DX CLUSTERS

[Luiz Felipe Ceglia]

> Hi all,
> 
> Does anyone have IP numbers of DX Clusters in the USA and/or Europe?
> It would help me during constests, I have been operated assisted but
> not using Clusters (what's bad).
> 
> We do have a Packet gateway to the Internet and I would like to give
> a try!


Tenta isso aqui que tem uma lista boa.

http://www.cpcug.org/user/wfeidt/Misc/cluster.html



PS: Vc usa alguma antena tribanda? Eu to pesquisando, e to em duvida 
entre Cushcraft, KLM e M2.


73's

Luiz Felipe Ceglia <felipe at pobox.com> <http://www.pobox.com/~felipe> 
[Po Box 92859 - Therezopolis-RJ - 25965-970 - Brasil] [Tel/Fax:+55-21-742-3113]
HamCall: PY1NB (ex PU1WLF) AX.25: py1nb at py2ze.sp.bra.sa 
<<PGP key available on finger>>

>From syam at Glue.umd.edu (De Syam)  Wed Nov 27 13:40:36 1996
From: syam at Glue.umd.edu (De Syam) (De Syam)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:40:36 -0500 (EST)
Subject: CQWW CW: K3ZO Comments
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.95.961127082758.4564A-100000 at y.glue.umd.edu>

This year my score was almost exactly the same as last year's -- a
few less QSO's and a few more multipliers.   QSO's on 80 were up,
on 40 were down, and otherwise about the same.
 
The last thing I saw on the packet just before I turned it off
prior to the contest was a note from Frank, W3LPL, asking someone
to check WWV.  Here the solar flux had been in the absolute
doldrums for months on end, varying no more than one or two points
per day, and the last station to report WWV numbers just before the
contest had shown a jump of 10 points.  Obviously an error, right? 
I began the contest not knowing, and carried out my operating plan
basing my plan on a solar flux of 70 or so.
 
Not until the contest was over did I realize that we were flirting
with solar flux numbers around 100 most of the weekend.  Unlike the
K or A indeces, however, the flux's effect is more gradual, and the
numbers have to stay that way for several days before many of its
effects are noted.  Apparently I missed a good opening to the rare
Asians between 0000-0300 Saturday night, but then 80 and 160 were
great at the same time so who knows whether I would have been able
to break away even had I known.
 
>From what little analysis of this jump in solar flux that I have
seen, however, the location of the responsible spots on the sun's
surface would indicate that they are associated with the old cycle,
not the new one, so it may be a bit premature to think that the dog
days are over.  
 
I started off on 40 beaming Europe as usual, but conditions were
sort of spotty and I went to 80 early.  Wow, it sure is nice to
have my 80 meter beam working right again after three years of
using an antenna tuner to force it to work on the low end.  KC1XX
& Co. sure did a good job fixing it up, it is now working like it
used to.  To get the full benefit of it I have to do my running low
in the band, as it is very sharp.  By the time I get up to 3535 I'm
already dealing with an SWR of 2.5:1.  Beyond 3550 the SWR looks
more like 5:1 and I hold the power to about 400 watts when I get up
there to call people -- this year there was contest activity all
the way up past 3570 when the band was open to Europe.  But I did
most of my running around 3506-3507 where the antenna is almost
flat.  At any rate, it was working this year, and at one point,
with LY5A occupying the next running slot up from me in frequency,
it occurred to me that he seemed awfully loud, so I looked at the
S-meter and noticed that he was holding it against the pin
constantly.  Even the second night, when things were pretty noisy,
the UR4's and UA3's were well above the noise level when they
called in, and a couple UA9's and a UN7 were pleasant surprise
callers.
 
During S&P session on 80 JY8B and 5V7A were easy to get, but I
wasted a lot of time on J45T.  I had to come back and get him later
when conditions had picked up, but he gets my award this year for
worst ears.  
 
Also I could hear a lot of stations on 160 this year even though I
have no low-noise receiving antenna to use and receive everything
directly on my transmit antenna.  Scandinavians such as SM5EDX and
OH1NOR were particularly good copy, and I was largely able to avoid
getting into the rolling pile-ups characteristic of the band by
going around and answering CQ's.  Not that I did as well as my
competition on this band, however -- I still took a good beating
here.  
 
