CQWW CW at 500mW's

Contest time

Well another CQ WW DX CW contest is in the books here at VE3WDM many out there who participate in contests like to set goals. I'm no different but before I set my goals I like to make sure I understand reality first. I am never going to win in these world wide contests I just don't hang in there long enough to get a world class QRP score going. Also I just don't have an "out of this world" antenna setup, I am running with an indoor attic fan dipole. So with that understood my goals for this contest were as follows...
1. Relax and have fun contacting hams all over the world.
2. Run most if not all the contest QRPp at 500mW's.
3. As I finish a contact check out the ham on QRZ.COM and learn about them and their station as I cruz for another contact.
4. Beat my miles per watt record of 8325 miles per watt.
5. Try to beat the 300 contact wall.........never stood a chance as I was doing to much of goal number 1 and 3!!!

Update on CQ WW CW contest

The Elecraft K3 in action

It was a  late start to the contest it was  10:30am local time Saturday when I got into it and the bands were just hoping!! I started on 10m and over the coarse of the day just jumped between 10m and 15m. In the past 20m was the staple for me and most of the contest I would just camp out there. So far in this contest I have not even seen 20m as the other two bands were great with DX. I am operating 99% of the time QRP at 500Mw's. I am very surprised at the results and how far such little power can go from my attic dipole. Now and then I would pump the power up to 5 watts if I they were having trouble making me out. Now running this low of power does mean lost of repeats on my part (thanks so much for all the op's and their patience) so my QSO rate is really down. I did try 40m this evening but it's very busy with station that are running loads of power. The one station I did contact in Europe I finally made it to him at 50 watts. That for me is WAY to high as far as power goes I am just not sure at that level if I would am causing any interference to neighbors electronics. So I just shut things down for the night and am hoping to get on Sunday nice and early and take advantage of 10,15 and possibly 20 meters. Hope to see you in the mix up!!!

Signalink = fantastic...getting it to work....frustrating

This week has been dedicated to setting up for the CQ WW DX CW contest this weekend. Making sure the contest logger works (N1MM), try out the CW macros along with the K3, test out the antenna on all the bands and finally make up some goals. I find by doing some prep work before the contest Murphy does not rear his head as often during the contest. Early last week my Tigertronics Signalink USB came in and it was my ticket to get into the digital world. Years ago I had a Yaesu  FT-1000MP MKV I had the Rigblaster Pro along side it. I dabbled in PSK and was into RTTY contesting at that time. I had hopes of setting things up and getting on the surf board of Digital communications last weekend.

Linux Ubuntu here I come...........

I have a Toshiba A300 laptop in which most of my blogging is done on. The only trouble it gave me was  for some reason the HD failed. Not a problem it was sent in for repairs and came back with a new HD and it's been fine ever since. The operating system is the 64 bit Vista. Now this is another story  I found it took forever to boot up. I am talking about 3-5 minutes to get to the point were I was able to use the laptop. It would also stop and think every so often and I would just have to sit and wait. Shutting down was no problem that was done in under 30 seconds. To remedy this problem I tried just about everything and it just did not seem to do the trick. On the home P.C I have WinXP and have had no troubles with it at all. It runs smooth and does not get hung up. These are the only two Windows operating systems I have had really any exposure too.  As for the Laptop I was either going to re-install Vista, try loading XP or do the radical and go with Linux!! I was not sure how XP was going to work out on the laptop and figured Vista was just going to act the same way.  So that idea was put  on the back burner, I noticed on the Internet that Linux Ubuntu

KX3 on Ham Nation

The CFL is coming and Im not referring to the Canadian football league....

The way of the future?

I was doing some reading in the November issue of CQ and in the U.S the incandescent light bulb will "somewhat" come to an end as of January 1 2012....hmmm not to far away eh! Maybe a pre New Years Eve resolutions should be to get out and grab up the incandescent lights before they are gone. Not all is lost there is a reprieve for the tri-light, the appliance bulbs and get this flamed shaped chandelier bulb???? Light bulbs from 40 watts to 150 are soon to be no more!! Up here in Canada as of 2012 the light bulb will still populate the store shelves, for at least the time being anyway. As for the VE3WDM household we have gone (well almost) compact florescent (CFL) for about 4 years. Now back then these puppies were not cheap and well to be honest they have come down in price but not a whole lot. So how many of you ham's out there are into the

In remembrance of those who gave for us

Elecraft's KIO2 project and kit building tips

With all of Elecraft's radio kits the builder is able to purchase add-on's to the radio either as needed, when able to afford them or if you want to expand into a new area of ham radio like FM or digital. At this point I am adding the KIO2 to my Elecraft K2, I want to remote mount the 100 watts amp (KPA100) and the antenna tuner (KAT100). To do so my next project is to build the KIO2 module. By adding this unit I am able to communicate with the K2 through my P.C. Also the K2 can operate along side the external amp and antenna tuner. So back to the KIO2 project.....the first step in the assembley is to mount two brass nuts to

Soldered nut

the 9 pin D connector (DB9F). To make this part of the project go smoothly you begin by change the tip on your soldering iron. I have the Weller WES51 soldering station it is a 50 watts unit and has been very reliable. I am able to change from a very slender tip to a larger tip for better heat transfer. I also add a little bit of solder paste to the nut and chassis of the DB9F. This helps the solder flow from part to part. Finally I have a larger diameter solder just for these types of jobs. This allows me to feed the solder to the spot were needed and I am able to get more flow of solder to that spot at one time. The next step seemed impossible to me at first,  I was to press the small PC board between the top and bottom rows of the DB9F

DB9F installed

Winter hibernation plans

Some winter fun projects

What is wrong with this picture?

It has been very busy both at work and here at home I have not had much time to get on the radio or to blog. I  have just had time in the late evenings or early  mornings to get on the laptop and check in with other bloggers to see what's up. As the summer moves on to other areas of the world and winter settles in here it's time to move from outdoor activities to indoor ones. Sure getting on the radio is one of them but heating up the soldering iron is another activity. Some projects I will be working on over the next couple of months are  Idiom Press's Logikit COMS-4 keyer, Elecrafts KAT2 antenna tuner and KBT2 battery kit for the Elecraft K2 radio. Now this is not going to hold me for the whole winter so some other kits will have to be considered. But until then this will keep me hopping along with the radio op time for at least the fall and into the new year.  I am getting my Elecraft K2 ready for both home and out door (in the summer) operations. To do so I have to build and install the KAT2 antenna tuner and KBT2 battery as well. Speaking of the KBT2 have a look at the picture above...all  you Elecrafters out there what is WRONG in this picture??? One project that is almost complete is the KIO2 RS232 interface board. This unit will allow communication between my K2 rig,  external tuner/amp combo and my PC. There is a mod that has to be done to the KIO2 board to allow external mounting. The KIO2 is going to be my next post with assembly and the needed mod.