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AB1OC’s First VHF Contest – 2013 ARRL June VHF

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AB1OC Operating In The 2013 ARRL VHF Contest

AB1OC Operating In The 2013 ARRL VHF Contest

When we built our new station last year, I decided to include antennas and equipment for 6m, 2m, and 70cm weak signal work. I have not had much chance to operate on these bands yet beyond some 2m EME work and a few contacts on 6m and 70cm. When the 2013 ARRL VHF Contest rolled around this past weekend, I was anxious to participate and get some experience with weak signal work on these bands. I spent some time on 6m the week before the contest to get a feel for this band and to check out my equipment. There was a good 6m opening to my east during this time, and I was able to work CU1EZ on the Azores; EA8DBM, EA8/G8BCG, and EA8CK on the Canary Islands; and J69MV in Saint Lucia. The longest of these contacts was over 3,100 mi. I’ve read a bit about propagation on 6m – 70m, including how short some openings can be. I certainly experienced this during the 6m DX opening before the contests – it did not last for more than an hour.

Logging And SO2R Control

Logging And SO2R Control

My goal in the ARRL VHF Contest was to work out a good operating configuration and to get some experience with the VHF/UHF bands, and I did not plan to compete for a top score this time. To keep the software side simple, I decided to use my DX’ing logger, DXLab, which is already configured to work with our Icom IC-7800 (6m radio) and Icom IC-9100 (2m and 70cm) radio. I also used our MicroHAM MK2R+ as an SO2R controller to share headphones and a microphone between the two radios. This worked out OK, as the QSO rates during this contest were not extremely high even when I was running.

Rotator Control

Rotator Control

I used two programs for controlling the rotator associated with the 6m SteppIR (6 elements) and the 2m (18 elements) and 70cm (21 elements) M2 Antenna Systems beams. The main program that I used here was Ham Radio Deluxe rotator. I chose it because it had the best grid square overlay map. This was useful for getting the antennas pointed at specific grid squares to work stations on 2m and 70cm after an initial contact on 6m. I also had DXLab’s DXView available to look up the specific coordinates for stations, but I did not use it very much during the contest.

I operated most of the day on Saturday and for a few hours on Sunday as preparations for the upcoming ARRL Field Day exercise required me to be away from my shack during parts of the contest period. I had good results running on 6m and used this band and mode of operation to make most of my QSOs. I also was able to run for some short periods on 2m as well. I have amplifiers that make about 1 Kw available on both bands, which greatly helped my ability to run effectively on 6 m and 2m. Most of my contacts on 70cm were a result of stations that I contacted on 6m or 2m, suggesting a contact on that band as well. I have about 100w available on 70cm, which proved adequate for contacts on 70cm as I got my antennas pointed accurately before moving up there to make contact with a station that was just worked on 6m or 2m.

I really enjoyed this contest a lot. The pace was a little more relaxed than most of the other HF contests I’ve participated in, and using two radios in SO2R mode was a new operating experience for me which was technically challenging at first. The following is a summary of my contacts during the contest.

Band QSOs Grids Worked
6 m 120 15
2 m 46 14
70 cm 19 6
Totals 185 35

There was a brief opening on 6m to Florida, USA, on Sunday morning, and I could work several stations there from my shack in NH, USA – a distance of about 1,200 mi. I also made contacts to the midwest and to several of the US eastern-central coastal states during the contest. All in all, the ARRL VHF Contest was a lot of fun, and participating in it helped me to gain confidence in my setup on the VHF bands. The only change in my VHF/UHF setup that I plan to make for the next VHF Contest is to use the N1MM Logger to take advantage of its ability to more effectively automate control of my SO2R setup.

Between the contest and my previous EME work, I have worked a total of 42 grid squares on 2m, and  I am hoping to be able to complete an ARRL VUCC Award on that band some time in the near future.

– Fred (AB1OC)

AB1OC Enters The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

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AB1OC Operating In The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

AB1OC Operating In The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

I have been working to improve my CW skills for some time now as well as working towards a number of operating awards including the CQ WPX Award of Excellence. The CQ WPX Award of Excellence requires quite a range of confirmed contacts with CQ recognized prefixes including 600 using the CW mode. I was able to move both of these goals forward by operating in the 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest recently.

