Eyeball QSO with E21EIC

Champ, E21EIC and his XYL spent four days holiday in Hong Kong recently. We went to the hotel and met him up for our second eyeball QSO. He gave me a very good present (HS0AC Six meter QSO QSL card )by hand.

Although it was a very short time for the gathering, but a lot of fun. Look forward to meet him again.

FT-920 - High SWR on 50 Mhz

Main Unit



Q1084 - burned



After replace



The FT-920 experienced with the following problem recently:

1) high SWR on 6m
2) no control / adjustment of VHF power on the internal VR pot
3) TX on SSB , no mic input and getting full pwr output - at this point pwr cannot tune down
4) the above not appear on HF
5) turn on the ATT to 12 / 18, the above problem goes away.

I sent out help in the yahoo FT-920 group, but no solid hints on this. Two weeks ago, I saw Kevin, KI4NBO post that he had the same problem. He finally found out the problem realted to Q1084 - 2SC2714.

Q1084 is part of the T/R switching at the front end. It is turned on in transmit to keep the TX signal out of the RX antenna circuits. It is in the direct line of fire if the radio gets a lightning hit, so it goes along with those other JFETs being burned. (very lucky that the JFET is working at my radio) The attenuator circuits are also connected in at this point.

I have followed his hints to repalce the same, the radio back to normal now. Many thanks to Kevin, KI4NBO for his great work.

MFJ-269 Anatenna Analyzer Repairing

Few weeks ago, when I doing the routine inspection of my antennas, make a big mistake that the MFJ-269 antenna analyzer was connected into the vertical antenna and key the radio with the yagi antenna, strong RF signal caused the analyzer damaged. The problem was that the unit connected with a dummy load the it display R=27-28 Ohm X=0, no matter in what frequency range.

Searching through the web and tried to source the circuit diagram of the unit, not success. Finally I noticed that Goran SM7DLK wrote a very good article about repairing his unit to the common problem (27.9V display) of MFJ-269. Then I sent an email to him asking for the circuit diagram. He is very kind and sent me one.

I checked into the circuit and understand it by the help of Fai, VR2ZXP that the possible ways to cause the fault by strong RF are the diodes D14, D17, D15 & D16 in the bridge. D14-D17 is the DIODE SCHOTTKY HSMS2820. It is easy to obtain from Mouser Electronics.

Then I removed the PCB out and have the first try, but the SMD components are too small, that I could not go further. For this case, I need helping eyes … Fai, VR2ZXP promised to help.

Finally, he found the D16 was leakage and it was replaced. The unit back to normal.
My thanks go to Fai, VR2ZXP for his helping eyes and skillful hands.

All Asian Dx Contest - 2009

Our Club QSL Maanger, Loagn (VR2XRW) informed me a very nice Award and Medal for the 2009 All Asian DX Contest (Phone) was received.

The contest was operated by me and VK6DXI,category Multi-op, Single TX, by using the sepecial event callsign = VR2009EAG.

A92GR and A92IO - Confirmed

A92GR ( Mohamed ) and A92IO ( Dave ) returned the nice QSL card to me.







# 156 Country on Six Meter confirmed. !!!

HS0AC - #157 on Six Meter

Worked HS0AC 0031z 18 July 2010, #157 country on six meter.

Also, thinking it is the first ever six meter HS <-> VR2 contact.

=

HS0AC is the sole station authorised for 6-metres in CQWW VHF contest

Perhaps the biggest development to be announced by RAST President Chaiyong Wongwuticomjon, HS1QVD, during the July meeting at Sena Place Hotel was the temporary six-metre authorisation issued by the NTC for RAST's club station HS0AC to operate during the CQWW VHF contest on the weekend of July 17-18, 2010.
Information received earlier (and posted on this website) had indicated that other Thai stations might operate, but the letter issued by the National Telecommunications Commission grants permission for the HS0AC club station only, and the letter also specifies the use of licensed equipment for this purpose.
Nevertheless, operators are keen to be the first to transmit a legal six-metre signal from Thailand in almost 20 years, the last time this has been authorised was during a SEANET convention hosted by RAST in Chiang Mai back in 1992.

=

TV Antenna

I picked up the Maspro TV antenna dipole in the rubbish bin.
(easy to find after typhoon)
Try to use it for receiving the CCTV-1 HDTV, it is OK but signal is marginal with other channel.
I added few elements to it , perfect !!

香港業餘無線電遠程通訊協會HARDXA - Discuz Forum

Recently, Edward (VR2XSC) and Sing (VR2IL) set up the Discus Forum for our members

It is open to registered members only.

http://hardxa.ham-radio-op.net/

HA8CE - Confirmed

Thank you Pista ( HA8CE ) returned the nice QSL card.



