It's Easter, so a couple of days at home. Nice to have to opportunity to make some RF
Since buying the proper Yaesu USB <> FT857 interface for FT8, the output has been a lot cleaner, so I've been less worried about turning the wick up a bit.
Nice to work a few on 12m 17m and on Sunday on 40m FT8

I was just looking at the last page of the live log on here, and realised that every logged QSO since September last year was on FT8.
OK the band may have changed, but not the mode!

I have seen a number of sites loading a lot of pages on SixAddict with very short pauses between successive requests. The strange thing is that there's no refering page. This is spider like in appearance, however, these are not search engines. For this reason, you will only be granted 6 page loads in any one minute 'window'. I figure that for normal use, you would not need to load pages at greater than 10 second intervals.
There is a small number of users who appear to be leaving SixAddict open over a period of several hours. I don't mind this at all, but just to let you know that if you leave SixAddict open on a page for over an hour the refresh rate on spots goes down to thirty seconds and the refresh rate for the graphics goes down to every ten minutes.

PSAT>APRSON,ARISS/V:s#062814,0z200,000000000000000000000000000000000000

RS0ISS>CQ/V:>ARISS - International Space Station
OE6PWE>APZWPP,RS0ISS*/V:=4659.08N/01527.57E-73's Via ISS, wolfgang.puhar@chello.
at
ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V::ARISS :Hello All. UISS version 5.4
2E1EBX>U2UVV0,RS0ISS*,WIDE/V:'v9X K>Hi from Norfolk UK via ISS 73's all.=

GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25huMB5>>YQC)
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
PE1NTN>CQ,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:=5220.85N/00450.75E-JO22ki - Amsterdam - pe1ntn@
amsat.org
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite

Copied from the log.

PA3DZX-6>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:!5217.67N/00648.03E`http://aprs.pa3dzx.nl/ - @3DZX
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

PA3DZX-6>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:!5217.67N/00648.03E`http://aprs.pa3dzx.nl/ - @3DZX
PE1PIC>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::PA3DZX-6 :Goedemorgen
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

G7HCE>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::F5CBP :Hi 73' David in Exeter/UK via ISS
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

2E1EBX>U2UVV0,RS0ISS*,WIDE/V:'v9X K>Hi from Norfolk UK via ISS 73's all.=

PD2RPB>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::EMAIL :pd2rpb@veron.nl Hello all!!
ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

F5CBP>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:Hello To All! F5CBP@yahoo.fr

Banggood sell a laser etcher. It works fine on older computers but flatly refuses to work on a Win10 machine. This turned out to be the PL2303 driver causing the error 10, from which there seems to be no recovery.
Until I found a page at;
http://www.ifamilysoftware.com/news37.html
Which nicely explains the whole thing, and offers up a working remedy.

Code given : licence received 11410001133 : 14 7e e1 3a 1614931141 : e2 cb 69 52 -536454147 : a4 4d 13 bb -265931336 : e3 93 27 c8 1221411267 : 1d 5d e3 3e In each case, the licence is 16 bytes long. The first 12 bytes always appear to be the same. The last 4 bytes are as in the table above. The first 12 bytes are as follows; 01 00 00 00 94 6e bc cd 87 39 21 5e When running the software for the first time, the code is given. This then has to be 'converted' into a licence code. The licence is in the form of a file 16 bytes long. This is then read by the software. So it is my assumption that the software is capable of checking this licence to make sure it matches the code. The code appears to be installation specific, as several codes have now been required. This is no longer a current product, but has to be maintained by us. If for whatever reason the codes are no longer available, then the new installations will not run. What we need is an in house conversion algorithm to make sure we can support ourselves in the future. EDIT: Though we haven't (yet) found a solution to this, we did have a little luck with decompiling. It appears that the program when it was running checked for the existence of a licence file. It checked this against its own calculated licence. In between, it made a call to the system to get the hard disk ID. It transpires, that the number given, from which to order the licence, was merely a decimal representation of the HDD ID. By changing the ID of the HDD to one of a known working system (The previous - now dead HDD) I found that the old licence could be re-used.

