There you go. Just when you think you're a experienced contester you make a big mistake. I got into the shack early in the afternoon and checking out propagation. I noticed some stations that called CQ WW on 20m FT4, so obviously some digital contest was going on. I quickly moved to the settings of WSJT and switched on WW contestmode and started to make contacts. In the mean time I tried to find the rules for this contest. I found a page here:
https://ww-digi.com/rules/. It opens now but at that time I only got a 404 message. So I tried a couple of times but no luck. No problem, I assumed a WW contest always last for 48h so I could continue the fun. Suddenly I noticed there were a lot less stations on air. Well no problem, could be a change of propagation? I also noticed stations did send reports instead of the usual contest exhange, I was confused. Then I found the contest times on a contestcalendar. The contest was over at 11:59 UTC....well it was....12:13 UTC. I'm sorry for those stations I confused....they probabely think
I'm still a LID,
Luckely I had some nice QSOs as well. I continued to check propagation and despite there was no SSB/CW signals on the 10m band I saw some stations active on FT8. One station I saw is well known to me but I haven't heard or contacted him for quite a time. It was
EI2KC Anthony. We quickly made a FT8 QSO and had a small chat via messenger. Anthony is a well known writer about ancient Ireland and I'm happy to see he updated
his blog again recently. So he made a entry into my blogroll again. Well, about 10m QSOs, I recently try to optimize my receive on SSB. The IC-7300 has so many possebilities and filters it is just a way of trying to find the right setting which is personal for everyone. When a signal is just audible it makes a huge difference what filter configuration you use. And in contest situations it could be completely different. So I was listening for small SSB signals on 10m this afternoon when I came across the huge signal from EA7EU Pedro. Actually he was the only SSB signal on the entire 10m (SSB) band. Pedro and I made a nice QSO and connected through twitter to continue and view some photos of his ED7O conteststation. Well, because of the nice contacts I forgot about the mistake made earlier and feel a lot better now...
There you go. Just when you think you're a experienced contester you make a big mistake. I got into the shack early in the afternoon and checking out propagation. I noticed some stations that called CQ WW on 20m FT4, so obviously some digital contest was going on. I quickly moved to the settings of WSJT and switched on WW contestmode and started to make contacts. In the mean time I tried to find the rules for this contest. I found a page here:
4 comments:
Hallo Bas, een foutje kan zomaar gebeuren. Ik ben ooit wel eens in de war geraakt door de tijdsverschillen. Hier de laatste tijd weinig activiteiten, wel natuurlijk WSPR op 20 meter. Vergaat dan ook af en toe om de blogs te checken voor nieuws. 73 Paul
Hallo Paul, in dit geval geen tijdverschil probleem. Ik wist hoe laat het was. Echter ik ging er van uit dat het een 48 uurs contest betrof...Ja WSPR blijft leuk, ik volg je WSPRlite posts dan ook zeker. Enige nadeel is dat er geen RX in zit. Ik wil binnenkort weer wat meer op WSPR gaan doen. Wat mij wel tegenhoud is dat er een radio+computer de hele dag aanstaat. Officieel mag dat volgens mij niet eens al word het wel gedoogd zolang je het station maar op afstand uit kan zetten. 73, Bas
Hallo Bas, de RX kant was altijd al een probleem hier door de vele city QRM. Soms op 20 meter tot S9. Daar wordt een amateur niet blij van. Nu hebben alle buren hier zonnepanelen. Of dat nog QRM geeft zou zo maar kunnen. 73 Paul
Ik weet het Paul, misschien is een speciale ontvangst antenne wat voor jou. Misschien in combinatie met een X-phase QRM killer....Ik zit zelf momenteel te denken aan een "Loop On Ground" systeem. Maar ben dat nog aan het onderzoeken. 73, Bas
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