WQ6X Wanders thru a Wicked World-wide RTTY contst

Coming off an intense software design week, the CQ W.W. RTTY contest was a welcome relief.  Being a largely computer-run contest, copying Cw was NoT necessary, while not having to use
the microphone spared my voice.  RTTY contests demonstrate the reliability of the 2022-acquired
FT-2000 transceiver; it produces flawless 100-watts full-duty RTTY, just like its predecessor, the
FT-1000mp, altho the AFSK audio seems "cleaner" from the FT-2000.

Due to an intermittent
20-meter RFI issue with the portable setup in Concord, operations
began on 40-meters
Friday evening.  

On Saturday, rolling
the 8JK ladder line into
a "roller coaster" loop behind the MFJ-949E tuner seemed to cancel out the rampant 20-meter RFI energy.

We are clearly well into Solar Cycle 25.  

The solar flux was in the 140's most of the time, with no noticeable Space-WX issues to deal with other than the effects of fading on the high bands.  Because exchanges are so easily confused,
a combination of letters/numbers were sent twice - Example: "JA!xxx 5NN 03 CA - 03 CA".

The BiG surprise for this RTTY contest were numerous openings on 10-meters.  On Saturday afternoon (Sunday morning in Japan) a "pipe-line" to JA appeared, along with KH6 and ZL. 
Noticeably absent in t the SF East Bay were signals from VK (Australia); even the JA participation overall was lacking.  In recent RTTY contests, the decoding software seems to dominate the CPU.  Looks like a new laptop with a faster CPU and at least 16GB of ram is on the horizon.

While op-time was split between running frequencies and S&P, it was a delight when stations
such as CR3W would call-in.  Only working them on 80-meters was missing for CR3W. Evidently
the Concord location produces more of an NVIS signal on 80-meters, making DX communication more difficult.  Fortunately, U.S. & Canada QSOs count for 1 and 2 points (respectively).

RTTY contests always bring operating amusement. A station will frantically call-in.  I'll send
a crisp/succinct reply and they just disappear.  HuH?  Where'd you GO?"  A moment ago, you overrode other callers to make a QSO, then you disappear?  While we're at it, where were the other callers he overrode?  I made a new function key to send "WEIRD - WEIRD - WEIRD" during moments like this.

When it was all over 323 QSOs made it into the RTTY Log, just missing the goal of 100k points.

What about YOU?"

DiD YOU play in the CQ W.W. RTTY contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

WQ6X fakes 5 QSO Parties and a RTTY Sprint

This last contest weekend represented a little bit of a lot of different events.  In a wrapper-sense,
it was all about the QSO parties: TX, WA, NH, NJ and the "unadvertised" IAQP.  The Washington Salmon Run and the TXQP were well represented.  For the IA, NH & NJ GiGs, only one contact
was made with each state, from which I submitted three 1-QSO logs and submissions to the 3830 scores website.

Daytime band conditions were iffy, so I hung out w/former classmates at a class reunion for Livermore High School.  

(The amateur radio club at LHS was known by the callsign: WA6UQX - which is not all that different from my current WQ6X callsign.

Altho the 4-hour North American (NA) RTYY Sprint began at 00:00z (5pm PDT), because
of my ongoing 20-meter RFI situation, THE RTTY band (20-m) wasn't going to happen.

 
Luckily, I was able to paddle-key enough Cw to work any remaining QSO party stragglers on 20-meters. 

When 40-meters finally opened, it was discovered that the RigExpert PLUS cable to the microphone input (on the back of the radio) was lying on the shelf wondering what to do next, a problem easily remedied.

Then again, by the time I resolved the cable situation, there was only 35 minutes left to play RTTY.  It's a good thing I wasn't on an SCCC RTTY team (no one volunteered to make up a team).  No one was running RTTY on 80-meters, making the WQ6X Sprint entry a single-band affair.  At 04:05z, there were still RTTY stations calling "CQ NA".  HuH?  Wassup with that?  I thot the contest was long over.  As each contest ended, the log/score was submitted immediately, in order to be done with it.

The only thing of relevant, notable, interest was the ID-pattern change of the Russian military "K" beacon on 7.038 ("K" x 4, instead of last weekend's "K" x 5).  As early as 05:50z, the "K" beacon came in LOUD and CLEAR in the SF East Bay.  As I said in a recent blog, the constantly changing beacon-ID changes is proof that these propagation beacons are being "tended to" by some sort of human-element.  Then again, the "F" beacon (Vladivostok) has been AWOL for several months,

and recently, the "M" beacon (Magadan) has also been absent.  Are all these operational significances merely statistically random anomalies?  OR?...

