Your first HF CW contest

 Here are some handy tips and hints to remember for your first CW contest:

Running (calling cq)

you:    cq your call test

other:    his call

you:    his call 599 exchange

other:    599 exchange

you: tu your call

S&P (search and pounce)

other:    cq his call test

you:    your call

other:    your call 599 exchange

you:    599 exchange

other: tu his call

What could be simpler? Well it would seem the a certain country can't manage it. In S&P they like to do the following:

other:    cq his call test

you:    your call

other:    your call 599 exchange

you:    cfm 599 exchange

other: tu his call

you: tu

The 'cfm' is implicit and unnecessary and wastes the other persons Qs/min rate. During QSB you are guaranteed to hear CFM 599 ......... and nothing else promting you to shout "just give me the exchange!". The final unnecessary "tu" however is the real kicker as this masks the next caller and causes the pile-up to stall, a real f**k you very much for the contact.

These extras are not in the default macros of any contest logger software, so this country operators actually go in and add them!

Some other strange habits, if you get their call wrong due to multiple callers in a pile-up, they are programmed to repeat their call twice, sometimes without even completing the exchange. What they don't realise is when you have called them (even with a slightly wrong callsign), the rest of the pile-up stalls and they are in the clear, the double repeat just hacks everyone off and stalls the pile-up unnecessarily.

Why so pedantic, you try doing many 24 hours straight contests over a period of 30+ years and having to deal with the same stupidity every year...it's about time they were told.

While I have your attention, never, never, never send a '?', just wait patiently for the operator to give their callsign. The reason they don't give their callsign is because they don't want you to call. Sending a '?' is just going to mask the other callers he does want to call and this will cause you to have to wait longer.

The height of stupidity is asking the running station for their call, please just listen for as long as it takes till you are sure you have it right BEFORE calling. Never, never, never expect a station to QRS for you, you have all the the time in the world to decode it BEFORE calling.

A lot of this guide is contrary to what you have been taught, this is because casual operating and dxing is NOT the same as contesting. Please reward contest operators for giving you a contact of a lifetime by being EFFICENT cfm? 

FTDX101D PC CW Keying with DTR

Situation:

Rig FTDX101d. Using N1MM+ to send stored messages (F1 etc) using DTR of the USB port (standard port) to send CW. Setting the radio to CW Setting -> Mode CW -> PC Keying -> DTR to receive the hardware CW keying.

Findings:
Surprisingly this direct method of sending CW from the PC doesn't seem to need PTT? With no transmit CAT command, nothing connected to the PTT input at the rear of the radio and without BK-IN engaged on the front of the radio, the messages from N1MM+ software are transmitted by the radio.

Looking into this a bit more...

In N1MM+, RTS of the USB port (standard port) is set to 'Always Off'. PTT is therefore not being sent to the FTDX101D from N1MM+ on pressing one of the message keys (F1 etc).

How can the radio know when to enagage and disengage PTT at the right times for the message when no PTT signal is sent?

This led me to experiment with the following BK-IN menu setting despite BK-IN being disengaged on the front of the radio:
Changing CW Setting -> CW BK-IN TYPE -> SEMI to FULL

Eureka! Yet more madness from Yaesu! Now when I sent the message from N1MM+, the radio is in Full break-in mode despite BK-IN being disengaged on the front of the radio!

In summary, when using CW Setting -> Mode CW -> PC Keying -> DTR, the FTDX101D uses BK-IN irrespective of the front panel control. Bonkers!

This fact is important to me for contesting as if BK-IN is used, it has an associated CW BK-IN DELAY after the message has completed. This means I will not hear the first CW element of fast return callers. Why Yaesu has done this instead of allowing the PC to control PTT through RTS like the K3 I'll never know. Oh well back to using a Winkey with fully controllable PTT and CW KEY. Buyer beware!

Regards

Doug GM0ELP

Data modes invading cluster CW mode

 

What is happening here? Using the dxspider command "accept/spots on hf/cw" to filter my local cluster, I am getting all sorts of nonsense spots returned with JT65/FT8/FT4 in the comments??? Please can data ops respect the cluster and spot correctly? This is not acceptable and ops doing this should be banned by the cluster sysop.

RSGB IOTA Contest 2020 HFCC

As predicted this contest was a disaster.

NOT DUE to the COVID19 pandemic, but due to the HFCC putting no effort into creating rules which would have allowed curtailed operations to continue.

I listened in and the only saviour to many bored operators were stations that decided to take matters into their own hands and operate /P from the island that they happened to be on anyway (summer holidays...remember those...when you were young...going off with the kids....a distant memory for those in HFCC it would seem).

