Ham Radio - A contact sport

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in the ARRL DX CW contest. If you are unfamiliar with the world of ham radio contests, perhaps this post will give you an overview.

This is one of the major Morse code contests in which ham radio operators attempt to make as many contacts as possible in a weekend. In this contest, contacts are valid between US/Canadian hams and those outside of US/Canada (aka "DX").  Three points are awarded for each contact. To calculate the total score, US hams multiply the points by the number of countries for each ham radio "band".

My score summary is shown below.

144,480 points with 302 contacts across the 1.8 MHz, 3.5 MHz, 7 MHz, 14 MHz and 21 MHz amateur radio bands. My country count is also shown for each band. You can see that on the 14 MHz band (also known as "20 meters") I had 132 contacts in 68 countries. 

Here is my multiplier screen:

For each "country" (as defined by the ARRL) you’ll see a series of boxes. For example, PY (Brazil) shows three boxes colored red indicating that I made contacts with Brazil on three ham bands during the contest.

In roughly 13 hours, I had made over 302 contacts.  How does this stack up?  That’s a tough question.  To be fair, you should only compare my score against other hams in my same contest class… That is against other US hams who are also:

• "single ops" (as opposed to "multi-ops" which have multiple operators at a station)
• "low power" (I only use 100 watts. I don’t use an amplifier - nor do I operate at very low power levels - 5 watts or less).
• "assisted" (in this class, hams are allowed to access networks which give the current frequency of needed DX stations).

With a better antenna system (especially on the lower frequencies), some decent sunspots to help with radio propagation, an amplifier and more time in the chair, my score would have been much better.  However, I had some fun and I managed to "work" as many contacts as I did in the fall contest with half the time.  Improving my station and operating skills is really the goal and with that in mind… the goal was reached.

…-.-

On Feb 11th, the FCC approved Icom’s latest HF ham radio contesting transceiver, the IC-7700.  Icom is expected to release the IC-7700 to the US market in March 2008.  You should expect to see this rig get a lot of press coverage in the coming months as well as advertising. 

Notable features include:

• 200W PA 
• Independent DSPs (actually, a next generation DSP chip from TI)
• Internal power supply
• Built in antenna tuner (ATU)
• Selectable roofing filters… like the IC7800, it has 15 kHz, 6 kHz, and 3 kHz roofing filters.
• Color screen / scope
• RTTY and PSK decoding built-in
• Single receiver (no "dual watch")

Check out the IC-7700 FCC pages to see the rig being tested and view the user manual.

The guys at AmateurLogic.TV have posted episode 19. Its a tour of the 2008 Capital City Hamfest in Jackson, MS.  Up here in the frozen Midwest we’re still some months before a "real" hamfest  (current temp is -3 deg F  or -19 deg C).  Still, these guys are entertaining and the production quality improves with each effort.

The new episode can also be launched directly from the HamLinks Ham Radio Toolbar.  Check it out.

I’ve posted a page detailing my recent K1EL WKUSB keyer project.  This was one of the best ham radio kit projects that I’ve built to-date. Clear instructions, a decent enclosure, and the dirty work already done (i.e. surface mount IC already mounted!)… resulting in a finished product that works good and looks great.

My previous Morse Code keyer kits from K1EL are the K20 and the WinKey (original RS232 keyer from Steve).  Those kits also went together easily and worked fb, however, I have always struggled to find an enclosure that looked good.  My homebrew kit enclosures have always looked… uh…. homebrew.

Unlike those previous keyer projects where I was on my own to provide an enclosure, the WKUSB provides one.

It was a fun project. I’ll eventually provide a review on the ham radio reviews pages, but for now, let me say that this kit was worth the effort.

My choice for the ham radio website of the week is contesting.com.  This site is a sister site to the popular eHam.net website and it is where many ham radio contesters and DXers hang out.

One of the best features of the site is the forum (Lists) archives. Within these lists, you’ll find some of the best discussions on ham radio towers, antennas, contesting, and ham radio contest software. If you are new to the hobby or to the world of contesting or station building, then chances are that you’ll find an answer to a question here.

N7QJM, Kurt, has created a few "introduction to ham radio" videos and uploaded them to the Internet.  As there are getting to be more and more of these and as I already have a few tips and other resources for newcomers to our hobby, I decided to setup a page dedicated to these intro videos. This is sort of modern-day elmering. Google now has a player that allowed me to show these directly on my page (routed to Kurt’s Youtube listing - which is offered via a channel available for publishing… so I did). Pretty cool.

