A New Project – Digital Fast Scan Amateur Television

February 19, 2016 by fkemmerer

Digital Amateur Television (ATV) CQ Call

Skip, K1NKR a local friend and VHF/UHF expert and I began talking about the idea of building a Fast Scan Amateur Television (ATV) System some time ago. Our early research and the antenna equipment which we had in place at our stations led us to plan our ATV project around the 70 cm band. The 70 cm band plan in the United States has allocations for Fast Scan ATV transmissions with a bandwidth of up to 6 MHz. Our research led us to Jim Andrews, KH6HTV’s excellent website where we discovered that it was possible to build a Digital ATV station using reasonably priced commercially available DVB-T format Modulators and Demodulators. Jim’s site has a wealth of great Applications Notes on Digital ATV and it’s a great place to start learning about this technology. A combination of a DVB-T Modulator and Demodulator from Hi-Des was chosen as the heart of our Digital ATV System. We also worked with Jim to secure the needed Wideband Linear Power Amplifiers for the 70 cm band. We began receiving the equipment to build our Digital ATV Stations late last year. We’ve done quite a bit of testing on the air and some custom development work which has resulted in a pair of excellent-performing Digital ATV stations. The picture above shows a Digital ATV “CQ” that I sent to initiate one of our early QSOs.

Digital ATV Transceiver

Here’s a picture of Skip receiving my “CQ” at his end. The picture quality produced by the equipment that we’re using and the DVB-T format is phenomenal. The Hi-Des Modulator which we are using has a large number of parameters that can be set to determine the format and bandwidth of the signals we generate. After some experimentation, we have settled on using QPSK modulation and a 6 MHz signal bandwidth. This combination delivers excellent picture quality with more than adequate motion performance. We see very few if any picture artifacts using our current format. We’ve also done some experimentation with QPSK and a 4 MHz signal bandwidth. I plan to share more on signal formats in a future article on our blog.

Digital ATV System User Interface

We are both using HD Digital Camcorders as our primary video signal sources and 1080p monitors to display our received signals. I opted to include an HDMI Video Switch from Gefen in my setup which also allows me to send video and graphics from a variety of different sources including my PC over the air. The monitor in the picture above on the right is a touchscreen display that I use to control my ATV Transceiver system.

AB1OC Digital ATV Transceiver

Early on, I decided to build a Transceiver-like setup. I wanted to create a unit that was simple to use just like the HF Transceivers that are available today. Some of the key capabilities that I wanted to create include:

Real-time selection and switching between multiple HD video sources
Transmission of PC sourced Video and Graphics over the air
Preview and cueing of the next video transmission while receiving
Simultaneous display of both receive and pending transmit video
Built-in Transmit/Receive (T/R) switching with termination and protection of the Tx power stage
Sequencing of T/R stages including my tower-mounted pre-amplifier system
Power and SWR monitoring with an automatic trip on high SWR
An internal low-noise RF preamplifier to provide additional receive signal gain if needed
Touchscreen graphical interface for configuration and operating the station
Recording of both sides of on-air video QSOs to an attached PC

To achieve these goals, I decided to build a Raspberry Pi 2-based Linux controller for my ATV Transceiver and to package all of the ATV components and video switching/conversion gear needed in a small rack mount enclosure. Many of the components in the system communicate with each other over an Ethernet LAN and the transceiver is networked to computers and other devices via an external Ethernet connection. More on the details of the Transceiver design to come in a future article.

Skip and I recently produced a short video to demonstrate how Fast Scan Digital ATV works and to show the quality that these systems are capable of producing. Our project is still a work in progress and I expect that we will continue to learn as we perform more tests and continue the development of our systems. I plan to post additional articles here to share the details of our designs and learnings from our on-air testing as we proceed.

– Fred, AB1OC

2015 13 Colonies Special Event Operations Summary

July 9, 2015 by fkemmerer

Summary of K2K NH 2015 Operations

Well, the 2015 Thirteen Colonies Special Event is history and K2K New Hampshire had another record year making 10,292 contacts during the event. We had a great team of operators this year – Layne AE1N, Ed K2TE, Dennis K1LGQ, Dave KM3T, Anita AB1QB and myself.

K2K NH Contact Details for 2015

We improved our contribution to the event in almost every area this year. We had a great balance between SSB and CW with some 28% of our contacts using CW! We also had a better balance of contacts outside NA – 15% being DX. Another interesting stat is that we worked about 1/2 of all of the Counties in the United States.

