Blarney Castle activation

What a great weekend I had.

Attended the Blarney Castle CASHOTA activation held by NCRG over the weekend, on 4th, 5th and 6th June at the Stable Yard of Blarney Castle.  I had great fun setting up the station, although I was panicking a few days before as I wasnt sure whether Id be able to set up with the lads or whether Id have to stand there like a spare part.  Luckily enough I managed to do it, and was quite proud of myself as I had never set up a station believe it or not, the practical things always seemed to be taken care of by the lads.

The first day was lovely, a bit too lovely as the sun beat down on me (apparantly the black t-shirt may have helped lol) and the fact that I had no sun cream on did help either.  We finished the activation early as the bands werent great and the sun was way too much by 3pm.

I had gotten burnt, as did the other lads, but mine was sore  as it was on one side of my face and on my hands.  I had put after sun on it but this didnt ease the discomfort.  I woke up the next day to find my face swollen and a little sore.  As this was the 2nd day, I put suncream on (factor 50 lol) and set off again.  This time I set the EZ wire up on my own (with a little help at the end from one of the lads) and set up the station whoo hoo!!!.  Again, bands werent great but better than the previous day.

The third day was a whole new kettle of fish as it was raining so we had to go into one of the stables.  It sounded echoey and was hard at times to hear the stations, especially if there were other people present but we battled through.  This day seemed to be the worst of the 3 contact wise, but we had fun and got to walk around the gorgeous gardens and grounds, even stopping to have a play on the swings haha.

I have to say, it was fab and although the bands didnt assist us, the venue was lovely, with friendly staff also.  Cant wait for the next event.

73, Lisa

CASHOTA activation

As some of you might know, I was scheduled to activate Mallow Castle as part of the CASHOTA weekend in UK and Ireland for the North Cork Radio Group www.ei1nc.com .  I was all excited about this, had the rig and antenna ready to go and had the event planned out in my head.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sun was out and shining like mad.  I had checked the solar terrestrial chart earlier that morning and saw that 20m was supposed to be good (this was about 830am), so that made my mind up, 20m is where I would begin the activation.

With this information in hand, along with my logbook and pen, I went to the location and was all set up.  I began to call at approximately 1055am and nothing.  I was a bit surprised so I kept calling, and nothing.  Oblivious to any possible issues, I kept calling and calling, and calling but noone came back to me.  On checking the terrestrial chart again, I notice all the bands were listed as "poor".  O great, just my luck, this was the atmospheres way of telling me to shut up and go away lol.

So Im sat there, for hours, calling and calling and not one reply......until about 1320 when I could hear faint signals coming through.  Luckily I managed to make some contacts, 58 in total which was ok considering the conditions, but not great in the overall expectancy of a CASHOTA event of 5 - 6 hours calling.  I finished up the event about 1545 and will try again today, hopefully conditions are better and I can fill the log a bit but knowing the luck I have been having lately, I dont know. 

On saying that, last night I made loads of contacts to Europe through 10m.  I dont really use the band much and only checked it out because of Paul Colyer mentioning it was open inter g.  Stations were flying in and I made 76 contacts in all last night, lots of PA, DL and ON stations on, along with G stations.  Apparantly I was a rare contact on 10m for some of the G stations but due to the short skip on 10m they were able to work me.  At least I saw some decent action!!!

So today is a new day and Im on the go again, according to the chart this morning, all the HF bands are poor with the exception of 17 - 15m which are "fair".  Must keep an ear out on 10 and 6m also as it seems that there is or will be activity, so itll just have to be hit and miss.

73 for now, Lisa

New rigs

So the time is 6.30am and I am up and actually awake....what is that all about???

So Im sitting in the shack (where my laptop is) and Tony is searching the internet and looking at (guess what?)  ....different rigs.  Apparantly he would loooovvvveeeeee all the ones he hasnt got, because they are apparantly so brilliant and their functions are (you guessed it) the same.  One in particular that Ive noticed is the Yaesu FT 1000 Mk5.  Now he currently has the FT 1000MP and I really cant tell the difference between the two, apart from a few minor face differences.  The Mk5 obviously must have more functions to warrant its existance but why is it that hams always needs "the latest rig", even if it does cost thousands?

I am more than happy to work with anything really that does the job, including a battery with a coat wire antenna (McGyver style lol) but are these upgraded rigs really justified in some cases, when the only changes seem to be a different colour light on the display?  Now as I said, I am not technically minded so maybe the performance difference is where the big bucks come into play, but if a woman went in for surgery and came out with only different colour eyes, how many of us would notice?  And would it be worth the thousands?

Now I can understand a major upgrade by a ham, from say an Icom IC718 to an Icom 7600, and the major performance and facelift differences but Im not sure if a different display colour and an extra button could justify spending major bucks.  Are the Yaesu's, Kenwoods and Icoms of this world raking it in by advertising the same rig in a different box?  And why is it that hams fall in love with all models?  Maybe its an obsession thing, or "keeping up with the Jones" element, but Im not sure if paying the equivilent of a mortgage downpayment can equal the "beauty" of the newest, most advanced rig yet (and most expensive) for example "The Masterpiece" Icom IC7800 MkII at €10,000 approx, can be justified.  Apparantly 40 years of design have developed this, have they done nothing else for that time or was it a progression?  Then surely that proves the point, they hardly just came up with that idea, it was progressive and maybe all it consists of is a few extra antenna sockets and a quad core processor that has been added to a previous rig, that and a good advertising company with fancy words.

Now dont get me wrong, if you have that kind of money, then by all means I dont see why ppl shouldnt indulge their hobbies and interests, but when ppl are trying to scrimp and save to get this type of rig, maybe to find out it does the exact same as the "old" rig they had...mmmmmm food for thought!

73, Lisa

Day of the YL

So Ive been following the promotion of "Day of the YL" on Facebook for the last couple of weeks, advertised for today and tomorrow, 21st and 22nd May, and to be honest I have been looking forward to this, thinking of possible pile ups and working stations for the day.  I got into the chair and prepped myself for the onslaught, only to find the bands were totally rubbish and propagation wasnt keeping to its part of the deal lol.

I still have not heard (up to the time of this blog at 7pm) one YL station on, I have asked this question on the Facebook page and have been informed there are about 4 of them on, or were on, but I havent heard them, nor have I seen them spotted either.  To be fair, the bands are crap, even 20m and 15m, my usual haunts, are rubbish to the point where I cant even hear European stations!!! Whats up with that, usually I have Italian and German stations coming out my ears lol.

So I did a bit of research and according to our website www.ei1nc.com (where the Solar Terrestrial Data is contained lol) I have discovered 80m - 20m and only "fair" whilst the rest of the bands are "poor" and the SFI is only 84.  Could this day get any worse???

Anyhow, I did manage to speak to a few English stations, one of them a CASHOTA activation on 40m (as it is International CASHOTA weekend) and that has been my lot for the day, I even called consistently on 40m and 20m and didnt even get a static noise in response, so my expectation of the day has been dashed by the atmospheric conditions.

Hopefully when I am activating Mallow Castle next weekend, the conditions will allow it not to be a total failure, maybe the bands will pick up a bit this evening, well see how it goes.

Ciao for now, 73, Lisa

Ruined day out.com

I had gone to Dublin today with my mother and sister to go shopping.  Not only did I forget the Queen was making her visit but the whole place was barriers and Gardai.  We were on Henry Street at one stage and all of a sudden people started to run, grabbing their children.  Security guards came out from shops and all the shutters started to come down, kinda frightening if you have never been in that situation.  Apparantly what started as a peaceful protest turned into a mini riot with Gardai having to barricade them in so they could damage the area.

Then, as we managed to work our way up the street, we werent even allowed to cross by the GPO, and we had to have our bags searched too!!  Of course, the Queen decided she was going to pass us as we were on the street so we even got to see her when we didnt really plan to. 

After all this, we were on our way back and the Gardai then decided to close off the bridge by Heuston Station so the Queen could pass over it to go to the Presidents House,  we were left sit there for 50 minutes before they allowed us to go.

So, after all this disruption, we still didnt even get anything we wanted to, although my brother and sister cleaned up, and they werent even there!!.

As a result of this, my first reading of the IRTS news bulletin was delayed by 5 minutes, as I literally had to run into the house and sit straight in the chair, all out of breath haha.  Ill remember the first time for a long time, so thanks to her Majesty, because of her hols, my day was in an uproar.

73, Lisa

Band openings

Hello for today.

The bands seem to have really good openings into Asia and Africa, well at least from where my QTH is.  I have never heard some of these stations as strong as they are, maybe thats because I never listened or they have bought new amps lol!

Anyhow, tonight I was scanning around on 15m and 20m and to my surprise I was hearing African stations at 59 (or a little below), the piles ups for these stations were huge and so I spent a little time battling to be heard over some stations, at their own admission, putting out 1kw through a linear amp.  Little ol me in EI trying to beat the big US stations haha.  But I held my own and managed to make my contacts, despite being stamped all over by an ER station, so much so that the gentleman I was trying to have a QSO with told the station to "please shut up".  I couldve laughed so hard at this but I was in the middle of a conversation so I couldnt, but if I had the chance I wouldve shouted HA HA.

Anyhow, I have managed to get a few new DXCC's.  Oman (which I didnt have at all), Hong Kong, Angola and Namibia, so another 4 to add to my list.  Ill have to start looking at the different bands now as I am beginning to favour 15m and 20m a lot recently, maybe because they are open for a lot longer in the evening, you wouldnt have worked someone on 15m at this time 2 months ago.

Righteeeeee, I am off for now,

Talk 2 ya soon, 73, Lisa

Ham vs Homeowners Association

Again, another little video found on YouTube,  I am a ham and I found this hilarious, although it does have a lot of stereotyping in it.