The top band vertical at SE0X was put in place just in time for CQWW CW. This year the antenna is a little stronger (and longer). The bottom section is now made of a 60 millimeter aluminium tube with 3 millimeter wall thickness and I added a more robust delrin isolator.
Click to enlarge
The total heigh of the antenna is now around 19 meter and it is guyed in four levels, adding another set of guys to make it more robust in winter storms. I have also added some light bottom loading to make the top loading wires a little shorter and make the antenna a little easier to tune.
Future plans include to add remote switching of the loading coil to extend bandwith of the antenna. Another plan is to test if K2AV’s FCP (Folded Counterpoise) is a better solution than my raised and bent radials.
This year I decided it was time to upgrade the 40 meter phased array. The fibre glass poles have been in the air for a few years, and winter time really wears them down. The plan was to replace them with aluminium which would also provide more rigid antennas to minimise swaying in the wind as this messes up the pattern of the phased array.
I did some extensive testing with vertical dipoles, I wanted to see if I could get rid of the radials. But in my situation the vertical dipoles where a few dB down in most directions and paths, so the decision was made to stick with full the current setup using full size verticals over 20-24 radials.
The bottom delrin isolators where originally machined for the vertical dipoles. I also decided to replace the coax phasing cables that had seen many years in the field with brand new cables.
Click to enlarge
The performance of the array is not very different, it always worked great and hopefully the better mechanical construction and stability will help it survice a few winters to come.
A little snack to keep the spirit high in IARU 2013.
I like 24 hour contests, its not that i don’t like a major 48 hour effort, but a 24 hour contest is easy to participate in. Its a blessing not having to spend the full Friday with preparations and most of Monday to recover. The IARU HF Challenge is the perfect contest in that respect.
Last year my log got lost for some unknown reason. Not sure I just forgot to send it, or it for some reason never was accepted by the log submission robot. It does not really matter as it wasn’t competitive. It was not a bad effort a year ago, but it was not great.
This year it was time to get serious and challenge the SM record. I calculated that about 1800 contacts and 228 multipliers would put me at 1.3 million, a score sufficient to beat the current record. How did it turn out? Continue reading and I’ll let you know!
The contest got off to a rocky start. A logging issue with Wintest forced me to change to N1MM, my preferred logger, after about 20 contacts. In addition to the log struggle the rate was lower than planned due to weak propagation with very few NA stations to pile up. Ten meter was useless on Saturday afternoon and only a few stations where logged on Fifteen. Twenty meter was the goto band during Saturday afternoon and early evening.
IARU 2013 SOAB-HP-CW: Bands by Hour graph. Click graph to enlarge.
At 19:00 the number of NA stations increased on Twenty meter. The opening was not strong enough to improve the rate, but the new multipliers collected and more DX points in the log certainly helped building up the score. At 20:00 Twenty meter faded and I went on Forty where lots of new multipliers where harvested. 21:00 was be the second best hour when it comes to rate, and from 22:00 almost three hours where spend on Eighty meter. The second half of Saturday was better than the first half, but still I was 165 contacts behind my plan at midnight.
At 01:00 the rate dropped and I decided to take a tactical nap at 01:45. I was off air for only about 35 minutes, but it was well invested down time. After the nap and some strong coffee I felt fresh and awake for the morning race.
IARU 2013 SOAB-HP-CW: Accumulated QSOs, Multipliers and Score. Click graph to enlarge.
On Sunday morning Fifteen meter was alive, and a little later Ten meter came to life providing even more needed multipliers. The hour with the highest rate was the six o’clock hour with a total of 114 stations logged, all except one logged on Twenty. A decent rate of 80 to 100 QSO per hour was maintained throughout the Sunday except for the last hour and a half when stations started to dry up.
Normally I would like to have at least two thirds of the contacts in the first half of the contest, this time I had only about half. My luck was that the second half of the contest turned out the be much better which helped me to catch up.
On the finnish line it was obvious that I didn’t reach my goal. 1780 unique contacts in the log was in the ballpark of the number of QSOs needed, but I was missing exactly 20 multipliers to hit the 1.3 million score I set as my goal. It was close enough and after all, the claimed score is above the current SM record which is very good so overall I am pleased with the effort.
