6m VUCC In A Day – ARRL June VHF Contest

6M VUCC Operating Award

6M VUCC Operating Award

The 6m Band is one of my favorite bands. The combination of its unpredictability and the amazing openings that it can produce certainly makes 6m The Magic Band for me!

Fred’s (AB1QB) First Place Finish in NH – 2013 ARRL June VHF Contest

Fred’s New Hampshire First Place Finish in the ARRL June VHF Contest

I haven’t had the chance to work the ARRL June VHF Contest from our home station for several years. A combination of Nashua Area Radio Society activities and preparations for ARRL Field Day has taken a higher priority. ARRL June VHF is a great contest and I was looking forward to working it this year. A few days before the contest Anita and I were talking about the contest and she suggested that I do a 6m Digital Entry. E-skip has been pretty good on 6m this year and we wanted to sort out how we’d do digital and 6m for our upcoming 2020 Field Day Operation from our home so I decided to take Anita’s advice and focus on 6m Digital for June VHF. I entered the contest in the Low-Power Category.

June VHF Operating Setup

6m VUCC

AB1OC Operating in 2020 June VHF

We built a Remote Operating Gateway that allows our station to be operated both over the Internet and from any room in our home via our Home Network. I decided to set up a 6m Digital Station upstairs in our dining room so I could be with Anita more during the contest. The setup consisted of a laptop PC with an outboard monitor and a Flex Maestro as the client for the Flex 6700 SDR in our shack.

Completed Antenna Stack On New Tower

Completed Antenna Stack on our VHF Tower

We have three antennas for 6m – one on our VHF Tower and two via the SteppIR DB36 yagis with 6m kits on our main tower.

Delta Loop On Tower

SteppIR DB36 Yagis on our Main Tower

The three antennas can be pointed in different directions and selected instantly via the computer. This provided to be an advantage during the contest. I kept one on Europe, one point due West, and the third pointed at the Tip of Florida and the Caribean during the contest.

6m VUCC

Operating Setup – N1MM+ and WSJT-X

Having two monitors (the Laptop and an outboard one) allow me to arrange all of the N1MM+ Logger and WSJT-X windows for efficient operating. The image above shows a snapshot of the screen layout during the contest. N1MM+ has some nice features that integrated with WSJT-X to make it easy to spot new grids (Multipliers) and stations that have not yet been worked. The windows on the very right side allowed me to control antenna switching and monitor power and SWR while operating. I use the PSTRotator application (lower-left center to turn my antennas.

6m Band Conditions

6m VUCC

6m PSK Reporter On Sunday Evening

Band conditions on 6m were amazing from here in New England almost the entire contest period! The band was open right at the start of the contest on Saturday and remained open to 11 pm local time on Saturday evening. I was up early on Sunday and was working folks in the Northeastern Region right from the start. After being open all day on Sunday, the band shut down around 5 pm local time and I was afraid that the fun on 6m might be over. I ate some dinner and took a 45-minute nap and got back to my station at around 6:30 pm. About 15 minutes after I resumed, 6m opened again to most of the United States and I was able to work DM and DN grid squares in the Western States! The band stayed open right until the end of the contest at 11 pm local time.

What About the VUCC…

6m VUCC

100 Grids Worked on 6m

Conditions on 6m were so good on Saturday that I almost worked a 6m VUCC by 11 pm on Saturday evening when the band closed. I had 93 grids worked on 6m in just 8 hours! The band opened again early on Sunday morning and I worked my 100th grid square before 10 am – working a 6m VUCC in less than 18 hours!

6m VUCC

Final 6m Grids Worked

By the end of the contest, I had worked a total of 162 Grids! They ranged from the West Coast of the US to Western Europe and from Southern Canada to Northern South America.

6m VUCC

6m Grids Worked During 2020 June VHF

The image above shows most of the 6m grids that I worked plotted on a world map (the EU grids are not shown).

6m VUCC

Final Claimed Score

I was able to make a total of 402 unique contacts on 6m by the end of the contest with a final Claimed Score that was a bit over 65K. All of my 6m contacts during the contest were made using a combination of FT8 and FT4 modes on 6m.