I do believe the power company has been working around here this
year as the local noise level on 160 seemed to be quite low
compared to that of years past.  As I was working at my desk Friday
I noticed a fellow in a pickup truck get out, come over to the pole
in front of my house, hit it with a hammer several times, back up
and take a picture of the top of the pole with a camera, and get in
and drive away.  I haven't called the RFI people lately, but
something must be going on that is all to the good!  It doesn't
hurt that the power company's chief RFI man is N3RWF and very
active in the local radio clubs!  Can it be that they do preventive
maintenance around my QTH just prior to my favorite contest of the
year?!
 
At any rate, back on 80 with the beam south, I found yet another
indication of the improvement in the beam's performance.  Last year
I really had to struggle to get through to the lone LU I managed to
work on the band -- this year three of them went into the log with
no effort at all.  VK's, ZL's, JA's, all well over the noise.  WH6R
was 20 over 9!
 
On 20 Saturday morning, conditions opened with a bang.  But after
I had been running for a while an intermittent in my favorite 
TS-830-S I have been dogged with for some time -- rig comes on but
there is no drive and I have to fight to get the rig to transmit --
showed up again, so I swapped it out for #2 TS-830-S and Chief
Engineer N6CZG put the main radio on the bench and went to work. 
This time I told him just to swap out whatever was needed from a
third TS-830-S that I acquired just for the parts, and several
hours later I had my favorite rig back and from then on it worked
perfectly right up to the end of the contest.  Something about the
way Kenwood uses an NPN instead of a PNP in the control circuitry,
and biases this transistor in a strange way, and the biasing
voltage had become intermittent -- anyway, does the fact that
another person repaired my rig during the contest and later I used
it again mean I was multi-op?
 
As I was running with #2 TS-830-S on 20 with the 6-el Yagi at 150
feet, I got a tremendous pile-up and remarked to N6CZG that I felt
like I was back in Thailand for a moment there.  Twenty played well
all contest long but on 15 each morning the runs petered out after
about an hour;  still looking forward to having an 8-el monobander
on that band soon, replacing the 4-el quad.  On the other hand, the
quad had no problem breaking through the piles, and I was pleased
to work a JA on 15 after not having done so last year -- credit
JA7FTR with a good pair of ears as he came back immediately even
though his signal was in the barely audible category.
 
Saturday afternoon found me on 20 as usual with the beam towards
Asia.  Even though 40 is hot at this time to Europe I generally
reserve Saturday afternoon for the 20 meter run into Asia because
I know it is Sunday over there and the next day will be Monday
morning already Asian time with most of the JA gang back at work. 
I had observed that the band has generally been dropping out to
Asia about 2300 so at that time I went to 40.  Little did I realize
at the time that 20 stayed open several more hours to Asia, thanks
to the unusual flux.  
 
I spent most of my time on 80 and 160 Saturday evening, since 40
was again a bit spotty after 0000.  But there was a good European
sunrise opening on 40 Sunday morning, robbing me of part of my
sleep time.  From 0700-0900 I had a good rate to Europe, and the
Scandinavians were particularly strong.  So I only got a couple
hours' sleep Sunday morning compared to the usual 4, and that meant
an extra cup of coffee during the day Sunday to keep me going. 
 
As I got up on 20 Sunday morning the run rate to Europe was fine
but I succumbed to the siren call of Asian multipliers and broke
off my run to go through the band and pick them out.  First I put
the beam over the North Pole and went through the band finding only
EX9A for a new one, but noticing a lot of long path echo on
signals, so I went around on long path but only found A71CW coming
through that way, so back to the short path where I found HS0AC
(Thanks to KS9K for attracting his attention so that by the time I
called he was listening for W's).  Then I noticed that in what
should have been a prime run hour I had made only 13 QSO's so I
went back to running again.
 