DiD YOU play around in the various radiosport GiGs this last weekend?
How many state counties DiD YOU Snag?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

Confirming CQP: Some ThoTs on MaKing it All Happen

Next to Sweepstakes and Field Day, the California QSO Party (CQP) is my next FAVorite
domestic radiosport event; and of course, my FAVorite State QSO Party. I have written much
about my [shared] exploits in the CQP GiG, including:

• [X] - CQP 2021 as K6QLF
• [X] - CQP as EMCOMM Training
• [X] - Some ThoTs on running CQP from Alameda
• [X] - CQP 2020: WQ6X Dual-ops another CQP
• [X] - Blast from the Past: California QSO Party (CQP)
• [X] - WQ6X Ponders and Prepares W6C for 2018 CQP

Last year was the 1st time the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) ever submitted an
entry in a California QSO Party, altho K6QLF is a well-known callsign during Field Day events.     
My purpose in organizing K6QLF CQP events is to introduce club members to the world of portable (in this case "Expedition") operations and what it takes to Search & Pounce and run frequencies.  The process of running frequencies effectively is a new experience for most operators, requiring Persistent Practice to Produce Perfection.

For 2022 a number interesting little modifications have been added to the way CQP operations
can be run.  While the overall operating period is 30 hours, the contest committee has added the possibility of running as a "single-day" event; essentially this is a 12 hour operating period, instead
of the full 30 hours.

While Alameda is #41 on the most needed county list, it's amazing how many CQP participants
never put Alameda in their log.  Then again, Los Angeles (LANG) is #58, yet every year it seems
to be one of the most difficult counties to log.  Being a multi-mode (Cw & Ssb) operating event, CQP caters to many different operating styles.  Newer operators can gain exposure to a "crisper" style of operating, while more-experienced operators have the opportunity to Elmer (mentor) newer operators.

As a native Californian, running CQP events brings me closer to other "Golden Bear" operators, especially in the evening hours.  Because of the short run-times, many state QSO parties miss
out on the operating fun that can only happen on the lower bands in the evening.

Whether you are a California or half-way across the country, only the CQP brings you a significant state QSO party activity with the opportunity to put all 58 counties in your log in JUST one weekend.

Do YOU ever run the California QSO Party?

Tell me about your exploits.

WQ6X Wades thru a Wonkily WEIRD FOC-SPRINT Weekend

While I enjoy BiG Contest weekends, some weekends offer only a handful of Short, Quick GiGs. 
This last weekend began with the 24-hour FOC QSO Party event.  The "CQ BW" is an operating event, not a contest, which is why it is listed on the WA7BNM Contest Calendar ([X]), yet not listed
on 3830Scores.Com ([X]).

The above WQ6X 3830 submission (close-up below) says it all, altho I have some details to add.

On Saturday while there was allegedly an Alabama QSO Party (ALQP) in progress, I never heard anything - daytime band conditions SUCKED, so I took time to de-thread the morass of audio-filters cables/wires that have accumulated at this constantly evolving portable operation and start over. 
As improvements are made to integrate numerously different audio filters into one operational configuration, even with initially organized intention, wires and cables can become hopelessly confused.  By the 00:00z SPRINT start time, still no Alabama was heard in the SF East Bay - the ALQP and SPRINT both ended at the same time (04:00z), leaving the QSO Party an unfulfilled dream.

Most FOC on the air activities are between members only.  With this GiG, non-members can not only work FOC members, but they can also work non-members as well.  Because the FOC QSO Party ([X]) is NoT a contest, I took a more casual attitude towards making FOC QSOs, saving the excess adrenaline for surviving the SPRINT GiG  - it turns out I would need it.

In general, the NA Sprint contest opens on 20-meters, drops to 40 when we run out of new contacts and (for me) ends with a combination of 40 & 80; altho, 80-meters was nearly not worth the effort for only 5-points.

