There was life on the CW portion of the bands from 19:00-20:00 UTC!

20m at 19:10 during the CWops 1 hour contest

 

With the increase in sunspots and rising flux comes some solar flares and the Kp-index will have it's ups and downs. This afternoon the Kp index up was up to 5 and 6 and that does not my Mike the ham a happy person. Now having said that right in the middle of the high Kp index the bands at 19:00 UTC came alive! It was the weekly running of the CWops test, a one hour contest. Before the contest 20m was dead and at 1900 UTC life was brought to the band. Stations from Canada, U.S and Europe warmed up 20 meters to a nice glow. It's great mini contests like these happen as it shows some action on the bands. 

Another great CW contest is the K1USN SST CW contest this contest happens on Fridays at 20:00-21:00 UTC and Monday 00:00-01:00 ( which for most of us is still Sunday evening) This contest is not one of speed but slower. You will find operators sending from 10 wpm to 20 wpm and if you are not sending at 10 wpm then speed is slowed to match your speed. These are nice contests that only asks for 1 hour a week and it can get  your feet wet with contesting. 

ARRL international CW contest.

The bands were alive with CW today even with the not-so-great-sounding solar forecast. 

 

13 Colonies wallpaper arrived today.

The wallpaper arrived today for my participation in the 13 Colonies Special Event from July1-7th. This was a great event and my first time taking part in it, I am looking forward to next years event.

13 Colonies success!

The 13 Colonies event ended on Tuesday and for me, it was right down to the wire but I was successful. I was able to contact all 13 colonies and the 2 bonus stations for a clean sweep along with 2 bonus stations. I really had no plans on participating in this event but while I was headlong into the Canada day RAC contest I kept hearing the 13 colonies stations calling CQ. I then decided to give this event a shot and honestly I had a blast. In this event, you contact the original 13 colony states, you have a choice of CW, SSB or digital or any combination of these modes. My goal was to contact all the states using CW and that almost happened but more on that later. As mentioned in my previous post on the first day I scored 9 of the 13 states and at this point, I was not even considering the 2 bonus stations. Over the next few days, I narrowed my search to just 3 stations that were needed. I was on the hunt for K2C Rhode Island, K2D Connecticut and a bonus station GB13COL from England. I was in the game for the bonus station in England as the day before I was able to get the bonus station WM3PEN in Philadelphia.
With only 3 stations to get in the log the challenge began, I had DX Summit running in the background checking for spots. Since I wanted to keep my CW stretch going it seemed the remaining station's spots were either digi or SSB! The other issues I ran into were when K2C and K2D were operating CW they were lost down in the noise floor. I could hear clear as day the stations working them but the Colony stations were silent. The other issue was with GB13COL was rarely operating CW and I was determined to make all contacts using CW.
My operating strategy was to find the needed stations calling CQ before they were spotted, this was exactly what happened with K2D in Connecticut. He was calling CQ and was weak but there and so I gave him a shot and low and behold he came back to me BUT he was not able to copy my reply. We tried a few time but he then began to call CQ again so it was not a "true" contact. The propagation gods were smiling on me as his signal jumped to about S8 BUT the spotting network gods were laughing at me because he was just spotted and the crowd was growing fast! I tried to throw my 100-watt signal in the fray but the Endfed antenna did not stand a chance against the kilowatt and a beam. The name of the game was to wait for an opening as I hoped the big guns would make their contact and move on.
