Seychelles S79K expedition · 9 July 2010 by Michael Wells
In October I will be travelling to the beautiful Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, to take part in CQWW with Martin G4XUM, Dave G3NKC and Fred G4BWP. Unusually for us, this is a pure SSB operation. We’ll certainly be interested in having some CW QSOs either side of the contest. Look out for us on all bands during CQWW.
QSL via Dave G3NKC
'Downfall' Parody - Ham Radio Version · 15 April 2010 by Michael Wells
Over the past 18 months or so, there have been many parodies using a scene from ‘Downfall’ in which Hitler becomes enraged due to bad news about the invasion of Berlin. By changing the subtitles the scene becomes an amusing departure from the original!
I have made a ham radio version, in which Hitler discovers he is “not in the log”:
Charles M0OXO is now G7VJR's QSL manager · 6 March 2010 by Michael Wells
From 6 March 2010, all of my QSLs are being handled by Charles, M0OXO. For further details see www.m0oxo.com.
VP8DMN - Falkland Islands · 31 January 2010 by Michael Wells
(Martin G3ZAY, left and Michael G7VJR, right)
Between 21 and 29 January 2010, Martin G3ZAY and I were QRV from Darwin, East Falklands (SA-002). Over the period of our trip we focused as much as possible on the low bands, especially 160m and 80m, and in total we made 7,500 QSOs. All QSOs appear in our log search page on Club Log. The entire expedition log has been uploaded to LoTW.
From 03/2010 onwards QSL via M0OXO – www.m0oxo.com
We travelled to the Falklands from RAF Brize Norton in England, down to RAF/USAF Wideawake on Ascension Island, and then to RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falklands. In total the trip is about 13,000km and takes 24 hours or so. It was a great relief to finally arrive in good weather, although the Falklands are very windy and some of the time our antennas were standing in 95km/h winds! See below for a photo of an 18m pole being stressed into an ‘S’ bend.
Our location at Darwin House was picked with the help of VP8NO, Mike. The objective of this site was to use the low take off angle of the salt water to enhance our signals and make the best of the conditions. Mike got this just right – here’s the map showing the superb location:
Our equipment comprised two small amplifiers, two Elecraft K3s, 2×18m Spiderbeam poles and 1×10m vertical. We used a 500ft beverage which Mike VP8NO built, and laid approximately 1.5km of radial wires, most of which were coupled with sea water. The radios in particular are wonderful, and we were able to avoid any station interference by using the outstandingly clean TX signal of the K3s.
At times the weather was extremely pleasant, with temperatures nearly at 20 degrees celsius. This is of course because January is the peak of summer in the Falkland Islands…but the wind never really stops.
Our operating technique was that Martin G3ZAY would operate in the mornings while Michael G7VJR would be QRV from sunset through to sunrise every day. In the afternoon, we were both up and available to do antenna work and, occasionally, we were both on the air on HF at the same time. This schedule works well but after a week of working night shifts Michael was getting a bit grumpy with the conditions – so thank goodness, on the last night, the 160m conditions were perfect! :-)
On HF bands, conditions were quite excellent when they peaked, but the QRN (summer conditions) could make the bands below 30m very difficult to use when the crashes were too strong and continuous. One night, we were only able to make about 50 QSOs throughout the hours of darkness due to S9+20db QRN, while the next night was just about the most perfect 160m opening with QSOs beyond sun rise into JA, which is 17,800km short path.
You can hear an audio recording of our signals, created by JR7VHZ Yasu. The audio file is an MP3 recording:
Click here for the MP3 recording of VP8DMN on 160m in Japan.
I have also received this WAV from Tom, DJ5RE:
Click here for a WAV recording of VP8DMN on 160m in Germany
On 80m, this recording is from John, G3XRJ:
Click here for an MP3 recording of VP8DMN on 80m in England
As you can see, the JA to VP8 path is a true SS-SR path and an extraordinary opening is needed to make it happen on 160m! (Note: JA is in the centre of the map, and VP8 is in the bottom right). Congratulations on 160m QSOs to:
JA3ONB Yasuo
JA7NI Kuni
JA8ISU Kazuo
JR7VHZ Yasu
The photos below are just a handful of pictures to give you an idea. A full write-up of this trip will follow soon in the CDXC Digest.
