Tag Archives: Digital

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Field Day 2019 Recap

Field Day 2019 was one to remember.  We built an 11A station with a new VHF Tower and 160 meters.   Setup and takedown went smoothly.  The operating positions were full for most of the event.  We increased our score by more than 3,000 points over last year!

Field Day Site
Field Day Site

Hudson Memorial School proved to be a great Field Day Site for the 2nd year.

Transportation and Setup

Tower and Antenna Setup
Tower and Antenna Setup

Setting up at Field Day was a challenge, with 4 towers, the 160-meter wire antenna, and RBOG and the Satellite station.  Thanks to a hardworking and organized team led by Craig, N1SFT, we had everything onsite by Thursday evening or Friday morning and the Tower and Antenna setup went very smoothly.  We even had some professional help, when Matt, KC1XX showed up!

VHF Tower
VHF Tower

Here is the newest addition to field day, the VHF Tower.  With the antennas on the tower and the use of FT8, we had a record number of 6-meter contacts.  And Fred was able to walk the VHF bands with a few clubs to get some QSOs on 2 meters and 70 cm as well.

Field Day 2019 Operation

Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day
Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day

At 2:00 pm local time, the operations began and continued for 24 hours. It was great to see some of our younger members operating at Field Day.

CW Operations
CW Operations

We also had world class contesters Matt, KC1XX and Bob, WA1Z in the CW Tent along with Dennis, K1LGQ.

Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station
Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station

We had a very cool high tech Digital setup with 3 stations running FT8 using networked Flex Radios and antennas on a 60 ft tower.  Thanks to Dave, K1DLM,  for providing this setup.

Abby, AB1BY Operating at Night
Abby, AB1BY Operating at Night

Operations continued all night.  Rumor has it that Abby, AB1BY and her dad Jamey, AC1DC operated SO3R in the Digital tent on FT8.

Great Food

Jerry, K1OKD at the Grill
Jerry, K1OKD at the Grill

We also had world class food at Field Day.  Thanks to Jerry, K1OKD, Food team lead and Andrea, KC1JDX and Peter, KC1FNF, we never went hungry.

Sterling, AK1K
Sterling, AK1K

Thanks to Sterling, AK1K, we got 200 bonus points for messaging and had fun in the process handling the messages.

Field Day Site after Field Day
Field Day Site after Field Day

We left the site just as it was when we arrived. Thanks to all who helped take everything down and bring it all back to BOB!

Field Day 2019 Results

Field Day Results
Field Day Results

Here are our 2019 Field Day Results – a big improvement over last year!  Thanks to everyone who helped out with Field Day – too many to mention in this article.  This was one of our best Field Days ever! You can see more detail on our score and the list of our Top Operators on our Field Day page.

Anita, AB1QB

Digital, Featured, Newsletter

JTDX – Feature Rich Software for FT8 and Other JT Modes

We’ve recently begun experimenting with a WSJT-X derivative for FT8 and other JT Modes. Its called JTDX. The stated purpose of the JTDX software is (from the JTDX website):

JTDX supports JT9, JT65, T10 and FT8 © digital modes for HF amateur radio communication, focused on DXing and being shaped by the community of DXers.

The latest release candidate of of the JTDX software supports some interesting additional features beyond WSJT-X including:

  • Additional FT8 and JT65 decoder options which can provide improved sensitivity
  • Advanced automatic sequencing and QSO selection features
  • Decoded messaging filtering features

We’ve been testing JTDX V2.0 release candidates here for about a month now. The feature additions definitely provide some useful enhancements. The software is derived from WSJT-X and we’ve been using it here for DX’ing and for weak signal FT8 work on 6 meters. It appears to have most of the features of the current version of WSJT-X with the notable exception of support for specific contest exchanges.

JTDX Main Window and Waterfall

The JTDX software adds a number of FT8 decoding options that are useful on crowded bands and in situations when signals are very weak. These features can be selectively enabled to match band and signal conditions as well as the user’s available CPU horsepower. With all features enabled, JTDX seems to decode more signals on a crowded band than WSJT-X.

You can read more about the features of JTDX and how to get started with it via the link that follows.

Source: JTDX – Feature Rich Software for FT8 and Other JT Modes

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Digital, Featured, Newsletter, On The Air

CQ WW RTTY Contest Results

The results are in for the 2018 CQ WW RTTY Contest.   The N1FD Multi-Op Entry placed #2 in Area 1 and 14th in North America!

The CQ WW RTTY Contest was held September 29-30, 2018 and the N1FD team operated from the QTH of Fred, AB1OC and Anita, AB1QB.  In addition to Fred and Anita, Dan, AC1EN and Peter, KI1M operated in the contest.

N1FD Claimed Score in CQ WW RTTY 2018
N1FD Claimed Score in CQ WW RTTY 2018

As you can see from the Claimed Score above and the Final Score Below, we busted only 8 QSOs our of 389, resulting in a reduction of less than 10% of our score.  We will receive a report with the details of the errors, which will help us to improve in future contests.

CQ WW RTTY Final Score
CQ WW RTTY Final Score

 

We will host the ARRL International DX Contest – SSB  this weekend, March 1-3, at AB1OC’s and AB1QB’s QTH.  We will again run as a multi-op using the N1FD Call.  If you would like to join us, see the following forum post for more information.