Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

In the Mud - Again

A couple of months ago I wrote an article about receiver parameters and what they meant. At the time I mentioned that I would follow up with another article that explored some of the current transceivers and discuss how they stack up against one another. I thought this would be a good time to cover the topic since most of us are recuperating from Field Day at this point. I also thought it might be a good idea to talk about different rigs since many of us will have experienced how rigs perform under contest conditions.

Comparing rigs for this article could be an indefinite series since there are a lot of HF transceivers out there. I decided to focus on rigs that I’ve used over the years partly out of curiosity to see how they measure up and partly because I remember how they performed during a contest. They also provide a cross-section of how performance and features have progressed over the years.

My first rig of the “standard” 100-watt solid- state, mega-button design was the ICOM 735. I bought it shortly after moving up here in 1985 and had many happy years using it. I was amazed at the number of features crammed into a 10-pound box (ok, 11 pounds). It is still a convenient size for mobile or portable use today in the face of even smaller rigs like the ICOM 706. This venerable rig is a triple conversion general coverage receiver that sired many of the ICOM rigs that followed.

After a few years of contesting and listening to NU1U brag about the ICOM 765, I issued a challenge to Ron to let a REAL contester (me) try out the rig. Luckily, I caught Ron after too much time on the computer and no sleep and he let me borrow the rig. The IC- 765, with its self-contained power supply and 10 times as many buttons and knobs as the IC-735, is not a mobile rig. Surprisingly, I found it very easy to use, possibly because the panel layout is similar to the IC-735 for placement of many of the same functions. My first time using the 250 Hz filter in the first IF was a surprise as it shut the door on strong, off-frequency signals and let me copy the weak one. The IC-765’s strong suit is its receiver: one of the best for the price.

By far the most impressive rig I’ve used - visually and financially - is the IC-781. This rig came out just a few years after the IC- 735 and it told me that the ICOM purists had secretly toiled away at building the ultimate rig. The 781 has more knobs and buttons than the IC-765 and IC-735 COMBINED. The panel is dominated by the distinctive amber-color scope display that provides a unique spectral view that can be adjusted to see activity across nearly the whole band at once. I had the privilege of using the rig at WS1E’s QTH during the CQ Worldwide CW contest one year. John made sure the rig had all the options added. (For a rig that cost as much as a good truck, so would I.) The 781 is quad conversion receiver - none of this wimpy triple stuff - that was the first rig to use a “dual watch” function that allows an operator to listen on both VFOs simultaneously. This is a Godsend when trying to find where a rare DX station is listening and making sure you don’t transmit when he is. Throw in 250 Hz CW filters and pass band tuning in the first and second IF stages and there wasn’t anything we could not hear. At 51 pounds, John stays in shape taking it out to Field Day.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to use the new ICOM 775 during Field Day. I also had the chance to use the rig a few months later during one of the major contests. The rig has even more knobs and buttons than the IC-765 and more settings for some of the same features. Like the 765, it sports a very good receiver. The IC-775 also was one of the first rigs I used that applied digital signal processing to the audio to clean up noisy bands and enhance the components of the desired signal.

Unfortunately, my impression of the IC-775 remains scarred by the dismal mechanical integrity of its main tuning knob. In the middle of the CW Worldwide SSB contest, the knob froze up to the point where it refused to move short of using a pipe wrench. I limped along through the rest of the contest using the second VFO.

My present rig is the Yaesu FT-1000MP, obviously a departure from the ICOM line. I bought the rig not out of technical performance but simply because the opportunity was there - and I couldn’t justify the much higher price of the IC-775. Like this rig, the FT-1000MP has the “standard” bells and whistles contesters are taking for granted today. Nearly everything on the rig is menu-controlled, including selection of preamps. Yaesu has added a unique feature that allows an operator to use a “flat” preamp setting where a single preamp is used for all bands and a “tuned” setting that optimizes one preamp for 1.8 to 7.0 MHz and another preamp for 20 to 30 MHz. So how do these rigs compare? The table below is my attempt at trying to be as fair as possible. I’ve used the measurements taken for the 80-meter band even though it may not be the best for that rig. The values I’ve listed can be found in the ARRL Product Review column for the particular rig.
Rig Sensitivity (dBm) IMD Range(dB) TOI (dBm) BDR (dB)
IC-735 -127/-134 92/90 8/4 Noise Limited
IC-765 -135/-142 99/98 13.5/5 152/148
IC-781 -137/-141 101/97 14.5/4.5 134.5/132.5
IC-775 -139/-143 106/104 20/13 139/135
FT-1000-128/-135 94/91 13/1 140/139
1) Preamp off/preamp on
I knew I should have gone with the IC-775! So what I have described here is admittedly a small and skewed sample from one who has played with these rigs. I plan to touch on how best to use some of the goodies in various rigs in a future article. In the meantime, why not try your hand at some of these contests and show off your Field Day- tried operating skills?

