My quest to learn CW (25) CWA Intermediate has started

 

The CWops CW Academy Intermediate course has started. First of all we had a meeting to introduce ourselves and to check the audio on teams. Participants PE2V Vincent (advisor), PA3GPX René (co-advisor), PA8E Jim, PA3KL Kees, PA1DI Dick and me of course. It is nice to meet other HAMs that want to learn CW and hope we can have a lot of interaction online and may be on air later. Audio is a strange thing, I had some problems with the audio of my keyer. The mike I use seems not be sensitive for CW tones although I switched of noise reduction. With a speaker into the headphones jack output and close to the mike it was better. After the meeting I tweaked it a bit but a better solution would be a direct connection from the radio to the mic in of the computer. I'm thinking about a simple solution.

After a long time of training on LCWO with a speed of 30/22 wpm I don't see any improvement. So I went back to a more comfortable speed now. 30/15 is on the edge of 80-90% copy. I think it's a good start for the new year. Hopefully it will improve in the next 6 weeks of training.

I try to make as many CW QSOs as possible although a "real" QSO is still a disaster. I can't copy everything and although speed is not really the problem the words are just not getting into my head yet. The only thing I can do is just continue and make as many QSOs as I can.

Meshcore DX

 

ODX 320km. Not direct probably. But didn't expect signals would travel that far. Saw messages coming in with 10 hops from the southern part of the Netherlands. Not a everyday occurence.

Moved from Meshtastic to Meshcore

 

After some discussion with other LoRa device users I discovered that there is a better alternative to Meshtastic. Using the same devices Meshcore delivers a much more structured way of networking. 

The biggest difference is that with Meshtastic every device will repeat all the messages it receives while with Meshcore only dedicated repeaters will repeat messages. You can imagine that in that case there is a lot more space on air to send and receive messages with Meshcore.

However there are always pros and cons. With Meshtastic you only need one device to do you thing basically. With Meshcore you need at least 2, better 3 devices. With Meshtastic it is difficult to get your messages out, especially when there are more hops involved. With Meshcore delivering messages over longer paths is more reliable. 

PE4BAS Roodeschool (repeater)

   I've now 4 devices in use in my personal on air network. First I removed my node from the flagpole in front of the house and flashed it as a Meshcore repeater, I now mounted it in the antenna tower. It is an off grid node consisting of a SEEED XIAO nRF52 module a 5Ah battery and a 8W solar panel. The fun is that I can remotly configure the node with another device. No Bluetooth involved anymore, It is a fantastic feature.

PE4BAS BBS/Room

   Device 2 is a Meshcore room-server on a Heltec V3. It is basically a very simple BBS. It can store (15) messages and you need a password to access this, in my case the password is a standard "hello" which can be changed later. Also this room-server can be remotely configured. You and others can retrieve the messages later. Excellent for when you are not at home and still want to be able to receive messages there.

PE4BAS/p

   Device 3 is a Meshcore companion on a Heltec V3 with a 10Ah power bank. It is controlled via a mobile phone. Luckily the Meshcore app can be used on older devices like and Iphone 8, this is not the case with Meshtastic which needs the latest smart phones. This is the device you need to bring with you. You communicate through this device. A repeater will repeat all your transmissions. It is also able to remote control the repeater and room-server.

PE4BAS T-Deck 

Device 4 is a Liligo T-Deck which is a standalone device. No need for a mobile phone but this has not al the possibilities of a smart phone. It is essentially only for sending and receiving messages without the use of an smart phone. 

I can write a lot of things about Meshcore but it has all been written before. You can all find it on the internet. This post is just about how I made my local network with Meshcore. The ultimate setup is off-grid. Very easy with these devices as they do not take much power. It is all independent of any commercial network like 4G or 5G or whatever. It is very low power so don't expect long distant calls. A typical device can be used from 1-10km depending on antenna, terrain, buildings, height etc. The devices can be used license free, you don't need to be a licensed radio operator (HAM). You don't need a lot of knowledge. The devices can be programmed with firmware online. All other settings can be found on the internet. Although it helps when you are handy with computers, know something about radio/antennas and are a little technical.

Remember this is still all experimental and a challenge, even for an experienced HAM. I like that!

Interested?

