Mark

Yep out on field day. I'm doing the 40m CW section for the club. It is currently 6.20am and 9c. Not sure why I am here!

Finally found a good use for a baofeng

I can't see anything going wrong with this.

Ha yeah true. It's been an EU fest so far. Being 80m I thought I had a decent shot as it was daylight in most of EU.

I have been trying to work J51A on CW right on grayline the last few nights. There sunrise is 4min before our sunset. No luck so far.🙄

What's the world map app on the middle screen?

I've had it up and running for 6 hours without any issues (tempting fate I know). I've got it running on an old model B pi.

I see the sunspot number is zero for the first time in four years. Things will need to pick up a bit for the SSB section!

HamClock running!
Go to hamclock.com to get the instructions you need to update your Raspberry Pi HamClock. Basically one line is all you will need to add. To the /etc/hosts file.

@ve7sar.bsky.social @hamradiotoday.org

Managed 14 hours in the #ARRLCW contest and clearly got the best conditions. 10m was hopping from the start and OK the next morning. 20m and 15m started well but slowed badly as the K index hit 5. The low bands not so good. Great fun though!

How did you go @g0mfr.bsky.social?

You have got me hooked on this. Best score 9 out of 10 so far. I do get a bit stuck on some of the very English questions.

Thanks Gareth. It's a fun contest from here. 10m if open absolutely rocks during our morning and early afternoon. 80m in the evening is also really cool as you can work stations across the continent on their sunrise. The only dead period is 3am to sunrise (shame 😁).

Will be on as ZL3AB this year. Have done it as part of the ZL3X multi-two team for the last 11 years but the team can't do it this time. Will be weird!

Good luck Gareth.

Brave...

I never realised how spread out the South Is is for you guys. 15 to 65 degrees!

True. If you guys beam at Auckland we may not hear you in the South.😂

It has always amused me that I have to aim my beam over the pole to work Scotland (well 12 degrees give or take).

The hobby went to hell in a hand basket after they got rid of spark and don't even start me on the demise of DOS...

I can recommend the book. There is a series of them.

I have worked EU with 5w cw using an end fed. In my experience the longer the wire and the higher the band the more lobes you have. The trick is to move the end of it so it points a lobe in the direction of interest. I'd experiment with that first.

You can easily work ZL with 5-10w on FT8. There are a number of ZLs working EU on 60m daily doing just that.

Exactly

Just tell them they have to earn all the same certificates before there is an inheritance.

Yes it has. We have basically had a tropical rainstorm. Mt Maunganui got three months of rain in a day. The rest of the upper north didn't fair much better. Here down south wasn't so bad but still very wet. Hopefully February is better.

Yeah just awful. The coromandel and the far north have been hammered as well.

If you think you have problems our weather has been the same and it is supposed to be summer! It's been absolute rubbish the last few weeks.

It's only my first cup...

Saturday morning coffee.😁

Nice surprise to pick up one of the ZS6SRC pico balloons on 10m wspr as it heads past ZL.