AmateurRadio.com

The attic dipole is working it's magic agian!

It's Sunday afternoon and thought I would flip the K3 to the on position. The RSGB IOTA contest is in full swing but I was only able to hear  few stations. As I spun across the band I came across G0PZA/EU11 in London area. I gave him a call at 500 mW's but it was just not going to happen. As I slowly raised my power I was able to make the contact with 1 watt for a 3594 miles per watt contact. I then moved around the band but was not able to hear all that much. I was pleased with this contact as the bands over the last couple of days have not been really all that great. Last night I heard a station calling CQ from Nova Scotia and even with full power at 5 watts I was not able to raise this station. I consider this evening to be an accomplishment with a 1 watt DX contact as compared to almost a local call and being shut out with 5 watts. It's 5 o'clock in the evening and I am very tired (considering I pulled an all nigher at work on Saturday) so it's soon time to hit the hay and looking forward to another week at work....NOT!!!
Have a good week everyone
 

Three weeks ago I ordered from Elecraft there XG3, it's an RF signal source device with a range from 1.5 to 200 mhz,  two programmable sweep functions, 12 programmable bands  (2m to 160m) and 4 calibrated output levels as well as a few more bells and whistles. This unit can be updated via your PC which is great when Elecraft comes up with bug fixes and new options for the unit. You can either power the device by a 9 volt battery or your DC power supply (11 to 14 volts DC). One of the reasons for me purchasing this unit was it can via software preform an Rx Sideband Null Field Calibration. This is an experimental Field Calibration program and the instructions and program were sent to me via Elecraft support. The reason I wanted to do this calibration was to stop the "woodpecker" effect I was getting on my KX3 during CW contests with stations that were very close by. The program needs run for around 20 minutes to complete and I thought this would be a great Saturday afternoon project.....not thinking that 20 minutes would turn into 2 hours with the calibration not even starting!! 

So far so good but Murphy shows up!

To do the test you first have to make sure the XG3 has the latest firmware loaded so I plugged in the supplied USB cord to update the XG3. I had the "new hardware found" info box come up and I then began the search for the USB port......well for some reason I was not able to find it. I then just plugged in my KX3 USB cable I use to update the KX3 rig with and it's com port 13. I used that cord and plugged it into the XG3 and had it look at com 13 and all was well. It seemed the firmware was up to date. For the calibration test I needed to have both the KX3 and XG3 running on USB ports of their own. So I swapped some USB cables around and I was able to see my XG3 on com 19. That was great (so I thought). I started up the RX

Not able to use available com ports

sideband null field calibration program and the first thing I was asked was to enter the com port of the KX3 and XG3. I entered the KX3 (com13) and  the program said all is well and was able to see the rig. I then went to enter com19 for the XG3 and the drop down menu in the Elecraft program only went to com port 16!!!! WHATS UP WITH THAT!!! So the calibration test came to a fast end. All this farting around took 2 hours of my time and got nothing done......I went into my device manager to see what was going on and I tried to change the XG3 to a lower com port number but I was informed that all com ports from 1 to 18 are in use, funny thing is I don't have 18 USB items to take up that many ports.....but I do have LP Bridge and VSP manager that create virtual ports and also an 8 port Edge port device that takes up virtual ports as well. My question is why does the XG3 program only go up to com port 16.....N1MM does the same thing and it's a pain!!! So I will be emailing Elecraft support to see if there is a solution to this or maybe I will go the Mac way and set this up on my wife's mac computer.

It would seem that software and ham radio can get along very well and there is an abundance of software out there to choose from. Some software is free other are available for a price, I have both here at VE3WDM. There seems to be some myths about both the free software and the software for a price. Regarding the free software I have read and heard.....
1.  It's no good as it's not supported.
2. Since it's free it must be very simple and buggy
3. I am sure it's not updated.

As for the software for a price I have heard and read......
1.It's way over priced.
2.Why pay when free software is out there?
3. Someone is just trying to make a buck.



