DXer's Diary

In the past few days I have been setting up new server at home for “all my needs”, which includes Asterisk for VOIP telefony. Because I did not want to spend anything extra in the beginning for paid SIP trunking, I have decided to sign up with voiptalk.co.uk. This way I would be able to receive calls for no charge. It will be a kind of personal voicemail, instead of having all calls coming to my mobile I will get them nicely as an attachment in an email. The challenge was to configure system (I have used PBX in the Flash) to work with Voiptalk.co.uk.

How to do it? It’s not that hard, just login to the web interface, then in Admin tab, go to Trunks and Add sip trunks. You will need your phone number, username and password. Be aware that the password is not the one you are using to log-on to voiptalk.co.uk website. To get your password, you have to login to vopitalk.co.uk website, go to My Account section and click on your VOIPTALK ID. Easy! Now back to Asterisk – FreePBX configuration. Read the rest of this entry »

As an IT professional my work consist a lot of remote work on the customers systems. Servers are not an issue here, but what if you want to work on the remote system without disturbing your customer? This is not really possible with plain Windows XP install as only one person can be logged on at the time. Fortunately, there is fairly easy work-arround for this to enable multiple users working on one XP computer, the kind of Windows Terminal Server capability.

You have to bare in mind that Windows XP is not well optimised for this, however I had great success with 3 concurent users on one XP computer. For more users, you might need Terminal Server Licenses, the same ones as for your server. What I am going to present here is a HACK, so use it at your own risk! I certainly not recommend this for beginners. If you follow this short tutorial, you should be ok. Its peferable, almost must, that you have some knowledge of Windows registry. If you don’t know what registry is, please, don’t try this on your own and call somebody with more experience!

1. Print these directions so that you have them to work from.
2. Restart your computer in Safe Mode. 
3. Turn off/disable Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) and Terminal Services Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been quite a while, well, more than few days when I have published first part about how I started with CQWW 160m SSB and now it’s time to write something about operating. So what have I done right and what have I done wrong?

Good antenna and good transceiver is not everything. I believe it is all about the operator. If the operator does not know how and even where to listen, when is the best to make a call, what is the best approach – how to contact the DX, then all effort with building up the station is wasted. I can easily compare this with Photography. You can have great camera, very expensive SLR, but taking pictures is not about the gear, but about the person behind the camera. Good photographer needs to be creative and the same applies for good DX-er and contest-man. Experience is what everybody needs. With every contest you will gain more and more experience, you will learn how to do it properly!

But what about me? What have I done wrong and what have I done right during this contest? Read the rest of this entry »

Today I wanted to install vTiger CRM on my Windows Server 2008 64bit, but wanted to keep everything 64bit, as I was already running Exchange 2007 on this server plus few more 64bit applications.

Currently no official 64bit versions of Apache and PHP exists for Microsoft Windows. Only MySQL supports officialy 64bit Windows. If you have a 64bit version of Windows (2008/2003/XP/Vista) and want to keep your system pure 64bit here is the solution! In this guide I will show you how to install and set up Apache 2.2 x64 web server, PHP 5.2 x64 and MySQL 5.0/5.1 x64 on Windows 2008/2003/XP/Vista 64bit using unofficial binaries. I have successfully installed everything on Windows Server 2008 64bit which was already configured as AD, IIS, Exchange 2007, DNS and DHCP.

Download needed software

Download unofficial binaries for Apache x64 from blackdot.be:
http://www.blackdot.be/?inc=apache/binaries
Current version: httpd-2.2.10-win64.zip

Download PHP x64 from fusionxlan.com:
http://www.fusionxlan.com/PHPx64.php
Current version: 5.2.5

Download latest official MySQL 64bit binaries for Windows:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/ Read the rest of this entry »

When I have returned back to home from work and had something to eat I have decided to look at 20m to see if there is still anything to work. As it was getting late I did not have much time before the band will close completely so fired up my computer and checked cluster if there is anything I need.

I have spotted one new one – J79XBI as well as few other, but not needed as the J7 one. Upon listening to Seth I was able to quickly determine that he was working split accross 10Khz down from his transmitting frequency. By pressing the relevant buttions on my Elecraft K3 I could listen to the pilepup in one ear and J79XBI in the other. It took me few minutes going up and down, trying to find out where to place my call. When I have heard that Seth was just talking to EA station on 14140 I have decided to call on the same frequency. Success! By carefully planning I was able to make the much needed contact and snatch new DXCC for me. My new Hexbeam is certainly doing its job and K3’s 120W output was enough to make this QSO.

