GM0ELP

Black Sea Cup RN3F and UW1M

2012-02-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

I was going to play on 10m this morning but couldn't be bothered due to the Black Sea Cup contest in full swing. I am a contester myself, so it wasn't that the contest itself was unpleasant, it was the standard of transmissions that immediately turned me off. RN3F was on again with an interesting variation on his previous poor transmission. I'd like to think he's trying to do something about the QRM he causes every contest, as there is a noted difference as shown below.

He now has a 300Hz wide chirp which means he is no longer the worst offender. That title has now got to go to UW1M (top left, above RN3F). He was 594K (actually 59+30dB) and approx 2KHz wide.

I had a look at QRZ for UW1M and he is sitting next to what looks like an IC7700 so it must be the dreaded home-brew amplifier or operator error (ALC or overdriving). No wonder contesters get a bad name.

I normally argue against the non-contest fraternity, that contesters are striving to improve themselves by perfecting all the radio disciplines pertaining to their station before the contest, the contest itself being the result of that hard work. The above station clearly needs to spend more time doing this.

Cheap "Peli" type case for dxpeditioning

2012-01-10T12:26:00.000-08:00

1) Case:
Part Num. Line Price. Description. Mfr Part. Mfr Name.
SG32901 23.19 WATERPROOF TOOL BOX D00468 DURATOOL
(not inc. tax and p&p)

Provides maximum shock protection to contents, Waterproof, Can be padlocked for additional security, Built in pressure valve, Corrosion proof, Colour - Black, Depth (external) - 225mm Length - 515mm Width (external) - 435mm
http://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00468/waterproof-tool-box/dp/SG32901?Ntt=sg32901

As you can see the case has 4 pressure locking tabs:

2) Packing material:Pick and pluck foam, 5+6 layers, 50mm thick
£36.19 inc. tax & p&p

"Each pack contains 5 pieces of Pick 'n' Pluck Foam size 560 x 350 x 50mm (22" x 13.8" x 2") and 6 pieces of lining foam size 560 x 350 x 12mm (22" x 13.8" x 1/2"). Each side of the removable squares in the grid is 25mm (1")."

http://www.efoam.co.uk/

The finished item with foam interior

Plenty of room for the K3, Small SMPS, laptop, headset and footswitch etc. Weight of case + fully packed foam is 4.5Kg (no equipment added yet). I will blog again when I have finished plucking and packing.

Total cost so far approx £65.

RSGB AFS CW

2012-01-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

Lowest score ever, 187Qs. Was it my imagination or was the turnout lower than usual?

I spent the morning taking down my doublet (suspect water ingress after 7 years in the air) and replaced with a dipole. I didn't have time to install it properly so ended up with an inverted V configuration.

Signals certainly were always strong from G throughout the contest but the number seemed down. My Q rate was very poor with occasional answers to my CQ calls. It's annoying to work a really inefficient run station doing all the usual unnecessary chat like CQ AFS, my call DE his call, CFM, GA, GL BK 73s etc only to find on the exchange that his serial is much higher than mine. Oh to have one less letter in the call and live in an area with several large clubs!

Enjoyed the contest but the score is less than helpful for the GMDX team.

Paper QSL cards are dead....long live eQSL and LOTW!

2012-01-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

I was in the Apple shop buying a present for someone. The assistant asked if I would like a paper or electronic receipt which would be sent to my email address. It forced me to think about which one would be easier for me. The answer for me was most definately electronic due to the convenience factor. Which would you choose?

It's a very gradual process, but I now know I will live to see a day when paper cards are a thing of the past. The first positive sign of their demise is the absense of hand written contest logs and the benefits this brings to everyone (faster/easier adjudication and results).

Why does this matter to me?
1) I enjoy contesting and the IOTA contest causes me no end of hastle from card collectors whinging on about confirmation for a contact to this island or the other.
2) I have to pay for the QSL bureau as part of my RSGB membership. I'd rather this contribution was used for more pressing matters such as spectrum management.

What harm does paper QSLing do?

1) I believe card collectors are selfishly causing the demise of the hobby for rare and desirable stations. They don't think about the station that they are demanding a card from. If everyone hunts him for a QSLs card for every contact he makes, surely he will be forced to QRT. When last did you hear a rare station calling CQ on a regular basis?

2) The environment, just think of all the millions of unwanted QSL cards that have been dumped since the beginning. What a waste!

3) I have been present in meetings where a dxpedition has not been sponsored on the basis of not providing paper QSLs. I was angry with myself for not piping up and questioning this, but it probably wouldn't have made any difference as I was outnumbered by old fuddyduddies.

With a view to speeding this process, please can someone tell me what a paper card gives you that eQSL and LOTW combined doesn't already provide?

Also consider why the majority of card collectors/award hunters for the last 10-50 years wouldn't want progress to electronic means.

Please consider what this global cash wastage would be better spent on.

Reverse Beacon Network Aggregator 1.4 setup

2012-01-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd blog some of my setup problems and their solutions here:

1) Problem : No connection from new aggregator to RBNserver.
Solution : In the setup menu in cw skimmer under the "Telnet" tab, "Allow SKIMMER commands" check box must be ticked.

2) Problem : No connection to local user on port 7550.
Solution : The aggregator application must be located in an unprotected area on the c: drive. I run Windows Vista and had the aggregator application in the same director as skimmer under the program files directory. It wasn't until I moved the aggregator application to a folder directly under the c: drive that I was able to connect as a local user on port 7550.

Hopefully these tips will help someone else trying to contribute to the RBN collective.

Elecraft K3 band-select and quadripple band-stacking

2011-12-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

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 :-).

Thanks eQSL

2011-12-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

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.

MM3T Croatian CW contest 2011

2011-12-18T04:46:00.000-08:00

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.

MM3T in ARRL 10M 2011

2011-12-17T02:01:00.000-08:00

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.

MM3T CQWW CW 2011

2011-11-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

My rx got really hammered by two stations in particular this year:
HA1A and UA5A.

Both stations were super strong which isn't a problem with a good rx like the K3, but when they appear in my passband when I'm over 5KHz away, there is no contest.

With the contest element removed for my entry, I started to wonder what the point was and the fun just evaporated.

Who knows were the problem lies, but hopefully it will be sorted for next year.

Elecraft K3 Expensive from the UK?

2011-11-08T04:46:00.000-08:00

I recently bought 2x 8-pole filters from Elecraft amounting to a US cost of $316.80:

2x $139.95 for filters
+ $36.90 postage

Considering that the item is barely more than a jiffy bag, the postage seems expensive. However this isn't the end of the story. Parcel Force intercepts the parcel in the UK from whoever the US postal company is, and then collects VAT (UK Import Tax) and adds their own handling charge:

import VAT £39.26 + Parcel Force Clearance fee £8 = £47.26 ($75.96)

To add insult to injury Parcel Force are located sparcely throughtout the UK, so if you aren't close enough to pickup the parcel and you work for a living (meaning you can't receive a parcel during working hours) you have to pay an additional fee of £12 to get it delivered on a Saturday.

So total cost to buy 2 filters from the US is approx $420!

Ok, after a few seconds to swallow that one, do I still consider a Elecraft K3 to be expensive to own in the UK? I bought my K3 back in June 2008 and up until then I was spending too much money swapping and changing radios every 6 months or so, buying the must haves and latest and greatest for contesting. I don't dare to think what I was spending! However since 2008 I haven't felt the need to change my radio, more so, there still isn't anything better than the K3 IMO out there. Ok I have been buying extras for it and upgrading parts, but I still feel that the investment is getting better with each passing year.

Don't get me wrong the K3 does have it's faults, but what radio doesn't? If you were to ask a K3 owner about his radio, he would most probably moan about this or that, but the deciding question should be whether he is willing to swap it for anything else around the same price..... The answer to that question currently (for the majority of owners, I would think) is a most resounding NO!

I still own all my old radios and at times where the K3 has annoyed me, I have rooted out an old favourite and apart from appreciating better ergonomics I immediately have been disappointed. I thought there must have been a fault developed in the RX due to lack of use, but no it's just that I knew no better when I used it last.

The K3 has definately spoilt me and my expectations are now so high, no other radio seems to come close. Your mileage may vary, but I judge a radio foremost by it's rx performance and for this amateur there just isn't anything else in the same price bracket.

MM3T CQWW Phone 2011

2011-11-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

With the recent conditions on 10m being so good, I decided to do a single band entry this year (10m). This decision was helped by the fact that I have been concentrating on optimising my station for 10m in readyness for the up turn in the sun spot cycle.

This year I swapped my RG213 for Westflex and also got the 3 ele-yagi another 1m up above the ground (now 8m up). I can now only just lift it and the rotator into the vertical position and it is really the best I can get away with and keep the peace with the neighbours.

I haven't heard 10m in such good contion since I was licensed back in 86. I started at 0630 on Saturday morning and swung the beam round for ZL. As the day progressed I followed the greyline from North all the way through East, South, West and back to North. Highlights were JA/HL/XU/VU/V55/CX/KH7 and KL7.

My K3 had a faulty DVK card and I had hoped to get it replaced before the contest started. Unfortunately it arrived too late to risk installing it before the contest, so I soldiered on with the old faulty one until I couldn't stand it any longer. My throat was getting sore, so on Saturday night I finished early and swapped the DVK out with the new one. Luckily all went well and the new keyer worked perfectly.

I managed to work 39 out of 40 zones (missing zone 32) and also worked 140 countries. I closed the scoring early on Sun evening approaching the half million point mark. It had been a long weekend, low points were getting my frequency taken by a GW3 who couldn't hear me and also the usual splatter coming from south eastern EU. I think this is my best result yet.

MM3T IOTA contest 2011

2011-09-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

category : Single-op, low, cw, 12hr, unassisted, island.

Note: I was Island category and not dxpedition due to the currently flawed rules and prize categories. It's not a contest you can win if you enter the dxpedition category as you are pitched in with 24hr monster multi-op stations, stupid or what?

Island : EU123 Isle of Bute
Maidenhead loc : io75jw

I took the families boat out from Tighnabruaich and motored across to the nearest point Bute (Rubha Dubh) on Saturday morning. All was calm and landing was easy a few hours before high tide meaning I could get the boat in over a large sub-surface boulder field.

As you can see in the picture centre above, the site is on the point of a peninsula meaning I have the advantage of being surround by sea water for 270 degrees. On the downside it's surrounded by mountains, but hey it's only a small boat and beggars can't be choosers.

New this year was the addition of a toilet tent. Not for it's obvious purpose, but rather for it's small footprint giving me the ability to pitch it on the beach at the high tide mark. I found that any tent that allows you to stand up in is too large to be securely pitched on sand. It was just large enough for me to sit on a chair in front of a small table...perfect! I could also stand up in there when sitting became uncomfortable and easily get in and out to adjust antennas etc.
You can just make out my green toilet tent and my red pop up tent further up the beach in the photo below.

Unfortunately the tide really goes out quite far (30m) at this point, so I had to get antennas up before high tide to keep them near the salt at low tide. It was a real battle to beat the tide and I managed to go in over my wellies several times whilst trying to get radials out over deeper water.