I have both free and software I had to paid for and am very happy with both products. My software is not  the be all and end all but it's what works for me. There is some fantastic software out there that can make you grow in your ham radio journey. I hope to just excite  you to look to see what is out there.
Here is what I use and as most ham I know they love free stuff and here is the free software I use.

1. DXlabs for my every day radio adventures I am sold on DX Labs! This software has rig control, logging, world map view of DX, QRZ (and many more) look up feature and much more. With this software and with the click of a mouse able to use many features of my K3. At a glance I am able see on a world map DX spots, I am told if  I worked this country before....on what band.....and what mode. There is a huge amount this free software can do. As for updates it seems that it's almost daily this software is improving. Oh and as a side note updates are a breeze to instal and no need to jump through hoops to get the latest and greatest upgrade. If you are not sure about a feature or if the software does not seem to be doing what it should, support is fast and readily available on the internet.

 2. If you are into contesting (like me) then once again the free stuff comes to the rescue. N1MM seems to be one of the staples for contesting. Again it has rig control features, CW and SSB features, VFO A and B control, spotting networks this is just to name a few things this amazing software can do.
There are regular updates and bugs are very few and far between. Again if you have troubles the support is there and it's fast.
 
Ok lets talk crazy now.....paying for ham software

1. When contesting I said I use N1MM but I also use a rig control program by N4PY and it's not free but WOW does it enhance my contesting. (now this software is not only for contesting I just chose to use it this way) This program allows me to adjust most of my Elecraft K3 controls with the mouse or keyboard. I can used my K1EL keyer, this program allowed me to use my Flexcontrol knob.

2. Another program I dished out some coin for and never looked back is MRP40 cw decoding program. Now I know what your thinking "there are lots of free CW decoding programs out there" This is true I have tried them and they are good BUT MRP40 is GREAT. In contesting when the speeds get to what I call "crazy speeds" this program has no trouble at all decoding them. 

Lets say  you want to have multiple programs work together without a hitch.........

 3. Then LP Bridge or  VSP manager come to the rescue. These are free programs and will allow your computer to set up virtual ports thus having multiple programs working at the same time and talking to each other. These programs work like a dream and as far as my needs go no bugs at all.

4. If you are into the digi modes like I was and in the near future hope to be there is a free program called Quickmix. This program will remember all the audio settings you use for each digi mode, so for example when operating PSK and you want to now switch to WSJT-X which has new audio settings for you PC. You no longer have to remember them Quickmix can in the blink of an eye adjust the sound card to the new settings for the selected digi mode!!

QRP at Luther Marsh... note one of Julies cameras

On Saturday morning Julie and I decided to take a hobby trip (Julies photography and my ham radio) we were off to a place called Luther Marsh. We have never been there before so we Google mapped it and off we went.....what could go wrong.....LOTS. This was a place that Julie was recommended to go by some bird watchers. It's about an hour and a half from where we live but they say getting there is half the fun.....and boy was it. Our trip according to Google maps brought us zigging and zagging all over the map. Once the road adventure was done we ended up on a lonely dirt road with a gate saying " DO NOT ENTER" Hmmmm it was time to bring out the Iphone GPS and find out where the heck we where. Well it was about another 20 minutes of driving  and we did arrive at our destination. We loaded up the camera and ham gear into our "hobby stroller" and ventured down a path in the wildlife

