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Things have been pretty busy lately, but still left some time for us to operate at K5NA for ARRL DX SSB, and it looks like we're still holding onto 2nd place USA! I also had a chance to operate WPX SSB in March. Lately I've been working on Winlink 2000 installations, and today I'm running 2 Telpac nodes at my place - one on 145.730 and one at 144.910. One side project to the Winlink installations is to use these GE Delta radios for packet. I've been doing a lot of research on them, and they make excellent packet radios. I'll be putting up a page specifically for the retuning and reprogramming process shortly. Stay tuned!
Texas QSO Party 2004!
Howdy all, We just finished the "Massively Multi-Mega Mobile" Rover station for the 2004 Texas QSO Party. Last year, Richard and I did a 2-station rover with my minivan. This year, we decided to do one better (actually two better) by enlisting the help of K5DU and W5ZL. We had a blast!! Susan, K5DU volunteered to drive for us using her Brand-spanking new Chevy Tahoe. We set forth cannibalizing the SUV to outfit it with 3 full HF stations, plus 6m and 2m. First, Richard spent a lot of time working on power distribution. With the help of a local Car stereo shop, 6Ga. Bus wiring was run back to the middle seat where Richard installed the first IC-706MkIIg and Icom 2720. Next, he had a new Tarheel antenna installed on the rear bumper. This Tarheel antenna did FANTASTIC on 40m for the weekend! As you can tell from the photos, Richard and Susan also had some custom brackets installed to help keep it secure and stable. The remaining stations were pretty temporary compared to the first station. My setup included my IC706MkIIg mounted to a small plywood platform, when turned on its' side, became a nice table for setting my laptop. I used a remote control head mount for an old cell phone for the remote head. Gary W5ZL used his IC-756ProII, a piece of Styrofoam, and wedged it in-between the seats. He also used a small portable lap-desk for his laptop and paddle. Both 15m and 20m stations used Mag mounts and Hamsticks, while 40m used the Tarheel antenna. We dedicated a lot of time to grounding straps and band-pass filters to minimize the interference between stations. This helped immensely, although it didn't eliminate it completely. We could tell other stations were on the air, but it didn't totally wipe out the other rigs. We also utilized a simple but effective band-switching system. With Richard K5NA in the front and Gary W5ZL in the 3rd row seat, I handled band changes from the middle seat. During our drive we ran into the crew of AD5CA. They were running 2 HF stations mobile - up front was an Icom 706, and in back was an Icom 746. One of the Ops was fellow CTDXCC'er Reid - KC5YKX. We found them on 2m Simplex, and later worked them in Refugio county on 40m SSB, as well as many other counties. For logging, we used N3FJP's TQP software. This worked out quite well - the software was stable and easy to use. While it was missing a couple of advanced features that are common in some other logging programs (such as logging Dupes), the price tag was hard to beat! Merging logs after the contest took only a few minutes. We drove from Austin to Brenham, then southwest through Columbus and Gonzales, then through Victoria and down through Corpus Christi, then South towards South Padre, then West towards the Mexico boarder, then looped up through several rare counties until arriving in San Antonio Sunday afternoon. Susan drove the whole 1100 miles and 37 counties during the weekend. I had a brief encounter with "McBotulism" at the local Golden Arches, and eventually lost my lunch at a Shell Gas station restroom. Whew! While driving around in South Texas we actually found some folks that were crazier than we were - Talk about "Flintstones Vs. the Jetsons!" This group actually had police blocking the road while they were making the trek to who-knows-where... One other funny encounter was during our drive back to Austin after the contest. A young woman leaned out the passenger window (while driving up I-35) to snap a photo of our car. I'll get our score posted here soon.
September 10, 2004 Howdy all! If you are hunting for the ARES PowerPoint presentation on PacLink, you can download it here. PacLink is a new application from www.winlink.org that allows you to send and receive SMTP emails from a radio connection. This has some enormous ARES potential for emergency communications, and is already in use in Florida for the Hurricane relief effort. The PowerPoint is a basic "How-To" to get you started installing and configuring the software to connect to a local TelPac node. I hope you enjoy it! Also coming soon is the Texas QSO party. We're going to go Rovering again, so stay tuned for some excellent photos of our approach, configuration, and trip photos. It's going to be a blast!
August 23rd, 2004 Since my last post, I did the IARU contest SOAB and most recently participated in the NAQP SSB contest with KM5JH and KD5SQF. First, IARU - IARU was my first real effort as Single-Op in a long time. I operated from Richard's place, and he was gone for most of the weekend - they had company and were out running around, so I had the shack to myself for the weekend. Call: K5NA
USA SO SSB HP I operated SO1R, and am nowhere near the abilities of N5LT and K5TR (Both Texas stations that beat me) but I had a ton of fun operating for the 24 hours straight. Someday I'll start trying using 2 radios... NAQP SSB - We just finished NAQP SSB this weekend, and not all the results are in, but we JUST missed beating K5NZ and K5PI in the South-Texas shootout for M/2 category. Mike used his new callsign K9SEX, and I think they beat us by 35 Qs and 7 mults. It was very close, and Mike and Robert worked it hard to accomplish the task. All I can say is, lookout for next year!
We also had the Austin Summerfest this last month, and I did a brief presentation on Operating M/M Rover for the Texas QSO party last year. We came in 2nd place behind K5CWR, and had a lot of fun doing it. We're planning another foray this fall in the M/M Rover category, and we've got a secret weapon! Stay tuned for more details. By the way, Congrats to KB5ICO and N5SDL - they are officially dating! Sue and Steve have operated with me on the MS-150 Public Service event for 15 years now. Woohoo!
June 16th, 2004 June VHF contest results - This summer instead of Roving, I drove out to W5KFT and operated from the Ranch. If you're not familliar with the Ranch, I've got some pics here - Anyway, conditions seemed not quite as good as last year, but we still worked 156 grids on 6m, mostly Indiana / Ohio / Pennsylvania / New York / Michigan, with some Florida, and a neat opening Right down Interstate-10 towards San Diego (Arizona, New Mexico too). Two Meters was a bust. No significant activity 90 miles west of Austin. We worked a few stations around the Dallas area, and were able to move them to 222 and 432, but very few stations were on the air. Hamcom is this weekend, then Field Day, then IARU. I'll be Roving for Field Day, but am planning to do a full-effort for IARU from K5NA SOAB SSB only. After that, August 6th and 7th is Summerfest! I'm planning on doing a presentation on our Roving effort for the Texas QSO Party at Summerfest. Hopefully more folks will get excited about TQP and get on and operate.
