Amateur Radio for profit: QSL scammers

This is not a new topic, but it is one that cannot be ignored.  There seems to be an alarming number of amateurs causing untold frustration when it comes to replying to QSLs.

I have wasted enough time and money pursuing QSL cards from these individuals wich seemingly receive our cards with the included return postage (green stamps), but have no intention of sending their card in return.

There are a few warning signs and maybe we need to be aware that the chances of receiving a QSL card in return are slim:

• Most of the guilty ones are resident in the country and not visitors on an expedition.
• The do not use LoTW, but often have fancy profiles on QRZ.com
• They do not use QSL managers.
• Often, no email address is listed.
• If they have email addresses, they do not reply to queries.
• Googling these calls, often helps to reveal the frustrations of others.

I am pretty tired of being ripped off by these con artists.

Maybe the DX fraternity should unite: No LoTW no QSO ……..

DX Expeditions – The way forward

Recently I stumbled across something which I believe is totally unique and IMHO the best thing since ice cream with regards to trip reports and feedback from the DX expeditions.

Well it actually is not new at all, but for some strange reason it has not become popular yet.

I am referring to trip reports from the DX expeditions using e-books (e.g. Kindel) I have just downloaded the e-book "3B7C The Saint Brandon DXpedition 2007" from Amazon.com

The 3B7C trip report is now available on my iPad and that will be my bedtime reading material for the next few days.

This is right up my alley; plenty photos with short bits of anecdotal information. IMHO this is way better than any video. I believe this is possibly the best way to create a bit of revenue to pay some of the cost incurred and to fund future expeditions.

Best off all creating a e-book does not require one to be some fancy author with literary skills. This is well within the capabilities of the average radio amateur.

I certainly hope this idea/concept will become more popular in the future.

Special event call – ZS9 MADIBA

No doubt everyone is aware that one of South Africa’s icons has passed away.

ZS9MADIBA is the South African Radio League Special Event Station commemorating the life and recent passing of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, elder statesman and first democratically-elected President of the Republic of South Africa. Affectionately referred to as “Madiba”, he became one of the most recognised leaders in the world and was instrumental in the peaceful transition of South Africa from minority rule to a constitutional democracy. South Africans join the people of the world in mourning his passing and celebrating his legacy.

 Permission to run a special event with the call ZS9MADIBA was obtained and I was one of the lucky ones to use the call today on 10m CW.

The info on QRZ.com is incorrect, for some reason the person managing the call cannot edit the information. The call is legal and in use and will be for a while yet.

I managed to make 308 QSOs, I could have worked many more, but alas the DSP processor between my ears did not perform as needed. It had great difficulty distinguishing between the various callers. The QRM and poor behaviour did not help either.

I guess there is no point in moaning, it won’t change anything.

Sure is fun facing the pile-up, I recon it could become addictive?

Blast from the past: TEP Research ZE2JV

I found this gem of an article in the QST archive:

Transequatorial Propagation of VHF Signals

By RG Cracknell ZE2JV

December 1959

This article dates back to the peak of solar cycle 19; it was the best solar cycle in recorded history.

Considering that this was written in 1959 one can surely assume that 6m equipment was a rarity and not too many radio amateurs would have been equipped with 6m gear. The equipment that existed most likely was insensitive and noisy not nearly as capable as the equipment at our disposal today.

Amongst other things the article shows the TEP footprint as show below. Today we have hundreds of keen 6m enthusiasts and we have great tools at our disposal including electronic logs which can be “mined” to extract data such as grid locators information from, which in turn can be plotted on maps.

Unfortunately we still don’t have many 6m enthusiasts in South Africa, but I believe that we do have sufficient experience to believe that the foot print appears to be accurate.

I will re-read the article carefully to see if there are any anomalies. The one thing I did notice is that what has become known as afternoon -TEP (a-TEP) is not accounted for. The article refers to openings occurring after 16:30 UTC, we often have openings starting as early as 12:00 UTC.

The research done in 1959 is simply awesome; it is a pity that the research seems to have stagnated.

6m TEP Footprint EU - ZS