Spring Comes in Like a Lion...

Well, March has been a really busy month for me.  I was ill, so I had more time to #occupyhamshack.  I’m feeling much better now, thank you, and I’m dying to get out for a road trip or two.  With a day left in the month, I’ve have 881 contacts so far.  That, of course, includes the ARRL International DX contest and the CQ WPX contest, but still that’s too much time on the radio.

I blame JT65HF.  I’m a “multitasker” by nature, and I find that I can watch the news, keep up with Twitter, play Microsoft Hearts, and never miss a contact on JT65.  It’s just my wife and I, and I have the radio shack/man cave at one end of the house, and she has her craft room at the other end and neither of us watches much television.   At first I thought I would quickly run out of unique contacts on JT65.  After all, how many people are going to use such a limited means of communications?  It’s only thirteen characters and it takes minutes to make a contact.   And yet, here they come.   From the Falklands to the North Pole, they’ll piling up on 14.076, 21.076, etc., and I work ‘em all.

And then there is Twitter.  I really enjoy my Hamtwit friends.  These are the hams I follow and who follow me on Twitter.   I’m always interested to see where @wb0lcw is lurking on the bands.  I see him turning up on 40 or 20 in the evenings.  Along with all our friends, we went through the ordeal when @NR4CB lost her mother.  The outpouring of love was fantastic.  I find myself wondering if @ke7jtu is getting enough to eat.  It seems like he forgets to eat when he’s busy.   I’ve never met these people, but I feel like I know them.  And yes, I’ve worked a few of them on the air.  If you’re not on twitter, go there and look for the hashtags #hamradio or #hamr and join in the conversation.

After working two of the spring contests, I vowed I’d never work another contest without a decent headset.  The Heil Proset 6 arrived via UPS from HRO this afternoon.  I ordered the cable for the TS-480 and setup was a snap.  I didn’t order the footswitch because I already have two.   Some twenty-five years ago, I picked up two footswitches out the bargain bin at the RatShack.  I paid .50 for each and I’ve had them in my stash, unused, since then.  I remember thinking that while I didn’t have a use for them at the time, I probably would someday!   Of course, the bands are down today, and I haven’t had a chance to burn through the ether with my new toy yet, but I’m looking forward to giving then a try. 

The CQWPX Contest

I enjoy working contests; especially sideband contests, and the CQWPX Contest over the weekend was no exception.   I’ve submitted my log to the contest officials.  I made 120 contacts for a claimed score of 33810.  This is the typical score of a “dabbler” like me.  I didn’t work it too hard for a lot of reasons.  I didn’t work anything on Friday night (in local time) because I was tired from a full day.  I slept late on Saturday to recoup some sleep time lost.  I got into the contest for sure at about noon.  I worked about five hours and worked 100 stations on 10, 20, 15, and a little on 40 meters. 

Sunday morning is reserved for church and lunch with my granddaughter.   I got back on the air at about 2:30 and worked another 20 stations mostly on 10 and 20 meters.  I wish I had put more time into it.  There’s a possibility that I could have worked some other exotic stations, although snagging V55V, Namibia, was worth the entire contest for me. 

Lessons learned.  I will acquire a decent headset with a good microphone and a foot switch before I work another sideband contest; I have in mind the Heil Proset if I can find the $hambucks to make the purchase.  It’s been difficult for me to justify such an expense before, but now in my dotage I need some help in these situations.   I have a 40 meter dipole sitting on the shelf in my equipment closet that needs to be up in the air.  The135ft OCFD does fine on 40 meters, but in my heart, I know the single band dipole will give me better results. 

Although I used the CQWPX contest log from http://www.n3fjp.com/ .I wrote the contacts out to an ADIF file which I then imported into my HRD log.  One of the chores you have to do is a look-up on each contact to gather the full information from QRZ.  This also serves as a sort of filter.  I deleted four contacts for which I could not find QRZ or HAMCALL information.  After I finished updating the entries, I uploaded them to LOTW and eQSL. I can only imagine how busy those sites were this weekend.  I have, in fact, received a few eQSL cards from the contest and I expect to receive more over the next few weeks.  I’m always surprised how many contesters use eQSL and especially LOTW.  I then used the N3FJP program to write a Cabrillo File for submission to the contest officials. 

Occupy Ham Shack

I’ve wanted to make a blog entry for several days now, but I haven’t been able to get down to it.  Let’s face it.  I really feel lousy.  I’m suffering (and that is the operational word here) from a bronchial infection.  And as usual, the medicine is almost as bad as the disease itself.  The meds I’m taking make me drowsy, and it’s hard for me to concentrate.  About the only mode I’ve been able to work with any consistency is JT65HF, and I’ve worked a ton of that.  Yep I missed a few transmissions because I was too slow to respond.  As I said before, if I didn’t have JTAlert I would probably miss them all!

