I’ll post some more updates in the days ahead on my recent shack updates, the last minute tweaks to the 160m and 80m antennas, N1MM logger crashes (ICOM IC-7600 USB driver might be the suspect), and my petition to add the SOAB (A) LP category to the rules committee last year.

You can find the latest posted CQWW scores on the pileup website. That’s a great way to see how things are shaping up as new logs are posted. Worth a look.

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   22     7       10
   80:   78    14       43
   40:  220    24       83
   20:  332    27      103
   15:  217    26       93
   10:   41    10       24
------------------------------
Total:  910   108      356  Total Score = 1,178,560

My writeup on 3830:

I had a few goals for this one…

1) Improve last year’s score – and cross the 1M mark for the first time in CQWW CW. Done. In fact, I beat my CQWW SSB score as well… about 100k more points with about 50 fewer Qs. I had hoped to break the 1000 QSOs threshold. Oh well, maybe next time.

2) Improve my lowband scores. Done. I’m still not satisfied though. No rx antennas, low power and fairly poor tx antennas on 80 & 160 sure is painful. I changed the feed systems on both antennas and I think that helped. Last year I had 7 Qs on 160 and 60 Qs on 80 – so this was a step up.

3) Work some new DXCC and band-countries. Especially on 80m (towards 5BDXCC). Done – 3 all time new ones. 10 new ones on 80m and 2 new ones on 160m.

4) At least 30+ hours in the chair. Done. I was distracted by a sale on PC speakers at Staples though – which meant a 6am Black Friday shopping run early Friday. I really needed to sleep in and should have asked the XYL to make the trip. Not sure I wanted to “go there” though “honey, will you run to Staples at 6am for some PC speakers on sale for me while I sleep in for the weekend contest?”

5) Improve station layout. Partial credit. I reorganized the table and added a shelf. I’ll post pics on my blog when I get a chance: http://www.n0hr.com/ Still need to replace my desk and rework the shack some more.

6) Reduce frustrating N1MM crashes. I’m using N1MM with my IC-7600 and the USB connection (driver by K3CT?). I had been having somewhat frequent crashes of N1MM. So, I brought in a new laptop running Win7, plenty of power and a fresh system. Still had a few crashes – much less than under my home PC with Vista.

Arrrg. One was a BSOD. I think it might be related to the USB audio via the Icom driver. I’m not sure I trust the USB Icom driver I guess.

7) Have fun. Done. This was a great contest. Propagation could have been better, but overall a lot of fun.

Excuse list: single radio, no skimmer, propagation from the black hole of the midwest, etc.

Log already uploaded to LOTW.

Station:

ICOM IC-7600 (100W)
10-20m: SteppIR 4 element @ 72′
40m: XM-240 @ 80′
80m: wire vertical mounted on chain link fence
160m: inv L sloped horizontal fed at tower base
Software: N1MM
Keyer: Winkey USB

I’ve added my log to my DXKeeper and uploaded automatically to the Logbook of the World resulting in some new DXCC band-countries confirmed.   All time new ones worked were Kermadec Dxpedition (ZL8X), PJ5 and V6.

The DXKeeper upload report shows 28 first QSOs for Entity-Bands (ie first Moldova QSO on 80m). That will certainly help towards my 5 band DXCC goal where I still need to confirm 100 countries on 80m.

. .

So, that’s some of the factors that contributed to a higher score. My score last year was 337k so I was happy to cross the 1M mark. I still need to work on a few things to really improve even more.

• N1MM crashing frequently during the contest. I’ve installed it on a new laptop and will give that a try during CQ WW CW next weekend.
• Lowband antennas – as always. 160M L must be reworked and the feedpoint wire broke. Hopefully, the wx will cooperate to allow the repairs. 80M sloped vertical wire also needs grounding/radial improvements. Not having a rx antenna for either band and only 100W limits QSOs on these bands.
• Ergonomics. Since the CQ WW SSB test, I’ve changed the shack setup. The table was becoming disorganized. I’ve added a shelf and I think the changes will help.
• More sleep ahead of the contest. Hopefully, that will mean more time in the chair.

Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN
 1.8      7      13    3    3
 3.5     55     127   20   13
 7       99     269   50   21
 14     279     779   87   30
 21     440    1254  109   33
 28      88     252   19    6
 Total  968    2694  288  106
Score: 1,061,436

This contest was a good chance for me to give the IC-7600 a workout in a SSB DX contest environment. I was very pleased with the way the rig performed. I did run into some issues with the Prosistel rotor which, at times, did not want to rotate through 45 degrees (NE). Strange bug that will need some investigation.

