E44M Palestine DXpedition

E44M is busy working stations on 40m SSB currently and coming through quite well at 8pm UK time. From the DX cluster it looks like they are proving very popular. I have not tried to break the pile-ups with my QRP.

Z309KNV Macedonia

The first QSO in the QRP log this year was Z309KNV on 40m CW which seems to be a special call for Macedonia. The band was buzzing with several USA stations this evening but not managed to cross the pond yet.

Best wishes for 2009

My very best wishes for 2009. For a change, I'd like to quote an extract from the last of T.S.Eliot's Four Quartets poems which is called Little Gidding. It reminds me that every year is part of our never ending exploration and journey.

"With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

Go quietly on your journey in 2009 and may it be a very fulfilling and joyful one.

70cms good conditions tonight

Just worked GW0LJW in Gwent and G3VEH/M via a 70cms repeater in Somerset tonight when running 5W (actually about 1.5W into the antenna after the coax run) into the vertical colinear. Conditions are definitely up in that direction as the distance is about 250kms.

Dutch on-line SDR testing new bands

The on-line software defined radio (SDR) in Twente, Holland http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ (very useful when testing 80m QRP rigs) temporarily added the 0-150kHz, 1.8MHz and 10MHz bands to the ranges with wider band coverage than before on 20 and 80m over the Christmas period. This SDR is now back to its usual 80,40 and 20m coverage (as of Dec 30th).

The South Hams and G5BY on 6m

A slight aside from ham radio, I just want to give a plug for the most beautiful part of England where I lived until leaving for university - the beautiful part of southernmost Devon known as the South Hams. Our family has lived here from at least 1428, the earliest date in our family history records when one of my ancestors owned one fee of land in the time of King Henry VI. You can understand why I still regard this as my spiritual home even though we enjoy living in East Anglia. We still make regular pilgrimages back to "the promised land" as my dear old dad called it. Indeed it is.

There is a new book of walks in this area called The South Hams Coast by Gerry Miles (see www.devonpaint.nl/ and also available from www.amazon.co.uk). The book is beautifully illustrated with coastal walks covering many of the high spots from where some great VHF DX has been worked. These include Bolberry Down from where G5BY worked the USA on 6m back in the 1940s when the band was briefly available. Today his QTH (see old picture) is "The Port Light Hotel" a delightful place to drink a pint or have a crab sandwich on a long sunny cliff top walk.

G4IRZ Silent key sale - items now sold

On behalf of his widow, the kit belonging to the late Len Winnert G4IRZ was sold today, as one lot, to a private buyer in East Anglia.

Radio Nature

A very happy Christmas everyone. One of my presents was the book called "Radio Nature" by Renato Romero which is a very good introduction to the weird and wonderful world of ELF/VLF natural emissions such as whistlers and tweeks. The book, available from the RSGB on-line bookstore, is an excellent read.

See also his excellent webpages at http://www.vlf.it/ .

Tunnel Diodes rigs

Way back in the 1960s I recall making a simple tunnel diode oscillator as part of a lab project and being excited to see such a circuit used to span 160 miles on 80m by a ZL station despite the power being microwatts only. These days tunnel diodes are almost unheard of.

Recently I spotted a similar tunnel diode TX and RX on AA1TJ's excellent webpages on which you can find more data and links to off-air records made at DX distances.

G3XBM is 60 today

Well, another milestone passed - I have reached the age of 60 and get a free bus pass for local English buses nationwide as well as a winter fuel allowance. At least there are some perks for getting older.