I’ve tried a few new things.  I’m trying to learn how to write command code for my TS-480.  I managed to install two buttons on the HRD desktop that tunes the radio directly to the 20 meter and 40 meter JT65 frequencies.  Not a great accomplishment, but I’m satisfied that I’m on my way to greatness.  If only I could find the “bring me a cup of coffee” command set…

I’ve been working a little more SSTV, and I actually had a DX contact on 14.230!  Well now, Puerto Rico is on the DX list.  I worked a station in Louisiana and one in Illinois as well.  Just now when I’m starting to work some SSTV, I find that I’m behind the curve again.  Have you heard of EasyPal?  Well, I hadn’t either, until I broke in on those guys on 14.233 and found out they were sending digital pictures on EasyPal.   They sent me to http://kc1cs.com/ to download the software, and only after a brief setup with no fine tuning, I was copying a nice digital picture.  Now all I have to do is learn how to transmit a digital picture.

I’m trying to regain my CW expertise.  It’s a long road ahead to get back to where I was in the 80’s and 90’s, but I’m determined to give it a try.  I tried using DM780 for keyboard CW and that’s just terrible, and because I don’t have a paddle I can’t load anything into the Winkeyer or the CW memories on the TS-480.  Thanks to Pete @WB0LCW who showed me how to use the KYCmd option under CW in DM780, I can now write macros to send in real CW and I can use my new-to-me Bencher Straight Key. Now I can send CQ and get my call right all at the same time, and then let my fist take over when the connection is made at which time the sending quality drops a few notches.  I will have a paddle in a few days.  I gave up on it last time and passed it along to another ham, but I ordered a new one, and I’m going to try it again. I’ve made a few CW contacts recently.  Today I’ve worked four stations so far, VE1AHC, IC8POF, SP4LNV and K5UTG.  Thanks guys for your patience.

I designed a new QSL card and I’d like to know what you think about it.

Beware the Ides of March

Well, it certainly was the Ides of March today.  The ham bands were brutal and were up and down like a rollercoaster all day long.  In all, I managed to work thirty-one stations today in JT65 and PSK-31.  The big excitement today was working JQ1TIV, Satoshi Yoshida in JT65.  Japanese stations are very rare for me here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, and I take ‘em when I can get ‘em. 

I’m suffering with a bronchial infection that exacerbates my COPD, so I’m pretty much at home for the time being.  Yesterday I did get out for a while to see my GP who prescribed some Avelox and Prednisone to help me through.  But it just takes time to recover.  In the meantime, I can #occupyhamshack, watch FOX news all day, and just fiddle around. 

I received several QSL cards in the mail today and was happy to see that two of them were from #hamtwitnet friends.

I’ll be playing around a bit this weekend with the following contests.

• Russian DX Contest
• Oklahoma QSO Party
• Virginia QSO Party
• North Dakota QSO Party

Have fun this weekend, and I hope to hear you in the ether or catch you on twitter!

The Solar Flare is just a big dud!

While I’m been preparing this blog entry, I’ve been working JT65HF on 20 meters, and I think the solar flare is just a big dud.  Twenty meters is open both to Europe and the West Coast and I’ve worked Austria, Belgium, California, Utah, France, Germany, Northern Ireland and North Carolina!

My ham shack is also my man cave, and therefore contains many of the goodies I use to relax.  I have a gun safe built in where I keep my weapons when they’re not in use or on standby.   I keep a loaded weapon on my desk, except when the younger grandchildren come to visit.  This is a case of” rather have it than need it and not have it.”   

I have a very nice Toshiba 27 inch HDTV on a wall mount that runs with the news constantly except when I’m working sideband or CW.   I can watch TV and work JT65HF or SSTV or any of the other digital modes.  If it were not for JTALERT, I’d miss half of the QSO’s. 

A few days ago, my graphics card went south and I had to depend on the onboard graphics processor for a few days.  I don’t do any gaming, but I do like to have dual monitors for ham radio.  I have a 27in Dell widescreen monitor on the main desk and a 19in HP widescreen located above the main monitor.  When I’m working JT65HF I use the top monitor to track Twitter and the main monitor to run the TS-480 via HRD and DM-780.  Well my new Sapphire 6450 came from amazon yesterday and I installed that and got back to my regular dual monitor operating mode.

Having the graphics down gave me the opportunity to do a little first echelon maintenance on my main computer, the Dell 520.  I opened it up and cleaned it with a soft brush and a can of compressed air.  Took the time to reseat all the cards and check each connector for the hard drives and other peripherals.

For those of you who are using the Prolific USB to serial adapter, I suggest you invest in a good RS-232 card like the SD-PEX15022 PCI-express 2X serial port.   http://www.amazon.com/Best-Connectivity-SD-PEX15022-PCI-Express-MSC9901/dp/B003D3MFHM/ref=pd_cp_e_0  .  If you’re running a laptop, you don’t have this option, of course, but as part of your maintenance, you should zero out all your unused ports.  As you probably know, every time you plug in your adapter to a different USB port, another com port is assigned.  After a while you run out of com ports (or at least lower number ports!) or you find yourself trying to connect to com port 42.

