Mystery Solved

It seems when there's no data entered for GPS co-ordinates in an English QRZ listing; the default is London. Hihi

I think the likelihood of G3VBS being in Doncaster, and NOT London is very high! Hihi

Hyde Park in London

I keep making my daily DX contacts as the month rolls along (33 now) and surprise even myself when I work "familiar" signals on the 17 meter band. The last several days I've worked the YN9SU station in Nicaragua despite very weak reception on my part and I'm amazed when he responds to my call. He is mostly "barely" above the noise level. I think it must be the orientation of his antenna.

This morning I worked a new French station (F6CYP)  which was just barely above the noise level.

I also had a VERY interesting QSO with a station in London.

A few years ago, my wife and I traveled from the tip of Scotland, to the south of the United Kingdom and to London. We spent several days there, so were able to mingle and merge with people.

This morning while working the London station, I recognized the "FIST" of the operator but "NOT" the call sign, and the London operator remembered "me" from my contact with him on the previous day.

I'll be the first to admit  one "dit" is easy to miss in a call sign, and yes, myself, and many others, have done the same; but the London station and I talked at length about our previous conversation from yesterday morning. (I'll get to the dit in a moment)

This was a nice QSO about our rigs, antennas, the 50 mph gusts of wind, in both our countries, and his 50 watts into a Yagi verses my 3 watts and an indoor random wire. The only difference in our weather seemed to be that he was experiencing our "yesterday summer time" temperatures and we now have snow this morning.

I worked G3VBS this morning, and he was was using the same "straight key" as yesterday, I've no doubt this is the same person I worked as G4VSB yesterday morning. The time and frequency was about the same. His choice of words, fist, and spacing was exactly the same. I thought......

Perhaps I missed the "dit":

But here is where it gets confusing to me. 

This mornings signal was much better than yesterdays, and I think he was transmitting from the same location with a different radio. Why?

While we were in London, I distinctly remember "Hyde Park". We took the city bus from near the BBC headquarters and got off on Cromwell Street and walked into Hyde Park, through it, and had lunch while we were there. The missing (or additional) "dit" becomes meaningful here.

If you "google" G3VSB and also G4VSB, you will get the same location!

It's just a few blocks from Hyde Park but in the same "area" of the "two" different stations. I remember this area very well since the bus passed right past it.

There's no e-mail addresses for either of these stations, so I'm unable to get an exact solution to this curious puzzle. I'm hoping someone in this part of London, near Hyde Park, might read this and find out for me.

If so, please let me know because it's really bugging me. I can't figure it out. Without the distinctive "Straight Key" aspect, I'd write if off as a missing dit, but I'm not so sure now.

My Morning DX Contact

I really needed this contact today because it brings to a close my personal goal of working a DX station, every day, for 30 consecutive days! 

If the above picture looks familiar to you, it should, because for the third time this month, I've worked Andy (SP9KR) in Poland. He was VERY strong this morning, and easily worked, again, on 17 meters. I've now worked stations in Poland nine different times on the 17-12-30 and 20 meter bands.

I was really worried about making this last needed contact because I play cards most of the day on Mondays, , and missing this morning contact would have put my goal in serious jeopardy; hence I was very grateful to work Andy so early, and to hear such a great signal. As I've noted before, this station was "in the open" where I have the greatest opportunity for success.

The solar flux index was only 98 this morning, the A index was 6 and moving downward, and the K index had fallen to zero. I've joked many times about my signal bouncing off the "golden dome" of the state capitol building, just up the street, and it makes about as much sense to me as working stations at better than 4,000 miles as anything.  (don't take this seriously) I really have no "logical explanation" for this string of contacts, especially using low power and an indoor random wire.

My best guess is the power of  simple "Morse Code".

Andy wasn't the only station I worked this morning before heading out to play cards. I was also fortunate to work another station in Russia. Although I heard F6HKA in France on the 12 meter band, I decided not to make another attempt to work Bert; I stayed on 17 meters. A mere half hour later I heard two different calls coming from Russia; one of them potentially, with a little patience, and a little luck,  loud enough to work.

I was hearing RA7T but decided to focus on another Russian station because he was "out in the clear" and not spotted on a cluster. After several attempts on my part, Sergey (R7AY) sent a "question mark" back to me and I knew I might work him.

This turned out to be a difficult contact, and without his patience and perseverance, would never have materialized. I had trouble hearing his call sign correctly, and he had trouble hearing mine, but after several tries we both got it right. Sergy (R7AY) was located in Armavir Russia at 5,667 miles.

I continue to be in awe at these big Russian stations! I've worked different stations there five times now. Remarkably, one of them (RD3A) was on 40 meters . It's just amazing to me, they can hear such a weak signal at these distances; simply astounding.

** I'll continue to make DX contacts as usual now, but now that my immediate goal has been met, I'll probably ease off after the end of the week. It's been fun, but work, and I choose to keep my radio hobby "fun" above all else.

I will, however, continue to look for "new" entities, still out there hiding from me, and just waiting to be worked by a QRP station; I can't help myself when it comes to those; after all, I've been bit by the DX bug, and once bitten, they never let go.

My Morning DX Contact

This morning before the first cup of coffee, I found HB9CVQ calling from Berikon Switzerland. He had an excellent signal from that part of the world and responded immediately when I returned my call sign. The solar flux index is only 99 this morning, the A index is steady at 18 and the K index is rising but at only 2.

