Not only am I back in amateur radio, but I am spending my money as well; I bought a Wouxun KG-699E today. First impressions are good.
Reviews say the antenna supplied with the KG-699E is rubbish so I bought a high-gain whip (£20) as well.
Further posts will follow, but comments on this radio ( and its 2m/70cm cousin the KG-UVPD1P) are welcome here.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
CQ WW RTTY Contest
I have been away from serious amateur radio for some time, due to work commitments, but last weekend I had a bit of spare time so had a go at CQWW RTTY. Conditions were awful with the SFI in the low 80s and A-index around 13.
I only operated for a few hours on and off. Made one contact on 10m (Thanks, LZ9W) and split the rest of my time between 40m, 20m and 15m depending on the time of day. Most of my contacts were in Europe with only one state-side (grateful thanks to W4PK in Virginia for his patience in pulling me out of the noise).
I do not like the CQWW contests. The exchange is meaningless - everyone knew I was sending "599-14". Even though I am a very low power station and conditions were poor, only one station asked me to repeat my report. This is not credible. I would also question why only RTTY is allowed. This is an out-of-date mode that eats bandwidth - why not encourage PSK-31 /PSK-63 in this contest?
Comments welcome!
I only operated for a few hours on and off. Made one contact on 10m (Thanks, LZ9W) and split the rest of my time between 40m, 20m and 15m depending on the time of day. Most of my contacts were in Europe with only one state-side (grateful thanks to W4PK in Virginia for his patience in pulling me out of the noise).
I do not like the CQWW contests. The exchange is meaningless - everyone knew I was sending "599-14". Even though I am a very low power station and conditions were poor, only one station asked me to repeat my report. This is not credible. I would also question why only RTTY is allowed. This is an out-of-date mode that eats bandwidth - why not encourage PSK-31 /PSK-63 in this contest?
Comments welcome!
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Six metres is not a band I know very well and I have a very modest station. The transmitter is my FT-817 and the antenna is a dipole in my loft, made from some copper pipe I had left over from a plumbing job and fixed 'beaming' east and west.
On Monday evening, there was a great sporadic E opening and even a bit of tropo to help things along. Even with my limited set up I soon filled a page in the log with stations from southern and eastern Europe, but as is the way with 'E' openings, I took a break to get a cup of coffee and when I returned to the radio some 15 minutes later ..... silence ..... the opening was over.
Encouraged by this, I thought I would have a go at the 6m Activity Contest on the following evening. But conditions could not have been more different. No Es and no tropo. I finished with a miserable 240 points, with a best "DX" of under 50km, but I guess this is what makes amateur radio such a facinating hobby.
On Monday evening, there was a great sporadic E opening and even a bit of tropo to help things along. Even with my limited set up I soon filled a page in the log with stations from southern and eastern Europe, but as is the way with 'E' openings, I took a break to get a cup of coffee and when I returned to the radio some 15 minutes later ..... silence ..... the opening was over.
Encouraged by this, I thought I would have a go at the 6m Activity Contest on the following evening. But conditions could not have been more different. No Es and no tropo. I finished with a miserable 240 points, with a best "DX" of under 50km, but I guess this is what makes amateur radio such a facinating hobby.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
French CW Contest
I took part in the REF French CW contest this weekend (Championnat de France HF Télégraphie). I am not a great contester, or CW operator, but this event was a delight to take part in.
The object is to work as many French stations as possible. Foreign stations send RST + Serial, French stations send RST + Department Number - these are the multipliers and as there are 96 of them plus 11 overseas territories and Departments, there's plenty to go for.
The nice thing about this contest was that very few French stations were sending stupidly fast and secondly, they were all very polite - a massive contrast to the normal scrum of most CW contests. This would be a very good event to start with if you are thinking of trying a CW contest but are intimidated by what you hear in most events.
It takes place on the last full weekend of January (with the SSB contest the last weekend of February) and runs from 6am Saturday until 6 pm (UTC) Sunday. As the exchanges are numeric, you don't even need to speak French!
Full details are on http://concours.ref-union.org/reglements/index.php with the rules in several languages.
Thanks to the RÉSEAU DES ÉMETTEURS FRANÇAIS / UNION FRANÇAISE DES RADIOAMATEURS for running this event.
The object is to work as many French stations as possible. Foreign stations send RST + Serial, French stations send RST + Department Number - these are the multipliers and as there are 96 of them plus 11 overseas territories and Departments, there's plenty to go for.
The nice thing about this contest was that very few French stations were sending stupidly fast and secondly, they were all very polite - a massive contrast to the normal scrum of most CW contests. This would be a very good event to start with if you are thinking of trying a CW contest but are intimidated by what you hear in most events.