8-9 July, IARU HF World Championship

Here is a contest that is growing in popularity because it fills the bill nicely for a mid-summer contest. The IARU HF championship is not on a holiday weekend and only occupies 24 hours of the weekend so there is time for the family. The contest starts at 1200Z on Saturday and covers 160 through 10 meters and allows operation on SSB, CW, or both. Operating categories are single operator for any of the modes and multioperator/single transmitter for mixed mode only. There is a 10-minute rule whereby a station must stay on a band and mode for 10 minutes before changing.

The contest features special IARU member HQ stations that can operator simultaneously on more than one band. These stations are distinguished by sending their IARU member society abbreviation as part of the exchange. All other stations will send a signal report and their ITU zone that is NOT the same as the CQ zone. (Our ITU zone is 8.) A station may be worked on each mode of each band for the mixed mode category. Contacts within your zone or with IARU HQ stations are worth 1 point; same continent- different zone contacts count as 3 points; and intercontinental QSOs are 5 points. Multipliers are the total number ITU zones plus IARU HQ stations worked on each band. Logs may be sent electronically in the ARRL Standard File Format in a log and summary file to iaruhf@arrl.org.

15-16 July, NA RTTY QSO Party

This is another of the series of contests where the rest of the world tries to work everyone in North America from Panama to Canada. North American stations, of course, can work anybody. The contest is more of a long sprint, running from 1800Z on Saturday to 0600Z on Sunday. Operating classes are single operator and multi- operator/two transmitter with both groups limited to 150 watts output. Single operator stations are limited to 10 of the 12 hours, while the two-transmitter guys can operator all 12 hours but must observe a 10-minute rule for staying on a band. Operation in the RTTY portions of 80 through 10 meters is allowed. The exchange is the operator’s name and state/province/country. Each QSO is 1 point. Multipliers are all 50 states, the Canadian provinces, and other North American countries. ASCII logs showing a log file (*.all) and a summary file (*.sum) may be submitted to K5DJ via k5dj@easy.com by 16 August 2000.

15-16 July, AGCW DL QRP Contest

Mid-July finds many Germans on holiday to enjoy the warm weather. In keeping with the spirit of vacation, this one is a laid-back QRP contest that runs for 24 hours beginning at 1500Z on Saturday. The contest does require at least a 9-hour rest period so it is not a harried event. This CW- only contest covers 80 through 10 meters and uses a signal report and serial number/category for stations in the contest and just a signal report for stations outside the contest. There are 4 categories of operating class that append the serial number: VLP (for 1W or less); QRP (for 1 - 5W); MP (moderate power up to 25W); and QRO for anything over 25W. Since the focus is on QRP, combinations of contacts between QRP and VLP stations are worth 3 points. QRO - QRO contacts are worth nothing while all other category QSOs count 2 points each. Multipliers are DXCC countries worked per band. Send the usual log data to DLRDRA by 31 August 2000.

29-30 July, Russian RTTY WW Contest

Here is a longer RTTY contest that spans the full weekend although single operator stations are limited to 36 hours. Operation takes place on 80 thorough 10 meters. Single operators may enter as all-band or single- band categories. The exchange for non- Russian stations is signal report and CQ zone number. Russian stations will send a signal report and a 2-letter code identifying their oblast. Multipliers are each DXCC country and each oblast worked on each band. Own-continent QSOs count as 5 points and intercontinental QSOs count as 10 points. Logs to UA4LCQ by 1 Sept. Email them to Yuri at ua4lcq@ulstu.ru.

73, de K2TE

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