My cello

It was already 4 years ago when I decided to purchase this cello made in Italy. Having used a German cello for years, I needed a bit powerful one as I was told to play the top of cellists in an orchestra. There was the famous "Swan Lake Suite" by Tchaikovsky in the program, which includes a real lengthy solo by cello. 

 

I don't know if it is common among Italian instruments or not but this one had some scratched injuries on the front board which had been well repaired. The placements of peg holes were not correct as well. It required a fairly big repair to make new holes later. I was aware of those defects in this cello but did not care for that. This Italian sounded powerful as well as sweet. I have not hesitated to buy this one. In addition to its power on all range, it sounded mellow and sweet especially on D string, which most other cellos are not very good at. I fell in love with this cello as soon as I played it for the first time at an instrument dealer in Tokyo.

 

I have practised a lot with this instrument. I could not forget playing all movements of the Nr2 piano trio in C dur by Brahms at a small concert. I loved it so much that it was a real fun for me to play it. Whenever I listen to the 2nd movement of variation, it really touches me. In the big earthquake, this cello being laid on the floor fell on the flower and buried beneath TV set, books and CDs falling down on the floor. It has not got any serious damage except for a few injuries on the front board.  I have indulged in playing with it even more since the experience of the earthquake. This winter, however, having had a family event as well as having felt that I won't make any progress any longer, I have quit playing it. For the past 7 months, I have touched it only twice.  

 

For the past few days, I again felt I should practise it again. I won't care if I clould not make any progress. Playing for myself is good enough. Dave K6XG, a fine baroque brockfloete and violin player, told me a few days ago that it was often good for musicians to take a month off from playing instruments. He said our synapses would get connected during that period. It might mean conversion from explicit memory to inplicit one requires a length of time in a particular person. Though I was quite suspicious of its validity in this old amateur cellist and my days off was too long for that psychological process. I decided to come back to cello.

 

I would start practising scales in C, D dur and e moll. My goal is to play some of the unaccompanied suites by Bach and that e moll sonata by Brahms. I used to play all the movements in my med school days. I wonder how far I could go from now. No complaint if I stay at the same stage or even regress a bit. It is just for my pleasure.  

 

 

 

Two dishes served by a house husband

Chicken cooked with onion, potato and eggplant tasted by balsamic vinegar.

 

 

Fried codfish with vegetables mixed by Japanese powdered starch in chinese style.

 

 

I could brag myself for these dishes, if the taste won't be questioned, which I have finished cooking in 45 minutes. It was after I had worked for a full day as a parttime. It is by househusband costless labor haha.

The golden ages have gone

Forty meters is getting quiet now after it has been very noisy for the summer months. A real fall has arrived on 40 meters for now. Beaming to the North America, I have called CQ for several times an hour before sunset. Only a QRS guy has called me from CA. His 50W with a dipole was good enough. No other takers now.

At this time in a day in this season of '60s, there were the K6NB and VK2NS group often heard on this band, as I have repeatedly written. Both of them were running QRQ with key board. Around both of them, several others were gathering, like KH6EFW, WB6CFN, VK2DO or K7UQH. All except for K7UQH have, however, gone SK for now. I was so excited to work with them with my simple set up. How kind they were to such a teenage new comer in Japan!

When I came back on the radio in 1980, there used to be the others on 40 meters around this time. I could give examples like W6JAL, W6VIJ, W6TBZ, W6TSQ and so forth. Most of them were night owls having lost chances to fall asleep. When sun set in, there used to be N4AR coupled with VS6DO. Both were pounding in like JAs. K5BGB, N5VV, VK3IM and the other ragchewers are not forgettable as well. W4BW was a real big gun those days. These guys have also made conversation on something more than reports and QSL etc. They enjoyed talking something on CW when the band opened pan pacific areas all of sudden. It was when I operated with barefoot into 14AVQ at the dorm in the med school hospital where I served residency. It was much fun for me to talk to those people. Most of them went inactive for now.

They have made the age at respective time. In a few years, however, they have gone silent or inactive. I sure miss them. What a loss for me! The golden ages won't return any longer. Now, it is my turn to make an age. There are, however, too few to do with on the band now. I am a kind of obligated to follow them. Thinking of such a thing, I was still going on calling CQ.

