Just the way you are.

I’m going to sing this song on my friend’s stage tomorrow.

She plays the piano and I play the guitar.

At Rokkatei-hall in Obihiro.

@ 3 pm.

The Greatest Show on Earth

I purchased this Richard Dawkins’ book to maintain and improve my English reading skill.  Away from reading and writing my second language, I noticed a loss in my literacy and decided to buy a good book which was on an article of KE9V, Jeff’s blog.

It contains a lot of technical terms of  science and biology so that it will be a perfect study for me.

I do want to spare more time to read books but these hectic days prevent me from having such relaxing time.   But I’m sure I will take this book anywhere in my daypack.

CP-8040

I changed my antenna to CP-8040 which is a dual band GP produced by Diamond several weeks ago.

I had languished over pulling my R-8 down and erecting this antenna of 40 & 80m. But my R-8 had a little SWR problem and it needed some adjustment so I decided to do some physical labor on a warm autumn day.  Pulling down R-8 was really a tough trade but assembling CP-8040 and installing it on the top of the mast was very easy with its light weight.It took only about 40min. to build it from scratch.

It seemed to be enough for me to QRV on only two bands, 40 and 80m, to chat with fellow CW ops in Japan because the SSN had kept its level zero for a long time.

The antenna has worked pretty well though I need a little more power to have constant QSOs on 80m but I was satisfied with it.  I have planned to put it on another mast top on the roof and was going to rent an aerial platform  apparatus before snow comes.

This morning, I enjoyed the SKED QSO with my friend Isao, JQ2SFZ on 40m and  went up to 20m after the QSO.  Mysteriously, my CP-8040 can emit RF on 20m without any SWR problems.  Even without ATU, it doesn’t shake the needle on the SWR meter at all. I heard W6XR calling CQ on 14.018MHz. His signal was 569 to 599 with some QSB.  I tried to call him and he soon replied. He gave me 569.  I thought he was in CA but I heard he sent his QTH was NY.

I was surprised when I looked up his callsign on QRZ.com to know he surely lives in the state of New York.

Hmmm.

My signal leaped the arctic and reached east coast with only 50w.

It’s getting interesting and I think I can spare some more time to sit down in front of my rigs.

Twitter

I started Twitter.

The ID is “Brasspounder20″.

Give me your IDs.

Thanks!

I’m alive.

One of my friends gave me an e-mail and asked me if I was OK because I had not updated this blog for a while.

Yes. I’m doing well and occupied with chores.

No radio time except for SKED round table QSOs.

I will be back soon!

73 de JJ8KGZ, Leo

Go back on CQ magazine

The fiction stories of Jeff, KE9V will appear serially again on CQ Ham Radio Magazine from January to June, 2010.

The editor told me that they would like to meet reader’s requirements and asked me to contact with Jeff.   I emailed Jeff and he was willing to provide us his works.

I have to translate “Tragedy on the trail” first and forward it to CQ publishing co. by middle of November.  That story is quite long and we have to split it into two parts.

It feel honored to do this work again and hope a lot of people will read his stories on the magazine.

O America

A new song of Celtic Woman was released during their concert tour in the US.

I am going to purchase their new DVDs.

I surely love their performances.

The Power of Dream

This is a photo of my current shack.

My K2 has got fixed and come back, so my FT-1000 was removed again and is now sleeping under the blanket.  Mostly, I use Elecraft K-1 except for the QSOs with my buddies who check-in our round table QSOs or SKED.

This is really a simple shack and may be totally different from those of other OMs.   I have  FT-1000, TS-2000 and other QRP rigs but they are rarely used on my operation desk.  They are also taking a nap on the shelf.  I have other key and paddles but I mainly use this Begali Sculpture because it suits with my fist well and I am fond of  its design very much.  I sometimes use my straight key; Himound HK-1Z,  but I have a bad fist when I pound it.

I have two kinds of license.  One of them is for my 50w portable operation and another one is for 200w home shack operation, but I usually operate with only 5w even when I get on the air from my home except for my SKED QSOs.

In terms of ” love of possession”,  currently, I have nothing that I want.

Of course I always hope to have a better antenna system but my Cushcraft R-8 should be a good one for my limited house lot and it will take an active part when the SSN hits the peak with its unique low-radiation-angle.

I used to have a much bigger shack like yours when I was a house-renter.  It was equipped with the transceivers that covered 80m (3.5Mhz) to 1200MHz and 3 computer monitor displays; one linked to a PacketCluster utilizing a TNC, one for my logging software and the other one was for the internet. My antennas at that time were 5 element monoband Yagi of 21MHz and 2 element HB9CV for 7Mhz.  They were mounted on the top of a 16m-mast and I chased DXCC on SSB with shouting on the microphone everyday but without my family get-together.

