This past weekend was the CQ WW RTTY ham radio contest. I was running 100w into my G5RV antenna and not using the cluster for spots. It started Friday night @ 8pm local time (0000z Saturday) but it wasn’t until 10:30pm that I could get on the air. I spent about 90 mins making contacts on 40m & 80m and called it a night with 50 Q’s in the log.

Saturday I was able to spend most of the day participating. I started out on 20m and checked 15m from time to time. 15m wasn’t great but it was better then in recent contests so there were mults available to work. I even managed to get three 10m contacts including one to Galapagos Islands. I imagine if more folks were on 10m we could have seen more activity there. I flip-flopped between 20m and 15m working stations S&P style. With high power stations, finding and maintaining a run frequency in the 20m band was rough. At least with filters, adjacent stations can be blocked out, but with so many stations, they sometimes overlapped. I’m sure there are tricks to knocking out 1 station overlapping another but it is quicker to move on and come back. Saturday afternoon the EU stations were coming in nice and strong. I didn’t see any JA stations but they are usually not strong and in S&P without the cluster I might just pass right over them.  In the early evening on Saturday switching to 40m turned up some more stations including some strong EU’s. At 8pm local, 0000z I needed to head to a party for 5 hours. Once I got back around 1am I got back on for 90 mins and worked 40m & 80m stations. I ended up heading to bed Saturday night with about 360 Q’s.

Sunday morning I woke up and for a short time got on the air to and logged about 25 contacts on 20m and 5 on 15m before I needed to shut things down and head to a NY Giants football game. It was a real bad game and it then took about 1 hour extra to get home, so I wasn’t on for almost 8 hours on Sunday during the prime DX time. Once I got home I scanned through 15m and logged a few before switching to 20m and again S&Ping for a bit. I decided to call CQ on 20m and found a spot though it only produced 15 US stations in 15 mins. I switched to 40m for 30 mins and worked mainly US and Canadian stations before switching to 80m with 30 mins left in the contest. I did some quick and productive S&Ping on 80m, again working mostly US & Canadian stations. With 20 mins left I picked an 80m frequency and called CQ. I worked 27 stations in 20 mins, again mostly US & Canadian station, but there were 2 stations from the Ukraine at the very end that I could put in the logs. it was a productive run to wrap things up and I ended up with 491 Q’s.

Here’s a map view of the contacts made over the weekend (click to enlarge):

Here’s the score summary:

  Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN  Sec
   3.5      68     88    7    6   21
     7     108    169   24   10   34
    14     248    504   53   18   36
    21      64    135   27   15   10
    28       3      7    3    3    1
 Total     491    903  114   52  102

 Score : 242,004

I had a real good time in the contest. I made less contacts in 2010 then in 2009 but I also spent less time operating this year, including a large chunk of time on Sunday. I wish I had better antennas to hear all the stations that seem to hear me better then I hear them. Some day… I can dream.

73 & Good DX!
K2DSL

This weekend, besides my International Space Station (ISS) contacts (see earlier posts) I ended up logging contacts in 3 different ham radio contests.

Washington State Salmon Run
Saturday and Sunday was the Washington State Salmon Run (aka QSO Party). I ended up making a few contacts each day coming out with 11 SSB contacts with WA stations in 6 counties.

North American Sprint SSB
Saturday evening (0000z to 0400z) was the 4 hour NA SSB Sprint. After you make a contact with a station, they need to QSY (change frequencies) and you get the frequency to call CQ for the next contact. After that contact, you need to QSY to another frequency. It means a single station doesn’t just call CQ over and over on the same frequency. I got going not long after the start and worked 20m for the 1st hour before moving to 40m and switching back from time to time to see if there were any new stations on 20m. At the 3rd hour I switched to 80m and made a few more contacts before calling it an early night. I was up since 4am and just after 11pm I needed to hit the sack. I imagine the last hour of the contest saw activity move to 80m but I was beat. It is nice to work the SSB contests and the folks that I typically just send dits and dahs or diddles too. Even though the sprint is a very fast paced contest, every single op took the time to say hello or nice to hear you. It’s a competitive “sport” but everyone is extremely friendly and courteous.  Here’s the score summary for the NA Sprint SSB:

 Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
  3.5       7      7    3
    7      26     26   13
   14      20     20   12
Total      53     53   28
Score : 1,484

BARTG Sprint 75
The third contest this weekend was another short one but another fun one. The BARTG Sprint 75 is a 75 baud (vs 45 baud) RTTY contest. 75 baud is faster then 45 baud and with a short exchange of just a a serial number, the exchange happens really quick. I actually was so busy with the IIS (International Space Station) that I didn’t realize the contest was underway. I joined the contest about 90 mins after it started on 20m and other then 1 lone 15m contact, all activity was on 20m. There was a fair amount of participation but plenty of room to grab a frequency and run for a bit, which I did, though I don’t think I logged more then 4 or 5 contacts in any one run before I needed to S&P for a bit.

