The AFRICA DX all band all mode 24 hour contest

The 2nd ALL AFRICA-DX contest

1200Z Saturday 17 September to 1200Z Sunday 18 September

The objective of this all mode contest is to stimulate contesting from Africa. All participating stations worldwide may work any country during the contest period, QSO’s with amateurs from Africa is encouraged as reflected in the higher points being awarded in the scoring mechanism. 

African DXCC entities are defined as those valid per the ARRL DXCC AF Listing published at the time of the contest.

Please note the use of the term Africa and not South Africa. We strongly encourage all African stations to take part in this event. The rules are in no way biased in favour of any one single group or country within Africa. We would like nothing better than seeing a bunch of African stations active during this 24 hour event.

This will contest will be beneficial to all concerned. The station worldwide will benefit from increased activity from Africa on all bands and modes, this will bolster their much needed empty DXCC band / mode slots. On the other hand, the Africans will benefit due to the fact that the world outside of Africa will be turning there beams towards Africa for a change and this will be a great opportunity to be at the centre of activity, with its associated benefits, pileups and hopefully finding new entities towards their own DXCC status.

Rules can be downloaded here:

http://africadxcontest.blogspot.co.za/2016/09/africa-all-modeinternational-dx-contest.html

  

A N1MM+ contest template is available here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxhBtZxalIfMFJyVXRtRkZYeGM/view?usp=sharing

With a bit of luck that this may in time become a popular annual event, I sure hope others feel the same.

CW Pileup simulation – Pileup Runner

Some years ago I discovered and wrote about the free program “Pileup Runner” created by Alex VE3NEA

I recently rediscovered and started using this fantastic tool on a regular basis.

I am a little surprized that something this good is kept under wraps. We seldom hear any reference to this program. 

This is an awesome tool to improve one’s accuracy with copying and logging of CW under very realistic on air conditions.

http://www.dxatlas.com/pileuprunner/

http://zs6a.blogspot.co.za/2012/10/cw-pileup-simulator-pileup-runner.html

Pileup Runner V1.4

Alcohol backpacking stove

EVERNEW Titanium alcohol stove

This might be of interest for my outdoorsy friends.

I bought this little alcohol stove a while ago and I am still very impressed with its performance.

The stove weighs only 34 grams. Yesterday I did a few tests to determine the efficiency of the stove.

I carefully measured out 20 ml of denatured alcohol (methylated spirits) and set it alight.

It took around 1:30 for the flame to burn as it should from both sets of holes.

A pot containing 500 ml cold water (+/- 10 Celsius) was placed on the stove at 1:30

The water boiled furiously at 7:15

All the fuel was consumed at 8:00

IMHO this is quite remarkable and efficient.

One can thus state that 20 ml of fuel is sufficient to heat water to have a noodle meal, couscous or oats and a cup of tea/coffee. 

Assuming 2 hot meals a day would mean 40 ml/day lets round that up to 50 ml/day. In other word a 5 day hike would then require only 250 ml i.e. only 250 grams of weight to carry.

The only disadvantage I can see. The flame is almost invisible when it burns during daylight. It is very difficult to know if the flame is burning or whether it has been blown out by the wind. For the record that has not happened to me yet. I am planning to make a lightweight windscreen partly for obvious reasons and secondly to concentrate the heat onto the pot so as to increace the efficiency further.

The image below was taken at dusk, the flame is near invisible in day light. 

The EVERGREEN Titanium alcohol stove