XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated
PE4BAS Amateur Radio Weblog
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8J1RL Antarctica
Posted: 15 Jul 2021 01:49 PM PDT
https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2021/07/8j1rl-antarctica.html
Normally through the week I only have time for the hobby late in the
evening. The main bands in summer are 6m and 4m. Besides that a little 10m
and 12m. Always looking for new DX...
However....all those 4 upper bands seem to be death last 2 days in the
evening. So I went down to 17m, worked a lot of interesting DX yesterday.
Today I decided to go for 30m again. After I worked Japan, Djibouti and the Philippines I suddenly saw 8J1RL from Antarctica calling. Some station I
never heard/seen and worked before although I heard of it.
I managed to make a QSO.
Some info from their blog:
We received a recent report on 8J1RL from Syowa Station's Kondo member / JG3PLH, who will be overwintering for the fourth time.
This content is also sent to W3UR, The Daily DX Editor.-
QTH SYOWA station, ANTARCTICA (69.00S, 39.35E)
Callsign 8J1RL 
Operators Takumi Kondo (JG3PLH), Kazuhisa Ohshita
Dates Feb.2021-Jan.2022
Rig ICOM IC7610, IC7300
Power 50W
Antennas 4El.Yagi (20/15 / 10m), 3El.Yagi (30/17 / 12m), Wire (40m)
Bands 40-10m
Modes SSB, CW, FT8
-
So, this year I will go with ICOM.
The site has just finished the wintering change with the 61st on the 20th,
and it is said that the 8J1RL operation will be a little further ahead
because it is busy with observation preparations and summer closing.
I also did one QSO with 20m CW last year, so I hope I can watch it a little more seriously this year.
As a separate matter, 8J1RL is not a real-time update, but it seems to
support LoTW.
de Yoshikawa / JG2MLI
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Manpack bracket for the FT-817/818
Posted: 15 Jul 2021 01:16 PM PDT
https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2021/07/manpack-bracket-for-ft-817818.html
Well, some of you know that I homemade a bracket back in 2017 after I saw commercial brackets made by chameleon antenna. It functions well but lately
I was thinking about constructing a manpack, or a grab-and-go amateurradio station. Ideal would be a package that includes everything: trx,
psu/battery, digital wireless modem and antenna. Something like the new
Icom IC-705 with that fancy bag which is just made for this rig. Anyway,
many do have the FT-817 and are not willing to buy a expensive gadget. Not
that the IC-705 is a bad radio but it is very expensive, at least for my wallet.
Today I came across this:
O.M.G...this is just what I'm looking for. But of course this piece of art
is expensive. Besides that I prefer to make things myself. This bracket is looking very well and it allows the FT-817 stand at its back which is ideal when you want to construct a manpack. I like the detachable connectors that make it possible to access them at the front and act as feet as well. It is certainly worth to view the videos at the site that offers these brackets.
https://www.armoloq.com/
I will never be able to copy this bracket since I do not have the materials/tools needed to create this. But I have a pretty good idea of a cheaper alternative which will cost me hours of work of course. But hey,
it's a hobby so why not...
Don't have time, don't want to spend a lot of money or not really handy? If
you really want to buy something cheap.....check this out.
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