New Ones on 6m for AB1OC

6m VUCC

AB1OC Worldwide 6m Grid Map

I was hoping to work some all-time new Grids and June VHF did not disappoint. I worked a total of 11 new Grids and one new DXCC (Dominica) on 6m during the contest. The image above shows my worldwide grid coverage including the new ones worked during June VHF (my grids in Argentina and Uruguay are not shown above). I now have worked 432 grids on 6m and have confirmed 408 of them with 63 DXCC’s worked and 62 confirmed on the Magic Band.

Summing It All Up…

I must say that I had as much fun working 6m during June VHF this year as I have ever had in any contest! The band openings on 6m were really good and I was busy making new contacts for the entire time that I operated. The combination of the 6m Band and the contest certainly made some Magic for me!

Fred, AB1OC

PTT Switch for Remote Operation

FT8 Digital Remote Setup

Remote Operating Setup for AB1OC-AB1QB Station

Here’s an article by Nashua Area Radio Society member Mark, KC1IML that explains how to build a PTT switch for remote operation of our station via SmartSDR. Mark and others have been using our station remotely to work DX and operate in the Nashua Area Radio Society’s Student-Teacher Contest Series.

Source: PTT Switch for Remote Operation – Nashua Area Radio Society

And here is a link to a more current USB to serial adapter for use in this application. You can learn more about the Remote Operating Gateway setup at AB1OC-AB1QB here.

Fred, AB1OC

A First Look at WSJT-X V2.0

WSJT-X 2.0-rc1

WSJT-X 2.0-rc1 Beta Software

It looks like the first Beta Release of WSJT-X 2.0 is available. WSJT-X Version 2.0  includes a number of features to support contesting and longer compound callsigns when FT8 and MSK144 (Meteor Scatter) modes are used. The new features include:

  • Better support for North American VHF Contests with improved handling of grids and /R rover call sign designators
  • Six-character locators and call sign suffix support for portable operators focused on EU VHF contesting
  • Support for ARRL Field Day exchanges
  • Support for ARRL RTTY Roundup exchanges
  • Support for call signs up to 11 characters to support non-standard and compound call signs

The new version extends the length of the messages used for FT8 and MSK144 from 75/72 bits to 77 bits to enable the above features. As a result, there are compatibility issues between the v1.x releases of WSJT-X and v2.0 when FT8 and MSK144 modes are used. More detail about the new features and changes can be found here.

It is expected that the Meteor Scatter community (MSK144 mode users) will rapidly move to WSJT-X V2.0 so no backward compatibility features are provided for MSK144.

The transition for FT8 mode users is a much bigger problem. As a result, it is suggested that users test the new mode on alternative frequencies on the 20m band at 14.078 MHz and on the 40m band at 7.078 Mhz.

WSJT-X 2.0 FT8 Compatibility and Contest Options

WSJT-X 2.0 FT8 Compatibility and Contest Options

The Advanced Tab in the WSJT-X v2.0 settings provides some options to help with compatibility between v1.x and V2.0. One must choose whether to transmit using the shorter v1.x or the v2.0 messages. If you are operating in the above mention “2.0” frequency areas on 20m or 40m, it’s a good idea to transmit using the 2.0 message format (check always generate 77-bit messages).

The new version of WSJT-X can decode both the shorter v1.x and the longer v2.0 messages simultaneously. The decoding will be faster on slower computers if you check the Decode only 77-bit messages option when operating in the v2.0 frequency ranges.

If you want to try the new v2.0 FT8 mode in one of the supported contests, you’ll want to check the appropriate Special operating activity option. If you are not operating in one of these contests, you’ll want to select None.

All you need to do to try the new version is to download and install it and configure the FT8 options. I’ve been running WSJT-X v2.0 rc1 in the 20m band in the 14.078  MHz sub-band this morning and have made about 20 contacts using the new format. The v2.0 software is working well.

