Tag Archives: HF

Activities, DX, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

N1FD Enters The CQ Worldwide DX Contest In A Quest To Earn DXCC!

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The CQ Worldwide DX SSB Contest has just completed and we made a big step toward our goal of earning an ARRL DXCC Award for our club call, N1FD.

DXCC - N1FD Operator QSOs and Bands
N1FD Operator QSOs and Bands

The following club members operated as N1FD in the contest:

The N1FD Team operated from our station (AB1QB/AB1OC).

DXCC - Joe KB1RLC in CQ Worldwide DX at AB1OC
Joe KB1RLC Operating  in CQ Worldwide DX at AB1OC

Many of the club members who joined us had not previously had the opportunity to operate in a major DX contest. Our approach to the contest included a significant amount of time spent to help folks learn how to operate in a major DX contest such as CQ WW DX. All of the members of the N1FD Operator Team did a great job and we worked a lot of DX given the relatively poor band conditions throughout the contest period.

Hard at work on our DXCC - Our N1FD Multi-op Teams In Action (KC1ENX, KC1FFX, and KC1HHX)
One Of Our N1FD Multi-op Teams In Action (THe Funchum Team – KC1ENX, KC1FFX, and KC1HHX)

We entered the contest as N1FD in the Multi-Op, One Transmitter category and we operated in the High Power, Assisted class. This category allowed us to have two transmitters on the air on different bands simultaneously. One transmitter was the “run” station from which we could call CQ and contact any new callsigns on a given band. The other transmitter was a multiplier only station which was only allowed to work new multipliers (new DXCCs and CQ Zones) on a given band. We had both stations on the air simultaneously for a good portion of the contest period.

DXCC Progress for N1FD During The Contest Period
N1FD QSOs During The Contest Period

We operated on all of the contest bands from 160m through 10m during the contest. We mostly operated in Search and Pounce mode to focus on maximizing the number of DXCCs and CQ Zones worked. Search and Pounce mode also made it easier for the less experienced folks on our team to learn about contesting. We used a mix of data from the spotting cluster and tuning the bands to find and work stations. We did a bit of operating in Run mode (calling CQ) as well to help put additional QSOs in our log to boost our final score and to learn how to operate by calling CQ in a contest.

N1MM+ Logger Setup For Our DXCC Quest
N1MM+ Logger Setup For Our Contest Operation

We used the N1MM+ logger in a multi-op, networked configuration during the contest. This allowed us to share a single log between our two stations and to keep track of the multipliers (DXCCs and CQ Zones) that the combination of the two stations worked during the contest.

Final DXCCs Worked By The N1FD Team
Final DXCCs Worked By The N1FD Team (DXCCs worked are in Blue)

We worked a total of 108 countries in the contest and brought the total DXCCs worked by the N1FD callsign to 121.  This means that we worked a complete DXCC during a single weekend! We added 40 new DXCCs worked as a result of our contest operation.  Before the contest, our club call had 62 confirmed countries. We will need 38 more confirmations to qualify for the ARRL DXCC Award. We have received a total of 16 of the needed 38 new DXCC confirmations via LoTW as of the end of today!

We also gave our club a good start toward earning future 5-Band DXCC and DXCC Challenge Awards as we worked a total of 283 band-points during the contest.

Final CQ Zones Worked By The N1FD Team
Final CQ Zones Worked By The N1FD Team (Zones worked are in Blue)

We also made progress toward earning our CQ WAZ (Worked All CQ Zones) Award – we now have 33 our of 40 zones worked and 28 confirmed.

Our Final Claimed Score Summary
Our Final Claimed Score Summary For The Contest

We made a total of 607 QSOs during the contest for a claimed score of 588,208.  The actual score may be lower than this after the contest adjudication process completes in several months as deductions will be taken for any incorrect calls or exchanges. You can also see our results at the 3830 Score Rumor website.