After working the contest on and off for 2 hours and 15 mins, I stopped a little early to get ready for another ISS pass and was lucky enough to make my first voice contact which is a huge thrill. It was a fun contest though and I like the fast pace that 75 baud brings with it. 2 hours and 15 mins and contacts made with 25 DXCCs from

 Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   Sec  Cnt
   14      52     52   25    7    3
   21       1      1    0    0    0
Total      53     53   25    7    3
Score : 5,088

All contacts loaded to eQSL, LoTW, QRZ and the logs sent in for the contests.

73,
K2DSL

Just finished up the 2010 SCC RTTY ham radio contest. It’s a 24 hour contest that runs from 8am (1200z) Saturday to 8am (1200z) Sunday morning. I got started a little late on Saturday and the conditions didn’t seem too good. DX was a bit hard to come by and many of the contacts were local (US) stations. At least US stations outside of the 2 call area are worth 2 points.  I checked 15m a couple of times and it was again dead to me. I made just 2 contacts on 15m which is disappointing.

After logging a station on 15m and then going to log the same station again on 20m, N1MM crashed. I went over to the N1MM Group and saw that I wasn’t the only one. In true N1MM fashion, K3CT was working on a fix and had posted a patch. I misunderstood the instructions but K3CT set things straight and N1MM then worked perfectly.

In the late morning things picked up a bit and the DX started coming in. I even worked TA2ZF in Turkey again. Folks on the RTTY reflector were commenting on the poor conditions and AC0C noted that for him, logging me in NJ was DX for him based on the conditions. By mid afternoon things were going along well but I was set to head out for a few hours with the family so off I went. I got back in the early evening and things were still ok on 20m with the 40m activity picking up and doing well. I thought I was done for the night but I needed to pick up my daughter from a friends late in the evening, so I popped back on and made some contacts on 80m finishing with a quick scan of 20m netting me ZL3TE/1 in New Zealand before heading off to bed.

I woke up Sunday morning with a little time before the end of the contest. EU stations were weak and I had already worked the strong stations so I waited a bit and signals picked up enough to log 9 more before things ended. In the 2008 SCC RTTY contest I made slightly more contacts then I did this year while in 2009 I only made a handful.  Reading the log from 2008 I seemed to have spent much more time operating then I did this time around. I also hadn’t switched to using N1MM and MMTTY yet.

Here’s the 2010 SCC RTTY score summary:

  Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
   3.5      14     26   13
     7      55    115   34
    14     117    269   56
    21       2      4    2
 Total     188    414  105

 Score : 43,470

Contacts have been uploaded to HRDLog.net, LoTW, eQSL and now QRZ.com’s logbook as well. I’ll have to see which ops I want to send paper QSL cards to. The cabrillo log file has also been submitted for the contest.

73 & good DX,

K2DSL

As noted 2 days ago in Too many contests this weekend! SARTG NAQP NJQP + more! I was looking forward to sneaking in some ham radio contesting in between everything else. In the end, it mostly worked out like I thought it would. Friday night we had family over to celebrate recent birthdays including one of my daughters who turned 15 on Saturday. I got on near the end when folks started to leave and worked a bit of the SARTG contest Fri night. I think I ended up with about 70 contacts that evening. On Saturday I worked about 3 more hours of the 2nd SARTG section before heading off to the NY Giants pre-season game. I was hoping for a bit more 15m activity in the SARTG contest but it wasn’t happening for me. There were some contests a couple months back where 15m was hopping but that seems to have ended, at least for what I can hear.

Around 11pm local time (0300z) Saturday night I got home from the football game and started logging NAQP contacts. I spent 2 hours & 15 mins in the contest and ended the evening about 1:15am (0515z) with 76 contacts. Since it was already very late, I only logged a few strong west coast stations on 20m including Alaska. I heard KL7RA as the first station when I turned the radio on but he had a good amount of folks calling so I worked other stations before coming back to him on 20m. Its always nice to have a quick contact on SSB with some folks that are in all the RTTY & CW contests. It is a good feeling to hear them address you personally and even by name just from hearing your call sign. I ended the evening working KL7RA as my last contact on 40m. I then went to bed and slept late for me before waking up and getting on the air for the last 3 or so hours of the final SARTG section. I ended the contest with a total of 171 SARTG contacts.

The NJ QSO Party takes place over 2 days and had a portion on Saturday and a portion on Sunday. I wasn’t around on Saturday but after the SARTG contest on Sunday I listened and didn’t hear any NJ stations. I then went on 20m and started calling CQ NJQP but never had anyone answer. Seems I’m not the only one as W2LJ reported the same on his blog – NJ QSO Party – “Chirp, chirp, chirp”.  We had some pretty heavy weather in Northern NJ on Sunday with passing thunderstorms and periods of real heavy rain. When I’m posting this, there’s still over 2 hours left in the NJQP if I wanted to get on and keep trying but I don’t think I will. K2DBK had let me know that I would probably be disappointed based on his past experience with the NJQP and he was unfortunately right on with his prediction.

Here’s my score summary from the 2010 NAQP SSB ham radio contest:

   Band    QSOs     Pts  Sec   NA
    3.5      34      34   20    0
      7      32      32   21    0
     14      10      10    6    0
  Total      76      76   47    0

  Score : 3,572

And here’s my score summary from the 2010 SARTG RTTY ham radio contest:

   Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   Sec
    3.5       5      50    1    3
      7      28     290    8   11
     14     119    1430   30   12
     21       9     100    6    2
  Total     161    1870   45   28

  Score : 136,510

Thanks to all for the contacts! 73,
K2DSL

This weekend will be very busy both on the air and off.

1) When I get home from work tonight there will be a party at my house with my wife’s family to celebrate a few birthdays that have just passed or about to come.

2) Starting 8pm tonight is the first of 3 legs of the SARTG RTTY contest. The 3 legs are 0000Z-0800Z Aug 21 and 1600Z-2400Z Aug 21 and 0800Z-1600Z Aug 22.

3) Saturday is my younger daughters 15th birthday.

4) The North America QSO Party is from 1800Z, Aug 21 to 0600Z, Aug 22. That’s 2pm Saturday through 2am Sunday. It overlaps the 2nd leg of the SARTG too. A single op can work 10 of the 12 hours which is good because of #5.

5) NY Giants first NFL pre-season game in the new stadium. That starts at 7pm Saturday and I need to be there about 4pm or even a little earlier. I’ll be going with my older daughter while my younger daughter goes to a concert on her birthday with my wife. The game will last until 11pm and then it will be about 12 midnight (0400z) when I get home. This will eat into a tremendous amount of the NAQP.

6) The NJ QSO Party has 2 time slots from 2000Z Aug 21 to 0700Z Aug 22 and 1300Z  Aug 22 to 0200Z Aug 23. I’ve missed this contest the past 2 years since I’ve been away on vacation right around this time. We’ll have to see if there’s any activity for this since the SARTG and NAQP are much bigger contests. The first leg is almost completely during the NAQP but the Sunday leg is pretty much on its own.

I think I need to write this down in some graphical manner as WA7BNM does on his contest calendar and overlay in the non amateur radio events I need to attend. It will be a busy weekend!

73,
K2DSL

I’ve been extremely busy at work and had family events the past couple of weekends so I’ve not spent much time on the radio. This weekend I was able to put in a few hours on Sat & Sun afternoons and worked a bit of the WAE CW ham radi ocontest as well as some Rookie Roundup SSB contacts.

Saturday I got on the radio late in the morning and early in the afternoon and made a bunch of 20m CW contacts with stations in Europe. The WAE contests also have a operation called QTCs where you can send a batch of 10 previous contacts you’ve worked to the operator for additional points, but I’m not comfortable enough with CW to do it in this mode. I have done it in the RTTY version of this contest. I checked 15m once or twice but didn’t hear much so I stayed on 20m. By the time 40m would be active I was done for the day and had other things to do in the evening. On Sunday I had our local ham clubs annual picnic to go to so I was busy with that until mid afternoon. Once I was home I made some more contacts with European stations and though the weather outside was a bit rainy, the signals towards EU seemed pretty stong. I ended up with a total of 81 contacts in 27 different DXCCs.

Here’s my score summary:

 Band   Q/QTC  QSOs    Pts  Cty
   14    QSO    81      81   54
Total    All    81      81   54

Score : 4,374

Sunday afternoon was also the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB contest and I ended up working 12 different ops in 10 different states. What qualifies as a rookie in this contest is someone licensed in 2008, 2009 or 2010 so I just miss out. Each of the rookies I worked in the contest was extremely courteous and pretty efficient. They seemed comfortable on the air and knew the exchange well. I guess I expected a bit more stumbling but if they were nervous it didn’t come across over the air. It’s always good to hear that you gave one of them a new multiplier from the rare state of NJ! Nice job to all the ops!!

I also made 1 lone MD QSO Party contact on 80m.

Next weekend is the opening [pre-season] game for the NY Giants in their new stadium so I’ll be there for that on Sunday. It’s also the SARTG RTTY contest as well as the NJ QSO Party. For the past 2 years I’ve been away on vacation that week and missed one of the SARTG sessions as well as being out of state for the NJ QSO Party. With the Giants game being that weekend, it looks like I’ll now be missing air time for that.

73,
K2DSL – David

Saturday morning through Sunday morning was the RSGB IOTA (Islands On The Air) ham radio contest. I figured I’d pop in from time to time throughout Saturday to make a contact here and there and that’s how things ended up. Saturday was extremely hot out with the temperatures in the upper 90’s and approaching 100F.

I got on the air a couple of hours after the contest had begun and made a few 20m SSB contacts before checking 20m CW but I didn’t hear much activity there so I flipped back to SSB. I checked 15m from time to time but it was dead quiet again for me like it was during the NAQP RTTY contest. Since I was on the radio during daylight hours only there wasn’t much 40m activity either though I did log a couple of Q’s there. Late in the afternoon, the EU stations started coming in louder then the US stations and they were easier to log later in the day.

My wife and I had plans to go to dinner with a bunch of folks so before dusk we left for dinner. When we got back late in the evening about 5 hours later, I put the radio on and worked 3 stations (2 IOTA + 1 non-IOTA) before working Hawaii and Australia (Tazmania) to end things before shutting down. Always nice to end with a nice contact to Australia at a bit of 10k miles from my location.

Almost half the contacts I made were with IOTA stations worth 15 points each vs the non-IOTA stations worth 3 points each. Not that I was shooting for any big score, but you can see how big a difference there is. Logs have been uploaded to eQSL, LoTW and sent in to the contest. There is an interesting 2 step confirmation process to submitting your logs for this contest where you need to go online, add some additional information and confirm your submission.

Here’s a screenshot of the contacts made which you can click to enlarge:

Here’s the score summary:

  Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec
     7  LSB      2     18    1
    14  CW       6     42    2
    14  USB     58    486   24
 Total  Both    66    546   27

 Score : 14,742

73 & stay cool,
K2DSL

Saturday was the 2010 July NAQP RTTY contest where a single op can operate 10 of the 12 hours. I picked the first 10 hours so I operated local time 2pm to midnight. I started out on 20m calling CQ for the first hour and did ok. I then switched to S&P for 1 hour going up/down 20m getting all the other CQ’ers as well as checking 15m and 10m. 10m was completely dead and 15m wasn’t much better. I made a total of 6 contacts on 15m and they were all in that second hour of the contest. Whenever I switched back to check a quick listen, I heard nothing. I even called CQ a bit later and not 1 station responded.

I stayed on 20m switching between CQing and S&Ping when CQing responses dropped off. As the sun started to set I switched to 40m and worked stations there and called CQ a bit switching back to 20m to catch anyone new. I wasn’t seeing the action on 40m that I saw in last years contest where I logged 20% more 40m contacts then 20m contacts.  I need 40m and 80m to work the closer states and to give the state multipliers for the other bands, but that wasn’t working out well tonight.

I switched to 80m and it was solid noise. Not wall to wall ham radio operators but loud S7-S9 noise. What the heck is going on? I thought it might be something at my location, but a ham about 7-8 miles away said the exact same thing. 80m was completely unusable except for the strongest stations. I was hoping the conditions would improve, but every time I switched back, it was still bad.  I switched back to 20m late in the contest to see if I could find a Hawaii station or one from NE, SD or UT but no such luck.

Last year I had 210 contacts and 77 mults on 40m & 80m. This year the conditions were rough and I only was able to manage 133 Q’s and 51 mults on 40m & 80m. I ended up with 14 more total Q’s this year but with the conditions/activity on 40m and 80m I was down a combined total of 14 multipliers so my total score was less. If 80m was usable I would have likely blown past last years effort. Logs have been uploaded to eQSL, LoTW and sent in to the contest sponsor. Here’s hoping for less noise and more Q’s in the upcoming contests.

Score summary:

 Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec   NA
  3.5      27     27   15    0
    7     106    106   36    0
   14     198    198   43    2
   21       6      6    6    0
Total     337    337  100    2

Score : 34,374

73,
K2DSL