New page now complete and tested. If you try it and break it, let me know how please.

The Yaesu FT7800 currently represents good value for money in my opinion. So I bought one! It very quickly became apparent that you can't easily program the memory channels easily using the user interface. Fortunately, Bob, G4HFQ, has written a lovely little program that mimics the clone mode of the radio on a PC, allowing you to download/upload memories. If you want to enter a lot of repeaters, that still leaves you a fair bit of typing to do.
Not any more it doesn't!
There is now csv generator on this site to allow you to make a csv containing all the repeaters in a given region/band.
Click HERE!
An updated version is already underway to allow you to get the csv directly.
Feedback please.

Yes it really is that long! As you may have read, there is a new shack. The plan was originally to refit, and move in as quickly as possible. It didn't quite work out like that. The new shack has been properly insulated this time, it has a plastic membrane on ALL sides, including the floor. The walls have a foil backed 'bubble wrap' material, and then OSB, painted to make it look nicer. Same for the roof. The floor has a thick black plastic liner, underlay, and then carpet. All in all, quite cosy.
Obviously, this means that there has been virtually no real radio since the end of the summer, that means no log entries, and no blog entries....

Until Today!
For the first entry in the log of 2010, E73EPA on 20m. That's a new DXCC on that band, so happy enough with that. Tuning up through the bands, 17m and 15m seemed to be open, so a quick check of the cluster, and up pops D2CQ. I've been folloing him up and down the band by DX spot rather than by hearing him, but as yet, only weak voices in the noise. It's been 15 minutes since his last spot, so maybe I've missed him. There are still one or two ZS stations being spotted, so there is still hope. More later if I actually work anything.

One of the great things that I love about this hobby, is that you can devote as much, or as little time to it as you can afford... and still enjoy it. The only log entries since my last blog have been contest entries.
So here's an update on what's been happening.
The Shack is on hold now for a while. So, yes, I'm still in my temporary home. That's not likely to present too much of a problem over the winter, and it gives me much more time to organise things rather than just pile them all back in there.
I'm still WSPRing on 30m. I have managed to obtain some air-spaced caps, and some semi rigid copper pipe. The sort that's bendable by hand, but not the really skinny stuff (microbore). Anyway, I've made a circle of tube around 1m in diameter, it's a little over that at the moment until I figure how I'm going to hold it up. I have an old ATU that will be the sacrificial tuner box, and heaps of info thanks to James, 2E0JCA who has already been down this route.
More as it happens.. I'm off to get coffee.

To save you the bother of looking..:
TK/LX1FX/MM 2009-08-09 15:00z 50.150 SSB JN41IT 59 57 Andre

is the only log entry since my last blog entry!

For those of you who know me, stop reading now. Otherwise, here's what's been happening.....
Four of the last six weeks I've spent working away, so radio time has been non-existent. Additionally, there is a new shack, which as yet, I haven't managed to move into. This of course means that I'm still in a temporary shack set up in the back half of the garage, surrounded by all of my clutter, randomly strewn around in plastic stacker-boxes. As I haven't managed to catch very much in the way of 6m activity, I've been having another bash with WSPR. It's quite amazing how far a small handfull of watts can get you! If you haven't tried it yet, it's worth having a play with. The software is free to download from Joe Taylor's website, and in addition to a radio, all you will need is some form of interface to your computers sound card. Check out http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wspr.html for more info. You'll find me on 30m if I'm active. Hope to see you there.

As is not uncommon in the G0LFP household, work and other commitments have kept me away from the radio during band openings for much of the E's season this year. This is likely to continue certainly past the end of this years main E's activity. Others will no doubt attest that the level of a weekend activity has also been very low this year. Excuses out of the way, let's get on with some reporting. Since the last blog entry, and until today, there was only one contact in the logbook, KP4EIT, (FK68) on the 24th at 22.38z, and the only signal on the band over quite a long period of time.

Today's activity was centred around northern Europe and southern Scandinavia. The first QSO in the log was DF5KB, (JO72), followed by three in Sweden, SM0CHH (JO89), SM7NR (JO76), and lastly, just before G0LGS did an 'LFP' on the band, I quickly nabbed SM1/DK2ZF (JO96), for a new square and a new IOTA Gotland Is. (EU-020).