I was late to start, but as it was only a 12hr operation it didn't matter too much. Equipment used was Elecraft K2, microham cwkeyer, alinco dm330mw SMPS and SDMO booster 1000 petrol generator. Wintest was used running on a small Samsung netbook. Antennas were all vertical monopoles as high as the rules allowed and right down by the waterside.

I afforded myself a quick cup of tea from the gas stove before I started calling CQ.

Details to follow.....

National Field Day (NFD) Region 1

2011-06-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

Active as GM4AGG/P this weekend for NFD with Terry GM3WUX. Using N1MM, Elecraft k3 and top band doublet.
Used dual receive capability of the K3 all contest. N1MM really helps allowing easy tx switch between main and sub rx frequencies:
ctrl-right arrow : tx to sub freq
ctrl-left arrow :tx back to main freq
In this way you can run on the main whilst s&p on the sub. This is easy to say but not easy to do efficiently.

Notes to self :
1) Always use full break-in whilst doing the above, it allows tuning the sub whilst txing on the main. You can tell when you've got a hot one in the sub even before you finsh a CQ.
2) Main and Sub CW speeds in N1MM are separate (cool).
3) RIT is up and down arrow
4) Speed is page up and page down
5) The volume control on the K3 may be better with it configured as a balance control

Terry can do this himself, but it's easier with a buddy who understands whats happening and who is also listening to both rxs. The buddy can help by constantly tuning the sub finding running stations in the contest. He also controls the volume by following the operators tx indication on the K3 LCD. When a weak one calls the volume of the sub/main can be reduced to help the operator 'tune-in'. In this way the operators hands never leave the keyboard.

With just 2 operators for 24hrs we managed to beat last years score despite worse conditions. The only difference was using the dual rxs in the K3. We also had 1 hr down-time this year due to a faulty PSU.

last year 940Qs, this year 1070Qs

GB5TI cw pile-ups

2011-05-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

During GB5TI we were mostly using the K3 in split mode (tx on B VFO, rx using A VFO) I initially set the radio for 1KHz split up. This served to get the rate back up as the pile-up could now hear me.

Notes to self:

1) Always use QSK when calling for split DX. During GB5TI I realised that some operators would keep sending their callsign until I sent anything then they stopped. If I waited they just kept sending with hardly any gap. If I got a complete call I could go back without hesitating after the last letter. If they weren't on QSK it invariably went quiet after I sent their call as we both doubled on his second time through his callsign. I wanted to try to set a single call rhythm but that's hard to do when people aren't using QSK.

2) During GB5TI I would occasionally forget to tune the A VFO about after working the last station in the pile. I couldn't believe the number of stations that weren't listening for the stations I was working to find my rx frequency. Instead they would be blindly calling 2KHz up or something and eventually I'd find them even although they were 59 and the last stations in the pile were 51. When you finish the pile the temptation is to reset to 1KHz up and call CQ again. At home, if I'm not the default 1KHz up and I hear the op calling CQ I'll now try tuning to 1KHz up +/- a few hundred hertz especially if only "up" is sent.

3) I found that opening the width control (DSP filter coupled with automatic roof filter selection at key points) right up to around 800Hz DSP with 1KHz roof filter (deselecting the 400Hz roof filter) was the best setting at the height of the pile-up. This way I could pick off the highs and the lows without taking my hands off the keyboard. It also meant that the pile-up spread out as stations jumped off the centre frequency to tail end the last station worked. This stops the pile-up guessing listening frequency patterns/tuning directions and a nice even spread emerges.

4) At the height of pile-ups, as I'm less than a little pistol, calling immediately is pointless as the strongest station invariably wins. Better to hold off a callsign length or two and then pop one in lower than the suspected listening frequency.

5) Always remember to disengage split after working the DX. On a number of occasions I heard stations I'd already worked randomly sending their callsigns on my listening frequency. After several attempts to re-work a specific Russian station I realised he had just forgotten to disengage split.

GB5TI cw pile-ups with N1MM

2011-05-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have used N1MM twice before, enough to be able to log with it, but never in any great detail. Initial CQ calls brought one or two callers then we were spotted and all hell broke loose. I'd never operated split with N1MM before and instantaniously hit problems:

1) If I tuned the A VFO over the pile-up the software took me out of run mode and sent the S&P macros instead. I noticed it doing it and got into the routine of putting it back in run mode every time it jumped out. Later (and after much swearing from me) Gordon MM0GPZ found a selection in the setup menus to stop this happening.
2) I had to use the key to send partial calls to whittle the pile-up. The tent was freezing and the tent walls were flapping off my key hand making things difficult. If I tried to use ESM it tried to log the partial call. The solution was known by Bill GM4ZNC who recommended I type a ? after the partial call which served to send the partial call query but not to try and log it. Then it highlighted the ? ready to be over-typed with the full call.
3) Two or three times whilst trying to edit the callsign field, N1MM would engage the RIT and move my RX frequency. This might be a handy feature for casual operating, but was a real pest for me during GB5TI. I now know that this was due to me accidentally pressing the up or down arrow keys when editing the callsign field.

GB5TI Island of Lunga EU108 (Treshnish Islands) photos

2011-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

GB5TI EU108

Well it's all over, hope you worked us! Some initial pictures of the operation:

Landing on Lunga is tricky when carrying equipment, then there's the boulder field to clamber over.

(l to r) Jim MM0BQI, Cary, Gordon MM0GPZ, David GM4WLL, Bill GM4ZNC, Doug GM0ELP

GB5TI operating site on Lunga, verticals (l to R, 40m,80m,20m) as near the salt water as we could get.

Me on a short break exploring Lunga

Thanks for the contacts and for stopping by.

Hams4hams 18m pole on Lunga EU108

2011-05-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

I've previously posted details about the Hams4hams 18m pole, but haven't tested it out in anger. I can now rectify the situation as it was used by GB5TI to support an 80m 1/4 wave vertical antenna over a 4 day period on the island of Lunga EU108. The clamps were all made up as suggested in the instructions and they worked perfectly to stop the pole collapsing down. The provided lower material guying collar was used as it seemed to slide down to the correct height for the first guying point. The second (smaller) material guying collar wasn't used as when pushed down the pole it seemed to stop at a point too high up the pole after the first guying point for our installation. We settled for a second guying point 1 section lower than the smaller guying collar allowed. The pole remained perfectly errect through long periods of gusting winds up to about 30 mph. The team were all impressed with the pole and all members had experience with the other pole manufacturer and agreed the hams4hams pole was great value for money.

GB5TI EU108 Treshnish Isles

2011-04-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Just announced and I'm going to be part of it (yeehah!). I hope I can do it justice, I'll knacker myself trying no doubt. Gordon MM0GPZ is picking me up at the house in Hamilton at an unearthly time on Thursday 28th, we need to catch the first ferry from Oban to Mull and then make our way to the boat thats been charted by MM0BQI to Lunga. If all goes well we should be on the air late afternoon, probably 20 and 15m (CW and SSB). There are only 4 of us for a 4 day operation so please be patient with us as sleep deprivation creeps in.

Elecraft XV144 offset fault solution

2011-02-12T04:12:00.000-08:00

Well hats off to Elecraft, they've come up with a fix for the "offset fault" I reported. Seemingly they had a crystal supply problem in the last year or so and ended up swapping their supplier. Unfortunately the new supplier is providing Crystals marked 116.010MHz. These crystals are obviously 10KHz out from the original 116.000MHz ones.

The Elecraft K3 and K2 transceivers will only correct +/- 10KHz offset in firmware so any inaccuracy in the +ve side of the new 116.010MHz crystals renders the transceiver "off frequency". Unfortunately this was the case with my supplied crystal.

The Elecraft fix involves cutting a link and adding an adjustable inductor coil to "pull" the 116.010MHz crystal within the offset capability of the K3/K2 transceivers.

I decided that after paying the extra money for the crystal oven option, I would rather have a more accurate crystal inside the oven rather than "pull" the crystals frequency using a coil outside the oven. I have now replaced the crystal with one from a local supplier:

QuartsSLab (+442071006357)
Description:
HC49u, 5th Overtone - 116MHz, series o03s
Price £21.83

This replacement crystal now brings the XV144 up bang on frequency. Now to get on with using it :-).

Elecraft XV144 and Yaesu FT-1000MP MARK-V

2011-01-26T12:15:00.001-08:00

Whilst waiting for Elecraft to come up with a solution to the "offset fault", I decided to hook up the XV144 to the MK-V. My set-up is as follows:

Mk-V Menu settings:
3-3 (tr-disp) = 144
4-0 (rf out) = 10
8-4 (FrontEnd) = flat

Mk-V switch settings:
IPO (on)
rx ant (on)

Connections
Mk-V <-> XV144
ant B -> tx in (via 16dB attenuator)
rx ant in <- rx out tx gnd -> key in

I bought a microwave modules 16dB attenuator from Ebay which reduces the menu restricted 10W drive from the Mk-V down to the 250mW required by the XV144 (also capable of 1mW and 5W drive levels by link selection). The result is perfect, with the XV144 responding similarly to the K3/K2 1mW drive.

What is straight away apparent is that the Mk-V drive is 100% stable from first key of the mike (unlike the K3/K2 which ramp up slowly over a 10 second period on first key of the mike, thereafter stable until pwr/band/switch-on event). The Yaesu PA behaviour is so much better than Elecraft have been able to achieve to date. I didn't know if the ramp up in power was the K3/K2 or the XV144 but I now know it's the K3/K2 PA.

On first switch on the signal strength meter went to about S7 due to the MkV rf amplifier "tuned" profile. I toyed with ATT values, but felt the "FLAT" rx profile best, as this combo gave me S0 on the meter with an accassional flicker up to S1....perfect! The rx gain loss caused by engaging the cascaded 500 or 250Hz (2nd and 3rd IF) filters on the MkV can be leveled out by using the MkV "tuned" rf amplifier profile.

There is no mention of transverter operation in the Mk-V manual and very little extra in the FTV-1000 manual, but the methodology of use is that you dial in 28.000 on VFO A then change menu 3-3 to 144. This then calibrates the frequency display to 144.000. To account for the Elecraft "offset fault" I must set VFO A to 27.978 and then set menu 3-3 to 144. This brings up 144.000 on the frequency display and compensates for the Elecraft "offset fault" ...thank you thank you Yaesu! Maybe Elecraft could learn something here.

There seems very little info on the web about this subject so hopefully someone out there finds this useful.

GM0ELP AFS CW 2011

2011-01-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

KEY CLICKS, KEY CLICKS, KEY CLICKS

Who could believe that the UK could produce such poor signals in this day and age? I'm tempted to name and shame on this blog (as the clickers had much higher scores than me), but that may be construed as hard cheese. In some cases I had to hunt more than 1KHz to find the clicker. Hopefully someone will have recorded the whole contest and has measured the clickers bandwidths. Feel free to reply with the results :-).

Is it lack of knowledge?
Is it lack of money?
Is it that no-one can get close enough to you to cause rx problems?
Is it deliberate.....?

