NEW KIDS in the ham radio land

SW8NAC, Anna and SW8NAG, Nick ... new hams on Zakynthos Island!

Big day today. Two young kids became Radio Amateurs today 27 Oct 2009. My daughter Anna (12 years old) is now a Radio Amateur with the callsign SW8NAC.

Also the son of my best friend George (SV8RX), Nick (13 years old) became also radio amateur today with the call SW8NAG. I am very glad for this hapening. My daughter Anna (SW8NAC) now is the 3rd radio amateur member in the family. Thomas my son is also Radio amateur (SV8KOS).

HONOR ROLL dxcc with the K4M cfm in the LoTW

K4M new one and #330 dxcc.

With the qsl confirmation from the DXpedition group on Midway Island (K4M) now I am in the Honor Roll list of DXCC award. Waiting also the FT5GA confirmation and the total dxcc countries going up to 330. The honor Roll is going together with my 11 bands DXCC (inlunding 160 countries confirmed on 6m and 130 countries on 2m band).

I would like to thank Paul N4PN for his excellent operation on 160m from Midway Island and the New one for me also on Top Band.

Midway Museum in San Diego.

During the DXpedition on Midway island a very important and Historic QSO was made on October 16 and 17 - 2009 with K4M (Midway Island) and the ham radio operators at the USS Midway museum, who were transmitting from the Museum's flight deck.

W6OSP, Bruce, at the microphone of K4M for the historic QSOs with the USS Midway Museum.

Congratulation for mice operation!

73 de SV8CS (Zante Western Mountains Club)

CQWW RTTY contest 2008 - 3rd world - 15m

The CQ magazine in the May 2009 edition published the results of the CQWW RTTY contest held September 27+28, 2008.

In this contest after a very hard job to be single operator single band 15m only i finished in the 3rd place world. The propagation don't help me and the MUF was extremelly low. For many hours the band was closed.

Many thanks to all of you that you are in my contest RTTY log and help me to wone the 3rd place world with 110.875 points.

See you in the next CQWW RTTY contest.

73, Spiros - SV8CS

GOOD NEWS about 4m band in SPAIN

From URE web page:

According to recent discussions, we seek to be accepted and plan for another six months the use of the frequency of 70,150 and 70.200 MHz

Now I will try to contact the EA main land, as a new one on 70 Mhz band, after my QSO with EA6SX in 4m via Meteor.

For more go to :

http://www.ure.es/noticias/1302-prorroga-de-la-autorizacion-en-70-mhz.html

See you on 4m this coming Es season

73 de SV8CS

70Mhz (4m) M/S qso with EA6SX

Yesterday I made a new QSO with Miguel, EA6SX in 4m band (70.203 Mhz) using reflections to Lyrids meteors in FSK441 mode. For this qso I went to the top of a mountain at 605m a.s.l. to have open take off horizon, to EA6 land.
The weather conditions there, at the top of the mountain on my island, were very bad.

Fotos taken during the qso at 07.00z (24 Apr 2009) at KM07IS.

Foto taken at 15.00z (23 Apr 2009).

We had strong rain, winds and a lot of fog with 9 degr. Celcius.
After 4 diferent tries with Miguel, we had finally good but not too many reflections.
The qso completed after 4 diferent tries (morning at 05.00z and afternnon 15.00z)
I would like to thank Miguel, EA6SX for his patience to stay there and wait for the meteor reflections.
The most important is that all Spain stations today (25 Apr 2009) they have NOT more permition to operate on 4m. Maybe as the URE web writes they will come back again on 4m after 1 month.

We hope.

My working conditions into the car were:

Rig : Yaesu FT857 + Transverter for 4m by HA1YA (30w) + 6 elements DK7ZB antenna.
TNX Miguel de SV8CS.

MMMonVHF Sporadic E 2009 summery pages(http://www.mmmonvhf.de/es.php) ; call for reports.Sporadic E summary pages have existed already for many years in Europe first started by Udo, DK5YA between 2001 and 2005 and then by Steffen, DM2SR in 2007-2008. In 2008 this section became part of MMMonVHF directed by Frank, PA4EME and Udo, DK5YA.MMMonVHF has over 2000 registered users and an increasing number of visitors from continents other than Europe. After testing the programming just for Europe in 2008, our intention is to report Es worldwide. During the Sporadic E season in Australia, lasting from approximately Nov. 2008 until May 2009, first maps were created from another continent as Europe. Meanwhile, we are able to produce detailed maps from every Sporadic E opening that occurred on 144 MHz, no matter what day or continent. However the system needs to be feed with information. The information can be obtained from spots on DX-clusters but you may understand we prefer detailed information from stations involved in the opening.Therefore we invite everybody to report their contacts to the Es section of the MMMonVHF pages.. If this is your first visit you need to register. After logging in, the page is self-explanatory. Please follow the instructions. In particular please use the correct time format HH:MM (mind the colon -:- ) and a 4 or 6 character locator. Please select the correct day and check that twice. The information will show only after a delay for processing. You will receive a confirmation that your data was received in good order but it will not show up right away in the summaries. Ansgar, DG2KBC, programmed several tools capable of processing the data. But there are many types of logging programs and formats so every log is checked personally by Frank, PA4EME, or Udo, DK5YA. When needed, we will correct the format of your report to be able to process it. The changes will be visible in the summaries. The 2008 season learned that the time format is needing attention as well the locator. For example: many are using the time format 08.00 but the system needs 08:00 or a locator JO20 needs to be like JO20WX. In case you don't add the last two digits of the square, we will draw the lines from the center of the square which correspondents with the subsquare MM.For 2009 we especially invite amateurs from other continents as Europe to send their reports. However don't forget the time difference between your continent and Europe. We try to get the reports and maps on-line as fast as possible. Last year we succeeded to have maps and reports on the summery pages during ongoing openings in Europe.However don't forget: "Work first and report later..."..... we will do the same!

