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5B4AIT HamSphere Newsletter Oct 2012 2012-10-02 19:58	Admin Registered: 14 years ago Posts: 1,061

Dear HamSphere Operators Welcome to the Oct 2012 Edition of the HamSphere Newsletter. Lots of stuff, so here we go: New Webpage HamSphere has a new look. The old website was created in 2007 and pretty outdated and it was time for a new approach. We have aimed for a modern 2012-ish look. You will now find all our features and functions gathered in one single menu. Easier and faster access to the functions you use often. With just one click you can reach any of our features. Private Messages and Forum text have been updated for better readability and "Latest news" is now presented in a convenient news-ticker format. The Support board is also easily reached from all pages. Take a quick look Contest Results Contests are fun and enjoyable and we have accomplished three official contests so far this year. Basically these competitions are taken place on either one or more bands and operators try to work as many stations as possible over a limited time frame and they are numbering each QSO. All contacts get logged in the HamSphere log book. An automated scoring system then computes and calculates the final score. Here are the results: HamSphere Friendly Introduction Contest held 1st Sept 2012 between 09.00 and 21.00 UTC. 1st: 146HS251, Zwawi, Algeria, 8800 points 2nd: UX4CR, Oleg, Ukraine, 8680 points 3rd: 4N1CW, Branko, Serbia, 8398 points Link to full result list Statistics: 110 participants, 3160 verified QSOs "Dia da Independencia do Brasil " that was held 7st Sept 2012 between 12.00 and 20.00 UTC. 1st: 56HS244, Antero, Finland, 1368 points 2nd:50HS100, Luigi, Russian Federation, 1022 points 3rd: 13HS575, Geert, Germany, 1008 points Link to full result list Statistics: 55 participants, 1064 verified QSOs And as a bold initiative we even held an SSTV contest. Slow Scan Television contests are usually very rare on Shortwave and we are happy for the 20 participants who endured this contest. SSTV contest Sept 14th 2012 (16:00 UTC) to Sept 16th (21:00 UTC) 1st: 50HS1308, Mikhail, Russian Federation, 107 points 2nd:1HS1926, Silvio, Italy, 69 points 3rd: 1HS1977, Pietro, Italy, 51 points Link to full result list Statistics: 20 participants, 166 verified QSOs Upcoming contests CANADA Thanksgiving QSO Party 2012 will be held Saturday 2012-10-06 starting 14:00. The contest duration will be 10 hours. The objective is for stations outside of CANADA work as many Canadian stations in as many Canadian Provinces as possible. Stations in Canada may work everyone. Multiple bands, single mode. Please note that the contest bands are 15,17, 20 meters. Join the CANADA Thanksgiving QSO Party Contest Log Mode We are still testing the new "Contest"-mode in the Log book. If and when you have joined a contest, your HamSphere Log book will automatically turn into "Contest" mode one hour before the contest starts. The contest-mode makes QSO-Numbering very easy. We have also implemented a warning function for Multiplicators and Duplicate QSO's to assist you in the contesting. PLEASE NOTE! * IMPORTANT INFORMATION * When you are in "contest-log-mode" during a contest, please avoid logging stations who are not in the contest as that will mess up your QSO-numbering. Just use a note pad and log these stations when the contest is over. And specifically, during the contest window, please do NOT send a QSL card to a non participating user as that will make that user part of the contest involuntarily. SSTV on HamSphere We are proud to see so many SSTV (Slow Scan TeleVision) stations on 30 meters. Operators use both digital and analog modes. Some comments from the SSTV Group: From Malcolm G7VCK: I am thinking of running a MMSSTV workshop day mid October say from 10-00am utc-17-00pm utc on 10.150.0 kHz and get some more interested in digi modes. I can ask them to download the MMSSTV program and go through setup, settings, how things work and try the program by sending pics on 1 to 1 basis. Even promoting the digital program Easypal. If you are interested in participating in such workshop, please contact Malcolm G7VCK, Leeds , U.K. Jean-Pierre Blanchard from the HS SSTV group has a suggestion if it is possible to keep 10khz between SSTV stations, or ask users to call