The facts
- The propagation was.....shall we say (because this is a family blog) crap!!
- I was in the contest for a grand total of 5 hours today.
- There was some down time as you can tell from fact number 2...software troubles, USB port trouble and K3 updates and the list can go on. (This is normal contest OMG stuff)
- The attic dipole once again did very well considering the conditions.
- The evening once 20m closes down I am done as with the poor conditions for some reason 40m has not been a great band for me with the attic dipole.
Day one surprises
- So far I have not used any paper and pencils to copy call's I have been able to just use the keyboard. Now yes in the picture above in the center monitor bottom right you will see MRP40. (cw decoding program and the BEST one out there) That was up and running for the contester who for some reason send at @#@%$$# SPEEDS!!
- With the propagation conditions in the dumps I was very please to get my QRP signal heard in Hawaii, Australia, South America and Cuba.
- I have been practicing my contest code with some programs and for the first time code at 30-35wpm was clear and understandable!
8 comments:
Hello Mike, excellent that you use no paper. Your attic antennes are awsome. I take it easy and log on paper, all search and pounce with low power. Good luck. 73, Bert
Despite the horrible propagation (i.e. NO propagation), you made it here on Sunday with quite a good signal.
Thanks for calling me!
73 de Franki ON5ZO = OQ5M
Good evening Bert, I am very happy with the progress. I have just come to the realization with all my practice on the laptop I have gotten used to that keyboard. I am on my desktop and fumbling for keys! Have to stick with the same old same old keyboard. Search and pounce for me is the way to go just to nervous to start calling CQ with CW don't feel I am that good yet.
Have a great week Bert
Mike
Franki great to hear from you, I have the blog up and running as I S&P in the contest. Great to hear the attic dipole is making it. I have had to give tons on repeats in this test but as you said the propagation is in the dumpers. Thanks again for commenting it's pretty cool that just after making a contact a comment comes through.
Have a nice week Franki
Mike
Hello Mike, I just begun sundayevening when contest was almost over. The only interesting station I worked came from JW (Svalbard). When I gave out my 001 number they replied with a number of 4 digits ;-) Made 27 QSOs at the end in about 1 hour time. Luckely the computer does not care about CW speed! 73, Bas
Hello Mike, I use CWskimmer most of the time for very fast guys, up to 30 wpm or more. I can copy up to 25 wpm myself without problems. I worked only 1 station in the contest. Just playing around with the software. 73 Paul
Good afternoon Bas, 27 QSO'is a good rate for only one hour on the rig. I find it's the contests that are the spot for getting hard to contact places during normal times.
Mike
Good afternoon Paul, I was going to try skimmer but you need to have an SDR receiver. I do have an I/Q output on the KX3 but the line is not isolated and does not work very well and picks up lots of line noise. As for the K3 it's IF out is feed to the P3.
Skimmer does sound great but the rigs 3kz is just not large enough.
Mike
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