K1SX SO LP

235–44–21–47,255

9.5 hours, not necessarily at the best times
Genesis G11 SDR, homebrew SSPA, inv L 65-65′ w/16 radials
I actually got the SSPA heat sink hot for the first time 🙂

Still on the learning curve for how to do a 160m contest well. I made a big improvement over last year with only a few more q’s, by concentrating on mults and higher point values.
I had 19 ten-pointers. But other NE ops outscored me anyway, with much higher qso numbers. Some 3830 posters are excited about the great conditions, but to me they were mediocre to average, with deep qsb that cost a number of points. Sat. was better definitely. The crashes were luckily only occasional with the storm. I had a couple ok runs–I held down 1802.3 for a long time at one point, K3LR move over! But my runs didn’t attract the Eu callers that some seem to find. Or were they calling and I heard nothing? In the big picture I think I need more balance of running, easy s&p and the digging. Maybe a beverage can happen this spring–but that might have me calling even more stns that can’t hear me.

I heard KL7SB faintly–that was a first. CR3W was the strongest Eu throughout. I wasted a lot of calls on the very loud FM5–no luck. Yet some very weak stns also heard me.

Other members heard or wkd–AB1BX patiently running up higher in the band, W1WBB doing qrp (I’ve sworn off for 160 Bill!) , W1XX, W1HI, KA1J, W1CTN. Ri gets you some attention in this one.
73, Dave K1SX

Sorry on the E-mail it is Andrew-Clark93@nullcomcast.net DE KA1VMG

Please update my E-mail ad to Andrew-Clark93@nullcomcast.com thank you

Andy Clark KA1VMG

Conditions seem reasonable with A=5, K=1. Weather unsettled, but we can hope.
This contest tends to spread out, so I’m reminding myself to look high in the band.

Local time: Fri. 5pm–Sunday 5pm
Exchange: RST+State for us, RST + CQ zone for DX
Scoring: 2 pts. US, 5 pts NA, 10 points rest of world
Mults: States, provinces, countries (but not zones)
Assistance: This is getting complicated. Better just read the rules!
Rules: https://www.cq160.com/rules.htm

GL & 73,
Dave K1SX

Call: NG1M
Operator(s): NG1M
Station: NG1M

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 11
Location: USA

Summary: Compare Scores
Band QSOs Mults
160: 0 0
80: 217 37
40: 43 18
20: 47 18
15: 2 2
10: 0 0
Total: 309 75 Total Score 23,175

Spent Saturday on the radio. Learned a few things:
1. Need to be brave and call CQ from the onset. My run on 80M was generating rates over a 100!
2. When running you can be squeezed off the frequency by more powerful stations
3. People wanted RI – another blinding flash of the obvious
4. Bands don’t last a long as one expects – people moved off 20M & 40M early
5. Need to get the voice keyer working
6. Need to get the 160M antenna off the basement floor & up. Was asked by several folks on 80M to just to 160M for a Q / multiplier
7. AND contesting is easier when there’s no football on!

I was setting up to operate the ARRL VHF Contest this past weekend and had the idea of also using my recently purchased IC-7300 as a Panadapter/Band-Scope to monitor the Receive IF Outputs of my VHF/UHF transverters. I don’t have much experience using Band-Scopes and figured it might be helpful, and that it should work since a VHF band is converted to a 28 MHz IF, and the IC-7300 could be set up to show 200 KHz of that 28 MHz IF output on its Band-Scope screen.

While I was cabling it to my transverter control box I thought to myself it could be very bad if I should accidentally find a way to transmit on the IC-7300 up into my transverters’ RX outputs and also into my main JRC IF transceiver’s receiver. It only took a half hour to make up the Receiver Protector in the picture, and it turned out that I was actually glad I did. At several points due to inactivity on the IC-7300 controls its screen timed out and went blank with the power button flashing, so I tapped the power button for the display to come back to life. About the third time I did that, I accidentally also hit the “Transmit” button which is immediately below the power button and the IC-7300 went into transmit. Within a couple of seconds I hit that button again to stop it from transmitting, and thankfully no harm was done. Funny that I had forgotten all about the front panel transmit button when I was removing my microphone and hand key connections. Maybe it didn’t actually transmit much as its mode was set to SSB with no microphone connected and the power turned down, or possibly there was a small spike and the Receiver Protector actually did what it was supposed to do.