Mike Rush, KU1V Working On Our DXCC In The Contest
Mike Rush, KU1V Operating In The Contest

Everyone involved had a lot of fun and learned some new skills. We are thinking about operating again as N1FD in the ARRL Sweepstakes Contest in November (Nov. 19-21). Please let us know if you’d be interested in joining the N1FD Team for this contest.

73,

Anita, AB1QB and Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

Why Would I Want To Be In A Contest?

As I sit here watching the N1FD teamwork the CQ Worldwide DX contest, it got me thinking about what contesting is really about and why we contest.

Let me try to answer the second question first. There are lots of different reasons to operate in contests. Many folks do this to work new countries, states, zones, islands, grids, etc. It seems that you can find a contest that is designed to create opportunities to work just about anything that you can think of on the bands. Others work contests to try to test out their stations and to improve their skills as operators. Of course, many folks compete to win the contest or to place better than they did the last time. Some may even compete to set a record.

Joe KB1RLC in the CQ Worldwide DX Ham Radio Contest
Joe KB1RLC in CQ Worldwide DX at AB1OC

Perhaps the best reason to contest is that it provides one of the best opportunities to be a better operator. You may say, aren’t contesters just QRM on the bands on weekends when we want to use them for other stuff? I can see why some feel this way. I wish that more amateurs who feel this way would take some time to listen more closely to what is going on during the contest.

There is nothing quite like listening to a skilled operator work a pileup from a rare place during a worldwide contest like CQ Worldwide DX. Such an operator will make 100’s of calls in a row. They will accurately get each caller’s information into their logs and the really great ones will also use their skills and energy to ensure that each of their callers gets the contest station’s information correct in their logs as well.

This requires great skill in many areas. First, you need to really learn to listen and to pick out weak and fading callers in the presence of a great deal of QRM. It’s often necessary to piece together a good callsign using several rounds of a QSO. Good contest operators know perhaps 500 or more of the most common calls used in their contest and this information helps them to recognize calls and avoid making errors. The great ones also know how to work with each caller to ensure that they get the correct information to complete the contact and that the other operator does the same.

Jamey, KC1ENX Operating in the CW Worldwide DX SSB Ham Radio Contest
Jamey, KC1ENX Operating in CW Worldwide DX SSB

I like to think of this as getting in the head of the other person during the QSO.  Did they get my call right or do I need to slow down and say my call again? Did I hear their callsign and exchange correctly or do I need to give them a chance to ask me to correct something for them? While I am doing all of this, I need to be as fast and efficient as possible. These skills take a great deal of practice to develop. You can get there with less time in the chair during contests if you take some time to listen and pay close attention to the great operators that you will hear during contests. First and foremost, great contesters are great listeners and they can accurately pick out call signs on the first try without making mistakes.

N1MM+ Logger Setup For Our Contest Operation
N1MM+ Logger Setup For CQ WW DX

What, you say that any operator will do great when they are sitting at a big contest station with a lot of power and big antennas? It is true that having a well-built station and good hardware and computers helps make contacts easier. Computers and modern software like N1MM+ also play an important role in making the mechanics of finding and making contacts accurately more efficient. The contest community makes their software available free of charge to everyone. I strongly encourage anyone who contests to set up and learn to use modern contest software. While these tools help, they are just like construction tools in the hands of a carpenter. The master carpenter can create a work of art with a hand saw, a hammer and some basic hand tools while an apprentice can struggle to get good results from the best shop and tools available.

Also, most contests are designed with categories to group contesters with their peers who have setups similar to theirs. Station hardware differences also do not account for the contester who goes to an island in the Caribbean with a 100W radio and a simple antenna and wins an award in a contest.

Julio, HI3A Competing in the WRTC Ham Radio Contest
Julio, HI3A Competing in WRTC

We also saw this clearly during the WRTC competition here in New England a few years ago. We had the best operators in the world competing using the exact same towers and similar antennas that we use for our annual Field Day operation and they made 2,000 or more contacts in a 24 hour period using 100W radios. Many of these operators did this while making almost no mistakes!

