Logging Programs… Your suggestions

Hi Guys,

Today we aim towards the “interactive” side of blogging and for that I need your participation…

As you know from reading the last few entries on the CQ WPX Contest I have found a few things lacking in my previous logging program.  This in fact was my spreadsheet which needed lots of manual information inputted but for my regular use seemed fine…

The contest has proven to me I need more features and I am now looking for a new logging program….   I would prefer to operate only one program that would look after my daily QSO’s along with supporting some of the more popular contests.  Something that also takes some information directly from the radio such as frequency and mode would be nice.  This means it would have to support the 4 Yaesus that I currently use. 

 The FT 847, FT 897, FT 857 and the FT 817. 

After the contest I have decided to take some time and do more DXing and so better record keeping would be an asset.  The advantages of computer logging for a DX Contest were quite obivious to me  last weekend…

Right now I am using a Dell Laptop 2.2GHZ (I think thats the speed as the sticker on the fron says inspiron 2200)  so the software should be able to f;unction on a minimum of that speed.  The next upgrade is not planned for a few years from now…

The software should be FREE or at least low cost.  Thats the funny thing about us hams… CHEAP….  Like most of you I will happilly drain the bank account, mortgage the farm and sell the kids to buy a “big ticket item” but will haggle with you at a hamfest for a couple of hours on the price of a smaller item…  Therefore I don’t want to pay for something I could do with a spreadsheet…  Granted not as good and definatly not as fast but it could be done…  We used to do this with paper logs before they invented computers so….

So there you have it….  Leave me a comment and all will be able to read them…  I will not edit or delete any comments UNLESS I concider them to be derogatery to a person opinion or a product…  Say that you prefer a certain brand over the one Bill likes but don’t say anything nasty about Bill and don’t call Bill’s choice a piece of Crap or whatever… 

Tell me why you like your choice but don’t run down someone elses choice…

So there you have the guidleines….Interfaces with the current Yaesu line, Multi Purpose (Ragchews, DXing and Contesting), Computer requirements and most importantly COST….

I would like to get something set up and running in early May so lets get cracking and let me know your preferences…

73bob

More on the CQ Contest and contests in general

I am seriously thinking that the software companies must sponsor the different contests as after trying to calculate my score from the CQ WPX Contest its clear to me that I need logging/contest software.

As a casual contester in the past I was able to operate using the provided software designed for the Canada Day Contest, the Canada Winter Contest, the Ontario QSO Party.  These 3 contests give you the software that keeps score for you…  Quick and Simple…

For Field Day I was able to set up a spread sheet to keep track of things fairly simple…  The dupe checking got a bit of a bother so I just sat on a frequency and called CQ and let them do the dupe checking….

However in this contest (CQ WPX) although this was one of the first contests that was not a VHF Style contest I had entered that was not a RAC Contest and what a shock…

Different scoring levels depending on the bands and the multiplier levels were really different and past my level of expertice of programming a spreadsheet so I was really messed up…

I participated for roughly 20 hours in the contest and then took another 4 hours pulling data from the spread sheet to figure out the multipliers and the final score…

LESSONS LEARNED:  GET LOGGING SOFTWARE FOR THE NEXT CONTEST

I was quite pleased with my score and more importantly the number of contacts and where the contacts were made.  For years now I have been a ragchewer on 40 and 80 mostly.  Amateur Radio was used to talk to existing friends and to talk to home.  If I was on holidays a couple of quick check ins during the day with friends ensured that I got caught up on the local gossip and weather conditions….  Now I am learning about DX!!!  If I was spending some time in the winter in W4 land it was not DX talking home…  It was talking home…

My first HF rig was an ATLAS 180 which was a solid state but analog display 20m, 40m. 80m and 160m radio SSB or CW so to this day I forget about 15m and in this contest I actually made 15 m contacts…  This is something new and exciting for me…

picture courtesy www.rigpix.com

Now I have to train myself to think of the different bands and how they operate.  Its no longer 40 for the daytime and 80 at night… 

I’m also thinking of a vertical for 10,15 and 20m as well just to change the pattern of the signals.  Everyone tells me that a vertical works good on the higher bands for DX…  Perhaps we can teach an old dog new tricks….

There is a bit of a challenge with the size of my back yard but perhaps I can find the space to get a simple vertical for the higher bands up somewhere along the fence…

The next contest coming along will the the Ontario QSO Party and perhaps I will get something vertical up in time for that…  Other than that I should have the gear up in time for field day or the Canada Day Contest…

Hope your week goes well….

73bob

CQ WPX Final report- UPDATED

I managed to find an hour towards the end of the contest and was able to work an opening on 15 m that was running mostly north-south…

Brazil, Chile and Anguilla stations were worked along with Arizona and California.  This raised the total contacts to 111 and raised the country count up to 27.  Everything else remained the same…

73bob

Well I had a great time but I ran out of time…  There was only so much time I could give to this contest  and unfortunately it had run out…

2009 CQ WPX RESULTS

 

VA3QV

SINGLE OPERTOR 100W

 

BANDS OPERATED-

 

15, 20, 40 AND 80M

 

101 TOTAL CONTACTS

 

4 CONTINENTS (IN ORDER OF CONTACT)

 

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPE

SOUTH AMERICA

AFRICA

 

25 COUNTRIES (IN ORDER OF CONTACT)

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CANADA

MEXICO

PURETO RICO

ENGLAND

BRAZIL

ARGENTINA

BARBADOS

ITALY

CROATIA

HUNGARY

GREENLAND

SLOVENIA

MOROCCO

SPAIN

CANARY ISLANDS

FINLAND

POLAND

NORTHERN IRELAND

ICELAND

ESTONIA

DENMARK

GERMANY

CAYMAN ISLANDS

TURKS AND CACOS ISLANDS

 

 

UNITED STATES- 24 STATE LIST (ORDER OF CONTACT

 

MD, VA, MASS, FLA, TX, LA, IL, CONN, NH, IND

NY, AZ. GA, KS, W VA, CO, WI, OH, PA, KY

TN, RI, NJ, CA

 

CANADIAN PROVINCES (IN ORDER OF CONTACT)

 

ONTARIO

QUEBEC

SASKATCHEWAN

NOVA SCOTIA

NEW BRUNSWICK

Now keep in mind this is not bragging…FAR FROM IT…  Its hard to get excited about 101 contacts when by the time I had made my 6th contact the exchange from that station was #112…

So lets put aside the competition aside and look at what I did accomplish other than hide in the basement for an extended period of time…

I worked 4 out of the 7 continents

I worked 25 % (1/4) of the countries needed for DXCC

I worked 48% of the states needed for WAS

I worked 5  Canadian Provinces during a “NON RAC” Contest

And all this was done with a 100 W radio with no amplifier.  My antenna was 60 feet or so of wire hidden up in a Maple Tree.  Yes I used (and needed) an auto tuner…

This was also done at a time when we are told band conditions are far from what they should be…

Lets look at contesting for a minute…  First rule is don’t get discouraged by what you hear…  Your score is NEVER going to compete with some of those “Super Stations” .  You know the ones….  Super high towers, multi operators, big amps and really fantastic antennas…  Do yourself a favour….  Look up some of these callsigns on QRZ.COM  and take a look at some of the station descriptions and pictures…  They have more horsepower, and equipment at some of these stations than the early rock and roll radio stations of the late 1950′s…  So don’t get discouraged and have fun…

Do set yourself some goals….  Use the participants of the contest and the contest itself to achieve those goals… 

During the RAC Contests I always try to work across the country (VO1 to VE8 ) and almost have made it several times…  So far VE8 and VY1 have eluded me but one of these days…

During the RAC Winter Contest a few years back a group of hardy (insane) local radio operators and myself actually operated from an Island in the Ottawa River which made a new activation for the Canadian Islands on the Air awards programe.  The RAC Contest assured us that we would make the required contacts needed for the programe and the CF3RCS DXPedition callsign helped us make lots of contacts in the Winter Contest… 

Contests can help you play radio… Contacts come easier in a Contest… Just don’t try and ragchew with them.