Dayton is quickly approaching! I've got a road-trip planned again this year, but with riders - KM5JH and KG5U will be riding with me. Our plan is to leave Wednesday morning and arrive Thursday afternoon. The return trip will be a single day drive back on Sunday. See ya there!
ARRL DX-SSB 2004 This year we did a Multi-2 operation from K5NA.
Photos from CQWW-DX-SSB Multi-Multi from South Texas http://www.wm5r.org/photos/2003_cqww_k5na/
Wednesday we put another 20m Monobander up at 127 ft. We had a large crew out there to help, but Kudos goes out to Tom, N5TW who spent almost 6 hours on the tower! I posted some more details on the K5NA page, if you are interested. If I get some digital photos from the weekend I'll post them here.
Read about the Texas QSO Party for K5NA/m Coming soon - CQWW SSB. Richard, K5NA is planning on hosting a Multi-Multi effort - no band-change rules, no clothespins! We're still working on the 20m tower to get it ready in time. The top rotator was replaced with a spare after a problem with lightning. Special thanks to N5TW, W5JAW, and N3BB/5 for helping out. Recently, we pulled the mounting brackets up onto the tower and are ready for hoisting up the next set of 20m monobanders. When this happens I'll post some photos here.
Texas QSO party is upon us! This weekend, K5NA and myself will be doing a Rover effort to activate a bunch of counties west of Austin. After several brain-storming sessions, and some coordination with W5RQ and crew, it looks like we've decided to forego the trailer idea, as we had difficulty finding a decent one (not too expensive) and not so rusty or beat up that we might have problems dragging it around the countryside. Instead, we're configuring another KI5DR special rack for the roof of the minivan. Since we're running 2 radios simultaneously, band isolation is a high priority, as well as good radiated signal and good grounding. Low noise is also something we're focusing on. Thus, our rack was born. Basically, we'll be running hamsticks for the higher bands (10/15/20m) and Bugcatchers for lower bands. We're bringing some backup antennas in case something breaks down. Band-pass filters and coax stubs will help isolate signals between radios, and some good grounding and direct connection to the battery will help with Noise. Our biggest antenna is going to be the 40m Bugcatcher with the 102" whip above the coil. Since the total height is over 17 ft., (too tall for Texas roads) we're going to tie back the top of the whip so it is not hitting the overpasses. This will change the radiation angle somewhat, but I think it will be worth it for the extra metal in the air. I'm planning on a bunch of photos of the trip this weekend, so I'll get the Rover results posted here as soon as I can. Since the fall Contest season is upon us, we're also focusing on CQWW DX SSB coming up in October, and Sweepstakes in November. Band conditions have changed a lot since last year, so we're focusing more on lower bands. In addition, Richard, Susan and I are pushing forward with finishing the 20m stack. When finished, we'll have 5el monobanders at 190', 155', 120', and one at 40' fixed on the Carribbean. Richard's had some problems with lightning this summer, and has taken damage in the top 20m rotor, as well as knocking out the Packet cluster and several computers. It also has done damage to his FT-847. In addition, Richard has one Dual-Band VHF/UHF vertical on top of one of the towers that you can "See Through" where the fiberglass has been split. Several folks came out a few weekends ago and helped replace the top 20m rotor with a spare. Here's a photo of Richard K5NA, Jim N3BB, Tom N5TW, and Jim W5JAW. Jim N3BB and Tom N5TW climbed up the tower while the rest of us remained on the ground crew. Here's a shot of the crew at the top. The process went very smoothly. We used a rope and pulley system attached to the tractor to raise the 20m antenna and mast up, secured it, then unbolted and removed the bad rotor. We lowered the bad one down while raising the good one (equal weight) in the buckets, then bolted it in, and lowered the antenna down onto the rotor. The whole process took a couple of hours.
Hamming has been pretty quiet the last few weeks. We had a good turnout for the Austin Summerfest and accompanying cookout. There are a couple of contests coming up soon - one is the Texas QSO Party and also the NAQP SSB contest. I'll be driving out to the ranch (W5KFT) for the NAQP contest for a Multi-2 shootout with the K5NZ boyz, and for TQP K5NA and I are going to go County-hunting-Rover! TQP is kinda like Roving for the VHF contest, but instead of grid squares, it's Texas Counties. There are a few counties on the TQP site that have not been activated for a couple of years, so it looks like we might be heading in that direction. Also, the focus on GOOD efficient HF antennas instead of VHF/UHF yagis makes my normal rack not as useful. So we're looking at a bunch of different design possibilities for a goodHF signal. Some ideas are:
It will really be a challenge to generate a decent signal on the lowbands.
June 10, 2003 June marks a busy radio activity month. Last weekend we had a picnic at Bryan, W5KFT's place and John, ON4UN was the honored guest. This coming weekend is the ARRL June VHF contest, the following weekend is the ARRL national convention in Dallas at Hamcom, then the following weekend is Field Day. Whew! I completed the trip to Dayton, OH, and had a wonderful time. It rained, the facilities were marginal, but I mostly went for the Contest forums, and the dinner banquet and the Suites anyway. I did purchase an ADI 247 220Mhz rig, which is a new band for me. This little rig will see some action this weekend in the June VHF contest, for sure. I also spent a bunch of time drooling over the Elecraft Transverters, so I might be acquiring one of these soon too. This last week or so has pushed me to get everything ready for the VHF contest, as well as for Field Day. So far, I have used WA5VJB designs and built some long-boom yagis for 2m and 222. I also spent some time revamping the design for the 6m X-beam, and I determined it was tuned too long. After trimming the wire lengths, everything came into resonance, and this weekend will determine how well it works. So far I'll have the following: 6m - 100w - 2el X-beam In addition, I am planning on mounting the 4el 2m yagi and 11el Cushcraft yagi to my rotor, and set the rotor on the roof rack, to allow me to point different directions while moving. I've got an aggresive plan (almost too aggresive) to cover some new grid squares out west from Laredo (DL98) to Dallas, then Sunday from DFW down to Houston and EL28, then back to Austin. Cross your fingers that the 1998 Windstar holds together! I will have photos to post here soon. For Field Day, I'll probably be using this similar configuration, but be placing the antennas on a tall pushup mast. We are also planning on using 802.11b wireless to connect the logging computers, so it should be a pretty nice technology demonstration for those who come by to visit. We're planning on setting up at the park in Cedar Park, Texas, and will be using KA5E as the callsign.