After numerous dropouts of the Fibre here at G0LFP towers, I put a call in to my provider to find out what was wrong. They then put in a call to BT to fix it. However, BT being BT will test the line, and say "all is good". The line myseriously behaves itself for a few days and then back to square one. I also noticed that the uptime on the router itself was often only a day or two, leading me to believer that either the line was dragging down the router causing it to reboot, or that the problem may have been in the router all along. I decided to replace it anyway.
Fast forward to last Friday (13th!) and the arrival of the new Draytek Vigor 2860Vn-plus.
Saturday: After a couple of coffees, I unboxed it and set it up connected to just a laptop on the dining room table. I set it up from scratch as I didn't want to risk trying to upload a config from a different router. After a few minor tweaks, everything was up and running.
Now, as anyone who know will tell you, the only way to get sense from BT is to make sure that the 'modem' in use is the one that they supplied. Harumph!
OK, so now to the point of this whole entry.
To use the Vigor in VDSL mode (WAN1) is quite straightforward. You enter your ISP supplied username and password. Set VLAN TAG insertion to yes, enter the value 101 and Priority 0.
To use the Vigor in Ethernet mode with the BT modem on WAN2 you still have to enter your ISP supplied username and password. However, despite reading to the contrary on a number of site on the web, you DO NOT need to set VLAN tag insertion. I have this disabled now. As soon as I disabled it I stopped getting the error [ PPPoE : No response from server side ].
Router and modem have been up for an hour now. I'll monitor it over the next few days before nagging my ISP.

If you fancy having a play with my twitter bot, you'll find it on my @g0lfp account.
Start by sending #BOTHELP for a list of current commands.
Today it will send you:
#bothelp = This page
#temps = My wx
#QTH callsign = Returns Locator for call.
#XRAYBOT 72hr maxs
#SPACEWX That!


Only QTH expects a second parameter. If you send it '#qth g0lfp' it will tell you where I'm located. Use it for that, just missed locator when you need it for the log.

The tweet scanner runs once every 60 seconds. So the longest you should wait for a reply, in theory, is a minute.
Have fun.

Brian, G8OSN kindly informed me by email yesterday that the csv generator had stopped working. It appears that the format has changed for the csv import/export for the latest version. I can't see previous versions on their website, so if you're a regular user of CHIRP and my csv generator, I'd hang back from doing an upgrade until such time as I get to figure out the differences and update the page. David, G7AGI suggested an option pull down, which sounds like a good idea. However, it'd quicker and easier in the short term to have two separate pages, and merge them later when I get time.
Keep an eye on my twitter, or here for updates about the page.

Problems installing and running GPredict on Win XP SP3

Program downloaded, unzipped into a folder on the desktop.

Navigate to /bin/

Highlight .exe and press enter.

Aborts with error;

gpredict.exe - Application Error
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002). Click OK to terminate the application.

Installed the VC++ 2008 redistributables. No difference.

Checked the event viewer.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 32
Date: 20/04/2014
Time: 19:54:36
User: N/A
Computer: G0LFP
Description:
Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.CRT could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Checked out this file, and it's from the 2005 distributables.

Available from MS here :- http://tinyurl.com/ldm9umd

Downloaded and installed.

GPredict now runs.

