Dayton 2014 Part 2

My 2014 Dayton Purchases

My purchase moments while at the Dayton Hamvention® are those items you see in my photo to the left. My main planned purchase was going to be a portable antenna analyzer that could be easily carried with my current Buddipole setup. MFJ had one I was extremely interested in but I ended up with the iPortable IP60z. The early reviews on this unit were not very favorable but I know a few who have tested it with good results. So, I opted to purchase it. Things I like, this little unit covers the HF bands plus 6 meters. It is powered by a 9 volt battery so carrying a spare will keep me from finding it useless miles from the truck. And finally, the size and portability of the unit. I have the BIG MFJ analyzer but this will at least help me tune my portable antennas in the field. When you are running QRP, you want every watt to count. 

Peanut

Next is my Buddipole Choke Balun which will help keep any unwanted RF from traveling down my feedline. I do on occasion run more power than QRP so this should help keep my audio from sounding funny and my rig from glowing. I purchased both from the Buddipole booth at Dayton. The highlight was purchasing these items from Steve, wG0AT. In 2010, I had some work related training in MO. My wife and I flew into MO and afterwards, we hit Ohio to visit friends and family. From there, we headed out to Colorado for a few days on our way back to Alaska. I had dropped Steve a note asking if it was okay to stop by. Steve gave us the thumbs up after getting approval from Rooster (SK) and Peanut. It was such an honor to spend a day with Steve and the goats climbing Mount Herman! Steve did a great video of our operation and I have to say, I was bitten by the QRP bug from then on! Thanks, Steve!!! I detailed a bit on my KL8DX blog. 

My final purchase was the interface and software by rt Systems which will allow me to easily program my Kenwood TM-D700D radios. I can now keep everything on my computer and when traveling to various locations easily upload my saved frequency information for various repeaters and simplex frequencies. Sean helped me decide on this purchase so it came highly recommended. 

Now, hitting Dayton was extremely memorable but it was great to finally put faces with callsigns. It was a pleasure to finally meet the BIG HAMMER himself, Tim KG8OC. With Tim, was his wife Sandy (KB8WJT) so it was a pleasure to meet her, too! Also highlights were finally meeting Karen, W4KRN and Curt, WA2JSG. Like Tim, I got to QSO with those two pretty frequently when I was in Alaska during SKCC events. Also with Curt, was Jim, K8SSS who I also worked a few times on the straight key while I was in Alaska. 

Through Facebook, I set a sked with Craig, NM8W. I used to work with Craig's cousin back in Ohio. Also, it was finally great to meet up with Warren, VA3UG. I've worked them on the bands as well and it was sure great to spend a bit of stadium seating time with them. Craig had his son with him so I bet there is a future ham in that household!

Grand kids

After Dayton, we made a quick trip up to see or daughters and grand kids. The advantage of being many thousands of miles closer is being able to see our grandchildren more frequently. You can sure bet I will introduce them to ham radio when it's time. The trip seemed short but it was extremely fun. I didn't get to do all that I wanted to but there hopefully will be future trips. I'm going off of memory as to those I met so hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone. 

The culmination to our Dayton adventure was the Dayton Contest Dinner on Saturday night. Sean. KL1SF and I sat with a few of the Alaska group. It was great to meet Kevin, KL7KY! I've heard Kevin on the bands for several years so it was nice to actually chat with him off frequency and meet him. Kevin was accompanied by Jeff, KL7JVD and Tim, KL7WV (aka W3YQ). Tim and I have a mutual Buckeye State connection, Dan W8CAR. I actually ran into Dan after Contest University so it was great chatting with him, too. 

Of the Alaska group, I had my eye out for Rich, KL7RA. Rich invited me into the Alaska contest group shortly after I had arrived to the 49th and with their help, I was able to dive into contesting and never look back. Being affiliated with the group really helped me grow as a contester. I wanted to finally meet Rich and thank him personally for helping me and also for allowing me to be part of the best group of contesters I know. Mission accomplished! I owe much of my success to them and for that, I will be forever grateful. 