April 27, 2003 I'm getting ready for Dayton! I finally have the chance to make the trip to the Hamvention of the year. The last time I had the chance to go was in 1989. Back then, we drove from Macomb, IL to Dayton OH. This trip, I'm driving solo from Austin direct. The plan is to leave early Wednesday morning and arrive sometime Thursday afternoon. There's not much I'm planning on hunting for this year, as I'm going more for the forums and the Contesting dinner Saturday night. However, it looks like I will again make an attempt to go Rover for the June VHF contest this summer, so I am hunting for a nice 220Mhz FM rig to bring along. Speaking of June, it's going to be a busy month - June is the Dallas Hamcom, June VHF contest, and Field Day in three consecutive weekends. By adding 220Mhz, I'll be able to at least activate a bunch of grids with ABCD. After this, Maybe adding more power for 432Mhz and possibly 1.2Ghz will be my next bands. I saw some information on converting a Radio Shack HTX-10 into a nice IF-radio. However, the instructions are in German, so if anyone has some useful instructions, please let me know. I have an HTX-10 sitting unused right now, and it might be a good candidate if I wanted to get some microwave modules for 902 and 1.2 etc. In the mean time, look for me at Dayton this year!
April 2, 2003 WPX 2003 is over! Originally, we had been discussing the possibility of running a Multi-Multi effort from K5NA, but we did not round up enough operators to justify keeping 4+ stations on the air full-time. We decided instead to give the Multi-Two category a run for it.
Coming out to help us were - I have posted the resulting score here. We had a really good time operating. The band conditions did not seem as good as previously, but we still racked up over 900 contacts on 10m! We had many instances that seemed like solar flares - the stations would be S9, then just fade away, only to return a minute later to S9. Just wierd. Otherwise, one cool thing - I worked ST0RY on 10,15,20, and 40m during the contest. Coming up next is my 14th MS-150 ride from Houston to Austin, and in May, Dayton! Hope to see lots of folks there.
March 2, 2003 Well, this year we put forth a valiant effort to partake in the ARRL DX SSB contest. Rich N5ZC, myself, and our host, Richard K5NA and wife Susan K5DU, Spent the weekend racking up over 2171 contacts and 290 mults for a claimed score of approx. 3.120 Million points. This year, since we had only the three main operators (with Susan as our support staff) we concentrated on keeping a six-hour on, 3-hour off sleep schedule. The 3-hours off turned out to fit perfectly with the theory that 90-minute sleep cycles are the minimum time for restful, deep REM sleep. It seemed to work, as I finished Sunday night, and was coherent enough to not only drive home, but attend an important soccer meeting 60 minutes after the end of the contest. Not all of the results have been posted to the 3830 reflector, but so far it seems like we are holding 2nd place inthe USA for Muti-Single! Our station consisted of 4 positions - a pair of FT-1000MPs and Ameritron AL-1500s on 10/40 and 15/75 respectively, one Icom 756-Pro and Henry 2K Classic on 20m dedicated, and one Icom 765 and Dentron amp dedicated to 160m. Eventually I'll get the details posted here. Coming up at the end of this month, we are trying to put forth our first Multi-Multi effort for WPX SSB on March 29th! This is a not-too-serious attempt. We're mostly thinking of how much fun it owuld be to operate without worrying about 10-minute rules or x-number of band changes per hour. So far, however, we're coming up short of operators, so we may not have enough folks to keep 4 stations manned for the weekend. We'll keep you posted.
January 20th, 2003 Here's the results of the January VHF Sweepstakes and the KI5DR/r story.... Also, I promised to add a link to last June's story for the VHF contest, so here it is. This was the photo that appears in February's QST, Page 51. Other ham activity: This Spring, I'll be focusing on ARRL DX SSB beginning in March, and towards the end of March, I am trying to organize a Multi-Multi effort for WPX SSB using my callsign. Stay tuned for details!
December 16th, 2002 ARRL 10m contest is over! I went out to K5NA's place and operated SOHP, but due to family schedules I only operated the first 24 hours. Friday night brought excellent conditions - low band noise, good strong signals, and lots and lots and lots of hams from Minnesota! I think I had a pipeline into MN. After 4 hours of operating, (around 10pm local, 0400z) I figured was a good time to get some much-needed rest. I awoke around 4:30am after having the most bizarre dream (don't remember it now). I tried to drift back to sleep but ended up tossing until 5:30am, and dozed lightly until the alarm sounded the 6am bell. So much for a good night's sleep. Richard was already up, and we discussed some strategies - he mentioned it would be a good idea to try pointing SE early to catch any African stations, but before the roar of Western Europe. Sure enough, around 7:15am (1315z) I worked not one, but several ZS6 stations who pulled my signal from the noise. All the while I could hear the cacophany of EU stations just above the noise. This is the time in the morning when their signals begin to sound stronger, but it would be impossible for me to work them. In my world, I have S-0 noise and their signals are s-1 to s-3, but on the other side of the pond, their noise is s-3 and all the signals are s-7 to 20-over-S9. My signal is but a whisper amongst the roar. By 1330z to 1400z this will change. The sun is up, the Ionosphere is getting charged by the light, and my take-off angles are beginning to focus - kind of like a battleship swinging the large cannon turrets to bear... (Wow - I just made that up!) Now is the time to jockey for a good frequency for calling CQ. You want to get a good frequency, preferrably lower in the band, but you don't want to pick one that someone else is already on. Going very high in the band, you are more likely to find an open frequency, but take the chance of missing some contacts because not every S&P station is going to spin the dial to the top. By 1345z I have settled around 28.543 and begin calling. Due to some QRM I eventually settle on 28.548 and spend most of the morning calling, while spinning the sub-vfo around looking for multipliers. By 1500z I am working a steady stream of EU stations and stateside stations, and the sub-vfo sits unused during all the activty. Out of the 11 hours from 1300z to 2400z, I 8 hours of 100+ rates, and only 3 hours that fall below 100/hr. I have a 155 hour and a 159 hour later in the afternoon. My local rate meter shows me a 2-minute rate of 444/hr for the last two minutes. This occurs after I work 9 stations within a 1-minute span. Incidently, Friday night my first hour was 102/hr. I have one hour with a rate of 92/hr in the early afternoon when I took a few minutes off for restroom/snack/stretching. I took the last hour and quit my run frequency so I could scan one last shot for mults before hanging up the mic. Otherwise, I had a lot of fun just running stations, both stateside and DX. Interestingly, I got some really nice compliments on my signal, both in strengh an in audio quality. This surprised me since usually Contesters are regarded as running the Splatter-knob at 10+. For me, it's a balance. I want nice clean crisp audio, but of it's too muddy then other stations begin encroaching on my space, making it difficult to copy the other stations. If I put out a nice loud crisp signal, other stations tend not to encroach. It's sad, but I've tested this several times - turn down the compression, and the station above you moves in and takes over. Keep the compression high, and they keep their distance. I had some nice surprises during the contest - XW1 called me on my freq., I also worked a KH3 and an S9. I had a couple instances where a CE or CX started calling CQ right on top of me, but never worked me. I had no antennas to point directly South/SE, but I am quite sure they heard me as they left the instant I told them the frequency was already being used. Overall it was a great time, and I am looking forward to next year!
