9K2HN Blog

RDXC Contest

2008-03-13T10:02:00.002+03:00

I'm getting ready again to join RDXC contest, year by year this contest getting bigger and bigger and i really enjoy working in this contest, The fun part is that you can work both mode (MIX) CW & SSB which specially that we are in the bottom of the solar cycle so the activity level is very low so you hardly can find some one you can work with, so when the qso rate drop in SSB move to CW and work the same guys again which will count as new contact. So see you in the contest.

for more info about this contest visit their web site http://www.rdxc.org

Low Band DXing

2008-01-03T09:39:00.000+03:00

Since I'm back from my Thailand trip I really enjoyed the Jet Lag, I waked up almost every day around 4 am and for sure the only thing came to my mind at this time is 80m!! WOW it is fun. The condition to the US is great specially the east coast with some opening to the west cost also. But for sure this will not last for ever (I mean my jet lag... hihi), I'm back to my normal life after maybe 1 month of waking up at 4 to 5 am, So now it is your turn I found that at my sunset (and west Coast sunrise) around 13:30z the condition is great in the Long Path to the west coast of North America. So turn your beam and enjoy working some DX from the Middle East.

9K2HN in Thailand

2008-01-03T08:56:00.000+03:00

I went to Thailand for the first time on 29 Nov 2007 with my XYL, I really liked the country and the people there. I landed in Bangkok and for two hours then took another flight to south Thailand to and Island name Koh Samui, Stayed there for 5 days. While I was there relaxing I remember Ham Radio and my radio friends, so immediately graped my laptop and sent a quick email to the first Thai Radio ham came to my mind... for sure this is Champ E21EIC i told him that i will be in bangkok after two day so if it is possible to show me around and meet some radio friend. to make it short he came and picked me up from where i was staying (Amari Watergate Hotel) and he asked my if i want to operate as HS80A and for sure i replied.... YES!!!! so he drove to E21YDP station and i operated there for an hour or so, for sure the conditions was not so good, but to be honest till date i have never operated from any place have a better conditions than Kuwait....40m was very noisy due to the Chinese Radar. I made around 60+ qso mainly with EU.

Then Champ took for a Thai Dinner which i enjoyed very much.

Thank you Champ for the hospitality.

9K2HN Log is added to LOTW

2007-11-06T09:42:00.000+03:00

Just want to let every one know that I have uploaded my whole log (193,000 qso) to LOTW yesterday, it took around 3 hours to complete the the process, I hope I made the right thing by uploading it.

So far so good many confirmation received

Culture Change on DX Cluster?

2007-11-05T09:09:00.000+03:00

John & List,

I was thinking to write about the same topic after the contest but then i thought why i have to open a subject which many will not understand it the way i meant it. I will write only about the contest topic issue and nothing else, I do participate in all major contests and i know exactly what does it mean when i'm spotted in the DX cluster it clearly means more qso's, Just to give a bit of history, the guys at the our local club started to help me by spotting me when every they HEAR me on any frequency during any major contest just to show their support, after few years there were a list made for those who have suspicious spots and i was listed among them, because i'm spotted from the same ip address for more than once or twice (sure it is a club!!) after this and because i want to be very clean i asked every one in the local club few 4 or 5 years back DO NOT SPOT ME let the others do it, I ended up with much lower qso number than or stations in my area, OK tell me now if i'm a DX from a semi rare country, and i don't belong to a country with high ham population and my own people are not allowed to spot me i will always end up with much lower qso numbers which mean less score!!

I'm sure that if i was a member of one country with high ham population they will keep spotting me all the time. and now i can say i'm sure that most of these spot are not real!! YES SIR.... tell me now if i'm the only one from 9K in all band (except 20m this year) and based on the comments i get on the air i do have a good signal why i'm not getting spots like the others? which they are operating from a country with many hams and many of them joined the contest as full time? and specially they are spotted after each band change.....

