Posts from — August 2007

Here’s a great video of what a DXpedition CW pileup sounds like on the air. Try and copy this stuff!

YouTube  CW Pile Up — DXpedition

Just under ten minutes. Enjoy your weekend.

Scot, K9JY

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In late September, I’ll be part of a multi-operator team contesting in the the CQ WW RTTY Contest. While not traveling out of the country for the contest, there are still a bunch of logistical issues to cover in doing a multi-operator contest.

It’s called a “dry run” and it is an attempt to bring all of the needed radios, amplifiers, computers, and accessories together. Then hook them up to see if the operate.

The basic process is:

Decide in advance who is bringing what to create the station setup. If there are three stations, one needs to have three sets of stuff.

Set up the equipment — radio, amplifier, computer, and accessories. Make sure all of the connecting cables, sound cards, and all are both receiving and transmitting. In other words, actually working and not just looking like they are working.

Test the Networking. This is no small thing. In a multi-operator setup, making sure the contesting software is networking correctly will show any glitches that need fixing (e.g., work group conflicts in windows, etc.).

Make notes. This is so that when the contest occurs that we can refer back to the notes from the dry run and have the same adjustments take place. Instead of trying to remember what happened, we look at what we documented so we know what happened and what we did to fix it.

While one can think this is a bit of overkill, we always find out at least one or two things that need to change as a result of the dry run.

And in spite of the dry run, there’s always at least one other issue on the day of the contest to fix, so the dry run gets Murphy down from the size of a disaster waiting to happen to the size of an issue that needs fixing.

Scot, K9JY

Earlier in the year, I was waxing eloquently about operating portable from a park here in the Pacific Northwest that would allow me to place a vertical on a beach and contest. Called “Searching for Salt Water,” I had even made a couple of trips looking for such a place, including a county park and a state park.

Here it is the end of summer — and on the cusp of the fall contesting season — and I’m nowhere closer to coming up with a site than I was earlier.

Most of it comes down to economics. In order to do the beach contesting, I wanted to get an RV and generator. I mean, my idea of camping is a room at the Embassy Suites, so that gives you a perspective on the criteria.

But when I started to run up against the logistics of getting the RV, figuring out where to store it, going through the dollars associated with buying it and all that stuff, it just didn’t look as good against the budget.

So, no salt water on the beach for me at this point in time. Just wanted to update people on that as I had written about it a lot earlier in the year.

Scot, K9JY

For most of my ham radio experience, I’ve had a very limited ability to contest with great equipment. Most of the time I’ve had a good radio, decent amplifier — and a five or six-band vertical antenna. Throw in contesting from the West Coast and it’s pretty tough sledding.

Now, one can still contest with this setup. You can meet all of the contesting criteria that you set for yourself. You can meet or beat your goals for the contest.

But it’s tough to get the thrill — some would say addiction — to running stations one after another that a larger contest setup would enjoy.

To get the challenge of contesting from a larger station, one alternative is to “guest-op” at a station with a better set of antennas and perhaps hardware than you have. Think of it as going portable to another station and operating from there.

Where can you find such stations?

The first place to look for guest operating opportunities is right in your own ham radio club. If you’re working with a dipole in an attic as your best antenna, those people with triband beams up 50-feet in the air with an amplifier connected to a radio look pretty good in comparison.

Another place to look is during your local ham radio convention. While typically a DX convention, there are often hams who you know outside of your club that could have a station that you could use for a contest.

Finally, there are usually (not always) multi-operator stations who often look for operators to help out during contests.

Single Operator or Multi-Operator?

The dynamics of being a guest operator are different if you are operating as a single op as compared to a multi-op. Single operators simply have to work with the station owner and go from there. Multi-ops are part of a team; a completely different set of dynamics.

If you are familiar with contesting and have a good relationship with your fellow hams, I’d suggest trying to guest operate as a single operator. It’s a simpler dynamic, will help you learn more about contesting from a larger station, and will maximize your operating time during the contest.

Regardless of your decision, guest operating is a great way to enhance your contesting experience.

Scot, K9JY

One of the more difficult things about contesting is trying to figure out everything that’s happening in the contest world presented in a way that makes good sense — the news of contesting, not the every-nit-about contesting. To find out everything that’s going on, you’d need to subscribe to the contest reflector, subscribe to a bunch of magazines, and check out lots of web sites.

In other words, where’s the Sports section for contesting found in a newspaper?

Well, you can find it over at Radio-Sport dot net. Jamie, NS3T, has taken all of the information — from contest results, contest rumors, contest rankings, and contest news and spun them all up into a three-column place for news about contesting.

Want to know about the qualifying rules for WRTC 2010? Or how about a review of the 2007 ARRL UHF Contest? Upcoming contests with links to the contest sites? Check.

And unlike straight up writing about the stuff, Jamie goes out and gets quotes from contesters that are included in the news. Comments, strategy, tips for others starting out — it’s all here as part of the news.

Just like you’d expect from a good reporter.

Jamie’s done a LOT of work to get this site going. Take a look.

Scot, K9JY