Category Archives: Digital

Posts related to digital modes

Experiences From The 13 Colonies Special Event

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New K2K New Hampshire QSL Card

The K2K New Hampshire QSL Card

The 13 Colonies Special Event for 2013 has come and gone and I wanted to share our experiences as one of the Special Event Stations for New Hampshire. We operated for 6 1/2 days mostly on SSB Phone and some using Digital Modes. The response to the event was even bigger than last year with some 80,000+ QSOs being made by the 13 Colonies stations. The pileups during the first few days of the event were huge! We did quite well for New Hampshire completing over 6,200 QSOs. We also operated on all of the non-WARC bands that our station can support.  The following are some statistics from our operations during the event:

Band

 Mode QSOs
160m SSB 51
80m SSB 214
40m SSB 1,651
CW 1
20m SSB 3,626
Digital (PSK/RTTY) 329
15m SSB 233
10m SSB 95
6m SSB 18
2m SSB 5
Grand Total  

6,223

K2K  Operations From Our Station – QSOs By Band And Mode

We worked all states in the US including Alaska and Hawaii, several US territories and some DX. The DX participation in the event was quite good and this enabled us to work stations on all continents across the world.

There are always many memorable QSOs during an operation like this and this year’s event was no exception. Some of the QSOs which stand out include those with young operators and operators who made their first HF QSOs ever. I also had an operator from Guadeloupe  (FG4NN) respond to my CQ calls on 6m as well as several stations in Japan calling in during my digital operating sessions. We also encountered several /AG folks (operators who had recently upgraded to General Class). The QSOs on the Top Band (160m) and on the 6m and 2m Bands were also special as these bands are less commonly used during the 13 Colonies Special Event. Most everyone that we talked with was very appreciative of the event which is what makes doing something like this so much fun!

We will have quite a bit of QSL work to do along with the other 13 Colonies Stations and this will no doubt bring back more good memories from our operations last week. Thanks to everyone who made the 13 Colonies Special Event a success this year. We are already looking forward to 2014.

– Fred (AB1OC)

2013 Contest University At The Dayton Hamvention

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Contest University Session

Contest University Session

One of our favorite things to do at the Dayton Hamvention is to attend Contest University.   Fred (AB1OC) and Anita (AB1QB) attended Contest University for the first time in 2012 and found this to be a great learning experience about Amateur Radio in general and Contesting specifically.  The instructors are the same people who consistently place highest in contests. They share their knowledge with the rest of us at Contest University.

Here are some of the sessions that I attended at Contest University 2013:

  • Radio Sport Contesting, It’s More Than Rules – K5GN – The message from this presentation is that with contesting, everyone is under the honor system – there is no referee in your shack making sure that you follow the rules.  Technology has brought even more innovative ways to cheat than in the past.  But the best contesters do not cheat – your time is better spent learning to improve your skills.
  • Tips on Being a Better Single Operator – K5ZD – Randy Thompson is the director of the CQ WW contest and is an excellent speaker.  In this presentation, he shares many tips on improving your contesting skills based on his experience contesting and analyzing logs.  I would highly recommend this presentation, which can be viewed from Icom’s YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/IcomAmericaInc. Some items that I learned are:
    1. Automate as much as you can – band changes from your software, rotator control, PTT output to the radios, etc.  It is possible to set up your station so that you can click on a spot and your rotor will turn your antenna, your radio will tune, and the entry window of your logger will open with the callsign filled in.
    2. Station layout is important – make it easy to reach the items you go to most and difficult to reach the ones that you should not (eg. don’t accidentally switch antennas while transmitting)
    3. Have a strategy – look at your past logs and the logs of your peers (Logs are public for some contests, like the CQ WW contest).
    4. Understand the rules and use this information to determine when to change bands, when to run, when to hunt for multipliers
    5. Get your station ready 1 week before the contest and get a good night’s sleep the night before.
    6. There is a real-time score reporting website – cqcontest.ru – See below for an example showing AB1OC’s score midway through the CQ WPX CW contest.
    7. Don’t give up if it’s not going well – keep pushing – the next QSO could make the difference.
AB1OC CQ WPX CW Real Time Score Display

