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

Sunday 8 December 2019

CW for beginners, lesson 3

Unfortunately most cw conversations don't use plain English as this would be laborious and tedious to send in full. If a word can be shortened it will be and if there is a Q code for the sentence it will be used. The results can sometimes be confusing for the first time listener. Here is an example of a two way standard (rubber stamp) cw conversation:

*************
CQ CQ CQ CQ (general call) DE (this is) GM0ELP GM0ELP K (over)

GM0ELP DE M0GBK KN (prosign, back to you)

M0GBK DE GM0ELP GM (good morning) DR OM (dear old man) UR (you are) RST (Radio Signal Tone) 599 599 BT (prosign, break) OP (operator) Doug Doug ES (and) QTH (location) is Hamilton Hamilton BT So hw (how copy)? AR (prosign, end of transmission) M0GBK DE GM0ELP KN

GM0ELP DE M0GBK GM (good morning) DR OM Doug UR (you are) RST (Radio Signal Tone) 599 599 BT (prosign, break) OP (operator) Simon Simon ES (and) QTH (location) is Meltham Meltham BT Condx (working conditions) hr (here) rig Flex 6600 es pwr (power) 1KW es ant (antenna) OFCD 10m up BT Wx (weather) is wet es cloudy temp is 9 degrees BT so BTU (back to you) Doug AR GM0ELP DE M0GBK KN

BK (Break-in, now that calls have been established no need to repeat) OK Simon TNX (thanks) fer (for) condx (you conditions) hr rig is ftdx101d es pwr 10w es ant dipole 10m up BT Wx hr is sunny es temp is 15 degrees BT TNX fer FB (fine business) QSO (chat) es HPE (hope) CUAGN SN (see you again soon) 73 (good wishes) AR M0GBK de GM0ELP KN

BK es tnx fer INFO (information) dr om Doug es all CPY (copy) BT Hpe cuagn sn 73 TU (thank you) AR GM0ELP DE M0GBK KN

tu . .

..

*************

Don't worry about this as most conversations are rubber stamp and vary little from the above. Most constructs can be guessed and you will always get some sort of understanding.

Some tips:
1) When decoding don't write everything down, just the important things like name etc.
2) Don't write down capitals, a lower case scrawl is faster (it's not a quality record!).
3) When starting out listen to beacons (28.2 to 28.3) and slowly decode the repetitive message they send.
4) Always tune to the higher end of the cw segment of the band as this is where QRS (slow speed) cw is always sent.
5) Don't listen on cw contest days (weekend) as high speed cw is the norm and can be off putting for the beginner.
6) Always wear headphones to cut out distractions and close your eyes to help concentrate.
7) Don't be frightened to ask for a repeat "SRI (sorry) PSE (please) AGN (again) UR (your) name QSB QSB (fading) BK".

Doug GM0ELP

Saturday 7 December 2019

CW for beginners, Lesson 2

You will hear a lot of nonsense from old timers who have forgotten that there is one thing you have to do before anything else and that is.... simply learn the morse code alphabet!

This preceeds everything else...bar none!

We have 26 letters to learn, ignore the old timers (prosigns, koch method, just recognise the tune blah blah blah) and lets just cut to the chase as fast as possible by using simple association and memory techniques to try and fast track the code into those "little grey cells" believe me this step is unavoidable.

Firstly lets do all the letters that only consist of di's or ( . )s, **remember the letter group "eish"**:

e ( . )
i ( . . )
s ( . . . )
h ( . . . . ) That's 4 out of 26!

"Every Indian Shoots High" imagine the arrows coming towards you.

Second, lets do all the letters that only consist of dah's or ( _ )s, **remember the group letter "tmo"**:

t ( _ )
m ( _ _ )
o ( _ _ _ ) That's 7 out of 26!

"Totally Massive Ohms" imagine a PCB track circuit with small breaks, the ohms become massive with more breaks.

Third, lets do all the letters that start with di's and end with a dah, **remember the group letter "auv"**:

a ( . _ )
u ( . . _ )
v ( . . . _ ) That's 10 out of 26!

"Autonomous Underwater Vehicle" imagine the di's are the rope with the dah being the vehicle slowing going up the alphabet.

Fourth, lets do all the letters that start with a di and end with dah's, **remember the group letter "awj"**:

a ( . _ )
w ( . _ _ )
j ( . _ _ _ ) That's 12 out of 26!

"Awful Woolly Jumper" picture wool being pulled from a single point on a badly knitted woolly jumper, the dit being the single point on the jumper and the dah's being the wool.

Fifth, lets do all the letters that start with dah and end with di's, **remember the group letter "ndb"**:

n ( _ . )
d ( _ . . )
b ( _ . . . ) That's 15 out of 26!

"No Dust Bins" picture a bin lying on it side and the litter spilling out.

Sixth, lets face it if you've listened to any cw, you'll definitely hear this pattern all the time, **remember the group letter "cqdx"**:

c ( _ . _ . )
q ( _ _ . _ )
d ( _ . . )
x ( _ . . _ ) That's 18 out of 26!

"CQ DX" just listen to some cw on air.

Seventh, dah or dah's encapsulated with di or di's

r  ( . _ . )
l ( . _ . . )
p ( . _ _ . ) That's 21 out of 26!

"Right Lazy Person"

Eighth, multiple dah's ending in di or di's

g ( _ _ . )
z ( _ _ . . ) That's 23 out of 26!

"Giant Zebras"

Ninth, lets face it if you've listened to any cw, you'll definitely hear this pattern all the time, every general call ends in a 'k' and also a repeater sends it after you unkey.

k ( _ . _ ) That's 24 out of 26!

"CQ DX DE GM0ELP K"

Tenth, think of this as forming the letter 'f' with the first di being the tail of the letter and the dah being the strike through of the letter.

f ( . . _ . ) That's 25 out of 26!

 as follows:
    .
   _
  .
.

This leaves us with y, no help here

y ( _ . _ _ ) That's 26 out of 26 and we are done!

Now we need to practice recalling the alphabet in cw, if you stumble, punish yourself by going back to the beginning. Enjoy!

Doug GM0ELP

CW for beginners, lesson 1

The following is an explanation of sending the word "paris" in cw to help the beginner understand the sending cadence required to allow someone to decode it properly at the other end. The word "paris" is used as the standard for determining the speed of sending in words per minute (wpm) i.e. if you send the word "paris" 12 times in a minute, you are sending at 12 WPM.

Definitions:
1) Element : A length of time equivalent to the length of a "." (di or dit) in cw. The actual time used in sending a "." changes depending on words per minute being sent, so we just refer to this time duration as an element for this explanation.
2) Dah Symbol: ( _ ) equivalent to 3 time elements.
3) Di Symbol: ( . ) pronounced "di"(mid-letter) or "dit"(located at end of a letter), equivalent to 1 time element.
4) Symbol space : (') duration equivalent to 1 element.
5) Letter space : (,) duration equivalent to 3 elements.
6) Word space : (/) duration equivalent to 7 elements.

The word "paris" consists of the following letters (given with cw equivalents in symbols with time duration in elements):
P (. _ _ .) = 2 Di symbols (2 elements), 2 Dah symbols (6 elements).
A (. _) = 1 Di symbol (1 element), 1 Dah symbol (3 elements).
R (. _ .) = 2 Di symbols (2 element), 1 Dah symbol (3 elements).
I (. .) = 2 Di symbols (2 elements).
S (. . .) = 3 Di symbols (3 elements).

A total of 22 symbol elements, however we need to include symbol space elements:

P (.'_'_'.) = symbols (8 elements) + symbol spaces (3 elements).
A (.'_) = symbols (4 elements) + symbol space (1 element).
R (.'_'.) = symbols (5 elements) + symbol spaces (2 elements).
I (.'.) = symbols (2 elements) + symbol space (1 element).
S (.'.'.) = symbols (3 elements) + symbol spaces (2 elements).

A total of 31 time elements,however we must also include 4 letter spaces and 1 word space to complete the understanding that we are sending a 5 letter word:

P (.'_'_'.), = symbols (8 elements) + symbol spaces (3 elements) + letter space (3 elements).
A (.'_), = symbols (4 elements) + symbol space (1 element) + letter space (3 elements).
R (.'_'.), = symbols (5 elements) + symbol spaces (2 elements) + letter space (3 elements).
I (.'.), = symbols (2 elements) + symbol space (1 element) + letter space (3 elements).
S (.'.'.)/ = symbols (3 elements) + symbol spaces (2 elements) + word space (7 elements).

A total of exactly 50 time elements. So to send the word "paris" takes exactly 50 time elements. 

Example: To define the time duration of 1 element when sending at 12WPM:
12 words x 50 elements = 60,000 ms.
element = 60,000ms/600 elements
element = 100ms.

The purpose of this exercise is that now you will understand why sending cadence is everything when sending cw successfully. You will also now appreciate that a computer will send perfect cw whereas a human will send cw with imperfections. This is why the majority of serious cw contesters use the computer to send cw 90% of the time.

Doug (GM0ELP)

Wednesday 27 November 2019

Yaesu FTDX101D performance in CQWW CW 2019

Before the contest started I played with the setup of the rig display. I wanted 2 bands (one left and one right side) with minimal space reserved for meters (just to show PO and SWR for transmit) to allow maximum waterfall/spectrumscope space. The waterfall/Spectrumscope ratio isn't adjustable when setup this way, but the default is good with more screen realty given to the waterfall. The left hand (VFO A) half of the display was configured to:
(CURSOR)/FIX/CENTER,
SLOW1/SLOW2/SLOW3/(FAST1)/FAST2/FAST3 and 1k/2k/5k/(10k)/20k/50k/100k/200k/500k/1000k. This allowed me to call CQ and see (in good detail) the stations around me. It also allowed me to search and pounce the whole band without the signals moving as I turned the VFO (until the screen needed pushed along a bit). The right hand (VFO B) half of the display was configured to:
CURSOR/(FIX)/CENTER,
SLOW1/SLOW2/SLOW3/(FAST1)/FAST2/FAST3 and 1k/2k/5k/10k/20k/(50k)/100k/200k/500k/1000k.
This allowed me to see the whole cw portion of the same band as VFO A or check a different band for possible mults (in one gulp, starting from XX.000KHz). I found the waterfall speed of FAST1 as being sufficient to see morse element detail without them disappearing off the screen during short gaps in rx signal. This setup was used till the end of the contest. I found search and pounce with VFO A a bit tedious as after tuning to the edge of the display, I had to push the displayed band segment along +10KHz with the VFO, then tune back to search and pounce the new segment. This allowed me to tune without the waterfall trails 'bending in frequency', which I find distracting.

VFO B was a mess on 20m with 500+ stations packed across the 50KHz, but I found using the rig mouse brilliant for search and pounce until RF caused it to stop working. I changed the mouse to one with a screened cable and a ferrite added for good measure and all was well to the end of the contest. I found using the mouse across a 50KHz span to be faster than just turning the VFO and more so, I could see when I had skipped a station during gaps in their transmission and back click to bag them.

I used the rig's RS232 port for OMNIRIG (used by my Gemini HF-1K for band/antenna selection) and the rig's USB port for rig control with N1MM+. I also used the rig's linear port (15w d-type) to control the KAT500 antenna tuner by sending PTT and band selection detail to allow pre-tune and antenna port selection on band change. This produces a fully automated setup and leaves very little to get wrong during the heat of battle.

I left the roofing filter on 600Hz (I don't have the 300Hz optional filter) and used the width control down to 150Hz for search and pounce or really bad adjacent station QRM. I did try the "VC tune" auto preselector (utune equivalent) on 40m but it made no discernible difference. The pre-amp was set to IPO on 40m and below, but I found AMP1 necessary for 20m and AMP2 for 15/10m good for weak signal when conditions allowed. The receiver never once gave me cause for concern with these setting during the whole contest, except for the usual eastern european QRO +2KHz wide brigade that dominate the results (Italy/Hungary/Bulgaria/Croatia being the worst offenders closely followed by Russia). A real downer for the sport having what can only be regarded as blatant cheats allowed to 'reserve' +2KHz to themselves and cause misery to the rest of the EU, there really is no contest possible with this situation.

