Another good evening of DX on the 20 meter band as I work into North, South and central America.
Once again the radio propagation is providing great conditions with some excellent signals coming in to my Ham radio station here at Baildon Moor. If you haven't already been on your radio this week I would recommend tuning around the 20m band between 1900 - 0000 utc. I have been making lots of good qso and so have lots of other radio amateurs as we all enjoy the long awaited reliable openings across the Atlantic every night this week. Dont miss out, get on the band! Best 73 and do you like my new CW key made by Bencher?
It sure is great to be able to tell you that the past month or so has shown significant improvement regarding radio propagation and DX. I am still mainly active operating towards the end of the day and into the night after work and family are taken care of and for a long time the bands have not been open for DX. Lately it has been a different story as the 20m band has finally come alive and woken up for the night shift allowing regular state side QSO and also some big DX signals from Argentina, Chile, Peru and Japan. I also got a nice one on the short skip earlier as I managed a couple of hops again on 20m over to the Isle of Man when GD1JNB came in booming through like a local. The short skip wasn't around for long but was pretty cool whilst it lasted, as for the DX you catch me in QSO with LU9MBY from Argentina as I bust the pile up!
I often enjoy listening to other Hams working some DX stations on 3.795 MHz just before bedtime and also in the morning at first light. I've been doing this for years and have worked a few nice DX myself occasionally when I've picked up the microphone. This evening I heard a cracking signal coming in from across the Atlantic which belonged to W2RE. He was a real 5/9 + at my end to my FT-1000 and I received the same report back as I made the contact with 400 watts out of my G17B amplifier into the 6btv Hustler antenna. Now that is what I call a good way to end the day! Best 73 I'm off to bed.
It's been a busy start for me so far this year with little time to blog. I hope you are all enjoying life to the full and getting on. As for Ham Radio it's been a bit slow with not so many opportunities to make DX or any kind of decent qso. My evening operating has been mainly swl style on 40m and 80m as the higher end of HF has more often than not closed down at sunset. About six months back I put up a balanced doublet for 80m but now I have come to the end of the experiments and have concluded that the configuration is not best suited to my setup. The dipole was very noisy compared to my vertical Hustler 6btv and at times was unusable due to extreme noise levels on 80m.
Earlier I remade the configuration of the dipole into an OCF dipole which basically means one leg is 81 feet long and the other leg is 50 feet. The total length is 131 feet and it's fed with 50 ohm coax into a 4:1 balun at 25 feet above the ground. I have used 3 support points with nylon insulators allowing most of the length to be straight and at both ends I have around about 10 - 15 feet of wire bent down towards the ground.
The OCF dipole is showing SWR readings of less than 1.8 on 80m and 40m all the way across the bands without the ATU with much less noise than the balanced dipole. I tried it on both 40m and 80m with the amp inline and its looking much better so far. I cant wait to get on with more tests and experments over the next few month's, the bands might offer some surprises as I keep hearing the odd rare DX when the bands open up. This happens quite a lot but it's getting the timings right to play radio, but we all have that problem. Until next time, best 73.
I sometimes try the odd radio app that I come across on playstore but find most to be not that exciting or beneficial to my needs or requirements. I recently tried QRZ assistant and I quite like it so far. The best bit is the built in compass that moves to the coordinates of any station that you look up. I think it could be fun and useful for anyone using rotatable antennas and their smartphones, perhaps from a portable location away from a pc. It's also free!
I was lucky to catch WW1USA earlier this month at the top end of the 20 meter band. Today I received the certificate which is very nice and also a great way to remember the fallen heroes of present and past. Best 73
The Raw Scores are available in case you were wondering. I didn't do as well as I have done on low power but still came a respectful 8th place (Country) 126 place (Continent) and 351 place (World) in the Single Op High power All Band CQ WW SSB Contest. I will find out more once the scores have been finalised and checked over and also I will be downloading my participation certificate/award for my collection. In the meantime I will be playing ham radio in between the chaos of life. Best 73 all!
This year was just as awesome as ever even though band conditions were limited I still worked lots of World Wide DX during the 2018 CQ WW SSB Contest.
