The GM4AFF Blog

I've spent the last few weeks playing with Skimmer. I use a Softrock SDR receiver, and a Clifton lab Z10000 buffer amp on the IF output of a K3. The sound card in my PC is poor so I don't see much (in terms of bandwidth) but I've got a better new sound card on the way. I found it quite hard to get everything set up and working and had to e-mail some people to get some help. It's wierd that this new technology created such a wave of controversy on the contest reflectors, but very few people are actually playing with it - or perhaps they're not letting on. The info on the web is actually not very helpful, or too simplistic.
It was interesting to watch 160m last night during the CQ WW 160m Contest, or 40m during the REF Contest yesterday afternoon.
I now have my new shack PC all wired up and fired up. Unfortunately we (my son) seems to have lost our (his) copy of WIndows XP so I've had to install 2000 Pro, which works, but means that I can't beta test iHamLogger, which I had planned to do.
Both the AFS CW and SSB Contests are now past, and the 70MHz Cumulatives are under way. And today I competely forgot about the latter. However, it does mean that the year is well under way and spring will soon be here - I see a lot of snowdrops pushing through.
I repaired and re-erected the 160m dipole today. I spent a few hours giving away some points in the CQ WW 160m, but I seem to have a problem with every receive antenna in some way now, so that'll be the next thing.
Ho Hum.
Regarding the comment about Heathrow, my mother deosn't actually live in Canada and isn't dying or dead either. I decided that I would delete my comment though, and try to stick to the ham radio script here. I will probably create a new blog for travel and other related issues. My comments were also off the mark and not particularly well written, for which I apologise.

As one who travels quite a lot, I'm intrigued by the Greenpeace purchase of land on the proposed site of the Heathrow third runway. I simply would like to know what alternative Greenpeace are offering? A passenger in a fully laden Boeing 747 produces less carbon than a driver driving the same distance in a Mini. But it is not possible to get to Kuwait, or Sidney, or most other places in the world in a Mini - you need to fly. So, come on, what is the alternative? I know there are some, but I'd like to hear the argument for them backed by science and logic.

I spent about 5 hours in the Stew Perry contest - I was pleased with what I could work. We had to go out to dinner with friends on the Saturday night so I missed the JA opening which seems to have been one of the best for years.
The 4m Cumulatives got of to roaring start this morning - I only worked 9 stations as I had to get out do some stuff, but there seemed to be a lot of activity and some high serials. Managed to work G4RFR for best DX and a few other good ones, but G3TCU lost me in the noise.
Having lost the top of the 80m vertical in the gale in December I decided to tie an 80m dipole to the top of the decapitated tower and slope it to the south. I've never tried a sloper in AFS before. Seems like it was worthwhile, as I just achieved my highest ever score. Also, I tried a new tactic, starting with S & P from the top down, rather than the bottom up, which is always like trying to platt fog ...especially from GM at 1400 in the afternoon.
My AFS score are here for interest:
1999 - 212
2000 - 214
2001 - 212
2002 - 210
2003 - 193
2004 - 180
2005 - 220
2006 - 214
2007 - 211
2008 - 235
2009 - 261