I’d been looking forward to this event because I was hoping I might get on the bands for a few hours for the first time since a 20m CW QSO with K9OM on the 15th of August, over 5 weeks ago.
In three sessions I made approximately 60 contacts spread over the 40, 20 and 15m bands. Conditions seems pretty good overall (sunspot number up at 57) and I was particularly surprised to find how late into the Saturday evening 15m remained open down to Central and South America. Very different to earlier in the year when I was hearing very little on 15m much after 5pm local time (16:00 UTC)…although I’m prepared to accept that my antenna will always be a limiting factor. However, same antenna then and now so things certainly seem to have improved with Argentina, Brazil, Aruba, Galapagos Islands, Kuwait and the Dominican Republic all worked on 15m on Sunday evening.
Although no new countries were worked during the contest, in spite of my best efforts to get through a minor pile-up trying to work a Chinese station (yes, I still need China despite having already worked most of the surrounding countries), I did work two new US states towards my WAS award, New Mexico in the form of WA5ZUP and Wyoming in the form of WY7SS. That is now 45 of the 50 states worked with just Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska and Utah still needed.
It was nice to get on the bands again and nice to hear so many strong RTTY signals (on 15m in particular). I’ll be hoping it’s not another 5 weeks before the next time and not too long to the next new one!
Dean Amateur Radio contest, DX, RTTY, WAS
This weekends WPX CW contests is fast approaching. As usual I’ll be hoping that there are a few new ones to work. This year though I also have another objective in mind.
I have been reviewing my Logbook of The World (LoTW) confirmations and in so doing I have drawn up a shortlist of 20 of those countries I have worked but where I still need a LoTW QSL. Many of these are countries I should have no trouble working and none of them are particularly rare.
Algeria, Argentina, Azores, Belgium, Ceuta & Melilla, Crete, Gibraltar, Greenland, Ireland, Japan, Jersey, Macedonia, Malta, Northern Ireland, Senegal, Slovakia, Svalbard, Tunisia, Turkey, Wales
Some of these would usually be overlooked as I tune the bands looking for more exotic DX. Not so this time - if I can snag 15 of those 20 I will have the required 100 LoTW confirmations to submit my CW DXCC application.
The trick now of course is to work as many stations as possible from each of those countries in the hope that at least one from each country uses LoTW.
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, DXCC, LoTW, WPX
According to Spaceweather.com a ’sunspot is emerging’ although it has not yet been officially numbered. This looks like it might break the recent 12 day spotless streak. The sunspot number is currently 12.
If this is the start of a significant sunspot (and it doesn’t subside and amount to nothing) then I’m hoping it is the start of a little solar activity just in time for the CQ WW WPX Contest next weekend (29-30th May).
A little help from the sun would be nice and might just lead to some new ones being logged!
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, propagation, sunspots, WPX
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I arrived home from work yesterday evening to find this colourful QSL card waiting for me confirming a recent CW contact in the RSGB BERU contest.
This QSL card was sent to me direct by the father (Ron) of the 5H3EE operator (Mike) after I submitted my online QSL request and made a small PayPal payment to cover the postal charges.
I think this is a really nice setup and one I have seen (in similar form) and taken advantage of on other occasions.
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5H3EE QSL card
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It makes it quick and easy to get a card with the minimum of fuss. In this instance I received an email confirming I was in the log before I made any payment. This advised of the PayPal account to credit. After that I had another email to confirm all ok and that card would soon be dispatched.
A big thank you to Mike for the QSO and for the new one and also to Ron for his great work in running this service.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures 5H3EE, contest, CW, QSL
I have noticed a number of discussions on forums recently where radio amateurs are asking questions like:-
- Is it ok for me to work a contest station?
- Will I ‘muck up their logging’ if I’m not in the contest?
- Can I use a contest contact for DXCC purposes?
These are just a few of the questions asked - there are many more along similar lines. The simple answer to all of these questions is this - as long as you exchange the required information (according to the rules of the contest in question) and the contest station logs the exchange, it’s a contact the same as any other in your log. You don’t have to submit a contest entry for it to count.
Read more…
Dean Amateur Radio contest, DXCC, propagation
This weekend sees the annual 24 hour RSGB Commonwealth (BERU) contest on the air from 10:00 UTC Saturday the 13th of March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday the 14th of March 2010. This is a CW (Morse code) only contest for amateur radio stations located in member states of the British Commonwealth. This means it’s usually easier to work some nice DX because the DX isn’t working the whole world! Pile-ups (such as they occur) are considerably less intense.
Band conditions seem to have been pretty good with the sunspot number up at 32 as I write (Sunday 09:24 UTC). Solar cycle 24 certainly seems to be making a difference because I don’t remember hearing anything like the number of VK and ZL stations I’ve heard this year. Add to that the fact that I actually managed to work New Zealand on 20m for a new one, Australia on 20m and 40m and South Africa on 20m it was a lot of fun. An added bonus was picking up another new one on Saturday afternoon, 5H3EE (Tanzania) on 20m.
All in all it was a good weekend even if I was unable to spend as much time on the bands as I’d hoped. I worked stations in Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Cyprus, St Vincent, Montserrat, Canada and South Africa. Much improved from last year and certainly enough evidence to suggest that next years contest will be even better. See you in BERU 2011!
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, morse code, propagation, Solar Cycle 24
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
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 spent a few hours in total on 40/20/15m giving away a few points and logging about 60 contacts in total. I wasn’t trying to rack up a score and on that basis there were many stations I might have worked that I chose not to call, passing up the more common entities and tuning the bands looking for stations located in more remote or less common entities.
The highlight was the previously mentioned (see previous blog entry) VP2MNK in Montserrat (on 20m) for an all time new one. In addition I worked another 26 countries (24 on 40m, 8 on 20m and just the USA on 15m) including Austria, Belarus, Canada, the Canary Islands, Corsica, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Serbia and Slovenia.
Dean Amateur Radio contest, RTTY, WAE