K2D's signal was starting to fade again, this was how 40m was treating me most of the time. Now the crowds started to die down and he was just calling CQ with no response. He was at the noise floor again and I was having no success. He then jumped to S8 again and I gave him a go and finally, I was in the log!
It was now time to concentrate on K2C in Rhode island and from the comments on the spotting network, K2C was not on all that often......hmmm this is going to be difficult I thought and I had to snag him before he was spotted. There were times when he was spotted in the CW portion but the pileup was crazy, it actually sounded like a super rare DX location was on the air. I was constantly checking DX summit on my laptop in the living room for K2C hoping if I pounced early the pileup would not be at the crazy point yet. My dear wife commented to me that I looked like a stalker when it came to hunting K2C!!
Evening came and in the past, I noticed that GB13COL had been spotted in the evening using CW,  so I went to the shack in search of GB13COL before he was spotted. I was on 40m searching the waterfall for signals and there was one that popped up. I tuned them in and it was K2C......OMG no spots yet, this was my chance to make a clean sweep and get my final Colony using CW. Where my ears deceiving me....he was calling CQ and no takers. I tried calling him but nothing he had no copy and continued to call CQ. I knew it was just a matter of time before he was found and then spotted! As Steve Martin would say "I'm a wild and crazy guy" and it was time to be that person! Normally while on 40m my power is set to 40-50 watts. The reason for this is any higher than 50 watts odd things happen to our washing machine, LED lights and so on in the house. I figured if things go wonky in my home it may be happening to those around me. Thus my power on 40m does not go beyond 50 watts......or at least until now.
I looked to the left and then to the right......with an evil grin on my face the power was cranked to 100 watts. I turned the lights out in the shack and with my head lowered but still a grin on my face I put my call out.......it was answered by K2C and he was in the log. With the lights still out I looked out the window to make sure no homes were on fire, all looked good and I was thrilled.
I had accomplished my clean sweep of all 13 Colony stations using CW and it was now time to set my sights on GB13COL.
I was not determined to work the final bonus station using CW. I had 2 days left to hunt, track and get GB13COL in the log but from following the comments again on DX Summit this final station was rarely operating CW and seemed to hang out on digi and SSB. I tried very hard when they were CW to even hear them but absolutely nothing was heard. I now had one day left and during the day I tried and tried when they were CW and again nothing was heard.
Evening came and they were spotted using FT8..........I am going to give them a go as CW was just not going to work out for this station.
Into the shack I went and started the PC and then the radio and low and behold there they were on the waterfall. Before transmitting I observe the waterfall to see a who is transmitting where. There is no sense jumping into the fray if I am transmitting overtop of someone else as this way neither of us is heard. About 5 minutes went past and I was not in the log yet and then my call came across with a signal report from GB13COL! I was thrilled and sent my report back to make the contact complete and just waiting for his 73RRR BUT I then I saw that GB13COL was transmitting again with my signal report as he did not hear my report. NOOOOOOO so again and again I sent my report and nothing and eventually he started to call CQ again. I was not in the log.....well not yet I was this close and not giving up. I stopped transmitting to get a feel for the waterfall and find a clear spot. I found my spot and after a few minutes of calling he came back to me and I was in the log!!!!!
This was a nice challenge spread over a few days and for sure I will be taking part in this event next year. It's time to send off for my clean sweep plus 2 bonus station certificate. All but one were contacted using CW but I know for sure that GB13COL would not have made it into the log if I waited for a CW contact.

