July 2012
Issue 76
Welcome once again from the stable of M0BPT.
I think all will agree just how quickly the year is progressing!
Where does the time go? We lead such busy lives these days!
However; As some of you read this offering, award certificates for EYAW, The Titanic event, and Counties week will have dropped through the mailboxes (hopefully) of successful recipients.
We’re looking forward to the Silver Jubilee Week (SJW) activity running from the 2nd to the 8th of September; for those who take Practical Wireless, you’ll see that we’ve received publicity for the event, (page 50 of the August edition) thanks to Carl Mason GW0VSW for finding space in his “HF Highlights” column.
I had sent a press release to both PW and the RSGB (The RSGB will be publishing details in RadCom) publicising the event; raising awareness to the amateur community in general that CW is still alive and kicking! Lets hope that the bands will be full of Morse afficionadoes pounding brass! One can but hope!
On to the news and reports of July’s happenings on the bands.
From Derek. M0DRK
Hi Robert,
Here is my Ladder Log for July. Only better than last month by one point. Many thanks to all who gave me points again and nice to work Graham 2E0JYK again who has been missing from my log for a while.Hope all is well with you? Everything fine here in Burwell with us two.
I won't mention the weather,hi.
Take care, see you next month.
73 for now, Derek, M0DRK.
Hi Derek. Good to hear that both yourself and Mollie doing FB. Weather!! HiHi.. Less said the better; I’ll just make the comment that I check my feet every evening to make sure that they’re not taking on a webbed formation!
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From Erkki. OH7QR
Hello Robert,
Attached comes my Ladder log for July. I was pleased to meet a new member Stephen MM6SRL. He also gave me a new prefix for Fists Prefix Award. Many thanks Stephen. As on every Ladder is the call of my dear friend Peter G4LHI the 1st on the list on both Sundays. All QSOs are on 20M.
Many thanks to all and cu on the next Ladder.
73 de Erkki OH7QR, #8318
Hello Erkki. Good to hear from you once again. Nice to hear that you’ve managed to get MM6SRL in the log! A new member and a new prefix; and an excellent start for Stephen too; to meet you on air.
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From Phil. 2E0DPH
Hello Rob,
Hope you are well, here is my log for the July Ladder Activity.
Well again what a difference in conditions over the two weekends, the first being excellent, the second, well 40m proving very poor again in the afternoon.
I must mention Stephen MM6SRL Fists 15905, it was great to work an M6 on the Ladder, especially when we were being taken over by the ‘Test’ brigade, so very well done Stephen your QRS QSO was very much appreciated, keep it up I hope we have many more.
Well that’s it for this month, see you all again next time.
73, Phil 2E0DPH Fists 14543
Greetings Phil. Good to hear from you. As you’ll see from Erkki’s comment re: MM6SRL. It is gratifying to hear that he is embracing the mode, getting on and meeting the membership. Let’s hope that he meets many more during his association with the society.
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From Peter. G0TLU
Hello Rob,
Well, the second disappointing month in a row here at G0TLU I'm afraid. The conditions on 40m here seem to have continued their decline making life difficult for me as that's the lowest band where I can put out a reasonable signal from my flat. Still, in accordance with the famous quote from 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', I will Endeavour to Persevere!
73, Pete G0TLU
Hi Pete. Good to hear from you. Yes. 40 not performing too well at the moment.
Good film! One of my favourites starring Clint is “Unforgiven” where he starred with Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman… I digress. Hi.
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From Peter. G4LHI
Hello Robert,
I attach my claim & report for Activity Ladder July 2012.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Ladder as always, but Im sure there will be a lot of mention of the terrible conditions on the 22nd again, I was again very relieved when I found others were also having problems, at first I really did think it was a problem with my rig or antenna hi. Stations under normal conditions 599+ were almost impossible to read, some I understood could hear me, but no way could I have made a QSO, that was on 40m, 20m with dear Erkki was normal, but sorry Erkki I could not count our QSO on the 22nd, got more points (8) in the last part of the evening session.
The afternoon session on the 22nd I am afraid was a wash out for me, I managed to get home from Church before the end of the evening session & was lucky to collect the 8 points, very sorry to those others I worked in the afternoon that I am afraid I could not count for my total this month. Do hope that others out there had better luck than I did, but Im sure the band conditions were fairly general, let’s hope they soon change & we can get some good QSO’s & chats again.
Thank you very much for those that did manage to get through the poor conditions, tuff going at times, but we managed a few. Sorry to those that did call me & I did not hear better luck in August?
For July I had 13 QSO’s for 25 points so can’t grumble!
Keep bashing the brass & good hunting to you all, & most of all have fun whatever the conditions!
73 de Peter G4LHI # 2219
Hello Peter. Yes, as seen by earlier comments 40 not being kind to many. Other bands are suffering too I understand. I’m sure that there’s nothing wrong with the G4LHI station!
