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As so many people commented on my post about my apparently failing hard drive I thought I’d post an update. Dell had me run some diagnostics that are on a special diagnostic partition. I ran the entire set of hard disk diagnostics which took most of the day including a full surface scan and the drive passed all tests without a single error. Therefore as far as Dell is concerned there is nothing wrong with the hard drive. It’s possible that as Steve GW7AAV commented the operating system has marked the bad sectors so they won’t be used any more, in which case hopefully the issue was just a one-off.

In order to keep an eye on the situation I decided to look around for a SMART hard drive monitoring utility which can display the statistics stored on the hard drive controller, preferably a free one. My searches located one called Active@ Hard Disk Monitor Free which seemed to display an impressive amount of information. This program said the Health Status of my hard drive was OK, though the value was only 55% which didn’t seem too healthy to me. It’s up to 57% now, which makes me think that something bad did happen and the value will slowly improve with continued error-free operation. A look at other screenshots of the program showed values in the high 60s so perhaps I shouldn’t expect to see close to 100%. Hopefully if the problem occurs again this program will provide more information about what actually happened.

Annoyingly, when I started the computer the next day and looked at the stats I saw that Active@ Hard Disk Monitor Free is not free at all. It is a 14-day trial version. When I checked download.com I saw there were a lot of complaints about this. The old version was free, but not the current version. However it is only $6.99 to purchase a license for one PC so rather than waste more time trying to find another free alternative I have decided to pay for it.

It’s a long time since I worried about ‘improving my morse’. It’s not that it’s superb or anything, but it’s more than adequate for what I want to do with it. There’s not much that I hear on the air that I can’t copy – although I have a sneaking feeling that speeds in the international CW contests are creeping higher, and I have to listen to some calls a bit closer than I used to!

But I was having an interesting chat with Ian, G4WUH this morning – prompted by a comment of mine that the mobile rig I’m trialling in the car this week, the Yaesu FT1900E has a built in Morse trainer. Haven’t tried it yet, but can see it would be good to have running whilst you were in the car.

It was interesting talking to Ian this morning about improving morse speed. Ian’s background is a professional radio officer who was trained to use morse. Ian said that one of the ways to improve your speed and competency is to listen to as much morse as you can – for example, have the rig running whilst your watching TV or reading. It’s almost as if the subconscious brain starts to process it and it becomes a ‘background process’.

This will help you if you want to be able to send/receive morse at the same time as doing something else. I CAN send morse and talk at the same time, but it’s not easy AND I’m inclined to forget what I said…!!

Spent my birthday participating (casually) in the Straight Key Century Club Weekend Sprint. My Lake Fredrica neighborhood site was where I set up my shelter and 3 antennas. I had a 40m dipole fed with twinlead up 40 ft and running E-W. An End Fed Halfwave for 20m was nearly vertical suspended by a nearby tree. A twinlead 44 ft doublet on my 20 ft Jackite with the ends at 16 feet was setup running N-S to give me a bit of a mini-smorgasbord of antenna choices. Since it was really sunny, I hooked up my ACME GC100 Solar Charger and VW Solar Panel.

Bands were decent with 40m quiet and some DX coming through early from Eu stations. Nice to hear that again. 20m came alive and was pretty much the go to band for the majority of the day. I did check 15m a couple times but did not hear much and no one replied to my CQ’s.

In the middle of a QSO, my Jackite pole decided to collapse but I was able to finish the QSO with one end of the dipole about 4 feet above the ground. hi hi

The highlight of the day was my last QSO with EA3NO, Lluis in Spain. As the special station for the sprint there was a lot of competition but Lluis hung in there with my weak signal and pulled me out of the crowd after a couple attempts. THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT Lluis!

Still wondering what a CPG is? Contest Point Giver! I am a really casual contester. Really the only reason I participate is that contests offer a fairly good opportunity to make some QSO’s. When you are QRP you have to do a lot of listening, plus pounce and search, but serious contesters will dig out weak signals to make the QSO’s so it is fun. I enjoy giving out points and reading the mail on ops that are faster than my cw comfort zone. Good practice, eh?

Here’s some photos from the day. Enjoy!

