I’m not dead…

For those who are actually following my blog, thank you! It’s been awhile since my last post and I just want to say that I’m not dead and I’m still active in the amateur radio hobby. Just not on the air as much as I would like. Since it’s been awhile, there will be a lot of reading.

What Happened?

Noise! The ever increasing noise at my QTH has led me away from the airwaves. Or has it? I haven’t been interested in making contacts lately. Not sure if it’s because of the noise, solar cycle, equipment, antennas, lack of enthusiasm or a combination of them all.

Broad-banded Noise At My QTH

I’ve also been doing other things that had taken me away from the blog. For a couple of years I was at the helm of my local radio club and dedicated a lot of time and energy to it. I was very excited when given the opportunity and was hoping to move the club into the future and make it more exciting. However it proved to be difficult and it was getting to a point to where I felt it wasn’t worth the time away from my family. It felt like the board wasn’t really sharing the same interests and that was made apparent when I left when they reverted most of my decisions. Can’t fight the status quo when it comes to ham clubs. However, there were many good times, met lots of nice people and I’ve learned a lot so it wasn’t time wasted.

What Am I Doing Now?

I’ve been dedicating a lot of time and effort into helping those interested in amateur radio to get licensed and help those who want to upgrade by providing free amateur radio examinations. Towards the end of 2017, I created a Laurel VEC team in Western Massachusetts known as the “Pioneer Valley VE Team“. We now have over 25 VEs and administered over 8 exams throughout the pioneer valley. Our goal is to connect new hams with local and national clubs. We are currently the only VE team in Western Mass that is giving out free exams.

Just one of our examinations!

I’ve also worked on various amateur radio related kits and projects. Built one of the MicroBitX QRP transceivers. I’ve also destroyed it trying to install modifications. Might buy another one with an updated board.

My uBitX before it broke.

To combat the noise issues I have, I got my hands on Noise Canceler kit from VK5TM from Australia. It has a decent price (around $60USD) and it didn’t take that long to assemble. The hardest parts I’d say were winding the torroid and soldering these very tiny voltage regulators.

The VK5TM almost completed. Cut the shafts on the pots so the knobs don’t stick out

It works very well. I tested it by tuning into WWV at 5MHZ. Prior to the build, I could never clearly hear the signal. I would just hear little bits and pieces. After putting the canceler in-line, the was a major different

Here is a screen shot of it in action. On the Waterfall, you’ll see when I switched it on or off.

I have since been able to enjoy SSB and actually make contacts. Bit of pain having to adjust it but if there is a station I need to talk to, I can easily turn it on and adjust.

I Have Been On The Air

Just not really much from my QTH. I have been using Dave Robbin’s (K1TTT) contest station here and there. He is an excellent host.

Dave’s 40m/SO2R station during 2019 WPX SSB as NE1C.

He has an impressive station. The downside is after you leave his station, go home and turn on your station, you get bummed out about all the missing signals. I really enjoy contesting and I don’t think I’ll ever get away from it.

I’ve also done some FT8 here and there. It’s a really excellent mode and I think it’s a godsend for those operators who can’t have a large station. I see a lot of operators dismiss the mode claiming it’s a cheap way to get DXCC but I see it as a mode that re-generates interest in Amateur Radio.

FCC Petition

As of writing this, The FCC is still seeking public comments about my rule making petition to give residential preference to hams applying for a vanity callsign when the applications are in competition (multiple people applying for the same call). There is still a few days left before they close comments.

You can read about it in detail here

The Future

There are some changes coming to the NT1K shack and I hope that I will be back on the air participating in chasing DX and contesting . I’ve abandoned my dreams of SO2R (For Now). I’m concentrating my efforts on being able to enjoy operating from home again. I’ve sold off basically all my gear which includes my amp (that I miss very much), roller tuner, KX3 and I am currently selling my K3. I am going to have a fresh start. I’m going after a cleaner station with more antenna options.

Since spring is here and summer is around the corner, I doubt I’ll be able to dedicate time to my station. I set my goal to have my station fully operational again on all bands for the CQWW SSB contest.

I guess you’ll have to stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

ARRL DX SSB 2018 – Extended Soapbox

With the not so great weather we had around my QTH, I figured to turn on the radio and participate in the ARRL DX side band contest this weekend. It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve did any sort of SSB contesting from my own station. It’s a combination of the solar cycle, RFI from solar panels in my area and being spoiled by operation at contest station K1TTT.

This happened just a couple houses away. The trees on my street have seen better days. They are not mostly hollow and were constantly shedding limbs. Thankfully the town cut the tree that was directly in-front of my house. They left the stump but after this weekend, I’m grateful. However, I was worried about my roof mounted beam (CL-33) surviving the weekend.

Getting Back On The Air

I was surprised to turn on the radio and hear signals… Everywhere. It sort of felt like 2011 again. My ears piqued and I was scrambling to set up my logging software and headset. I recorded my macros and away I went.

Since I wasn’t really planning on putting in a serious effort (Which I have yet to do from my home), I turned on the cluster and did mostly S&P (Search and Pounce). I was sticking with 20 meters with the hopes of entering as single band until I looked at the rules. Since I was using the cluster/telnet, It puts me into the “Unlimited” category that doesn’t have single bands. I ended up entering as “Single Operator All Band, Unlimited, Low Power” (SOAB(U)-LP). I went with low power because I no longer have high power gear at the QTH.

