2E0SQL - M3PHP » hf

RSGB HF CC CW

Peter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:35:52 +0000

On Wednesday evening it was the RSGB HF CC (CW Leg), at first I wasn’t really planning on taking part but as the evening panned out I had nothing better to-do so armed with cider I turned the rig on and loaded up MixW and CW Skimmer and off we went for an hour and a half.. after the first 5 QSOs I got into the swing of it and started to work up the band working who-ever was strong.

I was surprised how well the half-size G5RV and the traps where doing at the end I had 41 contacts in the log! Maybe I’ll take part in these mini contests more often.

RSGB HFC 2008 – Day Three

Peter — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:54:47 +0000

Sunday lectures came a little too soon, but never the less slightly hung over Paul (M0TZO) and myself made it in time for breakfast to coat our stomachs ready for another day! First lecture attended was Technology and Operating Procedures at VP6DX by Eric Scace K3NA, this provided in insight of what needs to be planned before doing the trip, as this makes sure the trip is successful.

I then took an hour out and had an interesting chat with Eric K3NA (more on that soon maybe), and finalised my short talk about DXAnywere for the Ham 2.0 session. it also allowed me to stock up on mugs of hot chocolate!

The next set of lectures was a double stream by Dom (M0BLF) on Ham 2.0 – sharing amateur radio information across the Internet. which gave an in sight to Web 2.0 and what it can offer amateur radio he also put in a couple of short presentations by Michael G7VJR on Club Log which is a tool for producing DXCC league tables, log search services and most-wanted lists for ham radio clubs and societies.

I then followed up with a short presentation about DXAnywhere which is a Social Media engine to provide features which include cluster notification, social networking and mini applications.

Dx Anywhere Talk Hfc

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ham radio)

After this we returned to the bar for a short period to grab some lunch and a drink before getting ready for the afternoon lecture by John Gould G3WKL on Update on Countering Deliberate QRM, to finish up the weekend there was the final farewell from the RSGB President and the Raffle Draw. It was good to see it wasn’t fixed when Janet (2E0LLM) got called out (Well done Janet!!).

Which finally concluded a fantastic weekend yet again and very much looking forward to next year, was also nice to see a slightly larger turn out of young people!

IARU HF Championship Contest

Peter — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:47:35 +0000

Normally I put in a serious effort for the IARU contest, but this year it all went a wrong from Friday morning. When I noticed I was having issues with my newly grafted left eye, the hospital gave me eye drops and sent me on my way with a follow up appointment for Saturday morning. That day they decided to remove a stitch from my eye which was causing me problems after this I knew the contest was going to be a near on impossible task the pain was unbelievable!

After little bit of rest I decided that I wanted to have at least a couple of qsos in the contest so I set aside an hour 5-6pm, it started off rather slow but soon started to pick up working stations on 15m which is normally dead contests always seem to make their own propagation, then picked up a few stations on 10m then it was onto 20m where I worked the most after this it was a matter of working the odd qso on 40m and 80m.

All in all I was pleased I got something in the log but nothing like previous years!

Contest         : IARU HF World Championships
Callsign        : M3PHP
Mode            : PHONE
Category        : Single Operator (SO)
Band(s)         : All bands (AB)
Class           : Low Power (LP)
Zone/State/...  : 27
Operating time  : 1h15

 BAND   QSO DUP ITU  HQ  POINTS   AVG
--------------------------------------
  160     0   0   0   0       0  0.00
   80     1   0   0   1       1  1.00
   40     6   0   0   6       6  1.00
   20    24   0   5  12      50  2.08
   15     9   0   3   4      21  2.33
   10     4   0   2   1       8  2.00
--------------------------------------
TOTAL    44   0  10  24      86  1.95
======================================
         TOTAL SCORE : 2 924

PSK Automatic Propagation Reporter

Peter — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:21:56 +0000

I’ve been doing more digital modes of late and had far more time to try around with software again i noticed that Ham Radio Deluxe’s DM780 supported reporting to the propagation reporter. It works by automatically sending heard station reports to the reporter system which then gathers all the data it receives from around the world and then makes those reports available in nearly real-time via a Google Maps mash-up at http://psk.gladstonefamily.net/pskmap.html

I find this system useful in the way that I can put out a CQ call out on say 20m, and then a few minutes later look at the reporter system to see where I’m heard. Sometimes it’s surprising that someone in the states can hear your signal but you cannot hear anyone!

At the moment the only software which supports it is Digital Master 780, but there is a software development kit on the website http://www.pskreporter.info and I hope to see others implement the system and even better an API to allow others to use the data!