Within 2-minutes on 20-meters, shack-RFI took out the RigExpert PLUS CAT control unit. 
I could paddle-send Cw thru the unit, altho the N1MM software lost the serial ports.  The ability
to run the contest with function keys on 20-meters was a BiG ZERO.  Fortunately, during a previous SPRINT contest, the FT-2000's onboard Cw keyer memories were already loaded to send most of
the needed info, requiring only the callsign and the QSO# to be sent manually.  Using 2-handed gymnastics, I would send the caller's callsign, press F4 to send MY callsign, manually send the QSO # (sometimes twice) and then press F2 to send "RON CA".  Once I deemed 20-meters a done-deal, the move was made down to 40, without looking back.

Restarting the RiGExpert PLUS brought back the serial ports which allowed me to run 40 & 80 under complete computer control, like the "BiG BoYs".  Saturday's spurious Space-WX didn't help matters, with all manner of flare-ups and BELCHES until well past midnight.  By the time the storms were over, so were all of the events. 80-meters produced only 5-QSOs, hardly worth the time spent - at LEAST,
I could say I was there.

The only thing left of significance was hearing the Russian "K" propagation beacon (on 7038.8) reasonably loud at 06:30z; altho this time the beacon exchange was "K K K K K", whereas, a couple of weeks ago it was "K K K".  Someone is OBVIOUSLY attending to these Russian beacons - the Mystery DEEPENS.

DiD YOU work the FOC QSO Party and the NA Sprint Cw contest?

Is WQ6X in one of YOUR LoGs?

WQ6X Works the WEIRDEST All Asian Contest - EVER

Where do I begin when it comes to describing this weekend?  This was our 1st experience running
an NX6T setup from a new portable location in Ramona (So. California) known as "Cliffside".   You may recognize what used to be "Tower 2" at our old "Nashville" QTH.  Being trailer-equipped, it can be towed to nearly any location and setup with the 2-Yagi configuration: a 3-element Stepp-IR, and
a 2-element Mosley Shorty-40 for operations on 40-meters, along with an 80-meter Double-Bazooka.

WQ6X ran NX6T remotely from our new remote location in Romona (So. California).  We've
gone from Nashville to Radio Ranch and now a location nicknamed Cliffside.  Having revamped
the portable setup @ W&AYT's QTH, running remote is actually easier and more efficient than ever.

Of course, the BiG complaint for
All Asian weekend was some of the NASTIEST Space-WX I have EVER experienced in a radiosport contest.

Even with the use of Band Condition Spray, our daytime OPs were unable
to snag any Asian stations, not even JA's.  Then, as the sunset approached,
20-meters gave us a very brief handful

of opportunities, requiring a combination 

of carefully crafted CQ calls along with some expert S&P'ing in order to EEK Asian contacts into the log.  If Billy-Bob and his brother Barney would have qualified as Asian contacts, we would've added another 30% to our contact total - Bummer Dewd!

Around midnight, propagation began to open up towards Japan.  Amazingly, while I heard many
JA stations, the majority were ragchewing amongst themselves and NoT participating in the JARL-sponsored All Asian Dx contest - HuH?  Wassup with THAT?

Typical to 48-hour Ssb contests, 40-meters becomes fair game for all manner of signal-oddities.  Outside of 48-hour contest periods, RTTY stations are NEVER heard in the 40-meter phone segment.  However, Dx contests bring in swarms of RTTY (7.135, 7.158), a "whooshing jammer" (7.176), MCW (7.135), RTTY and DATA (7.159) and a "Howling Waterfall" (7184.84) purposely
timed to obliterate NX6T's calling station's callsign and information exchange.  

There was also a weak (although no-less annoying) "Woodpecker" station in the background.  Contrary to popular hoped-for belief, not only is the Woodpecker back, there is now a half-dozen
or more of the "little critters" - smaller/weaker and yet JUST as annoying.

While tuning around 20-meters on Sunday I heard several Tennessee stations calling CQ in their own state QSO party.  I quickly setup a N1MM+ TNQP log on the local computer and worked the stations as WQ6X from Cliffside, typing the QSOs into the local WQ6X log.  After TNQP was over, I submitted a 4-QSO Ssb log, if for no other reason than to acknowledge their QSO party and say I was there:
"It's NICE, to Know, that You were There..."

Overall, it would seem that dozens of stations (mostly Asian) allowed Space-WX considerations
to interrupt/prevent their participation during this 48-hour event.  Don't take MY word for it - compare the submitted results with last year and years before.  In this instance, statistics don't lie; in fact, they speak Quite LOUDLY.

In the multi-OP categories, it would seem that outside of California, nothing else was happening. 
It would therefore seem that K3EST and NX6T win by default - just for showing up.