I didn't expect to hear this strong of a signal at 4,342 miles.

Switzerland makes over half the watches in the world but another well know product from there is the Swiss Army Knife. I have one, and I'd bet just about every day hiker around here has the same. The world is constantly changing, and with these changes, businesses adapt to new markets.

The knife above is a novel idea, and a good example of the changing world. It's a novel idea, but , of course, you wouldn't be able to fly with one of these, no matter how hard you argued about a thumb drive for your computer.

The "Swiss Omega Speedmaster" is the watch worn on the Apollo Space Missions. It's been to the moon and back. I bet it still keeps perfect time.

My Morning DX Contact

I keep getting by with a little help from my friends, as the Beatles say. Today I made several contacts with stations I've worked previously on 17 meters.

The morning started really slow but with a familiar contact into Nicaragua. I worked YN9SU before I drank the first cup of coffee, and for the 6th time this year. He was almost in the noise but evidently hears me much better than I hear him.

As the morning progressed, I heard familiar stations in Austria from the World Ski Championships (OE2013U) and was hearing G1OOC in England, and EI3KG in Ireland. Unfortunately they were too weak to work, and once spotted on the cluster, ended my chances of  a contact.

I decided to use the "keyer" in the rig to call on the 18.096 QRP calling frequency and had a return from a local station (AJ4SM) in St Petersburg Florida. This was my first success with sending my call sign and hoping for a contact as I'm usually in the search mode.

After breakfast and reading the morning newspaper, I returned to the air to search for more DX. I heard a very familiar PA4VHF (four times) in the Netherlands, who I worked easily, and followed by a VERY strong IK3VUT  in Italy. Both of these stations had fantastic signals and I had the advantage of them NOT being spotted on the cluster.

I've learned an important thing about DX clusters since the first of the year. They can be a "curse" to a QRP operator! My greatest success with DX is due to a "fair catch" out in the clear. None of the stations I worked today were spotted.

My Morning DX Contact

This morning, I truly thought  was going to be "the end" of my string of daily DX contacts. Propagation isn't good (SFI 103) and despite hearing two "new special event stations" from Austria, I was hearing only very weak signals. In desperation I scanned the other bands but only found a brief opening on 15 meters, where I heard F5IN; but couldn't work him.

I was so frustrated that I shut off the rig and went downstairs for another cup of coffee. After looking through the morning newspaper, and being comforted by my wife, I drudged back upstairs to listen a bit more. Unfortunately, there was nothing but silence on the DX portions of all the bands.

I thought this was "the end" of my daily DX contacts.

Not one to wallow in misery for very long, I decided to see if anything was happening at the local level, and immediately found N2CVE on the 30 meter band. We had a very nice QSO about TenTec rigs and his random wire antenna. (his is outdoors). Jim has been away from the hobby for awhile but is actively perusing CW with a renewed passion. It was a long pleasant conversation about several other things too.

The temperature is only 21 degrees this morning, and it's pouring down fresh snow. Despite this, I felt refreshed after chatting with a good CW operator, and always find it good therapy, for a bruised soul.

The third cup of coffee went down around 11:30 am which meant I had been glued to the headphones for almost two hours. One last time, I spun the dial over to the 17 meter band for a last attempt before admitting defeat.

I heard a loud signal on 18.077 and assumed it was local station. I pitched my call back; just to let them know someone was there, and he returned to me. It was slow CW but I missed it at first, or couldn't believe it wasn't  local, since I had my mind in another gear. It was then that I realized it wasn't, and recognized it as French.

Never in my life have I experienced the joy of working an old friend whom I worked many many times before! This station turned out to be Bert (F6HKA) near Limoges France. He had been sending the K3Y/ EU call and it went right over my head. I asked him to repeat the call since I was in such a state of both confusion and ecstasy. He did so; and I almost fell out of the chair.

This QSO turned out to be much more than the standard exchange. I apologized for not hearing the call correctly, and told him that I thought he was a local station. He asked if I was still QRP. I said yes, he said follow me, and I'll drop down to 5 watts. Bert moved slightly up the dial to avoid some noise, and dropped down to QRP at 5 watts. We completed the exchange as a VERY nice 2 X 2 QRP QSO.

Today was a very welcome contact, despite working almost two hours for it, and I'm thinking it's getting more difficult each day to continue make a daily DX contact. But for now, today marks my 27th consecutive DX contact with my simple QRP station.

My Morning DX Contact

The "Alpine Ski World Championships" are held in different places in the world and there are "Special Event Stations" on the air to celebrate and memorialize them. This morning I worked my second of these "special event stations" in Austria. They will be on the air until Feburary 18th 2013. 

A few days ago (Jan 18th) , I worked OE2013U in Kleinroetz Austria. This morning I worked OE2013A in St Michael Austria. I doubt I'll be able to work 10 of these stations for the "special certificate", but I'm an optimist, and always keep the possibility open. 

The first picture above is American Lindsey Vonn who won eight medals in these events in 2010. (I thought it would catch your attention)

This year a new world speed record has been set by French skier Johan Clarey. Set in Switzerland this year, he reached a speed of 100.6 mph (161.9 km/h)

I used to ski before a back injury ended this sport but I can't imagine going 100 mph on a pair of long skies. Loosing your concentration for even a split second could prove disastrous.