I just hope that most of these /P operators knew about the ludicrous "home station only " rule imposed by the "Chief Medical Officer" of the RSGB HFCC. I can imagine that some operators would only find out that they had travelled to an island and spent many hours setting up and operating a /P station providing entertainment for RSGB members only to find out later that they have been disqualified.

The only way this contest can now be judged is for all the points distributed by these cheating /P stations to be removed from the logs of home stations that wrongly decided to try to work them.

RSGB Contest Committee IOTA contest 2020

Does anyone else think the RSGB Contest Committee have got it wrong for the IOTA contest in 2020. Apparently the best they can do is suggest "single operator only" and "working from your home station" only?

Hello?

Most working people with kids will be on holiday on July 25/26 and will be away from their home stations.

I recon this ruling makes sense if you are retired and live down south where you have to travel extensively to reach an island. You need to plan and book ahead to get comfy accommodation and you are used to winning your category through year round planning and letting a large group of people take the strain of setting up the station and antennas for you. You only need to operate for a couple hours before your buddy comes to release you as your bladder probably can't go longer than that anyway. A large scale event with a nice sociable side to meet your buddies.

It completely makes NO sense if you are still working and stuck with taking holidays when the kids are off. You live up north and you are right next to an island. You don't need to plan ahead as you just drive over and operate from the car, completely on your own and setting up light weight portable antennas that will never let you win anything. You operate for 12 straight hours in a herculean effort to work your way up the rankings.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned COVID19. This is because when trying to discuss this issue with the contest committee I feel their situation is predominately tending towards the latter 'retired' category (above) and as such are ruling to suit themselves rather than putting some real effort into making IOTA 2020 the best it can be, despite COVID19. It is all too easy for them to put on their politician hat and a grave face and say things like "we had to make a decision in plenty time" Why? Single ops living next to an island don't need plenty time? or "We don't want to encourage travel" Eh, that's not up to you, I'd rather listen to the CMO! or "It's only a game, whilst people are dying" How long are you going to keep this up 1, 2 , 3 years? or until a cure is found? At least make a decision which is sustainable for everyone (and not just the retired) like "single op only" and "no island hopping". Their decision is final and not up for discussion.

It's really very disappointing to me personally that after more than a decade of competing in a COVID19 compatible format i.e. Single OP totally self-sufficient DXPedition, that the contest committee fails to recognise this category by blanket ruling "home station" only. ***Even if I weren't to travel to an island, I'm still technically excluded as I'm on holiday with the kids and not at my "home station"**** ridiculous! All the /m /a /p stations excluded in one stupid spoiler rule. However this will suit a lot of slipper wearing, pipe smoking, coffin dodging retirees and help them still win their category (get their moneys worth out that STEPPIR someone  else installed for them). Arguably the premier RSGB contest event of the year almost completely spoiled by self-indulgence, scaremongering and nanny state behaviour.

I feel that the RSGB Contest Committee fails to realise that Radio is one of the few things left that is safe to do during these hard times and that we should be doing more to promote it to the bumper crop of new hams that have entered the hobby because of COVID19. Instead they have erred on the safe, easy side and spoiled what could have been a more interesting contest result where the large groups are banned by putting in place a simple "single op" rule.

I have a mind to take part from EU123 together with all the other tourist crawling over the islands. Imagine the pile ups on the bands for EU123! Then I won't enter the contest or submit a log as a two fingered salute to RSGB Contest Committee.

Very, very disappointed that people who have got this country through COVID19 by continuing to work 'at risk' are being excluded from things like the Hope contests and now IOTA....nuts! Bring on retirement!

Yaesu FTDX101 Spectrum Scope Mode : Cursor

After having played with other transceivers, I am disappointed in the implementation of CURSOR mode. I don't like having to push the spectrum scope along, as if you find a signal, you always have to back tune to find it. I would much prefer an auto scroll mode where (when the limit of the span has been reached) the scope jumps ahead by half the span leaving the tuning marker mid-screen. I know about the other modes and use FIX in CW and CENTER in DATA and feel CURSOR is most suitable in SSB. The implementation of CURSOR could do with a re-think though.

Yaesu FTDX101 review

I own an FTDX101D. Having owned and played with a lot of other transceivers, I am left with a sense of disappointment in the lack of ease of use (in particular) the lack of settings memories available on the 101. I feel that the designers of other transceivers have spent more time considering the owner experience and usability. After studying this, I have focussed down on several settings related to the scope on the 101 which are not remembered in the band-stack:

1) Spectrum Scope operation mode FIX/CENTER/CURSOR
2) FIX frequency
3) SPEED
4) SPAN
5) LEVEL

For instance, I set up the triple band-stack for CW/Data/SSB for the 10m band.