Maybe, this glass of lager has made me complain of the same thing again.

Sharing the same interests in music with a friend

In the meeting at Ham Fair yesterday, I have talked much of music with Len JA1IKA. He has praised of Glenn Gould playing Bach. I have totally agreed with him. What a beautiful touch Gould has made with this Intermezzo by Brahms! Each touch is leading to serene and brilliant tone like dews on a leaf in the morning.

 

He has played the Number 2 Symphony "Resurrection" by Mahler as a cellist in an amateur orchestra . What a joy it must have been for him. I told him I could not help weeping when I listen to the tune sung by Soprano with the phrase shown below in the 5th movement of that Symphony. This shows how Mahler has struggled in his life. His struggle and subsequent catalysis are coming into our minds with enormous emotion. He has nodded his approval to my story.

                                           O glaube: du wardst nicht umsonst geboren!
                                           Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten!

Unfortunately, he is not playing either violin or cello any longer. He told me he could play instruments until age late 60s. It has encouraged me to do a bit more effort with my cello.

I haven't known of Len until meeting him in Tokyo this time. But I have found a guy whom I could share the feelings and interests with. It is always good to have such a friend in my life.

A meeting at Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

Since I retired last year, I felt it was necessary for me to have social activity. I have planed a meeting at the Ham Fair in Tokyo 2013. The main purpose was to meet an old friend, Shun JJ1RZG, who had had a long career in ham radio since 1960s. He has been working as a pediatrician as well. We have promised meeting each other after a long hiatus. There were four other guys who would like to join us there. 

 

JA1IKA, a retired engineer and an experienced musician. He plays violin as well as cello. It turned out that we shared the same kind of interests in ham radio, music, engineering as well as politics etc. I would write about our interests in music in another article. We have had mutual friends in the US as well.

 

JA7WTH, who is working as an administrative manager at a hospital in Sendai city, has come back on CW after a long interval. He used to work as a pediatrician as well. He was willing to work with foreign hams on CW. The current issue for him is to get a proper antenna for HF better than the present random wire. He looked young and positive for his renewed hobby. I promised him a regular schedule on 40m CW once a week.

 

JA1KIH, an active operator as well as an engineer. Already retired from his work. I have known him for longer than 40 years for now. Even though not so frequently, maybe, once several years, we have met in person for that period. He has given us some valuable info and tips on the radio and the movements of the administrative authority.

 

JA3EGZ, whom I first met this time, has been a well known DXer in Japan. He owns a gorgeous antenna farm in Himeji. He is a representative member of JARL and let us know what had been going on in JARL. Now JARL has become a juridical person where only those representatives could be involved in the decision for its policy. JARL is almost bankrupted at present, so that they have decided to impose the annual fee to the life members. Evidently, such a change in rule is against the original contract between JARL and the life members. He has voted against that change at the representative meeting. Hopefully, such representative members as him will let us know what is going on in JARL.

 

JJ1RZG, an active DXer as well as a ragchewer. He told us he would chase as many DX as possible in the height of this sun spot cycle. He operates at his home in the mid of the downtown in Tokyo. He owns old equipment and an old hand key. He told me whenever he introduced himself as a pediatrician to hams in oversea, quite some of them asked him if he had known of me. I told him the same thing happened to me when I made self introduction to them. An experienced and sociable person.     

 

From left to right:JA1NUT, JA1IKA, JA7WTH, JA1KIH, JA3EGZ, JJ1RZG

 

 

 

In the meantime, I have looked around the Fair. There were some faces well known to me. Among them, I have talked a bit with JK7UST, K6RB and JE1TRV. Rob, K6RB, visited here to recruit some new members of CWops. It seemed successful. He kindly offered me to come back to the club. I suspended deciding that at present. He is returning homeland onTuesday this week and will get ready for CWT on Wednesday as well as the CWopen in this week end. I wished him a safe trip back to his home in Santa Cruz.  

