Suspend the blog

Thank you for visiting my English blog.
I have no spare time to update this blog lately.
So I decided to suspend this blog for indefinite period.

I'll try to keep up and date my Japanese Blog instead.
So please visit there if you like.

73+88

Atsu

Denshin-An, A Japanese Style Rent a Home in Kyoto

I found an interesting website by chance.
"Denshin-An "
It is a kind of rental stand alone home in Kyoto where you can stay Japanese traditional style home.
http://www.denshin-an.com/en/index.html

Its name "Den Shin" means "to communicate heart (or mind)".

In same pronounceation, "Den Shin", there is another word that is .
This "Den Shin" means "Telegraph".
Therefore, for Japanese CW operator Telegraphy is a kind of tool to communicate their heart with others heart.

So, try Denshin-an and tell me your impression on the bands, Hi
73+88

Atsu

Trip to Shimane

On Dec 20 and 21, I went Shimane prefecture in Sanin district with wife and daughter.
Just one day short stay but we enjoyed, Adachi Museum of Art, Matsue Castle and Izumo Taisha Shrine.

Japanese Garden in Adachi Museum of Art

 

Matsue castle

 

Izumo Taisha Shrine

Detailes are shown in the photo album below;
http://www.a1club.net/je1trv/20131220/

Memories of Minami-Izu

We’ve been Izu Peninsula last weekend with wife and daughter.
Driving plan was as follows;

 

The final destination: Inn “Minami-Izu”
The distance to the final destination of the spa inn “Minami-Izu” is 166km.
We select the route as flat as possible since my car is the E/V (Nissan Leaf, Electric Vehicle).
In this route we stopped at the free quick charge station of Nissan dealer at 106km point.


Main event is to visit i-ZOO. i-ZOO is Japan’s largest zoo of reptiles and amphibian where we can directly touch not only turtles and armadillos but also snakes and lizards.http://izoo.co.jp/

My daughter is interested in the reptiles and she wanted to visit i-ZOO initially.
Nevertheless, she was scared and didn’t touch the snakes, etc.
Have you ever touched the snakes?

Snake’s skin is smoother and colder than I thought.
The most surprising discovery in my half century life is that it’s not wet and it doesn’t smell at all.

On the way to the inn, we visited a quiet shrine just besides of see coast.

We stayed at Inn Minami-Izu and enjoyed delicious fish dishes and nice open-air bath.

 

 

Other snaps are shown here! Look!!

 

Time flies

 

Time flies.
As for the Tokyo Ham Fair festival on 24 and 25 of August, refer to this page.
http://www.a1club.net/HAMFAIR/hamfair2013/index_e.html
That page shows all of my activity in the Ham Festival.

The day after the festival, I took K6RB, Rob to Asakusa and Akihabara area for a short excursion.
After that we went to the Thai Food Restaurant in Kuramae, Tokyo. JN1THL,
Ken and JR1CNO, Rich joined there. The restaurant is run by E21AOY, Wara.
Chat was fun and food was delicious.
Refer to my Japanese Blog page here;
http://cw.at.webry.info/201308/article_4.html

From 31 Aug to 1 Sep, I took part of the CW Open Contest.
Since I’m not a serious contest guy, I’ve managed to work about 20 stations in the session 2 and 3.
I still feel curious when exchanging the contest numbers without RST.
As I’m an old fashioned ham, I believe that we must exchange RST at least to approve the contact as a “QSO”.

Anyway, this summer was too hot and humid for me to stay at my tiny radio room at the 2nd floor. Therefore, my radio activity had been rock bottom.

In the middle of September, the typhoon swept away the hot atmosphere and dragged the cool air into the Kanto plain from the north.

The band condition on 40m in the evening time has also been getting better for DXing.
I’m very happy that the band is becoming a pretty good shape to make nice chat by CW with big bros in US.

Here is the record of CW QSOs with duration of more than 10 or 20-minute-long extracted from the log. Upper one is in September and the lower one is in August.
The data shows the change of condition from Summer to Fall.

One month ahead to the Tokyo Ham fair 2013

The Tokyo Ham fair 2013 will be held on 24 and 25 August.
I will support three club booth such as A1 CLUB, CWの里(Home of CW) and CWops.

Here is the information of A1CLUB.
http://a1club.net/HAMFAIR/hamfair2013/index_e.html

Anyone who comes to Japan this season is most welcome to our booth.