After the 'spots' part of the main page got broken by the change to the plain text version of the spots page at dxsummit, I decided to change the way it was done. Initially I read the last 1000 spots in text and then chopped them up by frequency. The down side of doing it this way was the slow refresh rate of the 1000 spot page (3 minutes). Since then, with a great deal of help from Dave (G7RAU) I have Live MUF v7 running feeding a MySQL database. The spots are now taken from that database and displayed as you see them. You will also see a little box with a grid square in it. Change this to your grid square and you will see all spots with one end in your square highlighted in RED. The page is also noticeably faster to load.

NP4A (FK68) and HI3TEJ (FK49). Two new DXCCs and two new squares in two QSO's. What a happy bunny I am. I've never worked the Carribean before, so it was a real treat to not only hear them, but also to be able to work them both within a few minutes of each other.

As is usual for NFD, the increased activity on the VHF bands enables a little 'gap filling' of grid squares. It wasn't really an enormous effort on my part, with only 19 serial numbers given out on 3 bands. First one in the log within three minutes of the start, was E7DX, and he gave me serial number 10!!!
High point of the weekend was definitely the outstanding Sporadic-E opening on 2m. A look at my maps will tell you that 2m really isn't my band, but even I managed to net CT1DHM for IN61 and a new DXCC. What makes this contact really strange, is the fact that I'm missing that square on 6m! The last 15 minutes of the contest, I switched over to 4m, and managed a whole three contacts. With only 10W out to a mismatched antenna I wasn't expecting much, but IO93 was nice.

Other projects on the go..
Yesterday (Sat) I did something I've been meaning to do for as long as I've been in the present shack, I stripped and cleaned my Morse key. The contacts had become dirty and it wasn't performing very well. The screw terminals on the back had come undone underneath too. Now all I need is a little practise oscillator, and to try to remember how to use it. Why am I doing this? Well, it has become apparent that, after talking to G0HVQ and G4ENZ, sometimes the only way to work the dx on 6m is to use CW. If that's what it takes, then that's what will happen. Since I must have been good enough in 1989, I'll just have to brush up a little... wish me luck. ;-)

What an evening! It has to be 14 years since I first ventured onto the 6m band when I bought my old TS680S, with its massive 10W of power. In all that time I've only heard the USA/Canada on a very few occasions, but never as strong as I did tonight. There were some signals peaking 59+20dB, and I was giving and receiving genuine 59 reports. The strongest signal by far was K3TKJ (FM28), but no real surprise that he was the strongest with his stack of 4x7 element yagis and 1.5kW !!! The band started to open for me in IO81 at around tea time with a few stations working into the Caribbean, though at the time all the transatlantic QSOs were on CW. At just after 2100z the first stations started to appear on the SSB portion, and in the next 90 minutes, ten new grid squares went in the log. Best dx was KN5O (EM40) at 7316km. Bringing the totals to 225 squares worked, 93 this year, 10 new ones today! EM40,63,89, EN91, FM28,29, FN10,12,20,31,42,43, went in the log.
DX Sherlock map

The 6m band was open throughout the contest this weekend which I'm sure will make for some VERY big scores. I put 16 QSOs in the log and managed a few new grids. Even after the contest there was still some activity though much lower than during it. Since the last Blog entry, I did manage IW3IFJ for a new one (JN55) and then SM5YMS whilst listening for HV0 for JO78 a new one this year.
Totals for 2009 now sit at:
All time squares = 215 Confirmed = 78 2009 = 81 in 106 Contacts. Next chance to operate will be at the end of the week, so nothing from me until at least Friday night :-(

Well well...! The band did us proud today. Excellent conditions all day, and even as I type at 23:15 local time, the band is still wide open. Propagation has moved round, giving us a chance to work some new squares. As it happens the same happened yesterday too, so over the last couple of nights its has been possible to add a few new squares and a few new DXCC entities. New squares over the last couple of days, so far looks like this:
KN87 EN5ØØI
KN46 ER1SS
KN15 YO7NW
JN73 9A2ZH
JO82 SP3YDE
IM12 CT3FQ
DXCCs now 50 on 6m with Latvia and Madeira. :-)