Interesting K2K NH Contacts in 2015

Operating in a major Special Event like 13 Colonies always produces some interesting contacts. We worked some pretty interesting DX stations including a QRP to QRP CW contact between New Hampshire and Japan. You can see from the concentration of our contacts around the world in the map above (click to enlarge).

2015 Thirteen Colonies QSL Cards

In addition to the really nice certificate for working the event, there is a very nice collection of QSL cards available for working each of the Thirteen Colonies and the two bonus stations. Many states, including New Hampshire, redesigned their QSL cards this year which adds to the fun of collecting them. You can find QSL information for the event here.

K2K New Hampshire QSL!

The QSLs are rolling in! We are using the DXLab Suite to automate the printing/QSL’ing for K2K New Hampshire this year and this allows us to keep up with the incoming QSL requests on a daily basis. We are also providing QSL’ing via LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog.

I hope that everyone enjoyed the event! We certainly did. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!

– Fred, K2K/AB1OC

The 2015 13 Colonies Special Event Begins Today!

June 30, 2015 by fkemmerer

2015 K2K QSL Card

The 2015 Thirteen Colonies Special Event begins today! There are stations in each of the states that grew from the original Thirteen Colonies plus two bonus stations – WM3PEN in Philadelphia, PA and a GB13COL in the United Kingdom. We have redesigned the K2K NH QSL card this year as part of the 2015 event theme – Patriots and Founders of the Republic. we have a great team of operators for the New Hampshire Colony this year. You can check them out here. You can find where the event stations are operating by using the 13 Colonies Spotting cluster.

2015 13 Colonies Special Event Certificate

In addition to collecting the QSL cards from each of the state and bonus special event stations, there is a very nice certificate available for working one or more of the 13 Colonies stations. See the event website for details.

I hope that our readers will take some time and participate in the 13 Colonies Special Event this year. It’s great fun for all involved. Happy July 4th, United States of America!

– Fred, AB1OC

2014 Amateur Radio Highlights

January 29, 2015 by fkemmerer

Amateur Radio Highlights – our 2014 Readers Around The World

It is again time for our annual 2014 Year Amateur Radio highlights post. First, I’d like to thank our readers for their continued interest in our Blog. Our blog was viewed about 100,00 times in 2014 from 165 countries worldwide. You, our readers, have made 2014 our busiest year yet, and this provides Anita (AB1QB) and me with great encouragement to continue to provide content for our readers.

2014 was a very busy year in Amateur Radio for us. Our activities included a continued focus on station building, contesting, WRTC 2014, special events, providing presentations to help others in the hobby learn about new things, attending several HAM Events, progress on operating awards, and most importantly – time spent on the air operating.

microHAM Station Master Deluxe Antenna Controller

This year, we upgraded our fixed station to include a microHAM Station Automation system. This major project added some nice SO2R capabilities to our Multi-one station and automated the sharing of our antennas between our two SO2R operating positions. More of this project can be found here:

Eggbeater Antennas And Preamps SystemsOn Tower

Eggbeater LEO Satellite Antennas And Preamps Systems On Tower

We also added LEO Satellite capabilities to our station with the addition of some new antennas and electronics on our tower. This allowed us to make our first contacts through LEO birds with linear transponders. Our articles on this project include:

Our Mobile HF Station – Screwdriver Antenna

Our final major station-building project was constructing a state-of-the-art mobile HF station in our Ford F-150 pickup truck. We did this project in phases, starting with a simple setup using a 100W radio and HAM Stick antennas through the installation of a Screwdriver Antenna System for the 160m – 10m HF bands and concluding with the installation of an amplifier to enable high-power mobile HF operation. You can view the articles on this project here:

AB1OC Operating In the 2014 CQ WPX SSB

Anita (AB1QB) and I continued to be active in several contests this year. We both continued to develop our skills as contesters and our scores and place in the rankings reflected this. You can read more about our contesting activities and what we learned in the following articles:

WRTC 2014 Hollis Site Competitors, Support Team And Referee

We were also fortunate to host one of the WRTC 2014 competition sites. Along with our friend Scott Anderson, NE1RD, Anita and I acted as site managers for the only WRTC 2014 Competition Site in New Hampshire. You can read more about our WRTC 2014 experiences here.

13 Colonies Special Event QSL Card For K2K New Hampshire

Special event operations were a particularly fun part of our on-air activities in 2014. We operated as K2K, New Hampshire, in the 13 Colonies Special Event, W1AW/1, as part of the ARRL Centennial QSO Party, and as N1FD Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Nashua Area Radio Club. It’s great fun to operate in these events and the experience running the pileups that result continued to help Anita and me to develop our operating and contesting skills.