What is wrong with this picture???

I am operating in the CW CQWPX contest today and just can't contact anyone. Yesterday all was good but today NOTHING at all. Have a look at the above picture and see if you can see what's wrong. It took me some time as I kept overlooking the obvious.

ARRL DX CW contest.

It was nice to see the bands very active with DX for me it was from 15m to 40m. The Endfed I have at the moment will not get me onto 80m BUT the new Endfed I purchased (going up in warmer weather) will give me 80m and maybe more. This year I spent a bit more time in the chair operating than I usually do. I was operating as a single operator, all band and low power (100 watts)
Score breakdown:

I was not able to snag any rare DX and in fact, I really only heard manly Europe, nothing from the middle east or Asia this year. During the late afternoon on 15m, I had Central and South America open up and I was able to get some contacts from there in the log. I only made 126 QSO's I was in and out of the chair and I really have to get to the point in my CW career to feel comfortable calling CW contest and stop the search and pounce only routine. The only Murphy moment I had was when my Bluetooth keyboard's rechargeable battery when dead. I had to hunt down my USB keyboard before continuing in the contest. The lesson learned here is to set the Bluetooth aside and use the USB keyboard for contesting.  The next contests in my schedule are the North and South Carolina QSO party contests the first weekend in March.

CQ WW DX CW contest 2019

No lack of action

The CQ WW DX  CW contest this weekend was the first contest as VE9KK unfortunately, most of Saturday and into the evening I was not feeling well at all. I gave the contest an off and on again effort during this time. Sunday was a very late start as I wanted to get my rest to get over this bug I had.  In summary, the weekend went as follows:

        Band     QSOs     Pts  ZN   Cty  Pt/Q
           7       6      18    3    5   3.0
          14      10      29    6   10   2.9
          21       2       5    2    2   2.5
       Total      18      52   11   17   2.9


            Score: 1,456

I found Sunday to be a tough one my signal was just not being heard and I am guessing it was just the propagation? The few times I was on the radio on Saturday I had no issues making contacts. Some of the bonus things here at VE9KK were:

- The new Astron power supply worked just fine. 

- I was able to work Europe on 40m which never happened at the old QTH with the MFJ 1788 antenna. 

- Speaking of antennas it was a joy to use the End fed antenna, I was able to change bands without returning. The magloop I used for so long had to be re-tuned on the same band and for sure on band changes. 

- On Saturday (when I was on) I was able to get into Europe, Central America and South America without issue. 

During my time on Sunday during the contest I was greeted with an on screen message that N1MM+ stopped working as it was not able to communicate with com3. Com3 is my CAT control for the Icom 7610 and in a nutshell, this meant I was having RFI issues with one or more of my USB cables. I thought I had solved this issue already with snap on chokes?? I had a fast glance at the snap on chokes an noticed some had "un-snapped". I shut things down and spent well over an hour to fix the situation once and for all!! More on that later this week in another post. I restarted the rig and software and did a few tests and I was good to go, but the bands did not seem to want to co-operate. Having said that the bands sure were alive with opportunity. I heard nothing from the south pacific or Asia. Overall, I had a great time while in the chair at the radio and am looking forward to other CW contests. 

ARRL DX CW 2019 in the books

The setup

Well the ARRL DX CW has come and gone for 2019 and my effort was one of interest only. I knew I had non radio related things to do this weekend and we were out each evening. Actually the contest caught me by surprise as I usually plan ahead and make time. This week I was checking WA7BNM contest site and was shocked to see the contest was this weekend! This was the first real contest run for my new IC7610 rig. Now I am used to the Elecraft K3 but honestly the 7610 preformed for me just as good as my K3 did. I left the filter set at 250Hz and never had any issues when Kilo watt  contesters were side by side belting out their call. The waterfall  on the 7610 was par with my old Elecraft P3 also it was an added bonus that N1MM+ has a spectrum scope fed directly from the 7610. Having the two independent receivers was nice. When I found rare DX but there was a pileup I left one receiver there and checked in now and then. With the other receiver I would continue the search and pounce. I had been away from the 7610 for about 2 weeks regarding CW operating so I at times found I was slow to figure out how some functions were done.
As for the contest I was running 60 watts (not sure of reason for the 60 watt number) and my antenna is the MFJ 1788 mag loop. I am in a condo so it’s a balcony antenna about 180 feet up facing south east. The software was N1MM+ and MRP40 CW decoder for the super fast fisted contesters. On Sunday the winds for some reason really picked up and my MFJ loop was moving around the balcony. I shut the radio down and took it in I would rather save the antenna from damage than taking a chance on getting more contacts.
I made only 25 contact and a score of 1575 BUT my intention was not to blow the doors off  with a great score. Instead after I made contact with a station I would look them up on QRZ.COM and read about either the individual or the contest station. Over all the limited time I was in the contest I had a blast and was very please with the Icom 7610 and the ability of my balcony mounted Mag loop antenna.

RAC contest and the new IC7610

I was finally able to get on the radio and give the RAC contest about 2 hours and I had a blast with the new rig. I made only 32 contacts as the  Christmas season is a busy time of the year for all of us but Julie and I both agreed that the weekend after Christmas it was going to be a relaxing weekend. As always Murphy very briefly showed up in the shack. I tuned my MFJ 1788 loop to a great SWR of 1.3 using my MFJ antenna analyser. I then flipped it over to the IC7610 and the perfect match went to 3.0!! After some trouble shooting it turned out to be a short coax jumper between my antenna switch and the 7610. I replaced it with one I had on hand and all was good. As I thought about it I do

Won't make that mistake agian.

remember at one time there was an issue with one of my patch coax cables.....guess I never fixed or tossed it out.
I was thrilled with the Icom 7610 I didn't as of yet get the time to set up N1MM+ contest software so during  the contest I was old school with a paper and pencil. The audio was crisp and clean, I stayed with the 250Hz filter and had not even one issue with very close adjacent stations bothering my contact station. The touch screen is very responsive and an absolute joy to use. I took advantage of the 2 independent receivers, I turned on dual watch and had one VFO on an RAC station such as VE7RAC who was very popular and the other VFO I search and pounced. With one simple button push I muted the VE7RAC station and could unmute to check on the pileup. Once things slowed down I was able to put VE7RAC in the log.