I neglected to blog on the 11th, even though I had had a good evening on 6m. With a few calls in the log, the band seemed to be open in all directions at once. New all time square was F1TZG in JN25. It was great to work Gulli, TF8GX again, in HP84 helping the annual totals.
Today, 14th June:
A good opening into Europe, and the Caribbean, though as usual I didn't hear much from that direction. In the log went EB1TT (IN72) for #207.
One that got away, despite calling and calling, was IS0/DK7ZB from JM48. As I type at just gone 17.30 local time, the band has just closed altogether. Here's hoping it comes back later to catch the IS0 as it's the last day of the DXpedition. :-(

Saturday 6th:
A few contacts on 6m in the log to improve the annual score, as well as two new ones, EA1AS (IN82), and EB6ADS (JM29).
Sunday 7th:
Only a handful of contacts on 6m today, the band was fairly quiet generally, but I was fairly lucky nabbing C37NL for a new DXCC, though their DXpedition isn't supposed to start until tomorrow (8th). Needless to say Stewart (G0LGS) and Matt (M3WDS) also worked him, bringing the totals to; 205 squares, 49 this year. and 47 DXCCs, 21 so far this year.
I have also been playing with WSPR on 30m, which is quite interesting. As I don't have a proper 30m antenna I'm just using the 1/2 sized G5RV through an ATU, but even so, 5W can go a long way! Using the website WSPRnet.org, it's possible to see who is hearing who, and was surprised to see that my signals had been hear over the pond! Very gratifying. :-)

It's always nice to hear the band open, and have the chance to work a few squares. It's especially nice to hear it open in a different direction for a change. This is exactly what happened when I returned home tonight, with the band open to Scandinavia. It also means that there is a chance to work a few new all time squares and start filling in the gaps. Amongst quite a collection of calls in the log, the ones worthy of mention here are;
SA3ANZ (JP93), OH7TE (KP20), SM4Q (JP70), ES6DO (KO27), LA5AKA (JO49), and then YL2MD for KO16. Bringing the all time squares total on 6m to 203, 38 this year, and the DXCC's to 46 and 20.
A little 10m activity on the way home netted OZ5AGJ (JO47), and SA4BEQ for JO79.
Bringing the totals on 10m to 91 squares, 13 this year.

OK, I'm sorry, I haven't been keeping up. I was away until late on the 29th May so I really didn't get to play much radio for a week. Anyway, Saturday 30th fairly quiet with only EA8SL for IL18.
Sunday 31st, E73CW for JN93.
Monday 1st June, things improved greatly, with a gaggle of squares, including IW0CZC for JN62, which had eluded me for no apparent reason, and then on the 2nd, EB5CNK/4 for IN90, EA5CLH for JM08, and then on 2 meters during the contest, GI4SNA for IO64. Bringing the totals to:-

QRA locators
50 MHz All time = 197 Confirmed = 78 Current year = 30
70 MHz All time = 6 Confirmed = 1 Current year = 1
144 MHz All time = 25 Confirmed = 7 Current year = 9
432 MHz All time = 12 Confirmed = 5 Current year = 0

DXCCs
50 MHz All time = 46 Confirmed = 25 Current year = 17
70 MHz All time = 4 Confirmed = 1 Current year = 1
144 MHz All time = 7 Confirmed = 3 Current year = 3
432 MHz All time = 3 Confirmed = 2 Current year = 0

No entries since the 21st May, I must be slipping...! It doesn't reflect my lack of activity. A quick look at my log will tell you that I have been working stuff, on 6m mainly.

I'll edit this bit out later, but I'm now on 197 squares on 6m, having added a couple that had eluded me for some time! More later, when I return from work.

It's remained painfully quiet here, though up out of the noise for a couple of minutes popped IT9TYR for JM78 (#193 on 6m).

Later: After it was obvious that 6m had really had it for the day, it was time to give 10m a go. Out of nowhere came EA8UP, (IL18) a new DXCC on 10m and a new square too! (#86 on 10m.)

