Maybe it is the magic of a new month, or perhaps the cooler days, but today felt like an excellent day for an activation. Silver Springs park is just a few miles from my home, and has a couple of nice spots to park near the pond.
With a light mist falling, I was on the air just before 4 PM local time. I used my KH1 QRP rig, which puts out about 4 watts. less than a half-hour later I had 14 contacts in the log. The skies really opened up right as I was putting the antenna away (a mag-mounted 17′ quarter wave vertical).
Thanks to all the hunters who helped out!
Activation of Silver Springs Park US-10547 using a Elecraft KH1 handheld QRP rig (4 watts). A 17-foot quarter-wave vertical on a mag mount was used. HAMRS was used to log the contacts.
An eQSL received from Key Channel Radio, who I heard on Friday evening on 6265. The broadcast included a show recorded for the station by Bart Steenman of Radio Monique. Many thanks for the eQSL.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Jamet, who shares the following announcement from Radio Free Asia: Dear friends, Below is the press release for RFA’s QSL card # 86, our latest QSL card design, which marks Radio Free Asia 28 Anniversary. We hope you enjoy this new QSL card and we look forward to […]
A surprise in my inbox today after six weeks an eQSL arrived confirming my reception of the Finnish pirate Radio Galaxy. I logged the station with a weak signal in SW England but it was enough to catch an ID and send off a report. Many thanks DJ MegaHertz.
An eQSL received from new UK pirate Station 807 who can be heard some weekends on 6200 kHz. He said the name of the station is taken from the 807 valve and he currently runs 15 watts. The station can be contacted at: station807@proton.me
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gérard Koopal, who writes: Dear Thomas, See below for a schedule from RTI stating their direct transmissions/programs from Tamsui Taiwan in German starting this Friday [July 12]. Reports can be sent to: deutsch@rti.org.tw or by post: Radio Taiwan International, German Service, P.O. Box 123-199, Taipei 11199, Taiwan. They also […]
An eQSL received from Radio Piko, one of the new low powered licensed shortwave stations that have begun broadcasting recently from Finland. I heard the station on 5980 in LSB, via an SDR in SW England, with a weak but clear signal. To find out more about Radio Piko and to check their broadcasting schedule visit radiopiko.fi
With the recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) art generators that are making the news of late for all the wrong reasons, I decided to see if I could put it to good use and design some futuristic QSL cards.
Having recently been contacted by the Special Callsigns QSL Manager and being advised that there were 18 QSL cards waiting for me, I decided it was time to create some QSL cards of my own for future use.
Having never used any form of online AI and not having any artistic abilities I was amazed how easy it was to create images using nothing more than a paragraph or so of text to describe what it was I wanted to create.
Since all the QSL cards I received were for contacts on the QO-100 satellite, I set out to create a visually futuristic QSL card that was based around a radio HAM operator and satellite communications.
M0AWS – 1st attempt at creating a futuristic QSL card image using AI Art
To my surprise the results of my first image generation were surprisingly good. The AI generated an image that resembled the simple text that I entered, although I never requested a one legged HAM operator!
Pleased with my very first attempt I gradually improved the description of what I was looking for, adding more and more detail to the text and including things that I wanted to see in the image. Over a fairly short period of time this approach started to generate some very interesting images.
M0AWS – AI Art QSL Image attempt 2M0AWS – AI Art QSL Image attempt 3M0AWS – AI Art QSL Image attempt 4
With each iteration I gradually got closer to what I was trying to achieve but, never quite got exactly what I wanted so, I decided to rewrite the descriptive text adding even more information than before. The text was now a full blown paragraph with quite specific things described including the angle at which the scene was being viewed from.
The other option I wanted to try out was the theme functionality that the AI offered. This allows you to set a theme for the image from things like steampunk, cartoon, manga, real world and many more. The results were quite impressive and added yet another angle to the image generation.
M0AWS – AI Art QSL Theme 1M0AWS – AI Art QSL Theme 3M0AWS – AI Art QSL Theme 2
I disappeared down the theme AI Art generation rabbit hole for quite some time and generated some very interesting and fun results. The best by far though was the Thunderbirds themed image, this did put a smile on my face!
M0AWS – AI Art QSL Thunderbirds Themed
At the other end of the spectrum I tried the Salvador Dalli theme, it produced an image that was very like the work of the famous artist but, wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
M0AWS – AI Art QSL Salvador Dalli Themed
After much fun I eventually settled on the image I was after, a futuristic scene of a radio HAM with a satellite ground station over looking a mountain range and city below.
M0AWS Satellite QSL Card generated using online AI
I’m really pleased with the results from my ventures into AI generated art. The next challenge is to create a QSL card for HF bands Contacts.
It’s always slightly confusing getting a letter with your own handwriting on it, but that means it’s bureau delivery time!
Today’s selection
Interesting to get a SWL (shortwave listener) card confirming they heard me make a contact with someone else. It was a QSL with PB37EUDXF, which I remember having a hard time copying as I wasn’t expecting their callsign to be so long!