My APRS Alaska Departure

It's hard to believe that a year ago, I was on my way to the East Coast. The APRS map shows my final packets sent while leaving Alaska. I think about Alaska often and sadly, I have not made a contact in many weeks! Life is just so busy here and with long commutes, long work weeks and short weekends, it feels as if there is no time for ham radio. My weekends are booked for the next few months and I'm looking forward to putting to use those items I purchased at Dayton. Yes, they are still in the bag I brought them home in. Rest assured, operating day will come again but for now, I will throw out an APRS packet burst from time to time. That will be the extent of my operating but if I can pull out a few minutes on a nice weekend, I'm looking forward to some /p operating. Could be wishful thinking but only time will tell, or that lack of...       

2014 ARRL DX Contest. What a Difference 3,250 Miles (Over 5,000 Road Miles) & 95 Watts Make!

ARRL CW DX Contest 2014

This past weekend was the ARRL DX Contest, CW version. This contest has always been one my my most favorites, second only to the CQ World Wide DX Contests. The ARRL DX Contest has stateside stations looking for DX and DX stations looking for stateside stations. I decided on Friday to make my first limited QRP effort in this contest. I knew that my weekend schedule would not accommodate more than a part time effort but I wanted to take the plunge. Since I was going to be running my Buddipole antenna indoors, I wanted to just concentrate on a single band effort. This way, I could tune the antenna and leave it for the remainder of the weekend.

Getting it Close

I set up my antenna on late Friday night. When it's set up, it resides in our upstairs hallway. Not the best setup but since it's winter, I have no desire to put it outdoors. Besides, this seems to work pretty well considering. I was able to get the Buddipole SWR actually flat! I found that when I rechecked my match on Sunday morning, things were very different. It may be been bumped by another household occupant so I had re-tune Sunday morning. I was able to get it down to what you see in the photo to the right. I could not imagine trying to tune any antenna without a good meter. Matter of fact, I'm in the market for a smaller, portable meter to use in the field. I like my MFJ but it uses plenty of batteries and it's not the smallest to tote around. Since I will be doing more /P operating down here, I want something backpack friendly.

I landed on 15 meters ready for my Search & Pounce (S&P) effort just before 1700z on Saturday. I found the band to be in great shape. Such good shape, I started the contest at 1 watt output from my IC-703+. It was great hearing so many European stations so darn strong! 
I began at the bottom of the band and slowly worked my way up.

Search & Pounce QRP Style

It was obvious the band was loaded and many of the stations had pile-ups, which is typical during the first part of the contest, I opted to bump my power up to the full 5 watts after my first 10 or 15 QSO's. On a quiet band, my 1 watt may have worked but with the crowd, I was easily pushed to the sidelines and not heard. As I encountered many a new country, I had to make a mental note and tell myself that many of them would have to wait until Sunday. As I slowly worked my VFO up and down the band, my contest log began to slowly add points with a bump in the score adding the occasional multiplier. I wanted to document a bit of my QRP activities so I kept the Samsung S4 handy for a few videos. Below is the video I shot of me working F6KNB with my rig set at 1 watt. I worked F6KNB approximately about 5 QSO's into the contest (for me).



QRP is bittersweet. It's often a struggle for both the station running QRP and then for the receiving station. Some who are in contest mode won't take the time to work with a QRP signal meaning any more than one repeat, they are moving on. It's a contest, so expect a level of aggression. Since I enjoy QRP, I always made sure I would listen for the little guy when I ran as KL8DX. Now mind you, in a large pile-up, you take the loudest first and work your way down the calling list. But there are those times when timing is everything! Yes, it's possible to sneak that weak call in between BIG stations calling and be heard. A good operator will take the time to make sure they get the call and exchange correct. I have to hand it to SN5X (and several others, but I only got a few on video) for taking the time work me and get our exchange right. The video below is of me working SN5X on ½ watt!

Walking the VFO up the Band

As the afternoon progressed on Saturday, I worked the contest until around a bit after 7 pm local, or midnight UTC time. I threw in the towel until the following morning due to those "other" obligations that tend to arise over contest weekends. By the time Saturday came to an end for me, I had worked roughly 48 stations. Again, to the average ham, that's obtainable in the first sixteen minutes at 3 QSO's per minute. But I was a happy ham due to the fact that as the propagation swung west from Europe, I worked several Central & South America stations not to mention those enjoying their winter getaway down in the Caribbean. But the highlight for me on Saturday evening was working JF1NHD and KL7RA.
KL7RA has a great station and I knew that if I was going to hear an Alaskan station in this contest, it would surly be Rich's station. I captured the next video showing how strong Rich's station was here both on Saturday night and on Sunday as well.

