More CQWW Assisted vs. Unassisted ananysis

Hello again everyone,

I’ve done some more looking at data, but I’m feeling a little limited by the data that is easily available.  I’m looking at the CQWW Records instead of results simply because they are readily available in a format I can import to Excel easily to massage the data.  I’d love to do this same kind of analysis with the overall results from several years of contests – that data just is not readily available to me.

With that limitation in mind, what I think I’m finding (with purely the data, no other information) is that serious ops who have really good skills can do better with assistance.  However, it seems that when an entrant is operating “more casually” they tend to operate in the assisted category, and thus have lower scores not because they are assisted, but rather because they are operating more casually.

For example, let’s look at VK5GN and D4B SSB records for SOAB and SOAB(A).  Both records were set within a couple of years of each other, with the larger score coming later in the solar cycle decline. The propigation conditions would have been similar, although I do concede that specific solar weather conditions (flares) are not take into consideration.  I’ve been looking for a source of historical Solar Flux, Sunsupt Number, Planateray A &K indices, but have not found anything comprehensive.  I have found the following site (http://www.solen.info/solar/old_reports/) but it only has data back to 2004.  Anybody know if a good source for historical Solar Weather data?

Category	Call	Score	QSO’s	Zones	Countries	Year	Zone
A	VK5GN	3,709,900	2928	127	333	99	30
AA	VK5GN	1,844,180	1841	108	238	97	30
A	D4B(4L5A)	20,433,438	8799	172	674	04	35
AA	D4B(4L5A)	11,567,412	5845	152	586	02	35

In the example above, there is the same operator, operating the same station.  Now, within two years there could have been lots of station and/or operator improvements, however the score differences are pretty significant.

Here’s a few comparisons that go the other way:

Category	Call	Score	QSO’s	Zones	Countries	Year	Zone
A	VE3EJ	8,498,500	4603	164	575	02	4
AA	VE3EJ(N5TJ)	11,080,260	5029	178	674	01	4
A	S52AA	7,134,192	4378	151	473	92	15
AA	OE4A(OE1EMS)	9,063,492	5118	164	640	04	15
A	ER0WW(RL3FT)	5,517,720	5387	131	454	08	16
AA	RU9WX	6,758,725	4091	125	536	07	16
A	DU1/OH0XX	6,043,500	4341	138	336	94	27
AA	KH2/N2NL	7,619,776	5156	151	385	99	27
A	5X1Z (SM7PKK)	4,900,518	3545	113	370	97	37
AA	5H3HK(JE3MAS)	5,786,933	4445	119	342	04	37

These all seem like pretty serious operations, from obviously competitive stations.  In these cases assistance seems to have made the difference.

Looking at the following 12 “close races” (which I defined as generally within 1meg points of each other) in the CQWW SSB records, the assisted scores came out on top in 5 cases, or 42% of the time.  Again, this analysis does not take into account other factors such as solar weather.

Category	Call	Score	QSO’s	Zones	Countries	Year	Zone
A	K6NA	3,642,240	2331	162	380	88	3
AA	KI3V/7	2,299,142	1501	143	419	90	3
A	VE3EJ	8,498,500	4603	164	575	02	4
AA	VE3EJ(N5TJ)	11,080,260	5029	178	674	01	4
A	VY2ZM	9,571,348	5854	134	494	07	5
AA	KI1G	8,053,315	3768	168	617	01	5
A	P40E (CT1BOH)	15,583,506	7816	166	533	99	9
AA	9Y4ZC(DL6FBL)	14,979,055	8114	137	500	03	9
A	CE3FIP	5,682,040	3990	135	355	91	12
AA	CE3BFZ	4,607,938	3574	128	330	04	12
A	S52AA	7,134,192	4378	151	473	92	15
AA	OE4A(OE1EMS)	9,063,492	5118	164	640	04	15
A	ER0WW(RL3FT)	5,517,720	5387	131	454	08	16
AA	RU9WX	6,758,725	4091	125	536	07	16
A	EX9A(UA3DPX)	7,270,560	4945	134	460	04	17
AA	RG9A(UA9AM)	6,511,351	3374	155	566	04	17
A	DU1/OH0XX	6,043,500	4341	138	336	94	27
AA	KH2/N2NL	7,619,776	5156	151	385	99	27
A	D4B(4L5A)	20,433,438	8799	172	674	04	35
AA	D4B(4L5A)	11,567,412	5845	152	586	02	35
A	5X1Z (SM7PKK)	4,900,518	3545	113	370	97	37
AA	5H3HK(JE3MAS)	5,786,933	4445	119	342	04	37
A	TF1MM	1,949,184	2883	76	206	90	40
AA	TF/N0HJZ	1,938,762	3454	73	249	05	40

My general “feeling” (meaning not directly data driven in any way) is that operators tend to select the assisted class when they are operating “more casually”.  However, when an operator is doing a full tilt operation, assistance does make a difference in the total possible multipliers AND overall score.

I also draw the opinion that operating skills, operator dedication and station design are much more important than assistance in achieving a good overall score.

In the end, I still dont’ think that SOAB entries (assited or not) will ever rival MM mult totals – and if they do, their q totals will have suffered significantly.  Records will continue to fall, maybe because of cheating (I hope not), or maybe because of better equipment and operators.  Either way, it’s all just a very interesting game.

73 de Al, KE1FO

SOSB vs. MM mults, CQWW SSB 2007

Here’s a look at SOSB [not SOSB(A)] vs. MM mults for CQWW SSB 2007. The table shows the mult totals for world winners in MM, SOAB and each SOSB category.

Take a look at the percentage totals. The SOSB entries matched or beat the MM in mults, even though the SOSB entrants were NOT assisted, and the MM could (did?) use spotting assistance. The SOAB world winner was no match for the MM though in the mult (or q) race.

World		160	80	40	20	15	10
Winner	category	total mults	total mults	total mults	total mults	total mults	total mults
TS6A	MM	86	120	150	176	170	110
LU1HF	SOSB10	0	0	0	0	0	130
ZX5J	SOSB15	0	0	0	0	191	0
CN4P	SOSB20	0	0	0	171	0	0
9Y4W	SOSB40	0	0	147	0	0	0
4L4WW	SOSB80	0	134	0	0	0	0
CN2R	SOSB160	100	0	0	0	0	0
8P5A	SOAB	52	103	133	153	127	93
Mults
MM vs. SOSB		16%	12%	-2%	-3%	12%	18%
MM vs. SOAB		-40%	-14%	-11%	-13%	-25%	-15%

CQWW CW 2009 Post Contest Writeup

Wow, what a blast!  I love this contest.  Early this year, I replaced one of my TS-940s with an Elecraft K3.  I got it put together just before CQ WPX CW, and gave it a few hour test during that contest.  I was blown away by how good the receiver was.  I was able to work stations easily that I could not even hear on the ‘940.  With that thought lingering in my mind, I thought that maybe this is the year I could break 1 million points in CQWW (at least before log checking).  As I talked about in a previous blog post, I found an interesting tool online for analyzing previous years CQWW logs, and I put together a pretty ambitious operating plan.  Well, the new radio, and the planning all paid off.  Here’s the whole story.

Had a great Thanksgiving gathering (with 4 kids, we stay put and others come to us – this year only my Father-in-law, so it was a nice quiet holiday).  Friday I got up to the start of a migraine – not a good thing for having a relaxing day and being ready for the contest.  Took some Excedrine Migraine, and within an hour, I was feeling fine.  The Friday after Thanksgiving always involves going to cut our Christmas tree.  My wife wanted to go on Saturday or Sunday instead, because it was raining on Friday, and the weekend was supposed to be sunny.  I convinced her that getting the tree on Friday was the right thing to do, and we dragged all the kids out to slog through the muddy tree lot in the cold rain.  We quickly found our tree (encouraged by the cold rain), and headed home to have turkey sandwiches for late lunch/early dinner.  With all the required duties out-of-the-way, I headed to the shack about 6:30 to make sure things were all working right and see if I could find a frequency on 40M to run on.

Well, running on 40 was not in the cards, so I started off with some S&P on 40 with a whopping 24 q’s the first hour.  Wow, not what I had planned on. I was hoping for running 40M at 40-50q/hr.  No such luck.  But there was the hilite of tuning through the bands, and finding A25NW just starting to CQ on 40.  Got him with 1 call, THEN spotted him on packet.  That frequency was soon in chaos!  Second hour was not much better, with another 24qs in the log, S&P between 40 and 80.  Conditions seemed lousy.  Hours 3, 4 and 5 netted another 23 q’s, on 40 and 80.  I was pretty discouraged as I headed off to bed at 05z.

I got up again at 11z and had a little breakfast before heading to the shack, hopeful that conditions on the high bands would be better.  I was not completely disappointed.  Hour 11 (about 10 minutes of actual operating) had 6 q’s. almost all double mults.  ZM1A was worked on 40, KH6ZN on 80 – both nice catches for me.  Hour 12 had a few mults from 40 on the 2nd radio, and working S&P on 20, trying to decide if it was runable yet.

At 11:36z I settled in at 14039 and started a decent run.  I continued to work a few mults on the 2nd rig on 40. Hour 13 had 60qs and 14 had 51 – not too bad, but I was hoping the rate would be a little better.  Hour 15 and 16 were not good hours for me.  I tried to hit 15 too hard, and it was clearly not the place to be.  The band was not runable for me, and I ended up working a few mults, but the rate was terrible.  Could have kept running on 20 and gotten most of he same mults on the 2nd radio.  At the end of hour 16 I found a spot on 20 again around 14039 again, and hour 17 was another decent hour of running on 20 and 2nd radio q’s on 15 with a rate of 61.  After the discussion on the CQ-Contest reflector about “watching your dits” the call DH5HS caught my attention – and after a couple of fills I was pretty confident I had caught all the dits.

For some reason at the beginning of hour 18 I was compelled to leave a fairly good run to hunt mults on 20 and 15.  Hour 18 had a rate of 28 – 6 of those were the end of my run on 20 and were in the first 5 minutes of the hour.  Not sure what I was thinking but I spend the next 2 hours working packet spots (not all mults) on 20 and 15.  Took a break for lunch at the end of hour 19, and came back hoping that 40 would open to EU soon, and I’d have better luck running than Friday evening.

Apparently, running on 40 was not in the cards this year.  All of my afternoon and evening hours had rates under 30.  I did make two full complete passes on 40 (down then up), listening to every signal on the band, and working new ones.  But it was discouraging not to be able to get a run going at all.  I went to bed at 05z again, thinking that 1meg was not going to be in reach with the lackluster performance on the low bands.  After 29 hours of the contest (and about 22 of actual operating) I only had 440 q’s in the log.

Was up the next morning at 11z again, and hopeful things would be better.  By 12:26z I had settled in at 14041 and stayed put (only getting pushed off once and moving to 14038) for the next 3 hours with rates of 57, 55 and then 91!.  Now that’s what I was hoping for on Saturday.  While running I also picked off about 20 2nd radio qs/mults on 15.  That was a lot of fun!  So maybe 1 million is within reach – maybe – if 40 produces some this afternoon.  Hour 41 had 47 qs and then as things slowed down on 20 I had a 34 hour in hour 42.  Then it was another slow slog to the finish, with rates of 15, 22, 16, 20, 30 and 19 for the last 6 hours.

But, I did make it to 1 million, during the last half hour of the contest.  Once I made 1 million, I decided to just make a final sweep through 20 and see if I could work any of the qs to the south (LU, TI, ZW, etc.).  With only a few signals on the band, I opened the filter up wide, and tuned pretty quickly.  DP1POL was very loud and easy for a double mult, and R1ANC was also loud.  Two nice catches.  Then I heard a fairly weak signal – probably another LU q I thought.  So I listened hard.  It was a station CQing….9M….hmmm, what 9M prefix is in South America.  None I knew of.  CQ again, 9M2…hmmm, wait that’s Asia.  Then the signal came up and it definetly was 9M2 someting – cqing with no takers.  I dropped in my call and he came right back.  I confirmed the call as 9M2CAC in zone 28.  Wow!  What a catch.  And with the beam pointed south.  It must have been some type of long path greyline propagation, but he was in the log.

So I ended up just over 1 million points, and just under 1000qs.  Very nice – the best I’ve ever done in CQWW CW, so I was very happy.  I’m already looking foward to next year.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: KE1FO
Operator(s): KE1FO
Station: KE1FO

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
——————————
160:    0     0        0
80:   38    11       23
40:  228    27       91
20:  593    33      102
15:   92    20       62
10:    5     4        5
——————————
Total:  956    95      283  Total Score = 1,018,710

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

2009 CQWW CW Rate Chart

Things that need fixing or upgrading

As always, I leave the contest with a list of things I wish were better, or need fixing.  I really like the getscores.org idea, but WriteLog does not post directly to getscores, and I could not get the new universal uploader script to work before the contest.  I ended up manually posting my score a couple of times on Sunday during the slow times, but I’d sure like the process to be automated.

I also need to get a new fan in my SB-220.  The SNR in the shack with that amp on is barely tolerable.

I’ve been thinking about putting up a 2 element array for 80M with a 2nd HF2V.  I think I’ll make this happen before next year – maybe even before ARRL DX if the weather cooperates.

I also wish I could do something better on 40M for an antenna.  I have a low dipole that slopes from about 45 feet at the northwestern end down to 25 feet at the southeastern end.  Works great for SS, and OK into EU, south and towards VK/ZL but has absolutely no signal to Asia.  I don’t really have supports to put up a 2nd dipole, so I’m thinking.  A half square would put a better signal into EU, and West, but I’d most likely lose the performance towards the south.  What to do….

I had planned to add a receiving loop above my tribander on the tower as shown in December 2008 QST Article by N6PE, but just didn’t get around to it.  I think I’ll make sure that happens before next year.