Elecraft XV144 Transverter (my review)

2010-12-30T03:39:00.000-08:00

Had a quick chat with a local ham (Elvin BBA) on 144MHz using the transverter yesterday and all is well apart from being 2.8KHz low on the frequency display on the K3. Actually there is a menu in the K3 to adjust offset in the firmware, but I'm already fully utilising +9.9KHz offset (max) so I'm actually 12.7KHz off. I thought it was something I had done, but apparently Elecraft's supplied crystal part has questionable accuracy. I got an e-mail from another XV144 user saying he had exactly the same problem until he replaced the Elecraft crystal with one from a local supplier and it came up bang on frequency.

So far the XV144 seems to have a very lively RX. Using my 5 ele yagi in the loft (K3 on SSB, 2.7KHz width) I get a constant S6 of noise on the K3 with no pre-amp. In comparison the IC-275E shows S0 on the same antenna. Switching in the dummy load brings this down to S3 on the K3. I used the Elecraft XG-2 mini module to calibrate the K3 S meter on 10m so the discrepancy must be the with the IF input. Listening to GB3ANG beacon it seems louder on the K3 than the IC275E. On both radios I'm getting QRM that sounds like frying bacon (blooming Christmas lights and toy chargers!) so I would expect some signal strength to be registering. I'll need to take the K3/XV144 somewhere quiet and see what it's like, I might even be able to dispense my ext pre-amp.
I have the crystal oven option and on initial switch on from cold the RX drifts about 1.5KHz in under 10 secs then stabilises. I left the radio sitting listening to GB3ANG for about an hour after initial switch on and when I came back in it was still bang on, so pretty happy with regards stability.

The TX side is typical Elecraft. On first tx after power on or band change it takes 5 secs worth of tx audio before the output power starts ramping up to the set level, 3 secs more tx after that it achieves the set output power level and stays stable.
The manual wants the output set up to be max 20W CW key down into a dummy load (even although the front meter goes up to 30W). When set up like this, on SSB the front meter on the XV144 just peaks to 15W (up to 10W LED on solid, 15W LED flickering) on tx audio. This all seems pretty normal when considering PEP to average power readings. Once calibrated using my external watt meter, the output power LEDs on the XV144 accurately track my average power reading. TX audio is reported as a good representation of my real voice.

We'll have to wait to see what Elecraft can do with the offset problem.

Elecraft XV144 day 2

2010-12-26T04:17:00.000-08:00

Progress continues on the XV144. Now through the boring mass resistor/capacitor fitting and on to the bigger parts. Board is now looking a lot busier. The low quality plastic trimmer supplied with the kit has no possible chance of fitting the hexagonal inductor trimmer pot. I had to 'sharpen' mine to allow an easy fit. I'm taking my time, doing things right and so far haven't made any mistakes. Christmas has been and gone now (thank goodness) so now only have a birthday, a curling match, a new year party and visiting relatives to slow progress :-).

Elecraft XV144

2010-12-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas All,

Working on my XV144 right now. No surface mount stuff to fit, so all similar to any other kit.
Some things to note:

1) Some of the component pads are smaller than normal, so a really fine tip solder iron tip is necessary (0.3MM or smaller), also really fine solder 60/40 0.5mm is a must to avoid shorts/splashes.

2) There are large copper fill areas on the PCB which act like a heat sink which wicks the heat away from the pads. This means solder tends to prefer to stick to the tip of the iron rather than to the pad. The fine iron tip exacerbates this situation. The solution is a proper variable temperature solder station and maybe a fine iron tip (chisel profile?).

3) Not all component leads when bent close to the component body will fit the PCB. The component has to be offered up and leads bent to fit PCB. Takes a bit longer, not as good/easy as the K2.

4) Some of the larger wattage resistors have to be mounted above the PCB to allow air flow all round the component.

5) Elecraft manual is brilliant as usual

Progress so far-

MM3T using Hams4Hams 18m pole -first use

2010-11-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

I used my Hams4Hams 18m pole for the first time over the contest weekend (cqww cw 2010).

Normally I use a 10m vertical (fishing pole) monopole for 40m. I usually guy my fishing pole as it gets very thin at the top and the extra weight of wire and tape causes it to bend and sway violently in the wind.

Not so with the Hams4Hams pole. I missed out the top 3 sections as it dwarfed my house and could be seen from the front. Even so, it allowed me to mount my usual 40m vertical, but now 4m above the ground, therefore less losses. The pole is so thick and heavy duty I decided that I wouldn't need guys in this configuration so long as it was lashed to a sturdy fence post. I also mounted a 80m vertical on the same Hams4Hams pole using a centre loaded configuration.

Each section of the pole was pulled out and tightened against the lower section with a slight twisting action (no quality issues here). I made up the pipe clamps with the supplied rubber and heat shrink following the instructions closely and these worked brilliantly, serving to lock the sections securely. The supplied socket screwdriver was too small for the top section clamps but fine for the lower ones.

Small niggles aside I'm very pleased with my purchase, and this year is my highest score on 40/80m. Thanks to Hams4Hams for a serviceable product.

If you are looking for a cheap alternative to Spiderpole look no further.

MM3T CQWW CW 2010

2010-11-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

Only a few more hours to go till the end of the contest. I'm sleep deprived and irksome ;-). Over the contest I've come to hate some exchange behaviour:

1) Why does the station I've just worked insist on a final "tu" after my "tu"? This obiliterates any chance of me quickly working the next station in the pile-up...grrrr!

2) cfm, qsl, ok, etc etc etc why why why? This only serves to confuse an otherwise simple exchange. The stations that do this sometimes give my call and/or their own call twice for no reason. I suspect these people are used to data modes.

3) Straight after my CQ someone sends "?", you just know he's just tuned on to you. Can't he just wait for the next call? I suppose this spoils any chance of me making a QSO and him having to wait?

Rant over, I feel much better now :-). Back to 40m now :-(

Update:
Elecraft K3 performed brilliantly, no problems! I guess all the updates have made it pretty stable now. The ACOM just sat there and took the punishment without a hiccup (as usual). The Hams4Hams pole held up my 40/80m verticals without drama.

MM3T IOTA 2010

2010-08-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

We took our boat from the marina in Tighnabruaich over to a small peninsula on Bute (EU123). I picked the peninsula because it was surrounded by salt water for about 315 degrees and it just happened to be the nearest point to Tighnabruaich. Unfortunately it was at the base of some hills which blocked just about everything from 0 degrees through east to 180 degrees but hey-ho it was a convenient operating site.

My wife Christine dropped me off on the Island and then set off back to the mainland to watch the village's raft race and fun day. The peninsula was completely isolated with access only by boat. There was a convenient landing beach for the boat and a patch of grass for my sleeping tent. I got a full 3 hours of dry weather to put up the following antennas:
15m j-pole
20m j-pole
40/80m inverted L

I didn't have enough time to put up the 10m j-pole as a black cloud decended over proceedings and I had to scamble for cover under my carp umberella/shack. I started the suitcase generator and I spent the next half hour setting up the PC/rig/cat control/software and making mad dashes out into the rain to adjust for minimum SWR etc. I glanced over to mainland and could just see the Waverley paddle steamer come into the pier through the gloom.

I was in the 12hr/low power/dxpedition/cw category so start time wasn't an issue. I guess it was about 13:30UTC before I opened on 20m. The J-pole was working well and low and behold a mini pile-up emerged. I must have been spotted as the pile-up was now getting serious when the SWR started to climb and I noticed the Elecraft K2 transceiver power output throttling back. The rain had been collecting on the horizontal 5m section of 450 ohm ribbon feeder and caused the SWR to rise. A quick shake of the feeder resulted in the SWR dropping back down to normal. Unfortunately this happened every 15 mins whilst the rain lasted.

High points were working a pile-up of JAs with some NA stns in between, even a west coast NA called me. I had to break away from the radio every so often to scare sheep away from the antennas. A seal popped up at one point when I had the headphones off and stared directly at me for several minutes before disappearing, I wondered if it was appreciating the sound of my morse.

I went to bed after adjusting antennas at about 2am and set the alarm for 4am. Unfortunately as soon as my head hit the pillow I started to hear people laughing and shouting. I guessed they were in a yaght moored infront of the Royal Hotel on the mainland, but their voices were clear as day across on Bute. 4am came and I awoke before the alarm to odd "boooosh" noises out at sea. I unzipped the tent flap and looked out into semi-dark across the water. It took a few minutes to discearn that it was gannets diving for fish about 300 yards off-shore. I had never fully appreciated the size of these birds until I heard the noises they made when they hit the water.

I kept an 1hr of operating time in the bag waiting for 10m to open properly, but in the end I received the "come in MM3T your time is up" telephone call from Christine, meaning I had to just get on with it and then start dis-assembling the antennas before she arrived in the boat.

I made about 688 contacts over the 12hrs so I won't be breaking any records, but hopefully I provided some fun to those who were chasing islands. Anyway, thanks to all who worked me.

Elecraft K3 ERR 12V

2010-05-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I was in the middle of the RSGB 80m club championship cw leg yesterday when the K3 suddenly displayed the above error message "ERR 12V". The KPA3 module (100w PA) went into bypass mode and the radio went into QRP mode and the fans came on at level 2. The power control would not adjust past 12W. I switched the K3 off and on again and it allowed me to set the power above 12w, however when I touched the key the K3 displayed the same error message and conditions.

I did a quick google search and came up with reports of this error message from many K3 users. One report suggested that it would be the pcb connection fingers between the RF board KPAIO3 board or between the KPAIO3 board and the KPA3 board (2 sets of connection fingers create a three board sandwich (RF board/KPAIO3 board/KPA3). The user suggested that a slight oxidisation of the pins can occur and cause high resistance on the 12V line. I took the top off, removed the KPA3, removed the KPAIO3 and examined all parts of the sandwich. I cleaned the pins and re-assembled the sandwich (as did the other user). To my surprise everything now behaves as normal.

When I think about it, this design is pretty flawed. You just have to look at the main pwr lead connections to RF board and then look at the poultry size of these connection fingers (2 connecting sets!) to the KPA3 PA unit which draws the highest current in the radio. What were they thinking about?

Hopefully this blog will help others when the inevitable happens.

Hams4hams call

2010-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

Rolland (PA3FRO) called today after spotting my blog on the internet. He is most concerned about the quality issues I have with my mast and suggested sending me a better fitting end cap. I agreed of course as without a proper fitting end cap damage to the mast is bound to occur (during transportation etc).

I suppose the rest of my observations are fairly superficial, so hopefully now I can just get on with using it. I haven't errected the mast yet due to space restrictions, but I will report back with my experiences (and pictures).

Rolland mentioned that he has already had repeat orders from satisfied customers and with the low price point I'm not surprised. It always pays to do business with real radio amateurs and Rolland's customer service is second to none.

Hams4hams 18m pole

2010-05-21T07:42:00.001-07:00

My Hams4hams 18m pole has arrived. It looks a bit rough round the edges:
1) The mast sections are not cut straight, so the bottom section will always touch the ground on one edge and not spread the load evenly on the base.
2) The gloss finish on the bottom section (only one I can see so far), has several deep gouges that has been crudely covered up with marker pen.
3) The stitching that attaches the nylon draw rope to the bag has compromised the integrity of the bag material to such an extent that slight pressure on it when pushing the mast into the bag will cause the bag to rip.
4) The rubber end stopper is too big for the bottom of the mast meaning that the internal mast sections will fall out every time it is picked up.

I've still to make up the clamps but hopefully it will do the job for a 80m monopole.

MM3T IOTA 2010 Island of Bute EU-123 (Antennas)

2010-05-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

With a 10m fishing pole and 10m of wire up it, I can get the following bands:

A 20m Jpole (attach coax at approp point near the shorted end of lamba/4 ribbon feeder)
A 40m lamda/4 monopole and 15m by default (attach coax at the open end of ribbon feeder and add some 10m radials to the braid)

1 fishing rod = 3 bands, croc clips on the coax (just clip to the appropriate points and go).

I'm calling it the skELPer :-). Keeps things simple for IOTA, we don't want to spend a lot of time setting up as hard work detracts from the fun. It could also be used as an end fed zepp with the short removed from the ribbon feeder and a tuner attached instead.

DSP re-work for Elecraft K3

2010-03-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm really dissapointed in Elecraft's handling of a recent purchase. I was off work on January 1st and thought I'd purchase a new DSP board for my K3. I purchased the card with the knowledge that there would be a 4 week lead time. 2 weeks after my purchase some erudite questioning on the reflector revealed that the board I had purchased was going to be re-worked and not new as I had been led to believe. I emailed Elecraft 8 weeks after purchase to find out what was happening and they said the delay wasn't their fault as they were waiting for returned boards. I reminded Elecraft that I hadn't bought a re-worked board so any excuses about waiting for returns wasn't valid. I asked for a new board if they couldn't honour the initial deal. I got a very polite e-mail back of the "no-can-do" variety and I am still waiting for my DSP board 12 weeks later. Very, very poor sales and marketing from a company with very good products.

WriteLog

2010-03-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

I have downloaded WriteLog and am currently playing in the RDXC contest. I've racked up 300 QSOs in the last 2.5hrs or so with some pile ups and some blank spells. My usual contest software is WinTest so I guess I'm starting the learning curve a fresh, straight in at the deep end.

First of all I couldn't adjust the CW speed and had to resort to Google mid contest as the help file was blank on this subject. I found a post on a contest website explaining it : go into 'setup->ports' (obvious eh?) and adjust a matrix of speeds to your preference, then use page up and dwn keys to shift between these values (what was wrong with Alt V?).

Then I logged a Q without an exchange and couldn't find for the life of me how to get back in the Q and edit it. Again the manual was no help and google again saved the day with someone else asking the same question : using the mouse click on the offending QSO then click again on the offending field and an edit QSO box opens at that field for you (WinTest you just up arrow into the log and tab across and edit it...simple).

I was using the software to assert PTT and CW through a serial port to a MicroHam DK and then on to the rig. This worked fine with WinTest but out the 300Qs maybe 4Qs came out garbled causing me to reach for the key. I closed all other program down and the CW decoder to ease the pressure on the CPU but it still did it occassionaly.

I noticed that if you press enter before you complete the call field you get less time to complete than with WinTest. I found that even although I had completed the call before it was sent, the last letter was missed leading to unnecessary repeats from the other station.

The CW decoder is a great idea and works well. I preffer not to use the RTTYRite one and instead use the standard decoder (that said I didn't look at it at all during the 300Qs). The standard decoder is docked but RTTYRite opens in a separate window which you can't dock. The same goes for the bandmaps, they float on the desktop meaning you have to shrink down WriteLog to see them. WinTest doesn't have a CW decoder but at least the bandmaps are docked.

So far I can't see a way to send a spot on the bandmap straight to the B VFO :-(.

I only have V3 of WinTest so didn't have ESM capability, so it was nice to find that WriteLog does....finally something positive!

Anyway it all sounds negative, but mostly I just have to get used to a new way of doing things. At this early stage I think V3 WinTest is superior, but it has it's quirks too.

Elecraft K3 Macros

2010-03-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

The K3 now has the facility to use macros (previously downloaded to the K3 using the K3 Utility program). You can assign these macros to the K3's M1-4 keys. Both tap and hold functions of these keys can hold a macro, thus giving 8 posibilities. You can also use the the PF keys, but I use these for quick menu access. The macros can be cancelled/assigned very quickly to allow use of the DVR or CW memories.

Key: M1T
Name: RXEQCLR (RX EQaliser CLeaR)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN008;SWT53;MN255;K30;

Key: M2T
Name: RXEQCWF (RX EQaliser CW Flat)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN008;SWT53;SWT11;DN;DN;DN;SWT12;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT13;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT24;DN;DN;SWT29;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;MN255;K30;

Key: M3T
Name: TXEQCLR (TX EQaliser CLeaR)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN009;SWT53;MN255;K30;

Key: M4T
Name: TXEQMID (TX EQaliser MID & top range gain)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN009;SWT53;SWT11;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT12;DN;DN;DN;SWT13;DN;DN;SWT33;UP;UP;SWT34;UP;UP;UP;MN255;K30;

Key: M1H
Name: SPLIT+2
Macro: SWT13;SWT13;FT1;UPB5;RT0;XT0;

Key: M2H
Name: RXEQCWS (RX EQaliser CW Sharp)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN008;SWT53;SWT12;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT13;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT24;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT29;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;MN255;K30;

Key: M3H (QSY to RWM 14.999MHz CW)
Name: RWM1499
Macro: FA00014996000;MD3;FA00014996000;BW0040;

Key: M4H
Name: TXEQTOP (TX EQaliser TOP range gain)
Macro: AI0;K31;MN009;SWT53;SWT11;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT12;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;SWT34;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;MN255;K30;

Now I can get some use from the TX and RX Equalisers without having to have a PC permanently hooked up to the K3. Let me know any good macros you have developed.

Elecraft K3 filter offset measurement (8 pole, 400Hz)

2009-10-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

Just had a look at my 8 pole 400Hz filter with it set to kick in at DSP BW 900Hz to keep any DSP effects down and the AGC set to off. Did the measurement (using my FT1000MP MkV providing the sig into dummy load with wire to K3 antenna port wrapped round it giving S9 on the K3 meter. The MP has the high freq stab option fitted).
Using the dBV meter on the Elecraft display and resetting it to 0dBV on each measurement by reselecting it on the menu.

Initial results for -6dB points: -265Hz / +198Hz (meaning offset too high by approx 30Hz within 463Hz)

Adjusted 400Hz filter offset value to -0.03

Final results for -6dB points: -235Hz / +228Hz (meaning offset too high by approx 3Hz within 463Hz)

Note that the filter bandwidth was measured dead on 463Hz on both measurements giving me some indication of measurement accuracy.

MM3T CQWW Phone 09

2009-10-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

It's the day after CQWW phone 09 and I was so impressed by the K3's performance during the contest, I just needed to share.

I'm not a keen SSB operator, but I like to give some points away. The main thing I learnt this contest was that LO-CUT-HI rocks in SSB! I'd been putting up with horrendous QRM trying to work DX buried between big EU stations. I was using the WIDTH control with not much improvement apparent, when in desperation I decided to try and see if I could winkle the DX out with SHIFT / LO-CUT-HI. The result raised my eyebrows is was so good. I didn't realise that intelligibility could be so good at such narrow (shifted) bandwidths. It made me regret choosing the 2.1KHz instead of the 1.8KHz roofing filter.

On another subject,

This contest the following stations decided to start up on top of me when it was impossible to miss me:
DR5Z, DC4A and PA2MRT
They all suffered from "selective deafness" on a busy 40m.

Out the three, DC4A was the worst, he started up with no QRL at 59+40dB exactly on my frequency. I recon his chosen technique is to pick the least QRM freq, then leave the voice keyer on continuous loop whilst leaving to make himself a cup of tea. When he comes back the QRM he has caused has driven away any occupant (as it's pointless trying to reason with a recording). During the time he QRM'd me, he made no contacts. I had to comply and QSY or lose points being stubborn.

Anyway for the first time it annoyed me so much I nearly gave in with frustration. I went downstairs and had a break and before long was back on 40m doing hunt and pounce.

Another couple of times stations started up impossibly close to me and even though I caught them immediately with "please QSY the frequency is in use" they carried on regardless "selected deafness" style. In one case the station complied to my plea only to move 300Hz further away :-). I think tiredness really comes through in these eventualities and it's best not to be provolked by their stupidity and just to take a break (even though they have just ruined a run into the states after a spot).

Elecraft K3 Subreceiver (KRX3)

2009-10-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

I collected the KRX3 from our local Parcel Farce depot and after 3 nights (2 hour sessions), had it in the K3 and working. The build went very smoothly with all parts present and some extra screws and washers for good measure. Instructions were well written and left nothing to experimentation.

However, I did make one silly mistake where I put the filters in the wrong positions (L-R not R-L) and ended up having to take the KRX3 back out and reposition them. It took me an hour of head scratching and foul language till I realised my mistake :-) (the KRX3 filters are unusually numbered from 5-1 (L to R) so your widest filter goes in far right).

I've configured AUX RX to come from the supplied BNC connector as I don't have a KAT3 installed and I want to be able listen to separate bands. True diversity rx is a show stopper. I have an 80m doublet and a 40m quarter wave vertical antenna and was listening to someone in the EU calling for and working JAs. The JAs were masked on the doublet by EU muppets calling back, but the vertical still allowed me to hear the JAs in my right ear through all the EU QRM in my left ear!

Experience with the K3 main rx has taught me that I only need 2.7KHz tx/rx (5 pole) and 2.1KHz rx (8 pole) roofing filters to cover all modes in the sub rx. This is partly due to a design flaw in the K3 which automatically selects the narrowest roofing filter for the selected DSP bandwidth. If there was a manual option, I would buy and fit more roofing filters on the basis that 'I' could choose when to use them. i.e. The K3 selects a high loss narrow roofing filter (500/400/250/200, if installed) and then tries to amplify the output back to the original input level, just because I selected a lossless DSP filter bandwidth of anything at or under 500Hz. If you don't fit these filters it has to stop with the narrowest roofing filter fitted (2.1KHz in my case). This means less internally generated noise and no QRM difference in certain band conditions, a win-win in my book. Of course there are band conditions which suit having a tight roofing filter, but I'd like to be the judge of that!

Anyway, the usefulness of the K3 has skyrocketed with the addition of the 2nd rx and makes my MkV even more redundant than it was. I guess I'll have to think about selling it on before it dies of lack of use.

Parcel Force and rip-off Britain

2009-10-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

My parcel was intercepted by the Glasgow depot of Parcel Force (11 miles from my home).

So in summary:

1) You pay US Postal Services for international delivery to your door.
2) When the parcel arrives in the UK, Parcel Force intercept it and won't deliver to your door.
3) Parcel Force charge £9 "handling charge" for you to come to their depot and collect the intercepted parcel. Parcel Force then collect UK tax (20%) on the item and the original postage charge.

