Top of Observable Universe

http://xkcd.com

source

VP5 hamlet on auction

Come aggiudicarsi una vacanza a Turks and Caicos con l'asta online dell'ARRL e poi raccontare l'esperienza con entusiasmo. Godetevi il racconto di Tom K0GKD e chissà che anche voi non decidiate di far i bagagli per VP5. Moglie compresa s'intende !

Yéle Haiti

"The objective of Yéle Haiti is to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage." - Wyclef Jean

Yéle Haiti is a foundation started by Grammy-Award winning musician, producer, social entrepreneur and Haitian Goodwill Ambassador Wyclef Jean that is changing thousands of lives in this poor but optimistic nation. Through Yéle Haiti, Wyclef supports projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development.

Morse Code watch

Tired of people looking over your shoulder to see the time? Put a stop to that with a Morse Code watch. Tokyoflash is proud to present the first ever Morse Code watch. Currently sold out, they will have a very limited stock at the end of October!

IQ2IR on the air

Emanuela IZ2ELV is on the air as IQ2IR
for the 2008 UCI Road World Championship Award
(info at http://www.insubriaradio.org)

P29 needs one lucky guy

I received this message from Derek about his P2 trip: "Hugh, K6HFA has had to cancel the trip with us. Hugh is graciously leaving $3,000 (AUD) in the boat charter fund. This means we have a late opening for one lucky guy who only needs to pay $2,067 (AUD) + his air fare to join us. Could this be you? Contact G3KHZ if you wish to join us."

Project 10 100

May Those Who

Help The Most Win

http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html

Astronaut costume

From the "gadgets" corner here for you, space lovers, a wonderful astronaut costume (5-piece set) for Halloween or for your next club meeting. Don't simply hear the ISS or Shuttle signals, wear the spacemen suits.
Available also in junior sizes.

CQ from Kosovo

"First of all, please allow me to introduce my self, Eliodor “Ely” TANISLAV – YO3AAS; I am a ham radio operator from Romania, licensed since 1993. Due to my profession, I had the opportunity to travel quite a lot around the world...." Read this excellent article of Ely on eHam.net

YU8/YO3AAS QSL card from qrz.com

Il Congresso di Bologna

Normalmente l'ultimo weekend di settembre (ultimamente nei soli anni pari) aspettavo il Congresso di Bologna per rivedere vecchi amici e per premiare i vincitori del contest 40&80. Quest'anno non sono più il manager di questa bellissima competizione, non sono più socio ARI ed in più diserto il convegno. Per molti motivi vorrei andare e per altrettanti motivi non ci tengo affatto. Se avessi deciso di partecipare avrei pianificato la sola giornata di sabato, per dedicare poi la domenica alla città di Bologna o alle altre città della regione per una sana visita turistica/gastronomica. Tenendo soprattutto conto che le relazioni previste per la domenica non valgono (a mio personalissimo parere) la pena di essere seguite (di JT ne abbiamo letto e visto in tutte le salse ed i cinque anni di spedizioni potevano chiudersi già con l'intervento del giorno prima), il sabato ha il suo clou con le presentazioni di VP6DX e BS7H. Purtroppo lo spazio per il 40&80 è sempre stato relegato alla fine del pomeriggio quando stanchezza, noia, distrazione o qualche partenza riduce la platea ai veri interessati, premiati (pochi di persona per la verità). Dopo il coffee break un altro intervento che sembrerebbe un doppione della domenica (ma il congresso poteva essere rinominato PMR days, visto il programma!) e poi il solito buon Mauro JQJ, inossidabile, mentre Valeria ADH lavora sempre nell'ombra col checkpoint IOTA. Ecco quindi le persone che mi piacerebbe incontrare se solo andassi: NHJ (perchè lo stimo da sempre), ZSQ (perchè è il mio mito di quand'ero giovane), LCK (perchè sognavo con i suoi viaggi), UPU (per la cortesia dimostratami in questi anni come ospite del congresso), JQJ (per rievocare nostalgicamente il periodo d'oro del sito 425), CIO (per fratturargli le dita così non vince più il 40&80 "scherzo, bravo Vinicio!"), UFH (non per lui ma per il sorgente del Toplog che gli chiedo da ormai otto anni). Ecco inoltre le persone che non vorrei incontrare ma che, essendo presenti, mi hanno portato all'ovvia conclusione di non partecipare: ... (per avermi escluso dal forum ARI e non avermi mai più reintegrato nonostante ne avessi tutti i diritti in quanto socio ARI), ... e ... (per non essere mai intervenuti a chiarire i fatti di cui sopra, almeno mai con me). [per pudore ho scritto i puntini  ... al posto dei suffissi ma si capisce chiaramente di chi parlo]. Questi sono altresì i motivi che mi hanno spinto a dissociarmi dall'ARI in quanto non mi riconosco più nelle persone che la portano avanti. A dir la verità è dai tempi di Sergio ZCT che le cose non son più le stesse, ma sembran passati secoli. Per quanto riguarda gli ospiti io avrei fatto ponti d'oro (non odontoiatricamente parlando) per invitare Vlad UA4WHX e vedere il lato "raw" delle DXpeditions. Ma ormai, tant'è, io non organizzo e non partecipo. Un bel weekend da ex-manager !

