30 October 2022

The bands were full - Ham Spirit Contest

 

HAM SPIRIT CONTEST

“ No political, religious, military or commercial
purposes are pursued in the amateur radio service”.
The Amateur’s Code by Paul M. Segal, W9EEA (1928)

Based on the radio amateur code,
the «Central Siberia DX-club» decided to establish
the Ham Spirit Contest.

Contest Period:

Two Ham Spirit Contests will be held annually.

CW Ham Spirit Contest:
Start: October 29, 2022 at 06:00 UTC.
End: October 30, 2022 at 05:59 UTC.
Bands: 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m.

SSB Ham Spirit Contest:
Start: November 26, 2022 at 06:00 UTC.
End: November 27, 2022 at 05:59 UTC.
Bands: 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m.

Objective:

Radio amateurs from all over the world who have a radio amateur license are invited to participate.
The goal is to improve amateur operating skills by conducting 2-way radio communications with as many amateur radio stations around the world and from as many ITU Zones and square Fields of the QTH Locator as possible on the HF bands.

Entry Categories:

Single Operator Category:
a) SOAB - High Power: Total Output Power must not exceed operator’s license limits
b) SOAB - Low Power: Total Output Power must not exceed 100 Watts
c) SO Single Band: Low and High power - single nomination. Competitors may operate on all bands, but only on one of them can apply.
One person (the operator) performs all operating and logging functions.
The entrants may use QSO finding assistance technology or other source that provides call sign or multiplier identification such as CW decoder, DX cluster, DX spotting Web sites, e.g.
There is no limit on band changes.
Single operator stations are only allowed one transmitted signal at any given time.

Multi Operator, Single Transmitter, High Power
Only one transmitting signal is allowed at any given time.
Exception: One, and only one, other transmitted signal may be used if it is on a different band from the run transmitter and the station worked is a new multiplier.
There is no limit on band changes.

Alternate CQs on two or more frequencies using the same band is prohibited.
Output power (PEP) is limited by the terms of the owner's license.

All operators must comply with the rules governing the operation of amateur radio stations in their country.

Contest Exchange:

Exchange number consists of a signal report RS(T), number of their ITU zone and QTH locator square Field.
Examples: 599 27JN, 599 28JN, 599 42MM, 599 42MN, 599 32NO, 599 32OO. The ITU zone and
Squares Fields should not have separation to put them into log.

Scoring:

The QSO with station in your own ITU zone, regardless of the square, count one (1) point.
The QSO within your continent but with a different ITU zone count three (3) points.
The QSO with a different continent and ITU zone count five (5) points.
The QSOs with /MM stations count three (3) points regardless of where they are.

Multipliers:

The multipliers on each band are various combinations of ITU zones and Squares Fields. Examples: 27JN, 28JN, 42MN, 42MM, 32NO, 32OO are six different multipliers.

Final score:

The final score is a result of Total QSO Points multiplied by the total sum of worked multipliers.

Logs Submission:

Logs are accepted ONLY in electronic form in CABRILLO format.
Logs are loaded through the Web interface of the site https://www.ua9qcq.com.
All LOGS must be sent WITHIN SEVEN (7) CALENDAR DAYS after the end of the contest.
Any log received after this date is accepting for CHECKLOG only.

QSOs are not counted in the following cases:

- if the QSO is not confirmed by the correspondent's logs;
- if there are errors in the call signs or/and in the received control number;
- the QSO time differs by more than 3 minutes in correspondent's logs;
- if no report is received from the correspondent or/and the correspondent is “unique” (call sign
occurs in less than 3 contest logs);

Awards

Plaques are awarded to participants who performs the best three results in each of the categories.
Electronic certificates will be awarded to everyone who submits an entry.
The winners of the multiplier territories (Examples: 27JN, 42MN, 32OO … etc.) in each Entry Category will be awarded by еlectronic certificates
Amateur radio or other organization, as well as individual radio amateurs, may establish and sponsor their own awards.

Contest software:

N1MM, N1MM+, TR4W, DXLOG, 5MC, AA-test. And any other loggers adapted for the HAM SPIRIT contest.

Identifier QTH locator Sector:

30 September 2022

This is wrong!

This is wrong! Very wrong!




A company, run by hams doing things that a ham should not do: calling to punish other hams for what their government is doing!


What if we call for punish against Israelian hams?

What if we call for punish against Argentinian hams?

What if we call for punish against Venezuelan hams?

What if, we call for punish against American hams?


I understand the pain of Ukrainian hams that cannot "cannot go on air or leave the country to visit exhibitions and participate in contests due to the martial law in the country" but to punish other radioamateurs for this unfortunate situation is wrong! Very wrong!

Why not punish the Chinese hams? After all, China is NOT supporting Ukraine!

Or, to simplify, why not punish the hams from ALL countries that not support Ukraine? Because, you know, there are such countries in the World!


Stop doing racist things in ham's world, please!


20 August 2022

Home made HF PWR/SWR-meter - revisited

Three years ago I played with a Stockton Bridge and made (just because I had it on my shelf) a nice portable HF power meter and SWR meter with cross-needles.

In the first iteration, it was meant to work with QRP radios; it has an impressive 5-600 mW range but on a second thought, I though what if I can use it for a broader range.

And I put a double potentiometer to change the range. 

But that was not a reliable solution because the range was somehow too "variable" and I never knew the real power.

So, a new iteration was born.


The PWR and the SWR voltage came from the Stockton bridge to a set of 2 x 4 * 1 MOhm potentiometers that will set the range for each position on the switch.

The switch is a dual pole-4 position and the ranges will be 10 W, 50 W, 100W and 200 W.















The calibration was made with a NRP-Z11 power sensor. While it is not a very reliable measurement tool, it helps to see the approximative value of the average or CW power. The 10W scale is pretty precise but the others are not so good.
The values are consistent through 1.5 MHz - 80 MHz.




04 August 2022

ADSB on RaspberryPi

 Playing with Raspi and ADSB.

I made a little box to put it on a pole at my second location.




The antenna is a double helix, housed into a PVC pipe.

Testing in Bucharest on the balcony, it looks well!

50-100-150 km range circles.



Note to myself:

25 May 2022

ICOM IC-7100 E Extended frequency Mod

Our EmComm group ( RVSU ) is using  the IC-7100 from ICOM as primary HF Radio.

We therefore must be able to use it on the full range of frequency so we "mod" it. 

Actually, we modified the configuration diode matrix so the radio will TX from 

0.1 MHz - 199.999 MHz and

400 - 470 MHz.

It will still not transmitt AM on the VHF and UHF.


ATTENTION!

-The modification cand damage your radio!

-Do not transmitt out of the authorisation privileges!

-I have no responsibility for what are YOU doing with YOUR radio.

Pictures are said to worth thousand words, so I give you two thousand:

Before


After




The removed diodes are soldered on one side of the pads just to have them handy when the mod will be reversed (if needed).



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