VHF-UHF DX Book...Free download

The VHF/UHF DX Book was written in the early to mid-1990s by a team of experienced VHF/UHF DXers and equipment developers, in an effort to pass on their knowledge and stimulate further developments.

The book covered various aspects as you can see from the cover above. I bought this book when it was released and built the design in it for a 4 element Yagi for 50 MHz. I used that antenna to work 100+ countries on 6 metres during the sunspot cycle around 2001-2002.

The book is now available as a PDF and can be downloaded for free. It is 25 MB in size and can be found at this website... http://www.trpub.net/html/dx_book.htm

This is a remarkable gesture by the book's owners and should be of interest to anyone with an interest in the VHF bands.

Silent Key...Con, EI4CE

I heard yesterday that Con O'Callaghan EI4CE from Newmarket in Co.Cork passed away.  He was 89 years old. (Notice).

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

EI55WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

Following hot on the heels of EI66WAW and EI88WAW on Friday, I worked EI55WAW on 20m cw on Saturday the 4th of February 2017. Like the other times that I have worked WAW stations on 20m, the signals were weak but I was lucky enough to just get in early before the pile up started.

EI55WAW was number eight of nine on cw so that just leaves EI11WAW (Donegal) to go. There hasn't been much activity with that call so far on cw so the most difficult one will probably be the last. Still, I have just under 11 months left to find them though! :o)

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

EI66WAW and EI88WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

On Friday the 3rd of February 2017, I worked two more of them in the space of an hour.

First up was EI88WAW on 20m cw. He was busy working a pile up of stations and operating split. The signal with me was pretty weak so there was no hope of getting through a large European pile up. After he returned from a break, he was operating simplex and I managed to get in for a quick contact. WAW #6 on cw.

Within the hour, I found EI66WAW on 80m cw.

One thing that has suprised me is just how difficult it is to work some of the counties on cw. I have seen EI66WAW spotted loads of times but on 20m, 30m & 40m, he was way too weak. On 80m in the late evening, the skip has lengthened and Co.Clare is in the skip zone.

This time around, EI66WAW was on about an hour before sunset so he was very easy to work.

Just two more to go now on cw....EI11WAW and EI55WAW. The cluster doesn't show that many cw spots for them so it might take a while.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

Entry for the French HF CW Contest...Jan 2017

The French REF CW contest was held on Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th of January 2017 on the HF bands from 10m to 80m. For stations outside of France, the object was to work as many French stations and departments as possible.

I hadn't really planned on taking part but once I worked the first few, I just kept going. In the end, I ended up with 138 QSO's on CW.

As expected, the best bands to work into France were 80m, 40m and 20m. The best DX contacts were with FY5KE (French Guyana) on 15m and FY5KE, FG4KH and FG/F5HRY (Guadeloupe) on 40m.

The antenna on my side for all contacts was an 80m dipole about 7m above ground level feed with 300 Omh ribbon cable from an ATU.

Yesterday, I downloaded a copy of the SD Contest Software by EI5DI and registered it. As with anything new, it took a while to get used to all the commands but I managed eventually to put in all the contacts.

Entering wasn't without its problems though as I got several error messages when I tried to upload it to the contest website.

a) Error found in your file : LOCATION field not found. This field must contain DX for all non french stations. eg: LOCATION: DX

......With some help from EI5DI, it seems as if the French entry system didn't recognise the standard entry for location. In SD, it is 'CATEGORY-LOCATION:  DX' whereas the French website was looking for 'LOCATION: DX'. Obvious to the eye but a robot system just rejects anything that isn't in the exact format. It was easy to edit the .LOG file with Notepad, remove the CATEGORY- part, save it and then try again.

b) At this stage, the French website thought I was trying to put up Spam with my multiple attempts so it rejected any more efforts. I was stumped for a while but I then used another browser to fix that problem. i.e. no cookies on that one.

c) Back in again but another error message...

Error found in your file : CATEGORY-OPERATOR field is not set properly. This field must contain operator-category. operator: SINGLE-OP or MULTI-ONE or CHECKLOG eg: CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
We found the string below in your log file: CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE OP     (please check the op SINGLE-OP or MULTI-ONE or CHECKLOG)

Again, it was just a case of editing the .LOG file and I changed the 'CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE OP' to 'CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP'. The French system wanted a hyphen in there.

Tried again and it worked!

My first entry for a CW contest and I would guess that it's my first entry for a big contest in about 15 years.

The next question is how many of the contacts will count? How many errors were there? I used a straight key for all the contacts with some being in the early hours of the morning....plenty of scope there for mistakes ;o)

Operating QRP in the UKEICC 80m SSB Contest...1st Feb 2017

The SSB leg of the UKEICC 80m contest was held on Wednesday the 1st of February 2017 between 8pm and 9pm. As a test of a Yaesu FT-817 rig and as an experiment, I took part in it with just 5 watts into my 80m diplole.

