Countries contacted (Ham radio meme, sort of)

[altivo]

Adapting this one from the "countries visited" map. I'm not a traveler, I hate airlines and haven't flown since the 70s. The red areas on the map show, more or less, the nations with which I've had radio contact over the years. This is both easy and difficult. Propagation, time zones, sunspots, all play a role. My own stricture that I do not use high powered equipment is an additional challenge. Many of these contacts have been made with no more power than that of a night light bulb.



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

The map was intended for travelers, so it doesn't show some of the more exotic places, like Fernando de Noronha (an island in the South Atlantic) or Clipperton Island (in the Pacific.) Also, the more technologically advanced countries have more amateur radio operators, so it is generally easier to make contacts there. Central Asia and much of Africa are difficult. No, I don't know how I've managed to avoid Austria, Norway, and Portugal. (Well, technically, I've talked with someone, or rather typed, as I was using digital teletype, in Madeira which is still a Portuguese possession.)

Comments

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Neato. I'd do that, but only the US would be red. Heck, I could do the state version of it..and only have two states highlighted. :?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Two meter ham?

Time to enlarge your horizons. Sunspots are going down now, but during the peak three years back or so, I made lots of international contacts on ten meters, which you can do even if you are only a tech. I've never bothered with extra myself, mostly because it doesn't convey any privileges I want. But I've always liked using Morse, so I went from novice to general within a year of first getting my license--in the days when you still had to pass a 13 wpm test at an FCC office. Now it's a lot easier I guess, and that's good.

The alternative for international contacts within tech privileges is to use satellites. But that takes a significant money investment in equipment, so I prefer my little QRP rigs.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Yup. Just a tech license, which works fine for me, since I mainly use it when talking to some gazelles up near Baltimore.

10 meters? That'd be tech plus or whatever, no? Also , I'm rather limited, antenna-wise, since I live in an apartment.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ten meters doesn't need a large antenna. Thirty feet of wire wrapped in a large coil with a transmatch or antenna tuner; or fifteen feet if you can stretch it out horizontally to make a dipole. A ten or twelve foot vertical with a loading coil, or even eight feet for a quarterwave vertical if you have a counterpoise or can make ground radials. :)

I'll bet you could fit a larger antenna somewhere at the horsebarn, though. Yeah, you need techplus to use ten meters I guess. I skipped the tech level myself so I forget these details. Five wpm code is not that difficult though.

[kurtmrufa.livejournal.com]

Presently I'm KC8SDW. I'm fixing on upgrading once I have the spare cash for some new equipment and a top floor apartment.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I did apartment hamming for years. It's tight, but can work. Top floor helps. I found the thing that helped most with DX, though, was getting out of the city. You just don't realize how much noise there is until you get to where it is no longer present.

True for VHF/UHF too. Here I can stand in my dining room with a 2 watt HT and easily hit several repeaters using just the rubber duck. In the city, I had to put up a full size 2-meter vertical to achieve the same, even though there were twice as many repeaters within a very short range.

[kurtmrufa.livejournal.com]

I tend to be more interested in experimentation than DX; I haven't yet gotten a decent minimal suite of test equipment. Unfortunately work wouldn't like it if I 'borrowed' one of their $80k 4 channel 1GHz bandwidth digital scopes.

The plan is to get a nice ICOM R-75 to be followed by a used HF rig once I get the time to pass the CW test.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, given your official skills, you may find PSK-31 and related digital modes to be a fruitful ground for experimentation. Interestingly enough, those modes are yielding big fruit in terms of DX as well, using very low power.

I've set myself up to receive, but haven't gotten around to the transmit link. The computer's sound card reads clear signals out of mud that I couldn't even pull anything from with my ears, and I have good ears.

[animist.livejournal.com]

I was going to get in to Ham radio as a kid, but never did. I did spend hundred of hours listing to short wave, though. Ah well! Thanks to the ARRL's handbook, I did teach myself electronics, and go on to make a living that way. Which I am greateful for.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

<grins> You're not too old to try it yet. Getting a license is easier than ever before, and you could add another gadget or two to carry around with you.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Bob with more gadgets to carry around... that's scary.

[charlie tries to duck] :-)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, I find the typical cell phone or PDA much more difficult to comprehend than the average communications transceiver. I can send and receive Morse code, but how people actually do text with a telephone dial is incomprehensible. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Speaking of gadgets, you'd like the
one I got for a birthday/Christmas present I bet. Smaller than a cell phone, with full transceiver features on VHF and UHF, and AM/FM receiving capabilities on the entire spectrum from AM broadcast all the way up to the 1200 MHz band. Not just hype either. I was skeptical, but it works.