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M0XXT UK Scout Contest Team

18 April 2009

UK Scout Contest Team
Dorridge Scout Group, Radio DX Headquarters
QTH: 10 miles SE Birmingham, Central England.

Callum M0MCX will be firing up the station at the “Scout Hut” this evening “(Saturday) squirting some RF” as he puts it to all exotic places in the world. You will be able to contact M0XXT on 40m SSB. Here is a photo of the young scouts operating just the other week.

Senior Operators: Callum (M0MCX), James (M3YOM), Tim (M0URX), Terry (G4MKP) and Lee (G0MTN).

Junior operators: Dan, Chris and Aidan (M6TTT) (please be patient with our junior operators).

Thank you to M0MCX Callum McCormick for the Photograph.

QSL Via M0URX

Another member of our team Terry G4MKP will be operating CW under his own call around 14.015 MHz CW

Club Photo Album: http://www.m0mcx.co.uk/gallery/index.php?/category/21

Working conditions: 570 feet (174 meters) horizontal delta loop at 20 – 25 meters (60-85 feet), FT1000MP and Acom 2000.

Regards, Callum (M0MCX) Group Scout Leader

Log search facility now live!

14 April 2009

Thanks to the help of a good friend of mine MW0JRX Oliver Bross we now have a log search facility built into the website for all callsigns that I manage. Many hours of work have gone into providing this facility from both Oliver and myself. This afternoon I uploaded most of the logs, and the database now contains 281,450 QSO’s.
You can find the HF log search at the bottom of the Main Menu on the left side of this page, just enter your callsign in the search field and click “Enter”.
Left is an example of the result card shown from the search.

The result card will list QSOs from all logs in the database under band and mode status SSB, CW or DIG. At this stage only HF Qs can be searched, while of course some of the logs contain VHF Qs from 6m, 2m and 70cm but this may be added later.
The logsearch fully complies with current requirements which state that no other details except those that we provide in the search facility, DX callsign, Callsign of the station worked, Band worked, Mode worked, no other information is stored on the database.

Many, many thanks Oliver for your hours of work, really appreciated by us all.

Waiting for America & Getting China Instead

9 April 2009

A little humour in the mailbox today, a QSL from G3IQF.
Titled: Waiting for America and Getting China Instead

Thanks for the card Bob

6W1WR Confirmed 40m

7 April 2009

QSL arrived today from F6BEE confirming 6W1RW Senegal on 40m. Thanks Jaques for the very quick QSL.

Also arrived and confirming a new DXCC was HK0B/HK3JJH San Andres Serrana Bank NA-133. Thanks also to Pedro HK3JJH.

Once again this year I have a goal to work as many DXCC in the year as I can. So far in 2009 I have worked 137 DXCC on SSB.

Italy Earthquake

6 April 2009

It is with deep sadness that i heard on the BBC News today of the terrible earthquake in L’Aquila Italy. My thoughts at this time are with those lives lost and the families caught up in this tragedy.

H44MS Worked on 17m

5 April 2009

DXCC Number 275 Worked for me today. H44MS Bernhard on Solomon Islands. 18.127 MHz and the band was quite quiet and not so many in the pile up and with the propagation just giving me the edge over other callers.
Solomon Islands has been “one that got away” so many times so pleased to get Bernhard in the log.

Review of Club Log

2 April 2009

Introduction – What is Club Log? Club Log is a web-based application which uses a database to analyse amateur radio log files, which are uploaded in the common ADIF format. Using the logs, it is possible to build band-mode league tables of amateurs’ QSOs, provide efficient log search tools and create most wanted lists for DXCC entities (both over all time and in recent history, or by mode for example). Also, Club Log can give back to its users the ability to find “wanted” DX spots, and other analysis of their logs which might be hard to do with normal logging software.

Club Log is an experiment in providing these features in a club or society context, ie. competitive but within a circle of members rather than just world-wide (although Club Log can also do that). The original idea was to automate DXCC league tables for the Cambridge University Wireless Society.

Club Log is also not some things! It isn’t an award scheme, it isn’t valid for ARRL DXCC (since it’s not validated) and it doesn’t provide QSO confirmations. For all those things, please check out Logbook Of The World.

Pictured above is Michael G7VJR. You can find out more here: http://www.clublog.org/

I have been using Club Log for some time now, it is a great tool and very versatile, let me explain. Registration just couldn’t be easier, anyone can register and are welcome to join in. Uploading logs is simple to do just click on Upload in the tool bar for the upload window, once you have browsed your hard drive for the ADIF just Send and add to your callsign.

