| Date | User | Challenge | Status | Toot summary & link |
|---|
| 2025-01-02 09:17:08 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 1 | Success! | Well, it seems I have to mention with HC01S, so that this weekly challenge will count. First week and Iβm not used to the rules yet. |
| 2025-01-07 22:40:10 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 2 | Success! | Today I had the chance to complete #HC02S by using the Kenwood TS-990 and an Ultra Beam antenna at a fellow radio operatorβs lab. But 3 hours after sunset in JO62 I could only receive CS3B on 20m and very faintly 4U1UN. All other bands were already closed.It was really fun to listen to beacons again. And I should use this method more often after temporarily setting up an antenna, just to find out the propagation capabilities.#hamchallenge |
| 2025-01-18 22:27:33 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 3 | Progress update... | Preparations for #HC03. Quickly built an 80m Dipole for an Inverted-V antenna with DM8SB. We used 0,75mmΒ² speaker cable, a ready made centerpiece and isolators. With a shortening factor of 3%, each side of the dipole must be 20,3m. We even created a quick calculation for the length of the guy ropes, so that the isolator is at least 2m above the ground. Who will ever need trigonometry after school? Finally, we used an empty filament role for storing the antenna.#hamchallenge |
| 2025-01-19 21:04:24 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 3 | Progress update... | Today was the night, when we tested the newly built 80m Inverted-V antenna for @hamchallenge. Together with DK4MJ (@mischk) and DM8SB we went at the northern outskirts of Berlin to "Landschaftspark Wartenberger Feldmark" (POTA DE-0233). We found a playground with some treestumps, which we used for attaching the mast. The deployment of the antenna was pretty quick, but we had to shorten it a lot. In the end the SWR was okay for digimodes.#hamchallenge #HC03 |
| 2025-01-19 21:19:26 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 3 | Success! | And yes! It worked! After some testing of the propagation we could do a QSO with 4L7T who is located in Georgia, which counts as Asia and another continent! So #HC03S π Funny thing is, the antenna was oriented north east to south west. And Georgia with an Azimuth of 105Β° is way off.But we found out on PSKReporter that we were even heard by XV9T in Vietnam. I already like this new antenna.#hamchallenge @hamchallenge |
| 2025-01-19 21:22:26 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 3 | Progress update... | Final notes what we should improve for the next time:- bring more lights- bring small lights or glow lights for the guy ropes, so that no one will trip over- testing of the equipmentWhat went well:- preparation of the antenna- having a second TRX as we had problems with the COM and audio interface on the first TRX- using the trolley for carrying the equipment- having fun with two fellow amateur radio operators on a cold winter night#hamchallenge #hc03s |
| 2025-01-26 23:12:00 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 4 | Success! | I knew that my call sign was used by another person before as I received a QSL card from a time, when I did not own this call sign. And I also knew, that the prefix DC4 was used in norther Germany in the past, as an older amateur radio operator located me into that region. And most probably the previous owner succeeded in an old class 2 exam, so for VHF/UHF only or never took a morse exam.#HC04S #hamchallenge |
| 2025-01-28 19:48:09 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 5 | Progress update... | While working on #hamchallenge HC05 I found a link to an 11 year old website which states a "Urban Ham Radio" manifesto:https://dc4lw.de/2014/04/28/urban-ham-radio/And still, I think this describes pretty good the situation I am still in.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-03 09:00:41 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 5 | Progress update... | My #hamchallenge HC05 is a bit delayed. While I updated my profile on hamqth.com, I could not login to qrz.com. Somehow my account had 2FA enabled. But the service team was pretty nice and quick and disabled 2FA for a short moment.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-03 09:05:41 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 5 | Progress update... | On hamqth.com I could delete a club station call for which I'm no longer the maintainer. An I also deleted links to my Twitter [sic!] and Facebook profile. You can still add the Link to your Google+ profile, which is dead since 5 years. But still no way to add a link to Mastodon.HamQTH felt fresh when it was released about 12 years ago. But now it feels like an abandoned website. But still, a more clean design than QRZ.com.#hamchallenge HC05 @hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-03 09:59:47 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 5 | Success! | And finally I updated the data on QRZ.com for my personal call sign and for DA0CCC which I manage. Luckily my address did not change, but I added some more recent information and the QSL-cards from the first #hamchallenge this year.To be honest, QRZ.com feels like a trip back to online forums in the late 1990s with animated, unaligned GIFs and blink-tags all over.HC05S |
| 2025-02-03 10:06:47 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 6 | Success! | And for #hamchallenge HC06S I think I already succeeded by participating in the CQ TU educational contest organised by DK0TU last Thursday: https://www.dk0tu.de/contests/cqtu.htmlIt lasts only one hour and on VHF/UHF only. But due to the architecture of the university campus, it is quite hard to reach all participating stations. I did only two QSOs though, as I left the frequencies open to the trainees, who had a lot of fun and learned quite quickly.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-16 11:08:35 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 7 | Success! | This week's #hamchallenge is a bit boring, as I'm not interested in DX. I know there are some pages about DX activities in my Club's magazine :CQDL: β but I don't have the setup for getting through.Probably I don't have the patience to get past all those really loud and uncooperative stations that try to reach the DX calling station. When I hear a pile-up, I'm ashamed of the Old Men who don't know how to be kind or to operate their setup properly.Still, it's a HC07S I think. @hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-17 00:24:24 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 8 | Progress update... | I also found out that there is a person close by, which I know from the :50ohm: project. This contact might be a good start for a new interested person in amateur radio.The challenge is not done yet. Iβm pretty sure, I will have more opportunities this week to encourage someone in taking their amateur radio exam.#hamchallenge HC08 |
