Ham Gathering

  About this time every Year I am invited to have Lunch with active and retired guys from the company I work for-- most are licensed Ham operators, so lots of great Ham related topics. We usually manage about 10 guys and this year was no different. My elmer happened to sit next to Me and Our conversation turned to 60 meters, a band I've only listened to but never operated on. When My 6 meter Yagi was operational I used to hear very well on 60 meters. Different type of allocation- 5 channels , 50 watts max ,USB, channelized Tx and RX. Reminds Me of Citizen Band channels. I guess gray line propagation has been active lately. My friend mentioned QSO's around the USA and even England. If I had a tunable antenna I would check it out! He recently made a wire antenna cut for 60m and I guess it works very well. I have too many antennas now but never say never!!
  Almost the end of the Year. I had planned to hoist My Cushcraft ATB-34 tri-band beam but never found the time. This coming year I hope to fix My 6m beam and also get the ATB-34 in the air. Still plan to only have it on a shorty tower but at least it would enjoy the light of day!!Be safe tomorrow and have a Happy New Year!!
 73---Tim

LOTW issue again and 4 New DXCC!!

  Remember when I said My LOTW issue was cleared up? Well it actually only appeared to be . I needed to check the LOTW page at the proper place to verify it. Go to "Your account" , then "your Activity" and look across and see your latest certificate upload details and click on "results" in parentheses. This gives a detailed explanation of Your latest TQSL upload and if any part has an issue- this will give the details! Mine did have issues and it gave Me the indication this particular certificate was in conflict with an older one.
 The ARRL LOTW website has good FAQS and troubleshooting procedures and I followed these and requested a new certificate. Still no worky,so I tried again, still issues!! Finally I directly contacted the LOTW and received a prompt reply with instructions on receiving a valid certificate.Problem was these instructions seemed to be the same procedure I had already performed several times! I decided to delete everything concerning the TQSL program. Deleted all files,programs,email files,trashcan and every hidden file I could find. I restarted computer and accessed the ARRL website and downloaded the TQSL program again- version 1.13 and then thru this program requested a new secure certificate. It only took a day to receive a email back with My new certificate and-Viola!! Using the procedure from both the email and website, I now have a working,valid TQSL certificate. Uploaded all My contests and contacts from My logbook after certifying them with the TQSL program and within an hour the LOTW program validated them!!
  With these new QSL/QSO contacts added to My LOTW log , I am getting closer to WAS on more bands and have added 4 more DXCC confirmations-Canary Islands,Denmark,Japan and Jersey. Several of these are surpriseing additions that I thought would have  years ago! Just glad to finally have them confirmed! Over 2800 QSO's  in LOTW with 64 DXCC confirmed and 90 DXCC unconfirmed.
   I emailed ARRL and thanked them for their prompt response. It appears My TQSL program on My PC had issues and reloading took care of the problem. LOTW is a great resource I hope more Hams start using!
 Merry Christmas and Happy holidays-- God bless Us All!!
 73---Tim

RAC Winter contest 2011

    This contest is run every December by the "Radio Amateurs of Canada" and I've managed to participate the last two years. Its a fun contest and the objective for stations outside of Canada are to make contact with 13 provinces and territories,14 RAC official stations and as many Canadian stations as possible. I also can contact USA and Dx stations for 2 points.This contest runs from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC on December 17th on 160 thru 2m cw and phone but excluding the WARC bands!
All multipliers and RAC special stations can be contacted once for each mode on each band. RAC count 20 points while all canadian count 10 points.
   I started out at 0000 UTC and did a S & P operation between 20,40 and 75 m till a little before 0300 UTC. It seemed a tough go with the bands being noisy ,but I still  ended with more multipliers than expected with 20! QSO count was low at about 40. Not great but I hoped to have Saturday so I called it a night. Next morning I was on at 1334 UTC and the first contact was PEI- Prince Edward Island on 20m ! Nice start and the rest of the day  was spent with some nice multiplier additions on all bands except 160m-- and of course no activity for Me above 10m!
  I don't know if the proximity to Canada makes a difference but it seemed like I was able to Waltz into many pile-ups and bust them first call!! Who's the N0??? Well that be ME-LOL . Makes it lots of fun being the percieved big gun although 100w into a ground mounted vertical is not typically considered that!. I also seemed to have a good luck charm following Me because even though I wasn't running assisted I stumbled on good multipliers across the bands consistently. I snagged Northern territories on 5 bands and actually heard a NT tuning up and became a first contact! Neat!! I ended up only missing NU ( Nunavut) and missed that one because I was impatient Friday night and didn't try to bust thru a pile -up figuring I'd have a chance later! Not to be!! never heard another one! Out of the 14 RAC Official stations I contacted 7 different ones on the bands 12 times!!
  This contest would have been a good one to snag a run frequency but I had many QRT times so S & P was the way to go!  Here's the results- Fun contest I really recommend, Lots of season Greetings and Happy Holidays sent with exchange!!
  QSO-100   Points- 1008  Mults- 31 for a total of 31,248
73---Tim

    
 

LOTW success and 1 more!!

LOTW accepted my latest contest log at 8:48 CST last night! A few hours after I uploaded it so all is well and ready for the RAC winter contest this weekend! It just so happens about the same time My contact with T32C East Kiribati expedition was also confirmed in  My log for My 62nd  DXCC. Ham Radio delux shows Me at 90 DXCC contacts so still need some confirmations to show up with LOTW! Maybe soon!
  73---Tim

Logging misadventures and a small QRZ complaint!!

  It's very difficult to complain about any free Logging or look-up software but after this contest Ham radio Delux did not fill in the QTH particulars. Not even the country!! I thought I had another issue like last time with some software discrepency. After several hours of looking and checking and finally browsing I finally found the answer!! The QRZ.com website now with the cooperation of some of the Logging programs will now only deliver that information if paying for the XML QRZ subscription service- $29.95 a year. Price is very reasonable but I of course enjoyed the "free" service. I understand the need to charge-- lots of time and effort is involved keeping database info up to date. The choice then is no QTH info or pay to play!!! I do wish the next time QRZ.com would inform us unsuspecting free-loaders about the change----OK ,just kidding!!!
  I also had a LOTW issue which was accidentally caused by Me! I did the TQSL certificate correctly but I uploaded the wrong certificate and LOTW did not like that!! I did upload the correct after being chastised on the LOTW site by the "server" and it even sent Me a new certificate! tonight i decided it was not going to accept My previous download so I installed the new certificate and uploaded my log again.We'll see how that goes!!
  Last was a problem with a different UTC time with a station. Looking in My log really confused Me because the amended time sent corresponds with a VERY similiar call.Hmmm - time will tell on this one also. I'm either wrong or the far end! Trouble is this is a DXCC I need. bummer!!
73 for now---Tim

2011 ARRL 10m Contest

  The first night of this contest seemed like a fun VHF contest with very specific "pipelines" from My location. At first Texas then eventually Colorado and several other western states were the only QSO's I had besides several locals. I tried running several times but only had sporadic success. Seems like a ground mounted vertical and 100w don't command much attention! I still managed more QSO's the first night than the entire contest last year before calling it quits for the night.
  Saturday morning I was back on about 1400 UTC and the band was already wild! First 20 QSO's were all DX before snagging at Stateside PA station. I soon realized the fringe of the action was the place to be for a "wet noodle" station like Me and spent some time around 29mhz. This is farther up the band then I've ever been contesting on 10m before. Up there it actually was more casual even with some big gun stations running.
  Several interesting observations during this contest. The first is My call phonetics of "November-Zero-Uniform-Juliett-Juliett" cause some contesters to fumble with the"uniform" portion. This is of course the "english as a second language group". I am constantly amazed at the multiple languages of most every other country except My own. WOW- what an accomplishment! Having said that I also find  the number"two" seems tough for Me to pick out of a accented English call .For My part I usually end up changing to " November-Zero-United-Japan-Japan which seems to be better understood!!
  Second observation is -and this is not limited to this contest- the number of stations I'm receiving at S9+ or better that CQ in My face. Sure if I was running high power would help but I can't help but think the far end is either dealing with terrible QRM or comprosied antennas.You know-high power to a wet noodle!!Yes I know-one wet noodle to another-LOL!!
  Third observation, and I should remember from other contests but, the last few hours can be so productive!I almost shut down early but luckily jumped back in towards the end for several juicy multipliers!! Oh ,and I managed to upset one contester from California when I only partially listened to an exchange and assumed the frequency belonged to a multiplier I needed--oops! Sorry, that was Not intentional. I always try to be courteous and respectful of frequencies!!
  As always didn't spend enough time operating but it was fun while operating . Christmas shopping and some chores took some time away but mostly just S & P and trying to break pile-ups kept My score small!   142-QSO's, 59 Multipliers for a score of 16,756. If it was CW contacts that would have been double the score!!
  73---Tim

