Radio W4KAZ Thanks for stopping by the virtual KazShack. Feel free to comment - I often approve them.
|
By w4kaz, created on 2008.11.21 at 20:44:13 | last changed on 2008.11.21 at 20:44:13 | Yikes. That was a bit more like work than play, but it got better as the contest progressed.
Events leading into the test did just not come together. I missed all of the practice and audio check sessions leading up to the contest. Once the test started – too late! Also had the beginnings of the common cold during the day Saturday. Got worse on Sunday, but the voice held up.
The game plan was to start on 20m and 40m with about 60 minutes of S&P. One thing led to another, and the first QSO wasn’t logged until about 45 minutes after the start of the contest. That probably cost a few possible mults, but none that I didn’t pick up later. When I migrated to 80m, I got a quick call and a report of bad/muffled audio from someone I had worked on 40m. I suspect that in adding the 160m module to the K2, I went too far in adjusting the output filter. Since I expected the bulk of my QSO’s to be on 80m, I decided to move back to the FT-920.
Moving to the FT-920 required moving all of the audio and antenna connections. That took a bit longer than it could have if I had been feeling better. Then I had to dork around to get the audio levels from the sound card an the mike equalized on the FT-920. This is going to be a bigger problem if I ever seriously try SO2R, because the level out from the sound card needs to be set much higher for the FT-920 then for the K2. I guess a simple resistor will suffice set the level lower for the K2.
Anyway – transfer to the other radio and associated dorking around put me about 90 minutes later into the contest. 80m was beginning to pick up, but I was able to squeeze into a 4khz gap I found, and establish a decent run. I pulled the plug a bit early, and was behind where I wanted to be.
Saturday morning was spent running 40m and S&P mults on 20m. Saturday afternoon was a real mixed bag. I at no time received any answers to CQ’s on 20m. Too crowded for a LP/dipole station to be heard.
Sunday evening was back to 80m, plus the occasional foray off the band for a possible mult. Picked up OK and WTX on 40m that way.
I was happy to break the 500 QSO point this year. Using packet helped me get six extra mults over the 69 in 2007. That brought the point total up to almost equal the 2007 level. Good enough.
The Good: The FT-920 was on hand to fill in for the K2. New computer sound card was fine. 80m was floor to ceiling full of QSO’s.
The Bad: Probably the K2 problem. Since I’m almost certain it was self induced, its not a show stopper. And it seems fine on CW. Need to do some testing, and re-align for 80m.
The Ugly: Hmmm. Gotta be the head cold. Luckily, maximum “Ick” was not reached until Monday.
By w4kaz, created on 2008.11.07 at 06:41:07 | last changed on 2008.11.07 at 17:08:48 | Well, SS CW went a bit beyond my expectations. I had a modest goal of simply improving the score over that of 2007. Instead, I had my best ever QSO total for any contest from W4KAZ, logging 608 QSO’s, 78 mults, for a raw score of 94000+. Pretty good for a CW contest from the KazShack.
O’course, I did it by “cheating”.
What I mean is that I cheated myself by setting up and using packet spots, and entering the contest as class “U”. Although I operated unlimited, I did not use an amplifier. I couldn’t bring myself to cheat THAT much. So the score is nice, but it will need to be be footnoted.
There is no class in Sweeps for low power assisted, but that’s okay. I also expect my log to be torn up by the log checking process, but I was going for quantity instead of quality. Since my copy is not ever even close to 100%, I’ll lose quite a bit in the end. I can live with that too.
Using the spots helped in a number of subtle ways. I did use them to find most of the 5-land mults. I did that by combing the bandmap for the 5-landers while I looked for run frequencies. I also worked AK and AB that way. Using the bandmap of spots also showed the gaps between stations, Some of these gaps were occupied by stations that had not been spotted. Many times there was a clear run frequency, so I would stop and give running a whirl. I made it a point to spot all of the class A stations I ran across. The others I spotted if they were not already on my bandmap.
None of the runs I had on 20m lasted longer than a few minutes, and none were more productive than S&P. The dipole just can’t compete on 20m, at least not to hold a frequency in the crowd.
