Oscar M7OJA

Amateur Radio Station

Tag: Bands

  • Great HF Conditions – 26.04.2025

    This evening, the 26th April 2025, band conditions were fantastic. Across 15m, 17m and 20m, there was a wide opening from the United Kingdom to North and South America and Australia in particular. I managed to work all 6 continents this evening, and the distribution of FT8 contacts were scattered across the globe.

    Map of Contacts, 26.04.2025, courtesy of Qscope.org
    List of DXCCs, 26-04-2025 (evening) and 27-04-2025 (early hours of morning)

    Thanks to the high sunspot number and SFI, the bands have been in great shape recently. In addition to widespread FT8 openings, many SSB contacts to North America were also possible. Did you manage to get any in the log?

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  • Support Your Parks Weekend – Spring

    Last weekend (19-20th April 2025) was the Spring edition of the “Support Your Parks Weekend” event. This is a quarterly event run by the Parks on the Air (POTA) team encouraging radio amateurs to “get on the air” from/to a park to support the program.

    I was pleased to be able to make contact with Riso OM6RT in his activation of Rumanovský park. Luckily for me, this meant I was issued with the special award for the event, which you can view below.

    I continue to support the Parks on the Air program, and I am pleased that such events exist to support the portable community within the hobby. Some of my best contacts have been while activating a local park/beach, and the proximity to the sea in my local area boosts signal propagation.

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  • SSTV Images Received 20/03/2025

    As I was away from the shack today, I decided to leave my radio (Yaesu FT-991A) connected to my PC (running MMSSTV) to see if any SSTV images could be decoded.

    I was very surprised when I returned to the shack to find over 100 images saved. Although some were blurry and distorted, the majority were clear and readable.

    The following images were received 20/03/2025 between 11:00-17:00 on 20m SSTV (14.230MHz) with a cobweb antenna:

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  • New Article – Interview with Esad E77PY

    I had the pleasure of talking to Esad E77PY for a recorded conversation about the E7 POTA special event callsign for Parks on the Air (POTA) activations. You can watch the interview HERE.

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  • QSL Cards Received Direct – March 2025

    QSL Cards Received Direct – March 2025

    Here is a selection of the QSL cards I have received direct in the post this month.

    I upload a QSL card from my personal archive every day on my Instagram page. Take a look and follow me HERE (link opens in new tab).

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  • Very Good Weekend on HF

    Due to the activity of Solar Cycle 25 and a high SFI and Sunspot count, the HF bands have been particularly good this weekend.

    I took full advantage of the good conditions this weekend and operated over a variety of modes and bands on HF from Friday to Sunday.

    To summarise my activity:

    Total In The Log (ITL)575 QSOs
    New Countries (DXCCs)9 New (Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahrain, Armenia, French Guiana, Thailand, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize)
    Total Countries (DXCCs)70 ITL This Weekend
    Parks on the Air (POTA) References10 References
    Bunkers on the Air (WWBOTA) References2 References

    A statistical view of my weekend activity is below, showing my overall statistics, a list of worked countries, a map of Europe and a worldwide map.

    General Statistics 21/02/25 – 23/02/25
    Countries (DXCCs) Worked this Weekend
    European Map
    Worldwide Map

    I have been lucky enough to work the DXPedition to Nigeria this weekend and a bonus contact as I am writing this to 4S7SPG, DXPedition to Sri Lanka.

    Always take advantage when the bands are strong, as you never know what DX is possible with a limited setup.

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  • Daily Snapshot – 21/02/2025 on HF

    The bands have been remarkably open over the past week or two. In the past few days, there have been many DX opportunities on 10m, 20m and 40m particularly. Please see the snapshot of today’s activities.

    Working Conditions

    Between 5W-25W into an end-fed antenna (49:1, 20.5m wire) positioned over the roof. Transceiver is a Yaesu FT-991a.

    Statistics

    Thank you to qscope.org for the statistics.
    Thank you to qscope.org for the statistics.
    Thank you to qscope.org for the statistics.
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  • Good Working Conditions on HF

    This week especially, working conditions on HF have been a lot better than usual. Even with a very modest antenna and low power, DX contacts have been achievable. This has also been helped by a range of DXpeditions at the moment, increased portable activity through schemes such as Flora Fauna (WWFF), Parks on the Air (POTA) and Summits on the Air (SOTA). There have also been several special event stations running recently.

    The most important factor, however, is the fast approaching peak of Solar Cycle 25, giving us improved propagation and many DX opportunities.

    You can see my daily snapshot HERE to see for yourself!

    DXpeditions

    At the moment, there are two major DXpeditions running. The first is V73WW, Marshall Islands. The second is VK9XU, Christmas Island. The links to both of their websites are below:

    V73WW

    VK9XU

    Special Event Stations

    There are a number of special event awards, provided by the Hamaward system. With this system, QSOs are automatically uploaded by the DX station (you do not need to submit your logs or QSL cards). Over the course of the award, you can work each participating callsign once per band, mode and day. This means you can accumulate a number of points per day. At the end of the award, your points are added up, and there is a feature to download digital QSL cards as well as a diploma if you have successfully scored enough points. Participating stations will provide an embedded log search in their QRZ page, and you can check how many points you have accumulated. The awards currently running are as follows:

    PZK-IARU

    This award is celebrating the 95th birthday of the PZK organisation and the 100th of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). The 1st round of the contest runs from the 17th Feb 2025 – 3rd Mar 2025.

    Please see the link HERE for more info.

    VOLTA

    The VOLTA contest is running from Feb 15th 2025 – Feb 23rd 2025. The award is to mark the 27th Volta International Memorial Day.

    Please see the link HEREfor more info.

    Marconi (IR0RRAI)

    The IR0RRAI award is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Marconi. The contest runs from Feb 15th 2025 to Mar 16th 2025.

    Please see the link HERE for more info.

    Terni, City of Love (II0LOVE)

    The Terni, City of Love award is running from Feb 01st 2025 – Feb 28th 2025 to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.

    Please see the link HERE for more info.

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  • 1500km contact on 2m FM

    (Blog posted retrospectively from my old website, NE Ham Radio).

    VHF can work in wonderful ways! I was sitting listening to my radio when I heard a station (signal 5,9) calling CQ. I asked them to repeat the callsign, and I heard “ES8TJM”. They were calling CQ on 145.500FM, and I worked them (receiving a 5 and 9 signal in return).

    The usual range of VHF is “just beyond line of sight”. If you can make a 30 mile contact line of sight, you can expect somewhere in the range of 40 miles radio range. This contact occurred due to an atmospheric condition called “Sporadic-E”. You just have to be in the right place and the right time to benefit from VHF propagation, and I was very lucky to have such a clear contact so far away! I have never worked Estonia on HF either, so a totally new country in the log for me.

    I firstly thought that this might be a “troll” station, but the station I spoke to happily confirmed the contact via email. Definitely worth me sending a QSL card!

    Moral of the story – keep calling CQ! You never know who might respond…

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