Author: ON5ZO

Glad the contest is over. Never thought I’d say that but this one… I don’t know what to think. The rates were horrible. I only had one fast hour of 117Q/h. That was 11.00 to 12.00utc on Saturday. Next bests are 98 and 89 and that’s it. In the biggest contest of the year. Compare that to all the CW contests I did this year where I have several +100 hours in a row. My conclusion? It seems that for SSB contesting you need more power than 1kW and more than a tribander up at 21m above the ground. Conditions were not too good but they have been all year so that can’t play. Maybe the OB11-3 does not play as well as the KLM KT34XA? It’s at least as good on 10m and better on 15m but maybe slightly less on 20m? But then again it has worked great in the CW contests.
One thing I am sure of: Viva CW!

The score is way down compared to last year.

• 2006:  1508 QSO – 114 cty – 35 z  =  420.180 points claimed.
• 2007:  1360 QSO – 107 cty – 32 z  =  378.219 points claimed.

The operating was a real QRM fest. And splatter! A couple of times I had a decent run going and then – whoops, all RX wiped out. On many occasions I knew there were DX stations calling me even with fairly good signals but when the QRM is S9+20dB you cannot copy those. I compiled a list of stations with VERY wide modulation that came (too) close to me.
My first run was early Saturday when the band was still closed but I thought to stick on that frequency and reserve a spot for when things got hot. A couple of CQ’s in vain and then there was OH0JFP firing away on my frequency. He’s forgiven as he couldn’t hear me but his CQ raised a small UA pile up.
Then at 06.19 along came UA3SAQ about 3kHz below me. 3kHz is a fair margin you say? Sure but with 12kHz wide signals I could move. He could hear me as he worked me right before he started to run.
At 08.00 OL5M was only 8kHz wide but of course a show stopper. 08.06 EW6GF popped up less than 1kHz away. That set the tone for what was to come.

Oh yeah, when you make a remark to those guys about how they are greedy for spectrum they don’t seem to understand. Standard reply is that they did ask if the frequency was in use. Errr, that was not what I was saying!
On Sunday at 06.20 LZ9W was 10kHz wide and at 07.20 ES375UT was 8kHz wide but he blamed the ‘strong propagation’ (sic). At 10.23 I was finally working more than one JA but RZ3LC decided to crank it up and with his 8kHz wide signal: exit JA. 10.25 was closer to home ànd someone who actually spoke / understood English. G6PZ was running East which is right over me but 8kHz wide and S9+40 although more than 2000Hz away. His reply to my remark that he wiped away all signals on my running frequency? "Well that’s great thank you". DUH!
Most funny guy must have been IZ8CKT who was more than 8000Hz wide but said -and I quote- his radio was only 20W at the moment. Another guy who doesn’t seem to get it.
My ‘measurements’ for the occupied bandwith were done like this: I zero beat the signal, move up/down until the QRM is manageble and multiply the offset by two. So in fact the bandwidth might even be bigger but as long as you can hear what’s under it…
And when I finally found a new multiplier towards the end (FS/K1XM at 17.52utc) YT5S wiped away the confirmation. Thanks for that mate! I think K1XM logged me and got my call correct but these impatient jerks just spoil all the fun.

It wasn’t all that bad and there were some nice things too. Being called by nice (double) mults for instance. Especially at the point where I realized I didn’t have a single VK or ZL in the log. Too bad ZL6QH quit! Then at 10.09 on Sunday ZM2M called me followed right away by VK4WR. That’s so sweet: 4 badly needed mults in half a minute. Again I didn’t work Alaska – hello guys?

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EDIT: I forgot some irritating other things:

• Those #{|@{|@{   ‘last two’ callers… Normally I just ignore them until they give me a full call but in a contest this hurts the score.
• Everyone just going ‘QRZ’ in stead of just giving their call. This goes just as fast and makes things go smoother.
• Beiging called by ‘Mobile station calling’ or ‘QRP station calling’ – why not simply give me your callsign in stead of making me repeat that very same sentence?