My Goal Was 100 QSOs

One should always set a goal. I decided to be easy and make just 100 QSOs. I figured with the way 20 meters was sounding, I should be able to get that in a couple hours. Nope! I had to fight a bit because I was running low power. I started noticing a lot of spots on 15m so I went over a played.

It took a few hours but I met my goal. Turned off the radio and did stuff around the house. I though I was done but Sunday morning came along and knew there was more people out there.

Don’t be an appliance operator

I was starting to get frustrated during the contest. I recall being easily able to work Italy and Germany. I was struggling. The mix of QRM from everyone trying to squeeze into a tight band, local RFI and poor conditions wasn’t doing well with me. That was until a colleague made a side comment about features of my K3 that I wasn’t using.

I narrowed the filter to use my 1.8Khz filter, shifted the filter, turned the AGC from fast to slow, enabled the noise blanker and turned on the noise reduction at times. My biggest aid was the RF Gain knob.  All of those combined made operating in my environment much easier. I paid good money for this equipment and I am certain you did as well. Take advantage of what you have. In my case, I forgot about it.

Overall thoughts

I ended up making 155 contacts. I was hoping to make 50k points but life took me away from the radio.

There are some “ATNO”  (All Time New One) contacts in the log. Z60K (Kosovo) sticks out. I thought PZ5K (Suriname) would be another but I worked PZ5RA back in 2015. Hopefully I get some new band slots.

I had fun. It proved that I could do contesting from home. I have to work harder but it’s still possible.

Thanks for reading!

Recording Contest QSOs

You will see on my past couple of posts that I am starting to record my contesting. I’ve received a few questions about how so I figured it deserves a blog post.

I’ve been interested in recording contacts since I found GW4BLE’s online recording archive. If you ever worked him in a contest, you can go to his website, search his logs, and be able to listen to the exchange. I was amazed by this because I was always interested in how I sounded. I wanted to do the same.

The obvious choice was to contact GW4BLE and ask him how. I wanted the exact same thing. However his response was that someone else wrote the software and that I would have to contact that person. I tried with no response so I wanted to find another way. I was disappointed because it appears they do not want to share. I will have to find another way.

Some web searching later I came across a plugin for N1MM+ called QSOrder written by Vasiliy Gokoyev (K3IT). The software/plugin does exactly what I want… Almost. It’s able to record contacts and make individual files or it can record the entire contest or both. Since it appears to be my only option, it will do.

QSOrder Setup

How the software works is that it listens to a soundcard and creates a buffer. When you hit the log button on N1MM+, it will trigger the software to make a recording X amount of seconds before and X amount of seconds after the contact. It can create individual files for each contact or it can record the entire contest or both.

In order for the software to work properly, you need to make sure you have installed the LAME Encoder. This allows files to be output in a compressed .mp3 format. Each 45s recording ends up being around 170kb

Another thing you would need to do is modify an .ini file in N1MM+ to enable UDP Streaming. This is how QSOrder knows when to set the buffer and obtains the QSO details to create the file name from.

You would also need to setup your audio and this varies depending on your setup. If you have some kind of sound card interface that has it’s own sound card built in (like the Signalink), you can use that. If not, you will have to find a way to get the audio from the radio to the computer’s mic or preferably the line input.

Software installation is straight forward if you follow the directions listed on the QSOrder website. I would suggest you install it in a subfolder right off the main drive (C:/qsorder for example).

I would also suggest for the first couple times to run the software from a command line instead of trying to click on the executable. The reason why I say this is because if you have multiple sound cards, there is a good chance that QSOrder will default to the wrong card. You would have to tell the software to use a different card.

If you have experiance with DOS or other CLI clients then you should have no issue getting this up and running

QSOrder Review

As a person who is used to using a GUI (Graphical User Interface. i.e. Windows), the setup and install was a bit tricky. Even more so when I had to tell the software to use a different input device/sound card. However it wasn’t really that bad to get up and running.

Software works exactly like it should. It records contacts and makes .mp3 files for each contact. I would suggest that you make a test contact well before the contest to make sure both N1MM and the recorder is working. I would then listen to the mp3 file to make sure the levels sound good. I made a mistake on my first recorded contest and everything was loud.

Can it run with the big dogs?

Yes it could. There were a couple times where I had 100+ hr rates and the software held up nicely. I would love to try it out at a multi/multi contest station where I could get bigger rates to really test it out. But for my station, it works out great.

Now that I have all these mp3’s, what should I do?

I wanted to have the exact same thing as GW4BLE. However OSOrder doesn’t create a searchable DB that can be displayed on website for others to search. I also see that GW4BLE records the entire contest on one mp3 file and the software/website/db links to the section of recording that you want to listen to. QSOrder outputs each contact on it’s own .mp3 file.

However the filename allows you to easily make a directory listing of your contacts. I was able to print a directory listing and some cut and pasting later, I was able to share them here on my blog. Even though I now have my contacts online for all to listen, it’s not searchable like GW4BLE’s site or wintest.

Can This Be Automated?

I still wasn’t completely satisfied. I would like for an All-in-one software that will record the contest, upload the files to a website, create a db and make it searchable from a website. But for the price I shouldn’t complain at all. I decided to contact Vasiliy and see what can be done about it. I e-mailed him in November and he did agree that it could improve. At first I didn’t think nothing would become of it but a couple months later I got an e-mail saying that he created a searchable index with the use of the cloud storage service “dropbox”.

