EC1CW's Ham Radio Blog

Portable from a public park: Romania (YO4RIU)

2012-03-30T09:31:00.003+02:00

Thsi is a video of a QSO I made from a public park using my FT-857 manpack with a 3m-long whip antenna.

Beacuse there were people walking around, I could not extend the counterpoise wires properly, and I was using only a wire around the bench I was sitting on.
Because communication was very difficult for my counterpart Bogdan, at a given point I had to increase the power from 20W to 50W, which made the QSO possible.

Island of Antigua (V25WY)

2012-02-23T20:51:00.005+01:00

This is a video of a QSO with teh Island of Antigua on 17m SSB. Bob W4OWY and Tom AA9A were active as V25WY and V25AA respectively from Antigua between February 14 to 22, 2012. They were on 160 – 10m, SSB, CW and maybe RTTY. QSL via bureau or direct to home calls.

Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney. Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.

Bonaire (PJ4J)

2012-02-16T20:37:00.004+01:00

This is an eQSL of a QSO with Bonaire station PJ4J on 17m SSB. OS1T (ON4CIT) was active from Bonaire Island, 27 October - 9 November 2011 as PJ4J.

The Caribbean island of Bonaire, together with Aruba and Curaçao forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles. The name Bonaire is thought to have originally come from the Caiquetio word 'Bonay'. The early Spanish and Dutch modified its spelling to Bojnaj and also Bonaire, which means "Good Air".Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the country's dissolution on 10 October 2010,[5] when the island (including Klein Bonaire) became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands.

The United States on 15m (W2NLS)

2012-02-15T22:26:00.009+01:00

This is a video of a QSO with Neil (W2NLS) on 15m SSB from my car, using a 4m-long military whip antenna.

His antenna is a 5-element multibander. You can see it on the picture below.

Neil was licensed first as WN2KQI and then became WB2KQI for about 47 years. When the vanity call of W2NLS came up with his initials he decided to go for it. But somedays, still, he actually will give the wrong call!

Ham Radio really shaped Neil's life. He spent many years as an editor working on magazines having to do with electronics. He first was on Elementary Electronics Magazine and then he joined Popular Mechanics as the Electronics Editor. He was with PM for more than a decade and did more than one article on ham radio.

Winter activation of Monte do Curisco

2012-02-13T09:20:00.004+01:00

This is a video of the SOTA activation of Monte do Curisco (EA1/LE-191), a 1300+ metre summit in the Spanish province of Leon.

The weather was extremely cold (-5C) and windy. There was also a lot of QRM, at S9-level on the 20m band, so I tried the activation on the 15m band. All in all, it was a difficult activation, but I managed to make 8 QSOs.

YN2N (Nicaragua) on 15m

2012-02-11T14:16:00.006+01:00

This is a video of a QSO with Nicaragua from my car, using a Yaesu FT-857D with a 4m-long whip antenna.

THe antenna tuner is a Yaesu FC-40, which tunes the whip from 7Mhz up.

Alto do Anxelio (EA1/CR-020)

2012-02-07T21:28:00.004+01:00

The other day I went to activate the summit of Alto do Anxelio (EA1/CR-020) with my father (EA1AQ) and my elder son Adi. It was a fun activation, and I made a lot of QSOs.

Alto do Anxelio is a relatively nearby summit with easy access and a very important advantage for radio operation. It does not have QRM, which is often a problem in many SOTA summits that host all kids of communications antennas (TV, telephone).

Castro (EA1/OU-038)

2011-11-08T23:42:00.007+01:00

This is a video of a SOTA activation from the summit of Castro, near the city of Ourense.

You can hear the cavalry on the background at the end of the video.

DO4DXA from Pico Sacro (SOTA EA1/CR-016) on 10m SSB

2011-10-24T22:41:00.013+02:00

This is a video of a QSO from Pico Sacro (SOTA ref. EA1/CR-016) with German station DO4DXA on 10m SSB.

The summit is divided in two. According to the leyend, it was a titan with his sword who did it.

YO8SOY from Castelo (EA1/CR-023)

2011-06-19T22:06:00.003+02:00

SOTA activation near Santiago de Compostela on 20m SSB.

It includes two summit-to-summit QSOs with SCotland.

FT-897 manpack by night

2011-06-19T09:49:00.004+02:00

This is a video Robi recorded with his mobile phone when we were doing some tests on 40m SSB with a V dipole and a manual tuner attached to the FT-897.

The video was shot just after we applied a coat of white primer to the tuner's aluminum case.

The Clansman PRC-320 with a random wire

2011-06-18T09:25:00.003+02:00

This is a video of a QSO with the Clansman PRC-320 and a randon wire antenna.

In favour of the Clansman I should say that I hadn't recharged the battery for months so I hardly had energy left for a single QSO, and I made this QSO calling CQ without the help of any cluster anouncement.

Alto do Anxelio (SOTA EA1/CR-020)

2011-06-17T12:52:00.002+02:00

This is a video of Anca's activation of Alto do Anxelio (SOTA reference EA1/CR-020) as EA1/YO8SOY/P on 20m SSB.

Thanks to this activation she now already has 10 DXCC entities confirmed on eQSL.