Wallpaper and more

Imagine My surprise receiving this certificate in the mail today. I always enjoy "wallpaper" and the satisfaction I feel having "placed" in a contest. I don't believe My score was exceptional and I  remember the band conditions were terrible so this Just proves the "always participate" motto because you never know who isn't!
  Last weekend was ARRL sweepstakes and I had planned to operate but it was not to be. Too bad because it did sound like most operators had a blast. Maybe next year! I am planning on a try at the upcoming ARRL 10m contest several weekends from now. Appears I need to defend My crown--LOL
  My antennas for 10m are a ground mounted vertical, a old CB ground plane at about 25 feet and a G5RV jr. and 100w max! Not a contest grade setup but 10m has been very actice so it should be fun. For a little station like mine-Friday night is a very tuff go. Sunday is typically better when all stations are hungary for the last contact! In the past when conditions were in the doldrums, this contest for Me was monitoring most of the weekend hoping to catch that rare opening. Don't think that will be a problem this year!
hope to hear you on the bands!!
 73---Tim

LOTW and a new one!

I finally after 15 days resubmitted My CQ WW log to LOTW and after two more days it was finally accepted! . This also gave Me one new contact to add to DXCC-- TX3T from French Polynesia.
This weekend is the ARRL Sweepstakes SSB contest. Hope to hear you on the bands!
 73--Tim

LOTW and 2 New Ones!

  If You're a contester and use LOTW You already know about the super slow uploads from the last two contests. I didn't participate in the recent ARRL Cw contest but I did have a small log to upload from the CQ WW contest from several weeks ago. I heard about the slow upload times but assumed that was already past-not!! Its been many days and still no successful log addition.
  On a more positive note I was able to add two more DXCC's to My HRD analysis program bring total worked to 88  and even with all the issues LOTW is having added two more to bring My total to 60. You would think Columbia and Netherlands would be easy to work but I guess they slipped through the cracks until now! I worked them both on 15m- one was SSB and the other RTTY, both during contests!
  Next weekend is the ARRL SS SSB contest of which I'll try to be operating!
 73--Tim

Certificate and stuff!!

  Thanks to the Minnesota Wireless Association  for this certificate. This is four years in a row I've managed this. To be honest, in this specific category I haven't needed to score very high. Not many contesters in the category operating from St Louis county. Now overall thats a different story-- I can't even give any competition to the winner of the overall Phone Only Category with My little score! Still Very thankful for this award - Us small peashooter stations really need these incentives!! LOL!!
  Well a really big weekend is here and gone and I only managed a short operating time on Friday . The CQ WW SSB is history and all My plans to be on most of the weekend were not to be. I still managed to have a very enjoyable weekend- it just wasn't with Ham radio! Less than 40 Q's - but congrats to all the very nice scores I see being submitted!
 73---Tim

Been Busy!

 Yes its been a while since My last post! Work and family has kept Me busy. I've been out of town for work on and off for the last month . My family has also kept Me busy but that has been fun outings-- swim meets, corn maze,and other doings!
  I have had a little time to jump on the bands and contacted TX3T on 12m but not nearly enough considering how great the bands have been. I've also been trying to get ready for the upcoming CQ WW SSB contest next weekend. Had some reports of poor audio with My Heil microphone so I decided to investigate. I first verified the audio on a local net-- Yes, the audio sounded like a slight RF content to it so next I needed to find out why!
  I've set the parametric equalizer on this radio to take advantage of its excellant audio and I made sure the parameters were still saved to memory by looking back at My post of March 17 2011. Well thats not the problem, so using a dummy load i first verified the audio sounded wrong-- which it did. Sounds almost like a slight hiss/sizzle/sharpness to it . I turned the power down to 5w and it still sounded "off" but not nearly as bad! First clue! This "mike" had been OK last spring- what was different?? Well I had straightened up My shack-- tying up chords including the long Heil chord at the adapter. Hard to explain but the Heil adapter has a loop to it where the 310 plug and "mike" plug come together. I tied it up into a loop and now decided to un-tie it and try talking. - -lots better! Both 5w and 100w. Somehow some TX audio must be feeding back thru. Later I added a clamp on ferrite and will keep it "messy" and not neaten it up with ties!!
  Hope to have many QSO's next weekend during the contest!!
 73---Tim

T32C- East Kiribati

 I have managed to work T32C on Line Island ( East Kiribati) on five bands SSB so far. Conditions were just OK Friday night so I was relieved to snag them on 20m and then saturday night the bands were fantastic and I added them on 10m,12m,15m and 17m all within 2 hours! Neat! I checked later for openings on 40-160m but heard nothing from the group -so off to bed. I still hope to contact them using RTTY and should stand a good chance because their website-- http://www.t32c.com/ says the expedition lasts until October 26th!!
   They are sponsored ( affiliated) with the Five Star Dxers Associatonand i have to say all the operators have good "ears" and a very pleasant on air personna! Thanks to all the hard work! Good website and excellant Dxpedition!!  Also ,happily LOTW users!!
  73---Tim

Emblem courtesy of http://www.t32c.com/    Also a little confusion between Line and christmas Islands. Some info says East Kiribati is Line-- this emblem obviously shows it as Christmas Island .HRD logging shows it as East Kiribati.  Leave a comment to clarify if you understand the difference!!
   UPDATE-  finally found time to read more about this expedition and turns out there are two christmas islands! This one and one more famous, also its own DXCC! Kiribati christmas Island is part of the Line islands!Different DXCC. So now i know!!

Apple and Steve

 A lot has already been said about Steve Jobs and I'd like to just thank him and Apple,inc for making My life easier,richer and more interesting with the many products they provided. I've owned an Apple IIe before switching to IBM PC compatibles. The company I work for has utilized both and for many years used Mac's before ultimately chosing IBM PC compatible machines. I'm currently an iPhone user and My kids started Our Apple craze with iPod nano's, then iPod Touch's.
 Apple products are not only fun to use but very practical and easy to use. "He knew what We wanted before We did" is a quote I've heard several times. How true-- here's to You Steve Jobs-- Thanks!!

  On the ham Radio side-- added another DXCC in LOTW! Lithuania ( LY5E) From some of the reflectors I have seen several Dxpeditions I've missed not being in the Ham shack-- bummer! That's all for now--
  73---Tim
Apple logo from Internet --thanks to ABC News!

Contest DXCC Confirmed!

 Every Contest I participate in I hope to add more DXCC entities and the CQ WW RTTY contest from last weekend was no exception.Conditions were great and the only limiting factor was My lack of BIC ( but in chair) or as I like to call it-- "barely in chair" --LOL! Fortunately I was able to snag some contacts with not only new DXCC 's but LOTW participants. Several Countries I've logged many times but eventually this contest I logged stations who happened to be LOTW also!
  According to My general logging program I now have 86 unconfirmed and LOTW shows 58 confirmed DXCC's. Several just happened to  be added from several DXpeditions I chased-- Cameroon ( TJ9PF) and Revillagigedo ( 4A4A) along with the Contest additions of Czech  Republic,Columbia,Hungary,Italy,Northern Ireland,Norway,Saint Kitts & Nevis,Scotland ,Slovenia and Wales. Many of these show multiple times in My logs over the years but they were not LOTW members and since I don't actively pursue them I receive no credit towards any DXCC award. I suppose I need to eventually use a Buro service or try direct QSL but  for now I patiently watch as the confirmations slowly increase!
  73--Tim
 Entire contest used Ground mounted Butternut Vertical except for 75m -- used My big dipole! All at 50w!

CQ WW RTTY 2011

 I've only done RTTY contests for a little over a year but it is fast becoming My favorite contest mode. The Yaesu FT-950 makes it a joy to operate. I can decrease the received bandwidth down to 250 hz with the factory settings although 400hz is all I  ever decrease BW to before errors increase. I also have roofing filter,slope tuning and other filtering choices-- all factory! No options needed.  I'm still using My homemade interface and still haven't taken the time to get FSK working so I used AFSK which works well once the TX audio level is set.
 I was a little late starting Friday night and was hoping for good conditions since this would be My longest operating time since Saturday and Sunday looked to be busy with other obligations. My original goal was to have 80-100 contacts in the log Friday night with an addtional 100 over the next two days. Not a huge goal but a doable one for Me. This should help Me achieve about 50K points at the end.
  Conditions Friday were deceiving-- RX signals were load and strong but I was just not being heard! 10m and 15m were both open but I felt like a QRP station. I spent many many valuable minutes with stations CQing in My face or hearing everyone but Me! I did have some luck and stayed with it adding mostly domestic stations with a few DX thrown in! I did have contacts from 10m thru 75m but at the end of the night I had only managed about 50 contacts. Very poor, but when it takes 10-15 tries before being heard, time ticks away. Busy day Saturday so off to bed.
  Saturday and Sunday I managed to get back on between a Ham Fest, furniture deliveries, animal care ,church and other activities. Appears Saturday night was the time to be on and the short time I operated, conditions were great adding lots of European  stations including Morocco on 20m which I needed for DXCC and He is a LOTW member-Yes!!
 Sunday turned into another good DX day adding Scotland,northern Ireland,England and Wales-- again LOTW members! Checking the ARRL LOTW site showed seven new DXCC's confirmed! Great! Final score was a little less than My goal but it was a very fun time anyway!!
    Band   QSO's     PTS   CTY   ZN  SEC

     3.5       6            6          1      1       5
      7        40          63       11      6      20
     14       39          65       12     11    16
     21      54         109      21      8      11
    28       18          50      12      8       1
total       157         293    57     34      53

   Score: 42,192
73---Tim

PS-- MY setup is a Yaesu FT-950 at about 50w ( power down because of RTTY duty cycle!)
       Butternut HF6V ground mounted vertical and a 260' dipole

Random Thoughts.

Above is a nice halloween picture at Disney World compliments of AllEarsNet Disney Blog ( maybe They took it from someone else's blog-don't know) . My family likes halloween and Disney puts on a very good Halloween Party from what I hear! Maybe some Year a family vacation will be in order! :))
  The bands seemed to be hopping this weekend with 10 & 15m open both days. I did take the time to answer a CQ from CO6LC - Oreluis from Cuba on 15m .He was booming in here and gave the standard 5 by 9 signal report. I also heard CO6LE from Cuba on 10m but didn't have time to attempt the pile up. Heard many stations from all over North and South America,Cook Islands, Montenegro and many more. Signals were loud but I just didn't have enough time to play!
  During a SSB contest last spring I contacted VP5H and they happened to record the entire contest to a digital recorder and posted the audio files to the W0AA website. The Guys operating VP5H also happen to be MWA members like Myself so My Audio file is on the site. Really neat to hear what I sound like to the other end. I saved the file to My PC so I can listen to it in the future.
  A local 10m net will be starting soon and the band is full of DX-- love this hobby!!
 73--Tim

WAS

 From a  post from several weeks ago I mentioned I had applied for a Basic WAS certificate from the ARRL. I received this in the mail Tuesday and will display it in the shack. I guess I consider Myself a paper chaser in that its fun receiving a surprise in the mail but I'm not competitive to the point of foolishness! No thirty-six  hours during a contest for Me- so I'll never be a contender.
  This is the basic version so its for both SSB and RTTY with the last state of Wyoming snagged in the July RTTY contest. Still amazes Me it was Wyoming as the last state. Needed this one since last year- sat at fourty-nine for some time.
  I have only fourty-nine confirmed with LOTW for DXCC but have a total of eighty DXCC's including the unconfirmed. I'm hoping this contest season will give many more countries/entities!
 That's all for now--hope everyone had a safe,fun,enjoyable Labor Day!
       73--Tim

TGIF--Weekend!!

I decided to post this picture because its been WAY too hot and humid this summer for this guy and this is such a cool picture.Not My coop but it gave us inspiration when We built ours later on. Chickens are good-no predator abductions!
 Glad for the long weekend and weather should be pleasant. Added several vacation days so I now have an extra long weekend. Grass is already mowed and some remodeling projects are awaiting Me.
  Work has been very busy and I been worried about some future weekend cuts getting in the way of some contesting. I hope to devote some time to the upcoming CQ WW RTTY contest September 24-25th and so far it appears open for Me. Time will tell!
 My Nephew texted Me last night and said He answered His first CQ and had a very nice QSO with a Colorado ham.I'm glad He appears to not have mike fright! He is doing well with his new HF privledges.
 All for now-- have a safe ,enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. I'll lift a cold one in salute of the workers.
   73---Tim

More Game camera Pictures

                                           Bombay Cat again makes an appearance!

                                            Our favorite Coyote!-- Not!

                                           One of many deer

                                          Big Racoon

   and lastly a nice picture of a skunk. Lots of Game activity caught with our camera--cool. Too many predators that like chickens-- will need to keep an eye on our flock!!
    I checked into several VHF and HF nets this weekend, but most of My time was spent with chores inside and out. Very pleasant weekend here-- I feel for all the people enduring hurricane Irene. I'll take a garden variety Blizzard any day!!
 73--Tim

Not radio related!!

This is our first attempt at barbequeing Shrimp kabobs with onions,peppers,mushrooms and bananas! Banana was OK but I think next time we will use pineapple. They turned out great and I know we'll try them again. I like barbeque and until now have stayed with hamburger,steaks,chops, sausage and potatoes!
  Not much radio related but I needed to post an entry so I don't lose readers. ...or reader!-LOL. Summers winding down and schools around the corner...and so is contest season. It does look very busy for Me this year with swim meets for My daughter and work on weekends. I'll fit radio in when I can!
   Earthquakes out East and Colorado, impending hurricanes and liberation in Libya-- what a week! Enjoy a cold 807 and remember how soothing static can be!!
  73---Tim

Game Camera

 We live in rural Minnesota and have a wide variety of animals to capture on a camera. Most are only seen after My bedtime so a few years ago after much discussion with several co workers ,We bought a game camera. Not needing the best but wanting a good one , We settled on the Moultrie D40 Digaital game camera. it has most of the needed features and runs on 6 "D" batteries. As you can tell from the pictures above, it does a nice job of capturing what is lurking away from our civilized yard! The top picture is a Coyote or as some locals call--a brush wolf, middle picture is two cuddily black bears ( just kidding-- they are wild and NOT cuddily!) and the bottom is maybe a big domestic house cat although My wife and I think it looks more like a small black?? cougar!!
  Not much Ham activity-- soon contesting season starts so I will have much to discuss!! -- LOL
73---Tim

Blog changes

Well I finally decided to update the Blog. I removed the "followers" part because of trouble Google had making it work a long time ago. Since then it appears to be fixed ,so here it is again. Available now to follow my blog. I also am using the new editor-- don't know how to use it very well so only time and use will help with that. I've also notice the font is different.
  No new Ham stuff for now-- checked into a few nets, but thats all!
 73--Tim
PS-- font only different in edit mode--go figure!!!

2/3 Summer gone!!

Hard to believe how fast Summer is flying by. The weather has been scorching hot- OK its hot for Northern Minnesotans. My family has been busy helping My Mother move from Her house of 44 years to a townhouse with only one level--no stairs!! My Father built the house when I was 8 years old, so lots of sadness with selling, but in this economy I think we're grateful it sold!!!
I worked on My nephews tuner and it appeared the chassis PL-259's were not making good contact so I added retaining nuts,sprayed the controls and tightened several of the switches. I hooked it up to My Yaesu and it seemed to perform nicely!
Upon returning his tuner , He gave Me a Radio Shack HTX-252 2m FM mobile with no Transmit out. I have verified no output but haven't had any more chance to troubleshoot it.
Thats about it for Ham radio related stuff--
73---Tim

WAS basic Award

After last weekends RTTY contest I realized I had finally contacted the state of Wyoming- twice!! I didn't realize this operator was also a Log Book of the World user. Imagine my surprise when checking My LOTW awards , it showed all 50 states. Its always a dilemna when I realize a contact will never be confirmed unless i go to extra measures. Maybe that would make all confirmed contacts sweeter-- that's what all Hams seeking awards had to do in the old days.
Why was Wyoming difficult ? Voice and RTTY both show 45 and 46 confirmed- the mixing of the two filled the holes for the Basic award. Hawaii and Alaska were confirmed a while ago but i guess Wyoming just doesn't have the percentage of active Hams. No matter-- Award has been applied for and greenbacks sent on their merry way--- money's been sent!!
73---Tim
PS- From the last post-- found out a of group Guys operating from the Woods out east were signing "Bambi" making it have a whole new meaning!!-LOL

NAQP-RTTY 2011

I decided to try this contest and also the VHF contest that was happening about the same time. I haven't played with any RTTY since April and this seemed like a good test for My set up to make sure its still working OK. The outside heat and humidity made this a nice reason to be in the Ham shack although I still needed to do outside chores. I operated for a bit, then was outside for a bit and so on.
The contest times for both contests was 1800 UTC and i first talked to several locals on 6m and 2m but that ended up being the only action for Me on VHF. Not having a working 6m beam limits Me and it didn't seem like My 2m beam was up to its usual distance-- signals were very weak on it!
The RTTY contest was already going strong when I switched to it. I was decoding signals OK but had forgot to reprogramm the digital messages. They were still set to the previous contest. Eventually after correcting this issue and taking care of some outside chores I was able to begin. The bands were only average with no RTTY being heard on either 10 or 15m so I settled on 20m which was not too bad. The winter RTTY contests have alot more activity but it also means I was able to be heard easier. It could also be because all entrants are limited to 100w max!!
My original goal was to test My set up and achieve at least 60 QSO's. This I did do and and ended up with 80 QSO's, 40 multipliers and 1 DX. Yes- the lack of DX was very dissapointing to Me but on the up side- last state for WAS -- Wyoming- I worked twice!!
As usual this contest was fun for the limited time operating and everyone was pleasant-- I enjoy the extra chatter some Hams include. I even worked one named "Bambi"-- hmmm.
73---Tim

Success!!

My Nephew and I finally were successful in completing a QSO on the HF bands. We had trouble using Our Verticals but He bought a G5RV and installed it recently. Last night He texted Me that He had it installed and conditions seemed good for a 75m contact. We both tuned up on 3.810 and I checked to make sure the frequency was clear. He heard Me at about S9 but I could just hear a whisper of signal I assumed was from Him. Eventually We had to use the semi-reliable cell phone to discuss the situation.
By this time someone was now on frequency so We moved up 2 and both retuned and tried again. Still a one-ended conversation so He tried switching Mikes. No luck!
What was going on?? Next He tuned up into the dummy load portion of his Ebay bought tuner and noticed it tuned up nice . Lots better than thru the matching network of the tuner. Switching to direct and using the rig's auto tuner did find a good match. luckily We seemed to be trying our test on a portion of the band this G5RV antenna worked OK. I heard him at about s9 and He now was receiving Me at about 10-20 over! Tuner has an issue in the matching network or switches, but works in "direct "mode.
I was now officially his first HF contact!! Tonight I filled out a QSL card and will send it out tomorrow. The G5RV antenna is a compromised antenna on several bands but because of the coax feed makes it a very good choice in some applications-- this one for sure!! Now He has a good domestic antenna , and with the vertical, a good DX antenna. Should be fun!!
73--Tim

Fireworks!

My Daughter took these pictures last night. Good weather, nice display and then later a storm passed thru. Have a great week!

73---Tim

June & July!!

We went to see Michael Buble' in concert and really enjoyed the performance. I like most music styles and this concert fit My tastes to a "T". It was different to see the majority of attendees dressed up so smartly, last concert was a rock and roller and ...well not the same styles at all-LOL!!
Summer has finally arrived in the northland- mid 90's on Friday with high humidity--yuck!! Today is much more reasonable and it looks to be a very nice day. We plan on a Duluth Huskies game and fireworks later. Very lucky to have several community fireworks within driving distance to pick from although that could change if rain rears its ugly head!!
Not too much radio related doings lately. I have checked into several HF and VHF nets and also have plans to pass along My old tri-pod , a much too big tri-bander and other ham stuff. I've decided to try to keep My antennas to a reasonable amount. Also need to be easily worked on by ME. That excludes high towers and big arrays!! :))
Have a safe July 4th-- thanks to all those who have sacrificed so much to keep Us free!!!
73---Tim

Summer has arrived!!

This is another picture from Our Disney trip. Can you spot the hidden Mickey??
Well the nice summer weather finally arrived after many weeks of fog and rain. Now its a race to keep the grass and weeds at bay! It sure is growing fast!! I don't mind mowing but it does bite into My time and limits most hobby activities. Ham radio and metal detecting are almost non exsistant. Typical for this time of the year!
I was very busy with activities this weekend and had zero time to even check out the local field day activities. I heard of two different operations in the area- both within ten miles of My home QTH!! I guess 6m was open both days!
I worked a long day yesterday- 7am-11 pm taking care of trouble on the System( communications). Driving around later in the evening, I was able to pass driving time chatting with several locals on 146.52. I've always been very lucky that the activity in this area is so busy on several repeaters and simplex frequencies. A visitor to 146.52 mentioned the lack of activity traveling around the Midwest on '52. I salute My fellow area Hams!!-- Thanks for the many daily QSO's
73---Tim

Doing My "Elmer" part!

I finally was able to help My Nephew with his antenna project. He already had installed a Hustler 6BTV ground mounted vertical and did very well! Coax to the shack, radials and even guyed it. He assembled it to the dimensions in the DX engineering guide but it would not tune using the Kenwood 850 auto tuner. So I brought My MFJ antenna analyzer and We soon determined it was resonant below all the amateur bands. This was actually not bad news since this probably meant as a unit-antenna,radials,coax and grounds were working well. If it showed resonance all bands with no adjustment I would suspect an issue. A ground mounted vertical in aperfect world will have an impedance around 32 ohms- so will never show a perfect SWR when its working well. Resonance is another matter-- adjusting the slip tube distance from the trap only fine tuned it up a bit so We next tried adjusting the trap location. This did bring it upwards within the bands but at the CW portion for all but 10 and 15m. Since We wanted the voice part, more adjustment was needed but I was on a time frame and was already late.
I left but assured him I'd be back-- He also has now aquired a external tuner so He can tune the antenna although on several bands its a compromised setting. We have tried 75 and 40m to contact each other but only slight whispers on 75 were heard. The bands have not been good early evening but might improve for a better QSO.
I'm happy with Our progress but can't wait till I can help bring the other bands into better tuning range.
73---Tim

Too busy for Radio!!

A picture from Our recent trip to Florida. Harry Potter fans will recognize the Hogwarts Castle at Universal studios. The Harry Potter theme park was very well done . I even enjoyed several Potter rides!! That says alot for an "old" guy!!

We took time to have a garage sale on memorial weekend . The preperation and actual sale ate up several weeks or more. Work has also been very busy .The Girls also finished last day of school--summer vacation for them!

I will be missing the VHF contest because of prior commitments-- a little sad but truly enjoy the HF contests better. Will miss the gang at the contesting station--- bummer!

Still have many radio related irons in the fire,but way too many summer projects to complete first! Typical Summer for Me!

73---Tim

Hallicrafters S-40B

I was lucky enough to be given this radio from an ex-Ham who was cleaning out equipment. It appears to be in great shape and even though I haven't had time to open it up,I'm sure the inside looks as nice! This was a lower end priced radio when new but very popular receiver from the early 1950's. This was only owned previously by two people so that might explain the condition.

When I have more time I plan to do a visual inspection and will probably do a Capacitor replacement because they usually are dried out . It will be also slowly brought up to operating voltage with My variac. eventually i would like to pass this to a local young person interested in Radio- maybe a future Ham!!

73--Tim

Vertical Up!!

My Nephew has the Hustler 6BTV up and guyed,coax connected and the Kenwood TS-850s hooked up and He is hearing lots of signals! He doesn't have any radials yet so the tuning is not good, but its' close to being ready. Maybe in the next week or so We'll have a QSO!
73---Tim

but not forgotten!

Yes! Family trip to Walt Disney World has kept Me very busy. I'm back and will be updating
My Ham Radio activity when able. Back to reality here-- furnace ran this morning!!!
73---Tim
PS- the above photo was taken with My iPhone!!

Two Verticals

I mentioned before My Nephew passed His General and bought some radio equipment from Me. He also was deciding on which antenna to put up and I've included a dipole with the radio. Turns out he bought a Hustler 6BTV which is a great Vertical but His original idea to install it on a mono-pole turned up several problems-- mainly radials and guying it!
Luckily I have a good resource with the MWA group and after explaining the situation, the replies were 10-1 for a ground mount installation. After explaining options to My Nephew, it was agreed the best route is to ground mount the 6BTV and save space on the mono-pole for another type antenna-- small beam maybe??
During this whole time of email and phone calls I had the intermittant problem with My Butternut HF6V resurface. I think the problem is the coax to antenna transition. After retightening, the SWR and antenna started playing better. I should probably coat the connections there but if another problem crops up there,its a mess then to deal with! Its working now-so that decision can wait.
73--have a safe Easter weekend!
Tim

2 New DXCC's

Well 15m was hot yesterday,too bad I had very limited time to play! I happened to be listening to the locals chatting on 146.52 and one mentioned about 15m being open and lots of signals.Tuning to 15m did reveal lots of signals but the one that caught My ear was VU2PAI from India. I need India and He was just commenting on "only those who need India and lets start with zero's first". I threw My call out and a curt reply back said He's listening up five!- oops, I broke a cardinal rule--listen first dummy!! With My tail between My legs so to speak :) I went split and proceeded to try to make contact. Luckily running split and by the numbers made for a much more organized chaos! I did hear several locals get thru- running power and tri-banders and was starting to wonder if My measily vertical and barefoot would ever be heard. All too quickly VU2PAI announced last zero-- I threw out My call again and - HE came back to uniform-juliett-juliett again? I gave Him My call and report and He came back with W0UJJ-- what?-No its N0UJJ and the correction was noted and He was in the log!! Right after Me He switched to "ones" and the first one was someone He knew from before and they chatted for a bit then VU2PAI switched to low power-QRP 5w and then 1w and I copied both power levels OK. Not surprising since with the amp He was 10-20 over! I next worked YL2KO from Latvia before I really needed to get back to some chores. I did notice both contacts are again direct or Bureau and I've actually been checking into the ARRL option plus several others - one of those being Global QSL which sounds interesting. I'm looking for the least cost one! No surprise there!! 73---Tim

3 Boxes

I finally decided to sell My Kenwood TS-850

and associated accessories- MC-60a Microphone,CAT cable and digital soundcard interface. Who is the lucky recipiant? None other than My Nephew who is now a new "general" class Amateur!

I opened the 850 up to make sure no capacitor explosions or memory battery leakage had occured. Powered it up one last time and made sure it was in good working order and then packed it up ready to go!

I also included several Kenwood specific accessoreies such as a CAT cable and digital interface, plus My old original headphones. My Elmer had given Me these headphones ,but its time to pass them along--I have My Heil setup now! It's a little sad seeing this radio go- had lots of fun with it and quite often received great audio reports during a QSO. This is also the first "HF contact" radio- heck its the "first" for many Ham related milestones!

I'm also including a dipole antenna! Good-bye ol buddy-enjoy your new home!--LOL

73--Tim

5 New DXCC's Confirmed!

Noticed in ARRL LOTW I have 5 new DXCC's confirmed-Dominica,Haiti,Saba & St Eustatius,Sint Maarten and Surinam. Several should have been easy but as always I needed the other station to be LOTW members and not QSL direct or Bureau which I still don't participate in unless a direct card is sent to Me. I always reply to direct! 73---Tim

HRD shows 7 New DXCC

Between the recent ARRL and CQ SSB contests,plus several Dxpeditions ,My Ham Radio Delux logging program analysis shows I gained seven new DXCC. Barbados, columbia,European russia,Iceland,Nicaragua,Revillagigedo and the Slovak Republic. Several of these i thought I had worked before but the logger is never wrong! Looking some of these on the QRZ database makes Me believe I won't get LOTW credit because they only QSL direct or bureau. Oh well! 73--Tim

CQ WPX SSB 2011

I actually did not plan on participating in this contest until Friday night after I turned on the radio at about 2330 UTC and hearing both 10 and 15m open. I made a few pre-contest contacts and decided I just couldn't stand by and not try to cherry pick some DXCC's. I checked 10m after the contest started but it seemed to have faded quite abit and after hearing the 15m activity , I stayed on 15m for awhile before going to 20m. Several DXCC's I needed I heard but the pile-ups were huge and I just couldn't break them and time was ticking away. I figured with all weekend to try ,I'd just snag them later! Friday night ended up being the only time I ended up having a chance to contest except for a very short time Saturday morning! My signal on the vertical at 100w seemed adaquate and My revised audio , gain settings for My Heil microphone worked well. I even had 6Y1X from Jamaica mention "nice signal" which I assumed meant signal strenght but it could have been an audio report! The conditions over the whole weekend were exceptional but I was only able to experience them friday night. I did manage to add several new DXCC's and as always had a very good time. Only managed about 70 contacts in the short time I was operating -all S & P! 73-- Tim

A New General!

My Nephew Brandon called while He was traveling back from the Buffalo swapfest to give Me the good news He passed the "General" test! I was aware He was studying for this upgrade but didn't realize He was planning on taking it at this certain swapfest. Brandon took His technician test about ten years ago and I guess I could consider Myself His "Elmer" although We live three hours drive time away so I've only had limited influence with any training. He was happy being a "technician" for along time but lately I guess the desire to be on HF was just too much-- I'm glad!! Now that He has expanded HF privledges I plan to help him raise some antennas for those bands. He might even buy My old Kenwood 850-- We'll see. I think I can part with it-LOL!! I remember My first setup- a borrowed HF rig, a homemade tuner and a dipole. I had alot of fun with that setup and in fact that dipole is still in use although its had several repairs performed on it over the years! I think Brandon has plans for a multi band vertical and I have a small wire antenna to donate. Should be more than enough for a good start! If you happen to hear KB0ZZK CQing-- give him an answer back! Who knows you might be His first HF contact! 73---Tim

Yaesu FT-950 Audio Set up

When I first set up this radio, I changed some of the Parametric Equalyzer settings and also the Tx bandwidth. I talked over the air to another Ham who has a Ft-950 and the end result seemed to work fine using My MD-100 Desk mike.
After I bought My Heil Proset plus I set it up over the air also but with another ham. This mike has two elements , an HC-4 and HC-5 which one is more for DX and another for casual talking. I've used it every contest since then and hear Myself thru the headphones with the "moni" set high enough to hear. I've never been exactly happy with what I'm hearing-- sounds a little "RFy" in My speech. Consequently, I don't have as much confidence using this setup and quite often revert to My desk mike for S & P operation. No way I can use a "run" frequency without handsfree though.
CQ WPX SSB is fast approaching and I decided to try and play with both the MD-100 and My nice Heil. I set up My Kenwood TS-850 into a dummy load and also did the same with My Yaesu FT-950 and turned power all the way down to 5 watts. I plugged headphones into the Kenwood and transmitted from the Yaesu- dummy load to dummy load.Word to the wise---always identify yourself- " N0UJJ testing,1,2,3 N0UJJ clear" as an example. Dummy loads are able to transmit sometimes lots farther than We want!!
According to several different internet sites, Heil included, its suggested to dump the lower frequencies. Change menu 64 from 1-30 ( 100-3000 Hz) to 2-28 ( 200-2800hz) to help raising the lower end. For Dx might want 4-26 or 400 -2600Hz! The next parameters are 91-99 dealing with the low,medium and high Parametric microphone equalizer settings.I set mine to the following: menu 91-200 menu 92--15 menu 93-5 for the low then menu 94-700 menu 95--6 menu 96-5 for the medium and menu 97-2400 menu 98-+8 menu 99-5.
Lets back up a minute- before I changed these settings I tried to listen to Myself with the old settings-not the default or new ones. I used both mikes and tried without eqalization and also with the processor and several different settings of mike gain. Then I changed to the new settings and again adusted mike gain and processor on/off and equalization in or off.
The old settings emphasized the lower end more and I think made My transmitted signal sound like it contain an element of RF to it. The new settings did not cause this effect. It was also nice to hear what processed and non-processed audio sounds like. Each have there place! The parametric equalizer is quite noticeable both in and out. The Heil mike sounds great either way-- the MD-100 sounds better with equalization but but I'm also not using it with high or low cut activated. Overall a real nice experiment I highly recommend.I know I don't want to be one of those over processed,over modulated lids!
73--Tim

4 new DXCC's

Even though My time operating during ARRL DX SSb last weekend was limited, I managed to add four new confirmed DXCC's thru LOTW. Dominica, Haiti,Saba and St Eustutius and Sint Maarten. All of these i've worked before but none had confirmed thru LOTW till now. I wish Cameroon and South Africa would confirm, I've worked both in the last month. Never can tell!
According to LOTW I only need the State of Wyoming for WAS. Voice ,RTTY, any band- LOL.
According to My log I've worked Wyoming before but again no LOTW confirmation. I could try sending direct QSL's but have not been that deseparate so far! Besides its expensive!
Fun to chase these awards- but looking on the ARRL website--wow,getting expensive! The price We pay for wallpaper!!
73---Tim

Just contacted 4A4A on 14.195/14.200 - running split- Yes! Missed Greenland on 17m. He was coming in at S9+ but just signing off. Maybe next time- 3/16/11 0140 UTC

2m Mobile Issue

I own several Yaesu FT-2800 2m FM mobile rigs. I bought My first one almost six years ago and liked it so much , I aquired several more to replace older units. They are built like a tank and have a huge heat sink so lots of chatter doesn't overheat the rig.

The first rig I bought i put in My company van but only using a temporary installation since I don't own this vehicle. Mag mount antenna and Cigarette/accessory plug makes this easy for removeal.

Tuesday night I was called in for trouble and on the way was chatting with some locals on 146.52 simplex and right during My turn transmitting- poof. Radio dies and out of the corner of My eye I saw a slight flash. Now it was very dark and to Me it looked like it came from the radio. I couldn't find the time to check into this until later in the week and since I had already checked fuses and I was assuming the radio died, I took My spare in the pole building and replaced it. That wasn't the problem and the old ,suspected bad radio powered up in the pole building.

The only piece still in the van was the Cigarette/accessory plug and in looking at it realized it was a cheaper one. Probably Ok for a small radio like a CB but not to handle 10 amps or more. I'm only guesssing when I installed it, I was planning to replace it when I had a chance. Now was My chance because it had very high resistance on the positive side and was discolored inside. Using a new adapter meant to handle up to 15 amps and using soldered connections instead of friction type has resolved My radio issue in the van.

My trusty old FT-2800 lives on-- -

73---Tim

ARRL Dx SSB contest

Well another contest is gone by. The bands were really hopping on parts of Saturday and Sunday but I only know this by reading Forums and email reflectors. I did participate for a short time Friday night but hardly any time after that. My cold still lingered and by early Saturday was causing My voice to disappear to a whisper. I also noticed My vertical was playing SWR games with Me Friday and by Saturday was kaput!! Not sure what's wrong but that only left 80 and 160m and again not much volume left in My vocal chords-- Oh well.
I did manage some contacts Friday night. VP5H from Turks and Caicos I snagged on 20m and since We're both members of MWA- they were operating as they always do from this warm location during this contest, the pile-up was fairly huge and when they heard" November zero" amidst the pile-up, the sea parted! "Who's the November Zero ?? " With a huge smile I gave My call and they returned the contest exchange and added "go MWA"... sweet. Good ears and a great group of guys made this little pistol station feel special for a time-- although reality was just around the corner for the next pile-up! I'm thinking next Year I need a tri-bander in the air!!
P40A was another neat QSO- He was running QRP and took Me by surprise when He returned " 5/9 zero five! What? 505 watts ?? It just was not registering after so many one-kilo's and 100s that He was only running five watts-- neat and a very fine signal in northern Minnesota!!
Hope the bands stay active and next year I hope some aluminum is shining from above!! LOL
73---Tim

Oh-- yeah only about 30 QSO's- -bummer!!! Next Year,Next Year..................

CQ WW SSB 160m Contest 2011

I was looking forward to this contest not only because I like 160m and a single band contests but I was also anticipating the results of My new inverted "L" and FT-950. All was a go until Friday evening when I came down with the "crud". I managed to work a few contacts Friday night but was in bed sleeping very early. The bands seemed to be in great shape and I even heard CR2X from Azores at a very loud S9. Too bad He didn't hear me!
Saturday I was feeling well enough for a short ,part-time participation in the contest . Surprisingly I was able to increase My score and number of QSO's even with less time spent than previous years - 70 Qso's, 33 mults for a score of 5313. I did notice My inverted "L" seemed to preform much better than My dipole and the FT-950 with its Rx BW filtering made it so much easier to pick out signals. Many times I went to the narrow width setting and was able to almost completely attenuate out neighbors and only hear the signal I wanted. That sure makes it fun! Several guys were CQing and lonely when I was able to pick them out!
This was an S & P operation because of the many breaks I took to rest. Maybe next year I'll be 100% - I know My setup and some good propagation will make an improvement !
Next weekend is ARRL International DX SSB contest!
73---Tim

DX Analyzer

Well in the old beginning days of My Ham Radio career, Dx was any contact outside of the normal area. Since most were on 6m, that meant outside of My state! After My license upgrades and HF privledges, that increased for Me to include Canada and the occasional ,fantastic North Caribbean Contact.Eventually with My contest participation ,usually 20m offered Me some actual "DX". What a thrill to finally have literally world-wide coverage. Depending on Propagation and sunspots which seem to be finally coming to life!
Last Year adding My Vertical ground mounted HF6V antenna really opened the DX door and now this year I have the inverted "L" for 160m and up to help also. Finally , using a mode like RTTY has also helped the DX count. When I only had a dipole and little vertical for 10/12m, I remember watching a Dx pedition the whole time they operated for a chance to work them on voice. DX count doesn't increase very fast that way,but I always enjoyed the chase!! Means alot with a puny signal!
After My last conquest of TJ9PF, I started wondering about where I stand with DXCC. LOTW shows only 39 confirmed entities but what is My unconfirmed total? With some recent issues with HRD, I've been really going thru this program and I stumbled upon the logbook analyzer. Yes,I'm probably the only HRD user not to realize this wonderful part of the logging program exsists, but now that I've found it, I want to say how great it is!! With some tweaking it appears My mixed amount of DXCC entities is 70. Not alot for people with aluminum in the air but not bad for Me!
Some of the more memorable ones are Ducie island,VP6DX, I remember chasing them for awhile- even snagged them on 12m voice with an old CB vertical on My pole building. Also Desecheo Island, K5D, Voice on 20m and Isle of Mann on 20m voice.Two RTTY contacts are TJ9PF and My longest at 9,149 miles of South Africa. No "JA's" yet but I'm hopeful with the ARRL DX SSB coming up in March.
Remember the CQ 160M SSB contest this weekend!!
73---Tim

PS-- It appears I only need the state of Wyoming for WAS Mixed! How could I have missed them??? Any Wyoming out there for a sched on Voice or Digital ?? :)
PSS-- Just rechecked logs--I've worked Wyoming but no LOTW confirmation.Always hope!

TJ9PF on 30m

I've thought about chasing DX on PSK31 or RTTY but until recently had not attempted any. Two events happened recently to start Me towards this evenings contact. First was the recent success with the CQ WW RTTY contest and second was playing with Ham Radio Delux which started Me thinking about DXCC entities I still need.
I also happened to receive the latest DX news from the ARRL and noticed several DXexpeditions now QRV! One of them was TJ9PF operating from Cameroon just north of Equatorial Guinea. Checking the Dx cluster tonight I seen them on 30m RTTY. Here was My chance but- oh,oh! They are operating split- never done split on this FT-950 although I operated split many times with the Kenwood Ts-850.
I have actually, hard as it is to believe, studied the manual to operate split so all I needed to do was remember how. Turns out using split on this radio is relatively easy. Using RTTY split is not much different than voice. TJ9PF was CQing, seemed lonely! Once I realized My TX split was transmitting to My dummy load, I corrected that and received a "QRZ?" I sent My call again and TJ9PF was in the log!! I 'm thinking this RTTY mode might be just the ticket to snag some more DXCC!!
73---Tim

HRD and QRZ

I've used Ham Radio Delux for several years as My general logging program.All contest log are imported to this program and I do regular saves. I also use QRZ.com and have a simple biography with My call sign. Its interesting to see the different information other Hams add to QRZ. HRD has always updated from QRZ .com if specified and a little over a year ago a update was needed because QRZ.com changed its layout.
All was good until about six months ago when I noticed most of My logged entries was not updating from QRZ.com and not even when I tried to manually force it. This weekend after importing the recent RTTY contest I was having the same problem. Wanting to look up a few callsigns from the contest , I logged into QRZ.com and looked these up. I soon noticed these now had all the info I normally have from QRZ to HRD but only for those callsigns. I tried an edit on a different callsign and there it was! All info except the "location Grid" . What?!?!. It appears I need to be logged into QRZ.com for HRD to receive all the info-- I didn't know that!! Maybe you did- :)))
73---Tim
Update-- 2/7/2012  Future post explains how QRZ now requires a paid subscription to fill in the blanks!!

CQ WW WPX RTTY 2011

This contest started Friday at 6:00pm CST for Me and I thought I'd play a bit and try to figure out My PC-Radio issues. A RTTY contest is the best time to guarantee finding RTTY signals to contact. I really wanted to have My Yaesu FT-950 working so I could take advantage of the excellant Rx filtering and noise cancelling this rig has to offer.
Tuning across 40m showed lots of signals but the level still didn't seem as high on the MTTY program as it should--hmmm. I had already turned up the Menu function 051 " data level out" from its default of 50 to about 80. I decided to turn it up all the way to "100" and that certainly did the trick. I do remember from troubleshooting with the scope the level at default was lower than the level out of the Ft-857. The Ft-950 level seemed more suited for a Microphone input . Maybe the span actually is wide enough to accomedate mic- or line input! Whatever the case it now was decoding very well. I tried the various "width" adjustments all the way down to 200hz-- wow! Like threading the needle! What a difference from 2400 hz that I used on the Ft-857 with no optional filters installed. Too many neighbors?? Adjust the width to eliminate them. This also kept them from interfering and messing up the decode. Eventually I'd realize how many "AGN?" exchanges it would save.
Next was to figure out the TX problems. I have only used AFSK and had added circuity for FSK to the radio, but no matter what I tried, it just would not "diddle". I decided to try instead the AFSK mode- this required several changes to the MTTY program and eventually if using N1MM it also required a minor change to that program too. I first tried RTTY into a dummy load so I could adjust the level. It seemed to sound best with the gain adjust not too high. I also have the power out backed off from 100w to 50w since this is a full duty cycle mode. Next if I wanted to log this contest I needed N1MM running and using the MTTY RTTY engine . I won't explain exactly how to do this but its not too complicated. Again it takes some configuration changes to the program.
Lets-contest!! Sounds easy and -Yes it is . First try I had an answer back and I was contesting.It appears My uninstalling the webcam did the trick !Now the fun began.What a difference a radio makes!! This Ft-950 is superb in filtering and noise abatement. Nearby signals-no problem! Adjust the bandwidth down,down down. I found 800hz good for most S&P and if nearby signals bothering-- 500hz was usually narrow enough although several times I did drop down to 400hz,but 200-300 seemed most time to be too much. I don't know if its frequency stability from the other end or just propagation but 500 and up was best.
Amazing what 50w and a simple dipole or ground mounted vertical can do! Was I beat out? Absolutely but many times I beat others too. Fun!! I ended up over the course of the weekend contacting Cape Verde,Canary Islands, lots of South America and Europe. I did hear some 'JA's" towards the end of the contest on 40m but the pileups were ridiculous so I passed them by. One regret was hearing Saudi Arabia and because of the pile up and wanting to increase My score I bypassed them too. I reasoned I would run across them again-but of course I didn't!
The bands seemed very good all weekend except for a short time on both Saturday and sunday. I operated as much as My schedule would allow- needed time for chores,family and precious sleep! Total time was around 8 hours or less but I ended up very happy with My score. I should have done some frequency "running" but I was having such a good time just meandering around the bands I just never did.
here's the numbers-
218 QSOs, 133 WPX's for a total of 58,254. Not too bad for a contest to "troubleshoot" My RTTY setup. Never intended to run this contest!- I had fun and glad I participated!
73---Tim

Soundcard and Webcam conflict

I experienced problems with My soundcard interface both before and after the ARRL RTTY RU in January. I was fortunate to have two radios setup and one ,an FT 857 using AFSK RTTY worked enough to participate in the contest. My other Radio ,a FT-950 wouldn't work enough for any Soundcard interfacing.
After the contest was over I tried even simple modes like PSK31 and neither radio would work.This week I finally had some time to continue to troubleshoot the problem and actually hooked up a scope to look at the line in to the PC. At first I had nothing showing until I switched the scope leads around and then a definate modulated signal was present. Ah, polarity sensitive !
Why wasn't I seeing much level on the PSK31 program? Tried adjusting level up and then started looking at not only the program configuration but also the PC's. The issue seemed to be soundcard input was switching from line input but also to a Webcam and at times a non-exsistant soundcard type. Could the Webcam be a conflict? Hmmm, I seem to remember installing it after the last RTTY contest.
I decided to do a total uninstall of the webcam and associated programs. After a restart I re-configured the PSK31 program and -voila! Now it seemed to work ,both TX and RX although no reply for TX so testing not complete. More to come-- now to check out another problem-- water heater malfunction!! d***
73--Tim

