[Mldxcc] some random NAQP notes

Mon Feb 26 18:11:30 EST 2018

Er, ah, Dick and I are 122 miles apart

Tom Taormina, K5RC

 <http://www.w7rn.com/> www.w7rn.com

775-847-7929

The Comstock Memorial Station, W7RN

From: Mldxcc [mailto:mldxcc-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Stai
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 2:06 PM
To: k6lrn at arrl.net
Cc: MLDXCC <mldxcc at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [Mldxcc] some random NAQP notes

I CQed for you several times. Shrug. For what it is worth I was using a less directional antenna pointed at around 90 degrees. 73 jeff wk6i

On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 1:46 PM, Dick Wilson <k6lrn12 at gmail.com <mailto:k6lrn12 at gmail.com> > wrote:

When we worked you asked for QSY to 10. I QSY'd, listened, heard nothing, 
then called CQ. N6WM answered so it was OK. (N6RO off back of antenna, but
LOS to Oakley.)
I think W7RN & K6LRN are about 32 miles apart. 
W7RN antennas are most likely pointing 70° with a possible null in my direction
while I am pointing same 70° in general direction.. 
Due to possible nulls, I, for one, often miss some Bay Area stations. 

Dick

On 2/26/2018 11:58 AM, Jeff Stai wrote:

Nice to see all of the high NCCC scores, and to see NCCC back on top of the team scores - especially to be ahead of SWACC (who I call "the usual suspects"). 

Very odd indeed about 10 meters. I tried to encourage several of you to try 10 and it never worked. If N6RO and W7RN can't hear each other it must indeed be a dead band. (I'm curious about K6NV as well, I did ask him to move but I don't know that he tried it. I mean, Truckee at least should have been workable!)

I tend to let the bands tell me what to do. I start on the highest bands available - 10, 15, and/or 20 - and stay at it until the rate falls. Fortunately 20 was very strong and kept me at 100+ per hour for over 3 hours. 15 managed only 1/3 of the rate of 20 but provided many needed mults, including some I managed to move there from 20.

How long a break to take is the judgment call, but 40 has been opening very early and I decided to go for it after just an hour. 20 was also still working for another 2 hours and provided more mult moving opportunities. Then 80 opened wide just in time to let me run to the end of my 10 hours.

Speaking of moving mults, being prepared and practiced at it is key, as well as watching the spot in your logger where it tells you that you need them on another band. Obviously running on two bands SO2R gives you a great head start to move one to the other band, but being ready on another available band is best - I was able to get a KH6 to move to 15 because I was prepared to go there even though I was no longer running that band.

"Prepared" means you have a receiver set on a clear frequency in the band you want to have available. Your logger (probably) has the tools to read the frequency of any attached RX and send that as part of a message. I'm only familiar with Writelog but I have to think N1MM can do it too.

My message in Writelog to complete a QSO and request a move looks like this:

%RPSE %ZA.1 TU W7RN CQ %E

 The %Z command tells Writelog to send the frequency of the specified radio. I use one PC per radio and network them, so %ZA.1 says to send the frequency of the the first Entry Window attached to PC A, which in my case is the main VFO from. The decimal point says to send the number at 100Hz resolution - e.g. 14086.1. 

If you do SO2R from one PC the syntax would look like %Z.1 to send the first Entry Window, %Z.2 the second, and so on.

This seems complicated but once you have the right syntax set up it takes care of itself. Note that this also works for CW contests.

The next big RTTY contest happens to be the next NAQP RTTY in July. That should give you plenty of time to get this working. ;)

73 jeff wk6i

-- 

Jeff Stai ~ wk6i.jeff at gmail.com <mailto:wk6i.jeff at gmail.com> 
Twisted Oak Winery ~ http://www.twistedoak.com/
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/twistedoak

RTTY op at W7RN

_______________________________________________
Mldxcc mailing list
Mldxcc at contesting.com <mailto:Mldxcc at contesting.com> 
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/mldxcc
Need list help? Contact mldxcc-owner at contesting.com <mailto:mldxcc-owner at contesting.com> 

-- 

Jeff Stai ~ wk6i.jeff at gmail.com <mailto:wk6i.jeff at gmail.com> 
Twisted Oak Winery ~ http://www.twistedoak.com/
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/twistedoak

RTTY op at W7RN

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/mldxcc/attachments/20180226/2ed6c356/attachment.html>