AB1OC CQ WPX CW Real Time Score Display

  • Setting Up for RTTY Contesting/Operating a RTTY Contest – W0YK – The presenter, Ed Muns, operates as P49X from Aruba in the major RTTY contests and consistently has stop scores.  I attended this talk last year, but with some RTTY contests under my belt, I was able to get much more out of the presentation this year.  He provides alot of good technical information about how RTTY works, how to set up RTTY, comparisons of hardware and software for RTTY, and what the various program options do.  Some learnings:
    1. Using multiple decoders for a given signal helps to get a good copy on at least one.  The new 2Tone decoder from G3YYD can decode signals under some conditions where other decoders (MMTTY, etc.) cannot.  This avoids asking for repeats and increases your QSO rate.
    2. Using Super Check Partial, a database of active contester callsigns, can also help to accurately  pick out call signs
    3. Callsign stacking  – waiting for 2-3 callsigns after calling CQ and then working them in sequence can speed up your QSO rate.
    4. RTTY is easier than other modes, since the callsign is already decoded for you on your screen.  Take advantage of this to multi-task to increase your rate.  Use Single Operator Two VFO (SO2V) to find stations via search and pounce while running.  Or do search and pounce on one VFO and while you are waiting for your chance to respond to a CQ, look for another station on the other VFO.  If you have 2 radios, and are good at multi-tasking – use SO2R to increase your QSO rate even more.  This is how the best RTTY contesters win.
  • Post-Contest Log Analyzers – K6MM – As mentioned by K5ZD in his talk, analyzing your contest log (or your peers’ logs) is a good way to improve your score in the next contest.  This presentation was about several software packages that can help you to do this.  The most full featured of these is SH5 , which provides 50 different reports on your log.  Some of the reports include QSO rates per hour, number of hours operated, QSO break down by band, and number of countries worked.  It even provides a Google map plot of the QSOs that you worked!  I ran SH5 on my log from the 2013 BARTG HF RTTY contest and a couple of reports are shown below.
AB1QB QSOs from 2012 BARTG HF RTTY Contest

AB1QB QSOs from 2012 BARTG HF RTTY Contest – from SH5 generated KML file

AB1QB QSOs per Hour 2013 BARTG HF RTTY Contest - from SH5

AB1QB QSOs Per Hour 2013 BARTG HF RTTY Contest – From SH5

Some other topics presented at Contest University included Contest Antennas and Coaxial Cables, Propagation Trends, RFI and Ham Radio, VHF Contesting, Design and Maintenance of Antennas, Towers and Rotators.  There is so much good information, I wish I could have attended multiple sessions at once!

We also attended the RTTY contesting forum at the Dayton Hamvention where we learned about the Reverse Beacon Network and CW Skimmer . These tools are beginning to be available for RTTY.  The CW Skimmer works with participating stations running software that decodes and collects information from received CW traffic.  That data is collected by the Reverse Beacon Network website and displayed like spots from a spotting network.

AB1OC Spots on Reverse Beacon Network (CW Skimmer)

AB1OC Spots On Reverse Beacon Network (CW Skimmer)

Next year, Contest University will be held around the ARRL Centennial which will be held July 17-20, 2014 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.   Contest University has also been held in Germany, Italy, and Australia.

Several of the contest university sessions were recorded and can be found on Icom’s YouTube Site:  http://www.youtube.com/IcomAmericaInc.  The Hamvention RTTY Contesting Slides and Videos can be found at W0YK’s website.

There is also some good contesting information at http://www.rttycontesting.com and the CQ-Contest and RTTY email mailing lists at contesting.com.

– Anita (AB1QB)

Bounce’in Off The Moon…

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The Moon

The Moon

This past week has been very productive in terms of 2m Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) QSOs. I’ve continued to use the WSJT Software to make Digital EME QSOs on 2m during both the ascending and descending periods of the Moon. To date, I’ve completed 30 QSOs and worked 16 countries on the 2m band using the Moon as a reflector. The countries and stations I’ve worked include:

  • Australia (VK5APN)
  • Estonia (ES3RF)
  • England (G4SWX)
  • European Russia (R3BM and others)
  • Federal Republic of Germany (DM1CG and others)
  • Finland (OH7PI)
  • Italy (I2FAK)
  • Japan (JE1TNL)
  • Netherlands (PE1L)
  • New Zealand (ZL3TY)
  • Poland (SP4K)
  • Republic of South Korea (HL5QO)
  • Slovenia (S52LM)
  • Sweden (SM5DIC)
  • Ukraine (UT5UAS and others)
  • United States of America (KB8RQ and others)

As you can see from the links to the QRZ pages for some of these stations, many have built fairly sophisticated EME systems.

I2FAK 16x19 EME Array

I2FAK 16×19 EME Array

At this point, I have worked 4 of the 6 continents needed for a Worked All Continents Award via Digital 2m EME. I have set completing and confirming the needed contacts for this award as my next goal. EME contacts are great fun and the EME Ham community has been very helpful to me in getting started.

– Fred (AB1OC)

First Moon Bounce QSO!

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The Moon

The Moon

Well, last Wednesday evening was the night. The moon was near Perigee, the sun was not in the way, and my 2m amplifier came back from M2 Antenna Systems and was reinstalled.

