9V1RA

9V1RA SINGAPORE JUNE 7TH 2008

A SIMPLE VERTICAL AT 9V1RA SINGAPORE

9V1RA.   Hello all radio amateurs and others interested in this wonderful hobby. Between 2007 and 2010 I re-appeared on the air as 9V1RA in singapore where I lived from 1999 - 2010.  I operated mainly on 40m, 30 m, 20m, 17m and 15m, CW but occasionally SSB.

I had a fairly simple set up just running 100 watts at present into a ground mounted 14AVQ vertical antenna but it seemed to get out to most of the world.  My  station as at April 2008 was a Kenwood TS2000, Kenwood TS570D, FT901DM (WARC) and a FT101ZD Mk III. I used a Vibroplex gold iambic paddle.  During my time in Singapore, I was a council member of Singapore Amateur Radio Transmitting Society.  I remain a member of Shirehampton Amateur Radio Club (Bristol UK) and I am a member of the Radio Society Of Great Britain.

Please visit the following websites...

http://www.shirehampton-arc.org.uk/ (Shirehampton Amateur Radio Club Bristol UK)

http://www.sarts.org.sg/ (Singapore Amateur Radio Transmitting Society)

http://www.rsgb.org/ (Radio Society of Great Britain)

If you have a question you would like to ask about 9V1RA or G4BWB, please e-mail

 at G4BWB@mail.com.

For QSL information is either direct to or Via Bureau. Please see my listings at http://www.qrz.com/

My Brother-in-law is also licensed as G3VGW.

I look forward to working you on the bands.

QSL

PLEASE NOTE: I'm not after any DX awards, so I do not usually QSL unless I'm asked for one, then I will be very happy to send one out. I appreciate that there will be many looking for 9V. If you need a QSL, you can send direct to my address above (SAE with IRC etc. or US$, is always appreciated) or via the bureau if you wish. I'll be happy to respond. However, I'm somewhat old fashioned so I do not use E-QSL.

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A little info on amateur radio in Singapore.

There are about 110 licensed radio amateurs in Singapore and out of these, maybe 30 are active, so that makes 9V quite rare DX. A number of licenses are held by ex-pats living and working in Singapore. The licence and band plans are similar to UK with some minor differences. (for example we do not have 6m band). Singapore is a highly modern super-state and many amateurs live in high rise apartments known here as HDB’s. This means that for many, antennas are somewhat restricted to very simple ‘fishing-rods’ but you would be staggered at the results some of these guys get. (Of course being 9V also attracts attention even with the weaker signals). Very few amateurs here have beams, probably only three or four. I consider myself lucky to have a vertical sat on the small lawn at the front of the house and that seems to get out really well to Europe and North America, even considering that at the time of writing, we are at sunspot minimum. Despite being few in number, it is not uncommon to hear four or five 9V stations on 20m or 17m, at any one time, so keep a listen out especially between 1500 – 1700Z. There is an award you can get for working 9V’s called the ‘Lion City Award’ and details of this can be found at the Singapore Amateur Radio Transmitting Society Website http://www.sarts.org.sg/. The Singapore Amateur Radio Society meet every last Thursday of the month except December and August. All are welcome. See the website for details.

Visitor Licences:From September 2008 it is now possible for foreigin amateurs to apply for a visitor licence in Singapore, valid for 3 months. The callsign will be 9V1/ home callsign. Three weeks is required for the application prior to visiting Singapore. Applications should be made to the infocomm Development Authority of Singapore via their website at http://www.ida.gov.sg  Please also visit the Singapore Amateur Radio Transmitting Society wevsite at http://www.sarts.org.sg for details.

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Just a thought or two...

Amateur radio faces many challenges and its survival will depend on all of us and in particular by encouraging new-comers to the hobby. So many people helped me back in those early days and it's brought me over 40 years worth of interest and lasting friendships. When I started my interest, the only other form of communication was the land-line telephone. No internet or e-mail, SKYPE or any thing like that. Yet today with all these technological wonders, there is still that feeling of something magical, when my radio transmissions leave my rather simple antenna and can be heard all over the world. For those who may just be starting out, welcome to amateur radio. I hope that you will get as much out of amateur radio as the hundreds of thousands of other amateurs have done around the world.

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73 from Bob 9V1RA / G4BWB.