Some links:

https://meshcore.co.uk/

https://www.localmesh.nl/meshcore/ (In Dutch and English)

https://www.meshcore.ch/settings (Swiss settings also valid for the rest of Europe)

https://veron.nl/nieuws/meshcore-de-opvolger-van-meshtastic/ (Dutch)

A lost weekend - ARRL 10m contest

  

    A lost weekend, that is what my XYL call it. Not for me it is. But I can imagine for someone that is not interested in a hobby like we have it is of course a lost weekend. I think this contest is a lot of fun. World wide DX can be heard and worked. You hear the signals fading in and out. Signals become stronger when the sun rises and are getting faint when the sun is gone behind the horizon. It is pure magic especially when the propagation is good.

     Unfortunately the propagation was not, what I call, excellent this weekend. But it was still good enough to get a 100W signal heard all over the world. Saturday was a bit better as Sunday. I've been looking in my archives and think this year was my best ARRL 10m contest ever. What helps is my knowledge of CW now. I have to write that I was overwhelmed with the speed of keying and used CWskimmer at first. But I noticed I was barely looking at it since I was decoding with my ears and brain. Not that it is without error but I did my best. I even did some running on CW and that went reasonable well. Highlight of the contest was working fellow blogger VE9KK again, and he was booming in, best ever signal I heard from him. I also worked OQ5M Franki, this time on SSB. I heard  Franki on CW but the pile-up was large so I gave up after a few tries. I had an awful moment when I worked AZ1D, it looks so much like a American call that I asked for a state, but of course it is an alternative Argentinian call. Anyway, I apologized and went on. DX heard but could not be reached were ZM4T, he had a faint signal but was readable, and a PZ5 station who had a huge pile-up. But overall I worked all the DX I could hear.

Purple=SSB&CW Red=CW Green=SSB

     A total of 88 DXCC has been contacted this weekend. Not bad at all. Imagine the participants worldwide all spend their weekend on the 10m band contacting each other to gather points. How useless is that? But it is great fun for all of them. An escape from the daily stress we sometimes encounter.

Will the 10m band be good next year. No one knows. The sun's activity will be lower and we are on the way to the solar minimum. I remember my efforts in this contest in solar minimum years....

Meshtastic progress

    Have been on Meshtastic for a while now, It seems the popularity is still growing. Although at this moment it is very unreliable. Only 50% of messages are delivered, especially when 2 or more hops are desired. With direct contact there is no problem. It also depends on how many signals are on the "band". It seems the little transceivers are not waiting for a empty "space" to transmit. It think that makes it unreliable as well. In the old packetradio days we used digisquelch modules in our modems to avoid these problems. I hope this whole LoRa system will develop in time, we'll see. It's happy experiment time!

Old setup with Heltec V3

I first started with Heltec V3 modules. They are cheap but unreliable and like power, too much current drain for a solar node. The nice thing is you can see some data on the screen. Bluetooth has low range and you need to reset the device regulary. The follow up was a Lilygo TTGO Lora32 V2 module. There is a display but you can't scroll through data like with the Heltec. The Lilygo has excellent Bluetooth, much better as the Heltecs. And I have the idea the receive is also better. But still it likes too much power. So, for that I bought XIAO nRF52840 & Wio-SX1262 modules, they have no displays and as far as I can measure they take only about 8mA of current. 

New setup with XIAO nRF

I exchanged the module in my solar node now. It still is experimental. I want to know if this works better as the setup I used to have. I mounted it again on my flagpole in front of the house, I might put it in my tower next year when the weather gets better. But only if it proves to be reliable.

I already noticed the bluetooth has low range. You can't have it all. So far it receives well. I need to experiment with it for a few days to see how it behaves.

Really small LoRa module...

µPaddle unboxing and first test

  Lately a small problem occured when training CW keying with my paddle in the living room. My XYL likes to watch TV in the evening and after a few days of training she was really annoyed by the clicking sound of the paddle. And I can imagine that. I hear something else in my earphones but she only hears that clicking sound. Since I like to be in our living room and don't want to do all training in my shack I had to find a paddle that doesn't make sound. With other words a paddle without moving mechanical parts, And yes you probabely know the 9A5N solid state paddle, something like that! 9A5N paddles are beautiful and I'm shure they work like a charm. But a standard model cost you at least €250 without postage and probably other costs (tax, customs etc.). So I was looking for something else and finally found an affordable alternative, the µPaddle from RF Guru. I immidiatly ordered one, just in time I guess, it is now sold out. It took about a week to receive it from Belgium. No taxes, no custom costs. Just normal shipping postage. I have to write that the product is excellent. I have to adapt a little to get used to it. You don't need to press the paddles, just touch them is enough. It is really nice and do all training with it so far outside the shack. No clicking sounds anymore...

