WW2PT Amateur & Shortwave Radio

WebSDR

2010-03-12T06:21:00.006-06:00

My bud Ulis K3LU just turned me onto the WebSDR project. Spent a little time this morning listening to W4MQ's station, which is set up for 160m, 40m, and 20m. Very impressive -- I've steered clear of online remote receivers in the past because they were typically a single radio controlled by a single user at a time (or, worse, by multiple users continuously changing frequency and mode, making it little more than an exercise in hi-tech uselessness). But this is different -- a true server that lets multiple people listen at the same time on whatever band/frequency/mode they want, completely independent of one another. Way cool.

NCJ: What's the Best Contest Rig?

2010-03-09T12:02:00.007-06:00

The March/April 2010 National Contest Journal arrived yesterday, torn and tattered as always (thanks again, US Postal Service!), and with it the results of K3MD's informal poll of top contesters asking, "What's the best contest rig?" It's by no means a scientific survey, nor all-inclusive, but many of the Big Guns you'd expect participated.

No surprise to see the K3 and IC-7800 at the head of the pack. What does surprise me, though, is the absence of even a single mention of the Flex 5000 -- can't figure this out. Contesters, of all operators, rely so heavily on computers and software, and the Flex is clearly ready for prime-time. It's fairly equal to the K3 and 7800 in terms of receiver performance. It just seems like a natural fit. Is it simply because it lacks a tuning dial? Is full PC control too new a trick for these old dogs to learn? Would love to hear theories as to why none of these top contesters have jumped on the SDR bandwagon.

Also surprised to see the Orion get only passing mention (and not in a good way, either). Wasn't that the last "greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread" transceiver just a few years ago?

All that said, I'm happy to see the K3 get the attention it deserves from the radiosport community. Contesters at this level are fickle creatures; you can't pin the fanboy label on them. Price is rarely an issue, considering the equipment on the inside of the shack typically costs a fraction of what is spent on antenna systems. They're not swayed by fancy front panels or clever marketing. If the radio works better than what they last used, they keep it; if something else better comes along later, they'll switch again. It will be interesting to see in ten years or so whether the K3 has the longevity among contesters that, say, the FT-1000D has enjoyed. My prediction: Yes (but then, I'm just an Elecraft fanboy and, worse still, a poseur-wannabee contester). Only time will tell; the zeitgeist changes direction in a hurry, and the DSP and SDR technology is advancing rapidly, so something new could come along next week to knock the K3 off its pedestal.

February 2010 Wrap-Up

2010-02-28T12:50:00.004-06:00

Other than the NAQP-RTTY test I was mostly QRT for the entire month due to more pressing concerns unrelated to amateur radio.

DXCC: Picked up one new one each on 40m (Alaska) and 17m (Croatia), and two new ones on 15m (Cuba and Alaska).

WAS: Finally worked KL7 on 40m, only ND now holding out on me for WAS on that band; and 7 new states on 15m -- all thanks to NAQP-RTTY

WAZ: Working KL7 in the NAQP test gave me Zone 1 on 15m and 40m.

Stats through 28-Feb-2010:

	All	80m	40m	30m	20m	17m	15m	Ph	CW	Dig
DXCC	80	2	43	10	66	13	22	52	5	62
WAS	50	28	49	7	48	19	19	43	1	50
WAZ	26	3	21	8	23	9	9	22	5	22

NAQP RTTY - Feb 2010

2010-02-28T00:52:00.005-06:00

QRV 8 hours (though with several breaks), mostly search & pounce but had a few runs. Had to QRT at 0400, my brain was starting to fade. In hindsight I wish I stuck it out for another dozen QSOs or so; had I done so I would have beaten my score from the NAQP SSB test in January. But I came close...

Started on 20m at 1800, then switched to 15m at 1915 and worked just about all stations I could hear -- nice to see 15m coming back to life! After an 1.5 hour break for lunch I spent another hour on 20m before switching to 40m at 2300 and staying there for the remainder, taking a few short breaks along the way.

Really wanted to try 80m again after the good time I had during MAQP SSB. But the Tarheel just doesn't tune up very well down there, and I'm reluctant to try pushing 100W at 100% duty cycle into a poorly matched antenna.

Worked K1SFA, KL7AC, VX6AO, WØYK, and W6YX for the hat trick on all three bands; 28 other stations were worked on two bands. In the end, 6 new states on RTTY (AK, IA, LA, MI, MS and VT); 1 new state on 40m (AK); and 7 new states on 15m (AK, CA, ID, NV, NY, UT and VT). Had a Cuban station call me during one of my runs on 15m, it was the only DX worked in the contest.

Summary:

QSOs: 160
US States: 35
VE Provinces: 5
Total Mults: 71
Score: 11,360 pts.

Band-by Band Breakdown:

15m: 34 QSOs, 10 states, 2 provinces
20m: 42 QSOs, 22 states, 2 provinces
40m: 84 QSOs, 30 states, 5 provinces

K3 Derangement Syndrome

2010-02-19T15:07:00.003-06:00

Seems W9OY is causing some heads to broil on the Elecraft list, thanks to Julian G4ILO stirring the pot. ;-)

I don't know W9OY but I read his blog often because I'm fascinated with the whole SDR aspect of the hobby. He's as much a fanboy for the Flex 5000 as many are for the K3 (including me, I suppose). I have no problem with that, we all like to talk up the equipment we own. W9OY certainly knows his stuff, and even though he may toss out a jab at the K3 every now and then I just take it with a grain of salt -- no burning desire to break out the dueling pistols, it's just a hobby.

Often, though, I've heard hams on the air trashing the K3 as though anyone who owns one isn't just wrong, but stoopid as well. I call it K3 Derangement Syndrome: any mention of the K3 causes them to prattle on about how inferior it is to their radio. They'll harp about the K3's "poor ergonomics," as if pressing a button twice to move from 40m to 20m is somehow more of an inconvenience than having to boot Windoze every time you want to use your radio. They'll talk about the size of the radio, as if the compact box isn't one of the K3's attractions for many owners. They'll nitpick over specs, as if they really make a difference while working the DX. Mostly, it becomes evident after listening for a while that most of these K3DS sufferers have never actually used a K3, but merely heard all these horrible things from someone else. I guess the P3 will give them more ammo because it's smaller than Power-SDR running on a 60" plasma display -- your sophomoric "mine's bigger" kind of argument. Whatever.