It takes place on the last full weekend of January (with the SSB contest the last weekend of February) and runs from 6am Saturday until 6 pm (UTC) Sunday. As the exchanges are numeric, you don't even need to speak French!
Full details are on http://concours.ref-union.org/reglements/index.php with the rules in several languages.
Thanks to the RÉSEAU DES ÉMETTEURS FRANÇAIS / UNION FRANÇAISE DES RADIOAMATEURS for running this event.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
I have frequently lamented to poor HF band conditions on here, and now the 2008 solar report is out. This shows that in 2008 there were 266 days with NO sunspots (source: Spaceweather.com and NASA). This has not happened since 1913, which had 311 spotless days.
The good news is that cycle 24 now appears to be established and we should see improving conditions over the next few years. That said, I just really struggled to work EA7ES on 20m CW. We had very deep QSB so he was fading from S5 to 'no copy' for several minutes at a time - thanks for persisting Manol. Apparently this was due to a minor disturbance on the sun, which will wipe out and feeble ionisation that we do have.
I have never done much on 80m as I only have a small garden and so short antennas, but I have been trying this band late in the evenings during the long winter nights. I have not yet worked any spectacular DX, but I have had some very satisfying European contacts.
Dave
http://www.howardcommunications.ltd.uk
The good news is that cycle 24 now appears to be established and we should see improving conditions over the next few years. That said, I just really struggled to work EA7ES on 20m CW. We had very deep QSB so he was fading from S5 to 'no copy' for several minutes at a time - thanks for persisting Manol. Apparently this was due to a minor disturbance on the sun, which will wipe out and feeble ionisation that we do have.
I have never done much on 80m as I only have a small garden and so short antennas, but I have been trying this band late in the evenings during the long winter nights. I have not yet worked any spectacular DX, but I have had some very satisfying European contacts.
Dave
http://www.howardcommunications.ltd.uk
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
CQ WW CW Contest /QRP
Last weekend was wet and cold here in UK, so I was able to spend a bit more time than I expected on the CQ WW contest. We are right at the bottom of the sunspot cycle - the SFI was 68 and the A index 1 so about as quiet as it gets, but I decided to try the QRP (low power) section just to see what I could work.
Saturday was very slow with 15m hardly opening at all. I heard US East Coast stations late in the afternoon but could not work them so I had to content myself with European zone 14, 15 and 16 stations. Sunday was a bit better with two in Asiatic Russia in the morning. 15m hardly opened at all but I was lucky enough to work Netherland Antilles, which was a bit of a result. Late in the afternoon I worked a run of US stations, including one in the mid west, on 20m.
In total I worked 76 stations in 28 countries and three continents with about 4 hours of total operating time, which is not too bad for low power in very quiet conditions.
Saturday was very slow with 15m hardly opening at all. I heard US East Coast stations late in the afternoon but could not work them so I had to content myself with European zone 14, 15 and 16 stations. Sunday was a bit better with two in Asiatic Russia in the morning. 15m hardly opened at all but I was lucky enough to work Netherland Antilles, which was a bit of a result. Late in the afternoon I worked a run of US stations, including one in the mid west, on 20m.
In total I worked 76 stations in 28 countries and three continents with about 4 hours of total operating time, which is not too bad for low power in very quiet conditions.
Friday, 28 November 2008
I recently visited Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes in UK. ( http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk ). This is the "National Code Centre" - the site where the German Enigma code was broken in World War 2. This work was secret for a long time and the story is only now being told
It is a facinating place and must be visited if you have any interest in history, radio or computers. It also houses other related exhibits, such as the museum of computing with the rebuilt Colossus computer. There is one hut stuffed full of vintage radios, including some of the WW2 'Spy' sets. There is a permanent amateur radio station, but it was closed on the day of my visit.
I took the conducted tour - which is free. Peter was our guide and he is an absolute mine of facinating information.
The only thing that let the place down was the catering, which was awful, and there is no alternative near by so do take sandwiches!
Entrance was £10, which allows unlimited visits for a year. I only allowed 3-4 hours for my visit, which was nowhere near enough so I will be going back.
Dave
It is a facinating place and must be visited if you have any interest in history, radio or computers. It also houses other related exhibits, such as the museum of computing with the rebuilt Colossus computer. There is one hut stuffed full of vintage radios, including some of the WW2 'Spy' sets. There is a permanent amateur radio station, but it was closed on the day of my visit.
I took the conducted tour - which is free. Peter was our guide and he is an absolute mine of facinating information.
The only thing that let the place down was the catering, which was awful, and there is no alternative near by so do take sandwiches!
Entrance was £10, which allows unlimited visits for a year. I only allowed 3-4 hours for my visit, which was nowhere near enough so I will be going back.
Dave
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