APRS from my car

A few weeks ago I was thinking about an old wish to do anything with APRS from the mobile. I have this working from home and in my opinion it’s static

Searching on the internet for a tracker, I came through ebay on the following APRS tracker + GPS receiver inside.

I ordered and within a week it was neatly delivered. The idea was to use it in combination with the ICOM IC-228H. I bought a serial 1:1 cable and cut one plug. On this side I soldered a 8-pin microphone plug, what a hassle.
From the beginning it worked almost equal. Reception is not yet fully functional, with a C of 4.7nF in the audio line it would also be good to go.

Today I planned a trip. First to Hillegom. Then via Leiden to The Hague. From there, via Rotterdam to Tiel.
My trip.
On my way to Hillegom I used only 5 watts, more was not possible from the cigarette lighter. In Hillegom I received a battery that is ideally suited for this purpose. The full power of the set can be use without problems.

I will not be qrv with APRS every time I drive my care. This will be incidental.


73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

New DXCC with QRP

Last week I was qrv, for a few days, from the village of Zuidlaren. My set-up was the Yaesu FT817nd and a ZEPP for 30M.
This antenna is on the top floor and when I'm there I span the last few meters via the window on the top floor to the end of the garden behind the house.

Conditions where reasonable and I work different station on 30, 17 and 10M.
On this last band I made a nice qso with JY5HX. I heard him calling in cw with the remarks that he listening 2 up. After a few tries he came back for my qrp signal, it was easy to work him. I worked Jordan several times but until now not with qrp. Today I send a qsl direct a hope to receive his confirmation. Via email he told me that I'm in his log.

On the photo you see the Norcal keyer. It works fine for a automatic CQ from the memory.


I toke this photo with my mobile phone.

I also tried to contact PE4BAS on 70cm via a repeater but this was not really success full.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

New DXCC via buro

This is my first publication for this year. Reason? I'm busy with work and with my hobbies happens not to much.

In early December I received a large envelope from the institute where I had followed the course "medical terminology". The exam for this was in October, I successfully completed and received the diploma.
The exam was multiple choices. Despite this I had to wait almost 2 months for the results.

Last Wednesday I was at the local club meeting and received some qsl's.
The qsl of UK/JI2MED confirmed the country Uzbekistan for me.
This country was already confirmed via LOTW. But I prefer a paper card.






73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Contest

On September 5th of this year I wrote about the fieldday contest. During this contest, I made in about 3 hours 31 QSOs with QRP. In the QRP section, I was unfortunately the only participant. It was inevitable that they sent me the certificate belonging to the first place.Next year I expect more competition.

Last weekend was the CQWW CW contest. The condition in recent weeks are a lot better, especially on 10M.
Yesterday I setup my FT817nd on the dinner table with on the rear the ATX-1080 antenna. There were plenty of signals and have the preamp turned off.
I made 2 QSOs with European Russia and one with N3RS in the USA. Unfortunately I managed not to work W3LPL, the station where PB2T was a guest operator.


73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

PA Beker contest 2011, QRP.

This article goes about a Dutch contest. Therefor written in Dutch.

Afgelopen zaterdag heb ik in de QRP sectie meegedaan aan de PA Beker contest. Thuis heb ik geen antennes voor 80 en 40 en kon beschikken over de shack van een bevriende amateur hier in Tiel, ik had mijn Yaesu FT817nd mee genomen.
Deze set beschikt niet over een memory keyer en had een zelfbouw keyer meegenomen, deze werkte helaas niet. Gevolg was dat ik zelf CQ moest geven, dit heb ik bijna de volle 2,5 uur gedaan. Uit reacties van andere begreep ik dat je dit als QRP niet moet doen. Mijn ervaring is anders en volgens mij ook succesvol geweest.
Dat de memory keyer niet werkte is geen technische fout geweest, ik had het verkeerd ingesteld.

Tijdens de contest heb ik schriftelijk gelogd, er stond geen pc aan. Thuis heb ik alles via het PA Beker programma van PA3AYQ verwerkt. Dit programma kan ook een ADI formaat genereren om het log in een andere programma in te lezen. Dit werkt niet zonder meer en heb de file aardig moeten verbouwen om het in Logger te kunnen importeren.

Om even een plaatje bij dit artikel te krijgen ben ik naar CW reverse beacon gegaan en heb een overzicht gegenereerd waar ik laatste half uur ben gehoord, buiten Nederland met 5 watts. Op 1 station na hoorde iedereen mij met een snelheid van 16wpm.
Klik op het plaatje voor een vergroting.













Een leuke contest waarbij ik ongeveer 65 qso's maakte en 42 mulipliers.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