CQ/RJ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: WK6I
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CA-SJV
Operating Time (hrs): 37
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------------
80: 25 31 20 3 4
40: 151 311 32 29 21
20: 316 595 50 46 25
15: 605 1423 50 75 29
10: 172 374 31 46 22
------------------------------------------
Total: 1269 2734 183 199 101 Total Score = 1,320,522
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Took Friday afternoon to complete my setup for the test. I had recently
completed an update of my K2/100 and decided to use that as my main rig this
time instead of the FT1000D: I wanted to see how the newly configured
receiver really worked under contest conditions for RTTY, and it was also
the only rig that I had fully configured for use with my amplifier.
An issue with the K2 adjustable filters is that they do not go up to the
usual standard 2125Hz frequency used for RTTY - instead I used the alternate
1275Hz standard. The filters were set up initially using Spectrogram to set
the center frequency and bandwidth. I then used Writelog+MMTTY and on-air
signals to tweak them such that changing filter settings would not cause a
frequency shift. On-air tests showed that the setup was receiving great -
now to make a few contacts to verify that all is well....
I tuned in a calling and station and tried to reply to the CQ. Another
station also called and he got the answer from the calling station - well,
can't win them all. On to the next - he's not answering - no big deal, maybe
he's just testing his message buffers. After a few of these I'm getting a
little paranoid - so, how about a CQ myself? Calling and calling, no answer.
OK: time to haul the "work" laptop into the shack, hook up some dummy loads,
and do some tests. After getting the laptop strapped into the 1000 I found
that the K2 was indeed sending a good printable signal. When I tried to go
back and forth between the two setups I found the problem: the K2 was
transmitting 850Hz off from where it should be!
With an hour to go before the test, I had to decide whether to continue
debugging, or switch to the tried and true 1000 and get it set up for the
amp (non-trivial since you have to remove the bottom cover to throw a switch
to enable the relay for the external keying connection). I elected to go to
the 1000 - once I had it all set up and verified it was keying the amp, I
tried a few contacts and verified all was well with 15 minutes to spare.
A little pre-contest tuning around found that 15m was indeed the place to be
at the start, though the first half hour only produced NA stations, the
following two hours were mostly JA and other Pacific stations - including
V8A, a nice surprise. 15m then started to slow down so I moved to 20m - a
good run of SA and NA stations there for an hour. After that things slowed
down for me and it was pretty much S&P on 20m, 40m and 80m for the rest of
the evening.
At 1200z I dragged out of bed after 4.5 hours of shuteye, and found 40m wide
open to JA and the Pacific, and enjoyed a fabulous one hour run of 3-point
plays. I'm not used to running anything on 40m - I'm finding myself quite
pleased with the performance of the Sigma40. At 1330 it was time to check
20m for EU and sure enough they were there. I could never get a run going
and was disappointed by the small number of EU stations I was finding. There
was a reason of course: they were all on 15m! By the time I got there I was
kicking myself for not going there sooner. Got some great runs in for the
next several hours and hopefully made up for my mistake.
The rest of the afternoon was S&P and/or disappointing runs 10m and 20m
until 2300z when I had a good NA/SA run on 20m - also managed to sneak back
up to 15m for a few good mults in the process. At 0240 I got a long run
going on 20m which netted many JAs at first, and then later on eatern EU
showed up in force. The rest of the evening was S&P and short runs on 40m
and 80m.
Next morning, back up at 1200z and 5.0 hours sleep - was pleased to see
plenty of JAs and VKs on 40m that I had not yet worked, and had a nice run
there. Spent 20 minutes on 20m, and decided to get my butt up to 15m at 1430
- and was not disappointed! Plenty of EUs to work on a 90 minute run. At
this point I decided it might be a good idea to just double check 10m...
which was wide open to EU! Had a few good short runs and gathered quite a
few good mults.
The rest of the afternoon was spent back and forth between 15m and 10m - 10m
being particularly nice since I was able to fill in quite a few NA mults in
the process. In fact, the last 40 minutes on 10m produced several new mults,
including a double play on a ZL (zone and country).
This was my first major contest as an SOHP, and it did not disappoint - it
was a lot of fun being a big voice for a change. Things I learned include:
1. Get set up as soon as possible so you have time to get the kinks worked
out. In particular, double and triple check your message buffers: I managed
to send zone 4 instead of zone 3 for the first 9 QSOs.
2. I was really glad that I paid attention to grounding everything: the
family reported no interference on 20/15/10 even though I was running at
about 900 watts. The 40m vertical is closer to the house and caused some
"graying out" on the TV but that was it. The low 80m dipole totally wiped
out the TV, but it passes right over the house. I plan to move those
antennas either up or away from the house soon.
3. The K2 issue was actually an MMTTY issue. The astute reader will have
instantly noticed that 850Hz is exactly 2125-1275, but in the heat of the
moment I wasn't doing arithmetic. To quote the MMTTY help file: "In AFSK
mode, if AFC is on, you will transmit and receive on the same frequency; if
AFC is off, you will transmit on the default mark frequency." and: "MMTTY
begins with the HAM default of 2125 Hz., but this can be changed if you let
the AFC tune in a signal with a low mark frequency in your receiver
passband." Well, the default mark freq is 2125Hz - apparently, setting a
different mark frequency for receive does not translate to using the same
frequency on transmit.
I don't use AFC (or NET) since I have found that AFC will float around
between transmissions, and sometimes it floats far enough away to cause you
to miss the first few characters. Also, improper use of these settings can
cause you to transmit off frequency - this is an easy thing to do in the
heat of the moment (I had a few stations calling me almost outside of my
600Hz passband). I prefer to keep my hand on the RIT knob - I have gotten
pretty good at zapping them in by pitch.
So, I suppose that unless I figure out a reason to start using AFC again,
the K2 will not be an RTTY contest rig.
4. Country files rock! I had not used one before, but decided to upgrade to
the latest just before the contest and see how it worked. The best thing is
that it lets you "guess better" when the print is marginal. Obviously, you
should not trust only the country file and more than you should trust a
spot, but being able to respond to a call based on partial data meant saving
a "QRZ?" cycle on many occasions. For example, receive "KQ64239 BK", type
"KQ6" into the entry, see "KQ6VQ" is the only match on super check partial,
send "KQ6VQ TU 599 3 CA WK6I BK" - 9 times out of 10 you would get a
response from KQ6VQ.
5. Being able to run means you really need SO2R. For the first time, I had a
sense of how I could make good use of it - if only to be able to check other
bands for activity without worrying about losing your run frequency. With
SO2R I could have run longer and gone hunting in between rate bursts. I just
need to figure out how to get a second antenna for 20/15/10 up in the air -
among other things....
73 - jeff wk6i
--
Jeff Stai jds@twistedoak.com
Twisted Oak Winery http://www.twistedoak.com/
Rocketry Org. of CA http://www.rocstock.org/
Amateur Radio WK6I
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