The 12th A1 CLUB QSO PARTY Result and Entry Certificate

The result of the 12th A1 CLUB QSO Party has been publiced here (in Japanese). And the entry certificate was arrived today.

HL2BM welcome meeting and guest operattion

On July 5th, 7 members from A1 Club had a welcome party of HL2BM Kim OT at Machida, Tokyo.

On July 6th, HL2BM Kim OT came to my home and operated JE1TRV station as a guest operator.

Although he turned 83 years old this year, he looks around 60 years young.
He is really tough.
As soon as he arrived at 9am, he started operation and kept keying for 3 hrs without rest.
He worked 45 statons on 40m band.
After lunch I took him to my local friend's home. And Kim san operated another 3hours or so there and worked 35stations.
I asked him How to keep young.
The reply is:
1. Be optimistic
1. Eat little & Move a lot
1. To have good hobby

I must learn from his words.

I hope to see him again in HL land someday.

73
Atsu

Morsecode on Oblivion

I've seen the movie starring Tom Cruise "OBLIVION" that has been recently released in Japan. It was interesting as well as Science Fiction, but it was a great love story too. The stage of the story is the future of 2077, but Morse code comes out. The Morse code is used in the scene which Jack Harper 49 (Tom Cruise) shows his presence from the Empire State Building. Please check at the theater for more information!

Nice Season

Yellow flowers of Carolina Jassemine is now full bloom at wooden deck. Full bloom of Double Cherry Blossoms (Yae-sakura) is aloso seen at the public park over the deck. Yae-sakura means 8 layer petal. Literally, its flower is very thick and heavy. So the trees look like drooping their heads. Shakuyaku 芍薬　a kind of Peony in my garden. Botan 牡丹　another kind of Peony is coming soon.

Spring Storm

A rapidly growing low-pressure system has passed by Japan this weekend.
We had lots of rain on Saturday evening, then very strong gust is blowing on Sunday even though Sun shine came back.

Altough Carolina Jassemine or Evening Trumpetflower has begun to bloom their cute yellow flowers, very strong gust has been blowing since early morning.
I crank down my antenna on the roof top.

Morse Tree

I made a Morse Codes Table and a Morse Tree which can be used for both International Morse and Japanese Morse.

Here your are !

As you see, Japanese Morse Code has almost double number of characters than for International Morse Code. Until 1996, we had to master both of them to get the 1st Class Amateur Radio Operator license.
In October, 2011, the Morse Code proficiency has completely deleted from the requirement of all sorts of amateur radio operators license. 

Looking for Spring Colors

Today We have been Jindaiji Botanical Park.

There are so many kind of Sakura Cherry Trees.

Some are almost finisghed some are full bloom and some are still before blooming.

We enjoyed not only Cherry Blossoms but also other spring flowers and blossoms with tasty homemade lunch box :-)

 

 

Emergency Roll Call Practice

Time flies. 2 years have been passed after the tragedy on 11th March, 2011.
The Great East Japan Earthquake is the worst largest disaster in Japan after the WW II. 15,881 people were killed, 2668 people are still missing.
The number of victims including related death counts over 20,000.
Two years ago, severe shock hit us at 14:46JST. I was in a meeting at the 21st floor of company office in Kawasaki city. The building was swaying heavily from side to side. We all had been clinging to the desk until the swaying comes calm. Few minutes after the first shock we got second shock which is same level of the first one. At that time, I thought this building might be collapsed and we are all going to die. As such, I felt the fear of death.

After two years passed, reconstruction of damaged cities and towns are still far away from expectation and also the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima is still in critical situation.

In order to keep these things in our mind and to prepare for the emergency

time, A1 Club has started the Emergency Roll Call (EMG-RC) practice since last year.

Yesterday from 10AM, the 4th EMG-RC was held on 7005KHz mode CW using international Morsecode.

A1 Club headquarter station JO1ZZZ controlled the roll-call.

The condition of participants is simple. They must use portable power source instead of commercial AC mains power.

So, some use car battery, some use engine generator, some other use just cell batteries, etc.

And many of them worked from outdoor using simple wire antenna, mobile whip, etc.

We remind with each other that it is always important to prepare for emergency time.