 

There were some young hams at the place. But the majority was those already retired including myself. I took glances to the manufacturers booths. I was happy to find the booths of some university clubs. Though they were doing with the digital modes.

 

No new products at the manufacturers' sites. Kenwood has demonstrated several TS990s in pararell on a counter. There were some people trying this new rig. I have just looked from behind of them. The displays looked beautiful. Icom has published a new software for IC7800, so far as I heard. Nothing new at Yaesu. One of the attendants at the lunch has shown a leaflet of SDR produced by a small company in Japan. In his opinion, SDR overwhelms the conventional gears in the function. SDR could be, however, much cheaper those most modern high end equipments. They won't get much profit from SDR compared with the conventional high end radios. That is why the other major manufacturers won't start publishing SDR at present. The users won't pay thousands of dollars for those like TS990 or IC7800 if they could get SDR with half or one third of the prices of modern DSP radio.

 

I was concerned about the audio quality of CW reception. Don WB6BEE told me at the night that, when experimenting down loaded SDR, it did not sound very good on CW reception. If it is the level SDR could yield as for CW reception at present, it may be sometime before SDR takes over the conventional gears with DSP. 

Spending a few hours with the above mentioned guys at the lunch, we have tied the ribbon there. We might meet on the air in the near future. I headed back home without going anywhere. It was fun seeing them in person.

An old shrine and temple complex Part 2/2

There was the property of a temple next to the shrine I had just visited. At the entrance, the shrine was on the left side while the temple was on the right side. In the last article, I have erroneously written either of those religious facilities had been moved from somewhere. In reality, the shrine was built next to the temple by an ancestor of clan Ustunomiya, a local leader in Muromachi era. He had been punished to be sent to Tosa area in Shikoku due to a political mistake by the government at the time. Praying for returning to homeland at a shrine in Tosa area, as the story tells, he was allowed to come back here in a year. When he came back here, he decided to build a shrine as a branch of the shrine in Tosa area just next to the shrine where the genereations of the clan had been buried. I had not known of this story until I looked up about the history of this shrine/temple complex.

 

This is the entrance of the shrine. It is paved and surrounded by cedar trees. Again, no tourists.

 



 

 

This is the building storing a Buddist statue in it. The priest and the family may live in the houses on the background.

 

 

The building seemed nail free again. Very beautiful and perfect craftmanship.

 

 

Another view of the building. The base made of the stones looked in good shape. I am sure the building has been cared well for the years in the past. They say there is an old statue stored in this building.

 

 

Another building in the temple. A beautiful straw roof on it again.

 

 

The yard is surrounded by old trees. The tree in the center on this photo is told to be over 500 years old.

 

 

Another view of the yard. You may see a few tombs on the top. There were dozens of tombs in the yard. There must be a number of supportive members in this shrine, who have been donating for the management of the shrine as in the case of the other shrines.

 

 

It was interesting there have been a shrine and a temple just nextdoor each other at a place. In Japan, different religions have been accepted at the same time. Shinto was established to be a religion authorizing the first governments in the history of Japan. It has been oriented to the political power, I believe. On the other hand, Buddhism underwent a reformation in Kamakura era etc, which urged it to be a religion relieving each of the people. Unfortunately, it has lost its vitality as a religion for now. Buddhism is only for funerals at present while Shinto is for the ceremeony in the new year days. I am proud of the histories of the religions and those historical monuments. But they are not alive for those who need relief by religion at present, I am afraid.

 

I feel relieved to visit such a place, though. Very quiet and peaceful. No crowds of sight seeing visitors. We should preserve such a place as a treasure from the ancestors. To those, who would visit our country, I would recommend you to visit somewhere like this, not popular but historical enough. 

Some harvests in my garden farm

It was my first experience to grow okra. I didn't know how it grows and bears fruits. Here is the flower. I was really impressed at it. For these okras have been badly damaged by hail several weeks ago when they were young and small. Now they have finally grown to bear flowers and fruits. A lovely flower, isn't it?

 

 

 

This is the fruits. I am wodering how to cook them. Boiled with the other vegetables or raw as salad?



 

 

The basils are fully blooming though the flowers are not very noticeable. They still look vivid and beautiful.

