A Clean Sweep and a Great DXpedition

For the past few weeks, the HF bands have been full of activity with the VP6DX DXpedition to Ducie Island, a small atoll in the Pitcairn Islands which is a separate DXCC entity.

I hadn't really planned to be active with them, but I was playing with RTTY on 20 meters back on Feb. 13th and made a QSO with them. I gradually started working them on other bands and modes, and before long it became a quest. I was quite excited to snag them on Valentine's Day on 10 meters. I tuned up the screwdriver on the truck to catch them on 17 meter phone. I worked them in my truck on 80 meters at around 3:40 in the morning, during a short break while providing communications support at an all-night bike race event. I overcame my fears of fast code QSO's and started working the CW slots (it's a lot easier to work fast CW when it's not a long chatty QSO!)

I strung up an Alpha Delta Sloper to accompany my little beam and discovered that I could tune it for 17 and 12 meters, in addition to the 30, 80, and 160 meter bands. As the days went by, the quest became an obsession - I really wanted to work them on as many bands and modes as possible. This was made especially difficult by the fact that I'm presently in my busiest work time of the year (yes, it's tax season!)

I thought I was finished for good a few days ago, with all possible bands and modes except for 160 meters. The AD Sloper is really not a good 160 meter antenna, and to make matters worse I put it up where it is direction to the North. But, I kept trying anyway. I was so excited on Tuesday morning when I scored a CW QSO! I had spent many hours trying, and finally got through at about 6:30 a.m., so I'm pretty certain it was a greyline propagation helping my measly little signal to make it through. They took almost all the gear down on Tuesday, so I thought I was finished for sure. On Tuesday night, they were working 160 CW again, and I worked late while keeping an eye on the cluster for a phone op. Finally in the wee hours they gave it a try...only to switch back to CW after a short while because the noise was so bad nobody was getting through. I finally called it quits and went to bed at 4:00 a.m., but got back up at 6:30 on Wednesday morning to get my son up for school. I couldn't resist turning the rig on one more time...and surprise, they were on 160m phone. So I started calling. I kept calling, my voice was almost shouting into the microphone in desperation...and finally I heard them calling back, "Radio Kilo, Radio Kilo, again?" So I kept going and going, and what a miracle, I finally heard my full call come back with a signal report! I was more awake than ever despite only having a couple of hours of sleep, the adrenaline was really pumping as I gave my signal report to them. I was so excited that I gave a CW-style RST, "599 599", instead of just the normal "59", but I guess they forgave me. That QSO was definitely one of the most difficult ones I've ever made.

So I ended up with a "clean sweep" (they never activated 6 meters, so I got all 20 possible band-slots) and I suspect I was one of the last ones to make it into the log, as they tore down the rest of the gear on Wednesday and are now on ship sailing for home. I couldn't wait to see the online log to make sure I wasn't dreaming! And sure enough, I'm in the log - the picture above is a snapshot of their online log checker. I even made it in the top 100 for CQ Zone 3 (#86) and the Western United States (#83)! Not bad for a station with very limited antennas and no amplifier. My buddy Larry also had the bug and he scored a clean sweep too, with the exception of the RTTY slots.

This DXpedition set many records with over 183,000 QSO's. It certainly got me fired up to work more DX. I've actually logged quite a few DX contacts with other countries in recent times, and I'm already in a big backlog on QSL'ing. Tomorrow night the ARRL International DX Contest starts, and while I don't plan to make it a major effort, I'll probably get on and try for a few new ones between work and family commitments. Fun stuff!

Logs, Logs, and More Logs

Over the years I have utilized many different methods of logging my amateur radio contacts. I normally use a paper log, but I also often have used computer logs. In my early days as a ham, I used a software program that ran under DOS called "Hyperlog". In those days the computer had not become a major part of most ham shacks, but Hyperlog was a simple little logging database and I enjoyed using it.

As the years went by I stopped using Hyperlog, and tried a few other logging programs. In the meantime, the "ADIF" and "Cabrillo" standardized formats were developed, and Hyperlog's programmer discontinued the product. I currently use three different logging programs - they all have their strengths - and they all can produce compatible files. One is ACLog by N3FJP, which is very simple in its design; another is the logging module included in Ham Radio Deluxe, which has some nice integration to other sections of the software; and the third is Win1010, by K4HAV, which is designed to handle the many unique logging aspects of paperchasing for 10-10 International Net.