I managed to get in quite a few hours here and there throughout the entire contest and spent a lot of time on 15m and 20m during the daylight hours where I worked some big signals from Asia, North and South America as well as a few slightly weaker signals such as China and Japan. I was pleased to catch three stations in a row from India with armchair copies up on 15m and all in all I did quite well with the help of my latest addition the G17B amplifier. The Cushcraft MA5B Beam worked well on 15 and 20 meters and my Hustler 6BTV vertical with radials did it for me on 40 meters but the biggest surprise was the dipole which I cut for 80 meters which was previously the windom. As a designated 80m dipole I was able to get some good signals out with the extra power (400 Watts) I worked some good DX multipliers on 80 meters into North Africa, Cape Verde, Cyprus, Russia and Kazakhstan.
I also got to work fellow Ham, Blogger and YouTuber PE4BAS as PA6AA on 80 meters towards the end of the contest which was another good copy and great QSO. ''Thanks Bas'' As usual I took a few moments to catch some of the weekend on video for those who enjoy seeing the action at my end. You can see for yourself here.
In the end I worked 247 Stations, 65 countries and 19 out of 40 world zones,which was lots and lots of fun throughout the entire weekend. My log has been uploaded to the contest site and I cant wait to do it all again next time.
The last bit made me smile a lot. My oldest daughter Elsie helped me log the CQ WW DX Zones last year and sure enough both Elsie and her younger Sister Martha were excited to help their Dad during this years CQ WW contest. This time around they made up their own version of a Zone check sheet and added a few comments which made me smile tonight when I read through it properly. I especially love the bit that says'' its really exciting ''and ''there's a lot of numbers''. Hams of the future! lol Watch Out!
Well I will say thank You to all who worked me during this years CQ WW DX Contest and finally see you in the contest next year! To my ham radio blog followers and friends, Best 73 and thanks again for dropping by ham radio Operator Blogspot. See You again soon for more madness.
It's half term at College so I get to catch my self up a little and spend time away from the busyness of teaching, relaxing and spending quality time with my lovely family. So far I have been doing some D.I.Y jobs around the house and in between the fun I have been on my ham radio station making the final checks before the up coming weekend.
This weekend if you did not know or perhaps had forge,t is the one weekend where I give my full attention to the HF bands. It's when I try my luck at making contact with as many stations as possible from as many zones as possible out of a total of 40 worldwide. It's that time again for CQ World Wide DX Contest fun!! More info at CQ WW DX SSB site. Last year was amazingly good despite average to poor band conditions I ended up in 3rd place as Low Power, England which was probably a one off lol. Last year my oldest daughter was keeping track of the zones that I worked which ended up at 21 zones out of 40. I can imagine I will need two zone sheets this weekend as my younger daughter is definitely going to want to get involved as she is showing the signs of ham radio fever already at 4 years old. I will be knocking up a simple method of recording the zones or should I say the girls will, similar to last years.
That's all for now its time for some sleep.... Catch up soon, if not see you next time and if your on at the weekend Good luck and have fun fun fun!!!! CQ WW SSB Contest October 27 -28 - 2018. 73
I was checking propagation when I heard The ARRL Head Quarters coming in on 20m. The best bit was when he herd me calling on 20 watts. Check out the video and see for yourself. 73!
The last two weeks have been interesting on the bands especially with the new Russian GI7B x2 amplifier in line and working well. I have made the most of the propagation which has been up and down but worth the effort, as I put out some nice signals into North and South America as well as the Caribbean. I am really pleased with the GI7B amp and have mastered the tuning and loading with no issues or difficulties. I feel much more comfortable with the reliability and duty cycle of the Russian made Ceramic tubes compared to a transistor amp which seem less forgiving of any minor operator errors.
I have backed the mic settings off slightly for my Heil GM5 studio microphone and have been putting out 20 -30 watts from the FT-1000MP Mark-V Field transceiver into the amplifier and getting 350 - 400 watts out. The reports have been very encouraging, all that is left to say is CQ World Wide SSB Contest 2018, here I come!!!
In the meantime have a look at the guys and girls I have had the pleasure to make QSO with over the past two weeks. Best 73 hope to work you soon! M0YKS - Simon
The new amplifier is set up to operate via a separate PTT which was a foot pedal. I found this easy enough but had a better idea to try out with a couple of TIG welding torch rubber insulated switches that I had lying around. I began by making a stainless steel cradle to house two switches which would be one for the radio and one for the amp. I then tacked the whole assembly to my previously home made microphone tower.
I used a piece of stainless steel as a gate type switch system which makes contact with both switches to activate transmit on my transceiver and amplifier simultaneously.
whilst testing out the new double PTT set up I worked Bruce WD4NGB just as the 20m band was grey lining and fading. Feeling very pleased with myself after a bit of ham radio making! Best 73!
