Playing in the big league….

I am extremely honoured and pleased that I was invited to join the ZS9X contest team for the upcoming CQ-WPX SSB and CW contests for 2012. Most likely, to take part as a Multi Two station.

The ZS9X contest station is by far the most prestigious and capable station in Southern Africa. The station is well situated a few kilometers outside of Bloemfontein and has a number of very tall towers and large antennas.

Heck, I am very pleased with this development. This is a great opportunity for me to learn from our top contest operators. 

For those that might want to see more: http://www.qrz.com/db/ZS9X

I guess I'll  have to spend a lot of time with “Morse Runner” in the next few months. I would hate to blow this opportunity due to poor performance from my side.

Not sure who are on the team yet, but some of the regular operators are: Bernie ZS4TX, Chris ZS6RI, Chris ZS6EZ and John ZS4S and they are all very experienced in contesting.

It will be a big challenge for me changing from contesting in the slow lane to being a team member of a “Big Gun” contest station.

73, Pierre ZS6A

Morse code – Belongs to the past.

I guess the title of this posting must have evoked a few reactions?

I suspect that CW (Morse code) is now more popular than it has ever been before. I think this can be attributed to quite a few developments in the sphere of amateur radio.

CW is used extensively in radio sport i.e. contesting and remains the most effective mode for chasing rare DX entities. CW is way more effective with weak signal work and the rubber stamp exchanges used during contests and expeditions, transcend language barriers that otherwise would have existed.

Then there are the fantastic (free) software tools to help guide newcomers to this great mode. I know there are many such software packages, but I have used two of them and they have helped me a great deal.

 The first is the program written by G4FON – “CW Trainer” (Koch method). It is a brilliant tool. Do read the instructions first.  (I have the nasty habit of getting a program installed without reading the instructions). The suggestions made are most important to consider before using the program. I wish I had this tool when I started out some 37 years ago. Maybe I would be a hot shot CW operator now, but alas this is not the case!

The second software package, is the “Morse Runner” contest simulator, written by Alex VE3NEA. IMHO this program is most useful once you are fairly proficient with CW. Then use this tool to sharpen your contest skills. If only I would spend a few minutes every day using this tool, I am sure it would make a huge improvement in my contest rates.

Long live CW

CQ-WW-CW 2011

Let’s set the record straight right from the beginning. I am no big contester, nor do I have large or efficient antennas at my disposal. In fact, the only half decent HF antenna I have up at the moment, is a homemade rotatable dipole for 10M.

Due to various reasons, I could not give the contest my full attention and could only devote a few hours to the event. I decided to take part using QRP and only work 10M.

I am pleased to say that conditions were very good and I made a fair amount of QSOs, including some nice new DXCC entities. I worked 39 stations in the first 24 hours, all on QRP, then I got a bit impatient and felt a bit frustrated losing out on new and rare countries. I then operated QRO for the remainder of the contest. What a difference it made to the QSO rates! I managed to work a further 110 stations in the 8 hours that followed. I guess that is a pretty poor performance by all contest standards? BUT, during this single contest I managed to work 60 DXCC entities, 23 zones and 8 all-time new countries.

I was using N1MM Contest logger. What an amazing program! Each and every time I use it, I discover new little tricks and features. It sure makes contesting much easier and it is pleasure to use. Needless to say, my log has already been uploaded to LoTW, my own HRD log as well as to the CQ-WW contest robot.

73, Pierre ZS6A

Amateur Radio at its best: Part 2 - VE7SL

A while back I wrote on my blog about a very memorable QSO I had with Steve VE7SL on 10M. Steve was using a homebrew “Longfeller” valve transmitter running only 8 watts.

 http://zs6a.blogspot.com/2011/10/amateur-radio-at-its-best-qso-with.html

I was very pleased to receive a QSL card and a photo of his transmitter he used.

To me this is much more meaningful and personal than receiving some DXCC award or the like.

Homebrew, vintage valves and almost QRP. Does not get any better than this.

Thanks Steve !!

73, Pierre ZS6A

6M TEP Season - Not over yet

I received some emails from Paul ZS6NK with the screen shot below. He is some 300 km North of my QTH. This makes a huge difference when it comes to Trans Equatorial Propagation (TEP).

I thought that the 6 Meter TEP season was history, apparently not. The photo below says it all.

It must have been a very good opening. The footprint reached much further South than usual, Johannesburg and  Durban were able to work into Europe. That happens very rarely with TEP.

Looks like it was a good 6M opening. Pity I missed out on it.

73, Pierre ZS6A

ZS6NK 6M Activity 16 Nov 2011

South African DXCC Standings

I received the following info from Chris Burger ZS6EZ (email below)

He has undertaken the mammoth task of tracking the progress of the various South African DX leader’s achievements. It makes for interesting reading.

Please assist Chris in providing him with feedback regarding omissions, errors or updates.

73, Pierre ZS6A

Gents

As you all know, I publish a number of lists of operating achievements by South Africans:

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/

The most familiar are the Band Country Survey and the South African DXCC

Gallery:

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/bands/latest.htm

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/dxcc-zs.htm

Recently, I added an extract from the DX Foot Club:

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/dxfc-zs.htm

This week, I started building a new addition: Lists of South Africans with WAS and WAZ.

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/was-zs.htm

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/waz-zs.htm

I would imagine most of you have these awards, and you may also know others who do. Please let me have particulars, regardless of how incomplete they may be. Once we know that a certain individual had WAS or WAZ, we can start digging for more details. If you have a collection of old CQ magazines, please also see if you can contribute some information.

Lists were normally published monthly in the DX column.

Finally, I'm also in the process of adding a list of WAS scores on LotW.

The Triple Play has generated a lot of interest in WAS, and several South Africans are completing WAS on many different bands and modes. If you send me your scores (directly off LotW), I'll include them in the table. I'll probably place the file at:

  http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/lotw-zs.pdf

Regards

c

ZONE 38 - Amateur Radio Chat

During the weekend I decided to start a face book group that provided Radio Amateurs with a platform to discuss any topic relating to our great hobby. There are other local groups using face book groups, but they all are limited to a particular aspect of the hobby. The initial idea was to have a focus was on the Southern Africa region, but there is no reason why anyone from other regions may not take part.

The ZONE 38 group might just be the thing to get more people involved in the culture of sharing interesting bits of information with each other.

We do have local amateur radio forums, but for various reasons they have become ineffective. The main forum is the one run by the South African Radio League (SARL). Unfortunately, recently they decided to restrict access to non-members and allow only members of the SARL access to the forum. This was a very big mistake in my humble opinion.

The FB group "ZONE 38" is open to all. Any Radio Amateur is welcome to join the group if they feel so inclined.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/135047726603032/

The group is in its infancy and it is way too early to know if it will succeed.

73, Pierre ZS6A