UCI Road World Championships

Alla mezzanotte di oggi è scattato l'inizio del diploma “VARESE 2008-UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS” in occasione degli omonimi Campionati Mondiali di Ciclismo, che si tengono a Varese dal 23/09/08 al 28/09/08. Il regolamento è visibile QUI.

ATTENZIONE: solo i nominativi speciali II2BIN (qsl via IW2KVT), II2UCI (qsl via  IZ2DVI) e IQ2IR (Jolly qsl via IZ2ELV) sono validi per il Diploma ufficiale dei Mondiali di Ciclismo “VARESE 2008”, nonché tutte le stazioni accreditate, pubblicate qui sotto:

 HB9EDM Marco
 HB9EDR Roberto
 HB9FAQ Fiorenzo
 HB9FBG Mauro
 HB9FBI Luciano
 HB9IRC Insubria Radio Club Lugano
 HB9OAE Maico
 HB9OAU Claudio
 HB9TUZ Massimo
 HB9OK TERA Radio Club
 I0VOK Olga
 I1MQ Ada
 I1UJX Giovanni
 I2AZ Giuseppe
 I2JJR Augusto
 I2JRY High School I.S.I.S. A. Ponti of Gallarate
 I2KJS Roberto
 I2NAY Piero
 I2UUA Angelo
 I2VGW Gabriele
 I2VZU Claudio
 I2ZQW Anchise
 IK2FIQ Agostino
 IK2IWU Carlo
 IK2LQN Emilio
 IK2MDX Angelo
 IK2RXX Lanfranco
 IK2SFM Cesare
 IK2TDR Vittorio
 IK2TTJ Sandro
 IK2ULB Angelo
 IK2WFJ Mauro
 IK2WXZ Roberto
 IK2YXH Ivano
 IQ2GM A.R.I. Local Branch of Gallarate
 IW2EAX Lorenzo
 IW2KVT Mauro
 IW2LFD Luciano
 IZ1CRR Maurizio
 IZ1EZN Giorgio
 IZ1GJK Maurizio
 IZ2BHQ Giorgio
 IZ2DOC Luca
 IZ2DVI Marco
 IZ2ELV Emanuela
 IZ2EXA Fulvio
 IZ2GAO Mario
 IZ2GMU Fabio
 IZ2KLV Generoso
 IZ2LXL Federico
 IZ3DBA Giacomo

Attenzione: la stazione II2VEM NON HA nulla a che vedere con il diploma ufficiale, quindi non vale ai fini del conseguimento dell'award.

Il manager per questo diploma è IZ1CRR, ovvero il sottoscritto.
Partecipate numerosi !

Tag Technorati: varese 2008, ii2bin, ii2uci, iq2ir, ii2vem

New WAC and 5BWAC

This is the new design for the WAC and 5BWAC certificates as announced today in the DXCC dialog weblog.