I had a 2nd K3 high on my list, but after this contest, I’m not so sure that’s such a high priority.  The ‘940 worked just fine for picking off mults most of the time, and if I felt like I really needed to DX and work somebody weak, I could always switch over to the K3.

I’ve got audio from the Right radio (the K3) bleeding into the Left radio audio (the ‘940).  I’ll have to trouble shoot this as it was very annoying at times, and the only way to stop it was to turn the K3 off completely.

I’d also love to work more on copying in two ears.  Or maybe not copying, but being able to tune out one ear to pay attention to the other.  Currently, when working SO2R, I have the headphones latched so that when radio 1 is cqing, I hear radio 2, and when radio 1 goes back to receive, I only hear radio 1. The few times I tried having the audio split this weekend, I went completely bonkers.  Maybe MorseRunner will add 2nd radio audio for those of us who need that practice.

Getscores.org Universal Score Uploader & Writelog Script

So I wanted to try the new Universal Score Uploader for Getscores.org in CQWW this weekend. Friday morning I downloaded it and took a look at the sample script (which is for the IARU contest). Seemed simple enough to make the necessary modifications for the CQWW contest. Made the changes, and guess what – no joy. Tryed several different changes, with no success.

Finially after several hours of thinking (while going to cut down the christmas tree wtih the family) I had some more thoughts. What made the difference is adding a space before the band info for the bands 80-10. I realised that in the WriteLog summary page all the band names on the left are “right justifed”. To do that, there would need to be a space in front of each of the band names for 80M-10M to accomodate 160M. When I tried that – viola! It worked.

Here’s my script that is working (I think). The huge long line near the end makes all of the Q and Mult data print out on the Activity Log tab in the Uploader, so you can see exactly what’s been pulled and make sure things are working right. If you don’t want to see all that stuff, simply comment out that line.

Enjoy!

73 de Al, KE1FO

Now here’s the script (you should be able to simply cut and paste into the “Logging Script” tab in the Uploader – if that does not work, I’d be happy to e-mail you my .gus file – just drop me an e-mail):

Sub OnStartUpload()
dim wlObject
dim logFile
set wlObject = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set wlObject = CreateObject(“WLAPI.ScriptingBridge”)
On Error Goto 0
if wlObject is nothing then
Msgbox “Could not connect to WriteLog Scripting Bridge. The WLAPI.dll file must be installed on your system and Registered. To Register, enter ‘\Windows\system32\regsvr32 wlapi.dll’ from the Run box.”
exit sub
end if
‘VERY IMPORTANT! Set this logFile to the WriteLog Log File you will use during the contest.
logFile = “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\WriteLog\contest\2009cqwwcw\ke1fo.wl”
if not wlObject.Initialize(logFile) then
Msgbox “Could Not initialize Writelog Automation interface to file ‘” & logfile & “‘. Check filename in script.”
exit sub
end if
‘Get the summary from Writelog
wlObject.GetSummary

‘—- Here is the “MEAT” of this script. Look at the Writelog BandSummary Window to see the Format
‘—- for the Summary. THIS SCRIPT IS SET UP FOR IARU HF. AJUST FOR ANY OTHER CONTEST.
Getscores.QSOCount(“160″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“160″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“80″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 80″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“40″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 40″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“20″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 20″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“15″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 15″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“10″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 10″,”QSO”)
Getscores.QSOCount(“ALL”) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“Total”,”QSO”)
‘Getscores supports TWO multipler fields. Mult1 will be ZN (Zone) and Mult2 will be HQ (HQ Stna)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“160″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“160″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“80″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 80″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“40″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 40″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“20″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 20″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“15″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 15″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“10″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 10″,”ZN”)
Getscores.Mult1Count(“ALL”) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“Total”,”ZN”)

Getscores.Mult2Count(“160″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“160″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“80″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 80″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“40″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 40″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“20″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 20″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“15″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 15″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“10″) = wlObject.SummaryValue(” 10″,”DX”)
Getscores.Mult2Count(“ALL”) = wlObject.SummaryValue(“Total”,”DX”)

Getscores.Score = wlObject.Score

‘IF YOU ARE PARANOID and Do not want to send your breakdown, uncomment this next line:
‘Getscores.IgnoreBreakdown = true
GetScores.SendScore
‘This next line prints all the data collected in the script and prepared for the upload to getscores.org – it is included for debugging purposes, and can be commented out if desired.
GetScores.LogMessage “160DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(“160″,”DX”) & ” 160ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(“160″,”ZN”) & ” 160Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(“160″,”QSO”) & ” 80DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 80″,”DX”) & ” 80ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 80″,”ZN”) & ” 80Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 80″,”QSO”) & ” 40DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 40″,”DX”) & ” 40ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 40″,”ZN”) & ” 40Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 40″,”QSO”) & ” 20DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 20″,”DX”) & ” 20ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 20″,”ZN”) & ” 20Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 20″,”QSO”) & ” 15DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 15″,”DX”) & ” 15ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 15″,”ZN”) & ” 15Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 15″,”QSO”) & ” 10DX-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 10″,”DX”) & ” 10ZN-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 10″,”ZN”) & ” 10Q-” & wlObject.summaryvalue(” 10″,”QSO”)
End Sub

