Category Archives: Contests

HF Slacker Works the CQ WPX Contest

cq_logoThis past weekend, I had to great time working the CQ WPX (SSB) Contest. I am pretty much an HF Slacker but I do like getting on the air once in a while for these contests. The attraction seems to be the opportunity to make lots of contacts in a short time and picking up a few new countries. The format for this contest is really fun…multipliers are based on the callsign prefix, so “everyone is DX”…sort of. CQ has an awards program (CQ WPX Award) that is also based on prefixes worked, so the contest is a good way to pursue that award. The ARRL recently added CQ WPX Award support to Logbook of the World, which will help with confirming contacts. Us HF Slackers don’t like messing around with actually sending QSL cards when transferring a few bytes electronically is sufficient.

I operated from our mountain cabin, with just 100W to a trap dipole up in the trees. Not a Big Gun station, especially not in this contest. There were quite a few stations on the Caribbean, many of them contest DXpeditions. Conditions were pretty good on 20M and 15M, with 10M also quite usable during portions of the day.

        Band    QSOs     Pts  WPX
           7      39      69   30 
          14      71     142   59
          21      81     163   54
          28       9      24    6
       Total     200     398  149
       Score : 59,302

The last time I submitted a log for CQ WPX was in 2011 with roughly the same station. That year, I made 98 QSOs for a score of 18,920. So this year’s score is an improvement over that effort.

But the most important thing is to have fun messing around with radios.

73, Bob K0NR

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Need A Logging Program for VHF Contests?

 

vhf logAs I prepare for the ARRL January VHF Contest, I loaded the latest version of VHF LOG, a software program by Dave W3KM. I have used this free program for many years and it just rolled over to version 4.0 to support Windows 8.

VHF LOG is easy to use while covering the basic contest logging requirements for the usual VHF contests (ARRL January/June/September, CQ Worldwide VHF, etc.). It includes a “Post Contest” mode, which is handy for entering a paper log into your computer for electronic submission.

VHF LOG runs on Windows operating systems, 98SE thru Win8. Check it out.

73, Bob K0NR

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Ham Radio Action Next Weekend – Sept 8/9

There are three excellent ham radio activities going on this coming weekend. Check these out and see if there is an activity that catches your interest. This is written for people in Colorado but items #1 and #3 are North American wide.

  1. ARRL September VHF QSO Party – noon MDT on Saturday until 9 PM MDT on Sunday    http://www.arrl.org/september-vhf
  2. Colorado FM Sprint – a mini version of the September VHF QSO Party,
    using FM only on these bands: 146 MHz, 222 MHz and 440 MHz
    Saturday from noon to 7 PM MDT
    http://www.qsl.net/k0yb/Colorado_FM_Sprint.html
    Suggested frequencies: 146.58, 146.55, 223.5, 446.000, 446.100 MHz FM simplex
  3. North American Summits On The Air (SOTA) Weekend
    SOTA activations all over North America
    http://na-sota.org/NASOTA_Weekend.html
    Go here to see announced summit activations: http://www.sotawatch.org/
    VHF contacts are usually on 146.52 MHz
    (Note: this frequency is NOT allowed for contacts in the
    Sept VHF QSO Party and Colorado FM Sprint)
    HF contacts are on frequencies listed on sotawatch.org

Wow, lots of stuff to choose from!

At the very least, I’d suggest getting on the air Saturday afternoon to see if you can work some of the VHF contest stations. They are likely to be some mountaintop SOTA stations active at that time, too. Some of these folks may try to work the VHF contests AND do the SOTA thing on the same expedition.

73, Bob K0NR

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K0NR Colorado QSO Party Results

It was a fun day working the Colorado QSO Party from the cabin near Trout Creek Pass. State QSO parties are contests designed to focus attention on a particular state, with an emphasis on activation of counties. This brings out the County Hunters and other folks interested in working that particular state.
The contest format is quite flexible, including CW, Digital and Phone on most bands from HF through UHF. There were many mobile stations out activating counties…which is important in Colorado since some counties are sparsely populated and there may be (literally) no active ham radio operators living there.

I decided to operate from our cabin near Trout Creek Pass in Park County, which is considered “rare” by most folks. My station was a Yaesu FT-950 running 100W to a trap dipole up in the trees. I mostly operated phone since I don’t consider my CW skills up to that challenge of a contest. I did make a few CW contacts at the request of a few folks than wanted Park County on CW.

Thanks to all of the mobile stations out there, both in Colorado and out of state. I was surprised how many people were mobile or operating portable (often camping out for the holiday weekend). I normally monitor 146.52 MHz while up at the cabin for anyone out hiking or mobile. I heard Eric W0ECE doing a SOTA activation on Mt Evans and worked him for QSO Party points and SOTA points.

The score below includes the CW contacts so the score will drop a bit when I submit in the phone only category (77526, I think).

I was disappointed with the Qs on 15 Meters but I looked in my log from last year and it was also light on 15 Meter contacts. Twenty meters is always a bit crowded and I really like when 15M and 10M open up. I almost doubled my score from last year, so I was happy with the result.

        Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts   Sec   Mul
            7  CW       3      12    2    0
            7  LSB     93     186   23    1
           14  CW       1      4     1    0
           14  USB    400     802   41    0
           21  USB     23      64    5    0
           28  USB      1      2     0    0
          144  FM       4      8     3    0
        Total  Both   525    1078   75    1
           Score : 81,928

Thanks to the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association for sponsoring this event.

73, Bob K0NR

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Colorado QSO Party Coming This Saturday

The Colorado QSO Party will be held this Saturday September 1, from 6 AM to 10 PM Mountain Time. This is a fun radio contest where amateurs outside of Colorado try to work as many Colorado stations as possible.

