SSB Liga 05/2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: May 5, 2012

Today, for the first time after a few years, I participated in SSB Liga contest. It’s a two hours long Czech and Slovak contest, held each month on 80 meters band SSB. Connections may be made only between Czech and/or Slovak stations and contest exchange is OK/OM district abbreviations.

I really like the contests where exchange is some location information and not just serial number – because I’m much more interested in where I managed to call to, than in how many contacts the other station made… Another thing I like is that max power that can be used is 100 Watts, which means the contest is a good practice for me, since I use 100W all the time…

In this morning’s SSB Liga I managed to make 92 QSOs into 54 OK/OM districts. Most of them (70 QSOs) were made while calling CQ. My total score is 4968 points and according to contest website, at the moment of writing (5th May 21:34 CEST) I’m on the 21st place out of 49.

I had a really great time during the contest and regret not participating before. If I have time I’ll definitely participate in the next month’s part.

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CQ WPX Contest SSB 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 26, 2012

Last weekend, just like on every last weekend of March, I participated in SSB part of CQ WPX contest. This time, unlike the year before, I decided for SO AB LP category (TB-WIRES category overlay).

Screen of my log (N1MM) at the end of the contest

Screen of my log (N1MM) at the end of the contest

My best result before this year’s competition was quite low, only 415 QSOs and 280 694 points, so this time I was determined to take the contest a little more seriously – and set my goal  to 700 QSOs.

I started at 00:00 UTC on 80 meters band. To my pleasant surprise, conditions seemed really good. I could hear a lot of stations and had no problem calling them. After first four hours, there were 135 QSOs in my log and more than hundred of them from 3.7 MHz. 40 meters band wasn’t so good, even though I liked a lot e.g. QSO to HK1T from Colombia!

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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500 QSL cards ready to go…

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 18, 2012

Tomorrow I’m sending package of five hundred QSL cards to the Czech Radio Club QSL Bureau…

Package of QSL cards

Package of QSL cards

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ARRL DX Contest SSB 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 5, 2012

Just two weeks after CW part of ARRL DX Contest, it was the time for SSB part. I was determined to try for my best result in SO AB LP category, but it didn’t start well.

After the contest start, I could hear only a few U.S. stations, but not very well and they couldn’t hear me. After about 20 minutes I gave up and went to sleep, having my alarm clock set for 2 a.m. However, CONDX on the band were even worse then before! After short lookup on the Internet I learnt that reason was probably M Class Solar Flare and decided to go to bed.

ARRL DX SSB 2012 - QSO map

ARRL DX SSB 2012 - QSO map

Mistake was that I woke up quite late, after 7 UTC. My friend told me he managed to make a few QSOs between 4 and 6 o’clock… At about half past seven I managed to make only 2 QSOs, to Pennsylvania and Maryland – and just hoped higher bands would be better… Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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ARRL DX Contest CW 2012

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: February 21, 2012

Last weekend I participated in CW part of ARRL International DX Contest. I decided for SO AB LP category.

My equipment was:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t have been QRV for the whole time, because I had to stay in Prague until Saturday morning. I started contesting at 11:30 UTC, on 20 meters band. Start wasn’t very good for me, during first two hours I made only 22 QSOs. Problem was, that it was a quite difficult for me to find U.S. and Canadian stations between stronger European ones.

ARRL DX CW 2012 - QSO map

ARRL DX CW 2012 - QSO map

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012!

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: December 30, 2011

PF 2012 de OK1CLD

PF 2012 de OK1CLD

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My radio activity in 2011

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: December 30, 2011

Just like in 2009 and 2010, I’d like to make here a short summary of my ham radio activity during the last 365 days.

In 2011 I managed to make 1895 QSOs (current total is 9407 QSOs since 4th June 2003) – it is the highest count so far, but still it means I didn’t fulfill my New Year’s Eve resolution to make at least 2000 QSOs. Once again I used mostly Phone mode.

During the year I contacted 134 DXCC countries, which increased my DXCC total up to 172. However, only 137 of them (136 current entities, 1 deleted – Netherlands Antilles) is confirmed via LoTW.

I also became quite close to working all U.S. States – in 2011 I managed to make QSOs with 42 different states, including Alaska and Hawaii. At the moment my total is 46 states (45 confirmed via LoTW, one – West Virginia – only via paper QSL). That means just 4 states are remaining – Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming.

And what would I like to manage in the next year? To be more active and make AT LEAST those 2000 QSOs. Also to practice Morse code – I know I said before, so to fulfill it in 2012 I decided to participate in morning Czech and Slovak CW contests, organized every month. And last, but not least I’d like to contact those last 4 remaining U.S. States to get WAS award.

That’s probably all from me for now, thanks a lot for all QSOs made in 2011 and I look forward to hear you on bands in 2012.

73! Ondra, OK1CLD

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CQ WW DX Contest SSB 2011

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: November 4, 2011

Hello, today I’d like to write here something about my participation in last weekend’s SSB part of CQ WW DX contest. I enjoyed the contest a lot and even managed to make much more QSOs than in any contest before!

I decided to take part in SOAB LP category, since I had an equipment for all bands except for 160 meters. Here’s the list of what I used:

On Friday evening, I prepared a plan for the whole contest. For every hour I set a certain QSO count I’d like to make during that time. Planned total was 850 QSOs and as it later turned down, it was very realistic.

CQ WW DX SSB 2011 - QSO map

CQ WW DX SSB 2011 - QSO map

Read More (score summary and rest of the story) »

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Cycling trip Choceň – Seč and back (Day 2: “lowlands”)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: November 3, 2011

After long break, I finally have time to finish the story of my two day long cycling trip to Seč and back. I’m sorry it took me so long, but I’ve had a lot of things to do lately, since the school semester started…

When I woke up at about half past six in the morning, it was raining… Luckily it didn’t last long and so 90 minutes later I had everything packed and was leaving Seč by road nr. 337, leading to the north-west to Třemošnice.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Seč Choceň 95.8 km 542.3 m 208.4 m 2051 m
Elevation diagram - from Seč to Choceň around Pardubice

Elevation diagram - from Seč to Choceň around Pardubice

However, I left the road few hundred meters before the town and went to the village of Podhradí instead, to see ruins of Lichnice/Lichtenburg castle. Then I continued to the north to Míčov located on the top of the hill at about 530 m ASL. It was my last bigger ascent, because from here, landscape quickly descends down to the lowlands of the river Labe/Elbe – which is where I was heading. Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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Cycling trip Choceň – Seč and back (Day 1: “highlands”)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: September 17, 2011

My college semester starts next week and, to have a nice end of “holidays”, I decided to go for one last cycling trip. I’ve never gone to a (cycling) trip longer than one day and this seemed as a nice opportunity to try it.

On Monday evening I packed a tent, sleeping bag, some clothes (and all other things necessary for two days’ long trip) and loaded it on my bike – wanted to be ready and able to set out early on the next day.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Choceň Seč 122.2 km 758.6 m 280.4 m 2051 m
Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

On Tuesday I left my home at 7 o’clock and headed to the south-east. The first 50 kilometers were almost the same as during my trip to Znojmo – I went via Litomyšl and Polička to Jimramov. The only difference was that while on the first time I went from Polička to Jimramov along the valley of Bílý potok brook, on the second time I used a little shorter, but much more exhausting way via village Korouhev, during which I had to climb to more than 645 m ASL! Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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