Although I happened to win my chosen IOTA Contest Category (Woo-Hoo!), the real purpose of this video is to thank those "behind-the-scenes" folks who collate the contest logs and then manage to score the whole event inside 6-weeks. Reading between the lines, there’s probably a ton of errors that creep into these logs with people claiming the wrong category and mixing-and-matching corrupt ADIF files etc. By the sound of it, many of these are probably fixed "by-hand" until eventually, when all the logs can be machine readable, a big process somewhere is finally given the task of collating eveything and all the different categories; multi ops, single ops, 12 hours, 24 hours, assisted, non-assisted, island stations, world-stations – and more into order. So house-points and gold-stars all around. Thank you to the invisible team behind the scenes. 73, Callum M0MCX (Club Call M0XXT).
This time, I went to the Telford Rally. I ran a TS-590SG and a DX Commander Antenna from the car and just had a chill-time, chatting and reminiscing with folks. See what you think! Callum.
PS – Telford and District Amateur Radio Society (TDARS) have a website: https://tdars.org.uk/
The Infamous Cold War British Army 9x9 Radio Command Tent
The design of the 9×9 Command Tent is (in my opinion) a work of art – and it fits on the back of the original Land Rover Defender. Flaps down. Enjoy.
I found the instructions! https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a74ef8640f0b65c0e845b01/20150319-FOI2015_02935_tent_enclosure.pdf
In this video I dive into 20-metre band (and above) and why it behaves so differently to 40m. We recap the D-layer “sponge,” explore how the F-layer splits into F1 and F2 under sunlight, and talk about take-off angles, hop lengths and long-haul DX. With graphs, a few invented words like “jigglification,” and plenty of plain English, this is a look into how 20 m propagation really works — and why it can be both magical and maddening at the same time!
(Warning: contains maths, PDFs, and raw data files. Proceed only if heavily caffeinated.)
📚 ARRL Antenna Book – Supplemental Files (23rd Edition)
https://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book-23rd-edition-supplemental-files
📄 Installation Summary (PDF) – explains where the HFTA statistical elevation-angle files live
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Antenna%20Book%20Supplemental%20Files/23rd%20Edition/Antenna%20Book%20-%2023rd%20Edition%20-%20CD-ROM%20Installation%20Summary.pdf
📊 HFTA Documentation (PDF) – dense but explains how to interpret the elevation-angle distributions
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Antenna%20Book%20Supplemental%20Files/23rd%20Edition/HFTA.pdf
🌐 VOACAP Online (Point-to-Point Propagation) – generate your own AoA tables and predictions
http://www.voacap.com/p2p/
📚 VOACAP Technical Docs – everything you never wanted to know
http://www.voacap.com/documents.html
00:00 Intro
00:20 Recap on D Layer
00:40 The F Layer
02:06 Take-Off Angles
03:07 Long Haul DX
06:39 Take-Off Angle Chart
09:03 What happens at night?
10:26 WSPR
11:49 Why Oceans Assist
12:19 Long Path to VK / ZL
13:31 When F1 and F2 Combine
15:23 Wrap-Up Conclusion
Hopefully you can have some fun watching this as I try and interview as many folks as I could inside 20-minutes. Numbers: We counted about 175 people this year – roughly same as last year. Folks talked, watched, listened and learned – more importantly – everyone had a good time.
World-Wide Shipping Link: https://dxcommander.com/product/free-shipping-signature-9/ ::: TAX WARNING EU: Customers (and other domains) – You may be liable for import duty or other tax or VAT when product crossed your border.
Most folks consider QRP only means "cheap" or "inefficient". But it doesn’t have to be. Keen High Power stations and enthusiastic Low Power stations think in similar ways. Efficiency, signal loss and putting knowledge to good use. Food for thought. BTW, here’s Tom’s video: https://youtu.be/xJnN5nAIFG8
