20 years in Amateur Radio (1994-2014)

If you read this, then we most possibly share in common one of the best hobbies in this world ... Amateur Radio.



It was 20th October 1994 when I was first licensed as SV1DKL in Athens, Greece. Since then, I have lived great thrills through avocation with our great hobby, involving joy, anxiety, cooperation, tireness, education, adrenaline flowing, friendship ... and so many more.

I even travelled to places, normally I wouldn't visit; made close friends around the globe, met with many of them.

On 20th October 2014 I marked my 20 years in Amateur Radio. That was a good time to check some of my favourite statistics, concerning QSOs i have personally made (not from contest stations, special event stations, etc.).

From the table below, it is clear that 20m has been my favourite band, leaving 15m and 10m behind at 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, with marginal difference between the two:

Note that Non-HF QSOs comprise of 6m and up QSOs.

And from the next table, referring to QSOs per mode, I would swear beforehand that CW would win by far ... SURPRISEEE !!! SSB overlapped CW by more than 2K QSOs !!!



20 years equals 7300 days ... let's see how many of those I have been active for ...

 

 

Well, 1998 has obviously been my most fruitful and productive year, followed closely by 2012, 2013 & 2011, while 2005 was my least active year (worked a lot during 2003-2005, had just moved to Rhodes and did not have a decent shack or aerials ...).

 

It is funny, if we take a look at the graph of my activity days and the graph of sunspots numbers during solar cycles 23 & 24:

 

... quite similar, huh ???

I am curious to check this again against the next 2 decades ...

 

Anyway,

as years go by, I am enjoying Amateur Radio more and more.

And as technology advances rapidly in Telecommunications, we get the chance to be among the first ones to assess new hardware, new software, new theories, new materials, new modes, etc.

 

We are lucky to be Amateur Radio operators.

 

73 de

SV5DKL

(est. 1994)

 

 

I am into RTTY, too, sometimes ...

Whilst I prefer working mostly SSB/CW, RTTY can be quite fan occasionally ...

 

500 German DOKs in the box! DLD-500 Diploma awarded through DARC's DCL!

I've been trying for quite some time now to reach the 500 confirmed DOKs level in DARC's DCL system.

I've mentioned about DCL a lot in the past, due to its ease of use and flexibility in applying for various awards.

A couple of days ago, I finally reached 524 confirmed DOKs on 15m and 506 confirmed DOKs on 20m, in DCL, so decided to apply for the 15m DLD award endorsement.

Being in contact with Eddy, DM5JBN (DLD award manager), in the past weeks, made it even easier to go through the process.

The DLD-500 award endorsement comes with a fine lapel badge, which I will receive shortly with the paper diploma. For the time being, here is the digital form of my DLD-500:

 

Next DLD target is far away ... the DLD-1000 level is not easy to reach, but it's worth trying. And it comes with an extra fine lapel badge, plus it allow one to apply for the DLD trophy, too (and that is one astonishing trophy !!)

12th IARU High Speed Telegraphy World Championship / 9-13 September 2015 / Ohrid, F.Y.R.O.M. - Bulletin Nr. 1

IARU High Speed Telegraphy World Championship, the 12th in series, will be held in Ohrid, F.Y.R.O.M., between 9-13 September 2015.

The 1st official bulletin was received today from my good friend, Oliver Tabakovski, Z32TO, a very active HST enthusiast and organizer.

You shall read the bulletin in .doc format by clicking here.

A dedicated web site (www.hst2015.org) will be online after 1st of coming February, for more detailed information on the venue.

A Letter of Intent must be returned to the organizers (RSM), not later than 1st of April 2015.

In this bulletin there are price tables, according to the needs and likings of participants. What I have to notice, is that the prices still remain high, considering the overall costs involved, including traveling. For instance, a participant in a double room, shall pay 250 EUR (if paid beforehand) for the competition and accommodation, plus about the same amount for traveling, because some participants will have to travel via 2 means of transport to get to Skopje. From there, possibly RSM will have another solution for getting to Ohrid. 

We will have to wait for the 2nd Official Bulletin to see further into these (and other, mostly technical) details.

700 Jahre Stadt Eckernförde award - FREE through DARC`s DCL System

Browsing through DARC`s DCL system today, I noticed a new award in the list. That was 700 Jahre Stadt Eckernförde award, that is 700 years of the city of Eckernförde in DOK M01 in Germany.

Rules were simple (see also http://www.darc.de/uploads/media/Diplom-Ausschreibung_01.pdf), and there were 3 different classes awarded. 

Checking my points against the rules, DCL showed I could apply online for the top class (Klasse 1.) for this award. What is more, the PDF version of the award is free (there is a paid for paper version available, if you wish!) and the whole procedure (check points, apply in specific class, approval, printout of the award) was completed in less than 30 minutes (including e-mail message concerning application approval from the award manager) !!

So, here is a nice and relatively easy award to obtain, with just a few clicks in DARC`s DCL:

 

WAG 2014 Final Results published

Just received today a notification from Worked All Germany contest manager Chris, DL8MBS, that the final results of WAG 2014 Contest, including photos, contest audio extracts and breakdowns, have been published.

Results can be found here. If you participated, you may even download your certificate in .pdf format from here. Check mine below:

And WAG 2014 stories and other interesting facts on WAG contest will be found here.

I am now looking towards WAG 2015, to work some more rare DOKs for my DLD award hunting.

73 es HNY!

Stathis, SV5DKL