DiD YOU show up to the All Asian Ssb contest?
If NoT, WHY knot?

If so, how many Asian stations made it into YOUR log?

WQ6X Romps thru another multi-QSO Party Weekend

For the last contest weekend in August, the original plan was simply to run as WQ6X remotely
for the HQP (Hawaiian QSO Party), until looking at 3830 score reports for the last couple of years identified the fact that multi-single entries were submitted w/barely a half-dozen QSOs in the log. 
The WA7BNM Contest Calendar revealed this to be a complex weekend, radiosport-wise. 
The prominent events that I paid attention to included:

I like the starting/ending time for the HQP GiG - 04:00z (9pm PDT), 6pm Hawaii time. 
After a hearty meal, they get to play radio, and so do we.  All the other weekend GiGs
started @12:00z or 14:00z.

Due to the lack of Hawaiians calling stations, we took on the task of calling "CQ HQP". 
Even tho the Yagi's were positioned 241-degrees, our signal (even tho only 100 watts)
had a presence on the East coast and Southeast, giving Billy-Bob and his brother Barney
an opportunity to call in.  For Cw operation, the F-12 key was defined to send "KH6 ONLY".

On Ssb it was a slightly different scenario.  Even when I said, "Hawaii ONLY", Billy-Bob wouldn't
stop calling, so I gave him a "5-9 CAL" and he would go away.  Unfortunately, Barney was different - he wanted to ragchew.  When I said, "Hawaii Only" he called me an "uppity Asshole".  I mockingly reminded him that the HQP rules don't allow me to work non-Hawaiians.  (If he had read the contest rules, he would already know that).  I suggested that if he had an issue with that, he could write the contest coordinator (Al, AD6E) and raise a complaint - HaH!

The other major concern was the more-or-less erratic Space-WX.  

In fact, as you can see, shortly after the HQP event ended, the SFI briefly spiked to 250
as a MAJOR solar
event headed our way.

During most of the day
on Saturday, very few Hawaiian stations
were heard. 

This offered up the opportunity to poke
around in the KSQP
and OHQP QSO parties.  

This year, Kansas outdid themselves with numerous mobile stations (rovers) activating 3 - 4 counties on strategically chosen county lines.  Working these multi-QSO point stations resulted in the highest KSQP score WQ6X has ever submitted.

Also running during the weekend were the YO Dx contest and the W/VE islands affair (both multi-mode GiGs).  While a few stations were worked in the YO contest, propagation to Europe was quite marginal (compared to recent weeks).  Less than a handful of W/VE island stations were heard, much less workable; such is the plight of the contest event that never quite lives up to my expectations.

Running OHQP from the SF East Bay is usually a disappointment, due to poor signal levels at the Concord QTH.  Running OHQP from Anza (Southern California) is an incredibly different experience.  40 (and even 80) meters made for a big score increase over previous years; however, the 04:00z ending is WaY too early.

On Sunday with all the GiGs (except HQP) over, I spent the rest of the time dismantling the portable setup @W7AYT, reconfiguring it in one of the bedrooms at the QTH.  Rerouting the morass of audio cables made it possible to eliminate ground loops and remove an external audio amplifier that was causing more distortion and feedback than actual useful amplification.

An after-contest chat w/KH7Y confirmed my observation that band conditions were horrible and Hawaiian participation in their own QSO party was noticeably lacking.  Fortunately, on Saturday,
the KSQP and OHQP GiGs were loaded with activity.  I don't know if there was simply greater participation in OHQP and KSQP (compared to last year) or whether having access to the
antenna farm at WA6TQT is the reason I head/worked more stations.

Overall, the final August weekend added 5 radiosport events to the WQ6X 3830 score list, and made way to reconfigure the station configuration, making way for the upcoming All Asian Dx Ssb contest, beginning in September.

When it was all over, I am reminded of
the Woody Allen quote: "sometimes,
just showing up is half of the game".

DiD YOU work the various state
QSO parties? 

How many counties made it into
YOUR Log?

Doodling and Doing DSP Differently

I have often said I am a knob-twiddler - I love having the ability to tweak receive signals, making
them even more readable.  Using a transceiver like the Yaesu FT-2000 allows me to largely do just that.  However, most of the signal-adjustment (NB, NR, Shift/Width and Contour) are all accomplished in the I-F (Intermediate Frequency) stages.  It is at the A-F (audio) end of the signal line where peaking and Stereo-Cw actually happen.