 

 

Wild tomatoes. Fully ripe. They say tomatoes won't grow well at the same place as the same species have been grown the year before. But this wild one is exceptionally good. The other tomatoes have often been damaged by the heavy rain a few weeks ago. I would praise this wild ones for it has grown so nicely by itself without any nutrients etc.

 

An old shrine and temple complex Part1/2

We have a number of historical monuments around here. Most of them are not so famous as those in Kyoto or Nara. There are only very few visitors there. Nevertheless, it is always refreshing to visit and stay there for some time.

 

As Bob W6CYX has requested me to upload photos showing around here, I thought it is not bad to visit one of those cultural monuments around here. That is the Tsuna Shrine and Jizoin Temple in a town named Mashiko, which has been renowned for its pottery products. There is no definite reason why I described the name of those monuments as a complex. But these are located next door each other.

 

At first, I should excuse for my ignorance of these structures from historical point of view. All I know is that both are estimated to have been built in the 12th century. The temple was established for the clan Ustsunomiya, the leader of this area, those days. It was an era when the sovereignty by Shogun was not stably established. Many people, high or low, relied on Buddhism, I believe. Either is believed to have been transfered here in a later era. A shrine is for Shinto, our native religion, while a temple is for Buddhism. It could mean the close relationship between Shinto and Buddhism in their histories, I guess. But no evidence for that at all.

 

Anyway, in a hot and muggy afernoon, I left my home on a small car with 1200cc engine. Getting through the downtown of Mohka, our town, I came into a countryside. Many rice paddies looking like green carpets all around. In some 30 minutes, there was a range of hills appearing in the direction I was heading to. There are a few ranges running from north to south. They are not very high all the way but are originating from the mountain areas in Fukushima. I bet this ranges have spared our area from contamination by the radioactive plume due to the nuclear power plant accident. The plume has flown westward to the city of Fukushima and to the coast area southward. The range was the obstacle to our area located southwestward from the nuclear site. I don't know if we could be pleased at it or not.

 

This is a view from the range over the plain area. Among lower hills, there are houses and rice paddies. My home is 10 or 15 km away from this point.

 

 

 

The road is a steep slope. Very little traffic. My tiny car was almost suffocating all the way. Again, I remembered driving here with my children and old mother 20 years or so ago. On the other side of this range, there is a valley, where the destination is located. Not so far from this point.

 

 

The shrine/temple complex was on a low hill in the valley. Many cedar trees in the property. There was a couple of signs explaining these shrine/temple. One in Japanese, while the other even in English. It was hard to believe that there had been tourists from overseas. There were a couple of guys being engaged in the repair there. No tourists at all.

 

This is the gate for the shrine named Tsuna, which means a thick rope. This gate seems pretty new. I believe there would be some people in this area come to pray in the new year days as they do in the other shrines all over Japan.  It is not a religious behaviour but just a tradition. Exactly speaking, I doubt there is a true native religion in Japan. They just come here to pray for their good luck in the new year. A kind of greeting. 

 

 

 

The entrance way to the shrine.

 

 

A long way of steps up to the shrine.

 

 

The main building of the shrine. A thick straw roof is remarkable. Old but still well cared for.

 

 

The ehickness of the roof is noted in this shot. Evidently, no nail is used in constructing this wooden structure. A statue of god may be placed inside. A box before the building is the offertory box. Those coming for the hew year's pray will send coins into this box.

 

 

The other building. Smaller one.

 

 

I am proud that our ancestors have built those structures and have kept them intact for so long time. In Shinto, so far as I know, every natural things could be gods for them. It is just for the profits in the present world. No idea of a God with a character. I won't evaluate which is superior to the other etc. It may reflect that our country has not been attacked by foreigners or has never been conquered by any other nations in the past. And we have been blessed with the mild climate suitable for rice farming etc. It has not given us a chance to take religious ideas seriously, I guess. At least, this Shinto monument is still intact here but Shinto is already dead.

 

It is enough to discuss about religion in my own way. It is getting too late tonight. The 2nd part will follow soon.