There are ways to clear these ports on other operating systems, but I use Win7 32 bit, and that’s the scenario I’ll give you.  Navigate to http://www.fettesps.com/how-to-remove-com-ports-which-are-in-use/  and follow the simple instructions there.  Delete any com port that’s not currently in use.  It may be an illusion, but the com port I use for HRD seems to run better after purging the others.  The first time I did this, I found com ports in use from my CH340 Flight Simulator Console!  I don’t even own it anymore; it’s been gone for years!

The Contest is Over!

Well, the ARRL International DX contest has come and gone, and I think I did pretty well for a barefoot station.  I made contacts on all bands except 160 Meters.  My antenna simply will not tune to that band, much to my chagrin, because I specifically had it in mind while home brewing the aerial.  It’s a 135ft Off Center Fed dipole that’s up at 45ft, and it should be performing better than it is.  My other antenna, the 20 meter Center Fed Vertical Dipole was the workhorse for the contest, so most of my contacts were on this band.  I worked 140 stations and claimed a score of 36,120.  I’ve submitted my log, and while I don’t expect to “sweep the field” mine will serve as a check log for others.

Regardless, I had a lot of fun.  There were some great contest stations on the air, and I think I tagged most of those.  Of course, I didn’t hear any Japanese stations; they are rare indeed in my neck of the woods.  Maybe if I had that 100ft tower with the big Steppir on top… sigh.  There were also some 100 watt contest stations on the air, and I worked as many of those I could.  P40l and P43E were on the air with 100 watts on 20 meters, and some like T05A and LW3DC were on the air with 500 watts.

Getting Ready for the ARRL International DX Contest

I don't work many contests, but the ARRL International DX contest has always been a favorite of mine. So today I've been getting ready for the big start. I blew the cobwebs out of the SB-1000 and lit it up to operate for a while on twenty meters; I worked an SSTV QSO on 14.230 mHz with YV5JF, Jose in Venezuela. I tuned the amp up to about 500 watts and let it roar for the seemingly endless transmission that's associated with slow scan television. I switched over to SSB and worked SP9LJD, Les in Poland and E77DX a contest station in Bosnia-Herzegovina on 20 meters. They were doing the same thing I was doing, getting ready for the contest. I downloaded the latest version of the contest software from N3FJP http://www.n3fjp.com  and got that all set up. I know a lot of people use different software for contests, but the N3FJP suite is my favorite. I use Ham Radio Deluxe at all other times, but if you use it, you know that it doesn't do contests very well.

I'll be looking for you on the air this weekend.  #occupyhamshack

Update on Mobile Operating, JT65HF and CW

I really enjoyed the trip to Myrtle Beach.  It was so nice to spend time with family and friends in such a wonderful setting.  We had family meals and late night card games, and, of course, beach time.  The kids, as they usually do, enjoyed the beach more than anyone else.  I probably gained a few pounds, but I’ll never know, because I’ve vowed to never step on a scale again.  I don’t need the frustration!
I had the TS-480 all set up in the Explorer and it worked well enough with the 20 meter whip.  I made a few SSB contacts, one of which was a very nice QSO with a visitor at W1AW.  Betty was very concerned about operating the station while the vehicle was in motion, so we had that conversation a few times, and I finally retreated.  Yes, I should have let her drive, but it’s just not in my DNA.  Maybe as I age more, I’ll be able to so that.

The biggest disappointment was the weak power signals I had hoped to work while at the beach.  The problem was not with the transceiver or the antenna, but with the netbook and the software.   The screen on the netbook would not quite accommodate the JT65HF, because the software doesn’t allow the window to be resized to fit the screen.  Yes, I should have worked with it before I left, but I didn’t, and I learned a powerful lesson.  I did manage to work some PSK31 using DM-780, but it was uncomfortable and I decided I need to have a full sized laptop to make all this happen.  My $HAM dollars are running low, so this is not going to happen for a while since other $HAM projects have priority.

I am solid into working JT65HF now.  I just made my 308th unique contact this morning, and I’m feeling very happy about JT-Alert installed on the computer.   The best page for reviewing JT65HF stats is:

http://jt65.w6cqz.org/reports/rxsynopsis.html

KR4RO [ EM95 ]
Count: 337
Bands: 40,20
Avg Sig: -12 dB
Heard in: 65 grids
Best DX to VK3ABC
RB Grid: QF21mm
15955 KM at -25 dB on 20M

I know I need to branch out and go back to working other modes, but JT65HF is a real lazy man’s mode.  I find that I can work JT65HF, play hearts, and watch Fox News all at the same time.  That’s too much temptation for a retired guy.