Introduction To The DXLab Suite

We prioritize devoting a significant amount of our Amateur Radio time to helping others in the hobby learn new things. In addition to writing this Blog, Anita and I try to create and deliver several presentations each year on a variety of topics of interest to the Amateur Radio Community. This year’s presentation included an update of our presentation on Amateur Radio Station Design and Construction and an Introductory Presentation on the DXLab Software Suite. We are always interested in working with Amateur Radio Clubs to deliver the presentation in person, where practical, or over the web.

Anita (AB1QB) and I with Bob Heil (K9EID)

We had the fortune to meet some of the legends in Amateur Radio this past year. Anita and I had the opportunity to get meet Bob Heil, K9EID and to appear on his Ham Nation podcast. Bob is an amazing gentlemen and we feel truly fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know him. We also had the opportunity to meet Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, the President and Founder of QRZ.com. Fred visited our station and did an article about our station on QRZ.com. Anita and I both learned a great deal about HAM Radio and how it came to be what it is today as a result of the time these fine folks spent with us.

Joe Taylor’s WSJT Presentation At the ARRL Centennial Convention

Amateur Radio Conventions and HAM Fests were a major part of our Amateur Radio fun again this year. We were fortunate to attend and speak at the ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford, CT USA this year – truly a once in a lifetime Amateur Radio experience. We also attended the Dayton Hamvention in 2014 where we had a chance to see all of the latest and greatest in Amateur Radio Equipment.

Our 2014 QSOs By Callsign

We were quite active on the air making almost 26,000 contacts between the two of us. As you can see from the graphic above, about 45% of our contacts were as part of Special Event Operations. We also made a little over 500 contacts from our mobile station, working over 100 DXCC entities in 2014 from the mobile.

Our 2014 QSOs By Band

We were active on all of the HF bands this year. We made our first contacts on the 60m band, and I was able to focus on the 6m band and earn a VUCC Operating Award (100 grid squares worked and confirmed) on that band. Anita and I made our first DX contacts in Europe on 6m in 2014. Anita took quite an interest in the 160m band, and she is working on a Worked All States Operating Award on this band. Our operating time using weak signal and satellite modes on the 2m and 70cm bands was limited to a few contacts this year. I did make my first contacts through LEO Satellites in 2014.

Our 2014 QSOs By Mode

We mostly operated in the SSB phone mode in 2014. Anita and I both continue to work on our CW skills, and we managed a little over 800 QSOs using CW in 2014. Anita was very active in the RTTY mode as part of her RTTY contesting efforts.

13 Colonies K2K New Hampshire QSL!

All of this operating resulted in quite a bit of QSL activity. We sent a total of almost 4,200 QSL cards in 2014!

We again made a video showing all of our contacts around the world in 2014. As you can see from the video, we were fortunate to work quite a bit of DX in 2014.

Fred’s 6M VUCC Operating Award

All of this operating helped Anita and me to make some progress on operating awards this year. In addition to earning a 6M VUCC, I completed a Worked All States Award on all 9 HF bands 160m-10m. I was also able to complete several nice regional operating awards (Worked All Europe TOP Plaque, Worked All VK Call Areas, and Worked All Africa) as well as upgrading my DXCC Challenge Award to the 1,500 Band Country level. Anita completed her JARL JCC Award (she worked 100+ Cities in Japan) as well as her Worked All States Triple Play Award (all states on SSB, CW, and Digital via LoTW).

Anita and I had a lot of fun with Amateur Radio in 2014. We look forward to another great year of HAM Radio fun in 2015. We hope to share some of what we learn and our experiences with our readers here on our Blog.

– Fred, AB1OC

An Introduction To The DXLab Suite

December 11, 2014 by fkemmerer

Introduction To The DXLab Suite

I recently had the opportunity to do a presentation introducing the DXLab Software Suite for several local radio clubs. The idea was to provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to DXLab and to show how it can be used to make Amateur Radio operations, QSL’ing, and Award Management easier and more enjoyable. There are several good DXLab introductory presentations and web pages on the internet, so we decided to do ours with some “live” demos of DXLab in use within our station.

Why Computer Logging And DXLab?

Not all hams have converted to computer-based operation and logging, so we began by covering the motivation for and some of the advantages of Computer-based operation and logging.

DXLab Suite Components Overview

The next part of the presentation provided an overview of each of the components of the DXLab Suite and some of the basics of how they work together. This was covered via a set of “live” demonstrations using our station. You can view these demonstrations as videos via the following links:

Our station is a fairly complex one. It includes multi-operator capabilities from two operating positions with a total of four active radios and a microHAM station automation system. We also operate under a number of different callsigns from different computers. Finally, we do a fair amount of operating portable and from our mobile HF station. The DXLab Suite’s Launcher program, with its multiple workspace capabilities, easily handles the multiple configurations and equipment interfaces that are required for our station and operating style.

DXLab Use Scenarios

The next part of the presentation covered some common DXLab “use cases” that one would likely encounter when making contacts, QSL’ing, and managing progress toward operating awards.

Casual Contacts With DXLab

The first demonstration showed the use of DXLab to make casual or “rag chew” contacts. The emphasis here is on using the Suite to automate station configuration and logging tasks and to provide information to enhance the quality of your contacts. This demonstration covers the basics of how the components of the DXLab Suite work together to help you make and log a contact. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to make Casual Contacts and for “Rag Chewing”

Finding And Working DX With DXLab

The next demonstration showed the use of DXLab to find and work DX contacts. This demonstration uses more components of the DXLab Suite, including the spotting cluster and propagation prediction features. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to find and work DX contacts

Operating CW And Digital With DXLab

The next demo shows how DXLab is used to find and make a DX QSO using Digital Modes. A RTTY QSO is shown, including the WinWarbler component and multiple RTTY decoders (MMTTY and 2Tone). You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to make Digital Mode Contacts

QSL’ing With DXLab

The next demo shows how to use DXLab to QSL and confirm contacts. The demo covers QSL’ing via the Logbook of the World (LoTW) and the eQSL online QSL services, the generation of paper QSLs, and the assistance that DXLab provides to determine QSL route information. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to QSL and Confirm Contacts

DXLab QSL Card Examples

DXLab can generate labels to apply to your pre-printed QSL cards, or it can be used to print QSL information directly on blank cards.

QSL Card Label Sheet Example

DXLab can print QSL cards and address labels on many types of standard label stock. An example of QSL card labels is shown above.

QSL Envelope Generated By DXLab

DXLab also generates outgoing and return envelopes for your paper QSLs. An example is shown above.

Operating Award Management With DXLab

The final demonstration shows how to use DXLab to track your progress toward and apply for operating awards. Some of the basics of QSL “aging” are discussed as well. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to Track and apply for operating awards

AB1OC Operating Awards In Our Shack

The SpotCollector component of the DXLab Suite is very useful as a cluster monitor. It can be configured to alert you via email or text to your mobile when something is on that you need. More information on how to use SpotCollector this way can be found here. The set of operating awards that DXLab knows about and the features that it provides to manage your progress toward earning and applying for awards are some of the strongest features of the suite. We have used DXLab to help us to earn many different operating awards.

Getting Started With DXLab

The final part of the presentation covers the configuration of the DXLab suite to get it to work with your station. Since every station is different, it’s best to consult the excellent DXLab online help for more information on how to configure the suite.

Useful Information And Links

The presentation includes links to useful tools and information to help you get the most from the DXLab suite. Dropbox is a useful file-sharing tool that can help you keep your logs and DXLab configurations in sync across multiple computers. This allows you to use DXLab to access your current logs or to operate your station from different computers.

I hope this overview of the DXLab suite will encourage our readers to try it. Anita (AB1QB) and I have successfully used the DXLab suite with our station for several years now. It does a great job automating many aspects of our Amateur Radio operations, QSL’ing, and award management. It easily handles the complexities of our multi-operator station, and it also handles logging and QSL’ing for multiple call signs that Anita and I operate under. We also use DXLab for our portable, Field Day, and mobile operations, and it handles all of these scenarios very well.

DXLab was created, enhanced, and maintained by David Bernstein, AA6YQ. He makes this excellent software suite available as freeware for the benefit of the Amateur Radio community. The DXLab suite is available for download here. Here, you can download a copy of our DXLab presentation (without the videos). The DXLab Yahoo! Group provides a good place to seek support and answers to questions about DXLab. I hope that our readers will give the DXLab suite a closer look. For those who already use DXLab, we hope you pick will up some new ideas from how Anita and I use the suite as part of your Amateur Radio operations.

– Fred, AB1OC

6m VUCC And 9-Band Worked All States

August 30, 2014 by fkemmerer

6m VUCC Operating Award

The 2014 Es Season was my first chance to focus on operating on 6m. To help provide motivation, I set a goal to work and confirm enough Grid Squares on 6m to earn a VUCC Operating Award. After some time to confirm and for the ARRL to process everything, my VUCC came in the mail this past week.