2013 CQ WPX CW N1MM Setup

N1MM Logger/FLdigi Setup For CW Mode

I again used the N1MM Logger along with FLdigi as a CW decoder in this contest. I am not yet proficient enough with CW to operate without a decoder but I did find that working a contest with the aid of a CW decoder like FLdigi helped me to improve my CW skills by practicing them. I found FLdigi to be a fairly effective CW decoder. I set up FLdigi as a Digital Interface Window in N1MM which allowed me to click on call signs and contest exchange information that it decoded to enter this information directly into the N1MM logging window. This saved time and reduced errors during contest operations.

MorseDec CW Decoder For iPhone

MorseDec CW Decoder For iPhone

I also used the MorseDec CW Decoder on my iPhone as a second decoder and the FLdigi/ MorseDec combination was effective in this contest. In some cases, one would successfully decode the received CW when the other did not.

Online Contest Score Website

Online Contest Score Website

Another tool that I used for the first time in this contest was the Online Contest Server website. This tool allows one to post and compare your score in real-time during the contest to those of other operators. It was very easy to enable this capability using the N1MM Logger – all I had to do was to create an account on the Online Contest Server website and enable N1MM to post my scores which it did every few minutes. Anita (AB1QB) learned about this interesting tool during her participation in Contest University at the 2013 Dayton Hamvention. I found that being able to see how I was doing relative to some of the other operators was good motivation to keep going during the contest. This also gave me an indication of how others with scores close to mine were balancing adding to their score via more QSOs vs. searching for additional prefixes (i.e. multipliers). It also shows each operator’s statistics by band which is helpful for comparison purposes.

2013 CQ WPX CW Band Conditions

Contest Band Conditions

Unfortunately, band conditions were less than ideal during this contest. A series of solar storms started on Friday evening just about the time the contest began and continued through the entire contest period. This made for some challenging operating conditions during most of the contest period.

Countries Worked In The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

Countries Worked In The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

In spite of my limited CW skills and the band conditions, I was pleased with the results that I was able to obtain working the contest. I probably worked about 60% of the available operating period during this contest. I mostly operated in Search and Pounce mode due to my limited ability to decode CW by ear. I did run briefly on 160m and 40m late at night to get some experience with running in CW mode. As you can see from the above, I was able to work 86 DXCC entities during the contest – not quite a DXCC but I was very happy with these results given my limited CW abilities.

AB1OC FInal Claimed Score In The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest

AB1OC Final Claimed Score

I was also able to make a little over 500 QSOs and worked 344 prefixes during the contest. This brought my total prefixes worked towards the CQ WPX Award of Excellence in CW mode to 550 of the 600 required. While all of these prefixes will probably not be confirmed, I am now within striking distance of completing this aspect of the award and I should be able to snag the final number of prefixes required to reach 600 confirmed via non-contest operating.

The 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest was a lot of fun and it helped me to improve and build confidence in my CW skills. I would encourage our readers to try CW if you do not currently use this mode. It is challenging to learn CW but there is a great deal of DX available via this mode and I believe that some of the finest operators in the world use CW as their preferred mode.

– Fred (AB1OC)

2013 Dayton Hamvention

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ARRL At Dayton 2013

ARRL At The 2013 Dayton Hamvention

Anita and I had the good fortune to attend the 2013 Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio USA again this year. The Dayton Hamvention covers almost everything Amateur Radio that one can image and it has something for everyone. We’d like to share some of the highlights of this year’s Dayton Hamvention that were of interest to us.

Anita, AB1QB, began her Dayton Hamvention experience by spending a day at Contest University where she gathered some ideas and information to forward her knowledge as a contester. Anita put together a nice summary of what she saw and learned at Contest University which can be viewed here. We spent the following two days looking at all of the exhibits on the main show floor. Our first stop was the ARRL Area. Here we looked at the latest books and publications, dropped off a pile of cards going to the US Bureau, and had a couple of hundred cards checked towards endorsements on our DXCC and WAS awards.

Icon At Dayton

Icom At The Dayton Hamvention

All of the major radio manufacturers (Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Ten-Tec and Elecraft) had large displays at the show and they were all packed. One of the more interesting things we saw there was a prototype of Elecraft’s new KXPA100, 100w amplifier for use with the KX3 and other QRP transceivers.

Elecraft KXPA100

Elecraft KXPA100 Amplifier

The unit is a compact and highly portable package and should be a very nice complement to the KX3 for higher power portable operations.