Below is the score summary from N1NN;
CallSign Used : SE0X
Operator(s) : SM0MDG
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Band : ALL
Power : HIGH
Mode : CW
Default Exchange : 18
Gridsquare : JO99
Band QSOs Pts ITU HQ
3,5 222 614 12 25
7 268 804 17 28
14 842 2952 34 28
21 326 1016 24 24
28 123 331 9 17
Total 1781 5717 96 122
Score : 1 246 306
Rig : K3 + TS-590
Antennas : 3-el SteppIR, 5-el 15m mono,
2-el vert array 40m, top load vert 80m
The good news is that the claimed score challenges the current SM record in the Single Operator CW, High Power category. Now its just wait and see if the final score after log checking (and score reduction) is still competitive.
Thanks to you who are in my log (or tried get into it). CU in the next Contest.
Are you also annoyed with modular 8P8C/RJ type of connectors in HF Radios? Why don’t manufacturers realize their stock mike sucks and we want to connect something else. Make it easy!
I use a Yaesu FT-857 for my travel, the minimalistic size makes it the perfect travel partner. But I want to use my headset, not the stock mic. And my heil headset comes with 3.5 mm plugs and require an adapter to connect it to the RJ45 female connector hidden behind the front panel of the FT-857. Read more ›
The drama happened in the last hour before CQ WPX SSB when we where about to kick off a Multi Operator Single station effort from SE0X. Patrik SM0MLZ was practice running on 40 meter when I noticed the the shack lights flickering. When Patrik keyed, the 12 volt shack lights lit up with dual intensity for a fraction of a second. I immediately pulled power and we measured the PSU which now delivered 20 volt. Read more ›
In preparation for the WPX CW contest decided to adopt last year’s strategy of going non-stop for the first 24 hours. Using the same plan I would try to improve my 2012 result in Single Operator, High Power, Assisted. I also was curious to see how the new 15 meter 5 element mono would help me improve rates and eager to put the recent improvement of the SO2R automation to the test.
I overslept my pre-contest nap and got in the chair 45 minutes late, but with a 36 hour cap on operation I didn’t worry. And with the recent flare activity it was going to be a slow start anyway. The first hours I spent on 40 and 80 meter to grab low band double-pointers, but with very little DX it didn’t make much impact on the “point-o-meter”. Once in a while I went on 20 to snag a few North Americans who made it through the absorption over the pole.
During Saturday 20 meter was the main band with the second radio doing SO2R duty on 15 meter for multipliers. Rates where low and DX scarce in the morning and during midday. When NA woke up the situation improved slightly, but it was not easy to run for rate. At 14:00 it got so slow that I started to do alternate CQ on 20 and 15 which helped maintain a rate in the 60s.
With propagation being so slow I decided on a few breaks during Saturday, at least to get breakfast, lunch and dinner. The sweetest break included a nap in the sun around midday, but I also took a five our sleep the second night and woke up fresh for the Sunday morning runs.
Sunday turned out to be as slow as Saturday. K-index came down a little, but it did not change much. The only excitement on Sunday was the 8 o’clock morning hour when a lot of JA’s came into the log on 15 meter.
At the end there where only a handful more contacts made than in 2012, but about 100 less WPX multipliers. And there where fewer DX logged this year, 28% of all contacts where outside EU compared to 45% in 2012. Click graph to enlarge.
Continent composition in the WPX CQ 2013 log.
Claimed score is a bit disappointing, 3.773.813 points, but I had fun anyway. The increased number of contacts despite the lower propagation is at least a small improvement. There was not a single contact made on 160 and 10 meters, but after all it isn’t needed as the prefix just counts ones, regardless of band.
Below is a more detailed analysis of the rates per hour and the bands used each hour. Click graph to enlarge.
Rates and Bands per Hour graph.
