6th July 2009...Sp-E opening into Europe

There was a nice opening on 50 MHz into Europe on the 6th of July. I worked 29 stations in 23 grid/locator squares. It's only when I plotted out the various squares that I noticed the usual oval shaped footprint which is pretty common with Sporadic-E. Most contacts were in the 1200 to 2000 km range.

Two contacts stood out....

1) YO7LCB in KN15OA at 2428 kms. Almost certainly not single hop. Probably double hop or chordal hop Sporadic-E.

2) UT5PI in KN77OM at 3123 kms. Double hop.

Working double hop on 50 MHz is pretty common but it's still nice to do it, especially with an indoor 2 element beam in the attic made from scrap pieces of TV coax ;o)

HF antenna repaired...

Repaired the HF Doublet antenna today. It had been down for months after getting damaged in the spring gales last March. It's currently only about 3 to 5 metres above ground level but it's better than nothing.

With the 10 metre vertical and the 2 element for 6 metres in the attic, I can now operate and listen on all bands from 3.5 MHz to 50 MHz (80 metres to 6 metres).

26th June 2009...Big opening to NA on 6m

Big opening on the 26th of June to North America and the Caribbean. Needless to say, with a 2 element beam in the attic pointing east, signals were incredibly weak here.

Opening 26th June 2009...Yellow tracks (50 MHz), Blue tracks (28 MHz)

To put it into context.... 1) My take off to the west isn't great so height above local ground has a big impact. With the antenna in the attic, local houses are also in the way. 2) The 2 element has a front to back ratio of about 10-12 dB so signals coming from the west were getting attenuated a lot. 3) The antenna is indoors.....a loss of probably another few dB. Taken all together, the losses are probably around 15dB when compared to say a 2 element outdoors at the same height pointing west. (15dB is the difference between someone running 5 watts and 150 watts). 

In the early part of the evening, I could really hear very little....only German stations from the east via 1 hop Sporadic-E beaming this way towards North America. Eventually, signals improved slightly and I could just about hear FM5AA (2/1) and V29JKV (319). From North America, some of the stations that I heard were VE1YX (4/1), K1TOL (519), N9XG (519) and K4PI (529) among some others. Just to prove the point that the beam has a reasonable front to back, I could hear G and GW stations on tropo from the east (~300 kms) and were much stronger all evening. Highlight of the day however was the one and only contact I managed to make! I called KY5R in EM64 who was just above the noise level and somehow he managed to hear my 50 watts on cw. Alabama from Ireland on 6 metres with an antenna in the attic pointing the wrong direction.....amazing. 