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72,

Kelly K4UPG PB #173 SKCC #5415

This is going to be pretty short, because there’s not a whole lot to say. I had a few hours of free time this weekend to work in the ARRL September VHF QSO Party contest. I’m not really sure where the name “QSO Party” comes from, but this was one of the most boring parties that I’ve even been to. (For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is just another contest, hence my question about the name.) Typically band conditions for VHF contests aren’t terrific in September, but usually there are a reasonable number of people to work. This year wasn’t typical.

As with most of my contesting efforts, I participate on a part-time basis. I had a few hours Saturday afternoon and more hours Sunday afternoon. I think that my total operating time was around 6 hours, and for those 6 hours, I managed an average of about 7 1/2 QSOs per hour, for a grand total of 45 contacts. That was just plain awful. I only worked 6 meters, and had a total of 10 grids for the contest. Most of the folks who I spoke with were having similar results.

I generally like the VHF contests, particularly on 6m, because you never know when the band might open up and you’ll suddenly be able to work across the country. This year, the farthest contact that I had was in FM18 in Virginia to the south, and FM43 in Maine to the north. Usually there will be an opening down to the south or southwest, and typically I’ll pick up a few grids in Florida, but not this year.

A lot of that six hours was spent with either the voice or CW keyer sending my CQs while I occupied myself otherwise. (Sharon’s glad, because it gave me a chance to finally upgrade her computer from an ancient version of Eudora to the current version of Thunderbird. But I digress…)

The only consolation that I have is that it seems that the folks in my area were all in the same boat, but I can’t say that this was one of the more fun contests in recent memory.

Here’s my score summary:

        Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts   Grd
          50  CW       3      3     1
          50  USB     42      42    9
       Total  Both    45      45   10

Score: 450

 450 points? Seriously? Ouch. I miss 2006. (Ok, those were earlier in the summer, but they sure were a lot more fun.)

Congratulations New England RadioSport enthusiasts for crafting an award winning proposal. Doug Grant, K1DG, Chairman, WRTC2014, Inc. stated in CQ Contest Reflector, “We consider this a great honor, and will work hard to make the event enjoyable and memorable for everyone involved.”

RadioSport Russia set the new standard and raised the bar for competitors and participants. A job well done that benefited the future of ham radio. We have an example of world class competition that speaks to international goodwill and the enduring spirit of wireless communications, nothing less than field day style, for the young at heart.

The task in New England is monumental and I’m hedging the assembled team of passionate volunteers and excellent leadership will produce one for ham radio’s history book. This is an exciting moment for RadioSport USA!

Contest on.

See Also.
World Radio Team Championship 2010 Russia.

Series Three Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:

• Return of SumbandilaSat SO-67
• Amateur station seeks new home 
• EAP Multi-band 2010
• New Lancashire RAYNET group 
• Try amateur radio direction finding
• Bicycle tour needs more radio hams 
• A very bright weekend for lighthouses 
• RSGB Convention deep space lecture 
• Open Source Digital Voice Codec 
• Morse and Music 
• Vuvuzela Morse Code 
• Milestone for WIA Centenary Award 
• New D-STAR repeater installed in ARRL lab

Your feedback, upcoming events, Hints, Tips and Tricks and Martin (M1MRB)discusses rediscovering listening.

I want to thank Ed, N4EMG who helped bring ham radio blogging to the Internet and for sharing his personal journal as well. There is a season for everything. I’m experiencing that change when the leaves begin morphing while the deep slumber of winter is soon to arrive. I met a friend through the spirit of ham radio blogging and will miss Ed’s contribution.

Ed, please leave your blog, your contribution is part of ham radio’s history. Who knows what one year will bring or for that matter five years from now? We are among the early new media pioneers and now it is reaching ubiquity within our community.

Or, perhaps now is a good time for a vacation from the blog, gather new material without having to journal about what was learned. I’m having fun writing out traditional QSL cards and watching the mailbox. Finally, I’m getting after my basic awards like DXCC, WAS, and WAC as well. Likewise, I’m confirming counties and building up my grid square count. Today, KI6QDH and I worked on his 3-element tri-bander with its new 40 meter add on kit. What a hoot!

There is a season for everything and best 73 to Ed, N4EMG from the shack relaxation zone.