Added CW endorsement to my license

While at VE3MIS Hamex hamfest last Saturday, noticed they are running CW exams so used the opportunity to finally add CW endorsement to my license. Passed the 5 wpm test with flying colors!

New Year’s eve building marathon: TNC-Pi APRS gate

I used the New Year’s eve long weekend to finish another project – TNC-Pi kit from Coastal Chipworks. I already experimented with APRS TinyTrak beacon before and noticed bad APRS coverage throughout Toronto, especially, east of DVP so I decided to put my own RX gateway to improve reception in the area.

New Year’s eve building marathon: Rockmite QRPp 30m transceiver

I was always curios about WARC bands and in particular the 30m band my trusty Kenwood TS-520 lacks. I have it thanks to my FT-817ND but still, in part due to my love of experimentation with radio kits, last spring I ordered a Rockmite 30m kit from Rex W1REX (qrpme.com) and one more 40m version of it. This used to be a very inexpensive kit costing $27 only. These days it’s $45 and comes with a spare pair of crystals. Any mods (AF gain, TX efficiency, etc) are extra. The kit has successfully arrived to Toronto after 5 weeks. During BoM inspection of the 30m kit, I noticed one band capacitor supplied was wrong value and that I got two SA612 mixers and no amplifier IC. Luckily I had enough capacitors of various values ordered from eBay before so finding a replacement was not a problem. The amplifier chip I borrowed from the 40m kit and immediately ordered a pack of 20 on eBay from China for a mere $4 in case I ever need a spare handy… Rex W1REX (from QRPME.com) admitted the kit sorting and handling issues he endured while training a new helper and shortly sent me missing audio amp chip at no charge along with my next order. After finishing sorting components according to the BoM I started building the kit.

712 active (on HF) hams in Canada according to ARRL LotW in 2014

If you happened to work any of the US ARRL Members during this year, and, you upload your logs to LotW, your score and QSO count will get displayed on ARRL Centennial QSO Party Leaderboard.

Out of curiosity, I checked how many Canadian hams participated (uploaded their logs) this year. After cleansing results (removing duplicate, visitor and special event callsigns), the total count came to about 715 VE hams only – not too bad! Out of this, 312 hams (44%) were in Ontario (VE3/VA3):

100 DX entities confirmed via LotW (118 worked)

The Logbook of the World is sure gaining popularity! More than 53% of the QSO I had submitted to LotW had been confirmed (QSL-ed)! This is every second QSO, and a so much better ratio compared to 25-30% confirmation rate on average it was, when I started uploading my logs to LotW three years ago. I also start getting LotW QSLs for QSO dated 2011-2012 now meaning many people start uploading their old logs.

According to the logs, I worked almost 100 DXCC in about a first year I got somewhat active on HF with my 31′ long-wire antenna and 5 watts or sometime 100 watts of power, after getting a license. Confirming these took so much longer though.

Some entities just don’t have too many ham operators there (like Greenland for example), and some countries don’t have reliable access to Internet either (like Cuba). Sending a QSL-card directly to a rare DXCC entity may cost up to $10 considering the cost of postage, cards, and a small contribution. And the answer is not guaranteed.

Confirming 100 contacts by direct QSL-requests is costly so normally you use a QSL bureau or (even better!) an instant electronic confirmation system such as the Logbook of the World (LotW).

As of today, I had 118 DXCC entities contacted, out of which 98 were confirmed via LotW and 6 more by QSL cards (direct), while I was waiting for a QSL card or LotW confirmation from the remaining ones.

Today, two more appeared confirmed on LotW so I could finally submit an application for a basic (mixed) DXCC award via LotW completely without needing to mail / check any QSL cards. Which I just did:

2014 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Encouraged by W2LJ post about his plans on participating in upcoming CQ Worldwide DX Contest in QRP CW category, I decided to give it a try as well.

I did not bother turning up the radio on the Friday night and Saturday morning due to extreme pile-ups. The Saturday afternoon, and then Sunday were much calmer so my tiny QRP signal and omni-directional no-gain 31′ long-wire antenna had more chances between the big-guns.

Thanks to the great antennas on the other side of the QSO and great ears/equipment, there usually was no problem making a QSO. I had to QRS and repeat the call two-three times sometime but that was it.

The band conditions were great. I only wish the local noise was lower as I could not hear any JA this time on my long-wire antenna, although they would probably hear me. The farthest station was VK4KW in Australia on 15m. I also added 3 new DXCC entities: 3B8MU (MAURITIUS ISLAND), P33W (CYPRUS), and 4L8A (GEORGIA).

The total count is 179 QSO, 83 countries, and 57,276 points claimed.

Triple Play WAS Award

New DXCC worked – Turkey on 40m SSB, and Nicaragua on 40m CW

Worked Mehmet TA1CM last night on 40m SSB. And this morning, received a beautiful eQSL card via eQSL.cc:

Isn’t it amazing what technology does? I wish eQSL count for DXCC awards…

Also, worked H5T5 (Nicaragua) on CW on 40m and 30m tonight. Now to confirm a hard-copy QSL via direct mail.

QSL cards received and answered

Fresh QSL cards in the mail today – all received direct and to be confirmed direct via Canada Post mail tomorrow morning:

What’s really puzzling me is that most of the QSL cards I receive recently were for digital modes. Before, most of my QSL cards came from my CW correspondents. Generally speaking, I would generally expect a modern digital mode like JT65/JT9 to be confirmed via LOTW…  Still, it’s a thrill discovering a familiar size envelope in the mailbox: it’s like a box of chocolates -you never know what you’re gonna get.

NTS Radiogram received

Received the following NTS radiogram today – thank you to Larry VE3GT for handling and delivery via his digital station:

 4191 R HXC KM7N ARL8 SAHUARITA AZ SEP 9
 PAUL SHIRYAEV VA3PAW
 PO BOX 62075 VICTORIA TERRACE PO
 TORONTO ON M4A2W1
 OPNOTE EMAIL VA3PAW ATSIGN GMAIL DOT COM
 BT
 ARL FIFTY SIX TRIPLE PLAY
 AWARD X 73
 BT
 ADAM KM7N TPA592
 =================
 TOR: 110231Z
 

This sparked my curiosity to find out more about the NTS (National Traffic System) and also what ‘ARL 56’ may stand for as neither of that was on my ham exam. Apparently, it’s an elaborate network of humans and machines effectively handling third-party messages across the continent. Very impressive to have this still up and running in this era of fiber-optics cables and cheap internet access.

By-the-way, ARL 56 stands for ‘Congratulations on your _______, a most worthy and deserved achievement.’, so the full message (in English!) reads:

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR TRIPLE PLAY AWARD, A MOST WORTHY AND DESERVED ACHIEVEMENT.
BEST REGARDS, 
ADAM KM7N

Thank you Adam KM7N for congratulations!

ARL FIFTY THREE MESSAGE =
73 DE PAUL VA3PAW =