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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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Today sees the release of the annual GCHQ Christmas puzzle-teaser. See how you get on with this multi-layered conundrum.
There are a few dots and dashes to give some of you old-school radio types a bit of a head start, although apparently it takes more than experience, raw IQ or a direct hotline to Santa to solve all the facets of this years quiz.
If fact, GCHQ's Director Anne Keast-Butler says 'The challenge has been designed for a mix of minds to solve, so is best tackled in groups of classmates, families or friends. Whether you have an analytical mind, a creative brain or prefer engineering, there's something for everyone'.
I was intrigued to watch the BBC's tightly-chaperoned visit to GCHQ's Cheltenham headquarters on breakfast TV this morning, where I was pleased to observe that the reporter didn't exactly go easy on any of the interviewees, bringing up issues of mass-surveillance and even mentioning Mr Snowden at one point! Cheeky devil. Well worth a watch if you can find it on iPlayer or wherever.
You can view and download this years challenge resources on the GCHQ website, where you'll find the seven increasingly tricky tasks. I managed the first one, but then I was unexpectedly called away on urgent business... 🤔
Good luck, and Happy Christmas to all MSARS members!
Berni M0XYF
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Barry SA7GDB has sent across this photo of his shack, which is inside a caravan, inside a barn! Send us a photo of your shack if you're brave enough...
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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In the first few days of the month, I did some mopping up of stations not yet worked in 2024. The haul included; 3DA0, XT2, 5A1, VK9, and 4U1UN.
Immediately following the UN contact I was called by K4CY, a regular from the old days in Kuwait. Bob is the author of my logging program 'Logger 32', quite an honour!
With the onset of the darker evenings and the absence of DX on the higher bands, 15m is dying off earlier so I have returned to 60m.
At last. On the 7th I worked my final grid square for all France. As I suspected, having used the QRZ look-up pages, I found that there is only one operator in that square, so probably a bit rare!
On the 11th I worked S9Z for a new one this year and another IOTA. This was followed immediately after by FS/EA8DBM in the Caribbean for another! The 19th also bought a new island. 3G7X appeared to be a bit busy, so I joined the CW pileup and to my surprise got a 59 report. As usual having worked him, I then looked up QRZ to see where he was and found another new IOTA. If you fancy a challenge, try & find Chiloe Island (clue, its South America).
When I was a kid, the old black & white films portrayed the USA first nation Indians as living in the 'wild west' however a recent contact proves that they actually occupied the whole of America. My contact was with W0W a station celebrating the Mississippi Pow Wow. I can recommend looking at their QRZ.com page for the details.
As the month draws to a close, the surprises come in thick and fast. On the 20th in a little over 10 minutes I bagged Tierria del Fuego for a new island - SA-008, probably the furthest south you can work. This was followed by OX7AKT on Greenland for NA-018 at the opposite end of the globe. Then a few minutes after that HD8CW on the Galapagos Islands for SA-004 out in the Pacific and my 215th DXCC for this year.
The weekend of the 23rd & 24th was the CQWW CW contest. Just like the SSB version, it was a free for all with only the zone report of interest. Another haul, but as I was feeling a bit low I struggled with the CW pileups and pronounced 'ringing' of received signals. Several times I called really bad incoming signals only to receive '5 9 xx' so this problem is probably at my end. I must look into this further! However, the end result was nothing special with 19 zones and 17 IOTAs from 92 QSOs. If asked, I might submit a check log but it was not worth a full entry.
Every time I work a US station I look up their grid square, state, & county which I load into the electronic log. From the beginning of the year I worked all 50 states, virtually every square in the eastern US and most of the western ones. As for counties, as there are over 3,000 of them, I will count them at the end of the year!
As this is my last bit before the year-end, may I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a New Year full of DX.
Chris, G4ZCS
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John Portune W6NBC gives a talk to MSARS members on building and using a simple and effective RF detector.
He also offers advice on how to resolve issues of common mode current with chokes.
Many thanks to John for sharing his experience and knowledge. Whilst there may not have been many members in attendance on the evening, many more will undoubtedly benefit from watching the video now uploaded to YouTube.
Find a link on our Videos page.
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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I managed to get along to the Autumn 'Junk Sale' of previously loved equipment. It was great to meet up with many of the club members and friends. In one box of bits, I saw lurking a bit of mechanical wizardry, the drive assembly from an Edison wax cylinder recorder/player. This came from one of the many models made around 1886. Now that’s junk?
On the 6th I finally made my target of 200 DXCCs in a year. This one was an island off Brazil - not too rare but with huge pileups on FT8 and SSB, I got him on SSB with 200W and the blue wire loop.
I have been trying to sort myself out by checking my QSL cards, ClubLog, and LOTW for the many islands I have worked over the years but not claimed. The result is another 15 added to my score and qualification for the 400-island award (to be claimed in the new year together with some recently worked ones, yet to be confirmed).
On the 15th I worked G2SZ from Southampton. This station is run by David Goyder, nephew of Cecil who as a young man worked UK to ZL for the first time in 1924.
The last weekend of October sees the annual CQWW SSB contest, a great free-for-all with no on-air score, just a location zone exchange. I know that several other club members were active so it will be interesting to hear how they did? I could not make out how to check my score, but I made a submission anyway. My scores included 106 QSOs to 23 zones, 50 DXCCs and 18 IOTAs. Some interesting contacts gave credence to my earlier comments about 15 metre propagation following the sun from morning to nighttime. The usual problems of over-driven transmitters and splatter made things tough going but it was worth the effort, and I am glad I got involved and I enjoyed the challenges.
Unfortunately, due to health problems in the family the month finished on a quiet note as radio had to take second place. However the postman finally delivered my IOTA North America certificate - now to find some wall space to show it off!
As I write this, more DX has appeared, so more next month.
Good DXing
Chris, G4ZCS