2m Amplifier And Sequencers

2m Amplifier And Sequencer

I got everything hooked up and tested before the moon came up that night. Our Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) system consists of an Icom IC-9100 Transceiver and a microHAM MK2R+ for our Sound Card along with a single M2 Systems 2M18XXX Yagi Antenna (18 elements on a 36-foot boom at 112 feet), a tower mounted preamp system from M2, and M2’s EME Sequencers along with their 1.2 Kw 2m amplifier.  For software, we’re using  Joe Taylor’s WSJT Application and the Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite Tracking software to keep our antenna pointed at the moon.

2m EME Setup

2m EME Setup

My first test was to bounce some echoes off the moon just as it came up. With the amp on and set for its rated digital mode output of 900 watts on 2m (it will do 1.2 Kw in SSB mode), I heard my signals coming back from the moon for the first time. The moon was between North America and Europe as it came up, and I noticed several European stations were on 2m EME. After a few CQ calls using JT65B (WSJT mode for 2m EME), S52LM, Milos in Slovenia came back to me, and I successfully completed my first EME QSO on 2m! I also worked two other stations on 2m EME from Europe – DK5SO (in Germany) and UT5UAS (in Ukraine). I suspect some of these folks may have had pretty big EME stations, as their signals were very strong. Here’s a snapshot of my first QSO with S52LM:

EME QSO With WSTJ

EME QSO With WSTJ

As you can see from the snapshot, the round trip delay to the moon and back was between 2 and 2.5 seconds. S52LM’s signal was pretty strong at -23 dB (he was also using close to 1 Kw on his end). At this level, I could not hear anything audible above the noise in my receiver. The following is what the WSJT waterfall looked like:

WSJT EME QSO - Waterfall

WSJT EME QSO – Waterfall

S52LM’s signal is the lines and dots between 0 and 200. These are fairly strong signals by EME standards. The WSJT software’s performance on such weak signals is pretty amazing. (The other lines on the waterfall are weak “birdies”).

Most of the bigger EME stations use an array of long boom yagi’s, so I am pretty lucky to get this done with a single antenna and no elevation rotator. Here’s a picture of a more typical antenna system for EME (this is DK5SO, the station in Germany where I worked):

DK5SO 2m EME Antennas

DK5SO 2m EME Antennas

At this point, I am pretty happy with the performance of our 2m weak signal system.

I heard several stations in Australia a couple of mornings ago before I had my amplifier back. I will try to work them soon. Maybe someday an EME DXCC…. (3 down, 97 to go).

Fred (AB1OC)

Using JT65 On The HF Bands

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JT65HF Main Window

JT65HF Main Window

Many of our readers have probably heard about Joe Taylor’s (K1JT) WSJT family of protocols. These protocols were originally developed for Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or Moon-bounce (via the JT65 variations), Meteor Scatter (via the FSK441 and JT6M variations), Tropo and other very-weak signal communications applications.

All of the WSJT family of protocols and their associated software applications make use of some very sophisticated signal processing techniques to enable communications in extremely weak signal environments. For example, JT65B which is used for EME communications on the 2m band enables communications from the earth to the moon and back using the moon as a (very-poor) reflector. These paths can have 250 dB of loss or more! The JT65 protocol provides about a 10 dB advantage over CW in terms of signal to noise margin on a given path. To help you understand this, using the JT65 protocol to make a contact can provide the equivalent of upgrading the two CW stations using 100W rigs on both ends of a QSO to include a 1 KW amplifier. To understand how the WSJT protocols accomplish this, you can read Joe’s contribution on EME and WSJT that is part of the 2010 ARRL Handbook here.

Joe Taylor’s software is open source and his WSJT family of protocols have been adapted to many applications including their use on the HF bands as well as for Reverse Beacon applications (a.k.a. WSPR). One of these adaptations uses the JT65A variant of the WSJT protocols on the HF bands. This is packaged as part of the JT65HF software from J. C. Large, W6CQZ.

JT65HF can be used to make QSOs on the HF bands at very lower power over long distances using marginal antennas. JT65 QSOs are very simple and only provide the minimum of information exchange to confirm a QSO. The typical sequence (this example has me answering a CQ call from JI1CPN):

  1. CQ JI1CPN PM95         (PM95 is JI1CPN’s grid square, giving his approximate location)
  2. JI1CPN AB1OC FN42  (I respond to the CQ with my call sign and grid square)
  3. AB1OC JI1CPN -12      (JT65HF measures my signal strength for JI1CPN and uses it in his report back to me)
  4. JI1CPN AB1OC R-10   (I give JI1CPN his signal report)
  5. AB1OC JI1CPN RRR   (JI1CPN confirms the we have a good QSO)
  6. TU73 4OVR4 5W         (I confirm the QSO and tell him about my setup)
  7. TU GUY CU 73             (He sends 73 – this is optional)

This is all there is to a JT65HF QSO. The 73 message can be changed to use a limited amount of custom text but that’s it. Each step of a QSO starts at the exact beginning of a minute and takes exactly one minute to complete with 50 seconds used for the transmission of the step and 10 seconds left for the op on the other end to ready a response for transmission. JT65HF automates this sequence so its pretty easy to work through a QSO. If one of the transmissions does not get through to the other end, the other op sends nothing and the sending station repeats the same transmission again until its received correctly. Also note that there is a standard frequency on each HF band where most JT65HF QSOs take place.