# 155 Country on Six Meter confirmed. !!!

A92GR - #156 on Six Meter

Last evening at 12:10z, worked A92GR on six meter , which is #156 country on the magic band.

Also, worked EX, SV, 9H, I and UK ..

Cycle 24 going well ... should have a lot of fun.

HA8CE - #155 on Six Meter

I am very happy to work HA8CE and HA8IH on 50.130 at 05:26-05:31z.

New one since 2004 ... My 155 country on the magic band .. Really happy !!!

士多啤梨園

Pansy and I 上星期日去咗雲泉仙館後面嗰個士多啤梨園。
味道ＯＫ喎，不過唔係太大粒。

Last Sunday, we went to a Strawberry Garden nearby our QTH. Although the strawberry are small , but very sweet.

ARRL International DX Contest 2009 Award

VR2PM - Silent Key

Our best friend, VR2PM became silent key early this morning.

He was one of the active six meter Dxers in the past years, achieved 6M DXCC in 2004.

He will be missed.

Six Meter Propagation

Six meter propagation going well to the south direction from my QTH. Worked VK8MS, DU7/PA0HIP and 9V1TT last evening in between 12:00z to 13:30z. Also heard YC1MH, 9M6XRO and VK4ADC but not making QSOs. With the increase of sunspots, look forward to have more DX activities through the magic band.

Japan CQ Ham Radio Magazine - RTTY Chat Room

HISAMI DEJIMA san, 7L4IOU sent me email recently for virtual interview, which is for the RTTY column in JA CQ ham radio magazine. Now it is published in the March 2010 Issue. Hisami-san is very active ham in the digital mode and read his callsign everytime in the contest.

2009 CQ WW WPX SSB Certificate

In 2009, I participated in the WW WPX SSB contest, category Single Operator 10M high power. The result came out:

First Place in Hong Kong
First Place in Asia
Sixth Place World

I am very happy with the result.

Annual Dinner Lucky Draw

I am very lucky to win one of the lucky draw in the Company's Annual Dinner. It is a Canon SELPHY CP790 Photo Printer.

The Selphy CP790 features a large 3.0″ LCD screen, an integrated carrying handle, storage basket, optional battery pack, Canon’s Easy-Scroll Wheel, and postcard sized prints in as little as 47 seconds.

The outlook of the printer is very nice.

Wan Chi Keung 尹志強

My primary school classmate, one of our best football team member, Wan Chi Keung 尹志強 passed away yesterday (16 February 2010) at the age of 53.

My sympathy and condolences go to Michelle and his family.

QSL card received - JQ1YGU

Following my reception report of the SEEDS ( Space Engineering EDucation Satellite )to the SEEDS Project Team, a confirmation QSL is well received on today.

Digital Talker - SEED II - CO-66

Other than the SSTV image from the SEED II ( CO-66 ), here is the recording of the Digital Talker and SSTV audio from the pass window at 1252z 18 Jan 2010.

http://www.vr2xmt.com/ra/sat/CO-66%20Digital%20Talker%2020100118%20125237z.mp3

Please click the link above to listen, have fun.

SSTV image - SEED II CO-66

At 1352z on 16 Jan 2010, first time received the SSTV images transmit from the SEED II Satellite (CO-66), downlink frequency is 437.485 MHz. Equipment are FT-736R, 12 ele yagi and software MMSSTV.

http://cubesat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/english/seeds_2_e.html

Marvin Gin, W6VM became SK

Received email from John Baer (W6SL) and Bill Fong (W6BBA)informing that Marvin Gin, W6VM passed away on 1/13/2010.
I am sad to hear that. He was in and out of the hospital with diabetes and lung water problems lately.
He was a great guy, ham friend in Santa Maria, CA, USA. He is very much missed. May he rest in peace.

RDXC 2009 Contest Award

HO-68 First QSO

I got my first few QSO'S on the linear transponder of HO-68 last evening.

The new SAT has a fantastic footprint which allowed me to make it possible working JA when the bird start to climb up from the south horizon. What an excellent signal and audio on any station, it was like 20 meter band on a contest day, finally worked 11 JA, 1 HL and 1 BY.

Congratulations to the entire team---from construction, to launch, to commissioning the first Chinese Amateur Radio Satellite. The hard work is evident and appreciated by ham operators around the world.

QRV on Satellite again

I spent two weekends to put back the simple satellite antennas, including:
G-800SDX AZ rotator
G-500A EL rotator
Maspro - 144 MHz 8 element yagi
Maspro - 430 Mhz 12 element yagi

It finished in the late afternoon today, by chance AO-51 passing through, made three QSOs

1) BD4SY 1010z 59 59
2) UK8GDW 1019z 59 59
3) RA0SBY 1020z 59 59

It works fine so far.