I have not had much chance to play radio much recently, busy with work and family. Did manage to get on a give some points away on the CQ WW RTTY contest at the weekend. No new countries worked but it was fun. Im still waiting for the beam to arrive. I called the suppliers and they say hopefully in the next two weeks. I hope it gets here soon before the weather turns wet and windy.

In the meantime I have been trying to get back on and catch up with friends on Olivia mode. Its a really good mode for ragchewing, if you have never tried it do so, you will be amazed by what you can do with low power and simple antennas. A very good website to learn about this mode is by WB8ROL, its very informative. If you are already doing any of the other digital modes on your radio, then you are already set up for it. During the day when Im not about I usually leave the radio monitoring 20m , 14.106MHz which is the main channel for Olivia 32/1000. This version of Olivia is reasonably fast and very good for long distance chats.

My spots are uploaded to both PSK Reporter and HamSpots. These are a very good way of knowing who is about.

Give it a try, its a very nice friendly mode…

Rob