The goal for this contest was to work a couple of locations that I have never worked before.  I was looking for Alaska, Hawaii and any DX Location outside of Europe…  I heard Hawaii, did not get to work them,   I did not hear any Alaskian stations but I did work Morocco (Northern Africa) so one of my goals were met and one almost…

Contesting is good for the ego however as would you believe that every station I worked this contest all said I had a great (5/9) signal?  Even with my puny setup…

Now before you say the obivious…  No where did I mention how many WPX I actually got or what my score was…  I did not keep track….  I do have a copy of my log which I can use for log checking but why look at scores when I knew I had no chance?…  My reason for playing in this contest was to give the big guns a couple of points as the Superstations need someone to talk to so they can get all those points and justify the boatloads of money they spend on station upgrades…  Heck!!!  I know what I have invested in my station (thank Ghod that Liz dosen’t though) so I can only guess and drool about what the superstation owners have invested….  The other reason for participating in the contest is to make my goals…  and there are some non amateur bragging rights… 

My non-amateur friends every now an again ask me where I have talked to recently and its always nice to give them an honest answer…  Morocco will suddenly become a topic of discussion at the water cooler for a few days after this weekend…

If I worked you this weekend…THANKS…. and if I missed you…Better Luck Next time…..and there will be a next time… I still have some amateur radio goals to meet on my “bucket list”…

73bob

Almost at the half way point ( CQ WPX contest)

Well so far I have not been burning up the airwaves but I have been having fun….

According to the log so far I have made 51 contacts consisting of 13 DXCC entities.  This is in the order the contacts were made…

USA (18 States), Canada (4 Provinces), Mexico, Puerto Rico, England, Barbados, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Greenland…

So far I have made contacts on 15m, 20m, 40m and 80m (still waiting for my first 10m contact)…

Now this score is not going to set the world on fire but it does mean I have given out 51 contacts and in reality it would be a boring contest is only the strong stations participated…  I have been using my FT 847 along with my LDG Z100 autotuner and the antenna is my end fed long wire folded vertical antenna.  If you have read the blog in the past I think you will know what I am talking about.  Tomorrow afternoon I will try putting up my home brewed tri band vertical (10-15-20) for the end of the contest… 

More details on this later but it you think of it…  Just counting todays events I have only 87 more countries to go for DXCC and only  38 more states to go for WAS…  This contest so far is a huge success…  I see a need for a much better logging program than my spreadsheet but other than that so far its been fun…

73bob

North Dakota/ Manitoba Flood Update

From the ARRL Website comes the following update on ARES Activities in the affected area…

ALERT: Fri, March 27, 2009; 12:56 PM ET

FARGO FLOOD ALERT! I have been in communication with the President of the Red River Radio Amateurs Club and have designed Mark Johnson (KC0HSM) as the main point of contact for any and all requests or corespondance during this emergency. Mark has a backup and his name is Shawn Burchard (KC0VOO). The Red Cross has asked for a communications link between Fargo and Bismarck. The Fargo Club President, Mark Johson (KC0HSM) will coordinate any Fargo needs and Robby Heupel, (N0XLZ) Central Dakota ARC, President will coordinate the Bismarck end. This is a RED CROSS request to be prepared in case they need the link. As of right now, we do not need to activate a net or link until the official request comes thru Mark Johnson(KC0HSM) at the Fargo EOC. From: Lynn Nelson – W0CQ ND ARRL SM

For more information please go to the ARRL Website.