CQWW CW 2009 Plans

So I discovered a neat tool on the EI6DX web site that has aggregate data of all of the CQWW Logs for 2007 and 2008.  You can apply lots of filters, but the most useful (at least I think the most useful) is the filter where you can see all contacts originating from a particular zone, that ended in a particular zone.  For example, I selected all contacts that originated in zone 5, and were completed with zones in Europe (14, 15, 16, 20, and 40).  Then you can see a graph that shows the number of contacts that were made each hour on that path.

I then created a schedule that shows what band I want to operate on, when, and where I should be focusing my attention (towards Europe, or Asia, etc.).  Here’s my schedule – it’s ambitious for me – 36 hours.  We’ll see what actually happens next weekend.

Contest Hour	10	15	20	40	80
0				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
1				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
2				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
3				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
4				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
5				Run EU	SA/EU/AF mults
6	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
7	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
8	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
9	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
10	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
11				OC Mults	OC Mults
12			Run EU	AS/OC Mults	AS/OC Mults
13			Run EU	AS Mults	AS Mults
14	AF Mults?	AF Mults?	Run EU	AS Mults	AS Mults
15	AF Mults?	AF Mults?	Run EU
16	AF Mults?	AF Mults?	Run EU
17			Run EU
18	SA Mults?	SA mults	Run EU/SA? Mults
19	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
20		OC Mults	OC Mults	Run EU
21		OC Mults	OC Mults	Run EU
22			AS Mults	Run EU
23				Run EU
24				Run EU
25				Run EU
26					EU Mults
27					EU Mults
28	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
29	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
30	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
31	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
32	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
33	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
34	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
35				OC Mults	OC Mults
36			Run EU	AS/OC Mults	AS/OC Mults
37			Run EU	AS Mults	AS Mults
38			Run EU
39	AF Mults?		Run EU
40	AF Mults?		Run EU
41	AF Mults?		Run EU
42		SA mults	Run EU/SA mults
43		OC Mults	OC Mults
44				Run EU
45				Run EU
46				Run EU
47				Run EU	EU Mults
48				Run EU	EU Mults

So, I hope to see everyone on next weekend.

73 de Al, KE1FO

Field Day is coming?

Already?  Yep, Field day is only 2 months away. Remember that getting elected officials, the press, etc. to show up takes planning.  You may be able to get the station equipment together in a week, but important people’s schedules fill up fast!

As usual, I’ll be operating wtih the W1MOO group here in VT.  We’re a group of folks who like to pack as much radio into a weekend as possible, and therefore always make lots of contacts.  We’ve never enjoyed fooling around with low dipoles or longwires.  We always put up at least 2 military surplus towers with Yagis on top, and operate FD as a contest.

This year will be no exception.  Plans are already underway.  You can check out w1moo.wikispaces.org to see the planning that’s gone on so far.

Hopefully this year I’ll have my QRP PSK station available and we can use that to make our 5 alternate power contacts.  It will consist of an FT-817 and NUE-PSK modem.  Should be fun.

So, start thinking about Field Day.  What are you going to try out this year?

73 de Al, KE1FO

It’s been a while!

It’s been a while.  After Sweepstakes, the holidays hit and I’ve been straight out ever since.  Between Christmas, recovery from Christmas, work and family sickness it’s been an overwhelming 2009.  

My main radio excitement right now is that it is almost “work season”.  During th spring, summer and fall I enjoy working on antenna projects.  This summer may include work on phasing verticals for 40 and 80, and maybe putting up a 160 antenna.  We’ll see how the craziness factor goes.

One thing I have been able to work on of late is exploring some new programming languages.   I’m fairly familiar with Visual Basic for Applications, and I’ve dabbled with VB.  I’ve now started picking up PHP to do some work with MySQL and web page access.  Should be fun and interesting!

Maybe I’ll get on for WPX CW.  That might be fun.

73 de Al, KE1FO

The Saga of the Serial to FSK interface

So about a week ago I decided I wanted to build two Serial to FSK interfaces and try out the Software Generated FSK feature of Writelog.  After a quick trip to Radio Shack, I sat down and started to work.  I used the circuit descriptions from AA5AU’s RTTY contesting site.  Not knowing what my rig (TS-940) would need, I built up the first circuit on the page – using an NPN general purpose transistor and a 1K ohm resistor.  Plugged this in and all was well – almost.