6m VUCC Grids Worked And Confirmed

The 6m Es Season this summer was a good one for me. I worked and confirmed over 150 Grid Squares on the Magic Band including my first contacts with the west coast of the USA and with Europe. The picture above shows my progress on 6m Grid Squares to Date (the green ones are confirmed, map via WG7J’S GridMapper website). I have also completed checking for an additional 50+ Grid Squares and should be receiving my 150 Grid endorsement for the VUCC soon. I guess I’d have to say that I’ve gotten “the bug” for the Magic Band this season.

5-Band WAS Operating Award

The WAS award is often on of the first operating awards that HAMs in the United States pursue. It is a great award to develop some sound operating skills, prove in your HF station and make some new friends. The ARRL Centennial QSO Party with W1AW portable stations operating from each of the 50 US states provides a great opportunity to pursue WAS awards.

I’ve also been working on the contacts needed for a 5-Band Worked All States Award for some time now and I decided to focus on completing the contacts needed for this operating award last week. This probably seems like an award that should not be too difficult for a station in the United States and that is mostly true. There are two things that make this award a challenge – 1) working states that are “close-in” on the high bands like 10m and 15m, and 2) making contacts with less populated states like North and South Dakota, Montana, etc. especially on 80m.

Band Conditions (Or When Not To Operate)

The close in states like Vermont on 10m were some of the last ones that I needed along with a contact with North Dakota on 80m. As usual, I picked one of the worst days this year conditions-wise to complete the last few contacts. Rob, AB1NJ in Vermont helped me out with his state on 10m using JT65 and I worked W1AW/0 in North Dakota on 80m SSB to complete the last one needed for the 5B WAS.

I really enjoy operating on the WARC Bands and I often make 50 or so contacts in an evening on these bands. I have also been operating a lot on the Top Band (160m). At this point, I only need 3 more contacts (Montana on 80m, Nebraska on 30m and New York on 12m) to complete a 9-Band WAS (5B WAS plus WAS on 160m, 30m, 17m and 12m). I am planning to wait until I complete these and for all of the needed contacts to confirm to send in the paperwork for the 9B WAS.

I hope to perhaps someday make it to a 10-Band WAS, working all 50 states on 6m. At present, I’ve worked and confirmed 41 states on 6m but I know that Alaska and Hawaii will be very difficult during this solar cycle unless there is some extraordinary propagation event on 6m.

I find the pursuing operating awards provides good motivation to get on the air and work less common modes (like JT65) as well as to learn about and practice unusual operating techniques like HF Backscatter which I have used to work close in states on the high bands. Another benefit to this effort is that it has encouraged me to upgrade to Joe Taylor’s (K1JT) latest WSJT-X Software for working JT65 on the HF bands. Look for an article on WSJT-X here in the near future.

– Fred (AB1OC)

2014 Thirteen Colonies Special Event Operations

August 2, 2014 by fkemmerer

13 Colonies Special Event QSL Card For K2K New Hampshire

The 13 Colonies Special Event had another record year, completing over 108,800 contacts around the world during the 6 days of the event. This was about 25% more contacts than last year. We added the WARC bands to our operations this year which provided folks a chance to work several US states on these bands. This, no doubt, helped to increase interest in the event. The NH Operators had a good year this year completing over 9,000 contacts. I operated mostly SSB phone on 160m – 6m and made over 6,800 contacts during the 6 days of the event.

Category	QSOs	% QSOs	States	DXCCs
SSB	7182	79%	50	71
CW	1546	18%	48	58
Digital (RTTY + PSK)	293	3%	26	36
160m	3	<1%	3	1
80m	82	1%	28	5
40m	2008	22%	46	32
30m	246	3%	34	26
20m	2936	31%	49	59
17m	1473	17%	49	53
15m	1443	17%	47	59
12m	268	3%	41	15
10m	361	4%	39	9
6m	201	2%	31	4

2014 13 Colonies QSO Statistics for the K2K NH Hampshire Stations

I thought it might be interesting for our readers to see how an operation like this breaks down in terms of bands and modes. The table above provides these stats for this year’s K2K NH operation. As you can see, the daytime band activity reflects the state of the solar cycle with most contacts being made on 20m, 17m and 15m. Operations on the 40m band are primarily during nighttime and are essential for many folks in the states close to New Hampshire to make a contact with us. SSB Phone is usually the most popular mode in this event with CW also being quite popular. It’s a little hard to grasp the diversity of the contacts that stations make during an event like this. Here are some additional stats for our operation in NH this year:

DXCC’s Worked – 82 (A good portion of a DXCC – not bad for a “US” event.)
DXCC Band Points Worked – 263 (A band point is a given DXCC on a unique band.)
CQ Zones Worked – 27
Unique Callsign Prefixes Worked – 1,061
Worked All 50 US States On The SSB Phone Mode
US Counties Worked – 1,416
IOTAs Worked – 60
6m Grids Squares Worked – 94 (Almost a VUCC! Some DX from EU in here.)
Contacts Made To All 6 Continents

As you can see from this list, the event has become quite popular with folks outside the United Sates. There are quite a few DX operators that complete a sweep, working all 13 Colonies and the two Bonus Stations (WM3PEN and W3FT).