There are some additional enhancements which will be included in WSJT-X v2.0. Here’s some information on these features from the WSJT-X v2.0 Quick Start Guide

WSJT-X 2.0 has several other new features and capabilities. The WSPR decoder has better sensitivity by about 1 dB. Color highlighting of decoded messages provides worked-before status for callsigns, grid locators, and DXCC entities on a “by band” basis. Color highlighting can also identify stations that have (or have not) uploaded their logs to Logbook of the World (LoTW) within the past year. The necessary information from LoTW can be easily downloaded from the ARRL website.

Currently, several additional release candidates are planned for WSJT-X v2.0 as follows:

  • September 17, 2018:   -rc1        Expires October 31, 2018
  • October 15, 2018:        -rc2       Expires November 30, 2018
  • November 12, 2018:    -rc3       Expires December 31, 2018
  • December 10, 2018:     GA         Full release of WSJT-X 2.0

Note that the release candidates will expire about 2 weeks after each new version becomes available. Also, its required that anyone who runs the Beta (release candidate) software agrees to report any bugs that they find.

We are looking forward to trying the new FT8 in the next digital contest which allows it.

Fred, AB1OC

New Hampshire QSO Party Mobile HF Plans

New Hampshire County Map

New Hampshire QSO Party County Map

Jamey, KC1ENX, and I are planning to operate using our club call sign N1FD/M (Mobile HF) during the New Hampshire QSO Party this weekend.

Our Mobile HF Station

Our Mobile HF Station

We will be operating from our 500w Mobile Station. Our goal is to activate all 10 NH counties during the contest period, which starts at noon ET on Saturday and ends at 6 pm on Sunday.

Planned 2017 NH QSO Party Route

Planned 2017 NH QSO Party Route

Our planned route is shown above. We are planning to operate while we are moving. Also, we plan to stop on County Lines and activate multiple Counties simultaneously, wherever possible.

You can find the rules and information about the NHQP here. We hope to work you this weekend!

Fred, AB1OC

Portable 6m Station for SOTA and Contesting

Fred, AB1OC and Curtis, N1CMD Operating

Fred, AB1OC and Curtis, N1CMD Operating

I got really excited when Jamey, KC1ENX set our Club’s first Summits On The Air (SOTA)/Parks On The Air (POTA) activation for the same day as the June VHF Contest! Jamey chose Pack Monadnock in Miller State Park here in New Hampshire as the site for our activation. With Jamey’s help, we prepared a portable 6m station for the activation.

Solar Panels

Solar Panels

The idea was to use an IC-7300 to create a 100W station and a Solar/Battery combination to power the setup. Solar/Battery made us “legal” as a SOTA activation. We combined two 90W solar panels, which I had with an MPPT solar charging system and two LiPo batteries, to create the power system for the activation.

6M Antenna Going Up

6M Antenna Going Up

The antenna system was built around an M2 Antenna Systems 6M3 Yagi and an 18 ft. push-up mast from Max-gain systems.

Portable 6M Antenna

Portable 6M Antenna

All this gear was carried to the site and set up in about an hour. A 25 ft. section of LMR-400UF coax completed the station. The mast was guyed with rings, allowing us to turn the mast/antenna combination to point the Yagi in any direction.

Anita, AB1QB and Curtis, N1CMD Operating in the June VHF Contest

Anita, AB1QB and Curtis, N1CMD Operating in the June VHF Contest

Between the SOTA/POTA activation and the June VHF contest, we made a little over 130 contacts on 6m. We did not have any real Es openings, so most of our contacts were regional. Having the elevation provided by being on Pack Monadnock made us quite loud for the stations that could hear us. Several of our club members got on 6M and joined the fun. We did have a brief Es opening and managed to work a station in Alabama and one in Florida.

Mike, AB1YK Portable 6M

Mike, AB1YK Portable 6M

Mike, AB1YK has a much more portable 6m setup and uses lower power to have some fun on 6M as well.

Al, KC1FOZ and Tom, KC1GGP Operating Portable

Al, KC1FOZ and Tom, KC1GGP Operating Portable

Al, KC1FOZ, and Tom, KC1GGP, put together a nice station and operated it using battery power. Several other club members came out with portable stations as well.

Our first SOTA/POTA activation was a lot of fun, and Anita and I are looking forward to the next one!