I only managed to work 8 stations but I also didn't actually hear that many more anyway with my S7 noise level on the band.

All the stations I worked were within 500kms with the exception of GM3X who was about 750kms.

GW9J...IO72
GW4J...IO73
EI7CD...IO63
EI2KA...IO51
2E0KVJ...IO80
EI6JK...IO53
EI5KG...IO62
GM3X...IO88

Both EI5KF and F1FPL were quite strong but they couldn't hear my 5 watts. I could hear stations in Hungary, Slovenia, Germany and Sweden but it was pointless calling them as they were relatively weak at my end.

The whole contest seemed to be a tale of two halves. Conditions seemed reasonable in the first 30 minutes but the band seemed to collapse in the second half hour. It was almost as if something happened up in the ionosphere. The geomagnetic conditions are at a storm level at present so that might explain it (K index = 5).

Looking at the results and the comments, it seems as if everyone found the conditions to be awful. Still though, it was interesting to get 8 contacts with 5 watts.

Activity Levels for the Wild Atlantic Way Award... Jan 2017

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

As of the 31st of January 2017, the number of page views on QRZ.COM can be seen above. As you might expect, the number of page views should roughly reflect the activity levels of each station.

There has been quite a variation in activity levels for the month of January. The number of QSO's recorded in Clublog is shown below and roughly matches the QRZ.COM views.

* Note that some stations may not have updated all their contacts yet which would explain why perhaps EI11WAW has a lot more QRZ page views than recorded contacts.

Some calls like EI99WAW have been very active on both SSB and CW and on bands from 80m to 20m which allows a lot of people to work them....both near and far.

Others have been very quiet or else they have been up on the higher bands like 20m which makes it difficult for stations in the UK and Ireland to work them. Still though, it's early days and there are still 11 months left.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

EI22WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

Today, I caught up with my fifth one...EI22WAW on 20m CW. There was a bit of a comedy of errors with this one. I was adjusting the morse key beforehand to try and get a smaller gap and sure enough, it jammed just before I gave a signal report! After some frantic adjusting, it got the report across ok.

The signals was quite weak but strong enough to make a contact when the European stations weren't calling.

Four more to go.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

World Handball Championships in Jan 2017...TM57A, TM57D, TM57H & TM57N

The 25th World Handball Championships are being held in France from 11th to 29th January 2017 and there are four special event stations on the air ...TM57A, TM57D, TM57H and TM57N.

Today, I worked the 4th station on CW.

16/01/2017 ...TM57H ...3.5 MHz ... CW
18/01/2017 ...TM57A ...7 MHz ... CW
22/01/2017 ...TM57N ...7 MHz ... CW
24/01/2017 ...TM57D ...3.5 MHz ... CW

The four callsigns H A N D spell HAND and as you can see from the image above, the four QSL cards when assembled show a ball in the centre....i.e. Handball.

From the organisers website....
The 25th Handball World Championship will be held in France from 11th to 29th January.
The city of Metz, will receive in its Arena the teams of Spain, Slovenia, Macedonia, Iceland and Tunisia. AMRA was keen to participate in its own way at this event, so the codes TM57H - TM57A - TM57N and TM57D were allocated for the period from 15 to 29/01. The four codes thus forming HAND, a special QSL will be edited for each of these indicative and the four QSL will form a puzzle as below. We look forward to your participation.


The QSL manager is Marc F-11734 and they will QSL via the bureau. See QRZ.COM

Presentation by John EI7IG at the TAPR Digital Conference in the USA

In 2016, John Ronan EI7IG traveled to the ARRL-TAPR Digital Communication Conference in the US where he gave a presentation on using APRS (Amateur Packet Reporting System) to track vehicles and bikes on the Sean Kelly cycle event.

The video of the talk was put up on YouTube in the last week by Gary Pearce, KN4AQ as part of his Ham Radio Now video series.



In the talk, John outlines some of the technical issues and difficulties in covering this large cycle event and making sure that the emergency services can be deployed where they are needed.

Additional info...
1) Sean Kelly Tour
2) John EI7IG's website

EI33WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

Today, I caught up with my fourth one on 80m CW...EI33WAW. Five more to go.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

EI77WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

Today, I caught up with my third one on 80m CW...EI77WAW. Six more to go.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

Rough guide to activity levels for the Wild Atlantic Way callsigns

The Wild Atlantic Way award has been running since the 1st of January 2017 and already, a number of overseas stations have worked all 9 calls.

If we make the assumption that the more active a station is then the more views they will get on their QRZ.COM page, this is a rough breakdown of the activity levels of the WAW calls so far.