I laughed out loud at this guy’s card:
Swimwear edition
Amateur radio is about the experimentation and education of radio, and politics and world affairs aren’t part of the hobby. I’m sure he doesn’t want the war as much as any other regular person.
An eQSL from Radio Moonair who I heard yesterday evening on 6275 kHz. He tells me he is using the former transmitter of Dutch station Radio Bloemendaal. Many thanks.
Unfortunately, a few days after Carl W3HC (ex-W3HCW) celebrated his 100th birthday, he fell ill, declined rapidly, and passed away. We can’t complain as he lived a full life and got to enjoy a beer at his birthday party.
Photo credit: Karen Vibert-Kennedy, Williamsport Sun Gazette
Carl was an avid photographer all his life. The Williamsport Sun Gazette featured an article and video on his time in Berlin during World War II, taking photographs. While in a bombed out home, he found a roll of film which he took home and later developed. He was shocked to discover the photos were taken by a German photographer and even included pictures of Himler, who was the #2 in Germany at the time. Many of his photos are featured on his Flickr site.
I owe my grandfather a lot of gratitude as he’s the one who got me into amateur radio which led to me getting my first two jobs in wireless and communications, and laid the foundation for a rather successful career. I continue to be active in amateur radio, with QRP, field operation, circuit design, open source software development, and homebrewing equipment being my favorite activities.
Carl was first licensed in 1956 as WN3HCW, back when Novice calls had the WN prefix. After upgrading to Technician, the FCC dropped the N and he became W3HCW. Later in the 90s when he upgraded to Extra he shortened his call to W3HC. During my time with him as a youngster and teenager, he operated nearly all HF phone and enjoyed DXing, but he also did a lot of 6 meter AM work in the 60s. He operated the W3HCW QSL Fund which funded QSL cards for DX stations, and he was a QSL manager for about 130 stations over the years.
Carl McDaniel, W3HC, SK at 100 years and 6 days. dit dit
This article was originally published on Radio Artisan.
Ever since I got back on the air, I’ve had envelopes at the ARRL Incoming QSL Bureau. Over the years I’ve received a few envelopes, perhaps 25 DX cards, and a couple dozen from the W1AW/x operations during the 100th anniversary. I had used Forever stamps on the envelopes and had clipped extra stamps to each one. But I hadn’t received any envelopes in years. I just figured QSLing was a thing of the past.
About a week ago, I received an email from Paul W4FC, who informed me he had recently taken over the part of the bureau responsible for my call, and that he had received hundreds of pounds of cards that were unsorted when he took things over. His preliminary sorting indicated that there were a few ounces of cards for me, and he wanted to know if I was interested in receiving them, or if he should just recycle them. Of course I said yes, and we made arrangements to cover any shipping fees.
A few days ago, he emailed again and said he actually had almost two pounds of cards, and was sending them to me via Media Mail. I was shocked when they showed up yesterday. A quick count indicated there were over 250 cards! Many dated back to 2012, about the time I started to get serious about DXing.
While I haven’t been able to verify everything yet, I did notice a card from Tasmania, Jim, VK7SM. This is of significance because I have 55 of the required 60 WPX prefixes for Oceania, and with this card I now only need 4 more Oceania prefixes to qualify for the rare CQ WPX Award of Excellence.
I am absolutely stunned at how quickly Paul has handled all of this. I can’t even imagine how many cards must have passed through his fingers!
Some time ago I wanted a logging program that would do things my way. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of the various offerings they generally try to be everything for everyone and none of them really sat well with me. So I wrote my own in PHP (learning Python is high on my list of things to do, along with Mandarin, Morse, cooking…) which uses the QRZ.com logbook as the backend. Ok then, really I wrote a series of various scripts in PHP that make it all work. The advantage is it does just what I need and nothing more and can easily be modified to add functionality. The downside is I never was a coder (well, ok, I have a certification in COBOL from the 1970’s!) and it is not going anywhere other than my own server. So you can’t have it…
The way I tend to log stuff is via wsjt-x or other software that logs to a local file. I then have a script that takes the ADIF data and populates QRZ.com on a QSO-by-QSO basis. Somehow having to actually do something after each QSO feels like I am actually engaging in the process. But I am not a contester… it would simply not work for any stress situations (but then I could easily make it work if I so desired…)
With QRZ.com being the master a script then populates a local database which does all manner of stuff that I personally need. For example, it holds records of eQSL sent/received, real QSL sent/received, and various tabular data for Worked All Britain (WAB).
Scripts also modify the wsjt-x log file on all my systems such that each has a record of all QSOs. As QRZ.com is globally accessible (not tried from China mind… not that I plan to take any radio gear there anyway) and my main database is on a VPS so is also globally accessible the various scripts work from anywhere.
I do plan to move the database from the VPS to a system at home once we get FTTP broadband and use the VPS as a backup, synchronising between the two. But that will wait.
One plan which is more immediate is LoTW integration because as yet my LoTW logging is via QRZ.com which means an extra step. No biggie, I mean it’s its a few clicks and a password… but it would be nice to integrate it. The same goes for eQSL sends, but as yet I only send on receipt and I have scripts to deal with that anyway.
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