Finally got to install the ICOM IC-7000 in my Subaru Impreza. The base unit is underneath the passenger seat and the head unit is mounted below the centre console using GoPro mount hardware and an MB-105 bracket. The IC-7000 has a video out and hence I was able to route the video to the car’s display LCD.
Author: Dinesh (AB3DC)
Ham Radio Atlas by SP6NVK
Found this great Internet Ham Atlas site by Dariusz, SP6NVK with tons of high-resolution maps for all the DXCC entities. Also has maps at the continent level and Google Earth KML files.
IARU Worked All Continents Award
| Call | Country | Continent | Band | Mode | QSO Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EA8TX | Canary Islands | AF (Africa) | 10m | SSB | 2015-10-24 |
| JA3YBK | Japan | AS (Asia) | 10m | SSB | 2015-03-28 |
| PI4DX | Netherlands | EU (Europe) | 10m | SSB | 2015-10-25 |
| KP2XX | U.S. Virgin Islands | NA (North America) | 10m | SSB | 2015-10-24 |
| KH7XX | Hawaii | OC (Oceania) | 10m | SSB | 2015-03-29 |
| PY2XC | Brazil | SA (South America) | 10m | SSB | 2015-10-25 |
http://www.iaru.org/worked-all-continents-award.html
Ham Radio Repeaters In India
This list of VHF/UHF ham radio repeaters in India was generated using information from the RepeaterBook database. This map/list can be updated by adding missing repeaters on repeaterbook.com
| Call | Location | Frequency | Offset | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VU2IU | Bangalore | 145.200 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2TWO | Bangalore, M.G. Road | 145.650 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2RSB | Bangalore, Nandi Hills | 145.700 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2ZO | Bangalore, Sree Kanteerava Stadium | 145.275 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2PUM | Chennai | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU3VHF | Chennai | 145.575 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU3MVR | Chennai | 145.675 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2LHS | Chennai | 145.550 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2MWG | Chennai | 434.100 | +1.7 | ON-AIR |
| VU2MRR | Chennai | 145.775 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2AOT | Coimbatore | 145.750 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2RPT | Coimbatore | 145.800 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2AJI | Guntur | 145.450 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2GWR | Gwalior | 145.000 | +0 | ON-AIR |
| VU2LHR | Hyderabad, Banjara Hills | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2HEN | Idukki, Calvary Mount | 145.100 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2CHN | Kochi (Cochin) | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2MEP | Kochi (Cochin), MEC | 144.800 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2KOD | Kodaikanal | 145.150 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2CVH | Kolkata (Calcutta) | 145.650 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2DND | Kothagiri | 144.750 | +1.2 | ON-AIR |
| VU2CSR | Kozhikode (Calicut) | 145.625 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2MWW | Malabar, Kannur | 145.675 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2MJJ | Malappuram, Puthanathani | 145.450 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2BBB | Mumbai, Matheran | 145.000 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2ST | Mumbai, Nana Chowk | 144.100 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2TRE | Mysore, Chamundi Hills | 145.725 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2FUN | New Delhi | 145.670 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2DLR | New Delhi | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2IRT | Ooty, Doddabetta Peak | 144.975 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2BCM | Palakkad, Nelliyampathi Hills | 145.650 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2DFD | Pathanamthitta | 144.475 | +0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2PHA | Pune | 145.100 | +0 | ON-AIR |
| VU2CSD | Quilon | 145.350 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2RYM | Rajapalayam | 145.600 | -0.6 | OFF-AIR |
| VU2REC | Surathkal, NITK | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2TTD | Thodupuzha | 145.300 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2TCD | Tiruchengode, Yercaud Hills | 145.850 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2POC | Tiruchengode, Yercaud Hills | 434.950 | +1.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2TWC | Trichur | 144.200 | +0.6 | OFF-AIR |
| VU2XT | Trivandrum | 145.600 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2KDD | Vijayawada, Gunadala Hills | 145.550 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
| VU2VCM | Yelagiri, Swamimalai Hills | 145.475 | -0.6 | ON-AIR |
Updated: October 6, 2015 at 1500 UTC. Source : RepeaterBook.com
2015 CQ WW WPX SSB Contest Results
Back in March 2015, I participated in the CQ World-Wide WPX SSB contest and I have written about it here. The results of the contest have now been published and I am pretty happy with my performance in the “Single Operator – Assisted – Low Power – 10 Meters” category.
