1615 2045 Radio Delmare. SINPO 43433.
1621 2208 Radio Turftrekker. SINPO 54444.
1638 2148 Radio Nachtzwerver. SINPO 34433.
1656 2052 Radio Tarzan. SINPO 54444. 
1670 2155 Radio Vonkentrekker. SINPO 23432.
3940 2041 Music Wave Radio. SINPO 55444.
5846 2020 Radio Joey. SINPO 54444.
5880 1642 Radio Rock Revolution. SINPO 54444.
6170 1705 Radio Delta. SINPO 55444.
6210 1626 Radio King Shortwave. SINPO 34433.
6235 2013 Radio Batavia. SINPO 54444.
6240 2220 Radio Frieloo. SINPO 34433.
6275 1540 Radio Zomerzon. SINPO 33433.
6285 1522 Weekend Music Radio. SINPO 54444.
6285 2215 Cupid Radio. SINPO 44444.
6300 1549 Soul of England. SINPO 24432.
6300 2026 Radio Johnny Tobacco. SINPO 55444.
6325L 2031 Kobus Radio. SINPO 34433.
6393 1620 Radio Pandora. SINPO 44433.

Dass ältere VHF/UHF-Transceiver neben der angezeigten Frequenz sind, kommt oft vor. Viele haben nicht einmal einen TCXO als Referenzoszillator eingebaut. Oder der OM hat die Kosten für diese Option gescheut. Es ist auch nicht jedermanns Sache, das Gerät zu öffnen, den richtigen Trimmer zu finden und die Frequenz einzustellen. 

Doch bei neuen Geräten wie dem Icom IC-9700 bin ich oft erstaunt, dass diese neben der QRG funken. Im 2m Band und in FM kann man noch darüber hinweg sehen. Doch auf dem 70cm Band verdreifacht sich die Frequenzabweichung bereits und auf 23cm ist man dann schon um ein Neunfaches daneben. Eine einfache Abhilfe würde der Anschluss eines GPS-Referenz Oszillators bringen. Doch manch einer sagt sich wohl: "Wegen ein bisschen daneben, gebe ich kein Geld aus. Dafür hat die Gegenstation einen RIT an der Kiste."

Doch die eigene "Kiste" wandert und mit der Zeit liegt man immer mehr neben der Sollfrequenz. Auch wenn man keinen GPS-Oszi vermag, ein einfacher Trick hilft, den IC-9700 wieder auf Linie zu bringen:

Dazu sucht man sich einen guten Bakensender. Die, die etwas auf sich halten, sind heutzutage GPS gesteuert und die Frequenz ist aufs Hertz genau. Hier in der Region ist es zum Beispiel die Bake in Bern auf 144.426 MHz. Die Wasserfallanzeige des IC-9700 wird dann auf "Center" gestellt und der "Span" aufs Minimum. Damit hat man ein Wasserfall-Fenster von +/- 2.5kHz. Die Skala zeigt zwar nur 500Hz Schritte, aber wenn man mit dem RIT die Bake auf Null stellt, kann man auf der RIT-Anzeige im Display immerhin auf 10Hz genau ablesen, wie weit man neben der richtigen Frequenz liegt.

Korrigieren kann man den internen Referenzoszillator des IC-9700 über das Menu "Set" > "Function" und "Ref Adjust". Dort gibt es einen Grob- und einen Feinregler für die interne Referenz. Da muss man dann halt etwas hin und her probieren, bis man die Bake auf Null hat, da man den Wasserfall nicht gleichzeitig beobachten kann. Doch kaputt machen kann man an dem teuren Gerät nichts.

So, jetzt seid auch ihr wieder auf der richtigen Frequenz, sofern die Bake in eurer Nähe genau ist. 

Sonst gibt es zurzeit wenig zu berichten - es herrscht Sommerflaute. Doch einige interessante Meldungen habe ich noch:

- Die legendären Schurr Morsetasten werden wieder fabriziert. Von Bergsiek

- Kenwood will einen neuen Mobil-Transceiver auf den Markt bringen

- Wisst ihr, dass auch der Mars eine Ionosphäre besitzt? Die NASA hat ein Propagation Handbook geschrieben für die Kommunikation auf der Marsoberfläche.

- Habt ihr euch schon gefragt, wieviel Power euer HF-Stecker verträgt? Hier kann man nachschauen!

- Und zum Schluss noch ein wunderbares Bild von "Roten Kobolden" (Red Sprites) die aus dem Himalaya Gebirge bis 100km in die Höhe schiessen!

• N1EA relays news that Schurr Morse Keys is now Bergsiek Morse Keys. Stefan Bergsiek has taken over Schurr Morse keys from Gerhard Schurr and continues to produce the keys in small series.