I sometimes want to go back to those good old days but to be honest, I don’t need those pilot’s-cockpit-like shack as long as I operate CW.   I don’t chase DXCC anymore, not completed it though, and I only pursue and enjoy CW-contacts with buddies overseas.   For me, my simple shack is amply sufficient to get on the air and I feel comfortable with listening to the pure CW note from these Elecraft rigs, which I think they are the best ones for CW enthusiasts.

Recently, I have come to think that those fancy rigs or systems which I used to have don’t give me a push in the back.

Only the power of our dreams gives us inspirations and expands our horizons of this world.

Tokyo Ham Fair 2009

Leaving cool Hokkaido, I flew down to visit Tokyo Ham Fair 2009.

It was a little tough for me to be in the tropical-like weather in Tokyo but it was great to be with my radio buddies there.

This was the 3rd time to visit Tokyo Ham Fair since I started Ham Radio.   Hoz / JL1IRB and his wife Rie / JN1XLV, Jun / JQ1BWT and Sugi / JK7UST have prepared a lot of things for our booth of FISTS East Asia, and Nao / JO3HMP played a role as an liaison between Nancy/ WZ8C who is an Admin. of  FISTS North America.  Thank to Nancy, we had a lot of messages from members overseas and could put them on the wall.

We demonstrated CW-chatting in English using some QRP rigs with dummy loads but most of the visitors of our booth seemed to be interested in our Elecraft rigs or the other home-brewed stuff.

Masa/JJ1IZW is an excellent engineer and it is his converted SST-40 which can get on wide frequency range; 7001KHz to 7124KHz with internal batteries.

Our friends got together from all over the country and the most exciting moment for me was my FIRST eyeball QSO with Shin/JA1NUT.

We have met on the air many times and he has been a literally my elmer but we didn’t have any chance to see face to face.  If it had not been for his enlightenment,  I wouldn’t have been a CW operator now.  He didn’t have much time but was kind enough to visit our booth. Thank you very much, Shin-san for your visit.  It was a great pleasure to meet you.

On Saturday evening, my FISTS buddies and I hit the town and had drinking sessions in Shinbashi.

Photo above from Left to Right, Rick/JJ0MPI, Masa/JJ1IZW, Aki/JJ1TTG, Sugi/JK7UST, Ken/JG0MWU and Isao/JQ2SFZ.

Photo above from Left to Right, Atsu/JE1TRV, Masa/JA4MRL, Masumi/JA3AVO, Masa/JA8UUM and ….

Manabu/JE1RZR, Yama/7K1CPT and Hoz/JL1IRB (Left to Right)

This handsome guy is Taro/JR0QWW,  joined us during his business trip.

Photo above Masa/JA8UUM, Hama/JE1BKC, Ken/JG0MWU and Rie/JN1XLV. What’s so funny, Rie-san?

On the second day, we had our usual On Air Meeting; FEA Net on 7.026Mhz in the building.  Sugi/JK7UST controled the net and it was the second time for Rie to check in!

I met a lot of other people.

It was really fun.

I really appreciate all their help to have a booth.

Thank you buddies!

CU at FEA booth

My alarm clock went off at 0615 AM but I couldn’t get up and overslept for my daily SKED with Isao, JQ2SFZ this morning.  We started exchanging greetings at 6:50 and were talking for a while.  Beyond his booming signal, I heard another weak CW note but I thought it was a QRM from Europe.  When Isao stood-by for my reply, the QRM said “BK”.

It was Masa, JA4MRL.

It was the first time for us to have a BK on our SKED and I couldn’t imagine that I would hear Masa in the morning because most of the QSOs I had with him were in late nights or on the air meeting of JBA.

” ARE U TAKING A DAY OFF  OR GG TO WORK TODAY?” I asked. ” AM GG TO TOKYO BY AIR THIS AFTERNOON” he replied.

That’s right!  Tokyo Ham Fair is held this weekend and a lot of folks get together there.   During the QSO with Masa several months ago, I was excited to hear that he would come to Tokyo and we could meet face to face for the first time.  Being hectic, I haven’t prepare anything for my trip to Tokyo except booking the air ticket two month ago.  And the weekend is here.  I have to leave home around 630AM tomorrow morning and will take a flight from Chitose to Tokyo in the morning.  I will be there around 2 pm and go to the booth of FEA ( Fists East Asia) directly.

My FISTS buddies, Hoz/JL1IRB and Sugi/JK7UST mainly prepared the presentation of our activities and will decorate the booth with a lot of photos, QSL cards and a poster which Taro/JR0QWW made.  It has been two years since I went there last time.

Looking forward to seeing them again!