FlexRadio 6700

FlexRadio Flex-6700

We also spent quite a bit of time at the FlexRadio Systems booth. Anita and I have a new Flex-6700 Software Defined Radio on order and we wanted to learn as much about the Flex-6700 as we could. Fortunately, we had a chance to talk with Steve Hicks, VP of Engineering at FlexRadio to gain a much better understanding of the design, architecture and evolution plans for the Flex 6000 series. I expect that this will be one very impressive radio! Unlike previous designs, the 6000 series radios directly sample signals in the RF domain and do all processing and detection of signals digitally. This eliminates the need for roofing and other RF band filtering and allows the radio to operate on multiple frequencies/bands at the same time. The Flex-6700 can implement up to 8 separate receivers simultaneously allowing multiple bands to be monitored. It should also make a great contest radio as its capable of up to SO8V operation. The direct RF sampling approach coupled with the radio’s dynamic range of 140 dB creates a radio that has much lower distortion products and better selectivity that anything else which is currently available. Steve gave an excellent presentation on the architecture of the 6000 series which includes some very good information as part of one of the Forum sessions at the Dayton Hamvention. Creating a new radio and all new software for it is a very large project and it appears that the folks at FlexRadio are almost ready to begin shipping the Flex 6000 series radios. We are hoping to have our Flex-6700 by the end of the summer and we will provide a post here on the new radio once we have it in place in our shack.

Begali Keys At Dayton

Begali Keys At Dayton

As you may know from reading our Blog, I have been working on my CW skills for the past several months. I am beginning to get pretty serious about CW operation and I wanted to get a really good set of paddles. After looking around at many options at Dayton, I decided to purchase a Begali Sculpture Key.

Begali Sculpture Paddles

Begali Sculpture Paddles

Begali makes some of the finest CW keys and paddles in the world. I really like the feel of the Sculpture. It is very solid, heavy and has a very short “throw” during operation. Mr. Begali spent some time with me to show me how to properly setup and maintain my new paddles.

Mr. Begali

Mr. Begali

I cannot wait to get home and get the Sculpture key setup in the shack. It will surely provide more good motivation to continue to improve my CW skills!

DXLab Software Suite

DXLab Software Suite

While a big part of the displays at Dayton are about hardware equipment (radios, antennas, accessories, etc.), I have noticed an increasing trend towards software vendors at Dayton over the last two years. Anita and I have recently switched to the DXLab Suite of software for logging, award tracking, rig control, QSL’ing, etc. DXLab had a nice display at Dayton. We spent some time with Dave Bernstein,  AA6YQ who showed us several features of the DXLab Suite that we did not know about. One cool one was the ability to use Google Earth to plot all kinds of QSO information on a world map. You can see an example of this feature in our Blog by clicking here. Dave also gave an excellent presentation on the DXLab Suite as part of one of the forums at Dayton.

FreeDV Software - HF Digital Voice

FreeDV Software – HF Digital Voice

Another interesting piece of software we saw was FreeDV. This software implements a royalty free codec inside a software program which can be used to send and receive digital voice transmissions on the HF bands. The royalty free codec aspect of this software is a key element as the licensing fees associated with the codecs used by other digital voice systems from Icom, Yaesu, etc. make up a significant portion of the cost of a digital voice enabled radio. The FreeDV folks are also working on a 2M HT which will have their codec built-in. This should be a very interesting product when it comes to market. I plan to try FreeDV in the near future and I am planning a Blog post to share more information about it sometime in the future.

Buddipole At Dayton

Buddipole At Dayton

Anita and I spent quite a bit of time with Chris and Budd Drummond and the gang at Buddipole. Anita and I are big fans of the Buddipole System and we have used it in numerous portable operations including Field Day and a DXpedition to Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia. We heard a lot about various portable operations and DXpeditions that Chris and the gang have done using their portable antenna system. We also talked about some projects that are underway related to yagi’s built using the Buddipole system. Stay tuned for more on this topic in future Blog posts.

Green Heron AZ-EL Rotar Controller

New Green Heron AZ-EL Rotator Controller

The folks at Green Heron Engineering have a new Az-El Rotator Controller in the works which should be very useful for controlling Satellite and EME antenna systems. Green Heron Engineering is also continuing to expand the capabilities of their GH Everywhere remote control hardware and software lineup. We use the Green Heron RT-21D Rotator Controllers in our shack and have been very happy with them.

