Yesterday evening, the band seemed to be hopping. The first station I copied was CE3FZ at about an S5. . . . → Read More: 17m!]]> I’m happy to report that I’m now on 17m.  I don’t know really what took me so long—especially since I enjoy working 30m so much—but I finally put together a dipole for 17m and hung it up yesterday.

Yesterday evening, the band seemed to be hopping. The first station I copied was CE3FZ at about an S5. I tried calling him a couple of times, but after no response, I went hunting. I found PY7WC pounding in at S9. After a couple of calls, he became my first 17m contact.

I tried calling a couple other stations, but without success. This led me to believe that my antenna was far from optimal. It is kind of low, but so is my 40m dipole. The 40m dipole works pretty well, and I was hoping the 17m dipole would work well, too.

This morning, however, I had a quite different experience. Even though it was quite early in the morning (1230Z), I punched the 17m button on the IC-746PRO. There wasn’t much activity, and what I could hear was kind of weak, but I tuned around until I heard EA1ARV calling CQ. He was barely moving the meter, but I gave him a call anyway. Not only did he hear me, but we had a decent contact.

So, I guess the upshot of all this is that the dipole is not in an optimal position (which I knew anyway), but it does work, and I can make contacts. I’ll have to play around with getting it up higher, maybe in an inverted-V configuration. It seems like a fun band to operate, though.

As I have for . . . → Read More: Vacation Pics]]> A couple of weeks ago, I spent a week in a cabin on Elk Lake, MI. Over 25 members of my family congregated for this annual event., including my three sisters, a passel of nieces and nephews, their spouses, and kids. It’s a beautiful spot, and we have a great deal of fun.

As I have for the the past four or five years, I bring my KX-1 and attempt to make contacts. This year, the conditions were very good, and I had some nice, long QSOs with my little three-watter. I even managed a contact with HA8RM on 40m.

I operate from the screened-in porch of the cottage I stay in. Below, is me at the key.

Just to give you some idea of how nice this place is, here’s a shot overlooking the lake at sunrise:

Let me give you an example. The other day I called CQ, and a fellow came back to me with only his callsign. Not only that, he only sent it once. Now, if you have any experience at all with CW, you know that . . . → Read More: My Latest Pet Peeve…]]> …is the operator who treats a normal rag-chewing QSO like a DX contact.

Let me give you an example. The other day I called CQ, and a fellow came back to me with only his callsign. Not only that, he only sent it once. Now, if you have any experience at all with CW, you know that it’s always wise to send your callsign at least twice. The reason for this is that there are a number of things, including QRN, QSB, and distractions in the shack, that could cause the receiving station to miss the callsign.

Now, normally, I would make the other guy send his call again, by sending QRZ? This, time, though, I copied the signal cleanly, so I launched into the QSO, sending him a report, my name, and location. When I turned it back to the guy, he sent, “599 FL 73″  and off he went.

Now, I ask you, what sense did it make for that guy to even answer my CQ? This has happened to me two or three times in the last month and each time I had the same reaction.

Please, unless you’re a DX station trying to make use of good band conditions, don’t answer my CQ if all you want to do is swap signal reports with me. Unless I’m calling CQ DX, which I almost never do, I’m looking for conversation, not just an info swap.

There will be a ham station there, using the callsign N2H. According to the Make: magazine blog, they will be operating on:

Apparently, there are no CW hackers in the . . . → Read More: This is HOPE?]]> The conference Hackers on Planet Earth takes place this weekend in New York City. It looks like a lot of fun.

There will be a ham station there, using the callsign N2H. According to the Make: magazine blog, they will be operating on:

• 28.370 MHz,
• 14.270 MHz,
• 7.260 MHz, and
• 3.885 MHz

Apparently, there are no CW hackers in the bunch. (I’ll have to try to figure out how to change that.

Here’s the cool QSL card designed specifically for N2H:

Thanks to Jim, W8JPM, for sending me a link to this YouTube video of RZ9UMA working the recent WPX CW contest:

More Morse And, while we’re on the subject of Morse Code, here’s another video that I found while surfing around YouTube. It’s a video of how to use a simple microcontroller to decode Morse . . . → Read More: If a Nine-Year-Old Girl Can Do It….]]> ….shouldn’t all of you?

Thanks to Jim, W8JPM, for sending me a link to this YouTube video of RZ9UMA working the recent WPX CW contest:

More Morse
And, while we’re on the subject of Morse Code, here’s another video that I found while surfing around YouTube. It’s a video of how to use a simple microcontroller to decode Morse Code. I will grant that since the input to the microcontroller in this example is a pushbutton switch, the practicality of this example is somewhat limited, but it should get you started on making your own Morse decoder, if you’d like to give it a try.

Acting on a 2006 Petition for Rulemaking filed by the ARRL, the FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket No 10-98 to modify the rules that govern amateurs’ secondary use of five channels in the 5 MHz frequency range known as 60 meters. The . . . → Read More: FCC Proposes Additions, Changes to Amateur 5 MHz Allocation]]> From the 5/13/10 issue of the ARRL Letter:

Acting on a 2006 Petition for Rulemaking filed by the ARRL, the FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket No 10-98 to modify the rules that govern amateurs’ secondary use of five channels in the 5 MHz frequency range known as 60 meters. The proposed changes would substitute a new channel for one that is seldom available because of occupancy by the fixed service, which is primary in this range. Also proposed is an increase in power from 50 to 100 W effective radiated power (ERP) and the addition of CW, PSK31 and PACTOR-III modes with provisions to ensure that such operations would be compatible with the primary service. The proposed changes can be found beginning on page 8 of the NPRM.