Winners:

Parcel Force - Charge US Postal Services for delivery within the UK, then don't bother?

US Postal Service - Charge you for delivery to the door, knowing full well they can't or don't have to?

UK government - Charge you VAT on a US postal service that they have a hand in making sure can never be complete.

Losers:

You - US Postal charge + UK Handling charge + UK VAT on US Postal charge + Petrol + inconvienience + anger at being charged for services you never get.

Welcome to Rip-off Britain!

K3 FW V3.30 NR notes

2009-09-09T11:49:00.001-07:00

Firmware version 3.25

Fx(1-4)-y(1-4)

x(selects values of Beta (gain), decay, and delay (how long the NR
algorithm waits to process a signal))

y(selects amount to processing of signal 1(Dry, unprocessed)- 4(Wet, processed))

Notes :
All selections 61 taps.

Firmware version 3.27

Fx(1-4)-y(1-4)

x(selects the length of the filter)

y(selects values of Beta (gain), decay, and delay (how long the NR
algorithm waits to process a signal))

Notes :
F1 = 121 taps, F2 = 91 taps, F3 = 61 taps, F4 = 31 taps
Noise reduction less aggressive with more taps.
The 3.27 NR F3-1 is *identical* to 3.25 NR F1-4.
The 3.27 NR F3-2 is *identical* to 3.25 NR F2-4.
The 3.27 NR F3-3 is *identical* to 3.25 NR F3-4.
The 3.27 NR F3-4 is *identical* to 3.25 NR F4-4.

The 3.27 NR F1- is "lighter" than the 3.25 NR.
The 3.27 NR F2- is a little lighter than the 3.25 NR.
The 3.27 NR F4- is "heavier" than the 3.25 NR.

Firmware version 3.30

Fx(1-4)-y(1-4) as 3.27 above

M Fx(5-8)-y(1-4) as 3.25 above

K3 mods completed

2009-09-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

K3 Ser: 1293
Arrived: 20/7/2008

Mods carried out:

1) 10/01/09

K3 AF Mod kit, Rev B

2) 30/08/09

K3 Synthesizer ALC Modification

K3 AF Output Mod Kit, Rev C

Improving the Immunity of the Rear-Panel RS232 and Audio Connectors to RF

KPA3 12V Sense Mod, Rev B

K3 Extreme Signal RX Protection Mod

3) 02/10/09

KRX3 Installed

KRX3 Subout connector keyed

Front panel microphone circuit modification

K3 Negative ALC and Ext Band Data Pull-up Mods, Rev B: REMIOUPGD

4) 31/10/09

K3 VFO Noise Mod, Rev C

IF Output Buffer Gain Modification

K3 KRX3 (sub rx) filter choice

2009-09-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted an 8 pole filter for 0Hz offset to allow true dual rx without the 'slow beat' audio problem.

I had the option to pay $90 extra to SWAP the stock sub rx 2.7K 5 pole for an 2.8K 8 pole and of course I'd have to spend another $125 to match it in the main rx.

In the end I paid $125 extra, kept the stock 2.7K 5 pole and bought another 2.1K 8 pole . I already have a 2.1K 8 pole in the main rx, so having one in the sub rx will allow me to lock the rxs together with a vert and a horiz antenna and listen to both at the same time without 'audio beat'. I also paid $30 extra to get the new 2.7KHz matched (-0.93KHz offset) with the existing one. So hopefully I can get the best of both worlds for not too much outlay.

I recon the 2.1KHz 8 pole roofing filter will be sufficient for SSB/DATA/CW in the sub rx. I'm sure the DSP filter width can more than handle DATA/CW inside a 2.1K roof. SSB through the 2.1KHz is fine (better if the shift is adjusted down 200Hz or so), but it excels on a busy/noisy band. Even in this configuration it should still beat most other radios out there.

Small Wonder Labs SW40+ and embedded K1EL K-PCB (K12) keyer

2009-02-28T05:14:00.000-08:00

Small Wonder Labs website:
http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/
and K1EL Systems
http://k1el.tripod.com/index.html
are two of my most visited websites for QRP gear and ham gadgets. In the past I bought 2 of the SW+ series QRP rigs (80 & 40m) and was and still am really pleased with their performance.

I really missed a keyer though and bought an external K12 keyer from K1EL to use with both rigs. This worked fine, but the whole point of these small rigs is their simplicity and portability. So to keep things simple, I decided to buy the same keyer chip (K12) but in K-PCB format which was small enough to mount inside the transceiver case.

The K-PCB kit takes around half an hour to build and the same again to mount inside the SW+ rig (it's so light I just used cable ties). The kit is $10 which is unbelieveable value for what you get and it fits easily inside the SW+. Unfortunately my kit was missing a 1000pF cap which I replaced from the junk box and the 2N2222 NPN transistor (used to switch gnd to the keying line of the SW+) had to be replaced.

The only slight question was how to get the sidetone into the audio chain of the rig? The K-PCB has a low level AF output for this purpose and after some experimenting I found that the best place to connect it to was the top of resistor R10 (vertically mounted) on the SW+ pcb. That done, I could hear CW commands from the keyer chip through the RX audio of the SW+.

Have a look at the above websites for details on the two kits they really are worth every penny.

IOTA 2009. Shared serial number pool with Wintest

2009-02-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

MM3T will be multi-op for the first time with myself and Simon M0GBK taking up the challenge for IOTA 09. We're off to the isle of Skye this time, but will still be EU-8 for the benifit of SCP files out there. We will have 2 stations operational for 24 hrs and will be operating all bands on both SSB and CW.

One station will be on mults only and the other station running for an hour, then we'll swap over. We will be using Wintest contest logging software, which can keep track of each stns contacts (RSGB requirement) and contribute both to one log (duplicated on both computers for safety). This means the stations will aquire sequential serial numbers from the same pool. The laptops will be linked via a router and if a mobile signal is possible, the cluster will be shared across the network.

The sharing of a serial number pool from Wintest presents some problems. It is possible for both stations to log the same serial number (if enter is hit on both laptops at the same time). It's also possible for the serial number to increment just before you hit enter (due to the other station finishing a contact before you). To avoid this contention for serial numbers, an operating procedure must be in place. I have found it is best to put the onus on the mult station to avoid contention as this station normally has more time to think about it:

Mult Station Operating Procedure:
Wait till the running station has just completed a contact. Dupe it while he is calling CQ, thus reserving the next serial number. This should be done quickly before the running station requires the next serial number. The cursor is then moved onto the dupe ready to edit it with the next station worked. In this way, serial numbers given out never need changed at the last minute and are guaranteed to be unique.

Delta 44 sound card and SoftRock K3 noise spikes

2009-01-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

I had been plagued by some on-screen noise spikes on my K3 panadapter. One of the noise spikes was mirrored approx 48KHz apart on my 96KHz visible spectrum. My delta 44 sound card has got 4 inputs and 4 outputs on it's remote head. I had been using inputs 1&2 for my I&Q from the Softrock.

To make things easy, I had purchased an audio splitter lead from Maplin which allowed me to plug 2x 1/4" mono jack plugs into the soundcard interface and then go stereo to the softrock via a 1/4" stereo plug to 3.5mm stereo jack lead. All in all that made 3 connections per audio channel. I decided to make my own lead with the correct connectors at either end, thus missing out the centre splitter to lead connector.

The mirrored noise spike is now history! The lesson learned, is that you can't have any intermediate connectors in the lead between the soundcard and the K3 without risking on-screen noise spike "funnies".

CW

2008-12-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

My favourite mode is CW. I was asked during a foundation course why CW was so good, and in the following discussion it became apparent that there is an enormous gap in education about what it's like to operate in CW after you've learnt the morse code. Here is my attempt to hopefully inspire more Hams to give it a go.

I've always thought that learning morse code is like learning to ski. At the start it isn't much fun, you look at how effortless everyone else seems to find it, and you wonder if you will ever get to that level. You can see others enjoying themselves, but it seems impossible to get a rythm going at the speeds you are forced to go at. You make lots of mistakes and the effort necessary to complete one run just doesn't seem worth it.

I'm teaching my five year old how to read at the moment and the books she is learning from just aren't that exciting due to language restrictions. TV to her is just so much more accessible, reading simple stories about Dick and Jane just doesn't hack it in comparison. I've tried to tell her that when you read a real book you can let your imagination run riot and suddenly you are there in technicolor. When the film comes out it's never as good as the way you had imagined it.

It's no lie to say that the effort required to ski or to read is immense, neither can be learnt over night. It's only through watching and listening to others that we can tell that learning how to do them is worth the effort.

I think part of the joy of the cw mode is from the fact that it was such a hard won skill. The other part is when you start to realise the added benifits that this new mode brings you.

1) Less background noise.
CW is a narrow bandwidth mode and as such you can reduce the passband of your receiver (using narrow filters) which causes the background noise to fall from the comparitive raging static required for voice mode communication to a quiet, easy listening hiss.

2) More space within the allocation.
You can fit in at least 10 CW stations in the same bandwidth required for 1 SSB station. Imagine having an SSB band allocation increased by a factor of 10. There would be much more room for everyone, meaning more chance of getting that crystal clear frequency on a wide open band to catch that elusive DX. This is the norm in CW mode.

3) More discernable signals.
A CW signal can be copied easily against this hiss and way down into the hiss unlike that of any voice mode. In voice modes, when a weak signal is heard, it is normal to only be able to hear the 'peaks' of the other stations voice, enough to know that they are there, but not enough to understand what they are saying. In the CW mode, each morse code element sent is a 'peak' so in the above case 100% copy is achievable. This is due to the on/off nature of the morse code against the large range of sounds possible in voice modes. It is therefore possible to extend the range of reliable communications that your setup is capable of.

4) Less QRM.
The on/off nature of the morse code allows the receiver to be open/active during off periods of transmission. This allows the sender to partially hear 'through' their own transmission. The advantages of this are many but imagine calling in on a pile-up and being able to tell that continued transmisson was pointless as the DX was now sending back to someone else.

5) Cheaper Equipment
The circuits involved in the creation of a CW transceiver are very much simpler with less components than that of any transceiver with voice capabilities. This allows for easier home construction, less battery current comsumption, smaller more portable transceivers and ultimately therefore cheaper to buy. You can buy a brand new CW transceiver kit for £25.

The above points are only some of the many benefits that make this mode of communication such a joy. All of the above allow more DX to be worked, but the joy of the CW mode goes further than this. Following the reading/TV analogy made earlier, some people find that during a cw conversation your imagination is on full throttle and is filling your mind with clear pictures on the topic allowing you your own version of what the other station is communicating.

I hope that this added information may help inspire someone out there to go that extra mile and make the extra effort learn the morse code.