Piglet And PigRemote - Remote Control Via iPad

Piglet Remote Control Via iPad

Anita has long been interested in the idea of operating our station remotely via her iPad. We visited Pignology at Dayton to learn about their Piglet and PigRemote devices which enable this sort of operation with the Elecraft KX3 and other radios. We decided to try the PigRemote and we are planning a post on our Blog sometime in the future which shares our experiences with the product.

Yemen DXpedition Presentation

7O6T Yemen DXpedition Presentation

There were also some great Forum Presentations at the Dayton Hamvention and one of our favorites is the DX Forum. We listened to several presentations on recent DXpeditions including the 7O6T Operation in Yemen and the PT0S Operation on St. Peter & Paul Rocks. It is always fun to hear about the planning and work that goes into a DXpedition and these talks were no exception.

We also attended the Top Band Dinner at the Dayton Hamvention where we met some very nice folks and heard some great presentations from a few of the top 160m DX’ers.

All of this  just barely scratches the surface of  what there is to see and learn at the Dayton Hamvention. We hope that you have enjoyed this post and we hope to see you at the Dayton Hamvention sometime in the near future.

– Fred (AB1OC)

QSL!

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QSL Cards Ready To Mail

QSL Cards Ready To Mail

QSL’ing has often been referred to as the “Final Courtesy of a QSO” and it is certainly a lot of fun to send and receive QSL cards from friends and acquaintances that you’ve made on the air from around the world. QSL’ing is also an important part of qualifying for operating awards which help to hone an operator’s skills as well as encourage test and enhancement of your station. To these ends, I am working towards a variety of operating awards including:

These awards require QSOs to be confirmed using a combination of Logbook of the World (LoTW), QSL Cards, and some via eQSL (AG).

I recently switched to the DXLab Suite of logging and DX’ing programs to facilitate the tracking, QSL’ing, and application tasks associated with these and other awards. DXLab includes a very sophisticated set of features for DX’ing and award tracking. The combination of all of the new QSOs made during the three contests I’ve participated in over the last few months plus the enhanced award tracking features in DXLab resulted in a large number of QSOs that needed to be confirmed. It would be wonderful if all Hams used the online QSL’ing services (LoTW and eQSL) to confirm QSOs but this is far from the case. As a result, I decided to create a batch of  QSL card mailings to try to confirm the needed QSOs.

QSL Label Via DXLab

QSL Label Via DXLab

DXLab has many nice features which can be used to print QSL card labels (or complete cards) and to address the outgoing and return envelopes associated with direct QSL requests. It also provides a tool called Pathfinder to aid in the discovery of QSL routes. These tools were very useful in creating some 400+ direct QSL mailings this past weekend plus another 30+ cards that were sent via the ARRL Outbound QSL Bureau. DXLab also handles online QSL’ing via LoTW and eQSL as well as uploading to ClubLog. It would have been quite a chore indeed to generate all of these cards and mailings without DXLab!

I am very much looking forward to getting cards back from all over the world. It makes checking the mailbox fun!

– Fred (AB1OC)

AB1OC Enters Yet Another Contest – 2013 CQ WPX SSB

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N1MM and Related Software

N1MM and Related Software

I am continuing to work the major HF contests to both improve my skills and to work towards a variety of operating awards. My latest effort here was to participate in the recent CQ WPX SSB contest. My schedule did not permit operation during the full contest period but the results were still pretty good. I again used the N1MM logger including its voice keyer features and this was a great aid during contest operations.

Countries Worked During CQ WPX SSB

Countries Worked During 2013 CQ WPX SSB

I was active on all bands 160m – 10m in this contest and was able to work 106 countries – again working a DXCC. The scoring system in CQ WPX SSB favors the lower bands (160m – 40m) so I tried to concentrate there when I could.

AB1OC Claimed Score

AB1OC Claimed Score

My best band overall was 15m where I was able to run during several of the active daytime periods. I am still considered a “rookie” by the rules of this contest, having been licensed for less than three years at this point. Based upon the claimed scores on the 3830scores site, It looks like I may be one of the top “rookies” in my category and will perhaps place in the top 15 in my category overall. The contest also contributed some new prefixes towards the CQ WPX awards that I am working on. Lots of fun as usual.

– 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)

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)

The 2013 ARRL DX Phone Contest – Occasionally, Everything New Works Out

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ARRL DX Phone Contest Ops

AB1OC Operating In The ARRL DX Phone Contest

I participated in the 2013 ARRL DX Phone Contest from our recently completed New Hampshire, USA shack. This was my first serious effort in a Phone contest, and I participated in the Single-Operator, High Power Assisted category within the W/VE segment of the contest.

