Awesome June VHF Contest!

It didn't start out all that great. First, my boss decides that I need to be in Scotland the week before the contest weekend. I have nothing against Scotland, I just preferred to not be there right before the biggest VHF contest of the year (ARRL June VHF QSO Party). I needed to be home putting together antennas, repairing cables, loading software, etc. ahead of the contest weekend.

At the last minute, I piled all of the gear (well, most of it) into the SUV and we head to the mountains. I planned to set up my portable station at our antenna-less cabin in the western part of grid DM78. (Gotta get that tower up for next year.) My station consisted of an FT-847 on 2M and 70 cm, driving decent yagi antennas on those bands. On 2M, a linear amplifier boosted the output to 170W, so I had a decent signal on that band. For 6 Meters, I used an FT-100 running 100W to a 3-element yagi and on 222 MHz I just had an ICOM FM transceiver feeding a small yagi.

I downloaded N1MM logging software at the last minute and attempted to install it on my new Windows Vista PC. Turns out that Vista doesn't seem to like N1MM or vice versa. (I am bumping into this on occasion where some software aps are not fully checked out on Vista.) I bailed on N1MM and grabbed VHFLog by W3KM. It was the first time I have used it but it worked well for me.

There was very good sporadic-e propagation on 6M for a large portion of the contest, occasionally extending to 2M. This is the way the June contest is supposed to be! Six meters kept me quite busy and I am sure I missed some good rover contacts on the other bands. This is the downside of a single-op station when six is open. Most contacts were on SSB but I did use CW to grab a few grids on 2M and 6M (N0KE in DM69 and K0YW in DM67). Wow, my CW is getting rusty and it was tough going but I made the contacts.

I had 206 contacts on 6M, which I thought was quite good until I saw some of the other guys scores on the local email reflector....many of them did a lot better. Worked XE2YW in Mexico and a number of VE's in Canada. I was happy with the 15 grids on 2M, including a new grid via sporadic-e (W4VC EM81). I snagged KB0HH up in EM06 and N0YK in DM98.

  Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  50         206    1      206           125           25750
  144        34     1      34            15            510
  222        1      2      2             1             2
  432        12     2      24            6             144
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  TOTALS     253           266           147           39102

  Claimed score =  39102

This contest has reinforced the notion that for me, VHF is all about 2M and 6M. The Magic Band provides the excitement and 2M provides the challenge (with enough local activity to keep some interest going). The practice of moving on up to 222 MHz, 432 MHz and higher and just working the same guys over again doesn't seem as much fun. It definitely generates contest points but I am thinking more about VUCC and grid chasing. I will be optimizing my station to do better on 2M and 6M....upgrade the antennas, amplifiers, transceivers, etc.

73, Bob K0NR

My First D-STAR Contact

At Dayton, I picked up an ICOM IC-91AD handheld radio, with D-STAR capability. The thing is, there are no D-STAR repeaters within range of my house. Fortunately, Elliott KB0RFC also picked up a D-STAR handheld and we arranged a sked on 2M simplex. The de facto calling frequency for D-STAR is shaping up to be 145.67 MHz, so that is what we used.

I have to admit that the audio quality was better than I expected. When the radio is not dropping bits, the audio is quite clean and clear. When the Signal-to-Noise Ratio degrades, you do start to hear that digital twang as the vocoder does its best to recover the audio in the face of digital errors. Overall, I was favorably impressed.

Tonight, we did some additional testing with DV mode and were surprised at the range of the handheld on 2M. The 70 cm band seemed even better, apparently due to the improved efficiency of the handheld antennas on that band.

There is lots more stuff to play around with, so stay tuned.

Digital voice on the ham bands? Must be the 21st Century!

For more info on D-STAR, see my article from CQ VHF.