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Counting down to CQ WW CW, which will most likely be SOAB(A) if WX permits. Can’t wait for a good CW contest because CW is the real mode, SSB is just passing time. It’s the difference between working a contest and enjoying a contest.

73 / CU!

Today is the first day of my autumn break (1 week) and the day before CQ WW SSB. I slept almost 3 hours longer than on a working day, I needed it. I’m having mixed feelings about tomorows’s contest. The good thing is that’s it’s a contest and it has been over two and a half months since my last contest – but that wasn’t really a success. I really need to get away from it all. More precise: get away from work and empty the head. So what better than a contest?
The bad thing is that it’s SSB. Not my prefered mode, to say the least! And though I really like SOAB, I decided to go SB20. Here’s why.

• SSB for 48 hours? No way!
• SSB on the low bands? No way!
• Retune my 80m antenna from CW to the SSB subband? No way!
• Any other SSB-friendly band that supports DX propagation right now? No way! With 15m being very spotty and 10m a total wasteland…

So here’s the deal for today: clean up the shack and operating desk, hook up the headset for phone operation, do some work around the house, crank up the tower, take a shower, (try to) make some QSOs and hopefully won’t be disappointed when the band is (seemingly) dead.

BTW: my 3830 score from 2006 is this weekend’s target. I doubt I’ll pull this off…
More after the weekend, 73 / CU as OQ5M on 20m.

Yesterday the shack PC gave a bunch of XP errors. I could not fix it and with the contests coming up, I decided to do a format C and then a clean install. Everything is working OK now in all 3 modes, even the MK2R+ and the USB device router were configured quickly.

20m seemed quite dead this evening (1800z), not too many stations and those who were there sounded pretty weak. Yesterday however 17m was ok (1500z) but then XP acted up… I hope 20m at least will have some propagation in a few days!

I decided to play some radio this weekend and entered the JARTS RTTY contest. A part time very casual entry. I am by no means an RTTY lover but any radio activity beats no activity and I remembered from last year that it was fun. RTTY people use LotW a lot which is good for my RTTY DXCC / WAS. Not that I work towards these but along the way we might get there.
Much to my surprise 15m produced good results to JA and the USA. Maybe the earlier pessimistic solar forecast was wrong? Let’s hope!

The JARTS exchange is the operator’s age. I think the average (RTTY) contester is way over 60 with roughly estimated 150 W QSO, 25 JA and the rest DX+EU for a total of approx. 300 QSO. Youngest age reported was 30, the oldest 89. The 99 numbers are for multi-op but I can’t exclude the occasional 99 year old RTTY operator.

Working this RTTY contest gave me lots of time to think about the upcoming CQ WW SSB. It’ll be SB20 HP. I hope that WX will cooperate and let me crank up the tower and that conditions are reasonable. As I type this it’s 18.30utc and while there are still US stations calling in with fair signals, I don’t know wether the band is already closing or that there is just not too many activity anymore?

That’s all for now. I’m going QRT and process the log. 73!

I’ve been counting down to cycle 24. I want sunspots, I want propagation, I want bands to open up and stay open. I want to be on 10m again!
Then K1TTT posts a message on the CQ Contest reflector with a link to this bad solar news. Say it ain’t so indeed! Two cycles gone to waste? That means I’ll be retired (retarded?) by the next decent cycle…

Various:
By coincidence I ended up on the website of the hamfest I visited a few weeks ago and saw myself with ON7WZ and someone handing out flyers. It seems that I sneak in there each year.

