Should contest rules allow and act upon 599K QRM reports?

Friday 30 December 2011

Elecraft K3 band-select and quadripple band-stacking

Reading eham reviews you would think the K3 has none of the above features. The people who have made these remarks haven't RTFM. Band Select: To select the (10/12/15/17/20/30/40/80/160)m band I do the following: M>V and then press the appropriate keypad key (1/9/5/7/2/3/4/8/0) configurable. Band stacking: To select any portion/mode (cw/data/beacon/ssb) within any band I do the following: M>V and then press the appropriate memory key (M1/M2/M3/M4) configurable. In this way I can get to any band portion within 4 key presses. In some ways the Elecraft system is better than Yaesu/Icom/Kenwood as instead of scrolling round bandstacking registers with continual key presses of the band button, with the Elecraft system you select exactly which portion to jump to. Unfortunately the above system isn't implemented in the default menu settings of the K3, so the ops that give up too easily or that can't use menus don't get the benefit of these essential features. Pressing the band and mode up/down buttons is for appliance operators only :-).

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Thanks eQSL

Some people have dedicated 50+ years collecting paper QSLs for awards, pleasure etc. They have spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on cards, postage and storage over that period and then there's all that valuable time spent writing them out and cataloguing them. It doesn't matter how good eQSL is, some of these people will always regard eQSL as the devil's spawn, as it brought up the thorny question of 'was all this time and effort for nothing?'. Some who have considered this question, have pushed the unthinkable answer away by decrying eQSL and making sure eQSLs are not valid for awards etc. A quick look on QRZ.com will readily identify these people who normally state "no eQSL". eQSL is simple, effortless and automatic, what possible reason could their be for this statement, other than it being soley based on the principal of it. Another criticism is that eQSL lacks the security and validity of other systems that followed on from eQSL. With regards these other systems, please let us all remember that this only a hobby and people that cheat are only cheating themselves. In my opinion, additional levels of security are only necessary for the people that have forgotten that this is a hobby and want to protect their achievement whilst cheapening others achievements at the same time. eQSL was the perfect solution for radio hams to keep card collectors off their backs, now the next threat to using eQSL are award chasers. Why not petition the award organiser itself for not accepting eQSL instead of the pestering the eQSL user?
Anyway I'd like to personally thank eQSL and my logging program DXLAB for shielding me from most of the QSL nonsense for many years without me having to invest any of my own valuable radio time.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you eQSL.

Sunday 18 December 2011

MM3T Croatian CW contest 2011

I took a snapshot of 28.025MHz at 12:50Z today during the Croatian CW contest.

The top station I'm listening to is RT3T, he's showing key clicks (top centre). He's just worked someone with a clean signal (top left).

The middle station is RN3F, he's also showing key clicks (centre left and right). He's just worked someone with a clean signal (centre).

The bottom station is K2SSS who's transmission is strong and clean.

I took this snap as it shows a nice comparison between clean and dirty transmissions. This is typical of what anyone in the UK has to put up with during every 10M contest. There really is no contest happening here as both RT3T and RN3F have a massive advantage over everyone having to put up with the effects of their transmissions. It must be bliss to able to run without your rx sounding like a machine gun and having to QSY every few minutes.

Saturday 17 December 2011

MM3T in ARRL 10M 2011

Great contest marred as usual by key clicks. Tried all sorts to survive, the only way I could run was to have AF limiter at 22, AGC off and preamp off.



Final score :

States worked:

Missed Idaho and Nevada for some reason.

Nice split between EU and NA.

Stns causing QRM :

RL3A
R5AJ
RA3AN
LZ9W
LZ2PL

Ridiculous key clicks from all the above. These were the top 5, but there were plenty others who didn't quite deserve being outed. The problem with good condx on 10M is that the UK is hammered by poorly set up stations who don't care (or don't understand) what effects they cause to others.