So again, my Saturday ended on a pretty positive note. I was hoping that Sunday would see the same great propagation allowing me many more QSO's. 

2014 Winter in New England. More on the way!

As I mentioned earlier, New England has seen a pretty snowy winter. I'm actually enjoying working outside doing my snow relocation activities and it's well above zero! I loved Alaska but plowing and shoveling snow at -30F can be a bit rough at times. So for me, this winter has been easy. Now, we have received more snow here this winter than we would normally see at Denali. Our snow in Alaska was normally very dry and light but this snow, especially this last storm dump, had some weight to it. Anyhow, a large part of my weekend duties was clearing the driveway, walks, decks and of course the beagle roaming area. We have a 14½ year old beagle and when there is more than a few inches of snow, I plow a large spot in the yard just for her. I'm sure she is also enjoying the warmer temperatures as well, especially since she has to do her business outside. 
Getting back on track, Sunday turned out to be great on 15 meters as well. I was back on the air shortly after 1100 UTC once again working my way up and down the band. On Sunday, I heard contest stations working as high as 21.138! I had several stations which were strong but I could just never get their attention. In one case, I was trying to work E7DX and I apparently had a little helper. You know the station, the DX station was trying to confirm my call and for what ever reason, he was having problems copying it. It was either due to my low power or adjacent QRM. Either way, I heard another station telling him what my call was! It was either a impatient station wanting to get me out of the way so they could work E7DX or someone who felt they were doing the right thing, which they weren't. 
By the time it was all said and done, I made 150 QSO's and worked 57 countries (entities). I used N3FJP's software which gave me a nice overview of my country breakout -
AK2MA's Contest Summary Report for ARRL-DX  Created by N3FJP's ARRL International DX Contest Log  Version 3.4  www.n3fjp.com
 Total Contacts = 150  Total Points = 25,650
 Operating Period: 2014/02/15 16:53 - 2014/02/16 23:28

 Total Contacts by Band and Mode:
 Band       CW   Phone     Dig   Total       %  ----       --   -----     ---   -----     ---    15      150       0       0     150     100             --   -----     ---   -----     ---  Total     150       0       0     150     100


 Total Contacts by State \ Prov:
 State       Total     %  -----       -----   ---                147    98  HI              2     1  AK              1     1


 Total Contacts by Country:
 Country                      Total     %  -------                      -----   ---  Federal Republic of Germany     14     9  Italy                           12     8  Poland                          10     7  Croatia                          7     5  Czech Republic                   7     5  Spain                            7     5  Serbia                           6     4  Slovenia                         6     4  France                           5     3  England                          4     3  Hungary                          4     3  Aruba                            3     2  Bosnia-Herzegovina               3     2  Brazil                           3     2  Finland                          3     2  Netherlands                      3     2  Ukraine                          3     2  US Virgin Is.                    3     2  Belgium                          2     1  Canary Is.                       2     1  Estonia                          2     1  European Russia                  2     1  Hawaii                           2     1  Japan                            2     1  Slovak Republic                  2     1  Switzerland                      2     1  Alaska                           1     1  Antigua & Barbuda                1     1  Argentina                        1     1  Asiatic Russia                   1     1  Austria                          1     1  Bahamas                          1     1  Balearic Is.                     1     1  Belarus                          1     1  Bermuda                          1     1  Bulgaria                         1     1  Cayman Is.                       1     1  Colombia                         1     1  Costa Rica                       1     1  Curacao                          1     1  El Salvador                      1     1  Grenada                          1     1  Jamaica                          1     1  Kazakhstan                       1     1  Latvia                           1     1  Lithuania                        1     1  Luxembourg                       1     1  Madeira Is.                      1     1  Morocco                          1     1  Nicaragua                        1     1  Portugal                         1     1  Puerto Rico                      1     1  Saba & St. Eustatius             1     1  Scotland                         1     1  Sweden                           1     1  Turks & Caicos Is.               1     1  Uruguay                          1     1


 Total Contacts by Continent:
 Continent   Total     %  ---------   -----   ---  EU            114    76  NA             16    11  SA             10     7  AF              4     3  AS              4     3  OC              2     1

My goal is to submit for the QRP ARCI's 1,000 Mile Per Watt Award. Going into this contest, that was going to be one of my main goals. Without plugging in the numbers, I think my QSO with SN5X or IR4M would be in the area of 8,000 Miles Per Watt. Several of the stations I worked with 1 watt would also easily qualify, too. 