6m Opening During The 13 Colonies Special Event

We had some very nice 6m Es Openings during the event. I worked a couple of these as K2K making about 200 contacts on 6m and working 94 unique grid squares – almost a VUCC on 6m! Amazingly, the conditions were good enough to generate a pileup for the duration of one of these openings. This was the first year that I have had the chance to focus on making contacts on the Magic Band and the 6m openings during the event were a nice chance to make some more contacts on 6m.

AB1QB’s 13 Colonies Sweep Certificate

Many operators who participate in the event do so with the goal of working all 13 Colonies and the two bonus stations for a clean sweep. Ken Villone, KU2US is the event coordinator and he provides a nice certificate each year for folks who work one or more of The Colony Stations. Anita, AB1QB completed her sweep this year and the picture above shows the nice certificate that she received for doing so. If you worked one or more of the 13 Colonies Stations, you can apply for a certificate here.

K2K New Hampshire QSL!

Many folks work the event to collect our QSL cards and for Worked All States Award Credit. This results in quite a few QSL cards being sent! The picture above shows the outgoing QSL response about 1 week after the event. This batch contained about 700 cards. The total QSL’s we will send in response to 2014 operations as K2K New Hampshire will be approximately 1,000 cards. We added ClubLog OQRS, LoTW and eQSL as alternatives to confirm contacts with the K2K New Hampshire Stations this year and many folks have used these to confirm contacts as well.

As the 2014 13 Colonies Special Event and the follow-up QSL’ing draws to a close, I have many great memories to look back on. I am already looking forward to the 2015 event. Ken has created a really great looking certificate for the 2015 event and you can see a preview here. I hope to contact many of readers as part of the 2015 13 Colonies Special Event!

Fred (AB1OC)

2013 Amateur Radio Highlights

February 9, 2014 by fkemmerer

DXCCs Worked in 2013

Anita and I were quite active on the bands in 2013. Together we made 20,650+ contacts from a combination of our home and mobile stations and we worked a combined 259 DXCC Entities.

Combined 2013 QSOs By Band

We were active on all of the Amateur Bands available in the USA from 160m through 70cm except for the 60m and 1.25m bands. The picture above shows the distribution of our QSOs across the bands in 2013. Both of us participated in quite a few contests in 2013 and this resulted in the 5 major contest bands dominating our operating activity. I did quite a lot of work on the 160m band this year and I participated in several 160m contests to gain experience and to begin working towards a DXCC on this band. We worked a total of 50 DXCC Entities on 160m in 2013. Our 6m, 2m, and 440 MHz (70cm) contacts were made mostly during VHF/UHF contests that I participated in.

Combined 2013 QSOs By Mode

We like to operate using many different modes. Anita (AB1QB) does quite a bit of RTTY contesting and she accounted for the bulk of the activity in the digital modes from our station in 2013. I made it a point to become active using the CW mode this year and I made 1,550+ contacts using CW in 2013 including participation in several CW contests. Operations in SSB Phone mode dominated our activity this year mostly due to our operations in SSB Phone contests and as one of the New Hampshire Stations in the 2013 Colonies Special Event this year where we made a combined total of 6,200+ contacts.

QSL Cards Ready To Mail

We really enjoy sending and receiving QSL cards. We sent 5,800+ QSL cards this year, averaging approximately 110 cards sent each week. We also QSL’ed via eQSL and Logbook Of The World. I am often asked what percentage of our QSL requests are confirmed. For 2013, we received confirmations for 67% of our direct/bureau cards, 31% of the QSOs uploaded to eQSL, and 37% of the QSOs upload to LoTW. These numbers will undoubtedly rise a time goes by.

AB1OC Operating Awards

All of this operating allowed us to complete a number of operating awards this year. Fred completed his DXCC Challenge, 8-Band DXCC, and CQ WPX Award of Excellence Awards as well as a DXCC Awards in CW mode and a DXCC QRP (5 watts).