Hopefully these eastern EU super stations will eventually be named and shamed with the proliferation of SDR recording stations. Being able to see the station means you can identify who is causing the clicks no matter how far away they are from you. If you have a home brew linear amplifier that you tune for maximum power and your receiver isn't the top spec available and you still have hair at the end of CQWW CW, you should know that your TX IMD is appalling and everyone hates you and your super station no matter what result you get.... stop cheating and clean up your act! Rant over ;-).

The FTDX101D worked brilliantly and so did the LinearAmp Gemini HF-1K/KAT500 combo for the whole contest. Looking forward to the next!

Sunday 30 June 2019

Yaesu FT-991A spectrum-scope / waterfall display noise through headphones work-around

After the work-around for the "no PTT in cw mode" bug. I started to think I might be able to use the FT-991a in a cw contest. On plugging in my headphones to the phones socket and listening through them, I noticed a background noise that sounded like a whine with some data like noise inter-mixed. I changed headphones but the noise was always present (more noticeable with low volume). For some reason I pressed the function key and noticed the noise disappeared (same effect with pressing the menu key). I soon realised that the noise was only present whilst the spectrum-scope / waterfall was visible and actively updating. I had a think about making up an audio low pass filter to go in series with the headphones but then thought better of it in case it let loose the magic smoke on such an expensive radio. I then started to play with all the scope settings like dimmer and colour to see if the whine would go away. Eventually I hit the solution, the noise would vanish completely when the "moni" (monitor, in the function menu) value was reduced below 20. Hopefully the time I spent finding this work-around will help someone out there!

Sunday 7 April 2019

Flexradio SSDR multi-client v3

Multi-client is an interesting feature developed by flex to allow 2 connections to one radio. I suppose the need to create useful application for their 2 SCU transceivers was great but I can’t help thinking that they have missed a trick. Why not a feature to allow SSDR connect to multiple radios? This way one could achieve the functionality of 2 SCUs in physically separate locations with once instance of SSDR. Surely this would be of more use to everyone?, but I expect this would have been too technically challenging for them?

Sunday 10 March 2019

Yaesu FT-991a or FT991 cw ptt fault (no ptt via usb2 or rs232 in cw mode!) Work-around

The FT-991a has pc based ptt in all modes except CW! Note that I don't mean keying the radio through full or semi break-in. The reason for not using these break-in modes is as follows:

1) Full break-in is useless in contests as you never want to hear while you are sending. Also this mode thrashes the radio/amp TX/RX changeover relay, leading to an early demise of your radio/amplifier.
2) Semi-break-in incorporates a delay to prevent the radio from removing PTT between sent cw words and elements. This delay is also applied at the end of every transmission, meaning you miss the start of callsigns from fast return callers. Also if you vary the speed of sending or have a different manual sending speed than the PC, the delay value will need adjusting each time to avoid needless PTT drop-outs.

To avoid these pitfalls it is more efficient for the PC just to apply PTT when it needs to. When the PC sends a cw message it engages PTT and then removes it immediately at the end of the message. You'll need a winkey or similar to interface the PC with the radio in CW mode.

Yaesu aren't interested in fixing this in their firmware, so here is a work-around for anyone who wants to use an application (N1MM+, Win-Test etc) to PTT the FT-991a in CW mode with a winkey or similar. The only way to PTT the FT-991 from a PC in cw mode is through pin 6 of the RJ45 mic socket on the front of the radio:

https://shop.technofix.uk/cable-for-pc-headsets-3-5mm-jack-8p8c-modular-rj45-for-yaesu-ft-817-ft-857-ft-897-ft-450-ft-900-ft-991-etc.

