The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

The CQ Worldwide WPX CW contest was this weekend.  I made just over 100 contacts and 43 countries in the first day, including many new ones that will help my progress for the DXCC Century Club Award for CW Mode. I made the first 10 contacts using the Log4OM Contest Mode, which was very painful.   At the recommendation of Jon NN5T I decided to bite the bullet and dig into N1MM+ Contest Logger.   Boy and I glad I took his advice.  Not only did I learn how graceful a contest logger can be,  I was able to operate most of the day using the “Single Operator 2 Radio” Mode which was very easy to set up.  It took a dozen or so QSOs to figure out exactly how N1MM+,  FlexRadio, Slice Master and CW Skiumer worked together, but all I can say it that it was seamless once I had all the ports configured correctly. N1MM+ is the worlds most popular contest logger, and there is a ton of documentation on the web, unfortunately most of which is dated,  I found a prett...

Elecraft’ s choice to use of NiMH (nickel-metal-hydride) batteries is really the only complaint I have about the KX3.  It probably made sense at the time, but even the KX2 and the ICOM 705 use LiFePo4 (lithium iron phosphate).  The original NiMH batteries provide exactly 12v which limits the power output to 5 watts or less.  Also, the internal charger takes 8-12 hours and isn’t all that precise.   Which in practice means I typically use an external LifePo4 battery like the Bioenno 12v 3Ah battery which enables me to run at full 15 watts. When I travel, there are times I don’t want take an external battery so I found a KX3 LiFePo4 internal battery conversion project by Howard K4LXY.  The project consists of rewiring the battery holders into two parallel packs each holding 4 3.2v AA sized (14500) LiFePO4 batteries to create a 4S2P configuration (4 Serial, 2 Parallel).  Rated at 3.2v and 600mAH, the new batteries generate 12.8v and 1.2Ah of power, enough to p...

Friday afternoon I was able visit the Washington on the Brazos Historical Site, something I vividly remember reading about in 8th grade Texas History class and always wanted to see.   The site is located on the Brazos River, only about 31 miles south of College Station.  The exhibits were fine to see and gave me a new perspective on this period of Texas.  Known as the Birthplace of the Republic of Texas in 1836,  Washington was a thriving town with an important ferry crossing that allowed all sorts of supplies and goods to be transported from the gulf coast up to the frontiers towns.   Texas had been a colony of New Spain, a part of the Spanish Empire till 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from Spain.  15 years later,  Texas would become an independent republic in its own right. More history and information at:: http://www.thc.texas.gov/historic-sites/washington-brazos-state-historic-site 73,  Chris de WX7V

This morning I had the chance to activate K-0454 as part of the Early Shift before work.   I got to the park  just before 7am ET and found an out of the way place to park my rented POTA Rig (a very fun to drive Honda CR-V Hybrid).  It took me nearly 30 minutes to get set up because I kept fiddling around and messing up the most basic things. First I couldn’t find my MacBook Air that I use for HAMRS - figured I left it back in the hotel.  Then I couldn’t find a pen and paper for manual logging, other than the envelop with my license and FAA/TSA/Airline related Lithium battery transportation policies that I keep in my Go Pouch.   I spent a few minutes to see if I could  get HAMRS loaded on my work tablet, but (wisely) decided against that.  A few more minutes to experiment with the manual logging screen directly in the POTA Website.   I was about to Call it a Day when I noticed the MacBook was in my backpack after all! Next,  I used a 16oz Weav...

The KiwiSDR platform enables you to listen to radio from anywhere around the world. This is particularly useful if you want to hear your actual "on the air" transmission and fine tune your audio settings - both transmit power and TX audio equalizer if your radio supports it. My FlexRadio does. This morning I was calling CQ on 30M and RBN showed my signal spotted in Samoa and New Zealand at 11dB and 14db respectively. Conditions per Log4OM2 were Kp:2 (Quiet) A:13, SFI 136 Sunspot 44. OK but not great given where we have been in Solar Cycle 25. Using the KiwiSDR Map, I found station ZL1ROT on line in New Zealand with an 80M HF antenna and a S/N Score of 31.  All channels were busy so I had to wait in queue for a few minutes before getting access to the receiver. You can see my CW signal on 10.119 in the KiwiSDR screenshot below.   The settings are all default except the mode set to CW and the zoom set to zoom to band.  Connected to KiwiSDR: Software-defined re...

I activated K-6590 today as part of a trip to east Texas.  WMAs are really great spots to operate, relatively undeveloped, with very limited motor traffic.   Check ahead because most WMAs are closed frequently for sponsored hunts.  A special use permit or a hunters license is required to enter WMAs in the State of Texas. The Old Sabine Bottom WMA consists of 5,727 acres of bottomland hardwood habitat. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife, the land was purchased in 1995 for the conservation of this valuable habitat type and to provide an area for public recreational opportunity. Conditions were excellent but it was a little difficult to find a hold a frequency that was clear of contest QRM.   I operated near the upper edge of the 20M band with great success - 14.341 SSB,  63 contacts in just under 50 minutes.  Rig -Yaesu FT-857d,  ATAS-120a actively tuned screwdriver antenna,  100 watts. 73 Chris de WX7V

 I completed the ERC Version 4 USB kit from Vibroplex this week.  The kit comes with a CD for the calibration and test software, plus a PDF folder that has the kit assembly instructions and installation guidelines to mount the board inside the control box for specific rotators.    The kit was easy to build, but getting it working with my rotator took a bit more work.  Specific pin outs and solder points are not documented -  you have to determine that on your own.  The  theory of operations is discussed, and schematics for many rotators are provided, but I needed to use a voltmeter and a little of of trial and error to correctly wire the ERC board to the Yaesu G-450ADC rotator controller. In addition to USB cable, the kit also requires an external 12V power supply.  Vibroplex sells a fully assembled SMD surface mount version that uses power from the USB cable instead.  The board has test points for both 5V and 12V supplies.  Vibrop...