Sunday 25 September 2011

Open Sesame!!

Hey there peeps,

Well, I had finally decided to hog the rig officially (sorry Tony) over the past weekend, and as luck would have it the bands decided they were going to open for me lol.

I decided to operate over Friday night and during today (I had to take a break on Saturday lol) and made about 100 contacts over the few hours.  A few new DXCC were up for grabs for me to include St. Pierre & Manquelin, Uruguay and Malaysia on 10m and Market Reef.  I have never even heard of the first and last one.  I had to consult Google Maps to locate them. 

I have yet to upload them to HRD so im anxious to see how many DXCC's I have worked (not to get this confused with confirmed).  I am now coming up to my first anniversary of being a licensed ham (30th Oct) and to date I have worked about 1,197 contacts and approx 110 DXCC's ( on the last count).  It will be interesting to see how many Ill have in the log by the time the year is up.

In saying that, there are a few DXCC's I missed out on, despite trying and trying.  4W6A is one I had been trying to get, a DXepedition to Timor Leste which a few of the lads I know have managed to contact.  It seems that any time I spot them on the cluster, they are too light for me to hear, yet I have tried to see if, by complete act of god, they might hear me. 

African stations also seem to be elusive to me, I have heard a number of them on this weekend, Central Africa, Madagascar, Congo, but I have yet to manage to work them.  As with the VK's and the ZL stations, maybe there is a certain time of day when activity is plentiful, and its probably when Im at work HI.

So back I go to see if I can manage to scrape another few into the log.

Ciao for now,
Lisa, EI9GSB

Thursday 15 September 2011

Another Rally Good Success!!!

Hey all,

So we had our annual rally last Sunday and it was a brilliant day.  Everyone was ready to go at about 11.15am so we opened the doors and let the bargain hunters in!

There was a great turnout again this year, and everyone was in high spirits.

I got the great job of admission, so it gave me a chance to meet everyone coming in.  Because Im new enough to the hobby (11 months) I am still not familiar with some of the people I speak to, now give me a callsign and Id know you a bit quicker.  I had people chatting to me and it took me a few minutes (or them to tell me) to realise who I was speaking to, but nevertheless I managed to meet some of the lads I chat to on a regular basis.

I also had a mission, to get myself an antenna for my car and the mount to go with it.  See as a YL operater, I have encountered a problem that most hams wouldnt be aware of.  Since I am also a mother and a wife, I need to be able to do things like food shopping, picking things up for the kids for school etc so the problem I was running into was that when I had Tony's car, the antenna was too high for the car parks, barriers on certain roads etc and used to bang something ferocious when I drove to Tesco etc, so much so I had to pull the car over and either bend the antenna (which it is capable of doing) or take it off altogether.

So my hunt was on and it didnt take me long to come across the perfect antenna for 2m and 70cms.  It is a little 1/4 wave antenna, only about 30cms long maybe, and fits perfectly on my car.  So now I dont have to worry about banging.  I also got a Watson mount for the boot and hey presto, Im set to go on 2m & 70cms.

So I was happy with my purchase.  When the rally came to a close, and the traders had packed away, we went for a few drinks in the bar and had a great finish to the day.  I have to say congrats to all the people involved in the day, it was another brill time, and I went home smiling.

Ciao for now

73, Lisa EI9GSB

Monday 5 September 2011

Rally, Rally, Rally

Hey there ham radio peeps (or in the words of the Inbetweeners "special radio friends :p)

The countdown is on, 6 days to the event of the year, the NCRG radio rally, held at Blarney Golf Resort at 1130am on Sunday next.

I cant wait, lots of bargains to be had, or a one stop shop to reinvent the shack, either way its gonna be epic.  Im gonna be on the door doing what I do best, handling money and chatting, hope to meet you there (if I dont know your face, dont be afraid to introduce yourself, I dont bite.....much)

So Im off for now, have admission tickets to organise.

Talk to ya soon (hopefully with a few new bits), ciao for now

Lisa, EI9GSB