Read the complete article.

Of course, I had to . . . → Read More: This Weekend on the Air at KB6NU/WA2HOM: Contest Mania!]]> This weekend was a busy one here in Ann Arbor. I got down to the museum, turned on the rig, tuned to 20m, and almost immediately started hearing stations in the Seventh Area QSO Party. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I regularly get sucked into contests like this.

Of course, I had to see how many of these stations I could work, even though we’re not really set up for contesting down at the museum. Over a couple of hours, I worked 24 stations in WA, OR, AZ, and MT.

Tuning to 40m, I immediately started hearing stations working the Indiana QSO Party. I worked about 17 of those stations before leaving the museum about 1 p.m.

Saturday evening, I got on the air at my home station about 2330 UTC. Right off the bat, I heard a bunch of Italian stations operating the ARI International DX Contest. I also heard some stations working the New England QSO Party. I was interested to see how well I was getting into Italy, but after making five contacts, I switched over to working the NE QP.

In 2006, I had the highest score from Michigan in the NE QP. I have the certificate to prove it, but in the intervening years, I either haven’t worked it or haven’t done so well, so that certificate is getting a bit dated.

Since I had the evening to myself, I thought I’d give it a try. Starting at 0015 UTC, and operating until about 0430 UTC, I made 50 contacts. I made about ten of those contacts by camping on a frequency and calling CQ NEQP.

The NEQP is one of those contests that has operating hours on both Saturday and Sunday, so at 9am Sunday morning, I was back at it. During the course of the day, I made 41 more contacts, bringing my total to 91. My claimed score is 7,216. Considering that I placed first in Michigan with a score of just over 3,000, I think that I have a decent chance of scoring first this year.

Overall, I had a lot of fun working the contests this weekend. We need to get a memory keyer for the museum, though. That would make operating these contests a lot easier.

Finally, I have some new “stations whose callsigns spell words” to report. I worked K7EAR in the Seventh Area QSO Party and W9JUG. I actually thought W9JUG was working the Indiana QSO Party at first, but he lives in IL. So we had a nice little ragchew before the band changed on us.

Here’s an example from yesterday night. I fired up the KX-1 and tuned around for a bit, and after about ten minutes, I heard Derek, WB0TUA, calling CQ. He was . . . → Read More: Got My Mojo Workin’, Well Mostly Working, Anyway]]> Elecraft owners joke about the Elecraft mojo. Sometimes it seems as though the radios are imbued with a certain magic and get through when others don’t.

Here’s an example from yesterday night. I fired up the KX-1 and tuned around for a bit, and after about ten minutes, I heard Derek, WB0TUA, calling CQ. He was S9 on the KX-1 S-meter, so I thought I’d give him a call. He replied, giving me a 589 report! Not bad for a radio running only 3W. And, as it turns out, Derek was running a new K3.

It turns out that we had a lot to talk about, and we had a great contact for more than a half hour. First of all, he was a graduate of the University of Michigan. (Ann Arbor, where I live, is the home of U-M).

Second, he’s a member of the Morse Telegraph Club, a group devoted to the practice of American Morse, the type of Morse Code used on landlines across the U.S. I used to belong to that group, and have it on my list to learn American Morse one of these days.

Now, I get to the part where the mojo didn’t come through for me. After our QSO, I heard a bunch of DX stations calling CQ, most notably RA6EE. RA6EE is located in Cherkessk, which is not very far from the Georgian border. QRZ.Com calculates that he’s about 5,600 miles away.

Alas, no matter how many times I tried, he just couldn’t hear me. I guess I’m going to need a better antenna in addition to that Elecraft mojo.

I got to the museum around 10 am, and the contest didn’t start until noon, so I fiddled around a bit, trying to figure out how the bands were. I made three contacts on 40m . . . → Read More: This Weekend on the Air at KB6NU/WA2HOM]]> This weekend, I got sucked into two contests. The first—the MI QSO Party—I operated on Saturday down at the Hands-On Museum.

I got to the museum around 10 am, and the contest didn’t start until noon, so I fiddled around a bit, trying to figure out how the bands were. I made three contacts on 40m and a couple of contacts on 20m, so it looked like band conditions were going to cooperate.

When noon hit, I was off and running. Switching back and forth between 40m and 20m, I made a total of 90 contacts in the next two hours, including three DX contacts. Not stellar, but not bad, either.

Having my WinKeyer certainly helped. As I’ve mentioned, the Omni VII doesn’t have a built-in memory keyer, meaning that in previous contests, I had to bang out the CQs myself. The WinKeyer improved the process immensely.

When Pigs Fly…
Sunday evening, I participated in the Flying Pigs QRP Club’s monthly “Run for the Bacon.” This is a two-hour “sprint” that takes place on the third Sunday of every month. Since my KX-1 was already set up (my IC-746PRO is still in the shop), it was easy enough to get into this contest.

Band conditions on 40m were great! I was able to camp on a frequency and even run stations for a while. I worked as far west as Nebraska and South Dakota and all up and down the East Coast. In just more than one hour, I made 18 contacts, scoring 616 points.

Scoring is on the honor system and is done online. You enter your data into a Web page on the Flying Pigs website. Contacting members of the FP-QRP Club counts for three points, while contacting non-members counts for one point. After you’ve entered your data, the website automatically calculates your score and ranks you. As of 2 pm this afternoon, I’m still in the top ten, even though I only operated the first hour, and because my KX-1 doesn’t have 80m capability, only 40m.

I really like operating in these smaller contests. They’re way less chaotic and intense than the big contests, and can be just as much fun.