EU Sprint Gangs : wanted dead or alive

Thanks guys for organizing such the best contesting!

9A6XX, Hrle Horvat
G4BUO, Dave Lawley
Paolo Cortese, I2UIY (sk)
OK2FD, Karel Karmasin

Spring 2008 EU Sprint SSB: I did again!

It looks that my hard work on my previous EU Sprint got the gain. According their site with only 4 QSO's with 100% accurate log, according the UBN reports as follows, it looks that I did it again, and that's why I could gain on 7 Golden Logs :

'This time we had 7 Golden Logs that belong to GW4BLE, LZ2UZ, MM0GOR, PA0MIR, PA3AAV, UA4FER and YB2ECG. Congratulations!'

Thanks to all from EU Gangs : G4BUO, OK2FD, 9A6XX, and I2UIY (sk).

Now, I just waiting (again) for the nice certificate!

I suggest you try this 'stupid' contest because there's a lot of fun!

Nikon D40 : my new gadget

I've recently bough a new gadget on my shack, a digital single lens reflect, DSLR from Nikon. Yes, my new entry on digital photografi is Nikon D40, with 6MP!
I believe that combining ham radio activity, riding motobike, and digital fotography is a unique combinations.
As a ham operator radio we usually need some refreshment for our eyes. Too boring if we always see the radio panel or the waterfall on the LCD screen. Sometime we need also looking at the landscape or other some beauties are worthy enough to capture on our lens!
Some pictures on these blogs also made from the Nikon D40. And I believe it's just the beginning!
Say cheesse............!

JARTS WW RTTY 2008 Contest : where's the sun spots?

Joining the JARTS contest series always fun. The exchange is your age, so you can trace statistics among the RTTY contesters, except for the YL and clubstation gave 00 or 99 for the exchange.
This several week our local weather is fully with rain and big wind, so my activation on this contest follows this situations, including also the power line, hi hi.....
Using the MixW demo I could log several top contesting from the youngest til the oldest. I could log JL8MBF gave me 15 (wow, 15 years old and have working on rtty contesting) and the oldest is JA3AN gave me 86 (wow, 86 years old stil get working on rtty contesting), nice persons!
Band condition is not so good, my previous primary was on 20m and got a lot of JA's, 15 m tends to be good at 06.00Z when I work several VK and some OH! Thanks guys!
Here's the statistics :

Band QSOs DXCCs Areas Points Mults
20m 72 9 12 213 21
15m 22 10 4 61 14
Total 94 19 16 274 35
Score: 274*(19+16) = 9590 points

As usual, my contesting activity always being paused with some daily activity, I could not running on the evening due to the weather condition and some meeting with YD0NGA and his family for some occasional.
Always fun with the JARTS RTTY contest, see you next year!

Paolo Cortese, I2UIY SK : Our deep condolence

Reffering on ARRL website, Paolo Cortese, I2UIY became silent key. Our deep condolence.
Personally I did not know him well, but as an amateur radio, dx-er, and also contesters he's well known.
Cortese served as log-checker for many contests, including the European Sprints, CQ WPX RTTY and CQWW RTTY, and was an active DX advisor to the CQ World Wide Contest Committee, translating the rules into Italian.
As a member or EU Gang he also write down his signature on the EU Spring Certificate along the others members.

Ham never dies, he's only fade away................
GL dear Cortese.

76CSx vs 60CSx : which one to choose?

Two lovely flowers,
One is red the others white,
Wondering what the other will say,
Should I pick one to stay.


Remembering that old song? Performed by Eddy Pellegrina?
Yes that lyrics is quite good and reflected on my mind now.
Which one to choose: GPSMap 76CSx or 60CSx? I've proposed my budget to my 'finance director' off course Her Majesty My XYL, and thanks God, that she's agree for next my gadget.
My 'tactic' is it is a good gadget to guide or next trip to our family lived at Sukabumi on next long holiday, and sure she's agree..... you can try this trick to your wife, hi hi.....

I've just surfed on the net, some say that 76CSx is better than 60CSx, but I found on http://www.60csx.de/ they said 60CSx is more precise 7m than 76CSx on 10m. Sorry I can not read the rest of the article due to my Deutsch.

My propose to get this one is combining the aprs application with the navigations. Some friend told me that I should connect the GPS with OT on fullwire connections [I stil don't understand how to perform the full wired connections].
My first step is which one should I pick one? for such applications?
If you have some information please let me know. It'll be much appreciated!

