Mike VE9KK, Author at AmateurRadio.com • Page 25 of 124

Author Archive

ARRL 10m contest brings the band alive.

December 10th, 2022 |

Lots of action on the 10m CW portion during the ARRL 10m contest. During the morning today lots of EU stations to be had. As the afternoon started the EU faded and more U.S. and I am expecting later this afternoon South America possibly.

Merry Christmas

December 9th, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers

An afternoon of POTA

December 4th, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

We have been having rain a lot out this way and today it was overcast and showers were not forecast. I decided it was time to go out for a walk and get some fresh air. The temperature was plus 2C with a brisk wind. As I was getting back home it started to snow but not enough for any to stay on the ground but the days of that are just around the corner. Once home I poured myself a cup of decaf coffee and headed to the radio room.

I am not sure why but I thought it would be nice to check the POTA (parks on the air) website and look over the spots. I have done this in the past and was not able to hear any of the park activators. I am very glad I did as the POTA propagation gods were smiling on me. On 20m I tuned in to each mentioned spot on the POTA website and low and behold I was able to hear the park activator. Their signals varied from 229 to 599. I had a great time and it's only a short exchange of information for the contact as they are racking up contacts.
The contacts I made on 20m:
KQ4CW
KD8IE
N1QD
KD3D
KG8CO
K9ABR
One contact on 40m
KC1MXB

Inspection of the Hustler 4BTV antenna

December 3rd, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

A loose spider arm not seated in bracket.

We are expecting some high winds and lots of rain starting late afternoon and all evening and for this reason, I took my Hustler 4BTV antenna down. The maximum gusts are to be in around 70-80 km and the antenna specs say the antenna is suitable for 90 km winds. I would rather not go with the see what happens theory as I have made the antenna very easy to take down. I decided not to purchase the tilt base for the antenna as there is nowhere I can tilt the antenna fully down too. I can store the antenna in the shed and it only takes about 10 minutes for the whole ordeal of taking it down and storing it. While the antenna was down today I noticed a few of the blade spiders were loose. There are 6 of these what is called in the manual "spider blades". It's for the 40m portion of the antenna. They are pieces of round hollow aluminum tubing held in place by nuts and bolts. Two of the 6 blades were very loose. I don't think the nuts loosened off I think the aluminum tubing being a soft material compressed a bit and the connection came loose. I tightened the nut and bolts on all the spider blades and will check it each time the antenna comes down. I don't feel double nutting each connection would solve the issue as was said it's my humble opinion the nuts did not loosen off.

Top view of securing screw.

My theory is at one point the aluminum blades will stop compressing and the connection will remain tight. I would have thought an SWR issue would have been apparent with this but nothing was out of sorts with the SWR.

Nuts on bottom of spider arm.

CQ WW CW contest wrap up

November 28th, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

Another CW contest is in the books and this is the first time that Murphy stayed far away from me. I spent the longest time I ever have sitting in the contest chair, one reason could have been it was rainy and cold outside. I took one-hour sessions at a time with about a 10-minute break and lunch and dinner. I found this worked very well and allowed me to focus better when I was on the radio. I spent most of my time in running mode ( calling CQ contest and listening for callers) I will be honest there were times I did have issues and most likely ticked off some contesters with my failing to get their call, but oh well we all have to learn. A highlight was contacting a fellow blogger Bas PE4BAS on 2 different bands. With calling CQ or running I found the time just flew past and before I knew it I was coming up on my 1-hour break mark. Having said that at times when someone spots you on the cluster (thanks Bas) it can get jam-packed. At one point I answered and logged 136 QSO's in 1 hour! My theory is, keep my CW speed at a moderate level (around 29-27 WPM) and I figure I may get more callers. I could go faster but I feel I limit my prospects. Having said that while going at 29wpm I did get over and over stations coming back to me at 32-39 wpm, could be those I have worked in my weekly CWops mini contest and know the speed can be picked up a notch. But it does throw you off to all of a sudden get a call out of the blue at 36 wpm. It was nice to see 10m open and I was able to make some DX contacts. On Sunday afternoon 15m opened to South America and Hawaii which allowed me to get some nice multiplier contacts. I was very happy with how the new Hustler 4BTV performed as this was the first major contest I was able to use it in. My dream goal was to double last year's score and I went way beyond that! As a side note: This morning was the weekly Monday running of the ICWC MST (medium speed 1-hour contest) I gave the morning session a go and what a DISASTER it was! Not sure if there is such a thing as day after major CW contest brain fog but I sure did have it. A half-hour into the hour session I was ready to pull the plug but I hung on and ate humble pie. I was hearing the correct call but typing differently, hearing letters that just were not there, logging a contact before I received their full exchange and as a call was being sent to me I was like a deer in headlights. I could not send or receive S.O.S. if my life depended on it. Oh well, water under the bridge and just for the heck of it I am going to jump back in the operating chair for the afternoon MST session. What could go wrong eh?