Minnesota QSO Party 2011

This contest is sponsored by The club I'm a member of-- The Minnesota Wireless Association and I believe its one of the better QSO parties! Course there is a little favoritism on My part-LOL!!
This contest runs from 8:00AM CST to 6:00 PM CST on February 5th.
Minnesota stations try for Counties,States and provinces and add points for each DX contact. All others try for Minnesota Counties. I'm in St. Louis County in northern Minnesota and operated "SOLP Phone only". I also operated as a fixed station from the comfort of My basement. It's fun to hear the "war" stories from the many mobiles operating and realize how easy I have it! No plans for mobile operation yet ,maybe in the future. I have been offered a co-pilot seat but that would mean a definate full time committment which I'm not able at this time to do. Fact is I only operated about 4 hours this time even though I'd planned on a mostly full time operation from home!
I started at 8:15 CST on 80m and quickly got a run going. Contacts were coming slow but steady and I thought- boy this easy!!- grin,grin! If it had kept on like that My score would have climbed to unheard of heights--at least for ME! Too bad it did dry up- seemed like 80m had a bad case of the doldrums,so I switched to 40m and tried to get a run going! I thought I might be successful, but after just a short time this too dried up. Next was 20m and right away I knew this little station was in trouble! Vertical or wires just could not hold a frequency with louder neighbors pushing Me out so now it was strictly S & P .
I also checked 15m and 10m but little or no activity. I did manage on several bands to add some contacts with S & P but I knew without a big opening My hope of a better score,two or three times higher than last years was not to be. It also was time to handle some chores around here and with chores ,lunch, family time and such I was not able to do more in the contest except occasional checking of the bands for improvement and occasional contacts.
Towards the end of the contest I was finally able to devote some more time and tried for runs on several bands with only limited success. My most time spent ended up again to be 80m and the old trusty 260' dipole. I really need a tri-bander to make a dent on 20m and help improve My 15 and 10m arsenal.
Several fun contacts were with mobiles- who really make or break these State QSO parties unless the state is heavily populated. One mobile I actually was able to copy His callsign (i think) but not name or county with heavy QRM. We tried and tried--bummer. Several other mobiles I had good SSB contacts with, one even gave Me counties within a short time- only had to drive several hundred feet-cool!
One mobile I contacted between several bands and counties towards the end. I eventually was switching to 160m knowing this usually was the final band before the end and expected to start CQing but when i asked if the frequency was in use-- My "elmer" came back and said Hi!! Just about fell off My chair-- I haven't talked to Roger on voice in ages! Finding him on 160m was really great! Fun contest- wish bands had been better and I had more time .
Less Q's than last year, more multipliers so a little better score--6624
73---Tim

Spelling Bee and QSO Party

Good News!! My Daughter Kathy won the District Spelling Bee! She will be participating in the Regional Bee on February 17th. It took 16 rounds to determine a winner so all the Kids were very good spellers.

This Saturday is the Minnesota QSO Party starting at 8:00 CST. Hope to hear You on the bands!

73---Tim

simple update

Lorraine passed away quietly surrounded by Her Family.


Ham Radio will be the subject after a time.....
Tim

Rotator resolved!

I was hoping the warmer temperatures would help My rotator thaw! Happily this morning when I tried it-- viola! Its back ! So I'm happy bout that. Still not much time for Radio. Several new inches of Snow to take care of. My Mother-in-laws condition about the same. Kids are sick and thats just the way it is. We'll get through this as We've always done- resolve ,determination, and strength from Family.
On a much lighter note-- 160m CW contest this weekend- I've heard several good DX reports.
All partipants--good luck!
73--Tim

Too Busy for radio...

Yes, too busy and the mood is all wrong for Me to tinker in the basement. Minnesota QSO party is approaching February 5th and the local email reflector is bustling with contest emails. On the home front-- My wonderful dedicated Wife is spending time with Her Mother who is slipping away to Heaven. This means a little more duty on the homefront for Me-- the easier job by far.
Its always sad to see suffering -both sides of it!
God bless all
73---Tim

Echolink and iPhone

I tried using Echolink on an iTouch but at the time We used a Satellite internet company and a local router. I could never even get the connect test to pass and always assumed either My router or Satellite delay were causing issues. Guess I'll never know because We have had DSL since before Christmas and I just recently upgraded My old phone to a iPhone. The Echolink App works great and tonight I checked into a local Weathernet thru Iphone and Echolink . The local repeater I access seemed to be down and other link repeaters are only accessible when My 2m beam is working. The rotator is froze and so My directional antennas are not!!
I was totally amazed at the ease of connecting tonight to the local echolink repeater access. Did the connect test and tested My audio and when the net started-bingo!! I heard net control and saw the users on echolink!
Try Echolink- sign in on the Internet, You'll receive an answer back to your email and the fun begins.Not a huge repeater user but this is neat!
73---Tim

Snow and future Antenna plans

I like Winter but the snow depths and frequency of new snow is starting to wear on Me. Spent all day Saturday with snow removeal, roofs,sidewalks, driveway and dog trails! The snowbanks are getting huge! Will it ever end? More snow predicted for tonight. Just in time for back to work and fighting snow removeal in the dark!
The Ham radio end of all this mainly the lack of time to play on the radio.I did listen for a short time to 160m before bed and the band was fairly active with the North American QSO party contest. Heard most of the US from East to West coast, would have been fun to participate but by this time only about an hour and a half was left and I was just too tired! My 160m inverted "L" was definately hearing very well!
Earlier this week I was attending a retirement party and happened to meet several Hams there. Discussion turned towards antennas and the bottom line is this-- I have decided to remove both VHF antennas on My tower and put the ATB34 tri-bander up there instead. I will probably also put a new smaller 2m beam up but refurbish the old 6m beam and put that back on the pole building mini-tower. I am on HF lots more now than VHF and the tri-bander would really help My contesting efforts. Early this Spring I need to assemble and test the ATB-34 and get it ready to put up. The 2m beam i either need to buy or refurbish an old one-- we'll see what the old one looks like. I truthfully don't remember its condition. Love the options!
73-- Tim

ARRL RTTY RU 2011

Well considering some of the pre-contest issues I had with equipment, this contest turned out to be another fun experience. I never tried to use My main set-up or My back-up but used the back-up to the back-up!! Confused? Don't be! I'm lucky to still have several radios and I do think eventually I will have problems ironed out.


The virus on My back-up PC has been eliminated, the FT-950 is mysteriously working on the digital modes again--go figure! The radio of the hour (or contest) the Yaesu FT-857 worked well even with its limitations. The most glaring limit is only having the factory filters (2.4 khz) and not the CW filters in. The front end tends to overload with close adjacent ,strong signals and this did interfere when trying to receive info during QSO's. I firmly believe I could have doubled or tripled QSO count but for this shortcoming!


I was able to start the contest at the beginning,but Dog,chickens and family also need attention so it was on and off for most of Saturday. Sunday was able to get back on the air towards the end and then I scrambled trying for multipliers mostly. I noticed a lack of multipliers, espcially DX. I had several memorable contacts, one being 4U1WB from Washington DC and Don- AA5AU who I contacted on several bands. Don wrote an excellant tutorial on RTTY setup I have referred to many times. Also had the usual suspects from South America and a new one for Me-- J39BS from Grenada. Also some Europe but not as much as last year.


I also seen "printed" some fellow MWA members who I missed-unfortunately and a fellow blogger I follow- Dave-K2DSL. Very fun contest- -really enjoy RTTY, hope to resolve radio and interface issues for the next one.Very thankful I was able to participate. Thanks for all the Q'S


My meager but hard earned results:


Band- QSOs-- Sec- Cty
3.5 -9- 3- 0

7- 40 -8 -0

14- 59 -15 -4

21 -54 -12 -5

28 -1 -1 -0

total: 163- 39- 9

score: 7,824




73---Tim

RTTY Fiasco!

Well just when i thought My RTTY setup and backup were in good shape-- tried the pre test on Thursday and Friday and very inconclusive. OK- total failure although I really don't want to admit that. I had an occasional broken reply with My callsign but could never really complete a QSO, so have finally fallen back to the FT-857 which I think is working but, "moni" on this radio doesn't appear to work! So I can't hear My "diddles" ! The FT-950 seems to work for a bit then I lose Rx audio and I can't figure out what is happening to it. My Kenwood TS-850 is hooked to a PC with a bad soundcard or driver and unfortunately in trying to reload a different driver- I now have a virus!!
Contest starts in an hour-- I hope I can cobble something together!
73 for now----Tim

The good and bad with SKYPE

I became a Skype member several Years ago when I aquired an itouch. I used it for awhile to chat with My family thru Instant messaging when out of town. Recently with PC upgrades, several laptops now have built in webcams,so leave it to My Girls to try video calling. It works really well and I'm impressed but Skype lets new accounts start with privacy wide open and one of My Daughters had an"ishy" person try to contact them.Scary!! Needless to say the account is now locked down very tight. Word to the wise- new accounts need privacy invoked right away! That was several several weeks ago and all seems to be OK now. I've recently bought a Logitech C150 webcam for My hamshack PC. I'm waiting to install it till after ARRL RTTY Ru this weekend- don't want any conflicts to interfere with the contest! I'll let you know how the Webcam install goes and the contest results. Hope to log a QSO with many out there! :) 73----Tim