Anyone who has setup their station to operate using digital modes already has almost everything needed to use JT65HF. The first additional thing that you need to do is install a precise clock synchronization client on your PC. JT65’s detection algorithms require the transmitting and receiving computers to be synchronized with a fraction of a second. If your PC’s clock is not properly synchronized, you will not get good performance from the decoding software or it may not decode at all. Note that the windows built-in time setting feature IS NOT ACCURATE ENOUGH and you will need to disable it.  You will need a more precise synchronization client which uses the NTP protocol – I suggest the NTP Demon for Windows from Meinberg. Once your clock synchronization is taken care of you will need to download the JT65HF software, install it on your PC (Windows or widows via a virtual environment on the mac, Linux, etc.) and setup the program. There are two simple setup steps.

JT65HF Station Setup

JT65HF Station Setup

The first is your station setup. Here you set your call sign, grid square, and your sound card port. The JT65HF documentation explains how to setup and use the program in detail. One option that you also might set is “Send CW ID with 73…”. This will send your call sign in CW at the end of a QSO for ID purposes.

JT65HF Rig Control/PTT Setup

JT65HF Rig Control/PTT Setup

The other options that you need to set are for Rig Control and PTT. You can use Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab Commander, OmniRig or the COM port connected to your radio’s CAT interface for these functions.

I think the best way to understand how this all works is to see an actual QSO. The video above shows a JT65HF QSO that I made on 15m with JI1CPN in Japan. I made this contact using only 5w. The video begins with JI1CPN calling CQ. The tones that you hear at the start are his CQ call. I respond to his CQ (note that you can hear my tones but the waterfall does not change while I am transmitting). We then proceed through a JT65 QSO as I outlined it above. Note that I send a custom text message to him at the end giving some information on my antennas and the power level that I used to during the QSO. The video is about 5 minutes long which is the typical amount of time that a JT65HF QSO takes.

I hope that you have found this article interesting and that you might give JT65HF a try. JT65HF is also useful to get on a band where you antennas may not be ideal. There is a pretty good JT65HF community on 160m and its fun to use it to work some DX on this and other HF bands!

Fred (AB1OC)

The 2013 BARTG RTTY Contest – AB1QB Gets Serious

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AB1QB Operating In The BARTG RTTY Contest

AB1QB Operating In The BARTG RTTY Contest

This past weekend, I operated in the 2013 BARTG HF RTTY Contest.  I had previously learned some things during our multi-single operation in the 2013 CQ WPX RTTY contest and made some enhancements to our contesting setup. As a result of this experience, I set a goal of making a serious effort in a RTTY contest.  The 2013 BARTG HF RTTY contest ran from 0200z Saturday March 16 – 0200z on Monday March 18.  I operated in the Single Operator All Band category, which allowed me to operate for 30 hours out of the total contest period of 48 hours (each break had to be at least 3 hours).

N1MM Setup - Left Monitor

N1MM Setup – Left Monitor

I used the N1MM logger again in the SO2V configuration with our Icom IC-7800 transceiver.  We added the 2Tone decoder, which, when used along with MMTTY, made a huge difference in being able to pick the call signs and exchange information out of the sometimes garbled exchanges.  I kept a window up with each decoder, which gave me two different interpretations of the RTTY signals.  When I couldn’t make sense of what I saw in one window, I could almost always pick out a call sign or exchange from the other.  This improved my QSO rate as I did not have to ask the station to repeat the exchange.  As conditions deteriorated on Sunday due to a Solar Flare, using 2 decoders made a big difference.

The N1MM screenshot above shows the SO2V configuration I used with 2 decoders associated with each VFO.  SO2V was helpful in speeding up the search and pounce.  You can tune one signal in on one VFO, and while waiting for your chance to call, you can find the next signal in the other VFO.  Each VFO has its own call sign entry window on the left, then 2 digital interface windows (with the decoded RTTY text) and 2 tuning windows per VFO – one with 2Tone and one with MMTTY.  The upper left window has the spotting network, which was useful, but in a RTTY contest, I can find far more stations in search and pounce mode by manually tuning through the band.   I also used the Check window, which looks up call signs in the Super Check Partial database. This was also a big help in determining whether I got a call sign correct – if it cannot find a match, it suggests other similar call signs, speeding up my QSO rate.