• Tomorrow (Sunday) is the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt. Here are all the details. Skeeter numbers will be handed out right up until Midnight Saturday/Sunday EDT. After that, the roster is closed.

• The Summer 2024 issue of the INDEXA Newsletter (Issue #142) is available for download.

• Everything still looks good for the August 26 - September 5, 2024 St Paul Island CY9C DXpedition.

• A new version of MacLoggerDX (v6.52) is now available. See the notes for additional details.

• Interested in a little doomscrolling this weekend? Well then don't miss The superstorms from space that could end modern life. It doesn't get much gloomier than that!

• No one enjoys reading the manual, but many would do well to read the WSJT-X User Guide available online. This document should always be the first source for help. Use your browser's search facility to find a keyword or topic.

• According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of Japanese radio amateurs currently stands at 353,411.

Despite the glowing reports (perhaps misleading) from the ARRL our hobby is in decline. So how would you fix that?

YLs in Bikini's Riding Bulls ~ An Absurdity!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10ft8r-rx

At the moment my wife and I are lucky. As far as we know (!) , we have nothing much wrong with us. I still have a few things that are longer term after effects from my 2013 stroke, but compared with many I have been lucky I know. Most of me still works!

As we age, several of our friends have died or now have serious illnesses. My interest in sex has dropped off and the death of others no longer seems so odd. I recall a doctor once asking me (probably 10 years ago) "if it was all too much" and I retorted "no". If he asked me now I am less sure.

Although I find so much to be interested in, I get exhausted more easily and I am tired of being giddy most of the time. Life is harder than it was.

My wife puts a tick on the kitchen calendar when we have had a decent day. So far we have had 9 ticks, which is pretty good. Our grass is just starting to turn brown and will look bad in about a week unless we have a good downpour.

The photo shows our garden yesterday.

 In a few moments I shall (hopefully!) turn on my 2.5W 10m  FT8.

UPDATE 1054z:  Turned on about 1000z. 22 stations have spotted my QRP and I have spotted 65 stations here.

Stations spotting me

UPDATE 1822z:  101 stations have spotted my 10m QRP and 478 stations have been spotted here. See maps.

Stations I have spotted

 Solar flux is 225 and the SSN 169. A=8 and K=1.

I’ve written the following small Python script to migrate a Bear Blog to Hugo:

import csv
import os

with open('post_exports.csv') as csv_file:
    csv_reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=',')
    os.makedirs("./pages", exist_ok = True)
    os.makedirs("./posts", exist_ok = True)
    for row in csv_reader:
        dir = ""
        if row[11] == "True":
            dir = "pages/"
        else:
            dir = "posts/"
        with open(dir + row[4]+'.md', 'w') as post:
            publish = row[9]
            if publish == 'False':
                draft = "true"
            else:
                draft = "false"
            post.write("+++\n")
            post.write("slug = '" + row[4] + "'\n")
            post.write("title = '" + row[3] + "'\n")
            post.write("date = " + row[6] + "\n")
            post.write("draft = " + draft + "\n")
            post.write("tags = " + row[8] + "\n")
            post.write("+++\n")
            post.write(row[12])

It’s not really sophisticated but it does the job. Here’s all you need to know:

• create a new directory, e.g. ~/bear2hugo/
• create a new file bear2hugo.py in this directory and copy the above content into this file
• Download the export file from Bear Blog via the menu item “Export all blog data”
• Place the resulting file post_exports.csv together with bear2hugo.py in ~/bear2hugo/
• Execute the script: # python3 bear2hugo.py
• It will create two new directories pages and posts
• It will parse through CSV file and create a Mardown file for each post and page inside the corresponding directories
• You can now copy the files into your content/ and content/blog/ directory and use them with Hugo

Had a very nice and special POTA activation of DE-0094 Niedersächsisches Wattenmeer National Park:

Conditions were rough but I’ve managed to get 16 stations into my log, including two from the Azores. It was great to sit on a dyke, watch people kite and enjoy the view of the sea while talking to stations all over Europe.

My rig was the usual: Xiegu G90 and a 5.4m long telescopic vertical antenna with four 5m radials.

“Zero Retries is an independent newsletter promoting technological innovation in Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio as (literally) a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology.” This is how Steve Stroh (N8GNJ), the editor of Zero Retries, describes his weekly newsletter.

But to call it just a newsletter does not do justice to his work. I have been reading and following this site for a long time and am always fascinated by how many high-quality articles he publishes every week. Steve doesn’t just limit himself to writing news but is obviously very interested in promoting the hobby of amateur radio and conveying its fascination. Important projects such as the M17 project are regularly pushed by him in order to help drag this valuable project out of its niche.

In the meantime, the newsletter has reached a size that would justify publishing the content as an ePub (hint hint). I would actually love to read it on an eBook reader.

My recommendation? Click here, subscribe and have a nice weekly read on inspiring amateur radio related topics.