Indigo Foxtrot…

A little over a week ago I wrote that I was hoping to get on the bands for this contest. The only requirement was that I’d need to fix my wind damaged antenna. Well that was done and I did enjoy several hours giving away points seeing how many countries I could rack-up during a bit of casual operating.

Conditions (on the bands I used, 40/20/15m) seemed to me to be better than for the CQWW CW contest last November with 15m in particular showing increased activity (with only 1 contact there in the CW contest).

My 107 contacts yielded 46 DXCC entities which are shown in this table:-

WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. 46 countries worked (36 on 40m, 21 on 20m and 11 on 15m)

I adopted my usual (for now) contest approach of seeing how many countries I could work while giving away points to those who are looking to compile a competitive score. I reckon on 50 countries being a sensible target given my compromise antenna and to that end I am pleased with 46 countries worked in what amounted to some 5 or 6 hours operating over the 48 hour contest period.

Quite unexpectedly the highlight of my operating occurred within the first 5 minutes of my first stint early on Saturday morning. I’d popped outside to [quite literally] lash the far end of the antenna (which remember is a random length sloping end fed Zepp) to the back fence and then fired up the rig (Yaesu FT-950) on 40m, which just happened to be tuned around 7.080MHz, higher in the band than I’d usually go looking for RTTY signals, and there he was, PJ4R (Bonaire & Curacao) calling CQ WPX. I worked him within a few calls for one of the easier new ones of recent years. Having not been on the bands previously this year (due in part to the broken antenna) this was also the very first log entry of 2010. What a way to kick-start the year!

WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. Geographic spread of the 46 countries worked,.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, DXCC, FT-950, RTTY, WPX, Yaesu

This contest is almost upon us and it may well be the incentive I need to get my antenna fixed, it having suffered what I’m assuming is wind damage to the extent it’s been lying on the ground now for a week or more.

I had been contemplating a change to the antenna to move from my existing (but broken) end fed Zepp to a 40m OCF (off centre fed) Windom (with 14m and 7m legs) fed with coax via a 4:1 balun. That may now have to wait as time is short and I’d rather go with what I know at this late stage.

In time I will construct and test that 40m Windom and if it works I’ll see about installing it at home. For now though I’ll just be glad to get on the bands for a few hours regardless of what antenna I’m using.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, RTTY, Windom, WPX

Well that’s it - January 2010 is no more. Over, done, finished! Blink and you would have missed it. It’s now February the 1st and before you know it winter will recede and give way to spring.

So, what did January 2010 give us? Not a lot to be fair. I was QRT for the whole of the month and my only forays onto the bands were occasional listens to 20m and 40m where I heard little of interest. I really do need something to re-enthuse me. I keep thinking I should get back to working more PSK31 on 20m but so far I haven’t even got round to doing that. I’ll hope to address that during February.

January 2010 will likely be most remembered for the cold snap and the accompanying snow and ice that brought the UK to a near standstill. That is now thankfully passed and not to be repeated anytime soon with a bit of luck. Roll on warmer weather, longer days and improving HF conditions as cycle 24 starts to gather momentum.

Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Life..., Totally random 2010, antenna, January, QRT, Solar Cycle 24

I like to confirm as many of my amateur radio contacts as possible by traditional paper QSL cards. It’s always good to receive them back direct from another amateur radio operator but the card that arrived today (seen below) from Andy, KB1KYN on Nantucket Island, was a particularly nice surprise.

KB1KYN QSL card

reverse of KB1KYN QSL card

This QSL card confirms a contact mentioned earlier in this blog back in September 2009 when operating portable from Barr Beacon. The location is seen in this picture taken on the day of the contact in question. Running about 80w SSB on 17m into a vertical dipole antenna from a battery powered Yaesu FT-857. This is the view to the south overlooking Oldbury and West Bromwich. These picnic tables make for ideal operating positions and there is lots of space for erecting antennas. While I tend to operate HF from this location other operators enjoy working VHF, UHF and microwave bands from this lofty position. On a nice sunny summers day this is a very enjoyable way of getting on the bands with a modest radio and a simple wire antenna and seeing what DX can be worked while you enjoy the view. I’d like to thank Andy for the card and for the contact back in September last year.

G0RIF/p setup

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, dipole, KB1KYN, portable, QSL, vertical

A bit of a mixed bag really with no new ones, not even one, but some nice DX worked, especially on 40m on the Sunday evening. Overall I made 85 contacts (a result of more tuning & listening than transmitting) with 48 DXCC entities logged over the weekend in several sessions on 15/20/40m bands. Details on a separate page which is here - CQWW CW contest 2009 - summary - or linked from the Radio menu above.

the 48 countries logged - CQWW CW Nov 2009

On a less serious note I have to award my ‘biggest signal on the band’ award to G3WW who was booming into Lichfield at S9+60db at very least. I’d be interested to know just what antenna was in use to get such a big intra UK signal.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, DXCC, morse code, propagation

I wasn’t expecting much having decided to give out a few points in the WAE (Worked All Europe) RTTY contest this weekend. Things seemed to be going well with plenty of stations worked on 40m, 20m and 15m (15m in particularly working very well into North America).

Around 16:25 UTC I noticed a spot for VP2MNK on 20m so with this being a potential new one for me I tuned in and listened to see if I could hear him. He was peaking about strength 8 with me but fading badly. I’d need to get lucky if I was to work him, especially as he seemed to be working a run of calling stations, most of which were likely louder than I would be.

