New antennas                                                                                                           

On the 19th of june PA3EZC extended his antennas with a Cushcraft-beam type A50-3S for 6m. The antenna has a forward gain of 8dBd and is easy to match with the so called Reddi Match. The dip is in the CW-part of the 6m band. The first signals were promissing. HA8BE put here a signal of S9+40dB on the meter and returned with a 599. On the 25th of june the first call with the other side of the ocean was a fact. At 22.33 UTC, N3DB (locator FM18SU, Maryland) returned on the CQ. There were beautiful ES-openings that night. Rig for 6m is by the way a Yaesu FT-847, output 100 watt.

Besides the beam for 6m, PA3EZC uses an FB-23 (10m, 15m and 20m), a GB WARC trapdipole (12m, 17m en 30m), a Magnetic Loop Balun (10m-160m), a 4 elements Tonna (2m), a Diamond vertical (2m, 70cm and 23cm) and a Diamond verttcal V-2000 (6m, 2m and 70cm). So enough antennas and lots of cable to be active on several bands. Right on top you see a list of recent contacts with some remarkable ones as ZL6HQ (New-Sealand) and VK4EMM (Australia).

Important QSL information LX/PA3DKC/P and LX/PA3EZC/P                            

As Jaco PA3DKC has gone SK short after the trip in 2008, we found out that all the QSL's for LX/PA3DKC/P has been returned to the sender by the buro. That means that the ones who needed a QSL-confirmation of previous trips won't receive a card. If you still like to have a QSL, please sent the card via PA3EZC.

This year Richard PA3GWH and Walter PA3EZC continued the almost 25 years tradition to Luxembourg, without Jaco PA3DKC. From the 6th until the 12th of november, we used the call LX/PA3EZC/P. QSL can be sent via PA3EZC and will be answered as soon as possible as the QSL-cards have already been printed.

APRS-maps The Netherlands for UI-view here available                                 

Now you can have the latest up-to-date maps of The Netherlands for UI-view. The maps are built for a screenresolution of 1280x1024, are captured from Google Maps and gecalibrated for APRS-use. There are three types of maps. The first is an "ordinary" map, which gives a clear overview of the most important city's and roads. For those who want to have a fotographic outlook there as an alternative based upon satellitephoto's.

The third type is combination of the map and the satellitephoto. But in areas with lots of city's this combination makes it less clear for the UI-view user, espescially when there are a lot of APRS stations. You can download the maps here.

Hamradio                                                                                                                     

PA3EZC is a Dutch ham who explores a lot of activities on Amateur Radio. Main activies are competing in contests like PACC, ARRL DX CW, HF Championship, Fieldday contest,  WPX- and CQWW contest. The favorite mode is CW, and the favorite bands are HF-bands and 6m. With amateurs like PA3DKC, PA3GWH and PA3DTM, he is a couple times a year "on the road". Examples of his outdoor activities are the Jamboree On The Air, trips to Luxemburg (LX/PA3DKC/P) and fieldday- and contest weekends on locations which are perfect for building up antennes. Of course the preparations for these activities gives him a lot of pleasure. Building electronic keyers, modems, antennas, computernetworks for handling the logs and towerssystems are examples of the job.

Another favorite activity is running Automatic Positioning Reporting System. The Digipeater, PA3EZC-2,  is frequently switched on and you can follow him mobile with the call PA3EZC-7 (car), PA3EZC-9 (VAN) and PA3EZC-12 (handheld). The system is also functioning as an IGate.