6m Virgin no more!

Last Sunday, I was chatting to John, ZS6JON on 20m. We had a nice long chat, and he told me that I should get a 6m antenna here in Zambia, because I'd be very popular.

Well, last night I had a great opening on 10m to the USA, and was on the air on 10m till about 19:15 UTC.

John had suggested that he usually puts his 6m rig on 50.110, and monitors that for openings.
After the last 10m QSO I decided to put the radio there, even though I only have an 80 - 10m Off Centre Fed Dipole, up about 12m, fed with RG58.

Imagine my surprise when I heard 9A2AA calling CQ the minute I tuned to 50.110!!

Well, to cut a story about a lot of fun short, I worked 88 QSO's with 14 different DXCC countries. Quite a few stations worked me on SSB and CW.

Stations sound "different" on 6m to me... I assume that's due to the different propogation encountered on that band.

At 20:40, as if someone flipped a switch, the band went quiet, and I went to bed.

This is fun! I'll really have to get a REAL 6m antenna. I better start hunting for a small yagi I can transport easily up here.

73

Chris

LOTW updated

Good evening,

I spend a few hours this weekend playing radio, but again not as much as I was planning or hoping to. Work (as usual), interfered with playtime!

Today I had to arrange the medical evacuation of a patient with appendicitis. He was transported by road from the mine (in gridsquare KH27xr) to Solwezi, and then flown to Lusaka, and further south to Johannesburg for surgery. This took up a lot of my day off.

I have uploaded the latest logs to LOTW, and will send the newest ADIF file to my QSL manager tomorrow.

Have a great week all!

Chris

A new radio, and a new antenna.

Greetings blog followers!

I returned to Zambia last Monday, and brought my new Yaesu FT-950 with me, as well as an Off Centre Fed Dipole for 80-10m.

On Wednesday afternoon, after work, I took down the open wire fed dipole system, and got the OCFD in place. It seems to "hear" better than the old antenna, and with time, we'll see if the transmitted signals are any better.

The FT-950 is a LOT more complex than any of the other radios I've used in the last few years, and it will take a while to get used to all the settings, filters, menu system, etc, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

The 9J2RI QSL cards have been received from the printers, and my manager has started answering the cards he's received.

Remember, the ONLY address for QSL cards is:

Chris de Beer, 9J2RI
P.O.Box 333
Bethlehem, GA 30620
USA

Please remember to include return postage, or an SASE if you are from the states. Buro cards will be answered once a years. I also upload LOTW every couple of weeks.

73 all.

Chris

Update, and travelling tomorrow

Hi everyone.

It's 23:15 local time. I've packed my bags, and emailed my latest log update to my QSL manager. I'm getting on the plane (two planes actually!) tomorrow, and heading home to South Africa for two weeks.


I was hoping to make a serious effort in the IARU HF contest, but got hit by bronchitis. This morning I even had IV antibiotics to try and clear the infection as soon as possible. It's not nice travelling when you feel sick!

Here are my totals up to now.

I've also uploaded my latest  QSO's to Logbook of The World.

I'm looking forward to going home, and spending time with Ian. He's not interested in Amateur radio as a hobby, but supports me, and helps with antenna work at home!

73 to all, and chat in two weeks' time.

Chris

Logbook of the World

LOtW has been updated.

Chris

Zambian Future plans

The client that I'm working for, has decided to change our work schedule.
We used to work 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off. With this schedule in mind, I started developing my amateur radio station at home as well. I've built the counter tops, and started looking at antennas.

When I returned from my last break, I was informed that our schedule would now be 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off. This isn't so good, as it means 25% more time at work, and 50% less time at home. But the company has agreed to adjust our contract fees, to compensate for this, so I guess that will be how it is for the foreseeable future.

This will obviously impact my amateur radio activity as well. With a lot less time at home, I've decided that I'm not going to spend much time on radio while I'm home.
I will therefore be bringing some of my new equipment that was supposed to be for the new "home station" up to Zambia, and set up a better station here.
I have a brand new Yaesu FT-950 (weblink), and I've been offered a 12m Aluminium Spiderbeam mast, as well as a Spiderbeam. If this offer materialises, I'll be having a LOT of fun here in Zambia.
I also need to look at the option of operating 6m. the FT-950 is capable of 6m operations (100w), and I hope to find a company, or ham, who will donate a portable 6m yagi.

My QSL manager has reported that cards have been arriving in the mailbox, and that he's having some basic cards printed up as a start.

