Amateur Radio Topics by VK6LW/VK6T

CQWW CW from a VK6 perspective. High levels of solar disturbance affected some regions but once again all bands were very busy with another record breaking year.

Preview of the CQWW SSB contest, 48 hour duration held on 25-26th October.

Low noise loop antennas, with vertical polarisation for receive on the HF bands.

Kevin, VK6LW with a general comparison between these 3 HF transceivers.

Commonwealth Contest (CW) 2025. Results, activity, propagation and comments on new rule changes. This podcast is the audio content of a video you can find on my VK6LW YouTube and Instagram channels. https://youtu.be/_S1xtdoBswE

Commonwealth CW Contest, a review from a VK6 perspective by Kevin VK6T ( VK6LW)

Commonwealth CW Contest March 8th -9th. New rules, DXpeditions to rare countries various categories. Great contest for newcomers and regular participants.

Kevin, VK6LW talks about the most important aspect of your station….The antenna system. With some practical ideas about design and construction, this podcast features the Tri OCF. A simple multiband wire antenna with some gain at low angles on the HF bands.

Kevin with a wrap up of CQWW CW contest from a VK perspective, raw scores now available on the CQWW website.

Emir D4DX (E77DX) joins Kevin VK6LW to talk about his recent visit to Cape Verde Islands for the CQWW CW contest. A fantastic result with nearly 10000 QSO’s and 21M points in the single operator category.

Kevin, VK6LW discusses his recent change in equipment from the 2 x Icom 7610 to a Flex 6600M SDR.

WPX CW contest, band conditions, scores and comments from a VK6 perspective.

Results of my recent experiences with various receive antennas for the LF and HF bands. Low noise with good SNR characteristics. Preamps and switching options. Bandpass filters and SO2R. Details of my latest delta loop designs can be found on instagram @vk6lw

2ele over 2ele stacked X beams for 20, 15 and 10m. EZNEC modelling, design, switching, results and conclusions.

BERU Commonwealth Contest 2024, wrap up, band conditions and observations from my operation as VK6T

Steve VE6WZ shares his thoughts on beverage antennas and explains the interesting development, improvement and detailed evaluation of his new BOG/BOL for 160m. For more information check out his YouTube channel @VE6WZ

This first episode for 2024 is mainly about CW and some history of the various Morse keys and paddles I’ve acquired and used over last 50 years

After some tower problems I designed and built a new X Beam with stacked elements 2 over 2 on my second tower. Intended to use this for CQWWCW…however some problems with 80/160 prevented an all band effort this year. So it was just 40m single band for me. See more on instagram @vk6lw

New antenna for 160m, also working on the 80m antenna with a second element to be added for some gain, with switching direction from the shack. Propagation on 160m, upgrade to HF tower crank up system. RX antennas, QRP CW on HF bands using simple antennas. New Shack and upcoming Contests. Any questions or comments to vk6lw.kev@gmail.com also check out my instagram www.instagram.com/vk6lw

BERU Commonwealth CW contest, 11th/12th March. Good condx forecast for HF Bands. Great contest for both serious and casual participants. Low band antennas with 80m switched 2ele/ omnidirectional array. Homebrew Bandpass filters for SO2R with automatic band switching. EDZ antenna for 20m, with good performance on 15m and 10m also. Any questions or suggestions please contact me via vk6lw.kev@gmail.c...

Perspective from VK6 of the CQWW CW 2022 contest. Comments on high scores, conditions, TX and RX antennas I used along with observations on how to maximise 2BSIQ/SO2R operation from VK6. Any questions or comments please email to me vk6lw.kev@gmail.com

Headphones, everyone has a favourite pair. There is so much choice now in comparison to when Steve and I first got started back in the early 70’s. In this episode we discuss our shared experiences and compare some models that we have found to be the best performers for HF DX, Contests and CW. Let us know about your choice of headphones and what features work for you. Send to vk6lw.kev@gmail.com an...

WPX CW 2022, wrap up, band conditions, activity and top scores. With comments from a VK6 perspective. Preview of UK and EU field day CW contest this coming weekend. Any questions or comments please email to vk6lw.kev@gmail.com and if you enjoy these podcasts please share with your friends or local club

In this episode I preview the upcoming WPX CW contest, this is a great contest especially with current improved HF band conditions. Use diversity reception with separate RX antennas, this works well in stereo mode if you have a sub receiver. X beam tri band HF antenna developments building and testing with only a single mast support, 4 directions with gain and F/B and just one feedline . I’ll be u...

Steve VE6WZ has built a great remote station, 10 acres of land on a hilltop about 100 km from Calgary. He describes the setup and operation of the station along with details of the development of his transmit and receive antennas and the outstanding results achieved on the low bands from this fabulous radio location. A tremendous amount of thought and work has gone into this station. Steve also ha...