15m FT8 Fox and Hounds mode
Where’s St Maarten?
PJ7P – SPFIH on Sint Maarten Island
Author: Carl (M0ICR)
Great QSO Mapping Tool – Log Analyzer 3.2
First in the RSGB October FT4 contest – 10W Section!
Great portable 6m yagi – K6ARK
JARTS 2021
JARTS is the annual Japanese Amateur Radio Teleprinter Society contest: http://jarts.jp/
I wasn’t taking the contest seriously this year, the focus was really to experiment with some new antennas. 10m was surprisingly quiet (noting that there was quite a bit of 10m FT8 activity through much of the contest). 15m was noticeably better than the band has been in contests for some time (although not sure if that is down to better band conditions, improvement in the antenna system here – or a combination of both!). Typically I would expect to do a big session on 20m during JARTS but it didn’t feel like I was on the band much at all.
It’s a struggle with 100W sometimes and was noticed on 20m and 15m in the morning when JA stations could be heard but not worked. Apart from that, pretty much everything which could be heard was worked with VY5 on 40m a got-away despite many attempts.
Some interesting DX lately
Plus J5HKT on 10m FT8, and 3DA0WW on 20m FT8
HV0A – Vatican City – a rare one!
40mins to break the pile-up!
J5HKT – Got there! 30m, 20m, 17m, 10m
Messy, but we got there!
Silvano (I2YSB) in Guinea-Bissau
and equally messy on 30m!
A bit easier on 10m
St Helena – New DXCC on 12m
UPDATE: S9OK – Eventually broke the pile-up!
20+ stations calling S9OK in Sao Tome & Principe on every ‘over’ (and that’s just the one’s I could decode!)
David was using FT4 but on two frequencies (NOT F&H so I assume he was using MSHV to get two transmissions per over.
More information on the S9OK DXpedition is at dxnews here: https://dxnews.com/s9ok/
Checking the log I see that I have actually worked the island twice before (both 2019), the previous QSO were on 20m and 60m.
Interesting article: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/sao-tome-and-principe-africa/index.html
Ten things you didn’t know about Sao Tome and Principe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bu88Qwx_Rk
UPDATED!
Also worked on 20m, nice to see the QSO in ClubLog Live!
Grey line into JA – 30m FT8
… and into VK and ZL
3DA0RU – updated
Despite some strange conditions on the bands today (including a pretty major geomagnetic storm), I managed to work the DXpedition callasign 3DA0RU (Kingdom of Eswatini – otherwise known as Swaziland) on 3 bands: 10m, 12m and 15m. I hope they are QSLing via ARRL LOTW!
More info here: https://www.dx-world.net/3da0ru-eswatini/
Update
3 bands confirmed on club log:
New Digital modes transceiver from QRPLabs – QDX
Hans Summers has done it again with an amazing new product for kit builders, QRP and digital enthusiasts with the new QDX transceiver. News of the new product release broke last week sending QRP Labs fans into a frenzy on the QRP Labs Google group. An initial batch of 450 units was released on at 1800Z on 11 October with all units sold in 12 minutes! Wow, that’s popular!
The initial batch has been limited in number due to a current global lack of semiconductors although Hans has promised at least one further batch will be available once his supply situation improves. In the meantime, I was pleased to get my order in (despite a number of glitches caused by the online sales portal being overloaded by the sheer number of folks trying to secure their QDX).
All being well the QDX will be here in the UK in a week or so and I will then, as time permits, document the build and operating on here.
Outline details and specs are here:
- Four bands 80, 40, 30 and 20m
- 5W output at 9V supply (can be built for 4-5W at 12-13V supply)
- Single signal transmission (zero unwanted sideband, zero residual carrier, zero intermodulation distortion)
- Solid-state band switching and transmit/receive switching under CAT control
- High performance embedded SDR SSB receiver with 60-70dB of unwanted sideband cancellation
- Built-in 24-bit 48ksps USB sound card
- Built-in USB Virtual COM Serial port for CAT control
- Si5351A Synthesized VFO with 25MHz TCXO as standard
- Easy to build single-board design, Professional quality double-sided, through-hole plated, silk-screen printed PCBs
- All SMD components factory assembled
- Connectors: 2.1mm power barrel connector, USB B (for audio and CAT control), BNC RF input/output
- Built-in test signal generator and testing tools
- Receive current 100mA, Transmit current 1.0-1.1A for 5W output with 9V supply (around 0.7A for 5W with 13V supply).
- QFU firmware update for lifetime free firmware updates, easy installation on any PC without drivers, software or hardware e.g. programmer
- Optional aluminum extruded cut/drilled/laser-etched black anodized enclosure
See Hans’ website for more details: https://qrp-labs.com/qdx.html and the DRAFT manual here: https://qrp-labs.com/images/qdx/manual_1_00.pdf The ordering page is here: http://shop.qrp-labs.com/qdx2?search=qdx
Finally, to whet the appetite, here is a YouTube video outlining the new kit:
13th in Europe in Batavia (Indonesian) contest
Happy with with placing in the Batavia (QSO with Indonesia) contest considering I was only using 80W and wire antennas (and no resonant antenna for 15m at the time!), most QSO on 20m with a handful on 40m. Second in UK.
Major solar storm
After some good conditions on 10m and 12m in the last few days we now how a major geomagnetic storm:
Inter Planetary K Index (K=6 … yikes!)
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index … very signals above 20m at the moment.
The storm was predicted here:
Rodriguez Island on 12m
That took some doing, but on the second day of trying I managed it!
QCX 40m still making it down to the Antarctic
QCX Mini 40 with QLG2 GPS module
… just need to find a nice enclosure for the GPS module.
GPS module is providing frequency calibration, timings and location for the QCX Mini whilst it transmits WSPR on the 40m band.
GPS module shows a 3-Dimensional fix (Lat, Long and Altitude) , 7 satellites fixed and tracking a total of 11.
QCX Mini WSPR (20m) – with QLG2 GPS
Attached the QRP Labs QLG2 GPS unit to the QCX Mini 20m this morning (see additional post).
A nice set of signal report for the first WSPR transmission, 105 spots from one burst with the top ten (by distance) listed below. Best DX was KL7L in QRA Square BP51IP (Alaska) – just NW of Anchorage:
