Grids and States (June, 2009)
50Mhz, 144Mhz, 432 Mhz VUCC and 6 Meter WAS. My confirmed grid count as of 5/31/2009 on 6 meters is 317 grids confirmed. I have worked over 495 grids. On 2 meters confirmed state and grid count is 49 states and 281 grids including EME. On 222 Mhz 24 states and 66 grids are confirmed. The confirmed state and grid count on 432Mhz is 15 states and 69 grids. On 902Mhz, 4 states and 10 grids are confirmed and on 1296Mhz, 6 states and 24 grids are confirmed. On 10Ghz, 5 states, 2 provinces and 18 grids are confirmed.
May 31, 2009 update
The EME "season" is over here again. The last 2m EME WSJT QSO was on May 3rd. My initial 2m WSJT EME count now stands at 310, 75 new initials this past winter. I hope to return next winter again for more "driveway EME". The spring has been dry, cool and "delayed", hence the tropo has left much to be desired. I sure hope we will see a shift in weather conditions that will be more conducive to good propagation soon. On a trip to the "MO farm" mid May, I did take the 10Ghz portable station down with me and worked KB0PE and WB9PNU from EM39ka. The QSOs occured on different days and both were good SSB copy at distances about 150 miles. The QSO with Dave KB0PE was quite unusual in that the signal peaked some 20+ degrees off heading. The Hepburn Tropo map indicated that an area of enhanced propagation was possible. The SSB signals were less than "waveguide" but well over S9 with direct path signals being just above the noise. Very odd. Side lobes of the dish were observed as well as I peaked the signal. Fun! "Wesslund Award" On May 30, I was honored by the Northern Lights Radio Society with the Wesslund Award at Aurora 09 . This is an annual award given to a member of the NRLS. I consider this to be a real highlight in my 54 years in amateur radio. The award is named for Bob Wesslund W0AUS (sk) a NLRS VHF/UHF/Microwave pioneer. Thank You NLRS!
March 2009, Winter ReportThis has been a "slow" radio winter. I did work the Jan UHF/VHF contest, but conditions were quite poor and the results of the contest were poor as well. Other than that, I have been keeping 10Ghz skeds with Gary W0GHZ on a twice a day basis. The cold winter has made for poor propagation on 10Ghz. On the WSJT EME front, I have been on only occasionally, but did add my 49th state when I worked Ed KL7UW March the 7th on 2m JT65b. Nice signals both ways. I now have only Nevada left now to have all 50 states. In addition to this contact I have worked 47 additional initials and as of 9 March, I have 275 different EME initials on 2 meters. Strange as it may seem, I have been enjoying a bit of HF DXing here in the late spring, using the Flex-1000 and the dipoles on 75,40 and 20meters. All SSB operations and I have had some good reports with the barefoot 70watts or so. Eastern Europe on 20 meters seems to be "duck soup" for the last couple of weeks as well as several on 40meters. Odd, I have been hamming for over 50yrs and never tried any 40m SSB DX before. Shortly after sunset, there have sure been some strong signals out of Europe on 40m. Nothing much with the SoftRocks, the version 9 receiver (160-10m) has been a real joy to use. A great receiver matches any radio in the shack. I have been using it with my Dell laptop it on trips as well. Lots of fun to have the SDR portable. The V6.3 10m RxTx has been checked out and works well, but I continue to us the V6.2 transceiver on 2m SSB and the V7 with the 10Ghz, 902 and 1296 operations. Great gear!! I hope spring will provide improved VHF-Microwave activity and propagation. The winter has been way too quiet.
Sept 2008, ARRL VHF Contest (Sept 13-15)This was my poorest September VHF Contest since 2002. The tropo conditions were the poorest I can ever recall. From my observations the activity was also poor again. The low level of activity seems to be trending lower and lower, this is beginning to be a concern to me. Even though the rover activity was pretty limited, rovers accounted for 12% of my QSOs and my own grid accounted for 20%. I think this was an all time high number of QSOs, during a contest, from EN37. Thank you W9FZ/R for EN57. EN57 was a new grid for me on 222,432 and 902. As high pressure moved into the area late Sunday, conditions did improve to at least GOOD conditions to the west. The improved conditions allowed nice QSOs with Dennis NT0V on 6,2,222 and 432 and also Wally on 432 SSB. In the end .... Band Qs Grids Points 50 30 17 2130 144 47 20 3337 222 12 10 1704 432 25 14 3550 902 2 2 426 1296 3 3 639 10Ghz 5 5 1420 Total 124 Contacts 71 Grids 13,206 points <<<<<<
Aug 31, 2008 -- Story Corps InterviewStory Corps is visiting our community this month. What a great organization! Pat and I did a 40 minute interview today about my 53yrs of Amateur Radio. After reading that Amateur Radio is #16 or 25 things vanishing from America, I couldn't resist the opportunity. Pat did a great job. All interviews that Story Corps does are archived at the Library of Congress and selected interviews are selected for editing and use on the air (NPR stations). Hard to say of any of our interview will "make the grade", but we gave it a shot.
[Update Sept 11,2008] Alex Kelly of Story Corp posted a blog today after a visit to my shack. If interested in her blog ...
August 25,2008 -- Ver6.3RxTx SoftRock Transceiver --
I preparation for a presentation to Microwave Update 08, I built the latest of the SoftRock family. This model offers complete frequency agility from 160m - 10m without xtals. It uses a Si570 programmable oscillator that is frequency controlled by the SDR software. SWEET! I am waiting on the PA/ bandpass filter for 10m, but the receiver sure works great!SoftRock Ver6.3RxTx
August 18,2008 -- 10Ghz Contest Aug & Sept Rove --
Wally WØPHD and I roved the Red River Valley in western Minnesota again this year for the first day of the 10Ghz and Above contest. Lots of sun and a new station to work :>)KØAWU & WØPHD 10Ghz Rove 2008
Aug 2008, ARRL UHF Contest (Aug 02-03)This was my best August UHF Contest ever, I more than tripled my previous contest high. Good tropo conditions Saturday night really helped with 902 and above. Then during the last hour of the contest, a front came through north of Minneapolis that provided 8 quick 10Ghz rainscatter QSOs. Every previous personal high for 902 and above was exceeded and the old 432 high numbers were equaled. Saturday night I had good tropo conditions extending over 600miles to the south, but it resulted in only a half dozen of so stations being worked on 222 and 432, what a shame given the population in those areas. NLRS "Rovermania" rovers accounted for 51 of my 107 QSOs. It seemed that home stations were in short supply for the entire contest, but many of them were known to be out "Roving". Some highlights: Working K2DRH on 902 and 1296 again (411miles), band sweeps with W0ZQ/R 222-1296 plus 10Ghz tropo in EN43,EN33 and EN25, KA9UVY EM58(660miles) on 432. (I copied him for several hours on 902 and 1296, but he could not hear me.), working my own grid on 10Ghz!! and 222-1296 sweeps with W9FZ/R from EN43 and EN32. In the end .... Band Qs Grids Points 222 23 13 4071 432 44 18 7788 902 9 8 3186 1296 14 10 4956 10Ghz 17 10 12036 Total 107 Contacts 59 Grids 32,037 points <<<<<<
July 11, 2008 10Ghz RainscatterGreat day for rainscatter. We had a fast moving front that came through and dumped 1/2" of rain in about 20min. Prior to it's arrival I was able to work Eddie VE3KRP in Thunder Bay (221miles) on a system just south of him on the border. After we completed, I turned my attention to the wx to the west. When it was about 40miles distant, Dennis NTØV EN08 (254m) and I worked with S2-S5 CW sigs. This was our first QSO on 10Ghz, so a new state (North Dakota) and grid :-) Then I worked Wally WØGHZ in EN18, WØZQ and KCØIYT in EN34 Wrapped it up with Barry VE4MA (248miles) on CW (and FM!) and Gary WØGHZ down in EN34 again. WØZQ and KCØIYT were both worked using FM with full quieting signals. ZQ switched to his "QRP" rig which consists of a 17db horn and 2watt power level. Even that setup yielded an S9 FM signal! Keep in mind that EN34 is 160miles distant ... What a great band and mode!!!
July 1, 2008 -- Final 2007-08 Central States Above 50MHZ
6 Meters -- 52 States/Prov 2 Meters -- 34 States/Prov 222 Mhz -- 08 States/Prov 432 Mhz -- 07 States/Prov 902 Mhz -- 01 States/Prov 1296 Mhz -- 03 States/Prov 10 Ghz -- 07 States/Prov ----------- Total -- 112 States/Prov THIRD PLACE finish
June 2008, ARRL VHF ContestThis contest was a mixture of good 6m Es and poor conditions elsewhere. When are we to ever see good tropo again? Some south experienced 2m Es, but none was observed here. The station ran well for the entire contest with the exception of a software configuration issue that popped up at the last min on WSJT for my late night meteor scatter skeds. The problem was "worked around", but one 6 and 2m sked was lost.
I just seemed to be "out of gas" on this contest. The 6m Es on Saturday was not very productive since I could not seem to find a spot to run a string. In that regard Sunday was much better. Even with all that, not a bad contest all and all. In the end .... Band Qs Grids Points 50 201 96 29145 144 42 25 6090 222 10 8 2900 432 18 9 5220 902 1 1 435 1296 4 4 1740 10Ghz 3 2 1740 Total 279 Contacts 145 Grids 47,270 points <<<<<<
Feb 2008, More SDR activitiesAt long last, the 10m SoftRock SDR transceiver became available. I ordered a beta version about the first of the year. The crystal was delayed for a while but I am now using it for my 902, 1296 and 10Ghz IF. VERY happy with the results.
KØAWU's 10mRxTX SoftRock IF.
Nov 2007, A Return to the 1950'sI have been busy working the HF frequencies again, strange to be doing that for me. But I have my first "Vintage" station now on the air and I'm trying to relive some of my early radio days on 40 and 80m CW! I feel like QRO running 20 watts instead of the QRPp's 500mw.
KØAWU's Vintage Station
Sept 2007, ARRL VHF Contest (Sept 08-10)Another contest with less than good conditions. Just a couple of hours after the start of the contest a front passed through and the conditions were "in the tank" for the rest of the contest. On Wednesday before the contest started, I decided since I was having trouble with the IC746Pro AGAIN ... that I would try to get the SDR1000 on 2m for the contest. My "1000" uses an internal xverter, so I needed about 20db of receive gain (a MAR6a) in addition to the Gasfet 2m preamp. On the xmit side a driver amp took the 10mw up to enough drive for the pair of 8560as giving me about 400w . I operated under the fear of a computer crash from my "flaky" Dell, but none ever occurred. All and all I was pleased with the first attempt with SDR 2 meter Rx/Tx. In the end .... Band Qs Grids Points 50 44 22 3564 144 61 24 4941 222 18 12 2916 432 28 15 4536 902 1 1 243 1296 5 3 1215 10Ghz 4 4 1296 Total 161 Contacts 81 Grids 18,711 points <<<<<<
July 1, 2007 -- Final 2006-07 Central States Above 50MHZ
6 Meters -- 54 States/Prov 2 Meters -- 42 States/Prov 222 Mhz -- 07 States/Prov 432 Mhz -- 09 States/Prov 902 Mhz -- 02 States/Prov 1296 Mhz -- 05 States/Prov 10 Ghz -- 06 States/Prov ----------- Total -- 125 States/Prov THIRD PLACE finish 1296 and 10Ghz numbers were up, 902 was added and all others were down slightly this year. I really need to work at 222 harder.
June 2007, ARRL VHF QSO Party (June 09-11)A very interesting contest with less than expected activity. The conditions were at no time what I would consider "good", in fact quite poor. Oddly 432 and above seemed to be better than the lower frequencies.There were a few 6m Es Sunday afternoon, but it was limited footprint in the southeastern US. 24% of my score was rover related and Es accounted for 20%, the rest for the most part took digging. I had several personal bests out of this contest. 15 grids on 222 ties my highest 222 grid count. 18 grids on 432 is my highest EVER, (thanks to N9TTX/R for 3 or those). After a "trial run" in the Jan contest, I had 6 contacts in 6 grids on 902 and 4 or those grids were new grids for me. On 1296, 8 grids were worked , the SDR IF paid off big time looking for the weak signals, this is a new high grid count for me. Then there were the FOUR grids worked on 10Ghz, COOL!! I continue to be very impressed with the strong signals I am seeing on 902. It sure seems to be a great band. Biggest highlight was two 233mile 10Ghz tropo contacts with WØZQ/R in EN43 and EN33, these were my best 10Ghz tropo by over 75miles. Very Cool.
At 207 contacts, it was a low average June contest, BUT fun none the less. Band Qs Grids Points 50 73 34 7,957 144 62 24 6,758 222 21 15 4,578 432 30 18 6,540 902 6 6 1,962 1296 10 10 3,270 10Ghz 5 4 2,180 Total 207 Contacts 109 Grids 33,245 points <<<<<<
April 5,2007 -- 101st QRPp 40m CW QSO--
I now have my first random CW Softrock to Softrock QSO. I heard Tony KB9YIG in QSO with another station on 7.037 at 23:25z .. waited until they signed and called Tony ... Tony came right back and we had a very nice quick QSO. The contact was cut short because my dinner was on the table, but wonderful to work him. He had a nice 5-5-9 signal on his random wire antenna running 1W. I was running 500mw into a 40m dipole at 20ft and was also 55N. Tony is the "MAN behind" the SoftRock series. He ramrods the designs, packages and distributes all the softrock series. A very special QSO. Thanks Tony for the Softrocks and the QSO!!
March 3,2007 -- W0MHS in the log again!--
I called CQ on 80m CW with my SoftRock QRP rig running all of 800mw tonight and I was answered by KB4ZDU in St Joe, Missouri. After a nice chat he asked me to standby for another station. Odd I thought, but maybe he has a neighbor wanting a QSO. He signed and I was called by W0MHS. Holy Cow!! W0MHS was my second QSO in amateur radio in 1955. He was a High School student about 8miles from my QTH. I had not talked to Dave since that QSO some 52yrs earlier... What a great hobby!. It turns out that the first QSO was with Dave's son and Dave was just visiting and recognized the my call. Thanks for the call and QSO Dave. Hope we work again sooner than another 52yrs!!
Febuary 27,2007 -- 80/40m Software Defined Transceiver --
Winter is a good time to build, and I've been busy at the bench again building this time a SoftRock Ver6.1RxTx 80/40m transverter. Lots of fun operating it on CW as well. The log looks "strange" with all these HF contacts!
KØAWU's 80m/40m Software defined QRP transceiver
January 22,2007 -- ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes --
This is a normally a "slow" contest and it was again with very poor conditions on 2m most of the contest period. Very little 6m Es, (10 QSOs in 7 grids). I had added 902 for this contest and 3 contacts in 3 grids were made there. This effort ended up being pretty much a "normal" score for me in a Jan contest. Only two rover contacts and neither of them for a new grid. Now to improve 902 for June.
Band Qs Grids Points 50 53 22 3498 144 53 18 3498 222 15 08 1980 432 22 09 2904 902 3 3 792 1296 5 4 1320 10Ghz 2 2 1056 Total 153 Contacts 66 Grids 15,048 points <<<<<<
January 19,2007 -- 902Mhz added to the Station --
Today marked the first QSO on 902Mhz. Thanks to Chris N0JCZ, I now have the new band. I built up a KK7B no-tune transverter followed by a Ericsson amplifier. On the receive side a DEM 902 preamp is also used. For the moment I built a 10 elem "WA5VJB Cheap Yagi" and have it at 50ft feed with 100ft of LMR400. Prior to the June contest, I plan on getting a better antenna up. So far the band looks very interesting. For whatever reason the power is limited to 20watts ... I need to work more on the system to determine why.
January 7,2007 -- 144Mhz WSJT-EME Initial #200
Initials off the moon are harder to "come by" now... As the moon approached 15deg this morning I was coping JS3CTQ solid as he called CQ. There was some QSB but we were able to work with some signal margin. Hiro was my 200th EME initial using the single "Driveway Yagi".
Sept 25, 2006 -- 10Ghz Tower System Upgrade
Since the availability of the DEMI 8 watt amplifiers, I had been tempted to upgrade tower system. At the end of the CSVHF conference in July I decided that I had better "do it" if I was going to. This past week I took the "tower box" off the tower and rebuilt the entire thing using the old 2watt amp to drive the new 8watt amp. Early tests look promising. It will be interesting to see if Gary WØGHZ and I will be able to work via tropo during the winter months.
KØAWU's 10Ghz Tower System
July 1, 2005 -- Final 2006 Central States Above 50MHZ
6 Meters -- 55 States/Prov 2 Meters -- 45 States/Prov 222 Mhz -- 12 States/Prov 432 Mhz -- 09 States/Prov 1296 Mhz -- 02 States/Prov 10 Ghz -- 04 States/Prov ----------- Total -- 127 States/Prov
June 12,2006 -- VHF QSO Party of a Lifetime! --
This is a June contest that will go down in history. With the 6m and 2m Es both being so wide spread and lasting so long the scores will be something to see. Looking at the tropo log, the contest would fall short of most of my June contests, I guess everyone was burned out! The number of 6 meter contacts, 6m grids and 2m contacts were the only new high catagories, except for the total points.
Es accounted for 50 contacts in 16 grids on 2meters and 587 contacts in 140 grids on 6meters! 2m Es list: FN11,12,13,20,21,22,23,30,31,32,33,34,41,42,43,51. --- WOW!! ---
Band Qs Grids Points 50 626 156 137,094 144 109 35 23,871 222 20 11 8,760 432 22 12 9,636 1296 5 4 3,285 10Ghz 1 1 876 Total 783 Contacts 219 Grids 183,522 points <<<<<<
May 24,2006 -- 144Mhz Softrock SDReceiver
I have been very interested in the FlexSDR for use as a VHF/UHF/Microwave IF radio. Lots of $$$ and I would need to redo the entire station. What I was most interested in was the ability to have a "panadapter" type display for monitoring or spotting signals. I now have that! Less than $50 with what I had on hand. If you have never heard of the "SoftRocks" ... take a look at my SDReceiver!KØAWU SDReceiver Page
May 4,2006 -- 144Mhz WSJT-EME Done for 05-06
Today I took down the "Driveway EME antenna". Our neighbors are to return soon and the antenna is too much "in the way" for all of us to deal with. It was a very successful winter ending with 164 initials. Sure hope that I can put the antenna up again next winter to continue WSJT-EME operations.
February 2,2006 -- 144Mhz WSJT-EME Initial #100
Today YL2HA answered my CQ on 144.117 and provided my 100th initial QSO via WSJT-EME. It was very nice to work my 100th initial, "random".
January 2006, ARRL VHF Sweepstakes (Jan 21-23)A very interesting contest with more than expected activity. The conditions were at no time what I would consider "good", in fact quite poor. 432 and 6m both seemed to be very poor, even though the numbers on those bands were "ok". My first contact was with WØZQ on 10Ghz snowscatter over 150miles away. In the middle was a JT65B EME contact with Milos S52LM on 2m at moon rise, saw him calling CQ as I was getting ready for a meteor scatter sked, pretty cool. I then worked some late night WSJT 6 and 2m meteor scatter, both requested skeds as well as a few randoms. "All" the WSJT operators were "a buzz" about random success during this contest ... I would guess the WSJT game is about to change! I did work Marshall K5QE and one other station on 6m Es Sunday afternoon, but it was very brief. 10% of my score was rover related. It was nice to hear a few rovers out at work.
As always, lots of fun. All the "new to me" stations made it a very encouraging contest. At 162 contacts, it was my best Jan contest BUT the total score fell a bit over 50pts short of my highest Jan score. Thanks Guys!! Band Qs Grids Points 50 46 21 3,266 144 70 25 4,970 222 20 10 2,840 432 21 10 2,982 1296 4 4 1,136 10Ghz 1 1 568 Total 162 Contacts 71 Grids 15,762 points <<<<<<
KØAWU Page