On behalf of the MMMonVHF team,Frank, PA4EME and Udo, DK5YA

See you in coming Es openings de SV8CS.

5Z4EME - 2m EME qso - New One

KENYA EME DXpedition from ki79mo - Call : 5Z4EME.

The team of Rene, PE1L, Eltje, PA3CEE and Ronald,PA3EWP is meantime qrv from Kenya (5Z4) from locator : KI79MO. I had a contact with the team from Kenya 5Z4EME 2m EME at 1 of April 2009. Until today they have worked 218 stations. This is a very high score for portable EME operation despite of regular power failure, giant thunder storms and varius other problems.

The antennas are 2X10 elements cross with about 400w of power.
In this foto Rene, PE1L working in the antenna set-up.

And here we have the EME dxpedition team in front of their (5 stars) Hotel and Restaurant.
The DXpedition to Kenya ends at 14 of April so, look for the 5Z4EME on 144.124 1st seq as soon as possible and if you have 70 cm they are also QRV on 432.084 with a single yagi 23 elements and 100w always in WSJT.

For more info and log search going to MMMonVHF page:http://www.mmmonvhf.de/index.php
or to their page: http://www.emelogger.com/kenya/

73, thank you and wish you a safe come back at home de SV8CS.

5N0EME - Nigeria 2m EME New One.

Bodo, DL3OCH - 5N0EME he will be working in Abuja, Nigeria for several months.He has equipments for 2m,70cm and 23cm EME activity. In 2m he is using 12 elements beam, with the IC-706 and about 1kw. I worked Bodo on 2m EME as a new one at 28/03/2009. He has a very nice signal in 2m. Here is a foto from Bodo's antenna for 2m, taken from the MMMon Vhf web page.
http://www.mmmonvhf.de/index.php


The 5N0EME logs are here:
http://www.mmmonvhf.de/upload-news/DL8EBW/LOGS/5N0EME.xls

Bodo, you are doing a very nice Job on 2m, 70cm and 23cm. Thank you for the EME qso and 1st SV to 5N 2m contact.
73, Spiros - SV8CS

432Mhz EME Up and running

The 432 Mhz EME set-up is finished and running.

With the 4x25 (by I0JXX) antennae I have a sun noise up to 7.015 db with the KUHNE (MKU LNA 432A) preamplifier attached to the splitter without the antenna relays.
http://www.kuhne-electronic.de/en/shop/143_Low_Noise_Amplifier


For the moment I am using the Russian antenna relays REW-14,

until the NEW antenna relay, ordered to the SSB Electronics (HF400), comes here.
http://www.ssb.de/englisch/products/parts/part_e.shtml

Inserting the REW-14 relays between the splitter and the preamplifier I measured losses at 1,5 db. When the HF400 comes here, I will test again the sun noise difference between the SUN and the cool Sky. The measurements taken with the Noise meter program and the VK3UM excellent EME Calc program.
A very nice page about the sun noise measurements and antennae performance is the Home page of DJ3JJ, Andreas.
http://www.do9bc.de/index.php?page=806688781&f=1&i=1179997641&s=806688781
DJ3JJ, Andreas say that with my 4x25 I must have at least 10db Sun Noise. I have to modify my harnesses (the coaxial cable, Ecoflex15) between the antenna dipoles and the splitter to have less losses. Now the length of the 4 coaxials harnesses is 3,80m ... too long for 70cm EME operations.
When I will improve my system by 3db (from 7 to 10 as DJ3JJ says) it is similar to have 8 antennas instead of 4!!!

With this set-up until today I made 8 EME qso's
HB9Q,DL7APV,DK3WG,G4RGK,I1NDP,JA6AHB,LZ1DX,UA3PTW with only 100w.
Any way, there is NOT so much activity on 70cm as in 2m .... unfortunately.

70cm EME antennas - News.

The 432 Mhz antenna system is up and ready to go!

Still waiting for some Ecoflex 15 “N” type connectors.
Once again very hard work under strong winds and heavy rain.

