46 and counting…

I was first licensed in 1991, somewhere around the height of the sunspot activity in cycle 22, and I remember well how much fun I had at the time working the world (or at least most of it) on simple wire antennas. My first ‘proper’ ham antenna was a basic (fairly low) dipole cut for the 10m band that I managed to get working quite well on 15m and 20m. I didn’t much care how or why or how efficient it was because with this antenna I worked North and South America and Asia with ease. Little did I realise at the time just how spoiled I was and how different conditions would be at a solar minimum.
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Dean Amateur Radio antenna, propagation, Solar Cycle 24

I wrote back in March about the pros and cons of macros in amateur digital communications, particularly RTTY and PSK31. Since that time I have been much more aware of not over doing the use of macros and as you will see from the recent posts about my 30m contacts last week I have been enjoying some nice long ragchew contacts on both PSK31 and RTTY.

I have seen suggestions that if you’re looking for more than the simple rubber stamp exchanges, which can amount to no more than a brief exchange of macros, then calling ‘CQ ragchew’ might be a good idea. I’m not sure about that because I’m sure not all amateur radio operators for whom English is not their first language would understand.
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Dean Amateur Radio CQ, macro, PSK31, ragchew, RTTY

Another good little session on 30m last night resulting in a few nice RTTY contacts, especially a good long chat with Yngve (LA5FH) where we exchanged thoughts on how different programs for digimodes implement macros.

Before moving to RTTY I had spent a while working a few PSK31 stations and again (as was the case the night before) it was confined to European stations. However, I do often check the PSK Reporter* website to see where I have been heard. As you can see from the screenshot below most stations reporting hearing me were within Europe but I was also heard over 14,000km away in Perth, Australia, by  VK6GOS (CQ zone 29, one of only 3 zones I still need towards a ‘Worked All Zones’ award).

Another sign that conditions were pretty good again…?

Screenshot of PSK Reporter 30m spots for G0RIF on 5th May 2010

* PSK Reporter automatically gathers reception records of PSK activity and then makes those records available in near realtime to interested parties. They can also be viewed on a map as seen in this screenshot.

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures 30m, PSK31

…seemed to be in pretty good shape. The sunspot number of 70 certainly helps.  More please sun gods!

I was initially intent on working some PSK31 just to see what came along in response to my CQ calls but before I could get started I noticed JD1BLY (on Ogasawara) spotted down around 10.1055 MHz so I had a quick listen. Nothing heard. Maybe next time.

Having checked out the CW part of the band I tuned up beyond the PSK31/63 signals around 10.141MHz and checked out the top end of 30m where RTTY is usually found. I found a few signals but was intrigued by a station (with a good 59+ signal) dishing out rapid fire 599 reports to a run of Asian stations and apparently working split. After a short wait he identified himself as ZA/OK7RY in Albania, which although not a new one for me is not all that common.  I set up a 1kHz split and tried to get a contact but nothing doing. He just seemed to be getting through a succession of Japanese stations with the odd Russian thrown in, and a South Korean for good measure.

As luck would have it though for some reason he suddenly started working stations simplex, when it got a bit chaotic on his frequency as a number of EU stations started sending their callsign, but I got lucky and worked him within a few calls. Maybe not an all time new one but a new one on 30m!

I then moved on to PSK31 where it seemed that as good as conditions were they were favouring short skip because there were many EU stations operating PSK31 with good solid traces showing little fading and with relatively low noise levels. I set about calling CQ and was rewarded with a few nice long QSO’s with CU7CL, 9A8W and LZ1HK before turning off and calling it a night.

Dean Amateur Radio 30m, PSK31, RTTY

We live in a connected world where many people have permanent broadband access to the internet and to spotting clusters. Many hams use these DX clusters to assist in locating and working DX on the bands. I am one such ham and I would certainly not have worked all the DX I have done over the past few years without an ocassional helping hand from DX clusters. I do wonder though to what extend they can be considered a hams friend…or foe.

The reason I pose the question is this - for an amateur radio operator with a compromise antenna (such as I have) it is unlikely you will hear all of the stations spotted, even if others in your part of the world are reporting them as “loud here” or “59+20dB here”.
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Dean Amateur Radio, Life... DX, DX cluster

Using only Logbook of The World (LoTW) confirmations I applied for my mixed and 20m DXCC awards several weeks ago. Last week the certificates arrived and today I found some nice simple frames for them. They look very good and I’m now looking forward to getting the necessary confirmations (on LoTW) to apply for the phone, CW and RTTY awards.

Ever since I first became interested in amateur radio I have wanted to get my own DXCC certificate. Of itself it’s not the greatest of achievements but it’s always nice when you realise a long held ambition and I get a real sense of achievement when I look at them.

Here they are in all their newly framed glory!

DXCC certificates for mixed and 20m awards

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures 20m, DXCC

No disputing it, it’s a fact. With my compromise antenna, in marginal situations, it is very likely I’ll hear him better than he hears me (working on the basis he probably has a better antenna than mine). So, if I want to work him, I need to radiate enough of a signal for him (or her) to hear me. No antenna means I radiate no signal.

I hear and read a lot of comments from hams in antenna limited situations similar to my own lamenting the fact that they can’t put up the kind of antennas many other hams are using. To all of them I say “do not despair and just put up something…anything!” It will radiate a signal and you will work people. Granted not as many as those other hams with the big fancy antennas but you will make contacts.

Case in point, my current antenna which is (as previous posts have mentioned) a compromise multi-band wire that seems to work quite well (despite the losses recently identified in the previous blog entry) on 20m, 30m and 40m and that will additionally tune and work on 80m, 17m, 15m and 12m. I suppose 7 band coverage on 12 metres of sloping end fed wire isn’t too bad and with this antenna I have worked some nice DX in the past 18 months (116 countries) including:

Alaska, Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire (Curacao), British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Desecheo Island, Dodecanese, Faroe Islands, Grenada, Hawaii, Iceland, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Martinique, Mauritius, Montserrat, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, St. Maarten, St. Vincent, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard, Tajikistan, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela and Western Sahara.

This includes 15 all time new ones taking my DXCC total from 162 to 177. Not bad for a pretty simple compromise antenna!

I hope that this blog entry will illustrate to many of the newer hams out there, who are similarly limited in what antennas they can erect, that simple compromise wire antennas can work. I know that there are better antennas and I know that many will always say that “more…higher is better” but the simple truth is that not everyone can get “more…higher”. In those circumstances always remember that something is better than nothing so put up what you can and work some DX!

Dean Amateur Radio, Life... antenna, DX, DXCC