KD4HXT Blog

Wow, I love this event.

My first time ever breaking the 500 QSO mark.  Huge suffering with mults however.  Should have spent more time searching for them, but DX was hard to come by and my work commitments on Sunday morning prevented me from working any EU opening.  Got to  bed early on Saturday night to be fresh at work, but not after working as many KBers on 80 and 40 as possible.  Did get on for 30 minutes at 5:15am before heading out the door.

For a low power station with a simple wire, running is a blast.  Took a while to find an open spot on 20, but decided that high in the band was the place to go.  Had to fight going to 40 too early and wanted to keep checking

15 with limited success but a small run.  40 was great about 8pm local and 80 by 10pm was productive.  When I got home from work on Sunday afternoon, it was a search and pounce time as I could never get a run going.  Did about 80 q's Sunday PM to get me over 500.

Never heard ND or DE.  Heard VT, he never heard me.  Lots of MD stations, but not one DC heard.  Obviously, high power stations can attract the rarer states and DX, so us low power guys need to get better at it.

Summary:

 Band  QSOs

------------
   80:   56
   40:  152
   20:  257
   15:   38
   10:    0
 ------------
 Total:  503  State/Prov = 50  Countries = 10  Total Score = 30,180 

Club: Northern California Contest Club

First, I’m a DXer.  CQWW has always been the best DX event of the year.  So do I work the contest as a DXer or a contester?  Since I’m also competitive (so my wife tells me) I decided to run it like a contest.  Goals for this year: 

4)  Try not to suck

1 - So with that in mind, our ½ time effort seemed to meet the goals.  Best ever CW score from this QTH.  Running low power with a wire loop helps you improve skills before you stick a hot brand in your hand.  Oh, did I mention that I stink at CW.  I long for a tower and more options, but not until my daughter goes to college.  We worked over 100K.  

2 - I snagged some great DX.  2 all time new ones.  6 new CW countries.  8 new band countries on 20 and 40 and 4 new ones on 80.  I’ve got some QSLing to do.  It may not seem like a big deal to work China on 80-meters to the old dogs, but it was a thrill for me.

3 - I guess the KB power goes to HC8N.  Those guys rock.   D4C has the best station for listening and transmitting, period.  Un-freaking-believable.

4 – I still suck, but kept my bottom in the chair and pounded away.

FT-950 – 40 meter Horz Loop at 25ft (open wire to Balanced match), N1MM, microHam Dig Keyer, Bencher Iambic.  I hooked to the cluster to send spots, but I don’t think I sent very many.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Operating Time (hrs): 21.35

------------------------------

80:   17     7        7 
40:   83    19       33   
20:  151    23       48   
15:   20    12       12   
10:    1     1        1 
------------------------------ 
Total:  272    62      101  Total Score = 113,448

Club: Northern California Contest Club

This contest offers the most fun you can have with a low loop of wire.  As all contests, it’s a part time effort because my Sunday is a little busy with production requirements at church. I’m really bummed that I missed 3 sections. 

PR – Heard a couple of stations from PR with huge pileups.  They never heard me.

SFL – Heard N4BP on both 20 and 15 and tried over and over to work him.  I think he’s a little deaf.

NL – The VO1 station was heard but propagation was never the best.

My runs on 80 amazed me for my equipment.  40 was the money band.  20 was QRM city.  Had several stations steal my run frequency, acknowledging that they were doing so because they have high power and more rights.  I mean one guy actually told me that.  15 was QSB land and I lost several QSO’s because reports could never be finished before a complete fade.

My first contest as a part of the NCCC!  While I’m outside the ARRL distance circle, it still drove me to work harder.  I hooked to the cluster to spot interesting stuff, but I don’t think we ended up spotting very much in the long run.

FT-950

40-Meter Full Wave Sky Loop at 25ft

N1MM

Band  Q    Sec

3.5     73   6

7       144  33

14      91   23

21      27   15

Total Q's; 335   Sec: 77  Claimed Score: 51, 436

15.92 Hours of operating

Just so you know, I stink at CW.  I can't run effectively at all.  When search and pouncing and I get all I need because I can hear it several times.  So this is almost always mostly S&P. This was another switch to try Low Power again in this contest  (with new FT-950 radio) after doing QRP the last couple of years.   (The radio rocks.  It pulls out weak signals and I can work stations on top of each other with ease.)

15-meters was a good place to start.  I was very happy with my 80-meter performance.  With my limited operating time, pretty much only heard the "Big Guns" at first.  I had three hours of op time on Sunday afternoon and found several loud QRP stations.  40-meters was open very early and I need to keep that in mind for future years. 

I'm looking forward to the SSB weekend. 

Equipment:

FT-950

Full Wave Horz. Sky Loop at 25 ft.

Digi Keyer

N1MM Software

Semi-Comfortable Chair

Class: SOAB LP

QTH: SJV

Operating Time (hrs): 14 Hours 

Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

   80:   44    6

   40:   81    24

   20:   92    30

   15:   15    8

------------------------------

Total: 232   68  Total Score = 31,552 for claimed score

This was my first year to try Low Power again in this contest  (with new FT-950 radio) after doing QRP the last couple of years.

It did not take long for Murphy to strike!  At 5:40pm local Friday evening, an S9 line noise kicked in, audible on all bands from 160 through 15.

Have not a clue of it's location. It went away about 10am Saturday morning.  So that killed some key operating periods for me.

15-meters was actually not bad.  I gave 10-meters a try several times and never heard a peep. On all the bands, I pretty much only heard the "Big Guns". After 20-meters died Saturday night, I went to 40 and pretty much nobody could hear each other.  Heard many DX stations calling with no response and they could never hear me. Went to bed early after that because Sunday was a huge production day at work.

Maybe CW weekend will have more luck.  So good ears out in radio world, so thanks for listening!!!

Equipment:

FT-950

Full Wave Horz. Sky Loop at 25 ft.

N1MM Software

Semi-Comfortable Chair

Class: SOAB LP

QTH: California - SJV

Operating Time (hrs): 10.7

Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

  160:    0     0        0

   80:    2     2        2

   40:   25    11        9

   20:   89    34       18

   15:   60    28       16

   10:                   

------------------------------

Total:  176    75       45  Total Score = 55,680 for claimed score

You may have noticed that my blog entries have slowed a little.  I've been spending what little free time I have evaluating software for logging and rig control.  It's been a real eye opener.

First, I've been very happy since 2004 using the N3FJP software 'ACLog".  It's done a terrific job of logging QSO's, being a CW machine, Cluster browser, QSL generator, and rig control.  Why change? I was starting to feel like it was getting a little outdated and my needs began to change.  I also wanted better control of software features of my new FT-950 radio.  We had to rely on other software for RTTY, PSK31 and SSTV when I wanted to use those modes.  Scott had built a nice software package and I was using his contest software as well.

Earlier this year I switched to the N1MM Contest software package.  It's been terrific and a real help in getting better scores in some contest effort.  The fact that it interfaced so well with MMITY was a real plus and it worked great in the RTTY Roundup.  That opened my eyes to taking a look at what was out there.

You should know that from 1993 through 2003 I used some old DOS programs.  Hyperlog for general logging and CT for contesting.  Both served me very well for over 10 years.

I'm going to attempt to report on what I've found and the the process I've been through to evaluate these logging programs.  Some requirements:

• Basic Logging on All Data including Grids, 10-10, IOTA, Sats, etc.
• Interface to Rig
• Interface and graphic display of Packet Cluster
• Manage and Print QSL's
• Interface with LOTW
• Built in CW machine
• Ability to manage multiple sound cards
• Built in or interface to RTTY, PSK31, and SSTV

We looked at the following packages:

• Easy Log
• WinLog32
• NGenLog
• Logger 32
• Ham Radio Deluxe
• Mix-W
• DXLab
• ComCat
• Omni Rig
• Logic

We looked at the freeware, shareware and paid programs that had evaluation software available.  As time permits, I'll go over each package and try to explain the strong points and weak points of each.  At the end, I'll reveal my choice.

I've been in Austin, TX for the last week at the Metro Media Ministers summer conference.  Just now getting this contest report out.

Best score ever in this event:

Class: SO Mixed LP

QTH: SJV

Operating Time (hrs): 19

Summary:

 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Mults

--------------------------                     

   40:   62    155     21       

   20:  103     87     26       

   15:   17      8      6       

   10:    4      1      1       

--------------------------

Total:  186    292     54   Total Score = 57,078

Comments:

Wow. At first I thought this event was a bust.  Than the Saturday night 40-meter run was a blast.  The sun went down and the band opened up.  Never even looked at 80.  Missed any openings on 10 or 15. Band condx will make log checking reports interesting.

Proof that you can have fun with a Low Loop and 100 watts.

It's been a very busy week and I'm finally getting around to writing this.

Last weekend we took the station on the road to Valley Baptist to setup and operate Field Day.  KD4HXT operated 1A with KI6OII Jason a new ham and his first FD.  With the help of non ham Scott, we strung an 80 meter full wave loop between 2 of the church buildings.  The West side of the loop was at 70 feet sloping down to about 50 feet at the East end.  Fed with open wire line, we had a killer antenna.  We ran all Day Saturday for a total of 15 hours of operation.  700+ Q's and all but 2 states were worked.

Worked a brief 6 meter opening on Saturday afternoon during the SMIRK 6-meter contest.  I figured it might be worth submitting the score:
Q: 21 - Q Points: 24 - Mults 12.  Claimed score of 288

Heck it was lots of fun and worked a couple of XE grids in the process.

Today I received a QSL from VY1EI for a 20 meter CW QSO.  Thanks Eric.

I was really hoping to experience a good e-skip opening this year.  It was not to be.  However, I did manage a qso with KH7Y during a five minute opening.  My first Hawaii 6 meter contact.  Thanks!

Due to work commitments, I missed the Sunday opening.  The good news is that I did much better this year than last, and worked most of the close in grids on brief openings.  It was good to meet my fellow VHF operators.  It's great to have a new radio and I've managed 45 grids worked since the first of May.

2008 June VHF Party
50 - 18
144 - 9
430 - 6
Total 33 Q - 39 Q Points 15 Mults for a total claimed score of 585