Today I worked Wouter-Jan PE4WJ who was QRV during a trip to Switzerland (JN36HM) as HB9/PE4WJ/P. We had a sked on AO-51 around 18:00UTC. After a while I could distinguish his callsing from all the usual CQ without ears. Wouter Jan was operating with abt. 3Watts from his Kenwood TH-F7 into a rubber duck. Amazing what a bit of ground-gain can do! QSL, 5 and 9 from JO22eb

The WebSDR now receives part of the 70cm band to be able to receive some of the latest nanosatellites launched by the japanese JAXA. The STARS satellite is received very well.
See some of the doppler-shifting signals of STARS here:
http://www.PA3WEG.nl/websdr/STARS_snapshot1_1024.png
http://www.PA3WEG.nl/websdr/STARS_snapshot2_1024.png
http://www.PA3WEG.nl/websdr/STARS_snapshot3_1024.png
http://www.PA3WEG.nl/websdr/STARS_snapshot4_1024.png

Update:The system is up and running again with a clean install. If the harddisk fails again I’ll replace it with a spare one.
Due to file system corruption and possibly a bad hard drive, the WebSDR is down. On Friday the server crashed just after I went for a short vacation. I hope to fix the problem soon.

Wouter-Jan sent me a MP3-recording of SAQ calling CQ, received over the WebSDR. You can listen to it here

So far betatesting the WebSDR has revealed some minor problems. Overall the system performs very well and I will continue to test it during the coming months. Pieter-Tjerk (PA3FWM) has provided me with support and updates for which I’m very grateful. Thanks! Also, some new hardware was discussed with Wouter Jan PE4WJ and Koen PE1RCW, so stay tuned for info!

On the 24th of December, The Alexanderson machine transmitter located at grimeton, Sweden, was received in Delft. For this reception I set up a VLF receiving station consisting of a Nordholt active VLF antenna directly connected to the sound card. The VLF information was then processed by the WebSDR software, allowing people all over the world to tune in. This worked very well and the transmission of SAQ -the callsign of the tranmitter- was a RST of 599 in Delft.

During the coming months I will be testing the WebSDR software written by Pieter-Tjerk de Boer (PA3FWM). The software will be beta-tested by a select group of individuals before being released to the general public. Wouter Jan Ubbels (PE4WJ) developed and built the Quadrature Direct Conversion Receiver used for this beta-testing. By clicking on WebSDR in the menu you will be taken to the WebSDR interface. **Please note: The server port number may be changed, bookmark this site instead!** Also check out the other receivers on www.websdr.org Enjoy listening!

Pictures of our holiday to Limburg 2008 are here (text in dutch)

From left to right: Wouter Weggelaar (PA3WEG), Wouter Jan Ubbels (PE4WJ) and Gerard Aalbers (no call yet) (source: Delfi-C3 Photo Weblog)

Delfi-C3 received its OSCAR-designator: DO-64!

I hope that Delfi-C3 will live a long life and provide many amateur radio operators with “the satellite experience”

On December 19th 2007, there were incredible good DX conditions for VHF/UHF, and so I went to the Delft University of Technology Goundstation to do some DX-ing!. Wouter-Jan Ubbels PE4WJ was already there working a lot of stations. Incredible how good the conditions were! After just a few times CQ, I already had a small pile-up. Wouter-Jan was woring on 2m while I was working on 70cm. After a while we switched bands and so on…

• Best DX on 2 meters:
  • ES5PC in KO38hj 1574,0km
• Best DX on 70cm :
  • SL0CB in JO89wi 1175,9km

Below are the Grid plots of the QSOs made on 2 (upper) and 70 (lower)