AmateurRadio.com

 This weekend was the running of the ARRL Field Day event. For some they get out into the elements and set up an emergency-type station. Both individuals and clubs take part all over Canada and the U.S. There is a category for home stations on mains power....that was my preferred setup. This year the solar conditions were a bit of a challenge which involved considerable fading. I find that during ARRL Field Day when calling CQ FD I had to really listen for stations. There were many QRP stations, those using minimal antenna setup and then the good old poor solar conditions. I found many stations coming back to me just at the noise floor. I entered CW only at 100 watts from my home station and to the noise floor stations who were running who knows what I could be booming into them. I wanted to make every effort to make the contact. It was a good workout of skill. Below is the final score I did pull the plug a bit early as I found myself just calling CQ FD without any responses. 

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.

The new extended hours were a nice addition to the contest, and for me, it's a very relaxing event. At VE9KK, this was a CW event, and I kept my speed in the 22-26 wpm range. It was not a very busy event, and I checked in now and then on Saturday and Sunday. One nice surprise was that on Saturday evening on 40m, I had a call from 4Z4DX from Israel.

 On Wednesday it was time to see if I could uphold a New Year's goal I had set for myself. Each Wednesday is the CWops Mini test for 1 hour at 1300 and 1900 UTC. I have been taking part in this weekly event for a few years now. I found it greatly helped me increase my confidence with higher speed code, becoming more familiar with my N1MM+ keyboard commands and building on my hearing the code and moving that to typing it. 

 
The code speed in the CWT's as they are called on average goes from 32wpm to 36wpm. There are times when your pushed and speeds can rise to 40 plus. I have always searched and pounced for contacts during this one-hour mini-contest. There have always been these apprehensions to run or call "CQ CWT". The mini-contests are always very well attended and these ops have an excellent grasp on CW. In the past, I have tried for a short while to run and it has been a lacklustre event for me from plan nerves and getting from ears to brain to keyboard flustered. I found once this happens things go downhill for me very fast. I then in defeat go back to search and pounce. I have been practicing over the past year with code contest programs, I have been very active in CW contests running and now it was time to commit to running in the CWTs. During the morning CWT at 1300 on Wednesday I warmed up my ears, and brain and searched and pounced for about 15 minutes. Then it was time to find a clear spot and send out "CQ CWT VE9KK". Unlike in weekend CW contests when I ran this time I felt a bit nervous. You never know the speed someone is going to come back to you at. I am perfectly fine with that as I want to improve and if you send "??" or part of a call they will slow down and all is well. 

In the 1300 UTC session, I ran for 20 minutes and actually, I was very surprised it really went off very well. Sure I did ask now and then for a repeat, had a typing breakdown due to nerves and now and then hit the wrong macro key sending the wrong message. In the 1900 UTC session, I ran for 30 minutes and it was better but as I was in the swing of things we had a power outage! 

Looking back I did ok and better than I expected, I am very glad I took the plunge and I know over time I will get better and the nerves with calm down as well. Now I know some readers will think "What is the big deal". That is very true but for me, it is like I am playing High School football and was picked up and placed in the NFL. In my humble opinion these ops are the cream of the crop when it comes to CW contesting and to be honest I find it intimidating. But one week down and 51 more to go or thereabouts!

My path around the globe

I entered this contest as a single operator, Low power (100 watts or less) and unassisted (Did not use any spotting clusters). The radio was the Icom 7610 along with the Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna. The solar weather was great and the 24 hours came and passed with Kp1 and the Bz in the positive direction. I had zero issues with my software, radio, RFI and antenna so I am a very happy camper. The only issue I suffered from in the past has been RFI and I now feel with a few major contests in the books and no issues that the problem is in the rearview mirror.
At this point in my CW contesting ambitions I am not too concerned about my score, I want to polish my CW running skills. To do this I am not in the assisted category which means my band map is not populated with cluster spots, no decoding programs and I do very little search and pounce. I just stay on frequency and dit dit  "CQ CONTEST". I was running at 32 wpm which I find to be the sweet spot for contacts. In this contest, the exchange is 5NN and my province, which in all contesting programs would be prefilled at the listener end. If it was a progressive serial number then would program into the macro code for the number portion of the exchange to be sent slower. Stations from outside of Canada would send a serial number as their exchange and some would send at over 40wpm and that is fine by me. 

The ARRL 10m contest during the high solar cycle is always a pleasure and as 10m has done in the past it surprised me with some nice DX...7Q2T in  Malawi! My contacts were Europe and the U.S. with some South  America sprinkled in. The solar conditions were good with a K index from K1 to K3 but the Bz was in the negative numbers for most of the contest. This gave way to deep fading of signals to the point that if you did not get the contact information on the first try most often the signal was gone. This year I increased my contacts by 200 plus over last year and came close to doubling my score. I found each day the band opened to  Europe around 8 am local time and at around 11 am local it began to shift to the U.S. As the afternoon came South America would trickle in along with Hawaii Once again I was able to put PE4BAS fellow blogger Bas in the log.