So what else makes a great contest operator besides working fast and efficiently to complete and log lots of contacts accurately? For one, these folks know a great deal about propagation and how to take the best advantage of the conditions at hand. They know when it’s time to run on 20m into Europe, when to look for Japan on 15m for those multiples, what time of day and segment in the contest to focus on contacts in the Caribbean and South America, etc. They learn when they need to change bands and when it’s time to work multipliers or tune the band that they are on with their second radio or VFO. They can quickly determine the band and propagation conditions on the contest weekend and adjust their strategy to take the best advantage of the conditions at hand.

A great operator also learns to make the best use of their station and antennas. They understand where their stations work well and they adapt their approach to a contest based upon this. They also spend lots of time looking at and comparing their performance from contest to contest and against other competitors in the same contests to see where they can improve.

So what if you don’t really want to win contests? Why would you bother with this? The most important reason is that contesting will make you a better operator. You’ll learn to hear that really weak DX and get them into your log accurately. When you get on the air, you’ll be an operator that others want to work because they know you will help them complete a contact that they want. You will find and work stations that most others will miss. In short, a bit of dedication to contesting will make you a great operator.

Bands and Modes Worked By N1FD (Noon On Sunday)
Bands and Modes Worked By N1FD (Noon On Sunday)

As the CQ Worldwide DX Contest weekend draws to a close, I’d also like to add that I am proud of the job that the operators in our club did at our station. Most of them had almost no DX contest experience before this weekend. They worked the contest hard and have made contacts to over 100 counties in about 40 hours of operating. They have all improved their skills greatly and I look forward to working all of them at any time.

73, and see you in the contest!

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter

Moxons in the Attic (Part 1)

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A few months ago, I wrote an article on building a stealth antenna farm. Since I live in the land of CC&Rs, antennas must be “dual use” such as a vertical hidden inside a PVC flagpole, or low dipoles and inverted Vees hidden in trees. I spent many years as an avid contester and DX-chaser to appreciate the logic of stacked beams on towers to enhance the thrill of the hunt. Thanks to Layne, AE1N, I checked out the website of Jeff, AC0C (www.acoc.com) for some ideas of how to build a multi-band station in one’s attic without the condo association vigilantes running him out of town. Jeff spent countless hours crawling around his attic to construct multi-element antennas for 160 through 6 meters. Spurred on by Jeff’s success, I decided to explore the attic of my garage to see what I could do. As I described in the MAY Nashua ARC bulletin, I settled on building Moxon antennas for 15 and 17 meters.

An old adage about antenna building states that an antenna must be built-in lousy weather in order to work right. Thirty years in New Hampshire lent credence to this axiom as I spent many a cold, windy day on a tower doing antenna work. In Florida, a similar law applies: build an antenna in the summer months while sweating profusely rather than during the comfortable winter weather. Again this makes sense: DX and contesting fill up the winter months to have time to mess with antennas. It is also important to remember that, during such endeavors, you will become enamored with you antenna as you take breaks to warm your body (in NH) or drink a gallon of water (in FL), all the while cursing this law of antenna building.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My garage attic is roughly 20 x 20 feet with an apex of about five feet that runs north-south. I had selected the Moxon design because a conventional 2-element beam would not fit in the space available. I elected to build a Moxon for 15 and 17 meters that would fit in the space available without having to encounter obstacles like the ventilation duct work. I was also fortunate in that my home is one of the older models that do not have foil-backed insulation inside the roof that creates a radiation-proof box. The joists junctions are reinforced with metal plates as part of hurricane building codes. My plan was to attach the wires to the roof trusses and stay away from these plates as much as possible to avoid interaction.