Speaking of working other modes, I actually had a CW QSO on 20 meters this morning.  KG5WY was kind enough to put up with my left foot keying and my lack of copying skills for long enough to get in a full QSO.  It’s been so long for me, I was truly embarrassed at how poorly I did. I still cannot use the Bencher.  I try, but it doesn’t respond to my ham fistedness.  I used the old NYE Viking straight key I bought in 1988 when I was a novice.  I worked a lot of CW in those days, and I became proficient enough to pass the 13WPM general test.  I now wish I had hung in there.  There is probably no better DX mode than CW.

Double Duty for the Kindle

I’m preparing to go mobile soon, and I started to gather together all the things I would need to have with me on the road.  I put all the cables, adapters and chargers for the both transceivers, the TS-480 and the VX=170, and for my Kindle, Ipod, the Gateway Notebook, and my cell phone into a small shaving kit.  (Whatever happened to the days when we just made sure we had the keys when we left the house?)  I don’t use a VHF FM transceiver as much as I used to and there are times when I simply can’t remember how to program the darned thing, so I never leave home without the manual.  I also like to carry lists of all the repeaters in the TN, NC, SC, GA, and FL areas.

I decided this time to convert all the manuals and repeater lists to PDF files and store them on the Kindle.  Of course, if I could convince my wife that we desperately need 3G wireless access to the web twenty-four hours a day, I wouldn’t have to do this, but it’s hard to overcome her arguments when she threatens to make me use $HAM dollars.  Besides which, the average person is never more than two miles from a McDonald’s restaurant, and I’ve been known to park next to the building and use their free wi-fi. 

Manuals for most radios are available on the web as PDF files and downloading them and transferring them to the Kindle is pretty easy stuff.  All you have to do is plug the Kindle into the computer and then to save the PDF file, navigate to the “documents” folder on the Kindle and save the file there.  While I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, I haven’t found a PDF file of repeaters.  However, copying the details from a website is fairly simple if you have the right tools.  I highlight the text I want and then copy (Control +C) the information from the web file and then paste it (Control +V) into Microsoft Word.  I then usually change the font size to at least 14 to make it more readable and then save the file as a PDF file (an option on MS Word) to the documents folder on the Kindle.

On the Road Again - Perhaps

I’m looking forward to a new road trip to Myrtle Beach this summer, and for the first time, I’ll be able to operate mobile.  After having dragged my feet for a very long time, I have finally installed (really just roughed in) the TS-480SAT into the Explorer.  I have an antenna mount that fits into the trailer hitch of the explorer and I put a MFJ 20 meter whip on that and brought the coax under the lift gate for the time being.  I know I’m doing all the wrong things; I’m taking power from the cigarette lighter and the radio is merely sitting on the floor of the rear passenger compartment and for right now, I not concerned.   If everything survives the shakedown cruise and I’m able to make some good contacts, I’ll look into making a permanent installation. 

I’m really kicking myself for not doing this last winter when it was much cooler, but hindsight is, of course, twenty-twenty.  I’m looking for a way to bring wires straight from the battery into the passenger compartment to power the radio.  If anyone else with a 2003 Explorer XLT has made this installation and wants to give me a hint, I’d appreciate that.  I intend to bring the coax through the spare tire compartment, but, for the time being, it’s just too hot even in the evenings to mess with it.  I have a storage space under one of the rear seats and I’ll find a way to stabilize the radio there.  I’d like to have a longer microphone cord, and I’ll have to look into that, but it’s not a deal breaker.  The control head fits very nicely in the well of the center console.  I had no trouble at all getting the whip tuned for 14.175 mHz.   It tunes nicely with the autotuner from 14.070 through 14.350. 

I made a few calls on PSK, JT65 and SSB.  I worked two stations, KD0NZY and N0OKS on PSK and had several stations come back to me on sideband, but they were barely able to read me.  I had one station answer my CQ on JT65, but we were unable to complete the contact.  Twenty meters has been wide open all day and well into the evenings for the past few days, and as a cynic like me would expect the band is way down today when I need to do some testing!

I don’t expect to be able to work stations like I do with my super-duper OCF Dipole a million feet up in the air, but I think things will improve. 

I have a new QSL card for eQSL. 

 

Another Project Bites the Dust

I’ve been trying to straighten up the shack a little bit, but it’s a hard chore.  There are too many distractions, and my mind seems to jump from one thing to the other.  There are projects that I want to finish, projects that I’m putting off, and projects that just poke you in the eye.  I have a very nice CN-801HP SWR and Power meter that I’ve had for some time now, and it does a great job sitting between that big old OCF dipole hanging 45 feet in the air and my monster sized Dentron Super Tuner.  The LCD that illuminates the meter had gone out and while that didn’t hinder the operability of the meter, I’d lost that blue-white glow that helped warm the shack on radio nights.