December 10th, 2002 It's been a while since I've updated the site, but we put forth a good Multi/2 effort for the CQWW SS SSB contest, and so far it looks like we're hanging on to 8th place USA! We'll know more when the scrub the logs and process the results. Last weekend was the ARRL 160m contest. I only operated a couple hours, but spent the time to put my 160m antenna out, and worked on soldering together a CW interface for my laptop-to-rig. After working on it for an hour, I found out I used ANOTHER Serial Male connector, not the female connector! After purchasing a new DB25 Parallel connector and resoldering the pins, I now have a working CW interface! This ought to significantly reduce my sending errors during the contests. I'm looking forward to doing more CW operations and getting my code speed up higher. This coming weekend is the ARRL 10m contest. I had planned on a heavy effort to compete with last year's score, but it looks like it's a wash, both due to work issues and Football. (Michele has season tickets for the Texans, and there's a home game on Sunday in Houston). I also have a customer who has a server conversion on Friday night. Maybe If I am unable to do a full weekend, I might do part from Richard's place and part from home. We'll see. Coming up in January is the VHF Sweepstakes. I am again planning on a concerted Rover effort (so long as my darn Windstar is working again!) and get some grids and bands activated. Should be a good time!
October 9th, 2002 I have stepped up as Secretary for the Central Texas DX and Contesting Club! This mostly means taking notes at the monthly meetings, but it's an opportunity to get more involved with a great, great group of hams. In addition, my tenure as the Vice-President of the Williamson County ARC is coming to an end, and I am considering running for President next year. I think I can follow in Cecil's shoes and do some fun things this fall. We're planning a Multi-Two effort for CQWW SSB at K5NA this month. Also, November Sweepstakes coming soon! I worked some stations on 10m for CQP this last weekend, while on my way out to the DX-Bash @ W5KFT. Bryan had an excellent get-together - Met a lot of nice folks from in-town and out-of-town. I also did some operating for CQP from the W5KFT shack, some really good activity this weekend! I am thinking about saving some money for a new radio. The Ol' IC-706 MkIIg has done a wonderful job, but I am thinking about something a little more robust to bring out to K5NA for Multi-ops. FT-1000MP Field? TS-850? IC-756Pro? Not sure yet. I might buy something new, or look for a good deal on eBay. I recently purchased a pair of 200MMX computers on eBay - super cheap ($15 ea)! Right now they are play servers - one is running W2000 and one is running RedHat 7.3, but they could easily be configured with Win98 for logging computers - including the networking. They are small too - Mini-Compaq Deskpro 4000N workstations - fully shielded, super quiet, and stable. Not the fastest, but certainly sufficient for anything I need them for. I missed out on an opportunity to Rover for the Sept. VHF contest, so my next focus will be January. Having multiple operators would certainly be helpful - let me know in case anyone is interested in riding along.
August 19th 2002 Just finished up the NAQP SSB contest. We went out to do a Multi-Operation from K5NA. It included myself, John KE5RS, Robb KD5SQF, Susan K5DU and Richard, K5NA. We did a Multi-2 competition with some of the other Austin operators, and are all throwing our scores into the "Austin Powers" team. I had one guy (who never identified) who claimed I wasn't K5NA. He kept interrupting calling me a Pirate / Slim and his reasoning was that I didn't "Sound" like I was 45-48 years old! I finally (after trying to ignore him for over 5 minutes) explained that we were doing a multi-operation and that, YES, we WERE K5NA. I think Richard took it as a compliment that he sounds younger on the air!
July 25th, 2002 This weekend was the IOTA contest. It's a good chance to get on and work a bunch of islands and DX from places that normally do not have operators. Next weekend (first of August) is the NAQP CW contest, as well as the Austin Summerfest. During Summerfest, I'm planning on attending the DX presentation - they will have information on VP8 Micro-lite DXPedition, the W1AW/5 operation, and the WRTC as spoken by one of their referees, Jim George N3BB. It should be a good presentation. I'm trying to figure out how to build a CW interface for my Icom 706 to the Parallel port of my laptop. I plan to get on and operate some for the NAQP CW, but I don't think I could suffer the embarrasment again of trying to send the whole contest with my paddle. The secret is in the memory keyer! I found one on the 'Net, but it's $50, so maybe I can fudge my way by building one from scratch?? I've already tried using CWType, which is MCW (modulated) and this might work with VOX, but obviously not as well as having an integrated keyer. We'll see. Coming up in a few weeks is NAQP SSB. I'm planning on doing a Multi/2 from Richard's (K5NA). We've got an internal competition within the CTDXCC club for the Multi-2 category. Sounds like it might be W5KFT / K5NA / N5TW!
