Thursday, February 23, 2012

Island of Antigua (V25WY)

This is a video of a QSO with teh Island of Antigua on 17m SSB. Bob W4OWY and Tom AA9A were active as V25WY and V25AA respectively from Antigua between February 14 to 22, 2012. They were on 160 – 10m, SSB, CW and maybe RTTY. QSL via bureau or direct to home calls.

Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney. Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Bonaire (PJ4J)

This is an eQSL of a QSO with Bonaire station PJ4J on 17m SSB. OS1T (ON4CIT) was active from Bonaire Island, 27 October - 9 November 2011 as PJ4J.
The Caribbean island of Bonaire, together with Aruba and Curaçao forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles. The name Bonaire is thought to have originally come from the Caiquetio word 'Bonay'. The early Spanish and Dutch modified its spelling to Bojnaj and also Bonaire, which means "Good Air".Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the country's dissolution on 10 October 2010,[5] when the island (including Klein Bonaire) became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The United States on 15m (W2NLS)

This is a video of a QSO with Neil (W2NLS) on 15m SSB from my car, using a 4m-long military whip antenna.

His antenna is a 5-element multibander. You can see it on the picture below.
Neil was licensed first as WN2KQI and then became WB2KQI for about 47 years. When the vanity call of W2NLS came up with his initials he decided to go for it. But somedays, still, he actually will give the wrong call!
Ham Radio really shaped Neil's life. He spent many years as an editor working on magazines having to do with electronics. He first was on Elementary Electronics Magazine and then he joined Popular Mechanics as the Electronics Editor. He was with PM for more than a decade and did more than one article on ham radio.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Winter activation of Monte do Curisco

This is a video of the SOTA activation of Monte do Curisco (EA1/LE-191), a 1300+ metre summit in the Spanish province of Leon.

The weather was extremely cold (-5C) and windy. There was also a lot of QRM, at S9-level on the 20m band, so I tried the activation on the 15m band. All in all, it was a difficult activation, but I managed to make 8 QSOs.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

YN2N (Nicaragua) on 15m

This is a video of a QSO with Nicaragua from my car, using a Yaesu FT-857D with a 4m-long whip antenna.

THe antenna tuner is a Yaesu FC-40, which tunes the whip from 7Mhz up.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Alto do Anxelio (EA1/CR-020)

The other day I went to activate the summit of Alto do Anxelio (EA1/CR-020) with my father (EA1AQ) and my elder son Adi. It was a fun activation, and I made a lot of QSOs.

Alto do Anxelio is a relatively nearby summit with easy access and a very important advantage for radio operation. It does not have QRM, which is often a problem in many SOTA summits that host all kids of communications antennas (TV, telephone).