The lower right-hand window shows my QSO rate – if this gets too low, it could indicate that it’s time to change bands.  Also, it has a band timer – there is a rule for my category that I must stay on a band for at least 5 minutes – the timer tells me when I can change bands again.

N1MM Setup - Right Monitor

N1MM Setup – Right Monitor

Here is the N1MM setup on my right monitor.  The multiplier window shows which multipliers I worked on for each band.  For this contest, the multipliers were DXCC countries and W, VE, VK, and JA call areas.  The two windows on the left are the band map windows – one for each VFO.  It shows spots and stations where I have worked. If I click on one, it tunes the VFO right to the station – useful in search and pounce mode.  The right monitor also has my QSO log, the spotting cluster access window, and the score window.  Below are the graphical statistics showing my progress during the contest, provided via an analysis program called Athena.   You can see that once the Solar Flare hit during the day on Sunday, 20m was practically the only band with steady traffic.  15m and even 10m opened up again later in the afternoon.

Performance Statistics

Performance Statistics

Since this was a European-hosted contest, I started out on Friday at 10pm Eastern Time on 40m, pointing our two SteppIRs toward Europe, which was very productive.  I spent some time on 80m, but the traffic slowed down by 3am Eastern Time, so I took a break to sleep.  I started up again Saturday morning around 9 AM and was able to run on 20m for some time.  The SteppIR beams have a Bi-directional mode which is very useful. This configuration of the SteppIRs worked really well since most of the stations in the contest were either in Europe or the US, and I could point the SteppIRs in both of these directions at the same time using the bi-directional mode.  By afternoon, 15m had opened up, and I had good runs on both 20m and 15m.  I was able to make some calls on 10m as well, but that band was not as productive.    After dark, I worked 40m toward Europe but took my break at midnight since I learned on Friday that the late hours are not so productive.  Before going to bed, I checked my email and saw a message from my local PART club that a Solar Flare was heading toward Earth and would hit by Sunday.

Sure enough, when I woke up Sunday morning, the solar storm had hit, the K-Index was 6, and all the bands were rated as poor.  I was going to give up… but AB1OC convinced me to go down to the shack and keep operating as I could still reach the closer US stations.  Surprisingly, when I turned on the IC-7800, I was hearing stations from Europe on 20m.  So I did some search and pounce until I found a run frequency.  QSOs were not coming as quickly as they did on Saturday, but I was still making them at a good pace.  20m was the only band open for most of the day. Later in the day, I turned toward the southwest and received many calls from the US and, surprisingly quite a few from Japan and New Zealand.  The SteppIRs are amazing antennas!!

DXCC Multipliers

DXCC Multipliers

My goal was a score of 1 Million, and I probably would have hit it if not for the Solar Storm.  Even so, I came pretty close, as you can see in my score data below.  I worked close to 60 countries, all US areas on most bands, many VE areas, and even a few JA areas.

Claimed Final Score

Claimed Final Score

I posted my score to the 3830 website, and as of this morning’s report, my claimed score ranked at the top of my category – I am hoping that this will hold up.   Each time I operate, I learn more about N1MM, and I’m looking forward to the next contest to learn even more about its capabilities and to be able to better take advantage of SO2V.

Anita, AB1QB

Setting Up And Using A Software Defined Radio

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AB1QB Operating The Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio

AB1QB Operating Her Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio

Anita (AB1QB) has been interested in Software Defined Radio for some time now so I decided to get her a Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio (SDR) as a holiday gift. This post will share what we have learned about setting up and using the Flex-3000.

Flex-3000 Hardware And DJ Console

Flex-3000 Hardware And DJ Console

Our Flex-3000 setup includes the following hardware components:

The hardware component connections in our setup are illustrated in the following figure.

SDR Hardware Configuration

SDR Hardware Configuration

We can use our Flex-3000 barefoot (100 w) or connected through our Elecraft KPA500 amplifier (500 w). All we need to do to use the Flex-3000 with the amplifier is to connect the PTT Output on the radio to PTT IN on the amplifier, connect the amplifier in the path between the radio and the antenna switching in our shack and adjust the drive on the radio to the appropriate level to generate full output from the amplifier.

