Although band conditions on 20 meters were supposed to be “fair”, I made a lot of nice DX contacts from the club station PI4ZHE last night. I dug my way through some big pileups (with ease, see previous post) and made contacts with stations in Iraq, Namibia, Bahrain, Ceuta, Jordan, South Africa, Argentina, Algeria, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Puerto Rico, Suriname, England, Russia and the USA. At 20.00 UTC I joined my friends at the infamous 247 DX Net with lots of familiar voices like net leader Jose KP4BME from Puerto Rico, Jack W2AF from New Jersey and the ever present “big voice” Joe KB3NXT from Florida. Ramon PZ1EL was there too for a third week in a Row. 5/9 plusses from all over the place including my 13.000km maximum QRB of the day with Walter LU1XP from Buenos Aires. Just great fun!
Tag Archives: PI4ZHE
Is that your beam, or are you just happy to hear me?
Time for a little update on my ham related acivities! I have not worked the ham bands from the home QTH lately. Work pressure and there’s also the club and the band needing my attention. Nevertheless, I am operating the club station PI4ZHE (almost) every Thursday evening and what a joy it has been lately! Conditions weren’t that great on most nights but I was still able to make lots of nice QSOs with many DXCCs behind Ye Olde Kenwood TS-870. We added a vintage Kenwood TL-922 amp to our shack (a story about that in a later post) feeding the 9 element Optibeam on top of the 100ft club tower. So, fantastic setup and 5/9s from just about everyone. I also enjoy the presence of my fellow club members, it’s a great electronics & ham radio club with lots of electronics projects and other activities going on. That said, I will try some CQDX behind the IC-7600 in the attic again soon to fill the void in my logbook, but on Thursdays look out for PI4ZHE on 20 and 15meters!
73s de PD2H
A new HF antenna for my club!
We installed our new 9 element Optibeam at the club this weekend. What a beautiful antenna. Sort of ham radio porn 😉
I made a short video about the proceedings for your entertainment.
International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend
Yours truly and fellow clubmates will be participating in the upcoming ILLW on 15-16 august. We will activate Lightship “Noord Hinder” (ILLW entry NL0036) and since the ship is moored right across our club we will be using the club shack & antennas this year. Our callsign will be PI4ZHE/LS and you may find us on the various HF bands depending on time of day and propagation. Check the cluster! A special QSL card is available for those interested. So don’t forget to contact us!