15 Nov 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
Prior to last evening’s KAREX Jitsi session, I had been playing a little on 40m, and had left that running in the background. Frequently these days I am looking for new DX stations to work. So I often have the ‘DX Summit’ website running as well and configured to monitor ‘spots’ for the band that I am working.
Right after our Jitsi meeting, I began to shut my radios down, with one last glance at the 40 meter DX spots and noticed a post showing V26K at 7049.0 running FT4 just a few minutes earlier. And, a quick check of my DX records showed that I did not have Antigua and Barbuda confirmed.
Tuning down to that frequency, showed V26K calling CQ with a very strong signal at +3dB and only a few other stations working him. A few quick calls running just 70 watts had a completed contact in the log. And just a few minutes after that he was gone.
Recently I have become aware that there are occasionally stations that will use pirated call signs especially on FT8 and FT4. Just a few days ago there was a station appearing to be operating from the Marshall Islands with a strong signal, and reported on DX Summit as being a pirate station. As a result, I am a little skeptical when seeing what looks like DX with an unexpectedly strong signal. In those situations I usually go looking to validate the DX station operation. In this case, a ClubLog search shows V26K as recently having uploaded log information on Nov 8th, so hopefully this will turn out to have been a valid contact and a new one for my logbook. Time will tell.
10 Nov 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
My Antenna Tower Project – 2022
2 Nov 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
Some interesting signals just below the bottom end of the 40m band…caught on my SDR pan adapter display, while trying to work P29RO on CW.. Assaf might know what this is, but I certainly don’t…
2 Nov 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
And this one that really appears to be intentional interference, exactly on top of P29RO’s transmission. I also have no idea what this signal is, but it was pretty loud and pretty wide! There is always a lot of nonsense around these DX pile-ups. P29RO’s signal is extremely weak here this time of the morning…as you can see on the waterfall (barely discernible). The QRM shown here only occurred once but clearly wiping out any chance of copying the DX signal.
Then you also get poor operators tuning up right on top of the DX signal. These guys apparently have really high-Q antennas that can’t be tuned anywhere other than on the exact frequency that they intend to operate on. Then again, if that were the case, the operator should still move up onto the split frequency area where he intends to transmit (unless he is also unaware of that necessity).
This then leads to the ‘DX police’ lurking just below the DX stations frequency and sending ‘UP UP’ whenever the above mentioned infractions occur (which in itself creates brief QRM on top of the DX station (really frustrating if the DX station happens to being trying to call you at the same time). All of which makes it really difficult to work the DX station. At one point this morning P29RO sent ‘Sri QRX QRM QRX’ indicating that he was going to stop transmitting because of the interference….which he did.
That always stops the whole pileup almost immediately. A good trick is to keep listening for a few minutes in case the DX station comes back…which he did this time… a really good time to reply with you call sign while there are relatively few other callers…which I also did.
But I still didn’t get to work him. This is one really tough DX contact to get…
12 Sept 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
Great day at Carp hamfest! A few of my own photos as well as some of the photos that Mike VE3MKX provided. Thanks for these Mike.
And, a couple of heavy duty relays / switches that I purchased as new/old stock (still wrapped and in boxes) for $3 each.
As Mike pointed out, the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club does a great job of organizing this event, and the Erskine Johnston Arena is an ideal location. Early arrivals were able to access the lobby / snack bar / washrooms, and purchase tickets before the doors were opened to the hamfest. And there were all sorts of activities going on at the adjacent fair grounds.
In all a really enjoyable morning.
24 Aug 2022 from: Drew VE3UIN
Following along with our brief discussion last night on hydrogen.
Drew
9 Aug 2022 from: Howard VE3HBH
From Howard regarding his Alpha Delta OCF antenna…the center insulator terminals were uncomfortably close to the metal support mast on his tower. Howard’s solution was to bolt a small piece of white PVC tubing across the terminals to prevent the bolts from touching the steel mast.
11 July 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
11 July 2022 , 11:52 EDT
It has been quite a while since I decoded any weather satellite passes, so thought today might be time to get back to it. The planned rework of my QFH antenna installation has still not happened…too many higher priority things to look after. So coverage remains less than what I would like.
Good news is that Meteor M2 is still sending images, as well as NOAA-15 / 18 / 19. Not so good is that http://www.celestrak.com (my default web page for obtaining TLE data) has moved permanently to a new web page at https://celestrak.org/
CelesTrak.com was set as the default on both of the image processing software programs that I use. So running those programs immediately flagged error messages saying that Kepler data could not be updated. I am still working on the necessary work-arounds for resolving that issue.
However, I managed to capture reasonable images from Meteor M2 and NOAA-18 this morning, and got the necessary Kepler update for my WXtoImg software by copying TLE data from the new CelesTrak page, and manually pasting it into the necessary file in the program’s directory.
9 July 2022 from: Mike VE3MKX
Hot of the Press!!
A link provided by Mike VE3MKX, to his great collection of photos from the Burlington Amateur Radio Club, Ontario Hamfest 2022 at the Milton Fairground.
(Click on the Burlington ARC banner for the link to these images)
2 July 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
During Field Day I was trying to explain to one of our GOTA members about ‘pro-signs’ and abbreviations used on CW. Greg VE3PJ pointed out that there was an established protocol for sending ‘Cut Numbers’ and subsequently provided this web-page link to a PDF by Bill AJ8B listing all of these short forms (at left). This is actually a pretty handy reference for anyone getting into carrying on actual on-air CW exchanges.
And of course because of my obsessive nature, I couldn’t resist sending Greg a reply regarding my opinion on the subject of ‘Cut Numbers’ (maybe entertaining, if nothing else)…
2 July 2022 from: Tim VA3TIC
This photo from from Tim VA3TIC, showing his nice job of enclosing and grounding all of the cables coming from his tower in a metal enclosure, before they are routed through conduit into his shack.
28 June 2022 Link to PARC Homebrew group’s new YouTube channel: from Peter VE3POA
My Homebrew group in the Peel Region has opened a YouTube Channel where we have begun to upload our meetings.
We will eventually have an index available detailing each meeting’s content, but for now it’s a work in progress.
The Channel name is a bit ugly at the moment, “UC2fa_KyrbFJo1pDMgeFJbCg” and will stay that way until we reach 100 subscribers where we will be able to have a banner defined and a name change. Link to the channel is below.
There’s a lot of good information in these meetings so it should be a good resource and we now have the ability to easily watch missed meetings as well.
So please subscribe to the channel and get your kids, grandkids, the dog etc to subscribe as well.
Click on the PARC Homebrew image at left to navigate to the new YouTube channel.
6 June 2022 from: Rick VE3ORY
Looking for a good CW decoder? This one ‘CWGet by UA9OV’ is one of the best I have seen. Available at https://www.dxsoft.com/ The program is ‘free’ but after a while, there is a pop-up asking if you want to register, However it appears that the unregistered version will continue to operate .
Download for Windows shareware version is available at https://www.dxsoft.com/en/products/cwget/#bottom (Also a good review of the software at this site)
31 May 2022 from; Phil VE3HST
An interesting lightning display map submitted by Phil, showing this mornings thunderstorm activity in the Kingston area.
(From https://www.lightningmaps.org )
KAREX Group 