Here is a unboxing and first test video I made:

VarAC Superstation beta contest

Took part in the first beta contest held from 17-Nov. till 30-Nov. Log has been sent. This is a screenshot of my score:

I unlocked  the maximum score by rolling the dice 29 times. I guess I was lucky. The best DX was a QSO with a south African station on 20m. As reward you get this max score image:

If you like, there is a youtube playlist with videos about Superstation:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdfV94nWP4BLfGRd4c_MY8peLVAaj6bAT

Superstation is a whole different contest compared to the contesting we know today. 

Ended 7th place in this beta "betta" contest

#CQWW DX CW 2025 review

At least my antennas were visible

   So you probabely thought I was participating in the contest the whole weekend. Actually I didn't, during daylight I had other things to do. I spend most of the weekend finishing the roof insulation of our house. Since the price for energy is going up fast we really need to do things to reduce the use of gas and electricity. I was planning insulating the roof years ago but didn't have the money and the time to do it. I finally completed the insulation now last Sunday. The roof is now insulated with a layer of 14cm (5,5 inch) rockwool. 

   What I didn't want to tell earlier is that I made a attempt to beat the Dutch record on 80m QRP Assisted which is held by PF5T Frank. I met Frank last May of this year. He told me he was not really busy with the hobby, I hope he will in the future. Hopefully he will not be mad at me when I get this new Dutch record ;-). So how did it go?

   I was up early at Saturday. Propagation on DX was great. But with QRP 5W it's very difficult to work the DX with just an inverted-V doublet as antenna. You need to wait for the greyline and besides that you need luck. Best DX was fellow blogger VE3VN Ron. He receives on beverages and you can tell that as he was able to get my tiny QRP signal out of the noise. Yes I heard the other big conteststations like W3LPL and a few others but I didn't make it in their log. I went on and made about 35 QSOs that morning. I did continue Saturday evening and I believe I made it till about 100 QSOs, not enough yet for the record breaking score. Like always some stations have a great signal but a bad receive. I don't spend much time calling them. Actually I have been running a few times but this didn't work out well. Have I ever written that QRP takes a lot of patience and time?

   I was up early again Sundaymorning. Propagation at first only Europe. With the greyline approaching DX was coming in strong. I worked few big USA contest stations but didn't get my signal out to other DX. And yes I heard them, nothing wrong with my receive. FY5KE, ZF5T and ZF1A among them had great signals but didn't hear my tiny signal. When the DX faded I started to run and it worked out, I was even called by stations from zone 18 and 17 which I tried to call unsuccessfully before. This has probabely something to do with the change of propagation angle around the greyline. 

   During daylight 80m is closed and I did some S&P for nice DX and fellow bloggers / friends. Chasing PJ5C, VE3VN, VE9KK and OQ5M. In the few hours I was on at daylight I worked them all. PJ5C Peter/Ad on 40, 20, 15 and 10m. VE3VN Ron on 20, 15 and 10m, VE9KK Mike after a long chase on 20m and unexpected OQ5M Franki on 10m. Note that I had RBN on and chased VE9KK both days, I couldn't hear him on 10m. I received him weak on 15m and finally when I thought it wouldn't happen I heard his call on 20m and we made the QSO. OQ5M was answered using my Begali paddle, I messed up completely of course. But Franki probabely understood what I was trying ;-). During the evening 80m was full of signals and I managed to make it till 235 QSOs. It is enough to break to previous record, although I don't know if another station from the Netherlands participated in this section?

   Wow, this was a lot of CW training. Although I'm still not able to decode most of the calls at once, depending on how fast they key and what the length and letter of the call are. Some stations have really difficult calls for CW. It went better on Sunday evening. I had a lot of fun and look forward to the next big CW contest. Now the next contest will be the 10m ARRL contest. A contest I really love to do. It is easier since I have a great antenna for 10m. Hopefully the propagation will be great again, although I have more fun chasing faint signals that are fading just above the noise. That's the kind of magic I'm looking for.

80m QSO map. Remember this is 80m QRP 5W.

My quest to learn CW (24)

 It's now officially 2 years ago that I started with these posts about my quest to learn CW. From the start on I wrote it will at least take 3 years to master this. I'm on my way and make progress.