| 2025-02-17 10:33:30 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 8 | Progress update... | Itβs shortly after midnight in my timezone and I already made progress in #hamchallenge HC08.A fellow amateur radio operator just asked for a study course somewhere else in Germany, where he could send a friend to. So I pointed to http://ajw.darc.de/lehrgangskarte/, but there is no course in the desired region. So I sent the link to https://ajw.darc.de/patenkarte/, a map with locations of fellow amateur radio operators who will help in learning for the exam.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-19 16:21:55 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 8 | Progress update... | And #hamchallenge HC08 continues. I received an e-mail from a person I talked to two weeks ago, that he already bought an amateur radio transceiver after our last meeting and now dares to push the PTT. He is already learning with 50ohm.de :50ohm: and asked for the next step. I pointed him to https://50ohm.de/pruefung.html which is a description on how to take the exam in Germany. Let's see how quick he will take the exam.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-23 20:44:11 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 8 | Success! | Yesterday I had my weekly amateur radio course in my local Hackspace. With 9 persons attending who want to upgrade to the highest class A in Germany or even do it in one go from no call sign yet. I think, I could ease some stress by teaching the knowledge for the exam.And I helped two interested persons to get a step closer becoming an amateur radio operator this week. So, once again it is a success HC08S #hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-23 23:59:32 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 8 | Success! | I just remember I had a chat about amateur radio at a party last night. Luckily I could point the person to an exam course that will start in a couple of weeks at their university.Itβs quite usual that I find several interested persons each week. And most of the time I can assist with the next step.#hamchallenge HC08S @hamchallenge |
| 2025-02-25 22:21:20 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 9 | Progress update... | Worked on #hamchallenge HC09 tonight. I had the chance to use a station for 10m FM and tuned to DB0BLO 15km away. First I thought that I had trouble with the split setup, but found out shortly after, that I used the wrong antenna.And like @mischk yesterday, no one answered my call, although I tried for about 2,5 hours. I also tried to reach the next closest repeater DM0MGB in 120km distance, but had no luck with the propagation.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-02 14:53:48 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 9 | Success! | Succeeded in #hamchallenge HC09S - I had a QSO with @mischk via DB0BLO on 10m. And he also pointed out, that I succeeded in HC12S as well, as I used my rain gutter as an antenna. Unfortunately I needed to use 15W, so that he can understand me, but that much power killed my DSL-connection (and probably those of my neighbours). I should use that antenna with more care and on QRP modes only. The VSWR is around 2,5 in the 10m band, so I can easily use an antenna tuner.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-08 00:03:09 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 10 | Success! | Succeeded in #hamchallenge HC10S twice this evening. We used my self made cross yagi antenna for 70cm and 2m. On top there is a mount for my phone with GoSatWatch attached for satellite tracking.We had a pass of SO-124 (HADES-R) in downtown Berlin where we barely heard someone from Poland. Without a duplexer and two handheld radios I was even able to hear myself calling CQ! And later on we heard the ISS with QSOs from Italy. I did not want to interrupt, so listen only.@hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-16 21:08:23 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 11 | Progress update... | I almost wanted to skip #HC11 - but then I checked the NOAA passes, saw that No 19 will be clearly visible from my backyard window in almost 10 minutes. IΒ decided to start SDRangel which helps with a lot of presets. Set my RTL-SDR receiver on the window sill and tried to receive something. But nothing is visible. SDRangel crashed several times. And probably I missed some setting to compensate the Doppler-Shift. #hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-16 21:15:24 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 11 | Progress update... | I almost wanted to skip HC11 - but then I checked the NOAA passes, saw that No 19 will be clearly visible from my backyard window in almost 10 minutes. IΒ decided to start SDRangel which helps with a lot of presets. Set my RTL-SDR receiver on the window sill and tried to receive something. But nothing is visible. SDRangel crashed several times. And probably I missed some setting to compensate the Doppler-Shift. #hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-16 21:15:24 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 11 | Progress update... | And just after writing about it, I found the problem with the Doppler setting. Unfortunately too late for the pass of NOAA-18 right after NOAA-19. I should give it another try during the next days when there are proper passes again. #hamchallenge HC11 |
| 2025-03-23 21:51:07 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 12 | Success! | Just had a look on the website and found out, that my HC12S from three weeks ago did not count. It seems, that the bot can count one week number only. But I already completed this challenge in https://social.darc.de/@DC4LW/114093167045604116 π #hamchallenge |
| 2025-03-30 19:58:10 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 13 | Progress update... | I'm really struggling with this week's #hamchallenge HC13. I cannot think of an "unusual location" for doing a QSO. I would do a QSO from quite everywhere as long as it is not risky. So, I think, I'll skip this challenge for the time being and probably I'll find a suitable location later on this year. @hamchallenge |
| 2025-04-06 21:33:26 | DC4LW@social.darc.de | 14 | Success! | For #hamchallenge HC14S I do on- and off-site backups of my computers regularly. So my logs are also in the backup. I use @restic for backup for some years already (and it is developed by a fellow amateur radio operator). From time to time I already restored some data from the backup, so this works as well.The bigger problem are too many logfiles. Quite every digimode app comes with its own logging abilities. And I did not find a proper way to merge all logs yet.@hamchallenge |