9M8Z, East Malaysia, WPX SSB 2011
Having decided to give this blog a bit of a subject matter makeover to have less of an obvious amateur radio focus, for the benefit of any readers who aren’t amateur radio operators, let me explain.
9M8Z is the callsign of an amateur radio operator in East Malaysia.
WPX SSB is an amateur radio contest run annually at this time of year.
WPX stands for ‘worked prefixes’…but enough of that!
SSB stands for ‘single sideband’ which is a form of spoken communication used on shortwave bands.
The sum of which means that I, with my amateur radio station and personal callsign G0RIF, made contact with amateur radio station 9M8Z in East Malaysia this past weekend in the WPX SSB contest.
That’s a distance of some 7000 miles using only 100 watts of power (about the same as your average pre energy saving light bulb) and a simple wire antenna. This kind of thing impresses me. 