I now manage to do plain text training with a speed of 30/22 wpm and still score 100% for most of it. Although it depends on what words are used and how long the sentence is.

With the same speed I do one lesson per day on code groups...random letters/numbers

The problem is that it gets difficult to type random letters/numbers. Accuracy about 50-80%, not that I can't decode but I'm not fast enough typing, at least that's what I like to think ;-)  I also do code groups with numbers at the same speed.

In that case it is only 10 keys. Score is about 80-100%. I loose concentration after 5-6 rows of numbers and I mess up. Need to do a few more to get used to the speed.

With the upcoming CQWW CW contest I train with Morserunner as well. A lot of fun. I wasn't aware there is another version around which also features different contests and more things to to setup. Search for Morserunner community edition if you like a copy.

I learned about this morserunner edition from PA4O Peter one of my neighbour stations. Peter is currently active as PJ5C at Saint Eustatius Island. Together with Ad PE6Q they are planning an nice effort in the CQWW CW contest. I'm running with a speed of 25 wpm now in blocks of 5 minutes single station. I don't do very well. I still don't get the calls first time which costs me speed. I hope to improve this week, only a few days to go. By the way I will use my contest call PA6G, I should change that in morserunner.

CW contesting is totally different from a "normal" CW QSO. A contest operator does not operate a real key but let the computer keyer transmit. The only thing the operator needs is copying skill and fast reaction.

Morse Code Walkie Talkies

 I follow Mike N4FFF and Becky N4BKY (the HamRadio Duo) on YouTube for a while now. Most of their videos are about morsecode and POTA. It is really fun to watch and see that these people enjoy this hobby a lot. Today I found this video that is a link between morsecode and the 11m CB and previously the 11m Ham band. I wrote about this in a very populair article on my blog here:

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2022/10/history-of-11m-ham-band.html

I found their video really fun to watch and worth to publish on my blog!

#60m Burundi worked

 

Propagation was really low today. At least when I came back home from work. I closed my station early but saw later in the evening the 60m was wide open. So I switched everything on to see lots of (DX) signals on 60 FT8. I managed to work 9U1RU from Burundi for the first time on this band.

Superstation a gamechanger for VarAC

 

Today is the first day the new Superstation "contest" game for VarAC has been released. It is a beta version so it probably contains bugs. I really think this will be a game changer for the use of VarAC.

Yes, this is a kind of contest game. The real reason this is made is to support real human to human QSOs. I just ran it for a few hours and already noticed some things I didn't expect:

1. The program knows somehow you're chatting with a real person or not, I made a QSO with 4Z1AC's AI chat assistant and she didn't count for the game!

2. You need a locator for the distance to show. The further away, the better it is. I expected the distances to add. But it is really about the longest distance (DX). Always be shure the opposite station gives the locator. To be shure give the command <LOCR>.

3. Not really clear from the instructions. The <roll> broadcasts are for others. If you do a <roll>  broadcasts other stations that run Superstation can get extra levels/points. It is also to show that you're playing the game.

If you're interested and you already run VarAC be shure to watch the videos to understand some of the game. I don't know how this is developing but I think this could be getting popular.

If you're not familiar with VarAC. It is a digital mode with a lot of possibilities. Not only chatting but you can send/receive Vmail and e-mail. You can also install an AI chat assistant. Play games like tic-tac-toe or 4 in line. It is really a fun digital mode software. If you're able to install WSJT-X and work with FT8 you can also install VarAC, easy as that.

VarAC: https://www.varac-hamradio.com/

Superstation: https://www.varacwednesday.net/superstation.html

Videos about Superstation can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@K3JSJ

Update 18 Nov. 2025: I was not right about the <roll> broadcast. Jason K3JSJ contacted me and told me to change it to <ROLL> (Roll in capital letters). And yes, now it works. And it is not only for others but to get extra points yourself. I was toally mistaken about this.

Check out a new picture of the game:

I think it looks awesome! Rolled the dice 3 times (max. for one day) and got two upgrades!

Jason told me this first contest is held till 30th of this month. They will ask for logs and evaluate how things will develop. After that there will be another contest date announced. 

Friese 11 steden contest 2025 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. 