SDR Software Configuration

SDR Software Configuration

We use the PowerSDR/Flex-3000 combination with Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) 6 for automated logging, transceiver control and to operate using the digital modes via HRD’s DM780. This setup is similar to a hardware digital mode setup as described in our post on Setting Up A Digital HF Station. The major differences are:

  1. There are no physical serial cables for CAT and PPT are needed between the radio Ham Radio Deluxe
  2. No sound card is needed as the output of the Flex-3000 is already in a digital audio format inside the PC

Both of these functions are implemented via software inside the same PC that is running both PowerSDR and Ham Radio Deluxe/DM780:

  1. Two virtual serial cables for Computer Aided Transceiver (CAT) and Push To Talk (PTT) control are implemented via the Virtual Serial Port (VSP) Manager Software by K5FR
  2. The bi-directional Virtual Audio cable is implemented the Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) Software

The following are screenshots how these two programs are setup on our PC.

Virtual Serial Port (VSP) Manager Setup

Virtual Serial Port (VSP) Manager Setup

Note how each end of the Virtual Serial Port is mapped to a different COM port (COM6 <-> COM16 and COM7 <-> COM17).

Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) Setup

Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) Setup

There are two VACs setup on our PC but only one is required for HRD/DM780 and most other Amateur Radio programs which use a sound card. The VSPs and the VAC numbers must be setup in both PowerSDR and in HRD/DM780.  The exact setup on your PC may be different depending on available COM ports, etc. This information should give you the general idea of what you need to do to get all of the hardware and software working together correctly. Note that you can use any program that works with the combination of a CAT/PTT over serial cables plus a sound card interface. This approach which makes PowerSDR compatible with most Ham Radio software (ex. Software CW Keyers/Decoders, Fldigi, JT65, and others).

PowerSDR Software

PowerSDR Software Conducting A RTTY QSO

Once the hardware and software is configured as outlined above, its easy to use the HRD/DM780/PowerSDR combination to conduct Phone, CW, and Digital QSOs in the same way that you would with a conventional radio. All of the automatic logging features of HRD work correctly and digital QSOs are completed via DM780 in the usual way. The picture above shows PowerSDR being controlled by DM780 to conduct a RTTY QSO during the 2013 ARRL RTTY Roundup Contest.

I find the ability to tune the radio and adjust filtering and other audio processing very natural via the PowerSDR interface using the mouse attached to our PC. PowerSDR provides a wide-band pan-adapter interface which makes it very easy to “see” various signals on a band, tune the software to receive these signals and then apply filtering and other audio processing as needed to avoid interference, etc.

Flex-3000 Operation Via DJ Console

Flex-3000 Operation Via DJ Controller

Many operators will miss PowerSDR’s lack of a “buttons and knobs” interface provided by a conventional radio. There is an excellent add-on to PowerSDR available that uses a re-purposed audio mixing console from HERCULES to implement a more conventional interface to PowerSDR. The picture above shows a HERCULES DJ Controller which we have configured to work with the PowerSDR add-on. You will need a customized version of the PowerSDR (PowerSDR-UI) and the latest DJ Controller hardware to realize the interface. PowerSDR-UI allows the various buttons and knobs on the DJ controller to be assigned to control many of the functions provided by PowerSDR. See the following website for some ideas on how other Hams have set up the DJ Controller. There is also an yahoo group on the use of the DJ Controller and PowerSDR-UI. Once you have your interface setup the way you want it, you can use a conventional label machine to label everything on your DJ controller so that you can easily remember how to use your custom setup.

The video above shows a SSB phone QSO with John, WA0DQR on 20m using PowerSDR-UI. You can see how the radio’s pan-adapter is used to select a signal to receive by tuning via the mouse at the beginning of the QSO.

I would encourage you to experiment with an SDR if you have not used one. This technology is clearly an important part of the future of Amateur Radio. For our readers who already have a Flex or other brand of SDR, I hope that you will explore the digital modes or perhaps the DJ Controller as enhancements to your setup.

Fred (AB1OC)

More Digital Contesting – The 2013 CQ WPX RTTY Contest

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AB1QB Op'ing CQ WPX RTTY

AB1QB Op’ing CQ WPX RTTY

Anita (AB1QB) and Fred (AB1OC) decided to enter the recent 2013 CQ WPX RTTY Contest in the Multi-op Single Transmitter, High Power category. We decided to move to the N1MM Logger and the MMTTY RTTY Decoder for this contest. This was our first use of this software, and we did some pre-contest setup and testing work using this combination to learn the new software and get it working with our radio. We used our Icom IC-7800 for this contest which has hardware FSK capability, Twin Peak Filtering, and a built-in RTTY decoder. MMTTY supports hardware FSK with this radio, which was also our first use of these capabilities in a contest. We operated for about 30 of the allowed 48 hours in the contest due to a major snow event and the associated cleanup at our QTH.