S7 Fregate island

Sulla bellissima rivista di viaggi online latitudeslife che si sfoglia sempre con piacere, questo mese si parla di Fregate island, Seychelles che non è un most wanted IOTA (anzi direi che il gruppo è abbastanza inflazionato) ma è una meta stupenda per una spedizione del tutto holiday style, vista la bellezza del luogo. L'isola è privata e se le immagini riflettono la realtà una settimana di vacanza dovrebbe essere memorabile. Se poi si unisce anche la passione per la radio magari è godibile anche un CQ da S7. Maggiori informazioni sul sito http://www.fregate.com

Foto presa dal sito http://www.fregate.com

Tag Technorati: fregate, seychelles, island

DXPocket

Igor (UU0JC) has recently developed a comprehensive ham-radio DX Cluster software for Pocket PC - DXPocket (http://www.dxpocket.com/).  DXPocket is a  fast, stable, easy-to-use, easy-to-learn DX Cluster program for you Pocket PC.  Wherever you are located, whenever you want, with DXPocket you can connect to  your favorite DX Cluster using a Windows Mobile-based phone only! DXPocket uses an extremely low amount of Internet traffic. With a few taps you can find a  required station in the Cluster, obtain DXCC information of selected DX, send DX  Spot, announcement, WWV report, turn on the "voice spell" mode, alerts, and much more. DXPocket has a fully adjustable interface, and satisfies the needs of any user.
73, Oleg Silkin (RA3DCT)
support@cqlog.com
http://www.cqlog.com/


(tnx ik1adh)

Sats on Google Earth

Dall'ormai notissimo database OpenAPRS per visualizzare l'APRS sulle Google Maps arriva ora la visibilità dei satelliti orbitanti su Google Earth. Due settimane fa vi avevo proposto (post) il link a 13000 satelliti sviluppato da Matt Amato. Ora invece vi suggerisco il lavoro di NV6G per il tracking dei satelliti amatoriali, GPS, meteo ed anche i militari. Ecco il link al file direttamente apribile con Google Earth. Questo, insieme ad altri nove, è stato definito tra i migliori dieci add-ons di Google Earth dalla rivista PC World.

BBC + DW = DRM

La BBC World Service e Deutsche Welle hanno in programma per l'inizio del 2009 un piano congiunto per trasmissioni in DRM dirette all'Europa, interamente in inglese. Con un potenziale di 170 milioni di ascoltatori il servizio fornirà contenuti multimediali di audio e testo. Una joint venture insomma che offrirà contenuti di classe e riavvicinerà i listeners al DRM.

source

IZ4AKS's blog

Non è solo per dovere di reciprocità ma linko volentieri il blog di Giorgio IZ4AKS perchè è elegante e perchè si legge tutta la sua passione per la radio, soprattutto nel set di fotografie su flickr. In bocca al lupo per la gestione del blog e spero di veicolarti qualche visita.

TC4X for the second time

ASIAN TURKEY WITH A HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND ROUND NUMBERS

Leena, OH2BE and Martti, OH2BH left Finland for an unknown address in Asian Turkey on their wedding anniversary and Leena's round-number birthday. Today is the wedding anniversary and Mom was on the ropes at an antenna party in the soaring temperature of 36C. They got the job done and TC4X should be on the air now plus in the European DX Contest this weekend. Outside of the contest TC4X will be operated by Tefvik, TA1HZ. The upcoming magic day will be topped with a candlelight dinner and lacebedsheet at a place overlooking the romantic Marmara Sea at sunset. Gosh, the actual birthday coincides with the contest but mixing and maxing will hopefully provide the best results on both fronts. Who said life is an easy journey when you marry a beady-eyed contest type?

QSL via OH2BH.

((( 73 ))) Jarmo OH2BN

Big Gun station

Hamradio from the 'Big Gun' station.

tnx IK1BPL

H40MY from OC-163

Mike, aboard Don Henry, is lying to anchor, Vano Village, Vanikolo island (winlink report Location: 11-35.56S / 166-49.00E RH38JJ70). A rare IOTA (OC-163) will soon be on-the-air.

