My quest to learn CW (12)

 It's the number 12  monthly post. That means I'm seriously learning CW now for a year. And I did make progress. I might not be able to make a decent QSO on air or follow it at all. But I experienced that I can decode most calls in a contest and numbers in morse code. 

Last month I was writing about finishing lesson number 40 at 28/12 wpm. I thought it would take another few days. But till now I'm unable to finish it without errors. My last attempt had only 1 fault, so close to that 100%.

I keep going but the lessons are less important now. I do a lot of plain text training on a speed of 15/15 wpm. It is far above my abilities right now and most of the time I only have 70-80% right. It doesn't matter, some day I'll get it.

I got some info from PE2V Vincent's blog that there are some CW contest going on through the week. It would be nice to partake in them but through the week is a bit difficult right now. So I keep contesting in weekends.

#60m Sierra Leone worked

 

Got a message yesterday that 9L5A was active on 60m. Unfortunatly I was not at home and missed the new one. You can't have everything! But I was lucky today...

Monitored 6m as well. But was not so lucky. Tried for this same station from Sierra Leone. It was very strong but the pile-up was very large and I had no luck in contacting this DXCC. Have seen a few other "new ones" as well which I couldn't contact. TL8ES from Central Africa and TI2AA Costa Rica. Well, tomorrow is another day with new opportunities...

@CQWW DX CW Contest review

 

Not much time for this contest this year. Operated about 6 hours. I concentrated on DX only. Did listen a lot. And didn't use any CW decoder on the computer for the first time in this contest. Only headcopy. Worked fellow blogger VE9KK on 10m. I heard him on 15m but very weak and did try but Mike didn't hear me. Fellow blogger VE3VN has been worked as well on 10 and 20m. I also heard EI2KC on 10m backscatter, he has a blog but doesn't update it much. Worked him a few times in the past but no contact this time.  Strange I worked a lot of interesting DX but the highlight are always the familiar stations. I worked my neighbour station PA4O who was on the Azores as CT8/PA4O for this contest on a few bands. Total number of QSO's was 76, but it doesn't matter to me since I was not working the majority but only the nice DX. 

Fun fast hamradio project

 

I had to order some parts on Amazon and remembered I read about a fun project in the SARC Communicator from September-October 2024. To get free postage I ordered the items I needed a few days ago. This is about the famous HamClock. Normally this can be run on a computer with Linux OS. A bit difficult when you use Windows. Yes you can run it with virtual machine like hyper-v, virtualbox or vmware. But then it only runs on that virtual machine. Wouldn't it be great if this clock would run on any phone, tablet or computer you have at your home. And yes, this is possible with a small RaspberryPi Zero2W and a small microSD card. That is really all you need. You follow the instructions from the description in the SARC communicator and there it is...HamClock via local WiFi...

Just a few things I noticed:

* After configuration and updates of the OS (step 3) the Pi is not rebooting after you quit the raspi-config program. You need to disconnect the power and power it up again.

* Before step 4 you need to connect again via SSH. Do that with the command: 

ssh pi@hamclock.local

* Step 4: Copy the line to install hamclock and paste it in the terminal screen doesn't work in Windows. You need to type it yourself.

* After installation I had to wait a moment before something came up after I entered: hamclock.local:8081/live.html. And I noticed when I closed my terminal screen the pi did boot again. Had to wait till hamclock was working again.

So, this is really a fun project and I will go on now with configuring hamclock reading the users manual: https://clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/HamClockKey.pdf

Found another setup page with interesting tips from G6NHU: https://qso365.co.uk/2024/05/how-to-set-up-a-hamclock-for-your-shack/

Update 21-Nov-2024

Configured hamclock with the help of the G6NHU post second part. 

Configured the colors for 60m red and 6 orange. Those are my favourite bands at the moment. I really love flexibility of this clock. The cluster works really well. And solar data / VOACAP are really up to date. The little Pi computer is enclosed in a case which was in the package I bought. I power the Pi via a free router USB port. The fun is that I can configure a kind of ECO switch on this port so the Pi will be off when I sleep and start up again at 4 am. 

Friese 11 steden contest 2024 review

   This contest is open for international traffic but overall it is a Dutch QSO party in honour of the great Frisian 11 cities skating tour. The contest is only on 80m. Goal is to work the 11 multipliers + extra multiplier. 12 in total. And of course work as many stations as possible. Because it is not really interesting for international readers I write the review in Dutch which can be translated to english if you wish to read it.

Het was, zoals elk jaar, weer een gezellige contest. Helaas waren de condities op 80m wat aan de magere kant. Daarom besloten om gewoon tussen de middag te gaan eten. Dat heeft wel zo een 45 minuten gekost en daardoor waarschijnlijk wat minder stations gewerkt dan mogelijk was. In totaal 52 QSO's gemaakt en 11 multipliers kunne werken. Bolsward ontbreekt maar was schijnbaar wel aanwezig. Het is altijd jammer als je een multiplier mist. Maar ik was zeker niet de enige. In deze contest kun je gerust tussendoor een QSO maken, het gaat er erg relaxed aan toe. Zo heb ik tijdens de contest toch even wat langer gesproken met PE2V Vincent, PF5T Frank en PA3JD Joop. En na de contest nog even wat ervaringen uitgewisseld met PA2JO Jonnie en PA3ECY Maarten. Dat maakt de contest wel wat leuker. Ik heb de hele contest mijn eigen signaal bekeken op de webSDR Twente. Daarop was me direct al duidelijk dat het signaal wel een stuk minder sterk doorkwam als andere jaren. Maar ondanks dat bleef het wel verstaanbaar. Het enige buitenlandse station dat ik werkte was ON5ASB uit Lier. Hieronder het kaartje met gewerkte stations.