Life is too short. We all have reasons for choosing the radios we choose. My big reason for not buying a Flex product is that it relies on Windoze; if it supported OS X, I might have one on my desk right now. But I have enough Windoze headaches in my daily life and don't really want them to be at the core of my radio hobby. As Bones might tell Kirk, "Damn it, Jim! I'm a ham, not a systems administrator!" Those who might actually enjoy dicking around with computers will almost certainly report different mileage. Good for them.

Another good question has already been raised by someone else: What happens in 20 years? I have a garage full of 10-year old computer peripherals that simply won't work with my current PCs and Macs. The Flex rigs, when you boil it all down, are computer peripherals. That it doesn't rely on USB drivers makes it more likely to be supported years down the road, but what happens if FireWire goes the way of 5.25" floppies? Or if future versions of Power-SDR no longer support anything older than the Flex 8000? To me, one of the things I love about ham radio is that people running vintage gear from the 50's and 60's are still able to do pretty much everything a guy with a K3 can do; with proper care and feeding, they can last a lifetime or more. On the other hand, computers and peripherals are throw-away items. Which category a PC-based SDR falls into, only time will tell.

That doesn't mean I won't someday own a Flex 5000 (or 6000 or 9000); maybe I will. Flex Radio Systems is every bit a great company as Elecraft, and their user base every bit as loyal. If I had the cash I'd probably own one now because I love the SDR concept. If someday it no longer works under Windoze 2036 or whatever cruel hoax Microsloth perpetrates on the masses in the future, oh well... out to the pile in the garage it'll go, to be replaced by the newest model. But I won't get rid of the K3 unless and until something else comes out that offers a significant improvement, and whatever may replace my K3 someday will sure as hell have knobs and buttons and be able to operate as a stand-alone instrument without a PC umbilical. These are my requirements; if yours are different, buy what you want.

And while others may take cheap shots at competing radios just to make themselves feel smart or superior to those who choose differently, I won't do that.

(I will, however, continue to take cheap shots at Microsloth Windoze. It just plain sucks.)

Elecraft P3 Panadapter at Orlando Hamfest

2010-02-13T17:24:00.002-06:00

Photo by Jack W3TMZ

January 2010 Wrap-Up

2010-02-03T12:14:00.016-06:00

Almost all of my activity in January was limited to contests (RTTY Roundup, PSKFest, NAQP SSB, and BARTG Sprint) which accounted for a lot of new states on 80m and 40m but not too many new countries.

DXCC: Made a big leap from 29 to 42 countries worked on 40m. Worked 2 new (all-band) countries -- Iceland (TF) on 40m PSK and Sweden (SM) on 20m CW.

WAS: The NAQP Phone test boosted my 80m WAS total from 1 state to 28 in a single night, as well as bumping my all-band phone state count from 19 to 43. The RTTY Roundup at the beginning of January netted me 30 new states on that mode.

WAZ: No new zones overall, but I added 4 zones each on CW and RTTY modes, and one new zone on PSK.

Stats through 31-Jan-2010:

	All	80m	40m	30m	20m	17m	15m	Ph	CW	Dig
DXCC	80	2	42	10	66	12	20	52	5	62
WAS	50	28	48	7	48	19	12	43	1	50
WAZ	26	3	20	8	23	9	8	22	5	22

While I was distracted...

2010-01-28T13:39:00.005-06:00

Other than working ZL2PW on 40m during a bout of insomnia in the wee hours the other night, I've mostly been QRT all week. However, I left the K3 tuned to 7035 as I usually do just to see what might have been. I wish I hadn't looked.

According to PSKReporter, I missed some needed DX on 40m last night:

Azores: CU3CP @ 0058
Austral Is.: TX3D @ 0231
Angola: D2QMN @ 0503
S. Korea: 6K5BLW @ 1410

Plus a few Russians -- I actually need both European and Asiatic Russia on 40m digital?!?!? Hmm.

Oh, well... those who snooze, lose.

K3 Weirdness in AFSK-A Mode (SOLVED!)

2010-01-24T15:01:00.008-06:00

During the BARTG test I had some weird moments after I QSY'd from 20m to 40m -- DM780 would key the K3's PTT (via HRD IP Server) but there would be no audio into the Line In port, and thus no RF output. Sometimes rebooting the K3 would work, other times quitting and re-launching DM780 did the trick. I'm not 100% certain of the cause but I'm leaning towards software rather than hardware.

Then I noticed low RF output at certain audio frequencies, and this only in AFSK-A reverse (USB) mode; no trouble in normal (LSB) AFSK-A mode, nor in DATA-A normal and reverse. The output power would be OK when the center frequency was set low on the waterfall (+/- 400 Hz, for example) but would drop off at higher Fc setings. And the cutoff point seemed to vary -- sometimes I could get full 100W RF out at around 1500 Hz Fc (I typically use 1530 Hz as Fc for RTTY), other times the output would drop above 900 Hz and be effectively zero at 1300 Hz and above. After some messing around with soundcard and line input levels I seemed to have gotten it somewhat sorted out, but as I did all that in the middle of a contest while in semi-panic mode I didn't take too many notes.

I did some basic tests today by transmitting RTTY diddles at 100W into the MFJ-267 dummy load/wattmeter while in AFSK-A REV mode; mic gain is adjusted for 3 flickering bars of ALC as per the advice of Elecraft. I got full 100W reading on the meter at 2200 Hz Fc, but it steadily decreased as I inched upwards -- at 2300 Hz Fc the output was down around 60W, and by 2400 Hz the wattmeter needle barely moved. But when I switched from REV (USB) to NOR (LSB) I get full output right up to the top edge of the waterfall (2900 Hz Fc) -- pretty much what I experienced yesterday during the RTTY test.

I then shut the whole system off for a while and repeated these tests an hour or so later to see if things changed from a "cold" state: starting out my output at 2200 Hz was down around 10 to 15W. The output then slowly rises as PA temperature (as measured by the K3's built-in PA TEMP meter) reaching full 100W at 43 deg C. But after cooling off (PA: 35 deg C, front panel: 32 deg C) power output remains at full 100W! This is driving me absolutely bat-shit crazy.