Dual Watch on 

Another feature I found very handy was as you spin the VFO faster your tuning steps increase so you can move up and down the band quickly. One issue I found was that as the shack got a bit darker the bottoms on the Icom are not illuminated. This being a new rig resulted in some incorrect push button selections.

The ARRL has done it again!

I received my November QST and as I flipping through it I came across page 82 regarding online ARRL contest uploading. This caught my interest and as I read it became crystal clear that this was a very cool newly released feature. Don't take my word for it instead take your November QST and flip to page 82 and check it out......for those of you who are not ARRL member and do not get QST......GET IT!!! Just kidding.....in a nut shell ARRL has a website  were if you participate in an ARRL contest you can upload your score and it's very slick. You are asked for your email, the ARRL contest just finished, your power, if you used spotting assistance and finally how many operated under your call. Then you add your log file which all contest software can produce. You submit it and that's it.

IARU HF World Championship contest

I always enjoy participating in this contest and in years gone past it allowed me add to my DXCC list. This year was a whole other story.......I was only able to contact and hear Canadian and U.S stations only. I came across a VE2 station calling CQ and he sounded like a distant DX station! I was not sure if it was just my station not hearing any Europe stations. I decided to listen in on a few of the big gun U.S station to see who they were contacting. The stations I choose to listen in on were contacting fellow U.S and Canadian stations only.  I made 10 or so contacts all on 20m and with 5 watts QRP.  My station setup was the Elecraft K3, MFJ 1788 loop antenna on the balcony, N1MM+ logging software and Win4K3 Suit rig control software. Also I use MRP40 CW decoding software for the "machine gun" code senders. I found in this contest the top end code speed was in around 35 wpm so no decoding software was needed. I have not been on the radio much as work has been very busy once again. It was nice to sit down and get on the rig again, I knew it had been a long time away from the radio when I wanted to spot a CW station and I had to actually look and look for the spot button on the rig!

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.

My CQ WW CW contest overview.

The QRP setup

I had a great part time effort in the CQ WW CW contest, I was not concerned with score or putting in a major amount to time in the contest chair. The key goals in this contest was to see how my CW reading by ear was doing and when on the rig to stay with it for the time I committed too. The reading code by  ear was fine up to speeds in around 25 BUT with some stations they were flying at around 35-40 wpm and that is just to fast. My code reader MRP4066 handled the high speed code no problem this software is not free but I found it to be the best! I entered the contest as single op, QRP single band (15m) and I met the requirements as a "classic" operator  I added this overlay to my submission. My total QSO count was 33 a score of 3,128 points and 10 zones. At my QTH I did not hear the usual amount of European stations I have in the past. My operating time was during the day from late morning to until late afternoon. During the late morning I head mainly Caribbean, African and some European stations but not many. As the afternoon approached more South and Central American stations came it as Europe faded.

I did have some "Murphy" moments such as…….I was not able to get my MFJ mag loop to tune at all at the start of the contest. Very quickly I found it was a very loose PL-259 connected on the rear of the loop's control box. Then for some reason N1MM+ set my CQ zone as 5 and not 4 and I did not click into this until about 10 contacts into the contest. Finally on the K3 there is a "test" setting and I use it to check macros without transmitting. Then old age had me forget to turn off the test mode, this found me thinking I was calling stations but was transmitting 0 watts….. Now that's QRP!!
Since I am operating QRP and using small MFJ loop antenna on the balcony my operating style was as follows
- I Use my VFO B to save a strong DX station that at the time has a huge pileup going. This stops me from wasting time trying to break the pile. Better to come back when the crazy pileup is gone. This worked great when I came across a Senegal station.
- Even when a station is at an S2 level but is just calling and listening my 5 watts can and did many times make it through for a contact.
- I don't use a spotting network as I found most of these stations have a huge pileup but I do have an Elecraft P3.  Using some hardware and software my P3 is seen on a 19 inch monitor and I am able to point and click on signals. My K3 then moves to that signal this allows me to see the activity on the band and Search and pounce these stations.
- When possible stay with a band such as 15m were my MFJ loop does not need to be retuned at all across the whole CW portion.
- Stick with my 250hz Inrad 8 pole CW filter so I can get between tight signals and only hear the op I want to contact.
In my post I am going to go into detail about my software I am now using and finding to be great for contesting and general QSO's It's now time to grab some eats and relax.