I uploaded a few more videos to my YouTube page and one highlights the coax run from the QRP kitchen set up to the Buddipole antenna in the upstairs hallway. We are still organizing so the clutter will hopefully be short lived. The coax runs from the kitchen, through our living room and up the stairs into the hallway where my Buddipole was standing proudly. 

I posted my first 3830 summary with this contest. I've sent my log in to the ARRL but still need to upload it to LOTW after importing it into my regular logbook. I'm hopeful many will be confirmed electronically. Any that are awaiting confirmation on eQSL will be confirmed on my next log in. 

All in all, it was a humbling experience being on this end of the pileup. Lots of great operators / stations and I had a blast. The only thing that would have made it better was being able to use my Mosley TA-34-XL for the high bands. I would have surely ventured off of 15 meters as I see on 3830 that the propagation on 10 meters was pretty good as well. Hopefully I did not bust many callsigns and there were a few questionable contacts so I opted to not put them in the log. If I did not hear the confirmation that my information was received, I did not log it. The only problem I had was several missed the "A" in my callsign and heard me as K2MA. As always, I attempted to correct the DX station and I think only a couple may have been too busy to correct it. 

As far as the weather is concerned, we are under another Winter Storm Warning for Tuesday. Seems another 4-6" of fresh snow headed to my QTH. Thankfully, I still enjoy winter so it's no big deal. That added to a bit of QRN as our transformer was busy causing me interference with the snow and wind that we encountered this past weekend. With my indoor antenna, I no longer have to worry about Mother Nature, just the other occupants of our residence. As for the family beagle, she spends most of her day sleeping so she is no threat to the indoor antenna. Other than the occasional walk by, contest weekends to her are something she is used to. She knows all to often that I won't finish anything I'm nibbling on so she gets what I don't finish. The photo below is of our beagle since I switched to drinking decaf.

Contest Dog

ARRL December 10 Meter Contest

Indoor Buddipole in the Hot Spot

The ARRL 10 Meter Contest is one of my favorites because it's all about my favorite band! And, you can do single mode or both depending on your cup of tea. Me, I of course prefer the CW only mode. I was totally bummed that I would not be able to not only compete in this contest but I had little time to devote to it. I had a goal that no matter what, I was going to take my new callsign on it's maiden contest voyage during the weekend!

As I scrambled to get my kitchen table top shack put together on Saturday, I realized the huge disadvantage I would have. The only computer I had available for software use was my Mini Dell. I was also using my Yaesu FT-857D, which had no direct connection to software due to it's very limited single comm port and I've been unsuccessful in getting it to talk to my Yaesu. So, there would be no computer generated CW as I prefer to send with the computer. In thinking even further, I realized that I did not have any contest software on my Mini Dell! What I did have was HRD (not even close to anything that I would use) and N3FJP's Amateur Contact Log (AClog) 3.3 (outdated). I originally left AClog for HRD as at that time, no updates were planned for the software. I saw other programs expanding and adding modes leading to a more all inclusive software system. The disadvantages I found with HRD and DM780 was it was not friendly to my older computers. So hearing AClog was updated, I was heading back to AClog for my everyday logging. I still planned on remaining with Win-test however, I was also going to use some of the updated contest software also available from N3FJP.

ARRL 10 Meter Alaska Records (CLICK to Enlarge)

While I was involved with the Alaska contest group, I was turned onto Win-test. I totally love this program and it will be my contest software of choice. It helped me beat personal bests and achieve a few memorable contest scores. The ARRL 10 Meter records are listed to the right and I'm proud to hold Single Operator CW for Alaska from 2011. I am sure that score will someday give way to another record holder but for now, I feel pretty proud of that accomplishment. I wrote many a blog entry from past contests in my old KL8DX blog. 

Anyhow, not having Win-test set up on my Mini Dell and only having AClog available, I figured that was better than nothing! I looked all over for my pass codes so I could download and use N3FJP's latest 10 Meter Contest program but I could not locate them! Paying the price once again for waiting to the last minute to think contest. But, I knew my effort was going to be limited and very casual so I suppose that is why the lack of urgency to get my mind, body and soul into contest mode. So, I ran with what I had. A regular logging program and sending manual CW with my Vibroplex. Oh, and not to mention trying to remember the correct call to send as I do still have KL8DX on the brain. It can be tough to erase mental habits in the heat of the moment. Sending the letter A rather than the letter K is a 180 degree difference off the starting line and I've had K calls for years! Now things flow a bit different on the electronic keyer which is less of a problem when I'm using my straight keys. With software, I would not even have to give it a second thought. 

