This is my 2012 diary page.

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

Another year gone by and time goes fast.

Hamradio has been a tough year in many ways but I enjoyed playing radio, worked loads of DX

and made new friends. Hope to see you all next year!

- 6 December 2012, 3D2C card.

I received the 3D2C, Conway Reef, card today confirming contacts on 12/SSB, 15/CW and 20/SSB.

- 5 December, another band slot for ZL9HR.

I worked the ZL9HR-Cambell & Auckland DX-pedittion a couple days ago from my friends station to

be save on this new one. What I do most of the time, if I can hear them, is try to work them with my

simple 31 meter inverted V from home, which I tune for all bands(10-80 meter). I didn't think the chance

to work them would be big but I heard them quite loud this morning on 30 meter/CW. I could hear them

handing out reports whole morning but the pile up was huge so I tried little later. Signal had dropped quite

a bit but I could hear them and the Pile up had eased too. I don't know how long it took , maybe 15 minutes

but eventually he called me and gave the report up 4 KHz.

- 4 December 2012, the Bodegraven<-> Encinitas connection.

W7BIA/Arnie and myself thought it would be fun to share the same QSL card design.

This more or less seals the strong Bodegraven <-> Encinitas connection that we both experience.

Doesn't it look awsome!...click the pictures for a larger view.

W7BIA website: http://www.arnie.org/w7bia/

PA3GVI website: you are already there!

- 3 December 2012, ZL9HR....short story about working a new one.

Campbell & Aukland Island is one of the entities that was on my list for DXCC and they would be on

from 28 November till 10 December 2012. Due to rough seas and very bad weather they finally got

on the air on Saturday, 1 st of December. The first day it looked like this would be a piece of cake for

me  because there wasn't really a large crowd calling him. That was completely different the next day

and Pile ups grew quickly from 5 to 20 KHz up. Looking at the propagation charts I saw that the PA stations

that worked him mostly did in the early morning hours. I did see my chances fade because my working hours

are mainly in the early morning.At work on Sunday I could not get my mind of ZL9HR and thought it would be

a good idea to work them at least one time at my friends place for a new one. If I did, I would try from home

as well but the pressure would be off. So, on Monday morning just before work, I went to my friend Peter just

past 0700 local. They where on 20 meter phone so we tuned the amplifier for that band. By listening to the

pile up, and who he worked, I could easily get the frequency where he was listening and I got him very quickly.

Two minutes later I bagged him on 20 meter CW too within a couple calls, what a pleasure to use this fine

station! On to 40 meter things turned out more difficult at first as there was a lot QRM and band police making

it difficult to hear him. He wasn't all that strong then but they where still in daylight so we waited a while and he

became much stronger at 0620z. Large pile up and he listened from 5 to 20 up...which is really a lottery if

you ask me. I couldn't really get who he was working as stations continually gave their call over the band.

I decided to stay at 7.199 MHz and after some time I heard him give me a report:

'PA3GVI....hello Rob, you are well over the 9 here', another band added!

The rhombic antenna was the best antenna this time...on the dipole he was quite a bit weaker.

Just after the QSO I had to jump my car to be on time for work.

ZL9HR-DXCC # 327 , thirteen very difficult other entities remain!

- 26 to 28 October 2012, CW-WW-SSB at PI4W.

A special edition of the CQ World Wide DX contest this time because my very good friend Arnie/W7BIA

would come over to operate at the PI4W contest station. He arrived on Thursday 25Th after a very

long flight but was at our location 26Th around noon. We had set up most of the antennas except the

80 meter vertical was still on ground. This was done without a problem and we all enjoyed the

coffee soon! Fred/PA8F and Joop already installed the Transceivers and Amplifiers so Arnie could

make a couple contacts in the afternoon before we went home again. Around 0000z on the 27Th I

drove to the station to start the night shift together with Joop/PD2JAM. The 40 and 80 meter band

where packed full with stations and finding a clear frequency then is always  a challenge!

It didn't really turn out bad for the first night and Joop worked several NA stations around the greyline.

In the morning the next shift arrived and I went home for a short sleep as I would go there again with

Arnie around noon. Arnie got on 20 meter as I worked 15 meter. Same shift again in the night and

40 meter went much better then the night before.I could quite easily find a clear spot now. Back home

again after SR and pick up Arnie around noon. We drove the long way so Arnie could enjoy the beautiful

Dutch landscape. Good runs this time for Fred/PA8F and Arnie...he could quite easily work a couple

friends from the West Coast. Joop and Stan went for the last shift on Sunday evening to reach the final

score of 1700 QSO's. Absolutely not a top 10 score but boy....did we have fun!!

Operators this weekend: Arnie/W7BIA, Erik/PD5EK, Stan/PA8C, Fred/PA8F, Joop/PD2JAM and Rob/PA3GVI.

Scores by band:

Fred/PA8F preparing N1MM.

The second Yagi on top of our sea container.

- 29 August to 3 September 2012, LX/PA1TK/p DXpedition to JN39AX.

Last time I joined was 2009 and I really looked forward to this event.

On Wednesday morning the 29Th Kees/PA5WT and myself headed for Luxembourg where we would

join Theo/PA1TK and Frans/PC5T who where there one day earlier. The others, Gerard/PE1BBI, Rob/PE1ITR, Ruud/PE1BTV and Frans/PA3CQE would be there later in the week.

At the scene we encountered beautiful weather and the view there is absolutely stunning!

