It was time again to do some more /P/QRP with Peter PD1AJJ again. As before, it was a nice Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining and it was about 25 degrees Celsius.
We both did it the easy way: A Yaesu FT-817 and an Outback 1899 on the car. So, QRV again within 5 minutes after arriving instead of putting up the mast for my windom dipole....

It's always nice to go outside and do some HF experiments. I don't try to make as many QSO's as possible. It's nice enough to hear that the hams on the other side of the rig are really surprised and amazed that I only work with 3 watt. Today I worked Pranas, LY2J and Alex, UA3QKA. QSL is on it way via the bureau guys!

The last couple of days I've been busy getting an APRS Gateway and Digipeater up and running.
Most likely (and easy way) to get this done is install some software on a PC by clicking "next, next.. finish". But I wanted to do it very different.
I took a second hand ASUS WL-500g router and flashed it with the OpenWRT linux software. On top of the new (linux) firmware I installed APRS4R. There is also a complete flash image available but the version of the router I have has only 4 MB flash memory. That's why Ive "upgraded" the hardware with an extra 128 MB Memory Stick.
APRS4R is very easy to use Gateway and Digipeater software and doesn't use much resources. The advantage of using a router instead of a PC is that it's consuming way less electricity.
What I still need is a TNC to connect it to a rig. Up until then it's only connected to the internet.

Tonight I've updated the CEPT Novice Licensing information with some new countries.
Just for all those hams that are still having a holiday abroad ahead of them....

Again I wanna thank Thorsten DO4TP for supplying me some of the additional information.
If someone has some new or additional information or updates on the CEPT Novice Licensing, please let me know via email or the contact form.

You can see all the information at this page.

The last couple of days the conditions were quite nice on both 20m en 10m. Last night I heard some VK's and ZL's on 20 meter and this morning the first KH6's.

I made some nice QSO's on 10 meter the last couple of evenings. Today was the first day that the band was also open during the day. There was quite some slow QSB at some moments but I worked some new DXCC entities on 10 meter. I made nice Q's with F5IHP, I3CGV, G4HZW, EA4EUI, F/PH1MRF, F6IRG, UR5KDX and some more.

During the QSO with Bert F5IHP a strange sound was coming up on the band this morning. Bert thought it was some local QRM/QRN but I heard the same sound moving over the 10 meter band. So nothing local but it could be heard across Europe.

A little later (around 8:45 UTC) I made a recording of that sound with my webcam. When you strart the video on the left you can hear it and see it moving up the band. A little later I heard the same thing again starting at around 28.490.

If you have any idea what this is, please leave a comment.

After little more than a year all the QSL cards that I had have been sent out. So it was time to make a new QSL card.

The design is more or less the same as the previous QSL card. Off course I have used other photo's for the front and the back. I've changed the design on the back a bit with the experience from one year of QSL-ing.

The new front side of the QSL card is shown to the left.
If you want to know what the other side looks like... Well, find me on the bands and we can make a QSO. After that I'll sent you one of my new cards.

As always, I let Max ON5UR print my QSL cards because he makes very high quality full color cards.
Check his website www.on5ur.be for more information.

Last Sunday I met two very nice hams, Markus OE7FMI and Bernhard OE7BKH when I visited the OE7XWI Clubstation.
I went on a short holiday in the Austrian Zillertal and I wanted to do some more despite the mountain-hiking.
OE7XWI is the Zillertal department of the Austrian Amateur Radio Society ÖVSV.
They have a very nice clubhouse near one of the Power Plants at Mayrhofen.

Not only are they active on HF but they run some very good repeaters, APRS Digi, Echolink (Node# 404786) and packet node. They own the highest placed repeater in Austria but it might even be the highest in Europe (or the world). It's a 70 cm repeater and it's on top of the Hintertuxer Gletcher at a height of 3250 meter above sea level. They're also busy setting up an 6 cm WLAN across the country with links up 70-80 km long for high speed packet, APRS, remote control, ATV and much more. So I'm impressed by the thing they do.

Thanks guys for the nice meeting and the allmost daily usage of your Echolink node.

For the first time in many months there was an opening on the 10 meter band this evening.

I had a little problem getting the half G5RV dipole tuned for this band, so I switched to my Diamond CP-6 vertical. Normally I rather use the dipole because the vertical is very narrow when tuned and needs to be tuned again after turning the dial for more than 30 kc's.

I worked 12 different European countries this evening on 10 meter and had some nice QSO's with John IW6ATQ, Pierre HB9TMS (in FM), Henryk OK2SAI and some more.

It was a beautiful sunny sunday afternoon with just a little wind and a temperature of 22 °C. So it was time again to go on the air as PD3EM/P/QRP.

This time Peter PD1AJJ and I wanted to do it the easy way: QRV within 5 minutes after arriving!
No dipole and mast today but simply putting the Outback 1899 on the car and the FT-817 in the back of the car.

Last weekend we went into the field for our first /p operation.
It was a nice Saturday afternoon and I went together with Tjakko PA2TA and Peter PD1AJJ to a field very close to my home.

Peter took his Yaesu FT-817 and 12AVQ vertical and was QRV within a few minutes. He made the first QSO with one call immediately after switching on the rig.
He also had a very nice QSO with a Dutch guy living in SM-land.
!