A view from below

sanctuary. We were not alone on the trail it was me, Julie and 

Julie's shot of the day an Osprey

deer flies!!!  We did have bug repellant  but it just had no affect on them at all. I was not bothered but poor Julie had at least 10-15 buzzing around her head all the time....and biting her!! We turned around and decided to call it a day, on the way out we noticed a path and this path lead to a lookout about 3 stories high. We went up to have a look and low and behold no deer flies. We had our lunch up there and Julie was able to take pictures and I was able to have to some radio time.
I took with me my Elecraft KX3, Alexloop, tripod and a spare battery. It was great, there was no noise level at all on the KX3 and one would wonder if the rig had a receive problem. I started to call CQ and it was not long before VE1AB in Nova Scotia  came back to me. John gave me an RST of 559 and we had a nice long CW chat it seemed that John had been to Luther Marsh several times when in Ontario.  I did have to say 72 to him as my batteries had to be changed in the KX3. I then called CQ again on 20m and WW2SUB came back to me.......hey guess where he was???? This was the first time EVER I had contacted a Submarine . He was on the USS batfish. I thought my CW was off and it was supposed to be copied as battleship. When I got home and did a QRZ.COM search....it was in fact called the USS Batfish!

Camera and ham gear stroller (mainly camera gear)

The K2 ready in it's Pelican case to be shipped

For some time now I have been looking at my Elecraft K2 sitting on my radio desk doing nothing. A conversation has been going on for some time within me to keep the rig...I built it and it's a fantastic radio. Again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on the desk doing nothing. There may be a time when I need a QRO radio...again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on my desk. It then came time for me to realize the K2 has to go to a ham who is going to run it through the paces. Give the rig the exercise it was

All is packed and ready

meant to have. I put the radio up on the market last week and it was sold within 24 hours and as I write this post is on it's way down to Nova Scotia. Thomas had a K2 at one time along with the antenna tuner and 100 watt amp. He sold it and has been wanting one.... so serial number 6613 K2 is on it's way down to him. Sound kinda funny to miss a rig like this but this rig was built with my own hands and I was very very proud of the work and the performance of the radio. In the box is the rig, combo ATU and 100 watt amp, dust cover from Rose, Pelican carry case, A & A engineering charger for the internal K2 battery and a load of internal upgrades in the K2. At the home station there is a hole were once the K2 called home and soon my KX3 will move in. This is begining to sound like a sad soap opera....lets turn things about 360 degrees.......the rig is gone and there are some extra ham bucks to spend. Not sure what is going to be added to the shack.....I do have some ideas.

Where the K2 used to be now a bare spot

The Saturday afternoon sky

Not sure why but I have never taken part in any field day, I can remember there have been some years were I was busy. I have often seen field day setups as I drove from here to there but as I said I have never been involved in one. Well 2013 field day was my first I was not with a group from a club but did it on my own. Not because I'm not into clubs but was not sure if this year I would be busy doing other things as Julie's

Saturdays operating position

relatives are in from England. It turned out I was able to get some time in on Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast. I was operating search and pounce and was using my KX3 on battery power only. I did bring along my spare battery but did not have to use it either day. My antenna was a mobile whip and I stayed on 20m for the contest. I was reading on twitter how 10m and 15m were dead. Funny thing too I was also reading other twitter posts of how this was a field day with very little action on the bands. I found things to be very busy and I was always able to make a contact....well hear them but maybe not make the contact. It sure was a change to not have my PC with me during a contest. I was hand writing my log and also having to run down my contact list to see if I have worked the station already. I did get a few "worked B4" but that was due to the fact I was not able to see them in my log sheets. At the start of the contest I was getting asked to repeat my category almost every contact!! That told me I was for sure messing something up, turns out I was

Sundays spot...lunch time

Sundays weather

sending B1 and not 1B as a category....sorry to all those who I threw off at the start of the contest. Once I got the exchange sorted out all was going very well. The weather on Saturday was touch and go there was very severe weather clouds moving overhead all the time. I must say for the time I was out on Saturday I did not have rain at all. On Sunday it was once again very humid and HOT HOT!! The nice thing about Sunday was the bad weather seemed to had taken a good long break. On Sunday I went to a different spot, it was a nice park just north of me. I did have some folks stop by to see what I was up too but none hung around to long. When the contest was over I was on the air for only a total of 4 hours and I made 50 contacts CW only. I was operating at 4 watts on the internal batteries of the KX3.  I had a nice time and was able to give the Elecraft KX3 a good workout. So as I said this was my first ever Field day and I will for sure be putting this contest in the calender for next year.