AP Sprint #40 SSB result : it's hard to reach that t-shirt

Finally AP Sprint #40 SSB result have been published on their site, http://jsfc.org/apsprint/ap40.html. As usual looking for the call on the contest result was so interesting, did I make any improvement comparing last years's result?
But, finally also I must realize that I still could not reach that t-shirt, hi hi......
It's not a matter the prize, joining the nice and interesting contest itself was an honour.
Not too many contesters, especially from YB-land interesting on this contest, similar with the EU Sprint contest previously.
Here come the result, though could not reach any the winner, I stil proud for myself, that our log was 100% accurate, same as YB1TJ's and YC5OUB, though he only made a QSO.

YB2ECG 1216 38 38 32 (100.0%)
YB1TJ 1184 37 37 32 (100.0%)
YC5OUB 1 1 1 1 (100.0%)

Wanna play contesting with your adrenaline rise up? pse give your shot at AP Sprint or EU Sprint!

YE2A for JIDX Phone 2007

Finally the pain got the gain, as the operator of YE2A finnaly got #3 in World, #2 in Oceania and sure #1 in Indonesia. Great appreciation for YB2DX for sharing this happiness and sure the 2007 crew of YE2A, YB0NDT, YB3TD, YB2BOB, YC2PQW, YC2JKG and YC2CGA.

YD0NGA on CQ WW CW records

It looks that my best friend YD0NGA, Fitra will be seriously also on contesting. Accidentally crossing on my eyes when I was surfing on CQ WW website and stuck on his callsign on World Record on CQ WW CW series. He broke the Oceanian record on A21. Congratulation old man. I believe that you'll get more good ear on the next contest.

Complete record you could log at http://www.cqww.com/records_cw_oceania.htm

YE2AA for JIDX contest: #3world, #2 Oceania

I was driving return to my our home while I got an shor message from YB2DX, OM Hans. He said [off course in Indonesian] : pak Jon, ada kbr berita baik bhw YE2AA JIDX Contest 2007 SSB telah mendapat Juara 3 World, 2 Oceania, 1 Indonesia. Ada sertifikatnya utk Operator, sy siapkan kirim utk Anda. Pse qth lengkap? Tks.

Great! Thanks OM Hans, finally we've got the paid, hi hi...... For me joining with YE2AA and operating on the best ham shack in Indonesia [I believe] was to admired and honoured. I still remember working with YB0NDT, and YB3TD and some crews from Purwodadi!

Thanks again OM Hans for sharing the fun. Hope next time we could arrage the good moment on a contesting activity!

Iedul Mubarak Holiday : missed the contest but grab the good one!

This Iedul Mubarak holiday all our family got gathered in our kampoeng. Celebrating the Iedul Mubarak after finishing a full month for fasting days (Ramadhan fasting), it's so nice gathering will all the family.
As traditionally we've visited to one another and this year we must go to Purbalingga, almost 300 kms west to Klaten, our homeland.
Making a long journey will be boring, especially if we were the driver. Imagine you should be consentrate to the road than the other maybe have fall sleep :)
I've installed my Alinco DR535 with BRC double band antenna on my car roof. And it looks get the good performance. I could open the repeater and talking on the local easily with Lo Power.

A good moment was when I logged at Klaten repeater (146.720Mhz) somebody called me, it was YC1LZ, wait for a minute. He said also portable at Klaten. As you know that YC1LZ, OM Gunarso is a good friend, active on the Orari-News reflector, maintain the CARI, Indonesian Callbook On-Line and also active on APRS.

Soon I replied him and propose a kind of eyeball, though I haven't taken a bath {sorry OM Gun}. Along with my oldest son, Iqbal, finally I could find him with his great family after some search and pounce, hi hi.... it looks like I need some GPS on my car now!

Got great shake hand and took some photos! It's nice meeting! Thanks OM Gun for the nice moments.

I believe that I missed some good contest such as Oceania DX and EU sprint, but I got the better one: eye ball with good friend and and the nice family.

CQ WW RTTY Contest 2008 : next time will be better

START-OF-LOG: 2.0
ARRL-SECTION: DX
CALLSIGN: YB2ECG
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP ALL LOW RTTY
CLAIMED-SCORE: 10370

Due to Iedul Mubarak holiday I could not join on the whole contest periode. Actually I was well prepared to join this great contest, though got some problem with MixW, it can not decode any rtty signal so I must reinstall it and re-run, and composed the new macro and it solved.
20m as I predicted was good and get some opportunity working on 15m.

Average rate: 4.3 QSOs/hour
QSO YB OC DX Pts DXCC CQ States
20m 97 0 4 93 287 15 9 0
15m 7 0 3 4 18 5 5 0
Total 104 0 7 97 305 20 14 0
Score: 305*34 = 10370 points.

Comparing last year result it looks much worse but stil got the fun. Log consists a lot of JA's, thanks OMs.

Hope next year will be better.