Here is a selection of EI related dx spots from the night... EI7IX 50208.0 K9UHF en53io53 tnx 0038 27 Jun United States W1DYJ 50140.0 EI7IX FN42IO53 0013 27 Jun Ireland N3CR 50140.0 EI7IX 0000 27 Jun Ireland N5DG-@ 50095.0 EI1IP 2354 26 Jun Ireland N4GN 50095.0 EI2IP IO61 2354 26 Jun Ireland N1BAA 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 > FM16 2353 26 Jun Ireland W3ATO 50140.0 EI7IX FN20IO53 2343 26 Jun Ireland K8YTO 50095.2 EI2IP IO61<>EN82 2342 26 Jun Ireland VE3DO-@ 50140.0 EI7IX IO53>EN94 huge e/c pileup 2337 26 Jun Ireland N2CG 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 59 into NNJ FN20wv 2332 26 Jun Ireland VA3XJ 50140.0 EI7IX EN82MHIO53 loud in en82 2320 26 Jun Ireland K1DAT 50051.8 EI0SIX/B 549 >FN42 2248 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50167.5 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2236 26 Jun United States EI9JF 50089.9 K4BI Jim EM74 2221 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50178.1 WD5K EM12nr, Dallas cty TX 2211 26 Jun United States VE3EN 50150.0 EI0CL tnx ! 2205 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50208.4 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2202 26 Jun United States EI7GL-@ 50005.3 K1TOL FN44IO51 cq..in the bcn sectio 2202 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50150.0 EI9FVB Clg cq dx NA 2155 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50187.7 K8MD EN82bq, Livingston cty MI 2152 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50200.0 N8CJK EN84gg, Iosco cty MI 2148 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50128.4 WC2K Clg you here 2125 26 Jun United States VO1KVT 50167.0 EI3GYB IO53<>GN29LF 2123 26 Jun Ireland EI9JF 50081.0 AA1ON 579 2122 26 Jun United States K4YMQ 50146.0 EI2JD EM63IO63 2111 26 Jun Ireland NZ3M 50205.0 EI4EY 2111 26 Jun Ireland W5THT 50215.0 EI4EY 2109 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50147.0 EI2JD 2105 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50205.0 EI4EY 2102 26 Jun Ireland VE1SKY 50205.0 EI4EY FN74<>IO52 2046 26 Jun Ireland IK4IDF 50147.0 EI2JD 2031 26 Jun Ireland EI2IP 50110.0 WP4G cq cw 2008 26 Jun Puerto Rico EI2IP 50122.0 8R1DB cq still here 2007 26 Jun Guyana W4UDH-@ 50185.0 EI4EY 55 in EM52 2000 26 Jun Ireland FM5AA 50120.0 EI9FVB FK94> EI9FVB 50120.0 FM5AA FK94IO51QV 1957 26 Jun Martinique EI7GL-@ 50045.4 OX3VHF/B GP60qqIO51 2510 kms 1952 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50045.0 OX3VHF/B 599 over 1 hour 1944 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV fk97io53 up .5kc 1939 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV cq 539 1913 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI2IP 50117.0 TZ6EI Still in most evening 1843 26 Jun Mali EI7IX 50175.0 WB4SLM em82io53 tnx 1842 26 Jun

New Prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24...

Reading through some recent e-mails, I came accross this...

NASA Releases New Predictions for Solar Cycle 24......An international panel of experts -- led by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) and sponsored by NASA -- has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle: Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. "If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78,". This report clarifies a NOAA report from earlier this month that stated that Solar Cycle 24 would bring "90 sunspots per day on average."

Looking at the date, they are predicting the peak to be between 80 and 100 sunspots per month at the peak. So what does this mean? Let's compare it to previous cycles...

It looks as if it will be similiar but slightly lower than the peak of 1968/9 but worse than the last 3 peaks. What does this mean in practical terms?

In reality, near the sunspot maximum, the HF bands (14 MHz to 28 MHz) will be hopping and there will be worldwide dx regardless of how bad it turns out to be. The big issue is what will propogation on 50 MHz be like?

I remember reading before that the peak of 1968 was supposed to be pretty poor for DX on 6 metres with slim pickings via F2. If it turns out as predicted, I'd expect that there will be plenty of F2 type openings North-South from say Europe to Africa and South America. The big problem is will the MUF get high enough to support East-West type openings from say Europe to North America?....or Europe to the Far East? Stations in Southern Europe will probably work loads (EA/CT/I/etc) but what about those above 50 deg North?

Sporadic-E on 144 MHz...

Saturday, 20th June........In the evening, I noticed that stations in the UK (G/GW) were working EA/CT on 144 MHz on the Dx-cluster. Having no antenna for the band, I sent Alan EI3EBB a text to notify him and went back to 50 MHz.

Not long afterwards, I noticed that EI stations were now working CT/EA on 2m so I decided to have a listen....

I wired up my old Yaesu FT290R.....pulled out the telescopic whip on the front of it......held it up in the air with one hand......while tuning around with the other ;o)

Heard EI3EBB about 5/9 working CT2GUR and what was amazing was that I could hear CT2GUR!!

Got the microphone and plugged it in........called the CT2 station........'Who is EI7 station?'

Called him again..........he got my full call this time and gave me a 5/2 signal report.

CT2 from EI on 144 MHz using 2.5 watts into a telescopic whip on a rig that was indoors! If I had the rig next to a window with a good view to the south then I'd say it was fair enough. But it wasn't! To the south was a concrete wall about 1 metre away and the view out the window is to the west. Imagine what my signal would have been like with any type of outdoor antenna!