Looking at my totals on the screen the fact that I had not made one
contact on 10 Saturday got to me so I decided to hit 10 at 1400,
figuring that maybe the band would only open early.  I immediately
heard 3DA0NX but when I called him someone else on the same
frequency answered me and it turned out to be EM1KA!  Incidentally,
EM1KA and TX8FU were the only two stations TR Log didn't pick up
correctly in the whole contest - CQWW.CTY has been duly corrected
 -- I am assuming EM1KA is just plain Antarctica and TX8FU was
really FK8FU in disguise.  Also TR Log wanted to put RW0MM and a
couple other Russian zeroes in Zone 16 but I think I caught all of
these in time.  At any rate, 10 was good for a few mults and I
probably stayed there too long.
 
I always go to 40 meters early Sunday afternoon so I can get a good
run frequency before the mob descends.  This time I fired up around
7016 at 2000 GMT and the band was already good to Europe.  By the
time 2100 rolled around the band was hot and I was rolling with it. 
A UA0 in Zone 19, VU2MTT and NL7G were surprise short path callers,
and I never did look on the long path since I had worked VS6WO and
several JA's in the morning.  At about 2200 I noticed that the W's
got a pronounced, loud aurora flutter on them so I decided that we
might be in the early hours of a disturbance.  During such times
160 can often get interesting so I took a look there and on 80 but
heard nothing to write home about, so then I figured to take a look
on 20 since the early hours of a disturbance can often enhance
conditions there.  
 
I was not disappointed as the JA's were rolling in and continued to
do so right up 'til the end of the contest.  There were also plenty
of them on, Monday morning notwithstanding!  I cackled when I heard
the immense pile-up on BV/JJ1TBB, since I had already worked him
Saturday afternoon high in the band when he was all alone and
calling CQ's without getting answers.  
 
Normally when running JA's I try to find a run frequency low in the
band, but this time things were a bit busy, so I found a good clear
spot around 14036 which was just begging for someone to call CQ on,
so I did, and had a good run right up until the end.  The band was
beautifully quiet, no line noise at all, and I think I could even
hear the proverbial JA with 10 watts and an indoor dipole.  Maybe the fact
that I was kept busy meant that I was hearing all the JA's that had
called me the first day without success!
 
Much has been made of the fact that here on the East Coast we spend
all of our time just hitting the F1 key over and over again.  But
I still prefer to go hunting for the rare ones, and if there's one
mistake that I made when I try to analyze my effort this year, it's
that I was S&P'ing during prime run hours.  Oh well, that's the
constant tradeoff between maxing one's score out and maxing one's
fun out -- they don't always agree with each other!
 
The XYL has decided that my Christmas gift this year will be an 
FT-1000-MP, so the TS-830-S will presumably be relegated to the
bench when the ARRL DX Contest rolls around.  It will be
interesting to see if any score improvement results!   
 
                                        Very 73,

                                      Fred Laun, K3ZO
                               
     
 
 
   
 
          
 
 



>From km9p at contesting.com (Bill Fisher KM9P)  Wed Nov 27 13:39:17 1996
From: km9p at contesting.com (Bill Fisher KM9P) (Bill Fisher KM9P)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:39:17 -0500 (EST)
Subject: More vanities out
Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.95.961127083802.1010A-100000 at paris.akorn.net>


A bunch of people got vanity calls today.  W4DX was issued.  Not sure I
understand how that could happen.  3 weeks ago I was told by the FCC it
would not be issued for 2 years.  

I'm still not in there... but waiting!

73

Bill



>From k0wa at southwind.net (Lee Buller)  Wed Nov 27 14:51:39 1996
From: k0wa at southwind.net (Lee Buller) (Lee Buller)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:51:39 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Rig Software
Message-ID: <199611271451.IAA13459 at onyx.southwind.net>

Ladies and Gentlemen....

I wonder if this has been talked about on the Contest Reflector, but I am 
interested in controlling my TS850 with a Windows type program and 
ultimately...NA or CT.

What is being used out there that takes care of rig control, packet spots, 
rtty, logging, etc, etc.  What kind of interfaces are people using?

If this discussion has already taken place, can someone point me to the 
literature?

