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The morning today was full of chores that had to be done so it was up early and go go go. That plan worked out just fine and it allow me to have some time at the radio. I listened for a bit on the CW portion of 20m and it was very slow. I then decided to stay on 20m but move onto JT-65HF and see what was happening there. Right off the bat I decoded ZS6C from South Africa I was not able to connect up with him after several tries he seem to fade off the waterfall. That sure would had been a nice contact but on the positive side I have seen him on the waterfall many times in the past so there will be more opportunities.  I did have lots of  U.S stations calling CQ as well but I was not able to make contact with any of them either day......just not my day on the waterfall. I then changed it up and moved to calling CQ...oh and this post was being written while I was operating JT-65HF you just have to keep an eye on the waterfall and the decoded message. It is going to take a while for me to get the hang of the timing down. When you call someone on the waterfall there is not much time during decode to see if they are coming back to you, coming back to someone else or calling CQ. I did have KA4HOT come back to me but we were not able to complete the QSO most likely because I'm still getting the hang of the QSO rhythm.

My contact on 20m

New and improved waterfall

Yesterday I spent some frustrating time trying to get WSJT-65 HF software up and running. I was having sound card issues and software issues, it sure was making my Saturday radio time very upsetting. I sat down and posted on my blog the issues I was having and I received lots of advice via the blog and emails. From the advice here is what I did…..with regards to the WSJT-65 HF program I made these adjustments. Bin/Pixel I set to 3 from it's setting of 7, I removed the check mark from flatten, NAvg was set to 1 from 5 and HZ was set to 0 which it was already. These settings made a world of difference to the waterfall display. Since I have the Signalink USB which has it's own sound card I was advised to just use the RX control on the Signalink for the waterfall setup. Yesterday I tried to do this and any adjustments to the RX really only had sporadic effects at best. Once the software settings were changed to what I mentioned above the RX adjustments seem to work very well. With all that was done to the program today I was able to make 2 contacts. AK4BB on 20 meters and K4OP on 30 meters. Again I just want to thank everyone who me great advice and because of that I am up and running on WSJT-X program.

Ok all you JT-65 op's out there I have some questions about my setup here at VE3WDM using the new release of WSJT-X ver 1.6.0. Here is what I am using in my setup- Elecraft k3 in DATA A mode, Signalink USB, Windows 7 and finally as I said WSJT-65 ver 1.6.0. Tigertronics has a great web page for setting up the sound card for Windows 7. I followed all the step and all seemed to go well until I noticed one setting keeps reverting back to a default setting. Once I go to the step "Setting the windows software playback levels" you are instructed to set WSTJ's sound level to 50% which I did. I kept this window open but notice once the WSJT program came out of transmit the WSJT volume reset to 100% and stays there? To get the setting back to 50% you have to manually reset the volume but once again it resets to 100% after

Reset sound setting?

transmitting. The other issue is my waterfall and really at this point Im really not sure if it's a issue or lack of knowledge of this mode. I have seen on many Youtube videos of a nice blue waterfall with yellow and red JT-65 signals. My waterfall has two very large "signals" on the left and right of the waterfall. The first picture (PIC-1) is with the signalink RX at zero so there is no decodes (that makes sense) but what are the "things to the left and right on the waterfall?

PIC-1

As I turned the volume setting on the Signalink to 9 o'clock I was able to see decodes but the mystery signals were still present on the left and right to the waterfall. This can be seen in PIC-2 but then just an hour later with all settings the same what waterfall looks like PIC-3!

PIC-3

PIC-2

So I'm not really sure what is going on with the receive RX and why the sound setting is getting reset from 50% to 100% after each transmission. Any input would be a great help to getting this mode up and running.

Once upon a time my digi experience

With reports of the solar cycle on the decline and considering I'm not a big gun station that can belt out 1KW into a multi element beam I have to somewhat raise the white flag. I'm not going to give up on CW , getting contacts into the states is great and Morse code is like having a second language and I'm not going to give it up! When the solar cycle is in a low time I find it amazing that during a CW contesst my QRP signal is still able to get across the pond. It makes me think that just the idea of a decline in the solar cycle just has hams not turning their radios on and not giving it a go. For me I'm in a condo with the MFJ mag loop antenna and then to add to it QRP power I figure over the long haul the digi modes are going to be my best option for reeling in some DX. I have reformatted my PC's hard drive and just installed Windows 7 so it's time to start fresh! I have WSPR installed and up and going, in the past I had JT65HF and PSK31 installed and making contacts………..so ham folks what's out there that you have having had great success with?? I have a balcony antenna and QRP power that can go to 5 watts max. Whats nice with the digi modes is the MFJ 1788 will not have to be constantly returned. The bandwidth required is so narrow I can concentrate of making contacts.What programs do you use and where do you get your support when things don't work out as planned? I have always become frustrated with setting up the digi modes but I am going to have to bite the bullet and plow through the up's and downs of setting up the digi modes on my PC along with my rig.     

