My thoughts on the Yaesu FT-65

I just got a Yaesu FT-65!  It's the latest addition on my journey get active in the hobby again.  Here's a video showing what I like about this HT and a few things that I dislike about it after my first few weeks of using it.

73 de K4LST sk

Changing Your Ham Radio Callsign Causes Problems

I have changed my ham radio callsign a couple times and I've learned a few things along the way.  I've posted about the struggle before.  If you are considering changing your callsign, you might want to watch this video first!

73 de K4LST sk

Worked Philippines - DU9/W1JET

 

I've only just recently worked the Philippines for the first time.  Last night I saw DU9/W1JET on 12m FT8.  As I typically do, I looked into the operator and found that Paul was a pilot (hence the W1JET vanity call) and is now retired and living in the Philippines.  What an interesting contact and at over 9,000 miles away, it was great to work another station in the Philippines and on a new band!

73 and good DX de K4LST sk 

Worked Japan on 10m SSB Phone - JA8COE

 

Takahashi-san (JA8COE)

I was very excited to have worked Japan on 12m SSB phone a couple days ago.  Last night, I worked JA8COE "Taka" in Hokkaido Japan on 10m SSB phone!  The conditions lately on 12m and 10m have been really good from my QTH in Georgia USA to Asia.  I'm glad I have resumed radio operations after a couple years of being QRT.  Solar cycle 25 is providing great DX.  This was a great and memorable contact in the log and my first SSB phone QSO on 10m with Japan.

K4LST to JA8COE

73 and good DX de K4LST sk

Worked Japan on 12m SSB Phone - JE1RXJ

JE1RXJ Antennas

For some reason, I find great joy in working the many skilled operators in Japan.  When I first got on HF, I deemed Japan and Australia as my 2 most wanted countries.  I first worked Japan on 20m SSB phone in January of 2018 with 100w and a wire antenna.  I've since worked many Japanese stations on FT8 and SSB.  Recently, I've found that 10m and 12m FT8 yielded many Japanese stations too.  About 7:30PM, I was tuning through the 12m SSB band when I found JE1RXJ "Tack"-san working US stations. I only had 100w and a OCF dipole, but made a call to him anyway.  He returned quickly and made a nice QSO.  This was my first time working Japan on 12m SSB phone!  I think his antenna did most of the work...and possibly solar cycle 25.  None the less, it was a fun contact and I thought it was worth sharing.

K4LST to JE1RXJ

73 and good DX de K4LST sk

Worked Crozet Island - FT8WW

 

I was still getting my shack at my new QTH put together when FT8WW went QRV from Crozet Island.  I was under the impression that the OM would be on the air until March of 2023.  By the time I got my OCF dipole in the air, I realized that the FT8WW station only had a temporary permit and it had expired.  I thought I had missed my chance. 

Last night, I got a DX spot from some local friends for 9U5R in Burundi (which I did work on 40m!).  After working them, I decided to try my chances with 3Y0J on Bouvet Island on 30m.  No success there.  When I was about ready to give up on Bouvet, I noticed a spot on the DX cluster for FT8WW on 20m. A quick QSY and I was decoding FT8WW!  Sadly corruption occurs in ham radio too.  On the cluster, people were reporting that FT8WW was a pirate.  I was unsure. I checked their website for news and it indicated that the permit had been extended.  So I called.  After just a few calls, I got a reply and logged the contact.  I went QRT for the night not sure if I worked a ATNO or a pirate.  

This morning, I checked the FT8WW website again and saw an update that the OM is back on the air on 20m and 15m.  I went to Clublog and queried their log for my callsign and sure enough, I'm logged on 20m!  It's a little sad that I have to verify contacts like this due to frequent pirates.  I'm glad I got the chance to work Crozet Island and hope to get them again on 15m before they are QRT.

The Crozet Islands (#3 on the Clublog most wanted list) are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

73 and good DX de K4LST sk

Worked Burundi - 9U5R

 I got a spot from our local DX group showing 9U5R in Burundi on 40m FT8.  I tuned my radio and was decoding them pretty well.  I gave several calls and got a response.  However due to changing conditions, I lost the decode of their signal before getting to the 73.  So what is a guy to do?  My OCD brain refused to log it.  I continued to try to work them again as their signal came back.  No luck.  I somehow managed to find their clublog recent worked stations and saw that my callsign was in fact listed.  A bit later, I found that they had updated their clublog and queried it for my callsign.  There it was!  Logged on 40m!  

Now what?  I didn't log it and therefor didn't have the details.  So I explored my WSJT-X all.txt files and found the QSO.  That gave me the timestamp and signal reports for the log.  Now I've got them in there!  Burundi was an ATNO for me!

Burundi (#64 on the Clublog most wanted list) is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and East Africa. It is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.

73 and good DX de K4LST