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My first 160m contest
December 7th, 2009 | 
Author: If you asked me a couple of years ago whether I’d ever participate in a contest on 160 meters I’m sure I would have said no. If you’d asked me two weeks ago, I would have said no. In fact, I did say no, answering the weekly ARRL website survey. It turns out that I was mistaken.
The main reason why I never expected to participate in a contest on 160m is because I really don’t use the 160m band very much. The two reasons why I tend to stay away are because I don’t really have a very good antenna for that band, and because the relatively few times that I’ve been on it’s always been horribly noisy (mostly from atmospheric noise, though perhaps there’s some man-made electronic noise there as well.) The reason for the lack of a decent antenna is that antennas for that band tend to be very, very long. As a reminder, 160 meters is about 525 feet. Although you don’t need an antenna that long to transmit on the band, what I do have in place (my G5RV antenna) is really too short to operate properly on that band. I can use the antenna tuner in my radio to cause the radio to think that the antenna is suitable for use on that band, but in reality there’s a lot of loss and my signal just isn’t very strong. Despite the relatively short antenna length, I do manage to pick up an awful lot of noise.
160m is primarily a nighttime band. Although you can make groundwave (those that don’t bounce off the ionosphere) contacts during the day, the band is even noiser during the day and it’s just not practical to try to make a lot of contacts. (That’s not to say that the hardcore contesters aren’t out there trying.) The fact that it’s a late-night band worked to my benefit, since I’m a nightowl.
The 160m contest starts at 5PM local time on a Friday and ends at 11AM local Sunday morning. I was chatting with my friend Larry, N4VA Friday afternoon, and he suggested that I try to make a few contacts in the contest. I was going to be home anyway (my son was recovering from a minor surgical procedure) so I figured that I’d at least listen and see if I could hear anything other than static.
By the time I started to listen, it was around 5:30PM local time, which is after dark at this time of the year and 30 minutes past the contest starting time. I was surprised to hear that not only were there a lot of strong signals, but where nobody was transmiting, the band was actually relatively quiet. I figured that I’d see if I could get the antenna to tune and maybe make a few contacts, “giving out points” to others in the contest.
I was surprised that for the first hour, I made around 20 contacts (and that includes a break for dinner; as I mentioned, I wasn’t really expecting to spend a lot of time in the contest.) What was even more surprising was that for the 4th hour of the contest, I was up to 33 contacts for that hour and 30 the next hour. (All those contacts were “search & pounce”, I wasn’t going to attempt to run stations.) While this isn’t “super-station rate”, those 63 contacts are 3 more contacts than I’d made in total on the 160m band prior to the contest. I continued to operate for a while, taking a few breaks and turned in relatively early Friday night. (I’d been up since 6:30 AM for my son’s procedure).
Late Saturday afternoon, I made another handful of contacts, and then, after we came back from dinner with friends, I got back on the air at 1AM (now Sunday morning) and picked up another 17 stations in that hour. At that point, tuning up and down the band all I was hearing for the most part were stations that I’d already worked, which meant it was tough to find “fresh meat” to work. I figured that I’d try to find a frequency to “run” stations, which means that instead of me trying to find stations who are calling CQ, I’d find a frequency and call CQ myself.
If you’re not a contester yourself, I should explain that in most contests, it’s generally the “big guns” (more powerful stations) that “run” other stations. For one thing, it’s generally easier to hear their signals, and for another, it’s a lot tougher for another station to just jump on top of them and start CQing, “stealing” their frequency. Having your frequency “stolen” is unethical and could theoretically be illegal. For US hams, the FCC says that you cannot intentionally interfere with another station, but in a contest, it’s very difficult to prove (especially for a weak station) since when a stronger station “takes over” your frequency they can simply say they never heard you. That might or might not be true, but it’s hard to prove. The simple thing to do, for a “little pistol” station like me, is to simply move elsewhere.
Fortunately me for me, for the 2AM (local time) hour, I was lucky enough to get a frequency pretty low in the band (1808 mHz) and actually keep that frequency for over an hour. (Lower in the frequency is better, usually, since other operators who get on the band to make a few contacts typically start at the lower end of the band and work their way up.) Remember that his is now 2AM local, and most of the stations that I was working were relatively local, within a timezone or two of me. While I didn’t set any rate records, over the next hour I worked almost 30 stations, which was just for me a lot of fun. I probably could have kept going, but at about 3:15 AM I decided that I’d had enough fun and shut down the radio.
Overall, I wound up working 251 stations (plus 2 “dupes” who I’d previously worked but who called me when I was “running”). Most of the stations that I worked were in the US or Canada, but I did work stations in Jamaica (6Y), the Bahamas (C6), Netherlands Anitilles (PJ), Turks and Caico (VP6) and possibly (the contact was a little “iffy”, hopefully I am in his log) Martinique (FM). In total, I worked stations in 43 ARRL or RAC sections pluss the 5 other countries), which I thought was pretty respectable.
My final claimed score looks like this:
Band QSOs Pts Sec
1.8 251 517 48
Score : 24,816
I don’t think I’m going to win any awards, but I’ve very pleased with my results. And, as I’ve said in the past, the most important thing is that I had a lot of fun.