After repeated failures to import the data to the database for the csv generator, I have turned off the autoupdate.
If you are using the generator to update because of a freq/channel change, or to include a new repeater, please let me know and I'll do a manual update.
Cheers,


73

Seems that the editor of the csv on UKRepeaters.net has changed, more and more commas are creeping in to the location data. I had been dropping these from the list, but thanks to Stu, G0LGS, who kindly sent me a chunk of code as a work around, all of them should now be included once again.
Any oddities or empty lists, please feel free to send me a note at the email address on the bottom of the home page. Ta! 73

At around 1650Z today, the data stopped flowing from SWPC/NOAA. This means that there are no alerts, and the x-ray graph doesn't work. WWV also appears to have stopped. Normal service will resume when someone goes and unplugs the Hoover, and plugs the server back in.
This affects: @SolarWxRobot and @Solar_WX

I think I've sorted it, keep me posted via Twitter if you spot anything daft! @g0lfp

The csv generator is not currently working. The data file from UKRepeater.net has changed. Normal service will be resumed as soonas I've had a chance to see what they've broken.

There seemed to be quite a lot of tropo around yesterday evening. As this nicely coincided with the UKAC, the 2m 7 element ZL-Special went up on top of the portable mast again. Luckily there was almost no wind, so it was easy to get it to its full height. Serial number 001 went to Dave G7RAU in IO90, glad to be able to speak to him (over the air) at last! Best DX of the night was F8BRK in IN99 at about 276km.
No complaints here, 4 contacts, 4 squares, 3 DXCCs.
What a pity that despite the excellent conditions, there was almost no activity past the end of the contest.

Activity has been on the low side for some time. Last weekend I decided to put up a wire for HF. I hadn't used HF much from home, but thought I'd give it another go. It's an unbalanced dipole for 40m, but seems to tune quite easily on most bands. I've had a little fun on 40m, and also put a contact in the log on 17m. I was of course very pleased to put a Stateside station in the log on 40m. Thanks to KE1Y for pulling me out of the noise.

With the average levels staying quite high, I have in fact disabled the alerts for 'C' class solar flares. Hopefully this will improve the signal to noise ratio of the twitter feed.
I have also changed the way that the flares are reported. Originally I had been waiting for NASA to update the events log on their website, to confirm things like MAX level and ACTIVE region. However, they can be a bit slow, sometime meaning that the alerts were delayed by several hours.
This is no longer the case. The alerts are now sent as soon as the peak is detected, usually within 15 minutes to be sure that there wasn't another secondary peak. The down side of this is... a.) the peak might not be timed exactly. Though usually right to within 5 minutes. ...and b.) the peak maximum might be different to the actual peak.

In other news, You may have seen my call on the WSPR map. I've tried several bands. 20m seems to be the best so far.

I've had on test now for about a week, a 'bot to tweet the flares and CME's as they happen. A few have escaped during testing, but now, the robot is fully enabled.
I'll keep an eye on the output, and if I think that there are too many, I'll disable 'C' class flares and only tweet 'M' and 'X' flares and CME's.
Bouquets and brickbats to /dev/null as usual please.

Users of Chirp software will now find a .csv generator for UK repeaters here

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll be aware of the bot that I have running. In order to not have everyone on my list bombarded with information that is at the very least irrelevant, and at the most confusing, I have moved it onto its own account. If you want regular solar wx reports, aurora alerts etc, then please follow @solarwxrobot

The system is currently on test, so some odd things may happen. Please report anything odd you see to the address on the main page of this site.

Many thanks.

For anyone wondering why my websites have been broken over the last 24 hours...

Well, I had a little bit of a disaster on Thursday (12th) Evening and managed to royally break things.
I've had to reinstall the server software are restore from backup and now everything is seemingly OK. Odd things might still happen, but at least it's working again.

It's always great to hear the first E's of the season, and it's even better to get a contact in the log. First DXCC and first QRA in the log this year. Let's hope for a better year than the last one!

After reviewing the log book since my last blog entry, it seems that there's not been any radio to speak of. It's something like 8 months since I returned from Turkey, and there have only been six log entries since then, the last being in early November.
So, blessed with a beautiful long weekend for Easter, the antennas have been sorted and the six meter beam is on the mast. Of course, that'll eradicate any chance there ever was to an early start to the 'E' season. ;-)
There have been lines on the SixAddict map today, even as I type there are some TEP line from southern Europe. Fingers crossed for something this far north.

