World Wide Digi DX Contest - 2019
Call: W0YK
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: W0YK
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: CM97bc
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 39 8
80: 140 14
40: 200 26
20: 198 26
15: 32 6
10: 5 1
-------------------
Total: 614 81 Total Score = 81,324
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
It was both fun and a privilege to participate in the inaugural WW Digi DX
Contest as a new chapter unfolds in radio sport. Like others have reported,
there were some challenges with all the newness: FT protocols, operating
technique, strategy, new software, new contest, etc. This was expected and
overall the event played quite well. By expediting this first contest in 2019,
we are better positioned to consider improvements for 2020.
The participation in the contest sub-bands was less than I expected and most of
the activity was concentrated in the first 2 kHz. At its busiest, there was
seldom any activity beyond the first two 2 kHz segments of the FT4 area. I
seldom found any activity in the FT8 contest sub-bands. This seems to further
validate the extraordinary spectrum efficiency of the WSJT-X modes.
It was disappointing that little to no FT4 activity took place on 160 when I was
there. Instead, FT8 was prevalent in the lower FT4-designated section.
However, FT8 is probably the better choice on 160, even for contesting. Maybe
we should simplify things and just recommend FT8 for Top Band contesting.
I stayed in the lower parts of the FT4 contest sub-bands and neglected to follow
my envisioned strategy of going into the daily FT8 areas when things slowed
down. Mostly, I was keenly focused on figuring out why FT4 wasn’t working as
I felt it should in my setup (more later).
Since there was virtually no activity beyond the first 4 kHz of a band’s
contest segment, I set VFO-A to x.080 and VFO-B to x.082 on each band. This
enabled me to instantly switch between the two segments. I also swapped
Even/Odd cycles on the two radios frequently and this often produced new
stations and multipliers for a short while. Constantly cycling through bands,
sub-band segments and Even/Odd cycles helped keep the rate and interest up.
This is very easy with the FT modes and the VFO knobs were never touched after
the initial setup on a band.
Band conditions were about as bad as they can get but FT4 provided a great
experience anyway. The Maidenhead Locator based scoring system did much to
“level the field” for participants worldwide. And, the Grid Field
multipliers encouraged seeking out the DX when possible.
Challenge #1
From the start, I had much trouble being copied and it was apparent that
something was wrong. Reception was great yet even on positive SNR signals, but
most of my calls would go unanswered. This was the case when no one else was
calling and the station just kept CQing. Moving my TX frequency around,
including on the running station’s frequency, seemed to have no affect one way
or the other.
This issue worsened as the contest proceeded, until the last few hours when I
literally could not work anyone despite signals being strong and readily being
worked by everyone else. This included callers who answered my CQ but we
struggled to complete the QSO, or abandoned it. Examination of my RF signal
showed no problem with over-drive or other signal quality. Nice, narrow, clean
RF.
I also noticed from the beginning that the DT numbers were all over the place,
ranging from 0.0 to 0.9 across all stations, including my own transmissions.
Initially, I discounted this as a “software compute or display problem” that
I’d explore in the future. In retrospect, I now wonder if that’s a clue to
my time sync being off which would exactly explain my experience.
I checked my Net Time applets and they were updating every 15 minutes with less
than 20 ms. error. Beyond that, I now need to troubleshoot my system and see if
this was the problem. It was certainly frustrating to miss so many stations and
multipliers. There were very few signals below -15 SNR and most were above -5
for me.
Challenge #2
WriteLog with DigiRite is very impressive for FT contesting. The UI readily
enabled me to do anything I wanted, especially in those hectic
“non-standard” situations where the flow gets off track for any number of
reasons.
The Alternate message feature made it trivial to adapt the messages and flow to
whatever any situation required. When a message can in with an unexpected SNR,
it was easy to add my own SNR message in the flow to avoid the possible
confusion by the QSO partner. If the QSO rate were higher, I would try doing
that less often and just let the automatic sequencing proceed which takes the
shortest number of messages (given what messages came prior) to complete the QSO
and satisfy the WW Digi exchange rules.
Dynamically selecting a running station to call, interleaved with ongoing CQing
was seamless. When two or more stations answered a CQ, the auto-sequencer
worked each in turn without confusion. Sometimes the later stations wouldn’t
stick around, but mostly they did, since we all had QLF moments where the flow
and sequence went off track.
At the same time, I’m still developing my best practice techniques and mental
models of how DigiRite works. Often, there was unexpected behavior that could
be due to my limited knowledge of the software operating detail as much as any
possible bugs or potential improvements. It “seemed like” the software
behaved different in exactly the same situation. That is seldom the reality, so
more investigation is needed to understand what is going on.
Thanks
None of this would be possible without the brilliant work of Joe Taylor, the
WSJT-X development team and the extended group of users who have contributed
feedback on the FT protocols. The WWROF was keen on getting this contest added
to the WW DX Contest series this year despite the short time frame to launch.
The SCC have contributed much to the establishment of WW Digi as well as
contributing their long-standing “last full weekend in August” time slot
from the prior SCC RTTY Championship. The major WSJT-X derivative contest
software developers (N1MM+, WriteLog, MSHV, etc.) were incredibly responsive on
a very short fuse. Many others behind the scenes created the IT infrastructure,
website, log processing, SDR recording, etc. It was amazing to watch it all
come together via a diverse group effort.
73,
Ed W0YK
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