Amazing conditions. It must be one of the strangest contacts that I ever had on 144 MHz.



Postscript.......Message from Paulo....
Hi  John...I've been watching your blog and noticed in our fabulous contact at 144, that since their conditions FT290 2.5W with whip antenna! Spathe! I register it at the time the contact but I never thought that their conditions were such, my setup at the time 2x17el in. H +800 W + LNA


My new 144 setup: 4x12LFA+1.6K+LNA

Thank you for the wonderful contact...maybe in a next listen sporadic!

73´s de Paulo, CT2GUR

IT9X/b....the musical beacon

Since I put the 2 element up in the attic, I noticed that sometimes I would hear a series of almost musical tones on 50.057 MHz when the band was open. At first, I thought perhaps it was some commercial /military signal coming from North Africa but over the last few days, it got strong enough to get a positive ID.

 

Listening from Ireland, there are 2 beacons usually on 50.057 MHz........IQ4AD in JN54 in North Italy which is usually the strongest and IT9X in JM78 near Messina in Italy. From here, IT9X is almost at the maximum possible distance for single hop Sporadic-E. Even when it is almost impossible to read the morse ID, the alternating tones can be heard quite clearly.

June 19th & 20th...More openings on 50 MHz

The Sporadic-E season is in full swing at the moment with plenty of European signals on the band. I have been using the home brew 2 element yagi in the attic now for about 2 weeks and I'm getting a better idea of what the performance is like.

Signals.........It's certainly not up to the performance of my old 4 element outdoors up at 9 mtrs above ground level but that's to be expected. For such a simple antenna, I'm hearing a lot of signals and it was certainly worthwhile constructing it and fitting it in the attic. In the event that I put up a better outdoor antenna, I think I'll leave the indoor 2 element in place as a back-up.

DX........there were several openings to the west towards the Carribbean. With a fixed beam pointing east, anything from the west was going to get attenuated by about 10 dB anyway so maybe it was no suprise that I heard nothing. I can't say that I'm too bothered anyway because at the moment, my interest in 'chasing' dx on 6 metres is pretty low.

Fri 19th & Sat 20th June 2009..........I was on for both days and there were good openings into Europe.

On the 19th, I caught an opening in the early afternoon working 28 stations in 21 squares. Most were pretty normal contacts. The one exception was YU1ACR in KN13 square at 2430 kms which is around the maximum distance possible for one hop Sp-E.

On the 20th, 50 MHz was open more or less all day. I was on air before the contest started and worked 21 stations in 17 squares. Note the footprint of the contacts....oval shaped with the north-south part narrow and the east-west section stretched. This is a typical footprint for a Sporadic-E opening.

Over the 2 days, I operated on cw all of the time. While the qso rate was slower, I was able to work stations that were pretty weak and there were several that I would have not worked if it had been on ssb. When you are using a decent antenna with 50-100 watts, ssb is fine. However, when you have to compromise (i.e. indoor antenna ;o) then cw comes into it's own.

Later in the evening, the band was wide open and full of EU stations working in the contest. It was obvious it was open to the Carribbean as well but as before, nothing was heard here off the back of the beam.

Back on 50 MHz again...

Things have been pretty quiet on the radio front recently....mainly due to a lack of interest on my part as much as anything else.


With the start of the Summer Sporadic-E season in May, I found myself listening more and more on 50 MHz but the aerial left a lot to be desired. A 145 MHz 5/8 wave magmount which acts like a loaded quarter wave on 50 MHz might be fine in an emergency but the performance is awful.


I tried tuning the HF doublet and while it was better than the magmount, it was only fair.


At this stage in the season, I decided to put up something fast in the attic and leave the outdoor work to later. My antenna of choice was a 2 element yagi, much the same as my first antenna on 50 MHz way back in 1991.


My choice was based on the following...
a) A modest bit of gain (~4dbd) with a Front to Back ratio of about 10-12 dB.
b) At the apex of the roof, it would be approx 8 metres above ground level.
c) Wide beamwidth....point it east towards Europe and forget about the west.
d) Feed point impedance close to 50 ohms so it is simple to feed with no complex matching arrangement required.
e) Permanent installation. This for me was probably the main consideration. As an indoor antenna, it is protected from the elements and the coax and elements will never corrode or break.


