Posts Tagged ‘Contesting’
It’s nice when a plan comes together
June 9th, 2013 | 
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| My contest screen |
Begali Contour key and why not VFO control as well!!! Now comes the Flexcontrol VFO knob. This is a USB device that allows you to tune your rig (and more) from where you ask.....well the keyboard tray of VSP manager to the mix. This great little program (that is free to hams) allows all the programs to live happily with each other.
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| FlexControl knob |
You all know how it is when you have had a nice dinner and there is still room for a nice desert......well my nice dinner on my keyboard tray was the Flexcontrol knob, Begali Contour key and the mouse....there is still room for one more item! I added the K1EL USBwinkey which I assembled myself. The N1MM contest program is able to incorporate the Winkeyer in it's program, so when I program the CW messages into the winkeyer they will be used by N1MM when I mouse click on the N1MM macro button. This is great because the Winkeyer is very easy to program and you can save various keying programs into individual files. This way I will have a file for each CW contest and just a mouse click to program N1MM for each CW contest. If all files are stored on my PC and the Winkeyer is set up via the PC and CW is set through N1MM logger then why the heck does the Winkeyer have to be on the tray!!! Well Winkeyer has a nice variable pot control that can vary the CW on the fly. This way for op's who are sending slower or faster CW you can be varied by a simple turn of the Winkeyer knob.
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| Keyboard tray setup |
CQ WPX CW contest in the books
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| Lots of Solar action |
- When running N1MM logging program, N4PY rig control software and the Flex Radio Flexcontrol vfo knob all together through LP-Bridge some very very strange things can happen. This resulted in some lost contacts and down time due to software issues.Going to have to get these programs to shake hands and get along.
- Funny thing.....I have been practicing my contest CW code with Morse runner and using my laptop. Well it would seem that my fingers became very familar with the smaller keyboard on the laptop. When I contested on my home PC and regular sized keyboard I was making mistake after mistake while keyboarding calls and exchanges. I do have a smaller keyboard for the desktop PC and started to use it towards the end. Going to have to stick to the same keyboard as it seems size does matter.
- It seemed to me that most of the contesters CW speed was in around 25-30 wpm and I did find that very comfortable.
- At least the bummer conditions were world wide and leaves us all in the same playing field more or less.
- I contacted OQ5M in the contest and soon after he commented on my blog of how good my signal was. This fast interaction is kinda cool.
- My contact with Australia, Cuba and Hawaii.
- The politeness of the op's whom I had to give several repeats too, those who still could not make out my call just said "bad QRM and hope to contact later 73"
Hoot Owl Sprint Bust
The regular bands were wall to wall WPX tonight. I tried calling “CQ QRP” for a long time, near both the 20 and 40 Meter QRP watering holes (I even went up to the 7.122 MHz neighborhood for a bit), but netted no QRP sprinters. I just did not feel like taking part in WPX, so I migrated on over to 30 Meters.
Once there, I heard K9DTH, Ron in IL calling “CQ DE K9DTH QRP” near 10.106 MHz. I put out my call and Ron came back to me for what was the beginning of a really enjoyable QSO.
It turns out that Ron was using a K1 that he just got yesterday. 5 Watts to an off center fed dipole garnered Ron a 579 report from me. I received a 599 report in return.
The weather by Ron seemed to be about the same that was here – cloudy and cool. Not exactly the kind of weather you’d expect for the weekend touted as “the unofficial start of summer”. The high for the day here was 57F and there were on and off spritzes of rain all day.
Hopefully the weather will improve over the next few days.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Nice night for DX
It was a nice night for DX. I guess there are a lot of folks out there getting their stations ready for the CQ WPX contest this weekend. They seem to be swinging their beams to and fro, checking out their Amps, and burning the dust off their finals. Good times for a QRP DXer, good times!
I started off the evening with a brandy new one. 7X4AN, Mohammed in Algeria on 15 Meters And with QRP, to boot! So it was a deuce – new DXCC entity worked with QRP. That was followed by another QSO on 15 Meters with KP2M down in the US Virgin Islands – and was he ever loud! 10 over 9 at least!
From there I went down to the 20 Meter QRP watering hole and called CQ. I was answered by Cliff W9ZI in Wisconsin. Cliff and I chewed the fat for about 20 minutes until the band started changing and we cut things short before we both QSBed into oblivion.