Here’s what I did:

1. Download & Install PowerSDR. The latest rev I could find was v1.18.0.
2. Setup the PowerSDR software to use “demo� as the system and for the soundcard choose unsupported.
3. Download the very large (270 MB) I/Q audio wave file from WA5QPZ. This is a I/Q recording of the CW band during Field Day apparently recorded at 192 kHz.  It can be found here:
   http://www.wa5qpz.com/_mgxroot/page_10729.html
4. Launch PowerSDR. (You may have to wait for it to initialize on the first go).
5. Under the Setup menu, choose Audio. Make sure that the primary sound card setup driver is set to Windows DirectSound and the sound card support is set to Unsupported Card. Click the Expert button. I had to experiment with some settings to get it to work… Apparently, there were some recent problems induced by Microsoft with the sound driver that can cause headaches with the demo mode (simulating the FlexRadio). On this screen, here’s what I used:
   
6. Next, load the Wave file. Choose Wave from the main screen, and add the downloaded CW Field Day file. Click Play and Loop (to have it run continuously).
7. Finally, click the Start button to launch the system.

Make sure that your panadapter is set to the 20 meter CW band. You should be able to tune around hear the Field Day CW action. Cool!

This is were I was finally able to experiment with the FlexRadio/PowerSDR setup in a contest environment. I found a spot that had a very strong CW signal and a relatively weak signal nearby. I was able to knock out the strong signal and easily copy the weak one within seconds.

I also found that I could visually scan the panadapter to “see� the action and quickly get to new ones as they appeared on the screen.

Although this was all obviously simulated, I did get a feel for the operation of the software. Of course, without a real unit it would be hard to get a good feeling for how reliable and functional this would be in a contest environment. I still have some questions: What is SO2R like with a Flex-5000? Is SO2R on the FlexRadio idiot-proof? Can spots and CW Skimmer data be shown on the panadapter so I know what I’ve worked?

There was a bit of pain involved… namely the issue of the demo installation not playing well with Windows Vista 64-bit (which does not seem to be a problem when connected to a real radio as I understand it). I also found that the PowerSDR program would simply close/crash if I did not choose a good setup.

All that said, this is a blast. I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I’m a convert. SDR is changing the face of ham radio contesting.

For example, could the FlexRadio 5000 be used as an SO2R machine in a single box? (SO2R in a box) The literature claims that it can if you throw in their second receiver (RX2). I’d imagine that you’d also need bandpass filters… and a way to control them… and, while you’re at it, a really good amp with a way to control it (or not). OK, maybe I’m getting carried away.

Question 1: SO2R With a FlexRadio 5000A (& RX2 + ATU), plus some bandpass filter system, could I go SO2R? If yes, how painful is it?

I’d love to try the FlexRadio, but don’t have one in my area. They are sending me a demo CD.

Question 2: FlexRadio 5000 Demo Mode. Can I simply download the PowerSDR software and install it to try the Flex-5000 (demo mode)?  I understand that I need to feed it some I/Q file. How do I do that? I’ve installed the software and downloaded a couple I/Q files, but I’m not sure how to “playâ€? the files. Do I need the VAC thingy?

I guess I’ll wait for the demo CD. Any FlexRadio experts out there?

2008 ARRL DX CW – First Place SOA Iowa.

For the non-hams out there, this is an annual international (DX) Morse Code (CW) contest.

Ham Radio Contests are a lot of fun. Awards aren’t the reason I enter but they are the icing on the cake. In this particular CW contest, there were 10 entries from Iowa. I actually placed 2nd overall (behind N0SM who was competing in the Single Op/High Power category). Of course, as I don’t have an amp, we compete in different classes. 

In the ARRL Amateur Radio Contests, the next level up from the state level is the division level. Iowa is in the Midwest Division. My score placed 2nd in the Midwest Division behind W0TT.

Of course, I probably shouldn’t even compete in the Single Op “Assisted� category. Those who compete in this category are allowed to use packet spots, CW Skimmer, and high power. While I wanted to use the packet spots to pick up some new DXCC countries on CW, I don’t use CW Skimmer and don’t own an amplifier – so I’m at a disadvantage.

I still had fun though and wish I could have played in the 2009 contest.

I was encouraged to read that the 2008 CQ WW contests had a record turnout – during the bottom of the sunspot cycle! What’s more, CW logs surpassed SSB logs. Who would have guessed it?