While an external antenna would be a better choice in terms of lower loss and less noise, at least the attic 2 element will always be there to fall back on if needs be.

It got it's first airing on the 11th of June and despite the fact that it is indoors, it seemed to perform fine. Over the space of 3 hours, I worked 54 stations in 45 locator squares. Of particular note were some of the contacts with stations in OH (Finland) at around 2,000 kms. They were probably coming in at a low angle so the 2 element may not be so bad after all.


Putting the contacts into VQLog revealed one contact was a new square for me...JP53. Other interesting contacts were with DF2UU and OH1LEU. According to VQLog, I first worked them back in 1991, a mere 18 years ago!


Also worked was DL5SBA who I worked on 10m back in 1988, a full 21 years ago!


It seems strange how out of 54 contacts, I should work stations that I had my first contact with around 20 years ago.

Sorting out those QSL cards...

Things have been pretty quiet here on the radio front. The spring gales took their toll and my HF doublet is down at present although it won't take much to get it going again. Otherwise, I have been sorting out my QSL cards. I tried before to sort them out by band but it was just way too awkward. So, I have sorted them out now by country and they're all now neatly filed away. Once thing that became apparent however is the number of German QSL cards. Germany has a large amateur radio population and the distance from Ireland to Germany is almost optimum for Sporadic-E contacts on 10m, 6m and 2m....hence the large number of cards.

I'm not exactly sure how many are in there but there is a 1 Euro coin at the bottom for scale.

I think it's safe to say that I have Germany confirmed by QSL at this stage ;o)

Saker Falcon missing...IRTS News

Just came accross this on the IRTS news.......

Missing Saker Falcon. A request has been made by a member of the Public, to try to find a missing Saker Falcon. The Saker Falcon recently went missing in the Dublin area of Inchicore / Ballyfermot. It has been suggested that if anyone can monitor 216.10MHz FM to try to pick up her signal, which is a constant beep to contact Gerard at 086 3640975

What's strange about this......other than the fact it's about a missing bird.....is that 216.1 MHz is right in the middle of Band III TV in Ireland.

A little more digging suggests that the collar may have come from the USA where that frequency seems to be used for tracking.

Channel I on Band III is at 215.25 Mhz. Now it just so happens that Network 2 is broadcast from Mt.Leinster on Ch I. So, considering that 216.1 MHz is right in with the video signals and if this bird heads for the mountains, this tracking collar (probably milliwatts) is going 'head to head' with a transmitter with an ERP of 230 Kilowatts!!

The best chance of hearing that bird is probably if it lands on someone's TV aerial and causes TVI ;o)

Special Event Station...EI100CQD

I came accross this video clip on the net. EI100CQD was a special event station that was operational over the weekend of the 23rd to 25th of January 2009. I heard them mentioned on the IRTS news but the station didn't seem to be operational on 80 metres so it was very difficult for any EI stations to hear them.


The video clip shows Tony, EI5EM operating the station EI100CQD and having a contact with Jarda, OK5JM in the Czech Republic.

mmmm......a 3 el yagi for 160m

With no antenna for 160m, I had to give the CQWW 160m CW contest a miss last weekend. However, I came accross this gem on the net..........OH8X and their 3 element yagi for 1.8 MHz.

Not only are they using a 3 element on 160m but they have a 5 element yagi for 80 metres above it!!
All of this on a 100 metre high tower....

.........and my favourite....

.......a rail inside the boom for walking on!......at 100 metres above ground level!.........any volunteers??

More info at this LINK.

Up and Running on Logbook of The World

Quick recap.......

1) I had updated my VQLog program so that it now contains just over 23,000 contacts. From this, I could generate an ADIF file that Logbook of The World could use.

2) In mid January, I had tried to use to use the LoTW software but I had problems with passwords at the final step when I was trying to 'sign' the ADIF file and generate a TQ8 file for upload.

3) I looked on the LoTW website but could see no obvious answer. So, I sent the ARRL an e-mail with my private e-mail account (gofree) asking for advice.

Current.......

1) After 2 weeks I had no reply to my e-mail. Someone else had also said that they had not received a mail I sent with my private e-mail account. So, I resent the mail to the ARRL on Fri 23rd Jan using my Yahoo mail account.

2) Within 2 hours, I had a reply! The advice was...

Delete any and all TQ5, TQ6 and TQ8 files in your folders.
Open TQSL CERT
Delete any lines with a callsign.
Select FILE > NEW CERT REQUEST
Request a new UNSIGNED certificate for your call EI7GL. Do not use an end date and do not use a password.
Upload the resulting TQ5 to LoTW. Disregard any messages about overlapping certificates or dates.
Stand by for your TQ6.

3) So, I deleted the TQ5 and TQ6 files that had been generated. Ran TQSL CERT again, generated a new TQ5 file (with no password this time!) and uploaded this to the LoTW website. As I had been approved already, I assumed that I would have a reply in a few days.

4) Within a few hours, I had received the TQ6 file back from the ARRL!! I ran this, unlocked my certificate and then proceeded to sign my ADIF file.

5) This time, it went past the stage where I had got stuck before with the password and it began the slow process of generating a TQ8 file from the 23,000+ qsos in the ADIF file.

6) I got a lot of errors, especially with all of the Satellite contacts that I had. It didn't seem to like the format that VQLog was using for Satellite qsos. In fact, as far as I can see, it rejected all of them. Besides the Satellite contacts, it rejected 2 other contacts.....

EA1DDU.....due to "Invalid PROP_MODE (TRD)". VQLog gives the choice of 'Tropo ducting' as a propogation mode. It seems as if LoTW doesn't accept it. It seems strange as on the FAQ on the LoTW website, it make no mention of needing propogation modes.

GD0PLT.....due to "Invalid amateur CALL (GDOPLT)". My first thought was that I had entered the letter 'O' instead of the number zero in the callsign. But no, I had it correct. I have no idea why it was rejected.

7) Eventually the process was completed and I ended up with the required TQ8 file. I logged on to the LoTW website and uploaded the TQ8 file. At first, I got a message saying that it was pending but pretty soon as I was refreshing the page, I could see that the number of qsos were increasing as well as the matches.

8) I left it for a while and after 30 minutes, I had 22,449 uploaded contacts and 1,945 matches. That is about 8.7% . Compared to the QSL rates that others are getting (15-20%), 8.7% might seem a bit low. I would assume that because my contacts are over a span of 20 years, many of the older contacts will never appear on LoTW because the person in question may have gone off the air. The oldest match was for a contact on the 3rd Oct 1986! The newest was for the 13th Jan 2009.

9) So, a quick look at the matches.

These are the number of DXCC countries that LoTW found a match for on each band. Note that this is via LoTW only. There are no physical qsl cards / previous credits in there.

Looking through the LoTW matches and comparing them to my log, I now have these extra countries confirmed....

Band....../...........Countries

6m......1 new country confirmed (PJ7)

10m....3 new countries confirmed (3X, A6 and ZL)

12m....7 new countries confirmed (HL, J6, KG4, KL7, PZ, ST and XZ)

15m....12 new countries confirmed (EY,FP, GI, HK, J7, KL7, PJ2, ST, VP2E, ZC4, ZD8 and ZL)

17m....10 new countries confirmed ( 3B8, 4U1ITU, C31, EA8, PZ, ST, VK9N, VP2M, XZ and ZF)

20m....1 new country confirmed (YV)

30m....6 new countries confirmed (KL7, OY, ST, TF, XZ and ZD8)

40m....3 new countries confirmed (A6, D4 and V4)

80m....1 new country confirmed (D4)

160m..6 new countries confirmed (CT3, GD, GM, GW, LY and OE)

So, in total, that makes 50 'band' countries that I do not have to get physical qsl cards for.

Out of those, I now have 5 DXCC countries which are only confirmed by LoTW on any band (PZ, ST, XZ, J7 and VK9N)...i.e. I do not have physical QSL cards for them.

