Currently viewing the tag: "Morse Code"
Stew Perry 2010 plaque

Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

The Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge  will be held this weekend.

If conditions are good, I may enter the contest QRP (5 W), since I am not able to take part seriously due to health reasons.

The rules are written in a manner which favors low power stations and more points are given for each QSO for both parties.

Today, I received my plaque for last year´s event, where I qualified for three plaques:

1: Aurora Borealis Award - Top Score, > 60 Deg N Geomagnetic Latitude

2: Top Score, Europe

3: Longest QSO, High Power

The rules state :   Only one plaque can be won by any station for a specific contest. BARC will make decisions about which plaque you will win in cases where you qualify for more than one.

As a former sports competitor, I think that a station should be able to collect more than one award, personally – receiving an award for first place in any event, knowing that I was in second place would not give me much satisfaction.

 

 

I am of course very pleased that I won the plaque for Longest QSO ( even though I had to sponsor the award myself…) – the most prestigious award in the contest in my humble view :-) – this event is all about distance.

TF4M and ZL4AS worked a 17,774 km path for the longest QSO.   Cliff, ZL4AS lives in the very south east of the South Island of New Zealand, looking at a Great Circle Map, his location appears to be the furthest possible on the planet from TF4M – an amazing DX Contact.

The other plaques were therefore given to the runners up as decided by the BARC committee.

I look forward to taking part in the best event in Amateur Radio with my thundering 5 W signal emanating from the Arctic King!

YOU WILL HEAR ME !

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite PicLens

Top Band conditions improving

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

 Yesterday – 9th of December, I heard BU2AQ, in Taipei, Taiwan on 160M.

Despite numerous attempts, I was not able to raise him to give him a quick report, – we have worked twice before on Top Band.

Listen to his contact with SP3DOI 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Upon checking my records, I found that I have never received a QSL card from BU2AQ, although I have worked and confirmed another station from Taiwan – BU2AI.

My cards for both contacts with BU2AQ will be posted on Monday.

This bodes well for the winter DX season, I am still missing several Asian countries – including China…

TF3CW visit

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

 Siggi, TF3CW visited my station during a working trip and made a few contacts on 160 Meters with the Arctic King using my call sign.  - (20. October 1850z – 1925z)

TFM 4147 DxO
TF3CW operating TF4M with the Arctic King
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite PicLens

The DrawDio

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

I´m certain that a CW keyer could be built with this gadget.

Here are the instructions to assemble the DrawDio

Working hard or hardly working?

By On · 3 Comments · In Amateur Radio

Today the winds finally settled and in between freezing rainshowers I decided to hoist up the  60 pound insulators and antenna wires for the King´s antenna.

The antenna wires are #8 CopperWeld – copper covered steel wires with a breaking strength of 2500lbs / 1100kg.

My good neighbor, Finnbjörn from Litlaeyri, Airport Manager, came to assist me on the ground and he took these photos on my camera.

I began by pulling up the right hand side insulator and antenna wires while still on the ground.   I then attached a climbing rope to my harness and the other end to the left hand insulator and antenna wires already assembled on the platform.

Attaching the right hand side insulator went well, but the climbing rope attached to the other insulator managed to wind itself around the feedpoint box at the bottom of the pole.

Finnbjörn came to the rescue and untangled the rope, saving me a trip to the platform and back up again.

It  was extremely difficult to attach the second insulator until I discovered that one of the antenna wires had snagged on the platform.  Finnbjörn also saved me a trip back down by untangling the wire.

This was the most difficult part of constructing this antenna and I am glad it is behind me.  I must be getting old :-)

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite PicLens

Spelling error

By On · 2 Comments · In Amateur Radio

As a new radio amateur in 1984, I noticed a spelling error on the Post Office in Selfoss. The text is meant to be POSTUR OG SIMI, but a tile is missing causing the letter U to be misspelled as H !
I spoke with the station manager in 1984 who promised to see to that the error was fixed but the spelling error is still there !

Unbelievable.

Beverage Antennas at TF4M

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

I have finished the Beverage antenna project for the time being.

I built 4 bi-directional Beverage antennas ranging from 170m to 380m long.

The antennas are connected into the radio shack via 5000 feet of RG-6 CATV cable entering via a patch panel and fed into a K9AY RAS8x2 matrix antenna switch which then feeds the 8 directions available into two transceivers.

The picture shows the center lines of the main lobe of each antenna direction. The lobes are quite broad especially on the lower frequencies, so I believe I have relatively good coverage.

Shack Progress

By On · 2 Comments · In Amateur Radio

One operating position is ready – position B which has the control unit for all antennas.   Some work remains, dressing cables, installing computers and building brackets for Bandpass Filters etc.

 

New Zealand heard on 160m for the first time in Iceland

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

On the afternoon of 28. October around 1700 UTC I heard ZL3IX on Top Band.

This is the first time in history that a station from New Zealand is heard in Iceland on 160 meters.

I called him a couple of times and it seems that he was alerted to my presence and he called a few times QRZ TF but did not hear me and then he disappeared.

This was incredibly exciting and raises hopes that a contact may be possible in the future.

I recorded the event:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE