Author Archive
IARU contest results
July 14th, 2024 | 
Author: 
My contest contacts
This weekend was the IARU contest and you can participate in CW, SSB or both. As for me, it was CW only....surprise surprise. The solar weather can affect how radio operations in both a good way and a bad way. This weekend it was a bad way but that is ok as I tell myself the solar weather does not discriminate it treats all operators the same way. The advanced solar forecast prepared contesters for a rough ride but to add to it the Bz index, something we don't hear much about in Solar weather circles was deep in the negative direction. When you have poor solar weather and add in a -Bz index it just makes things worse. What it sounds like to a CW contester is one moment a signal is very decent and then gone and in most cases gone for some time.
This is a challenge for contesters as when you hear a call sign, come back to them and get a report you generally have no luxury for repeats. If the anomaly happens mid-contact well you most likely cannot log the contact. I find during these conditions you have more stations contacting you more than once on the same band (called a DUPE). Because of the changing condition, you may think the station heard your exchange but they did not and may be asking you for a repeat and you can't hear them asking. So due to the poor conditions, they are not able to log your contact that you think was a solid contact. Whenever I have a station call me that has called me before and is in the log (DUPE) I always work them again as you are not penalized for it. But there are a few that send "QSO BEFORE" and will not log the contact.
Anyway, I digress....this year I was able to log more contacts (56) during very poor conditions compared to last year and better yet I almost doubled my score. Last year's score was 69,484 compared to 130,130 this year. This contest starts on Saturday at 9 am local time and ends on Sunday at 9 am local time. I was up early on Sunday (5:15) to keep adding to the log. I am a morning person and up each day at 6 am so I was not too far off from my normal time.
The final results
Are you trying to pickup your CW speed….here is some info.
Canada Day contest 2024
I did a part-time effort in the Canada Day contest on the weekend. I wanted to take it easy as I just had minor surgery and sitting in one spot for long periods hurts. The contest was from Sunday at 00:00 or 9 pm local time until 00:00 Monday. I was on and off during the day Monday and noticed the number of contesters was on the low side. I attribute this to Monday only being a holiday in Canada and most others were working. In the Canada Day contest you have the option of CW and SSB or a combination of both. As you may have guessed I was CW-only and unassisted.
The solar forecast was predicting a Kp index maxing at 4 but the good news was the maxed at Kp2. I still found deep QSB (fading) on all bands (for me 10m-40m). I did manage to beat last year's score and total contacts. As always I found this contest more relaxed CW speed-wise, I was calling CQ in around 30wpm but dropped it to 26-28wpm. I found at times I would be calling CQ RAC for 5 or minutes without an answer. Because of this I had some web pages up on my other monitor and was doing some reading. Funny when an answer to my CQ did come back to me it would startle me out of my reading trance.
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| This years score |
I found the new equipment placement helped me out. With the Icom 7610 closer so no leaning forward for VFO changes. Also having the Begali Simplex on the pull-out table beside me was great. I had no getting my hand around the radio to get at the paddle. I am now in the process of teaching myself finger placement for the F keys. What I mean by finger placement is to have certain fingers for certain F keys and it is preformed with out looking at the keyboard. I can already touch type without looking and in contests believe me if you can learn this it is a huge benefit.
My contacts during the contest
Changing it up
The old setup
As an avid contester, I find myself sitting at the radio for long periods and I am no longer a spring chicken my body is not as forgiving as it used to be. Some of the changes in the past I made were getting a proper desk chair, and making sure the monitors I look at for long periods are at eye level. Also getting up each hour and doing a little walking around also helps.
As I became more involved in my love of contesting, meaning I extended my operating times I then found other issues regarding age and repetitive moments that hindered my contesting time. To continue to enjoy my contesting adventure some changes needed to be made at the station.
During a CW contest when your QSO count is over a thousand plus imagine how many times your baby finger hits the "enter" key on your keyboard. Let me tell you it is TONS of times. I found some tendons in my right hand became very sore. The problem was it did not go away after the contest it affected me for close to a month off and on. I changed it up by daily stretches for my hands, during a contest not hitting enter all the time but also using the F1 key. Both keys send "CQ TEST VE9KK" and I also added a wrist support to my keyboard and my mice for my right hand.
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| Keyboard support. |
During a contest many times, I would be spinning the VFO and changing RF gain to name a few things. My radio was far back on my radio desk which meant I had to lean forward each time to play with the radio controls. After some time my back and shoulders would get very sore. Most times I noticed this the next day and not right away. To solve this I moved my Icom 7610 forward on the desk, this way there is no more stretching or leaning forward to make radio changes.
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| Mouse support. |
The next change I made was my Begali Key and it had nothing to do with my body aches and pains but the placement of it was just very awkward. During a contest, I may use my key to send a partial call, repeat my call or send my exchange again. Where the key was I had to monkey my hand around the radio to get to it. I now have the key on my pull-out desk shelf. I have it held in place with 2 sided Gorilla tape. It now is a simple movement off the keyboard and then back again.
The next change was dual mice for my desktop using a free software program called Either Mouse. Why 2 mice you ask.....well on my desktop during a contest I have N1MM+ contest logging program on the go and Win4icom radio control software running. During a contest, I may need to change filter settings, adjust the audio peak filter (APF) and so on. While doing this during a contest contact in the past meant moving my mouse off N1MM+ program and over to Win4icom program and then back. The "and back" part most of the time gave me an issue. In the heat of battle, I would move the mouse too fast and lose track of it or accidentally click the mouse let's say on a macro and send something that just confuses the contact....you get the picture.
During a contest, I have one mouse pointer on Win4icom program and the other on N1MM+ contest logging program. This way I can click on either program. I also am using wireless mice as I found the corded mice were affected by RFI.
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| The new setup. |
Well, that's if for changes here and all for the love of contesting!
I’m back……
I am back and it's not that I have been anywhere but summer is here and well blogging takes a sideline as I have outdoor jobs to do and after all it is summer. I do keep up my readings on the blogs that I follow but for posting my time has been allotted to other things. Also, there have not been too many radio-related exciting things going on. Now having said that this weekend I took part in the ARRL field day function. Since selling my KX3 and K2 I have no rig to bring into the out of doors so I entered again as indoor and house power or 1D category.
The ARRL field day contest is more relaxed and not as intense as other CW contests and yes before you ask I entered as CW only. The speeds are in around 20-26wpm but you do find the occasional OP hitting 30 plus. I used my faithful Icom 7610 at 100 watts into my Hustler 4BTV. The conditions were tough at times with deep QSB. At one point a signal was S7 and then gone so most of the time you had one chance to get the other stations' info. This is my third year taking part in this "event" and to be honest, I am not sure why in the past I never took part.
This year I decided to add some flair to my participation, I used both of my Icom 7610 independent receivers. I have always wanted to do this but some CW contests are very let's say busy for me and to juggle a second VFO on a different band would let's say stretch my abilities. BUT radio contesting is all about learning, isn't it? For the field day contest I used VFO A as my running (calling CQ contest) VFO and VFO B on a different band to both see on the waterfall if the band was opening and to search and pounce strong stations. When doing this you have VFO A in one ear and VFO B in the other....now that takes some getting used to. But the field day contest is the ideal contest to do that as it is a relaxed event. It seemed to work for me as I doubled my score and contacts this year compared to last year's field day.
Some of my contest simulation software allows me to set things up as dual VFO and believe me I need practice at it as at times I was transmitting on the wrong band, confusing left ear/right ear to which VFO it was and forgetting which VFO I was controlling.....note to self look into the external VFO knob Icom offers....another note to self....it is way overpriced for what it does.
The main thing about a hobby no matter what it is....have fun and learn. I am doing both and the hobby gives me great joy.
So you like the great outdoors
I have been noticeably absent regarding my recipe series as I was recovering from COVID. Both my wife and I consider ourselves very fortunate as this is the first brush we have had with COVID-19. We are both fully vaccinated and it was like having a bad cold that would just not go away. Now I did lose my sense of smell and taste for about a week which was a bit weird. We did stay at home (about 10 days) until we tested negative. I will humour my readers with one soapbox moment.....a friend of mine mocked us both for staying home telling us it's the new cold bug get over it. My answer to that is "very true" BUT it also is very contagious and that is the problem as I see it. To wander around without taking precautions allows the bug to spread and more get sick. My friend, I would consider selfish in a way as it's all about "him". Wait until he has to go to the hospital but has to wait forever as staff are sick at home, and needs the police but response time is longer as some are off sick and so on. I am retired and could stay home for 10 days but to him I say at least wear a mask if you venture out....it's not all about YOU.
OK time to step off the soapbox now and get to the meat and potatoes of the next post. In the last few years, there has been an explosion in getting outdoors and operating radios. We have Park on the air (POTA) summits on the air (SOTA) and then branch-offs from that. One of the main ingredients of this recipe is to love the outdoors. The modes of operation are SSB, CW and digital modes if you operate CW then some practice picking out code in a pileup, being able to pick out a call. I have listened to some POTA and SOTA activations and it can get very busy. It truly is an art to pick out calls in a pileup. Refining this art will help increase your contacts and the needed numbers for an official activation. Another ingredient is Increasing your knowledge about portable antennas and how best to set them up. Learning the ins and outs of your rig (most of the time a small compact unit) as when operating you won't have the luxury of a manual to refer to. Another ingredient is the art of organization it can make or break an activation. A simple BNC to PL-259 connector left at home can bring an activation to a fast end before it even starts.
If you are doing a summit on the air an important part of the recipe is safety. I would not do it alone, if it's a crazy summit then bring along a sat-phone, GPS locator, and first aid kit as funny things can happen. The technology is there so use it. NEVER NEVER think it could ever happen to me.
Most activation's are portable and a 100 watts signal is a dream which was left at home. For this reason, your best bang per watt may be CW or digital operations and not to worry SSB will do the trick as well. An important ingredient is to figure out how to spot yourself during an activation. This will get you folks listening for your peanut signal and buy you some contacts for the log. Another ingredient in my humble opinion is to get a good set of headphones. You could be in a park with other people and their noise, the wind and so on. Now having said that let me also include a very important ingredient and that is ham radio ambassadorship. If you are in public then the public is going to wonder what you are up to. Be ready to field questions and be ready to share about the hobby. It could be an onlooker, park ranger, police or who ever.
Well there you go all done with the recipes of ham radio I hope you enjoyed this little montage.
3G0YA in the log on 20m CW.
The other day I joined the 21st century loaded Ham Alert on my iPhone and set up Easter Island. On the first attempt to enter 3G0YA into HamAlert, I did not add a CW only and was flooded with digi and SSB spots. I managed to check out some YouTube videos and got that organized. Up to this point, I have been hit and miss using the DXheat cluster with no luck. I have never been able to hear them just the pileup they were working. Well, yesterday morning Ham Alert told me to head over the 20m, I did that and there they were but only at S1. I waited and then they bumped up to S4 and away my call went out onto the waves of opportunity.
In the past, I have been hoping so badly for a DXpedition station to hear me so felt I somehow heard part or all of my call. To only let down that I was not actually in the log once I checked. Hearing my call was only my ambitious imagination. This time when I dropped my call I was not sure if I heard or maybe imagined I heard my call. As Murphy would have it they went from S4 to S1 with their comeback to me. I listened and maybe heard again VE9KK 5NN.....so what the heck I tossed out my 5NN TU.
I continued to listen and wow for a few moments they were S6 or more so I tried again and this time I was sure I made it in the log. They called back "VE9", I tossed my call again and they came back "VE9KK 5NN" The funny thing was when I checked Clublog I found I was in the log the first time and it was not Murphy playing with me.
