I was up and out the door pretty early (for me) today, as I wanted to get back home before lunch to help my wife....and I accomplished that mission with no problem.

The propagation, as I started my activation, was: SFI=225, SN=171, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. The QSB was hellish, stations were S9 one minute and completely gone in an instant. It was a 2fer I was after today, Lemoine Point and the Waterfront Trail together, and I managed to get 16 contacts in the log in a little over 40 minutes, which was slow for me, but given the state of the bands I was happy with it.

As usual I was using my KX3 set at 10w, into a hamstick on the roof of my truck. SSB only today, CW will have to wait until tomorrow.

Starting on 40m as I usually do, it didn't take too long to get 8 contacts in the log.  Then the band dried up, I called and called with no response, so I moved to 15m.  This band switch got me another 8 contacts, including a solid S8 contact with F4ILH in Ecuras, France....which made my day.

Sixteen was all I could pull out of the hat today, the band seemed to be getting worse, even though it was supposed to be improving.  Well, it turns out we had a surprise G3 solar storm that hit about 15 minutes before I switched everything off.....no wonder I couldn't get contacts.

Here's todays contact map:

You can clearly see the ring of 40m contacts vice the 15m contacts on this map.

Stay Safe Out There!!

This is a National Trust property with extensive grounds not far from us by car. We went there yesterday (early) for a walk. 

A Miniature VSWR Meter for QRP, CQ Zone, ITU Zone and Maidenhead Locator to your leaflet maps, A Four Element Six Metre Yagi Antenna, How to Program FT5DR on LINUX, Ham it Up: A Beginner's Look at DXing, Online Coil Inductance Calculator, Repairing Yaesu FT-817 Fail TX on 144 MHz, Station Radioamateur FO5MD - Tahiti, Coastal Ham Radio, N4NJJ Repeaters,

A simple realization of a panadapter conntected to a custom build IF PanAdapter output ... - Listed in Technical Reference/Pan Adapter

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.

 

Kartäuser Kloster im Valsainte. Etwa eine Stunde Fussmarsch von meinem QTH entfernt.

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?

Time zones are a complicated but necessary evil. Humans like the numbers on the clock...

With 10m in such good shape, perhaps it is time to remind readers of my very simple receiver for 10m FT8. It works remarkably well and could be built and cased for the cost a few coffees out. It frees up "the big rig" for something else. It was in RadCom not long ago.

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.

by Teri (KO4WFP) I woke on day four (Wednesday, July 17) of my North Carolina camping and POTA trip, determined for it to be a better day. The three unsuccessful activations were actually a good thing. It put me on notice that I had fallen into my past habit of scheduling to the max. Sometimes … Continue reading Things Pick Back Up for the POTA Babe – Day 4 →

Just crossed 55,000 logged at QRZ.com: Confirmed at QRZ.com is 71.6% A new country, if evenly spaced out, would be one out of every 256 QSOs (every 233 QSOs if the 21 unconfirmed DX Countries were confirmed at QRZ.com) Domestic QSOs account for 75.6% (so DX contacts average just under one-fourth) 73 Steve K9ZW

So far, we have had a nice warm and sunny August on the whole. Up to very recently it was very dull and wet and we were beginning to think this summer was a wash-out. 

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.

UPDATE 1127z:  31 stations have spotted me so far. 

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

Read more at ARRL.org

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.