0911 we won't forget

©
the picture can't be reproduced without permission, please ask
me if you want to use them.
iz1crr @ tin.it

SWL e arifidenza

Modifico tutto il mio commento relativo al post "SWL su arifidenza" perchè si sono aggiunti altri pareri decisamente VERGOGNOSI nei confronti degli SWL. Non cito i nominativi perchè li potete leggere voi stessi nel forum. Se veramente alcuni OM ritengono che gli SWL e quindi l'attività dell'ascolto siano da escludere dal forum e dalla vita associativa allora non hanno veramente capito nulla dello spirito radiantistico. Così come è una VERGOGNA definire "apertura delle stalle" l'arrivo degli IW in HF. Come ex manager del contest 40&80, ho ricevuto negli ultimi anni diversi logs di IW e sinceramente ho riscontrati in questi ultimi molti meno errori di tanti altri "blasonati" I, IK, IZ ecc e con percentuali di utilizzo del CW maggiori della media. Così come (è un dato di fatto), chi ha una forte esperienza come SWL se la ritrova poi nel passaggio alla trasmissione evitando gli errori tipici di tanti sbruffoni dal lineare facile. Una volta di più giudizio negativo per ARIFidenza che chiude agli SWL ritendendoli non idonei agli argomenti radiantistici ! Se però succedesse il contrario (forum di SWL chiuso agli OM) sarebbe uno scandalo. Ma ora vado ad attendere che esca H40MY da OC-163, è ben più interessante delle banalità di certi post !

Route 66 on the air

An Amateur Radio Special Event Celebrating the
82nd Anniversary of the Mother Road

source

P29 operating frequencies

P29 2008 Operating frequencies: the first few days of the dxpedition will coincide with the Willis Island operation. So for this period at least we will use frequencies near to the recommended IOTA calling frequencies:

CW 28.040, 24.920, 21.040, 18.098, 14.040, 10.115 and 3.530MHz.
SSB 28.560, 24.950, 21.260, 18.128, 7.055 and 3.755MHz

Check the website for the news and for the donations !

tnx G3KHZ

World DX Club

From the WorldDXClub website: " The World DX Club was founded in 1968, and the first edition of Contact published by the club was mailed soon afterwards. Today, the club continues to publish Contact Magazine every month, consisting of at least 52 pages containing news and information and comment by Dxers for Dxers. We have around 250 members from all over the world, so why not join us? See below for subscription rates, how to join or how to request a sample copy of Contact Magazine. The World DX Club also maintains a regularly updated list of broadcasts from over 100 stations. It's called "Times & Frequencies in English". World DX Club members can also join our own e-mail group, which provides immediate e-mails on time sensitive station and programme information, station schedules as received, advanced text versions of the Radio Topics and Mike Barraclough's DX News columns, and also links to the full Glenn Hauser DX Listening Digest reports when published".

Work AO-51 with your HT

Clint, K6LCS will give his "How to work hamsats with your HT" presentation at the October 25 PAPA D-Star luncheon in San Diego. Click here to download the handout he uses at the presentation.

Google Chrome

Chrome, the new browser from Google is here. Visit the page, download and start exploring (Windows only).

13000 satellites in google Earth

Matt Amato (Analytic graphics Inc) developed this wonderful KML file which shows in Google Earth the real-time position of about 13,000 satellites in orbit. What a great way to see the sats flying over our heads. source

I8NHJ su DXCC Yearbook

Non è una primizia l'uscita del DXCC Yearbook 2007 ma è importante notare che in copertina c'è il nostro I8NHJ, uno degli operatori di BS7H a Scarborough Reef. Complimenti Max, come al solito sei motivo di orgoglio per noi italiani.

(tnx IK1ADH)

CW practice

Bryn N4VM has generously made available hundreds of hours of W1AW code practice mp3 files that you can download and play on your mp3 player or computer.

The files are located here: http://www.pcpractice.com/CW/

They range in speed from 5 to 40 wpm. Text files showing the sent characters are also provided. They are indexed by speed: 5, 7-1/2, 10, 13, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 wpm as well by date of transmission. There are also two directories 18 and 18 wpm - both of which contain 18 wpm Morse code practice. Below the directories of the various speeds are directories with dates. These directories (folders) are different files than the one's above and are from an earlier period where perhaps Bryn indexed the files by date instead of by speed. So if you run out of the ones indexed by speed, there are entire W1AW sessions recorded here.
We wish to thank Bryn, N4VM for the gift to the Morse community on the Internet and here on the CW email list.
Current W1AW mp3 files and text files showing what was sent are on the ARRL server here: http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse.html
ARRL also maintains an archive of these files - and text translations of the Morse here: http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse/Archive/

We thank the ARRL and their members for this excellent resource.
73 David Ring, N1EA