I'm not really concerned that I won't be able to transmit RTTY at high center frequencies as my operating style is to find and click on a signal in the waterfall, center it at 1530 Hz, then switch to a narrow filter setting; I'm more troubled by how the cutoff frequency changes, sometimes below 1530 Hz, and apparently is a function of temperature. It doesn't appear to be a PA problem -- the same power drops occur when bypassing the PA unit and running at 10W, and I'm getting full power in all other modes -- so I'm going to guess it's an issue with the DSP board and its handling of audio at the Line In port. More tests to follow, and when I have a better set of test results I'll contact the boys in Aptos.

Update 26-Jan-2010: I believe it has been solved -- the only things I didn't check until today were the filter parameters in the CONFIG menu. Sure enough, I had FL3 set to 2.4 kHz even though the filter is actually a 2.1 kHz filter. Unsure how or why this caused the problem, but since setting it to the correct setting I am now able to get full output power at the mark frequencies indicated by the K3's MARK-SH setting (2125, 1445, 1275 or 915 Hz). Not sure how the FL3 parameter got changed; perhaps inadvertently while running K3-EZ, or perhaps it was set improperly during my assembly and setup back in January '08. In any case, all's well that ends well. My apologies to Wayne, Eric, Lyle, Don, Greg, etc. for bothering them with what turned out to be user error. I will now sit in the corner wearing my "Dumb Ass" hat as penance.

BARTG Sprint 2010

2010-01-24T10:53:00.008-06:00

Spent a few hours Saturday handing out QSO points on 20 and 40. No new ones for me, and I had a hard time working DX. Some weirdness with the K3 (see next post) has me scratching my increasingly balding head...

Summary:

QSOs: 65
US States: 35
VE Provinces: 3
Total Mults: 23
Total Continents: 3
Score: 4,485 pts.

Band-by Band Breakdown:

20m: 40 QSOs, 18 states, 4 provinces, 5 DX
40m: 25 QSOs, 15 states, 5 DX

HAM Radio?

2010-01-19T16:08:00.003-06:00

A perennial annoyance of mine is the use of the phrase "HAM radio." Not "ham radio," mind you, but "HAM radio" with the word "ham" capitalized as though it's an acronym like NOAA, IRS, MVP, UCLA or STFU. It usually occurs in news articles like this one which are obviously written by non-hams, but I also see it used in places like eHam product reviews by people who should know better. While no one can say with certainty how, when or where the term "ham" originated, it is beyond argument that it doesn't stand for anything. It really isn't a life-or-death problem, but every time I see "HAM radio" I have an overwhelming urge to slap someone. Is it just me?

Ooops... gotta run. My CELL phone is ringing.

NAQP SSB - Jan 2010

2010-01-19T10:59:00.001-06:00

QRV 9.5 hours out of the 10 hours permitted for single-op class, all search & pounce. Started about 45 minutes late and took 3 breaks. By contest's end at midnight I was pretty exhausted, not sure how people do single-op in the 48-hour tests.

Worked 20m for about 40 min, then switched to 15m for about 30 min to see if the band was open (not so much, only 4 Qs). Spent the next 3h 45m bouncing between 20m and 40m, then took a 30 min break. Came back on 40 for an hour, took another 45 min break, worked 40m for another 15 min. Took a final 30 min break to run to the QuikiMart for contest supplies (cigarettes, donuts, bottled water for coffee, important stuff like that...), then spent the remaining 3h 15m of the test on 80m.

That last stint on 80 was the most enjoyable contest experience I've had since... well, since the last time I worked 80m with a sense of purpose. That would have been back in New Jersey in the late 90's when I had a dipole and 600 watts; now I run 100 watts to an 12' mobile screwdriver antenna that doesn't tune better than 3.0:1. Little pistol station? Hell, it isn't even a .22 target gun! Yet I had a blast. The guys I worked were great and very patient as I repeated my call and exchange countless times. And some QSOs were so easy I almost forgot I was on 80m.

I hit the triple crown five times, working K7RL (WA), N6ML (CA), NC4KW (NC) and NK7U (OR) on 20/40/80, and K4SSU (GA) on 15/20/40.

I'm still not ready to make the big leap to flat-out contesting (trying to work every station I can hear, rack up as many points as I can, sit at the mic/key/computer for the duration, etc.). I'm still in it mostly for the QSLs and ulterior award-chasing motives so I still skip a lot of possible QSOs if the station is in a state already confirmed. But I gotta tell you, each time I play in one of these tests I get sucked in a little... bit.... more...

The numbers in the "worked" column for WAS-Phone went from 19 to 43 in a hurry, and just 12 hours after the contest LOTW has more than doubled the Phone confirmed column (currently at 34 and counting). Doing the search/pounce thing limited me to working only those stations who were running so I missed many needed states that I heard who were strong but also in S&P mode. On 80m, my WAS-Phone count went from 0 to 25 in less than 4 hours.

Summary:

QSOs: 154
US States: 37
VE Provinces: 3
Total Mults: 84
Score: 12,936 pts.

Band-by Band Breakdown:

15m: 4 QSOs, 3 states
20m: 46 QSOs, 23 states, 3 provinces
40m: 64 QSOs, 30 states
80m: 40 QSOs, 25 states

CQ 17m...

2010-01-12T13:31:00.006-06:00

Having grown tired of 20m, I've been monitoring 17m during the daylight hours over the past week or so. I've largely ignored 17m, even back in the old days -- there are only 6 DX countries in the log from New Jersey, and no US or Canadian QSOs. This must change!

The band is mostly quiet but with spurts of activity when the waterfall will light up for a minute or two before resuming room temperature. Since November I've logged digital QSOs with 8 DX countries and 16 states. So far all the DX has been from the south and east -- EA8, F, KP4, OM, ON, PJ2, PZ, TI.

One day last week I left SuperBrowser running on 17m while I was out of the shack. When I later checked the history I saw that there were a few JAs on the list just before sunset. I filed this away for future reference. Yesterday I sat down at the rig at around 2330 UTC to do some CW listening on 40m, when I noticed it was getting dark outside. I tuned the Tarheel up to 18100 and found the band dead quiet. What the hell, I thought, might as well fire off a quick CQ before QSYing down to 40. My first call was returned by JA8GLZ on Hokkaido -- my first Asian DX on 17m. With a big signal, too! (One look at his QRZ page will explain the big signal.)