Think?

de 9K2HN
Hamad

On Nov 1, 2007 12:46 PM, John Warren <nt5c@texas.net> wrote:
I think I detect the start of a culture change on the DX cluster. You
may not care about it, or - more likely - you'll deplore it, but I
think it's happening anyway, and probably can't be reversed.

It's self-spotting. In most contests it's illegal, but not at other
times, and for many less experienced, and often less powerful DX
stations, especially outside North America, putting one's own
callsign on the cluster is becoming a definite aid to CQing on the
bands.

Under certain circumstances, I don't look at it quite as negatively
as some purists. It's useful for "priming the pump" for unusual
openings, when you alert people to turn their beams to unconventional
directions. For example, 10M long path when (if?) the sunspots come
back, or 10M side-scatter in the summer.

What say you?

John, NT5C.

GAME OVER

2007-10-30T18:13:00.000+03:00

The Game is Over... CQWW DX SSB my best contest is over for this year, now we have to wait till 25 Oct 2008 for the next CQWW.

Anyhow it was big fun we had great time all the guys was great, every thing went as expected no hardware problem what so ever, anyhow we made around 5,000 qso and a score of 10.5M which looks fine for the current propagation status (Bottom of the solar cycle) .

as promised in my earlier post i have recorded the whole contest in to mp3 format files each 41mb in size to download them go to http://www.9k2hn.com and click on audio recording link.

Please let me what do you think, and also you can find your qso with me and see hos you sounded in the side, this recording was only in the Run station so if the qso is made from the mult station it is not recorded.

Enjoy

Audio Recording (whole contest)

2007-10-23T09:15:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I spent few hours looking in the internet for software enable me to record the whole CQWW contest in audio format and store it (or share it) in my pc, finally I found a great software which can record very easily and the audio file will not take much space on the HD and it is recording directly in MP3 format, the software name is RecAll-pro.

I have connected my radio IC-756 pro III from the rear audio jack and i found out that it is not recording my own voice... UMM i want to know what I have said also this is the main idea, so i had to buy a Y connector and plugged it in the front jack and in this way I can record both the transmitted audio plus the received one, by doing so the project is completed the most important thing is to press the record button in the beginning of the contest otherwise it will be waste of time and effort.

So when i'm done i will post a link where you can download the audio clip.

Getting ready for CQWW DX SSB

2007-10-22T11:41:00.000+03:00

Time is really passing very fast i remember we have just finished from last year contest and we wear unhappy with the conditions, and here another year with bad conditions and in this time we are in the bottom of the solar cycle , so we have to keep in mind very low activity on 10m..... But this does not mean not to try 10m from time to time.

Both stations (Running + Mult) are ready, and this time there is a big improvement by adding the new 2 element monobander for 80m by optibeam this monster will boost our qso number AND Mult on 80m compared with a rotatable dipole in the previous years.

One more thing to add here is we are a guest operator coming all the way from Miami to Kuwait City just to participate in this event he is Marko N5ZO, we welcome him to the team and happy to accept him as a new friend.

Looking forward to work you all, Please give us a call when ever you hear us.

QRZ Contest Nine Kilo two Hotel Norway

59 21

73's

LOTW

2007-09-30T11:44:00.000+03:00

Hi,

This is my first post, I hope i'm doing it the right way, I just want to let every one knows that I have uploaded 9K9X (My contest call) and 9K2F (IOTA AS-118) to the LOTW two days back. If your log already uploaded there go ahead and download your new confirmation.

Still I will wait till I upload my main LogBook of 9K2HN with more than 180,000 qso, But after lot of studies it seems it is a must and time saving if you are applying for DXCC, soon i will start sorting all my qsl cards and after this big job is done i may upload my log to the LOTW.

I was shocked to see the speed of their servers I processed my 36527 qso for 9K9X for less than 30 minutes or so......

I'm always wondering is LOTW going to kill the qsl card? I like qsl cards and i like qsling and if i start using LOTW the number of cards i will be receiving will be reduced for sure!!

But in the other hand majority of the hams all over the world still use the bureau system and don't know (or how to) lotw, so i will still get some cards via Bureau.

who knows

de 9k2hn
hamad