Kitchen portable set-up Contest Style

My Buddipole antenna was tuned and set up in our upstairs hallway (photo at top) and I was ready! My first QSO was on 12/14 at 2053Z with a California station. The band sounded awesome on my indoor antenna! I was undecided if I was going to run QRP or 100 watts. I decided I wanted to see what the rig could do with full power in this contest. I was operating 100% Search & Pounce (S&P) to look for states and countries first, then adding QSO's later. The band was open from the far west to the south, Florida to California. I was only able to spend 2 hours on the air on the first jaunt, which only teased me for more! And in that first two hours, I snagged Hawaii, twice! 

Life kept me busy until Sunday and I was back on the air around 1300z. It was a Europefest! It was unusual for me to hear Europe so strong and without auroral influence! I managed several European countries and worked several familiar callsigns, including my friend Bert, F6HKA in France. I would slowly tune the VFO up and down the band and work as many that could pull my indoor Phil-a-watt out of the crowded band. It was also obvious that my new call had not made it into the Super Check database.  

Highlights on Sunday was working CT9, TK5, CN8, and a huge surprise was ZM90DX! I had to listen to that station for a few just to make sure I had it right! The excitement did not stop there as a ZS1 fell into the old logbook as well. I worked several of the big Caribbean stations and as propagation worked westward, I had my hopes of hearing Rich, KL7RA. I did hear Rich on Saturday but his pile-up kept me from even attempting. I knew with my set-up, I had to hope I could hear him on Sunday and try to snag him when the pile-up had calmed a bit (Mult strategy).

WCVB Weekend Forecast Non Propagational

While slowly tuning up the band, there was Rich for the second night with a signal of 599 +. Damn he sounded good and it had me hoping that I had sounded half as good when I operated from my old QTH in Alaska. I joined in on the pile-up and after several calls, I knew it was going to come down to the typical pile-up busting strategies. My plan was to move just a hair off frequency and then it would be all about timing. After a few more attempts, I heard a lull between those firing their calls to Alaska at the same time and I sent mine. It paid off as KL7RA made it into my logbook! I celebrated by taking another break from the rig to head outdoors and deal with the fresh 9+ fresh inches of snow that had fallen since Saturday evening. 

After spending 3 hours clearing the heavy wet snow from around the house, I made it back to the radio for my last hour. I managed several stateside QSO's with again, many a familiar callsign from contests past. I worked my last station at 2303z. 

In the end, I worked 32 states and I managed a total of 46 entities. 10 meters showed once again why I love it so darn much. You can literally work the world with little to nothing when the band is open. I only managed 185 QSO's over the weekend with a total operating time of 9 hours or so. Horrible QSO rate but again, it was S&P with many an interruption so my total time operating was much less than that. I missed finding a clear frequency and calling CQ. I very much enjoy running stations but in struggling with my set-up, I opted to just take it easy. Most everyone snagged my call the first time, several asking for a confirmation probably do to not being listed in the master callsign database. A few missed the letter "A" and sent K2MA, but I always made sure I attempted to correct them. A few in their haste may still have busted my call but for the first contest spin, I think things went very well.

Thanks to those who pulled me out of the mud! I could only think how fun the contest would be if I had my 4 element and tower up! If it was this much fun running my indoor radio set-up, it sure had to be fun for those with exterior aluminum. 

I have started to receive a few QSL card requests for my new call so I'm working with a printer on a design for my next QSL. I hope to start answering QSL's sometime in January of 2014. I've got my new call linked to LOTW and EQSL. Things are coming together slow but sure. My station is once again in a box and the antenna packed back into the bag it arrived in. I expect my next round of operating will be for Straight Key Night. I want to wish everyone the safest of holiday's and the very best of DX in 2014! Now I need to attempt converting a regular logging .adif file to a .cbr file that I can submit. Since the contest, I have located my pass codes for N3FJP's software so you can sure bet I will be downloading all the new updates and they will be readily available in the event I'm able to work the next big contest with my wanna be laptop. 

DX and Contest on my friends!