The live spots pages on this site use custom data from dxsummit.fi
This is encouraged, they even tell you how to do it! Unfortunately though, since this morning, they have been embedding html in the section that I need to parse. I haven't yet found a way of getting custom spots from their site in plain text. (Standard 'last 25' type requests are however still available in plain text.) I've emailed asking for this to be made an option, and have my fingers crossed.

More later as soon as I find out what I can do. I really don't want to take them off the site, I had only just got round to putting them on after the closing of the old oh2aq.kolumbus.com site.

Later:
Only two in the log today, EA7DUD for IM76 and CN8KD for IM63. New for this year only.

A decent opening and I was home to enjoy it. That makes a welcome change, though I didn't get to spend all day playing radio, I ventured out to the shack at around 16:00z and managed to put 6 contacts in the log. OE3FVU for an all time new square (JN78 #192) as well as 5 others for new squares this year.

It's always nice to hear the first E's of the year, and it seemed to be a long time coming this year. Opening this evening was not very long-lived, and not particularly strong here. There had been much worked across Europe for the day, but all I managed were two contacts. Happily though, the two that I did make were OH1LEU (KP01 for #190), and SM2A (KP04 for #191). So I really can't complain, two contacts, two new squares.

Finally a day calm enough to get the 6m beam back up in the air, and as is the way, no propagation. I have just heard (and spotted of course!) the CN8IG/B beacon, so there is a little E's spreading this far north. The DX-Sherlock map has plenty of red lines on the 50MHz page, but not enough of them originating in the UK to get one too excited. It would be nice to start building up the squares tally for 2009, the list is still looking a little sick with only 4 squares worked so far this year. So, the current set up antenna wise as follows; main mast.. tri-band vertical 6/2/70 and the 5 element 6m yagi. Shack mast; dual band vertical 2/70. Portable 'Mast-systems' mast; 7 ele ZL-Special for 2m. 70cms ZL and the 4m halo currently doing nothing, though the 70cms ZL will shortly end up on the 'shack' mast. Many thanks to Leanne, my XYL for helping get the mast up. :-)

No I'm not going to break into a Bjork song. Not much to report on 6m, so I've put the 10m vertical up in the hope that something comes of it. I've worked; SP9QMB (JO90), and DO1KRT (JO30), and spotted the LA4TEN beacon on Sherlock. I'm currently listening to the LA5TEN beacon S0-S5 in the deep QSB.

Later:

NW-012 Sota summit, but nevertheless a new square for this year on 6m (IO82)

Over the last week, the 6m propagation deflector has been assembled, checked, and now has the correct feeder on it. It's still on the portable mast until tomorrow, and weather permitting I hope to drop the main mast and swap the 6m and 2m antennas. That should kill things for a while. ;-) On a lighter note, I did manage my first 6m square of the year, IO82 real dx at 67km.

Well, at least it was on 22/3/09

Please join me in wishing my callsign a very happy twentieth birthday. I can see a big party for the next one!

I see from the UKSMG that Yuri, UT1FG is off on his travels, in order to try and keep track of him, I'm put up a page that will track him if his AIS can be heard ashore.
http://www.g0lfp.com/ut1fg.php

I've finally bought a 4m antenna, not a particularly good one, just a halo. I'll be monitoring 4m if I'm in the shack so if you know I'm here, give me a call. Since I use an FT847, which only has 10W and is deaf, don't expect great things ;-)

Radio took a back seat for this one...
I wanted to recreate the old Funky Ferret game. I had some of it on my server, so I rewrote the backend.
You can find it here..:
Funky Ferret
Enjoy :-)

Mine's got a little addon board stuck to the battery, please see forum for more info.

OK, you can call it a guestbook, chatroom, conference, I'm really not fussed....
Either way, it's there, linked on the left of the main page. (You missed it didn't you?)
I'm really sorry about the registration thing, I'd love to be able to put the site up without all that nonsense, but you know what spammers are like...? Yes, so do I.
If you want to join in, please be patient while I authorise you, and then if I ask nicely, can you register in the form...: CALL, Name

Many thanks, and I hope to see you there.

