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CQ WPX CW contest….well I started with great hopes!
30 May 2022 | by  |
| Intentionally left upside down as this was how things turned out. |
Well here we are it's Monday and as I look back to Friday and the dreams of contest sugar cookies dancing in my head and how things can change! The contest was the CQ WPX CW contest and as of Friday evening I was all ready to give it a decent go. The propagation numbers were not in our favour as the Kp index rolled up to 5 and thus lots of signal QSB.
It was Saturday morning and I was just beginning to call CQ TEST when my dear wife came in and announced "I think I hear water running come and have a listen". Those words are any given day are not what you want to hear. The contest came to a grinding halt and it was taken over by contractors, plumbers and various odds and ends. I was able to get in and out of the contest but only for very short times. The outcome was a poor showing but a better and upgraded plumbing!
For the limited time I was in the contest here are some of my take a ways from it:
As said the conditions on Saturday were poor and I found myself calling CQ TEST and as time past with no answer my mind began to wonder. Looking around the shack, looking at the operating desk and icons on the desktop. Then all of a sudden an answer came and I was not at all ready for it. Thus repeats and some frustration.
I really wanted to work in the contest at improving my run abilities and it was just not happening as I was calling CQ TEST sometime for over 10 minutes with no answer. I then went to search and pounce and did up my score that way. Lesson learned....go to search and pounce when calling CQ TEST is just not happening.
Murphy did hit me with the plumbing issue as well my own carelessness...for example when I setup my CW macros and tested them before the contest I turned the power out to zero. Well this ham radio guy forgot to turn the power back up to 100 watts and for about 20 minutes I was calling CQ TEST with ZERO output!! To boot the radio have a LARGE meter showing zero out and my LDG tuner has the same. Lesson learned to pay attention and not to wonder.
Not much else and since this is not a home repair blog I will skip the very expensive plumbing repairs.
Below is the final score.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
CQ WPX CW contest….well I started with great hopes!
|
| Intentionally left upside down as this was how things turned out. |
Well here we are it's Monday and as I look back to Friday and the dreams of contest sugar cookies dancing in my head and how things can change! The contest was the CQ WPX CW contest and as of Friday evening I was all ready to give it a decent go. The propagation numbers were not in our favour as the Kp index rolled up to 5 and thus lots of signal QSB.
It was Saturday morning and I was just beginning to call CQ TEST when my dear wife came in and announced "I think I hear water running come and have a listen". Those words are any given day are not what you want to hear. The contest came to a grinding halt and it was taken over by contractors, plumbers and various odds and ends. I was able to get in and out of the contest but only for very short times. The outcome was a poor showing but a better and upgraded plumbing!
For the limited time I was in the contest here are some of my take a ways from it:
As said the conditions on Saturday were poor and I found myself calling CQ TEST and as time past with no answer my mind began to wonder. Looking around the shack, looking at the operating desk and icons on the desktop. Then all of a sudden an answer came and I was not at all ready for it. Thus repeats and some frustration.
I really wanted to work in the contest at improving my run abilities and it was just not happening as I was calling CQ TEST sometime for over 10 minutes with no answer. I then went to search and pounce and did up my score that way. Lesson learned....go to search and pounce when calling CQ TEST is just not happening.
Murphy did hit me with the plumbing issue as well my own carelessness...for example when I setup my CW macros and tested them before the contest I turned the power out to zero. Well this ham radio guy forgot to turn the power back up to 100 watts and for about 20 minutes I was calling CQ TEST with ZERO output!! To boot the radio have a LARGE meter showing zero out and my LDG tuner has the same. Lesson learned to pay attention and not to wonder.
Not much else and since this is not a home repair blog I will skip the very expensive plumbing repairs.
Below is the final score.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
Cruising the Blue Ridge Parkway
In May, we met up with our friends Paul/KF9EY and Beth/KB9DOU for a trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Joyce/K0JJW and I had been on the parkway before but had not completed the whole route. We all thought it would be a great trip to do together, in about a week, so we would not be in a rush. Both couples have Class B RVs (camper vans), which are well-suited for such a trip.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is part of the National Park Service, construction started in the 1930s and took decades to complete. The basic concept is a scenic road with a maximum speed limit of 45 MPH connecting Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Shenandoah National Park. We met at the Smoky Mountain end of the parkway and traveled north to Shenandoah.