Fred, AB1OC

Nashua Area Radio Society’s 2017 Field Day Station Test

ARRL Field Day is the Nashua Area Radio Society’s largest and most popular annual activity. You can see more about our recent Field Day activities on our Field Day page and on our Blog. We recently got together for a Field Day Station Test.

Dave Merchant K1DLM, our Field Day chairman, is bringing 21st Century radio and computer technology to our Field Day setup this year. There are several aspects to this new component of our Field Day plans, including –

  • Two Flex-6700 Software Define Radios running over a network  for our new Digital and enhanced GOTA Stations
  • An on-site WiFi Network to enable using the N1MM+ Logger in network mode for sharing of log information, station activity, real-time scores, and messages
  • A central Score Board and Field Day Information Computer in our public information tent
2017 Field Day Site - Upper Field Layout

2017 Field Day Site – Upper Field Layout

We will again be holding our 2017 Field Day operation at the Hollis-Brookline High School in Hollis, NH. We plan to use the upper baseball field area as our main operating location. We have decided to add a third tower this year and locate it on a soccer practice field which is situated several hundred feet away from our main operating area. All of our antennas and equipment will lie within the required 1000′ circle, but the third tower would situate those operating at that location away from the rest of our group. Dave’s solution to this problem was to set up a network and operate two Software Defined Radios (SDRs) at the lower site remotely from our location on the upper field.

Dave has enlisted Piece Fortin, K1FOP, as our IT Chairman for Field Day this year. Pierce has been instrumental, along with Dave, in the planning and testing of this new technology. Pierce and Dave have a great deal of networking and IT experience and knowledge, and we could not have put together what is described here without them.

Dave K1DLM, Piece, Hamilton K1HMS, Mike Ryan K1WVO, Anita AB1QB, and I have gotten together multiple times to set up and test this new technology. I wanted to share more about the equipment and the associated testing (which has been staged in the kitchen at our QTH – thank you, Anita!).

We began the testing process by setting up our 20m CW station.

20m CW Station Test

20m CW Station Test

This station uses an Elecraft K3S Transceiver, a K1EL WinKeyer, and the N1MM+ Logger on a Windows 10 Laptop PC. We used this station to get our basic N1MM+ setup, including our Field Day CW keying macros working.

40m SSB Station Test

40m SSB Station Test

Next came our 40m SSB station. This setup uses an Icom IC-7300 Transceiver and allowed us to set up and test N1MM+ on the fly audio macro recording and playback. All three of our SSB stations will have on-the-fly recording and playback capability, allowing each SSB operator to record and use a custom set of audio macros.

Digital Station Test

Digital Station Test

Next came our Digital Station. This station uses one of the two remote Flex-6700 SDRs.

Remote Flex-6700 SDRs and Antenna Switch

Remote Flex-6700 SDRs and Antenna Switch

Dave, K1DLM put together a really nice package for the two Flex-6700 SDRs and associated equipment, which will be located on the lower field. He used a rack system to mount the two SDRs, power supplies, a three-band Tri-plexor, a set of bandpass filters for 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m, and a 403A 8×2 networked antenna switch. This setup allows either of the two SDRs to share the tri-band yagi or the 40m and 80m Inverted-V antennas on the tower on the lower field and operate on any of the 5 available HF bands. Antenna and filter switching automatically track the frequencies of the two SDRs making the setup simple to use.

Digital Station Second Display - SmartSDR & More N1MM+

Digital Station Second Display – SmartSDR & More N1MM+

The Digital Station’s remote SDR will be operated using a SmartSDR client running on the Digital Station laptop PC. This station will have a second monitor to better accommodate all of the windows associated with it.

Digital Station Main Display - N1MM+

Digital Station Main Display – N1MM+

The main display associated with the Digital Station will run decoders for all PSK and RTTY modes. The ability to decode multiple PSK signals simultaneously and multiple RTTY decodes are available. The Digital station also acts as the N1MM+ master station in our Field Day setup for all other stations that use N1MM+.

