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