The 1/4" PTT jack socket can be used to hook up the PTT output from your Win-Key or other device:

https://www.hamcrafters2.com/WKmini.html

Note: This hardware workaround causes auto CW in SSB mode to stop working, as if the MIC PTT is engaged in SSB then the source of transmission will be from the MIC, not the cw key input. As long as we are in CW mode all is well.

With the above setup you can then ignore the following FT-991 Menu items: 056 CW BK-IN TYPE (semi/full). 057 CW BK-IN DELAY (30msec to 3000msec). The internal break-in feature and keyer will be disabled in the next section, as these functions will now come from the winkey or similar.

Whilst in CW mode, disable the internal break-in feature by hitting the F key and then toggle BK-IN to OFF. You also need to disable the internal keyer by hitting the F key and then toggling KEYER to OFF.

Using the above hardware and firmware recommendations means that the FT-991 can now be used for cw contesting in an efficient manner from a contest logger and from the key plugged into the winkey or similar. It's a shame that Yaesu seem to have lost any in house experience in CW contest operation and are now producing sub-optimal equipment for the masses who don't know any better. Just imagine if they they did this this on data modes too, the FT8 crowd would be on them like flies.

I can only hope that this radio was an "ooops" moment for Yaesu and that the architect is demoted to coffee duties. Hopefully this article saves many ops selling up their FT991 in favour of a proper cw radio like an Elecraft K3.

Thursday 3 January 2019

FlexRadio Systems Maestro

There are currently several problems with this unit. I won't go into the Dell tablet internal battery charge problem (if not connected to power for several months) as this has been admitted by Flex (not sorted) and is well documented elsewhere. The problem that concerns me is one that FlexRadio claims is the fault of common networking equipment e.g. Netgear GS105 gigabit ethernet switch. As a firmware engineer myself, I see this problem as being a Maestro 'power on' boot problem where if the negotiation between the Maestro PHY and the Gigabit switch PHY (auto-negotiation for ethernet link speed) is interrupted (for whatever reason), the two units connection is permanently corrupted until the next power cycle. This means either the Flex or Netgear implementation of this auto-negotiation protocol is incorrect. I tend to trust a networking specialist company over one or two peoples opinion in Texas, especially when everything else plugged into the switch works FB, however YMMV. Apparently if you buy a specific type of switch or mandate a 100Mbs link speed this problem goes away (I am less than impressed with this Flexradio solution? which should really have been a eureka moment for them). FlexRadio does hint at the real root of the problem being that most commercial networking equipment is meant for browsing the internet rather than permanently streaming spectrum and sound information and recommends moving to gaming network gear to achieve a better QOS. I have no problems with QOS, once the Maestro is successfully past the auto-negotiation sequence (which in my opinion is the real problem) everything works fine. The fault happens every 1 in 10 power ups and is realised with the Maestro showing high packet loss despite being wired ethernet connected to a gigabit capable switch. Many users have tried to convince FlexRadio of this fault, but due to the 'fanboys' applying pressure, and the ignorance of company, no reasonable discussion can take place on their community forum. If you are happy to pay £1300 for a Dell tablet with a 1 in 10 start up success rate then go right ahead and buy one, ps. all problems will be down to your own networking equipment!

Optibeam OBW10-5 wire beam antenna

The antenna is high quality, but the manual isn't. I struggled many times to read and understand it, each time I resorted to looking at a picture of the antenna and working it out from there. Apart from the manual I found the antenna hard to put together, no doubt because I hadn't understood the manual. There are many bits and all sizes of nuts and bolts seemingly being specified for each job rather than ease of construction and cost. It comes to mind that this antenna could have been simplified and productionised better making it easier to manufacture and making it less expensive to buy. The antenna does however work well on all specified bands with highest SWR being 1:1.6 on 12m. Funnily enough this antenna is not manufactured any more and has been replaced with a compact minibeam OB10-5M (without the wire). If you are considering buying this antenna second hand, ropes and silicon tubes should be inspected for wear and tear as these are the only perishables on the antenna.