CTDXCC sponsors W1AW/5 for the IARU contest July 13, 14, 2002July 15th, 2002 This last weekend the Central Texas DX and Contesting Club hosted the callsign W1AW/5 for the 2002 IARU contest. For those who do not know who W1AW is, this FCC callsign belongs to the late Hiram Percy Maxim, one of the founding members of Amateur Radio today. Hiram Percy Maxim was a great inventor and scientist in the early 1900s who was a key contributor to the Amateur Radio service we know today. His legacy lives on in Newington, CT as the station license for the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). The ARRL Trustees graciously allowed us the rights to operate this callsign as a special events station during the IARU contest. During this same contest, another competition was occurring - the World Radiosport Team Championships (WRTC). The WRTC is the "Olympics" of Amateur Radio, and Fifty-Two 2-person teams from around the globe went to Finland to compete for top honors. In Texas, we assembled some of the best operators in and out of Texas, assembled the BEST stations in Central Texas, and operated W1AW/5 on all HF bands and all modes for the full 24 hours. With that said, my involvement was concentrated in one of these stations - K5NA. This station was to operate 15m SSB, 40m CW and 80m CW. The preparations for this contest have been going on for the last 5 years, and culminated in the 24 hours operation from Saturday morning at 7:00am until Sunday morning at 7:00am. For K5NA we worked hard to install antennas and supporting equipment to put W1AW/5 on the air with a good strong signal that was workable from anywhere on the planet. For 15m, we had Four 5-element Yagis stacked on a 190 ft. tower. For 40m, we had Three 2-element yagis stacked on a 190 ft. tower, and a fourth 2-element yagi on a 100 ft. tower. We also had beverage antennas pointed in 5 different directions. For 80m, we installed Two ON4UN Phased vertical antennas (one NE, one NW) and a pair of Sloper dipoles hung off the side of the tower. In addition to station preparations, the creators of the popular logging program Writelog added an option to allow a distributed log database and Internet connectivity so we could operate multiple stations, all linked via the Internet, and each station would be aware of the other stations' operation. We could see all of the logged callsigns as it happened, and we could see what frequency and mode the other operators were on. This turned out to be one of the best features for passing multipliers on to other stations, and even announcing our frequencies so other stations could find us easily on other bands. Calls and frequencies were updated realtime! I was assigned to operate 15m SSB along with Rich, N5ZC (on the right) and Sarla, VU2SWS (Visiting from India). We would operate from 1-3 hours straight, and rotate around so each person could rest and eat. I started off the day on 15m and quickly got the operation going in the General Class portion of 15m. The idea was to make W1AW/5 available to any ham who had General Class or above priviliges. We had many problems throughout the weekend with scattered thunderstorms and several times we even shifted a specific band from one site to another when one of the stations had to unplug due to lightning. This same lightning created really nasty static that often made it difficult to hear other stations because of S9 static crashes. However, having the distributed online database made it easy to switch over and continue running stations from a new location, often so seamlessly that others did not even know it happened. Other operators at K5NA's station included Dale KG5U, Dennis K5YA, George K2UR, Susan K5DU, and Richard K5NA. We had several storms roll by, but otherwise the weather was typical summer in Texas. Here's a shot of the action during the contest...and another shot. Here's the group after the end of the contest... Overall we had a wonderful time!
June 22nd, 2002
June 20th, 2002 For anyone who is interested, here's a quick shot of my tentative plans for the September VHF contest.
June 9th, 2002 Howdy all, Here's the updates - Go see the K5NA page, I've added a bunch of photos I blow the engine of my van during the June VHF contest! Coming up - Field Day, IARU and W1AW/5. Stay Tuned!
May 21st, 2002 Wow - all kinds of stuff happening in the next couple of months. It's been a while since I've updated the site. After WPX SSB in March I took on being "Soccer Mom" and spent much of my free time with the kids. This fall, I've volunteered to be the new Coach, since the old Coach's son wants to switch from Soccer to Football this fall. This will eat a lot of my free time, but it's good because I'll be spending a lot of time with my oldest son, David. Due to a Pizza Bet from N3BB, I'm going to participate in the WPX CW contest this coming weekend. I know there's no way I'll even come close to even competing with him, or others in the club, it doesn't matter. It will be fun anyway. This will be a partial effort since I'll be prepping for Memorial Day party and Saturday we're going to see Star Wars. However, I should get some time to get on in the evenings and maybe Saturday and Sunday morning before the rest of the brood awakes. Also, I'm looking forward to doing a Rover effort for the June VHF contest. I've been doing lots of prep work - I've built a horizontal loop for 6m, I bought one for 2m (the M2 was $39 at Texas Towers!) and I purchased a Mirage Amplifier for 2m SSB on Ebay for more punch. Saturday June 8th is the Dallas Hamcom, and I'm driving off from the Hamfest and heading East towards Texarkana, then South to Houston. On Sunday, I'll be heading Southwest Towards EL28 and down to Corpus, then back to Austin Sunday evening. The goal this time is to be able to operate without exiting the vehicle. Coming up soon after that is Field Day - I'll be running one of the SSB stations for the WCARC FD site using N5TT. Also in July is W1AW/5, sponsored by the CTDXCC group. We've been doing a lot of work at K5NA to add to the 15m stacks and the 40m stacks for the contest. I'll get some updated photos posted shortly.
