Stealth antenna

What you see on the photo (click on photo to enlarge) is no tree, but a groundplane antenna with a growing Humulus/hop. Hop grows very fast, almost 6 cm a day. It makes the antenna very stealth. I saw this photo on QRZ.com by UR5EFX. This morning I made my first entry in QRZ Logbook. It looks very nice. The first station was R7AA Vasiliy from Krasnodar in Russia, I worked him on 20 meter with 10 watt CW. It was one of the few stations I heard on 20 meter so far. I used my shortened Falcon 250B. It seems to work OK on 20 meter and higher. I am curious what it will do when propagations are good. Critics say that the Falcon 250B in full length doesn't radiate. But I like to challenge the antenna laws. So far the antenna radiates. The length of the falcon now is 3,5 meter without radials.

Here are the results for June 2010. A little bit disappointing, isn't it?

Backup, backup

I took this picture in the near of our village. When it's hot I go biking, because it's better then in the backyard. We have a lot of this old mills. A typical Dutch phenomenon. I lost my callbook entries for June. I didn't make a backup lately and the Excel file was corrupted. Fortunately, I mansion all the qso's on my blog. I should make a backup every week. At the moment there are good tropo conditions on 2 meter. I do hear a lot of repeaters from Belgium and Germany also.

Today and yesterday almost no sporadic E reflections on 10 and 6 meter. Even with WSPR today on 20 meter my dx was only 3200 km. I give QRZ logbook a try. I start today with the free version. I am no paying member.

Hot, hot, hot

Today the temperatures are above 30C. It's very hot here, in the living it's 28C. But the temperatures will rise when the Dutch win this afternoon against Slovakia. I hope we don't have a incompetent referee who will spoil the party. I think England had a good change in the first 45 minutes. But the referee from Uruguay made a big mistake. Let's see what happens this afternoon. (Sorry, no ham radio today...)

Before I go to sleep I made 3 qso's: RA4HTD on 40 meter with PSK31, IW5EID on 80 meter with PSK31 and OL12ØORT on 40 meter with CW.

Widgetless

I noticed that my webpage opens up very slowly. I wonder what that could be. Now I know, it is the widgets in the sidebar. I reduced my Blogroll with the latest five updates and deleted many other widgets. If you think that I don’t follow your blog any-more: I have all your blogs in my Google RSS reader. No problem at all. Also Youtube videos makes the page slow. When I have 7 postings on the page with videos it will be very slow. Even with a fast Internet (Broadband) connection. Now I placed only 5 messages on the main page. That will do. It’s very hot today, I stay in the shadow. My Gmail account was hacked by someone in China. I must change my password which I did. Have a nice Sunday.

What to do?

What to do this weekend? The weather is fine, sunny and temperatures above 25 C. I could go biking, walking the dog, or lay down in the backyard with a cold beer. I am home alone. The XYL is to a funeral, because an aunt of hers died. The kids are out somewhere. I could do some ham radio, but it’s too hot. Also there are several contests this weekend: SSB contest The King of Spain, RTTY and PSK31 contest Ukrainian Digi contest and CW Marconi Memorial Contest. You don’t like contests? Then you have to move to the WARC bands. Then we have the World Cup 2010 matches today. I like to watch them too. I did the groceries early this morning , so this is done. Now I have to decide what to do...

I like this song.

Commtel 102 scanner

I found in an old box the Commtel programmable scanner for VHF/UHF. I has been a long time I used this for listening to police and paramedic transmissions. Now I use it for scanning local repeaters on 2 meter and 70 cm. I didn't have much time for radio, only a few minutes. I checked 10 meter and worked Eddy MØEDY from Exmouth, England on 28120 KHz. Tonight I'll watch Cameroon v Netherlands at 20.30 local time.

Downsizing

I am gonna sell my Yaesu FT-450. Why using a QRO rig when I always transmit with 5 or 10 watt. Just like Dick N2UGB said: "I decided that it was silly running it at 5 watts full-time when it was capable of 100 watts. As for performance, it was no better than my FT-817ND which is now back on the desk." [link] At the moment my FT817nd is my main rig again. I love that lil' devil. The FT-450 is on Marktplaats (A sort of Dutch eBay) and Doutzen Kroes is back! I love that beautiful picture as a background on my blog. My daughter saw it and says: what site are you looking at? 'My site,' I said.

Tonight I worked on 40 meter with 2,5 watt PSK31: RW3AF Alex from Moscow, Russia 2143 km. And a mobile station in Italy IØ/S5ØAL/M Andi. The second part of the qso was lost because of qrm and qsb.

Back from France

I was for two days in France (Lariviére Arnoncourt) to help friends moving out of there. 20 hours of driving all together. My friends lived there for almost 5 years and now they come back to the Netherlands. I had no time to reply on some comments, because I was gone this weekend. Today I was listening on 6 meters, I heard IØSNY Nicola and I could work hime with my 5 watt SSB after a few times of calling. I got a 55 report. Also worked IK5GQK (Photo) Fabrizio from Firenze, Italy. Again 55 report. My antenna is not really good for 6 meter, but it's funny that I could work them. Tonight I worked RZ1OA/P Vlad from Sosnovets Island (2492 km) and GØKDJ Jim from Widnes, England both with 5 watt CW. Tonight I worked RZ1OA/P1 also on 20 meter with 5 watt SSB. On 40 meter I worked HBØ/OU4U Marc from Liechtenstein with 5 watt SSB and a big pile up.

Old stuff

Clip is from the classic film titled "Love Finds Andy Hardy" (1939). Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) uses a local Ham Operator to send an urgent message to Canada. I love that old classic films stuff. You can feel the wonder and magic of wireless transmission. Enjoy this weekend. This afternoon The Netherlands is off line, because The Dutch soccer team plays against the Japanese team.