SDMO Booster 1000 petrol suitcase generator

2008-12-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

I took advantage of a Christmas offer from Screwfix, £100 off if you spend over £450. The generator was listed at £460 so got it for £360, still a lot of money but I'm hoping it will be perfect for portable operations in the summer. It was delivered the next day (great service) and came with oil, spark plug removal tool and battery charging leads.
I topped up the oil, filled it with fuel and started her up. The noise from it is too loud to have it next to the operating position, but walking about 10m away from it dropped the noise to a level that couldn't be heard through a mic. I recon I could run it at the house without bothering my immediate neighbours.
I plugged a power supply into the mains socket on the side of the generator and connected a rig and dummy load. I scanned 1.8 to 30MHz and found no birdies within the amateur bands, the receiver sounded clean and clear.
The transceiver pulls about 20A at 12V at maximum power output of 100W. With the generator on it's 'turtle' (slow rev) position an indicator lamp lights if you exceed it's current capabilities to warn you to switch it to 'hare' (fast rev) position. Whilst looking at this warning lamp I slowly increased the power output of the transceiver whilst transmiting. I could get the full 100W from the rig without having to change up to the louder, faster rev position.
I have a 110A/H leisure battery and I had thought that if the generator couldn't handle the rig on it own, that I would connect the generator and the battery in parallel with the rig. Hopefully the battery will smooth the generated charging voltage sufficiently to allow this configuration. This will be my next test when I get time.

CQWW CW 08

2008-12-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well I found it very difficult. The K3 and the K2 in either ear was easy at the start, but when I got tired it was a nightmare.

I can now see why a lot more automation is helpful for SO2R. Having to change the coaxial stubs over was confusing and tiring, but I didn't get it wrong (thank goodness). There were no knocks on the door this time so I continued through till the end of the contest. I probably got about 24 hrs in and enjoyed most of it.

Things that bugged me:
1) SO2R freq hogs, their not using it, but you can't have it!
2) Running a massive pile up of US stns on 40m only to get my RX obliterated by some non-contest station having a QSK QSO with 10KW and key clicks to match! I have no doubt it's propably the first QSO they've made in the whole year, just to hack contesters off.
3) Having my crystal clear freq stolen by a larger EU stn.
4) Trying to eek out that JA on 20m only to have constant hasstle from people tring to steal the freq because they can't hear the DX i.e. QRL? ? ? QRL etc.
5) Watching all the ridiculous cluster entries go by about LID, squeezing, stole freq etc. The best one was unfortunately from a G4 stn who was warning CW stns to stick to the bandplan. He obviously doesn't know CW covers the whole band in most cases.

Things that were brilliant:
1) Worked HC8N from 80-15m :-)
2) K3 receiver
3) K2 receiver
4) Spiderpole 40m vertical wire antenna
5) Massive pile ups!

The cobweb antenna was playing up due to the frost, I have the wrong string type on the antenna and when it froze up the SWR went sky high.

Contest : CQ World Wide DX Contest
Callsign : MM3T
Mode : CW
Category : Single Operator - Assisted (SOA)
Overlay : ---
Band(s) : All bands (AB)
Class : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/... : 14
Locator : IO75XR
Operating time : 23h12
BAND QSO CQ DXC DUP POINTS AVG
--------------------------------------
160 58 5 29 0 60 1.03
80 363 16 55 0 518 1.43
40 402 21 68 1 568 1.41
20 451 20 75 0 784 1.74
15 18 7 8 0 48 2.67
10 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
--------------------------------------
TOTAL 1292 69 235 1 1978 1.53
======================================
TOTAL SCORE : 601 312

K3 and K2 SO2R, Early days

2008-11-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

I had the thought that before I purchased the K3 second receiver, I would experiment with SO2R using the K3 and the K2. I use WinTest contesting software and this has a dual logging/sending facility (SO2R) that allows 2 rigs to be connected. I had been under the impression that you needed one of those fancy SO2R boxes to get started, but soon realised that there are many different levels of automation in SO2R, from none to completely automated.
The one prerequisit as far as I'm concerned is to be able to hear both radios through 1 set of headphones. I did this with the following bits I had around the shack:

2x stereo headphone jack to two mono sockets
2x mono to stereo adapter
1x 3 way 3 pole switch box

The radios in their current configuration basically output 2 mono channels each. One on the tip and one on the ring of the headphone socket. I used 2x stereo to two mono splitter leads (available from maplin) to allow various combinations of audio at the input of the switch box:
1) Rig 1 tip to headphone tip, rig 2 tip to headphone ring.
2) Rig 1 ring to headphone tip and ring (using mono to stereo adapter).
3) Rig 2 ring to headphone tip and ring (using mono to stereo adapter).

With the headphone plugged into the output of the switch box, I can now select from the above combinations to hear the K3 in my left ear and the K2 in my right ear or the K3 in both ears or the K2 in both ears. I was worried about mixing the earth connections from the headphone sockets of both rigs but in practice this seemed to work fine.

To help prevent interaction between the radios when transmitting from one, I have cut 2x 23' coaxial stubs (one shorted and one open circuit). I have assigned the K3 to operate on 40/15m and the K2 to operate on 20/10m. A tee piece spur from the coaxial line from each rig provides the connection point for each stub. The shorted stub is connected to the k3 coax as it filters 20/10m and passes 40/15m. The open stub is connected to the K2 coax and it filters 40/15m and passes 20/10m. This will hopefully allow me to simultaneously run on one radio and S&P on the other without too much interference.

K2, Z10000-K2 buffer amp and SoftRock V6.2Lite

2008-11-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

With the K3 panadapter being so successful, I decided to go back to Clifton Labs to see if they had a solution for my K2. The K2 doesn't have an IF out socket on the rear panel like the the K3, but luckily Clifton Labs sell a complete kit allowing the Z10000-K2 buffer amp to be installed inside the K2 with provision for a rear panel socket.

The above picture shows the Z10000-K2 daughter board mounted inside the K2 with output IF coaxial connected to the rear panel (top of picture). The input IF is taken from a convienient point on the noise blanker board connection posts.

I then contacted Tony Park for a K2 Softrock (4.898MHz IF). When finished, this was connected to the new IF output from the K2. The AF output from the softrock was then connected to my Delta 44 sound card. Rocky software then uses the sound card inputs to provide the panadapter.

I'm really pleased with the result and it makes a huge difference seeing signals round about you.

MM3T (CQWW Phone 08)

2008-10-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

In preparation for CQWW I bought a BE102 mast support from Lynchy and 2x 5m 16swg ali poles from http://www.metals4u.co.uk/. The plan was to get a Cobweb (multi-band dipole) up at least 9m in the air for 20-15-10m. It was all installed a couple of weeks before the contest and I was getting good reports from the cobweb at around 9m over the ground. I lowered the antenna back down to ground level for safety so that it would be ready for CQWW phone 08.
I got home from work early on the Friday before the contest and put up the cobweb. It was up about 3 hours when the winds started to howl and I decided that since I wasn't using it through the night, I'd lower it and then raise it again on Saturday morning.
Saturday morning came and the winds started to rise yet again. I looked at the weather reports and found it was only going to get worse so rather than risk the antenna I left it at ground level. It was a fearsome gale, about force 7-8 and would definately have brought the antenna down. During all this time I was using my 80m doublet to keep the Qs going.
Sunday morning came and at last the wind died down so I went outside to put the antenna up. Never try and put up an antenna when you are tired! I made so many mistakes it took my twice as long as it usually did, but finally it went up and I hurried indoors to start the scores rolling properly on the higher bands.
I was on 15m and running the full legal limit when I got a knock at the door and a report that I was coming through computer speakers next door. Well, the linear was switched off and I spent the rest of the contest at 100w.
My contest turned out to be a disaster but lessons were learned for the CW leg which is the important one for me anyway.
1) I've ordered a thicker walled pole (10swg) for the bottom 5m mast section, to try and increase it's wind survival spec.
2) I've ordered a 12m spiderpole for a 40m vertical as my 40m score was pityful.
3) Try and get all antennas up before the contest and don't try and change things when I'm tired.
4) Remember to go to 20m early morning for the JA run and not just play on 80/40.
5) Order some ferrite rings for next door.

Hopefully CQWW CW will be better.

One reason to buy an Elecraft K3

2008-08-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

In the past I've bought radios and discovered that they were slightly deaf or off frequency. I found it frustrating that I didn't have the test equipment or the knowledge to align the radio and obtain the specified performance of when the radio was new. I'm not talking about a misused radio, just what happens to all radios through age due to high temperatures slowly changing the tolerances of components.

With the Elecraft K3 I can align the frequency readout at any time with an accurate source like RWM (9.996 or 14.996 MHz). This means that the radio will always be exactly on frequency independant of age. I can do this with no test equipment and in no time at all.

One of the causes of a radio going deaf is the IF wandering outwith the centre of the IF filter passband. With the Elecraft I can use it's internal test resources to measure the response of any roofing filter and I can work out if signals are still central to the filter passband and adjust the IF accordingly.

This means I should be able to maintain my radios performance to a higher degree for as long as I choose to hold on to the radio, without the need for specialist knowledge or elaborate/expensive test equipment.

Priceless!

K3 Panadapter SoftRock V6.2 Lite

2008-08-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

Managed to complete the above project for my K3. I really must recommend this panadapter, now after switching on the K3 the first thing I do is start Rocky and have a 'look' around on 10 and 6m for openings. On several occasions whilst tuning the K3 and hearing a flat band, I've had to reverse tune on seeing a spike jump up on the screen, and as a result completed a contact on what at first seemed like a flat band.

It all started when I came across the following website:
http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/using_softrock_as_a_panadapter_for_the_k2.htm
This page gives the details on how to purchase a K3 SoftRock V6.2 lite. In my e-mail to Tony Park's I mentioned that it was for use with the K3 IF and also the offset crystal frequency of 8.191MHz. He will also give you postage costs to your home location but the price of the Softrock is currently around $12. I paid using PayPal which was very convenient.

I also bought the Z10000U (general purpose) buffer amp board from Clifton Laboratories to help with reverse isolation between the SoftRock and the K3. I didn't try the softrock without the Z10000U in-line, but with it there is no evidence on the K3 rx of the panadapter being there. I used the 150 Ohm resistor for R907 to set the gain of the buffer amp to 6.7dB. I haven't experimented with different values as this seemed to work sufficiently for my needs. To this date I haven't bothered with the optional bandpass filter.

http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/z10000_buffer_amp.htm
http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/z10010_bandpass_filter.htm

The build presented no problems except you have to be capable of working with surface mount components. All in all it took me 5-6 hours to get it all up and working with the K3. I then boxed both boards up in an Altoids tin.

With the tin open you can follow the signal path from the LHS BNC connector (connected to KXV3 IF out) through the Z10000U buffer amp (LHS card) then linked with coax to the SoftRock (RHS card) then finally out on a screened jack3.5mm stereo socket (top right) to the sound card.

Here we can see me writing this article with Rocky software running at the bottom of the screen. I'm listening on the K3 to the small spike shown at the centre of the display. I find it really useful to see what's happening round about where I'm listening to. I've seen huge spikes right next to me and not been able to tell they were there on the K3 :-).

