shocked by what I heard - wall to wall CW signals! There was literally nowhere to sit where there wasn't a station calling "CQ TEST". I didn't realize that today was the RUDX, the Russian DX Contest - and boy, it filled the band!
I went on up to 17 Meters and heard some Europeans that were very loud. Knowing that meant the band was wide open, I easily found a clear spot at 18.082 MHz and proceeded to call "CQ NPOTA". The band was wide open, but as it turned out, there wasn't much if any activity. I worked K0IG right off the bat and then ...... nothing.
Not wanting to waste too much time, I got out of the Jeep and switched from the Buddistick to my 40 Meter Hamstick. I went down to 7.037 MHz, called CQ and was greeted by the normal NPOTA pileup. I was stoked and began to work station after station. The only bad thing was that the initial pileup lasted for only a few minutes, and then I began the monotonous routine of calling "CQ NPOTA" and waiting minutes in between answers.
Getting bored, I decided to give 20 Meters another try. Off came the Hamstick and up went the Buddistick. I called CQ for a bit and got a couple of QSO completed on 14.060 MHz, but it was tough. The stations calling me were loud, but their calls were being blanketed by even louder DX stations. Those guys had to be using mondo power. How much do they allow over in Europe, anyway?
Sitting there, disappointed as heck, I was ready to pack it in and head home a bit early. Then an inspiration occurred that maybe I should give 20 Meter SSB a whirl. Even though I'm not an avid fan of SSB, I decided to give it a shot. I was rewarded with a small run of about a dozen stations before that too, ended up petering out.
I had gone up to HP28 with a spiral notebook, thinking I would fill pages with call signs. After all, my outing to TR23 in January netted me over 80 QSOs. For some reason. I was thinking I would break that record easily. Just the opposite happened! I ended up with only 27 QSOs - but you know what? I discovered that a bad day of Amateur Radio is STILL better than a good day at work. So I'm a happy camper, anyway.
This only gives me more incentive to go back up to HP28 later this year, but this time throw a wire into a tree. I know that's kind of verboten, and on Facebook, someone actually related how they were asked to leave a park the other day for doing that. With that in mind, just before I left, I went to the visitor center and explained that I was an Amateur Radio operator and what NPOTA was (she knew what it was, by the way) and asked if there was any prohibition about wires in trees. She said as long as it was temporary, and would cause no damage and would not interfere with anyone else's visit, that they were OK with it.
So when I got back to the car, just for the heck of it, I attempted to launch a line over a limb just to see how it would go. 30 plus feet on the first try.
I'll be back, Jockey Hollow!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
