V44KF

Happy New Year. Everyone is dreaming about what they can do with their Ham Radio for 2024. In our part of the word that depends on the amount of money a ham radio operator wishes to put into the hobby to make it work. I have discovered that in these times a person has to exhaust all the options before spending the hard earned cash. Of course if cash is not an issue, no problem, spend as you go. There are a set of people singing the daily song that hard times are coming soon. There will be worldwide shortages of everything, and we are beginning to see it happen. Some people will be affected, and some people more than others. It behooves all of us to know which side of the river we are on, and take the necessary precautions. Ham radio equipment is still unable to replace food and other daily requirements for survival. So be very careful when planning, and try to make the best long term decisions with a positive impact on survival. Becoming a ham radio operator is not a problem, what seem...

   screenshot of 10 meters around lunchtime Saturday 02 December 2023. Greetings Amateur Radio Operators, All, from V44KF, It has been a long time, though it seems like just yesterday we were here blogging about ham radio in V4 and the region. The hurricane season ended a couple days ago, but weather is still the prime talk and they are now adding earthquakes to the chatter. But all is well in V4 and getting better from my perspective. But some may disagree with me, because I sport an optimistic attitude. Regrettably many people are letting other peoples pessimistic attitude get the better of them. This is a hard topic for many so I will just leave it there.  While I am blogging this I am listening to a G1 station that I contacted few minutes ago. He said that he visited SKB some years ago on a cruise. It is indeed great to speak to someone who has visited our country and have many pleasant memories. This was a DX moment for him so he could not hang out and rag ...

  Greetings Amateur Radio Operators All A couple weeks ago I was pleased to hear from an unofficial source that the RF interference, noise and frequency jamming, caused by the smart meters of the Electricity Company, SKELEC, had been shut down. This shutting down should have come well over five [5] years ago when the RF interference matter was raised by the Amateur Radio Society members who were directly and adversely affected. The interference matter was escalated to the NTRC, who is responsible for keeping the frequencies clean, and free from any RF interference under International member country agreements. But SKELEC refused to hear from the NTRC, and the RF interference continued to plague the Amateur Radio Operators. Fast forward to 2022, and the Government then in office lost the general elections of August 5th 2022. New Ministers were assigned to the Ministries responsible for Telecommunications and for Electricity, and within seven [7] months of being in office the RF inte...

  Another pile up on 17-meters in the late afternoon, after 17.00 local, 21.00 GMT.  That is the nature of DX. I could not hear the DX station, but I could hear  the stations calling, piling up. I did not have propagation to the DX station, only to the callers. A few minutes later the frequency went dead. I suspect that the DX station went QRT. Recently I have heard many DX stations going QRT because the XYL had called them for supper. That is very good in times like these. I guess that many of us wish that we had an XYL to call us away from the radio because it was suppertime. It is a cultural thing. I know that some of us in times past had supper, and other meals and snacks served in the shack while we were on the radio. We only ate when we got a break, when the propagation changed, and allowed us to take a bite. Those were the days when we dried out the list, we worked everyone who could hear us. The callers did not know when the next opportunity to work V4 would come,...

  wow!! The plane landed, the boat docked, and my radio station components are on the island. This is a difficulty that we learn to live with. No hardware store around the corner, or on the next street, that sell over the counter aluminum tubing which we can use to build antennas, and the cord is not rated at 500 pounds or more to hold up our expensive antennas, but we improvise and live with that. After a while you get accustomed to making decisions in faith. I still do not understand why a 100 pound test cord can be used to guy an antenna costing over a thousand dollars. Some things you just close your eyes and whisper. These things and more add to the exciting quality of LIFE in the Caribbean, and it works for us. Countdown to the start of the 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season continues. Now is the time to get prepared for anything and everything. Do not wait until the people who think that they know, make their predictions. They are doing their best with what they have, and I do n...

  Happy New Year. Welcome. Wow!! Four days gone already, there is no time to lose. In this year, what we need to do, we need to do quickly. Gone are the days when it would be tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes, is a wise saying. Something always takes it place, so with the best intentions, it never gets done. Be smart, be wise DO IT NOW. "DOIT NOW" has been a "success motivation" strategy for some of us, it always work, and helps us to be ahead of every game, all the time. Not doing it now is what keeps many of us out of the game. In hind sight many of us, if we are honest with ourselves, will recognise that we are the ones responsible for "us" not being at the head of the class. We need to adopt a "DO IT NOW" mentality if we do not yet have it. For those of us who are already there, if we rest now, we shall be overtaken and fall behind. No overtaken by our brothers and sisters, but by the negative mentality that now exists in our world today...

