Radio W4KAZ

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RBN Spot Counts, CQ WPX CW 2017

By w4kaz, created on 2017.07.15 at 13:45:35 | last changed on 2018.07.15 at 13:46:03 |

To get an idea of the efficacy of the Red Pitaya skimmer set-up, I pulled spot counts from the RBN via screen grabs off of the ‘Spots Analysis Tool’. Â During the 2016 contest the skimmer station at W4KAZ was run with softrocks as the skimmer SDR, skimming only 160m/80m/40m/20m. Â 15m was better during 2016 than 2017, but the softrock for 15m was not reliable enough to run during a contest.

With that caveat, the W4KAZ spot  counts from 2017 are quite a bit better than those from 2016.  This reflects skimming 6 bands in 2017 as well as improvements  due to Red Pitaya vs Softrocks(2016 skimming was for only 160/80/40/20)

Spot counts from RBN for the CQ WPX CW of 2016/2017. Â They are grouped by continent and sorted from high to low spot counts.

There are 4,489,640Â total RBN spots for the period of the 2016 contest.

There are 4,431,759 total RBN spots for the period of the 2017 contest.

http://w4kaz.com/images/pages/skimmer_spot_counts_wpx_saturday.htm

http://w4kaz.com/images/pages/skimmer_spot_counts_wpx_sunday.htm

Despite a similarity in the total number of spots, the spot distribution shows the counts for Europe significantly higher in 2017 vs 2016. Â In North America, the spot counts on

last changed on 2018.07.15 at 13:46:03 | Category: Curiosities | Leave a comment

2017 FD @ N4GU as AA4NC – Still No Will

By w4kaz, created on 2017.07.15 at 13:42:17 | last changed on 2018.07.15 at 13:43:00 |

The 2017 Field Day is in the bag. Â Operated with the group as AA4NC at the farm of N4GU’s XYL. Â Showing a surprising lack of judgement for a second year in a row, AA4NC again allowed us to use his call, despite a shoebox full of notices from last year’s operation. Â Still No Will….but N4GU, N3ND, N4YDU, N9NB, W4BBT and W4KAZ all on the air.

2016’s as-yet-undocumented FD last year was done as class 2A, while for 2017 we rode with class 3A. Â Given the improved conditions on 15m/10m/6m, that was quite a bit less boring than I expected. Â Gave N4YDU grief for wanting to run that third station for the high bands, but they were maybe the money bands this year. Â Great call on N4YDU’s part. Â With so much activity on high bands through the evening and mid-watch, 80m under-performed. Â Boooo. Â Hoooo.

Stations:

2017 FD – 15m/10m and 6m stations

2017 FD – The REAL Night Shift

2017 FD – The “40m station”

We ran 2 stations on N4GU’s 1kw generator, and ran the third station and VHF stations on deep cycle batteries. Â The two stations on generator power were Elecraft K3’s, and the battery station was a Kenwood TS-590. Â VHF was run on the Kenwood until N9NB arrived with an Icom 703. Â Battery power for the 590 was two deep cycle batteries paralleled and connected to a solar cell, and […]

Continue reading 2017 FD @ N4GU as AA4NC – Still No Will

last changed on 2018.07.15 at 13:43:00 | Category: Antennas, Contesting, Operating Events | Leave a comment