First WW-Digi contest

I expected a lot of people in this contest.  If one looks at the contacts made the last months in FT8 and FT4, I was even concerned of finding a place to call CQ.

NOT !

Some impressions

- Conditions were extremely bad, I never experienced such a bad propagation on 20m band.
   With only 2 JA stations worked, no ZL, no VK, no middle part of the USA, it was hard to make contact and to achieve a nice speed rate.  Highlight was the Sao Tome S9 station and a lot of Carribean guys. 

Also happy with the K1JT QSO.  Joe Taylor played in his own protocol contest.

- everyone was seeking how to play the contest.  I wasn't easy.  14.074 as the normal FT8 frequency,  then 14.090 and 14.092 as contesting FT8 freq and in between 14.080 14.082 and 14.084 as FT4 frequencies.
The band planning can be made better.   I did all combinations, sometimes calling cq contest, sometimes undercover as normal station calling CQ.

- another problem : how the config the software.  Normal QSO mode contest mode.  No 100% compatibility between the config modes.  IMO it is better to keep normal QSO flow to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings

- it seems that - my 24 bit Microham played very well -  with more activity there were big problems to decode (especially) FT4 signals and many QSO's were not corrected terminated. 

To be honest, it was a first time that high power was used, also on my side and I didn't notice more problems than before.  The new microham delivers cleaner sampling is my conclusion.

I didn't receive complaints about my (big) signal, continuously keeping an eye on my ALC.
This opens possibilities to use more power on 160M band in FT8.

- my ampli had big problems with 12s transmissions @1500W.  At a certain moment, smoke was detected, a few seconds later the ampli went into fault because of Pi tuning problems. 

I decided to continue with 1000W, without any problem.
In FT4 I could go to 1500 W.

- FT8/FT4 contest would be a robotic contest.  NOT !! 
Never had so many strategic choices to make.
What mode, which config, which segment, Run or S&P.   Frustrations because of the low run rate, etc...   This was not boring at all.

- I found a competitor with almost the same behaviour as myself.  Playing against W1RM was a contest in the contest, exciting till the last second.

Our ratings, points, multis and score were so close all the time that this was 100% fun.


- This contest is unique to measure station performance.  Because of the locator exchange, it is quite easy to see antenna behaviour.

The Steppir antenna was at about 18m height.

First and second lobe clearly visible, bad conditions (where are the missings QSOs in the 7000-7500 range ?) also visible.

This behaviour is predicted in Eznec, with two important lobes :

Next time I'll put the antenna some extra meters higher to change (lower angle) the DX lobe and add a third lobe in stead of 2.

To be continued.  Some work to do by organisors (band plan, qso stream) and operators...

In the mean time,  I prefer CW contesting.

Do not tolerate ON3 cheating

During the WW-DIGI contest I was connected to the contest-score-online website, to follow the exciting battle between W1RM and myself, putting each other to a higher level.

I also noticed a ON3 station, playing in the QRP categorie (5 W) and playing hard : first place, almost as twice the number of QSO versus the second place. 

In almost every category, a USA station was first, except for this QRP category.

ON3 stations can obtain a kind of rookie license by passing a ridiculous easy exam. 
As a consequence, they are limited to use lower power in order to experience the feeling of ham radio and to prepare for the normal hamradio exams.


This took my attention, so I went looking into detail.

He was playing with 5W, the limitation of the QRP category, I was playing with 1000W-1500W.
So a power difference of at least +23 dB.

This is the graph with the number of QSO's / hour :

And yes, I'm - big power with 3 element yagi- the green one. 

Conditions were extremely poor on all bands, so no propagation advantages possible. 
Everybody was complaining that only 20m band (my band) attracted participants.

This guy wasn't QRP, even not Low Power...  I should say rather around 500W.

Two objections :

If one gives rookies access to ham radio only to achieve more members (and so more member revenues) for a national club society, please think twice.  Quantity doesn't mean quality.

