We won

Well, sort of.

My brother Laurie, VK4VCC, and I teamed up last year for the CQ WPX SSB contest. We weren't really trying all that hard, in fact we even found time to go shopping, have a barbecue and feed all the animals in between contacts. We did get quite a few new countries into my logbook though. More about that logbook in another entry to come.

Anyway, a large white envelope turned up in my mail yesterday. It was addressed to VK4VSP, so I didn't open it straight away, thinking it was my licence renewal. When I did get around to looking at it, I realised it was to do with the contest.



I joked to my wife that they way the certificate is worded makes it look like we'd won. Reading it properly it does actually mean that we've won the multi-single category for VK4, which is the state of Queensland. Now that might seem to some like quite an achievement, but I have to be honest and tell you, we were the only multi-single station in Queensland. For some reason it doesn't seem to be as popular a category as the others.

I'm not sure if I'll compete this year as I'm probably going to be too busy with work and study. If I do, I might try a more minimalist category this time, maybe QRP on one band. First I have to find a decent contest program that'll work on my little Asus EeePC running Xandros.

73 de VK4VSP

Eyeball QSO

I had an interesting eyeball QSO yesterday.

It was interesting not because of the topic, but where I was at the time. I was half way up a tree in a complete strangers front yard while they were out at a Christmas party. The QSO was with their next door neighbour.

No it wasn't anything naughty. As wildlife carers my wife Donna and I had got a call to go and pick up a baby bird. It had fallen out of the nest at the caller's house. They'd made a makeshift nest for it and put it back up in the tree, a big jacaranda, but the parents hadn't come back to feed it so it needed to go into care before it starved.

There were a lot of ants on the tree, so while Donna was getting some gloves for me and I was planning my climb I noticed a wire in the neighbour's yard going from the fence to a mast. On top of the mast was a rotator and a couple of antennas. Hmmm, thought I, the neighbour must be a felow ham. I could see him over the fence on the other side of his yard and I knew that as soon as I went up the tree, he was going to see me.

Sure enough, he wandered over to say hello, I told him what I was up to and to prove it removed the yellow ice-cream container from the other side of the tree where it was obscured from his view. I then asked if thy were Ham radio antennas I could see. From there it was an exchange of callsigns and what equipment we had. He explained that he wasn't very active as his main interest was astronomy, I explained that I wasn't very active as I'm usually too busy with the animals.

I could have sat there, up in the tree, and talked all day except for the ants and the fact we had five more birds of various species in the car and it was about 32 degrees celcius (90F) at the time.

I just wish I'd written down his name and callsign before I forgot it.

73 de VK4VSP

Solar powered operation

I've come to the conclusion that the Icom IC-706 MKIIG isn't a good radio for operation in the field unless you have a decent size solar panel.

I've just spent the last couple of weeks away from home in Armidale, about six hours drive south of here on the New England Tablelands. I was down there for a couple of residential schools at the University of New England where I'm doing a BSc in zoology and had about five days to kill in between chemistry and vertebrate zoology.

My brother Laurie, VK4VCC asked if I wanted to borrow his 706 to use down there. I had been thinking of taking my IC-730 down, but liked the idea of trying out the little 706.

The entire station fitted into a smallish cardboard box. There was the radio, an MP1 antenna, a VSWR meter, coax, an antenna analyser for tuning purposes and a 7.2AH battery.

So on one of my free days I set everything up in the cabin I was staying in and turned the radio on. That's my cabin at the far end.



Now the battery wasn't fully charged, but it hadn't been used much, but within about five minutes of tuning around and just listening the radio started to shut down as the battery voltage was getting too low.

I turned on my laptop and downloaded the manual for the radio and was amazed to find it pulls 1.5A on receive. I'm not sure what current my 730 draws, it doesn't say in the manual, but I'm going to find out.

I might start looking for an FT-817 for when I go away, that or a big solar panel.

IOTA

Although we had plans for Sunday morning, I was going to put in a bit of time in the afternoon (VK4 local time) on the IOTA contest.

I like the idea of IOTA, it tends toward more unusual activations in remote areas. That's something I believe that keeps amateur radio relevant in this day and age. The IOTA contest is also a good opportunity to pick up a few new ones.

As it turned out I never even got around to turning the radio on.

We had our annual general meeting in the morning for the wildlife rescue organisation my wife, Donna, and I are involved with. During the meeting one of the members who is involved with a pelican and seabird rescue organisation got a call to a sick pelican. Needless to say, when the opportunity came up for Donna and I to assist, they didn't have to ask us twice.

So we spent that afternoon catching and assessing, not one pelican, but three. Two of them were released after being treated and the third was taken to Australia Zoo's wildlife hospital for further treatment.



Well, after that I forgot all about the IOTA contest until just before closing time.

Maybe next year.

73 de VK4VSP

IARU contest

The IARU contest is on this coming weekend.

I was going to compete together with my brother Laurie, VK4VCC, at his new QTH. Unfortunately, his QTH isn't finished yet because the builders can't seem to get their act together.

I do have Laurie's FT-950 here that we used in the CQ WPX SSB contest back in March, but I'm doing a first aid course all weekend. If I do get on, it'll be in the evenings and I certainly won't be competing seriously.

Good luck to those of you that are competing this weekend.

73 de VK4VSP

It's official

Finally, something official from Icom.


The IC-7200 should be released in Japan sometime in early August and the price will be 104790 yen as reported recently by JI1ANI, Yukito. Sorry Yukito, I believe you now.

The Icom Japan article is here, with a translated version here.

IC-7200 price

According to JI1ANI, Yukito, on the Digital Ham Life blog, the price for the IC-7200 has been released.

It'll be 104790 yen according to Yukito, that's just under $1000 in the US and just over $1000 in Australia. Unfortunately, Yukito doesn't say where or when that price was announced, or who by. Without citing his source it's really a meaningless statement to make. I could just as easily make a similar claim and it would be all over the internet within a day.

I won't believe the price until I see it from Icom and there hasn't been a lot of news from them so far. One website was advertising it for US$9999.99, but I suspect that was just so they could get it on the website. Perhaps their software didn't allow TBA, who knows.

This advertisement from Icom in the UK has got me thinking. They say " The IC-7200 features military styling, which makes its suitable for all round use."

To me, military styling means it looks military, it doesn't necessarily mean it's rugged, just looks like it is. I could be reading too much into that though, as the brochure seems to suggest that it's built to take a few knocks as well as utilising technology used in marine radios. It's not waterproof, but it won't mind getting a bit damp.

I'm still looking forward to hearing more about the IC-7200, but since I'm going to have a lot more time on my hands soon, I'm starting to get tempted by a K2.