144 MHz: International Space Station on SSTV

From December 28, 2019 until January 01, 2020 the ISS send again pictures in Slow Scan Television. The images are always transmitted in Mode PD 120 on 145.800 MHz in Frequency Modulation. The following images were received with a 14 Element Yagi and decoded with MMSSTV software. More information about Amateur Radio on the ISS can be found on the ARISS website and the ARISS Blogspot.

First two pictures were received on December 30, 2019, no. 3 and 4 on December 31 (Expedition 61 – ARISS Series 15 Leonov). It looks like the last two were probably disturbed by unknown RF radiation.

Baltic Way 30 – Short Term Award

This Memorial Award is announced by Eesti Raadioamatööride Ühing (ERAÜ), Latvijas Radio Amatieru Līga (LRAL) and Lietuvos Radijo Mėgėjų Draugija (LRMD) to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Baltic Way – a peaceful protest against the Molotov – Ribbentrop pact signed on 23rd of August 1939, dividing the independent countries of Eastern Europe in spheres of influence between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. On the same date in 1989 more than 2 million people across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to form a 675 km long human chain – the Baltic Way, showing their fight for independence.

Although this Award is not difficult to get, it has a special meaning for me. A few weeks ago, I visited all three Baltic States and drove part of the way from Vilnius to Tallin via Riga.
This memorial stone is located in front of Cathedral Square in Vilnius and contains the word “stebuklas”. This was the starting point of the huge human chain between Vilnius and Tallinn on August 23, 1989. Nearly two million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians protested hand in hand, 650 kilometers in length, for the independence of their own states.

144 MHz: International Space Station on SSTV

From July 29 until August 04, 2019 the ISS send again pictures in Slow Scan Television. The images are always transmitted in Mode PD 120 on 145.800 MHz in Frequency Modulation. The following images were received with a 14 Element Yagi and decoded with MMSSTV software. More information about Amateur Radio on the ISS can be found on the ARISS website and the ARISS Blogspot.

Pictures received between July 29 – July 31, 2019 (Expedition 60 – Series Inter-MAI-75).

Pictures received on August 01, 2019 (Remembering Owen Garriott W5LFL)

This remembers me to a QSO I had with W5LFL Owen on December 04, 1983, on 144 MHz SSB, when he was onboard the Spaceshuttle “Columbia”.

10-Band-DXCC .. My Nightmare

Having been licensed for over 45 years now, I thought it would be time to apply for the 5-Band DXCC with several Stickers, alltogether 160m to 6m. Well, most of the required DXCC’s were already confirmed via the Logbook of the World. The last missing cards were requested by letter and received in most cases sooner or later. These were then, together with the Application, sent to a German ARRL Field Checker in April 2018. He checked fast, the cards came back quickly and he forwarded the paperwork to the ARRL in Newington USA. There everything was then processed in May 2018 and the 5-Band DXCC and Stickers for 160/30/17/12 and 6m were marked as issued. So far – so good.

Time goes by .. Beginning of September 2018 I asked ARRL about my application. Yes, it was there but ARRL planning a new Design for the 5B-DXCC and nobody could say how long that would take. And it took until February 09, 2019 when the parcel arrived – 10 long month after I sent my Application to the Field Checker. If you think the story is over now, unfortunately not.

The new 5B-DXCC consists of a modern designed acrylic plate, to which a golden stripe with callsign and name is affixed, as well as the round band Stickers, which are also affixed to it. No date, no number anymore – incredible! Unfortunately, all the stickers were loveless oblique and crooked glued, such as price tags on goods. I did not want to accept this, sent some photos to the ARRL and they assured me a new plaque. This came in early May – and – oh no – the sticker for 6m was missing again. So another email and last but not least, this arrived in early June.

Now, 14 month after the application, the 10-band DXCC with all the stickers hangs on the wall and waits for the last, the 144 MHz sticker to finally finish it.

(Picture to follow soon)

70th Birthday of URE

This year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Radio Club “Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles”, URE. In order to commemorate this important event, the Spanish IARU member society, announces a Special Prize and Awards to all licensed radio amateurs and SWL from all over the world.

