[3830] CQWW SSB W7PRC Multi-Op Xtreme HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: W7PRC
Operator(s): K7BTW K7EDX N9ADG
Station: W7PRC

Class: Multi-Op Xtreme HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 32

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    8     4        4
   80:   20    10        9
   40:  254    32       75
   20:  349    35      103
   15:  881    35      113
   10:  764    30       97
------------------------------
Total: 2276   146      401  Total Score = 3,288,564

Club: Western Washington DX Club

Comments:

K7EDX, K7BTW, and N9ADG operated casually in the "Xtreme" multi category, using
a linux based VPN and a master N1MM on a Windows 2008 server (in the cloud)
hosted on Amazon Web Services  to connect all of our individual N1MM stations
together as if we were in a single location.  While none of us could operate
the entire period, we often had three stations on different bands
simultaneously as band conditions allowed; we were able to operate for 32 hours
of the contest with at least one station on the air.  Band conditions were good
to great.

--

While we normally would have gotten together to do a multi effort, none of us
were able to commit to the entire contest period, and we all needed to be near
our homes. How could we all work together on a multi? The Xtreme category!  How
about if we do an Xtreme  'distributed multi multi'? An email to the cqww
contest committee resulted in a 'go for it' from K1DG.

The plan was to have each of us use our own home stations as one of the
stations in the multi-multi,  run N1MM, and connect together securely over the
internet. Each of us could connect and get on, see where the other folks were,
and choose a different band to operate as our weekend schedule allowed. We
could send coordination messages to each other through N1MM.

A few days before the contest, I set up a linux VPN server on Amazon's web
services; if you're not familiar with that, it's a means to 'rent' computing
resources for a period of time for a particular price.  I chose the minimum
machine that AWS rents for this, which is $0.02 an hour. Yes, 2 cents an hour.
For that, the machine sits in a datacenter in northern Virginia, and has a
really excellent connection to the internet, emergency backup power, etc, It
took about an hour to set that up, provisioning, installing, and configuring
the machine with no other human intervention than my own. 

I came up with an N1MM configuration, and we all tested one night before the
contest by 'dialing in' to the VPN, and making sure all of our stations worked
together.  We quickly realized that N1MM's use in this way designates one of
the machines as a "master," handling the packet spots and some other critical
functions and  with each of us unclear of our participation, none could be
depended on to be the master. The next day I set out to solve this issue by
setting up another computer on Amazon, this time a Windows machine with enough
CPU and memory to handle any potential surges in spot traffic. Running Windows
Server 2008, that machine cost 11.5 cents per hour. I set up N1MM on the server
machine, designating it's N1MM name as "cloudmaster", and verified it to work.
Using a 'remote desktop client' on Windows or Mac allowed me to use the desktop
of the server in the cloud as if it were local.  With everyone connected, our
configuration would consist of four N1MM machines (one at each of three
stations, one in the cloud), and one linux VPN server.

Thursday night before the contest, we tested the new N1MM configuration with
the 'cloudmaster', and after a couple of tweaks, we were all able to see each
other's N1MM setup; the cloudmaster handling connecting to a packet node and
distributing spots, etc.  We were great up until about 2 hours before the
contest start, when one of the computers dropped off, and couldn't get
reconnected. About 50 minutes before the contest start with a further change in
the configuration, we were able to get all machines connected again.  

During the contest, it was easy to see where each station was using N1MM's info
window; the operator, frequency, and run rate for each station are listed, and
there's a space for typing a message to one or all of the other operators. We
all got very used to hitting the Control-E key to send quick messages to each
other during the contest to coordinate band changes or status. 

We did have an instance during the contest where one of stations dropped the
connection to the others. After resolving the connection issue, we quickly
re-synchronized the 'dropped' computer's log with the others, and continued on,
the same as if we had a computer drop off on a LAN. 

What did we learn from our experience? From on operating perspective, it "just
worked" and faded into the background as we concentrated on the contest. We all
commented on that we operated MORE than we thought we would during the weekend;
since we could see and feed off each other's progress, that spurred us to sit
down and operate even for the unplanned minutes throughout the contest period. 
Having the chat capability allowed 'situational awareness' to be communicated
well ("Just was on 20m, it was a zoo. You should try it"). It would be fun to
have more people as part of the effort the next time!

Antennas/Rigs included a SteppIR DB11, 2 DB36s, A Kenwood TS-870, Icom IC756
proII, a K3, and various amplifiers.

-Brian N9ADG


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