Particular thanks are due to CDXC and GMDX for their help with our expenses. Also, thank you to Mike VP8NO and his wife Heather, to Bob VP8LP and Janet VP8AIB, and to the owner of Darwin House (Sheena) for their help with our station. Thanks to Bob G3PJT for the loan of his excellent light-weight FET amplifier, to Neil G0JHC and Mark G4AXX for their support with our expenses, and to G3TXF for assistance with shipping arrangements to the Falklands. Martin and I had a great time and are extremely grateful for all the QSOs – particularly on the low bands. vy 73!
Michael G7VJR, Martin G3ZAY – VP8DMN
Happy Christmas from G7VJR · 24 December 2009 by Michael Wells
PHP code to convert Maidenhead QRA to Latitude and Longitude · 24 December 2009 by Michael Wells
I was frustrated when searching on the internet for PHP code to convert QRA locators (JO02AF) to latitude and longitude (degrees). It seems that in ham radio circles, most people prefer not to publish their source code. I don’t know why this is, as there is really no money to be made in ham radio software. :-)
Here is my solution, please feel free to use it.
<?phpfunction qra2latlong($strQRA)
{ $strQRA = strtoupper($strQRA); if (strlen($strQRA) == 4) $strQRA .= "MM"; if (!preg_match('/^[A-Z]{2}[0-9]{2}[A-Z]{2}$/',$strQRA)) return false; list($a,$b,$c,$d,$e,$f) = str_split($strQRA,1); $a = ord($a) - ord('A'); $b = ord($b) - ord('A'); $c = ord($c) - ord('0'); $d = ord($d) - ord('0'); $e = ord($e) - ord('A'); $f = ord($f) - ord('A'); $nLong = ($a*20) + ($c*2) + (($e+0.5)/12) - 180; $nLat = ($b*10) + $d + (($f+0.5)/24) - 90; $arLatLong = array($nLat,$nLong); return($arLatLong);
}
?>
My DXCC stats · 12 November 2009 by Michael Wells
If you like this idea, you can include something similar for your own callsign in your own web site. Here is the code (assumes you are using Club Log):
<p> <script src="http://www.clublog.org/stats.php?call=YOURCALL" type="text/javascript"></script> </p>
Falkland Islands VP8/f - 21 January to 29 January 2010 · 12 November 2009 by Michael Wells
Martin G3ZAY and I will be traveling to the Falkland Islands for an expedition between 21 – 29 Jan 2010. Our operation will be mainly CW, and we’re particularly interested in working north on LF. We’ll be using Elecraft K3s, amps and at least one beverage antenna. Our TX antenna for top band will be a 60ft ‘T’, sited next to salt water.
Wish us luck!
TX3A - Chesterfield Islands 160m QSO · 7 November 2009 by Michael Wells
On 2009-11-07 at around 18:00Z, I had the great luck to contact TX3A on the Chesterfield Islands on top band. George and Tomi’s month-long expedition to this remote island is an extraordinary achievement, but their salt water grounding has clearly made an exceptional LF activation possible. While this might seem like an easy path on 20M, by the time you get to 160M it doesn’t even feature in standard propagation predictions.
Here is the path at the time of the QSO. My 160m antenna is a 40ft vertical with coils at 6ft and 32ft, making it at best average – definitely not a big gun with only 400W in. Considering the distance, the competition for a QSO and the band, I am still amazed and delighted by this QSO. It is going to take some beating.
Club Log - 10 million QSOs · 3 October 2009 by Michael Wells
This week, Club Log reached 10 million QSOs! Since starting the service in 2007 I’ve been delighted by the rapid growth of the database, but it’s mainly due to the FT5GA expedition to Glorioso that the database has suddenly expanded this year. Onwards and upwards.
I’ll be presenting on my El Salvador trip (YS1G) at the RSGB Convention in Wyboston next week, and look forward to catching up with the UK’s DXers and visitors from overseas who will be out in force.
Good DX and 73 – Michael G7VJR
Updated 12 November 2009: The number is now more like 15 million. Amazing stuff! Thank you everyone. :-)