73, Bob K0NR

FCC Says No to Digital Repeater Subband

As reported on the ARRL web site, the FCC rejected the proposal from Ken Chafin, W6CPA, and Leon Brown, KC6JAR to create a 2M subband for digital voice repeaters. This proposal was apparently a good-intentioned approach to opening up new spectrum for digital machines (D-STAR, P25, etc.). Chafin and Brown jointly filed a PRM in October 2007 requesting that the FCC "propose to expand the frequencies on which an amateur station operating as a repeater (repeater station) may operate," specifically Section 97.205(b) to allow repeater stations to transmit in the 145.5-145.8 MHz frequency segment of the 2 meter amateur service band.

The FCC correctly rejected this proposal, indicating that the Amateur Radio Service does not need additional 2M spectrum for repeaters. Also, the FCC rejected the notion of a subband that is dedicated to a particular modulation format.

I appreciate the problem of trying to open up repeater frequency pairs for digital voice repeaters. We are struggling with that issue here in Colorado. It seems that all of the 2M repeater pairs are "full" in the front range. (Full but not necessary well-used.) The Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs (CCARC) took action to open up digital voice repeater pairs on the 440 MHz and 1.2 GHz bands, but we haven't figured out what to do on 2 Meters.

Technically-oriented hams want to put up repeaters using the new digital technology, so we want to find a way to support that effort. One answer is to expand the repeater subband. But let's be honest....in most locations the 2M repeater subband are filled with repeaters that largely sit there doing nothing. I find it very difficult to justify adding additional spectrum to amateur repeater usage.

Also, what is the big freaking deal with 2 Meters? Why does everyone insist on having a D-STAR machine on 2M? There is generally much more room on 70 cm (440 MHz), so let's give that a go. I think the ham community is stuck in the 2-meter rut. (I understand this, sort of, for good old FM, but digital voice means buying new gear, so let's do it on 440 MHz.)

73, Bob K0NR

Crystal-Controlled Toasters

The Phone Losers of America web site champions pranks of all kinds, especially ones associated with technology. One of their standard pranks is taking over the radio communication system used at the drive-up window of fast-food restaurants.

They really out did themselves by creating a video that describes how to mod a CB radio to work on fast food restaurant frequencies. (Hmm, it seems unlikely that a 27 MHz transceiver could be easily modified for VHF.) Oh, I see, they use a special crystal found in modern day toasters. That explains it.

Warning: some adult language



Be sure to look at the comments on the video. The prank keeps on going.

I do not condone nor support modifying radios for out-of-band operation, hassling employees of fast food restaurants or posting hilarious videos on youtube.com :-)

73, Bob K0NR

Observations from Dayton

Here's a few thoughts and observations from the Dayton Hamvention®:

• Dayton remains the ultimate ham radio geekfest on planet earth. I am checking with other galaxies....so far, no competition.
  

• Attendance, inside booths and flea market activity all seemed to be down a bit this year. I am guessing that $3.85 per gallon gasoline might be a factor.
  

• The weather forecast threatened rain for most of the weekend but the actual weather was just fine....not real hot, not real wet.

• The ARRL exhibit was large and well done. See the ARRL report on their web site.
  

• For some reason, this year I really noticed how decrepit Hara Arena has become. I don't think it has seen more than $5 worth of maintenance in recent years. This is not a new thought, see this string of comments on eham.net
  

• The forums that I attended drew large crowds, typically overflowing the available seating. This seems like a problem and an opportunity. (How to expand the size and number of the forums?)

• Check out the photos from Jeff KE9V. Also, Scot K9JY assembled some links to other Hamvention photos.
  

• Lots of interesting characters walking the flea market (my wife is entertained by the target-rich, people-watching environment.)

• Yaesu was showing an early unit of the VX-8R. See Universal Radio web site for preliminary data. This handheld has 50 MHz, 146 MHz, 222 MHz and 440 MHz with optional APRS feature.

• Lots of buzz around D-STAR. Last year, I thought "hmmm, maybe this technology is going to take off." This year, I think "this technology has taken off."

• I bought an ICOM IC-91AD dualband handheld with D-STAR capability.

• I picked up the usual collection of coaxial connectors/adaptors and cables.

• I picked up my free Yaesu hat. Thanks, Yaesu! I will put it with my collection of hamfest hats, mostly from Yaesu :-)

See you next year....