Best Regards,

Lee
k0wa at southwind.net


>From zs6cax at lia.co.za (K Tahara, Japan Embassy)  Wed Nov 27 15:50:03 1996
From: zs6cax at lia.co.za (K Tahara, Japan Embassy) (K Tahara, Japan Embassy)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 17:50:03 +0200
Subject: Beam South!
Message-ID: <199611271543.RAA08526 at lia.infolink.co.za>

At  8:01 PM 96.11.27 +0900, KN4T wrote:
(Edited)
>                           My first Q was 3V8BB (a good omen!), and I also
>got 3DA0NX and 9K2/YO9HP early on.  I then found a hole at 7067; during the
>short but productive run that followed I was called by a T7, an IS0, and
>ZS6SA (I keep the beam pointed a little south of Europe, trying to make
>things like that happen!).  I was quickly driven off the frequency, though
>(low power stations get used to it), but found 4L7AA and NL7G to make up for
>it as the first hour ended.
(Edited)

The only thing I'd like to say to North American guys, especially those who
are operating from sweat mult's, like Walter (KN4T) said in his comment on
the CQWWCW, PLEASE (bold letter with two underlines) keep your antenna
pointed a bit to South if you can still run EUs by doing so. I heard ZSs,
Z2, 7Q, 7P (and myself) struggling to work NAs who were beaming to EU. We
also want to have a chance as all of the EU guys do!!

de 3DA0NX

---------------------------------------------------------
de ZS6CAX/3DA0NX     Koji Tahara zs6cax at lia.co.za
ex JM1CAX, KG7WW, VK2FCA, VK9NX, YJ0NX, V5/7P8/KG7WW
---------------------------------------------------------


>From adnixon at akorn.net (Dan Nixon)  Wed Nov 27 15:54:54 1996
From: adnixon at akorn.net (Dan Nixon) (Dan Nixon)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 10:54:54 -0500
Subject: HDR-300 Question
Message-ID: <329C644E.6FC3 at akorn.net>

Anyone out there with an HDR-300 had problems with fluctuating digital
readout? 

Don't think it is in the wiring or up at the rotator. Notice that when
selecting counter-clockwise rotation I'm getting a loud humming sound
and interference on the PC. Rotator works fb, display jumps around
randomly to different bearings.

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading this...........Dan, W4EA

adnixon at akorn.net

>From slazar19 at sgi.net (Spike Lazar)  Wed Nov 27 16:45:27 1996
From: slazar19 at sgi.net (Spike Lazar) (Spike Lazar)
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 11:45:27 -0500 (EST)
Subject: CQ WW Story!
Message-ID: <199611271645.LAA15045 at orion.bv.sgi.net>

Just knew it wasn't going to be my day! Woke up bright and early with rain
dripping in my face, damn I should just fix that roof, but I guess it will
be easier to move the bed again!

Proceeded to shower & shave, and ran out of of deodarant after doing my
left arm, but no big deal, still had soft & dry left behind by my ex-wife
(been divorced 12 years) so I shook it up really good and used it on my
right arm, I didn't care about the ph balance. Later, this did prove to be
a distraction in hour 24 to the 20 meter team operating to my right. 

Also will have to send more envelopes to the qsl bureau because I was
running out of toilet paper, my supply of eastern european qsl's were
running low. The best type to use are the Polish cards, because they are
more porous, but you do have to be careful not to get the ink on your
backside, because it will transfer to your bvd's. (I once had to send a
pair of my bvd's to the dxcc desk because I accidently flushed the card
away). This would probably wouldn't have been a problem if I were at
N2RM's, I could have gone back a month or two later and pick the card off
the frozen ground.

Highlights of the contest were a spots from N2NT alerting me, that some
really hot .jpg's were on the newsgroups (alt.binary. pictures.erotica.
amateur.females), had a really great run, the rate meter showed I had
downloaded over 150 .jpg's in the last hour and had a 10 minute peak of 200!

Also had a great run Random US Undernet Server, was able to run my file
server in auto bot, and downloaded over 2500 .jpg's. had contol of the
channel for almost the whole contest!

Also tried a new snack, made some really fine beef jerkey, marinated 
5 lbs of beef strips overnight in Redman Juice (Golden Blend Chewing
Tobacco) place on oven rack (not N5NJ) and baked for 6 hours at 150 degrees.
This snack is a good replacement for Dr. Pepper (attention you Pepper Heads)
same effect, without all the pit stops!

Hope you had a great contest!

Sincerely,
dr. Bafoofnik