Category: QSOs

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Glad I could participate in the Costa Rican Bicentennial Special Event during the month of September.

A number of confirmed QSLs were made with the participating stations in Costa Rica. Contacts were made on 10m, 17m, 20m and 40m using FT8 digital protocol. There was a lot of traffic, and more than a couple of pileups, but even at though I’m limited to 100w, we were able to complete some solid contacts.

I’d like to thank the TI2HAS and the TI200I special event team for sending out such a wonderful looking commemorative certificate.

Congratulations on 200 years!

From September 1 to September 30, 2021

Costa Rica, located in the center of the American continent, celebrates 200 years of Independence.

From 09-Sep through 15-Sep, I was able to make several contacts on multiple HF bands with the Special Event Station TI200I using digital FT8.

Equipment:

  • Yaesu FT-991 HF transceiver (40w – 90w)
  • MFJ-933 automatic antenna tuner
  • Diamond SX-600 dual range power / SWR meter
  • MFJ G5RV & Radiowavz OCF 80 antennas
  • 70′ of RG6 coax to external grounding block & 100′ of RG/8U to long wire antennas
  • WSJT-X software for Mac OSx

Making North-South contacts can be tricky on HF, but I was a able to confirm QSO’s with the stations operating in Costa Rica in just about every session. Most of the time, contact could be made under 50 watts of power. I did have to push the 991 to near max power to complete a couple of the contacts, which I seldom need to do.

PSK Reporter was a helpful tool for locating the bands and protocols the stations were working.

Quick FT8 QSO with KI6NAZ

September 11, 2021 | QSOs | No Comments

Happened to catch Josh, who runs the amazing Ham Radio Crash Course YT channel on 20m FT8 tonight. Pretty random, pretty fan boi, but Josh is a great ambassador for HAM radio and it was cool to make a quick QSO, even if it was the very terse FT8 digital.

THX Josh 73s!!

Check out Josh’s YT Channel Ham Radio Crash Course

QSO Antarctica!

June 13, 2021 | QSOs | 1 Comment

This feels like a “Once in a Lifetime” sort of contact, especially on only 35w of power fed to quite the compromise of an antenna.

It was a solid FT8 contact on 40m. We exchanged signal information and as quickly as the band opened, it closed again.

Making contact with Japanese Research Expedition on 40m

Equipment:

  • Yaesu FT-991
  • Diamond SX-600 power/SWR meter
  • MFJ-939-Y auto-tuner
  • MFJ G5RV dipole configured in a horizontal L (W-E-S)
  • MacBook Pro running WSJT-X