News
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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September started off quite well for me, with two contacts with St’ Paul Island (CY9C) off the Canadian coast. The first week brought in W0IL (OIL) from South Dakota, and Bob from the battleship New Jersey (NJ2BB). Thanks Bob for calling in to the lunch-time net. It was my first contact with the NJ and the propagation held for over half an hour. Bob was using the ship’s radio room and a floating 6,000 ton ground-plane!
In the middle of the month was the annual celebration of Route 66 across the USA. This time there were 23 stations on the air, but I could only get through to three of them. Better luck next year.
This time of year brings in the African stations. I started to get a couple, and with them I managed to hit my next target of 195 for the year. On the 19th I was monitoring 15m FT8 and heard what can only be described as a 'Didgeridoo' sound. It was an African island that I needed, working at the very lowest end of the audio band using 'Fox & Hounds' sub-mode of FT8. That evening a low-level signal popped up, so I worked him. After getting the '73' I checked his location, only to find he was on Midway Atoll, a very rare one for me to hear and another 'ATNO' for the logbook. Now all I need to do is get confirmation; however, I’m not holding my breath! A few days later I managed another African - Zambia, and Guernsey. Not DX, but not easy on 15m.
As I have mentioned before, when things get quiet, I leave the FT8 program running in CQ mode. This brought some great surprises. I was called by a YB7 for another rare Oceania Island, and FK8 for New Caledonia - another ATNO. Sometimes FT8 can be a bit boring but still needs watching carefully. One evening I saw a Z81 appear, and thinking it was Macedonia I jumped in and got the contact first time. It was only when I was filling in the log that I realised that it was South Sudan! I kept an eye on his activity, and he worked for over 3 hours without the need to call CQ again!
With the equinoctial change in propagation, Barry SA7GDB has returned to the lunch time net. On the other hand, the wet weather has kept me in, so I have managed to get the LOTW loaded on my new(ish) computer. A quick update and some housekeeping bought loads of confirmations for DXCC and my IOTA score. While sorting my QSL cards I found this little bit of rare history. A card from Monk Apollo, now silent key.
As I write this the centenary activation has started with GB2NZ, I got him on day 1, and am now waiting for the other stations!
More next month (I hope)
Cheers
Chris, G4ZCS
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
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Alex M0TOT is selling an LCD PC monitor, as below. Please contact the webmaster, and I will pass on your interest.
AOC Monitor, Type E719SDA with stand
- LCD. 17” (43 cm) Screen with Dynamic Contrast Ratio (D.C.R.).
- Low Power, 1,2,3,4 Screen +.
- Date: 29th July 2019.
- Colour: Black and Silver.
- Maximum resolution: 1280 x 1024.
- Response time: 5ms
Price £50.00 o.n.o.
The monitor has hardly been used and at the moment it is still in the original box
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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I know that several members are interested in the history of the Chernobyl Duga radar array, as am I - but this newly-released YouTube video adds a new dimension, and one which, as a computer guy, really brings the whole project to life.
Anyone who has ever operated, maintained or programmed mainframe computers from the 60's 70's or 80's, or programmed in assembly language will likely find this particularly interesting.
All credit for this wonderful short documentary goes to it's creators - the 'Chornobyl Family' YouTube channel. It is far and away the best Duga-related video I've ever seen, and gives a fascinating insight into Russian computing during that period - culminating in the production of the ES-106x mainframes - clones of the legendary IBM/370 series.
Reading between the lines, one of the reasons why the whole Duga project ultimately failed was because the number of simultaneous mathematical calculations required to predict ballistic missile trajectories in real-time was simply beyond the K340A.
Have a watch here: https://youtu.be/kHiCHRB-RlA?si=e4fmyHvXLasxuGLA
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- Written by: Richard G0LFF
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Running the 15m lunchtime net last Friday, I was called by NJ2BB, the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey with Bob N4XAT on the mic. The USS New Jersey is a museum ship, much like HMS Belfast, and is moored at Camden, New Jersey, USA.
Communications with NJ2BB were good, averaging 5/4 to 5/5, peaking S8 with me in my car at the Jack & Jill windmill site. Bob exchanged reports with George G4PTJ, Chris G4ZCS and Barry SA7GDB. Barry is also a regular on the net. Unfortunately, David WB1EAD could not hear Bob.
Bob is hoping to operate from U-995, a U-boat museum in Laboe, Germany in June next year. If all goes well, Fraser OZ1JKU (ex G0JDR) and I plan to meet up with Bob on the U-boat.
Bob was using a Kenwood TS-870D barefoot into the ship’s twin stub antennas mounted about 60 feet ASL. With a 50,000 ton ground-plane it works pretty good hi.
Dick G0LFF
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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August is, I have found, usually a quiet month for radio, however this month the sun made sure of that.
An extreme event occurred that raised the flux index to 333, a level that I had never seen before. It should have bought a DX bonanza but for some reason the A index rose from a friendly 2, way up to 99 with a total radio blackout. It was so bad that I went into the lounge to watch TV instead but found that it too had pixelated itself into oblivion. In desperation I gave myself a refresher course in operating the DVD player!
When things calmed down a few days later, I found most of my contacts were with the west of America; California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah, and the Dakotas were regulars together with the western provinces of Canada, but almost nothing from the mid-west states and provinces. A nice surprise for me was a FT8 contact with a station in Alaska for a new grid square.
Much as I tried, I could hear nothing of N5J in the Pacific - which was frustrating as Samoa had been easy to hear just a few weeks earlier.
The end of the month brought the retirement of Laurie Margolis G3UML, having worked in BBC news for 50 years. To celebrate, the BBC Radio 4 did a short piece remembering his contact with Bob Mcleod VP8LP who went on air to confirm the invasion of the Falklands in the 1980s. The piece included a short recording of Bob talking to Laurie on SSB. By coincidence the night following this broadcast, Bob was on 15m and I was lucky to break his pileup for a quick chat on SSB, he even remembered my name!
Bob has dropped in to our lunchtime nets over the years and my log shows about 15 contacts.
A couple of weeks earlier I made a FT8 contact with VP8VK who lives in the far west of the Falklands on Saunders Island. She and her family share this island with 5,000 sheep, 150 cattle and loads of penguins. The card shows a contrast to last month’s tropical island!
Since my last report I have reached an annual total of 190 DXCCs. These new ones include; K8, EP4, 3B8, TO8, OJ0 & OH0, TR3, and CY9. Mostly on 15m, FT8 but also some CW and a couple of SSB contacts. So now we enter September and look forward to the equinox.
Things have started to change with some bands closing several hours earlier, however still a few to work!
Cheers & good DXing
Chris, G4ZCS