After that QSO... nothing. Not a whisper of activity. QSY to 40m...

My big issue with 17m is hearing the DX. I hear other statesiders working into EU but cannot hear the DX side, not even a trace on the waterfall. I've received broken responses to several CQs but have been unable to pull a callsign out of the garbled text, a sign that my Tarheel is getting a signal out but just not receiving quite as well. What to do? Perhaps a dipole in the attic? Might be a little quieter than the vertical. On the bright side, this is not exactly an ideal time to be QRV on 17, so I can anticipate better results as the days get longer and the sunspots multiply.

PSKFest 2010

2010-01-10T09:50:00.004-06:00

A half-hearted effort, 7 hours in two shifts (1000-1500 & 2200-2400). Made 82 QSOs, (51 on 40m, 30 on 20m, and 1 on 80m). I just wasn't as focused as I could have been this time, was doing some work on the Mac while calling CQ on the Dell, doing my best Rick Wakeman impersonation...

Still, I was able to check off a few needed squares on my 40m WAS grid (IA, MA and MI). Also worked TF (Iceland) for a new one from Texas.

This was the second PSK contest I've worked (the PSK Deathmatch in December being the other) and have to say I really like PSK as a contest mode, even more so than RTTY. The bandwidth savings are obvious -- a whole lot more PSK signals can fit into a 100 kHz swath of spectrum, but also the copy on weak signals is vastly superior to RTTY, and the 100w maximum output levels the playing field to allow anyone with a modest antenna to be competitive.

PSKFest 2010 Results

QSOs: 82
US States: 32
Can. Prov.: 2
DXCC: 9
Score: 3526

RTTY Roundup 2010

2010-01-04T06:42:00.005-06:00

First contest of the year for me but was only able to put in 7 about hours on 40m (0244-0952 UTC) and logged 103 QSOs.

Not much luck with DX but nabbed LA (Norway, a new one from Texas) and a few other Europeans (G, I, OK, PA, SP), plus EA8, FM, HI, JA, KH6, KP4, P4, VE and XE. Stateside, I managed three new states on 40m (HI, RI and WY).

I wasn't able to do anything on Sunday, just exhausted. Final score: 4,532

2009 Wrap-Up

2010-01-02T13:05:00.000-06:00

or: This Was The Decade That Was.

And with little fanfare I made my return to the HF bands in 2009. This, in keeping with the tradition I seem to have of always coming back to HF near the absolute ass end of a sunspot cycle after a prolonged absence during the peaks. The last time this happened was October 1995 when I went QRV at the tail end of Cycle 22 after being off the air for almost 6 years. Now I'm just in time to experience Cycle 24 which some predict will be the least active solar cycle in the history of this universe and all others, or some such. My lucky stars!

How long has it been this time? My logbook shows that other than sporadic activity (9 QSOs) between January 2001 and March 2002, I've been out of the game for over 10 years -- my last contest from Closter, NJ was CQ WPX Phone in March 1999. Before that, my last spurt of activity lasted for 42 months (Oct. 95 to Mar. 99) during which time I worked a lot of mobile HF; discovered the joy of computerized logging during contests; discovered the further joy of losing copious amounts of computerized log data to the fickle whims of that third-rate, so-called "operating system" known as Windows (Win98, I believe it was that did my logs in....); I worked some CW contests for the first time; and got a new call, relegating that godawful N2HIE to the trash heap of bad-CW-call history. I was tanned, rested and ready for Cycle 23.

Then I got distracted -- work took up more of my time, I got married, moved 4 times around northern New Jersey, got sidetracked by other hobbies (astronomy, photography, a brief and futile affair with model trains), spent 2+ years gutting and remodeling my mom's house, then finally made the big move to Texas in August 2008.

Yet all during this time I never really let ham radio drift too far away. I may not have put a signal on the air but I had some or all of my radios set up at both my Bergenfield (2001) and Lake Wallkill (2002-2008) QTHs and did quite a bit of listening. Even had an FT-817 in my car for a spell and used to listen to 20m and 40m during my commute. I picked up a few key elements of my current station like a second NRD-515 receiver, a NCS Multi-RX audio mixer and a Heil Classic 5 mic; put an FT-7800 dual-bander in my Jeep; ordered and built my KX1 QRP transceiver; and got a new HF rig, the insanely great K3, in January 2008.

The only missing piece was an antenna and that came in June of this year in the unlikely form of a Tarheel screwdriver antenna (a hex beam or phased verticals being out of the question at the current QTH). And with that, on June 16th, WW2PT was back on HF. By the end of 2009 I had:

Installed Ham Radio Deluxe and DM780 and set up (grudgingly...) a Windoze machine for logging and digi-modes.
Deciphered the needlessly complex Logbook of the World registration process and got that up and running, and also joined up with eQSL to cover all the electronic verification bases.
Started working PSK and several other digital modes.
Started listening to more CW towards the end of the year (in preparation for Resolution #1, see previous post), but I only worked up the courage to touch the paddles for one QSO (HK1X).
Played in a few contests -- IARU HF, IOTA, CQ WWDX Phone, WAE RTTY, PSK DeathMatch.

...and just over 6 months later I had worked all 50 states, 78 DXCC countries and 25 CQ zones -- that's a whopping 103 DX Marathon points! (tnx AE5X for the reminder...) QSLs have been trickling in, too, giving me 47 countries and all states confirmed in 2009. The final tallies for the year (as of 31-Dec-09) are...

2009 DXCC:

2009 WAS:

2009 WAZ:

Bring on Cycle 24.

2010 Resolutions & Wishes

2009-12-31T11:18:00.007-06:00

My 2010 New Year Resolutions

1. I will work CW: No, seriously. I really mean it this time -- I can no longer take it when I hear people bragging about their QSO with Holyshite Reef, South Fubar Island, or Siddown & Shuddup Rocks on CW with only 10 watts and a coat hanger. I want in on this action!

So... I've been spending a lot of time listening down at the low end of the bands lately and have an iPod Shuffle loaded up with W1AW code practice MP3s, trying to get my speed up above my current retard level. I don't phant'sy I shall ever achieve contester/DXer proficiency but I figure if I can recognize my own call sign and "5NN' at 30-35 WPM I can fake the rest and blame QRM and QSB for all that I miss.