If the access is given, ie. a hamradio callsign to someone who had only to pass a very, very, very basic exam, please foresee enough control to retract the callsign in case of such false playing.

I am very disappointed, because FT8/FT4 contests (with better propagation) can give a lot of fun with real QRP equipment, as I noticed with my wire antenna and only 1W.   These false playing operators are putting high scores that aren't breakable with 5W.

And this here is not a question about running 10W in stead of 5W.

new Microham DXP installation with WSJT

Today my new Microham DXP interface arrived.  Serial number 14.

Easy installation is one of the main keypoints of this box.

However, after reading the manual, WSJT-X did not work.   For the guys who want a quick solution, just 2 tips : 

1. do not forget to change the Winkey setting on the DXP box to PTT (it has "none" as standard, so no PTT available). 

2. if you read the manual (I have version 1.0) it seems that you have to set the input tot DXP RX Left.

Not !!!  I had to set it RIGHT.  Now it functions.

First impression comparing to the USBIII interface : in FT4 I easily receive signal of -20dB.  I did not catch them with the usbIII.   

So I am ready for the first FT-contest this weekend.   It will be a try-out on 20m with high power. 1500W  If needed, I turn back to 1 KW or even 500 W.

Power problem FT4 solved

Fact : Power level of WSJT must be almost on maximum in order to have output to the TX ALC

Problem :  the WSJT-X v2.1.0 64bit windows version has a problem with controlling the sound mixer

Solution :

Step 1 : open the sound mixer in Windows (WSJT is not visible  in this mixer bar at this moment)
Step 2 : just perform 1 tranmission in WSJT.   The WSJT will appear in the Windows mixer
            There you will see the low level.

Step 3 : adjust the level to normal

Step 4 : don't forget to lower the power level in WSJT


Problem solved.

FT4 is a real winner !

First prediction :
FT4 will change the digital ham-world.  For sure !

Second prediction :
FT4 will make FT8 obsolete. 
FT8 will be remembered as the first very popular, easy accessible digital mode.  One year later, FT4 will take over.

Speed is superb.  This is going fast.  At least when there are people on the air.
I made 150 QSO's in FT4.  With 400 W versus 200 W in FT8. 

Duty cycle is only 30% (5 seconds on a 15 seconds send/receive stream), my system is running on lower temperature compared with FT8.

My first conclusion is that stronger signals are needed, as foreseen in the protocol, but that this mode will attract still more participants compared with FT8. 

to be continued... 

Thank you TR8CA for coming back to my FT4 CQ.

FT8 fox hound qso with OJ0C

Until now, I wasn't able to make Fox/Hound QSO's in FT8. 
Version 2.0.0 gave a (known) error and the program failed.

Today with v2.1.0 I decided to give it a new chance.  OJ0C was the fox, and there were only a few hounds from allover the world.  After some trial and error, the QSO was made.

F/H is not my favourite thing to work a pileup. 
Maybe I need more experience, maybe it will die with  the FT4 protolcol just launched.

Anyway, it works.

First FT4 qso ever

WSJT-X official v2.1.0 "FT4" release yesterday... today first test with FT4.

It works fine, but no one uses it yet.

I had to place it on the cluster and SP2GR was so friendly to come on frequency to make my first FT4 qso.
Some minutes later SM2OTU came also making a QSO.

I seems that we are the very first users, but the mode looks very, very fine.  Quick qso, nice reports, less bandwidth needed.

I detected one small problem with the new software version. No outgoing power  !
Fixed by clicking on the power tracking button on the right sight of the screen;


To be continued.

Problems with the karlock system on the NN4ZZ tiltplate

This is how it should be

 This is how it was...

The karlock hook went into security modus while tilting down the tower.
This is not the expected result.  The hook must be released from the tower.

Frustrating, it must have been a millimeter game, but each time the system went into security modus in stead of tilting horizontally.   The wind played a role and also the weight of the cabling I suppose.

I was lucky to had this system on a Steppir, so I was able to lower the system using the previous way by shorting the elements.   Nevertheless, I retried with some extra wiring in order to unterstand what was really going on and how to solve it.