For information on the Flood as it pertains to the Province of Manitoba please check the RAC Blog…

In addition I was able to make 80m voice contact with a VE4 Station in the effected area ( close to Winnipeg) and although I did not ask him about the local conditions directly there was no concern (at this time) in his voice that would signify a problem.  From CBC news  we do get the information that next week the conditions will be (could be) much worse depending on the tempetures.  Right now cold wx could be their best friend as it will slow the melting and in turn slow the run off…

Later in the evening during the Freewheelers Net on 3.916 I did hear a Fargo ND station who was saying to the net, that he were unsure how long he would be able to operate from his current position due to the water levels.  I had a short chat with the station and once again he did not seem overly concerned other than he might have to stop operating for a bit.  There must be something about the Midwesterners from either side of the border that bring out their hardy stock…  Whats a little bit of water….  To them obiviously not that much!!!

Personally I think I would of been heading to higher ground early in March to wait out the spring thaw…  But thats my Eastern city attitude speaking….  The best way to stay out of trouble is to avoid it…   They “Duck and Cover”…  I prefer to “avoid the problem areas”…  Not as heroic… but it has kept me around for almost 55 years now…  To me its only common sense….  But if this is happening your neighborhood I guess it a little hard to either “Turn a blind eye” or to stick your head in the sand…

I do wish them luck in avoiding or coping with the rising water levels…

73bob

A new CANADIAN Amateur Radio Blog

While doing a “Google” search on an amateur topic this link showed up and as I had never seen it before I decided to take a quick look…

In the future this *should* be the first place you look (after this blog… of course) for Amateur Radio Information with a Canadian Twist…

73bob

The reason for exercises

And I don’t mean pushups and situps or jogging…

As amateur radio operators we have a “duty” to check out our equipment on a regular basis.  We don’t know when we might be asked to give something back to our community… 

I’m not talking about a full blown emergency ARES exercise but just testing out your equipment….Getting the dust off so to speak and making sure that everything works… 

Equipment failures are not a good thing…  If my patch cord has to fail let it fail when I test out the rig in the park rathern than when I have headed out on the DXPedition…  You see there is some logic to this idea…

Today I had a patch cord fail….  The cord has been running between my FT817 and my LDG Autotuner for years now.  My Ft 817 is attached to the tuner (take a close look at some of my Survivorham Videos) and the Patch cord has been part of this installation since I got both pieces of equipment…

It was working fine 2 weeks ago and today it was showing signs of a weak solder connection at one of the two PL259 connectors.  This is my way of realizing that its time to replace both patch cords….   I say both patch cords because I have the identical patchcord (bought at the same time) running between my LDG Z100 auto tuner and my FT847 and if the first one failed there is a chance the 2nd one will fail at some time in the near future…

Its not that hard to remove and clean the connectors and then re solder them to a new lenght of coax…  Then I should be good for another 5 years but remembering to check all the gear every month might be a good thing…

What if the failure had occured when I was setting up an emergency station for ARES that was not an exercise situation?  It would of been embarassing to say the least. 

Remember that old ARRL saying “When all else fails…Amateur Radio…

Well when everything else fails….our stuff better work….

73bob

More on the North Dakota/Manitoba Flooding

I just checked the ARRL Website and found the following:

======================================

ALERT: Wed, March 25, 2009; 11:51 AM ET

ALERT!!! “WE STILL NEED VOLUNTEER RADIO OPERATORS! CONTACT ONE OF THE COORDINATORS BELOW…” Released: March 25, 09 — 10:45 AM Red River Valley Flood Fargo/Moorhead area Ham Volunteer FACT sheet 3/25/2009 10:00 AM ***We are working BOTH MN and ND*** Area NET — is occurring on hot linked system that includes the following repeaters. · Moorhead 145.350- PL 123 · Moorhead 444.875+ PL 123 · Wheatland 147.255+ PL 123 Contact W0ILO when approaching for guidance. Other repeater in coverage to program · Grandin 146.760- PL 123 Main contacts….in order….not a bad idea to cc all three email address Direct phone to W0ILO Net control — 701-476-4067 Don Galitz — 701-306-9652 dongalitz@earthlink.net Val Tareski — 701-540-2504 val.tareski@ndsu.edu Mark Johnson 701-371-6999 mjohnson@unionstorage.com EOC egress — The EOC in Cass County is now a secured facility. If you have ham radio identification — please bring it. Call the net upon arrival so we can help facilitate where to go, and how to get into our dispatch area. ***Lodging is NOT available in the FM area or is sparse. I understand that there is a volunteer shelter available at one of the schools available for those traveling from out of town to help. Directions into the area. There are many roads closed… MN DOT – http://www.511mn.org/default.asp?area=W ND DOT – http://www.dot.nd.gov/roadreport/roadreport/roadreport.asp From South (Sioux Falls) I29 north to HWY 13 (exit 23) Go West on HWY 13 for 14 miles to Hwy 18 North on Hwy 18 roughly 26 miles to Hwy 46 Go East on Hwy 46 for 14.5 miles to I-29 North on I-29 to Fargo….call on the net. From MN (east and south) Use I-94…. Or HWY 75(Small detour at Kent) From: Lynn Nelson – W0CQ ND ARRL SM

————————————————–

FYI

73bob

ARES Activation for Manitoba Floods

Two emails came to my laptop this morning from the ARES Alert Yahoo Newsgroup.  This group is sponsored by the RAC Field Services and is used to notify us when there is something that as ARES members we should be aware of…

The first email was just advising us of a couple of websites that have flood information that pertains to the Province of Manitoba…

http://www.gov.mb.ca/waterstewardship/floodinfo/

http://www.winnipeg.ca/emergweb/

There is nothing confidential in these addresses and they are the general information sites that is available to the locals as well as the surfers…  If you want to see the same info that you will be hearing in the media check them out…

The second email was to inform us that the Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg have requested communications assistance from Manitoba ARES due to the flood emergency…

I think that most likely your best source of news on this one will be CNN while the flood is south of the border and then CBC News once it heads north…

 I am expecting that in true US Media fashion this will become a “non-event” for CNN once the flood waters head out of country…  This was proven true in hurricane season and I doubt things will change in flood season…

From a communications standpoint I doubt the provincal ARES Groups will have the time to be posting updates…  I will do some monitoring of the HF Bands and let you know if I hear anything that might sound interesting but I do believe most of the radio work will be done on VHF/UHF which puts them out of range of Ottawa…

I wish the Groups good luck….This is what they have been training for and hoping they would never have to do…

73bob

Out for a walk this am

Well following Doctors orders I headed off into the wilds of Ottawa to once again exercise and look for a decent place to play radio…  Today I found a good location (actually I knew it was there) that Toby and myself have romped through before but today was the first time I had looked at it from a Ham point of view…  In the past I had concidered it “too easy” as its almost in my back yard…  No challenge here….

Well that was a couple of years ago and although I still have walked Toby there now the radio idea is coming back into the forefront…  Its easy to get to….  The trees are spaced appropiately and more importantly its already dry and almost easy to get to…

You can check out the pic here…

Now it you look at the picture you will see a baseball diamond…  Now go across the street ( screen right and up a bit) and you will see a HYDRO Substation that is ringed by parkland…  Well that parkland especially the south end of things is fairly high ground and already dry…  The snow has melted and as water runs downhill the area by the substation is very soggy but the top of the small hills are very dry and easily accessable….

This is not roughing it but its really close to home in my own neighborhood… If you do the findu.com thing for VA3QV … and then manuver a bit to the north (up on your screen) you will see what I mean…

A walk there and back…  along with Radio while I’m there …  And if I bring “Toby” with me then its three birds with one stone…

A win, win, win situation…

Now here come my usual b!tch…  If the band conditions would just cooperate to entice me to take the radio gear out of the house…

73bob