Hello again. With the clocks going forward, it must be Summer!
W&S:
I mentioned last time about the Waters & Stanton little Watson SDRX-1 and that it was really a re-badged DX Patrol unit. I now see that there is a Mark 11 version of the original DX Patrol beast. For those who are interested, you can get the latest info on www.dxpatrol.pt with links to the chap who sells ‘em, Tony, CT1FFU. [The email link did not work for me as at 24th March – Dick]
While on the subject of W&S, I see they have no stock of the new Micro Radar Box yet. So why advertise it for the past two months in both RadComic and PW?
I also see on their web page thing that they say they are ‘exclusive’ sellers of the SDRX-1. Well, they would be under that model number but you can get the unit under its proper name from Wimo, DD Amtek, Gianora-HSU, RF-Ham and Astroradio that I know of.
6m:
My TS-590 covers 6 meters and I have had a handful of CW QSOs on the band just using a dipole. Furthest QSOs were with OH5LK and ST2AR at over 2,500km which quite surprised me and so this year I thought I would lash out and buy a small beam. I do not worry who I work or how far away the chap is but so as to give me a little (fixed) direction I decided on a small HB9CV as anything bigger will require a ‘proper’ installation of a mast, rotator, guys and so on, so I emailed Moonraker. I got a reply back within 15 minutes. Great!
Pity then they said it was too long to post!
This raises the following question: – How would they get it to you then? I will try elsewhere . . .
UK Officialdom cont:
Last time I mentioned about the wonderful passport office and the way that they play ‘god’ to all who deal with them.
The XYL heard nothing and so wrote an email as per their web site instructions. Oh joy. Their answer stated that they had never received an answer to a previous email. But they could not have quoted stuff in their email had they not received the email from her in the first place! They also stated that we had never answered any of their phone calls. This we find strange as the mobile in question is on 24/7 for contact with our daughter and we have had nothing under the ‘missed calls’ list. [We have since found out that when they dial the XYLs mobile, they leave off the first zero, as you would do, except that the zero is part of the international dialling code so needs to be included.]
Three weeks ago, when phoned, they denied all knowledge of receiving half of the stuff she sent originally, including that they ever received the re-sent original paperwork that they asked for. When we say that we spoke to ‘Richard’ about this some weeks ago, they deny all knowledge of having someone called ‘Richard’ working there.
Then there are the rule changes – these are different depending on whom you speak to but can range from “We need a Greek bill with your name on it” to “We need a bill with your name on it but it needs translating into English” to “A copy of your Greek driving licence would be fine” to “No, a copy of your Greek driving licence would not be fine” and so on.
And of course, it is always nice to know that the treat of cancelling your passport completely if you do not supply the already supplied information really smoothes things along…
They say that Greek bureaucracy is daft and baffling, even to the Greeks, but they still have some way to go to beat the wa**ers at the UK Passport Office. Anyway, just before sending this to Deez, out of the blue, her passport turned up. It took nearly three months of worry and frustration because the left hand of the wa**ers at the passport office do not know what the right hand is doing.
And oh yes, they did phone last week but the number they gave is not available when calling from outside the UK. Duh . . .
WARD:
World Amateur Radio Day is on Saturday 18th April.
There are often awards for having QSOs on this day and PZK, the Polish equivalent of the RSGB, usually run a simple award programme. For the past few years if you have 20 QSOs on HF or 10 on VHF during the day, if you send then a spreadsheet via email, you receive an award that you can print off.
As this year WARD is on a Saturday, gaining the requisite QSOs should be no problem. Of course it would be nice if the RSGB offered a similar award but I doubt they would ever do it as it would make no money . . .
RadComic:
April RadComic arrived and I searched in vain for an apology to Annick, the blind RSGB Newsreader whose call was left out of the article last month. I only learned of her call, M0HDE, by reading the GB3RS report in the Committee Reports section, so no apology from the Editor then.
No details of the abbreviated contest call manager as promised last time by the QSL idiot, although he still gets a dig in about only sending him outgoing QSLs ‘less frequently’.
Football:
In the equivalent of the Premiership out here, called the Super League, there are two Cretan teams. One, OFI (pronounced Ofee), last week decided that it had had enough of the way the Greek FA deal with things and the way the team have been treated by ‘the establishment’.
So they quit. They just announced that they would leave the Super League then and there and decide over the next few weeks whether they will play in the 2nd Division next season or stop playing professionally at all and just become an amateur team.
For their future fixtures, any team they would have played will receive 3 points and ‘win’ the tie 3-0. Only in Greece!
Our Easter is a week after yours this year but already shops, Tavernas and bars are being cleaned and painted ready for the new season that accompanies ‘Paska’, as Easter is known out here.
Off now to open a cold bottle of Retsina – now there’s an acquired taste for you!
Yammas.
Dick. SV0XBN/9