40m was more productive, but nothing great. I was able to manage a couple of decent rate runs, but nothing terribly productive.
On 80m my folded dipole and 100w just rocked. I guess most folks with a tribander at 40 or 50 feet have their 80m antennas hung off their towers too. My dipole is 60 or 70 feet up in a 100+ foot tall poplar tree, and is as far away from any nearby buildings as is possible in my yard. I think that difference explains it. I was able to set up an run almost at will on 80m, so I pressed that advantage.
On Saturday, I started out by S&P’ing as much of 6-land as was possible, and also picked up SK, AB, BC, and AK, all within the first hours of the contest. Signals seemed to be getting long on 20m, so I jumped over 40m to look for an early run frequency on 80m. That first 80m run went for almost four hours straight, and I had a two hour rate pushing 50/hr for most of it. It was the most productive period of the contest. After the run started dying off, I alternated between S&P on 40m and 80m and short runs on 80m.
On a side note, some dimwit tried to horn in on my 80m frequency a couple of times after I had been spotted. I didn’t see any reason to leave a frequency I had been using for almost three hours….but they finally DID see a reason to move. Sweeet. Chasing off the amplifier guys!
Sunday I opened up on 40m, and milked it for what I could during the daylight hours. A hastily set up N/S dipole on 40m gave a bit of extra coverage during the daylight hours, but was less useful overnight. I missed the 15m opening to 6-land because of a switching problem on 15. 20m was S&P, and was a mixed bag.
So I’m pretty happy overall. Things will be better if the high bands open up again. Until then, 80m is the place to be.
The SO2R box would have been handy during the slow runs.
edit 11/7/2008, 4:00pm:
The Good: Conditions on 80m were very quiet here in central NC. The K2 works very well on 80m. The extra 40m dipole payed off in QSO’s during the daylight hours. Best ever CW Qso total, best ever Qso total, best ever sweepstakes score.
The Bad: The SO2R project and band pass filters remain incomplete. End fed 40m vertical not ever better than dipole.
The UGly: None!
By w4kaz, created on 2008.10.31 at 07:22:02 | last changed on 2008.10.31 at 07:22:02 | CW Sweeps is right around the corner. The big improvement in the KazShack is obviously the K2. This will be the first time I get to try it out in a really big way. But the real test I’m looking forward to with the K2 is ARRL 160m next month.
But this weekend is Sweeps. I’m expecting to put in a lot of time for this CW Sweeps. I’ll probably start out all S&P, and look for a run freq when the initial bedlam begins to calm. Sunday would be best spent running, if I can get into a run rhythm.
I’ve been moving in several directions lately, so I have not completed a couple of shack improvement projects. The bandpass filters are on hold until I get the parts, nor have I taken the time to put together the 40m and 80 coax stub filters, and my homebrew SO2R box is incomplete. Lots of projects on hold, and the dang leaves are starting to fall.
Unsurprisingly, the station itself is again in semi disarray, but that is fairly typical. 😮
I think I’m going to toy with SO2R in a minor way anyhow. In an otherwise idle hour, I did get a run of cat5 out to the shack, and have the “new” shack computer set up for using packet spots. I’ve always looked at using spots as “cheating”. That is not to imply that it is wrong to use the spots, I just feel like it takes a lot of fun out of operating for me. So it’s actually “cheating myself”. Kinda like cheating at solitare. Anyway, I’m going to be class U, and use the spots for both Sweeps this year. Just because….. I’m gonna take one for the club.
But the SO2R will help keep me less bored while trying to run stations. As SOLP combined with a rather low CW speed of 20-22 wpm, the run rates are never very high. There should be plenty of time to click spots with the other radio. I expect to put the high band antennas on the FT-920, and 40m down on the K2. I have filtering for 40m through 10m, so I should be able to S&P up for most of the day on Sunday while trying to run on 20m or 40m. On 80m I can use the rx antennas, so I should be okay down there too.
The plan is to also have a couple of alternate antennas for 20m and 40m. On 20m I have an end fed half wave. For 40m I’m eyeing up a well sited tree for a 20 foot NVIS dipole for N/S. The permanent 40m dipole does well to Europe and the western US, but the change in orientation on 40m caused my coverage between New England and Illinois to decrease. Not ideal for Sweeps from here in NC, so the NVIS should be just the ticket to fill that void.
That last will be a last-minute-Saturday-morning project. Just to set the mood. 😮
By w4kaz, created on 2008.10.30 at 07:13:28 | last changed on 2008.10.30 at 07:13:28 | Bruce posted the N1LN score to 3830. It looks like we have a possible fourth place showing. We logged2564 QSO’s, with 131 zone mults and 460 country mults. Total Score = 3,891,144.
It really was a blast. It is gonna take some work, but I think we can move up the food chain a bit. We should be competitive with WR4M.
By w4kaz, created on 2008.10.28 at 06:12:48 | last changed on 2013.04.18 at 17:58:38 | This was the first crack at operating N1LN for a DX contest and a 48 hour event. Bruce has the station set up for Multi-2, and that’s the way we operated. Murphy appeared before and during the contest. N1LN was in a car accident the week before, and NT4D was out recovering from an operation. Murphy took out one of the K3’s with an AGC problem at 5:00am Sunday morning.
Beyond that, everything seems to be working according to N1LN’s expectations. It was a lot of fun running stations, but I’ve decided the most difficult thing about running stations is the boredom when things are slow. I also need to figure out how to find good run frequencies. It was very difficult at times to get a run established, especially on 20m.
I’ve also decided the CW ops are right – SSB contesting stinks! (Well, sometimes.)
It is amazing to hear stations that are normally not heard on the low wire antennas. I saw a spot for an HS0 on 20m, and sure enough I was able to hear him. I also heard the huge pileup of west coast stations calling him. Since the contest was about rate, I tried only as couple of calls before moving on.
It was fun to be able to run EU stations on 40m just after their sunrise. I was called by a ZL, and I’m still not sure if it was off the rear of the beam or a long path gray-line contact. The timing was right for gray-line. After turning the beam 180 degrees, I was able to work a couple of ZL’s and VK’s. I put the 40m yagi back towards Europe after a few minutes, not wanting to lose the mostly clear frequency into EU.
Operating is a far different proposition from such a station. There’s a lot to learn.
A lot of fun too.
By w4kaz, created on 2008.09.29 at 19:52:09 | last changed on 2008.09.29 at 19:53:36 | Time to read the rules for 2008 Sweepstakes.This is the 75th anniversary of Sweepstakes, so be sure to page all the way down to the bottom of the rules to see the ARRL special goodies.
Just in case a long sting of contesting gives you a case of “Butt-in-chair-syndrome”, there is now a solution available.
The annual update of the Sweepstakes Tips and Tweaks is also under way.
By w4kaz, created on 2008.08.19 at 17:43:47 | last changed on 2008.08.19 at 17:46:17 | Many thanks to Bruce and Laurie for hosting the group. I know I had a great time operating their station.
For NAQP SSB I was part of that group, including N1LN, N1YXU, NT4D, KA1ARB and myself, W4KAZ. We operated Multi-2 from the N1LN station under the NC4KW call sign. Final score 195,880 with 1180 QSO’s and 166 mults before log checking.
Bruce let us show up a bit early to give us a few quick lessons on the station. This was the first time any of the group has guest op’ed at their location, so its going to take a few stabs to get all of the ducks in a row. Despite the new situations, everything seemed to go pretty well. Murphy refused to put in an appearance, despite the green ops. The easy station layout helped.
The equipment was all functioning as expected, and the antennas seem to play as well as I expected, i.e., much, much better than my few simple wire antennas strung out from the KazShack. We didn’t do a lot of jockeying the antennas, but it didn’t really seem necessary. Conditions were the least cooperative aspect of the weekend, as 10m and 15m did not open as we had hoped they might. The low band noise levels were high, as the storms seemed to be plopped right in our
At the outset, we started on 20m and 15m but the lack of any signs of life on 15m made that seem a futile waste of time. So the 15m station moved down to 40m. But even 40m was slow. 20m was the best band at the outset but rates there were not very high either. 40m began showing signs of life as folks seemed to begin migrating down due to conditions. When NT4D turned the 40m station over to me, I noticed the rate had been creeping up there. At some point after I turned it over to KA1ARB, the 40m station got out ahead of the 20m station.
Closing in on the 400 QSO point before dinner time, I was over on the 20m station and N1LN was on the 40m station. Bruce had hit a lull, and 20m activity picked up a bit. I finally got the 20m station caught up at 190 Q’s each, but N1LN soon had a flurry of QSO’s on 40m, and didn’t look back. When Bruce and I gave up the chairs to catch a bite to eat, we could hear NT4D and KA1ARB tearing into the after-dinner pileups. Rob was having good rates on 40m, and we had our best rates of the contest then.
As the evening progressed 40m mostly kept delivering a slow but steady trickle of QSO’s. Later in the evening I moved the 20m station down to 80m, and still later down to 160m as rates on 20m slowed.
Overall I probably operated about six hours total. Without a formal plan, I think the team was good at giving up the chair for the other ops to participate. At the end, I was begging someone to pull teeth on 160m. That was a bit too much of a grind.
I think the N1LN station is going to become well known in the Multi op and M/2 classes, and Bruce is going to have a blast operating SO2R. Their station plays well on 40m and 20m. I’ll need to reserve opinion on 15m and 10m. The K3 is a damn strong radio, and it seems to be a S&P op’s dream rig, given the filtering.
It seems like the propagation favored the Gulf coast, based on the huge score reported to the 3830 reflector by NX5M and by W5KFT. Those guys really kicked butt on 20m. I suspect W5WMU will also turn in a good score. But I think for a maiden voyage shakedown cruise, we probably did pretty well as NC4KW. The propagation for NAQP from our NC QTH sure didn’t deliver that extra 1300 Q’s we would have needed to win, but I think we will be competitive with the regional stations.
We shall see, as I expect to be ready to grab the mike and make some noise as often as I am welcome to join the fun.
I hope that coincides with good propagation soon!
By w4kaz, created on 2008.08.09 at 19:10:37 | last changed on 2008.08.09 at 19:13:27 | This turned out a bit better than I expected, despite the pop-up T-storms in the area all afternoon.
I’m always a bit leery of the August NAQP’s. My first radio in the shack after re-licensing in 2000 wound up being zapped by a nearby lightning strike in the midst of NAQP in 2001. It turns out one of my neighbors had more three houses over had a lot more damage. We think it hit the utility pole in front of his house. It seemed to come into everyones house via the CATV lines. My CATV boxes were shot, and the CATV lines cross the shack where the antennas come in. But the radio was toasted via the connection to the computer. The radio’s CPU was shot.
Come to think, NAQP has been an expensive contest. I lost a power supply in January NAQP. Hmmm…
So the T-storms always give me cause to pause. The WX at 1800z wasn’t looking good, but I decided to give it a whirl. I checked 10m first, and there were signals. Hot Dawg! After three quick Q’s, There’s a loud static crash on the radio followed by a distant rumble of thunder. Plug Pulled PDQ.
THAT didn’t last long.
After a few hours but-not-in-chair, around 2030z a check of the local WX radar seemed to show the KazShack QTH would be in a hole between the scattered storms, so I hopped back on. After a short bit of S&P, I got in a short run on 20m of about 70 minutes duration, then broke off again for dinner with the family.
After dinner, I hit the waves again about 2250Z, and operated until about 0400z. I did only enough S&P to find a decent run frequency. My goal was to practice running on CW. I met that goal easily enough. I was only able to run at about 22wpm, because I was just not copying well enough to try to get up to higher speeds. Despite the relatively low CW speed, at one point the 10 minute rate was over 125/hr several times, and I had a 90 minute rate up to 70/hr at the peak. That’s easily the highest rate I have ever run on CW, even in contests with a simpler exchange. Great news.
After the slow start, I sort of fell into the groove. I really started to feel comfortable running CW, and that was really cool. When there is more confidence in the accuracy of my copy, it will be a major milestone even if the comfortable CW speed is below 25wpm. Pushing the CW speed up to 30wpm is the next target beyond 100% copy.