Our experiences with N1MM/MMTTY and the new radio setup were very good. We operated mostly on 40m and 20m, with some operation on 80m and 15m. We operated in Running Mode for most of the contest. The N1MM logger enabled our QSO rates to run as high as 130+ QSOs per hour. We made 1,562 QSOs, worked 609 prefixes, and worked 68 DXCC entities for a final claimed score of 2,981,664. If our placing associated with our claimed scores holds, we should finish in the top 10 entries in our North America category, making this our best contest effort to date.

The N1MM logger and associated setup made a major positive difference in our score! We recommend the N1MM/MMTTY combination to others interested in RTTY contesting. N1MM really speeds up the QSO process. We made heavy use of N1MM’s Enter Send Message (ESM) and Call Sign Stacking capabilities during the contest, and both of these features greatly improved our QSO rates. Enter Send Message allows the operator to hit the <enter> key to progress to the next stage of a QSO and automatically send the correct string. Call Sign Stacking allows the operator to grab 2-3 responding call signs after calling CQ and then respond to them without calling CQ again. The following shows a segment of an example QSO using Call Sign Stacking to respond to both KB1OIQ and NE1RD after they both respond to our CQ:

CQ CONTEST DE AB1QB
< KB1OIQ NE1RD …>
KB1OIQ UR 599 NH DE AB1QB
<TU UR 599 MA DE KB1OIQ>
TU KB1OIQ AND NOW NE1RD …

We also used the combination of MMTTY and the hardware decoder in our Icom IC-7800 to have two chances to decode received information during weak or noisy QSOs. In many cases, either MMTTY or the hardware decoder in our radio would decode key contest exchange information correctly when the other decoder did not.

We plan to add the 2Tone Decoder to our setup and enable SO2V operation for our next contest attempt. The 2Tone Decoder can do a better job decoding weak or noisy signals. SO2V operation allows us to use the second receiver in our Icom IC-7800 to tune a second QSO while completing another QSO in Search and Pounce mode. We still have much to do to improve our digital contesting skills, but we are progressing.

– Anita, AB1QB and Fred, AB1OC

Reverse Beacon Networks – PSK Reporter And WSPR

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20m Worldwide Propagation (PSKReporter)

20m Worldwide Propagation (PSK Reporter)

Reverse Beacon Networks (RBNs) are good tools for evaluating propagation conditions on a real-time basis. A conventional Beacon Network consists of a set of beacon stations around the world which transmit on known frequencies, times and power levels. A station can then listen to the beacon frequency and determine if the associated band is open to the places in the world where the beacons are located. A Reverse Beacon Network takes this one step further – each time a station that is a member of a RBN hears another station, it logs the station heard’s call sign, signal level received, mode of operation, and other data to a RBN website on the internet. The RBN website collects this data from stations all over the world and stores the data in a database for later display and analysis. An example of an RBN website is PSK Reporter. The picture above shows information from the PSK Reporter website illustrating a nice opening on the 20m band between Europe and the United States which occurred  this afternoon. Each marker on the map shows a station which is participating in the RBN and the lines indicate a path over which one of the RBN stations heard another. The PSK Reporter example shown above is displaying information about stations which heard each other on all modes including digital, CW, SSB and others.

AB1OC Station Performance on 20m (PSKReporter)

AB1OC Station Performance On 20m (PSK Reporter)

Programs like Ham Radio Deluxe/DM780, FLdigi, JT65HF, CW Skimmer, and others can act as RBN clients for PSK Reporter. You can use one of these clients along with the PSK Reporter website to do a real-time evaluation of your station’s performance and current band conditions. For example, the picture above shows the results of a 45 minute digital operating session from my station using our yagis pointed towards Europe. Using techniques like this, you can get a good idea of the real-time propagation conditions as well as how well your station is performing towards various parts of the world.  If you use a digital mode program as the client for PSK Reporter, you should check your setup options to see how you can enable it to report stations that you hear to the PSK Reporter website.

Any station which is setup for digital mode operation already has everything needed to use RBNs. Your don’t need a lot of power for RBN operation. An omnidirectional antenna works best as it will transmit and hear equally well in all directions but most any antenna will allow you to evaluate your station’s performance and propagation conditions. If you have directional antennas such as yagi’s that you can point, you can still make worldwide measurements by operating for periods of 5 minutes in a given direction followed by rotating your antennas about 45 degrees. After about 45 minutes or so, you will have operated in all directions and the results for your call sign on the RBN website you are working with should give you a good picture of your signal coverage worldwide. Also note that fixed antennas like Dipoles, Inverted-Vs, etc. work just fine for RBN use as well. The results from the RBN website will tell you where you are being heard around the world. In the case of fixed antennas, the results will reflect a combination of the directional coverage of the antenna that you used for the measurements and the prevailing band conditions.

