AmateurRadio.com

what is your shack monitor real estate? For many of us, our hobbies and computers are intertwined, there are many programs out there that can enrich our radio experience. As we indulge in programs I find the monitor real estate becomes a bit crowed. Sure you can put things in the taskbar until needed again and I did this but then the taskbar became a bit crowded. 

As I became more involved in contesting I found I needed more programs running as well needed to see them up close and personal on not taskbar jumping. Also many modern transceivers today have a monitor-out option, which is nice and allows a larger view of the waterfall. But that is another monitor that is needed just for this option. Now a basic setup is two monitors. In my case, I have one monitor for the Icom 7610, 2 monitors for my PC and one monitor for Ham Clock running on a Pi 3. Some may think that two monitors for your PC is a bit excessive and there are some very large monitors one can easily fit everything into. I find these monitors to be pricey and I found 2 Samsung 24-inch monitors for 1/2 the price of a very large PC monitor. 

The part of the hobby I really enjoy is contesting and 2 monitors allow me to comfortably have Win4icom radio control program running, N1MM+ logger, VFO A and B waterfalls working ( as I operate SO2V) and finally an open window of Firefox as well. My second monitor looks after N1MM+ VFO B logging window and VFO B waterfall along with the open Firefox window. This monitor is on my right, I also have my external VFO B RC-28 knob on my right as well. This way everything to do with VFO B is on my right. Therefore when I look to the right it's all about VFOB.  I use Firefox to monitor live contest scoring, reverse beacon network and during slow times look up contesters I worked on QRZ.COM to learn about them. The final monitor looks after Ham Clock and I mainly use that for the solar conditions as well as which bands are open for me as Ham Clock has VOACAP on it.. For example, if I am taking part in a German, North American or Spain contest I setup the a VOACAP in the country or continent I am working and I get informed about the open and closed bands between them and my location. Elwood does a great job at updating this program and it is well worth adding it to your station's software. 

Finally, all my monitors are on swivel arms so they can be adjusted to my liking. Because I spend a lot of time in front of the screens I like to have the most commonly used ones at eye level and my left and right monitors set up so that my head does not have to move just my eyes. For me the less neck movement the better over the long-term contesting adventures. The Ham clock monitor is the only one up high and I only check that screen now and then. 
So what does your monitor real estate look like?

My "thing" in amateur radio is contesting and more specifically CW contesting. With most contesting programs the F keys on your keyboard are used for sending specific macros. Macros are stored messages and can be edited to do many things. Such as sending your call sign, sending an exchange and so on. As well as the F keys certain contesting programs also have keyboard combinations that do certain things and finally single keyboard keys that also perform a contesting function. During the heat of a contest, I have now and then hit between the keys on my keyboard and sometimes it so happens to be a key combo for my N1MM+ contesting program. All of a sudden I have no volume, switched VFO's and so on, it does not put me in my happy place. 

Above is a picture of my Lenovo full-sized preferred pro 2 keyboard. This is a mechanical key system I have tried many keyboards and this type for me is the best. It's not too sensitive as to when my fingers are resting on the keys I am not accidentally typing letters in the N1MM+ call window. I have tried the small keyboards but I find I am not able to fly along at a nice speed. I like this keyboard so much that I purchased a second one just in case this one fails.  My luck it would be discontinued when I wanted to purchase another one.  

Let's have a closer look at the macro setup, shall we? The keys at the top left to right are:

STOP which does just that, if I want the rig to stop sending a macro I hit that key. Reasons for this might be when I am searching and pouncing I start to send my call and because my radio is set to full break in I may hear 4 or more other powerful stations calling as well. I just hit stop as at 100 watts I am wasting my time. Also if my exchange is asked to be sent again I may hit the "X" twice and since I am in full break in or QSK as it is called I may hear the station send "TU" after the first repeat and then hit stop. 

CQ is self-explanatory, it's my calling CQ contest macro. 

X is short for contest exchange. 

TU again simple as a good Canadian I am always saying TU.    

VE9 is my call sign and used to send when I am doing search and pounce. 

HIS this will send the station call sign I have entered in the call box of N1MM+. What I use it for is while running if I copy a partial call only this will send the partial call sign. 

MYNR with most all contests you send 599 or 5NN for CW and then there is the unique part of the exchange such as a serial number, province, age, member number and so on. This key will send the unique part of the exchange if the other station asks for a repeat. 

RUN This key is used when I am searching and pouncing and then I want to start running (calling CQ contest) I hit this key and N1MM+ goes from search and pounce mode to running mode. 

TEST this macro will just send "TEST VE9KK" generally, I do this to identify just after a pileup. There may be some op's waiting to contact me but have no idea what my call is. 

?? very straightforward forward this just sends out a question mark. 