Of course, we included some Summits On The Air (SOTA) and Parks On The Air (POTA) activations. The Blue Ridge area is target-rich with SOTA and POTA opportunities.
Clingmans Dome
Our first Summits On The Air (SOTA) activation was from Clingmans Dome (W4C/WM-001), the highest spot in the Great Smoky Mountain NP. This is an easy activation with a half-mile hike (one way) to an observation tower. See my previous trip report here.
We opted for a simple VHF SOTA activation, using a Yaesu FT-2DR handheld transceiver and an RH-770 whip antenna. The observation tower was not too crowded and we were able to make a surprising number of 2m FM radio contacts. We just called CQ on 146.52 and raised a number of home stations, mobile stations, and a few campers. Joyce, Paul, and I all completed at least 10 contacts so we decided to submit the activation for both POTA and SOTA.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Then we headed up the parkway, stopping along the way for photo opportunities, a winery visit, lunch stops, and short hikes. We stayed at different campgrounds for three nights along the parkway. To activate the parkway for POTA (K-3378), we stopped at a picnic area for lunch and set up for 20m SSB. We used our typical POTA setup: Yaesu FT-991 driving an end-fed-halfwave antenna supported by a fishing pole.
The station worked well for us but it was a little slow completing contacts on 20m. A 20 AH Bioenno battery supplied the DC power for the FT-991 and we kept the RF output at around 50 watts. I used HAMRS on my Windows PC for logging and it worked well for me. (That logging program keeps getting better with each revision.) Paul and Joyce preferred to log using old-fashioned pen and paper.
Loft Mountain Campground
We camped the last two nights of our trip together at Loft Mountain Campground in Shenandoah NP. This is a rather unique spot in that the campground is located on top of a broad SOTA summit and is inside a national park. The SOTA summit is appropriately named Big Flat Mountain (W4V/BR-009), while Shenandoah NP is park K-0064. This makes for an easy SOTA plus POTA activation.
The summit is located inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, which may require you to coordinate with the NRQZ before operating. However, the W4V Association Reference Manual says that “the typical SOTA activation does not require coordination,” mainly because it is a short-term, temporary radio activity.
Once again, we operated midday on 20m SSB and had reasonably good propagation. Joyce and I made some stateside contacts but when Paul took over, he snagged a couple of European stations. That might be due to his superior operating skill or maybe the band just shifted. Between the three of us, we made 45 QSOs in about an hour or so.
Summary
We had a fun time on this trip, which is another example of blending SOTA and POTA activities with a camping vacation. Our “leisurely pace” strategy worked out well and we were never in a hurry. Of course, there are always more things we could have done. The Blue Ridge Parkway has plenty of interesting tourist, hiking, and SOTA/POTA opportunities. Too many to do in a week.
73 Bob K0NR
The post Cruising the Blue Ridge Parkway appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.
Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
Ham College 89
Ham College episode 89 is now available for download.
E6D Toroidal and Solenoidal Inductors: permeability, core material, selecting, winding, transformers, piezoelectric devices
George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].
A History and Critique of Field Day Logos
My favorite amateur radio event of the year, by far, is Field Day. Each year ARRL issues a new Field Day logo. Let’s take a look at logos of years past.
First, let’s get the mediocre ones out of the way.
Now let’s look at some good logos.
2007 and 2013 had cute cartoon logos. Not bad.
2005 and 2014 were yagi antenna years.
Radio waves are a common theme, as seen in the 2006, 2015, 2019, 2010, and 2022 logos. In 2008 we had Ride the Waves, but with a sine wave representation. (Hey, why are there two of us transmitting on the same frequency?) This logo is nice. It is visually appealing, free-flowing, yet more sophisticated than a lot of the logos. But ditch the yellow. Please.
2016 and 2017 had monochrome style designs. I like both of these as they have a simple, yet cool feeling. 2017 was another yagi year, though we got stacked yagis as a bonus. Are those more radio waves, and emanating from a boot? In any case, I give FD16 an A+ for the outdoorsy color choice and the hiking boot footprint. Well done.