Now /mm but not et up with radio yet. More when I can.
de TA/G0LFP/mm

Just a quick update, because I'm trying to keep myself distracted. After the 6m milestone, it's something of a coincidence that 10m has just passed the 100 grid squares worked!

This week turned out to be quite a disappointment on 6m. I managed to catch brief openings on the 13th and 17th. The weekend was busy with the 6m contest, so plenty to be worked. At the end of Saturday night I had a problem with the radio cutting out, not sure what it was as it seems to have cured itself!!! Anyway, Sunday afternoon I played safe and operated QRP from the 817. I still managed to get another 6 contacts in the log, one of which was 9A1V for square number 250.

Nothing for the 8th (Tuesday)
Wednesday:
Quite a mixed bag really, 9 DX contacts in the log, notably SQ5WAA for KO02, and DJ6YX for JO52. Both new grids.
Thursday:
CQ7OA for EU-040, and then EA3AR for JN12 and another new grid.
Friday:
White noise!
Saturday:
3 Canadians, VO1SO in GN37, VO1BC in GN38 and a new grid, VO1KVT in GN29 and another new grid. Much later on the band changed and the conditions favoured the Caribbean, resulting in KP4EIT and HI3TEJ. Neither of these were new.
At the end of play today, as the band seems to have closed:-
GRIDS 50 MHz All time = 249 Confirmed = 85 Current year = 46
DXCCs 50 MHz All time = 57 Confirmed = 26 Current year = 28
Best DX this year: 6886km, HI3TEJ

The Sunday morning portion of the UKSMG contest. I managed to miss the early activity due to guests staying in the G0LFP house. By the time I did get to the shack, there didn't seem to be a great deal going on. So, just as an experiment, I dropped the lower mast, and took the 4m halo off, cut a 17m dipole, and put that up in inverted-V configuration. No balun, nothing. Just coax and wire. It runs N-S so although I was hearing Madeira at 59+ I wasn't making it back through the European callers.
I did still manage to work EA8DO and CO8LY for two new DXCCs.
This evening, a short opening to Iceland netted TF2JB, and then Gulli, TF8GX.

Not much doing during the week, though Friday night late on a couple of brief openings resulted in IZ7EUH in JN81 for #237.
Saturday afternoon, and the start of the UKSMG contest, the band really wasn't in too good shape DX wise, with few decent signal being heard. A quick resume of the logged contacts for today goes something like;
10 contacts in the log, of which, 7 were new squares, and 2 were new DXCCs.
5B4AIF KM64 New square and DXCC
MW0ZZK IO72 New sqaure
UT1I KN96 "
SO8FH KO10 "
SM5EJN JO88 "
LY1CX KO25 New square and DXCC
OH1MN KP10 New square and EU-096

Summary of squares and DXCCs now looks like this:
QRA locators
28 MHz All time = 95 Confirmed = 24 Current year = 4
50 MHz All time = 244 Confirmed = 78 Current year = 26
DXCCs
28 MHz All time = 63 Confirmed = 29 Current year = 4
50 MHz All time = 57 Confirmed = 25 Current year = 18



There is a new addition to the stable too, I recently acquired an FT-817ND via a well known online auction site. I'd been thinking about getting one for a while with the upcoming /mm operation only a little over a month away. I had been 'watching' a few, when I saw one like new in the box, all orignal packaging... and at the end of auction we were both on the Isle of Wight! Well I had to didn't I. I've made a couple of brief contacts from the car, so I know it's working fine. Let's see how it operates from a couple of feet above sea level.