I called several times in the next 20 minutes or so, coinciding with his signal peaking at my end, trying to figure out his operating pattern. It struck me he seemed to wait quite a while at times before coming back to a calling station, as if he was waiting for people to make a second call rather than prompting it with a QRZ? or AGN…?

I modified my macro to send my call 4 times rather than my more usual 3 and delayed sending by a few seconds, hoping my call would get some ‘clear air’ when others ended. It seems to have worked because at 16:40 UTC we made the brief contest exchange and he was in the log for country number 169 (and the 94th from this QTH with my compromise antenna).

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, Montserrat, RTTY, VP2MNK

I’ve seen a lot of mention recently of WSPR being used by amateur radio stations on various bands. Of particular interest is what seems to be increasing activity outside of the 30m band, the traditional ‘home’ of WSPR.

My rig was tuned to 30m last night so before venturing onto new bands I had a quick refresher course on 30m. I left things running for about 45 minutes, not long I know but this can often yield lots of spots and stations heard. Results last night were disappointing - despite a few moderate to strong traces seen I had no stations decoded at my RX and my signal wasn’t ’spotted’ by any stations (WSPR spots database).

Conditions weren’t great to be fair and sometimes it doesn’t take much differences in signal to noise ratio to make all the difference in the world when it comes to decoding very weak WSPR signals. I know the antenna works kind of OK on 30m though because I worked K5D on that band back in February.

I’ll try again in the next few days and then move on to 40m where I hope to conduct regular tests to gauge how well my antenna works on that band.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, propagation, WSPR

A chance to try and work a few new ones. Unfortunately I only heard one station that would have been a new one for me, ST2KSS in Sudan on 15m, a band on which my antenna doesn’t work particularly well. I tried to call him many times but he had lots of loud stations calling him whenever I could hear him (and he was never more than strength 7 with me) so no QSO resulted.

Over the two days (in what amounted to about 2 hours operating) and making only selective calls I logged 35 stations (40m=17 20m=9 15m=8 10m=1) in 32 different countries - they were:-

Aland Islands, Balearic Islands, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, European Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Kaliningrad, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Madeira Island, Morocco, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine, USA and Wales.

Not a bad little haul but no new ones. I’ll hope for better luck and better propagation for the CW contest at the end of November!

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, propagation, SSB

This in a report yesterday (Wed 14th Oct 2009) at SpaceWeather.com entitled ‘Deep Quiet’. Today will be the 14th such day and there is no sign at the moment of when this streak might be broken.

So far this year, the sun has been spotless 79% of the time, topping the 73% mark recorded in 2008. Cycle 24 seems to be a long time coming and there have been a few false dawns. Long after many forecasters thought that solar minimum would be finished, the quiet is not only continuing, but actually deepening. So much so that some are now asking “are sunspots gone for good?”, as this article on the NASA website explains.

Opinion is divided - those suggesting a decline say that “sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year, if we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015″ whereas those with a more positive outlook say that “other indications of solar activity suggest that sunspots must return in earnest within the next year.”

I for one am hoping that the optimists are proved to be correct in their assessment rather than those predicting a gradual decline. Shortwave propagation is much improved when there are lots of sunspots and those of us with modest antennas really need all the help we can get!

Dean Amateur Radio, Totally random antenna, propagation, Solar Cycle 24, sunspot

Another sunny Saturday afternoon found me (G0RIF), Richard (M0SNR) and Luke (M3VVB) at Barr Beacon for what might have been our last portable operation from there this year. I was working a bit of HF (20m and 17m) while Richard and Luke worked VHF (2m) and UHF (70cm) with a SOTA beam on an 8m pole.

I set-up on 20m with my FT-857 (80w SSB) and one of the Par Electronics EndFedz in a vertical configuration. I found 20m to be quite busy and the band seemed to be in decent shape. Unfortunately the Scandinavian activity contest started at 13:00 local time after which the band was very busy. In a little over an hour on 20m I worked stations in Ukraine (EM0WFF), Switzerland (HB9VELO), Hungary (HA6NW), Belarus (EV6DX), Finland (several including Greg, OH2FFY/m with a full size 20m vertical), Sweden (several) and Japan (JA7NVF). Greg has posted a video he made during our 20m QSO which you can see here.

Eventually, due to the number of contest stations, 20m got a bit too wall-to-wall with big signals so I switched to 17m, again with an end fed vertical dipole (another of the Par EndFedz). Conditions on 17m were pretty good and I worked stations in Cyprus (5B8AP), USA (long chats with Andy, KB1KYN on Nantucket Island and Frank, K0FPL in Kansas City), Madeira Island (CT9/SP9CTT) and the Canary Islands (EC8AVA) before the DX catch of the day. Calling CQ at about 13:40 UTC I heard a good solid 58/59 signal come back to me in the form of Des (ZS1ZY) over 6000 miles away near Cape Town! We had a nice chat before QRM at his end overwhelmed my reported 33 signal. I think this demonstrates what can be achieved with a modest portable station and I was very pleased to work down into South Africa with my simple vertical dipole antenna and 80 watts of single sideband transmitted signal.

All in all we had a good afternoon in the sun. My little bit of HF DX was supplemented with some nice continental catches for Richard and Luke on 2m (Germany and The Netherlands). We’re all now waiting and wondering when we might next get out…and wondering whether or not conditions will be as favourable next time. I sure hope they are.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, dipole, DX, EndFedz, FT-857, Par Electronics, portable, propagation