Postman made my day

Our postman today left a large envelope into our mailbox, that was meant to make my day!

ARRL awarded all those that participated in their Centennial Challenge award, without even having to apply for it.

Here is the content of today's received envelope:

 

SV5DKL DXCC Challenge score surpasses 2000 mark

Back in April 2014, in this post, when I had reached 1800 points in my DXCC Challenge score for my SV5DKL callsign, with LotW confirmations only, I had set the next target to be the 2000 mark.

Well, it took me just over a year, but yesterday I made it over the 2000 points, thanks to the E30FB log, which was uploaded to LotW and gave me 5 new band points.

Below is my current DXCC Challenge standing (I remind you, with LotW confirmations only), on May 1st, 2015:

As LotW has attracted more and more operators, confirmations are coming in fast. Traditional paper QSLing, of course, will never die, but speed and simplicity of LotW is far beyond comparison for all those award hunters out there.

My sole request to LotW officials would be to incorporate more awards, like WAZ, IOTA, etc. since this would make LotW the must-have tool of every DXer worldwide.

As far as my DXCC and DXCC Challenge totals are concerned, according to my logbook program statistics, including paper QSL confirmations, as of May 1st, 2015, these are as follows:

DXCC entities worked/confirmed: 319 / 314
DXCC Challenge points worked / confirmed: 2431 / 2045

No targets will be set from now on regarding DXCC Challenge program. Every new confirmation will be welcome !!

73/55 de

Stathis, SV5DKL

YU90HST - 3rd Balkan High Speed Telegraphy Championship

SRS, Amateur Radio Union of Serbia are organizing the 3rd Balkan High Speed Telegraphy (HST) Championship, which will be held between 15-17 May 2015 in the beautiful mid-sized town of Svilajnac in central Serbia, just 100 km south-west of Belgrade.

HST disciplines for this competition will be RufZ, MR and TX only.

Further information and full details on the venue may be found by clicking the official logo below:



Alongside the 3rd Balkan HST Championship, will be held also the Serbian HST Championship 2015 in all 4 disciplines (RufZ, MR, TX, RX) and in all categories (A-I), from which the Serbian National Team, to participate in the World IARU HST Championship to be held in Ochrid later on this year, will be defined.

 

73 de

Stathis, SV5DKL

SV5DKL-R Echolink node 657316 QRX .. SV5DKL-L Echolink node 657314 QRV !!

SV5DKL-R is my personal Echolink node with unique number identifier 657316. It is operated 100% by me, from my premises and I will assume all responsibility for its operation and performance.
It has been the most reliable and operable Echolink node in Dodecanese since its first day of operation, as it was linked to local R6B repeater of Rhodes, and provided trouble-free communication to its users.

Today, I was asked from the Administrative Council of the Radio Amateur Union of Dodecanese to change the callsign used for my Echolink node and to use their callsign, instead, under the allegation that "THE FREQUENCY BELONGS TO THE UNION" ... !!!
Furthermore, I was told that if I wouldn't comply with this, I'd better remove my Echolink node from R6B ... and that was a request.

So ...

I've decided to put SV5DKL-R on hold for the time being, while at the same time I implemented a new Echolink node SV5DKL-L with unique number identifier 657314, which operates in simplex frequency of 2m VHF band at 145.225.
The new node is already operable, tested and ready to host a QSO as well as a Conference. Of course, SV5DKL-L's coverage will be greatly reduced in comparison with SV5DKL-R, maybe up to a radius of 8-10 kilometers around my QTH, at most, but still I will be happy to see radio amateurs using it.

Given the chance, I want to inform everyone that I am no longer a member of the Radio Amateur Union of Dodecanese, after my written statement of deletion from RAUD's member register, which I mailed them on March 26, 2015.

Ending this post, I would like to apologize to all those that used to communicate via SV5DKL-R all these years, for this end of operation, but I find what I was asked to do, at least, outrageous and by no means can I agree to such philosophies and tactics.

