More from M2W

Been busy here at M2W. I have been here whole time since Friday evening, except last night to go get a take away, and I am bloody knackered.

Last few hours I have spent logging for the main station. It still amazes me that people can hear calls and all I hear is noise. Guess I still need more practice on the HF.

Whilst we may not be heading to get any awards, quiet a few of the operators this weekend haven’t operated in contests before or just had a limited amount of contesting. On the plus side, we are on track to beating our score for last year so long as the QSO’s keep coming through.

With only about 6-8 hours sleep all weekend, I think that shortly even though 10:20am, I may have to put my head down for another few hours sleep.

After the contest I will post on WARG site the hourly score card we kept along the way.

I also have some more photos to add to the gallery, but at current size will take an eternity to upload so will crop at home before uploading.

If you are/have been operating this weekend, may I wish you Good Luck.

CQWW SSB

Well another year, another CQWW SSB. Again from the station of M2W. But this time I am actually blogging live from there.

I have started posting some photos in my gallery at CQWW SSB 2006 and will add photos throughout the weekend and beyond as people send them to me.

Currently putting out a big signal on 80m with our main station and spotting on 40m. Tried 20m, but was dead from hear. More updates to hopefully come.

Shack Clearout

Sold (both items)!

I am going to be selling a few items from my Shack to enable me to hopefully purchase the LDG AutoTuner for my FT-897.

  • For Sale
    • Alinco DJ-X10 handheld receiver £50 ONO
      • 0.1 to 1999.9999 Mhz
      • AM, FM, WFM, USB, LSB & CW
      • Drop Desk in Charger
      • Soft Case
      • 1200 Channels
      • Dual VFO’s
      • Multiple scanning modes
      • Scans 25 channels a second
    • MFJ Versa Tuner II (MFJ-941E) £70 ONO
      • 300 Watt antenna tuner
      • 1.8 – 30 MHz
      • lighted Cross-Needle meter with on/off switch
        • shows SWR, forward and reflected power

Preference will be given in following order:-

  • People I know personally
  • Members of local clubs
  • People in UK
  • People in Europe
  • Rest of World

Buying pays postage or can collect from Kempton Radio Rally in November.

PayPal only for people I don’t know. Contact me via Contact form if interested. My choice is Final as to who I sell to. It’s my right to change any of these details at anytime.

GB4BDS Jota Station

The weekend just gone I spent helping the JOTA Special Event station of GB4BDS (Banstead District Scouts).

The station was run from 7th Bandstead Scout group headquarters and was operating on various band (mainly voice) from 80M (3.6Mhz) to 23cm (1296Mhz).

Many Beavers, Cubs and Brownies visit GB4BDS to take part. First was a presentation about Radio, then they could take part in various activities including building a Flashing LED kit, Learning some Morse code and having VHF / HF contacts.

I stayed overnight looking after the equipment and enjoying contacts until 11:14UTC on 2m even though the youngsters had left hours earlier. Some ones I remember from the evening operating included 3 ops on handhelds including one heading back up north from East Croydon station near where I work and another op staying in a vicarage and who last year operated the GB5BDS (Bishop David Sheppard Primary School) with theSouthport & District Amateur Radio Club (SADARC).

Hopefully I should have a few photos soon as although I took my camera it stayed in the box the whole time other took photos of the event.
The event was made possible by a group of operators belonging to various clubs (in no particular order) including Sutton & Cheam Radio Society (S&CRS), Coulsdon Amateur Transmitting Society (CATS), Wimbledon and District Amateur Radio Society (W&DARS), Whitton Amateur Radio Group (WARG) and possibly more I haven’t mentioned.

QSL Info:- You can QSL GB4BDS via Bureau or via eQSL.cc.

Moving to the HRD Logging Software (updated)

I have one task I keep putting off, and have decided to kind of give up. Instead, I will carry on using WinLog32 until such time as I get my Full Licence (could be in Nov, could be later).

I will then setup a new file on HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) and use that completely at that time.

I would have started using HRD earlier, but at time was running Windows ME and my PC didn’t like HRD. Now I have XP, it’s much happier. That is unless someone knows a better logger for Windows (Or Mac)

The best Mac Logger Called MacLogger looks good and cost $95 USD (£51 GBP Approx), but I hate paying for software (which is why I got a PC years ago). Still before year is out I should be getting an iMac (from a relative, but new for me and faster than current Mac), and may consider the MacLogger as well as have some money coming into my PayPal account hopefully soon.

Update:- Change of plan. I have now used Ham Radio Deluxe from all contacts on and after 1st October 2006.