More than once I tried to get up the nerve to open up the meter and simply replace the LCD, but I couldn’t cope with the idea of destroying the meter movement.  I found an article in the Technical Correspondence section of the July 2011 issue of QST by Colin Haig, VE3MSC on the very same subject.  The article gave me the courage to give it a try, knowing that if I failed it would be $HAM dollars down the drain.  With guidance from Colin and a thin blade knife I was able to open the meter casing and replace the LCD.  It’s a little thing, but it’s something that has been bothering me for some time. I’m glad to have it done, and now I can move on to the 1000 other little things in shack that bother me.  Thanks, Colin.

Another project I’d been working on a little at a time was digitizing my QSL card collection.  If you ask me why this is necessary, I couldn’t answer you other than to say I like having digital access to the images, and, well, I don’t know why else. I had been trying to do it with my flatbed scanner and Adobe Photoshop.  It does a great job, but it’s a slow process and requires a lot of placing and removing cards.  I saw an advertisement for a Pandigital Photo Scanner that was designed for 4X6 photographs.  It wasn’t too expensive and besides, my wife has all those old pictures she’s wanted me to scan in for ages now, and that meant that it wasn’t strictly $HAM dollars I was spending.  I found one on EBay that was even cheaper, so I ordered it.

This is the definitely the ticket.  It worked like a charm.  It would scan and produce a digital image as fast as you could feed the cards into the machine.  My initial DXCC cards – scanned; my WAS cards – scanned, KA3STI – scanned; and finally KD3IC – scanned.  It’s not only the pleasure of having all the cards now in digital format, but I really enjoyed looking at some of those old cards, and many of them brought back fond memories.  I’m surprised at how many cards I remembered getting in the mail.  Some like the card from Jerry Harley in Greenland (OX3GH) who was my first contact with my General license.  I remember calling him in the midst of a pile-up with my “stroke AG” call sign, and he told the other guys, “Wait a minute, I’m about to make someone’s day,” and he came back to my call. 

I will admit to being an old analog guy, but I love this digital world.  The day I hooked up my 300 baud modem to my old Commodore C64, I knew that someday, QSL cards would be digital.  It makes too much sense not to happen.  But I still send out some snail mail cards both here in the states and overseas, and if you send me a card with a SASE, you get a card back with your SASE inside.  And I make a big production of it, too.  I make my card as nice as I can, because I know the thrill at the other end, when that envelope addressed to A.R.S. 2X3 comes in the mail.

This 'n' That

I just wanted to add a few odds and ends from the last couple of days.  I’d like to finish up on the IARU contest by saying that while I don’t routinely use ACLOG from N3FJP ( I did at one time, but I’ve transitioned to HRD and its logging program), I still use Scott’s contest software, and I think it’s the cat’s meow.  I bought a full ride to all Scott and Kimberly’s software back many years ago, and with all the updates and great work they’ve done it’s still one of my very best HAM investments.  As an uncompensated non-celebrity spokesperson, I highly recommend it.

After the end of the contest, I wrote the results out to two files, an ADIF that I used to upload my contacts to LOTW, eQSL, my QRZ log and to incorporate my contacts into my HRD log and a Cabrillo log that I submitted to the contest robot.  (The contest software makes this a breeze!)  In HRD, you need to double click on each imported entry and then run the QRZ lookup in order to get the details of the call.  Then all you have to do is select “Update” and the chore is done and your log is up to date.  I’m a neat freak and this is to me an essential part of keeping a log.

When I set out to tame the wild JT65HF beast I was in it for the challenge, and it wasn’t too long before I started to think this is nice, but it could get pretty boring pretty fast.  Since then I’ve made about forty contacts all over the world, but what cinched it for me was this morning when I was able to work Alaska, Australia and Japan all in about half an hour.  While these are not new countries for me, they are pretty rare for me.  I haven’t worked a Japanese station since I lived in Pennsylvania, and I’ve only worked two other VK stations from here in North Carolina and they were both on PSK-31.   Yes, life is hard when you’re restricted to wire antennas!  Domo arigato Mister Roboto! 

I Really Love a Good Contest. Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel"

Well, I really enjoyed the IARU contest Saturday.  I enjoy working almost all of the big contests, but this one and the CQWW are the best for me.  I also like to work some of the state QSO parties, and I especially like the California QSO Party.  On most contest days I have a pipeline into California, and that always makes for a big score.  For the IARU I made 105 contacts for a claimed score of 13776 points, and that makes me a very little gun indeed.  I submitted my log this afternoon without fear of winning any awards, but simply as a check log for all the hopefuls out there.