I like the following scope setting on CW
1) Spectrum Scope operation mode: FIX
2) FIX frequency: 28.000
3) SPEED: FAST3 (as I like to decode by eye)
4) SPAN: 50KHz
5) LEVEL: Effects of tight roofing filter (300Hz), and low span means high level gain required

I like the following scope settings on Data
1) Spectrum Scope operation mode: CENTER
2) FIX frequency: 28.074
3) SPEED: SLOW1 (As I like a longer period of history visible)
4) SPAN: 5KHz (In FT8 only 4KHz required)
5) LEVEL: Effects of tight roofing filter (300Hz), and low span means high level gain required

I like the following scope settings on SSB
1) Spectrum Scope operation mode: CURSOR
2) FIX frequency: 28.400 (If I change to FIX)
3) SPEED: FAST1 (As I like a medium period of history visible)
4) SPAN: 100KHz
5) LEVEL: Effects of wide roofing filter (3KHz), and high span means low level gain required

Unfortunately none of the above settings are remembered in the band-stack. This means that on each change of band (with the exception of FIX frequency) or band-stack, the previous settings of these parameters just pass through, meaning I have to manually alter all the above settings every time...very very tiresome! You'll recognise this failing if you've been using FIX in CW and you change the band-stack to SSB...the cursors fly off the screen and the scope is looking at the CW FIX frequency and the VFO is up in the SSB portion of the band....crazy!

By changing the band-stack to remember these extra parameters the ease of use factor will go through the roof (this will also work when changing band). 

Do you think remembering these parameters in the band-stack would be helpful to your usage case?

Doug GM0ELP/MM3T

FTDX101 Tips and Tricks

TIP 1. If you have CW Auto Mode (CW Setting -> MODE CW -> CW AUTO MODE) set to ON, you can still turn your PROCessor on/off using the PROC button, the trick is that you have to engage PTT and then press the PROC button to get it to switch the Proc on/off rather than the Keyer on/off.

TIP 2. To get CW Auto Mode to work, you have to select CW mode turn on BK-IN then select SSB mode. From then on it will remember you want BK-IN when sending CW from SSB mode.

TIP 3. If you want to use the radio with a wireless mouse, all wireless mice are not the same, I finally found that a Logitech M310 works when connected to the top USB port on the front of the radio (it doesn't work in the bottom port).

TIP 4. Both the RS232 and the rear USB ports work for CAT control simultaneously.

TIP 5. When setting up the microphone equaliser bandwidth (Operation Setting -> Tx Audio -> PRMTRC EQx BWTH), bandwidth is a very misleading word, Yaesu actually mean 'Q' i.e. a setting of 10 means a response over a small bandwidth (say 100Hz) and a setting of 1 means a response over a large bandwidth say (1KHz).

TIP 6. When setting up the microphone audio and drive levels AMC is mega important. AMC is on all the time, but you can only control its level by selecting (Operation Setting -> Tx Audio -> Proc Level -> AMC). The AMC level can then be adjusted using the Proc rotary control to dial in an AMC value. Note the value is counter intuitive, a setting of 100 means no AMC limiting, a setting of 1 is maximum AMC limiting. A setting of 100 will give you distorted modulation and cause the compression and mic gain to be impossible to set correctly. Starting from 100 work your way down until the you can set the compression and ALC level as stated in the manual. Most microphones work well at a setting of approx. 65, YMMV. To test a value of AMC you have to jump back into the same menu setting and select COMP before you can adjust compressor settings to see if you can get it to behave.

TIP 7. If you have problems with the rig wanting to update the firmware when you switch on, this is caused by the equipment on the other end of your RS232 connection not being switched on. I have also heard that sometimes the RS232 connection causes sd card load problems, the solution being you have to disconnect the RS232 cable from the back of the rig before trying to load files.

It's a great rig, but as you can see there are currently a few quirks.

FT8 is currently causing the death of my ham radio hobby

It's a topic we've all heard before, but here is my perspective. In the 35 years I've been a radio ham this year has been the worst for the lack of activity on CW and SSB modes in all the HF and VHF bands (especially high HF i.e. 15/10m).

Is it that the bands are just in really poor condition you may ask? Well no is the short answer! I say this, because in my experience, 90% of the time whilst I've been calling CQ, I've been listening to multiple FT8 signals banging in and according to the cluster and my decode, its coming from all over Europe and beyond. However on CW and SSB modes there is silence despite my attempts at calling CQ.

Is it that FT8 is just way more capable of making QSOs compared to other modes you may ask? Well no is the short answer! I say this, because in my experience as a CW operator, 90% of the time if I can hear a signal I can work it and I can hear FT8 signal coming in at S9 and I am still not able to get a response to my CQ calls on CW.