The new SO2R setup worked out fine. I am finally getting the hang of the SO2R shortcut keys and N1MM worked well together with the microHAM automation hardware. I am practicing the ability to decode CW in stereo with one radio in each ear. The logic switching allows for muting the radio which is out of focus or listen to both radios in “stereo”. A keyboard shortcut turns Stereo on or off, ie mutes the radio not in focus and this key naturally gets much use.
As the propagation was really different compared with 2012 it was hard to evaluate the performance on 15 meter with the new mono band yagi. I did notice that I could attract NA and JA response much easier than I am used to with the SteppIR, but this was no A/B test, so the the improvement might be perceptual. The important thing is that it feels good, right?
Right in time for WPX CW SE0X got a small hardware upgrade when the second microHAM Station Master was installed. This little magic box is a band decoder on steroids that, in addition to decoding the band and selecting the proper antenna, serves as a control center for all vital equipment.
The purpose of the Station Master is to automate band and frequency changes so the operator can focus on running the contest instead of wasting time on button pushing and know turning.
All possible antenna and filter combinations are preprogrammed in Station Master and several antennas per bands can be defined and selected using the panel keys or a keypad. Read more ›
This year SM0MDG and SM0MLZ teamed up for the WPX SSB Contest from SEOX. Due to the contest colliding with easter weekend obligations the other regulars weren’t able to make it. With a two person team our plan was to take a shot at the SM record, multi-op, single TX in WPX SSB. Two radios were configured SO2R style for us to be able to listen in on other bands while running.
About one hour before start we noticed some strange behavior with the multiplier radio, a Kenwoood TS-590. It would power down when we were transmitting with the run radio, a K3. My first assumption was that RF feedback somehow got into the TS-590 confusing its processor to shut down the radio. Read more ›
Instead of getting some sleep before the CQ160 SSB contest this weekend I attended a Slash concert to get warmed up. Maybe not the wisest choice, but limiting the alcohol at the VIP party before the concert was a smart decision.
Because of the concert I had decided to run CQ160 SSB from SE0X via remote. I had also prepared to run the contest in “silent mode” so I would not disturb the princess in her beauty sleep. Being silent means that the computer has to do the talking. This is possible by voicing calls in N1MM, ie. recording all individual letters and numbers in advance, then let the logger pice calls together and play those back on the fly for each contact made. In preparation for the contest I had recorded, edited and pre-processed all required voice prompts.
Once on the air the scheme worked out better than I dared to hope. With very few repeats or clarifications needed, I was satisfied with the results. To hear an example of an exchange pieced together using pre-recorded letters and numbers, listen here.
CQ160 SSB in itself is challenging and fun. To make things even more interesting I discovered right after start that I had a RF feedback problem affecting my IP link. My audio got all chopped up while transmitting, not a good thing in a contest where clarity is crucial. Reducing the power would keep the link alive so most of the contacts in the contest where done using just 300 watt.
My goal where set at 500 contacts and 127 000 points in the single operator, assisted, high power category. This was at a level that I felt would be possible even without much DX in the log. A few North Americans where received here, but it was hard to cut through the QRM with reduced power. I got lucky with VY2ZM, K3ZM, W3LL, KP4KE, ZF2AM and a few AS/AF, but in the end EU accounts for 98% of the log entries.
At the end of the contest I had been active for 24 hours and logged 523 contacts in 48 DXCC:s plus 3 US States and Canadian Provinces. This adds up to a final (claimed) score of 135150 points which is close to my unassisted SM record in 2011.
The V26BM and VP2MSW QSL cards are now available, check out the preview here! These beautiful QSL cards have been designed by ON5UR Max. They will be used by M0URX Tim to confirm contacts made with me during my Caribbean New Year tour.
Please QSL only via M0URX – send to M0URX direct or via OQRS for Bureau.
Exclusive to the backside of the VP2MSW card is a unique photo of Plymouth, the former capital of Montserrat, covered in lava and ash and abandoned in 1997.
In preparation for the WPX CW contest decided to adopt last year’s strategy of going non-stop for the first 24 hours. Using the same plan I would try to improve my 2012 result in Single Operator, High Power, Assisted. I also was curious to see how 