And, of course, all the big guns as well as some of the medium guns were there.  There were the HQ stations and the real gentleman who was running the W1AW/6 station.  For the most part all I heard was courtesy and HAMS helping other HAMS get through the process.  There were, as you might expect, a few jerks, some who were just nasty to the new people and others that tune up on the frequencies of the more desirable contacts.  One guy bothered me enough that I went to take a look at his QRZ page to see what he was all about.  He stated that contesting and competition was all he cared about.  One phrase, “If you are reading this because you worked me (probably in a contest) thank you very much for the QSO. It is the people such as you that dial the bands and give out the QSO that makes this fun for all of us.”  This struck me as a “Thanks to all the little people” speech, and I’m sure that this is a guy who sleeps alone.

I would normally use my old Kenwood TS-440 for the contest because I really know my way around it, and it’s always done a good job for me.  But this time I decided to use the TS-480 and, wow, I’m glad I did.  The audio and the filter on the 480 are so far superior to the 440 it’s hard to describe.  It seemed as if I could hear everything with much greater clarity.  I have the voice module installed and even though I am still clumsy with it, I could go back and pull some of the essentials I missed.   That’s something I need to work to improve on. 

This is the first contest I’ve been able to use my new twenty-meter vertical dipole.  I built a 20 meter wire dipole and dragged one end up to the fifty foot level of a tall tree at the back of the property and let the other end hang down.  I tethered the other end at the bottom of the tree.  It worked like gangbusters for me.  I could switch back and forth between the vertical dipole and the 135 foot OCF dipole I have up at the forty-five foot level and on most signals I could hear better with the vertical, and as my Elmer, WA4IGL (now AG4AF) used to say, “If you can’t hear them; you can’t work them.” For forty meters, you can’t beat the big OCF dipole.  I worked a lot of stations on forty in a short period of time.

Lest you think I’m a hard core contester, let me set you straight.  I got a late start on Saturday, because, well, I always get a late start regardless of what day it is.  (I’m retired, and my entire life is a “Staycation!”)  I broke for lunch at two local, took a little nap until four and then worked the contest until midnight.  This morning it was all over while I was getting ready for church.  I enjoy contesting, but I’m not a late night pizza and Pepsi kind of contester!

I hope you had as much fun as I did.  If you didn’t participate, you might want to think about it for next time.  I know there’s a big argument out there for and against contesting, and I try to respect everyone’s viewpoint.   People, this is not life and death; it’s only a hobby.

Solving The Time Problem for JT65HF

From all the advice I received concerning my efforts to get up and running on JT65HF, the one thing I learned is that Windows 7 does not and will not keep accurate time. I tried manually syncing to WWV and while that would solve the time problem it was only temporarily. In a matter of minutes, the time sync would drop and I was out of sync. I went back to the forums to look for a solution, and I found that most people doing JT65HF were using some sort of time server. I tried a couple and I won't bother you with the ones that didn't work for me. One I had to run in WINXP mode, another had to be run in administrative mode, and another simply would not work at all. I'm one of those rare HAMS who actually like Windows 7. Sure I have a windows XP partition, but only seldom do I migrate there.

I finally found BktTimeSync http://www.iz2bkt.com/BktTimeSync/BktTimeSyncEn.htm written by IZ2BKT. Quoting from the website, "BktTimeSync adjusts the clock of PC using a time reference server internet ( NTP server ) or by using a GPS receiver connected to USB, serial port or Bluetooth."

Because I never throw anything away, I dragged out my old Garmin LT-20 USB GPS receiver and plugged that baby in. I was writing a program to read the NMEA data from the GPS, when I realized that the time was syncing quite well from the NTP server and was definitely controlling the computer time.

Since then I have worked Hawaii, Greenland, France, Ukraine, several South American countries and a bunch of stateside guys. I've had contacts on 20, 30, and 40 meters, I have yet to hear anyone on 17, 21, or 10 meters. I got to say one thing about this mode, if you are challenged by the 140 letter restriction of Twitter, then the 13 character limit of JT65HF is not for you! I find it amazing how creative HAMS can get with those 13 characters! TU73 10W OCFD is enough to send "Thank you and good luck. I made this QSO with 10 watts from an Off Center Fed Dipole"

If you're ready to get your feet wet, come on in, the water's fine. Remember though that JF65HF is a QRP mode. More power doesn’t mean more QSO's! That's the main reason I switched from my TS440SAT back to the TS-480SAT so that I can more accurately control the power out. Selecting power out on the 440 is analog, and on the 480 it's digital. These tired old eyes don't need to be squinting at those little yellow lit meters!

Like one of the guys I follow on Twitter signs, "QRP - when you care enough to send the very least!"

One of the HI HI moments of this entire exercise is that I've had to reset all the clocks in the shack.  It seems that when I set them to coincide with the time on the computer, I was not seconds off, but minutes off! 

A New Adventure in Digital Communications (For Me Anyway!) JT65HF

Finally made a contact!