Results of the 2017 IRTS 80m Counties Contest on New Year's Day

The annual IRTS 80 metre contest was held on the 1st of January 2017 and the full results are now available HERE

The chart above shows how the number of entries have changed over the years. While they are down on the initial years, they have  increased since 2014. It's good to see that the entries for the SSB/CW section have reached an all time high and now make up roughly half of all entries.

Slim Jim Vertical Half-Wave for 27 MHz & 28 MHz

Another one from an old magazine article. This design is for a basic folded half-wave vertical for the 11m CB band on 27MHz but it can also be adapted very easily for 28Mhz or 29Mhz. For 10m operation, try reducing the half wave section to 5.10 metres and the quarter wave section to 2.53 metres.

It really is a case of experimenting and see how you get on. It's likely the biggest challenge will be the mechanical construction rather than adjusting the VSWR.

One particular advantage of this antenna is that the quarter wave tuning section effectively puts the radiating element higher above ground level. This fact alone can have a significant effect on the performance of the antenna as it begins to get clear of buildings, electricity wires and other clutter near ground level.

A lot of novice CBer's get fixated on 'advertised gain' and different types of antennas whereas they should be concentrating on getting a decent antenna up as high as possible.

While the Slim Jim won't be as good as say a Yagi beam up on a tower, it should still perform pretty well.

EI44WAW in the log

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

Today, I caught up with my second one on 80m CW...EI44WAW in County Mayo. Seven more to go.

More info about the Wild Atlantic Way award in this previous post.

Ideas for radio clubs...

It's pretty obvious that a lot of radio clubs in Ireland and in the UK have a declining membership and many are not attractive to newcomers.

One of the more active areas in the UK is in Essex and the Essex Ham website has plenty of ideas and tips on how to make clubs more attractive and relevant.

One of these is to have a skills night where there is something for everyone...newbie and experienced alike.

http://www.essexham.co.uk/skillsformula

It obviously may not work for all clubs but there is plenty of info on that site that clubs might find useful.

New website for the Duhallow Repeater Group

The Duhallow Repeater Group operates the 70cms repeater EI7SMR and the 4 metre Simplexer EI4SMR on Seefin in County Cork. I have put together a basic website for the group which gives some details about their systems.

You can visit it at http://duhallowrepeatergroup.blogspot.ie/

2017 Wild Atlantic Way Award

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 Irish Radio Amateurs will be on air with nine special calls – EI11WAW through to EI99WAW.  Each call will be associated with one of the counties making up the Wild Atlantic Way.  Each call will have its own distinctive QSL card depicting a highlight of the county linked to the call.

QSL requests via Clublog or the Buro.  Requests for a Direct QSL via Clublog or to EI6AL enclosing $2, or €2 via paypal to payments@irts.ie

A Certificate will be made available for download to any station that works all nine calls,  any band any mode.  Apply by email to QSL manager EI6AL giving name and call.  A certificate can also be sent by post – send €5 ($5) to cover postage either through Clublog, direct to EI6AL or via paypal to payments@irts.ie

.My first QSO for 2017 in the log :o) ......Dave EI4BZ operating as EI99WAW on 80m CW at 00:10 UTC. Eight to go.

Old IRTS Newsletters now available...

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society is the national body representing radio amateurs in Ireland and they produce several newsletters for members throughout the year. While the newsletter isn't in the same league as say Radcom or QST, it is in many ways more relevant locally as it relates to Irish issues.

The IRTS have now put up an archive of old newsletters from 1988 to 2000 on their website.

Just go to their website... http://www.irts.ie/ ... and look for the Publications Library.

Members of the IRTS also have access to all the IRTS newsletters from 2001 to the most current one as well. Taken together, the newsletters represent almost 30 years of the history of amateur radio in Ireland from the late 1980's.

The quality of the IRTS newsletter has changed greatly over the years. Before the late 80's, it was little more than some copies of typed text. With the advent of proper desk top publishing software, it improved hugely in the 90's before colour was finally introduced in mid 2008.

As of the end of 2016, some 27% of IRTS members opt for the PDF version which is available from the IRTS website. This does of course mean that fewer physical copies must be printed and posted out which results in a saving for the Society.

For me, I just prefer the digital version as it means I don't have a physical copy that I need to store or dispose of. I can also zoom in on diagrams and photos on the PDF document allowing me to see things in more detail, something which is of course impossible in the printed version.

I just upload the PDF version to my own private online Google Drive account where they are all available for easy access. This is a screenshot from that site...

Looking at the annual financial statements for the IRTS, roughly half of the Society's annual expenditure is spent on the publishing and posting of the newsletters to members. In an age of high speed broadband and smart phones, perhaps more IRTS members should consider opting for the electronic PDF version?

It seems to me an obvious way to help the IRTS to reduce its costs and help maintain the current membership fee.