All I have to do is create a dropbox account (free 2gb storage), link my account through his website, upload my files to a subfolder that was created and embed an iframe into my website or QRZ page.

Check it out for yourself. Who knows, you might have contacted me. If not type in “K1KI” to see both a phone and CW contact.

You can embed this into your website or even your QRZ.com profile. It makes for an exciting page.

I was able to beta test this feature and even though I am not a fan of using a third party service like dropbox, it’s much easier to upload, search and manage. Vasiliy was very responsive and I am glad he devoted time to making it happen.

Contest Rules And Reg

Even though I love to share my recordings, I found out that uploading your contacts directly after a contest could cause some trouble. Other operators could use your recordings to scrub their logs for more points. In CQWW contests rule number 9 states

9. Correction of logged call signs and exchanges after the contest, by use of any database, recordings, email or other methods, is not allowed.

I would suggest to wait until after the log submission deadline to post any records publicly.

I hope to record more contests for all to enjoy. I hope that you do as well. It’s great to see how one sounds on the other side of the signal.

Thanks for reading,
Jeffrey Bail (NT1K)

ARRL 10m Contest 2015 – Soapbox

ARRL-Flag-waving-Large_54

Contest season for me is still going strong. This past weekend was the ARRL 10M contest. I was looking forward to it because our local amateur radio club participates as a group effort and I would like to add to the effort. Last year I managed 345 contacts which I ended up with 103,452 points. I guess my goal is to break that.

I decided to enter as a single operator, low power without using assistance of the cluster/skimmer. I knew band conditions weren’t going to be so great. It wasn’t going to be packed with juicy multipliers everywhere and felt that I wasn’t going to be having high rates.

This year I put more focus in CW contesting. Without the cluster/skimmer I knew that Morse code will be much harder. No problem, I need less assistance anyways.

Starting Off Slow

0z came and I was off to the races. However around here 0z is 7pm and the band is pretty much closed to skywave contacts. There were a handful of local ops running and I managed to make contact with them. It was nice to make contact with locals. Plus it’s nice to see who around here is playing. through out the contest I would keep tabs on them and see who they were contacting.

I went to  bed making only a dozen or so contacts.

The Contest Continues On

I woke up Saturday thinking it would be like Christmas morning as a kid. Got my coffee and hopped on the air expecting wall to wall contesting like years past. Well the solar cycle slapped me in the face this year. There wasn’t much on. However I hear DX stations so I will work them!

South America was really strong. I was hoping to make some contacts with countries I need like Boliva and the Falkland Islands.

I ended up not making many contacts on Saturday as the day was nice and I had other on my mind. Propagation predictions said I should be around 2pm local time for the peak but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ve notice some locals putting a good effort though.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

After the run I had on Saturday, I wasn’t expecting Sunday to be much better. Sure enough I got on the air and it confirmed my feelings. I don’t think I made any European contacts. I concentrated my efforts on making contacts to west on CW. I needed a bunch of states for the ARRL triple play award so my efforts were on the US and SA.

The K3’s filters are amazing!

arrl10m2015-sdr

Here is an SDR shot of the CW section of 10 meters on Sunday. Compared to last year, this screen is empty. If you look to the right side of the image you will see a very strong CW signal. I thought it was going to wipe out the other two or three signals nearby. When I tuned into those signals, I could barely notice the strong station. It was there and I can hear it but it didn’t really affect the signal I was trying to listen to. This was very nice considering I don’t have a CW filter installed. I was using the 1.8Khz filter.

On SSB the filters got a workout as well. There were multiple loud Brazilian stations almost on top of each other. This is where the 1.8Khz filter really came in handy. I was able to hear each station even though some of the other stations were in the passband. Maybe it’s the kool-aid talking. Not sure.

Claimed Results

Once the band died down to local traffic, I called it quits

arrl10m2015-score

Made a 132 contacts. With the multipliers, I ended up with 26,000 points. Nowhere near the 103,000 I made last year doing mostly SSB. You will see that almost half my contacts were CW.

It was fun but you can see the solar cycle taking it’s toll. I better start working on better antennas for 40, 80 and the 160m bands. A good kick in the butt to make 5 band DXCC as I already have 10, 15 and 20 locked down.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff – NT1K

ARRL 10M Contest 2015 – Recordings

Did I work you in the 2015 ARRL 10M contest? Then it’s most likely I have recording of our contact. Look below to see your call.

 

Contest took place December 11th, 12th and 13th 2015

Callsign Mode Date Time Band Link
AA1JD CW 20151212 011309Z 28MHz Listen
AA1JD USB 20151212 003302Z 28MHz Listen
AA5B USB 20151212 161430Z 28MHz Listen
AB1WT USB 20151212 191356Z 28MHz Listen
AB1XW USB 20151212 160056Z 28MHz Listen
AC4CA CW 20151212 182526Z 28MHz Listen
AC5K CW 20151212 162623Z 28MHz Listen
AE5GT CW 20151212 163628Z 28MHz Listen
CE3CT CW 20151213 185354Z 28MHz Listen
CO6LC USB 20151212 155756Z 28MHz Listen
CR2X USB 20151212 180739Z 28MHz Listen
CT1DVV USB 20151212 161015Z 28MHz Listen
CW5W CW 20151213 185545Z 28MHz Listen
DK8ZZ CW 20151212 153338Z 28MHz Listen
DL1IAO CW 20151212 153238Z 28MHz Listen
EA4TX CW 20151212 154009Z 28MHz Listen
F5IN CW 20151212 154234Z 28MHz Listen
F6HKA CW 20151212 140454Z 28MHz Listen
HA3DX CW 20151212 141204Z 28MHz Listen
HG7T CW 20151212 140900Z 28MHz Listen
HH2-N5JR CW 20151212 184311Z 28MHz Listen
HH2-N5JR USB 20151212 133127Z 28MHz Listen
HI3CC USB 20151212 134027Z 28MHz Listen
HI3TEJ USB 20151212 133859Z 28MHz Listen
HI8JSG USB 20151212 132755Z 28MHz Listen
HI8K USB 20151212 135659Z 28MHz Listen
HK1MW CW 20151213 183729Z 28MHz Listen
HK1T USB 20151212 155252Z 28MHz Listen
HT7C CW 20151213 183438Z 28MHz Listen
IQ2D CW 20151212 154334Z 28MHz Listen
IT9YVO CW 20151212 153518Z 28MHz Listen
J68HF USB 20151212 191517Z 28MHz Listen
K0FX CW 20151212 163148Z 28MHz Listen
K0NM CW 20151212 163247Z 28MHz Listen
K0SN CW 20151212 182411Z 28MHz Listen
K0UK CW 20151212 162749Z 28MHz Listen
K0WA CW 20151212 163528Z 28MHz Listen
K1CPJ USB 20151212 010748Z 28MHz Listen
K1KI CW 20151212 001648Z 28MHz Listen
K1KI USB 20151212 011112Z 28MHz Listen
K1NYK USB 20151212 191658Z 28MHz Listen
K1SND CW 20151212 004744Z 28MHz Listen
K2GAV USB 20151213 193538Z 28MHz Listen
K5NA CW 20151212 163344Z 28MHz Listen
K5TR USB 20151212 160943Z 28MHz Listen
K6XT CW 20151212 182331Z 28MHz Listen
K7BG CW 20151212 183025Z 28MHz Listen
K7GS CW 20151213 184818Z 28MHz Listen
K7JR USB 20151213 192849Z 28MHz Listen
K7RAT CW 20151212 182652Z 28MHz Listen
K7YK USB 20151213 192521Z 28MHz Listen
K8IA CW 20151212 183126Z 28MHz Listen
K8TE CW 20151213 191929Z 28MHz Listen
KA1ZD USB 20151212 002717Z 28MHz Listen
KB5KYJ USB 20151212 160534Z 28MHz Listen
KC1CQ USB 20151212 010556Z 28MHz Listen
KC1XX CW 20151212 004522Z 28MHz Listen
KC1XX USB 20151212 010119Z 28MHz Listen
KE7X CW 20151213 183635Z 28MHz Listen
KP2XX USB 20151212 132411Z 28MHz Listen
KY7M USB 20151212 185247Z 28MHz Listen
LR1E CW 20151212 184039Z 28MHz Listen
LU1FKR USB 20151213 214643Z 28MHz Listen
LU5FC USB 20151213 212952Z 28MHz Listen
N0KV CW 20151212 163919Z 28MHz Listen
N1IXF USB 20151212 132832Z 28MHz Listen
N1KWF CW 20151212 011426Z 28MHz Listen
N1TQP USB 20151212 161521Z 28MHz Listen
N2KW CW 20151212 005711Z 28MHz Listen
N5FO CW 20151212 162925Z 28MHz Listen
N6SS CW 20151213 183338Z 28MHz Listen
N7AU USB 20151212 185130Z 28MHz Listen
N7IR CW 20151212 183050Z 28MHz Listen
N7ZZ CW 20151212 163725Z 28MHz Listen
NC0B USB 20151212 162153Z 28MHz Listen
NP2P CW 20151212 135950Z 28MHz Listen
NR5M USB 20151212 161254Z 28MHz Listen
NU1O CW 20151212 005605Z 28MHz Listen
NU1O USB 20151212 010211Z 28MHz Listen
NV1Q USB 20151213 210839Z 28MHz Listen
P40S CW 20151212 184518Z 28MHz Listen
P40S USB 20151212 155459Z 28MHz Listen
PA3EVY CW 20151212 153906Z 28MHz Listen
PA3GCV CW 20151212 153044Z 28MHz Listen
PJ2T CW 20151212 184438Z 28MHz Listen
PJ2T USB 20151212 191023Z 28MHz Listen
PJ4DX USB 20151212 185740Z 28MHz Listen
PP5JD USB 20151212 181613Z 28MHz Listen
PP5JR CW 20151212 184649Z 28MHz Listen
PP5JR USB 20151213 194800Z 28MHz Listen
PR4C CW 20151213 191137Z 28MHz Listen
PT3T CW 20151213 184154Z 28MHz Listen
PT3T USB 20151213 214218Z 28MHz Listen
PU5CSF USB 20151213 194927Z 28MHz Listen
PX1M CW 20151213 190851Z 28MHz Listen
PX2B USB 20151212 190023Z 28MHz Listen
PY1NX CW 20151212 183224Z 28MHz Listen
PY2WWA USB 20151212 134252Z 28MHz Listen
PY2ZXU CW 20151213 190004Z 28MHz Listen
PY4YY CW 20151213 213916Z 28MHz Listen
PY5FO USB 20151212 193037Z 28MHz Listen
TG9ANF USB 20151212 193457Z 28MHz Listen
TG9IIN USB 20151212 193535Z 28MHz Listen
TM7D USB 20151212 154556Z 28MHz Listen
V31MA USB 20151212 192721Z 28MHz Listen
VE6AO USB 20151213 192813Z 28MHz Listen
VE6WQ CW 20151213 184241Z 28MHz Listen
W0ETT USB 20151212 161903Z 28MHz Listen
W0IZ CW 20151213 184906Z 28MHz Listen
W0ZA CW 20151213 184441Z 28MHz Listen
W1AST USB 20151212 134851Z 28MHz Listen
W1EME USB 20151213 211103Z 28MHz Listen
W1RM CW 20151212 011630Z 28MHz Listen
W1TJL USB 20151212 002113Z 28MHz Listen
W1WEF CW 20151212 004211Z 28MHz Listen
W1XX USB 20151213 212300Z 28MHz Listen
W2RD USB 20151213 194555Z 28MHz Listen
W2UP CW 20151212 162722Z 28MHz Listen
W7RN CW 20151213 184405Z 28MHz Listen
WA0N USB 20151212 162431Z 28MHz Listen
WA1UZX USB 20151212 160439Z 28MHz Listen
WA7NB USB 20151213 210650Z 28MHz Listen
WA8UEG USB 20151212 003531Z 28MHz Listen
WD1S CW 20151212 005403Z 28MHz Listen
WJ9B CW 20151213 185456Z 28MHz Listen
WM1B USB 20151212 131648Z 28MHz Listen
WP4PGY USB 20151212 133657Z 28MHz Listen
WR8O USB 20151212 162326Z 28MHz Listen
XE1RF USB 20151212 192915Z 28MHz Listen
YO2LEA CW 20151212 140715Z 28MHz Listen
ZF1A USB 20151212 155116Z 28MHz Listen
ZV5D USB 20151212 193105Z 28MHz Listen

CQWW CW Contest 2015 – Soapbox

CQlogo

This weekend was what some consider to be the biggest CW contest of the year. It appears the last time I attempted this contest (or at least submitted a log) was in 2011 and I made 19,266 points. I guess that’s my goal but I know I can easily beat that so I bumped it to 250k. Since I did over 1 million in SSB, I should at least do 250k… right?

CW Contesting without knowing much CW

Yep, I still have a lot of trouble decoding CW with my head. But that is not going to stop me from trying. I think contesting is beneficial when it come to learning even though I don’t think CQWW should be the place to do it. But I did it anyway.
I entered as “assisted” meaning that I will be using the skimmer/cluster/network or whatever you want to call it to help make contact with other ops.

What I am doing is depending on other people and/or software that will decode those calling CQ and letting me (the network) know exactly where they are. That’s perfect for me because if I have an idea of what the callsign will be, It’s much easier to make the contact.

Skimmer Vs. Spotter

I used two different networks to show me who and where the other operators are. One such network is the spotting network. Think of it as an online chatroom where other operators tell you where other operators are on the bands as they make contact.  Most likely their logging software is setup to send out a message whenever contact is made automatically. Other people using similar software will take that information and display it on a chart where the operator could click on the spot and the logbook would partially fill out and the radio could even tune to it. The software might even color code the spots to let you know if that operator is a multiplier that you need to make contact with. It’s been in use for a long time now and many contesters take advantage of it to increase rates since you are no longer have to search for a signal.

The other network I used is what is known as the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) or “Skimmer”. Its similar to the spotting network except it’s fully automated. It’s not depending on human input. There are hundreds of Software Defined Radio (SDR) rigs throughout the world listening to the bands. A popular piece of software known as “CW Skimmer” will listen to the bandwidth of the SDR and decode any CW signal being sent using a sophisticated algorithm based on Bayesian statistics. If the skimmer picks up anyone sending “CQ” or “Test” or other keywords, it will note the callsign, frequency, sending speed, and even signal strength and send it along to RBN or it’s own network which will end up on your screen if it’s supported and enabled.

I use RBN to usually test to see how far my CW signal can be heard. It’s great for testing out the various CW kits I’ve built. It tells me the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and it’s another confirmation that I am indeed on frequency.

In contesting both RBN and the Spotting network can help. However it will most likely put you into a different category. There is some controversy over using the networks and some consider it flat out cheating since you are being fed information that could give you an advantage compared to the operator that is not using the network and having to manually search for their contacts. However it’s becoming more accepted.

There is one big problem with using the either network. You can never trust it… ever. With the spotting cluster, you are depending on other people. Those people might not have copied the callsign correctly or there are some evil doers out there that will send out false contacts in hopes to mess you up. The RBN is even less trusting. I don’t think software decoding will ever be perfected to match the experienced human ear. Even though it’s extremely impressive when you look more into it, there is still a lot of bad spots coming from RBN. Even though I wouldn’t trust both, it’s a very useful tool if you want high scores and rates.

I have to look into making the Spotting Network/RBN work better for me. With RBN I just connected to their telnet network and was FLOODED with information. It was so much that it was causing my computer to bog down which affected my CW keyer. It was causing delays and even locking the TX. I ended up having to disconnect and go back to a spotting cluster. There are ways to filter out RBN results to just include decodes from your area/region/zone

If it wasn’t for these networks, I wouldn’t be looking forward to CW contesting. I hope I do enough CW to where I can do some contests without having to use the networks.

Now on to the contest

I’m entering as SOAB(A)LP which means Single Operator, All Bands, Assisted and using Low Power. When it comes to digital and CW contests, I just don’t trust my amplifier so I run low power.

The contest starts at 7pm local on Friday night. However there is a VE exam the same night and I would prefer to be there instead of being on the air. After the exam, I went on 40m and 80m, made a handful of contacts and went to bed.

When I woke up on Saturday and got on the air, EU was booming in on 15m so I spent most of my time on there. My Yagi is tuned for SSB so CW contesting is a no-no since my tuner is not inline with the beam. I could have hooked it up but it’s something I didn’t want to do. That basically cancels out the CW portion of 10m and most of the CW portion of 20 using the beam. I did 20m and 40m off my vertical and kept the G5RV on 80m.

Not really feeling this contest so I didn’t put much effort into rates.

Sunday wasn’t any better. I couldn’t hear much on 10m so I stuck to 15m with the occasional trip to 20m. Towards the end of the contest I was excited to make contact with Alaska and Hawaii since I need LoTW confrimations for Worked All States Triple Play Award. Those contacts and some JA contacts made me very happy.

My CW decoding improved greatly towards the end of the contest. Even though I was still using the cluster, I was able to confirm the calls much faster. Caught a lot of busted calls much easier.

Claimed Results 

NT1kCQWWCW15Score

I ended up making 255 contacts with 143 band countries and 44 band zones which gives me a total of 134,079 points. I spent about 7 hours on the air. I didn’t reach my 250k but I shattered my 2011 score and I had a good time. Hopefully I get some new countries confirmed and I hope AK and HI confirm as well.

I just love how much faster CW contesting is compared to SSB. At least it felt that way for me. I am sure it would become better and faster after I really learn CW.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff (NT1K)

ARRL Sweepstakes 2015 SSB – Soap Box

NovemberSweepstakesLogo

Contest season is still going strong for me. I decided to play in Sweepstakes SSB this weekend because  my local club is putting in a group effort and wanted to add to the collective.

Getting Ready

After the horrors of getting a late start during WAE RTTY, I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. Checked the antennas, made sure the software was up to date and pre-recorded my messages into the digital voice keyer (DVK). I also made sure N1MM software was in working order.

My goals for the contest were to get a clean sweep. Never participated in sweeps until this year and I at least want to work all the ARRL sections. I also set a goal of 50,000 or more to help out my club effort.

And we’re off!

Since I wanted a clean sweep, I decided to use assistance from the cluster/network to find those needed callsigns. I started off running search and pounce looking for needed stations. Once I contacted all the needed stations, I just kept tuning around waiting to hear a CQ.

I’ve always heard about the long exchange which is what kept me from participating but doing SS on CW has somewhat prepared me for this. However I didn’t know exactly how people were going to say it. After a dozen or so contacts I got into a groove and started calling CQ.

Born to run

I rarely call CQ because with my station, It’s difficult to maintain a frequency. I am always being pushed out by the big guns. I’ve only ran during the New England QSO party because I’m the wanted station and it’s not really a big contest so real estate is much more available.

Since this contest is for North American operators (US/Canada), I  was able to hold a frequency and call CQ. I have a blast when operators line up to make contact with me. Western Massachusetts (WMA) isn’t considered rare since there are a few contesting stations on the air in the area but It was still fun. Some operators were excited they got WMA and were thanking me for a late multiplier.

Thanks to the almighty DVK

I am not a fan of talking to computers on the phone, why should I be a fan of talking to them on the radio? Some people are down right nasty when it comes to people using a Digital Voice Keyer and I can see their points but the DVK is what saves me and makes it more enjoyable. I used it call CQ and used it to help with every other exchange. Even with the help my voice is almost non exisitant after. I couldn’t imaging doing everything with the DVK. I guess I have respect for those ops with over 1000 contacts that are not using a DVK.

CLEAN SWEEP!

I didn’t spend much time on the air on Saturday. I saved my efforts for Sunday morning and afternoon. Honestly I didn’t think I was going to get a clean sweep due to 40/80 being somewhat closed during the day.  At around noon I needed 8 sections so I was bent on getting them. I had to fight in a pileups for AK and HI but the last three needed sections were WV, RI and GTA. I would not be able to reach them skywave so I hopped on 40 before it became popular and thankfully WV and RI responded to my calls. I was hearing GTA on others bands but it was just too close and my signal was going over them.  I stayed on 40 and sat around for any VE station. Finally around 3pm local I heard someone very loud say GTA. And thankfully they were calling CQ. He responded on my first attempt and jumped for joy

sweep

It’s very nice to see all the ARRL sections blue. Never happened before and was quite happy to do all 83 sections.

Trying Something New

I’ve always wanted to record my contests but never wanted to take the extra steps. Steve Cole (GW4BLE) from Wales records his contests and makes his contacts searchable. It’s enjoyable to see how you sound on the other side of the pond. I wanted have the exact same thing but I found people weren’t really forthcoming about the details.

