A CW contest surprise!

I was reading a fellow blogger Bob VA3QV post about the CQ WW CW 2015 contest and how he did in the contest. It got me thinking to head over to see how I did, I gave a rather part time effort and the conditions were not all that great...surprise surprise. Since moving into the condo I have not been giving the CW contests the effort I have in the past. I entered the contest Single op, QRP single band (15m). I read the results with shock........1st place in Canada, 10th in North America and 29th in the world. I was pleasantly surprised.

Take time to listen it pays off.

W1ZU's home setup.

I had some spare time just before dinner time and thought it would be a nice idea to sit down and relax at the radio. The rig was set to the QRP watering hole of 14.060 and very soon after I heard W1ZU calling CQ. Now having said that I just read the other evening in my CQ magazine of how important it is to listen, so I thought I would give the ears a workout and the key could sit idle. By listening I found out that W1ZU was operating from a summit in Maine, that he was activating SOTA (summits on the air) summit W1/DI 006. Not being an active SOTA chaser I did some more listening and was very surprised how fast the pileup developed to contact him. It would seem you can obtain points for contacting summits and this one was worth one point. Once the pileup settled down I threw my call out and Scott came back to me with a decent report. If I did not spend the time to listen and just tossed my call in and make the contact and move on I would never had learned the detailed info about this contact.

The 2012 log book..........

In 2012 according to my log all my contacts were CW and QRP or QRPp type contacts. This is the 3rd year that I have made just CW contacts. The reason being SSB in the past would bother my neighbours and since this is a stealth operation SSB is OUT. As for the digital modes I just have a very low frustration factor not a good combination for setting up digital modes. Maybe 2013 will have me mellow a bit to try the digital modes again.

Club log showing my move from SSB/Data to 100% CW

2012	100	500	CW: 100.00% Phone: 0.00% Data: 0.00%
2011	49	258	CW: 100.00% Phone: 0.00% Data: 0.00%
2010	25	170	CW: 100.00% Phone: 0.00% Data: 0.00%
2009	10	192	CW: 19.27% Phone: 0.00% Data: 80.73%
2008	45	495	CW: 36.57% Phone: 0.00% Data: 63.43%

Club log was great in helping me get a snap shot of my log for 2012. According to Club log I was able to hit 125 QRP DXCC contacts for the year! Unfortunately I was not able to qualify for the ARRL DXCC Jubilee award as they were not counting all the DXCC entities. I was able to accumulate 83 DXCC's toward that award but this award only ran for the year of 2012 so I came up short.
My contacts for the year were 500, I thought it was a lot more but there were times I would forget to log contacts. BUT I almost doubled my contact total from the year before of 258. Seems I have to get away from the soldering iron and on the rig more!!
I was able to make it into 23 CQ zones
Some of my highlight contacts were Gibraltar, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Jordan and ST. Pierre & Miquelo.
Finally I was able to better my 1,000 miles per watt distance to 45,869 miles per watt with a QRPp contact to HA8JV with 100mWs of power.

Does the early bird get the DX...it's said he gets the worm.

Last Friday we had a "situation" at work that had me working until about 3 a.m. and when I got home I was still all pumped from work and was not ready to jump into bed. The thought came to me about getting on the radio and seeing what DX pileups were out there. I had heard of folks getting on in the wee hours of the morning and catching some rare DX. With great expectations  I turned the radio on....10m dead, 15m dead, 17 and 30 same thing!! Alas on 40m my Elecraft P3 showed some faint signals, I spun the dial to the frequency only to find it was some very weak State side stations. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it's kinda a let down when one is anticipating WILD DX!!!

Happenings over the last few weeks

Over the past few weeks I have been able to get on the air during  the evenings for about an hour and this has paid off with some new DXCC's.  I have been finding a spot on one of the clusters (a DXCC I am in need of) from either DX Watch or the data base in DXLabs spotcollector software. Tuning to that frequency but in the past if I heard nothing I just moved on to another spot. Now I have been sitting on the frequency listening whilst doing other things on the computer....like this post. I have found that as conditions change the static breaks and the new country comes into focus!! At times I have had to use my Audio Peak filtering (APF) which works great to bring the new contact up from just above the noise level.  There have been times when I should had acted faster, like the time Somalia broke through the static. By the time I "filtered up" it was only static and no Somalia!!! 

 Below is a YouTube By PY1FR showing the APF on the K3 in action.