Over the years, I have used many external audio processing units such as the MFJ-752's
(For signal enhancement) and the Autek QF-1A's for creating Stereo-Cw.  Those devices utilize
early-80's era analog IC technology.  As we moved into the 90's, the technology evolved into
Digital Signal Processing (DSP).  In the late 80's, Kenwood introduced their IF-based DSP-100,
an interesting idea that was way over-priced and really not very impressive.  Altho it DiD work reasonably well with transmit audio, being an external box, it was (in my mind) to clunky to
really be useful.

Radio Shaft introduced what they called the Realistic DSP-40.  Having opened the DSP-40 for an electronics inspection, I haven't a clue what it REALLY does, however, the fact that it produces low distortion amplified audio, makes it marginally useful.   As I introduce the WQ6X audio-processing panel in up-coming months, I will make way for inclusion of the DSP-40 in that configuration, offering an empirically more-objective evaluation of this 30-year-old "DSP" technology.

It would seem that the DSP-40 unit operates more like an analog-based device.  While it employs a D16041FN microprocessor, that alone does not make the DSP-40 an actual DSP device.  Looking at the block diagram, no mention is made of any A-D (analog-to-digital) or D-A (digital-to-analog) signal processing.

The 90's brought us two major DSP manufacturers: Timewave and JPS communications. 
MFJ joined in with 2 models of the MFJ-784 DSP unit (unique in that it was "programmable"). 
While an older MFJ-784 has been added to the left-channel audio in the current WQ6X audio-configuration, I found little value in the less-expensive Timewave units.  Altho the high-end DSP-599zx is quite capable, (in my opinion) it is way over-priced.  Even today, those units (when they
can be found) price-out at around $400 (more than the original price). 

The JPS NIR-10 & NIR-12 are just as capable, more readily attainable and can easily be had
for under $150.  My only concern with these devices is that they run those 40-mhz TI DSP-chips intensely, generating an immense amount of heat.  The MFJ-784 units run rather cool; but then
the enclosures for the MFJ units are more-or-less double the physical-size of the JPS boxes and therefore twice-as-much cooler.

 

Because the JPS units are designed to handle a number of different signal conditions, a 130ms delay occurs from signal-in to signal-out due to slow processing speed (compared to today's DSP chips) of the older TI DSP-chips.  Normally this is not an issue.  However, with Stereo-Cw often the [more-or-less] same signal appears in both ears [more-or-less] simultaneously, the 130ms processing delay often results in a sort of Left-Right ECHO (echo) which can be very confusing and/or annoying.    While we can't speed up the DSP chips, we CAN introduce a delay into the unprocessed ear audio.

To accomplish the necessary Milli-second delay an AP-411 (Lip Sync Corrector) has been added to the left-channel audio line, allowing an adjustable delay from 0 to ~400 milliseconds to balance out the audio response.  While these units are not cheap ($189 new), a used one was found on eBay for $74.99 that has operated flawlessly.  While the adjustment knob is tiny and a bit clumsy, it usually needs be set once for an entire contest weekend, altho sometimes there is a noticeable difference when switching from Cw to Ssb (in a multi-mode contest).

Knife and Rotary switches can contribute to the feeling of selecting different units or unit combinations.

For easier interpretation, each individual unit should have a letter designation.  Example:  A) QF-1A,  B) QF-1A, 
C) NIR-10,  D) NIR-12,   E) MFJ-752B,   
F) MFT-752C, G) MFJ-784, H) DSP-40, I) MFJ-721.

In addition to rotary switches, we can make use of a logic-selected relays (similar to ATU antenna tuning units
built-in to most modern transceivers).

 

As mentioned earlier, intermixing a number of different audio units (with shared and different power sources) risks creating an unintended ground-loop throughout the audio lines.  These loops can be mitigated somewhat with grounding straps and bypass capacitors.  While use of a stereo equalizer at the end of the audio line can tune out any remaining artifact, ideally it should not be generated at all.

There have been hundreds of different equalizers made in the last 40+ years, however my favorite unit is a quite inexpensive Radio Shack unit which sold originally for around $50 - WoW!

As you can see, I LOVE playing around with audio processing devices. 
Each unit can take the amateur radio listening experience to the next level.

What about YOU?
Do YOU make use of audio processing?
What configurations are YOUR favorite?