Our recent garden

A few snaps of our garden. The heat wave has damaged the lawn along the drive way. Honestly speaking, the other parts of the garden has kept me too busy to care for this pretty large lawn. It has made the trouble shown here. There is a small farm in the foreground not shown on this photo. A number of water melons were grown up. But, without much care, they have become like a jungle! Luckily, that jungle has yielded a few juicy water melons. Now another kind of vegetable is growing neatly this time.   

 

 

 

A hedge along the drive way from the street. This requires me some more care as well. Some ivy is on it. Four ginko trees are growing along this hedge as well. The other hedge is set along the street. It is composed of two layers of a kind of azalae with a small lot between them and the street.

 

 

 

One of the flower beds we have made this spring. This belongs to my wife as for its care. Some of them are getting worn out with the sun ray.

 

 

My lovely basil germinated from a seed.  I was going to use the leaves for cooking.

 

 

A rose tree. It belongs to my wife. But I often pour water in the morning. It was first planted by my father years ago.

 

 

My wife has planted these. The names unknown to me! Again, I often water them.

 

 

A magnolia tree. The branches were cut in a bizzare shape by professional gardeners this spring. But it has revived in this way. The power of a life amazes me a lot. This tree comes into numerous white flowers in spring, which my mother used to love. It is a sign of spring's arrival.

 

 

A "wild" tomato. Maybe, it has been germinated from a fruit fallen on the ground last year.

 

 

A zelkova tree south of the small home our parents had lived. It was planted to avoid the strong sunray. It used to be a small tree and has grown up to over 10 meters or so. I have ventilated the home yesterday. Even though I know no one would live there.  

 

So that is a small round trip in our garden. A little bit more east and south of our house. Some parts are getting too messy to take photos. Maybe, in several weeks, I will clear jungle-like vegetables and tidy it up. Then I could publish it! This is the place where I am spending most of my days here. It makes me feel settled down and cosy so much.

A contradiction

In a closed mailing list, someone sarcastically kidded me saying that I was a heavy user of the reverse beacon network:RBN. Really, I had often used the RBN to know if a band was open or not. Not rarely, we experience the band opens well even though we won't get any takers to our CQ. Yes, it is the subject I have repeatedly talked in this blog. The overall inactivity on CW on any band seems to me very conspicuous nowadays. I am using the RBN reluctantly for there is no other way for me to know of opening on a particular band. I am not willing to use the RBN. That cynic won't understand what a contradiction I feel myself using that high tech skimmer.

Fewer takers to my CQ has annoyed me for a while. Has my operating style or talk bored my friends? Or all of them have lost interests in chatting generally? Is the relatively poor condition the reason why they won't show up? Maybe, all of these guesses are partially right. There may be personal reasons for everyone. Anyway, it is beyond my speculation and is not my business.

One more guess is that some of them won't watch the bands any longer but they just watch the RBN on the display. When they knew the band was not in the shape they wished, they may start something else like net surfing or doing chores etc. The RBN is a convenient tool, I know. It is more efficient and sparing out time than our watching the band by ourselves. But, I guess, its convenience and efficiency might have deprived us of the pleasure finding a friend by chance. The skimmer could watch the whole band at any given time. No happenings nor accidents.  Seeing a friend after sweeping a band makes us feel more pleasant, doesn't it?

I still hate this high tech thing even more now. But I could not know if a band is open or not without it. What a contradiction! I should not have set a PC in the shack, as Pete K4EWG has told me. Being a Luddite may be the solution to this question. 

Hit rate

Approximate hit rate:

Takers to my CQ      20%

Those able to converse on CW        30%

Those experienced CW operators sharing interests with me         10%

Consequently, the probability I could meet, when calling CQ, a good CW operator with the same interest is 0.6%.

I am afraid this probability is continuously decreasing now.

The observation stated above is just based on my personal experience. Only an objective finding. No real statistics.

The ham world is still undergoing a drastic change now. No complaint. Just accepting it.

A drive up to a volcano

On the other day, a photo showing a beautiful scenary in a resort north of here uploaded by a friend of mine in facebook has tempted me to go there. It took me an hour and a half to drive up there. Since it was a plain week day despite of being in the mid of summer holiday season, there were less tourists visiting there than I expected. It was a route less people drive to the mountain. A straight road surrounded with woods, where the sunray was coming through the leaves.

