Still one week of work and then I’m two weeks off on holiday. The first week I’ll be in northern Italy (JN46NA) in a small village Porlezza near the lake of Lugano as I/PA1JIM/P (26th September – 3th October) and the next week I’ll be at JN24XM (Hautes Alpes, France) as F/PA1JIM/P. I’ve read in propagation for the end of this month that there will appear a lot of sunspots. So that’s just perfect for me on my holiday spot! I’ll drag along my TS-50, AT-50, a WiMo Magnetic Balun (or actually an UnUn) and a piece of 15 meter wire. Hopefully enough to be on all the active bands.

Hope to work you!

73′s PA1JIM

A long last to-do on my list: apply for LOTW. Last week I read the instructions on the ARRL-website (also available in Dutch, I might add) and followed the line. I thought I had to upload my driver license and amateur license, but it turn out that I have to send a copy of both via snailmail.
When I dropped the enveloppe the other day my guess was I wouldn’t here anything within at least 3 weeks.
But, surprise surprise! This morning ARRL dropped me an email with the approval certificate! Whow, that was only about one week or so!
So tonight I’ll try to import my log in LOTW. Finally! Now I can see for sure how many DXCC entities I already scored….

The other day my package arrived with what should be the board and programmed chip. But what is in it? Indeed a PCB and programmed chip, but for another kit: LC-meter. Bummer. I phoned the supplier and I should send it back so he can return the correct package. Have to wait a few days more…

One option that is not available for my Kenwood TS-450SAT is a buildin voice keyer. That’s a shame, but if it isn’t there and you still want it, you probably can buy it or…. build it!

I could find some MFJ voice keyers, but to spend more then hundred euro’s for a voice keyer I think is ridiculous… When I googled around for a design of a home made voice keyer, I stumbled upon a project that has been published in a magazine of my own club (Veron): Electron, august 1998. In this design they use a ISD1016 voice recording chip. After a lot of searching I found the designer and contacted him. It seems like the ISD1016 isn’t produced anymore and is hard to get. So I discussed that with the designer and was able to get my hand on a good replacement: the ISD1020. The designer sells the PCB and programmed GAL-chip himself. So I ordered these. I’m waiting for him to send this stuff to me so I can start to build. Should be fun!

I use DXwatch as my primary dx cluster for years now. Funny how it never crossed my mind I could also make an account for this site so I also can add spots.
The other day I signed up for an account (free) and I discovered another cool thing! You can create filters for specific spots and when that spot appears on DXwatch, DXwatch will send you a mail and/or an IM!

Pretty cool! I should sign up way earlier!

Two weeks ago we’re started a building project at our local club to build a little simple portable 80 meters receiver. It is intendant for use as a fox-hunting receiver.
I managed to finish soldering the PCB in one night. But now I’m working on the casing. The casing originally presented in the design I don’t like. So Fred, PA3YH and me are working on something more robust. Hopefully I can show you the end results in a few days.

The original design you can find on this page. Or translated from Dutch to English via Google Translate.
Actually the only thing you really need are the diagram and PCB-design. The links of those are at the bottom of the article.

Besides this site, I’m also writing for the site of our local club Veron PI4RCG. It is really nice to do, but it also takes up a lot of time.

And of course I’m also practicing for my morse skills. First we have to learn how to receive morse code. So this is what I’m practicing now. At about 12 words per minute. I’m at the R-character in the alphabet. Hopefully I can receive the whole alphabet in about 2 weeks from now. Then we will start sending. Pretty cool adventure!

Last weekend I’ve experimented with psk31 for the first time. Made a really simple setup. Connected my girlfriends laptop (the only Windows one in the house) directly to my FT-817 with 2 mini-jack cable (audio in and out) and the data-cable.
Run Ham Radio Deluxe. Could get it to work very well. After a few hours of searching for the right settings, I was able to receive some signals. Just couldn’t get the rig transmitting anything at all.
The next morning I’ve tried the same setup on my Mac. This time with Cocoamodem. Same story, receiving okay, transmitting no go.
Hmmm, looks like I need to do some more googling first.

Well, that was a very nice contest! I went from Schalkwijk (see previous post) to our new clubbuilding the NERA-building. There were a few club members so I joined them. Later on that evening I went home to pick up my own rig. The evening went by and I made a few (35) contacts. About 1:30 am I went home for some sleep. This morning I continued about 9:00 am. When the clock hit 13:00 hours I had made 60 QSO’s. I know I know, it’s nothing compaired to the big guns. But I don’t care. It was a very nice experience, it was my first PACC. I have many ideas how to do the contest next year.

For starter I want to have some kind of voice sampler (external) between my microfoon and my rig so I can record samples and play them by just pressing a button (cq contest cq contest). Because it wasn’t very nice to have to repeat it a few hundred times. That’s why I stopped CQ-ing after a while.

Anyone good tips for such a device?

Only one hour left from the start of PACC 2009!

I’m in Schalkwijk, Netherlands. On a farmer land we make the last preparations on the antenne’s.

A FD23 for 10,15 and 20 at 23 meters high. Open dipoles for 40 and 80. And an 40m sloper for 160.

Let the party begin!