My FSK was inverted, and the TS-940 has no “menu setting” to change the FSK polarity.  So, back to AA5AU’s website, and at the bottom of the page is a circuit using a PNP transistor to use if the NPN version above transmitts inverted FSK.  So, got the soldering iron hot again and built up the circuit.  Much to my surprise and dismay, nothing!  Ok, maybe I wired something wrong, or had a bad transistor, or got the transistor too hot.  Tried rebuilding it, again to no avail.  So I joined the RTTY reflector and sent out  a message.  Lots of answers, some helpful for their thought provoking, others notso helpful.

I spent a 2nd evening after getting these responces from many folks trying to figure out what I had done wrong.  I tested transistors to make sure the pins were not mis-marked, I tried using a heat sink, I tried connecting pin 5 to the shell of the connector.  Nothing.  Off to bed in frustration.

Third evening at the bench I tested to make sure that something hadn’t happened to the RTTY input of the rig.  Sure enough, shorting the tip to the ring of the rca connector caused the signal to shift.  So that was working OK, but for some reason the circuit wasn’t doing the job.  I could see that the port was changing states as the USB/Serial converter has an LED to show activity.  What was goign on.  In my testing, I just happened to connect the FSK interface to the radio while the rig was keyed – the tone shifted!  In it’s regular state, the circuit was closing the RTTY line and causing the tone to shift.  Very interesting….so I left my “just follow the directions” mode and put my logic hat on.  What I wanted to happen was for the RTTY line to be grounded when the FSK was keying, not when it was not.

In testing the transistor, I remembered that there is contunity (or should I say low resistance) between the collector/base pair and the emmitter/base pair when there is nothing connected to the transistor.  So, if you look at the PNP circuit at the bottom of AA5AU’s page, you’ll see that the setup will ground the RTTY line when it’s connected, because there’s low resistance between the collector (which is connected to the rig) and base which is connected to ground).  I don’t want a connection in that state, I want the connection in the shifted state.  So maybe the collector should go to the rig, and the emmitter should go to ground, and the base should be connected to the signal line from the serial port.  That way when there is voltage present on the base, it will cause there to be a low resistance path from collector to emmitter.

So, I put the hypothesis to work and built up a circuit.  Phew – no smoke AND it worked.  Here’s a schematic of what worked for me to key my TS-940.

I’m no technical guru, but it doesn’t seem to me that the circuit shown on AA5AU’s page will work.  Hopefully I havnen’t done anything that will cause grave harm to my computer or rig, but I built two interfaces using the circuit above and both work just fine.

I forgot to upload the pictures I took of the interface last night, so I’ll be adding some pictures to this post later today or tomorrow.  I think it came out looking pretty good as I was able to build it into a DB9 all metal connector shell, and the panel mount RCA connector fits perfectly where the cable would normally exit the “back” of the shell, making for a neat little package.

Now hopefully I’ll see you all in the ARRL RTTY Roundup in January – I should be able to hear you better as I’ll be able to use my narrow CW filters instead of the wide open SSB filters!

73 de Al, KE1FO

2008 ARRL November Sweepstakes Phone

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: KE1FO
Operator(s): KE1FO
Station: KE1FO

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs
————
160:    0
80:    7
40:  204
20:   25
15:   14
10:    0
————
Total:  250  Sections = 66  Total Score = 33,000

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Had some fun.  Tried out a new set of .wav files this weekend, and they seemed
to work pretty well.  Numbers are still a little hard, and fills are not the
easiest to give, but it worked.  More practice will make it better, but I doubt
there will be much of that as this event was a great reminder of why I don’t
care for phone contests.  Can’t wait for next week’s CQWW CW!

Mostly s&p with a couple of short runs.

See you all soon.

73 de Al, KE1FO

ARRL November Sweepstakes CW 2008

I really do enjoy CW contesting.  What a fun 22 hours I had this last weekend.  For all that are interested, here’s the nitty gritty details!

First some goals.  Historically I’ve been able to do about 450 or 500 q’s in sweepstakes – either mode.  If I could get just over 600 q’s and a sweep, I’d break 100k points.  That sounded like a good and reasonable goal.  This year I’d made some antenna improvements and thought this was a modest yet good goal to shoot for.

My contesting dedication for the weekend was facilitated by spending Saturday with 3 of our 4 kids and cleaning the house at the same time.  I had promised this to my wife as a “trade” for my being able to focus on the contest the rest of the weekend (and the weekend of CQWW CW coming up soon).  Unfortunately this tapped a fair amount of my energy and affected my ability to concentrate and focus.  This specifically effected my abaility to work Q’s on the 2nd radio when any extra fatigue set in.  More on this later.

