A new ham blog

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this blog.

Steve N0TU, lives in the Colorado Rockies and goes hiking with a QRP rig and his two goats, Peanut and Rooster.

He also has a website here, check them both out.

Marion Island update

Still nothing from Petrus, ZS8T on Marion Island yet.

That's to be expected when you consider he's gone down there to work and amateur radio is his hobby. Add to that the fact that he's only one man, it's not a huge multi-op DXpedition like the recent one to Clipperton Island. In fact, it's not even what I'd call a DXpedition as such. It's a guy working hard in a remote area who, if he manages to get some time to himself and the weather conditions are right, might just be able to get on the radio.

Of course, that doesn't stop people criticising him for not letting us know when he's going QRV. I kid you not, someone moaned on the forum that they were wasting time listening for him on the radio and searching on the internet for news. Like Petrus has an obligation to the world's hams. There's always a chance that the person complaining was joking. If that's the case they didn't do it too well.

Lets not forget, he's down there for a year, there'll be plenty of time for a QSO with him. The only obligations he has are to himself, his team (he's the team leader) and his employer.

My only complaint is, I wish I could get a job like his.

73 de VK4VSP

Hala Hut

I heard Wayne WH6OR briefly on 20m today.

If you're thinking of going to Hawaii for a holiday, the Hala Hut looks like it could be the place for you.

73 de VK4VSP

IC-7200 at Dayton

If you're reading this because you Googled IC-7200, I'm probably not telling you anything you haven't already learned, but the IC-7200 is on display at the Dayton Hamvention.

No definite details on the price yet, although rumour has it, it'll be a bit more expensive than most of us were expecting, around US$1400. What that will equate to here in VK land is anybody's guess.

They may be going on sale in the US in September. Again, what that means in Australia I don't know. It could be ages before we see them here.

There's more info on Adam AB4OJ's website, including a link to the brochure.

73 de VK4VSP

CQ WPX SSB

Back at the end of March, my brother Laurie VK4VCC and I competed in the CQ WPX SSB contest.

It wasn't a serious attempt by a long shot, we competed as a multi-one and the weekend included some last minute shopping for some bits for the laptop, a barbecue and two wildlife rescues. Not to mention having to feed all the animals on Saturday evening.

Anyway, we put our entry in, even though we only had 92 QSOs, for about 1500 odd points. There don't seem to be many multi-one entries in this contest, so even with our low score we were coming third in Oceania when ever I checked the submitted logs. Two more entries were submitted from New Zealand at the last moment, just before entries closed and they had much higher scores than us, so we missed out in a place.

Never mind, it was a good experience and I got a lot of new countries I hadn't contacted before. It was a good opportunity to check out some new gear as well, Laurie's FT-950 and my Comet H-422 especially.

Our next attempt will be the IARU HF World Championship in July. We'll be going that from Laurie's QTH at Jimboomba and taking it a bit more seriously. You may have noticed the countdown timer in my sidebar at right.

BARCfest

BARCfest was on today. Now, if you're reading this from Boulder, Colorado, you're probably thinking, no it wasn't.

I'm talking about the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club fest, not the Boulder one which is held in September apparently.

Anyway, I got there nice and early and met my brother Laurie VK4VCC. The idea was to snap up a few bargains, then meet up with the boys from the VK contest club (VKCC). We both took our cameras and intended taking a few pics for our blogs.

As you can see, there aren't any pictures. I could have taken some, but it would have just been the backs of people's heads. The place was packed.

The planned VKCC meeting didn't happen, at least not while we were there, but I did get to meet a few of the members anyway, including Eddie VK4AN and his son Raj, VK4FRAJ. Eddie and Raj are off to Fiji on Tuesday to compete in the CQ WPX CW contest and to just generally have a good time and play radios. They'll be operating as 3D2A (Eddie) and 3D2B (Raj).

Did I pick up any bargains? Well let's just say my wife didn't have anything to complain about when I got home, a pile of 12V gel cell batteries and a low pass filter for a grand total of $55. There were lots of things I was tempted to buy, but I managed to resist, this time.

Houston, we have a problem

I've got a couple of HTs at home that don't get used much and I've been thinking of trying them out with satellites. I tried one of them a couple of years ago when SuitSat was launched. Like the thousands of other people that tuned in to SuitSat, all I heard was static.

I thought I'd do a bit of research to find out how to do it (always a good idea) and came across a few videos by Randy K7AGE.

This video just goes to show, it can be just as much fun when it doesn't work.



73 de VK4VSP

ZS8T - update 1

Oops!

I'm not sure where I got the 5th May from (a bit of QRN between the eyes and the brain perhaps), but it's actually the 9th that Petrus is hoping to be QRV.

I've loosened the bolts and used the Armstrong method to rotate my antenna slightly. Whether it will make any difference or not remains to be seen.



There's a curious thing I've noticed when there's a DXpedition like this in progress. The DX clusters are supposed to be a way to let other hams know when a particular DX station is on air and where they're readable. So why do so many lids spot the stations with comments like "nothing heard". There's so much rubbish ends up on your screen it's hardly worth reading it.

And don't get me started on the guys that spot their mate down the street with comments like "59+ here", or "loud". Of course it is you idiot. It doesn't mean anyone else can hear him.

73 de VK4VSP