Be sure that if you are uploading DX’pedition logs that you tick “no” for “show in leagues”. DX’pedition logs are important to get as much data as possible into the database. But are not required for the tables which should be used for operator calls only.

As you can see above, the DXCC League tables can be filtered for Mode selection, Worked or Confirmed and by Date filter for 2009, Last 12 months or 36 months. Click on generate tables and then you get the league as seen below.

Club Log is great for club events such as the Chiltern DX Club’s “LF Challenge” which takes place every March as you can see here the database can be used to filter bands and dates to make it fun to view the table as the challenge developes over the weeks.

A brilliant tool that is under ongoing development by its author Michael G7VJR. This all adds a great new dimension to statistics. Thank you Michael and good luck for the future of this exciting project.

A Quiet Week In The Office

2 April 2009

A quiet week this week after the hectic CQ-WPX SSB contest last weekend. 9M8Z and 9M6XRO logs were uploaded onto LoTW on Monday and all QSL cards received so far have been replied to. A mailing of 150 letters was posted out on Tuesday.
I was happy this morning to receive the QSL from HK0B/HK3JJH Pedro from his activity from San Andreas Island. A new one for me and number 268 DXCC Confirmed!

9M8Z 21st to 29th March 2009

19 March 2009

Steve, 9M6DXX, will operate as 9M8Z from Sarawak, East Malaysia IOTA OC-088 from 21 to 29 March 2009, including a Single-Operator Unassisted All-Band High-Power entry in the CQ WPX SSB contest on 28 / 29 March. Outside the contest, look for Steve on 40m SSB, Steve will be using a 3-element Yagi.

QSL via M0URX, Direct, Bureau or LoTW.

LoTW uploaded up to 30/03/09
Update 30th March: Well, the contest is over for another year. 2375 QSOs after dupes and 6.4 Million points, but that’s nearly 1000 QSOs down on last year, and nearly 2 million points less. Conditions were not good this year on 15m, which explains the lower score.

Update 24th March: “I am currently in Sarawak, 9M8, and operating ‘holiday style’ using an Optibeam OB-17-4 at 75ft. This antenna has 3 elements on 40m (coil loaded), 4 full size monoband elements on 20m, 4 on 15, and 6 on 10m, and by all accounts I have a big signal in Europe. 10m opened up as far west as Cyprus on Sunday though I doubt I’ll be working into the UK on that band.

I was on 20m last evening and it was good to work a number of CDXC members, plus a few UK calls I did not recognise.

I had planned to be more active from here on 40m but had not taken into account the fact that sunset is now around 1800z in UK – that’s 2.00am here, and for various reasons it has not been possible to be on yet at times when the band is likely to be open to Western Europe.

I will try to be on 40m tonight (Tuesday), Wednesday and Thursday, from about 1630z onwards. My preferred freqs are 7088 or 7078, but I may have to go elsewhere if those are busy of course.

I should be on 20m before 1630 but will QSY to 40m at 1630.”

Update 19th March Steve writes: I was planning to travel to Sarawak for the CQ WPX SSB contest next weekend, but there has been a slight change of plan. I have been asked to give a presentation on DXpeditioning at an ‘Amateur Radio Roadshow’

being held by MCMC, the Malaysian licensing authority, this Saturday, so I will be travelling early on Saturday morning instead. I’ll probably give a short talk and show an excerpt from the 3B7C DVD.

I should therefore be active on the bands as 9M8Z most evenings (afternoons, GMT) and I look forward to working you all from Sarawak.

Look for me on 20m SSB early afternoons, then 40m SSB later on.

VP8KF John talks to the world!

16 March 2009

I feel that I must comment on a really interesting evening on 20m tonight, I started listeing to John VP8KF (CDXC member) in the Falkland Islands at about 6pm. Excellent operating by John managing to keep the pile up from Europe under excellent control and passing some good conversation along the way. By 9pm when i decided to call in, the pile up from G was getting quite large. One thing that I did notice was how many UK stations were all commenting saying that they had erected a Hex Beam just recently and were testing out the performance. One of those was MW0JRX Oliver my dear friend and IT Technician. Well done Oliver on the 4 new ones in 2 days! Thanks John for some good entertainment on 20m tonight!
VP8KF QSL Via G3VPW

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