Satellite Station Test

Satellite Station Test

Our Satellite Station 2.0 was also added to the test setup. It uses a MacBook Air laptop running MacDoppler to control the antenna rotators and the Icom IC-9100 Transceiver, which is part of our Satellite Station. A Windows 10 Surface Pro computer is included, which runs N1MM+ and provides logging and other network functionality for our Satellite Station.

GOTA Station Test

GOTA Station Test

We also tested our GOTA station, which uses the second Flex-6700 SDR and a FlexRadio Maestro to provide a more conventional “buttons and knobs” interface for our GOTA operators. This station will also have a laptop PC running N1MM+ for logging.

Scoreboard Computer

Scoreboard Computer

We also built and tested a Scoreboard PC. This computer will be located in the Public Information tent at Field Day and connected to a large display. It will show our real-time score, QSOs being logged as they are made, and other useful information about our Field Day operations. This computer will also continuously play videos from our Video Collection and provide access to IP video cameras monitoring the tower and equipment on the lower field.

Pierce, K1FOP and Hamilton, K1HMS Testing CW Stations

Pierce, K1FOP and Hamilton, K1HMS Testing CW Stations

Our networked N1MM+ testbed contained at least one station of each type (CW, SSB, Digital, Satellite, and GOTA) that will be part of our Field Day setup this year. The Station Masters for the additional CW and SSB stations came by to test their setups using the test bed.

Field Day Networking System

Field Day Networking System

The networking system Dave and Pierce built is central to all the technology described here. All of the gear is mounted in a single rack which will be located on the upper field during Field Day. The setup includes a Firewall/DHCP server, a commercial-grade outdoor WiFi access point, a 4G LTE modem for Internet access, an Ethernet Switch, and a UPS power supply.

MoCA Data Link Cable

MoCA Data Link Cable

The upper and lower fields at our Field Day site are separated by several hundred feet. A thick line of trees between the two locations raised concerns about connecting the upper and lower sites using WiFi. Pierce came up with a great solution to this problem – we will be using MoCA Data Modems and RG6 Quad Shield 75 ohm Coax Cable to provide a 10 Mbps data link between the two sites. We tested the MoCA link using a much longer coax cable run than we needed at Field Day and confirmed the full 10 Mbps throughput.

N1MM+ Talk Window

N1MM+ Talk Window

Our networked N1MM+ setup will allow any station in our setup to send messages to everyone who is operating at Field Day. We can use this capability for important communications like “lunch is ready!” or “I need help from Pierce (our IT chairman) on the 40m SSB station,” or “The 6m band is wide open!”.

Our GOTA and Digital stations will be together in the same tent and will provide our Field Day 2017 visitors to see and use 21st-century Amateur Radio technology to make contacts. We are expecting young people who participated in our High-Altitude Balloon project and from other local schools where we have done Amateur Radio activities to attend. In addition to being a learning opportunity for all of us in the Nashua Area Radio Society, we hope that the state-of-the-art technology that we are using will generate interest among our visitors. If you are local to the Nashua, NH, USA area, come pay us a visit during 2017 Field Day. We’d enjoy providing a tour for you and your family and a chance to Get On The Air. Hope to see you at Field Day!

Fred, AB1OC

Why Ham Radio?

Scorpion SA-680 Screwdriver Antenna

Fred’s Truck with Antenna

Every so often, I drive Fred’s truck to work and people ask me what that big antenna on the back of the truck is for. I explain to them that it is for Ham Radio.  But the reply is usually, why ham radio – isn’t that outdated technology?  We have cell phones and IM, etc…what do we need Ham Radio for?  So I thought I would put down my thoughts as a relatively new Ham about why I enjoy spending so much of my time with Ham Radio.

amateur_radio_could_save_lives_in_times__2205260000_9445423_ver1-0_640_480

Amateur Radio for Public Service

Public Service

The number one reason we still need Ham Radio along with all the other technology we now have is for public service.  When there is a disaster and cell phones, television, etc are all not working, Ham Radio operators provide the critical communication.

Ham Radio operators help locally to keep hospitals and first responders in contact with each other to help those affected by the disaster.

Hams also use our ability to communicate around the world on HF bands to help family members around the world to get in touch with loved ones affected by a disaster.