That was followed by two quickie DX/Contest style QSOs, both on 20 Meters. I am in the log of Zygi SP5ELA from Warsaw, Poland. Dziekuje, Zygi! Then over to the Azores to get into CT8/OM7GJ’s log. He had to be 20 over 9 here in NJ.
Lastly, I went to 17 Meters and worked OM3SX. Mike in the Slovak Republic. Mike was about a 579 here and I received a 559 in return.
In addition to the WPX this weekend, don’t forget that Saturday night, from 8:00 PM until Midnight – local time is QRP ARCI’s annual Hoot Owl Sprint. That’s always a fun one. There are bonus points given to anyone who operates portable. I don’t know if I am intrepid enough to venture out at 8:00 PM this Saturday evening. I’ll probably sit in the shack in order to just give out points, as usual.
Then come Monday evening, the MI QRP Club will be holding their annual Memorial Day Sprint from 2300 UTC to 0300 UTC.. That’s always a fun event. Two good QRP events to keep in mind this upcoming long holiday weekend.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Some QRPTTF videos
From Sean KX9X:
From Dave NK0E:
From N6NA:
I submitted my meager little log today along with SoapBox and photos. If you participated, please don’t hesitate to submit your entry. Click here to get to the QRPTTF page, where you can find summary sheets in .doc and .pdf formats. As Paul states, “Thanks to all who participated this year and hope you all had fun, regardless of band conditions (not that great) or whether you worked 5 or 50 stations.”
So I repeat, please don’t hesitate to send in your log and summary, even if you only had 1, or 5, 25, 50 or 100 contacts. Nothing warms the cockles of the organizer’s heart like seeing a bunch of logs come in! It’s not extra work. It’s affirmation that fun is being had by all; and that it’s worth it to repeat the event the next year.
And speaking of events, look for the official announcement concerning the upcoming 2013 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt here tomorrow and on all the QRP e-mail reflectors.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
TTF = FUN
It’s just about 11:00 PM and the day is almost done. It was a busy one! After this blog post is finished, then I am finished too! I will head upstairs to hit the sack.
The day started off with a visit to the Doctor’s office. Nothing serious, just some blood work as my cholesterol was just a tad on the high side when I saw him last autumn, He wanted a follow up visit in six months, and today was the day. Before I left however, my lawn mower repair guy called and said my mower was fixed and ready to pick up. That was good news; but I really wasn’t expecting it until Monday.
After getting my arm stuck at the Dr’s office, I came home for a quick lunch. Then I packed up the car with my radio gear and went to pick up the mower. On the way home, I headed off to Thomas Edison Memorial Park for a few hours of QRPTTFing. I was surprised when I got there. This what the memorial tower usually looks like:
My surprise was that I knew the tower was being refurbished. But for some reason, I thought all the work had been completed. It turns out that so far, only the accompanying museum has been refurbished. This is what the tower currently looks like. It should be finished sometime later this year or perhaps early 2014.
And in accordance with the QRPTTF theme for 2013, I was only a block away from NJ Route 27, which is officially part of the Lincoln Highway, America’s first intercontinental highway – definitely an historic trail.
No radio tonight!
It has been very warm here in Central NJ the past two days – unseasonably warm, in fact, However, tomorrow is supposed to be cooler with temperatures normal for mid-April. So I guess you can gather as to what’s happening here tonight? Yep, thunderstorms. And so far, they’ve been pretty heavy with lots of dramatic lightning. The first squall line went through here about 90 minutes ago, and another (which is in Pennsylvania right now) is due to arrive in about an hour.
Fortunately, the antennas have been unhooked from the radios and everything has been secured. Definitely do not need the smell of deep fried Elecraft wafting through this house.
To pass some time this evening, I entered my score into the auto logger for last night’s NAQCC Sprint. Depending on how many more logs get entered, I will probably end up either 5th or 6th in the W2 region. I haven’t seen an entry posted from Charles W2SH yet, and he’s one of the perennial top finishers, so I expect him to exceed my score, once again.
I look at these scores, where guys are logging 40, 50, 60 or even 70 QSOs in the two hours, and I wonder how they do it. I guess a superb location with superb antennas is the answer. Man, I would love to be behind the key in one of those situations just once!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