Hendricks 41dB attenuator built and added to the mix

Hendricks attenuator in service

It's Friday and the IARU contest is tomorrow, I had been checking out the propagation throughout the week and things seem to be calming down. Well until yesterday afternoon and the sun released an X1.4 solar flare and if that was not enough a CME as well..... Oh did I mention the CME is headed in our direction as well. So far the solar-terrestrial data seems to be ok. What's not to bad about a proportional hiccup is that it affects all of us, not saying that is a good thing but in the contest  the playing field stays level. This past week my Hendricks 41dB attenuator came in. The assembly was straight forward and was done in no time it

Final testing

tested out ok and I was ready to start using it. The attenuator has to go in series with my antenna  I placed it in series with my antenna B port on the K3. Both feeds from the K3 (antenna A port and B port) go to a LDG DTS-4 switch. Here I am able to place the dipole antenna in series with either antenna Port A or B. I did this as I can set up the K3 to have different settings (power output, filter selections, ATU on or off... etc) for each antenna port. So I select either antenna A or B on the K3 and then on the DTS-4 I select either attenuator in or out.

Limited space, antenna restrictions and HOA's....there is hope!!

Not to shabby

There are hams out there that I pass by them now and then on my travels who have the luxury and availability to erect amazing towers with some amazing antennas on them. It would be great to have the land and be in the country and have "eye candy" towers and antennas. Then there are some with small city lots but do amazing things with long wires, smaller towers and beams. Last but not least there is "the other folks"...like me you either live in an apartment, townhouse and or have very strict neighborhood rules about all and any antennas!!! I am one who lives in a VERY antenna not so friendly place and I have to keep ham radio on the down low!! In my attic I have the DX-EE dipole from Alpha Delta it's good from 10m-40m but with the K3 antenna tuner I am able to add 17m and 30m. The attic is to small for the dipole to stretch from end to end, mine is in a "Z" configuration. It's about 25 to 30 feet off the ground but as said in the attic.

45,868 miles with an attic antenna......SHUT UP!!!

The K3 is ready to go at 100mW's

Well as many posts have mentioned the CQ WPX CW contest is now history for 2012. There is no total score, multiplier count or a prefix total to brag about here. This contest I was hunting DXCC's. When the hunt slowed down ( and it did for long periods of time) I then worked stations with as little power that my Elecraft K3 could muster to see if I could make contact. I was able to add 6 more DXCC's to my count (at 5 watts QRP) but I must admit at the start of the contest I was hoping to score around 15 or so. Oh well it seems that I have at this point most of the popular entities. I found conditions to Europe to be great but the South Pacific areas were dead up this way. There was more of Africa this year but the pile ups were huge at times.
To make things interesting as I was not "contesting" in the true sense I started to drop my power as I gave out contest points. I started at 1.5 watts to CR1X in Finland that worked out to 2755 miles per watt. Update....Thanks to PE4BAS my distance to CR1X who is in the Azores not Finland is 2417 miles per watt, thanks Bas for the info!  He had no  problem copying me so down went the power. I leveled out at 100mW's just for the reason this is as low as the K3 will venture.

Proof 100mW's is on it's way...no SWR showing

Below are the top 4 low power contacts all at 100mW's

1.  HA8JV            45,868  miles per watt
2.  IR9Y               44,558   "                        "
3.  9A1A              44,187   "                        "
4.  OL7C             42,496   "                        "

Until this contest my personal best Miles per watt 16,737 miles per watt when making contact with ZS4TS at 500mW's. Even at 100mW's being copied was easy and I was very surprised. I did not want to drop my power to the point were the contest station was spending his valuable time trying to make contact with me, but that never happened. I am now in the market for an attenuator do get my power output to below 100mW's and see what happens. I was looking at the Hendricks 41db attenuator. It's a kits and looks like a very nice unit.

CQ WPX contest + DXCC = Jubilee.......

The CQ world-wide CW WPX contest is on this weekend. The bands will come alive with Morse code,  there will be slow speed, high speed and what the heck did they send speed!! Contests give operators an opportunity to sharpen their radio skills, work on their code speed, see how a new antenna works, fire up the amplifier or turn the power down to QRPp levels and see what happens. Here at VE3WDM I am going to set what I consider an unusual goal for this contest. This time am not concerned with points, multipliers or the quantity of contacts. My goal for this contest is to pick up as many DXCC's as I can. I have been working on my DXCC Jubilee award and what better place but a world-wide contest to add to the DXCC count. So for me it will be search and pounce needed DXCC's in this contest at a QRP power level. Now  you just can't have one goal for a contest can you...........
Other goals for the weekend adventure
1. I have been playing with the Morse runner program each day working on keyboard copying....we will see how that works in a contest situation.
2. I want to take advantage of my sub receiver in my Elecraft K3. Use it to scope out other bands or listen for pileup's to die down.