Worldwide 20m Propagation Reported By WSPRNet

Worldwide 20m Propagation Reported By WSPRnet

Another very useful RBN tool for evaluating propagation conditions and station performance in WSPR. WSPR uses the JT65 family of protocols in combination with the WSPRNet website to allow real-time measurements of band conditions and station performance using very low power levels (typically 1w or less). The picture above shows worldwide conditions on 20m from the WSPRnet website late in the afternoon.

AB1OC Station Performance on 20m Measured via WSPR

AB1OC Station Performance On 20m Measured Via WSPR

There are a substantial number of WSPR enabled stations worldwide and any which hear a WSPR transmission from your station will report it to the WSPRnet website. As you can see from the picture above, the WSPR transmissions both sent from and heard by my WSPR station can be displayed on the WSPRnet website. This is an example of the actual performance of my station on 20m late this afternoon. You can let WSPR run at low power levels on an extended basis to enable continuous updates on the performance of your station and prevailing band conditions. If you decide to do this, it is important to properly monitor your station’s correct operation per your licensing authority’s control operator requirements.

WSPR Application On 20m

WSPR Client Application On 20m

WSPR uses a Client Application which controls your transceiver’s sending and receiving of WSPR beacon transmissions. The results are then reported to the WSPRnet website. Each transmission sequence by all WSPR stations in the world takes place on a narrow range of frequencies on each band and all stations are synchronized precisely to start and end their transmission and reception cycles on exact 2 minute intervals This synchronization along with other techniques implemented in the JT65 protocols used by WSPR allows signals sent at very low power levels (often less than 1w) to be received and decoded over long distances. In the picture above, each block of colored lines represents the WSPR transmissions heard by my station on the 20m band during a 2 minute cycle. As you can see, there was quite a bit of activity in the WSPR segment of the 20m band at the time I made the measurements. You can find the latest WSPR client software along with information on how to setup and configure the program for your transceiver on the WSJT website.

I encourage our readers to give PSK Reporter and WSPR a try. They are a very useful tool and its fun to see how your station is performing in real-time.

– Fred (AB1OC)

Digital Contesting – AB1QB Enters The 2013 ARRL RTTY Roundup

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AB1QB Contesting

AB1QB Contesting

I worked the 2013 ARRL RTTY Roundup contest this weekend for the first time with the new station and the difference from last year was amazing! I also got to use my new Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio for the contest. Band conditions were very good (the sun spot numbers were high) and 10 meters was open. I entered the contest in the Single Operator High Power category, which did not allow me to use a spotting network.

Software Defined Radio

Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio

This was the first time I tried to “Run” during a contest. That is to find a spot in the digital sub-band that nobody is using and call CQ (as opposed to “Search and Pounce”, which is to tune across a sub-band looking for stations to work). “Running” allows you to work QSOs at a much higher rate. Using our two Yagi’s and 500 watts of power from our the amplifier,  I was never “lonely” – I always had a constant stream of callers answering my CQs and sometimes several at once.

Multipliers for this contest were individual US States, Canadian Provinces, and DX Countries. To calculate your score, you multiply the total multipliers by the number of QSOs that you made. I had 111 multipliers for the contest and 759 QSOs. My total score before log checking is 84,249 (the final scores for the contest will be posted here in the near future). Below are some statistics for the QSOs that I made during the contest by area of the world and by band.

RTTY Contest Stats

AB1QB Contest QSO Statistics

Most of the US and Canadian multipliers were easy to get, but it is usually the closest (or most remote) states that are the most difficult – and I did not get Vermont or North Dakota. Saturday evening, I pointed the Yagis toward Europe and worked stations from many different European countries on 40 meters. Sunday toward the end of the contest, I was running on 20 meters with the antennas pointed West working W6s and W7s and I started seeing JA stations calling me. Before we upgraded our station, the only QSOs with JA’s in my log were made during our DXpedition to Bora Bora Island. I moved the antennas around toward Japan and worked approximately 20 Japanese stations and started completing calls with other DX stations in Asia including South Korea, Indonesia, and New Zealand.
RTTY QSO In Contest

RTTY QSO During The Contest

All in all this was a very enjoyable experience. Planned improvements for the next contest (CQ WPX RTTY) will be to work more hours (this time I took time off to sleep, working about 20.5 hours of the 30 hour contest period) and include trying to search out more DX stations. Also, we will be trying contest oriented logging software (we are considering WriteLog and the N1MM Logger). I have been using Ham Radio Deluxe because its well suited for Digital Operating and chasing awards. But logging software designed specifically for contesting will do a better job of keeping track of multipliers and duplicate contacts as the contest progresses. (Generally multiple QSOs with the same station on the same band do not count – and  also wastes precious time for you as well as the other station).

If you work contests, please complete our poll and tell us what logging software you use. This will help me to choose which contest logging software to try for the next contest.

– Anita (AB1QB)