I was fortunate to do just that a few days ago, drive a Ferrari 360. My employer organised a ‘track day’ for some 200 employees by way of reward for completing a major project. The event was held at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire where I thoroughly enjoyed 5 or 6 laps of the 1.7 mile National Circuit.
My (I wish) Ferrari 360 Modena. Nice!
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On the day, the cars were pre-assigned, so it was down to the luck of the draw as to which you got to drive, a Ferrari 360 (2 of), a Porsche 911 turbo (1) or an Aston Martin V8 Vantage (3 of).
I was very much hoping I would get to drive the Ferrari and was mighty relieved when the organiser read from his list, “Dean, you’re in a Ferrari”. Result!
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Kitted out with my crash helmet for safety purposes it was a snug fit in the drivers seat but a quick adjustment to the seat and I was ready to go. A quick briefing from my instructor about the workings of the paddle shift (F1 style…nice) and I engaged first gear and we headed out onto the circuit. Joining the circuit, foot down, 2nd, 3rd…big V8 roaring behind me…brilliant!
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The 1.7 mile circuit runs clockwise and has a good mix of fast straight section, high speed corners and tight slower corners. There is also a very nice high speed right-left flick of the wheel chicane.
The pulling power of the 400bhp V8 was incredible but more than that it’s the stopping power and grip that impressed me. Pouring on the power out of the corners, throwing it into tight turns at speed, braking very hard at times and not a hint of those fat tyres letting go. It really does give you the confidence to push hard.
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National Circuit layout
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My 5 or 6 laps (I honestly lost count I was having so much fun) just flew by. The hardest part was just trying to learn from lap to lap how to make a better approach to each turn the next time around. The problem is that you’re so busy driving (and enjoying yourself) that you never really get to take account of just where you are on the circuit. The instructor was very ‘light touch’ with his advice but he really does help you to get the most from your short spell at the wheel. I was smiling to myself when he said to me, “there’s no need to brake there…trust me, I’ll tell you when you need to brake.” 
I’m sure with more laps I’d have soon been pushing even harder but sadly, all too soon it was time to head back to the parking area to hand over to the next lucky driver. The Ferrari 360 was a great car to drive and at slower speeds, very sedate and civilised. Out on the track though is where this car belongs and I feel privileged to have experienced a little of the automotive legend and racing pedigree that is Ferrari.
Dean Pictures, Totally random Ferrari 360, Rockingham
Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. At 11:28 UTC the sun reaches its highest point on the celestial sphere. Days will now start to get shorter as we move to the winter solstice and the longest night.
You may not know that the longest day is in fact always longer than the longest night due to the reasons detailed on this page - Comparative Lengths of Days and Nights. An interesting bit of trivia.
For now though, for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the longest night and the winter that comes with it are several months away so let’s make the most of what summer remains and a happy solstice to all!
Dean Totally random solstice
DXpeditions are funded in many different ways.
- Sometimes the operators will fund themselves entirely bearing all personal travel and equipment transportation costs.
- Sometimes a DXpedition will be funded by a group or organisation who’s members have an interest in that DXCC entity being activated.
- Some DXpeditions might be sponsored by equipment manufacturers.
- Some DXpeditions may be sponsored by the individual donations of many hams around the world in support of a rare entity being activated (often one that they personally need).
- DXpeditions can also be funded by any combination of the above methods and of course other methods not listed here.
The crux of all of this is that there is often a degree of ‘obligation’ to make sure that those sponsoring the DXpedition get a fair chance at working them. This is where it can get a bit tricky.
Read more…
Dean Amateur Radio, Life... 3C0C, ARRL, DXCC, dxpedition
The YI9PSE QSL card
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Here we have the very nice YI9PSE QSL card confirming my two QSO’s, 20m and 40m CW. It was a challenge getting them in the log. It’s sometimes more of a challenge to get the confirmation afterwards.
Fortunately some of the larger Dxpeditions do all they can to make it easy to get their card, as was the case here.
Thanks to all of the YI9PSE team for giving me this chance at a new one and thanks for the contacts!