LOG this is an interesting one. I have found in the past using ESM (Enter sends message)  when I have been operating search and pounce it can get confused. For example, I find a station calling "CQ CONTEST" I then hit the ENTER key and the first ESM message is sent (my call). If the station answers another call I then have to send my my call again. I now go to the VE9 macro key and only part of my call is recognized, again I go to the VE9 key. Next is my exchange I have hit the ENTER key for the next ESM message (my exchange). At times my call has been sent or the station gets logged which would be the 3rd ESM function. To avoid confusion I use the X key to send the exchange. Next, I use the LOG macro key to log the contact. 

R this macro simply sends the letter "R" when a confirmation is needed. 

W this macro is a wipe function, when you hit this key it removes information. It can remove a call or exchange very fast so you can start over. 

You may have noticed some of the macro keys are yellow and others white. This was intentional, the yellow keys are used for running and the white generally for search and pounce. Also, there are two green dots above and below the "MYNR" key. At times either during search and pounce or running I will need to repeat the main part of the exchange such as a number. This is done most times in the heat of the moment and the green dots call my attention to the key right away without having to look or think about it. 

The pause/break key (top right key) has a blue dot on it. This key is used when operating SO2V and this blue dot key when pressed will swap to the functioning VFO. Pressing this key will switch to the opposite VFO both transmit and receive switch. The blue dot is for fast identification. 

The numbers keys with the green and red dots are my CW speed increase and decrease keys. Green to increase speed and red to decrease speed. 

Finally the yellow dots are a key combination, when you first press the ALT + W keys you mute the sub-receiver. I have to be honest here I seldom use this key combo, using the Icom 7610 it is very simple to mute either receiver. There is a volume knob for each receiver and if you push the knob you silence that receiver. I use this as it is very fast and simple But I still have to learn to remember to unmute. I have in the past wondered why a certain receiver is so quiet and it is my error as it is still muted. I will be removing the yellow dots and the label "mutsub". 

That is my contest keyboard setup, leave a comment if you have anything to all or what your keyboard functions are.

As those who frequently read my blog you know I am into CW contesting big time and enjoy it. This past week I thought it was time to change up my CW contesting routine. It was due time to dip my toes into single operator 2 VFO operation or as it is known in the contesting world SO2V. In a nutshell, you have VFO-A audio in one ear (left in my case) and VFO-B audio in the other (right). With my Icom 7610 can have each VFO on the same or different bands. The contesting software N1MM+ is great for this type of operation, it incorporates many keyboard shortcuts. For example, once N1MM+ is configured for SO2V by just hitting the pause button on the keyboard you can jump back and forth from VFO A to B and the other way around. 

Next is to learn about your contest software when using it for SO2V mode. What are the keyboard shortcuts, and options available to you such as 2 waterfall displays, your qso entry windows may have visual indicators that give you needed information and what program window options do you need to be displayed as some may just be a distraction. 

Some operation goals to work on before trying CW SO2V and I say CW as that is all I do. I have mentioned this one in the past and that is learn to type and not hunt and peck. There are many programs out there now that can help you to learn how to type. The advantage to this is your eyes are not taken off the PC screen as you type a call sign. Both in SO1V and SO2V and more so with SO2V as you have a lot more going on at once at times. Also in time learn without looking where your macro keys are for the common parts of an exchange. In N1MM+ sure you have ESM BUT things don't always work out as 1,2,3 in a contest contact. I have made it a point to know CQ, exchange, my call, His call, exchange repeat and the wipe macro keys where they are without looking at the keyboard. Also, work on your pileup skills and Morse Runner PC program is a good start. No, you may not have a pile-up but with SO2V you may hear 2 signals (VFO-A and VFO-B) you have to learn to tune out one signal to hear the other. Sounds weird I know but it can be done over time with pileup contest software practice. 

How did my first couple of SO2V adventures go you ask? Not to overwhelm myself I started this adventure while operating the Monday Medium speed or MST (25 wpm max) mini 1-hour contest. Some of the blunders were:

At times forgetting which ear was which VFO.

Hear a contact calling on VFO-B and call them but forget to change to that VFO.

 Spin the wrong VFO as I have an external VFO (RC-28) and my habit is to always turn the main VFO.

 Working a contact on VFO-B and out of the blue a strong station on VFO-A (my left ear) starts to call CQ test. 

Then I gave the CWops mini contest a go on Wednesday! This mini-contest is another whole ball of wax. The speed is much faster and there are a lot more stations. At first, I just did search and pounce until I got my bearings and then I started to call "CQ CWT" and that is when the fun began. 

My goal with SO2V is to have fun, work my brain, and better my skills and it really does make the time fly by as you are constantly doing, thinking or looking at something.

My last post was about my new Icom RC-28 external VFO that I purchased for my 65th birthday. At the time I had not connected it to the radio as I was busy with some home renovations. Once I could sit down and give the new RC-28 a spin I connected it to the front USB port on my Icom 7610 radio. I was very pleased to see that it worked without any issues....so I thought. When I powered down the radio that was when things went south. The Icom 7610 was stuck in power-down mode. I tried to tap the power button and then hold the power button but this did not shut the radio down. I had to turn off the power supply to the radio to finally power-down the radio.