Kurt’s videos offer tips:

• on getting a ham radio license in the U.S.
• ham radio frequencies available
• selecting and using a HT
• basics of making a HF QSO (QSO protocol)
• using a multimeter to find a coax short
• SWR

Anyway, if you’re new to ham radio, I hope you’ll enjoy these resources.

And hats-off to Kurt and others who take the time to introduce others to ham radio.

This week’s ham radio website is the NG3K Amateur Radio Contest/DX Page. Bill, NG3K, has done an awesome job of creating an extremely thorough repository of DXing and Contesting information.

The front page of Bill’s site is basically an organized listing of links (which you might find on other sites). That’s pretty good. But, in my mind, the real value is in the underlying pages.

Announced DX Operations

The Announced DX Operations page is probably the most accurate listing of DX operations available. Bill gathers data from multiple DX newsletters and websites to update his listing and then organizes the information by dates, entities, modes, QSL route, etc.  For a DXer, this page alone makes it worthwhile.  Users of my DXpedition Map might be interested to know that I have a script that pulls data from Bills page daily to keep my map up-to-date. (By the way, the DXpedition Map is also accessible via the HamLinks toolbar).  Ok, enough about me

Amateur Radio Contesting Resources and Information

On the contesting side, Bill offers details of DX operations that will be active during major contests. Want to know which DXpeditions will be available during CQ WW WPX SSB? Bill’s page will tell you.

NG3K.com is much more than a few pages of links to other sites. (If I wanted links to other ham radio sites, I’d start with my own). Bill’s site has unique content that makes it a valuable resource to many in the DXing and ham radio contesting community - that’s what makes it the Ham Radio Website of the Week.

…-.-

I have used a few of the many ham radio logbook applications on the market. Freeware, shareware and commercial. There are some good ones out there and some that are simply unusable. Which do you think is the best?

I’ve added what I think are the top 20 Windows logbook programs to the ham radio reviews database. 16 of these I’ve listed as general purpose ham radio loggers (that is, they handle QSO/QSL management, award tracking, rig control, etc.). 4 loggers I’ve listed as contesting logging software.  These products are specifically designed to support ham radio contesting.

Variation in Ham Radio Software

The world of ham radio software is filled with variation.  Ask a contester who operates at more than one multi-op station. You’re likely to hear that at station X, they use WriteLog, at station Y it’s N1MM and station Z uses TRLog. Switching between these is a bit of a headache as the commands (keyboard macros, options, etc.) vary between programs.

Likewise, there is a wide variation in what hams find in terms of quality, support, features, etc.  Additionally, the licensing models vary from freeware with Internet support groups to commercial software that costs well over $100.

Thankfully for logbook program developers there are a few standards (like ADIF and rig control protocols). But, I’ve found many logbook programs take every opportunity to ignore industry standards for application design (Logger32 and DXLabs come to mind).

Which logbook program is your favorite? Which should we avoid?

So, with so many choices - what’s best? Of course, that depends on your needs. Why not chime in with a review? Registration for the ham radio reviews and forums is free, fast and painless.  Unlike other ham radio review websites, on my site you’re able to review products on several attributes (overall value, user interface, performance, etc.).

I’ll soon be posting a few reviews of my own.

KØBG’s Mobile Ham Radio website

The ham radio website of the week belongs to Alan Applegate, K0BG of Roswell, NM (by the way, I wonder if his truck is ever mistaken for an alien ship). Alan’s website is the place to stop if you are new to the world of HF mobile ham radio (or VHF mobile ham radio for that matter). 

Alan’s website covers everything related to mobile ham radio - from topics that you’d expect to find on a site dedicated to the topic:

• Antenna selection and mounting
• Cabling
• Grounding
• Eliminating noise

to a few topics that are less obvious

• Insurance issues
• Hybrid vehicle issues

If you are interested in exploring what it takes to properly install a HF mobile ham radio station, take a look at Alan’s site.  If you already have a ham rig in your car, then I’ll bet that visiting the K0BG site will leave you planning future mobile improvements.

…-.-

I decided to get my dad (KØGVG) a copy of The Complete DXer by Bob Locher W9KNI.  What a great book covering many aspects of HF ham radio DX. W9KNI takes the reader through his strategy of chasing the rare ones… listening, stalking and QSLing the rarest of the rare.

If you are just getting started in DXing and wonder how the top DXers can rack up 300+ DXCC entities without massive antenna arrays (and even amplifiers) - then this is the book for you.

Check out my review of The Complete DXer.