Polar Bear Goes Deer Hunting
Waiting for Baudot
I just submitted my meager log from last weekend’s WAE RTTY test — just 45 QSOs and a whopping claimed score of 1,530. I only operated for a few morning hours (between 1125-1345 on Saturday and 1245-1700 on Sunday) in order to give DM780 a try at good ol’ fashioned 170/45 Baudot, a mode I haven’t worked since days of yore with the trusty old KAM and a terminal program. High time to give the new technologies a try, said I.
Handiham World for 18 November 2009
Welcome to Handiham World!
Image: Matt, KA0PQW, and the bucket truck lift operator, Jeff, KC0UOW, ride the bucket up to do some antenna work. Photo courtesy Don Rice, N0BVE, taken during Matt’s antenna work in October. Don had just completed some work on Matt’s 220 MHz antennas, and Matt was headed up to do the final inspection.
It’s always a good idea to get your antenna work done before winter, especially if you live in Minnesota, as Matt, KA0PQW does. One may be blind, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do antenna work. Matt directs and does hands-on work on his antenna projects, and has some great helpers.
I have always recommended having at least one helper available for any antenna project that involves working on an elevated antenna system, whether it is on a roof or high on a tower. The reason, of course, is safety – if something goes wrong, the second person can provide assistance or call for help. Besides, most of these projects really do require at least one more set of hands – and eyes. You can use a spotter to check for hazards like power lines and buried pipes or cables. This goes for any ham radio operator, whether they are blind or sighted. I shudder to think of all the times I have not followed my own advice, but in my defense I was young and stupid. As a teenager, I navigated our family home’s rooftop like a monkey – stringing antennas, hurrying down to test for SWR, then running back up the ladder to the roof to make adjustments – all without anyone else around. When I bought a used tower, I was up and down that thing dozens and dozens of times. I did buy a Klein lineman’s belt but even so, I worked alone all too often. The closest call I ever had was on an old telescoping mast. I had just finished my antenna work and stepped onto the ground when the steel cable holding the top section snapped and the tower telescoped back down. A few seconds delay in getting off would have meant amputated fingers and toes! Worse yet, I did not have a helper around.
Well, I have learned a lot since then. I ask for help, so that I have someone there to do antenna work as well as to help us both stay safe. I plan to stay safe – and you know what? Staying safe means more happy years of ham radio fun!
For Handiham World, I’m…
Patrick Tice, [email protected]
Handiham Manager
CQ WWDX SSB 1996: Lost Log Discovered!
Handiham World for 11 November 2009
Welcome to Handiham World!
The move, part 2
Image: Avery’s old office area showing one of our five big file cabinets that still needs to be moved.
We continue this week with our office move, this time moving Nancy’s office and the file cabinets. This is a big part of the move, and will likely cause some disruption in our regular work schedule. We ask for your patience, as phone calls and emails may take a bit longer to answer. I am still working on a solution for our telephone system, but for now all of my phone calls go directly to voice mail. As calls come in, I am notified of messages left on voice mail through an email message, so that I am able to return calls fairly quickly. Nancy is in the office today, but is using a cubicle in the hallway.
The movers will pick up the file cabinets and some other equipment on Thursday, November 12. Nancy plans to be in the office that day to make sure that all of the files and equipment are accounted for, while I will be waiting at Camp Courage to meet the movers and direct the placement of the five large horizontal file cabinets and the other furniture and equipment in our new office. Depending on my schedule for that day, I do still plan to check in to the regional PICONET on 3.925 MHz at 09:00 CST and the Handiham Echolink net at 11:00 CST. We still need to upgrade the antenna systems, so I will be limited to checking in to one or both nets via the Internet. I will try to contact Lyle, K0LR, our volunteer who maintains the Handiham Remote Base, when he runs the PICONET as the regular Thursday morning net control station.
We are still looking at more moving in the near future, too. Because we will be out at Camp Courage, we have decided that it is best to move our equipment storage and test gear out to camp. This means that the Handiham repair shop at Courage Center will close and make the move, though not immediately. I will enlist the help of some volunteers to make sure that the equipment is moved properly. While this decision means more work in the short term, I think we will benefit by having everything right where we need it. It does present a problem when people bring donations of radio gear to the Courage Center, but we think we can simply have the gear set aside for pick up and transport to Camp Courage as needed. We do plan to continue the equipment loan program when we get organized again, with donated gear first being distributed to our campers who need stations and accessories at the upcoming Handiham Radio Camp in late May, 2010.
Since our shop volunteers were all from the Twin Cities area, we will be on the lookout for hams who live close to our new location and who want to volunteer to check out donated ham radio equipment before it is distributed to our members. It should be noted that we do not repair the equipment anymore, as we did years ago. We check it to make sure that it is in working condition. Only the most minor repairs are possible these days, because the equipment is full of surface-mount devices and repairs are generally done by a well-equipped commercial repair facility that has access to modern instruments and a stock of replacement circuit boards. The old method of using basic test gear to track down faults to the component level is just not practical with the newer equipment.
So there is a lot to work out. We are making great progress, but there is more to do. We are rolling up our sleeves and getting right to work!
For Handiham World, I’m…
Patrick Tice, [email protected]
Handiham Manager
What is Amateur Radio?
Not long ago, I added a feature to my Facebook page that automatically posted these blog updates there. While many of my friends know that amateur radio is a hobby for me, I do get asked “so exactly what does that mean?” fairly often. Although there are a number of sites that explain it, Julian, G4ILO, wrote up what I think is a terrific primer on the subject that I hope will help some of you get an answer to that question. Here’s a link to his site: http://www.g4ilo.com/ham-radio-faq.html
