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 This weekend was the WAG (Worked All Germany) contest which I entered CW low power and unassisted. About 10 minutes into the contest things started to unravel, I was on 10m calling CQ TEST when my contest software (N1MM+) had the contact log window turn black. It came back to normal within an instant but that is never a good sign. Next, I pressed my F1 key to send CQ TEST again and it did not respond, I pressed it again and nothing. Then all of a sudden the rig keyed and the macro started to send...twice. Then the issues got worse as when I had a station come back to me and I responded with my exchange the macro would not send right away. It was very confusing to the answering station and as he sent his call again, it was then my exchange macro decided to send. 

It was time to shut down and get things sorted out. I  have had this issue in the past and thought I figured it out. In the past, my wired Lanovo mechanical keyboard was picking up RFI and causing me problems. I was looking for a fast fix and added some mix  31 toroids to where the cable enters the keyboard. I now have toroids at either end of the keyboard cable. 

I then fired up the contest software and called CQ TEST again on 10m. For over an hour, I  had no issues and hoped I had fixed the issue. This was the first time this issue had ever shown up on 10m in the past it has always been just  20m but of course now that I am contesting "MR RFI" changes things up.  Heading up to 20m and again while calling CQ TEST I had the N1MM+ contest log window go black again. It was time once again to shut things down as I couldn't contest in this situation. 

As I sat there and went over things I knew in the past I had had issues with my wired mouse, I went wireless and the problem was solved. Maybe it was time to go with a wireless keyboard? I have a Logitech K830 hanging around and thought I would put that into service and see what happens. Of course, the keyboard's rechargeable battery was dead and needed about an hour of charge time before I could use it. That gave me time to label the keyboard and look up the instructions on how to pair it. 

Logi wireless keyboard.

I was up and running again with the wireless keyboard and things were working just fine! This is a much smaller keyboard and I found myself hitting macro F keys when I was supposed to be hitting numbers. This also is not a mechanical key-type keyboard. I tend to be heavy-handed while my hands are resting on the keyboard waiting for the  CQ TEST macro to finish. The keyboard was so sensitive by mistake that I would type letters into N1MM+ call box. When this happened my CQ macro stopped (as it should) I had to lighten up my heavy hands while I was using this keyboard. 

While waiting for the keyboard to charge I made my way to Amazon and ordered a full-size mechanical keyboard. I was sure this was the solution to the issue and so far I was right. It was getting more toward evening and 40m looked like it was hopping. When I pressed my F1 CQ key my N1MM+ , Win4icom  radio control software and the web page I had open all disappeared! With everything restarted I tried again with the same results, it was time to pull the plug and think about things over the evening. The wireless keyboard was not the answer. It was time to get back onto Amazon and cancel the keyboard order.

Winkeyer with ground lead to main ground bus

I  began contesting and all was good on all bands, my fingers are crossed  BUT I have had this false hope in the past. Today (Monday) I have my weekly Medium Speed Contest (MST) in the morning and afternoon. It will be a good test to see if the issue has been fixed.
Also, I posted my issue on the Groups.io N1MM+ site and had some excellent feedback.  One common thread was the USB outer metal shell on the PC. I was told most of the time they are floating and not grounded and this can cause issues. I have a lot of USB cables connected to my PC for radio-related things. I was given a very good idea on how to ground them but more on that in another post. 

UPDATE: This morning and this afternoon I took part in the MST contest and called CQ on all bands without any issues. Maybe I have the RFI issue solved. BUT in the past I have done the happy dance to only be greeted with RFI....so we are keeping this celebration very low key. 

The forecast

This past weekend was not shaping up to be a stellar contest weekend. The sun was very active and blowing bits and bits directed toward Earth. The predictions were not looking good. On the contest groups I  follow the scuttle was "rough seas ahead" I planned to participate in the California QSO Party, last year was my first year dabbling in this contest. I was shocked at the amount of activity and I made 61 contacts the previous year. I marked it in my contest calendar as a must-do QSO party.  With the solar forecast, I was hoping to meet my previous year's score at least. 

Now that the weekend has come and gone I ended up tripling my score from last year and doubled my contacts! The poor solar weekend forecast was a flop and conditions were great. My best band was 10m  hands down followed by 15m and then 20m. The way I look at the solar forecast is just that it's a forecast and you have to wait and see.

My contest contacts

 This weekend was the IARU contest and you can participate in CW, SSB or both. As for me, it was CW only....surprise surprise. The solar weather can affect how radio operations in both a good way and a bad way. This weekend it was a bad way but that is ok as I tell myself the solar weather does not discriminate it treats all operators the same way. The advanced solar forecast prepared contesters for a rough ride but to add to it the Bz index, something we don't hear much about in Solar weather circles was deep in the negative direction. When you have poor solar weather and add in a -Bz index it just makes things worse. What it sounds like to a CW contester is one moment a signal is very decent and then gone and in most cases gone for some time. 