It seemed that the antenna wasn't 100 percent horizontal fixed on the mounting plate, quite difficult to have this correct because the plate isn't in a 90 degree status on the vertical tower.   There was a but more weight on the left side of the antenna and so the plate wasn't stable when lowering.

I did some extra work to have it better fixed and gave more space to the locking system.
Let's hope this time it will be ok.

I do not dare to think how to solve this with a big 2 element 40m yagi installed if this happens...

FT8 DXCC achieved

DXCC digital mode confirmed.  

In fact, it is a DXCC FT8 mode only.

It took 5500 random QSO in FT8 to achieve this award, one year after the start of this popular mode.  

During the last weeks, the Carribean area was quite active on air and this part of the world is always needed for DXCC.

NN4ZZ tiltplate now installed

Never ever work on antennas while the pylone is hanging on a simple 20 years old steel cable.

I dare not to think what should happen if this cable breaks while working on my yagi.

With the tiltplate - karlock included - this will never occur. 
I least, I will not stand under the contruction.

After about 6000 QSO with the Windom wire antenna,  my Steppir starts a second life. 
I changed the 6 fixing blocks (Wimo doesn't support Steppir, so there was a sold-out of the spare parts) and the cabling.  

All works fine.

Thinking about the past,  3 levels of Yagi installation, 3 times less risc.

Level 1 : installing the KT34XA in 1999.  Highest risc level.

Level 2 : installation of the Steppir by extending the fiber parts standing on the ground, but still under the construction

Level 3 : installation of a random yagi while standing on the ground, without any risc using the NN4ZZ tiltplate.  Not cheap, but more effective than any life insurance.

Looking forward to this :    

Let the FT4 contest party begin !   I expect a total change of contesting, with as a first step making RTTY contests obsolete.

FT8 with 1W : propagation and hops

If you want to see how basic propagation works, use only 1W.

This morning I am active on 17m.

This is what it looks like  :

Almost all stations that receive my 1W signal are in an area of 2500-3000km. 

Oman, 2nd hop area at  5500 km
Thailand and Taiwan, 3rd hop at 9100 km
Australia, 4rd hop at 16500 km

For me, quite spectacular that such a small signal, on a non-directional antenna, can go so far, and that the hops are so clearly visible.

I have a flash back, thinking on the CQ WW 10m contest where some stations at some distances were missing in my log.  This picture is the basic reason of it.

Stacked yagi operation... 

this was 2018

This year was the 2nd best year of the last decade regarding the number of QSO.
Meanly caused by introduction of FT8.

I never made data qso in the past, except for a couple of RTTY contacts on a Icom transceiver that I could use for a few days.

But FT8 took my interest to help me obtain the 30m DXCC. 
I had VK0, ZL, and the most exotic countries in my 30m log, but some European countries were missing. 

No one answered a cw qso with a local ON station, and no contest qso were possible on this band.  So I took a chance on a new mode, where I was sometimes a new country in FT8.

I discovered a new world, where DX qso on 80m were possible with low power. 
I discovered a new world, where QSOs could be made on a semi-automatic, quasi full-automatic way.

My old equipment could be used again.  The Acom1000, loaded with 7W from the Yaesu  protected my transceiver from heating and provided a basic clean 150W without overloaded itself during hours of traffic.

My FT817, not used for years, is now the basic station for a new project : making QSO with only 1W and a non-directive antenna.   In 2018 I made 254 QSO with ON4CCP.

I conclude that a Windom antenna is a fantastic antenna.  Especially on 80m, I made some very nice QSO allover the world.  With the 9L expedition in the log , SSB and only 500W, it can compete with a vertical, but much easier on the receiving side. 

160m is another story.  Not black, not white.  I made CW QSO's with the Carribean area, but couldn't do a thing direction Asia.  

FT8 on 160m seems worthless for me.  I need much more power than 200W to make DX qso.  Not a surprise with a horizontal wire only 15m high.

Reception is also here fb.