What a pleasant surprise when I logged on to LoTW today. VK9XX had uploaded the log and gave me another country on LoTW (#244). I'm closing in on 250 now. The postage rates increased in Norway from January 1st 2010, as if the rates weren't high enough. That makes me even happier that more and more people are becoming LoTW users.
It has been pretty quiet on the DX front lately. I did work K7XQ on 6M EME January 2nd and GM4WJA on January 3rd. I worked PJ7/K2GSJ on 30M CW January 2nd. I worked him last year on 6M. Nice to get him on a second band. VP9BO Ken answered my CQ DX call a few minutes later. VP9 is not worked too often, so always a nice catch. I worked DU9/DL5SDF for a new one on 30M (#267) later that day.
Exciting stuff is happening with this program. I haven't used it in a while, but just a few days ago I checked up on what was going with the program development. For those of you who haven't heard about this program, it's a free Windows program for plotting great circle maps from your location, locator maps, grayline and realtime propagation maps. Read the changelog below:
New version 3.1.0 – 26 December 2009
Bugfixes
Real time for propagation now works
Time got its own tab now. Sets time for both grayline and voacap.
New version 3.0.9 – 5 December 2009
Vocap now works in the western and southern hemisphere.
Icearea and Voaarea implemented
You can set transmitter power and gain in the receive and transmit antennas
You can plot color or b/w for the propagation layer
In the toolbar you can change band for the propagation layer.
The picture you see – is the picture that is saved. (changed from previous version)
The "real" time display for the propagation is not redrawing itself. You have to manually click on create map or change band!
Since the propagation is made on an hourly basis – 9:30 plotted as 09:00 hours and 09:31 plotted as 10:00…
The propagation forecast can only be made every hour (limitation of voacap)
If you have used version 3.0.8, please change directory for voacap to "c:\itshfbc" NOT "c:\itshfbc\areadata"
Changes from 3.0.7 to 3.0.8 – 15 November 2009
Some bugfixes from 3.0.7
Interacts with Voacap (get Voacap here: http://www.voacap.com/ ) This part is buggy and not fully functional, but you are welcome to try it out!
More precise sun position (formulas from here: http://stjarnhimlen.se/comp/ppcomp.html#5 )
Changes from 3.0.6 to 3.0.7…
A greyline function is implemented. Choose between realtime map that updates every minute and a one shot map.
Prefix format has changed. Look at the PrefixNew.dat (Thanks to SM5FQQ, Jan who supplied the updated file!)
The line thickness for the compass can be changed!
Changes from 3.0.5 to 3.0.6…
Now you can plot two different locator files with different colour, hatching and transparency (one for worked and one for confirmed squares..)
Plotting now accepts 4 character locators (JP83 or JP83PE are plotted the same way)
Other features..
Borders, coastlines, rivers, lakes can be added
Text and lines can be partly transparent and in the colour of your choice.
Last week I got two new ones confirmed on LoTW. The first was YS4U (#242 LoTW) who I worked on 20M CW and the second one was EA6IB (#243 LoTW) on 40M CW, both in CQWW CW.
I have had a few days off from work and have had some time to play with radio. Conditions on 30M and 40M are quite good at this time of the year, and the sun sets around 14z at my qth. I can easily take advantage of the grayline propagation to Japan and the US west coast now. I've been mostly on 30M working a lot of stations from the US and also several stations from Japan. I was answered by YB1RGK Bernd on 30M CW one day for a new one (#259 30M). One day I even got a pile up from EU, not really sure why though. LA shouldn't be that rare on 30M but maybe it has something to do with LoTW? I'm pretty quick to upload my latest log and the quickest confirmation for me so far has to be W8RIT only 16 minutes after our contact. Several of the stations on 30M and 40M has also been confirmed the same day. Today I worked ST2AR on 30M CW for a new one (#260 30M). He had a strong signal and it was the third band I got him on.
I am also trying to complete my LoTW WAS. I have 45 states mixed and the ones missing are Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming. I worked Mississippi today, and he is listed as a LoTW user, so hopefully only 4 will be missing soon. One day I'll complete all 50 for sure.
Take a look at this video. Quite an amazing signal for eme. This video reminds me of LA8AV Egil's 23CM setup. I visited him once during an eme contest in 2006. I remember he worked LX1DB on CW and then LX1DB asked Egil to go on SSB too. Signals were amazing, but no wonder when LX1DB runs a 10M dish. I added pictures of Egil's old eme setup under photoalbums. Click here to take a look.
This is how my 6M yagi looked like a few days ago. Because of the snow and ice, I couldn't run at all on 6M. The swr was just too high. Luckily everyhing was ok again when the weather warmed up and everything melted.
4L0A on 40M SSB was #240 on LoTW. 9L7NS on 20M CW was a nice surprise. I worked Ned a few days before CQWW. I did see 9M2CNC spotted on 40M during CQWW, but I never got him. I wasn't on when he was on. However I got 9M2CNC on 30M CW November 30th. He gave me #241 on LoTW. I also worked 5R8IC on 40M CW on November 30th. That was #246 on 40M.
What a pleasant surprise when I logged on to LoTW today. VK9XX had uploaded the log and gave me another country on LoTW (#244). I'm closing in on 250 now. The postage rates increased in Norway from January 1st 2010, as if the rates weren't high enough. That makes me even happier that more and more people are becoming LoTW users.