AB1QB Japan Century Cities Award

Anita has held a DXCC for some time and has been focusing on a number of JARL Awards. She completed her Japan Century Cities Award for confirming contacts with 100 cities in Japan in 2013.

AB1QB Operating In The BARTG RTTY Contest

Contesting was a big part of the operations from our station this year. I was active in several major SSB and CW contests this year and Anita was active in quite a few major RTTY and phone contests as well. We are both licensed for less that 3 years and have been competing in the Rookie or Novice categories in most contests and we have been doing quite well. Anita took 5th place in the world in the 2013 BARTG RTTY Contest and she has placed 1st in our call area in several of the 2013 ARRL Rookie Roundups in both SSB Phone and RTTY.

2013 CQ Worldwide WPX SSB Certificate

I placed 1st in North America/2nd in the World in the 2013 CQ WPX SSB Contest (Rookie High Power) and 1st in North America/2nd in the World in the 2013 CQ WPX CW Contest (Rookie High Power). Contests have provided us a great deal of operating experience and have contributed greatly to our completion of several operating awards.

Mobile Installation In Ford F-150

Station Building was a big part of our Amateur Radio experience again in 2013. We installed a mobile HF setup in our truck and did quite a bit of mobile HF operating. We made 165 contacts from our mobile station in 2013 and worked 41 DXCC entities.

WSJT EME QSO – Waterfall

I also made my first Earth-Moon-Earth Contacts on 2m in 2013. I made 30 contacts on 2m using the moon as a reflector, working a total of 16 DXCC Entities this way.

AB1QB Operating The Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio

We added a Flex-3000 Software Defined Radio (SDR) to our station in 2013 and have been using it to learn about this new technology. The performance and operating capabilities of SDR are making SDR a big part of the future of Amateur Radio in our opinion.

8-Circle Receive Array System Diagram

Antenna projects were also a part of our station building work in 2013. We installed an 8-Circle Receive Array System for 160m – 40m and this new antenna system helped us a great deal with DX’ing and contesting on 160m and 80m. We also began the reinstallation of our BigIR Vertical Antenna but the onset of winter here in New Hampshire caused us to delay the completion of this project until spring. Finally, we made the switch to the excellent DXLab logging and DX’ing software suite. DXLab helped us a great deal with QSL’ing and tracking our progress toward operating awards.

2013 Field Day CW Station Operations

We were part of the 2013 Field Day team at our local radio Club (PART in Westford, MA). We provided and managed the digital station as well as the setup of a portion of the antenna systems for our club’s field day operations.

ARRL At Dayton 2013

Anita and I attended the Dayton Hamvention again in 2013. The Dayton event is always a great opportunity to see the latest in Amateur Radio equipment. We attended the 2013 Contest University which was held as part of the Dayton Event and used the information that we learned there to continue to improve our contesting skills.

Fred Lloyd AA7BQ, Founder Of QRZ.com

The internet was a big part of our Amateur Radio experience again in 2013. We met Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ who visited us to do an article on QRZ.com on our station. We learned a great deal from Fred during the time that we spent with him as part of this project. We published 47 new articles here on our blog in 2013 and have received over 45,000 views from our readers in 152 countries around the world. We really appreciate the interest from the HAM community and we will continue to publish new articles here in 2014.

As you can tell from this article, 2013 has been a very active year for Anita and I. I’ve created the video above to give you some idea of the contacts that we have been fortunate enough to make around the world in 2013. We hope you enjoy it and we want to thank everyone who has taken the time to work us, to end us a QSL card or to read the articles that we have written here.

– Fred (AB1OC)

Progress On Operating Awards

December 17, 2013 by fkemmerer

AB1OC Operating Awards

Anita and I have been working towards a number of operating awards for some time now. These awards provide lots of good motivation to get on the air, improve our operating skills and improve the performance of our station. I have recently completed two major awards – an ARRL 5 Band DXCC and a CQ WPX Award of Excellence.

AB1OC 5 Band DXCC

The 5 Band DXCC requires confirmation of 100 or more DXCC entities on each of the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m bands. I was also able to confirm 100+ entities on 30m, 17m and 12m which earned the endorsements on the base award for these additional bands. I am also working towards a 160m band endorsement which for my 5B DXCC which will be quite a challenge (I currently have 47 worked on 160m). As is the case with other DXCC awards, one can use any mode to confirm a band-entity towards this award. I used a combination of SSB, CW and Digital (mostly RTTY) to complete my 5B DXCC and I used a mix of Logbook of the World (LoTW) and Paper QSL cards to secure the necessary confirmations. This award is a good test of the DX’ing capabilities of an operator and their station and it has been a goal of mine ever since we completed our station a little over a year ago.

