A nest to come back

They say the higher bands are quite hot with the sun spot number rising record high in this cycle. I still love, however, 40m in our evening. This band will gradually open to the North America before sunset here. It might open to Eu and Africa through long path at the same time. I started radio on this band at this time in a day. It was the band of wonder those days. At present, it is still the band where I could nestle myself on.

This evening, 40m sounded very quiet. I had a couple of pleasant QSOs. One was with Steve K4VK in Florida. His barefoot with a dipole was not loud at all but was still quite readable on the quiet background. He is 93 years old and used to be in Yokosuka in 1950 when he served for the Navy there. We could not converse much about his good old days so much. But I still felt, through his keying!, he had had a good memory in Yokosuka those days. He sounded excited at the key. The keying itself often expresses what the sender feels. Those who won't operate CW would never appreciate that at all, I guess.

The other guy was Don N7EF in Washington. He always watchs the band and gives me a call when no one calls me for my CQ. He said he had been just watching great ragchews going on the band. He kindly asked me about my cataract problem, which he had known through watching my QSO with another guy. He said his wife had had a surgery for her cataract, which came out to be a success. Even though, as he said, the ophthalmologist was pretty old just before retirement, he did it perfectly for her. I answered to him, with hearty thanks for his concern about my problem, that medical services should be conservative. Progressive methods could be sometimes experimental. I would have a surgery in a conservative way within a year or so. He also mentioned that the drivers' licence renewal is pretty strict especially for the seniors over there. He was nervous at it but could renew it uneventfully. I always enjoy talking to him since he is always a real critic to the ham radio or people on the radio.

I have been blessed with many friends on 40m in this way. Unfortunately, most of them have gone inactive or silent keyed by now. But, I know, there are still a number of old guys with whom I could share the same kind of interest or of concern. Even though I sometimes feel disappointed at it, I would go on operating radio. Yes, on 40m around our sunset. It is my nest to come back.

A national secrecy protection law

A national secrecy protection law is going to be legislated by our congress very soon. Even though the lawyers association as well as the mass media have protested against it very hard, the present government would do that by any means.

They say it is to protect our nation's interest by protecting the informations relevant with the national security. But there are a number of serious problems in this draft.

1)The law could cover all aspects of the administrative offices and their behaviours if the head of each office determines any information on them as a secret. No limit.

2)They don't need to publish the protected informations in certain span of time. They could cover up any informations unfavorable to them "forever". This rule may bring rise to moral hazard to the administrative officials including the cabinet.

It is definitely against our right to know and check what is going on in the administration of the nation. I am strongly against this law. 

Maybe, in several years, if the flutist is patient enough.

My wife has started taking lesson for flute. She has never played this wind instrument in the past. She used to say she dould get hyperventilated when playing such an instrument so that she won't do with it. Finding a flute class close to her office, she seemed to have decided to start it. Who knows how long she would go on with it? I should say bravo to her only for her starting it.

We used to play ensemble when we were young. She played a bit of piano. In our wedding party, we played "Apre Un Reve" by Faure as I have already told somewhere in this blog. It was a real appropriate choice of music!

 

 

One of my rascal friends told me it had been the only chance we could force those attending the party to listen to our performance. Of ourse, we did it. We had been practising this ensemble at a student hall of our university immdiately before the wedding in the morning.

 

Now, since our daughter is pretty good at violin though she has not touched it for a few years, we might have a family ensemble like baroque trio. The problem is if my wife is patient enough to carry on practising flute for some time. Let's hope she is.  Maybe, hopefully, in several years. 

A proof of my being

I have arranged the log books in order. I have been using common notebooks for logging since I started radio in 1963. The number of log books is 9 from 1963 to 1969, when I closed down preparing the entrance exam of med school. From 1980, when I came back on the air at a resident dorm in my honey moon to last Nov, when I changed logginf to PC application, it has amounted to 109. In total, 118. The total QSO number may reach a hundred thousand.

Looking back the content of log books in '60s, I have found old and fond call signs like WA6UNF, WB6LWY, WA6YVT, W6ULS, WB6CFN, WB6BFR, WB6BBC, KH6EFW and so forth. Many more. Most of them have already gone SK. I also noticed I was trying to make chats from those days. It was not exceptional that I made a QSO longer than an hour. I have talked to Loren K6DVD, now W4YU, for almost a couple of hours. The more experienced I was with QSOs, it seems, the more details of them I recorded in the note books. It might be related with my capability with English. And it may mean I was oriented to conversation on this mode in the very beginning.