This is a challenge for contesters as when you hear a call sign, come back to them and get a report you generally have no luxury for repeats. If the anomaly happens mid-contact well you most likely cannot log the contact. I find during these conditions you have more stations contacting you more than once on the same band (called a DUPE). Because of the changing condition, you may think the station heard your exchange but they did not and may be asking you for a repeat and you can't hear them asking. So due to the poor conditions, they are not able to log your contact that you think was a solid contact. Whenever I have a station call me that has called me before and is in the log (DUPE) I  always work them again as you are not penalized for it. But there are a few that send "QSO BEFORE" and will not log the contact. 

Anyway, I digress....this year I was able to log more contacts (56) during very poor conditions compared to last year and better yet I almost doubled my score. Last year's score was 69,484 compared to 130,130 this year.  This contest starts on Saturday at 9 am local time and ends on Sunday at 9 am local time. I was up early on Sunday (5:15) to keep adding to the log. I am a morning person and up each day at 6 am so I was not too far off from my normal time.

The final results

I did a part-time effort in the Canada Day contest on the weekend. I  wanted to take it easy as I just had minor surgery and sitting in one spot for long periods hurts. The contest was from Sunday at 00:00 or 9 pm local time until 00:00 Monday. I was on and off during the day Monday and noticed the number of contesters was on the low side. I attribute this to Monday only being a holiday in Canada and most others were working. In the Canada Day contest you have the option of CW and SSB or a combination of both. As you may have guessed I was CW-only and unassisted. 

The solar forecast was predicting a Kp index maxing at 4 but the good news was the maxed at Kp2. I still found deep QSB (fading) on all bands (for me 10m-40m). I did manage to beat last year's score and total contacts. As always I found this contest more relaxed CW speed-wise, I was calling CQ in around 30wpm but dropped it to 26-28wpm. I found at times I would be calling CQ RAC for 5 or minutes without an answer. Because of this I had some web pages up on my other monitor and was doing some reading. Funny when an answer to my CQ did come back to me it would startle me out of my reading trance. 

This years score

My contacts during the contest

Overall the weekend had great solar conditions and huge participation worldwide. At times it was very hard to find a clear section of the band to call "CQ Contest". Some may find that frustrating but in the big picture that is a very good thing. I had some memorable contacts in Japan, Australia, St Helena Island, FK8IK on New Caledonia Island and last but not least PE4BAS fellow blogger was logged on 15m. In this contest, I ran (calling CQ contest) for about 98% of the time at about 32-24 wpm. I did have an "I can't believe I did that" moment. On Saturday just before I stopped to have dinner I wanted to try a different macro. I turned the power down to zero and tried it a few times to make sure it would work. I then went for dinner and came back to go on 40m. Now 40m openings for me most of the time do not last very long. I got right back on and started calling CQ and calling and calling. I noticed on the RBN I had no spots which was a bit odd as most of the time I can something into the U.S. Then it hit me the power was still at zero! Well, that was about 20 minutes of lost time. 

The final tally

Well, last weekend I completed my 2nd field day "event" Some don't consider it a contest. I had a blast and can't understand why I have not taken part in this event in the past. This field day was the winter field day, now I am NOT a snow bunny at all so I was at my home station with the classification H and it was only me which made it 1H for the session...event....contest. I enjoy this contest (ops I said it) because max power is 100 watts and lots of folks are operating with minimal setups. This means I have to listen hard and pull some stations out of the noise floor. I operated only CW ( surprise surprise) and the speed is not rocket speed and things are much more laid back! I found the average CW speed in around 22-25wpm and that is fine with me. It gives my ears a break from the 35wpm and up I am used to in contests. The way I look at it any practice at any CW speed is great practice. In this...contest I hone my skills by digging calls out of the noise floor and there are lots of them. So cheers to all who took part in winter field day especially those who braved the snow and cold temps! Looking forward to the summer field day coming soon.

During the 2023 Canada Winter contest I had an odd thing happen twice with the Reverse Beacon Network website. But before I go into that let's talk about what I use the Reverse Beacon Network for in contests. This site has a huge amount of stations that just listen for stations calling CQ. If you are heard then you are shown on a world map along with your signal strength to that location. This is a great tool during a contest for me as it shows where and how strong my signal is. I have used this site for years but in the last contest, something happened that never has and it happened twice.

I was calling for some time on 40m CQ contest and I was getting Reverse Beacon Network feedback from my signal. The reporting station MM0ZBH reported me but on 20m? Informing me my signal was 6dB and on 14036 and not 7.030 where I was calling CQ contest this was at 2337UTC.

 Earlier at 2212UTC the same station had reported me again on 20m this time at 14030 when I was calling CQ on 7030 and my signal strength this time was 28dB. This was odd and even more so when it happened twice in the contest. Any ideas out there and has anyone had the same issue happen to them?

MM0ZBH is the 6th station down on the list