  Greetings. Happy New Year. Congratulations and Welcome. Let us take a moment to observe the "silent keys", our ham radio brothers and sisters who left us in 2022. Just a few days ago we lost V44KO, Lawson, a senior ham radio operator. We will all miss him for the invaluable contributions he made to ham radio and the Saint Kitts Nevis Amateur Radio Society in V4. He will always be remembered by the ham radio brothers and sisters. I am certain that much will be written about his ham radio life and style in the days to come.  A new wave of ham radio begins now. Many ham radio operators will make the usual resolutions to do more about their ham radio this year, but truth be told for many of us only the spirit is willing. I have been there so I know. Take action on your ham radio, do something because talk is cheap. Make an investment in your ham radio if you can. Show yourself that you are serious. Only practical ham radio will get us anywhere, resolutions and talk do not. For ...

We are into a new season as the official hurricane season ends with November. For those of us who favour DX, the winter months are our friend. This winter season the  V44KF radio station plans to be active. We are in the process of building and testing a few antennas to cover the ham radio bands from 40 meters to 6 meters. Before the pandemic we had 80 meter requests, but the smart meter interference blocked and jammed  transmissions of 80 meters and 40 meters. Nothing has changed for the last 5 years or so, and the smart meter RF interference is still blocking and jamming the ham radio signals. We were hopeful that this would change with the new political administration, after the general elections, but nothing so far. Anyway next month, is my time to talk directly with the Minister of Electricity and the Minister of Telecommunications and to see what is the plan to resolve these illegal and lawless violations of the the International Telecommunications Regulations. The smart...

It is the middle of October, Christmas and Carnival are shaping up nicely. People are pleased to have the return of the customary Christmas and Carnival activities and festivities which the last government had stopped. Of course that only stopped people from going onto the street, but everyone had their own personal Christmas and Carnival. Long story short, things have changed, and we are back to normal. It is expected that we will act responsibly in everything that we do, and institute and maintain our own protocols, because we are a serious people. I am still awaiting the official announcement from the regulating authority of amateur radio, with respect to the interference generated by the electricity company, which blocks and jams transmissions in some of the HF amateur radio bands. I see that the Minister of Telecommunications, and of Electricity was quite busy overseas attending conferences. He has returned but still conducting his familiarization exercises within his various mini...

  Every day brings us closer to the day when the RF interference, noise and frequency jamming generated by the electric company goes away permanently. The Minister responsible for the utilities is still familiarizing with the offices and staff under his ministries, and so we need to afford him time t get a good grasp of the areas of  responsibility under his charge. I am confident that when this RF interference matter comes up, or is brought to his attention, this RF interference matter will not be swept under the carpet as it was before by the last administration. I am willing to wait three [3] months, until the end of the hurricane season, November 30, before I begin to forcibly agitate for resolution.  I suspect that the Amateur Radio Society may also have a resolution timeline on this matter. This blog is about ham radio and how we can help our brother and sisters in the ham radio hobby to be the best amateur radio operators that they can be. We are all aware of the l...

  It is now two weeks after the general elections in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and I can begin to see that the end of our ham radio problem of interference, noise and frequency jamming on some of the HF radio frequencies allocated to the Amateur Radio Service is in sight. It has been a few years that I have not been able to make any DX contacts on the 40 and 80 meter amateur radio bands, and I am looking forward to catching up on HF DX on these HF bands. Regrettably during the pandemic ham radio also took a beating, and many older hams are now silent key, but new hams have taken over. In V4 we did not lose any ham radio operators during the pandemic, but new hams were added to the amateur radio fraternity. The ham radio outlook in V4 is changing, and has changed significantly, but the amateur radio society is obliged to run amateur radio licensing training classes for those persons interested in attaining an amateur radio license. This of itself is great, but V4 now has to get th...

 We are now down to two [2] days before the general elections for a new government in Saint Kitts and Nevis. This government has not done anything for me, and I look forward to getting a new government in place in three days time. My needs are simple. Get rid of the RF interference on the amateur radio frequencies. The RF interference is generated by skelec, as it originates from the smart meter system of the electricity company. The electric company has refused to stop generating the illegal RF interference, even though the NTRC, the alleged guardian of the Telecommunications industry in Saint Kitts and Nevis is on their case. I say alleged, because they have been unable to get skelec to comply with their cease-and-desist order. This also proves that skelec is above the law, and can do whatsoever it pleases with the blessings of the ministers of government. A very sad state of affairs in Saint Kitts and Nevis. But that reign of lawlessness can be ended soon if the voters of the Fe...

 We are in the middle of July, continuing to prepare for the hurricane season, but ham radio continues to thrive and flourish, irrespective of the doom and gloom mouthed by some hams who I suspect should know better. I do not know what is wrong with them, but it seem to be a phase that some people go through. I notice that the fallout of the pandemic has sent many hams into retirement, and health care facilities that do not allow them to be as active as they once were. It is a dramatic lifestyle change, and I do empathize and hope that the ham fraternity could fabricate a system that would allow this growing number of ham radio operators, to remain active on-the-air for years to come. This does not happen in the Caribbean with a different culture and geography. Ham radio is taking off as the world continues to embrace the passing of the pandemic, and everyone gets more comfortable accepting their new normal lifestyle. Last week Yaesu introduced the world to their third transce...