I thought maybe it was a one-off and I powered the radio on again without issue and then attempted to turn it off. Once again the radio was stuck in power-down mode, so I turned the power supply off. Just to make sure it was not a radio issue that happened to show itself at the same time as I plugged in the RC-28 I removed the RC-28 from the Icom USB port. Without the RC-28 connected the radio powered up and powered down without issue, I was hoping there was not an issue with the new RC-28. There is an Icom 7610 group on Groups.IO that I am a member of so I searched there regarding this power-down issue. One suggestion was to make sure my RC-28 has the latest software update. Up to that point, I did not know you could update its software. I downloaded from Icom the latest RC-28 software and connected my RC-28 to my PC USB port and ran the software. I was told I was running the latest software. Next was to make sure the Icom 7610 rig was updated with the latest software. Now this I know for sure is not the case, version 1.42 is mainly a pre-distortion update. Also known as DPD used for SSB and not CW and being I am 100% CW I felt it was a download that was not needed. Now having said that on Icom's update page, it did indicate there were a few minor fixes. In my opinion, my radio was working and I did not see any need for any minor fixes...well until now. 

I downloaded and loaded the latest Icom firmware and it made no difference the radio was still not turning off. Another suggestion from the group was to remove the LAN cable from the rear of the radio. Now for me to remove anything from the rear of the radio is a big undertaking. But it did get me thinking about removing cables so I tried removing the key and headphones from the radio but with the same results failing to shut down. I was thinking for the time being I may have to unplug the RC-28 before turning off the radio as when I did this the Icom 7610 shut down without issue.
As I was plugging my Key back into the front of the radio I noticed a very small device plugged into the other USB port on the radio. It was a Logitech Unifying receiver for my mouse, this allowed me to click on the waterfall of the Icom 7610. I used a wireless mouse as it presented less clutter on the desktop but truth be told I rarely used it. I removed this device and ran a start/shut down again with the radio and low and behold all was fine. 

Problem solved and I must admit I was relieved to have finally found what the issue was. I posted my results on the Icom 7610 Groups.io site. I was informed that on such and such a page in the manual it does say the USB ports do not support wireless receivers. I had no issue with the wireless mouse but once the RC-28 was introduced so was an issue.

Since this is a special birthday year I thought I would buy myself something nice ham radio related. Now I am retired and on a fixed income so there is no Elecraft K4 in the picture for me. I have a great Icom 7610 and I very much enjoy CW contesting. I have been toying with the idea of operating single operator 2 vfo or SO2V as it is called. The Icom 7610 allows me to operate its VFO A and B on the same band or on separate bands. This is very handy for contesting and I have tried it and became frustrated as you only have one VFO knob on the 7610 and if you forget to select VFO B and spin the dial you lose your VFO A spot. The idea with SO2V is that VFO A is your run VFO and VFO B is your search and pounce VFO. What I needed was a separate VFO physical knob that operated VFO B. 

Icom has the RC-28 and it always seemed a bit pricey to me but heck it's my big 65th so I took the plunge and purchased it. All Canadian dealers had the RC-28 on back order and the U.S. dealer had the Canadian dollar (and a few other reasons) and the shipping cost was just too much to spend. I did read on some of the IO Groups I follow of operators purchasing them on eBay from sellers in Japan. I looked into it and they were in stock also with shipping, and tax and the cost of the RC-28 it was basically the same cost as the Canadian dealers who were out of stock.
I ordered it and in less than a week it was at my door, brand new in a sealed Icom box. Happy Birthday to me! In my next post, I will be revealing my adventure connecting it to the Icom 7610!
 

I had to use the snowblower to dig out the antenna base

 I had to take a pass on this year's ARRL CW DX contest I was not happy about it but I wanted to play it smart. I did not want to be looking back and saying "I should have sat this one out". Here was the issue, here in the Maritimes we had an incoming snowstorm which is not an issue. This one had the potential of freezing rain and high winds. On Friday the storm had passed and we did not get much freezing rain and the Hustler 4BTV was fine. Around 9 am on Friday, the winds began to pick up, and then there were powerful gusts of wind. These were the speed of the maximum rating for the antenna and were not forecast to be this strong. I have the luxury of being able to take the vertical antenna down which I did. The plan was to put it back up on Saturday if the winds died down, come Saturday they had lessened but not by much and on Sunday another storm was headed our way with wind gusts of 90km or more. 

Removing ice coating

DX Heat Cluster

One of my morning routines is to check on the clusters to see what's happening. I check DX Heat, DX Summit, and Holy Cluster. This morning, I noticed the same station was being spotted over and over nonstop. Holy Cluster was not as bad as the other two, but it still had issues with continued repeat spots. I noticed on Holy Cluster the same station is spotted on SSB, CW and Digi all at the same time. A sure sign of a hack I believe.  I'm not sure how long this has been going on, as I just checked this morning.