Congratulations to Russ - VX9GHD !!!

History was made yesterday as Industry Canada issued its first license on the new 60 meter developmental band, VX9GHD to VE3FI Russ Hemphill of Haliburton, Ontario.

Canadians have been waiting for 3 years for this new opportunity to join the USA, and Britain, and as usual RAC has done nothing to help with this process!  In fact RAC still has not made an announcement informing Canadian hams that they can even apply for a 60m experimental license !!

Russ-VE3FI, the Vice President for Administraion of ECOA, tells us that 60m is badly needed for Emergency Communications, especially when conditions on 40 and 80 are not suitable for transmitting or receiving traffic.

This experimental license is valid for one year.  After the one year period 60m will then be open for regular use by all Canadian amateurs using their own call sign.

Any Canadian amateur can apply for this new experimental license by sending in an application to Industry Canada with $52.80 upon approval.  Details available on the IC website.

Well done to Russ and ECOA for making this HUGE first step for Canadian hams!!!

CY9M - An update

From the official website:

The logistical aspect of activating St Paul island is now very much ongoing and a work in progress. No wonder it’s been seven long years since this DXCC entity was last active when you consider the island has nothing resembling human day-to-day, take for granted “luxuries”.

Now the group insurance and landing permit are formalised, we’re getting to work on the actual transmitting side of things. We know the east side of the island has a great take-off to EU and AF, whilst on the west there are excellent paths to NA, SA and AS. Initial thinking was to set up two camps at either side of the island, but this is proving a huge logistics problem, primarily because an overgrown and intertwined forest blocks all routes – and since we are active for a relatively short period, assembling quickly at one location seems more likely. We will update nearer the time on chosen location.

We sincerely thank and acknowledge the numerous organisations, clubs and individual donors who realise the task ahead. You too can help us get CY9M on air by checking out the official website.

CQ Contest......the aftermath

It was not a bad weekend on the bands and the new radio and headset worked a real treat.  This was without a doubt my most successful contest to date. 

SFI was 103, A Index was 10, K Index was 2, and the SN was at 65.  Not great, but we've all worked a lot worse.  Amongst a hell of a lot of other contacts, I managed to score three new countries:

Turkey - YM7KA on 15m
Namibia - V55V on 10m
Cyprus - P33W on 15m

Every country in Europe was worked with the exception of Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden.  Never heard any stations from those countries at all.  The behaviour on the bands was great, and I heard no band police in action, what a nice change that was!

However (and there's always a "however"!!), I did hear some raised voices and frayed tempers over some peoples inability to communicate serial numbers in English.  I guess some people don't realize that not everyone speaks English, and that some actually have a language of their own.  Oh well, I guess some people just need to learn to slow down and chillout once in a while.

RMS Titanic

I came across the following while checking a callsign on QRZ.com today, and I thought it would be of interest to some of the readers of this blog.  Here it is:

"RMS Titanic, the world’s largest passenger ship at the time, sank on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, following a collision with an iceberg at approximately 0245 on the morning of April 15th 1912. 1,517 people lost their lives in the tragedy.


The 100th anniversary of the sinking will be marked by several special commemorative event stations at ports associated with the ships maiden voyage. These include Cobh, formerly Queenstown (EI100T), Belfast (GI100MGY), Southampton (M100T), Cape Race (VO1MCE) and a maritime mobile station (VE0MGY), at the site of the sinking.

Throughout 2012 EI100T will be operated regularly from Cobh ("Queenstown"), Lower Cork Harbour (IO51UU). Cork Harbour was the last port of call of the Titanic on her maiden and final voyage.

During the weekend of April 14th & 15th 2012, a significant special event station signing EI100T will be operated from Cobh town to coincide with the Titanic commemorations.

The Cork Radio Club sponsored Titanic Award will be available to radio amateurs who work EI100T on at least two bands or modes during 2012, with a special endorsement to the award if you work EI100T during the weekend of April 14th & 15th 2012."

World-Wide WPX Contest - SSB

Well the big contest starts tonight at 0000Z and runs till 2359Z on Sunday.  This is always a fun contest with the bands full of great DX.  If you can't work your DXCC this weekend you're just not trying.

I've been spending quite a bit of time learning the new rig, and I've finally got comfortable with it.  This week I added a Heil Proset Elite Headset with the HC 6 wide response microphone element to the kit, hardest part of this was adjusting to using a foot switch as I've always had a hand switch.  This headset is light years ahead of my last Heil set, the dual traveller, which I also really liked, but there is just no comparision between the two headsets. 

As I write this we are having a moderate solar flare which is reaching M1.0.  The SFI is 102, the A Index is 6, the K Index is 2, and the SN at 86.  Not the best for the contest, but I've done it in much worse conditions.

The Rules can be found HERE.

Good luck to those taking part, and lets hope the band police take the weekend off.