Last night K7GK called me on the phone to say that 20m was wide open. We tried a QSO but I immediately knew it would be a mission (almost) impossible with the tower cranked down. East coast would work, West coast with the current solar activity? Nope, phone didn’t work and CW only barely. That brings me back to the topic of this posting…

Other than this, nothing to report. QRU ES QRT

This AM, I worked 5 ZL stations in a row at my sunrise – on 80m! Plus a bunch of VK/ZL on 40m, and a loud ZL7. My verticals really do play. Each vertical has 2 (tuned) elevated radials, and I think it is the simplest and cheapest antenna to work DX.

I spent an enjoyable Saturday in the company of a visiting US ham and let him use my station in the EU Sprint CW. I think he enjoyed it and made the most of my setup. What a great hobby we have!

73 before we jump into the working week…

Breaking news! I cranked the tower up this afternoon and around 1800utc there was DX life on 17m, I worked into W6/W7! I don’t think I made it that far on 17m in a long time. 3B7C yes, but W6?
Then I dropped to 20m where I worked some VERY loud W6/W7 again but VA2ZZ pinned the meter on 30dB over S9, with a peak to 40dB over. Currently SFI=69 and A=0. I can’t stop wondering what my setup will do when SFI goes above 100… Can’t wait for 20m to stay open and 10m to carry loud DX signals. And of course nice DX on 12/17m. And SSB single band contesting on 15m! Anyhow that ain’t gonna happen before 2009-2010.
But a little dreaming hasn’t hurt anyone – yet.

NW QRU – 73 ES QRT.

I was not very active in this weekend’s CQ WW RTTY. I made just over 100 QSO’s, mainly on 20m. SFI = 65 and A was high, so you can imagine what the bands were like. Probalby S&P would have been much more productive but I like to run.
That got me thinking about CQ WW SSB. I did SB20 in 2005 and 2006 and probably again in 2007. I don’t like SSB and especially on 40m it’s a pain. But 20m with these conditions? It’s been a long time that I had a decent DX run… I hope Cycle 24 will soon be here! I can’t wait for USA runs with high rates and big signals. And bands that actually open up and stay open.

About the hamfest: I didn’t buy anything. Actually I don’t need anything. I checked some rotary inductors for a high power matching network and an AC motor with reduction to crank up the tower electrically. But I guess I don’t have the time for all these projects right now and I didn’t feel like stocking too many items for future use. I sitll need to redo the 80m vertical that I have used for over a year in a temporary construction (hey, it works!) and get that bargain three band vertical up ‘n running.
I met a lot of people though and had a chance to chat with some amateurs.

NW QRU. 73!

Typical situation: too much work to do and no time left to be on the air. Not quite work but close enough: I’m watching some ASP.NET movies trying to get started. It’s quite fun. I downloaded Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express and it’s actually quite powerfull for those familiar with one of the programming languages like Visual Basic. I am currently converting myself from VB6 to VB2005 for which I also downloaded the free Express Edition.

The Linux – Open Source community likes to bash Microsoft but here’s the deal… Last summer I experimented with the Ubuntu Linux Distro. That works but it’s a pain to get to the point where it starts working. Furthermore my laptop’s WiFi cannot be supported under Ubuntu (if someone knows how: please tell me!) – so there you go. Then I ran Drupal as a Content Management System (CMS). Drupal gets credit for being the best CMS – but again quite a pain to get started. It seems like that Linux – Open Source is like a brotherhood not willing to share easy info for newbees but only publishing tons of very confusing stuff. I think I am above average when it comes to using computers so I figure it’s a Mission Impossible for Average Joe.
But Microsoft products work, or at least easily give the impression to do so. And with the free Express Editions anyone can get started for free, and there is a lot of good starter’s material out there!

This weekend is CQ WW RTTY. I like RTTY but after an hour I have enough of that slow mouse clicking mode. I’ll get on for a couple of QSO’s, and maybe work some in the "Special QSO Party to mark 75th anniversary of Irish Amateur society". And there’s the Texas QSO Party too. Always nice to work some USA hams. And on Sunday there’s Belgiums biggest ham fair. But you know: Big in Belgium…

That’s all for know, 73.