2 QSO into Brazil and heard in Argentina and Paraguay.



The radio and electronics blog of Carl Ratcliffe, M0ICR
2 QSO into Brazil and heard in Argentina and Paraguay.
Good path into Bosnia-Herzegovina.
During these tricky conditions on HF I have been enjoying a little 6m activity as we start to see some Sporadic E appearing. Sadly, most activity seems to be on FT8 these days, but I have managed a few SSB QSO also, including some shorter range inter-G stuff for VHF WAB square.
For those who are not aware, these are some useful 6m resources:
Make More Miles on VHF: https://www.mmmonvhf.de
Jim Bacon’s 6m Blog at Propquest: https://www.propquest.co.uk/blog.php?date=2024-05-13
DX Maps: Real QSO mapping https://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php
6m Desktop: https://uksmg.org/desktop.php
The 6m desktop is hosted on the UK Six Metre Group pages (membership of the UKSMG is highly recommended if you get bitten by the 6m bug)!
10th May 2024. Like many others across the whole of the UK I was amazed to see the light show!
Some CQA calls heard on 6m.
Great to work Paul MM0TZR and Julien MM7JTN on their Scotland adventure to UKBOTA Bunkers (for Bunkers on the Air). Lot’s of bunkers worked including some all time new ones (ATNO) with both the SES call GB0BOA, the Scottish Club Call MS0BOA and their own callsigns. Thank you guys!
Not the best conditions for trying out a new QRP radio!
M0DXT/P, Bill, activating the nuclear bunker at the former Royal Observer Corps post at Threlkeld in the English Lake District. More information on UKBOTA, United Kingdom Bunkers on the Air, at www.ukbota.org
Whoop whoop!
I’m very please to be part of the team who have established the UK BOTA Awards scheme. Look us up on www.bunkersontheair.org and https://www.facebook.com/groups/bunkersontheair
Tested only on 20m and 40m so far. 200mW power. Pretty cool to be heard in Australia on 0.2W, huh!
This Ultimate 3 is based on the mostly completed one I picked up at the Newbury Rally.
Enjoy rally / radio flea market this morning at the Newbury Showground.
Very hot, must have been over 30deg C by the late part of the morning. Picked up a few baragins, pictures to follow:
eQSL received from my Japanese ‘namesake’ JA4ICR in Hiroshima, Japan.
Tuning across 20m this morning and trying to work MM0PLX/P in the Shetland Islands, probably a bit close at the moment for 20m. Nevertheless, tuning across the band I was very pleased to find Peter in Jamestown, St Helena. Good copy 54 both ways.
St Helena …
DXpedition 20 to 27th May 23.
Market Reef, or Märket, is a small reef with a lighthouse on the Swedish/Finnish border, just outside Åland in the Baltic sea. The border zig-zags through the island, making it a special DX entity. The OJ0 callsign prefix was issued in 1973, and has since that day been wanted in the logbooks of many DXers. At the time of writing, it currently holds the #162 on ClubLog’s DXCC most wanted list.
In May 2023 a team of four Norwegian operators will activate the entity once again, and hopefully give many operators world-wide a new (or maybe ATNO) contact with OJ0.
Hans does it again!
Synchronised with the Dayton Hamvention I was delighted to see the annoucement of a new transceiver from QRP Labs. Ordered this morning without hesitation and looking forward to reporting on progress on the blog!
I think it will be some time before they are shipped – this will be a popular kit from QRP Labs.
Information so far:
The “QMX” (QRP Labs Mulitmode Xcvr): a feature-packed, high performance, five-band (80, 60, 40, 30, 20m) 5W multi-mode transceiver kit. , including embedded SDR receiver, 24-bit 48 ksps USB sound card, CAT control, synthesized VFO with TCXO reference. QMX transmits a SINGLE SIGNAL, it is not an SSB modulator with associated unwanted sideband and residual carrier, or intermodulation due to amplifier non-linearity. QMX outputs a pure single signal. QMX is currently only suitable for single tone FSK modes, which covers the majority of digital modes in use today (if it later supports SSB, multi-tone and phase shift digi modes will be possible). This includes everything in WSJT-X, JS8Call, some fldigi modes e.g. RTTY, Olivia and more. QMX is also suitable for on/off keyed modes such as CW because it has click-reducing RF envelope shaping; it is not suitable (until and if SSB is implemented) for phase shift keyed modes such as PSK31 or modes involving multiple concurrent tones such as WinLink.
Specifications
After my success with the Ultimate 2 and 3, QCX Plus, QCX Classic and QCX Mini, and QDX, I am excited!
Info here: http://qrp-labs.com/qmx
Order: http://shop.qrp-labs.com/qmx?search=qmx