AB1OC WPX Award Of Excellence

The other major award which I’ve recently completed is the CQ WPX Award Of Excellence. This award requires one to confirm a large number of unique callsign prefixes using different modes, bands and on all continents. Specifically, the award requires one to confirm 1,000 prefixes in Mixed mode and 600 prefixes in SSB and 600 prefixes in CW plus earn all 6 continental endorsements (NA, SA, EU, AF, AS, and OC), and all 5 non-WARC band endorsements (80-10 meters). I was also able to earn the Digital and 160m endorsements for this award. I am close to additional band endorsements for the 30m, 17m and 12m as well. I chose to work towards this award because it requires geographic diversity (all continents – Africa and Oceania were the most difficult) and a large number of confirmed contacts using both the SSB and CW modes. The requirement to confirm 600 unique prefixes on CW was a great motivator to develop my CW skills. This award resulted in my attaining a place on the CW WPX Honor Roll for Mixed (currently 1815 prefixes), SSB (1401 prefixes), Digital (884 prefixes) and CW (600 prefixes) as well. There is a great deal of QSL’ing work associated with this award! Fortunately, CQ allows eQSL(AG), LoTW and paper cards to be used to confirm prefixes which makes the process a little easier.

AB1QB Japan Century-Cities Award

Anita (AB1QB) is also working on several awards and she particularly enjoys working stations in Japan. She has completed other JARL awards and has recently completed the JARL Japan Century-Cities Award which required her to work and confirm (with cards only) 100 different cities in Japan. Anita is also working on a JARL Worked All Japan Prefectures awards which requires her to work and confirm all 47 prefectures in Japan (she currently has 37 prefectures confirmed).

QSL from Hiro San, JE7HYK in Akita Japan

Earning JARL operating awards from the eastern United States is challenging and it is a particular pleasure to exchange QSL cards with HAMs in Japan.

We are always working on new awards in our shack. I am trying to complete a 5 Band Worked All States and a WAS Triple Play Award (All 50 states confirm using SSB, Digital and CW modes). In addition to the JARL awards, Anita is working on IOTA and CQ WPX awards. All this is great fun and motivation to improve our skills and operate.

– Fred (AB1OC)

Displaying QSL Cards

October 3, 2013 by fkemmerer

QSL Card Picture Frame

We send and receive quite a few paper QSL cards. Some HAMs create some stunning QSL cards and we really enjoy looking at our cards from time to time. It’s nice to be able to display your favorite cards in your shack and to include those from rare DX Stations and memorable QSOs. The classic way to do this is to create a display of your favorite QSL cards on the wall of your shack and many HAMs do this. DX Engineering recently began providing a more contemporary way to display QSL cards – a QSL Display Kit which includes a Digital Picture Frame and a scanner optimized for this purpose.

QSL Card Scanner

The kit from DX Engineering includes a card scanner that is optimized for scanning QSL cards. It scans one card at a time and it will handle QSL cards in formats up to 4″x6″. This size will accommodate all but the occasional super-size QSL card. The scanner may be used standalone or with a PC. In the standalone configuration, it scans QSL cards directly to an SD Flash Memory Card which is then plugged directly into the Digital Frame that comes with the kit. The scanner does automatic cropping of the cards to eliminate black edges and is very fast – scanning a cards takes only a few seconds. I connected my scanner to a PC which allows me to keep a copy of my scanned cards there. The scanner handles single sheet cards only – those that come as “books” with multiple pages must be scanned in a standard sheet scanner (cards scanned this way display just fine when added to the frame’s SD card). I also find that the scanner’s automatic cropping will occasionally get a little aggressive and cut off a bit of the callsign on a card if the callsign is printed close to the edge of a cards. I personally do not find this to be much of an issue with the kit’s scanner.

Display Of A Favorite QSL

The included 7″ diagonal picture frame is a basic one that is 16:9 formatted. It has a nice, crisp display and it has programmable on and off times and display transitions but does not handle randomizing the order in which the QSL images are displayed. I personally prefer a random ordering so I found a utility called RandomNames that can randomize the filenames of all files in a directory. I make a copy of all of my scanned images in a separate directory and run this utility from inside that directory to randomize all of the filenames which store my QSL cards. The files are then copied to the frame’s SD Flash Memory card and the result is that the frame displays the cards in random order.

All in all, I am happy with the QSL Display Kit from DX Engineering. It provides a quick way to scan and display my favorite QSL cards as I receive them. It is a nice addition to our shack.

– Fred (AB1OC)

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