My conclusion was that having a Band-Scope was in fact helpful, and the under $1K brand new deal I got on my IC-7300 from DX Engineering was now even sweeter in that it added a Band-Scope to my existing VHF/UHF setup. The Contest was however as lackluster as January VHF contests typically are, with the highlights being some microwave enhancement/scatter during the heaviest part of the snowfall, and working a Rover on 50/144/222/432 MHz with “no gain” horizontal omni loops on his vehicle up on Hogback Mountain in FN32.

This type of receiver protector could be helpful with separate receive antennas for the low bands, and also to protect an SDR dongle being used as a Band-Scope with a PC. The “Antenna” jack in my case was the end connected to the potential RF source, my IC-7300. The “To Receiver” end went to my IF connection to protect the transverters’ IF outputs and the IF transceiver’s receiver input. It’s a very simple circuit which in testing both in the line, and out of the line, showed no receive loss while receiving a weak VHF beacon on the IC-7300 via the transverter, visually looking at the CW characters formed on its waterfall display as well as just listening to the beacon on the IC-7300. The beacon was the same strength with and without the Receiver Protector.

Best 73, Chris WB2VVV

Anyone else going to be doing WFD?  Here at NC1CC/wa1bxy going to be running a home station little to cold for this guy…. Going to be doing a LP M2 setup. If anyone is looking/wanting to operate for few hours or?  Going to have 2-7300 setup using mostly all wires from 160-10. but also have hustler 6btv that works extremly well, and that can be shared thru A TRIPLEXER.. If anyone is interested send me a email/message.

My 40m rotary dipole had twisted on the mast from the recent winds we have had and today I went up to re-align it. The wind had settled to under 20 mph by late afternoon, but by the time I got up there a snow squall started – really more like ice pellets. All in it was less than a 2 hour simple job, but I thought I would share a picture of the now re-aligned booms (which mitigate interaction between the antennas). My XYL took the picture of me up there. I would also have liked to have included front and back pictures of me in my full body harness with fall arrest, lanyards, and my add-on Kangaroo Pouch for tools, but was unable to select more than one image to add tp the post. That would have made a good follow-up to the recent tower safety presentation we had! Best 73, and Happy New Year, Chris WB2VVV

I didn’t even know we had a Facebook page! I liked it, then clicked on the “Learn More” button. It took me to the old -wa1rr- page!`

Fast and fun CW action. This one is good for lazy contesting using the call history file, but look out for the many club and memorial names being used. Unfortunately I will be away. In fact ur contest mgr has somehow got travel planned on almost every meeting weekend this season.
Time local 1pm Sat–1 am Sun, 10hr max for SO
Bands 160–10
Exchange Name, State
Work stations once per band
Note 100w max power.
Rules http://www.ncjweb.com/NAQP-Rules.pdf

ARRL RTTY Roundup - 2020

Call: W1AN
Operator(s): W1AN
Station: W1AN

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: USA
Operating Time (hrs): 8.5

Summary:
 Band  RTTY Qs  Dig Qs
-----------------------
   80:    99       0 
   40:   203       0 
   20:   265       0   
   15:    13       0  
   10:     0       0          
-----------------------
Total:   580       0  State/Prov = 50  Countries = 41  Total Score = 52,780

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Fun contest. Very little on 10/15M but plenty of activity to enjoy. Good to see NG1-Mike Mike active! Anyone use FT8?
Need to study the “two break rule” which limits off time to two minimum 30 minute periods. Is it too restrictive? I can see where this would penalize those who can’t dedicate full weekends. Maybe topic for discussion at next meeting.

73, John W1AN