Building the antennas went quite well until Friday when a heavy storm hit us and we had to work

hard to save the tent. But after this it turned warm again and we finished the building of the antennas

on Saturday morning, hours before the contest. Due to Some other problems we started 18 minutes to

late in the contest.Conditions where not good at all but taking that in mind, it didn't go bad at all.

We eventually ended up with

783 QSO's and 286851 KM/points.The average distance was 366km and best DX was with EE2W in IN93GF (944km). Sunday evening we finished breaking down all the towers

and antennas to leave home again on Monday morning.

Thanks go out to all the operators who made this an unforgettable event.

An online picture album will available ASAP at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102248308588215425673

Building towers and antennas:

- 4 X 9 element stack -> North

- 4 X 9 element stack -> North-East

- 4 X 9 element stack -> East

- 4 X 9 element stack -> South-East

- 2 X 12 element stack ->South-West

- 1 X 12 element stack -> Search&pounce

- 6 X Big Wheel stack -> omnidirectional

Rob/PE1ITR(left) and Gerard/PE1BBI(right).

Rob/PA3GVI(left)and Ruud/PE1BTV(right).

- 14 August 2012, DXCC Endorsement #325.

Received my endorsement for DXCC mixed award #325 today!

- 11 and 12 August 2012, WAE/CW contest.

Planned to be active as much as I could through the weekend and finally made 550 QSO's.

The higher bands where very good Saturday, daytime and following night.

Sunday was lesser and calling CQ didn't create long runs as it used to do.

But I worked great DX like 3W2LI (on 3 bands) and 9V1YC with a big signal on 20 meters.

Boy, I love contesting!

Worked DXCC:

- 9 August 2012, Holidays.

I am 3 weeks into my holidays now and haven't done much on my weblog.

However, I did quite a bit of contesting the last 2 months, some with marginal number of QSO's

but others with long hours effort.

- RAC: 67 QSO's

- DL-DX-RTTY: 350 QSO's

- IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIP: 250 QSO's

- DMC-RTTY: 300 QSO's

- RSGB IOTA: 567 QSO's

- EU CHAMPIONSHIP: 100 QSO's

The chase for DX never ends, a few of the highlight in my log:

- 1A0C(Sovereign Order of Malta): worked multi bands/multi modes.

- VU2NKS(India) : 30/RTTY

- H44USMC(Solomon Islands): 15/SSB

- YC6EI(Indonesia): 15/SSB

- OJ0W(Marker reef): 15/CW

- P29FR(Papua New Guinea): 15/SSB

In the weekend of 1/2 September I will be active from LX, in the IARU VHF contest with the

PA1TK contest-team. We plan to build large antenna systems for VHF in the days before the contest and be active as Multi/one during the contest.

PA5WT and myself will also be active on HF from 29 August till the early morning of 3 September

on 10/15/20/40. (and maybe other bands depending on available antennas)

Picture: LX/PA1TK 2011

- 28 June 2012, 10 cards checked by the ARRL!

My friend Peter has just returned from his trip to Friedrichshaben in Germany.

He offered to take my card with him and have them checked at the ARRL desk.

They were all good contacts and I just have to wait for the confirmation.

Cards that were checked and approved:

- T31A(central Kiribati)

- PJ2 (Curacao Island)

- PJ4 (Bonaire Island)

- PJ5 (St. Eustatius Island)

- PJ7 (St. Martin/Dutch Island)

- ZY0T (Trindade Island)

- ST0R (South Sudan)

- VP8ORK (South Orkney Islands)

- ZL8X (Kermadec Islands)

- TX7M (Marquesas Islands)

I am waiting for the 7O6T card from Yemen to complete my DXCC #326.

That's 14 to go, 5 to Honor Roll!

- 23 and 24 June, Marconi Memorial contest.

Had some CW fun in the Marconi memorial contest and made 300 QSO's.

- 2 and 3 June 2012, IARU Region 1 Field-day.

We take part every year and build quite an impressive antenna site.

This year went very well with excellent weather on Friday for the build and Saturday was wonderful

as too. Sunday was rainy and cloudy but it was dry when we took everything down the end of the day.

The contest went very well but we didn't have good DX conditions on the higher bands and therefor only a couple contacts where made on 10 meter, 15 was a bit better.

We had 3 operators, PA5WT, PA3FAL and myself made 1001 QSO's without the dupes, not bad at all.

Many people of our club helped one way or another to get this event on air.

We had good spirit, nice food, and many laughs, a super weekend!

Pictures of the event can be found on:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102248308588215425673/PI4WPVelddag2012

Our yagi atop the scaffolding.

PA5WT in action.

PI4W/p dinner.

    - 1 June 2012, active again!

I haven't been updating my weblog for some time but many nice HAMRADIO things happened.
First I got to work an all time NEW ONE(7O6T/Yemen), Joined CQ-WPX-CW contest and was active during the windmill weekend on 12/13 may.

It's surprising to see how it happens that certain DXCC countries, from which you expect they will never allow hamradio, get activated,.....and this one for weeks!

7O6T was such a country and I was very happy that I managed to make 5 contacts.

As my passion is CW I always have joy in participating in CW contests, specially the bigger ones
like CQWW and WPX.

As I had other obligations during the weekend of the WPX I could only join several hours.
That resulted in 458 QSO's, absolutely not a high ranking score but I had fun!

During 12 and 13 may members of PI4WNO celebrated their 25TH anniversary and same time actived
windmill 'The Windhond' in Woerden.

A video covers most of what happened during this 'fun' weekend.

   - 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).