In all, over 10,000 logs from around the world for these two contests.

So, ham radio isn’t dead after all?

Morse Code isn’t a long lost method of communicating?

I’ve now been licensed for 29 years and am still fascinated with many aspects of amateur radio. From time to time, I wonder “what’s bringing in the new blood?�

I ask this as someone who has tried various approaches to marketing ham radio to the next generation:

• Using fishing analogies to explain amateur radio
• Helping boy scouts earn radio merit badge
• Teaching technician license classes at Iowa State University

It seems as though new opportunities to evangelize ham radio are always on the horizon.

We’re all busy lately… life, family, kids, careers, etc.

I’ve been especially busy with my new company (helping companies use EnterpriseWizard to setup online issue tracking software, web based CRM applications and online helpdesks to link support/CRM). 

My ham radio hobby provides an excellent break from all that. Glad to hear that rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Aren’t you?

I guess that I would consider myself to be both a casual contester (rarely spend more than 30 hrs in a contest and only get into ~ 5 events per year) and a casual DXer (I don’t lose sleep over my DXCC totals)…

Waiting for a flight at the Des Moines International Airport, I’m taking a look at the DXCC impact of my recent CQ WW SSB and CQ WW CW contests.

I have imported my contest logs into DXKeeper, my main PC logbook. I also sync this log with my PocketPC PDA logbook, MobileLog. With DXKeeper, I can filter QSOs by date… so I can restrict my log to show only my 2008 CQ WW contest QSOs. Then I simply run a report to show the DXCC results.

DXCC worked/confirmed in 2008 CQ World-wide

That’s 130 DXCC entities worked in two contests and already 73 confirmations through the ARRL’s Logbook of the World (LoTW). Besides working many “new ones” by mode, I’ve certainly been improving my DXCC mode/band counts.

Of course, as QSLs continue to arrive and folks submit their logs via LoTW, my confirmations from these contests will continue to rise.  You can see that if I was just starting to work towards DXCC in October, I’d already have 73 confirmed without sending a single QSL card! That’s the power of two international contests and LoTW.  I’m certain that if I were more serious about contesting I would easily achieve DXCC 100 entities confirmed in a single contest (perhaps a personal goal for a future contest?).

How has this impacted my overall DXCC count?

DXCC prior to  2008 CQ World-wide contests

Prior to this year’s CQ WW contests (above), I had 201 confirmed and on some bands, I had a lot of work to do. Lowband totals are a weak spot towards 5 band DXCC.

DXCC after 2008 CQ WW contests (as of Dec 8th, 2008)

My current all-time DXCC stats are above. Comparing that to the chart immediately above it, you can see that I’ve really made some headway. Only 2 new DXCC entities confirmed via the contests so far, but the improvements are:

Good progress in only two contests – and, again, without yet sending a single paper QSL card.

Conclusion

Contesting is a blast and if you are a casual DXer, you’ll have a great time picking up some new ones.

Where did I put my CQ WW CW 2008 efforts?

I wanted to document the results of this contest to help gain a better understanding of what worked and what didn’t. Of course, my last post discussed my score and initial thoughts on what worked and what didn’t in the CQWW-CW 2008 contest, but it was really just part of the picture… station improvements, CW practice, etc. 

Where did I place my efforts in the contest?

• On which bands did I devote my time?
• How much time did I really operate? How many breaks did I take?
• Which countries/continents did I find?
• What did my rates look like?

How much time on each band? QSOs on each band? Moves?

This chart shows the various bands and how much time I’d spent, the number of QSOs worked and number of moves made. What does that tell me? 

Looking at 160 meters, I see that I’d spent roughly 9% of my time on that band but only achieved 2% of my QSOs. Ouch. Perhaps some of that time would have been spent better on another band.

Likewise, I see that 46% of my QSOs were on 20 meters but I’d spent 31% of my time there. Perhaps more time could have been spent on that band.

Of course, there are more factors to consider… Propagation, time of day, S&P vs running, …  But this tells me part of the story.

How much time did I really operate? How many breaks did I take?

My contest logging software, N1MM, tells me that I was on roughly 25 hrs. Not all of that time was productive… in fact a lot of it was wasted with me experimenting with radio settings, PC issues, etc.

However, it’d be good to know how many breaks I’d had (large and small) in my operation.

Looking through this list of breaks, I see several cases where I was off the air for more than 10 minutes during some of the better propagation. Ouch. I need to make sure my breaks correspond to poor conditions.

