Goodbye TN2T

 I tried last night for one more attempt at contacting TN2T on any band either SSB or RTTY. They were not too strong again and the constant deliberate interference was just too much. I just don't understand the state of mind of these Hams who will interefere with a DXpedition so consistently.
  This particular DX seemed to draw the weirdos whereas HK0NA did not! Whats the difference? I don't know but because of the lack of this interference I was able to contact HK0NA on a fifth band--17m first try with My Butternut Vertical. Five bands-wow, hard for Me to believe after the struggle to try and get TN2T in the log just once!! Now they are QRT- thats too bad!
  I'm still trying for VP6T ,but time is again running short with them expected to pack up sometime Thursday depending on weather. Have not heard them lately.HK0NA is still operating till February 10th-- still time for RTTY and maybe 40m voice!! Happy DX hunting!
   73---Tim

TN2T chase

  Well I continued chasing some DXpeditions and added HK0NA to a fourth band- 10,12,15 and 20m so I considered this very successful. I hardly heard a whisper from VP6T and the only band TN2T was fairly good copy was 20m- 14.189. Now20m for a little station running barefoot , using a ground mounted vertical or even a dipole is hit and miss. Its always a rough go when the bands are busy or propagation bad or both.
This weekend I think at My QTH in the far North,conditions were bad! Yes- I had good luck with HK0NA, but i chased them on and off all weekend to finally snag four bands. All the DX I chased this weekend was a tough go--even tried finding them on RTTY!
  So today on 14.189 TN2T was working a very big pile-up and trying to spread it out 5-10 khz up. I've had some success breaking thru a big pile but not today. I tried many times all afternoon, but it seemed to be the never ending pile. Trying to see the multitude I was up against I listened from 14.194-14.199 when TN2T was talking the background noise was S1, but the minute He finished the swell began- rising to S9 and above. It was incredible! The whole spectrum from 194-199 was like a big wave!-Wow, no wonder i couldn't break thru! Then to make matters worse-- on TN2T's transmit frequency was the tuner-uppers,the constant carriers and the lids who thought He was running simplex!! Even if I had gotten thru, I don't know if I would have known with all the rackett!!
  Crazy! Well maybe i'll try a little this work week- time is limited!
  73--Tim

DXPedition chasing!

I haven't had much of a chance to chase Dx lately and there are three Dxpeditions right now I want to try for. TN2T is the "Congo", HK0NA is Malpelo Island and VP6T is Picairn Island. I need all three and decided if conditions were good to try to contact each on as many bands as possible--maybe even RTTY!
 Looking at the Dx clusters I saw HK0NA was on both 10 and 12m. I have vertical antennas for both but 12m is My old CB groundplane on the back of the Pole building ( barn). They were strongest on 12m at S-9 and running split. I had tuned up several KCs down from the recieve frequency and the Tx was far enough up that I should have retuned! Yes-- when I transmitted, the SWR almost high enough for the Transmit power to fold back. Whats this? Reply back- "who's the N0?? Well that be Me and I gave them a reply .
HK0NA in the log on 12m! They proved much more diffucult on 10m. It was only many hours later when conditions changed that is was able to contact them there on 28405- split also! I eventually also made a contact on 20m too! Three bands-Yahoo!!
  I also have been trying contact TN2T-- Congo expedition but the only band I can hear them good is 18m and no luck so far. The deliberate interference to this expedition on 18m makes Me  angry . Deliberate on frequency tuning up and dead carrier. I'll never understand it .Does make it harder to complete a contact when I can't hear the DX!
  VP6T so far today at this QTH has hardly been heard. I'm hoping later conditions change and I have a chance. With work during the week it seems My only time is on the weekends to have a small chance to add these DXpeditions into the log.
  Time to try My dipole on 18m instead of the vertical. More later!
  73----Tim

Various Radio stuff!!

  Radio stuff! Yes, not any specific topic this time but I actually have been doing radio stuff lately!. I continue to check into a local 146.52 FM net as much as possible. I also check into a local 10m net on sunday night and a weather net thru My echolink app on My iphone to  a local repeater. This is a neat "net" with check-ins from around the USA with weather reports from all areas. On the HF side , I still find time for the "Iron Range net" on 3.919 at 8:00am CST saturday morning and "Pico" net on 3.925 at 9:00am CST and 3:00pm CST M-f and Saturday morning.Work does prevent Me from participation most days for some of these nets but I try to check in when I can.
  The last weekend was both the NAQP SSB and ARRL VHF contests. I managed to snag a few 2m and 6m contacts during the VHF contest. 6M was interesting because My 6m yagi on My tower is not operational with high SWR ,so I managed to tune thru My G5RV  wire antenna. Not many contacts this way,but better than none.
  I also tried to cut thru the pile-ups to snag HK0NA, Malpelo Island but had zero luck. I also tried a station from the Falkland islands but again no luck! Maybe next time!
  73 for now---Tim

RTTY RU thoughts!

 Its been busy this week so this is the first chance to comment on last weekends contest. Not everything is fresh in My mind llike it had been, but for Me, lack of DX sums up the contest!. I did add 3 new DXCC's and one even submitted to LOTW for 68 confirmed now- Curacao! I'm hoping Martinique and New Zealand will confirm. Besides these three, I logged some of the usual suspects but it was sparse!
  Stateside was a different story with it being like the California or Washington QSO party! No complaints because this was fun to operate. I averaged about 25 Q's per hour S & P which  considering the exchange length wasn't too bad for Me. I checked on the 3830 Reflector and 25-40 Q's per hour looked average. SO2R contesters were 50 Q's and above with several being higher than 100 Q's per hour--wow!!
  I am again looking at running this contest FSK instead of AFSK and even looking at SO2R because I have another HF radio and PC, but will probably stay as a single op low power just because its more relaxed. I also noticed My exchange length was long for the conditions. Lots of the exchanges were 599 -state and ---boom-gone!! Whatever works but if conditions were noisy I do believe the longer encapsulated exchange is better-- next up the Minnesota QSO Party February 4th starting at 8:00am CST and ending 6:00pm CST.
 Hope catch you in the log!!
73---Tim

ARRL RTTY RU 2012

  Band      QSOs    PTS     SEC    DXC

        7        51         51        10        3
      14        93         93        14        3
      21        57         57        12        4
      28        49         49          7        6
Total         250       250        43      16

 Score:  14,750
 Used a Yaesu FT-950 @ 50 watts into a
Butternut Vertical.  N1MM & MTTY software
and logger.  
 will write more when I have time!!
 73----Tim

2 meter TVI

When I was originally licensed as an Amateur Radio Operator and was granted 10m privledges, I tried to check into a local net . Tried was the key word because all the Television's in the house had instant ,.terrible TVI. My dipole happened to have one leg within several feet of Our Satellite Tv receiver. After some experimentation and checking with a few local Hams, came up with a easy solution--power down the Transmitter to 10w. Worked OK until I eventually ran a run of Heliax to a vertical 150' from the house and used that for 10m- full power! Eventually the dipole leg was moved and that really resolved the TVI issue.
  Fast forward to the present and the need for a external HD TV antenna. I had always used an antenna in the attic for over the air channels but not being useable for HD  prompted a total change. I decided to mount a new HD flat panel on top of the garage. It wasn't close to My Ham antennas so I figured I was safe. I also needed to amplify it at the garage end and even with several legs in the house-- yes, several TV's and distance between basement and two stories of My house. I also split and combine the over the air signals and the TV2 output of the Satellite receiver which is actually analog channel 44. Complicated enough to require a diagram so I'll remember the layout in the future!!
  All was great until having QSO's on 2m FM. TVI reared it's ugly head. I powered back the radio to 25w which I thought was working OK to alliviate the problem but it just improved things slightly. Lots of snow and no audio on both over the air and satellite! What to do? All the options of moving antennas just was not practical. The TVI problem was only affecting the upstairs TV-- the last one on the feed. I also noticed the picture was a little fuzzy indicating lower signal. I don't have a spare amplifier but I decided to try about 8 slip on ferrite cores on the RG-6 cable by the affected TV. The inside diameter was big enough to loop the cable thru a second time. Now when I transmitted , audio was OK and just a little bit of snow. Good enough until I acquire an amplifier to add in the feed from the basement.
  73---Tim