Tag Archives: Station Performance

First QSOs On The 60m Band

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60M Band Plan

60m Band Plan (from ARRL Band Plan Chart)

The 60m Band is a relatively new allocation for Amateur Radio Operators in North America. I’ve long wanted to try this band so last evening I took some time to understand what was required and to determine if my available antennas were up to the task. U.S. Amateur Radio operators with a General Class or higher license have secondary privileges on the 60m band. U.S. HAMs can use either USB Phone, CW, or a limited set of digital modes on 60m. The band is “channelized” meaning that one must operate on specific frequencies only. For Phone communications, one must use USB mode only, limit the bandwidth of your signal to 2.8 kHz (most rigs operate USB at a 2.4 kHz bandwidth) and you must set your rig’s frequencies to one of the values shown above corresponding to the five available channels. These same frequencies/channels would be used for digital modes such as PSK31 or RTTY  (see the article on this blog for information on how to get started if your interested in operating using digital modes). For CW operation, you need to set your rig to 1.5 kHz above the frequencies indicated above which will ensure your CW signal is in the center of the associated channel. The highest frequency channel (5403.5 kHz) is shared by HAMs in the U.K. and often provides opportunities to work DX on 60m.

There is an 100W Effective Radiated Power (ERP) limit on this band. See the following page on the ARRL site for information on channel allocations and operating tips. There is also an excellent 60m FAQ page on the ARRL site.

*** Note that this information was taken from the ARRL website and is presumed to be correct for U.S.-based HAMs at the time this article was written. I recommend that  you consult the ARRL website or the equivalent source for license information in your home country prior to operating on 60m to obtain the most up to date operating privileges and rules for the 60m band as they pertain to your home country and license class ***

DXLab Commander 60m Setup

DXLab Commander 60m Setup

Most modern rigs can be tuned to the frequencies used on the 60m band. To make this easy to do and error free, I configured the rig control application in the DXLab Logging Suite which I use to set my transceiver to the correct frequencies, bandwidths and modes corresponding to the five 60m channel allocations for Phone/Digital and CW.

Delta Loop On Tower

75M Delta Loop On Tower

The next step was to determine which of my available transmit antennas would work on the 60m band. After some checking with an antenna analyzer, I determined that the 75m Delta Loop on our tower would tune up well enough to use as a 60m transmit antenna (the feed point for the Delta Loop is on the white fiberglass rod which protrudes to the left of the tower about 15 ft up in the picture above and the apex of the loop is suspended from the upper set of guy cables). I also have a SteppIR BigIR Vertical which will work on 60m but I don’t have that antenna completely installed yet.

The 100W ERP power limit on the 60m band is relative to a Dipole antenna with 100W PEP in. If your antenna has gain relative to a dipole your must adjust your power out accordingly. For example, if your antenna has 3 dBd (3 dB gain relative to a dipole), then you’d be limited to 50W PEP output (50W PEP out + 3 dB gain = 100W ERP). You can use the following link to a handy dB calculator to help you do this calculation if your antenna requires it. Also note that you are required to maintain records based on manufacturer’s antenna gain specifications or equivalent information for your 60m transmit antenna.

8-Circle Low-Bande Receive System

8-Circle Low-Bande Receive System

The Delta Loop also makes a fairly effective receive antenna on 60m. Fortunately, we installed an 8-Circle Directional Receive System for 160m – 40m this past summer and this system works very well as a directional receive antenna on 60m. The 8-circle System has about 10 dB Front to Back performance on the 60m band and is considerably less noisy than the Delta Loop.

I could hardly have picked a better time to begin operating on 60m. It turned out that Canada had just granted 60m privileges to Canadian HAMs on a broad basis on the same day! This will no doubt create many additional opportunities for contacts on the 60m band.  Wikipedia provides an excellent overview of regulatory information associated with the 60m band as well as up to date information on countries which provide 60m band privileges around the world. My very first contact on 60m was a phone QSO with Joe VE3BW in Ontario, Canada. I was also able to work some additional DX including Dragan 9A6W in Croatia, Bo OZ8ABE in Denmark, and Rick, G3XAJ in the U.K. The best part about the 60m band is the relaxed atmosphere I found there. I encountered many HAMs were willing to have a nice conversation and this coupled with surprisingly quiet band conditions made the  15 or so contacts that I have completed to date on 60m a very positive experience.

I’d encourage our readers to give 60m a try. Many antennas such as OCF dipoles, G5RVs, open-wire fed dipoles and long wires will tune up reasonable well on the 60m band and the 100W ERP limit is a good equalizer for small and medium HF stations. I hope to work you on 60m in the near future!