I hope to start the qso’s next week with my 100w linear amplifier mounted close to antenna slpitter.
Every antenna has 16.46 dbd gain (18.6 dbi) and all the system has a total gain of 22.46 dbd. The rotator for Azimuth and elevation is tehYaesu G-5500.

My QTH on Zante Island (KM07JS) - (EU-053) with all antennas.

73 de SV8CS.

NEW antennas for 432 Mhz EME

New antennas for 70cm EME.

After finishing to rebuild my 4x16 antennas for 2m EME,

Foto 1: 2m EME set- up. 4X16 elem antennas by I0JXX and LNA preamplifier.

I started to build the UHF set-up in my veranta at 3rd floor of my house. I am using the same type of antennas as in 2m, by I0JXX,

http://www.i0jxx.com/. The antennas are 4x25 elements Horizontal polarization only, for 432Mhz EME. Each antenna is 5.50m long (7,94 λ), with total gain of 22,46 dbd (without the coax and connectors losses).

Foto 2: The UHF antennas are under the table for the moment.

I lost a lot of time due to bad weather .... we had a lot of rain the last days.
Today I finished the 3 of the 4 antennas . Maybe next days I will complete the 4x25 system and start to try some qso’s on UHF via the moon .

Foto 3: The 3 from the 4 antennas under the dark sky and the rain.

My power is only 100w with the Rfconcepts transistor linear amplifier. This linear has also a preamplifier NOT so good as nf but good for first time to start. I am starting to build a new preamplifier with the ATF-33143, low noise Pseudomorphic HEMT , transistor,

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet2/7/0tu7wkiyq19gaaty5fljfizj63fy.pdf

Foto 4: The antennas from the ground.

I am using the ECOFLEX 15 coaxial from antennas to splitter. Each piece of coaxial is 3.90m long. I hope until next weekend to finish the set-up and to start the tests in UHF, EME .
More news to come soon and hope to see you on 70cm via EME.
73, Spiros SV8CS

VINTAGES - Old memories

The January 2009 QST magazine waked up my memories!
In this issue of the QST, (page 39), I saw a very nice article by Jim Hanlon (W8KGI) with the title: Resurrecting a Command Set Transmitter.
This article made me to remember my radio activity when I was 20 Years Old. In the year 1968 I found in the Athens flee market this type of transmitter, the Command BC-458 (5.3 to 7 MHz). This kind of transmitters was first made for Army Air Forces (the BC series) and the T series for Navy. The BC-458 (5.3 to 7 MHz is equivalent to T-21 (for Navy series). The Command transmitter had a pair of 1625s tubes in the final stage. The 1625s are the same with the very popular 807s (with 12v filament) and very easy to modify the filament voltage.
In this photo my self in 1970 with the command at left (ex call SV1CS).

At the same issue of QST there is also another article in page 73 about Command RX by Phil Salas, AD5X.
My BC-458 was modified (hardly) to make it operate not only in CW in the ham band (40m) but also with voice modulation (Carrier control) like a pseudo SSB and AM of course in 40m. In the 2 octal sockets in the rear side I added 2 tubes to produce the voice modulation. For the CW operation on 40m I was keying the cathodes of the 1625s. In the front panel of my Command I added a Mic Jack Using a crystal AIWA microphone) and a modulation potentiometer. All my qso, in the years between 1969 and 1974 in 40m, were made with this transmitter and for receiver I used a normal domestic radio receiver.

Photo in 1973.
Also I made a small linear amplifier with the 811 tube. To demodulate the SSB (the very early years of ssb) I was using another receiver and with its tuning I was beating the 455KCs local oscillator to produce a carrier to the main radio receiver and so make a BIT to demodulate the SSB of ham radio signals.
In the photo (1974) the command with "modern" receiver and a 2m tube transverter . The 2m TX driven by an old mofified (28Mhz) CB radio.The 2m RX is close to command.
Notes:
a) After years, during a sort trip to USA in 1990, I was surprised to see my early toy inside an aircraft cockpit in a visit I paid to Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
b) I bought my command as surplus in the year 1968, for 200 Drachmas (0.65 Euro).

My self today (18 Jan 2009) in a "post modern photo" . The command in front of the YAESU FT2000- Kenwood TS2000- Yaesu FT847 etc.

If you have any vintage rig don't forget to take part in the CQ-CX -Classic Exchange (CX) contest held twice a year. January 25/26 and February 15/16. Please read more at :http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2009/01/09/10557/

See you in the CQ-CX contest - 73 de SV8CS

ZD8B- 2m EME qsl card - New One

Ascension Island qsl card for 2m EME qso

Thank you Ernie for the second New One on 2m after the 1st qso with you from KC4/W1MRQ.

73, de SV8CS

9M6YBG - East Malaysia 2m - EME

Received the qsl card from GO (9M6YBG) for our 2m EME qso.

Thank you GO for the nice qso and New one on 2m.

73 NHY de SV8CS