There is a 3rd party application for N1MM+ called “qsorder” which will records the contest and will make seperate MP3’s for each contact. It listens to the UDP stream from N1MM and triggers the buffer to record 22 seconds before and after I hit the button to log the contact.

I wanted to find a way to display them like how GW4BLE does it or even the same as the wtQsoPlayer used in Wintest. I ended up making a directory listing, converted to CSV spreadsheet and modified it to link to the files. It’s 5min of work but after the deadline, I will make it available for others to search in the near future.

Claimed Scores

ssssb15

After making a clean sweep, I shifted my focus onto making as many contacts as possible. I wanted to pass 50k and did so right before I had to leave for other obligations.  I ended up with 307 contacts which yielded 50,962 points. I was happy about my results. After looking other claimed results, I guess I did ok.

Lessons learned

I have to look into ways to improve my rates. After looking at the claimed scores form the top of my class in my area, there is no way I would be able to compete unless I moved to a higher location and put up some more aluminum. Either I need to spend more time on the air (have yet to do a contest entirely) or learn how the spin the dial faster, make faster contacts or something.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff (NT1K)

Worked All Europe (WAE) RTTY Contest 2015 – Soapbox

Another weekend another contest. This time it’s the Worked All Europe RTTY Contest. I have never done much RTTY, let alone a RTTY contest. It’s going to be interesting.  It’s a 48 hour contest which they only allow 30hrs of operating. I set my goals to participate  for at least 5 hours. That’s it… I didn’t care about points, DXCC or anything else. I just wanted to try it out

Getting Ready For RTTY

Since I never really done RTTY, I wanted to make sure I got about doing it the correct way. Thankfully a fellow operator Frank (KG6EYC) was looking to make an FSK unit for his radio so I tagged along and I ended up making a neat unit using an MCU and some optoisolators. That will be for another article.  I got it working with N1MM+ (or so I thought) and I figured I was set for the contest. So far so good

Problems right out of the gate

I should have made some contacts before the contest but dum dum me figured I would have no problem. Well… soon as 0:00z rolled around, I get on the air to seeing nothing coming across my screen. I couldn’t decode any of the signals but I could transmit. After talking with Frank about the FSK project, I didn’t read where I had to use a different RTTY engine in N1MM+. Instead of MMTTY, I had to use a program called 2Tone that would allow me to use my soundcard to decode RTTY but use the MCU to send FSK emulating a TNC. After setting up 2Tone, I was now able to decode stations!

In attempt to  make some points,  I tried contacting stations and no one is replying. If I did get a reply I got “Agn? Agn?”. This means something is wrong. I switched to the dummy load and loaded up another receiver and I know for a fact that I am transmitting a signal. It didn’t appear to be distorted. Then I recalled reading something about signal polarity in my radio’s manual about FSK. I changed the polarity and was able to now make exchanges.

This is why it’s important to make sure your station, software and everything else used in the contest is in running condition BEFORE it starts. But I didn’t beat myself up over it because I wasn’t taking this contest seriously.

First Thoughts About RTTY

I honestly thought I was going to be making blazing fast contacts since it’s a “Digital” mode. Nope… RTTY contacts are much longer than CW or SSB.  Even more so if you are trying to decode a weak signal or trying to decode a pileup.
Working weaker stations means you will be sending out the same messages multiple times.  It appears if there is a pileup or more than one strong operator on frequency, the software will have a very hard time decoding. At least with SSB, you could pull a phonetic out here and there. However it’s still a great mode. Much faster than many other digital modes out there. I was just expecting something else.

It makes for a Busy Screen

WAErtty15

I entered as Single Operator, Low power (un-assisted). I don’t think my amplifier would have been able to handle the duty cycle nor did I want to use the cluster. This contest isn’t as popular so I was able to get in call CQ often.  I also used my Panadapter to hunt down signals. It helped out a lot in this contest.

Bands Were… Meh

10m was just dead. Multiple times throughout the contest there was nothing on 10 so I focused on 15 because I have trouble with CW/Data because my beam is adjusted for SSB. It works well on 15 and the upper parts of the CW/Data portion on 20.  For 40m I used my Vertical and for 80 I used  my G5RV. Nothing spectacular when compared to CQWW SSB just a couple weeks ago.

It was a wake up call that I need to work on better antennas for 40, 80 and 160

Dealing with QTCs

This contest uses QTCs where operators can exchange their recent contacts for points. Usually you send or receive the logs of up to 10 contacts from that you or the other operator made. My first run in with QTCs were during WAE SSB as part of a multi-op. I didn’t want to do it at first due to very long exchange but after the first couple QTC exchanges, it wasn’t so bad. For RTTY, it’s much easier with N1MM. Just press CTRL-Z and click on your fills. However I wouldn’t attempt to send or receive QTCs with weak stations. You’ll end up sending over and over.

I had a great time

Even though the RTTY tones give me a bit of a headache, I had a great time. During WAE for SSB and CW, contacts with those in the same continent don’t count for points but in RTTY it does. I used this contest as a way to fill missing Digital spots for the WAS triple play award. At the time of writing, it has paid off. I now only have to make 16 more RTTY/CW confirmations. Hopefully CQWW CW will get me Alaska and Hawaii on CW

Claimed Total

WAERTTY2015

Overall I did 67.5K points in my 9 hours of operating. If I participate in WAE RTTY in the future, my goal is now set. I doubt I will win any awards from this but we’ll see.