After messing about with the LoTW website for a while, I eventually found the page to link the LoTW credits with my existing credits. Again, I thought I would have to wait a few days for someone to process this request but it was done within about 1 hour.

My combined record now looks like this....

I have applied for DXCC on 40m, 10m and 6m before so the overall numbers are high for these bands. For example, what the above chart is saying for let's say 10 metres is that my current DXCC credit is 113, I have another 31 credits from LoTW and when I enable them, I will have a total of 144 DXCC on that band. This of course, does not take into account any physical qsl cards that I may have here for additional countries. For bands where I do not have DXCC, like say 20 metres, LoTW brings my DXCC credit from 14 up to 83. So, if I was to apply for a 20 metres DXCC today (100 DXCC minimum required), I would only have to submit 17 extra QSL cards rather than 86.

Overall Conclusion....By using LoTW, I have got 50 new band countries confirmed and it has reduced the need for me to submit physical QSL cards for future DXCC awards. Overall, it was well worth doing and in my opinion, it really is vital that anyone who has a serious interest in the ARRL DXCC award programme should get going on Logbook of The World as soon as possible.

Short Wave Listener QSL cards...

Having recently gone through a backlog of incoming QSL cards, I had the usual few SWL (Short Wave Listener) cards in there as well. I came accross one for which I could find no match in the log so I left it to the end.
Got to the end, re-checked VQLog and my paper log....no sign of the station mentioned.

This is the QSL card...


........and here is the back.


Now, the card is a bit unusal. SWL's don't usually send cards for having heard 'cw' contacts. If they have spent that much time listening to and learning morse, most have gone one to get a licence and get on the air themselves.
I knew I had worked PA1SIX before but just not on that particular day.

I was curious....so I used the 'search' function on the DX-cluster.


PA1SIX 50105.0 EI7GL 559 E 1426 29 Dec


So, PA1SIX had spotted me but did not call me. Note the time, 14:26, the exact same time as what was on the qsl card. So, was this SWL just picking callsigns off the cluster and sending them qsl cards???


So I dug a bit more.......


I found this on an AMSAT forum...
Hi all , this is JH3DJX/Yuki . I received SWL card from DO2OTH . The report was the QSO via SO-50 worked with JH5DAH over Japan .How could he hear our QSO at Germany ?I send e-mail to DO2OTH , but no reply . Can anyone explain this mystery ?


Now, SO-50 is in low Earth orbit so it is impossible to hear it (70cms) in Germany when it is over Japan. Again, a quick check on the cluster suggests an answer...


JH3DJX-@ 436800.0 JH5DAH VIA SO-50 SAT (Saudisat-1C) 1211 21 Jan (2003)


There seems to be little doubt this time, DO2OTH (now DL6BT) just picked a contact off the DX-cluster and sent them a qsl card hoping that they would reply.


Q. What is the point in a SWL sending someone a QSL card for a contact they did not hear???

QSL status......19th Jan 2009

Now that VQLog is updated, I spent the last few days going through the backlog of incoming QSL cards. Out of the 200 or so cards, there were a few nice ones which confirmed a few new band countries for me. I think the one from Iraq might be the only card I have from that country. Needless to say, the vast majority were from European countries. All QSL cards have now been answered and I'll probably send them to the outgoing buro in a few weeks time.

Next step...

1) Logbook of The World. Nearly got it working but fell at the last step! I was near the end of the process and I had problems with the password that I thought I had supplied. Looks like I'll have to start again and get a new key. At least this time, it should be pretty quick.

Video clip from EI/ON5GS/P in IO55 square...

In some previous posts(here & here), I had some information about ON5GS's 144 MHz meteor scatter expedition to IO55 square in Dec 2008. I recently came accross a video clip of his on YouTube. I think the sound of the wind and the snow on the mountains say a lot about the bad weather conditions.

Irish Castles on the Air...24-25th Jan 2009

Just came accross this news item.....