73

Stathis, SV5DKL

 

120 years of Radio Russian special activity

Celebrating 120 years of Radio, SRR engaged a very interesting activity to commemorate the presentation of a device made by Russian physicist and  electrical engineer, Alexander Popov, on 7th May 1895, with which one could receive signals from a Hertz spark vibrator. The presentation took place at a meeting of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society in St. Petersburg, and, by this experiment the possibility to transmit messages over a distance without wires was shown.

Detailed info regarding this activity may be found here:

http://radio120.hamlog.ru/   &   http://www.qrz.com/db/R2015R

Several awards and a beautiful plaque are available for all stations that will get in contact with as many special activation stations as possible. Below are my 3 respective awards and I am already waiting for the plaque to arrive !!

SX150ITU Award - Celebrating 150 years of International Telecommunications Union

As with almost all National Amateur Radio Societies, R.A.A.G. activates the Special event Station SX150ITU, to celebrate 150 years anniversary of the International Telecommunications Union.

Activation will take place from 1st. to 30th April 2015. Detailed Info about the event may be found under the respective registration at QRZ.com:

 

http://www.qrz.com/db/SX150ITU

Several members of RAAG, including myself, are activating the Special call around the clock, throughout the HF bands in all major modes.

A commemorative award is available in three (3) different classes (Gold, Silver & Bronze) to stations that will make at least three (3) 2-way contacts on different bands, regardless of the mode of operation.

I already got mine ;-)   >>>

Try it for yourself, too !!

2nd Balkan HF Contest Plaque

That was the fastest completion of log collecting, log checking, final scores announcing, awards & trophies prepared & mailed contest procedure I have EVER experienced !!

Congratulations to the Organizing Committee of the 2nd Balkan HF Contest and the people supporting it.

See you all in the 3rd Balkan HF Contest next year !!

 

2014 ARRL DX Contest Certificate

These guys always send out the paper awards just on time ... how is this possible?

 

K1N is QRT ... Game Over !!

One of the most significant DXpeditions of our days has gone QRT on 15th Feb. 2015 at 1130z.

K1N activated from Navassa Island, world's No.1 most wanted DXCC entity (that is, until recently!), has succeeded, to my humble opinion, in reaching the initial target set.

Over 138k QSOs made, with 35702 unique and happy radio operators in the log!

They worked stations from 187 different DXCC entities!

An ATNO for many, including myself!

From my part of the world, it was a pain in the neck trying to break the pileups. Especially when I had to battle with EU & NA walls at the same time. Bare in mind that Rhodes is at the southeasternmost point of EU, we are closer to Asia than any other EU station.

K1N signals were particularly strong here on 15, 20, 30 and 40 meters, with some high outbursts on 12 and 80 meters on specific days, as per propagation factors.

Managed to get them 8 times, on 5 bands and 3 modes, more than enough for me!

Navassa is unlikely to get activated again for at least another 10-12 years, as the K1N Team have announced, so it was a big pleasure working them this time.

Congratulations to everybody involved in this DXpedition, it led to a success !!

K1N Navassa Isl. ... Ready ... Set ... Go !!!

Everything is ready here for the K1N Navassa Island DXpedition starting in a few hours, by the KP1-5 Project DXPedition team.

It will be an ATNO for me, as for many others. Pileups are expected to be huge and constant. DX Battle on the roll ...

Upgraded my Inverted-L counterpoise system with the aid of a aluminum plate, where all my 58 radials connect solidly, have greased radial plate contacts and used an aluminum flat bar to connect all this to my antenna coupler.

The antenna coupler has been upgraded, in order to be able to handle double the power on the low bands (160 & 80).

K6TU supported with propagation predictions for Navassa, ranging from a very basic station setup up to the experienced DXer level setup.

Here is mine (Tribander & wires selection):

 May the Force be with us ...

73 de

Stathis, SV5DKL

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 ...