I recently discovered a diskette containing a backup of some of my Hyperlog data, from my days as KB5UEV and a few months of KI7RK. It was a challenge just to read the 3.5" floppy disk, which has already become obsolete; when I finally did, I realized that the data was in a unique ascii separated database file and I had no idea how to convert it. So I posted a request to the 10-10 e-mail reflector, and fortunately for me, Jim Hardy K4HAV stepped in and performed the conversion for me. The log turned out to be an incomplete record from those days, but it did have about 860 QSO's, including two special ones:

- 8/25/1992, with W5VIB - I checked into the Sandoval County RACES Net, and logged it as "My first QSO ever!"

-10/17/1992, with K4PSR - Bill, "10-10 #57564 will send info". Bill sent me a complete copy of the 10-10 News, and was encouraged me to join 10-10. Sadly, Bill is now a Silent Key, but I wonder if he noticed that I became Treasurer of 10-10.

It will take a very long time for me to get all of my past logs into the computer, if I ever do. I've got enough QSO's for many, many different awards but I've never organized them to claim more than a few. It's kind of fun to post 15-year old QSO's to LOTW and eQSL and discover that the other side of the contact has already QSL'd the contact!

I think that amateur radio logs were a requirement in years gone by; an FCC inspector could show up at your house and demand to see the log, and woe to anyone who could not produce it. I'm not sure they are actually required anymore, but it's hard to imagine not documenting your QSO's somehow. Some of my logs are simply copies of contest logs, which I used to prepare and score manually; others are fancy notebooks, and some are freebies given by manufacturers. It's always fun to look back and bring back some memories from the old logs.

Signals From the Moon

I'm sitting here listening to signals from the Moon!

No, I haven't lost my marbles. There is an experiment underway by the "HF Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)" and the "Long Wavelength Array (LWA)" in New Mexico on 6.7925 MHz. They requested that amateurs monitor the test, so I tuned in, and sure enough, there are the signals. They're sending 2 second unmodulated CW transmissions (sort of like a long Morse Code key press), followed by a 3 second wait.

I'm copying the transmissions at S9+20, and the echos are coming in at S1-S2.

Who knows why they are doing this, it's a military thing so maybe there is some secret purpose. I think we have already pretty well established the distance to the moon, but you can do a quick calculation to see why they are using the 2-second transmissions - the return signal follows them quite nicely.

Amateurs have been doing "Moon Bounce" for many years, but not on 40 meters! There has to be some serious power going into this test.

The picture above was taken in my backyard last year using a CCD camera on a 4" refractor.

A New Beam for W7FPX

This afternoon, I helped my friends Jim, W7FPX and Larry, W7LB, set up a new Cushcraft MA5B beam on Jim's roof. It's a nice compact little antenna that can work on 5 bands (10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 meters). Here is a picture taken late in the afternoon, just before I hoisted it into the rotor. It was great to see Jim again, it wasn't too long ago that he was a member of a small group of us that would take telescopes out to dark sites for observing sessions.
I had some other ham radio fun today as well, I worked my first-ever RTTY contact during the ARRL RTTY Roundup. I wasn't making a serious contest effort but I did decide to use the contest to learn how to use my DM780 software to operate RTTY. I was successful in getting it to work, although I must admit that I think PSK31 is a superior (and more efficient) mode. But it's all part of the fun to try out new operating modes. I made 10 contacts in the contest and will send in my log to help for checks against logs of the more serious contesters.
I also made one Kid's Day contact with my two younger sons. They talked to a 13-year old in New York, she is already a General class licensee.
It appears that NASA identified a sunspot a few days ago with reversed magnetic polarity from the previous cycle, indicating the start of the new cycle. This is exciting news for us hams!

Straight Key Night - Happy New Year!

The ARRL's Straight Key Night is going on right now as I type this. It started last night at 5:00 p.m. local time (which is 0000 UTC) and goes through until 2400 UTC. I've spent a few hours on it, mostly listening but I have made a few QSO's. My CW skills are not great but I can do a fair job copying up to about 15 wpm; above that, I'm not yet confident enough to jump into a QSO although I can usually pick out most of the words. Sending is always easier than receiving, but even there I tend to make mistakes after I've been operating for a while and get tired.

I've never done a lot of CW operating and one of my New Year's Resolutions is to start doing more of it. I've got both the straight key as well as an electronic keyer paddle - both of them made by Bencher. One problem with CW is that a QSO takes a longer time than on voice. A typical brief CW QSO might take 15-30 minutes, so to do CW requires a bigger time commitment. And time is something I never have enough of. It also requires a greater level of concentration. But it's really a lot of fun and I know that the faster you go, the more fun it gets.

My first SKN contact last night was with N6WK, who is one of the founders of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). Gordon holds SKCC #3T and I was pleased to add him to my log.

We're taking a family hike today so I'm probably finished with SKN for this year unless we get home before 5. It was a great kick-off to a fun year in ham radio!

Hamming it Up at Cub Scout Camp

Here's my junior op Jason, making a 2 meter QSO this morning at the Catalina Council Winter Day Camp. The camp consists of 2 days of various activities, one of which was a ham radio demonstration set up by the ARRL AZ SM Tom Fagan, K7DF (that's his new call). Tom recruited a bunch of other hams to come help him, and they did a wonderful job enticing the kids with 4 different stations. The boys made a simple circuit, practiced morse code and phonetic alphabet, learned to solder, and operated the 2 meter radio under the watchful eye of one of the volunteer hams.

Out of the 16 activities that they did, Jason says he liked the ham radio station the best. That makes me happy! He's probably getting old enough to start studying for the technician license, and although he has plenty of daily opportunities to operate my radios, he tends to take that for granted. So having the setup at the camp was a whole lot better than me just inviting him to come in to the shack.

By the way, what you can't tell from this picture is that it was only about 40 degrees out there at the time. We've been in a cold spell lately.

ARRL's Emergency Communications Course

I just completed the ARRL's Level II Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course (ARECC Level II) yesterday.

These courses are definitely worth taking. They require some serious time and commitment, because there are numerous "Activities" that really need some work to do properly. They are not just fill-in-the blank or multiple choice questions, instead they are quite challenging projects.

I'm hoping to become much more active in local emcomm efforts (my last official RACES badge expired a few years ago) and these courses are helping me tune back in since there have been many changes to the way emergency management utilizes amateur operators. In the past I have been involved with the Pima County RACES group, Civil Air Patrol, and the Rio Rancho Public Safety Reserves. I've always enjoyed this type of volunteer effort and while my primary interest in ham radio really isn't about emergency communications, it is one of the FCC's stated purposes for the existence of amateur radio and it can be quite interesting.

There is one more course in the series, Level III, which I'm registered for already. It won't start until later this month though.

Letting the Smoke Out

I recently broke the 1st rule of electronics - "Never Let the Smoke Out". This picture shows my MFJ-705 Low Pass Filter, which decided to misbehave during a recent PSK31 transmission. The odor was intense, not just a smoky smell but a seriously awful chemical olfactory offense which somehow managed to infiltrate the entire house.

I have not figured out why this happened as the 705 is rated for high power (2500 watts) and I was only running about 50 watts. Sure, the PSK signal is continuous duty, but it doesn't seem like that should cause it to melt.

So I guess I will be testing out the famous MFJ "No Matter What" warranty. Meanwhile I'll just be grateful that the whole shack didn't burn down!

Fixing Up the Traps

This afternoon I finally finished repairing the traps on the Cushcraft A3-S. The repair job hasn't really taken a lot of time, but other responsibilities have made it a long process. Basically I removed the trap, removed the old cracked caps, blew out the traps to clean out any debris, checked the set screw, replaced the caps with new ones, checked the DC continuity, scrubbed the ends with emery cloth, applied conductive paste, and returned them to their proper position. One of the hardest parts was tightening the hose clamps enough, and I did have to repace a few.

So hopefully I will be able to get the beam back up soon.

El Tour de Tucson

I've ridden in the El Tour de Tucson a few times, but this year I volunteered as a radio operator. Ted AA7HX assigned me to the role of Sector #1 Chief, which turned out to be a very good job for me.

The race has somewhere around 9,000 to 11,000 riders, depending on who you listen to. My Sector covered the first ~30 miles of the 110-mile route. There were 4 aid stations in the Sector, and my job was basically to cruise around helping the radio operators stationed at each aid station. Net Control provided us with directions. We didn't see a lot of action, since the race had just started; later Sectors had more accidents, bike repairs, and food and water problems to deal with.

I started up about 5:30 a.m., and was finished by 11:00. It was especially interesting to work El Tour since I'm currently in the midst of the ARRL Emcomm Level 2 course, which is designed to train operators for proper net control procedures.

The picture shows my truck at aid station #3. The net was on the W7SA 2 meter repeater, and I also ran APRS from the truck along with numerous other hams.

D-Star at RST

Last night was the RST meeting, and we set a new record for the largest attendance ever with 56 people squeezed in to the room at Cox Media. The topic was D-Star, and it was an excellent presentation.

After the presentation, the club made the commitment to set up a new D-Star system in Tucson. The excitement level has been high and as of this afternoon it looks like enough funds have been raised to go for a "Full Stack" - which means that we should be seeing 2 meters, 70 cm, and 23 cm repeaters in service before too long.

A couple of guys in the club already have Icom 2820H rigs, here is one of them set up on the table for a demo, with a 1.2 gHz repeater module in the background. The audio is certainly cleaner but the real power of D-Star seems to be in the networking capabilities. It will be interesting to watch as the D-Star system evolves.

That's what makes ham radio so fun, there is always something new to play with!

Eyeball Picnic

There's an unofficial group called the "North American Simplex Alliance" (N.A.S.A.) that hosts an annual eyeball picnic for hams. The picnic was this afternoon at Ried Park and there was a nice crowd there. I brought the whole family and we enjoyed plenty of good socializing and more food than anyone could possibly eat.

Tucson Hamfest

Yesterday was the annual hamfest, sponsored by Old Pueblo Radio Club. The hamfest was held at Tucson Electric Park and got going bright and early in the morning. I didn't arrive at sunrise but I heard that's when things got started, as usual. There were two rows of seller's tables, with plenty of good deals and stuff that no one can live without (or that no one wants, depending on your perspective). Hamfests certainly support the idea that one man's junk is another man's treasure.

I had planned to sell some junk but changed my mind the night before. I also didn't buy too much, just a few odds and ends like a wire cutter, mobile speaker, and some Anderson Powerpoles. I also got a free Alinco DJ-X10 wideband receiver, but as I expected when I got home and tried to power it up, no luck. I did get a chance to see lots of friends there, and also managed to get a bit of a sunburn.

Another Great Radio Society of Tucson Meeting

Last night was the monthy meeting of the Radio Society of Tucson (RST). The speaker was Steve Franks, KE7BTE, who gave an interesting talk about Radio Mobile software. Radio Mobile is an interesting mapping program capable of modelling radio wave propogation. We also got an update about various ham activities going on around here. It seems like ham radio is really undergoing a rejuvenation lately. The club repeater just got an upgrade and is now on Echolink (node # 7095). The Tucson hamfest is looking to be a strong one (only two weeks away!), and the annual picnic will be the next day and has a lot of interest already. Contests are being planned, possible D-Star system is under consideration, and lots of other stuff happening. It sure is good to see the excitement!

Today is the 10-10 Sprint. So far it appears that the band is going to be very poor, the only contacts I've made so far are with my YL and son. The antenna is still on the roof, but hopefully the package of parts needed to repair it will arrive from Cushcraft today.

Down Comes the Beam

This morning a few guys helped me take down the A3-S beam for some repairs. We started a little after 6 a.m. and by 8:00 the tower was looking pretty lonely without it. It's been about 13 years now since I put the antenna up, and unfortunately it's been providing rather poor SWR readings for a while now. I was fortunate to have the help of some experienced, safety-conscious hams - Owen AK7AR, Eric KC0AYD, and Larry W7LB. Eric did the tower climbing - in this picture, he's lowering the beam (Owen was holding a rope on the ground, attached by a pulley at the top of the mast), while I'm maneuvering it to the resting spot on the roof.

