A few more contacts… and a lot of fun

Yesterday (Thursday) was a great day for a QRP SSB Radio Operator…

I managed to make the following contacts using my FT 817 and the S9 43 foot vertical…

RG4F….12M….ANDY….EUROPEAN RUSSIA

YU5RA….15M….ATILA….SERBIA

9A9DX….10M….LJUBO….CROATIA

PY2COY….12M….KAKO….BRAZIL

FG5GP….15M….ALAIN….GUADELOUPE

J69AZ….15M….ERNEST….ST.LUCIA

For a QRP SSB operator this was a great time to be playing radio….  I managed a couple of new ones in the chase so my totals are as follows:

DXCC- Now at 151 worked with 105 confirmed with LoTW

QRPDXCC- Now at 54 worked

My Worked all States seems to have just stalled at 50 worked with only 42 confirmed on LoTW. 

This has not really changed in a while now.  Guessing I’m going to have to give this more effort and see if I can fill in the blanks…

So thats how yesterday went…  Hopefully today goes just as well…

73bob

Results from the Contest

It was a very small effort put in this year….  It was also the first Major Contest that I had tried to operate QRP and it was not as good as expected….

However as a result of the contest the following was attained….

27 contacts in 19 different DXCC Entities.  Out of those 19 DXCC entities worked 8 of them were new ones for my QRP DXCC and two of them were new ones for my DXCC.

Contacts were made on 10m, 15m, 20m and 40m

This brings me up to 150 DXCC worked with 104 confirmed by LoTW and 50 QRP DXCC worked.

I was operating 5w SSB using my FT 817 radio and my S9 43 foot vertical.  Total operating time would be approximately 4 hours…

I had a great time but did have difficulties working the Big Guns and everyone heard them…  I had much better luck trying to work the 100w stations that I had trouble hearing but they had much better luck working me…  It was very hard breaking pileups with 5w but I did manage it a couple of times…

Next Year…. look for another QRP attempt but this time with some sort of directional antenna to help combat the Kilowatts.  If not a directional antenna then operating from a location where I can stretch out wire antennas to compliment the 43 foot vertical.  There is still lots to learn…

73bob

This makes it 3 for 3

Well again I managed to get KP2/K0BBS in the log from the US Virgin Islands…  Made the contact last evening and this morning when I wake up I have the confirmation via EQSL and LoTW.

This makes 3 contacts… The first was on 17m with a confirmation the following morning.  The 2nd was on 15m with the confirmation the following morning and the third was last night with the confirmation this morning… 

This is the way that we should be doing things in the 21st century.  We have the tools and I just wish we would use them…  You make the contact and then you upload your logs…  Uploading them to LoTW gives us the ability to work on our ARRL Awards in a more timely manner and if you also up load to EQSL it lets us print out the occasional QSL Card so we can brag about it at the next club meeting  (or here in a blog post)…  Whats wrong with that???

By traditions (unless it comes to buying new equipment) Hams are cheap…  If I was to send out 100 QSLs direct a month it would cost me a fortune and there is a chance that I won’t get a reply….  I can send out those same 100 QSLs via the bureau and there is a chance that I also won’t get a reply and it will take forever if I do get a reply…  The big issue is the confirmation because (with the exception of the QRP DXCC award) they want confirmations of your contacts and the fastest way without a doubt is either LoTW and EQSL…

In my case I send out a EQSL with every logged contact as its made.  My logging program (Ham Radio Deluxe) interfaces with EQSL and is configured to send out an EQSL as I make the contact.  I upload my logs on a daily basis to Logbook of The World so as long as LoTW is up and running properly it should be confirmed quickly after that…

Now I have nothing against all the Amateurs who have QSL on all the walls of their shacks or the many photo albums filled with cards…  Been there done that…  The basement flood of a few years ago took care of some of the boxes on the floor and the paint job on the walls took care of the cards…

Now its the LoTW and EQSL combo which works great for me…. 

I get the confirmations I need and the occasionial card I can brag about…  The best of both worlds…

73bob

How things should work…

Over the last few days I have been doing some searching and pouncing on the bands looking for a few more QRP DXCCs while the big gun stations are getting all the bugs out for the ARRL DX Contest this weekend…

On Feb 26th I made a 17m contact with KP2/K0BBC and I got my LoTW confirmation and EQSL confirmation on the morning of the 27th….

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On Feb 27th I made a 15m contact with KP2/K0BBC and I got my LoTW confirmation and EQSL confirmation on the morning of the 28th…

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Nice touch…  Matthew realizes the importance of confirming his QSOs from a DXPedition in a timely manner….  There are a few DXPeditions over the last few years that I am still waiting for…. In his case less than 24 hours from the contact to the confirmation is outstanding…  Guess who I will be looking for in the contest…  He has already proven he can hear a QRP Signal and I hope to give him a few more chances in the contest…

Way to go Matthew…

73bob

Looking to fill in some gaps in your log?

Coming up shortly is one of the easiest ways to fill in any gaps you might have in your DXCC or your WAS…

On Jan 19th we have the  North American QSO Party

What this means is that there will be stations world wide trying to contact North American Stations which if you are in North America (like me) should help with awards such as (in my case) QRP DXCC or WAS.  I will be operating from home for this one with the FT 450 dialed down to the allowed 5w output.

It also means that there will be lots of chances to work stations for your WAS and in my case hopefully backfill the statesI have in the log but do not have confirmed on LoTW.

Hope the bands cooperate for this one

73bob

KX3 testing

What a great way to start out the 2013 Portable Radio Season

Well it was sunny and warm…  Warm being the relative term…  It was around -8 deg c  in the sun if you were out of the wind…  Recently Jose VA3PCJ and myself have had to cancel our plans for an RF outing for many reasons but most of them were weather related so we figured that it would not get much better than this…

One thing we did find out is that our favourite operating location at the Mer Blue Swamp was swamped…  It seems many more people snowshoe and Cross Country Ski than just walk the nature trails…  The parking lot was packed and we ended going back into town and setting up in a public school parking lot… 

Photo courtesy VA3PCJ

This worked out fairly well with the snowbanks ( about 6 feet high approx) giving us a reasonable wind break from the south and east.  There were houses to the north of us  and we were open to the west where we got the most benefit from the sun which made the operating tolerable.

The rig of the day was the Elecraft KX3 along with the Par end fed QRP antenna.

Photo courtesy VA3PCJ

This is the 10-20-40m qrp version but it will work on 12-15-17m with the excellent auto tuner in the KX3.  The antenna today was in a vertical configuration as we were using the 43 foot telescopic pole that normally supports the S9 vertical that Jose would be using.  It supported the Par just as well…

After getting everything set up I made a contact with Shawn VE3PSV who lives in Cambridge Ontario on 7.055 ssb which is the frequency (as you know from earlier posts) for the Trans Provincial Net.    The second contact was made with Nick VE3NJG on 7.055 who lives in London Ontario.  Concidering where I was and the fact I was running 5w into a vertical I was very pleased with the reports…

I then QSY’d over to 14.342.5 usb and started calling CQ on the HF Pack calling frequency and got an immediate response from W0MNA   in Leavenworth Kansas who also was using a KX3.  Gary also had a  FT 817 and so we had a qreat QSO discussing the pros and cons of both rigs.  Discussions aside this was also a QRP to QRP ssb QSO of a distance of just over 1000 miles or 1600 kms.  Not too bad for a day with not the best band conditons…

My second contact was with a Florida station whose call I got written down wrong .  He was a solid S5 and was also a QRP Station.  I could of sworn I had the call right but… Not according to QRZ.com at least.  Its been a while since I have done any portable logging in the cold.  Guess I just found another thing to work on…

We also heard WB4GCF on 17m and W7KDL on 10m but the conditions were not the best and all I can give them is a SWL report as we could not make the contacts.

About an hour after we started setting up the sun started to drop and with the temps quickly dropped and so we packed up and headed back home…

So far after 3 test drives I can only say good things about the KX3.  Great Filtering and no one has complained about my audio so far…  Thinking this might become part of my shack before the summer…  I am a bit concerned about the minor issues with the quality of the audio from the internal speaker.  I am hoping this is a fixable issue.  Its not a deal breaker but it is annoying…

On another topic for a second…   It seems that LoTW is getting back up to speed again.  I now have 102 confirmed DXCC out of 147 claimed in the log.  The only missing QSOs for me are the ones I made on December 29th when I was giving out contacts in the RAC Canada Winter Contest.  Still wish my remaining 9 states (which are in the log) would confirm so I could apply for my WAS at the same time that I apply for my Mixed DXCC.

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Its been a while since I had a chance to get out and play radio…  Although I almost froze…

I guess its time I got used to Winter Operating again…It  was fun and also good practice for the upcoming SPAR Winter Field Day…

73bob

Tuesday and its the same old….

The most recent precipitaion has turned to slush…  I’m actually thankful as its easier to walk in slush than slide on the sidewalks that are covered with freezing rain…

On to radio stuff…

I managed to make a couple of contacts on 17m this morning.  Not really rare DX but good enough to remind me that the radio/antenna combo do work…

The rarest contact this am however would be the one I made on 80m about 930am est with the Net Control Station on the ONTARS Net on 3.755.  Tony VE3AXW (Brantford Ontario)  had an excellent signal into Ottawa at at time that I normally can’t hear anyone west of Kingston.  I know he has a strong station but …. it was really working well this am…

On the topic of the ONTARS Net

Outside of heading outside to check the walk and add salt or sand as needed there is not much that I will be doing outside today…

Hope to hear you on the air later today….

And Santa if your listening….  How about a faster computer for my friends at LoTW so the backlog can get cleared up and we can get all of our DXCC and WAS credits figured out…

73bob

Friday nite LoTW update

The website says that LoTW is now 10 days behind…  I would agree with them because my latest QSO shown is from December 4th which was 10 days ago…

As of December 4th I have 1820 QSOs listed on line and 600 QSLs as a result of those stats I still have 101 DXCC entities confirmed out of 147 claimed.  My WAS count is still holding at 41 out of 50 .

I am wondering what is causing the delays?  I know the original backlog was caused by some issues but that was cleared up we were told and now the delay is still there… Perhaps its time for a new computer or two in the IT department to be assigned to support LoTW.

I am hoping the system gets fixed in the near future…  Please Santa… I’ve been good…

73bob

Someone called it “Log Jam of The World” today

This afternoon I was listening on 20m and heard two US stations chatting just off a net frequency.  I was actually listening to the net and they were buzzing me a bit and so I thought I would just drop down a few and see what/who was causing the noise…

The guys were describing how they were waiting for a few more confirmations and that would be the 5 Band DXCC for one and the 3 Band DXCC for the other and even though it sounded like they had been at this for a while now…  The were getting impatient…

Well I can see where they are coming from….  According to LoTW status updates they are sitting about 9.5 days behind but according to my logs its 10 days…  But really it does not matter...  It happens when it happens….  It does give us something to B!tch I mean talk about though but…

Its still faster than Snail Mail (QSL Direct) and its also way faster than the QSL Buro… 

Now seeing that I am waiting for 9 states to confirm (I got confirmations for 41 out of 50 in the log) and 46 DXCC entities (with 101 out of 147 confirmed) I would really like to see the backlog cleared up…  Then I might know what I need to backfill in the log to get some wallpaper for the shack.  I know that my last 3 DXCC worked (145, 146 & 147) are from DXPeditions and should be uploading to LoTW after the QSL Rush has been taken of .  Numbers 102 to 144 will be a suprise for me me as I just don’t know….  A good bunch were supposed to be on LoTW and were from the CQ contest back in October.  The logs had to be submitted to CQ already and if you have to submit your logs why not just go the extra mile and submit to LoTW at the same time????

Maybe some questions are better left unanswered

Enjoy your upcoming weekend….

73bob

ps and for those of you who leave things till the last second…

You are now into the 12 days of Christmas…  Its getting closer…

Wednesdays’s stuff on the go

Good Morning…

Just checked my Logbook of The World account and find that my QSOs for December 2nd and December 3rd were processed overnight and that I have one new QSL for a 15m contact made on November 18th.  Don’t know when he/she uploaded to LoTW but my December 3rd QSOs were uploaded early on December 4th so perhaps the system is speeding up.

The EQSL account is showing 4 new contacts.  Three were from the November Sweeps and the 4th from a earlier contact over the summer.  All 4 contacts were from the same person so I guess he finally got around to uploading his logs….  It will be interesting to see when they show up (if they show up) on LoTW as a QSL

As far as todays local amateur stuff goes…  The Ottawa Amateur Radio Club will be meeting tonight at City Hall at 7pm.  There is no guest speaker tonight so after the club business has been taken care of we split into teams and have a amateur radio based Trivia Game with token prizes for every correct answer.

Last year my daughter Trisha and myself participated and we won enough Timmies Gift Cards to cover my coffee fix for the rest of the month…  If you are in the downtown core tonight….  Drop in for a visit… Guests are always welcome.

Today will be a fairly busy day before the meeting.  As the weather is warming up to above 0 deg C I am planning to meet Ottawa’s newest (as far as I can tell) KX3 owner and we are going to do a side by side comparison of his new baby and my old friend.

KX3 vs FT817.

I am guessing that our transmit on SSB will be very close and I am expecting his filtering in the RCV section to be quite a bit superior to my FT817.  But then in reality you have new technology up against a 12 year old radio.  Yes my FT 817 went into production 12 years ago now.  The last upgrade was the FT817 ND but mine (like me) is a golden oldie…  I am looking forward to test driving another KX3 (and its warm enough to drool) as I keep on looking for excuses not to buy one…

It looks like its going to be a fun filled day…  Temps will be  just warm enough not to freeze me…. and I even to go out for supper with my daughter before the OARC Meeting…

73bob