My wife had gone shopping for the day with our youngest (6 month old Siobhan).  She had hoped to return at 4 so I could get settled in before the start at 5pm local time.  Unfortunately, she didn’t return until almost 4:45.  During the day I had spent a few minutes making sure the station was ready to go as this is the first contest after some shack work.  I discovered that I couldn’t find my headset, and there was no suitable set of headphones in the house.  So as soon as she arrived home I ran out to the local variety store to try and find some headphones.  I was sucessful in finding some “over the ear” headphones (I don’t like the kind that rest on your ear or go in your ear – at least not for contesting).

So, at 5:15 I got into the chair, about 1/2 hour after I had hoped.  Started out on 15, and called CQ at 21033 while S&Ping on 20M on the 2nd radio.  It was clear that 15 wasn’t producing all that much and my attention to the S&P was not good with my fatigue, so I focused on the S&P on 20.  By the end of the hour I had 21 q’s and a bunch of mults.  At 6 it was time for a short 30 minute break to have dinner with the family.

I was back on at 2235z and started right in on 40M S&P.  After about 1/2 hour fo S&P I found a spot at 7050 and settled down to call CQ and work S&P on the 2nd radio on 20M.  At 2321z I worked my last q on 7050 as things had gotten pretty crowded.  I started S&Ping on 40 and 80 simultaniously and found another spot at 7068 and started CQing again wihle continuing S&P on 80.  Then at 0200z I moved my CQ machine to 80 and S&P’d through 40.  I continued this flip-flop through 0546z when I called it quits for the night.  I decided to call it a night then because I was finding that I couldn’t concentrate on the 2nd radio at all.  I had to just shut down the audio and focus on one band at a time, and with the rate so slow it wasn’t quite so much fun any more.

It was back onto 40 at 1140z with a run on 7029.  Then at 1230z I decided to move my running to 20M and S&P on 40.  I quickly went back to 40 (about 1/2 hour later) as the rate was better on 40.  From 1324 to 1423 I had my best hour with 60 q’s in that hour on 40M, but shortly thereafter I moved to the higher bands and left 40 behind.  I think this was a bad move in hindsight and seeing some of the 3830 reports wtih huge q totals on 40.  My thinking was that I might pick up some of the more distant mults on 20 that I wouldn’t get on 40.  This may have been true, but I worked stuff all around the sections I missed on 40, and obviously didn’t hear the ones I missed on 20 either.

The other thing that really hurt me was my inability to focus on the 2nd radio.  My running rates are not stellar (little pistol station), so I’ve got lots of time to S&P on the 2nd radio.  However it just wasn’t happening for me.  One thing I found hugely distracting was my AL-80 amplifier.  Whenever it transmits it emits a loud buzzing noise – always has.  I’ve never thought much of it, except that my SB-200 is absolutly silent except for the fan.  When I was CQing using the AL-80 my focus would get severly distracted by the buzzing “CQ SS KE1FO KE1FO SS” emenating from the amplifier.  Maybe my lack of focus was more due to that than any fatigute?  So this lack of focus caused me to just listen to myself CQ instead of combing bands over and over again for new q’s and possible mults.  It seems lots of east coast guys got their AK mult on 15M.  I missed that one.  Might have found it if I had done more S&P as I never had one call me.

After about 1400z the family had returned from church and I took a break to have lunch wtih them.  After lunch it was alternating slow runs on 20 and 40.  Never really dry, but just not moving very fast.  After the contest I had an e-mail conversation with Gerry, W1VE who had operated from K2NNY.  He and I discussed how CW speed may effect the run rate.  I was CQing at 25-28pwm all of Sunday as when folks were coming back to me, that was the most common speed.  In addition, I felt like I wasn’t getting as many calls when I was sending at 32-35wpm.  His observation was the opposite.  I wonder if my q rates would have been better had I been sending faster?  Faster CW speed means a quick in/out qso for a good op.  Faster CW speed menas less time to wait for the q to be over.  Faster CW speed means less time to wait until you hear my callsign again.  Hmmmm.  Maybe next year I’ll keep the keyer cranked up and see what happens.

This also got me thinking about my cqing tactics.  I’ve always felt like I should have a CQ that sends my callsign twice, includes CQ and identifies itself as a CQ again at the end somehow.  This year I used “CQ SS KE1FO KE1FO SS”.  I then have my timed CQ wait 3 seconds before starting the CQ again.  Thinking about timing and waiting around etc, it may be wiser to use something like “KE1FO SS” and wait only 1.5 seconds or so between transmissions.  Something to think about before next year.

