My quest to learn CW (11)

 It is almost a year ago I started learn CW seriously. I knew it would take a long time.

It's a fun slow journey. I will try to take another way after I finished the 28/12 wpm lessons. I'm already at lesson 40 and my guess is that it will take another few days before I reach a 100% score. However I'm not on the right path learning to decode daily QSOs on the bands. An old wise man told me that I better learn same speeds like 12/12 wpm and so on. So I already adopted that for the "plain text training" part of the course. He also gave me the advice to learn and train abbreviations like they use in QSOs, I do that in the "word training". I also continue with the call training and figures (number, both normal as shortened) training for use in contests.

Close!

6m DX 31 okt

 Exciting times! @6m

Difficult to work the DX. Very deep QSB and signals come and go within a minute. Worked UN3G and W4SO. PSK reporter not showing everything. I also received Indonesia and several VK6 stations at +3dB max. That's strong enough for SSB. I believe my neighbour station Jaap PA0O worked a VK6 station on SSB. Unfortunately I'm not able to do other modes since I work remote through the week.

#CQWW DX SSB 2024 contest review

 

Event: CQWW DX SSB contest 2024
Section: SO Low Assisted 10M
Logger: N1MM+ 
Station: Icom IC-7300 @100W
Antenna 1: 10m LFA @14m
Antenna 2: Gainmaster 1/2 wave vertical for 11m @16m
Antenna 3: 2x20m inverted-V doublet @12m

If you like contesting or not. The CQWW is one of the largest contests in the amateurradio community. Almost everyone within this community knows about it but not everyone is participating. However if you like to work interesting DX or even complete 100 DXCC in one weekend this is the contest you need to do. 

My goal this year was to work at least 1000 QSO and try to beat my 2022 score. It went well, I made 1050 QSO and stopped early. In the end I could make a lot more QSOs on the low bands but I was tired and there was no need to. I was primarily on 10m and will send my log in for the 10m SO LOW Assisted section. I missed my multiband halo and it was hard to make contacts on 15m and 20m, it would be a lot easier with a good antenna but I had to use my inverted-V. It was also hard to make contacts on 160m. No propagation? Much noise? I don't know but a lot of stations were not able to hear me. 80m and 40m was easy, instant pile ups, I did not spend a lot of time on those bands but it was interesting at night to get a lot of USA/Canada back on my CQ on 80m. Personally I found the 10m in good shape on both days. Incredible propagation from all directions. It was hard to work some really nice DX while others, especially in Africa, were relatively easy to work. At times I didn't use the beam but my vertical because propagation was even from both east as west and turning the antenna 180 degrees costs too much valuable time. Just kidding about time.... I was off the contest for an hour Saturday morning because of incredible F2 propagation on 6m. DX, especially on the 6m band, is always more important for me. I am and will always be a DXer in the first place.

Well, some stats from the analyzer. I operating time was 25 hours and 51 minutes. That is much shorter as 2 years ago. I also made a lot more contacts on 10m compared to 2022. You can see that I worked dupes. So far I know that one is my own fault. But there is one station I worked on 80m that called on and on even after I logged him 3 times. He kept calling till I told him that he was already 3 times in the log and told him to not call anymore. He apologized and was gone, still this was a strange experience. I also had some fun contacts like with fellow bloggers VE3VN Ron and OQ5M Franki. I also had a brief contact with OY1R Regin who personally brought his QSL here 8 years ago. Always nice to work people in the contest that you can have a small chat with because you have the feeling that you know someone.

Some contesters like to chase zones and DXCC. I checked the stats in N1MM and so far I worked 39 of the 40 zones on 10m. I missed zone 31 which is the difficult to reach pacific area with countries like Fiji, Nauru etc. 

124 DXCC in one weekend is of course incredible. On 10m only I worked 121 DXCC. It could be more but I it was not possible to work everything I heard because of the big pile-ups on some rare stations. It will be hard to beat next year although you never know...

6m DX 29 okt.

 

There was a 6m pipeline to Kazakhstan this morning. Several QSOs with UN stations were made. I was surprised by the amount of Kazakh stations active on 6m. I also heard some VK6 and VK8 stations, YB5QZ, JA7QVI several EX stations and DU6/PE1NSQ was decoded a few times on FT4 mode. This is without doubt F2 propagation. 

More 6m new ones last Saturday

  With a screenshot from a FT8 contact it is easy proof I made it to certain DXCC. But how about SSB and CW, that needs some more investigation. And if you want spend some money you can buy a QSL, that's the way it goes these days.

Anyway while working FT8 I noticed CW activity in the lower part of the 6m band. The advantage of a waterfall view across the 6m band. I quickly turned the dail (computerized ;-)). And decoded XU7AKU with at least 579. One call and I was in his log. He has a logsearch on QRZ and it is confirmed. XU7AKU has a website and also wrote about this big 6m opening. Surprisingly he doesn't use a 6m beam, just a homemade simple wire dipole.

