Category Archives: Contacts

PSK31 & Oak Island Lighthouse

Contacts, Equipment

My Tigertronics SignaLink USB came in this week from DX Engineering. Easy to set up with a couple of jumpers to get going based on the rig and then pretty much plug and play. It works extremely well with HRD’s DM780 and PSK31 Deluxe programs. As an aside, I’d buy from DX Engineering again in a heart beat. They were fantastic to deal with and had great communications through the 6 week delivery (Tigertronics is back ordered and that was known putting in the order). I couldn’t ask for better service!

The only piece I haven’t yet figured out, and I’ve made some posts looking for assistance, is how to get it to send CW. Supposedly the TS-2000 doesn’t support sending CW through the ACC2 port which is what the SignaLink connects to. There are some posts hinting at ways to make that feature work (which might involve not using the SignaLink) but I don’t have clarity yet on specifically what to do. Hopefully someone will give me something more to go on.

Tonight I fired up PSK31 Deluxe and made my first PSK31 contacts. 2 in the US, 1 in Canada and 1 in Costa Rica, all on 20m. Looked like there was a little PSK31 contest going on at the time.  I also used the SignaLink earlier in the week to grab some SSTV pictures also on 20m. Pretty neat stuff and a bunch of new modes to try out.

N4C is a special event station running now to celebrate 50 years of the Oak Island, NC lighthouse. At 50, it’s still the newest lighthouse in the US according to the operator. I’ve been to Oak Island before as my in-laws live not too far away in Wilmington, NC. Real nice op and I was glad to catch them on the air.

73s, K2DSL

IOTA Contest

Contacts, Contests

This weekend was a 1 day IOTA (Islands On The Air) contest. It lasted from 8am (1200 UTC) Sat morning through 8am Sun morning. I made a total of 43 contacts all on 20m, many outside of the US including the Ukraine, Canada, Belgium, Madeira Islands off Portugal, Scotland, Germany, France, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Bahamas and a couple to Hawaii. I looked on 40 and 80 and there was no one there that I could hear.

As the bands were opening to Europe around 7pm ET (2300 UTC) I had to leave to go to a party with my wife. Crummy timing! When we got home around midnight, I made a few easy contacts before heading off to bed as the band was empty and only a few were calling CQ. I woke up in the morning around 7am ET with 1 hour left in the contest but 20m was quiet and I didn’t find anyone on 40 or 80.

A fun contest and it was nice to get some new countries in my log.  I used N1MM for logging in the contest and when I was done, imported them into Ham Radio Deluxe. I’m also testing out a utility by WD5EAE which is working well in automating tasks when importing into HRD and automating the processing of logs into ARRL’s Logbook Of The World (LOTW).

73, K2DSL

Collins Special Event Stations

Contacts

Following up on a recent post – Special Event Stations – the Collins Radio Club is currently running a special event to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Collins Radio and the 50th Anniversary of the S-Line. There are 6 stations participating in the event, 5 of which are in the US and the other in France. Making contact with 4 of the stations qualifies you for a special certificate. Last weekend I was able to make contact with W0CXX on 20m and 40m and W5ROK on 20m. Since last weekend, the other US stations weren’t online when I was and if the DX cluster spotting would have shown them online even if I wasn’t, they showed nothing during the week for those stations.

Well last night, after dinner, I got on and N0CXX, W4CRC and W6CXX were on the air. I was able to quikcly make contact with W4CRC in Florida. The operator said I was busting through the pileup on my simple 100w G5RV. Always amazes me when they say that. It took a while longer to track down N0CXX as they were moving around on 20m. It was frustrating for a while because the op and some other contacts were rag chewing while there was a large pile up waiting to make contacts. But finally, I got in and was able to make contact with N0CXX which is located in Cedar Rapids along with W0CXX. I found W6CXX which is located in California but there was too much splatter from other stations on nearby frequencies to get a good copy on them even if I could make contact.

So I have the 4 I was looking for, but I’d like to still make contact with W6CXX if I can before the special event ends on the 20th. No one, including the other Collins ops that have mentioned it, have heard the France station online so I don’t think there’s much hope to make contact with K6FNZ for a clean sweep.

Busy weekend – contest and hamfest

Contacts, Contests, Misc

This was a busy weekend. Starting Saturday at 8am ET, the IARU HF contest started. Bands were very noisy but during the day/evening on Sat and for 30 mins on Sun morning I made 111 contacts. Countries outside of the US (though I got Hawaii again) were: Brazil, Cayman Islands, Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Ecuador, Brazil, Costa Rica, Austria, Czech Republic, Madeira Islands, Cape Verde, Canary Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, St Pierre & Miquelon, Aruba & Columbia. There were some very large pileups to cut through and my 100 watts, it was persistence vs pure power that paid off.

After making a couple contacts on Sunday morning I set off for the Sussex County hamfest. It is the largest hamfest I’ve been to so far. Took a while to just walk around. It had the usual assortment of crap that I can’t believe people would even look at let alone buy, but there was a lot of really interesting stuff to check out. One fellow had a Kenwood MC-60 desk mic I’ve been looking at picking up which he said was used twice but it looked a bit more used then that though it had the original box and instructions. He wanted $100 for it which is the same as or a bit more then you’d pay on eBay so I walked away.

I also saw the Midland 13-898B CB base station I had when I turned 13 yrs old and another vendor had the Turner Plus Three microphone I used with it. The vendor with the CB said I could take it for $5 but I wasn’t interested in bringing home something I didn’t need even it it was $5.

Saw lots of BARA club members and some other folks I also know.  Spent about 2.5 hours there and took off to head home and process the log from the contest.

Tonights contacts including a unique special event

Contacts

After eating dinner I popped on the radio and made some good contacts on 20m and 17m.  On 17m I made contact with CU7APP in Portugal. Signal was weak but we were able to make contact and exchange signals and info.  Next on 17m I made contact with Joe in the Cayman Islands. Can’t not think of the commercial/jingle when you think Cayman Islands.

Switching to 20m and just bouncing around the dial, I heard a station calling CQ. It was NU5DE which I mention in my last blog post. They are a special event station for the Naturist Amateur Radio Club. What a coincidence that I had just mentioned them and I randomly found and made contact. Bob was the operator when I made the contact.

Also on 20m I made my first contact with Italy. IZ8JAI, Domenico, was the operator. Took a couple of times but we were able to exchange signals and names. Nice to be able to check off Italy as well as a few countries I had not yet logged. Now time for the

Special Event Stations

Contacts

Something that I find pretty neat right now is trying to contact special event stations. You can find them in QST magazine or on the ARRL Special Events web page.  This past weekend was July 4th so there were a bunch available – probably over a dozen. Most seem to provide some certificate or special QSL if you are able to make contact with them and follow up via postal mail.

So, this past weekend I made contact with as many of them as I could. I found it funny that there was usually no issue contacting those that were farther away from me, yet the closest one to me I just couldn’t make contact with because I couldn’t hear them or they couldn’t hear me.  They are the NJ DX Association and they are operating the special event station W2B for a few more days so maybe I can sneak in a quick contact with them.

Looks like a few more special event stations are scheduled for this upcoming weekend. There’s a large local hamfest on Sunday and the IARU HF World Championship contest too, so plenty to do this weekend.  There’s a special event station for a Nude Awareness Celebration with the call of NU5DE. I wonder what that QSL card looks like?

There’s a bunch of special event stations this upcoming weekend for the Collins 50th Anniversary of their S-line. If you contact 4 stations, you get a special certificate. Something to try for with all the stations except one being US based and one in France.