It's funny how things happen. I'd heard about JT65HF on a blog, and I thought I'd give it a try. I downloaded the software, fired up Ham Radio Deluxe and Digital Master 780, tuned the Ts-440 to 14076 and watched as the stations started to fill the QSO. I answered WA1QIK and after some fumbling around, we finished the QSO. I even got a QSL card via eQSL.cc. I was quite proud of myself. A few days later, I was sitting in the shack and decided I would give it another try. Nothing. I could hear stations sending tones and I could see them on the waterfall. I tried to call... Nada! Zip! Zero! Or in other words... No joy! I had read quite a bit on JT65HF and I knew that computer time was critical, so I downloaded and started running Dimension 4 5.0 to control the clock.

I started asking around for help and found no one locally who was using the mode, so I did a screen capture of the software display and tweeted for help! Bert Hyman, W0RSB took a look at the capture and suggested that I had a time problem. He suggested that I tune in WWV and check my time against that standard.

Imagine my chagrin when I found out that my computer clock was off, not by seconds, but by minutes even though I was running the clock regulation program! I set the computer clock manually by ear, a chore I haven't done for many years, and one that brought back some pleasant memories for me (but that's for a later post.)

With my clock newly set, I went back to 14076 and as our friends in F land say, et voile! The QSO area filled with CQ's and 73's and RRR's just as it was supposed to be. I stumbled through a QSO with AC5T and K1LPS and sat back with some pride and viewed my new domain. I'm in!

I went off to fix some coffee and grab a freshly picked South Carolina peach. I sat back down at the computer and took a look at my email and the news. I worked a few stations in PSK31 on 14.070 and then came back to the JT65HF page. No joy! Nada, Zip again! I rolled up to 15.000 and checked the time again. Off by four seconds! I reset the time (manually) and headed back down to 14.076 and worked KB9ILT.

So now I know I have a computer time problem, I'm not sure how I'm going to resolve it, but at least I know what the problem is. I felt like a blind man strolling through the forest in broad daylight. I could feel the heat, but I couldn't see the light!

The most interesting and most frustrating thing about this entire thing was the coincidnece of having the software work properly the first time.  If that had not happened, I might have just shrugged it off and gave up.  But I knew it could work, and I knew it wasn't working.  I couldn't let that pass!  Thanks for the help guys, and especially you Bert!

So which is it? Is it a waterfall or is it a front porch?

It’s astounding how fascinated I’ve become with operating the digital modes, especially PSK.  I love everything about it.  I love that it’s visual, and while some may think it’s because of my advancing age, let me assure you my hearing is still excellent.   I like watching the words appear on the screen as if by magic, and I like having the radio shack silent except for Pandora playing Christian Praise Music softly in the background from my IPOD .  I like having the time to put together my thoughts and write them out carefully, and yes, I admit that as I’m reading the incoming mail, I’m typing out the response and adding new thoughts.  Come on now, all of you do that don’t you? 

Macros are an integral part of digital radio, and I use every one of them that I’ve crafted so carefully using the many tools that DM-780 gives us.  I even use the RSID and the VIDEO tools on some macros.   When I’m calling CQ in PSK-125 I use RSID for the hams out there that don’t recognize that mode from the waterfall display and would not be able to answer my call.  I don’t use it with PSK-31 for the obvious reason that even the newest DigiHead knows what that signal looks like in the spectrum.   If you’re using RSID for PSK-31, stop it; it’s not good operating practice.

I don’t know if they give out the “ragchew” award for CW anymore, but I have mine from years ago, and I believe PSK is probably the best mode for rag chewing other than 75 meter 1.5KW arm-chair copy across town old boy chat.   I’ve had many a chat that lasted longer than 30 minutes with some lasting beyond an hour.  And yes, for every QSO that lasts for an hour, I work 50 that are only an exchange of signal strength (either real or 599), name and QTH.  But my point is that they don’t all have to be that way.

This brings me to a sore point.  I am a linguist by trade, and languages come easy for me.  I know this isn’t true for most people; heck, it’s not true for even ten percent of the population, but that doesn’t mean a ham shouldn’t even try.  The beauty of macros is that while you can send a 73 macro in English, you can send that same macro in another language, say Spanish for instance. 

His Call de KR4RO 

Muchas gracias por este PSK-31 QSO

 y Felicidades Cordiales desde North Carolina.

Espero encontrarte en otras bandas y/o modos.

Dios te bendiga.

HIs Call de KR4RO  sk sk :)

This macro is just as good as the English equivalent.  I work a lot of stations in Central and South America, and I can tell you they appreciate an American Ham using their language. 

There are at least a dozen pages on the internet that will translate from English to whatever language you prefer.  Build a new macro today, and say Auf Weidersehen to a German ham who has worked hard to understand your language.