Van te voren al een paar keer met mede blogger PE2V Vincent over gehad afgelopen week. We hadden er zin in. Meestal is dit een feestje en zijn de contacten makkelijk te maken. Maar in het begin na 15 minuten roepen maar 1 contact (PA3JD Joop). Tja, toen was het wel duidelijk, dit ging een moeilijke contest worden. Toen ik over de 80m band draaide hoorde ik eigenlijk maar een paar stations en ook nog heel erg zwak. Terecht werd opgemerkt door Jonnie PA2JO dat dit voor de echte doorzetters zou zijn, net als de echte Friese 11 steden tocht op de schaats! Op gegeven moment was er echt helemaal niks meer te horen, alleen de eeuwige ruisvelden zoals ik dat dan maar noem. Bijna werd besloten om toch maar gewoon een pauze te nemen en te gaan eten. Maar heb toch doorgezet. Uiteindelijk 10 van de 12 multipliers kunnen werken met 33 QSO's in totaal. De signalen waren zeer zwak en er zat veel QSB op. De moeilijkste multiplier was PE1ET/P uit Bartlehiem, dat was echt net op het randje van verstaanbaarheid. Het laatste QSO was met PE2V Vincent, dat lukte ook nog maar net. Dit was echt 3 uur lang hard werken om toch nog wat QSO's bij elkaar te krijgen. Ik denk dat de meeste stations de moed al hadden opgegeven, of ik heb ze gewoon niet kunnen horen.

Volgend jaar doen we gewoon weer mee en we hopen maar dat de condities dan weer wat beter zijn.

Morse invaders top list

 I'm a huge fan of morse invaders. Since there is the RX training I really, really set my goal to get into the wall of fame. The best 10 scores. Today I finally managed to get into the list at place 7. I can tell I started at 18wpm. And it is pretty consistent, till you reach a top score, when the speed is going up to about 25-28wpm I think. At that speed I still managed to hear some words. It was a big challenge for me for shure it I feels pretty good I came this far.

From KE6EEK on the morse invaders site:

· If you make it to the scoreboard, your callsign will automatically be part of the word pool.

So if you play RX training on morse invaders expect to hear my callsign ;-)

Meshtastic experiments

Meshtastic is a decentralized wireless off-grid mesh networking LoRa protocol. The main goal of the project is enabling low-power, long-range communication over ISM radio bands. It operates at broadcast power levels which do not require a license to use. It is designed around exchanging text messages and data in off-grid environments, with potential applications in IoT projects where a decentralized communication system is needed without existing infrastructure.
  

  Since a few weeks I'm experimenting with Meshtastic. Basically this is a mesh network build with small low power transceivers that are working in at the 868MHz ISM band (for Europe). Every radio in the network is transmitting again what they receive. You can buy these cheap small radios at Amazon or Ali express or similar webshops. Of course it works best if you got one on a high point in the open air. Meshtastic is experimental. It works but not really reliable. There is also a limit to the distance you can reach. So you need a lot of nodes te let the mesh network grow and work. It is the hype at this moment and if you like some technical challenges and tinkering this is a lot of fun. For more info you can find a lot on the internet including a lot of youtube videos about this topic. The fun is that you don't need any license to operate a Meshtastic node. So you will encounter people that are not licensed radio operators but just like to tinker with this. I know people are experimenting with BBS like software/programming. And some have integrated Meshtastic with their Home Assistant system.

PE4BAS solar node

  Well, a few weeks ago I thought of stepping into this Meshtastic hype. So I bought 2 cheap Heltec Lora32 V3 devices so I could test things. I decided to make a node at my job and one at home or mobile. I soon discovered the whole node could connect to the internet. Have tried it and seen it but that's not my thing. I disconnected it from the internet again so everything purely works on-air. Soon I saw a familiar call on one of the maps, it was PE9DX Johan. He has a Meshtastic node in his car and because of his job, and drives through the province. So I contacted Johan for more info and he submitted me to a Meshtastic app group with lots of people that experiment with it. It is fun and I discovered that there are a lot of amateurradio stations that experiment with Meshtastic as well. Unfortunately there is not much activity in my neighbourhood so I decided to build a solar node and put it on a mast to extend my range. But although I received some further away stations I still couldn't get my signal be heard.

  Luckily I was able to have a nice chat via Meshtastic with someone in my area. But still, we both couldn't connect to the rest of the mesh. While thinking about it I came up with two solutions. The first one was to install a directional antenna. The second one was to relocate the solar node. I chose the second option and installed it now on top of the flagpole in front of the house. The advantage is that it really has free sight to the closest nodes in the mesh. And it worked. I can finally send messages to the provincial mesh network. My node location finally appears on the map, which is not the exact location of course. But good enough to get the idea and location for others. Unfortunately this node is only working when the sun shines. The battery cannot be charged without sun. It's the time of the year. So I might think about another solution for the time being. Best option would be a few more nodes in the neighbourhood. We'll see how things will turn out in the future.