Well, these are my musings for the day.

73 / 88 to all

Chris

Some activity again.

After a few days of watching movies and TV at night, instead of playing radio, I decided to jump to it again.
Sunday and Monday evenings were good. On Sunday I was on 10m till after 18:00Z, which surprised me. I didn't know the band stays open so late.
Last night I got onto 12m, and had my first run of stations from the USA. Quite a few west coast stations, and a few others as well.
It's a real pity that some European operators go out of their way to make life difficult for me and the USA stations, when I ask EU to QRX, and call USA only.  I'll soon start a black list again, to block these stations. Some of the Europeans cause deliberate interference (tuning, or strings of dits), others are stupid enough to keep sending their callsigns, regardless of the fact that I ask for USA / NA only!!


Here is the latest totals table. LoTW will be uploaded shortly as well.

Chris

A bad radio week

Hi Everyone.

This weeks has been a washout, radio-wise. I've had a few long distance evacuations to do, spent at least one night away from the mine in a town about 200km away. I had to take a patient there for specialist treatment and consultation, and ended up spending the night in a hotel. (Luckily it was a very nice hotel! - Protea Hotel - Chingola - Zambia )

Tonight was my colleague, Emma's farewell, so also didn't get around to radio.

I'll probably go to bed soon, and make tomorrow a radio day.

Sleep well.

Logbook of the World upload done

I have just finished uploading the first file of Zambian contacts to LoTW.

Thanks to Kathy, KA1RWY, from the ARRL LoTW help desk for assisting with the problem that I had. About +- 550 QSO's uploaded, and already 29 DXCC credits waiting!

I think LoTW is great!

Till next time.

Chris

Weekend activity

Hi blog-followers (I know of at least Pierre!)

It's 21:00 on Sunday evening, and time for bed. I get up at 0500 in the morning to get ready for work.
Here's a table of the band activity to date here in Zambia. I'll post one of these tables at least once a week.

Have a great week, and I'll hopefully make a few QSO's every day.

73


 Chris

Activity update Saturday, 17 June 2011.

During the week I spent my evenings (and a few hours in the office) replying to all the direct EL8RI QSL cards that I'd received. There were MANY, but I have now finally finished all of them. The cards will be mailed when I get back to South Africa mid-July. Buro cards are the next batch to tackle. I need to look for a program that has a user friendly label generating function.

Last night was the first time that I've had a chance to get on the air since arriving back in Zambia on Monday.
I spent the first while checking the new station equipment (Icom IC-706, MFJ-949E Tuner) and writing down all the settings for the various bands, with my multi-band antenna.

Conditions seemed good, and I made about 90 QSO's on 12 and 15m CW. A shout on 17m SSB, yielded a contact there as well.

After a nice pile-up, I took a break for dinner, and then I decided to listen for my South African friends on SSB. The 20m band was closed though, so I'll try again over the weekend, earlier in the day.

I hope to keep this blog up to date regularly.

Have a good weekend.

A new Blog is born

For a while now, I've been following Pierre's Blog, and thought I should do something similar.

I have been a radio amateur since 1991, when I was first licensed as ZR6TAA, and after a 5wpm morse code test, also as ZU1TAA (All ZU's were ZU1's in those years).

In 1993, I passed my 12 word per minute morse code test with Peter Leonard (ZS5PHL) in Pinetown. Peter was a Post Office radio inspector, and also did the exam for my Marine Radio license the same afternoon. I was VERY nervous, but all went well, and a few weeks later I was on the air as ZS6RI.

I love operating as the DX station, rather than chasing the DX. I have operated with the following calls.
3DA0Z - Member of the team that took part in the 1994 CQWW contest from Swaziland.
ZS8IR - Operated from Marion Island for a year while stationed on the Island as medic.
ZK1XXP - Invited by the Dateline DX Association to be a member of the team activating the North Cook Islands.
KF6NOF - My American General Class license callsign
5H9IR - I used this call during two six month postings in Tanzania
ZD9IR - Active for a year from Gough Island, where I was medic and Team leader for the expedition.
EL8RI - Active from Liberia while working there for about 7 months.
9J2RI - This is my current callsign in north western Zambia, where I work as Senior Paramedic on one of the world's largest Copper mines.

I have enjoyed my Amateur radio hobby a lot, and hope to continue doing so for many years ahead.

I will be using this space to update all my radio friends about operation wherever I am.
I hope you will all enjoy it, and feel free to comment.

Chris