That brings me back to the title of this rant.  When I’m sitting on 14.070 and calling CQ, I like to think of myself as sitting on my front porch waiting to see who will walk by and perhaps stop in for a chat.  When you see me, I hope you’ll pull up a rocking chair and sit for a spell.  I don’t care if we worked before, and I’m sure that even if we did we didn’t cover every subject we could have.  We share a common interest; we both love ham radio and that should be enough basis for a long chat.  We are neighbors in the ether that carries our thoughts, our pictures, and our words around the world on the power of a light bulb (incandescent, of course) and we have antennas, and amplifiers, interfaces, computers, politics and grandchildren to talk about.  Waterfalls are for looking at, but porches are where we sit and chat. So if you see me on the porch, stop by and sit down.  Let’s talk about how smart my grandchildren are.

Time to Get Serious!

Well, Field Day is over and I had a blast operating from home as a “1E” on solar charged batteries. I made quite a few contacts, but my operating time was limited by life events like Church and Birthday parties. I love Ham Radio, but IRL I'm a Christian and a Grandfather and that takes precedence. The bands have been very good lately and I've made a lot of contacts. I was working 20 meters into Europe last night at midnight, and that's generally a very good sign that solar conditions are pretty good. This morning has been gangbusters on both 20 and 10 meters.


But, alas, I'm starting to feel unfulfilled. I thought that my Advanced Ticket would be enough for me, after all why worry about a few kilocycles (there I said it and it felt good!) at the bottom of the bands. I've never been very good at math and that's what's been holding me back from trying for the E-Ticket. I got to thinking about why it took me so long to get my Novice Ticket back in the day, and it was because I thought I would never be able to copy 5WPM. I just shrugged it off until I came back from Europe and my brother-in-law, AG4AF (then WA4IGL) encouraged me and I really put some effort into it. I bought an old receiver and listened to the hams having CW QSO's.


I bought a ham call sign book from the Heathkit store in Baltimore (now, if that doesn't tell my age, nothing else will!) and listened for a while every day. I found out that CW was easier than I thought, and I kicked myself for letting it get in my way.


Now, I'm in the same position with the math, and I'm going to lick this and get my ticket. After all, I'm retired and I have almost all the time in the world! Wish me luck, I'm diving in!

Things Are starting to Look Up Here in the Shack

I have no idea why my Ts-480SAT stopped communicating with the computer, but I have tried everything I can to re-establish the RS-232 link, but to no avail.  I have two different null modems and neither one of them works.  I also had a problem with working PSK-31 on the rig.  The internal digital interface would not operate properly, but I finally figured out that it was operator error. I got it working today using my UCA202 sound card and made a few contacts including a Peruvian Special Event station from Machu Pichu.  I hate to have to ship off this radio for repair, but it looks like that may be the final solution to the problem.  I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach for a week in July and I hope to use the Ts-480 portable and mobile on that trip.  We'll see.  In the meantime I have the TS-440SAT up and running fine.  The new 135 ft OCF dipole is working like a champ even though it needs to be clipped just a little bit.  The bands are a little better today; I made a few contacts on 20 and 30 meters.

It's A Small World After All

The bands have been terrible lately.  Mr. Sun is simply not pulling his weight, and I'm starting to get all my equipment ready for sale on QRZ.  I have made a few contacts today on 20 and 30 meters, but it's not easy to cut through the serious QSB.  But you know, just when you start to lose heart, something always pops up to bring you back from the edge.  I was on 10 meters the other day during the 10-10 contest and I heard a call from K5FBS and when the name Clifford A. Taylor popped up in the log, I just had to know if it was the Cliff Taylor I knew from my Army days in Germany.  Sure enough it was him and we had a marvelous chat about our time on the border back in the old cold war days.  I remembered at the time he was studying for his license and building a Heathkit SB-101 to operate from Germany.  He finally passed his exam and got a German call sign.  It tests my memory a bit, but I think it was DL4BO.  Cliff, let me know if that's wrong.

The Monster is Ready

The smell of Solder in the Morning!

Ready to Go Up!

After a lot of research, I've finally decided that an Off Center Fed dipole would be the perfect antenna for my operating habits.  I wanted an antenna that covers 160 through 6 meters that I can use with my SB-1000 amplifier without a tuner.  I looked at the Buxcomm OCF dipole at $300.00 and then started looking around the shack to see what I had available.  I found the dogbones for the end connectors and I had 150 feet of silky wire from the "Wireman" I bought four years ago for another project that never got built.  I ordered a 4:1 balun from Universal Radio and started putting together the tools.  My 50ft tape measure wasn't going to do the job, so I invested in a 100 ft tape from Lowes ($14.95).  I've wanted a butane powered soldering iron for a long time, so this was the best possible time to buy the Bernzomatic Kit ($19.95).   So with found items from the shack box and about $60.00 in purchases, I'm ready to haul this 135 foot monster up for a try.  It's 90 feet long on the heavy end and 45 feet long on the light end.  I have a pulley up at the 50 foot level of a large tree directly behind the house for the center connector and another pulley up for the heavy end.  The light end may be a bit of a struggle, but I know it's doable.