Interesting links:

Official site:

https://meshtastic.org/

Dutch site: 

https://www.meshnet.nl/

Regional site:

https://tovvel.nl

Site planner:

https://site.meshtastic.org/

Range of my device. It is very local. Actually it is a miracle that we can just reach other Meshtastic nodes. The nearest node connected to the provincial mesh is in Appingedam. So the ranges will just overlap each other.

Be warned, this is a little addictive. Have fun!

PA-beker 2025 CW/SSB review

 This is a Dutch national contest which is quite populair here in the Netherlands. The CW part is held on Saturday and the SSB part on Sunday. Because it is a Dutch party and not much of international interest I will write this post in Dutch. Of course everyone is free to translate it to your own language.

Zaterdag: vandaag meegedaan aan de CW PA-beker. Voor het eerst met mijn contest callsign PA6G. Van te voren weer goed geoefend met Morserunner. Het opnemen van CW gaat steeds beter. En in deze contest word vaak rond de 20 wpm geseind, dat is prettig vooral voor beginners. Op 80m eerst wat S&P gedaan om zelfvertrouwen op te bouwen. Daarna een tijdje runnen. Dat ging op zich prima, alleen was er geen aanbod. Zo ie zo vond ik 80m niet echt druk. Dus maar naar 40m. Dat ging een stuk beter. Ook daar weer wat S&P maar al gauw gaan runnen want dat brengt echt veel meer QSOs op. Weer een paar bekenden gehoord uiteraard. Waaronder PA0O en PE2V. Jammer dat veel stations deze contest links laten liggen voor de WAE RTTY contest. Maar goed dat is een keuze natuurlijk. Morgen proberen we het in de PA-beker SSB.

Zondag: vandaag het SSB gedeelte van de contest. Ook vandaag weer een bijna uitgestorven 80m. Waren de condities dan echt zo slecht? Bij mij waren de signalen van de tegenstations prima. Maar goed misschien hoorde ik minder als wat er in werkelijkheid on-air was? Op 40m ging het erg goed. Maar om half twaalf had ik bijna iedereen wel gewerkt denk ik want er was eigenlijk geen aanbod meer. Dus mooi on 12 uur gestopt, tijd voor het middag eten. Ik moet schrijven dat ik wel eens een betere PA-beker heb meegemaakt. Ik had het idee dat het aantal deelnemers wat minder was als voorgaande jaren. Maar ik kan het natuurlijk ook mis hebben...

Ook dit jaar helaas toch stations die niet goed gekeken hebben naar de contest regels. De PA-beker heeft strikte regels qua frequentie gebruik. Zit je er buiten dan telt het QSO niet mee. Ik let er zelf redelijk goed op als ik ga roepen. Maar zag nu bij het indienen van het log dat ik toch 2 QSO's had buiten de contest frequenties.

Help asked investigating a feedline coupler

 A feedline coupler, an unusual name for this unusual antenna tuner...

It looks old doesn't it. But what is old? And how old could this tuner be? Let's look at the inside...

This tuner has some wiring and components that are from another century. Does anyone know when?

It is made to tune a open line. The current owner did try it on several bands and it tuned best on 15m. But I guess that's depending on what kind of antenna is used.

There is no diode inside to rectify the current for reading on the meter. In this case a heating element is used. The current owner used this with 100W and saw the meter just going up a little. According to him there should be a lot more input power to have a good reading.

More details:

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.It is a fascinating piece of equipment I think. And...so far we cannot find anything about or like it on the internet.

So I ask readers of this blog to play Sherlock Holmes. I don't know the answers but have questions:

Where was this feedline coupler used?

Is it a commercial build or is it homemade?

Why did they use a heating element?

What year was this made?

Audio enchancement trouble in W11

 

  If you work with digimodes, like me, audio settings are important. Now, with a recent upgrade of my computer I was not immidiately aware of audio input problem. For several days I had almost zero noise on 6m. I normally see some noise in the waterfall of JTDX (or WSJT-X) but not this time. At first I thought it was the change of the coax choke at my 6m antenna. But strange enough I saw noise on the IC-7300 waterfall. So after some thinking I was shure something between the radio and computer was wrong. Or some filter setting was not right. There are so many variables. So I tried some filter setting and every time I changed filter the waterfall changed to normal for 2 seconds to return to "quiet" after that. 