Ham Radio operators have been on the scene helping in every disaster from the earthquakes in Nepal to the recent flooding in California.

hamsats

Amateur Radio Cube Satellites

Technology and the Maker Movement

I only became a Ham 5 years ago but many of my fellow Ham Radio operators got their license when they were in their early teens and used what they learned to launch their careers. Many have had very successful careers in STEM fields, all launched by their interest in Ham Radio at a young age.  As technology advances, so does the technology used in our hobby.   We even have a nobel laureate, Joe Taylor K1JT who is a ham. Joe has developed weak signal digital communication modes that let us communicate by bouncing signals off the moon!

As technology has advanced, so has the use of it in Ham Radio.   Most Ham Radio operators have one or more computers in their shack.  Many also have a software designed radio (SDR), where much of the radio functionality is implemented using Software, we use sound cards to run digital modes, which are a lot like texting over the radio, and we use the internet extensively as part of operating.  We can also make contacts through satellites orbiting the earth and even the International Space Station.

Most hams love do-it-yourself technical projects, including building a station, home brewing an antenna, building a radio or other station component.  In my day job, I am a program manager for software development projects, but its been a while since I have built anything. As a Ham I taught myself how to code in Python and about the Raspberry Pi and I built the DX Alarm Clock.

vk6lc

QSL Card from VK6LC in Western Australia

International Camaraderie

One of the coolest things about being an amateur radio operator is that you can communicate with other hams all over the world. Ham Radio is an international community where we all have something in common to talk about – our stations and why we enjoy ham radio.    The QSL card above is from a memorable QSO with Mal, VK6LC, from Western Australia, who was the last contact that I needed for a Worked All Zones award.  I must have talked to him for 1/2 hour about his town in Australia and his pet kangaroos!

world-map

Amateur Radio Map of the World

Geography Lesson

I have learned much about geography from being on the air and trying to contact as many countries as I can.  There are 339 DX Entities, which are countries or other geographical entities and I have learned where each one is in order to understand where propagation will allow me make a contact.  I have learned a great deal about world geography. Through exchanging QSL cards often get to see photos from so many areas of the world.

dxcc-challenge-award

DXCC Challenge Award Plaque

Achievement – DXing and Contesting

DXing and Contesting provide a sense of achievement and exciting opportunity for competition. Many Hams work toward operating awards. You can get an operating award for contacting all 50 states, contacting 100 or more countries, contacting Islands, cities in Japan, countries in Asia, or anything else you can imagine.  Each of these operating awards provides a sense of accomplishment and helps to build skills.  Contesting builds skills through competition among Hams to see who can make the most contacts with the most places in 24 or 48 hours. Contesting also improves our operating skills and teaches us to copy callsigns and additional data accurately.

anita-instructor

Teaching a License Class

Teaching Licensing Classes – Passing it On

Recently I have joined a team of club members who teach license classes to others who want to get licensed or upgrade their existing Amateur Radio licenses.  Teaching provides a way to improve my presentation skills and also helps me to really understand the material that we teach about Amateur Radio.  It is always a thrill at the end of the class to see so many people earn their licenses or upgrades.

There are so many interesting aspects of Ham Radio which is what makes is such a great hobby.  Getting your license can open up a world of possibilities.  Upgrading to a new license class provides more opportunities to communicate over longer distances.  Ham Radio clubs, including our local club, the Nashua Area Radio Club,  provide many resources to help you get your first licenseupgrade to a new license class and learn about the many aspects of our hobby.

Anita, AB1QB

2016 New England QSO Party – Operating Mobile HF

Several members of the Nashua Area Radio Club operated as N1FD/M (our club callsign) in the New England QSO Party this year as a Multi-Op Mobile Entry. Operators included Wayne Wagner, AG1A and Jamey Finchum, KC1ENX, and myself. We began our operations on Saturday afternoon on the Massachusetts – New Hampshire State line where we activated two counties and two states.

NEQP Multi-Op Team

N1FD/M NEQP Multi-Op Team

We entered the 2016 NEQP Contest in the High Power Multi-Op Mobile Category. We operated using SSB phone mode using mostly on the 20m and 40m bands. We took turns operating, driving and navigating. We used Fred’s, AB1OC’s mobile HF station in his truck.