March 27th, 2002 ARRL DX SSB! March is ARRL DX and WPX SSB month! I went out to K5NA's place to operate the ARRL DX SSB contest with K5NA, K5DU, W5ZC, and K2UR. Our results are here. I had a good time, and met K2UR, who is an old friend of Richard's from back east. He drove to Texas to operate the contest with us. We operated Multi-Single High Power. M/S this time was a little different. Instead of the 10-minute band change rule, we were now allowed 6 band-changes per hour. This worked out to the same number, but we were no longer required to hang on a band after working a multiplier for another 9 1/2 minutes. We insituted a new system of using colored-clothespins to keep track of the number of band changes per hour, and it worked out well. Since ARRLDX Richard was hit by a lightning storm, and it knocked out his FT-1000mp and two M2 rotors. I was planning on operating WPX SSB this weekend from home, but received an invitation to go out to W5KFT and operate. I'm not sure if I'll operate the entire weekend since it is Easter and the kids will be opening baskets from the Easter Bunny, so I'll likely cut it short. After this, it'll be kinda quiet in the contesting world for a while, with the next effort being the June VHF contest. I'm planning on going Rover again around Texas, and my Spring project is to design and build some horizontal loop antennas for 6m 2m, 432 that I can mount on the minivan. That way, I won't have to pull over and put the antennas up in order to operate. Otherwise, April brings the MS-150 bike ride from Houston to Austin, and last I heard there were 7,791 registered bike riders. I'll get some photos posted after the event next month. Last note - While I was in Chicago, I had dinner with Paul Gentry, K9PG. Paul operated from ZF2MM during the ARRL DX contest, and I think he won his category. His goal was 10,000 contacts. He didn't quite get tehre, but was close - 8700 Qs and 356 Mults for 11 mill points. Way to go Paul. Also, apparently he wrote an article for the latest NCJ magazine on how he got started in Ham Radio and Contesting, and I'm in it. I didn't know until I went to the CTDXCC meeting the other night, and several folks commented on the article. Now I'm trying to hunt one down and see what it says about me! I went to the local hamshop, but their latest NCJ mags are from August/Sept. of 2001. Maybe I'll find someone locally who has one I can borrow.
December 17th, 2001 ARRL 10m contest is over! This year was my first SOHP effort from a world-class contest station. up until now, I've been operating 100w or less (several years with the Radio Shack rig @ 25w) and low antennas. Last year I actually tried using Phased 18' fiberglass verticals - they worked well, but NOTHING like this year. Richard's (K5NA) 10m station consists of a fixed 5el monobander at 100 ft., and a Cushcraft X9 tribander at 80 ft. Rig is an FT-1000MP and an AL-1500 KW amplifier. This year's results were significantly higher than last year - 2500 contacts and 141 multipliers for a total of 705,000 points! The contest began Friday at 6:00 pm local time. I arrived a little before 5:00pm, just in time to meet Richard and his wife Susan K5DU on their way to the hospital. Susan was having abdominal pains, which were the result of a Gall Bladder infection. She is doing well - she is home and resting and recovering nicely. For most of the weekend, Richard was at the hospital taking care of Susan, so I pretty much had the run of the place. As the contest began, I parked on a frequency and began calling CQ. Around 8:30pm the band pretty much folded, and nothing was left but static. I hung with it until 10:00 pm hoping there might be some late opening. A few times I worked a few stations with my antenna pointed straight south, and I also worked some ground wave locals. At 10pm I packed it in and headed for the spare bedroom. I like contests that allow you to get some good sleep!!! So far I had 263 contacts. The alarm went off at 5:45am, and I washed up and brushed my teeth (important for helping me speak clearly) and fired up the station at 6:00 am local. Sunrise happens around 7:15, so it was still dark. Interestingly I began hearing stations with the antennas pointed Southeast, and as the band opened propogation slowly moved North. By 7:30 I was working a steady stream of European stations coming over the North Atlantic. Stations on the East coast get a one-hour head start on the midwest, but we can often clean up after it gets dark for them and we still have sunlight. The 10 Meter band is extremely sunlight dependent - when the sun goes down, the band dies. Therefore is was important to work Europe early because by Noon or 1:00 pm local time it was their sunset. Mid-day was difficult for me because the high antennas I was using were designed for long distance, and most of the stations were located within the US. Lower antennas would certainly have increased my signal. A nice correlation would be comparing what happens when I throw a softball at the horizon, versus tossing the ball up at a 60 degree angle. The first throw goes a long way as it skims the surface of the earth, where the second throw is a high lob, and drops to earth much closer. Let's just say I was throwing my signal at the horizon! One thing I noticed was that sometimes the signals were really strong, and sometimes it seemed like no one was there. It was like riding large waves on the ocean. Up and down, up and down. This may have been due to some recent solar activity from the Sun. It had also rained pretty much all day Saturday. Sometimes you can hear static on your receiver that is caused by the rain droplets hitting the aluminum antenna! Later in the afternoon was also sunrise for the far East, and stations in Japan were just coming alive. At this point I swing the antenna NW towards Alaska to lob my signal at Japan. California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, were also loud. I spoke to many Canada and Alaska stations as well. By 7:30-8:00pm Saturday night the band once again folded, and it went down hard. I had 1537 contacts. I stuck in trying to work directly south again, but stations I heard on Friday night were just not there Saturday. I laid down around 10:00 pm, and planned on getting up at 1:00 am. Sometimes propogation does funny things, and 1:00 am local is sunrise time for Europe - sometimes you can work stations at that time. However, not Saturday, all I heard was static. Sunday morning at 2:30 am we had lightning and thunder, so I hopped up and disconnected all the antennas and rotors, and powered down all the equipment. By 6:00 am I was back on the air, and calling CQ to the Southeast hoping to wake someone up! I really thought 2000 contacts was attainable and Richard (who is always encouraging me) thought that 2400 was a better goal. So, I set off to make at least another 900 contacts. It would not be easy as I'd already worked many of the active stations, and rates would be lower Sunday. While calling CQ I heard someone right above me answering another station. It was K5TR, he was trying to work ZX5M in South America, so I moved farther down the band, but kept the sub-VFO on him to listen and see if I could hear the other station. Eventually the conditions changed, and K5TR worked him, and I worked him shortly afterwards. I scanned up the band a while and ran across ZD8Z on Ascencion Island in the South Atlantic! I worked him and that added a contact PLUS a new multiplier for me. By 7:15 the European stations were rolling in again. A lot of people I worked previously called me again, and I get 0 points for them. I continued to plug away working rates close to 100 per hour (but not like Saturday) and after noon local time it began to slow down. I struggled to work both Northeast for east coast US stations, as well as Northwest for California and Washington. I also called Northwest sooner hoping to get an opening to Japan sooner (there are close to 1 million hams in Japan, 165,000 in the US) to grab more contacts. Finally around 10 minutes before 5:00pm I made my 2400'th contact! Now I set my sights for 2500. Right up to the last few minutes of the contest I was almost yelling, begging for contacts!! Sometime right after 5:00 local the rates were really low, so I went S&P (Search & Pounce) mode and spun up the band. I ran across a PZ5 (Suriname)and CE4 (Chile) for two new multipliers. While spinning the dial, I noticed 28.499 was quiet, so I chose it and started calling again. I surpassed 2500 contacts with 8 minutes to spare, so I pressed on, and finished with 2507 before removing the duplicates. After dupes, the total was 2500. Total multipliers were 80 countries and 61 US states and Canadian provences. Whew! My voice hurt, and my posterior was sore from sitting non-stop for 12 hours. RIchard arrived around 6:00 pm, and made dinner, and we discussed the weekend. I've certainly raised the bar, and will have to work hard next year to beat it. January will be NAQP CW and SSB, as well as the January VHF sweepstakes. Unfortunately I am scheduled for two bootcamps and will be out of town for intensive training for most of January. February brings the ARRL DX CW and March is ARRL DX SSB and my favorite, CQWW WPX Phone contest. Woot! See ya then!