It is of no use nor interest if the QSO data has no other record than date/report/name/QTH. If I have recorded the partner's age, job or career in ham radio etc, it surely helps me to recall of the QSO.  I need the info on the partner's set up in order to appreciate the report. The report means differently according the partner's antenna. As much info as possible should be put on the remarks in the log books, I believe. Most of the current log application is not suitable for this purpose.

I feel overwhelmed by how long I have spent for ham radio. I won't regret. It is of no meaning to me. Looking a series of 599 QSL type QSO records in them, I thought I won't spend time for those QSOs any longer. I should do something else in stead. But, again, no regret for this amount of QSOs in the past. It is my fortune. I have known many good friends through those QSOs. It is a proof of my having been and being at present.

Meeting with professor Nollet, K0EN, JO7XVL, in Fukushima

A couple of days ago, both I and my wife have gone to Fukushima. The purpose was to see our son studying medicine there. Having had a nice gettogether with him, we took dinner at a pretty casual restaurant close to his apartment. While we were waiting for the dishes, a thin and tall guy, apparently a foreigner, came in. It was Dr. Nollet. I knew him through the FCWA web site as well as the FMU web site. I remembered he had been an enthusiastic ham. He has got a japanese call sign, JO7XVL, there. I haven't personally acquainted with him before, though. He is working as a professor at the Dept. of Blood Transfusion and Transplantation at Fukushima Med University.

He seemed to enjoy dinner with a few japanese friends there. Some of their conversation has intermittently reached to us. I was wondering if I should say hello to him or not until we finished meal and was almost going out of the restaurant. At last, I decided to greet him. He was sociable continuously smiling at me and did not look unpleasant to have had his dinner interrupted by me. I introduced both myself and my son who will attend his class very shortly. He has K0EN in his home land. He used to operate radio from VK and A5 as well. When I told him I had been active especially on 40m with a 3 element Yagi, he uttered "Jealous!". But, knowing how he has been working at the university, I really felt envious of him. He must be in Germany at present attending a conference, as he told me.

He seems interested in ham radio as a tool of emergency communication as well as a educational means.  This is the link to his "Director's Corner" in the site for Dept. of International Cooperation at Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey in Fukushima Med University.

http://www.fmu.ac.jp/radiationhealth/whatwedo/20131015.html

It was an unexpected meeting. But such an eye ball with a ham is always a pleasure. I am looking forward seeing him on the air soon.

My antenna is safe through a night long hard storm

A big typhoon has passed by east of here. I thought the wind won't blow too hard since the counterclockwise swirling of the typhoon wind and its movement could have offset each other. But it happened only when the typhoon was right east of here for a while. The wind noise woke me up at 3 AM in our local. I could not fall asleep after that.

 

I was anxious about the antenna. As soon as I came into the shack, I measured the SWR. As ;low as usual! Great. And the direstion? It is pointed at the same direction as yesterday. The rotator was working OK. So far, no damage. I am always impressed at this tribander for from 40 to 15m. The structure is not very rigid but is flexible against winds. I started using this type of beam in the end of 1990s. Several years ago, considering it might have deteriorated after over ten years of use, I have replaced to a new one of the same model. It works as 3 elements on 40 and 4 elements on the other two bands. Hopefully, it will go on working for another 10 years. 

 

 

The 3.5 elements ! of Yagi above that tribander is for 10m. The half elements of the 1st director was missing while I was not aware of that, not this time, but a few years ago. Chris G4BUE, the editor of the FOCUS at that time, noted that defect when he looked a photo of my antenna, which Bruce K6ZB submitted to that magazine. Despite of a bit higher SWR than before, it works OK. Without Chris' notice, I might not have realized it.

A crisis in CW culture

The band conditions have been good for a week or two. When the sun was going to sink here, as always, I listened to 40m and called CQ beaming to NA. As Dick N7RC often told me after having worked in his ranch, I needed relaxation of CW music after having worked hard in the garden.

As I have repeatedly written here, I get very few callers from NA. I am almost used to it. The time has changed. Nowadays, in the US, there are much less CW operators staying up late at night. Or they would just listen on the bands and won't try to touch their paddle/key. That's OK for me. I have accepted that reality as it is.

But, not so infrequently, I am called by the guys who could hardly communicate on this mode. They won't tell me to slow down. They won't ask me about what I had told them. They would go on a QSO like a template and quit there as if nothing problematic had happened. Isn't it a real crisis that there is such a ham, not exceptional, in the US where the culture of ham radio was born?

Do they feel bored with conversing with me? Are they too busy after midnight? I suspect they could not copy other than the routine informations such as name or QTH.  I won't blame them. But it is still a crisis for CW culture.   

Sorry for my complaint too familiar to you readers of this blog.  I am too often astonished by such a scene on the air. That is the reason why I have repeated this here.