Thanks for reading
Jeff (NT1K)

 

ARRL Sweepstakes CW – Soap Box

Another weekend, another contest. This time it was the ARRL Sweepstakes for CW. I’ve never participated in SS before so it was going to be interesting. Sweepstakes is a US/Canada contest where it’s known for having a long exchange. It consists of a  serial number, class, callsign, check (licensed year) and ARRL section. For this contest I would have to send “123 U NT1K 99 WMA”. That is much longer than the “599 5” sent in CQWW. The exchange is so long as it simulating sending traffic.

Going to try this without a decoder

I wanted to see how well I can do so I turned off the decoder in the K3 and I avoided any software aids. I entered using the unlimited class expecting that I was going to use the skimmer to at least help me get the callsign correct. After struggling with the first couple of contacts, I had enough and fired up decoder. It would take 5 or six contacts before I decided to throw my call out. I wanted to make sure that they didn’t have to do any additional work. Sometimes I would wait too long and the operator calling CQ would move on. Once the decoder was running, I would only search for loud stations.

Do not ever trust the skimmer/cluster

Depending on the contest, you can use the skimmer and/or cluster to make contesting a bit easier. It’s basically a network where other operators “spot” the callsigns and frequencies of people they just made contact with. If you are connected, it would alert you where other operators are. If you are configured correctly, you can just click on the callsign, your radio will tune to that station and your logbook is already partially filled out. It’s a great way to increase your score because you will be able to easily find multipliers and hopefully work them.  However there is a couple downsides. It will put you into a different class/category where it might be harder to win and the information going over the cluster might not be accurate.

During SSB contests, the cluster is being fed with information provided by the operator. If he/she didn’t hear the callsign correctly, they could easily spot a wrong callsign. Most times it’s an honest mistake but there are times I’ve seen people purposely throw out false spots to laugh at those who blindly follow the cluster. There are some anti-skimmer/cluster contesters who think it’s cheating.

With CW contesting, it’s a different story. There is now software called “skimmers” that will listen to entire CW sections of bands and decode any CW and post it to the network. This almost takes out the human error factor but as I found out this weekend many times, information on skimmer could be just as bad. Things like signal to noise ratio (SNR), QRM, band changes, overdriven signals and even horrible spacing or sending from the operator can confuse the skimmer into giving a bad spot.

There has been many times this weekend where I would see multiple spots on the same frequency with different but similar callsigns. It just goes to show that you should never believe what you see on the cluster! Confirm the call before contacting because it might be wrong call or a dupe.

This wasn’t a serious effort.

I barely know CW and there is no way I can predict the exchange. I guess that’s why some really like this contest. It’s difficult for the new CW operator.
At first I wanted to see what I can do without using the cluster. For every one contact I made, I had to listen to 6 contacts before I know the call and exchange they used. After about a couple contacts, I abandoned using my ear and fired up the decoding software.

I thought I would be relying on the skimmer for the contest but I’ve barely used it. You can’t tell you are working a multiplier until you hear the exchange being sent. What I ended up doing was turning off the skimmer/spotter and clearing out the band map. I would just spin the dial around until I heard a loud CQ. There was so many people on the air that I didn’t have to spin it much. If they acknowledge someone else or I caught it in mid-exchange, I would note the callsign down on my bandmap. If they are a multiplier or a State I needed for Triple play, I would wait. Otherwise I would move on and later go back.
I just spinning until I hear “Dah dit dah dit, dah dah dit dah  (CQ) or “dit dit dit, dit dit dit” (SS) or “Dah, dit dit dah” (TU).

Improvements from other CW contests

I have been practicing code more and more and I must say it showed. I didn’t have to depend on the decoder as much but I would like to do a contest where I didn’t have load it up. I would like to run for change.

Claimed score

ARRLSSCW2015

Claiming 14,616 points. I wish I committed more time. I wanted to do a clean sweep and work multiple needed states for triple play.

It was a great time, the K3 and the serial keying worked without issue and now I can’t wait for CQWW CW contest.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff – NT1K

 

BAC Contest – SoapBox

This past weekend was The Gentleman’s Radio Society’s  BAC contest.
BAC stands for Blood Alcohol Content. This contest was centered around drinking and points are awarded if you are drinking a beverage that contains Alcohol. What makes this contest truly unique is that you can work the same operators again if you switched styles of drink (from beer to vodka for example). This contest takes place the week after CQWW and I consider it to be a fun and enjoyable contest.

Some of the members of The Gentleman’s Radio Society went up to contest station K1TTT to operate during the event as WA1J. I figured it would be fun to give it a try. Got myself some beers, went up to the shack thinking I was just going to contact WA1J but I ended up running on 20m.

I didn’t operate hardcore contest style. I was giving out honest reports, getting peoples names and even chatting it up a bit. I am not a fan of ragchewing but this contest was the perfect excuse to keep people moving along. Most of the contacts were unaware of the contest and they chuckled when told about it. I got a lot of “That’s my type of contest” from operators.

It was an interesting contest and hopefully it gains popularity.

My score ended up being… Not sure? I am not even sure how many contacts I’ve made.  I want to say around 50 or so. It doesn’t matter because it was a fun time talking with those around the US.

Maybe you will be on the air next year?

Thanks for reading,
NT1K