Screen shot of my first ever JT65HF contact!

I was shocked to see that my last blog post was almost a month ago! I have been on the radio on and off but the season has been very busy with work and then Christmas as well. I was doing some blog reading on the weekend and the Digi modes were being talked about again. In the past I have tried and tried but frustration settles in and I give up and move back to CW.  This time around I took more time and looked into the operation the JT65HF program. I do have wsjtx on my PC as well but it seemed to me that JT65HF was just a bit more basic for me and would at least get me going. The rig control I am using is DXlabs and as was said the digi software is JT65HF and Signalink usb sound card. I adjusted my output power on the K3 to 5 watts to see what would happen. I saw K0TPP calling CQ and I answered him and had my first JT65HF contact. I did not have anymore time for other contacts as other things had to be done around the house. BUT......this week I am hoping to some DX contacts.

My first PSK31 contact

For some time now I have been trying to get my feet wet with the digital modes and have had no luck. This morning I gave it another go with the setup, in the past I have tried Fldigi, Digipan, Digital Master 780 and WinPSK and the list goes on. These are all great programs as many use them and have great success but as for me I just was not able to make them tick with my set up. I became frustrated and it was do to me just not figuring out the setup. As I said this morning I tried it again but from another angle, there are two programs I use to control my rig from my PC the first being N4PY's program and the other program is DXlab. The DXlab program has many modules  from rig control, logbook, propagation, DX cluster and a digital program that's called Winwarbler! DXlab already controls my

Screen shot

radio and does a fine job of it so I added the Winwarbler module and with a few configuration tweaks I had radio control and was able to read signals from the waterfall. It was now time for the moment of truth to see if I am transmitting a PSK signal. On 20m I pressed the "call CQ" macro button and low and behold my power meter showed 5 watts making it's way to the antenna!!! Next was to find someone calling CQ and make my first contact with PSK31. I saw W1AW/5 calling CQ and I gave him a call and W1AW/5 came back to me with a 599 report. I now can say that I am PSK active but there was not much time left to make any other contacts as things around the house had to be done. I was thrilled to get things up and running and the waterfall was very busy. One of the drawbacks to Winwabler is it's limited to PSK and RTTY but for now I'm ok with that.

The K3 all ready to go

This is the setup that I am running….
Rig is the Elecraft K3 in DATA A mode set at 5 watts
The sound card interface is the Signalink USB
Software is DXlab's  Winwabler
Antenna is the MFJ 1788
Some of the items on the "to do list" are
1. Set the macro's up as they are generic ones right now.
2. Learn more about the Winwabler  program.

The Cooler KX plus heat sink installed

From my previous posts my readers know I am now in the process of delving back into the digi modes with my Elecraft KX3. With the digi mods there are long duty cycles and thus the PA's in rigs sure do get a "hot" workout. In the KX3 if the heat goes to a certain point the power is rolled back to not damage the PA's in the rig. There are other events that can cause the rig to roll back power but operating in the digi modes is sure high on the list. Not wanting to operate on reduced power and not to say bringing the rig to this point really can't be good for it I have a choice operate a lower power or find some way to keep the finals cool. The heat sink on the KX3 is good but not great and therefore a

Cooler KX plus compared to stock

product called Cooler KX comes into the picture. This is a very easy upgrade to the KX3 and has been designed to not take away from the KX3's styling. The company is Canadian and Fred VE7FMN has done a very professional job on adding extra cooling ability to the Elecraft KX3. There are 2 heat sinks that are offered and they are the Cooler KX lite and Cooler KX plus. I ordered the Cooler KX plus and am very happy with my purchase. Once I placed my order Fred was in contact with me via email asking very important and clarifying questions to make sure my installation went without a hitch. The heat sink arrived very well packaged and with all the hardware needed for a trouble free instal. The instructions that came via email from Fred were very well layer out and easy to understand. I am never excited when ever I have to take apart either my Elecraft K3 or KX3 as this is the time things can get damaged. The heat sink upgrade is fairly straight forward and easy to do compared to let say the sub-receiver addition to the K3 now that to me was a nail biter. The heat sink instal involved removing two nut and bolt configuration to release the

Two PA's fastened to heat sink

two PA's from the heat sink and then 2 more screws that secure the heat sink to the radio. It was basically the reverse to instal the new heavy duty heat sink from Fred. If you own an Elecraft KX3 I would recommend this upgrade as no matter what mode you are operating in your PA finals will be cooler and thus a longer life for the KX3.