CQ NEQP 4

CQ NEQP from N1FD/M

We operated Saturday and Sunday for nearly the entire contest period. We spent most of our time calling CQ and we had several nice pileups to work.

Counties Activated 2

Counties Activated by N1FD/m in the 2016 NEQP

The map above shows the counties in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont that we activated during the contest. Anita, AB1QB helped us to create a route of counties to activate which included some of the more rare counties in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Operating On The Line 4

Operating on a County Line in Vermont

We tried to focus on activations where we could be in two counties as once. These activations produced some nice pileups for us to work.

Operating On The Line 1

Operating on a County Line in NH

We parked on county lines with 2 wheels of N1FD/M in one county and 2 wheels in another. This gave us two QSO points (one for each county) for each contact that we made.

NOPTA Activiation 2

NPOTA Activation – Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP in Vermont

We also activated two National Parks along our route as part of ARRL’s NPOTA program. We activated Saint-Gaudens NHS (NS60) in New Hampshire and Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP (HP26) in Vermont. The HP26 activation produced the best response – we made about 50 contacts while we were there.

Solar Weather for NEQP

Solar Weather for NEQP 2016

We had a few challenges along the way. We had some antenna-related problems to deal with. Fortunately, we had spare parts with us and we adjusted our operating style to overcome these problems. We also had to operate through a major solar event on Sunday. This made contacts very difficult but we still logged over 235 QSOs on Sunday in spite of the conditions.

CQ NEQP 1

Wayne, AG1A Operating in NEQP 2016

We used a PC running the N1MM+ logger connected directly to the Icom IC-7000 radio which is mounted on the passenger side lower interior panel in our truck. This made if very easy for whoever was operating to keep up with the logging when our QSO rates were high.

All in all, we had a great time in the contest. We logged a total of 631 QSOs and we worked 58 Multipliers. Our final claimed score was 36,598 – not bad given that this was our first entry as a mobile and our first time in NEQP. We worked 43 of 50 states and we had quite a few stations from Canada and Europe call in to answer our CQs. All in all, it was a lot of fun operating from our Mobile HF station in the NEQP contest!

There was some discussion on the way home about the Maine and New Hampshire QSO parties which will be held later this year. We hope to be N1FD/M again in one or more of those as well.

The N1FD/M Multi-op Team,

Fred, AB1OC
Wayne, AG1A
Jamey, KC1ENX
Anita, AB1QB

Dayton Hamvention 2016

Anita Preseting in Contest ForumFred, AB1OC, and I just returned from the 2016 Hamvention in Dayton, OH.

Our first day in Dayton was spent at Contest University – this was our 5th year in attendance but each year we learn more from the contesting experts. This year, we attended two presentations from Frank Donovan, W3LPL on operating techniques for the declining solar cycle and on 80m and 160m antennas.   We also heard a talk from Val NV9L from Ham Nation on Log Analysis tools and another session on SO2R (Single Operator 2 Radio) Operating.

W3LPL Solar Cycle 5

Slide from W3LPL Contest University Presentation

Friday was the first day of the Hamvention and we spent most of the day visiting all of the vendor exhibits.   We visited the Icom booth, where we looked at the new Icom 7851. It has an incredible display as well as one of the best receivers on the market.

7851

Icom IC-7851 Display on a Large Screen TV

We also saw the new KX2 Transceiver at the Elecraft booth. It is even smaller than the KX3 and is perfect for SOTA and other portable operations. I would expect to hear some NPOTA activations using this radio.

KX2

Elecraft Kx2 on the Right, next to a KX3

Friday evening was the Top Band dinner where we learned all about “Top Band Disease” from Larry “Tree” Tyree N6TR.   Hams with this disease are nocturnal, love the bottom of the sunspot cycle. They are constantly improving their 160m antennas – when you upgrade your receive antenna, then there are people who can’t hear you, so then you need to improve your transmit antenna – and the cycle continues…

Top Band

Top Band Dinner Presentation by N6TR

After the dinner, we were treated to a concert from the Spurious Emissions Band (N0AXKX9XK4ROW4PA), with hits like “On The Cover of the NCJ” and “Sittin on the Edge of the Band”. They were so funny! You can watch their performances on YouTube http://bit.ly/DaytonSpurs2016.

