NTCQP again

   I participated once again in the Netherlands Telegraphy Club QSO Party. I really looked forward to it and I had a goal to make more QSOs as last time. But unfortunately it didn't happen. At first I listened on 40m but hardly couldn't decode any call. Some stations I heard were OK2BVX, DF4WX, PI4NTC and PA1HAM(?) and PA3GPX. I couldn't hear a name or NTC number all the keying went way too fast for me. After half an hour I moved down to 80m. Had a short exchange with OG0C. Then back to the NTCQP. I finally heard someone with clear and reasonable speed keying, it was PA3CNI. I got his name and NTC number after a couple of overs and decided to make the call on 16 wpm. He did came back on the same speed and it went smoothly. Confident after this one I was looking for another contact. I heard many strong signals but couldn't decode anything out of it. Some use probably mechanic keys and the way the dots and dashes sound is messing my brains up. In the end I think I heard OK1LO, SF6SSC and PA9X but I'm not sure. 

I have to say that this was a little discouraging. I wanted this so bad but am not able to simply decode morse behind the simple 5NN after 2 years of every day practice. 

But Bas, you make CW QSOs? You did make them from Sweden and others are in your log? Yes, but most of the ones in my log are 5NN contacts. Everyone can make them, even without knowing CW. And in Sweden I was using the decoder built into the (tr)uSDX, it feels like cheating. I really want to do all decoding in my head. It should be possible so I will continue on my difficult path to learn morsecode...

QRV from Sweden

  We took our family vacation for 2 weeks visiting Sweden. First time we were in this country. We rented a house in Djupekas and so we had kind of a base to get back to. Advantage was that I could leave the antennas installed. Besides our daily trips exploring the south of Sweden I had some time for my radio hobby most time in the evening and some time in the morning. I made some skeds with hamradio friends in the Netherlands which went very well. Unfortunatly the setup was not really good for DX. When I packed my station I had just enough room in the backpack for my endfed. So I decided to take both the magnetic loop and the endfed in the end. I'm glad I did because the endfed was the antenna I operated most of the time. 

The focus was to do as much as possible CW. The (tr)uSDX is a real CW radio in my opinion. Although it does a nice job on SSB and digimodes as well. I was glad there is a CW decoder built in because I still have problems following a complete sentence. I do recognize some letters and words but there is no way I can figure out a complete sentence. Luckely the decoder helped me to figure out the complete text keyed. 

In the end I made about 98 QSOs with SSB, CW, FT8, FT4 and VARA on 20m, 30m, 40m and 60m, I also used JS8 but could't find a station to QSO with although my heartbeat has been responded to by many. I learned a lot about the (tr)uSDX functions and in the end I made 19 CW QSOs in total. I have to tell I made a lot of CW CQ calls but there were no stations answering most of the time. In that case I switched over to FT8/FT4 which always easily gives you a lot of contacts. The only DX I could make was with a station on the east-coast of the USA on 20m FT8. Not bad considering my setup. 

Experiments I did:

1. Using VarAC to send an e-mail. I wanted to know if I could send an e-mail with ths setup. It went well in the end but it took some effort to find a station that could hear me.

2. Work DX. As soon as I saw spots of myself on PSKreporter in the USA I tried several stations.  I finally worked W2HCB on 20m FT8 after a while.

3. Worked 60m with a double MLA configuration. I tried CW, did not get any response. I knew PA2S and PG0DX would be on early in the morning. Worked both of them on FT8. I also worked DB6LL who was also /P. And I worked SM0BRF who is near Stockholm,we did an e-mail exchange because he asked my location in Sweden and I was unable to answer that with FT8.

4. Try 80m with the double MLA configuration. I tried hard but could not find a sweet spot. I couldn't get the SWR better as 1:5 . I didn't want to risk a broken (tr)uSDX, So I did not operate 80m. I might think of another antenna setup to be able to do 80m next time.

Setup 60m early in the morning

The (tr)uSDX did a great job on a vacation like this. Although I did try it at home, when operating as my only rig I had to learn some things. Like the use of of TXdelay. You need it when you work CW but when you switch to digital you need to switch it back off. Besides that the best volume for CW is at 11, at least for me. But on digital it is way to loud, best setting for me was 7. At the start I had a lot of problems with CAT control due to incorrect settings. But it went better when I used the settings as described above. Same counts for the laptop in use, at start it was empty withing 45 minutes. But I found there is a way to put it on battery save mode, which didn't affect digital operation. 

Station right after my CW QSO with PE2V.

The (tr)uSDX itself doesn't use much power. In about 12 days of operating it I only once needed to recharge my 12V powerbank which is holding about 5Ah.

The endfed was too low the first day. I couldn't get a good SWR on 40m. I bought a spool of  plastic laundry wire at the local supermarket to get the antenna higher into the nearest tree. I was lucky there were rocks all around so I attached on to the line and threw it over a high branch. It went easy actually. SWR on 40 was a lot better, 1:1,3 on 7100 KHz, The SWR meter in the (tr)uSDX is a great function. 

QSOs approx. made, some might miss.

Of course radio is not the only thing in life. We did a lot of sightseeing. And enjoyed the beautiful nature of Sweden. 

The baltic sea just 200m from the summerhouse.

My quest to learn CW (20)

Daily practice continues...

 

I try to be on air with CW as much as possible. Did make some 5NN contacts with DX stations. But would like so much to exhange more as 5NN. However I'm still unable to follow a complete transmission. I do a lot of QSO practice listening on the CWops training page with 25/15wpm. But even that can only be copied about 50%. As you can see above I train random letters/numbers with 25/18wpm, copy about 70-90% as you can see it is mostly 80-85%. My brain is just not fast enough. Some letters are easy but have some trouble with a few. I did read it is normal and according to this PDF from WZ8C it could be wise to just train the alphabet again for ICR. For ICR training I found another interesting app for Android or Iphone/Ipad users called Morse Maven. Haven't used it much yet but will do on vacation. I also tried calling CQ randomly with 15wpm. Unfortunatly the stations that come back to me have a higher speed and I'm lost in copying, it is a little discouraging. Anyway, I'm keeping up doing my daily training sessions and will persevere...