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...

Final preparation

 I made my decision, I take the magloop with me on vacation. One final test this evening on 60m FT8 convinced me that it is the most versatile antenna. It covers all the bands the (tr)uSDX has and has a small footprint. Tuning for every new frequency is a disadavantage but for digimodes it is not important, once tuned it is ok.

I made a FT8 contact with a station in Germany over a distance of 273km with the setup as showed on the photo. From inside the shack with about 4W. For 60m I need a double loop which should be inefficient. But I got a report of -8dB which is not even weak.

Unfortunatly I lost CAT control two times. Not shure what causes this. It is not RFI since it was happening when receiving. May be the poll time is too high? I figure it out...

The (tr)uSDX is not the most reliable radio but it does the job. I don't bother that I have to reset the radio at times or reconnect the USB cable to get things working again. At least it is possible to make contacts with it.

Now to pack everything in the rucksack and wait for the day that we can finally go...

Antenna stress of choice

 What antenna to bring with me on vacation? I have 3 choices. But as always everything has pros and cons. The same counts for antennas.

Choice 1: 3 Band endfed made by PE1BVQ (SK). Advantage: reliable, has proven itself, light, broadband, small to carry. Disadvantage: Pre-tuned, large (you cannot hang it everywhere), only 3 bands. Using the (tr)uSDX it means I can only use 40m and 20m.

Endfed attached to a gutter

Choice 2: Magnetic loop. Advantage: reliable, small footprint, can be use inside a house or shed, all bands 80-70cm, fast setup, directivity. Disadvantage: Tuning box is relatively heavy and big, difficult to tune, very small bandwidth (retune every new frequency). 

The MLA package

MLA deployed

Choice 3:  Superantenna MP-1 Advantage: Broadbanded, DX antenna (proven), light, small to carry,  has larger bandwidth as MLA, easy setup. Disadvantage: It is relatively large (long radials) when deployed, it doesn't always tune well, very sensitive to surrounding. 

MP-1 Package

MP-1 package

MP-1 deployed

It's a hard choice. I had good results with the MLA from Germany were I had not much space for an antenna. But the MLA on a tripod fitted in and did well. The MP-1 has been my antenna a few times when active from Denmark with good results. I never brought the endfed with me on vacation, the endfed does well on my 12m glassfiber mast. However there is no room in the car for the mast. Overall there will be limited room in the car. So I can't have it all. I have no idea if I have room for an antenna at our destination but so far I can see that there is a small garden behind the summerhouse we rented. I don't want to give more details. But I can reveal that my prefix will be SM/,,,