This is my 2012 diary page.

Have fun reading Ham-radio items and coverage of my hunt for DX! 

- 11 April 2012, more cards.

Got some very nice cards via direct mail!

Hawai on 20/CW                         Diego Garcia on 20/RTTY

Anguilla on 15/CW                     Mexico on 20/RTTY/CW

    - 7 and 8 April 2012.

My focus during this weekend was on contesting.

Participated in 3 contests, LZ-OPEN(CW), EA-RTTY and the Deutschland Telegrafy Contest (CW).

LZ-OPEN: 75 QSO's

EA-RTTY: 100 QSO's

Deutschland Telegrafy contest: 54 QSO's

   -22 March 2012, nice card!

Picked up the paper in the hall, nothing important as it seemed.....

But hidden between some advertising and local papers I found a SAE envelope.Always putts a

smile on my face because this normally means the arrival of a rare country, or DXpedition card.

I remembered I had gone through a load of direct cards a couple weeks ago. Picked out a few rare ones and send them away. I wondered which one would be inside.

Wonderful, one from the Democratic Republic of Congo confirming a 17 MHz/SSB contact.

    - 19 March 2012, ST0R video.

A 40 minutes video of this DXpedition in the Republic of South Sudan can be found here:

http://www.indexa.org/dx_videos.html  or click the picture to follow the link.

An interview with N6PSE/Paul Ewing, from the scene in Juba(RSS), on WNYC Radio can be heard here:

http://www.onthemedia.org/2011/sep/16/hams-travel-south-sudan/ 

    - 17 and 18 March 2012, Russian DX(CW) and BARTG-RTTY.

I didn't have the time to join the PI4W team for the BARTG-RTTY contest this weekend but could do some contesting in between family celebrations.

Through the weekend I made 100 QSO in the BARTG-RTTY contest and 150 QSO's in The Russian-DX contest, where I was only active in CW.

PI4W team did a wonderful job despite bad conditions and low activity on the bands.

They made about 900 QSO's in the BARTG-RTTY, well done guys!

    - 11 March 2012, Bob Heil Interview.

After watching a couple episodes of Ham Nation I came in touch with Bob via e-mail and asked him to join the Ham Interview page.I got a quick reply from him and he was so kind to answer the 10 questions. To be honest, I knew Bob's microphones but reading his notes I found out he was much more then that, a true pioneer in developing new technology for famous bands like ZZ-TOP, The Who and others.

Enjoy watching the interview on:       http://sitekreator.com/pa3gvi/k9eid.html 

Or click on the picture below!

More interviews on:   http://sitekreator.com/pa3gvi/ham_interview.html 

    - 10 march 2012, Ham Nation TV!

While spoiling time on the Internet I came across Twit.TV and Ham Nation TV in particular.

This is a weekly 1 hour webcast about Ham Radio with interesting guests, projects and interviews.

The show is hosted by K9EID/Bob Heil (you probable know his microphones), WB6NOA/Gordon West

and others.

You can watch it on Tuesday evening at 8:00pm CDT(central time).

Set your browser to live.twit.tv  to watch the live recording of the show on Leo Laporte's TWIT network.

Check older broadcasts on TWIT.TV/hn  or find the site via Google search.

Be sure to type 'HAM NATION' and you will get there!

Opening theme of the show is written and played by Joe Walsh(The Eagles).

He was actually in the first episode of Ham Nation!

It's fun!

    - 9 March 2012, chasing 3C6A, 3C0E, PJ7PT.....and more DX.

Spend many hours on the radio these days because of a dislocated shoulder.

There where/are a couple interesting Dx-peditions going and it's always fun to get them in my log,

One way or another. Worked 3C6A a couple times and after a couple days they went to visit

Annabon Island (3C0E)for the remaining time. I really could not hear them with the inverted V, and I was at my friends house, so why not try it from there?

That day they were on 10/SSB and 12/CW and I could get through and add them to my log.

Annabon Island is a rare one, not that often on the air!

A Polish team is in the Caribbean, active from St. Martin Island as PJ7PT.

Not a difficult path for Europe and fun to see how many bandslots I can work them.

Managed to work them 6 bands/modes so far.

Two big burst on the sun could spoil communication fun but it didn't, besides the band being quite silent on Friday 9Th.

Many 50 MHz spots on that day so the MUF must have raised quite a bit.

Anyway, enough DX to be found:

    - 3 and 4 March 2012, ARRL DX SSB.

Woke up Saturday morning at 0600z and found that conditions were not good on 40 and 80 meters.

I could just hear and work a couple, the regular US/VE contest stations.

For the rest of the weekend their wouldn't be much time to be active, I thought.

On Sunday I eventually could break free a couple hours and went to my friend Peter/PA8A.

I guessed I could make a few hundred QSO's there in a couple hours, just for fun!

15 meters was hot and within 2,5 hours there were 250 QSO's in my log.

The best run was from 13:16GMT to 14:38GMT, when I made 182 Q's.

    - 3 March 2012, ISS<->EARTH contact with Astronaut Andre Kuipers.

I am following the ISS news now days as one of the crew-members is a Dutchman.

Andre Kuipers has been doing some Hamradio contacts on a previous mission in 2004.

Wouldn't it be fun to make a contact?

PA7DA was the first to make a QSO with Andre/PI9ISS on February 25Th and he was big news in

the national newspapers and TV.

Today I had everything set for the next passage and all of a sudden he called one out of the many callers.

Great to hear him coming through, quite strong, but he disappeared within a couple minutes.

I realize my chances aren't that large with just a small vertical and 25 watts.

A yagi and some power would give me a better change evendo you can never know.........