on 10.110, 10.120, 10.130... DSSTV stands for Digital SSTV and can be carried out with a software called EasyPal SSTV Stands for Analog SSTV and can be performed by using the software called MMSSTV Download the SSTV software from the Ham Radio Sweden website www.hamradio.se Here is the link to the HamSphere SSTV forum on FaceBook We have a request from the SSTV users on the HamSphere 30 meter band not to conduct any voice QSOs on this band. The band is strictly dedicated Digital modes via SSTV, PSK31 etc and CW modes. (If you ever have been kicked from the 30 meter band, please don't feel bad, you might have been trying to establish a voice contact and our admins will check this band frequently). Please follow our band plan.) 30 Meters (10.1-10.2 MHz): 10.101-10.105 Beacons 10.101-10.195 RTTY 10.101-10.195 PSK 10.101-10.195 SSTV 10.101-10.195 CW SSTV collection of received images over HamSphere by David Spencer, 26HS511 HamSphere Features We have created a new page we call "features" where we have collected all the unique HamSphere features. Click here to have a look at the features that HamSphere offers HamSphere Apps Finally, the iPhone app is on its way to the App-store. Before it can be downloaded from the App-store it needs to get approved by the Apple people. Expect this process anything from 1-3 weeks. Android app is not ready for distribution yet. It is about to get beta-2 tested by the beta testers group. We are working on the last difficulties such as portable screen sizing etc. Expect a delay of about 3-4 weeks. HamSphere.NET Blogs Here are some of our bloggers using HamSphere.NET - Ham Blogs - Get your own Ham Blog VK6QK Peter - G’day from Down under 2E0SCE - 5th Prittlewell Scout Group KA4PNV John - The Virtual and Authentic Ham Radio Site LX4SKY Thierry - Ham Operator from Luxembourg PP6AJM Alberto Jorge Mesquita - Brazil RA9MRO Ivan - Amateur Radio Operator from Russia WB7ECW Mike - Washington USA ZLAKJ - Derek - Ham operator from Auckland, New Zealand 2HS1637 Ed - The Gate Way To The World Hamsphere 2HS8213 SF Bay Area HamSphere Operators 68HS339 Tony - Northern Ireland Hamsphere Station 72HS411 Raymond - Philippine Amateur radio operator 9HS1658 Robert - Ham Heaven for Seniors DX Countries In the month of September 2012 sign ups consisted of approx 103 different countries and the ratio between Radio Enthusiasts and Licensed call signs were 68% HS call signs and 32% Ham Call signs. We have seen an increase in the change of HS call signs to legal Ham Call signs. We have upgraded some 600 HS users to Ham Call signs over the past years. Congratulations to your newly acquired licenses. HamSphere is contributing to many HS Users studying and passing HAM RADIO tests worldwide and getting their own licensed call sign. This is really encouraging to see how educational HamSphere can be. Rare DX Operators from the following countries have been active (And verified via IP-number) on HamSphere since the last News Letter. VANUATU, SUDAN, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES, ARMENIA, NAMIBIA, SURINAME, CURACAO, GUADELOUPE, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS GHANA, FRENCH GUIANA, COMOROS, COTE IVOIRE, BENIN ZIMBABWE, BRUNEI, SAINT LUCIA, GUAM, YEMEN, ANDORRA MONTSERRAT, AZERBAIJAN, DOMINICA, MYANMAR, NIGERIA DX and Pile-ups A Pile-Up is when a massive number of stations are trying to contact a "rare" DX station. As new users to HamSphere sign up and are from countries classified as DX to other Users, they may be unfamiliar with Pile-ups. Please take note that they need to get accustom to the communication process of handling QSO’s. Please be patient and try to help these new users, this will all be a new frontier for them! These dx pile-ups could frighten new users from joining in on the fun using Hamsphere. More encouragements and helping will mean that everyone will get the opportunity to get a confirmation QSL card from the DX countries. As we try to help encouragement & being polite is very important !! "The key to busting pileups is to listen. That's what the DX experts will tell you -- and they are right. The first thing about busting pileups is not to transmit. You can't listen when you are transmitting. " We received an email from Jose Fonseca, 3HS1486 who experienced the wild "pile-ups" on HamSphere nowadays. He was worried