You never know until you submit.

Boy was I surprised to get this!

It was February 2013 and we just really finished unpacking all our boxes from the move into our new condo and I felt it was time to let some steam off and get on the radio. My new MFJ 1788 loop antenna had arrived and after some tweaking it was setup and ready to go. The ARRL DX CW contest was on and what a better way to give the antenna a workout! I blogged about my ARRL event and the use of the magnetic loop antenna. I was very pleased to see I was getting out and able to be a points giver in the contest. I was more concerned with checking out the MFJ's antennas performance from my condo location than taking the contest seriously. As a wise ham had told me long ago "always submit your contest score" and I did just that......last week a certificate came in the mail. It seems I was first place in Ontario south section for QRP!! No it's not top in the  country or world but for my condo station it was a great accomplishment. To think I was not even trying for an award.....maybe next year I will go for points and see how I do?

Contest wall paper.......

Most of the time I participate in a contest just for the fun of it without any expectation of placing anywhere close to the top. Last week I was reading some of the blogs that I follow and Scot KA3DDR blogged about CQ WW DX  contest certificates you can get online. It's very simple you plug in your call and low and behold you are told if you have a certificate waiting for you. If you do it's easy you just download it and print it!

My first ever field day is over............

The Saturday afternoon sky

Not sure why but I have never taken part in any field day, I can remember there have been some years were I was busy. I have often seen field day setups as I drove from here to there but as I said I have never been involved in one. Well 2013 field day was my first I was not with a group from a club but did it on my own. Not because I'm not into clubs but was not sure if this year I would be busy doing other things as Julie's

Saturdays operating position

relatives are in from England. It turned out I was able to get some time in on Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast. I was operating search and pounce and was using my KX3 on battery power only. I did bring along my spare battery but did not have to use it either day. My antenna was a mobile whip and I stayed on 20m for the contest. I was reading on twitter how 10m and 15m were dead. Funny thing too I was also reading other twitter posts of how this was a field day with very little action on the bands. I found things to be very busy and I was always able to make a contact....well hear them but maybe not make the contact. It sure was a change to not have my PC with me during a contest. I was hand writing my log and also having to run down my contact list to see if I have worked the station already. I did get a few "worked B4" but that was due to the fact I was not able to see them in my log sheets. At the start of the contest I was getting asked to repeat my category almost every contact!! That told me I was for sure messing something up, turns out I was

Sundays spot...lunch time

Sundays weather

sending B1 and not 1B as a category....sorry to all those who I threw off at the start of the contest. Once I got the exchange sorted out all was going very well. The weather on Saturday was touch and go there was very severe weather clouds moving overhead all the time. I must say for the time I was out on Saturday I did not have rain at all. On Sunday it was once again very humid and HOT HOT!! The nice thing about Sunday was the bad weather seemed to had taken a good long break. On Sunday I went to a different spot, it was a nice park just north of me. I did have some folks stop by to see what I was up too but none hung around to long. When the contest was over I was on the air for only a total of 4 hours and I made 50 contacts CW only. I was operating at 4 watts on the internal batteries of the KX3.  I had a nice time and was able to give the Elecraft KX3 a good workout. So as I said this was my first ever Field day and I will for sure be putting this contest in the calender for next year.

CQ WPX CW contest in the books

This sure was a weekend were the solar activity played a huge role in contest endurance. I entered the contest QRP at 5 watts. I did not turn the rig on Friday evening as I find the start of these contests can get very very busy. I was on and off both Saturday and Sunday. I put in about 5 hours on Saturday and on Sunday it was around 3 hours. Sunday was spent getting household chores done and spare time was on the radio.

Lots of  Solar action

I had a total of 92 contacts my score was 18,800 points and 80 WPX contacts. I did have a blast when I was in the contest and for the first time ever I was contently having to repeat my call and my exchange due to solar conditions.