Contacts can be made between April 1st, 2019 and June 9th, 2019 using any mode or band from 160 meters to 6 meters with the 14 different AM70 special stations. Further informations are here.

SX60RAAG – 60th Birthday of RAAG

The special event station SX60RAAG will be on air from December 1 to 31, 2018 on all HF bands & modes, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Radio Amateur Association of Greece – RAAG. A dedicated award program will support this operation. As usual nowadays the colorful Awards with pictures of Greece will be issued for free and electronically in PDF format.

YL100x – Latvia’s 100th Birthday

On November 18, 2018 Latvia celebrated its 100th Birthday. For this reason Radio Amateurs in Latvia activated five special callsigns with the prefix YL100 – one from each of 4 Latvia’s historical regions and one from the capital city Riga – to commemorate this event between November 1st to 18th, 2018. Special awards for working YL100 stations on different bands and modes are issued. More informations are here.

144 MHz: International Space Station on SSTV

Amateur Radio On the International Space Station (ARISS) has organized another Slow Scan TV event scheduled to start October 27 about 10:00 UTC and end October 29 around 19:30 UTC with a series of 12 pictures.

The following images were decoded on October 29, 2018 with the MMSSTV software on 145.800 MHz, Mode PD120. More information about amateur radio on the ISS can be found on the ARISS website.

The ARISS team in Poland has made available a special reception certificate for radio enthusiasts that participant in this ARISS SSTV Event. Directions on how to receive the certificate can be found here.

ARRL DXCC Challenge Award arrived

After waiting for almost exactly 4 months, the postman has finally delivered the long-awaited parcel today: Mail from the ARRL Headquater in Newington, USA, my DXCC-Challenge-Plaque with Endorsement 2.000.

2018_Challenge2000As the name says, this is plaque is a real challenge and a hardcore Award for the dedicated HF-Radio Amateur. The DXCC Challenge Award is given for worked and confirmed at least 1,000 DXCC band-entities on any amateur bands, 160 through 6 meters (except 60 meters). It’s a massive wooden plate with a blue-gold-etched plate on top. The Endorsement 2,000 means  an average of 200 confirmed DXCC Entities on every of those 10 bands.

To reach all these band points countless hours in front of the station were required but it was no less tough to get the necessary confirmations. Thanks to the help of the Logbook Of The World, things have become a bit easier in recent years. It would be nice if all stations finally could use this opportunity.

Next stop wants to be 2,500 – that might take a while and it’s great to have a next step in DXing.

Football World Championship 2018 – Short Term Awards

I have never been a fan of football before, so I did not pay any attention to all the activities and special stations during the period of this year’s World Cup in Russia. After about 2 weeks I worked one of the special stations on 50 MHz and decided to deal with the topic more closely.

As during other events, the National Radio-Amateur Organization named SRR (Soyuz Radiolyubitelei Rossii) is organizing a radio marathon during the Games called “Football 2018 – Russia”. Dozens of different special stations RC18xxx and R18xxx from Russia were active. In addition, there were also special stations in member countries of FIFA. The exact Award conditions are here. As always, all Awards are free of charge and can be downloaded as a PDF file.

To make it short: I did not reach the highest Award class with 500 contacts, but over 260 QSO’s are in the log. All in all, the activity was a lot of fun and it was worthwhile to work out these beautifully designed Awards.

2018_fwc18-bronze 2018_fwc18-silver 2018_fwc18-gold

2018_fwc18-cities-2718 2018_fwc18-bronze-2681 fwc18-silver-1071

2018_fwc18-volgograd 2018_fwc18-spetersburg 2018_fwc18-saransk 2018_fwc18-samara

2018_fwc18-rostov 2018_fwc18-nnovgorod 2018_fwc18-moscow 2018_fwc18-kazan

2018_fwc18-kaliningrad 2018_fwc18-ekaterinburg dummy 2018_fwc18-russia-mix