about the confusion that emerges when unexperienced operators try to catch that DX station in the Pile. These pile-ups are really fantastic as they are often triggered by a rare and remote DX station keying up on HamSphere, but can be a pain for new and unexperienced users who have never heard such a thing. One of the the advantages with HamSphere is that it is a true Shortwave Radio simulation with a fully open band where everyone can transmit at the same time. It also has fast DX-Cluster and the ability to see transmitting stations with a button-click. But this also has some disadvantages. When a rare station shows up from a remote corner of the world, all operators are alerted immediately to that frequency and a massive "pile-up" occurs. If you have experienced a real DX Pile-Up on Shortwave you know that it can be a real "mess" and HamSphere is no different. HamSphere official comments on doubling and "pile-ups" is this: Consider it a realistic "training"-tool for the real Amateur Radio world. Operators who eventually will go on real shortwave bands WILL experience this type of communication techniques. And only proper Ham Radio Protocol will help. We suggest you read a fantastic blog entry posted by AA4LR How to Bust a Pileup IARU Ethics for the Ham Radio operator The IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) has released an Ethics and Operations procedure manual which is fantastic reading. It will tell you everything there is to know about Ham Radio, Ethics, operating procedures etc. It is "the" bible when it comes to Ham Radio operations. http://www.hamsphere.com/dl/ham_radio_ethics.pdf HamSphere DX-List Currently we have 117 countries on the so called "DX-List". These are countries that we give "free-to-air" access to. The DX-List is mostly based on the PayPal International payment ability shown in their Worldwide send payment list. DX HamSphere Club Top-10 Current DXHC Top-200 1. VE3JAR Vic from CANADA with 164 verified countries 2. 56HS244 Antero from FINLAND with 124 verified countries 3. 2HS3433 Paul from USA with 124 verified countries 4. 16HS222 Luc from BELGIUM with 122 verified countries 5. 93HS101 Joseph from MALTA with 118 verified countries 6. 68HS3965 Kenny from NORTHERN IRELAND with 118 verified countries 7. YV4EOH Gerardo from VENEZUELA with 116 verified countries 8. ZL1KJ Gary from NEW ZEALAND with 115 verified countries 9. UT1ZZ Andrew from UKRAINE with 115 verified countries 10.RA9MRO Ivan from RUSSIAN FEDERATION with 115 verified countries BC Band 48 meters Steve Miller is running the DX Power Hour Of Music only found on HamSphere 48 meter Band.. Upcoming broadcasts: October 26th @ 1800 hrs UTC , 06.225.00 MHZ Darren M6LPD is running Ham Nation on the BC band on Saturdays at 20.00 GMT on 6225kHz. This Weeks Ham nation Will Be On Saturday 6th Oct 20.00 GMT on the BC Band 6225 kHz. This week Show The vital role of ham radio in emergency communications. Hosted By BoB Heil K9EID Guests: Gordon West, WB6NOA and Brian Short, KC0BS So Please tune in Darren M6LPD Networks Ole Codgers Net, First Monday each month 21:00 UTC 20m 14.290 Latest info from Paul 2HS8000: We had great success on the net 1st of October. At one point we had 31 stations from around the globe signing in to the net. Looking forward to next months meeting. Cod-gers net forum thread Support By using our Support Ticket System you can file a support message/question and you will have a reply within 24 hours. http://www.hamsphere.com/support QSL Cards We remind our operators to confirm real QSO's with one card only. New users now get a "ready to go" QSL-template when they sign up. This makes the QSL process so much easier for them as they can start sending QSL cards without even opening the QSL template editor. Lost Password How do I get a new password? We get this question often. Here are two links to fix this. Click here to get a new password or Click here to set your own password If it still doesn't work, please contact our support and we will manually give you a new password. HamSphere on Twitter and FaceBook We have now received over 5800 Likes on FaceBook – Thank you FB users. And thank you to over 2200 followers on Twitter. Super!! Thank you for your interest and the continued Support. Kelly 5B4AIT HamSphere Founder
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