Here are the participants list on 2013-3-10 A1C EMG-RC;

CALL HIS MY PWR

JI3HTQ 449 599 5W

JA3NZ 579 579QSB 30W

JE6HID 339 379 10W

JF4CAK 449 599 20W

JG1QPZ 559 599 5W

JR0DIL 559 599 50W

JK7UST 449 579 5W

JA1LJW/1 559 589 20W

JR3SMX/3 559 599 4W

JJ0QGB 589 599 50W

JA2BCQ/2 579 599 4W

JO3UCS 579 599 50w

JR1CPB/1 349 579QSB 2.5W

JQ1BWT 549 599 2.5W

JA4AZS 549 599 3W

JK8SBF/8 439 579QSB 50W

JO1KPL 559 599 0.5w

JA1HMK 599 599 5w

CW FREAK NET

JI0VWL's HST training program "CW FREAK" is now applicable for Windows 7 and 8 computer. It had been usable under Windows XP for years but finally Windows 7 & 8 version has been released on March 1, 2013 as "CW FREAK NET".

Here is the English Page http://www.ji0vwl.com/cw_freak_net_e.html

This is the screen image of CW Freak Net;

Below is my first attempt result  :-)

And, the reslut can be uploaded to the ranking site easily from the menu button.

Your socore is put into the ranking on-line.

Below is the ranking page image

Why not try?

Big mistake

In this week, ending of 2012 and begining of 2013, I've noticed that I had made two big mistakes last year. The first one is that: I forgot to apply extension of my station license for fixed-hamradio-station. That license is good through till 2013-01-29. And we must apply its extension at least one month before the expiration date, that was 2012-12-29. I noticed this mistake on 2012-12-30. It was too late!! So, I can QRV on the band with max. power of 200W till 2013-01-29, but after that I can QRV with max power of 50W since my another license for potable-hamradio-station with max. power of 50W is still valid. In order to get high power station license, I must apply from the scratch with expensive application fee. My Tears (T_T) The second mistake is that: I had issued hundreds of QSL card which don't include important information needs for QSL card. That is "RST report". I'm very sorry but if you receive such imcompplete QSL card from me via the buro, please kindly inform me by e-mail or just send it back to me via the buro, then I'll issue new QSL card again. I'm afraid if this a kind of aging effect. Anyway S O R R Y m(_ _)m

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would like to thank you for everyone who worked with me on the band in 2012 and I do hope to see you more often in 2013. We wish your Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trip to JA6 land with KX3

As I posted before, I got KX3 in late August this year. However, I could not QRV until mid Nov since I must get station lisence revision pernmission from the national authority. The lisencing process in JA is still bureaucratic and old fashioned. We must revise the station lisence everytime when we add or modify own transmitter. Altough some part of process became internet system, if the transmitter is not the type approved one, it takes long time to pass evaluation by TSS, which is the only one company who is allowed to issue certificate for submitting to the national authority. Japanese amateur radio maker register their transmitter as type approved before they start marketing so that the user can revise their station lisence easier without certificate issued by TSS. Anyway, I finally got revised my station lisence in mid Nov. so that I could take my KX3 to the trip to JA6 land last week. Here is everything that I took for my trip: The preparation was OK. But i had no enough time to operate radio during my trip though. Here are set up at hotel in Beppu Spa. I took 9m wire with 4m fishing-rod. So, I extended the fishing rod from the window of 8th floor of the hotel and 4m wire along with the rod and rest of 5m of wire was just dropped from the tip of the rod. I used 5 of 5m long wire for radials. But SWR is not so good even with KX3's internal tuner. (I must consider better way to get good grounding next time) The 2nd day, our room has balconi so that antenna settin was easier. And SWR is low on 7MHz. But I could operate for short time so that I could not work with any station until the time limit that I must pack laggage for departure. It was not so good trip to enjoy amateur radio. But it was very nice trip to spend time with family. I'd like to share some photos during our trip HERE. 73+88

Looking for fall colors

As I was off duty today, I've been to Yamanakako Lake with Kyoko expecting to view colorful maple leaves there. Yamanakako is located about 1000m above sea level so that the temperature is always about 5, 6 deg C lower than my living place in Machida, Tokyo. At Yamanakako, autumn leaves festival has been held from last week till Nov.11. Although most of maple leaves are still green, we found some nice colored trees and enjoyed viewing. Mt.Fuji with white snow on its top viewed clearly over the lake. Along the lake side street, we found nice gallery. There are many attractive calligraphy works written by bamboo brush. One of them inspired my heart.