Echolink: A love-hate relationship

I love VoIP as long as it is not related to HAM radio. For that very reason I don’t care about D-star much. Interesting technology, sure, but there’s something ugly about it – and it’s not only the puffed-up rig prices which make me dig my heels into the sand. All the wires I need end in the back of my garden and, old fashioned as I am, I think that’s the way it should be.

Yet I do use Echolink occasionally, mostly to keep in touch with people who are either out of range, or with old friends who can’t have antennas anymore. Contrary to newer systems like TeamSpeak, only licensed operators are allowed to use it. Here are a few cool places I found.

Coffee Shop?
If the Dutch hear the word ‘Coffee Shop’, there’s a good chance their first thought is something related to drugs. Not so in the USA, fortunately. I found the KB4SVP-L node aka ‘Our Coffee Shop’ while scanning all the available USA-based links and repeaters, and decided to check it out. This hangout is managed by Richard KB4SVP. Most regulars still have rigs and antennas, which make it possible to schedule a real QSO now and then. Come often enough and you become a member. Don’t show up for a while, and you will be decaffeinated. LOL! Website: http://www.our-coffee-shop.webs.com/

KQ2H via Echolink
We were spoiled lately with great conditions on 10 meters. Only 25 Watts or so proved to be enough to access KQ2H on 29.620 MHz, but the sun went into a quiet state lately. Too bad, as we all made a lot of friends there. Fortunately there’s W2FLA-R on Echolink, which is linked into the KQ2H repeater system. Great!

Reflecting vs Connecting
Should I be less negative about the Internet? Probably. Will I change my mind in the foreseeable future? Probably not. I like radio waves, not data packets. I love reflecting, not connecting. Sorry folks. Call me what you want, a dinosaur, a fossil – I’ll take it as a compliment!

Zolmmm.com / Zolmm.com – SCAM

We have an interesting ham radio mailing list here in NL, properly moderated, but occasionally something slips through which will raise all hairs in the back of my neck. Today it was an e-mail from someone advertising a website called zolmmm.com (yes, with 3 x m in the name), which immediately redirects to zolmm.com (2 m’s). Here’s the original e-mail:

Hi, good luck! Hi,
I am pohnet,here is a good news to tell you, I came accross a
website: www.zolmmm.com, they meanly sells electronic
products, they provide good safeguard and accept paypal payment,
it’s very secure. I bought a cellphone from the site and have
received it, very good quality!
Happy everyday!

The poor English alone should be enough to raise the famous red flag, but in case you’re not so knowledgeable in the field of online scams, here are the other red flags I found within 5 minutes:

- The redirect is odd, trustworthy companies wouldn’t do that. Seems like a poor attempt to hide the origin.
- The website was registered on 02/02/2012, and only for one year (typical for a hit & run scam)
- Payment options are limited to anonymous and/or unsafe systems (Money Union, bank transfer). Ignore the Paypal and CC pics, they’re just there for decoration. Paypal seems to be an option, but only if you accept a 30% price hike.
- Owner’s address in China is cryptic (and probably fake)
- E-mail address resides at hotmail.com
- Phone- and fax numbers are identical

Surf safe,

Hans / PD0AC

GlobalQSL, first impressions

Due to all sorts of reasons my new QSL cards weren’t printed, and I looked for ways to make things easier. One of them was to make use of eQSL (link), which I did, but not many amateurs use that service.

When GlobalQSL (link) came into the picture, I thought I’d give it a try. GlobalQSL is not an electronic service. I mean: it’s not an eQSL look-a-like. Cards are actually printed on high quality paper (full color, both sides) and sent through the bureau. Apart from that, there’s a lot of electronic processing going on.

After creating an account, you can download their QSL card design program. It takes a bit of time and experimenting to get it right, but working with the program is not too hard. When you’re happy with the results, you can upload your design to the GlobalQSl server. For $82, you will get 1000 cards printed, including distribution through the bureau.

You can enter your QSOs manually, or upload them in ADIF format. Multiple QSOs with the same station will be printed on one card, saving time, money and cards.

Pros (so far):

• Easy, saves a lot of time
• reasonably priced
• real cards
• price includes delivery (bureau)
• handles multiple designs and/or call signs

Cons (so far):

• Slow. Cards won’t be be printed immediately: the interval is every 2000 cards or 2 months, which ever comes first. (*)

If you are a fanatic DX or contest operator, 2000 cards is nothing. For an average Ham however, 2000 cards is something that could take a year or more. QSL bureaus are notorious for being slow, and 2 months of extra delay isn’t helping. Maybe the interval could be changed to one month?

I also ordered 100 blank cards, which will be sent to my QTH. Let’s see how fast they can print and deliver them. I’ll keep you posted.

(*) Update 10/11/2007, 14.34 UTC

Paul 4X6UU from GlobalQSL made a comment on this article about the “Cons”:

“GlobalQsl prints the cards every time there are 2000 cards to be printed to a IARU bureau. Having thousands of users uploading ADIF files every day, this means that we print cards every day for a few IARU bureaus. The only bureaus that are printed once every 2 months are the small and rare ones, like HB0 for example.

The every 2 month printing is done even if there are only a few QSLs for that specific bureau.”

Completely off topic

Today I ran into a funny (disturbing might be a better word) website (link), counting the germs on your keyboard. Just answer some questions about your way of living, cleaning habits and such and you will get an estimate of the number of germs living on your keyboard.

I hesitated a while if I would publish the result of my keyboard, but here they are: there are about 1,662,780 germs on my keyboard right now. Yuck.

30 Contesting Tips

I’m not much of a contest guy, but I really liked the contesting tips and other related articles, written by K9JY. One of the better Ham Radio blogs around, and added to my Blogroll immediately.