OK, this is an out and out rant. Against the whole spirit of amateur radio. When is a donation not a donation?
Let me explain.
I would like to make a little mod to my TS680S to improve sensitivity at 500kHz, so I go to mods.dk only to find that it's no longer free. ALL the same info is available elsewhere, so no great loss for me, after a couple of minutes on my search engine of choice I found exactly what I was looking for.

End of rant.
What's this all about then?
Well, I have been playing around with a Navtex decoder. It's a natty little program that once it's decoded a message successfully it uploads it to a server. I'll be putting a link on my main page if I haven't done it already.

It's been a week since the 6m beam came down for the winter, and yesterday (Sat) I actually got round to getting the mast back up. On top, is the 3-band vertical, and under that is the 7 element ZL-Special for 2 meters. The 70cms ZL-Special is currently living on the portable 7m mast, though at the moment it's almost fully retracted, and the antenna is vertically polarised. The old vertical is still living on the lower mast, and is only connected to the hand-held. Now all I can hope is that there's some propagation left after I've finished my chores. (Chipping the tile adhesive off the walls before tomorrow when the plasterer arrives.)

Yesterday saw the Kp index rise to 7 and a few reports of Au on 6 and 2m started to appear on the cluster. Today I noticed a 3rd sun-spot had been listed, and that the SFI was up to 71 :-) Looking good for the start of the new cycle.

With some fairly foul weather predicted and the lack of any activity on 6M I decided to drop the beam for the winter. I'll put the 2m ZL-special up in its place sometime soon. Watch this space as they say.

Don't forget, I got hold of some 23cms ATV gear, so anyone local fancy trying a bit of testing, please let me know.

More new toys... I've just procured a couple of portable telescopic masts, so I'm rather looking for to giving portable operation a go. One is 7m and made from Carbon Fibre, an easy to set up, one man operation. The other is made of aluminium alloy (I think), is about 9m and seems to be pneumatic. I'll report back when I've had a play.

It was nice to find the band open today into Italy. I was just thinking about dropping the beam down for the winter, and popped into the shack 'just in case'.

IK4HLQ in JN54

and then IK5RLP in JN52

With the lack of 6m activity, I put the 847 on 144.300, and out of the blue popped EI8IQ (IO62) not a new one for the year, but nice to have a chat anyway. Thanks Pat.

Nice to hear a little activity on the band.
IO81, IO82, IO93.

RSS feed now available for The Blog. Click on the RSS icon on the front page to subscribe. Only the last 10 are given in the RSS, but it will load the main blog page, so you can easily change to read an entry from a different day.
Also, fed up with not being able to easily change the text on the front page of my site, (unless I'm sitting in front of my pc) It's now sat in a remotely editable file. :-)

Lovely to get some really good strong E's into Eastern Europe. Most of the activity centred around the NE corner of JN square. HA, 9A, SP, DL, YU, and S59.. and then the mother in law arrived for lunch. ;-)

Later:DL6UAA, JO61 for #189 Hurrah!

Band seemed to close up sometime around 16:00z so I left the shack thinking to myself 'that's it for another fortnight!' Fortunately I was wrong, and an E-W opening from about 18:00z meant a few more contacts.

YL2GB, in KO26. DK5RO, in JO62. SP2CNW, in JO93.

Bring the totals so far to;

On 6m: Squares = 189 Confirmed = 60 Current year = 86

Which is more than I can say for the Sporadic-E this season. Very little in the log since my last blog entry. Have spent a little time decoding JT6 on 50.230 during the meteor showers, but not being geared up for TX meant no QSO's. Had a couple of mobile 10m qso's over the weekend of 9th/10th August whilst staying with my parents in IO90. My poor, long suffering XYL managed to read her gardening magazine from cover to cover while I tried in vain to work through GB3UK from the top of the hill.

13th: my new (old) radio arrived, courtesy of eBay, an Alinco dual bander for the car, so that's in.. just have to figure how to drive it. I found a manual to suit online and printed it out. Even managed to get it comb bound (Thanks Derd! x)

Not in too much of a hurry to do much today, so didn't appear in the shack until gone midday local time. A quick tune through 6m netted GB5FI (Flatholm Island), and then on 2m, EI8IQ. With VHF bands looking a little flat it was time to make some RF on HF. ;-). IS0/OM3LA and C4W for new DXCCs on 10m. I should have made a note of which contacts were new squares on 10m. After a couple on 20m. In the evening it was back to 6m to get DM5CT in JO50, new one for the year, and then OE5PSO in JN77 for #188.