(tnx IK1ADH)

Varese 2008

The QSL for all the stations active during the Varese 2008 award period (rules here). The Jolly ones are II2UCI, II2BIN and IQ2IR


The Golden Award

Tag Technorati: varese 2008, insubriaradio, ii2uci, ii2bin, iq2ir

Update on the Republic of Kosovo

Many have been wondering what the status with regard to the Republic of Kosovo is as of today, both in general and in amateur radio terms specifically. Substantial progress has been made, and a new approach to get Kosovo totally on its own feet is well on its way. The United Nations (UNMIK) has scaled down its administrative role while the European Union (EULEX) has initiated its supporting role to help integrate the "interim administration" functions into the local institutions.

The United Nations Frequency Management Office (FMO) is one of those local institutions. This Office was responsible for authorizing Amateur Radio operations before and after the Kosovar declaration of independence, but as of today the FMO does not exist nor are licenses issued. You may still hear some stations operating as YU8 since those licenses issued in the past have not been specifically terminated.

Undoubtedly, Kosovo as a "country" has all required country requirements; (A) a defined territory, (B) a permanent population and (C) a government and (D) is capable of interacting with other countries with whom it has established diplomatic relations. As of today, the Republic of Kosovo is recognized by 46 countries representing many leading states and all geographical continents.

From an Amateur Radio and DXCC perspective, a great deal of confusing discussion has taken place; one side argues that the DXCC criteria needs to be honored at all times. Others see the criteria as not being engraved on a tablet of stone but that the rules facilitate "entities" dynamically in the context of an ever-changing world. Both views have some merit and should be appreciated.

Western Sahara (SO), another disputed DXCC country, is currently recognized by 48 countries and even today it is not a member of the United Nations nor does it have a dedicated ITU prefix. At the time Amateur Radio entered this desert country, no one had argued that it belonged to DXCC. When Swains Island was up for DXCC discussion it was decided that the DXCC criteria had to be changed and so Swains entered the scene. Swains was added not decades ago - but just recently.

Before Swains Island, DXCC used three "measuring sticks"; UN membership, ITU prefix or IARU society. In facilitating Swains, the ARRL Board of Directors decided to keep the UN and ITU parts but changed the IARU rule to recording of an event by the US Department of State, which again opened up another gate for more DXCC entities.

Now Kosovo meets the highest US Department of State criteria - Kosovo is an independent state recognized by the United States and easily passes the US State Department gate, if that gate is honored in the right spirit. With DXCC rules in place as they existed before Swains, Kosovo would enter through the IARU gate because of its permanent amateur radio population and its national society, SHRAK.

The above is just an illustration of the dynamics of the DXCC at any given time, following the dynamics of the world.

The world outside Kosovo abounds with many other examples that offer a slightly different perspective in the international arena. Another oft-mentioned entity - Northern Cyprus - is recognized only by Turkey, and
the situation regarding Cyprus remains deadlocked. Two new cases - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - are recognized by the Russian Federation and probably soon by Belarus (EW) and Venezuela (YV). If they ever achieve wider recognition apart from the countries subject to the current conflict, they will become another set of DXCC candidates.

An immediate UN membership gate is pointed more in the direction of those that get themselves established with no gun fire. The UN's potential for resolving conflicts to its own satisfaction is seriously hampered by the Security Council veto structure that plays a major role in eliminating new countries at that gate.

So, the ARRL is left to define a workable recognition based country criteria - be it qualitative and/or quantitative. Kosovo with its almost 50 recognitions is the first one at the gate. Delaying action on the Republic of Kosovo so that it does not qualify for anything is not an option for the ARRL. Kosovo is a country with a permanent amateur radio population and therefore Kosovar amateurs should be welcomed to our community.

Back to the practical world; YU8/OH2R QSLs for the first amateur radio operation from the Republic of Kosovo were printed last week by Gennady, UX5UO and they will be in the mails in a few days. We thank Gennady for his efforts and support in making these full-color cards meet the spirit of the Kosovo case as they represent a special moment for those involved with the Kosovo project and those who follow world events as well as the development of the DXCC program.

You can view these cards at http://www.dailydx.com/Kosovo.htm

You may read more about YU8/OH2R and Kosovo at www.n4gn.com/yu8/