It looks like we will have quite a few counties on the air for this event, so it will be a good opportunity to work any Colorado counties that you might be missing. Complete rules are available here.

Thanks to the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association for sponsoring this event.

73, Bob K0NR

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A Great Weekend on VHF

CQ VHFOne of the things that makes a VHF contest so much fun is that you never know how its going to play out. One of the major factors is sporadic-e propagation which is, well, sporadic. Sometimes we get rewarded with decent propagation and sometimes we get completely skunked.

In the morning, before the 2012 CQ World Wide VHF Contest started, the 6 Meter band was open from Colorado to the east. The band continued to be open to various locations for most of Saturday, even late into the evening. I made my last contact on 6 Meters to the Pacific Northwest after 10:30 PM local time.

On Sunday morning, 6 Meters gave us some more fun but it was not nearly as good as Saturday. Instead of strong signals and consistent runs, the signals were variable and QSOs were often a challenge. Sometimes it was like pulling teeth. This contest only uses two bands: 6 Meters (50 MHz) and 2 Meters (144 MHz).  As 6 Meters pooped out, the action moved to 2 Meters. Fortunately, we had a number of rovers out that helped activate some of the rarer grids. Thanks W3DHJ, AB0YM, KR5J and W0BL.

This is probably my best score ever in the CQ WW VHF Contest, due to the excellent propagation on Saturday and some station improvements I’ve made over the past couple of years.

     Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
---------------------------------------------------------------
     50         337    1      337           130           43810
     144        34     2      68            13            884
---------------------------------------------------------------
     TOTALS     371           405           143           57915

                            Claimed score =  57915

All in all, a great weekend on the VHF bands.

73, Bob K0NR

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2012 Field Day: K0NR Results

For 2012 ARRL Field Day, we operated from the cabin in portable style. Temporary wire antennas were tossed into the trees and  the trusty Honda EU1000 generator provided emergency power. The Spousal Unit, Joyce KØJJW got on the air and made some contacts, making this a multi-op effort.

We used a similar approach as last year, see my post, ARRL Field Day: Season to Taste. The main difference is that the sporadic-e on 50 MHz wasn’t as good this year, but we had a fun time working the event.

  Band  Mode  QSOs    
     7  SSB     15    
    14  USB     78  
    21  USB     73  
    50  USB     33  
   144  USB      3  
   420  FM       1  
 Total  Both   203  
        Score: 406

As usual for Field Day, most of the time the 20 Meter phone band was crammed with stations calling CQ Field Day. There were many times that I responded to one call and had another radio operator think I was working them. It occurs to me that we have this emphasis on exposing new people to ham radio during Field Day via the GOTA stations and public demonstrations. However, this is kind of like showing someone the joy of driving a car by having them experience a giant traffic jam.  Is this really the best way to introduce people to ham radio?

Field Day: Make it your own!

73, Bob K0NR

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Gear Up for the June VHF Contest!

This weekend is the ARRL June QSO Party (also known as The June VHF Contest). It is a great opportunity to get on the air and try out the VHF bands. In particular, 6 Meters usually has some fun sporadic-e propagation during the contest. It is a blast when that band comes alive with signals from across North America.

For complete info see: http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf-qso-party

I am going to operate from our cabin near Trout Creek Pass (DM78), focusing on 6 Meters and 2 Meters.

Check out this article that I wrote on how to work a VHF contest:
http://www.k0nr.com/rwitte/vhf_contest.html

Most of the activity will be on SSB, calling frequencies are:  50.125 MHz, 144.200 MHz, 432.100 MHz, all USB
On FM, try these frequencies:  146.55 MHz, 223.5 MHz, 446.0 MHz

Get up off the couch and have some radio fun this weekend!

73, Bob K0NR

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New Categories for ARRL VHF Contests

The April 25th issue of Contest Update from the ARRL had this item:

The ARRL Programs and Services Committee has approved a rule change for ARRL VHF+ contests effective beginning in 2013 (not this year) to create a Single-Op FM-only category (100 W max, 50/144/222/440 MHz) and a three-band Single-Op category (100 W PEP on 50 and 144 MHz, 50 W PEP on 432 MHz). These changes will apply to the January, June, and September contests – again, beginning with the 2013 January VHF Sweepstakes.

I am always looking for ways to get more people involved in VHF contests and these two new categories may help. The basic idea is to create categories for simpler stations to participate in the contests without having to be in the same category as The Big Guns.

73, Bob K0NR

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ARRL 10 Meter Contest

Usually I don’t focus on the ARRL 10 Meter contest, especially when the solar activity has been so low. However, band conditions have really picked up and 10 Meters is alive and kicking. We have quite a few new Technicians that are discovering the wonder of worldwide HF propagation with even a modest station.

I decided to operate from our cabin up in the mountains. I haven’t been happy with the performance of my trap dipole on 10 Meters, so I wanted to try something different. I pulled a twinlead J-pole antenna out of the basement and strung it up in a tall pine tree. This basically gave me a 1/2-wave vertical on 10 Meters and I was pleased with the performance.

I had a great time with the 10 Meter contest, operating for part of Saturday and Sunday.

You’ve got to like a contest that has:
- Only one band, so no fretting about which bands to focus on
- CW or SSB, take your pick or do both
- Lots of DX
- Work anybody anywhere
- You can sleep at night and not miss anything

I mostly searched and pounced around but did manage a few runs with my mighty wire antenna. Not being a real CW operator, I did decide that I would push myself to make 10 CW contacts. Most of those guys are going way too fast for me, but I got it done.

ARRL10M Score Summary Sheet
Start Date : 2011-12-10
    Band Mode QSOs Pts Cty
      28 CW    10   40   8
      28 USB  254  508  72
 Total        264  548  80
Score : 43,840

73, Bob K0NR

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