Which countries/continents did I find?

In the CQ WW contests, you’ll work lots of different countries (DXCC entities). This will obviously impact your score (with multipliers). Just which countries did I work the most?

Here I see that Canada (VE) was almost 10% of my QSOs. That’s a lot of QSOs which do not also bring full point value nor multipliers. If (somehow), I could have changed some of those VE QSOs into QSOs with other countries, my score would have definitely increased.

Perhaps a focus on EU, Asia, or even Latin America over VEs would have helped.  Of course, in S&P mode, if I can’t find anything else, I’ll take VEs… 2 pts beats none.

What did my rates look like?

Contesters talk about rates a lot. It’s obvious by looking at my rates that I have room for improvement.

By not “running” and “searching and pouncing” instead – I did not sustain a decent rate during the contest.

60 times I managed 2 QSOs in a minute. 4 times I hit 3 per minute. I would hope that if I were to run, I would have managed to do much better than that.

What worked for those that beat me?

Now that some CQ WW CW scores have been posted to the 3830 reflector, I can take a look at how I stack up against the competition.  At the moment, I’m ranked 3rd in the USA in the (mythical) class of SOAB Assisted-Low Power.  CQ doesn’t really have a low power class for guys in the assisted category – but I don’t have an amp, so that’s the class I submitted.

In terms of the “real” class (all assisted SOAB entries), my score would currently rank about 50th of the ~150 submitted.

Naturally, living in the RF black hole of the upper Midwest means my score will be walloped by those on the coasts and in the south no matter what I do. Additionally, not having a second radio, an amp, etc. are more disadvantages.

However, I can compare my score to other SOAB-Assisted scores in zero-land. I see that I currently rank 3rd of the submitted scores in the 10th call district. Here are the entries so far for SOAB-Assisted in W0-land:

Call               QSOs Zones Cntry   hr      Score Club

K0KX              1368   140   421    31  2,144,703 MWA

WA0MHJ             829   105   300  25.5    918,135 MWA

N0HR               624    93   273    25    620,004 

K0RI               382   186    68  10.5    261,874 Grand Mesa

K0AD               348    69   169    11    219,198 MWA

N0HF               360   158    71    21    215,489 Grand Mesa
K0UK               336    75   161 9:47h    214,524 Grand Mesa

AD1C               344    57   142    24    176,115 Grand Mesa

K0EU               218    57   148    10    119,925 Grand Mesa

AC0DS              182    43    79    14     54,778 Grand Mesa

K0TG               126    41    82     7     41,820 MWA

What did K0KX and WA0MHJ do differently that I did?  They’re probably much better operators than I, were able to run, etc. 

Looking at the QRZ.com website for K0KX I see that he has a 4 square for 80 meters and huge monobanders. I certainly can’t compete with that. 

WA0MHJ has a nice website describing his station in Ham Lake, MN. Multiple antennas to choose from on 40/80, 2 rigs and amps give him an advantage. If I compare his posting on 3830 vs mine, again I get the idea that I didn’t spend enough time on 20 meters.  I also couldn’t compete well on 80 meters with WA0MHJ.  I’m sure that spending some time running with an amp on this band would have made a big difference.  Power and good rx antennas make a big difference on the low bands.

Call: WA0MHJ
Operator(s): WA0MHJ
Station: WA0MHJ

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 25.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    6     5        4
   80:  170    22       70
   40:  137    22       62
   20:  420    32      113
   15:   94    22       50
   10:    2     2        1
------------------------------
Total:  829   105      300  Total Score = 918,135

Club: Minnesota Wireless Association

Call: N0HR
Operator(s): N0HR
Station: N0HR

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: IA
Operating Time (hrs): 25

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   14     7        7
   80:   78    17       41
   40:  166    24       75
   20:  287    27      103
   15:   79    18       47
   10:
------------------------------
Total:  624    93      273  Total Score = 620,004

What’s missing?

There’s certainly a lot that we don’t know just by looking at this data. We don’t know if I went to the right band at the right time based on propagation, activity, etc. I don’t have a good way of knowing that.

Building a contest strategy for next time…

So, I’d already mentioned that running rather than S&P would have helped. No doubt about that. Better time management (fewer breaks taken at the right time) would have helped as well.

Sure the Canadian spots can look like easy ones… and I shouldn’t stop working them. However, searching for other countries (or better yet, running) should probably take priority at times.

Better band management should be considered. Be on the bands that are producing points – while they are producing.