My K3 has the following roofing filter options: 2.7/2.1/1/0.4 KHz.
When using the panadapter it is interesting to listen to the K3 audio output in cw mode and look at the IF output when switching between filters. My 2.7KHz filter has a specified shift of -0.93KHz which is corrected in firmware to correctly line up with the IF. On the panadapter it is clear that the IF actually shifts to correct this error, as all visible signals bounce to the right by approx 1.5KHz in comparison with the 400Hz roofing filter. My Inrad 2.1KHz (0KHz offset) roofing filter also causes signals to bounce to the right but this time by only 500Hz. There is no shift between the 1KHz and 400Hz roofing filters. Whilst switching between these roofing filters, there is no difference in pitch from the audio output. It would seem from these very rough observations that the IF is shifted up by approx 500Hz (plus any offset) when using the 2.7/2.1 filters in comparison to the 1/0.4 IF. I imagine this extra shift for wide filters brings the 700Hz pitch cw signal more to the centre of the filter passband i.e. 1.2KHz. Any thoughts?

The same shift happens on transmit and means that you cannot align your tx and rx on screen. I had thought about buying the INRAD 2.8KHz filter to lose the 0.93KHz offset, but I would still get the 500Hz shift so probably not worth it on cw.

The panadapter is very useful for the identification of noise sources. Without one it's very easy to connect up a new SMPS or Router in the shack and and after a quick tune around believe it to be noise free. With the panadapter it is instantly obvious that noise has appeared, so far I've had to assign a laptop power supply to the bin and can also see the squirmy warble associated with my 2 SMPSs (Alinco DM-330MW and MFJ 4125). Anyone who believes these to be noise free could benefit from a panadapter :-).

Elecraft K3 sn1293 is born!

2008-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

The K3 arrived whilst I was preparing for IOTA. I managed to build it to the 10w stage in 12 hours. The 100w stage took an additional 2 hours. The build was straight forward and well documented.

As can be seen from the above picture, there are lots of bits to assemble and close attention has to paid to the types of screws and washers used for each part of the assembly. Other than that, if you have put a computer together in the past then this will present no problems.

Before long you start to see the radio taking shape and the exitement starts building. I had planned to do 6 hours and then have a break, but like a good book, I just couldn't put it down.

The K3 is an excellent transceiver and to date I've yet to find something that doesn't work :-).

IOTA 08

2008-07-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well it's all over now for MM3T on EU8 Islay. I had great fun and managed to make 460Qs over 12hrs on CW with 100w and a doublet.

Here I am sitting near Carraig Fhada Lighthouse (Port Ellen) with the 'singing sands' in the background. I'm out in the open and it's about 22:30BST. I'm using WinTest for logging and the light from the screen was enough to see the keyboard by (just). The midges were biting as there was so little wind, but other than that the conditions were perfect.

Here you can see the Elecraft K2/100 sitting on the trolley I used to get the battery up to this vantage point. The case I use for the carrying the K2 helped bring it up to a convenient level. Out of sight is my WinKey USB and taped to the trolley handle is my LDG Z11 pro and Elecraft BL2 switchable balun. You can just see the 300 Ohm feeder (bottom left) going to a doublet mounted on a 10m fishing pole behind me.

It wasn't all plain sailing though as Murphy visited the station just before the start of the contest. I had been in the K2 menus configuring the PA fan to run on HI continuously and accidentally changed an adjacent menu entry. The result was that there was no sidetone and no rig control! Luckily I had brought a small laminated manual (Nifty K2 manual) and after 20 mins of reading was able to return the K2 to full operation...phew!

There seemed to be a distinct lack of UK stations on air, as when I did find one they were LOUD. I can only imagine that the brilliant weather proved too much for most UK hams to stay indoors for the contest.

IARU World championships, RSGB HQ entry

2008-07-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided that I would work them despite the unfair operator selection practices. They have widened out the net (slightly) for operators by including one of GM's top 160m dxers (who had unbelievably been missed out until now). This suggests that they are at least trying to include ops from outside the HFCC & friends pool that has been used so often in the past.

I still feel a lot more attention and support would be evident from the rest of the UK, if there was a public call for operators and then, as a result, a publicised decision making process about the final team selection. I don't know about you, but I'd be very interested in the thought process behind the team selection that was made to represent the RSGB.

RSGB VHF Field Day 2008

2008-07-08T04:06:00.000-07:00

I took part with interested members from our local club (Mid-Lanark ARS). A location had previously been found near sea level on the Solway Firth (West coast Scotland) which eliminated some of the hills between our home location and a S - SE direction and afforded us a bit of a sea path for the West side of England. The SE direction was partially blocked by a spit of land approx 1 mile away and then the peak district (only 30 miles away over sea) and was still a major thorn in our sides from having a clear path to the SE. Our path was also majorly blocked to the North by several mountain ranges. Using stacked yagis on 2m probably wasn't a good idea for this reason. We changed over to a single 9 element yagi mid contest (pointing SE) and signals dramatically improved, although some of the team thought that it may have been down to bad coax (time will tell).
As usual the weather oscillated between glorious and awful and we were soaked and dried many times throughout the weekend. I tried out my Carp umbrella for the first time and was happily making tea and admiring the view in the dry even through the biggest downpours, but it did bounce around rather too vigorously on it's guys during some spells of high wind.
I also used my new fishing trolley to cart my leisure cell around trying to find a good spot for the WIFI network we used to link WinTest together between the various stations (6/4m, 2m and 70cm). I'm pleased to say that WinTest and the network were solid and trouble free for the whole weekend.
Getting a group of people to use the more advanced features of WinTest is always very difficult when no practice sessions have been arranged beforehand. We did however manage some passing of stations between the 2m and 70cm operators which hopefully will spur the others into using this facility in the future.
I did feel saddened that the same effort was not afforded to the HF field days, but the majority of the Mid-Lanark ARS seem to be more interested in VHF and above.

Friedrichshafen 2008

2008-07-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just back from Friedrichshafen Hamfest 2008 and have to say that the prices for 2nd hand gear were ridiculous eg. FT290 in poor condition, 250 Euro (£200 ????). Previously I had thought that we Brits were hard done by in terms of the cost of amateur gear, but now I know we aren't the worst.

Out of the 3 days at the show I only bought a bit of wire (10 Euro) and a mains filter (10 Euro). I held off buying, thinking that the prices must drop by the Sunday, but unfortunately it was not to be. Everything you could want was for sale, I just couldn't find anything to buy that was a reasonable price let alone a bargain.

As the show went on, another amateur and I started trying to out do one another with examples of ludicrous prices such as 25 Euro for a broken tape recorder and 200 Euro for a Cobra 148GTLDX (it looked like it had been recovered from a skip).

On the plus side I saw a K3 in the flesh for the first time, but unfortunately it was in a glass case and not connected to an antenna. It was turned on though and the display was very stricking and well laid out. TenTec were represented and I got the chance to play with the TenTec Orion II and the OMNI VII. I can normally walk straight up to any make of transceiver and start sussing out how drive it within a minute or so. Not so with these puppies! I found it very difficult to know what was happening and even after 10 mins of twiddling I was still none the wiser. I did however find several things I didn't like during that time such as wobbly, cheap feeling controls, awful display and lag between front panel control adjustments and the associated control display icon.

The friedrichshafen hamfest is really about meeting other hams and browsing through the present product offerings from all the main manufacturers. Most are on show and can be connected up to give you a fair idea if the product is for you or not.

Friedrichshafen and the surrounding area is a beautiful location for a holiday with the possibility of visiting 2 other very different countries only a short train/ferry trip away. We may go back for another holiday but not to coincide with the hamfest.

All Asian DX Contest

2008-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Tried the radio this morning to see if I could bag any dx in the All Asia contest. It seemed that 20m was in better shape than 40m and unfortunately my only antennas at the moment are an 80m doublet and a quarter wave GP for 40m. The GP was performing better than the doublet for DX but wasn't resonant for 20m. I decided to whip up a 20m vertical dipole on a 10m fishing rod in the back garden.
I tried comparing the main 40m GP with the 20m Vdipole but as usual I found too many different cases where one would outperform the other and then on the next stn the situation would reverse so no real conclusions. Also the 40m GP was 20m away from the house and the vertical dipole was 10m away from the house. The 40m GP was therefore less noisy than the Vdipole. On some occasions though the Vdipole was 3-4 S points better than the 40m GP.
I think the Vdipole will be very useful for IOTA as it is extremely easy to setup and performed reasonably well.
Managed to work 8 JAs, 1 HS0 and a VU within 2 hours with it, so the experiment was well worthwhile.

IARU World HF championship

2008-06-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

Another group of hams have been picked to represent the RSGB in the IARU World HF championship for 2008. The first thing us normal RSGB members hear about it, is the already chosen team. The team is typically a mix of present and past RSGB HF committee members and their friends. Most are accomplished contesters, but some are along for the ride on the basis of locality and being well connected.

I expressed an interest in the team back in 2005, but my questions about operator selection criterion in the following months drew fierce criticism and even personal insults from the more insecure team members. In 2006 after not being 'invited', I again attempted to break the wall of secrecy and was nearly successful after several months of e-mails with an invite to come along on a non-operational basis to a nearby stn. Unfortunately the offer was made only a week or so before the contest and I was unable to rearrange other plans I had made for the weekend (my birthday party). Apart from the offer being made too late, there was already too much bad blood to feel I'd really be welcome. The refusal of this offer was then used by the team to sink any chance I might of had of influencing change.

Some of the correspondence about the above was supportive and came from some of the UK's excluded top DXers (not HFCC committee members) who were as perplexed as I was about operator selection criteria. One good thing that happened as a result of my questioning the norm, was that a top UK DXer was 'invited' after me passing on his callsign as example of how insular/nepotistic their selection process was.

I think the main problem is that if you are not known by the chosen few, you will not be 'invited'. Even if you apply and you are not know by the chosen few you will not be 'invited'. This leads to a very private affair suitable for a private contest team or a DXpedition but is hardly suitable for a selection criterion for a national organisation with thousands of members.

It would seem the RSGB is quite happy with the "Win at all costs, tight knit, secretive society of 'best of breed stns' and friends" approach to representation, rather than a fairer, more open mix of suitably experienced RSGB members interested in taking part. It's certainly easier to organise as it is. It would also seem the RSGB are more interested in winning than in the future of the contesting 'sport' by allowing a fair selection to be made of their whole membership. The crowning glory then comes in the form of being asked each year to work them.

Why don't the RSGB think up a fairer, more open selection process, such as a call for operators in the Radcom or as a prize for winning RSGB contests. So what if thousands of 'unsuitable' members apply, at least the RSGB will be operating as an open society again in this respect.

Field Day Cludge

2008-06-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

Just back from a very enjoyable field day, but it had some low points:

1) Arrived on site to find no lighting or chairs. Luckily I had brought a deck chair and everyone had torches.

2) The generator died 2 hours into the contest and could not be fixed.

3) A leisure cell and FT897 was used to replace the FT1000MP and generator. The FT1000MP can't be configured quickly to accept 12v. The FT897 needed a special lead for rig control which we didn't have.