After that I have moved a little bit up and quickly exchange 5/9 reports with D44TXS. He was working also split 5up, but again 120W to my Hexbeam did the job.

There was nothing else I needed on the cluster, the band was not very live so I have decided to find clear frequency and do few calls to see what will happen. I did not have to wait for very long and PY6KY answered from Brasil. After him while I was still beaming to SA I was called by AD4FI. EC8OJ followed with good solid 5/9. Certainly the band was still a little bit open. I felt that I might have chance with South America, so I kept calling until LU4LA answered. He gave me solid 5/9, I have heard him with little QSB 5/5. I was very happy with this one. My short session ended with EA8CDP. I would like to thank all of them to listen to my CQ.

With help with a good friend of mine – Tim M0URX I was able finally to pick few pictures I have taken in the past few years and Max ON5UR created this QSL card for me. I should have the printed version anytime now, so all of you who are waiting for one should not wait for any longer.

For me, a QSL card is more than just a confirmation of a 2 way radio communication. It can tell someone a lot about you and your station and your interests in the hobby.

So what do you put on your QSL card? Think about the design you want, it will be only as good as your imagination allows. How about a photo of you in the radio shack, or at the helm of the newly furbished club station or a photo of you in pursuit of another hobby? Or a photo of that tower and the SteppIR at the top of your garden!

Remember that your QSL card may be used by others to claim awards so you should always remember to put on all relevant information. For IOTA claimants the IOTA number and the Island qsl-mw0jrx-backname MUST be printed on the QSL card. NOT hand written. I may live in land locked Central England but we are IOTA Reference EU-005 Great Britain Mainland and this MUST be on my QSL card to be valid for an award claim. Your IARU Locator number, WAB square, Longitude and Latitude, CQ Zone, ITU Zone, Station Equipment are all as useful and as important as the QSO report panel box, your callsign and name on the QSL card.

I would like to send my big thanks to Tim M0URX and Max ON5UR for their help sorting me out.

Over the course of last 2 days – Saturday and Sunday I was working on replacing my aged quagi beam antenna with Hexbeam. It all went well, my new Hexbeam is up and performing very well. I will certainly write more about the process of building it, but for now I would like to share my excitemet with you as I was able to snatch another new DXCC few minutes ago! I have had lovely chat with John VP8KF from Falkland Islands. Yes, for most of you this is nothing special, but I believe this was my frist time I have heard somebody from VP8, but not only that. I had to wait until John will finish his quite long contact with another G3 and then carefully presented my call.

John have heard him straight away and I was over the moon. Certainly my new Hexbeam is performing well, in the end of the day it is like a 2el full size yagi on 20m. This way I would like to thank John for the opportunity to have a good chat with him.

VP8KF

Since the beginning of this year I have received few QSL cards directly by post. I am still waiting for new cards through the bureau, but are happy to receive any direct. I would even say I am happier. Anyway, I would like to share all cards I get with all of you, scan them and publish them in my gallery. So here is the second batch:

Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend I have take part in CQWW 160m SSB contest, organised by CQ Magazine.

So here is my story. All started just before Christmas, when I an my fellow ham Viliam OM0AAO were talking about 2009 and what we should do. Viliam have already looked at sme contest and picked quite a few, starting from the January ‘09. Unfortunately, I don’t have as much time as Viliam, but still wanted to be competitive and first contest which I have decided to go was CQWW 160m SSB. The contest is always organised to be the last weekend in February. I have started to prepare for this contest quite a while ago.

I had to answer few questions:

1. location
2. equipment (radio, amp)
3. antenna!

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I tried another wonderful feature that built in this Nokia e71, VoIP SIP client. After several testing, it’s works! Now, my e71 not only as my mobile phone but also my “mobile office extension phone”! It become an Unified Communication Device with combinations of several features e.g. mobile phone, emails, web browser, extensions phone, instant messenger client etc.

In order to connect your Nokia e71 SIP ( Internet Call ), there are some configurations are needed in your Asterisk Server. You may refers to my sip.conf settings as below :

[1010]
type=friend
secret=1234
qualify=yes
port=5060
pickupgroup=
nat=yes
host=dynamic
dtmfmode=rfc2833
dial=SIP/1010
context=from-internal
canreinvite=no
callerid=device <1010>
call-limit=50

You may also like to configure the “realm” in the sip.conf under [General] context, else you may leave it as default which is “asterisk”. Read the rest of this entry »