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Welcome to a new year with the sun at or near maximum activity. Hopefully there will be some favourable propagation on the HF bands, and some on the 'magic' low VHF bands too.
I started off the year with no targets, so I have worked anything that comes along into my Christmas present - a new log book, No22. The first contact of note was with GB2HNY closely followed by Phil using G5RV. It must have been 10 years since it was last aired! Just a few days later Rob gave it a second session with great success.
Ignoring the USA as DX, the first one in the log was VU2MSA, in the evening I bagged ZD7CTO, D2UY, PY2AST, and 5 US calls. The 2nd bought more; BY0AB, TF3VE, J75K, J69DS, and HI8S all mixed in with many Europeans. The 3rd increased my DXCC score to 50 for the year, then the sun threw a wobbly that lasted the best part of a week, with rotten conditions. However, the 5th saw Rob (M0KPD/M) airing G5RV again. On the 6th I thought I’d try FT4 for a test and worked 9 DXCCs in just under half an hour.
The sun conditions finally settled, and on the 9th bought in No 75 for the year. Conditions have been far from favourable but there have been short windows of good DX, and on the 18th, I reached 100. Of note, as the hash subsided, I got VK8NSB, DP0GVN, and ZS4JAN. This gave me all 7 continents worked in just over 3 days.
I don’t know if anyone else came across these stations suffixed 'WWA' during January? A large group of stations created an activity that was to encourage band usage. I didn't try very hard to work them but did when I heard one. The award certificate shows that there were 153,539 chasers and I’m only No 8,114.
As the month came to a close, we had the sad news that Ken, G3WYN, our club president and master net controller has been forced to restrict his activities due to health issues. Ken has run the lunch-time net since 1979, long before I was licensed! A quick search of my log shows over 2,000 contacts with him. However, he is hoping to continue with the Sunday morning net so will be with us for some time yet.
As some of you might know my radio is an Elecraft K3 (an early one with a couple of updates) that was thought to be the best available at the time. Following a recent discussion about the latest offerings from Japan I thought I would look up my records - only to find that the K3 is 17 years old!
Looking at some of the newer radios on offer I decided that the K3 is now a bit outdated by comparison with the SDR base stations that have finally caught it up. Unfortunately, there is no longer any K3 manufacturer support in the UK, so a failure risks me being without a radio for quite a time.
One Japanese manufacturer not only has pretty coloured brochures on its web site, but a full back-up of technical manuals and reports as well. That, and a full importer’s support makes a change worth making. So, now is the time to look in the piggy bank and maybe a visit to 'The Toy Shop' before something goes 'pop', the shack fills with smoke and the XYL complains about having to scrape soot off the ceiling!
Good DXing,
Chris, G4ZCS
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Please be aware that Mid Sussex District Council have changed the charging times for Cyprus Road car park, and fees are now payable until 8pm - so you'll have to pay for an hours parking each and every Friday club night!
Don't get caught out. It would be a painful experience.
Reference: https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/parking-travel/parking/
Might I suggest that the committee consider changing the club meeting start time back to 8pm?
Berni M0XYF
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Those of you who read this column regularly will know that I use 60m (5 meg) for many of my FT8 contacts. This band was introduced about 15 years ago as an experiment, allowing us limited use of vacant military frequencies.
This was based on the USA system called MARS, Military Auxiliary Radio System. This allowed amateurs to use US air force frequencies in support of their communications network in times of need.
November was the 70th anniversary of this, with 14 special event stations on the air. I managed to hear most of them but could only manage to work two, probably due to our power limit of 100W here in the UK. The image below shows the activation certificate.
Another, but most important anniversary was the 100th of the first direct contact between UK and New Zealand on the 18 October 1924. I managed to work both ends of this during the 90th however only the UK end this time with David Goyder, nephew of Cecil and a student at Mill Hill School. The QSL card has photos of both the operators and a map of the world highlighting the radio gear.
The beginning of December bought in my 221st DXCC for 2024, my best ever, beating 195 in 2014. However, I am still trying to get the all-time score over 300!
Using 15m in the late afternoons and 60m in the evenings, I have worked more USA stations than I care to count. I have a chart of the US grid squares that I use to mark contacts, and there are now very few that are still blank. I doubt I will ever work them all, which reminds me that I log every county that I can get information on. There are 3077 in all - a huge number - but with a score of just over 1,000 I’m well on my way. [Ever tried GridTracker Chris? - Berni]
On the 20th I was monitoring 15m FT8 when a German call popped up. It did not seem to be one of the regulars, so I persisted with a contact and worked Alex, DP0GVN at the Neumayer III research station on Antarctica. Last month I said Tierra del Fuego was probably as far south as you can work, well this beat that at 70.5 deg South with a balmy summer temperature of –2 deg C.
Something I have found working the US is that most of the stations worked have high towers dominating their property, rather than the blue wire in a tree that we use. When I worked my 1,000th county with KE8RFE, I looked up his locator, translated it to Google Earth and saw a lattice tower the best part of 80ft tall!
So, a quick summary of the year; I finally worked 224 DXCCs (an all-time best for me, that would have got me the DXCC with extra stickers) of which 146 were islands (which would have qualified for the basic IOTA award) including many new ones, mostly in the Pacific area. All this as the sun cycle has been near the maximum for this cycle.
I wonder what 2025 will bring?
Happy New Year and good DXing,
Chris, G4ZCS
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Late last year, the committee discussed a proposal from several people, that the club allow registered members the individual use of our famous callsign, Louis Varney's G5RV. It's registered as a club call, along with G1ZMS and G3ZMS, but rarely gets an outing these days.
Phil G4UDU gave it a good airing on new year's day, and from what I gather, made around 170 contacts.
This Sunday, Rob M0KPD will be giving it an even more serious workout, running though most bands from 80m on up, starting at the most refreshing time of 3am through to the early evening. Look out for him, and perhaps check the cluster and give him a spot. I think Rob is very excited to use the call - his comment on Friday's lunchtime net was 'I was BORN for this!'
Well done Rob. Your patience has paid off 👍
When I get a chance, I'll be adding a facility to the website so that you can see which members have a reservation for using the callsign and when. I'll also be publishing details of how you can have a go, and the protocols that have been put in place for it's use. Be aware though, that you will almost certainly be facing the biggest pileup you've ever experienced, so not for the faint-hearted!
It's a special callsign, and we should respect its usage, but by the same token, I'm very pleased that it will once again be heard around the world, and fly the flag for Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Society.
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Dick G0LFF sent me a few interesting photos on his return from holiday this week, and they are definitely worth sharing. Dick commented:
'I met up with Derek ZB2CW, ex G4BLX, in Gibraltar during our winter cruise this year'.
'Derek used to live on the right as you drive up Ditchling Beacon. Anybody calling into Gibraltar can call Derek through the 2M repeater ZB2BU which Derek monitors while driving his tour bus.
We did some 6M contests together with stacked five element Tonna Yagis, including the MSARS VHF Field Days'.
It is not hard to work out Derek’s preferred mode of radio operations with his present callsign.
Dick G0LFF