December 10th, 2001 I think I am going to change my phonetics to "DR" - Dit Repeater. I sent a lot of Dits during the ARRL 160m CW contest this last weekend! For Non-hams, you are supposed to send a long string of Dits - ............ - when you screw up and make a mistake. This tells the other station to forget what they just heard, because I'm starting over. It's similar to an SQE in networking. Anyway, I had not really planned on operating the 160m contest this weekend - too many other things going on. But at Thursday's WCARC meeting Tom, N5TW made a request to get folks on the air to give out extra points, so I went home Friday after work and strung up a "Noodle" - Center Loaded shortened dipole for 160m (normal length is 260') but this one is less than 75 feet long, and a large coil of wire right near the feedpoint. Plus, it's only 20 ft off the ground. I fired it all up on Friday night, and made 10 or so contacts for the local folks who were competing. Late Friday evening a storm rolled through so everything got disconnected and put away for the night. Saturday we spent celebrating Christmas with my sister and her family before they go out of town forthe holidays, so it was late Saturday night before I had a chance to get back on. Now, I have to explain something - I'm not a CW operator. Previous to this weekend I could claim that I have more children than I have CW contacts in my logbook in the last 10 years. The last time I operated CW in a contest was the ARRL 10m contest in 1986. I was a Technician then, and voice contacts were not yet allowed on HF for Novice/Techs. My friend Ken KA9RVK and I wanted to operate the 10m contest from Western Illinois University club station - a Kenwood TS-520 and an 80m inverted V with a tuner. At 5wpm, we called CQ TEST looking for contacts. The sunspot cycle was at the bottom, and after 2 hours, we made our first contact! It was with a guy local in town who was driving his car and operating CW mobile from downtown Macomb, IL. That was the end of our contest. The next CW contact I made was with Richard, K5NA during the June 2001 VHF contest on 6m. I also made one with K5T - the special events station at the University of Texas club station during the Texas QSO party. Now comes the 160m contest, and I had a blast! I realized I could copy CW faster than I thought, and also that I SUCK at sending CW. Murphy attacked my installation as well - I had used this new Coax Seal to waterproof the coax connecters. After it rained Friday night, my Saturday operation showed infinite SWR. I thought a leg of the dipole fell, or the wind broke one of the leads. I finally cut off the Coax Seal, and all this water emptied out of the barrel connecter! I opened it all up, cleaned and drained it, hooked it back up - problem solved. The Coax Seal acted like a cup, trapping the rainwater inside the barrel connecter. Next time I'll have to try something different. At any rate, I really had a lot of fun, 160m is a nice band (the antenna worked great, although local, and was resonant without tuner and WATER from 1810 to 1865Khz.) I think I will have to operate more CW contests...maybe not competitively, but for the fun of it. This coming weekend is the ARRL 10m contest. Plans are to guest-operate from K5NA SOHP. If you work me, wish me Happy Birthday Friday! The contest starts on my birthday, the 14th. See you on the air!
November 20th, 2001 ARRL Sweepstakes 2001 is over! This year was my first attempt at a SOAB HP effort using 2 radios (SO2R). Not only was it a personal best for me, but I wanted to learn how to operate two radios at once - no easy task. The advantage is you can maximize your score using two radios - you can call CQ on one radio and Search & Pounce (S&P) on the other radio. The only rule is you can only transmit on one radio at a time. This was accomplished using WX0B's SO2R interface box that connects to both rigs. Basically, you listen to the left radio in your left ear, and the right radio in your right ear of your headphones. If someone calls you on either radio, you have to get the correct radio selected and call them back. You have to match the radio with the antenna, amplifier, and logging computer to all be on the correct frequency or you will mess it up. It's really some amazing technology at work. The results? 1308 contacts, 209,120 points. Probably not Top Ten, but certainly quadruples the highest score I've ever had for a single Op effort. WOW, I had a great time! Richard K5NA and Susan K5DU were my hosts, and they fed me and kept me loaded with fresh cans of Coca-Cola. Amazingly, my voice held out as I finish my fight with probably the worst bronchitis / chest cold / pneumonia / cough I've ever had (4 weeks!). One person commented that both myself and the Digital Voice Keyer sounded raspy and distorted. That's not the radio, folks, that's really my voice! I began the contest at 3:00 pm local Saturday afternoon, and ran continuously for 12 hours until 3AM. I am required to take 6 hours off from this 30 hour contest, so I took 3 hours Sunday morning (3-6am) and slept. At 6am I began again and continued non-stop until 6pm, where I took the last three hours off. This was mostly because I could get home to get the kids ready for school, and get to sleep at a decent hour to help recover from being sick. Normally an operator could take time off in 30 minute segments, and not miss any propagation openings throughout the weekend. Speaking of propogation, while I was operating the contest, Richard worked over 50 stations from Europe in a row on 6 meters Sunday morning! Propogation this good on 6m has probably not been this good 4-5 times since 1900! Six Meters is very close to Channel 2, so imagine turning on Channel 2 and watching a station from England! That's how rare this opening has been. I'm going to attempt one more effort this year, and that's in December for the 10 Meter contest. Single Band, Single Radio, lots of fun. Wish me luck!