Serra do Larouco (CT/TM-001)

2011-06-12T19:31:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I was invited to a radio fair in Chaves, Portugal, and after the lectures I decided to attempt the activation of a nearby summit, Serra do Larouco (CT/TM-001).

This was my first QSO on 20m SSB, with English station 2E0RDX (Barry).

Uruguay on 12m: CX2DK

2011-06-04T10:20:00.004+02:00

I haven't checked my eQSL account for a long time and when I opened my inbox today I found I had a number of very nice eQSLs waiting, like the one on the picture from Marcelo (CX2DK) in Uruguay, for a QSO on 12m SSB.
I also found out that I already have 78 DXCC entities confirmed, so now I have to go for the 100...

YO8SOY from Pendella (EA1/CR-002)

2011-05-02T14:34:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I went to make a SOTA activation with Anca (YO8SOY). She made a total of 12 QSOs, all of them on 20m SSB using 20W and a whip antenna. On this video you can see an extract of her activation:

The hardest part for her was to memorise the callsigns, because we didn't have a pen to write them down (my fault), but in the end she did quite ok for her first SOTA activation.

Easter activation at Pico da Fiosa (EA1/LU-009)

2011-04-26T12:01:00.005+02:00

Last Sunday I went with my father (EA1AQ) to activate Pico da Fiosa (EA1/LU-009) and this is the vide we made. It was a very nice place with an improvised table, great views and excellent conditions for SOTA operation (low noise).

I was running 20W with my FT-857 manpack, an SG-211 tuner and a military whip. The battery is Lithium Polymer and works great. It is powerful and light. I am very satisfied with its performance.

Parque de Bens to Canada (VE2TFL)

2011-04-19T01:19:00.006+02:00

LAst Sunday I went to a public park in my city and decided to try my kevlar wire antenna. With the help pf some eucaliptus trees, this was the result.

I was using 20W, as usual, with my FT-857 on a LiPO battery.

Montalén (EA1/CR-006)

2011-04-17T13:19:00.003+02:00

This is a video of the activation of Montalén on 20m SSB. I started with a summit to summit QSO with Germany, and made more than a dozen contacts.

At the end of the video you can see how the wind starts to blow...

Fontardión (EA1/CR-005)

2011-04-15T20:52:00.004+02:00

This is a video of the SOTA activation of Fontardión, together with my friend Robi. The QSOs on teh video are on 20m SSB.

Last time I was not able to make the four QSOs necessary to claim the points, but I has luckier this time.

Carracedo activation (EA1/LU-049)

2011-04-03T22:31:00.004+02:00

This is a video of the activation of Carracedo. I started on 2m FM with a handheld radio, but I only made 3 QSOs.

Then I set up my HF station. As you can see on this video, I used a 2.9m collapsible whip and two wires as a counterpoise.

The weather and the landscape were magnificent and the activation couldn't go better. Thanks to all the chasers and to my father (Ea1AQ) and Ernesto (EA1LQ) for putting me on the Sotawatch cluster.

Carracedo (EA1/LU-049): Final ascent

2011-04-02T00:26:00.003+02:00

Last Thursday Ernesto (EA1AQ) and my father (EA1LQ) went to hunt a metorological baloon. When I joined them the sonde had already stopped tranmitting, so I decided to attempt some nearby SOTA activation. I found that Carracedo (EA1/LU-049) was close, and this is the video of the final ascent.

It was a bit harder than expected, but the wild horses and the beauty of the landscape paid off.

Carba (EA1/LU-038)

2011-03-27T23:40:00.004+02:00

This is a video of the activation of Carba (SOTA reference EA1/LU-038). It was so windy that it is hard to understand the audio sometimes.

This was a difficult activation beacuse the amateur bands were crowded because of the CQ WPX contest. That is why I chose the 17m band instead of the usual 20m band.

Austria (OE6GND)

2011-03-25T23:05:00.005+01:00

I have received this beautiful eQSL card from Austrian station OE6GND (operator Gerhard) from Gamlitz, with whom I made a couple of QSOs on 7 and 8 March from two different SOTA summits.
Gamlitz (Slovene: Gomilnica) is a municipality in the district of Leibnitz in Styria, Austria. In the first known document that mentions it (dated from 1145), the settlement is called Gomilnitz, a reference either to the Slavic gomilca which denotes a small hill, or to gom (a group or chain of hills); indeed Gamlitz is situated among and between rolling hills. The tradition of the local castle goes back to the year 1111.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (75)

2011-03-24T21:55:00.005+01:00

I have just received an eQSL from Macedonian station Z35F, from Gevgelija, which is the 75th country validly confirmed for my eDX award.
I made this QSO with my FT857 manpack radio for the Summits On The Air programme.
Gevgelija (Macedonian: Гевгелија [ɡɛvˈɡɛlija] ( listen)) is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the Republic of Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece (Bogorodica-Evzoni), the point which links the motorway from Skopje and three other former Yugoslav capitals (Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana) with Thessaloniki.
Located between the mountains Kozuf and Pajak only 70 km from Thessaloniki and 165 km from Skopje, the town acts as a rail depot between the two countries, making it a central location in its region. Its position in the south of the country gives it a warm, Mediterranean climate, making it the optimal location in the Republic of Macedonia for cultivation of fruits and vegetables such as figs, lemons, and grapes. The town is also a centre for raising silkworms, an integral part of the country's silk trade.