And now for the best logo, evar…
This article was originally posted on Radio Artisan.
Anthony, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com.
LHS Episode #468: Hamvention 2022 Deep Dive
Welcome to Episode #468 of Linux in the Ham Shack. The hosts are back from Dayton Hamvention 2022 and have stories to share about their experiences. We touch on everything from booth visits from other podcasters to hedonism on the road to everything else under the sun. We want to thank everyone who listens to and supports our program for getting us to Hamvention for another successful conference in Ohio. We hope to do it all again in 2023.
73 de The LHS Crew
Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].
Hunting For NDBs in CLE280
It's CLE time once again. This is a challenge for all newcomers to NDB listening and the ultimate test of your medium frequency receiving capabilities. Can you meet the challenge?
When tuning for NDBs, put your receiver in the CW mode and listen for the NDB's CW identifier, repeated every few seconds. Listen for U.S. NDB identifiers approximately 1 kHz higher or lower than the published transmitted frequency since these beacons are modulated with a 1020 Hz tone approximately.
For example, 'AA' near Fargo, ND, transmitted on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier was tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident could be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone was actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone was 1054 Hz.
Often, one sideband will be much stronger than the other so if you don't hear the first one, try listening on the other sideband.
Canadian NDBs normally have an USB tone only, usually very close to 400 Hz. They also have a long dash (keydown) following the CW identifier.
All NDBs heard in North America will be listed in the RNA database (updated daily) while those heard in Europe may be found in the REU database. Beacons heard outside of these regions will be found in the RWW database.
From CLE organizers comes the following CLE info:
Hello all
Our 280th Co-ordinated Listening Event is almost here.
Can new 'listening eventers' join in too? YES, PLEASE!
Joachim and I are always pleased to help first-time CLE logs through the harvester program.
Days: Friday 27 May - Monday 30 May
Times: Start and End at midday, your LOCAL time
Range: 350.0 - 369.9 kHz
Please log all the NDBs you can identify that are listed in this range (it includes 350 kHz but not 370) plus any UNIDs that you come across there.
You can find full information to help you, including seeklists made from REU/RNA/RWW, by going to the CLE page http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm and clicking on CLE Seeklist there.
Please send your 'Final' CLE log to the List, if possible as a plain text email and not in an attachment and - important - with 'CLE280' and 'FINAL'
in its title.
Please show the following main items FIRST on EVERY line of your log:
# The full Date (e.g. 2022-05-27) or just the day (e.g. 27)
and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz - the beacon's nominal published frequency, if you know it.
# The Call Ident.
Optional details such as Location and Distance go LATER in the same line.
Please always include details of your own location and brief details of the receiver, aerial(s), software and any other equipment you were using.
Joachim or I will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 20:00 UTC on Tuesday so you can check that your log has been found OK.
Make sure that your log has arrived at the very latest by 08:00 UTC on Wednesday 1 June. We hope to make all the combined results within a day or so.
Good listening
Brian
-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE coordinator)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(Reminder: If you wish you can use a remote receiver for your loggings, stating its location and owner - with their permission if required.
A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, whether local or remote, to obtain further loggings for the same CLE)
These listening events serve several purposes. They
• determine, worldwide, which beacons are out-of-service or have gone silent since the last CLE covering this range
• will indicate the state of propagation conditions at the various participant locations
• will give you an indication of how well your LF/MF receiving system is working
• give participants a fun yet challenging activity to keep their listening skills honed
Final details can be found at the NDB List website, and worldwide results, for every participant, will be posted there a few days after the event.
The NDB List Group is a great place to learn more about the 'Art of NDB DXing' or to meet other DXers in your region. There is a lot of good information available there and new members are always very welcome. As well, you can follow the results of other CLE participants from night to night as propagation is always an active topic of discussion.
You need not be an NDB List member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers.
Remember - 'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!
Reports may be sent to the NDB List Group or e-mailed to CLE co-ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above. If you are a member of the group, all final results will also be e-mailed and posted there.
Please ... give the CLE a try ... then let us know what NDB's can be heard from your location! Your report can then be added to the worldwide database to help keep it up-to-date.
Have fun and good hunting!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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