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ARRL DX CW 2010

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From the ARRL WEB:

The weekend of February 20-21 will be a busy one for CW operators as the 2010 ARRL DX CW Contest takes center stage. First started in 1927 as the ARRL International Relay Party, the ARRL DX CW contest lays claim to the longest running contest in Amateur Radio. Stations from all around the world — from Australia to Zimbabwe — should be active for this great event that takes place on 160-10 meters (contest QSOs are not permitted on 60, 30, 17 or 12 meters).
Stations in the US and Canada work only DX stations — Alaska and Hawaii are considered DX for this contest — and DX stations only work the US and Canada. DX stations will be trying to make QSOs with all US states and Canadian provinces as they can. The contest exchange is simple: US and Canadian stations send a signal report and their state or province, while DX stations send a signal report and the amount of power they are transmitting with.

I operated in the Single Operator, Single Band 160 meters (SOSB/160) category and I made 376 contacts with 56 States/Provinces for a total score of 63,000 points.

Conditions were poor, as the 160m band has not recovered from the massive Aurora a few days earlier.

Despite the poor conditions all US States except  South Dakota and Idaho were worked.

I used my K3 in diversity mode with the USA rhombic feeding one receiver and two phased Beverage antennas 400 meter long in the other receiver.

Most stations worked were very low signal levels, at the same time stations in EU were pounding in at times with the usual Key Clicks.

The K3 handles these conditions well and although hard, working the contest was a pleasure.

The high points of the contest was being called by VK6GX (Australia) and OA4TT (Chile) for a quick exchange of reports.

My score is higher than last year´s top EU score (ON4UN – 61,548 points) by a small margin, so I feel that I did well despite the tough conditions – the score is most certainly a TF record.

My score turned out to be good enough for 7th place World Wide.

ARRL160 2010

It is possible to follow the scores on the DXWatch web site – SOSB/160 World –   SOSB/160 EU.

I recorded the entire contest and you may listen to your QSO with me.

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The Arctic King Rocks!

By On · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

CQ 160 Contest – TF4X #2 in Europe, #3 World !

Yuri, K3BU operated TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest in the Single Operator High Power category.

A solar flare about a week before the contest started caused worry that conditions would be poor.   The band seemed to have recovered nicely, but the Aurora Index stayed high during most of the contest and it became clear that conditions were disturbed.

Iceland is greatly affected by any Auroral disturbance, much more so than neighboring countries and Yuri observed, for example, that my Great Beverage antennas showed almost no directivity during the contest.    I know for a fact that they work very well, but during the weekend it seemed that signals appeared to come from all directions simultaneously.   I understand this may be due to a high arrival angle during disturbed conditions.

Some juicy DX was worked, two KH6 stations for example, it is only recently that the historic first QSO with KH6 was made from my station – this is quite remarkable considering the disturbed conditions.

The raw score is as follows:

1643 QSOs

51 States/Provinces

80 Countries

Total Score = 1,317,729

At present TF4X has the second highest reported score in Europe and is #3 worldwide.   This may of course change as and/or when other stations report their scores, but it is incredibly satisfying to see all my hard work being justified with such superior results.

Note: The final score was #2 EU and #3 WORLD ! ( NOTE: #3 among stations outside North America – two canadian stations were in places #2 and #4 putting TF4X in #5 overall. The reason for this is that North American scores are separate due to the scoring system)

Note:  The Diploma has arrived.  It puts TF4X in #6 Overall and #EU

It was quite illuminating to observe such an experienced operator running my station – at times I feared that my amplifier would literally melt, but it performed to my full satisfaction and there were no equipment/antenna issues whatsoever during the contest.

Yuri wrote in his comment to the 3830 Reflector:


Last minute adventure to the Aurora zone, taking up Thor’s invite.
Being rusty from dormant period, problems with equipment setup,
drivers, but got ready for the start.
Stories about Aurora wipeouts made it a big if.
Thanks to Thor and his magnificent station it ended up being fun and decent
score, even if coming short of beating the Eu record.
The background noise is probably the lowest in the world allowing to
hear lot more of the juicy stuff than working it.
Thanks for wonderful hospitality and station from Thor, TF4M and all the QSOs
and points. Lot of dirty clixing signals and rude behaviour by “CQ pirates”.
Will have more later.

Yuri, TF/K3BU

I used my PERSEUS SDR receiver to record the entire contest 1800-1900kHz.   The recording obviously contains the entire contest effort of TF4X and in addition it contains the contest effort of everyone else heard at my location.

This consumes two hundred GB of data, please contact me if you are interested in specific time periods.

A new chapter in the History of Amateur Radio has been written.

K3BUTF4X
 
K3BUTF4X 1
 
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Aurora

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We have Aurora now and things do not bode well for the CQ WW 160m contest coming up.

I found this beautiful Aurora photo taken in Reykjavik by Fredrik Holm last night on the web.    Click on the photo to enter his beautiful Aurora photo gallery.

I hope to have my own Aurora photo gallery soon.

More photos from the Aurora last night.

Glorious Aurora photos  may be viewed here.

I can´t resist linking to one of the most beautiful Aurora photo I have seen.   LalliSig is the photographer.  You may click on the photo to enter his site.

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Bad times ahead

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Solar cycle 24 has begun.