4) The laptop that held the log was windows 98 and could not be run from 12v. Being 98 we could not use a pen drive to transfer the log. The wireless router ran from 12v so the log was transferred wirelessly before the laptop battery died. The new laptop was configured for 12v and the log was recovered.

5) The winkey we were using required drivers to work with the new laptop and the key plug was the wrong size for the FT897. We didn't have a parallel keying lead. We had a memory keyer but it took an hour to remember how to program it properly for the contest.

6) The leisure cell would only last 12hrs tops. Luckily one member was joining us the following day so he could bring a second.

7) The plug on the memory keyer was the wrong size for the FT897. An adapter was found but the shell of the adapter prevented it from fitting into the socket recess. A suitable lead was found to allow the adapter to be remote from the rig. The overall length of the new cludged lead was around 5m long.

8) When we fired up the rig and transmitted through the top band doublet, RF got into the long keying lead and caused the rig to go key down. A choke was cludged by winding the long keying cludge lead round a coke can.

We were on the air again......PHEW!

The above problems curtailed operation for most of the first night. Being a relatively new contester I am used to operating with computer aid so the thought of having to do most of the keying using a paddle was a bit daunting. Never the less I managed and actually got into a rhythm and started to enjoy the added involvement. I'll maybe consider doing some /p work now without the computer to weigh me down and therefore less battery weight required.

Anyway it was a first hand insight into how contesting used to be...bring it on :-)

IOTA 08 preparation

2008-06-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

I bought a 'match trolley' , a 'carp umbrella' and some ordnance survey maps of Islay today at a local fishing emporium. Fishing shops are great when looking for equipment for going portable, as comfort and rain proof are high on the design criterion of most of the products, and that's exactly what's needed here in GM for portable work.

I'll need the trolley as I don't want to be limited to operation from the car and the 110A/H leisure cell I'm taking weighs enough to give me a hernia. The trolley has big puenumatic tyres on it to soak up any rough terrain and as an added bonus it will also double up as a rather comfortable chair.

The reason for the umbrella instead of a tent is to get round any objections to 'camping'. With the umbrella I can sit down and operate in any remote spot without any possible land owner getting worried about it turning into a camp site. The umbrella is huge at 2.5M in diameter and has an extendable pole with a spike on the end for ground mounting. There is also a guying point on the apex if the wind gets up. I should be able to sit under it on the trolley with the laptop on my lap and the rig beside me. Imagine a fisherman on a riverbank and substitute an antenna for the rod, a K2 for the tackle box and a laptop and logging software for the keep net. I'll even be wearing wellies for goodness sake! They can sit there for hours in comfort so I'm gambling I'll be able to do the same.

My only worry now is the Midge. Midges are a small biting insect which we have in GM (especially the west coast where I'm headed) which can drive you a man to insanity, a cloud of the little blighters can decend on you and all you can do is run for cover. The fishing shop had some mosquito nets, but the mesh was really too large to deter them. I'll maybe have to make do with a midge hat and repellant.

I hope that a better solution will present itself when I arrive on the island, but I think it's always better to prepare for the worst.

K2 noise

2008-05-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

Had an extended play on the K2 this evening enjoying 10m :-). Noticed a birdie on 28.020 and traced it to rig control. It sounds like a tone which dies in strength when the software polls the radio for frequency etc. It's easily identified by varying the software polling rate on the computer. The tone makes an appearance on discrete frequencies on most bands above 30m. There is an extract in the K2 manual on how to disable the square wave signal generator in the rig and instead use the timing source derived from the computer. Unfortunately this seems only to apply to the KIO2 unit and not the one integrated in the KPA100. I'll have to do some web research on how to eliminate it.

While I was at it, I disconnected the antenna and tried to find any noise from my Alinco DM-330MW SMPS. Sure enough I came across a low squirming warble noise on a discrete frequency and was able to move it about with the noise offset knob on the front panel. The noise isn't really a problem for me, it's remembering to try and shift it on the PSU before QSYing.

K2 problem soved

2008-05-28T04:16:00.001-07:00

A bit of a lessons learned here I'm afraid.

Took the K2 apart looking for the deaf 10m problem. The symptoms were:
10m tx fine
10m rx deaf
12m tx fine
12m rx fine

A really puzzling set of symptoms because 10 and 12m share the same BPF and LPF. The only difference being the addition of 2 capacitors to the BPF by relay when the 12m band was selected. I hunted around these areas looking for solder splashes that would keep these caps connected when 10m was selected but found nothing.

In desperation I tried injecting signals direct from the antenna though a 480pf cap to various points before and after the LPF/BPF. When connecting to the start of the BPF the rx sprang to life...haha I thought it's the LPF! But even when connecting to the very last component of the LPF the rx was deaf. I followed the circuit diagram and noticed that the signal path went through the 160m optional module. On connection before the 160m module the rx was deaf. On connection after the 160m module the rx sprang to life. What on earth was happening on the 160m optional module that was causing 10m rx to be deaf? Then it dawned on me, the 160m optional module allows a separate rx antenna to be used on ANY band. A quick look in RANT menu selection confirmed that 10m was selected to use the rx antenna! A quick couple of key presses and hey presto all was well.

Ok, it would be nice if the firmware let you know that the rx antenna was selected for that band by showing some symbol on the LCD but I really shouldn't have left it in that condition in the first place. I had been fooling around with a 2m transverter with a 10m IF and had left the rx ant option selected on the 10m band...easy to do I suppose.

Anyway the long and the short of it is that the K2 is 100% healthy and ready for IOTA :-).

CQ WPX CW 2008

2008-05-27T00:39:00.003-07:00

I happened to be in Tignabruaich for this contest on a Family holiday but managed to get on and make some Qs.. I am eager to 'air' MM3T as much as possible in this way to get the call into K5ZD and other such databases. Currently the call is still a bit raw and I get quite a large percentage of requested confirmations and even a response from GJ saying that the call was illegal. Hopefully in a year or so the call will be bedded in and can be used seriously.

Anyway, I made 270Qs between 20m and 15m over a period of 6 hours. The highlight of the contest was being called by 7Q7ww on 15m. I was using the K2/100 and the tactical mast described previously. I think it was acting as a 5/8 wave vertical on 15m, but I forgot to take wire for radials and had to make do with a couple of loaned off-cuts. Still, everything I could hear, I could work so I was well chuffed. I learned the following:

1) My K2 is deaf on 10m. Fault?
2) It took me 1 hour to deploy the tactical mast, more practice needed.
3) I can go 6hrs straight on CW before feeling a bit 'head tired'.
4) I can run the laptop and rig off the same 12V leisure cell (110 A/H) without interference.

Recent History

2008-05-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd fill in some history between 2004 and 2008. After discovering morse-runner and hence contesting, I decided to try and compete in the RSGB club championships. I tried CW, SSB and finally RTTY. I only ever managed to win 1 event and that time the conditions just seemed to favour Scotland and not the rest of the UK. Luckily I was there to take advantage of it and got the win. I also started doing RSGB field day events with my local club and enjoyed the outdoors and the companionship.

I joined the local contest group GM0B and took part in CQWW SSB events in 2005/6 as a multi-multi team and managing to persuade a few members to do CQWW CW 2005/6 as a multi-single team. In 2006/7 I organised GM0B for IOTA as a multi-2 and we activated Bute and had a great laugh, but only scratched the surface of getting to grips with being competitive. GM0B missed CQWW in 2007 due to lack of operators and didn't look like it would ever do a CW contest again due to lack of a shack. I decided to try and organise a club and contest group to ensure in the event of GM0B backing out of CQWW SSB or CQWW CW contests, I could still compete without soiling GM0B's pedigree with my poultry score. The new club's contest call is MM3T and will predominantly be used for CW contests. The next outing for MM3T will be IOTA when I'm off to Islay off the west coast of Scotland.

Well that's us up to date, and where it goes from here we'll have to wait and see.

Magnum Rally

2008-05-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

I went to the magnum rally in Irvine on Sunday. I was hoping that some kind sole would have have brought along their Elecraft K3 to show off. It's really too late to find I don't like the K3 as I have already ordered one (due to arrive before IOTA). I also wanted to sell an old VHF multi-mode transceiver to fund the outstanding balance of the K3. It wasn't to be my day as the K3 didn't make an appearance and no one wanted the old VHF transceiver. The reason for this blog wasn't for these failures but to document a find.

I'm off to the isle of Islay for IOTA on 25-28/7/08 so have been thinking about what antenna to take. I'm going with family, but will be setting up and operating alone. I don't want to be spending a lot of effort/time setting up, but still want to put out a potent signal. There, on an army surplus stand at the magnum rally, a friend spotted an 18ft fibreglass mast made by a company called Thales, neatly wrapped up in a waterproof army green shoulder bag. On inspecting it, I discovered it was not only a mast but a field antenna system. There was a reel of wire which when mounted at the top of the mast could be pulled out and wrapped round and down the mast to a feed point. The reel itself also had an integral socket connected to the reel wire which allowed a collapsible metal 7ft whip to be inserted thus increasing the overall length of the antenna to around 30ft. All in all, a 25ft stucture as light as could be hoped for and designed with attention to detail that only the MOD could orignally afford. I scooped it up complete for £40, so the day wasn't a failure after all.

On getting home I errected it in the back garden with a friend and stuck an LDG Z-11 pro antenna tuning unit at the bottom and managed to tune it from 40-10m. It wouldn't tune on 80m as expected, but I didn't have any radials fitted and could still hear A61 and W3,4,7,8 and 0 coming in on 20m. I recon with some practice I'll be able to deploy the antenna alone and therefore it could be the one for IOTA.

Introduction

2008-05-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog will be to track events in my ham radio hobby until I get bored or forget to blog. I'll try and include some photos of what I'm talking about as we go along to make for easier reading. I'm new to the whole blog concept, but hopefully you will be patient while I find a writing style and get to know my way around.

I was born in the summer of 69 and I've been a ham since 1986 and although I've taken a few breaks along the way, I have enjoyed the hobby immensely. I would describe myself as a traveller in the hobby as I haven't settled into any particular niche of activities and instead like to to learn, play then move on to the next area of interest. As such, I've become an expert in nothing but have a base understanding about a large area of the hobby.

Between 86 and 96 I enjoyed peak conditions on 10m and managed to put together a resonable station despite living at my parents house. I passed my 'A' class exam in 86 and said goodbye to CW and hello to SSB DX.

Between 1996 and 2000 I successfully completed a degree in Electronics, then between 2000 and 2004 changed job, moved house, got married, was made redundant, got new job and had a family. During all this time I was all but absent from the ham radio scene.

Since 2004 several things have happened. My Ham radio hobby was more closely merged with my computer by using an electronic log book and electronic QSLs (gone was the drudgery of the hobby!) and data modes became a possibilty for me. My interest in CW (morse code) made a surprise come back and this time I had the computer to use for training, which really made the difference. Instead of calling for hours on my limited radio setup, I could train with programs like morse-runner. This had a two fold effect, firstly my receiving speed very quickly went up and also an interest in contesting was developed.

Anyway this completes the 'introduction' part of the bog. Now to blog what's happening as it happens.