 

 

I recalled that I used to stay a whole summer at my sister's home near here. My brother in law was working as a vet doctor in this area. There used to be a large number of cattle being raised here. It is still an area of dairy farming there. I was studying for the entrance exams for med university those days. This scenary clearly reminded me of those days. I was walking around their home alone in morning and evening.

 

 

 

One of the peaks of Nasudake. Nasudake is an active volcano classified as a stratovolcano like Mt. Fuji. It has a cone shaped peaks with broadly sloped foothill. As soon as I got into this foothill, I could smell something like sulfar. Yes, there are many hot spas around this mountains.

A slope near to a peak. There was a rope way to the peak, which I did not take this time. The rope is seen faintly along the slope.

When I was watching around at an observation spot, a couple came to me telling there was a bear on the foothill. They have shown a photo of a bear in the bush. I took a walk around the parking lot close to the peak. There were a lot of small bushes there. I thought I could run across with some animal like bear. My guess could be right. They had seen that bear on this slope though he/she disappeared there by this time.

It was misty far away. They said there had been a thunderstorm down in the plain area. Cool and cosy at an observation platform on the way.

 

Much less crowded than expected as told. My car which ran fine despite of steep slope and many windings. On the way back home, I bought a cheese cake for my wife and some sausages for me. It turned out to be not much fun going such a place all alone. What left me was sore calves the day after. 

Like an apprenticeship

Looking back of my life as a doctor, I have been kindly taught by many senior doctors on private basis. One of such doctors was a neurologist named Kuwashima at the med school hospital where I served residency. She was around 40 years of age then. A lady of short stature always smiling. I can't remember exactly but might have asked her to teach me how to read EEG. Once a week, I was given a question record by her, which I was supposed to make a report on. I brought a draft of the report to a room in the outpatient ward after the outpatient was over. She has given me some instructions for the draft. I was supposed to make corrections according to her words. I have done that course of training for half a year or so. Eventually, even though I have not specialized in pediatric neurology, this training by her has made me confident in reading ordinary EEG if not perfect. Without her kind and continuous lessons, I won't be able to do with this basic technique.

I happened to know she had been an founder and its chief of a nursing facility for handicapped. The name of the facility and its principle seem to mean it was based on a faith in Catholic. Among the principles, the most remarkable one, which I thought most likely due to her character, was that everyone should call each other, not doctor etc, but only "San" after name, an equivalent to Mr. or Ms. in Japanese. I have never heard of her faith in Christianity but am sure she has believed in it since her young days. It seems she has not married until now. She might be just before 80 years of age.

In clinical medicine, we learn many things from senior doctors in person. The delivery of knowledge or technique is based on the human relationship with them. Once we could rely on a particular senior doctor for his knowledge and personality, we could really learn something of medical experience or technique from him or her. It is comparable to an apprenticeship in a sense.

In Japan, the officials of the government agency are trying to make a system to organize personnel affairs of doctors all over the country for their own profit. It was handled by the departments in medical schools in the past. however, I am sure the bureaucrats will fail in their trick. Because they are neglecting these personal relationship in medical training between doctors.

I would like to see her in person after decades of absence. Again, I would appreciate her for her kind tutoring in my resident days.

A performance of Takemitsu's Requiem

In the interview of Tohru Takemitsu with Seiji Ozawa in 1978 through 1979 published in 1981, Takemitsu often said to Ozawa that he had only limited time left for composing new works, even though he has lived about 15 years since then. If we are aware of his consciousness for the time left for his life, this music sounds more realistic to us.

I am deeply touched that NY Philharmonic has held such a concert immediately after the disaster in Tohoku. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, has made an impressive speech before performance. This convinces me again that sharing feelings and giving sympathy each other among people, irrespective of the nationality, could be a basis for the peace in the world. Our government seems to realize "collective self-defence" now. It is basically against the spirit of our constitution. They are violating the pacifism which has lead our country since WWII under the constitution. They insist that this drastic change is possible with an interpretation of the constitution. The concern and sympathy NY Philharmonic has expressed to us in the performance is opposite to the will to resort to the military force in order to solve international problems. The former is a basis for the peace in the world while the latter will yield vicious cycle of violence. I admit the international relationship won't be so simple but would confirm this principle for our life.