I played some with the audio settings in W11 but had no time this morning. I thought it was some volume problem but still the waterfall looked not as what it used to be. I tried some contacts on 10m and it went well, working and receiving 6O3T on FT8 was easy. But still on the "low" noise 6m band it looked like a noise reducer or noise blanker is "on" and disturbing the noise I normally see equally over the waterfall.

After digging into W11 soundsettings again I finally found that there is a new audio enchancement feature which is set automatically on. I quickly switched it off and everything was normal again.

I'm shure others can have this problem as well. Although you will not notice this immidiately when you are looking at a crowded frequency. The only thing you notice could be traces that look odd. But you will see it especially on an empty frequency. Just my tip of the day....just check your settings.

To find the audio enhancement settings in Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Sound, select your output device (like "Microphone"), and disable the "Enhance audio" toggle.

Morse Invaders now with RX mode

KE6EEK upgraded the morseinvaders website with RX mode!

 https://www.morseinvaders.com/

It is really a fun game to play. And you learn and can improve your morsecode at the same time.

My quest to learn CW (23)

 And steady we go...

Have been training with 28/22 wpm but it was just a step to far I think. So I train with 28/20 wpm now. I do mostly plain text training which shows between 60-100% accuracy depending on how long the sentence is and what words are used. Words like "the", "you", "it", "in" and "is" are now easy. But words like "sometimes" or "something" are hard to decode. Anyway it is fun to try and get better every time. Do one lesson per day,  random code groups of 5 with 28/20wpm. I score about 60-80% now and think it is not bad compared to what I did last month.

CWOPS intermediate course

However I miss the interaction. I need feedback on my learning. And although a few people motivate me through the comments on this blog. I miss the contact with people that want the same as me and are beginners as well. Learning the code and make real QSOs on air. So, I wrote PE2V Vincent for information because he's one of the volunteers at CWops. He kindly send me an e-mail with all the links to the pages for application. So I did, and I will start with a CWops intermediate course in January 2026. In the mean time I already started with some homework assignments and already am at session 8 day 2.  

Of course I will continue writing about my learning experience on this blog!

#CQWW DX SSB 2025 review

Contest: CQWW DX SSB 2025

Category: SO AB LP

TRX: IC-7300 100W

Antennas: 4 el 10m LFA, Inv-V 2x22m, 3-band Halo.
 

Well, I'm still recovering of this weekend. The CQWW contest was a blast. I could not be on the radio the whole weekend due to other obligations. But still I managed to make 900 QSOs in total. I stopped early Sunday evening because I was very tired, otherwise I could certainly make 1K QSOs. However, what is the benefit of an extra few QSOs against some rest before the new work week?

This was also the first time I used my contestcall PA6G. I really liked it. No mix up with EA4BAS anymore, the short callsign is easy to call after every exchange. When calling S&P I noticed that calling Papa Alfa Six Germany instead of Golf in the end helps a lot. In short: it was a very good choice to have a contestcall, it has a lot of benefits. I still have to get used to it in CW though.

Propagation was very good this weekend. On 10m I managed a few small pile-ups with Japan in the morning and USA/Canada in the afternoon, rate about 80 QS/hr. On 80m I was spotted several times, rate was about 120 Qs/hr. I think that is not bad for a modest station with only 100W. As a matter of fact, I think if I would be able to be on for the whole weekend I could get a score like a high powered station. It is all a matter of get the right (free) spot on the band to run and get spotted by others. You need to a little bit lucky as well, but it is also operating practice. Some think it is just a matter of being the strongest but I disagree. You can't beat propagation, even not with large antennas and a lot of power. Although a good station helps of course.

Still can't find a reasonable mapper. This map is made with Global Overlay Mapping by EI8IC. I wanted to make a map at the worldradioleague site I previously noted but it seems those 900 QSOs are just too much and the map is not showing. But below are at least some statistics from that site.

I really miss the adventureradio site for this. It was a really good site but the creator had to stop because of map issues. The site is still online but is not loading the map. 

Anyway, I had great fun. I didn't do as well as last year due to other obligations. But there will always be a next one. It was a nice experience to work with my new contestcall for the first time. I'm certainly very happy with it. Till next year. 73 and good DX.