Apologies for not adding an entry earlier, but I thought it might be an idea to report the activity from Tuesday 25th May 2010. Being a Tuesday of course means that I don't get to spend too much time in the shack, however, I was greeted with a band full of signals mostly from Scandinavia. In the log for new all time sqaures went SK2AT (KP03), SM3XGV (JP81), OH0/PA3BAG (JP90) and a new DXCC, and finally OZ2IE (JO46).
This brings the total all time squares to 235, and the new DXCC raises the total to 55.
Wednesday evening was a little bit of a disappointment. Nothing in the log.
More from tonight (Thursday) as it happens.
A couple of contacts on 6m, one of which was SM7UFR in JO87 for an all time new square. (236)

It was lovely to come home to lots of lines on the map, so in as long as it took to boil the kettle I was on my way to the shack. There wasn't much around to start with, just a few stations in and out of the noise, so it was a case of grab them while you can! First one to come right up was 9A2PT. We had a quick 'rubber stamp'. So too did E76C, and S57AR. The conditions seemed to be changing in favour of more N/S paths, which was a pity, as I hadn't managed to grab one of the 4Z stations that had been spotted, and worked by locals (to me). In and out of the noise came IW0UII, he peaked at 59, so I grabbed him quick, same with CT1JHU. Reports were still coming in via G0LGS and M3WDS that the 4Z was still audible, so I turned the antenna, and fully extended the mast. Got one!!!! All stations worked were new squares for the annual totals, but 4Z5LA was an all time (#231) and a new DXCC (No.54), not to mention of course, the year's best DX so far at 3678m.
Now I have to say, that I don't really like extending the mast unguyed with the beam on it, it makes it rather top heavy. Since it was absolutely flat calm here I thought I might be OK. Stupid boy Pike.... or so I thought when I saw it going past the shack window!!! Fortunately it landed on the flat garage roof, and no serious damage done, just a slight bend to the reflector. Looks like I got away with it!!

At long last, after much fiddling with the code, I've managed to get the DX Map fully working. I had a problem where the map would load but the imagemap, although loading, wasn't being refreshed. When you select the band, (by default it loads all spots on all bands) the map is refreshed, and 1 second later an up to date imagemap is loaded. These are both refreshed every 30 seconds. There should not be any need to reload the page. Please feel free to have a play and try and break it. If you notice anything odd, please let me know via the email address on the front page. Many thanks. - Steve G0LFP

The 2010 E's season is with us at last! Nothing too strong here, but enough on the map to make me put the beam up on the telescopic mast. It'll get transferred to the main mast when the stub mast has been replaced, it got bent in the gales, and I don't trust it not to give up with the extra load on it.
Since the end of the E's season last year, I've been playing with maps and other graphics on the webserver, and put them all together on their own site called SIX Addict, no really! OK, it's not strictly limited to 6m, 50MHz operation, but that was what was in mind when I put it together. Go on.. follow the link.. dare you!

Despite pointing a 12 element antenna at the moon for well over an hour last night, I actually heard nothing. A local amateur with a much better antenna and feed heard 'a few tones' during the JT65 part of the experiment. Result = disappointed.
The DX Maps are now fully working with respect to the lines and blobs. The little orange square is the sun (solar time), and the little black square is the 'clock' time. I'm currently working on a way to display the callsign and the frequency on the map using tooltips. This however, is proving a little more difficult than I imagined. More when I've got something working.
Something else... is WORK! I'm currently busy, and travelling quite a bit, so playing radio has had to take a back seat for the recent past, and certainly for a couple of months yet.

Well, at least for me it does, today is the 21st birthday of my Full UK Amateur radio licence.
I was away on holiday in Cornwall when it arrived, so unfortunately, it didn't get used for a the first few days.
Happy Birthday G0LFP :-)

There are some new toys to play with, and for you to try to break. When you succeed, let me know how!
Over on the right, of the main page, you will see some distance and bearing calculators. There are three so far... Beacons, repeaters, and if they're in my DX database, you'll get distance and bearing to DX stations, all you need to do is enter your locator and the dx callsign. Do have fun :-)

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.