AmateurRadio.com

 The Islands on the air contest is sponsored by the Radio Society of Great Britain or RSGB for short. This contest is only 24 hours long and hosts some very nice DX from sometimes remote and DXpedition Islands. If memory serves me correctly I found this year to be more work to pull stations out. The QSB at this end was very deep. At one moment England was there at S5 and then gone. I'm not thinking it was just me as many stations I listened to were asking for report repeats. Oh well, it's all part and parcel of the contesting dream. 

I entered the CW-only category at 100 watts and it was the first time using my new Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna. As everyone has told me and it is true the vertical antenna is a bit noisier than my horizontal End Fed BUT I had better results with the Hustler 4BTV. The very small extra noise with the vertical was taken care of with the noise reduction on the Icom 7610. 

For me, this was not a contest where I was running (calling CQ contest) it was 99% search and pounce. The reason for this was Island stations gave you 15 points compared to 2 points for all other contacts. The Island stations for the most part were running calling CQ contest. With this contest I found it harder to move up the band and bang off contacts and the reason for this was island contacts are big points and they are limited in numbers and that equals pile-ups.
Below is the score summary: 

Here are some takeaways of mine from the contest: 

- My CW is improving so the twice-daily practice time is helping. 

- Keeping my butt in the chair even during slow times helped my score. 

- Getting my backside out of bed early on the final day of the contest gave me the rewards of contacting     New Zealand, Austria and Hawaii, along with the 15 bonus points for each.

Contesting with a vertical compared to my End Fed antenna:

- Most all the time if I could hear them I could work them. 

- Omni directional was nice compared to End Fed horizontal directional characteristics. 

-Using the Icom 7610 second receiver to its full potential. I was able to listen to another band with the second receiver. I was not able to do this with the End Fed as I needed the tuner for all bands. I found without using the tuner the receive was very poor with the End Fed.

In this episode, Martin Butler (M1MRB)is joined by Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Frank Howell (K4FMH), and Leslie Butterfield (G0CIB)  to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature SOTA Mountain Adventure.

We would like to thank Scott Wright (K0MD), Richard Langmead (5B4AJG) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• UK Direct to Full Examination Syllabus
• Traffic Messages in APRS Map Service
• National ARRL Program for School Teachers
• 144/430 MHz bands to be used for PMR during 2024 Olympics
• Radio Hams to Operate from Hot Air Balloon
• Flight Refuelling Amateur Radio Society Hamfest
• Commonwealth Games 2022 Amateur Radio Station on the Air
• Lack of Danish Ham Radio Training

Ham College episode 91 is now available for download.

Extra Class Exam Questions – Part 29.
E6F Electro-optical technology: photoconductivity, photovoltaic devices, optical sensors and encoders, optical isolation.

Download
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Hello and welcome to the 476th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this deep dive episode, the hosts interview Torsten Clay, N4OGW, the author of so2sdr, a software application for doing single-op, multi-radio contesting. The program allows for logging, rig control, station mapping on a band plot and much more. Thank you for listening to this episode. We hope you find it informative and enjoyable. Have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew

Roger "G3XBM" has now published a book titled  "G3XBM Project Scrapbook".

It takes you through his historic years of homebrew construction and operating to present day. To include portable operating, Antennas, LF, HF, VHF, Fredbox and Sixbox designs with full circuit info, even stuff that never got built etc etc.

All Roger's designs, are not over engineered, and very simple to understand and build.

It is a  FREE download here:https://tinyurl.com/y56vjhd6

If you feel this has been of good use after reading, you can always support him with a coffee or two here:https://ko-fi.com/rogerg3xbm

What headphones do you use for your radio operation, and WHY do you use that particular make and model?

I use Audio-Technica ATH M30x professional monitor headphones (cans).

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/ath-m30x

Audio-Technica ATH-M30x Professional Monitoring Headphones

I use my rig’s filters to shape the audio.

1. I’ve replaced the over-the-ear pads with Gel pads. Wearing these cans is comfortable enough to use for extended periods of time (such as contests).
2. The mid-range with these cans is superior to other cans I’ve had.
3. They are rugged, so taking them out to the field isn’t a problem.

73 de NW7US dit dit
..

It's time once again for The Weekender. This is our departure into the world of hedonism, random topic excursions, whimsy and (hopefully) knowledge. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we're doing. We'd love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Crew