Got a new Kenwood TS-590 for the contest season and wondering how to set up N1MM for use with it? No problem! Here is a link to a document that describes how to control DSP filters, clear the RIT after each QSO and play the internal DVK voice keyer messages by using macros in N1MM.
GL!
The JX5O expedition to Jan Mayen is coming closer. In one week the international team will gather in Reykjavik, Iceland, to begin the trip to Jan Mayen located in the Norwegian Polar region. The team will travel on the Aurora sail yacht from Isafjordur to Jan Mayen in unpredictable waters in the North Atlantic.
The camp will be located at Gammelmetten, the old meteo station located 8 km away from the Loran C station at Jan Mayen. Preparations of the expedition has been ongoing for a long time and the team plans to activate the 40 to 6 meter bands using 3 stations.
JX5O is scheduled to be on the air July 6-14. More information and updates can be found at the JX5O website at www.janmayen2011.org.
The hardware at SEØX has now been upgraded and reconfigured to allow for SO2R (Single Operator 2 Radios) and Multi-2 operation.
The main antenna switch has been replaced by Array Solution’s Sixpak antenna switch with two radio inputs and six antenna outputs, two 5B4AGN high performance band pass filters has been installed and finally a microHAM u2R has been added to control switching of microphone and headphone audio between the two stations. A Spiderbeam 3-band yagi antenna has been assembled and put up temporarily to be used as the second high band antenna as the SteppIR wont allow for instant band changes.
The station is now ready for SO2R and the work has been finished in time for the CQ WPX CW contest the upcoming weekend.
When announced the Kenwood TS-590 didn’t caught my attention, it was later when I was looking for small radio with good performance for Multi-2 and SO2R operation and read the first reports from users that I got interested. I decided to get one and put it to the test at the SE0X station.
The following is a report of my impressions of this new contest grade transceiver ranking in the top 10 of Rob Sherwood’s receiver test when it comes to dynamic range.
7SØX ranks #1 SM in its category, Multi-2, when log submission closed for the 2011 WPX contest last week. The final claimed score of 9,020,288 points is more than double the score of the team’s 2010 effort.
The contest posed some technical challenges to the team and with the excellent propagation on higher bands we felt that more would have been possible with a different 15/20 meter antenna configuration.
The SEØX station is currently being upgraded to better suit M2 and SO2R operation.The upgrade includes better bandpass filters, more flexible antenna switching and added antennas.
The 7S0X team consisting of F4BKV, SMØMDG, SMØMLZ and SMØNOR thanks everyone in the log and congratulates SM2WMV to a very impressive SO-HP effort placing SJ2W #1 in SM overall.
Look for us in the CQ WPX SSB Contest this weekend, 7SØX is likely to be the only station active with the unique 7SØ prefix.
The team consisting of F4BKV, SMØMDG, SMØMLZ and SMØNOR will be entering in M/2 and preparations have been made to keep the two stations on the air 24/7 from the SEØX station.
The team ranked #1 SM in CQ WPX SSB 2010 and the goal have been set to be more competitive overall in EU.
73 & GL in the Contest!
SEØX operated by Björn SMØMDG scores another #1 top placement in SM! This time in the IARU Worlds Championships 2010 Single Operator High Power, Phone category. The total score of 826.140 points resulted in a #13 EU ranking just above team X-Team mate Vincent F4BKV at 781.425 points.
Read the full report from the IARU 2010 World Championships here.
The X-Team using the 7SØX call ranks #1 SM when the final results of the 2010 CQ WPX SSB Contest where published recently by CQ Magazine. With a total score of 4.042.940 7SØX is almost 1.3 million points ahead of #2 SK7OA.
Operation was taking place at the SEØX station and operators in the X-Team was F4BKV, SMØMDG, SMØMLZ and SMØNOR. The team will get together again in the ARRL DX SSB Contest from the French Atlantic Cost with the TMØX call, then head back to SM for the WPX 2011 Contest as 7SØX.
The “X-Team” consisting of Vincent F4BKV, Björn SMØMDG, Patrik SMØMLZ and Ulf SMØNOR will be active in the upcoming ARRL DX SSB Contest as TMØX the first weekend of March. The location will be Vincent’s station at the French Atlantic Coast.
The last weekend of March the “X-Team” will be active in the WPX SSB Contest from the SEØX station, repeating the effort of last year but this time we are planning for a Multi-Multi effort. The call and full team will be announced later.
CU in the Contest, 73!
I had not planned for a serious effort, just a little fun in CQ 160 SSB contest this weekend. And fun was exactly what was provided, together with some snow to clear at the station!
I decided to operate only for a few hours which finally ended up at a total of 12 hours casual operating. I was prepared for heavy QRM and complete chaos, but it was actually easy to find a hole in the otherwise crowded 40 kHz allowed band segment.
I picked a tactic of working a few hours at a time, then take a few hours break to let the band fill up with new calls to work. This worked out well and I logged a total of 555 stations which made the QSO rate slightly higher than in CQ160 CW a month ago. A total of 60 countries but only 4 states where logged. The DX drowned in QRM and the ones found usually had trouble hearing on their end.
Topband, especially when limited to 40 kc, is not really suited for a SSB contests but nevertheless it was fun to dive into the mess and rely on the K3’s DSP filters to be able to make sense of the mess.
Another fun weekend on the air, 73!