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
Sunday, 25 September 2011
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
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
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
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
And we're off!!!!
Hey there,
So we have adjusted the capacitor hats, tightened all the screws and brought down the antennamast........and hey presto it works!!!!! Our beam is back in business and sitting proud 40ft in the air.
Tony has just tested it on a station in Brazil .. and got a report of 58 from him.
So now the fun is on, lots of stations on the way into my log, shame Im a bit busy this afternoon (my eldest child is 12 today) but otherwise Tony would be getting a push outta "the chair" in order for me to conquer the world again.
Now to have a look at the mini rotatable dipoles for 40m, with the NCRG rally coming up on the 11th Sept, it might be the best time to accost some of our resident traders and grab ourselves a bargain..... in the interest of experimentation of course.
Right Im off of birthday business so ciao for now
Lisa, EI9GSB
So we have adjusted the capacitor hats, tightened all the screws and brought down the antennamast........and hey presto it works!!!!! Our beam is back in business and sitting proud 40ft in the air.
Tony has just tested it on a station in Brazil .. and got a report of 58 from him.
So now the fun is on, lots of stations on the way into my log, shame Im a bit busy this afternoon (my eldest child is 12 today) but otherwise Tony would be getting a push outta "the chair" in order for me to conquer the world again.
Now to have a look at the mini rotatable dipoles for 40m, with the NCRG rally coming up on the 11th Sept, it might be the best time to accost some of our resident traders and grab ourselves a bargain..... in the interest of experimentation of course.
Right Im off of birthday business so ciao for now
Lisa, EI9GSB
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Radio weekend all over
Hi Guys,
Well, another busy radio weekend done and dusted, and I have to say Im a little sick of it to be honest, I feel drained and my ears are exhausted from straining to listen.
Firstly we were in Blackrock Castle for a CASHOTA activation. I had really wanted to operate on 40m but our antenna was having other ideas, so much so that it refused to operate effectively. That, plus the interference from the castle technology and the noise from the people coming for the free tours for Cork Heritage Day made it a challenge to hear to say the least. So we settled for 15m for voice, and one of the other members had set up a WSPR station, followed by PSK31 on 20m (which I found extremely fascinating). We also had one of the members with a satellite station set up.
Although the voice station wasnt great (partially due to all of the above factors), the digi station was brilliant, being able to log different signals throughout EU, and some Stateside, which we had then projected on to the wall for visitors to see. The PSK31 station also did its job quite effectively and made some nice contacts. In saying that though, the major achievement of day for me was the contact to Japan, which I thought was really good despite the problems. There was also a lot of interest in the satellite station, finishing the day with a lot of stations calling through Im told.
Today also was the IRTS 2m counties contest. I decided to operate in the low power fixed category and as it was my first contest of this kind, I had to read the rules to see what it entailed. Unfortunately for me, I didnt get the responses I had thought I might and was getting a bit frustrated as time went on. I used the max of 10w allowed and honestly thought there would be more QSO's involved. In saying that, my log book is a complete washout as I was concentrating so hard on how to operate within the contest (ie you have to QSY once you have called and been answered, or if you have answered a call, then you have the freq for one more QSO) I totally made a hash of the logs, not that there were many, I think 6 in total, which I was dissappointed with, I thought the participation would be a lot more (or maybe it was a I just couldnt hear them)
So now its all done and dusted and Im mentally tired. Maybe I have to take another holiday from the rig or else Im just not cut out for the constant activity lol. My brain may need to be trained, Im sure I have a game on my Nintendo DS that does that haha.
So Im off to relax for another couple of hours.
Ciao for now, Lisa EI9GSB
Well, another busy radio weekend done and dusted, and I have to say Im a little sick of it to be honest, I feel drained and my ears are exhausted from straining to listen.
Firstly we were in Blackrock Castle for a CASHOTA activation. I had really wanted to operate on 40m but our antenna was having other ideas, so much so that it refused to operate effectively. That, plus the interference from the castle technology and the noise from the people coming for the free tours for Cork Heritage Day made it a challenge to hear to say the least. So we settled for 15m for voice, and one of the other members had set up a WSPR station, followed by PSK31 on 20m (which I found extremely fascinating). We also had one of the members with a satellite station set up.
Although the voice station wasnt great (partially due to all of the above factors), the digi station was brilliant, being able to log different signals throughout EU, and some Stateside, which we had then projected on to the wall for visitors to see. The PSK31 station also did its job quite effectively and made some nice contacts. In saying that though, the major achievement of day for me was the contact to Japan, which I thought was really good despite the problems. There was also a lot of interest in the satellite station, finishing the day with a lot of stations calling through Im told.
Today also was the IRTS 2m counties contest. I decided to operate in the low power fixed category and as it was my first contest of this kind, I had to read the rules to see what it entailed. Unfortunately for me, I didnt get the responses I had thought I might and was getting a bit frustrated as time went on. I used the max of 10w allowed and honestly thought there would be more QSO's involved. In saying that, my log book is a complete washout as I was concentrating so hard on how to operate within the contest (ie you have to QSY once you have called and been answered, or if you have answered a call, then you have the freq for one more QSO) I totally made a hash of the logs, not that there were many, I think 6 in total, which I was dissappointed with, I thought the participation would be a lot more (or maybe it was a I just couldnt hear them)
So now its all done and dusted and Im mentally tired. Maybe I have to take another holiday from the rig or else Im just not cut out for the constant activity lol. My brain may need to be trained, Im sure I have a game on my Nintendo DS that does that haha.
So Im off to relax for another couple of hours.
Ciao for now, Lisa EI9GSB
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Long weekend for me!!
Hello there,
Just thought Id put a little blog on before I hit the hay, Ive just won €18 on the lotto, Ill have to try and not to spend it all at once lol
I just have one more day at work and then im off until next Wed, a few days to recover from returning to work on Mon last haha. We have a CASHOTA activation at Blackrock Castle on Sat 27th Aug to coincide with Heritage Week. My plan is to set up the rig (Kenwood TS2000) along with the 65ft EZ wire and hope to operate on the 40m band.
A few of the other members of NCRG will be operating different modes also, Ciaran plans to set up a WSPR station and Mick Quilligan will be showing satellite presentations. A few of the other lads, Edwin and Martin, are looking into streaming the activation on the Groups website, www.ei1nc.com , so that is another interesting element going on.
Not long now to our annual rally, held on Sept 11th at 11am, Blarney Golf Resort. This should be good, you get to see bargains and meet some of the hams you speak to over the airwaves.
Right, im wrecked so ciao for now
Lisa, EI9GSB
Just thought Id put a little blog on before I hit the hay, Ive just won €18 on the lotto, Ill have to try and not to spend it all at once lol
I just have one more day at work and then im off until next Wed, a few days to recover from returning to work on Mon last haha. We have a CASHOTA activation at Blackrock Castle on Sat 27th Aug to coincide with Heritage Week. My plan is to set up the rig (Kenwood TS2000) along with the 65ft EZ wire and hope to operate on the 40m band.
A few of the other members of NCRG will be operating different modes also, Ciaran plans to set up a WSPR station and Mick Quilligan will be showing satellite presentations. A few of the other lads, Edwin and Martin, are looking into streaming the activation on the Groups website, www.ei1nc.com , so that is another interesting element going on.
Not long now to our annual rally, held on Sept 11th at 11am, Blarney Golf Resort. This should be good, you get to see bargains and meet some of the hams you speak to over the airwaves.
Right, im wrecked so ciao for now
Lisa, EI9GSB
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
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