Category: Digi-modes

2011 ARRL RTTY Roundup

by Jurgen

A little late but I finally found some time to write a little (public) report for my first full 24 hour single op contest effort in years. As you read a few weeks ago I had to quit the EU PSK63 QSO party about 7 hrs into the contest due to what now appears to be a faulty flatscreen monitor.

During the holiday season I have been to Istanbul for a few days so I didn’t have any time left before the contest to modify/improve the station so except for a new PC-monitor the setup was essentially the same as for the EU PSK 63 QSO party. So my entry class thus was what I should call ‘handicapped SO2R’.

The first contest tip you get from the really succesful contesters is prepare your station well in advance and TEST EVERYTHING, and of course I followed this rule to the letter: Continue reading 2011 ARRL RTTY Roundup →

Pretty frustrated after EU PSK63 QSO Party

by Jurgen

I quit…

Or at least my PC forced me to by deciding to let me down about 0630hrs in the contest. Due to a for now unknown reason  the N1MM-logger +  Fldigi combo froze and I had to reboot the PC. But, after rebooting and starting Windows XP, both displays stayed black. After some trying (rebooting multiple times, disconnecting and reconnecting all cables,…)  I could get an image on only one of the displays but in the wrong resolution. Setting the resolution back to the correct values again gave me a black screen. This time I could not get back to the one working screen any more so after about an hour I decided to quit the contest. Yes I know, winners never quit, quitters never win… but it’s pretty hard to work a digi-mode contest without a computer, don’t you think?

but I learned a lot… Continue reading Pretty frustrated after EU PSK63 QSO Party →

One week before the contest, an update of the todo list

by Jurgen

As published about 2 months ago my next contest will be the EU PSK63 QSO Party on november 21.

Time to have a look at the old todo list:

  1. Make/buy and put up antennas for the missing bands: 40m, 80m, 160m
    => mostly done, 3 inverted V dipoles on 3 separate ON7FU current baluns (and 3 feedlines), only thing left to do is retune the 80m dipole for the digimode frequencies
  2. Study the rules of the contest and try to figure out a good strategy
    => done (I guess)
  3. get my shack cleaned up:
    1. make/buy a rack for all the gear
      => done (see the pictures in a previous post)
    2. reroute and label all cables (for the moment I must have enough cables lying around the shack to wire up a full Boeing 747)
      => mostly done, some cables are still fieldday style but everything is working
  4. Install a second display on the PC
    => done
  5. Continue reading One week before the contest, an update of the todo list →

Preparing for next contest

by Jurgen

Normally my next contest should haven been the ON-contest 80m SSB on sunday october 3. But, my YL and I received a (short) helicopter flight for that morning and that’s something I don’t want to miss.

So my next contest will be the EU PSK63 QSO Party on november 21.

Okay, there’s a little over 2 months left but I still have a huge todo-list (more or less in order of importance):

  1. Make/buy and put up antennas for the missing bands: 40m, 80m, 160m
  2. Study the rules of the contest and try to figure out a good strategy
  3. get my shack cleaned up: Continue reading Preparing for next contest →

DL-DX RTTY contest (July 3/4) from our club station ON6CK

by Jurgen

Some of my club members at UBA-KTK wanted to gain some experience using digital modes. So what’s the best way to achieve that? Of course, participate in a contest.

I made a few calls and soon I found 7 operators (ON7USB, ON5HC, ON7TS, ON8AZ, ON4KB, ON4TOP and myself) to do the DL-DX RTTY from the ON6CK-clubstation. There was only one small problem… I was the only one of this crew who ever did a digi contest and some of the crew didn’t even know the difference between a PSK31 and a RTTY signal 🙂

I organised a meeting a few nights before the contest and I gave my friends an introduction in some of the ‘secrets’ of the digi-modes: Continue reading DL-DX RTTY contest (July 3/4) from our club station ON6CK →

Contest selection

by Jurgen

After examining the WA7BNM Contest Calendar for some time and after studying the rules of most of the contests I made a selection of the FOR ME most interesting contests. These were the parameters I used:

  • more than one radio allowed? I hate to watch TV when things get slow AND I own more than one radio AND I own a couple of bandpassfilters
  • 24 hrs or shorter I have a business to run, also on mondays!
  • is there a low power category? I don’t own an amp and I want to keep my neighbours happy
  • is the contest also running on saterday morning? the business interfering again!
  • is it an everyone works everyone contest? I hate to sit at a station calling only one country
  • how much activity is there in this contest? I like lots of activity

Continue reading Contest selection →