#1 in the US 8th call area (MI, OH, WV)
#6 in North America
#87 in the World
QSL Cards
My First Award
Received my first ever Ham Radio award last week for scoring 1,135 point by working 136 stations in 2014 during the ARRL Centennial QSO Party. I now feel that I should have taken the extra effort to get the W1AW WAS award but my station was not working at its full potential.
| Points | QSOs | Call Signs | Code | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 400 | 4 | 4 | PSM | Past Section Manager |
| 175 | 1 | 1 | SM | Section Manager |
| 125 | 25 | 25 | VE | Volunteer Examiner |
| 70 | 2 | 2 | ASM | Assistant Section Manager |
| 62 | 62 | 61 | MEM | ARRL Member |
| 60 | 3 | 3 | CM | Contest Managers/Log Checkers |
| 40 | 1 | 1 | AC | CAC/DXAC/ECAC Advisory Committee Member |
| 36 | 3 | 3 | EC | Emergency Coordinator |
| 34 | 17 | 17 | LM | ARRL Life Member |
| 30 | 1 | 1 | DEC | District Emergency Coordinator |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | CC | ARRL DXCC Card Checker |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | PIO | Public Information Officer |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | OO | Official Observer |
| 10 | 2 | 1 | MI | W1AW/8 operation from Michigan |
| 10 | 2 | 1 | ID | W1AW/7 operation from Idaho |
| 6 | 3 | 3 | AFF | ARRL Affiliated Club Call Sign |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | VT | W1AW/1 operation from Vermont |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | TN | W1AW/4 operation from Tennessee |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | OR | W1AW/7 operation from Oregon |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | NM | W1AW/5 operation from New Mexico |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | FL | W1AW/4 operation from Florida |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | CA | W1AW/6 operation from California |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | AZ | W1AW/7 operation from Arizona |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | QSL | Incoming QSL Bureau Sorters |
| 1135 | 139 | 136 | - | Total |
QSL Cards Are Here…
New QSL Cards Design
Finally found time to finish my QSL card design last week and sent them off for printing.
I have also open sourced and released these templates on GitHub as PSD files so that you can edit them in Photoshop.
CQ World Wide WPX Contest – SSB
This past weekend (March 28 & 29th) was the CQ WW WPX SSB contest and I finished off with a claimed score of 14,504 points with 92 contacts. Nothing stellar but I logged in a few new DX stations and I got to experiment with using a cluster in N1MM+ logger and the built-in voice keyer in my IC-7000 to send CQ.
As always, I started late on Saturday around 2PM EDT and made 60 contacts operating for about 5 hours. The 10M band was wide open and I made my first Oceania contact with VK4KW in Australia and later followed by VK6NC located near Perth. So that’s a straight line distance of 18,000 km (11,150 miles) from my QTH and making it my farthest contact so far.
On Sunday, the 10M band was awful with lot of noise and not a single soul being heard for most of the day. But as the evening came on and as the grey-line propagation kicked in, I started to hear the South Americans coming through albeit very faintly. Playing around with the DSP settings on the rig, I was able to finish off with a final tally of 92 contacts – 8 short of my goal of 100.
But in the end I was happy that I scored new DX contacts, got to use the DSP settings in the radio, setup the DX cluster function in N1MM+ and used the built-in voice keyer to call CQ which by the way made the XYL very happy as I was no longer shouting.
New DX countries:
- Argentina (LP7D)
- Australia (VK4KW)
- Cayman Islands (ZF2DX)
- Chile (CE2MVF)
- Curaçao (PJ4Z)
- Dominican Republic (HI3TEJ)
- Morocco (5E5E)
- New Zealand (ZF2DX)
- Serbia (YT8A)
- Uruguay (CW5W)
Contest Details:
CONTEST: CQ-WPX-SSB
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: 10M
CATEGORY-MODE: SSB
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CLAIMED-SCORE: 14504