73, Bob K0NR

Use that New HF+6m Rig on 6 meters

Colorado just experienced a nice 6M sporadic-e opening. Phil N0KE sent out this article as encouragement to try 6 Meters.

A few years ago we started seeing new HF rigs with 6 meters included, and at the 100 watt level in many cases. At the Central States VHF Conference in July 1998, it was claimed that world wide there are now 30,000 more stations with 6 meter capabilities. In the ARRL June 1998 VHF contest, several stations exceeded 1,000 QSOs on 6m and about half the all time top QSO totals were made this year, which would indicate a lot of these rig owners are using them on 6m.

You may have an existing antenna that will function on 6m. Obviously the best thing to do would be to put up a 6 meter yagi and an advantage is that they are small and light and you may be able to add it on an existing tower. For those who want to try out the band without making the commitment for buying a new antenna, you may be able to use an existing antenna. Most 15 meter antennas will work reasonably well on 6 meters. My TA33 tribander loads well. I’ve also tried the TH6DXX, TH7DXX tribanders and KLM 6 element 15 meter monobanders on 6 meters with reasonable results. You may have to use a tuner to get full power. I’ve found that a HF tuner in the 10 meter position will often work and the auto tunners in many rigs will work too. There are some inexpensive 6 meter antenna tuners made. A multi band vertical that covers 15 meters will also work, except one gentleman told me he fried the 15 meter trap on his R7000 in a matter of seconds at the 100 watt level on 6 meters. I've had good luck using a Butternut HF6V and HF9V on 6m. Most HF SWR and power meters are still reasonably accurate at 50 MHz. I’ve also worked some other stations using unusual antennas on 6 meters. I worked a New Zealand station who was using 10 watts to an 80 meter folded dipole. A 2 meter 5/8 wave vertical is very close to a ¼ wave on 6 meters and lots of people have used that mobile or like the guy in Dallas I worked who was using one on a magnetic mount on his bath tub. I never did find out why he was using the bathroom for his ham shack.

Since many of these HF+6 rigs, like the Icom 706 are very small, they are very attractive to take on that contest or vacation trip, especially when coupled with one of the light weight switching power supplies that will convert a wide range of AC voltages to 13.8 VDC. I easily carried my rig, power supply and laptop as carryon luggage on a KH6 trip for the 1997 CQWW SSB. You may end up in a country with little or no resident 6 meter activity and be much more in demand than on any of the HF bands. You can make some 6 meter QSOs even without packing along a 6 meter yagi, but do take the yagi if you can.

On 6 meters 50.000 to 50.100 is reserved for CW and contains many beacons. US beacons are mostly between 50.060 to 50.090. Most DX CW QSOs take place between 50.090 and 50.100. 50.100 to 50.125 is the DX window in the USA with 50.110 being the international DX calling frequency. In Europe the DX window is 50.100 to 50.130. The USA domestic calling frequency is 50.125. In Europe the domestic or inter Europe calling frequency is 50.150. Six meters is like other VHF bands in that SSB and CW are used in the same portions of the bands. Experienced expeditioners like W6JKV will constantly switch back and forth from CW to SSB on the same 6 meter frequency. Cross mode QSOs are also common.

We are in the spring sporadic E season that runs from mid May to late July or early August. Whether you are doing E mail or watching TV etc turn the rig to 50.125, turn up the squelch. If anything is happening, you will most likely hear it first on 50.125. Once the band is open move above the calling frequency for QSOs. I've found activity up above 50.250 on good openings. Another clue is if you are hearing very strong E (short) skip on 10m, chances are very good that 6m is open in the same direction. E skip is typically between 700 and 1400 miles per hop. Double hop is fairly common and multi hop propagation of 4 or more hops is much less common. Last June I worked 27 JA stations one evening and two days later I worked 7 European stations. both of these openings were probably 4 or 5 hops. Generally you need a good gain antenna and power but a few Colorado stations did work the JAs and Europeans with 100w to good antennas last summer.

73 Phil N0KE