 To everyone participating in the contest all the best. May the propagation god's be smiling on us this weekend......rest up hammy's and hope to see you on my Elecraft P3!!!
Good luck all!

Spinning my ham wheels............

The plan this weekend was to get some new DXCC's logged for the Diamond Jubilee award I am working on. As the saying goes "things did not go as planned" it's now Sunday aftern with next to no radio time in and the time I was on it seemed the bands out this way were dead. So it was off to plan "B"..... enter all the contacts I have made into a great Excel program made just for the Diamond Jubilee award. My count was 74 contacts.....so I thought anyway. You see this is my first effort at the DXCC  award and it seems I was off with my contact count. For example lets look at Jamaica and Cayman Islands.......I had Jamaica, Turks and Caicos islands then finally Cayman Islands oh to be in the Cayman's now but that is another post I counted that as 3..... NOT......It's only one (blog world tell me I'm wrong) I also had the same problem with  the West Indies, Great Britain and so on!!! So my count went from 74 to 63 confirmed DXCC's. So with that good news under my belt it was time to enter the information into the Excel spread sheet. The info needed is Call sign, band, date and time. I did have some troubles matching calls to countries as they were special event calls, they are no where close to the DXCC prefix. For example Gibraltar is a ZB2 prefix but my logged call is ZQ2FK. The call is a special call in honor of the Diamond Jubilee in England. Some other calls were special contest call signs. For example Martinique DXCC is FM8 or FM the contest call from there was TO5X....not even close. It was a frustrating event matching these calls to the DXCC country list at times. Now my plans are for late afternoon and evening' I am going to sit at the computer once again (this time with a Guinness) and log more calls into the Excel spreed sheet. 

Saturday afternoon radio surprises

The view from JY5HX's beam

On Saturday afternoon I was able to spend an hour on the rig....well the rig was on in the background as I was tiding up some "stuff" on the PC. I have been reading on different blogs about poor conditions over the past week or so. I was reading this morning that things are going to pickup again with some new sunspots making there way around to earths side of things. Anyway......Yesterday I was able to snag W0S which is a special event station commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic. The contact was made on 20m with 2 watts at this end. I was reading (see W0S link above) on the Southgate Amateur radio new site that W0S was also running QRP. I was surprised to read this as he had a great signal into Ontario. We exchanged names, QTH and reports then he moved on to the next in line. W0S is located in Branson Missouri and they had a station setup outside the Titanic Museum in downtown Branson.

ARRL DX CW contest done for 2012

Action on 20m

Since my setup does not allow me to be even close in the top running I try to come up with some goals before each contest,I find it makes the contest more interesting. Since this contest hosts a load of DX and the ARRL is offering a Diamond DXCC  challenge certificate for 2012 I decided to begin my DXCC country collection. During this contest I was not concerned with the number of contacts, concerned about spending to much time on making a certain contact or my hourly QSO rate. I was set on DXCC country hunting and working toward the 2012 DXCC award.

New 1000 mile per watt record.........

The excitement had me fill in the wrong band a new one is coming for 14 MHZ (click for full size)

Attic dipole (click to enlarge)

One of my goals during the CQWW CW contest was to drop my power and beat my last 1000 miles per watt record. Up until this past contest
my miles per watt all time high was 8325 miles per watt!! Now you also have to remember I am not running a huge tower loaded with eye candy beams. My radio waves into ham land are done with an attic dipole in a "Z" configuration (Alpha Delta DX-EE), so it has a nice wooden roof above an insulated ceiling below. Yes it is not the latest and greatest of antennas but I'm not doing to bad with it. During the contest  I dropped the Elecraft K3's power to 500mW's to see what I could do. To my surprise ZS4TX came back to me... I made contact and exchanged contest info. After the contest I emailed ZS4TX (Bernie) and he was shocked that I was running QRPp at 500mW's. My signal according to Bernie was above average into South Africa. So my new "to beat record" is 16,737 miles per watt I more than doubled my last record!!!
 

The folded or "Z" part (click to enlarge)

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!!!

New wallpaper just arrived

These arrived the other day and came undamaged just have to get them up on the wall.

Some wall paper arrived today........

Who said an attic dipole with only 500 milliwatts will go nowhere !!

QRP ARCI award  oh and by all means click to enlarge!