The 17-meter Moxon is a little over seven feet between elements while the 15-meter Moxon is about six feet between elements. I used a piece of half-inch PVC pipe as a template to mark the joists for the 17-meter antenna. The antenna is about 2.5 feet above the attic floor for a total height of eleven feet above the ground. I had modeled it at 13 feet so I figured it would be close enough. The 15-meter Moxon is about 15 inches above the 17-meter one. When viewed from the top, the antennas look like concentric rectangular loops.

Over the course of several weeks, I grunted, groaned and sweated my way back and forth measuring and installing the wires. I worked during the morning hours before I was soaked before 10:00 AM. I found myself wishing I could have my five-year-old grandson help me. He can stand upright and is plenty flexible to maneuver around the joists. While I did not have to worry about the obvious safety issue of working on a tower, I did at times feel I was a candidate for the NFL concussion protocol from bumping my head. I tried using my cycling helmet but it interfered with my headlamp. Another similarity to tower work is that I had to make N trips back and forth in the attic for stuff I forgot. This is, however, much more bearable that climbing up and down a tower to get what I forgot.

Figure 1 shows a view toward the south end of the attic. The two pieces of PVC form the element separators for the 15-meter Moxon (top wire) and the 17-meter Moxon (bottom wire).

Figure 1 – Moxon Element Separators, 15m (top) & 17m (bottom)
Figure 1 – Moxon Element Separators, 15m (top) & 17m (bottom)

Figure 2 shows the reflector elements for each antenna as secured to the joists, looking north through the attic. The white standoff fasteners are coax cable tie-downs that I found at the hardware store. Standard house wiring fasteners would have worked but they leave little room for pulling wires if I needed to make adjustments. (My first attempt was to use duct tape to hold the elements up. However, the heat soon made them droop.)

Figure 2 – Moxon Reflector Elements, 15 m (top) & 17m (bottom)
Figure 2 – Moxon Reflector Elements, 15 m (top) & 17m (bottom)

Figure 3 shows one corner of the director of each antenna looking east. The duct work to the left is part of the ventilation system while the open duct vents directly from the garage below. The yellow fence standoff on the upper antenna is the bend point for one end of the 15-meter director. Not visible to the left is a similar bend point for the 17-meter director.

Stealth Antenna - Looking East-from the Reflectors
Figure 3 – Looking East-from the Reflectors

Figure 4 shows the temporary feed points for each antenna.

Stealth Antenna – Feedpoint for 15m (top) & 17m (bottom)
Figure 4 – Feedpoint for 15m (top) & 17m (bottom)

The figures above show the project to date. I installed the 17-meter antenna first and measured its SWR performance with my analyzer. I found that it resonated beautifully at 16.7 MHz with a 1.1:1 SWR while bulging to 3.9:1 at 18.1 MHz. I shortened each element by a foot and ran measurements again, this time the resonant point moved up to 17.3 MHz (1.3:1 SWR) and the SWR at 18.1 MHz dropped to 2.7:1. I folded the elements back another four inches on each end and measured the response. I observed the SWR bottoming out at 1.5:1 at 18.1 MHz where I wanted to be. As a point of interest, I modeled a Moxon designed for 16.7 MHz and noticed the elements were about two feet longer than a Moxon designed for 18.1 MHz, close to the twenty inches I had to shorten the elements. Apparently, there is some interaction with the wiring that runs along the attic floor near the edges.

Armed with the satisfaction I was on the right track, I installed the 15-meter Moxon above the 17-meter antenna. I hooked up the analyzer and fired it up only to find to that its “resonant” point was a dismal 3.0:1 SWR at 22.9 MHz, rising to 3.9:1 at 21.1 MHz. This meant my antenna was too short. I went back to EZNEC, opened the standard dipole model and plugged in 22.9 MHz and found that its length was very close to the overall driven element for a Moxon designed for 21.1 MHz. I lengthened each element by five inches as a starting point to see what would happen. The result was no change in SWR at 22.9 MHz while dropping slightly to 3.6:1at 21.1 MHz. Hmm, looks like I need to get a little smarter about this.

Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out. (Don’t you hate that?)

Ed, K2TE

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide