I need to keep up - Dipole back in air

Seriously ... over 2 years?  I do need to move this over to WordPress but even so .. two?  Maybe it will be better after graduation. 

Anyway, a year ago, the local utility was replacing poles on the property and inadvertently snagged the Spi-Ro D-52 40-80 trap dipole. So for the last year, I've been relegated to 10/12/17/30 m.  With the help of spouse, I've fixed the two breaks and hauled it back into the air.  Just in time for the ARRL November Sweepstakes.  And, I've even made a few QSOs.  Dips in the SWR are not as they were before (I need to find the old ones), but looks to be usable at the low end on 40 and 20 at least.

I see that my country totals are way off, too.  191/177?  More like 201/187.  Guess I should be sending out some cards, too, to get that 200 sticker.

CQ WPX

Haven't been posting, obviously. Got on to see what I could work, new-one-wise for the CQ WW WPX SSB this weekend. Ended up making 92 Qs, which was more than I thought I would. Worked more on 20 than I usually do - seems I could actually compete for some reason. Heard, but did not work, 6W. Did manage to work 4O. I thought I'd already worked them, but that must have been before the latest split up.

Also filled a few TPA holes.

Over to the low bands

This will be the real test of the CT-17 ... 40 and 80. Worked a few on 40 and no issues so far.

RTTY Roundup

Still haven't solved the RFI issues, but I am QRV on 40 and 80 thanks to the loan of a real Icom CT-17 level converter. I'm also doing pretty well on 20 and 15. Had a few runs even, and I'm over 125 QSOs. Not much DX on (PY, KH6, PZ, P4, LU, HI, XE). Did have a ZL call me while I was CQing, so that was fun. :-)

Back to the salt mines. Shooting for 500 Qs.

ARRL 10 m Contest, continued

Sunday, the Sporadic-E propagation gods smiled on us. Even managed some short runs.

I know it was E_s because at one point I could work stations in W7 or Georgia - nowhere else.

Anyway:

Call:
Operator(s):
Station:

Class: SO SSB LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
CW:
SSB:  60     25
-------------------
Total:  60     25  Total Score = 3,000

Club: Oklahoma DX Association

Comments:

Nada Friday, not much Saturday, Sunday the Sporadic E gods smiled on us ...

ARRL 10 m Contest

Started Friday night. Didn't hear a thing when I tuned through a couple of times.

Sat at the radio this morning for a couple of hours and heard two stations, a WØ and a PY. Worked them both, but that's it so far.

Last year, there was a big Sporadic-E opening and I worked about 70 stations, mostly US. This year, nada, at least not here.

And of course, with the worldwide shortage of sunspots, normal propagation isn't there at all.

One Newfie short of a Sweep

I really wanted a Clean Sweep in this year's November Sweepstakes. It's the 75th running of the contest (or 75th anniversary of the first running, I guess), and the League is giving away whisk brooms to stations that work all 80 ARRL and RAC sections. And, unlike the Clean Sweep mugs (a special version of that this year, too), all you need do is submit a log showing that worked them all and the Contest Branch will send you one.

I missed by one: NL - Newfoundland and Labrador.

What's worse is that I heard a VO1 and tried to work him. He got my prefix but couldn't get the full call and he invited me to try later. Like an idiot, I didn't.

I had big RFI problems, especially on the low bands. Certainly worse than last year. Around the time we got the WARC dipole up, I replaced the 110' of RG8X on the D-56 with 60 or so feet of Belden 9913. It was pointed out to me that this did change the RF in the radio room.

The biggest issue was with the level converter. The converter, a repurposed "ADMS" cable from my Yaesu HT, lets the logging program control the radio. Radio is TTL and the rest of the serial world is RS-232 - the converter makes the transition. The latest Icom rig has a USB connection, wonder of wonders, so this oddity will soon be a thing of the past.

What would happen was that the software would lose the connection with the radio. Even while not transmitting sometimes. That it would happen while receiving leads me to believe that it's not entirely an RFI issue, but RFI is certainly the bulk of it.

Worse, I'm still getting into the POTS and DSL. Spouse reset the DSL modem 4 times before finally giving up. I also worked into the TV audio and the FM broadcast radio. No points for that - I checked.

So, I need to solve that. My station ground is not bonded to the house electrical ground and this may be an issue.

Anyway, I elected to forge ahead without getting the band/mode/freq data from the radio directly. Not a big problem, in the grand scheme of things, I guess.

The upside to this weekend is that I broke my personal contest and SS records by a lot! 511 QSOs and 79 (of 80) sections. Previous best SS score from home was 333x77 (2007 SS SSB) and previous best number of QSOs ever was 449 (2006 RTTY RU).

So there's that. :-)

Turns out that calling CQ instead of doing "S&P" (search and pounce - tune around and call other stations that are calling CQ) is way more efficient. Not only that, but the multipliers call you instead of you hunting them down. I hope no one else learns of this secret!!!

I've never believed that my home station was capable of holding a frequency and doing a run, but apparently that's not the case. On 40 and 80 it stands to reason since few stations run anything other than wires or a vertical. Sure, some folks have beams or rotatable dipoles for 40 and even 80, but they usually also run 1500 W and thus aren't in the "Low Power" classes. But I was able to make a run on 15 yesterday, too. On 15 (and 10 and 20), lots of stations have Yagis. I don't; I have a dipole.

Pretty cool that I could hold a frequency -- on 15, even! -- long enough to get a run going. I'll be trying this for upcoming contests you can be sure.

Sweepstakes is next

Next contest I plan to play in is the ARRL November Sweepstakes. The CW part is next weekend, and then 'phone is two weeks later. I don't see me doing the CW weekend, but you never know (the only time I did CW Sweeps was in 1994!).

Unlike CQ WW, SS is only a 30-hour contest and further, stations can only operate 24 of those 30 hours. CQ WW is 48 hours. If you want a high score, you have to "stay in the chair". I'm not so good at that, especially if I'm not making a lot of QSOs (i.e. propagation isn't favorable). RTTY 'tests are better as my station seems to do better (on all bands) with that mode versus 'phone.

My goal this year, as it is every year, is to get a Clean Sweep by working all 80 ARRL/RAC sections. Haven't done that from home yet but am extra motivated this year since this year the League is giving away Clean Sweep brooms ...

I'm done

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Class: SOSB(A)/15 LP
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
160:                 
80:   4      1        2
40:   1      1        1
20:   1      1        1
15:  66     18       37
10:                 
------------------------------
Total:  72     21       41  Total Score = 9,075

Comments:

746 is in the shop so had a different radio without an ATU.  No boom mic/foot
switch either.  Took a while to get the hang of it.  A couple New Ones, though.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/

FS

Another new one - TO4X. That's 124 worked.

Edit: No it's not. Apparently, I've worked FS already. But VP2V is new.

TR!

Number 123!

Single Op Assisted

Decided to engage the cluster, which moves me from Single Op to Single Op Assisted.

I don't have the same power as a real SOA station, but since I'm really only in this for new countries (none yet, though I have heard HB0 and GD, both of which I need) and new CQ Zones, what the heck.

With 34 Qs, I'm not headed for a certificate let alone a Top Ten box. :-)

D4

Ha. D4C, Cape Verde Islands. That gives me "WAC" for the contest, despite less than 30 QSOs (pretty dismal, actually).

Zone 14

Fifteen is open again this morning (I gave up on the low bands last night). G, GW, EI, CT. Also 8P in Zone 8 and a VE2 in Zone 2.