  On our local DX chat I noticed that a fellow Dutchman living in Vietnam was calling on SSB. And indeed I was able to hear Eddy XV9T (previously XV1X) calling. A few calls later I was able to make a QSO with him as well. Although I worked 3W9A on FT8 I consider this as the first real new one on 6. I think this was great fun for Eddy because he is 99% blind and of course FT8 is not the way to go for him. Besides that I can imagine it is nice to hear your own language on the bands from Dutch stations.

#6m Kyrgyzstan worked

 

And DX continued, another one this morning...

#6m Vietnam worked

 

I took a break from the CQWW contest after a notification from our local DX chat that 3W9A was very well workable on 6m. I also received  EX8MEM, EX8BT, DV1ROY and several VK6 stations which I already worked last year. Unfortunately could not work everyone. You know propagation is there like a lightswitch is pushed on. But is gone in a few minutes. It is a matter of pure luck.

#CQWW DX SSB contest this weekend

Never done any contesting, or just starting to contest for the first time? Don't be afraid, contesting is just fun. That counts especially for the biggest contests every year. This weekend there will be a world wide contest. Everyone can work everyone contest, no difficult to hear progressive numbers but just a standard report exchange (599) and the CQ number of you area (the Netherlands will be 14). You can also do a multi operator effort with your friends. You can build a station on a better location compared to your home like we did for a few years.  Last year we tried the new multi distributed/explorer section  but unfortunately the Dutch telecom authorities warned us this would not be legal at this moment. We did make an objection but of course the answer will take time.

So this year wil be a single operator partake for me. I will start in the SO All band Low power section but this could change to 10M single band depending on propagation. Of course very important is to do some preparations before the contest. I've been looking at a interesting video from W1DED on YT on how some of the top contesters prepare for this contest. I've done a lot of preps for contests in the past. But for me it is not about winning. I like to work the DX, especially on the 10M band. It would be nice to work DXCC during the weekend, I've done it before and so it is possible. I miss the multiband halo however which is a disadvantage. Due to some work that was done on our house I was at home this morning giving me some time to do a few preparations. I made a short video here. Good luck if you participate in the CQWW this weekend and I hope I work some of you readers...

Experimental multiband halo rebuild (1)

  My last post about the multiband halo was a bit depressing. I miss the antenna because when it worked I was very content with it. It might not be the ultimate DX antenna and hasn't much gain. But it receives well and it is almost omni directional. I decided to make a rebuild and solve the issues that occurred in the last 2 years. Luckily I've written some experiences in this blog that are now very useful.

Viewing the pic at the left. I fixed the "hanging" poles by uv resistant guy wires. Instead of using speakerwire, twinlead or ladderline I decided to go for a real halo design. Just to see what difference will occur. From publications I've read so far it is best to start with the highest frequency halo. In my case this will be the 12m (24MHz) halo.

  Unfortunately the weather is getting worse these days. And I'm not having that much time. I've made the "core" of the antenna stronger and made all the necessary plastic items like distance holders last week after my work in the evening just before sunset. It gives me about an hour a day. This sunday I had big plans but when inspecting the house gutters I also found some other loose roof parts that had to be repaired before winter. Of course that was much more important. My intention was to get the antenna working before the CQWW next weekend but this will probably not happen. It doesn't matter much because I probably do a 10m single band effort again.

  I wanted at least the 12m band halo be ready today. Luckily I had enough time for that at daylight. Above you see part of the construction. Wires are spaced about 4cm. The ends are tied into a point. It is a choice. It can also be flat ended. This was easier for me. When flat ended there will be more capacity between the ends in the end that will make tuning more difficult.

I already discovered a interesting feature. When I first measured the SWR/resonance the loop was a bit too large. Resonating on about 24.8 MHz. Bending wires back did not do the trick much. But shifting the plastic spacers back to form a sharper point brought the resonance up quickly to 24,9 MHz

  The feedpoint is again made with the Diamond BU50 balun. I attached one wire to the balun and soldered 4 additional wires to that one wire each side. One for every of the 4 halo loops. I made everything as ugly as possible because ugly and messy antennas work best!

  First measurement of the loop after I finished it. Not bad at all I think. 

Length of the wire is exactly one wave length on 24,9 MHz. Of course it is too long as expected but you need some length for tuning. Next halo loop will be the 15m loop, it will have an effect on the 12m wire known from earlier experiments. I also need to keep in mind that resonance will shift up about 60Hz when mounted at top of the tower.

I'm curious how this new design will react on rain. With the speakerwire resonance shifted down. I hope rain will have less effect on this design because the loop wires are much more separated. 

I also noticed that 12m was quite broad banded. I hope this will be the case on other bands as well.

#6m DX jackpot: worked Reunion Isl. and Mauritius

 

2 new band DXCC within a few minutes. 3B8CW came back on my CQ! Also worked FR4OM and 3B8HK a few minutes later. 6m band magic!

#60m Fernando de Noronha worked