My First DX Certificate

Many of you are aware, Groupo Alfa Tango ran a worldwide DX contest open to non-members during August to celebrate their 42nd anniversary, there was a possible 43 stations around the world to contact. I didn't manage to get my first AT/42Y QSO until 8 days after the contest opened, starting with Paulo 205AT/42Y in the Islands of Cape Verde.

Being such a slow start, I didn't really put too much effort in chasing down more,  thinking I was way too far behind to catch up with other operators. By the time the last 24 hours had come around, I had only contacted 8 stations, propagation hadn't been too great, but suddenly Europe opened up to 8 more 42Y stations with a few others I just couldn't get back to due to pile ups. I was quite pleased with my day and I submitted my QSO's to the AT groups website. 

A couple of months later, I had an email from the AT group with 16 gold eQSL's attached, I was quite pleased with my efforts, I then thought that was the end of it until, I was looking through another operators website, when I spotted a list of entrants to the contest, so I scrolled down to the only person to make 16 QSO's and there was a link... to my first ever DX certificate. Chuffed!

New QSL card

I have to thank 26TE007 Chris for his help in designing this amazing QSL card for me, from a rough sketch, earlier this year. I had EuroQSL in Spain do the printing, which the quality is absolutely stunning, I'll definitely be returning to them for future projects and the price with tracked postage was cheaper than I could find locally. 

I sent a few repeat cards out to some really good radio friends around the world, who had sent me some really good QSL packages over the last six months.

Front of my card with a view of Tower Bridge, early one morning and the rear of my card, with a early morning shot of the longest pleasure pier in the World, located on the River Thames, Southend on Sea, Essex.

On the Bench

Seem to be getting more QRM than ever today, the QRM eliminator I've ordered is a day late, but probably held up within the European postal services, the tracking stopped working a few days ago and its all in Ukrainian!

Its been some months since I brought the QRM eliminator and I still haven't used it,  mainly because I changed radio, which cured a number of interference problems 

Height Adjustment

Been trying to make small improvements to the antennas performance all the time, but I recently decided to raise the antenna by another 5 feet, this has made a good improvement, especially on groundwave contacts. The background QRM has dropped a little on FM and range has improved. I've been trying to QSO with a station (Gavin) in Haverhill Suffolk, about 55 miles North of me. We finally made a decent contact after both of us have made made small changes to our setups over the last few weeks. Still suffering with a bit of noise from local houses sadly, but hoping my QRM eliminator will arrive soon and will help cut it down or even out.

I'm now onto the the next part of my shack...

First QSL Cards Arrive

I'm quite excited that my first real QSL cards have arrived, not those digital low quality images it seems a lot of DXers seems to want to send, which is fantastic news after sending out at least 20 QSL packages so far. 

A big thanks to 108AT277 Kevin, who's bumper package arrived within days of the contact, along with Kevin was another Scottish operator 108LR178 Callum, whose card arrive a day later.

Then a few days later, these cards dropped through the letterbox, from 35WR035 Frank near Salzburg Austria, who I have heard a few times over the last few weeks, but haven't been able to get back too, but finally made contact when the conditions fell right one evening and after a few emails, details where exchanged. Thanks Frank, great QSO 

Bhi DSP

So the new CRT speaker has been working fine over the last couple of weeks, but for sometime, I have been looking at D.S.Ps (Digital Signal Processor), doing a little research online and watching a few YouTube videos. HAM radio operators have used them for a number of years, to filter out unwanted noise/sound from the incoming audio, before it gets to your speaker. They aren't the cheapest of equipment, especially for your average CBer, but if your a little serious about DX, especially SSB, then I recommend buying one secondhand like I did from eBay. Not only will the unit filter out unwanted sound from a incoming signal, to make them easier to understand and probably gaining you an extra few hundred, or maybe a 1000 miles on a good day. Also, your ears will thank me for it.

I brought the bhi NEIM1031 DSP, from eBay for £86, which I'm led to believe is the MK2 version and the current mk4 is around £180. After plugging in all the leads that come with it, I switched on the DSP, adjusted the settings as per instructions and bliss... Yes bliss. It took a day or two to get accustomed to the fine adjustments, but these units are easy to use and the clarity to the incoming audio is fantastic. I was so impressed with the unit, I decided to buy one of their extension speakers from bhi's website, which was another £26. Sound range and clarity is brilliant, I totally recommend this setup, sorry CRT speaker, your out of here.

QSL

Thanks to an old friend, Len Over from CB Radio Magazine/Radio Active, who has sent me a new QSL Card

Many thanks for my new QSL Card Len