#60m South Cook Isl. worked

 

It took me some time. E51SGC could be seen on/off (QSB) but then at the right moment in greyline he finally saw my call. Happy with it because with strong European signals on the band the weak signals from the Pacific are usually covered.

#6m propagation 14 november

 

Only monitoring today. DX was very weak and very short time to see. Others made it to 4S7 I saw. No trace from 4S7 here. I also see stations that make contact with S9Z (Sao Tome & Principe) but no traces here.

#6m propagation 13 november

 

Ok Bas, why all these maps with DX that can be worked all the time? Yes, I do post these maps with DX on 6m these days. For someone that has no or limited knowledge of radio and propagation it might be something weird. But for the 6m band DXer it is very interesting. My 6m setup consists of my IC-7300 max output about 70-75 Watt going to a 5/5 element YU7EF combi yagi on 14m height. It is not the best setup but for now it is working with a bit of luck. Today PSKreporter seems to be working again for RX spots. I received XV9T on FT8 with signals above +10dB but still was not able to connect to him. ET3AA was briefly seen with -16dB on 50310KHz FT8 after I saw a spot on the cluster. Unfortunately my signal was not seen anywhere outside my own country today. That proves that propagation is not always reciproke. Normally propagation on 6m is very rare in wintertime except in the solarmaximum were F2 propagation like on HF can occur. The nice thing is that F2 is holding on for weeks now. You can see DX on 6m almost every day.

#6m propagation 11 november

 

Excellent propagation with east coast USA and Canada. Unfortunatly still PSKreporter is missing some DX spots. Saw several HK stations, HC2FG and VU2CPL only RX.

PA-beker contest SSB 2024 review

 

   This blogpost will be in Dutch since there is no info that is interesting for foreign readers.

   Weer een leuke contest met best veel aanbod en veel bekenden. De condities op 80m waren niet geweldig. Meerdere malen kreeg ik van stations te horen dat de signalen zwak waren en de ruis hoog. Iets waar ik verder geen last van heb gehad.  Op 40m echter waren de signalen sterk, diverse stations met S9+30dB. En ook heb ik een aantal QRP stations kunnen werken. Het laatste kwartier zat de hele band vol en kon ik nauwelijks een plekje vinden, uiteindelijk is me dat wel gelukt op 7099,9 KHz net binnen de bandlimieten van de contest. Ik vraag overigens altijd of een bepaalde frequentie vrij is, meestal vraag ik het zelfs enkele keren. Toch op 40m ook een beetje vervelend (Duits?) station dat eerst net onder me zat te praten met volgens mij zijn buurtstation. Ik zat volgens hem te breed en hij had last van splatter. Vertelde hem dat ik minstens net zoveel last van hem had waarop dit station door de QSOs begon te bleren als een klein kind. Kinderachtig hoor! Als ik kon zocht ik een andere plek, maar tijdens de contest is zo een lege plek niet eenvoudig te vinden. Gelukkig hield de ellende niet lang aan en de nederlandse stations kwamen er vrij goed overheen. Ik doe in principe niet mee om te winnen maar voor m'n plezier, al doe ik wel mijn uiterste best om zoveel mogelijk QSO's te maken. Ik vond het resultaat best redelijk te noemen al had ik op 80m wel wat meer willen werken. Tot volgend jaar maar weer...

Volgende week zondag is er nog een gezellige lokale contest. De friese 11 steden contest op 80m. Daar ga ik zeker weer aan meedoen. Uitwisseling is regionummer en woonplaats, vooral bij rare plaatsnamen zorgt dat voor veel hilariteit. De 11 steden + klunplaats Bartlehiem zijn de in totaal 12 multipliers. Heb je even tijd? Doe gewoon mee, al is het maar voor de lol!

First CW contest without CW decoder

 

   I just wanted to try this small local CW contest without using the DX cluster and without a CW decoder on the computer. Just decoding with my own mind. And it went reasonable well. Even that well that I found the courage to run for the last 5 minutes ;-). Participation was only the last hour of the contest.

But it was confusing at times. I really had to adapt on some stations. Why calling with CQ PA DE PA... etc. or CQ PA PA.... The double PA is really confusing. In my opinion just send CQ TEST. 

Another panic situation was when neighbourstation PA0O wanted to direct me to his 40m frequency. Oh my, this went way too fast for me and it was unexpected. I didn't know what to do. Alle went well in the end...

Tomorrow is the SSB part of this contest in which I will participate the whole contest. I hope to have time next year to participate in the CW part as well for the whole duration of the contest. I think I really like CW contesting. If only I get faster in decoding CW.

#6m Philippines worked

 

Unfortunatly missed the RR73 from 4G1G. Will see if I'm in the log after all? However I was not really satisfied with this contact.

Luckily I was able to work fellow Dutchman DU6/PE1NSQ an hour later. There was more DX on the bands but you need to be there to work it. I work remote during breaks on the job. I can't be on the radio all the time.

PSK reporter looks like it is broken? It doesn't report everything anymore. Certainly not what I received today. Only a few that picked up my signal.

Todays heard DX: JA (Japan), UN (Kazakhstan), EX (Uzbekistan), VK3 (Victoria, Australia), DU (Philippines), BA (China), VU (India), VK8 (Northern Territory, Australia), XV (Vietnam), N1 (USA), VO (Canada).