2. I will work QRP: This resolution closely related to the one immediately preceding. Time to break out the KX1, head out to Whiskey Hill with a 300' roll of bell wire and see what happens. I might even try for WAS on PSK running only 5 watts.

3. I will concentrate on single-band WAS: All-band/all-mode WAS is in the bag, and I just need HI for the PSK endorsement. Only 5 QSLs left to complete WAS on 20m, then I swear to Baby Jesus I'm through with that infernal band (contests excepted). With solar conditions improving I expect to be spending a lot more time on 17m and 15m. And of course 40m is always a lot of fun even with only 100 watts. If I can finish 2010 with WAS on 40m and either 17m or 15m, I'll be happy; if all three, I'll be delirious.

4. I will upgrade to Extra: I've been putting this off for too long. Never did it because I never really needed the lower 25 kHz, but now that Resolution #1 is in effect...

5. I will buy an amp: Because even though QRP is fun, it ain't gonna help me earn any awards on 80m or 40m. That ALS-1300 looks soooo nice.

6. I will build more equipment: Been itching to dig into another kit or two, perhaps a K1 or a SoftRock. If I can muster the dough, I'd love to build a K2 that I can dedicate to QRP CW and PSK31. At the very least I will build and install the 80m/30m option for my KX1 that I have in a box somewhere.

My 2010 Wish List

1. PSK ops will refrain from using RSID: I love automatic ID for oddball modes like Throb and MFSK, but do we really need it for garden-variety PSK31 transmissions? I end up turning RSID off after a few minutes.

2. PSK ops will develop some DXing skills: For God's sake, people... stop sending "My Station" macros and weather reports when working DX. Unless the DX station starts chatting you up, work him like it's a contest -- people are waiting. And trust me, the DX doesn't care what kind of radio or computer you're using or when you were "created". Try this macro instead:
hisCall TU 599 599 Name myName QTH myQTH BTU DE myCall

If the DX wants to know anything else, he'll ask. Betcha' a dollar he won't.

When the DX station signs, just give a quick "73" and leave it at that. Wishing him and his family Merry Christmas in six different languages is not required; neither is informing him that "PSK31 QSO #261 has been logged at 0351 UTC on 12-December-2009", nor that he can find more info about you on QRZ.com. And if the DX ends his last transmission to you with "QRZ?", don't say anything else -- just log the QSO and move on. Remember: "QRZ?" is short for "OK, you're in the log, now shut yer pie-hole and let me work someone else!"

This is all so "DXing 101" that I'm embarrassed to have to mention it, but the PSK band segments are clearly overpopulated with noobs who need some gentle Elmering. I'm here to help.

3. Sunspots will return: 'Nuff said.

4. More hams will use LOTW: Yes, I know it sucks... but it's really not that hard to figure out or that much of an inconvenience to sign and upload your logs -- certainly much less hassle than filling out a couple hundred cards, stuffing them into envelopes, fixing stamps, etc. And a whole lot cheaper, too; this alone should appeal to the cheap bastards that all hams are known and well documented to be.

With that, I now sign off for 2009 wishing all a Happy New Year and all the best DX in 2010!

The Noisy K3

2009-12-18T19:58:00.022-06:00

or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the RF Gain

The latest kerfuffle currently brewing on the Elecraft reflector concerns the "Noisy K3 receiver" and, predictably, the commenters have broken down into two opposing factions: the "Me Too!" group is posting comparisons with other receivers that supposedly have less background noise and less listening fatigue, and the "Not Here!" group which swears that their K3 is so quiet that they sometimes think it has been damaged.

Whether any or all of the complaints about background noise are valid, and/or whether these people have radios that are somehow defective or simply misadjusted is beyond my ability to discern. I'm not picking sides here, the guys who think their K3s are noisy may have real issues, and if so I'm confident Elecraft will address these issues as they have done with all others in the past. Perhaps we'll all end up with better, quieter K3s in a few weeks as a result of this discussion.

That said, what really fascinates me is that some of my fellow amateurs apparently believe the RF Gain control to be an archaic, vestigial appendage left over from ancient days of vacuum tubes, and that it has no place or purpose in a modern receiver. To wit:

"Bill has linked to and quoted Eric's paper which quite frankly seems way too complicated to me. IMHO, a modern DSP, microprocessor-controlled receiver should figure all of this stuff out automatically and do it for me ... If the receiver has a properly designed AGC system then there are only two variables that are potentially the operator's responsibility: 1) Preamp On/Off and 2) Attenuator On/Off. With the smarts built into modern radios, why can't the radio do, for example upon band switching, a little routine of turning each of these on and off and measuring the resulting SNR and then setting them accordingly?" -- N7WS

And:

"I'm used to leaving the RF gain wide open on the MkV, leaving the audio gain pretty much alone, and maybe switching between SLOW and FAST occasionally. I don't seem to have any trouble hearing the weak ones under the strong ones. Now I have to fiddle with the RF gain (a small knob hidden amongst the others) while running a pileup. Not enough hands (or enough brains)." -- VE7XF

Seriously? Not enough hands? No offense intended to these guys, fine gentlemen both, but we've long suffered complaints about how the K3 doesn't have the all front panel controls one "needs" at his fingertips to tweak a signal to perfection. Now, a single RF Gain knob is too many controls to tweak in order to deliver a good sounding signal? And what N7WS is asking for falls under the general category of "Artificial Intelligence" -- I think we're going to have to wait a few more decades before we start seeing that offered in consumer electronics products!

The fact is, if you run the K3 or any other radio with RF Gain flat out, the result will be a higher level of background noise than if you "ride" the RF Gain. Whether analog or digital, a receiver's AGC cannot magically discriminate a desired signal from noise. Instead, it will adjust the gain of the IF stages in response to the entirety of what it detects -- that is, signal and noise. The purpose of the RF Gain control is to allow the operator to limit the range of the AGC to some degree in order to compensate for this lack of intelligence. RF Gain is like a transmission in a car, and just as an automatic transmission may work well some or perhaps even most of the time, it doesn't always put the car in the right gear for every road condition. Similarly, the AGC doesn't -- and cannot -- always deliver the optimum results under all band conditions. The RF Gain control is the radio's stick shift. Use it.