November 1st, 2001 CQWW was a success! Richard K5NA hosted a Multi-single operation from his QTH East of Austin, TX. Richard, Susan K5DU, Myself, Rich N5ZC and Bob K5WA were the operators. This weekend I felt like the Weakest Link - as I was still trying to recover from post-flu Bronchitis. Just TRY operating an SSB contest with Bronchitis and a sore throat! Needless to say I lost my voice - Thank God for Voice keyers! We entered a little friendly local competition with the M/S team at N5TW. It was a good challenge, but Tom's team beat us in the end with over 1 million more points. Rough totals were K5NA @ 5.01M, and N5TW with 6.04M, although final scores will be adjusted after log checking. Tom's team wins Pizza for 2001! Just wait until next year.... Conditions were nothing short of incredible. The sunspot cycle is on a downward turn, but that did not seem to inhibit our radio communications. Ten meters seemed to be open almost 24 hours for some, including operations over the North Pole to Russia all night long. One amazing story occurred around 3AM - I was searching for Multipliers on 75 Meters (3.5 Mhz) while Rich N5ZC was calling CQ on the 20m band. I was having difficulty tuning the 75m slopers - one pointed West and one pointed NE. I was trying to work a VY2 in Canada, and was having problems tuning the NE antenna. I stepped on the footswitch to give me a little background noise and adjust the tuner. While doing this, Rich N5ZC is in the background yelling CQ Contest. When I unkey a second later, the VY2 returns my (well, Richard's) call! I guess this means the MIC gain was a little high? I worked him for the Multiplier...Thanks Rich! Teamwork, you know... Another interesting phenomenon Post contest were all of the reports of stations hearing themselves after they unkeyed their radios. Sort of a delay, if you will. The delay many folks reported hearing was in the neighborhood of 5-7 seconds. Now, it is not uncommon during really enhanced conditions to actually hear your own signal as it circumnavigates the globe, but common physics dictates the maximum delay would be around 170ms., the time it takes for radio waves to go completely around at the speed of light. Five to seven seconds is simply amazing. Are the signals bouncing off the moon or Mars? Subsequent posts to the Email reflector suggested something known as LDE, or Long Delayed Echo. Further research shows this has occurred several times in the last 50 years. Some have even written thesis papers on this incredible occurrence. The current theory (there is no "Official" explanation) is that radio waves may be slowed in the stratosphere by changing of mediums to different densities, sort of like being trapped. We may never know what caused it. Overall it was a great weekend, and a great chance to operate with a fine group of guys and gals. Even though we were trampled by Tom N5TW's Superman team (Those guys really know their business!), it looks like we will still manage a Top 10 spot in the USA. Next year - no being sick! If you are interested in seeing additional scores from the weekend, check out http://www.contesting.com and find the link to the 3830 archives on the left. Coming soon - ARRL SS SSB in November, and the 10m contest in December. Stay Tuned!
October 21st, 2001 Belton! Had a chance to attend the Belton Hamfest this previous weekend. Saw a lot of good stuff, but had no spare money - Some hamfests are selling hamfests, some are buying hamfests. This was a selling hamfest for me. On the block is an Alinco DR-570T Dual band mobile radio, an Alinco UHF HT, and a Cushcraft R5 vertical. Contests! I will be operating Multi-Single for the CQ Worldwide DX SSB competition on October 27th and 28th at K5NA's place. In addition, I am planning a Single-Op effort at K5NA for ARRL SS SSB in November, and a single-Op effort for the 10 Meter contest in December. Also, I am trying to get some of the previous contest scores and placings added here - stay tuned. Back in July 21st, I operated the 6-Meter Sprint. Last week I received a certificate for First Place in the USA with 1,911 points! While it's not the largest contest, it is significant because it is the first certificate I've EVER won! Thanks to the folks who sponsored the sprint!
August 8th, 2001 Ham update - Last weekend we had our local Austin Summerfest swapfest and conference. Turnout was good, and although the outdoor swap area was small, I was able to find both a replacement 40m Hamstick, and a used Cushcraft 15-3CD 3 element beam for 15 meters. Just another piece of aluminum to add to my arsenal.... I am very fortunate to have been offered a chance to do some hamming from Richard, K5NA's place in Manor, TX. ichard invited me to come help multi-op the IARU contest last month, and we had a wonderful time! I won't know for a while, but it looks like we put in a top-10 score for Texas! Myself, Richard K5NA, Bob AF5Z, and Rich N5ZC all did a Multi-Single form Richard's place. He's got 4 towers, several large antennas, and more on the way. In fact, I'm heading over there today to help him with some tower work that needs to be done. I got on and operated the 6m Sprint a couple weekends ago, and even made a few contacts for the ARRL UHF contest last weekend. Operating from the house is a little more challenging since I have deed restrictions. Anything I put up has to be temporary, so nothing really large is going to happen since I have to be able to put it up and down by myself.
May 5th, 2001 Amateur Radio is another hobby I am fascinated in. It all began with a magazine article about where you could purchase .025 Anti-Gtams of Anti-Matter, suspend it within a magnetic field in a vacuum-sealed container, and by varying the voltage and current of the electromagnetic field, you could "Modulate" the antimatter, and communicate with other hams using Gravity-Gradient Modulation. I was HOOKED! Of course, none of my friends pointed out that this was the April Fools issue of QST magazine, the official Mag of the American Radio Relay League. It was still cool. I wanted to talk to someone using Gravity waves. Over the last 15 years I've done a TON of volunteering for many organizations to dedicate my time and skills to provide free communications. These activities include the Chicago Triathalon, the Houston-to-Austin MS-150, Houston Marathon, the Alamo Challenge, and many others. These communications benefit these events and help them run smoothly, hopefully raising more money for curing Diabetes, MS, MD, Lung Cancer for the ALA, the Ronald McDonald House, or whatever the task requires. In addition, Hams provide emergency communications for severe weather (Yes, I used to chase Tornadoes), Civil emergencies (Like the time all the telephones died in Chicago in 1986) Hurricanes, Floods, Ice Storms, Wherever and Whenever normal communications are interrupted. I just signed up for SATERN - the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network. Maybe they'll let me drive a Tank. :-) Expect to see more fun stuff and information about Amateur Radio activities posted here soon!
73, Scott -.- .. ..... -.. .-.
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