The large version of the YI9PSE QSL card can be seen in the DXpedition QSL gallery linked from the menu above.
This now makes it 178 DXCC entities worked with 162 of them confirmed by card. I have 125 LoTW confirmations and 164 in total (by either card or LoTW). |
Dean Amateur Radio CW, G0RIF, QSL, YI9PSE
I was minding my own business last night working a bit of 20m RTTY. Conditions weren’t great and the band wasn’t particularly busy but there were a few stations in QSO as I tuned across the RTTY sub-band between 14.080 and 14.100MHz, all of them within Europe.
I found myself what appeared to be a clear spot up around 14.092MHz and sent the usual ‘QRL QRL ??? DE G0RIF BK‘ a time or three to see if anyone was using the frequency. On getting no reply I set about calling CQ to see who I could work.
I worked a few stations and had just cleared the last of those when I saw in the decode window ‘DE RA1DIO RA1DIO RA1DIO PSE K‘ (NB: RA1DIO is not the actual callsign of the Russian station in question). As this was spot-on my calling frequency I took this to be a tail end call so I sent a quick RST/NAME/QTH transmission and waited for his reply…which never came.
Read more…
Dean Amateur Radio, Totally random CQ, QRM, RTTY
VP2MCC QSL card
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Last week I received my first batch of cards from the bureau this year. I’m not particularly active so I don’t expect many cards - I’d guess that about 250 to 300 a year come in via the bureau.
I usually get 80-90 cards per delivery and at least one or two exotic ones. Not this time though.
I have to say that this most recent delivery was a bit disappointing - 58 cards and nothing in the least exotic, just the usual EU stuff, a hefty proportion of which are Spanish, German or Italian. |
Interestingly, while updated my log for those cards received, I noticed that most cards seem to correspond to contacts made almost exactly a year ago. An interesting measure of bureau turnaround times and broadly in line with most peoples expectations where 12-24 months is considered ‘normal’.
I’ll console myself for now with this nice card received (also last week, direct) from VP2MCC (Montserrat) for a contact back in March where Nick (G4FAL) operated from Gingerbread Hill, St Peters, in the British Commonwealth Contest. Interestingly, a 3 month turnaround.
Over time it’s interesting to see how different QSL routes ‘perform’. My experience is that it is usually (but not always) quicker to QSL direct. However, whenever possible I do use the bureau, and it does work well. It’s not the system that’s the problem - it’s managing your own expectations because not every delivery will include cards confirming new ones or hard fought DXpedition contacts.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures QSL, VP2MCC
Approaching 75,000 QSO’s in their log and less than 12 hours before they go QRT. The E4X operation will soon be a thing of the past.
Pushing 80 watts into my bit of wet string I managed to snag them twice - 20m RTTY and 30m CW on two separate evenings. The RTTY contact was plain sailing but the CW contact was a bit hairy.
Conditions were never really great and there was some fading (QSB) on 30m on the night of my QSO. I’d been calling in the pile for a while before operator Bernard (F9IE) came back to me with ‘RIF?” to which I replied ‘G0RIF”, hoping he’d confirm my call, give me my report and I’d just send the usual ‘599 tu‘ and log him. As luck would have it though the fading coincided with his confirming my call and although I thought he’d got it right I wasn’t 100% sure of the last character. Had I heard an F‘…or a U‘, an R…or something else?
I erred on the side of caution, just in case he still didn’t have the call entirely correct, and sent ‘de G0RIF 599 tu‘ only to hear the back end of his ‘tu‘ call as my TX dropped out. Did he have my call correct or not? A slightly nervy wait to see if I was in the log but it was all okay in the end.
The E4X ops seem to have done a good job of working band/mode combinations. I see that some stations have as many as 23 band/mode contacts logged, quite an achievement!
I’m pleased with my 2 contacts though, so much so I didn’t even bother chasing a 20m CW contact when they were loud with me on Saturday, having worked them on 20m previously for my RTTY contact and with CW in the bag by virtue of my 30m contact.
Dean Amateur Radio CW, dxpedition, E4X, RTTY