Ham Radio - A contact sport

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.

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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.

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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.

After using it for four months, I’ve written a SteppIR 4 element yagi review and posted it in the ham radio products review database. The SteppIR has been a good antenna but there are a number of considerations (both pro and con) that should be considered prior to jumping on this antenna.

Overall the SteppIR has been a fun antenna to use on the air. One of the unexpected surprises with the SteppIR was bi-directional / 180 degree feature. Imagine a contester in the Midwest who wants to CQ during a contest. One choice might be to use the bi-direction mode and hit both the east and west coasts (much like a dipole). Perhaps you’ve got that beam focused on 90 degrees when you hear a rare one off the back… You could rotate the antenna by 180 degrees or you could simply hit the 180 degree mode button on the SteppIR control box. Fast - and in ham radio contesting, speed matters.

I’ve had a couple of ice storms here that had me a bit nervous. However, the SteppIR fiberglass elements came back to life without issue.

Again, you should consider the pros and cons before purchasing any ham radio antenna. For me though, the SteppIR 4 element yagi has been a good fit.

I thought I’d start a new category of blog postings devoted to great ham radio websites that I visit. One site per week should be a good rate for me.

My criteria?  Good content that interests me and acceptable web design. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but I have to want to look through more than a page or two of content and want to stop back.

For the first site, I’ll recommend CN2R.net.  This site provides a glimpse into the impressive contest station in the northern Africa country of Morocco. The site features a webcam, many photos, station information and more.  The web design isn’t professional grade - but the content more than makes up for that.

The feature that really impressed me was a contest logbook lookup utility that allows playback of the QSO audio. Wow.

For example, you can go to this link and enter a ham radio callsign to find contest QSOs with CN2R. (For example, enter N0HR). 

The team at CN2R have some impressive antennas and some logistics challenges I’m sure. So, to put out a decent website besides giving out QSOs is to be commended.

It’s worth a look.

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OK1IAK, Vojtěch Bubník, has released version 1.0.11 of PocketDigi (yeah). What is PocketDigi? PocketDigi is an application that allows your Windows CE-based PDA (or SmartPhone) to act like the PC in your ham radio shack. That is, using the mic and headphone jack it can send and receive RTTY, PSK31, PSK63, CW and other modes.

This new version is a little late for the ARRL RTTY Round-up contest (held this past weekend), however, it does offer some nice new features and support for other platforms. Certainly worth a look for hams with PocketPC PDAs.

January 4, 2008 was a big day in the world of HF radio propagation.  Sunspot #10,981 was declared to be the first of Solar Cycle #24. This means decent ham radio propagation is going to get much better over the coming months. After such an extended period of no activity followed by a glimmer of hope in December, I had a hunch that we’d be hearing something like this soon. 

Next year’s contesting should bring much better propagation and the following years will see greater solar activity. I certainly hope that Cycle 24 is kind to ham radio.