I was hoping it would be a quick fix, but decided that it needs a little more detailed work, so we didn't put it back up yet. It's sitting on the roof, and hopefully this week I'll spend some time cleaning out traps, etc. I also need to decide whether or not to replace the rotor. The old one, a Yaesu G-450XL, still works very nicely, but it isn't capable of computer control, and given its age I would not be surprised if it didn't last a whole lot longer anyway.

So I'm off the air on HF at the base for a while. I've had some nice success recently, using the tuner; last night I worked some PSK31 including Cuba. But the antenna is arguably the most important component of the station and I'd really like to get it back working the way it used to.

Some Good DX on 20

This morning I managed to have a little fun on 20 meters before heading off to work. Managed to work Czech Republic, Sweden, Ukraine, and Market Reef. This was a nice surprise since last night 20 meters was as quiet as it could possibly be.
The Market Reef contact was with OJ0B and is a DXpedition planned to be active for only about 9 days. They came back to me immediately so I guess we had a nice pipeline going. I'm amazed at guys who do these DXpeditions. This one required a helicopter fly-in and apparently they have already had to deal with bad wx conditions.
Alas my antenna is not behaving well at all, 20 is fine but the other bands are not. I'm working on a plan to do some antenna work very soon, hopefully before contest season really gets rolling.

CAT Control with Ham Radio Deluxe

Tonight I managed to get the computer talking to the FT-2000D. I was thinking I'd need to solder up some special DIN connector but it only needed a 9-pin F/F serial cable, which I already had.

I've been using Ham Radio Deluxe lately and now it is able to control the radio. Actually I prefer to operate the rig using the knobs and dials - there is something missing from the overall ham radio experience when you use only the computer for control. However, the synchronization between the rig and the logging program is very valuable, since the software now knows exactly where I'm tuned. This will be especially useful in contest situations.

The Antenna Farm

Here's a picture of part of the KR7RK antenna farm. At the top is the HF beam, and on the left is a new Comet GP-15 tri-band vertical that I bought at the convention last weekend. It covers 6m, 2m, and 70cm and is connected to a quad-band Yaesu FT-8900R in the shack.

On the right is the APRS wind anemometer, and next to that is a Cushcraft dual-bander AR270B that is used for the APRS weather station.

There is still a ton of antenna work to be done to really get things running smoothly and efficiently.

HRO Phoenix

Today I had to work at a client's office in Northern Phoenix. It just happened that the Phoenix store for Ham Radio Outlet was nearby, and I finished up early enough to pay them a short visit. I didn't buy anything since I just went to the Convention last weekend, but it was fun to stop in and see the rigs set up all along the wall, and all the goodies for sale. I took this image with my cell phone, so it's not too good, but you can see the beams on top of the store. There was someone inside playing with a little Ten-Tec rig and listening to W1AW on CW.

On the way up this morning, I was surprised to hear my friend Jesus, N7SCE, come on the 448.350 repeater. Turns out he was going the opposite way and we were close enough to switch over to VHF simplex for a nice QSO. But I think the little antenna on my Pontiac needs to be replaced, it's not doing a very good job these days. I'll try to check the SWR this weekend. I also decided not to put on the HF antenna for the drive because the mount is getting quite loose. So in addition to all the antenna work needed on the base, and on the truck, I also need to do some on the car. So much to do, so little time.

RST Club Meeting Night

Tonight was the monthly meeting of the Radio Society of Tucson (RST). The club is really growing lately and there are some excellent presentations at the meetings. The speaker tonight was Ron Holle, a meteorologist from Vaisala, which is a company that operates the National Lightning Detection Network. These guys have some very advanced lighting detection systems and they publish plenty of data regarding lightning strikes around the world.

Ron's talk was quite interesting and while it was not directly related to amateur radio, it certainly was a relavant topic since we all need to be concerned with our antennas taking a hit. Last year I had a neighbor whose tree was hit, and the lightning jumped across to the house and started a fire. Another friend of mine from the astronomy club had a very damaging strike at his house this summer. Tucson is one of the worst places in the country for lighting strikes during the summer monsoon months. Here's a picture I took last year from my back yard during a severe thunderstorm - I probably was putting my life on the line when I took this!