Finally, as I had said before, I could have improved my score with SO2R, more antennas, an amp, a better radio, etc.  But that’s not the focus of this analysis.

Loyal readers will recall that after my 2007 CQ WW CW effort, I posted a note about what worked and what I needed to improve in future CW contesting efforts.  A year ago, I spent 30 hours in the contest and managed 316 QSOs for 206k points. A humble beginning.

Over the course of the past year, about the only change I was able to make to the station was the addition of real  lowband antennas (replacing the terrible AlphaDelta DX-B Sloper with an inverted L for 160 meters and a wire vertical for 80 meters switched via an DX-Engineering remote antenna switch).

I also kept working on improving my CW copying ability using Rufz.  I haven’t been able to find time to use it every day, but I do try to squeeze in a 5 minute CW practice session while traveling on business. In this year’s contest, I also switched to the “assisted” class. Although this forces me to compete against guys with amplifiers and those using CW Skimmer.

Contest Goals

My goals for the CQ WW SSB contest in October were to determine what weaknesses needed to be immediately addressed prior to the contest season and to work some new DXCC (countries) entities on SSB for the various bands.  Out of this effort, I decided that I desperately needed to improve my lowband antenna situation.

Here’s my 2008 CQ WW SSB results:

As you can see, still pretty weak on 80m. After this, I repositioned the 160m inverted L and replaced a hastily installed 80m L with a simple wire vertical. This made a world of difference.

I have  a theory that there was a loading issue with the 80m inverted L. It simply would not find a decent SWR match anywhere on the 80m band – but disconnecting the grounding from the radial field made an improvement. I suspect that my tower/antennas look like a match and the 80m L couldn’t load due to interaction with the rest of the system.

Anyway, with a working 80m vertical, my goals for CQ WW CW were:

• try to get some new DXCC on the lowbands – especially 80 meters
• more than 500 QSOs (recall last year’s total was 316 QSOs)
• more hours in the chair
• have fun

CQ WW CW Results

I’ve posted my results to the 3830 reflector:

Operating Time (hrs): 25

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   14     7        7
   80:   78    17       41
   40:  166    24       75
   20:  287    27      103
   15:   79    18       47
   10:
------------------------------
Total:  624    93      273  Total Score = 620,004

Club: 

Comments:

Doubled my Qs from last year's attempt. This was done by: replacing the sloper
for 80/160 with better (wire) antennas, entering assisted class (packet
spotting), and a few more hours in the chair. Propagation was not any better
though.  

My primary goal was to increase my DXCC band/mode counts and have some fun. I
was hoping for at least 500 Qs. 

I know I'm outgunned in the SOAB(A) category. No amp means I'm one of those in
the SOAB(A) class running low power. I'm also competing with those using SO2R
and/or Skimmer. My IC-746 is also outdone by better rigs in an environment like
CQ WW. The QTH (Iowa) is also a disadvantage. 

Oh well... list of excuses from a little-pistol I guess. 

Rig: Icom IC-746
Antennas:
10/15/20: SteppIR 4 element @ 82'
40: Cushcraft XM-240 @ 85'
80: Wire 1/4 wave sloped vertical
160: Sloping Inv L with peak at 50'

Definite improvement and exceeded most of my goals (except time in the chair).

What helped to improve my contest score

To recap… here’s what helped to improve my score year over year and CW over SSB:

• Antennas! Can’t say enough about having a decent antenna system. I still have a lot of work to do here. No rx antennas, no 4 squares or stacked yagis. But a little effort can pay off huge dividends.
• Assisted mode. Sure, it’s a bit of a let down to rely on packet spots, but it’s fun to be able to knock through a lot of QSOs and mults. Just need to be careful to confirm the calls… there were quite a few that were incorrect on the network.
• CW practice.
• A PC and station test prior to the contest.

Where I still need to improve

There are still many areas in which I could improve my score.

• Time in the chair. 30 hours last year. 25 hours this year. A business trip to Connecticut Monday-Wednesday followed by relatives on Thanksgiving and then on Friday: Disney on Ice. I barely made it home in time for the start and was wiped out a few hours into the test.  A better chair would have helped as well.
• Less Search and Pounce… try Running. Now that I know that my signal is getting through, I really need to try to run rather than S&P. This effort was 100% S&P.
• Further station improvements. To be competitive, I’ll need to invest in some station improvements – many of these will take years to put in place. But planning and prioritizing will help.

More to come…

. .