CQ WW CW DX contest this weekend!

November 24th, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

This weekend the bands will be alive with CW for the CQ WW CW DX contest. If you are not a contester this still is a great weekend to grab some DXCCs for your log book towards an award. If you are a CW contester then hold on and enjoy. Today I spent some time making sure the Hustler 4BTV vertical was ok, updated my contesting software N1MM+, ran a check on the macros and made sure the trusty Icom 7610 and the 9AN5 touch keyer are ready to go. I am hoping Murphy will stay far away this weekend and allow me to enjoy the music of morse!

For those Icom 7610 owners a different way to work split.

November 14th, 2022 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

Fixed mode with 20kHz span

I have had my Icom 7610 for several years now and am still very much enjoying it. From time to time I enjoy working DXpeditions and having Dual receivers and dual spectrum scopes with the Icom 7610 is very handy. The spectrum scope has 2 tuning options which are fixed and center modes. It could just be me but I find center mode hard to follow were as fixed mode seems very easy to follow. When you come across a station that is working split more often than not it’s because there is a large pileup and it’s more efficient to work split. For those readers who are not certain what split operation is this LINK explains it better than I can.

During split operation especially with a very rare DX station, there are LOTS of operators trying to contact the prized DX station. For this reason on the DX’s listening frequency, there are many ops trying to make contact. When you as an operator want to get involved and try to contact the DX station you have to drop yourself in the pool of stations calling the DX station.
The trick is where to set your VFO dial to have a chance to be heard by the DX station. In most cases, the DX station has a routine to move up or down his listening frequency which is your transmit frequency. One must listen and watch the waterfall to see who the DX station is answering call after call. You can then get the idea if he is moving up or down his listening frequency and by how much.

As I said there could be lots of callers and this translates to a very crowded waterfall display. To find out where to drop your call one must have a closer look at the waterfall. When this is done you can get some separation between the calling stations. Thus allowing you to better see who the DX station is answering. Then you have a good idea when and where to drop your call and hopefully be heard.
As I said the center mode I find very confusing and when I use it in split mode and spin the VFO I am just lost as to who is where and for this reason I use fixed mode.

As a side note: In center mode when you spin the VFO the signals on the waterfall move and the VFO marker remains stationary. In center mode when the VFO is changed the waterfall signals remain stationary and the VFO marker moves to the next signal.

As was said earlier it is best to have a closer look at the waterfall to see the action. In fixed mode, the smallest slice of the band you can have is 20khz. When operating CW as I do this for me is not enough for a very crowded calling group. In center mode, you can get a slice all the way down to +/- 2.5kHz or +/- 5kHz. For me, these are great options and with CW I generally would choose +/-2.5kHz but the rig has to be in center mode and that just does not work for me.
I have found a workaround so I can use the center mode, select +/-2.5kHz and still have the moving VFO B marker and not a moving waterfall! Below are the setup steps I take to make this happen.

In fixed mode, I find the DX station with VFO A

I then press the Dual-W button

Then press and hold Dual-W button to get the settings for VFO B the same as VFO A

I then press the split button

I press the Dual soft key my scope becomes over-under as this is how it is setup. You can see the dual scope view in the post pictures.

I change both scopes to center mode if not there already.

I now set the span to the same on each lower and upper scope in my case it is +/-2.5kHz I then touch VFO B frequency readout on the upper band scope (to activate VFO B)

Now in the upper band scope, VFO A remains stationary on the DX station. VFO B (in the upper band scope) now moves when the VFO dial is turned. The VFO marker moves (like fixed mode) and the band signals remain stationary.

The lower scope is still there but I don’t pay any attention to it. I found if I did not stay in dual scope mode I would lose the CENTER mode for VFO A and FIXED mode for VFO B.

5+/-kHz in center mode but VFO acts like fixed mode

Now with all this said I just know there is going to be a comment that informs me I can press 2 simple buttons on the rig and get the same results. I seem to always take the long way around with things. I have added some screen pics of how the waterfall looks when in 20kHz, +/-5kHz and +/-2.5kHz span during a DXpedition. As you can see when in +/-2.5kHz mode the calling station are easy to see compared to fix 20kHz and +/-5kHz selections. But best of all I have fixed mode operation of VFO B with these small spans.

+/-2.5kHz span view of pile up calling DX station