Mind you; How many times have we looked out of the window to make sure that everything is intact and still up in the air? Hi.
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From Darren. GØOTT
Hello Robert
Looks like the weather is finally picking up?
Please find my attached Ladder report for July.
The conditions have not been great with signals well below normal, high levels of QRN about, QSB also.
I managed to get on the air for 3 sessions this month, I was down the road from Peter in Huntingdon having my lunch at the Marina on the second Sunday afternoon session :)
Was nice to meet up with new to me members again, also my first Olympic callsign on 22nd thanks to Alan GO4BXQ near Leeds.
Had a chat with future member awaiting his Fists number, Mike M6MPC, look forward to meeting again in Fists activities?
Its nice to get on the air and meet members/non members, looking forward to the rest of the year, hope to chat again soon.
Regards Darren GØOTT
Hello Darren. Mike. M6MPC, now number 15903. Hope you’ll manage to hook up with him exchanging numbers. I’d noticed that you’d missed MM6SRL. Hope you manage to meet up with him and exchange numbers, Stephen is keen to improve his CW and meet members. I guess it’ll help towards the prefix award too.
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Some other comments received during the month.
A welcome to Sten. SM6DER #15876 who managed a QSO with Pol G3HAL and sent in a log. I hope you’ll find time to get on and meet the members once again Sten.
Geoff. GØDDX commented that he’d enjoyed hearing and working some of the usual crowd on the ladder after returning home from a few days away.
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From Gra. G3ZOD
Hi Rob.
I was only able to make it on the air for the 8th July Ladder sessions. The lower S7 noise level that I had on 40m (acceptable given my aerial's inefficiency when transmitting) for many months has now gone up to S9, so I am once more struggling to hear stations on 40m. I wonder if the owner of the previous horrendously noisy gadget has finally found a new, marginally less noisy gadget to replace it? Fortunately other bands have been unaffected. Some weeks ago we had a localised power cut - certainly the immediate streets around me had no power. I thought it would be interesting to fire up my FT-817 on battery power and hear what it was like when there is no electrical noise. To my surprise, the high electrical noise levels appeared just the same as when the power was on. I had thought it was close-by neighbours causing the noise, but apparently not. I can see that I will soon be out /P again! HI.
73 de Graham G3ZOD
Hi Gra. That is interesting! So one wonders where the noise levels are eminating from?
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Finally, a cordial welcome to MM6SRL. Who joins us in trhe ladder for the first time. I hope you’ll listen out for Stephen and help him along and offer encouragement with his CW.
As mentioned by others earlier in this publication; a nice addition for those working on the prefix awards scheme.
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Thanks to Dennis K6DF, FISTS Awards Manager, for the following information.
July 2012 FISTS Awards
Congratulations to the following members:
Milan OK1KW #4827
Prefix Version 1 and Prefix Version 2
Ray WB6SZZ #5703
Millionaire 5 Million Sticker
Al W1XH #8768
Millionaire 2 Million Sticker
Alan KA5VZG #15363
Basic Century and Millionaire
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Results table:
| CALL | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUNE | JULY | AUG | SEPT | OCT | NOV | DEC | TOTALS |
| G4LHI | 36 | 36 | 44 | 46 | 40 | 33 | 25 | 260 | |||||
| 2E0DPH | 29 | 30 | 44 | 27 | 32 | 31 | 29 | 222 | |||||
| G0OTT | 24 | 31 | 32 | 37 | 27 | 31 | 30 | 212 | |||||
| OH7QR/OG9R | 31 | 25 | 30 | 23 | 6 | 27 | 24 | 166 | |||||
| M0DRK | 23 | 20 | 29 | 26 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 146 | |||||
| G0DDX | 20 | 25 | 29 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 10 | 107 | |||||
| G3ZOD | 8 | 19 | 10 | 18 | 6 | 16 | 6 | 83 | |||||
| M5ABN | 27 | 31 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69 | |||||
| G0TLU | 0 | 0 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 14 | 7 | 55 | |||||
| 2E0JCY | 0 | 0 | 18 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | |||||
| G0DUB | 12 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | |||||
| G0ANV | 8 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | |||||
| DL4FDM | 0 | 17 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | |||||
| CN2JV | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |||||
| SQ5RIX | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |||||
| SA0AAZ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||
| MM6SRL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | |||||
| SM6DER | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| MX5IPX © | 3 | 11 | 3 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 10 | 66 | |||||
| GX3ZQS © | 0 | 12 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | |||||
| GX0IPX © | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
That’s all from me for another month.
As ever pdf and MS Word dowloads available
I hope you’ll find time to come on air during Silver Jubilee Week.
Until next time.
Keep well
Keep pounding brass.
73
M0BPT