My conclusion is therefore that FT8 has spoilt my fun on the 15/10m bands and VHF especially. Unfortunately this is where I am 90% of the time. Where I used to be able to call CQ and nearly always get a response, now I get nothing except a bandscope full of strong FT8 signals.

Should I consider moving to the FT8 mode? I already use FT8 where it is appropriate i.e. when 10m is just opening. As soon as I can see or hear FT8 signals, I switch to CW or SSB. Why do I do this? Because FT8 is a weak signal mode not a full communication mode and it's extremely limited info exchange mechanism is only suited to essential information pass under hard band conditions. When the bands open, there is no point in this in my opinion. I can therefore only surmise that those who do not change to a more suitable communications mode are not interested in communicating, are unable to use CW or prefer communicating from behind a keyboard rather than use their voice! These concepts are all unattractive to me as they directly affect my hobby as described above.

I do believe that everyone has the right to their own hobby, so I would never dream of trying to spoil their fun or force them to use other modes some of the time. I therefore just have to accept that FT8 is currently killing my hobby. YMMV.

ARRL DX SSB contest Poor Education on Transmit audio and Transmission Width

There seems to be a lot of SSB operators who don't understand why setting up your transmit audio as per the manual is important. Instead they ask a station on another continent to give them a transmit audio check. They will keep on increasing their mike gain on the basis they are told their audio is getting louder without detectable distortion. Radios like the Yaesu FT2000  and the FT1000MP were the worst, as you could keep winding up the mike gain to sound loud. However, the by-product of doing this is splatter, turning your 3KHz signal into a 6+KHz signal. Someone on another continent is unlikely to be able to hear or see your bandwidth growing as normally splatter is 30-60 dB down from the 3KHz main audio. The real effect will be apparent only to local stations or on bands where your signal is well over S9. For instance the ARRL DX SSB contest has most of Eastern Europe beaming directly over the UK, most of these signals heard on 20m in the UK are 6+KHz wide and trying to compete is pointless. Not adjusting your radios tx audio (as per the manual) is cheating, plain and simple, ignorance is not an excuse. I'm sure it isn't a matter of poverty as most QRZ page search results reveal modern equipment, I am convinced it is a matter of education. The ARRL DX SSB contest is currently in full swing and the biggest offender on 20m is:

HA8JV

who is 10KHz wide. I gave him a QRM report and his answer was "understand", he then asked a US station what is audio sounded like, the US operator replied "perfectly readable".... This is a perfect example of the problem.

CW Contest for data operators

I'm all for data operators having a go at cw contests using a computer, but please read this before the contest to save annoying every cw operator on the planet. I've had a go at a few data mode contests and it seems usual in RTTY or PSK31 to give your call sign and report twice. The logic (i think) behind this is that sometimes the computer gets it wrong and at least if given twice your attention is drawn to try and correct mistakes. However, in cw contests this practice is frowned upon and unnecessary.

Here is the expected behaviour for CW contests:
1) CW contests are all about efficiency
2) Always give your call sign and report exactly once
3) If the station gets it wrong the first time, simply repeat the last exchange exactly once
4) If no response leave a gap then repeat exactly once then leave a gap

CW is really cool and I like operators that are really efficient. If you get no response then simply repeat the last exchange exactly once. Leave a short gap for the operator to come back, then if not repeat again, he will come back when he gets it or gives up...simple!

There is nothing more annoying than someone who repeats things twice without a gap when you make a mistake. Sometimes when a pile up is large you only get a partial call. The idea is that when you give this partial call, everyone else stands by and allows the caller to complete the QSO. If this caller decides to repeat information more than once without a break, the pile up gets impatient and the QSO takes even longer to complete.

If you are one of these annoying people who believes "give my call twice without a break if you don't get it the first time" please remember by doing this in a contest, it singles you out as a "data operator" or a "LID" to everyone waiting, and the run station at the other end will be shouting "I only need it once!", whilst 3-4  stations waiting in the pile-up may tune away due to the length of time they are having to wait per Q. 

Worse than this, you may double with the run stations response on your second unnecessary callsign repeat and a stalemate occurs which is normally always broken by the run operator having to repeat your call to let you know the previous exchange was for you. Of course you probably don't remember the exchange as you are just playing and the operator has to give you the whole exchange again. By this point most of his Q rate will have vanished, together with the pile-up. At this point your Q will have been most unwelcome as it was at everyone else's expense....

Why am I such an angry man for such a little thing? Out of an entire contest of say 2000Qs over 24hrs, roughly 1 in 5 S&P stations do this during a pile-up, that's 400Qs where I lose the will to live.

REMEMBER... what is right for a normal cw qso is not correct for a cw contest!