We will have the anniversary for the defeat of our country in WWII very soon. At this time, I would confirm that my time left in life is limited. And I should be strongly against any movements toward military force used to solve any conflicts with the other countries. Mutual understanding and sharing ideas and feelings should be the basic principle for our life.

To new comers on HF

Since I have an above average set up here, that is, 500W with beams for 40m through 10m, I am often called by stations with weak signal from abroad. I know how eager they are to work DX even if it is just a JA. I started ham radio with s single 6AQ5 TX and a 5 tube RX with a low dipole fed with an open wire feeder in '60s. It was a real joy to get a reply from overseas those days. So I am trying to do my best receiving those weak signals. But, from time to time, I have much difficulty copying them due to their inexperienced operation. Here are the points I would ask them to improve.

When you are sure that I am responding to you, don't start with my call sign. It is not necessary to repeat that. All I need is your call sign. It requires you an experience to be sure I am responding to you. When there are no others calling me and/or my call corresponds with you in timing, it is you whom I respond to. If I give a part of your call sign in QRZ?, you could be sure of my calling you.

In the condition with fast QSB, slower sending is often effective. On the other hand, with long phased QSB, faster sending may be more readable, even though it is not so common. In noisy condition, slower is preferable. Listen weak signals in fading and grasp the technique how to send in a particular condition. Please try sending in different speed in case I seem to have difficulty reading you.

Please don't put /QRP to your call sign when you start calling me. It is still an unnecessary info. What a dsiappointment it is for me to copy only /QRP at the peak of QSB. You could mention of that only if the condition is good enough to tell me about your power.

Please don't start long winded message even if my signal is pretty good at your place. Your signal could be so weak here that I keep my ears 120% open to you with full attention. It could be an agony for me to follow your soap box in that condition. Imagination how your signal is coming here is very important. I am the last to enjoy simple rubberstamp QSOs but should do that style when the condition is not helpful to us. In good condition, a ragchew is most welcomed to me.

It might be needless to say something like this. But I feel some of you should be trained a bit more regarding these issues. That is the reason why I dare to write this article. I hope it is of some help to you starting the adventure working DX on HF. See you soon.

On the day of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima

It is the day today when the citizens of Hiroshima have suffered from an attack of atomic bomb 68 years ago. There are still many people praying for those killed there in Japan. A television news reported a doctor who had had his parents radiated in Hiroshima coming home immdeiately after that bombing. Some of those having had that problem kept thier mouth closed for disclosure of being an atomic bomb victim could mean prejudice and discrimination by the other. It is around the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plant when he decided to publish that he was a descendent of atomic bomb victim. The doctor has encouraged, in the news, a patient evacuated from Fukushima at his outpatient clinic. We should never forget those suffering from long lasting disaster. We should go on protesting any use of nuclear weapon as well as nuclear power use for any purposes.

We will have the day when our country was defeated in the WWII very soon. Recently, I have learned from a book that the Japanese people had suffered from enormous damage and sufferings in the last 1.5 years in WWII because of draft system. The emotion that we have been the sufferer from the war was so intense that any thorough discussion about the responsibility for the war had never been made among them. It is an indirect cause of the friction with the neighbor countries at present. A faction of the politicians is aiming at the revival of the ancient emperor system with changing the constitution. We should view and reflect what has caused the war again apart from escaping from the reality as sufferers. We were the invaders to the neighbor countries as well as the sufferes by the war. It is a way to respond to those killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am sure their wish was to investigate what has caused the war and not to repeat it any longer.

A ripe water melon

A water melon harvested today. The fruit could be ripened, as they say, in 35 days after pollination with this type of water melon. I tried to put a record tag of pollination date for each fruit. But some are lost while the others could not be read! A few already became meal for bugs or birds. I tried to harvest this one at the best timing. I made it. Congratulation to me!