Some lessons learned

1. When running N1MM logging program, N4PY rig control software and the Flex Radio Flexcontrol vfo knob all together through LP-Bridge some very very strange things can happen. This resulted in some lost contacts and down time due to software issues.Going to have to get these programs to shake hands and get along.
2. Funny thing.....I have been practicing my contest CW code with Morse runner and using my laptop. Well it would seem that my fingers became very familar with the smaller keyboard on the laptop. When I contested on my home PC and regular sized keyboard I was making mistake after mistake while keyboarding calls and exchanges. I do have a smaller keyboard for the desktop PC and started to use it towards the end. Going to have to stick to the same keyboard as it seems size does matter.

Some of the joys of the contest

1. It seemed to me that most of the contesters CW speed was in around 25-30 wpm and I did find that very comfortable. 
2. At least the bummer conditions were world wide and leaves us all in the same playing field more or less. 
3. I contacted OQ5M in the contest and soon after he commented on my blog of how good my signal was. This fast interaction is kinda cool. 
4. My contact with Australia, Cuba and Hawaii. 
5. The politeness of the op's whom I had to give several repeats too, those who still could not make out my call just said "bad QRM and hope to contact later 73"

Day one of CQ WW CW contest

Most of the time during these full weekend contests I don't get on Friday evening as I find it to be a ZOO with lots of stations sending at a blinding speeds. I don't blame them as they want to get their score rolling so that on Saturday they are well in the game. I started on Saturday morning around 8 in the morning the power output is 5 watts QRP into my attic dipole. It's funny I was sending serial numbers in the teens and I am receiving serial numbers the the triple digits. Now that would be depressing if I was in the contest to make a showing...but I'm in it to have fun!! So how did the first day go......

The facts

1. The propagation was.....shall we say (because this is a family blog) crap!! 
2. I was in the contest for a grand total of 5 hours today. 
3. 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)
4. The attic dipole once again did very well considering the conditions.
5. 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 

1. 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!! 
2. With the propagation conditions in the dumps I was very please to get my QRP signal heard in Hawaii, Australia, South America and Cuba. 
3. I have been practicing my contest code with some programs and for the first time code at 30-35wpm was clear and understandable! 

   So there  you have day one.......Sunday is another ball of wax! Good luck to all in the contest and to those not in the contest the bands will be your on Sunday evening.........just being a smart ass...:)))

Adding my two cents worth............

So here we are....it's the weekend and time to get some radio time in as during the week I find it very hard to get into the shack once all the household chores are done. I have been trying to get a good score for the Marathon challenge this weekend. It is a QRP type challenge that involves you contacting stations via the lowest possible QRP power. I have come to learn that if the station you contact is also QRP you get more bang for the buck when it comes to scoring in this challenge. This leads me to my post today......I have been hanging out at the QRP calling frequencies and on 10m, 15m and 20m there has been lots of action. Now the action I speak of is not a QRP station calling CQ BUT  stations who is in a QRP contest calling CQ contest on QRP calling frequencies!! Maybe I am way off base here but.....a little bird in my head is telling me that this is not right. What's your feedback...if you are QRP is it good to call CQ as well as CQ contest on QRP calling frequencies??

New records set at VE3WDM!!

Julie was out and about snapping shots!!

For me the ARRL  DX CW contest is over, I have some blog, email and cleaning to do for the rest of the day. Over all the contest was a success for me not that I broke any records with regards to points or number of contacts. I was very pleased with how the station and antenna were working, I find that contests are a great way to see how the rig and antenna preform. With regards to the rig and software I merged N1MM logger and N4PY rig control software through LP-bridge and as an added bonus I was able to also use the Flexradio's flex control vfo knob.....now that was a mouthful!! Lets break this down shall we N1MM is the

At 40mW and below this is the reading

contest logger that I use, N4PY is the software I use to control my K3. LP-bridge is a virtual port program that allows these two programs to somewhat talk to each other. I say somewhat as there are some minor issues. (there is another virtual port program VSP manager that allows perfect integration but I did not want to install it just before a contest) Oh and the FlexRadio FlexControl works fantastic with N4PY's rig control program and through LP-Bridge also works with N1MM as well. Another software program I ended