Well, the bug has bitten once again and I am back into contesting. I no longer have a rare location so I will now have to battle for the points and more so as I use low power and only a modest antenna setup.
Main callsign is G4KIV but I have recently acquired a special contest call G1G.
Previous calls include: ZC4BS ZC40BS ZC4BBS ZC4ESB ZC40ESB ZD8SB N5ZFR also contested from G6M.
Modes: CW, SSB and Data modes mostly include RTTY and FT8
Equipment: Yaesu FT2000, Prosistel PST1524TV, Inverted L (112ft), MicroHam Digi Keyer II and Wintest/SD for contesting.
Club: Yorkshire Operators Brigade (YOBS)
10/10 number: 52763
WAB Square: TA07 and WAB book: 10108 and 24424
Rig: Yaesu FT2000
Antenna: Prosistel PST1524TV (inverted V) for 10m-40m @15'
Inverted L for 80m and 160m @20'
Power: 90 watts (only low power)
TNC: MicroHam Digi Keyer II
Software: Wintest and SD
With the addition of the MicroHam Digi Keyer II, I have now started to play with some of the “newer” data modes including WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) and more recently FT8 which are great ways to check propagation paths and antenna capabilities.
QSL Info – I no longer issue paper QSL cards and instead use a mix of QRZ.com, Logbook Of The World (LOTW) and ClubLog. I have to give special thanks to Doug (N6RT) from DX.QSL.NET who helped me recover over 32,000 QSO’s from my ZC4 expeditions. I thought I had lost these due to a corrupt hard drive. This will make a lot of radio hams very happy now they can verify the contact. Thanks Doug 🙂
Future work will involve building additional antennas – perhaps something similar to a 4 square for either 10m or 15m and a remote antenna switch.
Logbook Widget