Oranmore Castle activation
Members of the Galway VHF Group will be activating Oranmore Castle from 12 mid-day on Saturday the 24th until 4 pm on Sunday the 25th of January.
Activity will be on all bands depending on conditions. The WAI locator square is M32 and the Castle number will be EI/001/C.
This will be the first activation of a castle since the launch of CASHOTA-IRELAND. The Galway VHF Group Club callsign, EI4ALE/P, will be in operation for the duration of this event.
For further information check out their Web site at: www.cashota-ireland.org

(Update Mon 19th Jan 09....Cancelled due to some building work)

Men's World Handball Championship Croatia 2009

On the 2nd of January, I worked 9A2009ST thinking he was just a special event station for the new year. Today (13th Jan), I heard a few more 9A2009 stations and checked them out. They are in fact special event stations for the Men's World Handball Championships and there are 7 stations, one in each city.

A special award is available to anyone working 3, 5 or all 7 stations.

Some details....

Award is available to all amateur radio and SWL stations that in the period from 1st January until 1st February 2009 establish certain number of QSOs with special stations from 7 cities in which will be held 21st World Handball Championship for men as follows: Zagreb, Varazdin, Osijek, Porec, Pula, Zadar and Split.

All modes of operation are allowed: CW, SSB, DIGITAL, MIX.

For the award it is necessary to work just one special station in each city on any band.
Special stations from before mentioned cities will operate under following call signs:

ZAGREB – 9A2009ZG, VARAZDIN – 9A2009VZ, OSIJEK – 9A2009OS, POREÈ – 9A2009PO, PULA – 9A2009PU, ZADAR – 9A2009ZD, SPLIT – 9A2009ST

More info can be found on the this website. Judging by the pile-up they had on 80m ssb this evening, it seems to be very popular.

Checking of VQLog finished...

I started the long and arduous process of checking my logging program, VQLog against my paper logs back in mid-November 2008. Now 2 months and 23,039 qso's later, I'm finished at last!! At the beginning, it was really slow as I had to enter a lot of old contacts that I had never entered into my old Fastlog logging program. Originally, I had feared the whole process would take about 6 months but in the end, it took 'only' 2. With the exception of a small number of repeater and crossband contacts, I literally put everything into the logging program....towns, counties, Worked All Ireland squares, Worked All Britain squares, US states and so on. From the rare DX contacts to the local contacts accross town on 70 cms. Lots of data that can be used and searched.

And of course, lots of graphs! Here is a breakdown of all my contacts per band.

Some observations....

1) I found perhaps 20 mistakes where I had originally put the incorrect callsign into Fastlog. 20 out of 20,000 is only about 0.1% . Perhaps I missed a few more? but the logging program is now a lot more accurate. One typo was for R1FJL. I had entered the wrong suffix and VQLog recognised it as Russia. Corrected the call and I got one extra band country on 20m. I had entered the wrong date on several contacts....not much use if they end up getting used on Logbook of the World which looks for a date and time match.

2) When I imported all of the 20k or so contacts from Fastlog into VQLog, it did not always recognise the country correctly. An example was the prefix TO which was used in Martinique and Guadeloupe. VQLog had thought they were just French stations. Correcting these gave a few more band countries. Another more obvious one was for GB stations. These are used all over the UK. VQLog presumed that they were all in England but in a lot of cases, they were not. Lesson.....if you are importing data from one logbook into another...(or even data generated by a contest logging program)....you have to check the unusual prefixes to make sure that they are recognised properly. I'm sure that holds true for any logging program.

Next step.....

1) LoTW....I received the password from the ARRL back on the 5th of January. I now have to figure how to use this Logbook of The World. Uploading 23,000 qso's should get me a 'few' matches ;o)

2) QSL's.....I have several hundred cards that need to be checked. I had a quick look already at these and there are some nice DX ones in there. As well as updating VQLog, I will also need to reply to a lot of those cards. Hopefully, I'll be sending off a batch of qsl cards to the outgoing buro at the end of February .

E44M not in the log...

I didn't have much luck trying to work these guys in Palestine. It seemed as if most of Europe were calling them.....too many for a low horizontal antenna and 100 watts to get through on the low bands (3.5 to 18 MHz).
Here is a video clip I found. Seems as if they were getting a lot of interference from the lifts in the building they were in.....