Advancements in DSP technology have made it somewhat possible for a processor to detect speech or CW from random noise and perform the requisite voodoo to pass the wanted signal and suppress all else, but this technology still isn't perfect. I don't pretend to understand it all, but lot of math is employed to come up with what is still essentially a "best guess" as to what is, or isn't, wanted. In my experience, it doesn't always guess correctly; operator input is still required. The reason there are so many different possible settings for the Noise Reduction (NR) on the K3 is so you can choose what works best for you. But if you can't be bothered riding the RF Gain a little bit, you surely won't want to mess with the NR parameters.

Is my K3 unusually "noisy?" Honestly, I don't know for sure. I don't think it is; when I first got it I did comparisons with the JST-245, a rig which had a pretty damn quiet receiver. At the time I thought the K3 compared quite favorably. However, these tests were not scientific and the antennas used at the time were fairly crappy. Now I have a slightly better antenna... but alas, no more JST-245.

I did a brief A/B test with one of my NRD-515s on 40m SSB switching between both radios with the same antenna, each feeding identical NVA-515 speakers. It was a hands-down win for the K3 even with NR and AFX turned off. Tweaking both radios for best results, the difference in signal quality and intelligibility was pretty significant. Not exactly a fair fight, though... the NRD-515 is a 25 year old design.

Maybe I'd notice this perceived noisiness more if I had a quiet antenna and QTH. Unfortunately, I contend with a constant S7-8 background noise that I attribute to environmental factors (the QRN of suburban hell) and the fact that I have a vertical antenna, by nature more susceptible to electrical noise. In any case, I've never experienced how the K3 behaves on a quiet band. Under my typical conditions I can tweak the RF Gain, AF Gain and NR to maximize the quality of signals at or above the high noise level while reducing the background hash to a very acceptable level, but there is no single setting of controls that works on all signals. If I optimize for a relatively strong signal, I can reduce the background noise to practically nil but then weaker signals then become much less readable. Tweaking to separate the weakest signals from the noise is possible but that brings up the background noise as well -- all the more so the weaker the signal and the closer it is to the noise floor. Every situation is different, so I'm constantly adjusting RF Gain and other controls to match the conditions much the same way I must downshift my Jeep when I climb a hill or drive through the twisties, or upshift when I reach cruising speed on a highway -- no one gear works well all the time.

Once I find the best RF Gain setting for a particular signal, any noise that is still bothering me is handled extremely well by the NR (which, it cannot be overstated, is the whole purpose of having a NR function in the first place!). The K3's NR has been greatly improved since trusty ol' #216 arrived on my doorstep in January 2008. The original NR worked well for me as an SSB op, but the CW guys were not satisfied; so Elecraft changed the DSP voodoo to accommodate them. All of a sudden, I (and many others) found the NR didn't work as well on SSB as it did in previous firmware versions, it made the output sound too hollow. So after we bitched and moaned about this, the boys in Aptos doubled the number of NR settings from 16 to 32, restoring the SSB-optimized NR settings and giving operators enough variety in NR level and aggression to satisfy everyone. I generally prefer very light NR, so I most often use the least aggressive setting in the 8-1 to 8-3 range to make copy comfortable to my ears; rarely do I use 8-4, but occasionally I will try the 7-x range on stronger signals. With the K3's exceptional noise reduction I find myself adjusting NR more and RF and AF Gain less than I did in the pre-NR days with my JST-245, JST-135 and TS-930.

I hadn't touched the AGC characteristic settings since the K3 was delivered, but today I decided to experiment with the AGC Slope and Threshold parameters just to see what effects they have. I found that the threshold (AGC THR) parameter makes a big difference in the amount of background noise amplified by AGC during periods of no signal. After a few hours of playing around the settings I ultimately settled on (for now) are:

AGC DCY: SOFT
AGC HLD: 0.20
AGC PLS: NOR (default)
AGC SLP: 012 (default)
AGC THR: 002
AGF-F: 100
AGC-S: 020 (default)

Thus configured, and with noise reduction off, AGC set to Fast, and both AF and RF Gain controls set to 12 o'clock position, I've found my sweet spot for tuning around under typical conditions. When find a station, I may switch on NR and/or adjust the AF or RF Gain until what I hear sounds right to my ears.

What it all boils down to is, using the RF Gain isn't a burden, nor is it rocket science -- it's how I've always operated a receiver. Along with NR, Notch, Width and Shift, it's simply another tool at my disposal to recover the most intelligibility out of a signal. Reaching for the RF Gain comes as naturally to me as it does for the AF Gain or VFO. The idea that some ops feel put out by having to tweak the RF Gain control is beyond incredible to me.

Why Are Radios Horizontal?

2009-12-15T12:06:00.006-06:00

This thought has been keeping me awake at night. Yes, I know I probably need psychiatric help... but that still doesn't answer the question, now does it?

Radio manufacturers appear to be locked into a belief that radios must be horizontally oriented. I don't get it -- this takes up more desk space and offers no discernible advantage over a vertically-oriented rig. Why not flip radios on their side?

The closest thing we've got to vertical radios are some commercial rack-mounted systems, but even then, each of the individual components in the rack are horizontal. The cubish Flex-5000A comes close, it is almost as tall as it is wide, but is still technically a horizontal rig. (Actually, it has no knobs so it's not a real radio anyway. Never mind.)

Desktop PCs used to come in horizontal cases; now they are all happily ensconced in tidy, attractive vertical towers. Has anyone complained? I don't think so...

Tallness projects power and demands respect -- you never hear people marveling over the world's widest building, do you? I believe the first radio maker who ventures out into this brave, new design direction will come to rule the market.

You heard it here first, folks.

LOTW vs. eQSL: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

2009-11-30T18:01:00.010-06:00

Came across some interesting observations out in the blogosphere re: LOTW, whether its worth the hassle and such, by VE3OIJ and KB6NU. I shared some thoughts a few months ago not long after I got LOTW working. Some time has passed so I did some logbook analysis on my contacts since getting back on the air (16 June through the 30 November) to see if things got better or worse.