We have been enhancing our station’s contesting hardware and software recently. These enhancements included the addition of a microHAM MK2R+ SO2R interface the week before the contest.

microHAM MK2R+ SO2R Interface

microHAM MK2R+ SO2R Interface (Courtesy microHAM)

The MK2R+ provides a single interface to the two radios (an Icom IC-7800 and an Icom IC-9100) at my operating position. It allows one microphone, one set of headphones/speakers, one set of paddles, both radios’ FSK interfaces, and the MK2R+’s built-in sound cards to be used with both radios flexibly. I used the MK2R+ along with our logger’s voice keyer as part of the contest. I only operated using a single radio, the Icom IC-7800, in Single Operator 2 VFO (SO2V) mode in this contest as I wanted to prove in the MK2R+ in a relatively simple configuration during the first contest that we used it in. The MK2R+ also controls and shares our SteppIR DB-36 antennas between the two radios at my position.

The other major station enhancement for this contest was my first use of the N1MM Logger. N1MM is a very sophisticated contest logger that provides many features to enable a more competitive contest effort.

N1MM Screen Layout (Left Monitor)

N1MM Screen Layout (Left Monitor)

Anita (AB1QB) used N1MM as part of the 2013 CQ WPX RTTY Contest a few weeks back, so we had some experience with it prior to this contest. N1MM presents a lot of information, and I configured it to display various information on two monitors. The picture above shows the N1MM on my left monitor during the contest. This screen is the primary one that I used to operate. It contains the logging and control windows for both VFOs on my Icom IC-7800 (lower left), the spotting cluster data and band maps for the same (upper left and center tall vertical windows), and the Super Check Partial call sign checking window and my contest score window  (to the right of the two logging windows). The final two windows on this monitor are the control window for our rotators (Ham Radio Deluxe, upper right) and N1MM’s cluster telnet window (lower right).

N1MM Screen Layout (Right Monitor)

N1MM Screen Layout (Right Monitor)

The N1MM setup on my right monitor displays statistics and results for my contest operations. The windows here include my contest QSO rates (upper left), map of multipliers (countries) worked by Band (upper right), the logged calls during the contest (lower right), and my QSO rate and score statistics throughout the contest shown graphically (lower right). The graphical contest statistics are provided by a program called Athena.

Contest QSO Statistics

Contest QSO Statistics

As you can see from the picture above, Athena provides a great deal of information about my performance by Band in real-time during the contest. It is also an excellent tool for analyzing your performance after the contest is completed.

So how did the contest go? I operated for about 40 of the 48 hours of the available contest time. The following shows my final “claimed” score for the contest.

AB1OC's Claimed Score

AB1OC’s Claimed Score

Analyzing these results against other scores posted in my category on the 3830 website was very useful. When I compare the scores posted to these stats, I am pretty satisfied with the performance of my station on all bands but 160m. My 160m performance was a little weaker than the top stations in my category in this contest. My planned addition of a DX Engineering  8-Circle Receive Antenna System, which will cover 160m, plus some longer radials for my 160m Inverted-L antenna, should help.

I made extensive use of N1MM’s cluster data and band map features plus N1MM’s voice keyer to operate in Search and Pounce Mode at QSO rates which exceeded 150 QSOs per hour at times. These rates were far better than I have ever been able to achieve. N1MM’s voice keyer, coupled with some focus on improving my operating technique while running, allowed me to approach QSO rates of 200 per hour at times while running. This, coupled with decent coverage of the available multipliers, resulted in a good overall score – by far my best.

Multipliers Worked In Contest

Multipliers Worked In Contest

One of my goals in every contest is to work as many DX stations as I can towards various DX awards. This contest was also my best effort to date in this area. The picture above shows the final set of multipliers (these are DXCC entities, think of these mostly as countries) during the contest. At the 24-hour point, I worked 100 DXCC entities, earning a Phone DXCC Award in 24 hours. My final count for the contest was 120 DXCC entities.

I learned a lot about how to select which bands to operate at various times during the contest as well as how to use some of the best capabilities of N1MM. I was also able to improve my operating skills as the contest progressed. I am looking forward to the next major Phone contest so that I can apply all that I learned and hopefully perform better. I hope to finish in the top 20 within my category for this contest, which fulfills one of our major goals when we set out to construct our new station.

– 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