The first radio blackouts are already occurring following a recent solar flare – the first in the new solar cycle….Sadly, this may spell the end of the glorious conditions experienced on 160 meters.

These kind of conditions may never repeat themselves in my life time.

A solar flare may cause enhanced conditions for stations outside the Auroral Zone.   For stations in Iceland, a solar flare invariably causes exteme attenuation of signals.

Iceland is affected by Auroral conditions approximately 250 days a year.    In comparison, England is affected by Aurora 5 days a year.

The attenuation by the Aurora varies from band to band,  160 meters are most seriously affected and the attenuation  can be in the neighborhood of 130 dB.

This corresponds to a power factor of 10 billion times.   Obviously, increasing power is not an option.

This is why I ask my visitors bring a bottle of something nice.   So, in case we have Aurora, we can watch the Aurora in the sky and drink from the bottle.

Since 160 meters are effectively dead today, I printed out QSL cards for all new band/mode contacts made in 2009 – approximately 4,000 QSOs.

The card stock will be cut next time I go to Reykjavik and delivered to the TF Bureau.

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CQ WW 160 – TF4X

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Siggi, TF3CW was going to activate TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest, but unforeseen circumstances caused him to cancel.

Yuri, K3BU,  has stepped in and will operate the station in  the  Single Operator High Power category.

I sincerely hope that there will be no sun spots and no Aurora.

This may be the last chance in our life time to enjoy these fantastic conditions on Top Band.

I also hope the activity will reflect this – it would be so very cool if Yuri was able to work All 40 Zones in the contest !

It is interesting to note that I have followed the Tesla Radio Club project for years and several times I have been on the verge of writing to Yuri to invite him to my station !

First !! ever KH2L to TF QSO on Top Band.

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Last year I almost finished a QSO with KH2L in Guam.

The contact was ruined by a  LID with a HB9 call who began calling non-stop on top of the QSO preventing KH2L from hearing his report.

Seconds later the window of opportunity was gone and I have not heard Ed on 160 meters since.

Apparently the LID was cheating by listening on a remote Web based receiver, since he probably could not hear KH2L at all from his own station.

He did not account for the inevitable delays over the internet, causing his transmissions to be completely out of sync with what was really happening.

Although this could be chalked up to a beginners mistake – after all there are many moral aspects of DXing that need to be thought about and we all make mistakes,  a cheater will always be found out eventually.

At the time I did not respond to the LID in any way, but perhaps I should have sent him an email asking for an explanation.

This morning, I saw KH2L spotted on my private DX cluster and immediately listened for him on the JA Beverage but he was quite weak.

The amplifier tripped and another 4 minute wait ensued but KH2L was still there and I was able to raise him for #140.

This is the first ever QSO between Guam and Iceland on 160 meters.

Of course the recording software did not work for some reason, I must usually start a new log file in Win-Test to solve that issue.

The contact has already been confirmed on LOTW.

While checking the LOTW award status, I discovered that I had a confirmation from SV5DKL in Rhodes, Dodecanese, which I had completely overlooked.

The DXCC-160 now stands at 141.

What a pleasure.

10 January 2010

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HV0A in the Vatican was worked for #136 and XE2WWW was worked for #137 and Zone 6.

I had made an error and I was still missing Zone 6.

Conditions now seem to be detoriating, with the Aurora Index now at 6.

A new level of performance reached

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I have finally set up a Harris RF-350 with the associated KW remote controlled amplifer for use with my receive antenna system.

The DX Engineering Receive Antenna Interface for Transceivers is the unit that made this possible.

The only problem was finding a voltage on the Harris radio that would sink to ground under all circumstances of keying.

The solution was found in the Coupler connection on the back of the radio.

I connected a 10k pullup resistor to pin H which carries 13.8VDC and connected the other end of the resistor to pin B (Coupler Key).   This pin goes low on transmit, and could equally well be used to key a small relay if that was desired, but I wanted electronic control of the DX Engineering box.   Pin B in turn went to the Transmit Ground connection on the interface.

In addition, I power the interface itself from pin I, which also carries 13.8V.

Works beautifully.

It was very fitting that the first station I worked with the new setup – operating position C – was JA8NFV.

The Harris radio has filters the size of a amateur transceiver, with performance to match, what an incredible pleasure.

Since both the Harris RF-350K transceiver and the Harris 7224 KW LPA (Linear Power Amplifier) have RF Sample outputs, I set up scope monitoring of the system triggered by the  CW keying.

Update: After using the Harris in battle I am a bit disappointed. The sequencing leaves a bit to be desired, this will be improved with a DX Engineering sequencer already ordered, and there seems to be a bit of filter blow-by on CW. I am hearing CW signals outside the filter passband. I will test another unit to see if this is a common problem, perhaps a bit of contact cleaner will clear this up. On SSB the Harris radios are unsurpassed.

Further analysis indicates that this problem might be caused by  impedance mismatch with the headphones I have been using.  With those headphones, volume is at almost maximum settings so this seems likely.

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28dB pre amplification on Top Band

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This is what JA signals sound like with 28dB of pre amplification from a Beverage antenna !

Keying errors on my side are mainly due my fat fingers and because my side tone was set at a low level and I was listening on the loudspeaker…I didn´t hear my own sending…

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Incredible isn´t it?

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