Every QSO in my logbook for this time period (379 total) has been uploaded to both eQSL.cc and LOTW. Here's what I got for my trouble:

Confirmations via eQSL: 118 (31.1% return rate)
Confirmations via LOTW: 113 (29.8% return rate)
QSOs confirmed via both eQSL and LOTW: 55
QSOs confirmed via eQSL but not LOTW: 25
QSOs confirmed via LOTW but not eQSL: 58
DXCC entities confirmed by both eQSL and LOTW: 16
DXCC entities confirmed via eQSL but not LOTW: 10
DXCC entities confirmed via LOTW but not eQSL: 14

So what does this prove? Nothing, really, except that more than two thirds of the stations I've worked in the past 6 months don't use either method of electronic QSLing, or simply haven't bothered to upload their logs yet. As for those who do QSL electronically, just under half use both LOTW and eQSL. Unless and until more logging software integrates automatic uploading, I don't see how electronic QSLing will be a viable replacement for the analog method.

I'm sure more electronic QSLs will trickle in over the next few months, but in my experience I've found that most people who use eQSL and/or LOTW will upload their logs pretty soon after the QSO. Therefore, I don't expect the percentages to skew drastically either way. Whether my experience is in any way representative of reality, I can't say. I'm curious to know how other hams are faring. Is my 30% return rate typical?

Meanwhile, I'm sitting on a pile of cards ready to go out to DX stations but I haven't had a burning desire to cough up the $150+ for postage (including the return postage that most DX stations ask for), nor have I sent off any cards to the outgoing bureau. I've been happy thus far to sit back and watch the LOTW verifications trickle in and my DXCC and WAS totals slowly increase.

In a perfect world, the ARRL would accept eQSL as a legitimate confirmation method. But in reality, this would net me very few "new ones" since many of those 10 eQSL-only countries were already verified when I was QRV from New Jersey, years before either LOTW or eQSL.cc were a gleam in their programmers' eyes.

November 2009 Wrap-Up

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000-06:00

The hunt for WAS and DXCC continues...: Got back to the shack this month (actually, late October) to work a few contests and return to my WAS quest. I worked Maine three times, leaving only Delaware unworked; QSLs still needed from AL, DE, ME and NV.

Now I'm turning my attention to filling in the grids on individual bands with an eye towards an eventual 5-Band WAS. As of now I have 42 states confirmed on 20m and 16 states on 40m. On the 80, 30m, 15m and 17m bands my counts are in the single digits, though the cards are trickling in and the number of states worked is increasing as I spend more time on 40m at night, 17m and 15m during the day, and avoid the lure of 20m as best I can unless something good pops up on the cluster. Even made a few QSOs on 80m the other night -- the Tarheel doesn't deliver an SWR better than 2.5:1 but my signal made it into the midwest for KS, MO and IL. Unfortunately 12m and 10m operations will have to wait as my Tarheel won't tune those bands (need to get it closer to the ground, I'm told).

FWIW, I now have 39 states confirmed on eQSL.cc, so their eWAS won't be far behind the "official" WAS award from ARRL. As for other eQSL awards, I have 17 zones and 36 countries confirmed.

On the DXCC front, I worked 7 new countries in Oct/Nov and received confirmations from 8 new ones. Now just 17 QSLs away from all-band DXCC...

Misc. QRM: I had my first MT63 QSO with N1GKE in Rhode Island on 17m -- saw his RSID pop up in DM780 and gave it a try. Neat mode -- not sure if it's as error-free and fade-resistant as Olivia, but close.

October/November 2009 Stats (To-Date Confirmed/Worked):
27 DXCC Entities (83/124)
18 CQ Zones (27/30)
26 States (46/49)
160 Total QSOs

Waiting for Baudot

2009-11-20T09:56:00.022-06:00

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.

Some random thoughts and observations about RTTY operation with the K3 and DM780 follow...

The DM780 + HRD Logbook combination did fairly well, considering HB9DRV himself says "HRD/DM780 is not contest software." As such, there is no easy provision for sending or receiving QTC info for extra multipliers, and it wasn't clear at first how to get DM780 to increment serial numbers in the exchange field (put them in [brackets], I finally discovered). Using a fresh database file for the log (as I do for every contest) lets me use the logbook's Awards Tracking and Worked Status functions to keep an eye on what stations and countries I've worked on each band, but I have to be careful to individually set the other databases (previous contest logs, plus my master logbook) to not figure into the worked status lookups (this is one in the Logbook Databases control panel).

Another limitation from a contesting perspective is HRD Logbook's inability to output Cabrillo files for log submission after the test, a feature that was available in HRD v4. So I have to use another app (SP7DQR'S nice ADIF2CABR freeware app) to convert an ADIF export file into Cabrillo format, and that only after doing a search-and-replace on the ADIF file to change the tag to that the conversion app is looking for. No biggie, I mud-wrestle data for a living, so this is just another day at the office...

That said... I'm familiar and comfortable with DM780 and HRD Logbook so it all worked just fine for me.

I worked the first day with the K3 in DATA A mode before remembering that AFSK A mode allows DUAL PB filtering to peak the mark and space tones. The DM780 waterfall screenshots below illustrate the difference far better than words:

K3 set to DATA A mode. BW = 400 Hz, Fc = 1530 Hz

K3 set to AFSK A mode. BW = 400 Hz, Fc = 1530 Hz, DUAL PB enabled

Note that the overall bandwidth in AFSK A mode is quite a bit narrower, even though in both cases the K3 was set to 400 Hz, and the distinct notch between mark and space tones is indicative of how effective this filtering mode works. Back in the pre-DSP days with the TS-930S and JST-135/245 transceivers and NRD-525/535 receivers, I used to use a Datong FL-3 audio filter which had a RTTY mode that accomplished the same thing, albeit at the AF stage.

DATA A and AFSK A each have their advantages. In DATA A (or AFSK A with DUAL PB turned off), I can open the bandwidth up and see a good portion of the band (I generally set DM780 to display 3 kHz on the waterfall and set the K3 bandwidth to match) and all the signals on the air, then select the desired signals with a point-and-click like I do in PSK31 mode. If QRM is a problem, I can crank down the bandwidth and shift the passband center frequency to pass only the station I'm working; once the QSO is complete, a quick tap-twist of the K3's shift control recalls my wide settings and I'm back on the hunt. I rarely touch the VFO dial, all tuning is done with the mouse.

In AFSK A mode with DUAL PB enabled, however, the K3's center frequency is fixed at 1530 Hz so all tuning must be done with the VFO. Also, the bandwidth is limited to 500 Hz max (which as shown in the image above is a bit less in practice, more like 250 Hz or so) making VFO tuning very touchy and slow (the 1 Hz fine steps must be used) and renders the waterfall useless for spotting other signals. But the filtering advantage is huge, especially in a contest scenario.

For me, it's a no brainer -- in the latter stages of the WAE contest I found myself using DUAL PB almost exclusively, occasionally switching it off and opening up the bandwidth if the band was quiet or if I've already worked the majority of the stations I tune across, since clicking on a waterfall makes it far easier to hunt and pounce.

DM780 facilitates the switch from narrow DUAL PB to wideband waterfall tuning easily: I first activate the center frequency marker (Tools>Program Options>Waterfall menu, or F8) and set it to match the K3 DUAL PB center frequency (1530 Hz). After finding a signal on the waterfall and clicking on it, I can then click the C button just above the waterfall to center it at 1530 Hz (HRD offsets the K3 VFO frequency to do this), and then activate the DUAL PB (press/hold the #6 key on the K3 keypad). The bandwidth is narrowed to 500 Hz, and the mark and space tones are perfectly positioned for decoding. To switch back to wideband, press/hold DUAL PB, and tap XFIL a couple of times to select the 2.7 kHz filter or use one of the filter presets to select my standard wide data setting of 3 kHz. This can perhaps be simplified to a one-button process using the new macro feature Elecraft just added to the latest firmware version; I need to check into that...

Note to K3 users: when working RTTY in AFSK A mode, either the radio or DM780 needs to be set to reverse, as AFSK A demodulates the lower sideband while DM780 looks for the upper. DATA A, however, works in the upper sideband.

CQ WWDX SSB 1996: Lost Log Discovered!

2009-11-13T14:28:00.010-06:00

Almost as much fun as finding a $20 bill in an old coat is finding an old contest log on an even older hard drive! Today I discovered my log data from the 1996 CQ WWDX SSB contest, which I must have exported from Log Windows before my erstwhile Toshiba laptop screwed the pooch back in the late 90's.

After some data mud wrestling, I was able to convert to ADIF and import into HRD and saw my total DXCC worked count jump from 119 to 123 (the "new" ones are 3DA Swaziland; FS Saint Martin; V4 St. Kitts & Nevis; and GU Guernsey).

I then uploaded the new QSOs to LoTW and immediately had 13 new QSLs credited to my account, with a handful of new DXCC/bands confirmed: VP5 Turks & Caicos (80m); P4 Aruba (15m); 8P Barbados (15m); V2 Antigua & Barbuda (15m & 20m); and GI Northern Ireland (20m) -- the latter two being all-time new ones confirmed, bringing my DXCC confirmed count to 80, and DXCC Challenge totals to 239 worked/123 confirmed.

God only knows how many of my other contest logs are gone forever -- I must have worked at least another dozen contests back around that time, and all these logs got nuked along with the Toshiba. This is why I now keep separate paper logs as backup.

Also found this photo of the old N2HIE shack in Closter, New Jersey circa 1998.

Complete with that utterly dreadful JRC NVT-56 desk mic. Wish I held onto that, seeing how one just sold for over $1,300 on eBay. Please, stop laughing... I'm not kidding:

WTF is wrong with people? Clearly some hams have more money than sense...

CQ WWDX SSB 2009

2009-10-27T22:37:00.010-05:00

My first major contest with the K3 -- not a major effort, mind you, just a major contest, and it leaves me smiling. I could only squeeze in around 10.5 hours over the weekend, just enough to give the station a good shakedown under contest conditions and leave me hope for the future when I add an amp and a better antenna.

The K3 was a champ. With the latest DSP noise reduction tweaks I found it possible to run with RF Gain full throttle and not have the background noise kill me. Auto Notch took care of the tuner-uppers and the SWBC carriers on 40m. Left NB off most of the time as there was little QRN for a change, and the noise from the plasma TV was easily notched out with manual notch. All that was left was the DX.

Things started out rough Saturday morning (UTC) on 40m. Worked TO7M on my first call then spent a frustrating hour or so with no contacts. After a break things started to improve a little. Stayed at the mic until around 0600 UTC (2 am local) and landed 12 countries/7 zones on 40m, plus Canada (zone 3) on 80m. Worked 20m and 15m for about an hour and a half in the morning before going out and about, and again early Saturday evening (UTC Sunday) for about a half hour. Worked 13 countries/9 zones on 20m, and 3 countries/3 zones on 15m. Sunday saw fairly good conditions on 15m (14 countries/7 zones) and 20m (9 countries/7 zones).

Most of the DX I was able to work was in the Caribbean, Central and South America, but I managed to work D44AC (Cape Verde, an all-time new one on 20m), CN3A (Morocco), EA8/OH6CS (Canary Is.), three Hawaiians, and a few Europeans. 6W1RY (Senegal) was loud on 15m but I couldn't break through the pile. Heard 4U1UN on 40m and 20m but only managed to work them on 15m.

It's pretty frustrating to work a contest with 100 watts and a mobile antenna (without the benefit of an actual automobile underneath the antenna to provide a decent ground plane) but in the end, 10.5 hours at the mic netted me a bunch of new ones on 40m and 15m:

15m: 4U1UN (UN HQ), 8P (Barbados), CN (Morocco), EA (Spain), EA8 (Canary Is.), HI (Dominican Rep.), LU (Argentina), P4 (Aruba), PJ2 (Bonaire/Curacao), VP2V (British Virgin Is.), VP5 (Turks & Caicos Is.), and YV (Venezuela).

40m: FM (Martinique), HC8 (Galapagos Is.), HR (Honduras), KP2 (US Virgin Is.), PJ2 (Bonaire/Curacao), V3 (Belize), VP2V (British Virgin Is.), and XE (Mexico).

Totals:

Update 10/30: Was filling in some of the blanks in the HRD Logbook tonight and discovered one of the US stations I worked during the contest (K8PO) was in Maine. It didn't immediately dawn on me because of the K8 prefix, but according to QRZ he's in Union, ME. That's #49 on my WAS tally sheet, just need Delaware now...

IOTA 2009 Contest Results - Seriously?

2009-10-15T16:18:00.004-05:00

I have the highest USA score in my class (World Single-Op Assisted SSB Low Power)?!?!? LOL! Maybe next year I'll stay at the mic for longer than 2 hours...