...but what makes it really bad is that having access to the net from my desk means that I can check the maps on DX Sherlock. Seems that I managed to miss a great opening to the USA and Canada.

So far in the log since I've been home is SM7FJE for JO65, not a new one but the first time this year.

Stuff about, but not much on SSB, lots of beacons, but few operators.

S57RR in JN65, and then much later, SP7CDG for KO01 and #187

This evening was the 6m contest. Conditions have been flat as a pancake for the last two days, so chances of working anything exotic were minimal to say the least. Seven calls in the log, first was Stewart, G0LGS/P in my square (IO81XV) at 1900z and we exchanged 001 serials :-). Last call in the log was Bryn, G4DEZ in JO03, thanks Bryn for the new square number 186, (80 this year). My 59-007/his 51-065.

All in all a quiet day.

UX2KA for KO30 and #185

plus, SN9F, JO90 and OK1KIM, JO60.

Bringing the totals so far on 6 meters to:

Squares = 185 Confirmed = 53 This year = 79

DXCCs = 46 Confirmed = 22 This year = 33

Still a long way to go, and still plenty of season left. Let's hope that things pick up a bit.

BEST DISTANCE: 3090 Km. with OX3KQ in GP47TA on 30/06/2008
So without a transatlantic QSO so far this year the ODX is looking a little poor.

Some DX about, though very little new until EA3DBJ in JN00IR for #182

and EA1OS in IN53 for #183 making 74 this year.

EA8ACW/P in IL28, #184, 75 this year.

CS27R in IM67 for 76 this year.

4 contacts in the log, though no new squares or DXCCs. OK1, HB9, IW1, and DL1.

Once again, just a couple of EA's though I did hear CN quite late in the evening.

Most of the activity today was as a result of there being a Spanish contest. So, needless to say, only EA's, and one CT in the log.

Only noteworthy one really was EA1HF in IN62 for #181.

Band in excellent shape early evening, and though short lived, did manage to catch a few stations.

Worthy of mention are;

HA6NL/P in JN97 for my 180th square, 67 so far this year.

HB0/PA5MW for DXCC number 45

and then later on, T94D, in JN94 for DXCC number 46, 31 so far this year.

Ever hopeful of some DX I'm getting used to listening to white noise now. Just occasionally something pops out of the noise for me to work, EA5DT, EB3JT. Then... catch of the day... 7X2GX out of the blue for JM16 #179, and DXCC #44.

Though I only worked one station today, CT1ANO in IN51, I decided to update the log with QSLs received. I found a 6m contact with no locator attached. I entered it to give me another square. Now 178 with 40 confirmed.

Revision Log:

Completely rehashed the way that the DXCC and worked squares lists work. I realised soon after I started that I was going about it the wrong way, by having a page for each band. Since the pages are dynamically generated, it made far more sense to have one page and just get it to build that page for the band desired. (defaulting to 6m).

They're not that pretty, but this, for the moment at least, is about functionality.

6m open nice and early, which is always a bonus. So I gave a few points away to some G's on 2m and worked a few DX on 6m.

Activity was centred around I, 9A, YT, and YU.

YT1W KN03 for #175

YT3A in KN05 for #176

YT0A in KN04 for #176

Added links to DXCC tables, built live from the log file.

Sporadic-E was just that... sporadic!

Did hear a few DX stations, but so far only managed inter-G

Among them were...:

MM0CPS/P in IO84 for a new one #174

While things were quiet, I added links to the 'squares lists'. These are lists of squares worked, and confirmed. It also shows which squares have been worked this year, to help keep a running total of my annual stats.

Interesting opening this evening, nothing heard when I got into the shack after work. It soon opened (thankfully) allowing some nice QSOs with stations from Scandinavia down to Morocco.

In the log went:

OH1VR in KP11, for #171 and DXCC 42

YL2GB in KO26, but not a new one.
SM7CMV in JO75 for #172

EB2CYQ in IN92 for #173

In between bursts of activity, I've updated the main page. Added to the top of the page, is my UKSMG membership number if you need it.

Added links to;

6m beacon list and 6m DXCC table.

Nice to have an opening again, while I'm here to operate.

Seems to be centred around southern Germany, with the occasional SP

DL2SAX for JN58, DL3UP for JN48 (New #,162), OE2UKL/2 for JN67 (#163)

PA2M for JO21 #164 and my 40th DXCC on 6m.

OK2IEN for JN69 #165. DL2FCB for #JO40. OK1KZ for JO70, though not a new one.

DH8WE for JO50 #167. HA8NL for JN98, not a new one though.

Best of the evening.. EA8BMG for IL18, #168 and DXCC 41, and later OX3KQ in GP47 for #170

CT1ESJ for IN60 #169.


Obviously a few got away, AO1AS would have been IN82.

EA6SX but not a new one for me.

An opening, but deep QSB meant contacts were short.

Did however manage I5REA in JN54 and then IW5DHN for JN53 and 161st square.

Contest runs from 1500z Sat to 1500z Sun.

A quiet start, with just a couple of locals, Stewart(of course!)G0LGS operating as G5BK/P and Darrell (HVQ).

Later:

YL2LW for KO26 (160th)

Ones that got away: G8T in IN79 would have been nice just for that square.

HA8EK for KN06 and E77EY for JN84, bringing the total to 159 #'s

One contact in a week. I think that says it all.



Little tweaks to the website. Log pages now have more columns, and the seconds suppressed from the date/time field. Added visitor stats, for my benefit, not yours. ;-) I'm just curious to know who's looking at the log. This goes for the log query, and the 'last 12'.

Let's hope Sunday is better for activity than today was.

With about 2 hours to run, it can only be described as something of a disappointment from my point of view. I guess I should be grateful for a new square, G0IFC/p in IO80, for 156#'s

Later:
IW7EBE for the so far elusive JN71, and 157th #

Well, I'm on the train back from Paris to Blighty, so if you've enjoyed the openings, make the most of them... I'll be back in time for the weekend. That is a sure sign that the band will closed for much of the next 72 hours. de f/g0lfp/m

What looked like it was going to be a total disaster for the day actually turned out to be very good indeed. I decided to spend a little time in the office this morning, as I returned over the hill towards home, I spoke to Stewart, G0LGS, who reported having much success on 6m this morning. That was about 13.50 local time. He reported working 7 new squares, putting him ahead of me for the first time. I jokingly said that it would be about 20mins before I could get to the shack, and to enjoy the last 20 mins of the opening.
How right I was!!!
I eventually landed in the shack at about 14.50 local time to find the band totally closed. As luck would have it, it reopened again at about 15.24 local, enabling me to work: JN75, JN68, JN57, JN66, JN65, JN88, JP20, JN46, JO81, JO62, JN40, IP62 for 154#'s



Ones that got away...[heard but didn't work] JN71, 55, JO32.

That's all there is to report. So technically an 'Inactivity Report' really. OK, I'll be fair, this doesn't reflect 6m conditions, it's a personal inactivity report. I can't explain how galling it is to see the DX-Sherlock 6m Europe map totally obscured by red lines at going-home time, only to be told that the band is closing by G0LGS as I call in to the local 2m net frequency on my way from the office to home. (A distance of some 6 miles!)

Very disappointed, I am.

6 entries in the log book. 5 EA's and a ZB3. Good start, and some nice signals. Proves the beam is working fine. Didn't add to my total squares score though.

With the 6m 'E' season now upon us, it was long past the time that the 6m beam was back up in the air. Thankfully I found the right cross clamp. Very special thanks to Ken G0PDR, without whose help the antenna would still be in the garden. Now all I have to do is wait for an opening. A quick look at the map on DX-Sherlock shows a couple of spots down in EA<>EA8, so there is a little life. I just can't hear anything yet. No matter... there's plenty to come I'm sure.

The 6m beam is built and ready to go up, only one slight snag... I can't find the cross clamp to hold the boom to the stub mast :-(
Its boom is a larger cross section than the other antennas here, so the spare clamps wouldn't fit, and the only other one I have is for a round boom. Either I find it or I'm in the workshop fabricating something.
Anyway, it's a long weekend here this weekend, so I'll have the extra day to play with. There are some spots starting to appear on the cluster and appearing on the DXSherlock maps, so it looks like the Sporadic-E season is off at last.

OK, with the timestamps of last years entries missing their 'time' portion, I've suppressed printing of 00:00:00
Errant commas also suppressed.

Well, in the absence of activity on the radio, I decided to sort out the quicklinks bar. I think I've managed to get it to work, but just need to sort out the stray commas.

Well, I've managed to get it to look OK, and the quicklinks are back on the left nav-bar. I'm not sure it should really stay like that, so I'll make that my next job. I'd like to get it to look how it did, sorted by month with just the date number as the link to the html anchor. Easier said than done when the page is being created dynamically. :-) But that's all for tonight, it's getting late. I'll try to do more during the week.

The revision log is now incorporated in with the activity log. Much of the work done on the website is 'under the hood'. The 'Blog' is now database based, so it was convenient to put them together. It's not cosmetically appealing, but I've not had a chance to tidy it up yet.

New style Blog here, the old one will remain in the left hand nav-bar until I've got it all working.

Time to bring things a little more up to date, and add back in what I can remember of how the old page looked.

Start to rebuild from the old page.

Of course there wasn't a backup, or else I would have restored it wouldn't I? Anyway, now have a taken a backup of the entire webserver so it'll never happen again. ;-)

Well, that would seem to be it for E's 2007 So I've dropped the beam down and packed it away for the winter. I'll be putting the 2m beam back up soon, so watch this space for 2m activity.

Easy like a Sunday morning :-) EA6SX (JM19) for #144 and then this afternoon EH4EED (IM68) for #145

A bit wild and wacky, it's getting late in the season, so E's are very unsettled. Still managed JO31, and 60, and IN93 for a total now of #143

Just seemed to be a bit localised, JN.
So I only got, JN35,52,61 and 83.

Managed to miss the best opening in the afternoon/evening. So the one contact on 6m this morning netted KN18 for a new one, and one contact on 10m for JO28. An unusually named LA1S/LH a lighthouse station on NOR-034. Total is now #139.

A bit of an opening, but did manage a couple of new squares, JO43, and 44. Additionally, JO70,92 and KO00. Bringing the total to 138.

Only mobile working today, had the rig in the car for a drive up north again. Very quiet on Moday on the way up, but a nice opening all round europe on the way home. Managed to catch S51 and S57, OZ0, and SP6.

A very pleasant Sunday morning, JN20, IM66, and 76 Lots of stations working J79PAK, right up until 21.30z but unfortunately it means beaming straight through my neighbours house. So I thought best not to try.

6m in some kind of flaky shape.. but an opening is an opening. The XYL went out, so I got a chance to work a few of new ones, KN07, JM49 and 68, and JN64. Total now 134.

IN69 on 6m enough said :-) Thanks to G0VJG/p

Wait....! I thought I heard something.

Only log entry for a week, 1A0KM during a brief opening, on SSB

At last! Some time to get on the 6m band, and it opens to Northern Europe. Did manage a few contacts into SP and DL; KO00, JO62,72,80, and 91.

No entries in the shack log since 30.6.07 It's still been a good week for radio though. Frustrated at the lack of real activity on 6m, and having to travel 'oop north' I put the FT847 in the car. It was nice to work some E's from mobile. Spent much of Friday PM, and this afternoon sat up on the hill. (Conveniently placed between my Home QTH and my QRL.) Quick run down of prefixes worked, all on 10m; HA,CT,OH,SA,EA,S52,YO,DL,OE,I,T77,F,SV,VO, and finally best catch of the day, N4. (Thanks Rit for your persistence) eQSLs on the way to all stations.

Hopeless!
Nothing all day, bad start to July here.

(6m) Good northern European opening, so managed to work JO42, 62, 67, 71, 72, 73, 92 and 94. Most of those were in a pile-up!

(6m) Great opening on 6m to the NA. Got to work some new squares. FN24,33,34,43,53,74 and 85. Managed a couple of new TF squares thanks to TF/G4ODA, IP15 and 34.