I listen to Donald Fagen this morning (The Nightfly album) Listen to: New Frontier.

If the Dutch dress is not allowed...

Then this is a possible destination for the Dutch dress: use it for keeping your beer cold. Last night I worked DK8CX Arnim from Calau, Germany on 40 meter with PSK31.

Orange dresses

Why all that fuss about orange dresses? Nothing wrong with the orange dress. A good action of Bavaria, only the beer is nothing, I don't like it. I prefer Amstel beer.

It looks wonderful, those blondes with orange dresses.

QRZ fails

Service limit exceeded: Too many lookups in this time period.
Please try again later.
What the f***, how can I change my QRZ template without looking what the results are. I never had this before. I wonder what happens when someone have to add a lot of qso’s in the qrz.com logbook. A good reason for not using the qrz.com logbook. Very annoying.

With 10 watt PSK31 I worked DK1MHW on 20 meter, and US7KC and F5NMK on 40 meter.

New template

Regular visitors have spotted my tests with new templates. Finally I had a photo of Doutzen Kroes, best export product of the Dutch, as a background picture on my blog. But, it is of course not radio related and maybe too sexy for my blog. Now I do have a space picture as a background. I like the new features of Blogger, to personalize your blog. It is not too difficult to place another picture from your own collection for instance. You have to upload the photo first, select the code, and then cut and paste into the template.

Yesterday I made one qso with DL2IAD, on 40 meter, he was calling CQ with a electronic keyer. Or maybe as a macro in his set. When I called him he came back with a straight key. His hand was not all too straight so it was difficult to copy all of the transmitted text. Never mind, every one has it's own way of keying. But it is sometimes hard to copy. Maybe I am too old for learning CW for 100%. After many years of qrt I lost my tempo of reading fast CW. It is not like 30 years ago. I wonder if I should go on with struggling CW. I like PSK31 and a lot of other digimodes. I picked up CW for two years now, but I am still not back at the old level. Maybe I have to persist...

Blue screen

There are things you don't want to see: a blue screen. Since yesterday I get a blue screen when I start Ham Radio de Luxe, or Fldigi, or Digipan. The computer restart automatically but every time I start one of these programs I get a blue screen and the computer turns off. I don't know what the problem is. I have a brand new computer with Windows 7. In the beginning I was afraid that these programs are not compatible with Windows 7. But for two weeks HRD runs without problems, but now... Does anybody know what the problem is? (The blue screen on the photo is a photo from the Internet, not mine)

Update: I solved the problem. I have disabled the RS-232 serial cable, install Registry Booster, let it run and and fixes a lot of problems. I install Fldigi and it runs fine. I hope the problem is over now, because I like PSK31 very much.

I watch the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The Netherlands - Denmark was not a great match, but they won after all. In between I made a nice SSB qso on 40 meter this morning with PDØHM Henri from Hoogeveen. I did hear a lot of Dutch stations. And 10 watt was enough to reach the other end of the Netherlands with short skip. On 10 meter I worked 9A4WY with CW and IK2WXV on 12 meter also with CW, both with 10 watt.

Noise

It is a little bit silent here. Nothing much to do. Just installing the most important software on my new computer. Conditions on HF are very poor. Sometimes I call CQ but most of the time I am not heard at day time. So I did some WSPR. Even there is no DX really. This afternoon I worked R6AF/P with CW on 20 meter. It is a DX station on Sudzhuk Island IOTA EU-185 . With WSPR on 20 only UA3ARC 2146 km. That’s it. The weather is rainy for the last few days. Some thunderstorms and lightning. Yesterday I vote for a new government. The political circus is over, thank god.

I changed my call sign again

PC4T is no longer my call sign. Some people think that I am crazy for changing the call sign over again. But finally I want my first, old call sign back. It feels so familiar, so well known. Now when I am more on 2 meter and 70 cm I came across radio amateurs who know me with my old call sign, and I feel a kind of odd to have a new call sign which is still not really my own. So back to my roots. PAØPSY is the call sign I got in 1976. Please change my call sign in your blogroll if you have me on your list. Thank you.

I have a new computer. A Windows 7, with a Intel Core i5 Processor 2,67 GHz. 1000 GB hard drive. I've been very busy this weekend to install all my documents and software I need. Now it's ready. It's works terrific, very fast machine.

Noctilucent clouds

Could noctilucent clouds reflect radio waves? Just like Es? Is there a correlation between Es and noctilucent clouds? Noctilucent clouds are known to exhibit high radar reflectivity, in a frequency range of 50 MHz to 1.3 GHz. [read more] “There is a well-known correlation between noctilucent clouds and the solar cycle. NLC activity tends to peak during (and just after) years of solar minimum, possibly because low solar activity allows the upper atmosphere to cool, promoting the growth of ice crystals that make up the clouds.” [Spaceweather.com] Late spring and summer are the best seasons to watch these clouds. Just look at the western sky 15 – 30 minutes after sunset on a clear day without ‘normal’ clouds. I hope I can photograph the clouds myself this year.

Read more about Noctilucent clouds.

12 meter

This afternoon I was for a short while on 12 meter. I worked DL8XDA Val from Stuttgart, Germany. Also DK1ROB (see photo) from Munich, Germany. I was running 60 watts SSB, and I ask Rob if he was willing to do a test. I was turning down my power, I started with 60 watt I was 57, with 30 watt 56, with 20 watt 55, with 10 watt 54 and with 5 watt 52. So 20 watt is enough under poor conditions. In my logbook at QRZ.com I saw coming in MØJEK Andre, on 15 meter CW, but I was not QRV on 15 meter, maybe he heard me on 12 meter?