Spurious Emissions

The Spurious Emissions Band Performs at Dayton 2016

On Saturday, Fred, AB1OC, and I presented our Station Building talk to around 250 people as part of the Dayton Contest Forum. It was a great honor to be selected to speak there by Doug Grant K1DG, who has been organizing the Contest Forum for many years.

Fred in Antenna Forum

Fred, AB1OC Speaks at the Contest Forum

We also continued to tour the vendor booths, visiting our fellow Nashua Area Radio Club Member Bill Barber, NE1B, at the DMR-MARC booth.

Bill Barber NE1B

Bill Barber, NE1B at the DMR-MARC Booth

After that, we stopped by Gordon West’s Ham Instructor booth where we spoke to him about the success of our Club’s License classes.  Here is a picture of Gordon, WB6NOA, and Fred sharing the secrets of how the Hilbert Transform and the Flux Capacitor make Single Sideband and Time Travel Possible.

AB1OC with Gordo

Gordon West, WB6NOA with Fred, AB1OC

We also visited the AMSAT booth, where we met Burns Fisher,  W2BFJ,   who currently lives in Brookline, NH, and is moving to Hollis.    They had a cube satellite on display – you can see how small it is below.  It’s amazing that AMSAT builds and arranges to launch them into orbit so that we can make QSOs through them!

Cube Sat

Anita, AB1QB Holds a Cube Sat

Fred could not resist a visit to Bengali Keys where we purchased a neat travel key. It should be great for operating mobile and for Field Day.

Begali Travel Key

Bengali Travel Key

On Sunday, we headed back to New Hampshire, sad that the weekend had come to an end but full of great memories from the trip.

Anita, AB1QB

2016 ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB

ARRL Rookie Roundup Ops

ARRL Rookie Roundup Ops

A team of newly licensed members of our club, the Nashua Area Radio Club, came together to enter the 2016 ARRL Rookie Round SSB Contest, using our club callsign, N1FD. We held a training session at our QTH the weekend before the contest to allow our operators to learn about contesting and to become familiar with our station. We put together a training package to introduce the operator team to contesting in general and to the ARRL Rookie RoundupYou can view the training package here..

Station setup for the Contest

Station Setup for the Contest

We entered the ARRL Rookie Roundup in the Multi-Op, Single Transmitter category using the club’s N1FD call sign. This gave everyone a chance to operate in the contest and contribute to the team’s final score. Fred, AB1OC spent some time setting up and checking out our station ahead of time. Our operators used the N1MM+ logger and operated using 100w of power on the 20m and 40m bands.

We had a total of 13 Nashua Area Radio Club members who attended the preparation session and/or operated in the contest. Folks worked as teams during the contest with one person operating while another person logged. Our operators had nice pileups to work for a good portion of the contest. All of our Operators did really well.

As you can see from the video above, we definitely have some future contest stars in our club!

2016 RR SSB Score

The table above shows the results of our operations during the 6-hour contest period. Our team did really well! Of particular note is that they were able to work 45 of the 70 available multipliers. It will take some time for the ARRL to put together the results for everyone in the contest but we believe that our team did very well.

Abby and Her Dad Jamey Operating in the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB

Abby and her Dad Jamey Operating in the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB

The results are in and N1FD took first place in the recent ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB in the Multi-op Category. The N1FD team was also #1 in area one and #5 overall in the contest. Congratulations to all of our operators – they did a great job operating in the contest. You can find all of the scores for the contest here.

2016-ARRL-RR-N1FD

We are planning to host recently licensed club members again for the ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY and the ARRL Rookie Roundup CW contests later this year. We hope to see many of our operators back again for these contests.

Do you have a contest station?  If so, we’d like to encourage you to host and Elmer some new hams and challenge us in the ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY on August 21.

Anita, AB1QB