In any case, I remembered listening to Bill McArthur aboard Mission #12 in 2005/2006.

I made an MP3 then and found it somewhere in one of my folders.

It inspired me to make the following video:

ISS tracker #1:    http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html 

ISS tracker #2:    http://www.isstracker.com/ 

ISS sightings:    http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ 

ISS Fanclub:    http://www.issfanclub.com/frequencies 

Andre Kuipers on twitter:    https://twitter.com/#!/astro_andre 

Andre Kuipers weblog English:    http://blogs.esa.int/andre-kuipers/?lang=en 

Andre Kuipers weblog Dutch:    http://blogs.esa.int/andre-kuipers/?lang=nl 

PI9ISS/Andre Kuipers

 - 2 march 2012, big weblog update.

I haven't been active on my blog for a couple weeks so here is a line up of most activities explored:

Contests:

CQ-WPX-RTTY: 104 QSO's

BSCI-HF-CW: 126 QSO's

ARRL-DX-CW: 300 QSO's

UBA-DX-CW: 609 QSO's

PACC with PI4W team: 1529 QSO's

Higher bands being excellent with some off-days from time to time.

And there were/are some nice DX-pedition going.

What to say of 3C6A from Equatorial Guinea or ZD7XF by Nigel/G3TXF.

One I was particular happy with was FW0NAR/p, active from Futuna Island which belongs to

Wallis and Futuna Island group.

Interesting DX that found it's way to my log:

I received many cards, direct and through the buro.

T32C was one of them!

 - 11 and 12 February 2012, PACC contest with PI4W team(PG6G).

As a tradition for the last few years we operate this contest from PA8A shack.

A comfortable situation because everything is plug and play.

Besides, Peter's wife makes very good Chilli Concarne which is a highlight in the weekend.

We are competitive but take the time to have dinner on the Saturday evening.

Peter arranged a special call sign, PG6G, one we used in an earlier PACC contest.

Conditions proved not the be good but we had fun and the score wasn't all that bad either.

PG6G operators: PA8A, PA8F(picture), PD0LUR, PD2JAM, PA3GVI

PG6G score:

Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts     Cty

Claimed Score : 379.192 Points     - 6 February 2012, AH1A DX-pedition 1993.

     - 5 February 2012, HK0NA/Malpelo Island.

Did some CW in the BSI contest and ended up with 126 QSO's.

I have been busy working Hk0NA team which are active from Malpelo Island.

Didn't do all that bad with 12 bandslots!

I was sure I got them on 15/SSB as well, we will see if this lost one will ever be found.

Never mind, i am quite satisfied with a contact on almost all bands.

 - 27 to 29 January 2012, CQ160CW with PI4W.

Friday evening, the start of the contest and I was quickly on speed.

Conditions were not good as we only worked a few NA during the first night.

Some Caribbean as well but further all Europe.

Second night went much better with more NA in the log but still not as many as last year.

Highlight of the contest was when I was able to work HK0NA.

Difficult to hear on the TX antenna because the EU callers kept calling on top of each other.

The beverage made the difference and I could make the contact without the EU QRM.

I made the last QSO on Sunday morning and did not to return in the evening.

Conditions not all that good but overall I didn't do too bad at all!

PI4W(by PA3GVI) SINGLE OP/ASSISTED/HIGH POWER

Band    QSOs    Pts    StP   DXC

   - 26 January 2012, Preparing for CQ160CW.

We are preparing for the CQ160CW contest coming weekend with PI4W.

We have already build a NA beverage and erected the 90 foot vertical.

It all looks good so far, hope conditions will be good too.

PD0LUR and PD2JAM checking resonance/SWR

   - 25 January 2012, PJ4C final!

The PJ4C DXpedition ended last weekend and I could add more bandslots in the last few days.

  - 17 January 2012, PJ4C.

A team with international operators is active from Bonaire Island from 12 to 23 January.

Not a rare one but I have been there myself in October 2010 and know the resort they are operating from.

This is at the opposite side of the island then the PJ4G rental house were we operated from during our stay.

Konitiki Beach is near the very nice lagoon and a good spot to enjoy some Caribbean relaxing as well!

Don't know if they have time for that cause they are active 24/7 and did build quite an impressive antenna farm.

So I hunt them and try to work them on as many bandslots as possible.

That isn't easy at all because they are not all that strong on my dipole.

This might be due to conditions and maybe the location as this is at sea level, PJ4G is located on the radiohill near Rincon.

I managed to log them 10 bandslots up till today and surprisingly enough I heared them stronger on 40 and 80 then on he higher bands.

See if I can add a couple more.......

Website at: www.pj4c.com

- 2 January 2012, AH0BT.

Received a direct card from a contact made with AH0BT on Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands).

I made the QSO on 20 meter in Phone in the CQ-WW-DX-SSB contest, October 2011.

  - 1 January 2012, SARTGHNY contest.

I wanted to make at least 25 QSO's for the national contestcompetition in the SARTG Happy new year

contest (RTTY).

But I must have been under the influence of the Oliebollen (wikipedia) from the night before because

I started one hour to late!

Therefor I could only make 21 QSO's before the call came from downstairs to have our

New Years breakfast.

Oooh well......the year is long!

    - 1 January 2012, A71DLH video.

    - 1 January 2012, Good DX-ing!

Hopefully this year we can fully take advantage of cycle 24 and enjoy good conditions on the

higher bands.

I hope to add a couple more to my DXCC list even do that will not be an easy task with just 15

entity's remaining.

Contesting will take much of my time on the radio as I enjoy this part of the hobby very much.

From home but also with the PI4W contest-team which has a new website on air since a couple

weeks.

Have a peek and see how we do it! (click the picture below to visit the website).