– Fred (AB1OC)

Progress On Operating Awards

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AB1OC Operating Awards

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 8 Band DXCC

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

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 Cities Award

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

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)

AB1OC Completes The DXCC Challenge Award

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DXCC Challenge Award

DXCC Challenge Award

I have been working on a number of operating awards with the goals of both improving my operating skills and verifying the performance of our station against our original design goals. I am happy to say that I’ve achieved my first major goal in this area by completing a DXCC Challenge Award. This award requires working and confirming at least 1,000 DXCC band-enties on any of the Amateur bands, 160 through 6 meters (except 60 meters). This award is a good one to confirm the performance of our station across all of the HF Bands. It took me about 1 year after finishing our new station and starting to work towards this award to complete it. I hope some day to achieve the 1,500 and other endorsements for this award.

– Fred (AB1OC)

2013 Thirteen Colonies Special Event Operating Award

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2013 Thirteen Colonies Top Operator Award

2013 Thirteen Colonies Top Operator Award

I believe that operating awards serve several important purposes within the Amateur Radio community. First, they encourage operators to get on the air and operate. Each award is different in this respect – some encourage DX’ing (ex. ARRL DXCC awards) while others encourage specific types of contacts (ex. the RSGB IOTA awards) and others are designed to encourage operators to provide the best possible experience in on the air events. At a personal level, operating awards several two important functions – they give us a means to test the performance of our stations and our skills as operators and they provide us with motivation and encouragement to improve both. Occasionally, an operating award comes along that really means a lot and I am happy and proud to say that I’ve recently achieved one of these. I’ve been active in the Thirteen Colonies Special Event for three years now and I’ve been working to improve our station and my skills as a pileup operator throughout this period. The 2011 event was my first experience operating a special event station (K2K New Hampshire) and I made several hundred digital contacts that year. In 2012, we used the Thirteen Colonies Special Event to prove in our new shack and made over 1,000 contacts using a mix of digital modes and SSB phone. This year, I set out to achieve the Top Operator Award in the high-power, single op category using our recently completed station including our tower-based antenna system and high-power setup. As you can see from the photo above, this effort was successful and provided an award that I will always be very proud to display in our shack.

2013 Thirteen Colonies Top Operator Certificate

2013 Thirteen Colonies Top Operator Certificate

I was able to make 5,812 contacts over the 6 1/2 days of the 2013 Thirteen Colonies Special Event. These contacts were made across all of the non-WARC bands from 160m – 2m. You can see more of the details of the contacts that Anita (AB1QB) and I made this year here. I’d like to thank Ken Villone (KU2US) who runs the Thirteen Colonies Special Event and Richie Feola (W1STT) who is the New Hampshire coordinator for the event for providing us with the opportunity to be part of something very special.

New K2K New Hampshire QSL Card

New K2K New Hampshire QSL Card

Richie (W1STT), Anita (AB1QB) and I have been working on a new QSL card for the Thirteen Colonies K2K New Hampshire station. I think it has turned out quite nicely. The new cards are in the process of being printed and we’ll be sending out the new cards to those who have QSL’ed contacts with K2K this year as soon as we receive them.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the 2013 Thirteen Colonies Special Event. I hope that we created some good memories for everyone. This is certainly the case for me.

– Fred (AB1OC)

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)

AB1OC Completes 10,000th QSO From Home QTH

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I passed a milestone in my career as a HAM a few days ago – I completed my 10,000th QSO from my home station! The call was with VP9FOC, Yuri the operator of a Special Event Station in Bermuda commemorating the 75th anniversary of the FirstClass Operators Club. My 10,000th QSO was using CW and I was QRP 5 watts. I very much hope to someday have the CW and other skills to be able to be part of the FirstClass Operators Club – that would be quite an honor indeed. It was certainly good luck to have this station be my 10,000th QSO. I decided to create the video tour above of the 10,000 QSO’s I’ve made from my home station. I hope you enjoy it.

– Fred (AB1OC)

QSOs From Our New Station

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DXCCs Worked From Our New Station

DXCC Entities Worked From Our New Station (click to view a larger image)

It has been about 11 months since our new station went on the air. In total, we have worked 234 DXCC entities and made over 11,200 QSO from our new station since it went on the air in July of 2012!

A great many of the QSOs from our new station were made as part of various contests that we’ve taken part in including:

We’ve been using DXLab for logging and other station management functions and I learned recently that DXLab can use Google Earth to plot QSOs on a map of the world. For fun, I decided to make a video showing where we have made QSOs using our new station over the last 11 months.

As you can see, a great many of our QSOs have been made to the United States and Europe as part of the various contests that we’ve been in. Anita has worked a number of contacts to Japan and we’ve both worked a good bit of DX around the world as well.

QSOs By Band

QSOs From Our New Station By Band

We have had quite a bit of activity on all of the HF bands and we are looking forward to more fun on 6m, 2m and 70cm as time and conditions permit.

– Fred (AB1OC)

Bounce’in Off The Moon…

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The Moon

The Moon

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

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

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

I2FAK 16x19 EME Array

I2FAK 16×19 EME Array

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

– Fred (AB1OC)