There is of course still tremendous room for improvement. I’m sure my score will be demolished in log checking. My error rate will be terrible. The new goal is clean copy. Aim for less than 1% errors(be happy under 3%)
The Good:
- Great CW rates on 15m and 20m. Decent high band conditions for late summer.
- Best sustained CW rates I’ve been able to manage.
- K2 is a great contest radio. Excelsat S&P in a crowd. Learning the features.
- The interference between the ft-920 and the K2 are not so bad. Tested with the 20m stub in place on the K2 and the 40m bandpass filter on the FT-920. Rudimentary SO2R might be possible on a budget.
The Bad:
- I’m expecting the log checking to decimate my score because of a high error rate. GET IT RIGHT
- Copy skills need a lot of work, as I needed a lot of fills due to not copying the exchange the first time. GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.
- Practice is also needed in pulling call signs from pile-ups. THAT’s a new experience. GET AT LEAST ONE PARTIAL FROM EVERY PILE-UP.
The Ugly:
- Horrid noise levels on 40m and 80m. I never even checked 160m. Pulled the Plug at midnight local. Ick. I sure hope its better for SSB.
- Thought the T-storm had snuck up on me at the start. CHECK THE WX RADAR.
Class: Single Op LP, .......Operating Time (hrs): 6.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 9 7
40: 49 26
20: 149 41
15: 77 26
10: 17 9
-------------------
Total: 301 109 Total Score = 32,809
By w4kaz, created on 2008.08.01 at 05:44:37 | last changed on 2008.08.12 at 12:39:33 | Update, Aug 1st 2008: New photos added to N4A website
The N4A trip with N4YDU and K4CZ was great. (Check out the N4A website for more photos, more to come soon.) Having K4CZ along made the set up a snap, and we had good weather too. Outstanding. The calm weather had the ocean calmed, and the water at the beach was postcard perfect all weekend. While checking in for our room, the ranger noted that the previous week’s tropical depression had washed lots of shells ashore. The conch shells near the campground had already been gathered, but the tide line was covered with all sizes of clam shells, some of which were five or six inches across. Hugh.
 
“Good” weather is relative. It was still hot, pushing 90ц, but the humidity was somewhat less than normal because of a cool front in the area. We were able to set up in relative comfort for July at the NC coast.Instead of suffering from near heat stroke, we were merely hot and sweaty.
The station set up went well enough. Propagation conditions did not really open to Europe very well, so most of our QSO’s were with domestic stations. The noise levels on 80m were high, and 80m wound up being almost entirely useless. 40m was similarly disappointing, with high noise to signal ratio’s.
K4CZ and I had a chuckle about Saturday evening. After a long day, with little sleep the previous evening, and then running stations for nearly four hours, rates slowed Saturday evening and N4YDU hit the relatively early sack for some well earned sleep. The cabin is small, basically one room. K4CZ and I had the audio on speaker, and were sometimes not sure of some of the faster exchanges. N4YDU was answering our exchange questions in his sleep! The man really is a CW machine.
Our final score was significantly better than last year, but it looks as though we may have been outdone this year. We wound up with 635000+ points on 882 total QSO’s and 134 mults. That’s almost 300 more QSO’s than 2007. My own personal goal was for the group to reach 750 QSO’s, and we made that. So I’m pretty happy with the operation, even if another team has done better.
It was a great weekend.
By w4kaz, created on 2008.07.27 at 19:13:01 | last changed on 2008.07.27 at 20:43:07 | I’m only back from the Cape Lookout expedition for a couple of hours now, but the activation of NA-067 from near the Cape Lookout lighthouse was a load of fun. We got excellent WX(for July in NC), the company was great, and conditions provided better results than the 2007 attempt. I’m tired, need a hot shower, and I’ll need to unpack some of the gear to get to the logs, but it looks like we’ll wind up with about 875+ QSO’s and over 120 mults.
!!!!!!!! . Way Cool . !!!!!!!!
We have a slew of great photos taken by N4YDU(and a few by W4KAZ) in the pipeline….coming real soon now.
|
|