As the sun set and 20 died out my 2 radios were on 40 and 80.  Things really slowed down towards the end and my focus on the 2 radios was dismal.  I literally shut the 2nd radio and amp off.  When I surpassed 600 q’s (which was my goal) my desire to listen to the cacophony in the headphones dropped considerably.  Also, I wasn’t feeling loud any longer and almost every station I tuned across was a dupe.  The chances of working the 5 sections I’d missed was very slim, so at 0231z I put down the headphones and called it a contest.

So on to some stats.  As I said my best hour was on 40M with 60q’s between 13 and 14z.  Overall I had 606q’s and 75 sections in 20 hours of operating.  Missed VI, UT, AK, MB and NT.  Heard lots of folks missed EWA, I worked W7WMO and K7OX.  Worked them both the first night on 40 and they gave reasonable numbers, so it seems there was a fair amount of activity from the section.  As I spent a fair amount of time running, lots of sections called me.  Even a few I thought I’d have to find like PR, NL and MAR.   The log stats program says 42 probable 2nd radio qsos, whic is probably pretty close.  I’m sure times where I was S&Ping on both radios it counted that as band changes rather than 2nd radio qs (92 band changes – which is pretty high).

I felt my CW copying was much stronger this year than in the past.  Much less need to ask for fills.  Still felt shaky many times with numbers, but much more confident than in the past.  Overall 20 hours of great fun, and I can’t wait for next year!  Met 1 of 2 goals, and improved my q total by keeping my butt in the chair more.  Next years goals will be better 2nd radio concentration/use and better runs.  Here’s the full stats:

                   ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: KE1FO
Operator(s): KE1FO
Station: KE1FO

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   88
   40:  378
   20:  130
   15:   10
   10:    0
------------
Total:  606  Sections = 75  Total Score = 90,900

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Cabrillo Statistics      (Version 06g)         by K5KA

Callsign: KE1FO
Category: SINGLE-OP ALL HIGH CW
Contest: ARRL-SS-CW
Operators: KE1FO

-------------- Q S O   R a t e   S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour     160     80     40     20     15     10    Rate Total    Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2100       0      0      0     14      7      0     21     21    3.4
2200       0      0     18      1      0      0     19     40    3.1
2300       0      4     27      1      0      0     32     72    5.2
0000       0      7     22      0      0      0     29    101    4.7
0100       0     24      5      0      0      0     29    130    4.7
0200       0     11      4      0      0      0     15    145    2.5
0300       0      0     42      0      0      0     42    187    6.9
0400       0     16     10      0      0      0     26    213    4.2
0500       0      8     15      0      0      0     23    236    3.8
0600       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    236    0.0
0700       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    236    0.0
0800       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    236    0.0
0900       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    236    0.0
1000       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    236    0.0
1100       0      0     14      0      0      0     14    250    2.3
1200       0      0     19      8      0      0     27    277    4.4
1300       0      0     40      4      0      0     44    321    7.2
1400       0      0     28      4      0      0     32    353    5.2
1500       0      0      0     39      0      0     39    392    6.4
1600       0      0      6     16      2      0     24    416    3.9
1700       0      0     35      4      0      0     39    455    6.4
1800       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    455    0.0
1900       0      0      2     29      0      0     31    486    5.1
2000       0      0     19     10      1      0     30    516    4.9
2100       0      0     35      0      0      0     35    551    5.7
2200       0      0      4      0      0      0      4    555    0.7
2300       0      0      0      0      0      0      0    555    0.0
0000       0      6      8      0      0      0     14    569    2.3
0100       0     12     14      0      0      0     26    595    4.2
0200       0      0     10      0      0      0     10    605    1.6
------------------------------------------------------
Total      0     88    377    130     10      0    605

Gross QSO's=612        Dupes=7        Net QSO's=605

Unique callsigns worked = 605

The best 60 minute rate was 60/hour from 1324 to 1423
The best 30 minute rate was 66/hour from 1336 to 1405
The best 10 minute rate was 72/hour from 1343 to 1352

The best 1 minute rates were:
 2 QSO's/minute   44 times.
 1 QSO's/minute  517 times.

There were 92 bandchanges and 42 (6.9%) probable 2nd radio QSO's.

Number of letters in callsigns
Letters  # worked
-----------------
   4       416
   5       144
   6        43
   7         2

------------ M u l t i p l i e r   S u m m a r y ------------
Mult     160     80     40     20     15     10  Total    Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
MDC        0     13     22      3      0      0     38    6.2
IL         0      7     24      3      0      0     34    5.6
VA         0     16     16      0      0      0     32    5.2
OH         0      4     21      0      0      0     25    4.1
SCV        0      0     11     11      1      0     23    3.8
MN         0      0      9     14      0      0     23    3.8
MI         0      5     18      0      0      0     23    3.8
WI         0      2     15      0      0      0     17    2.8
EPA        0      5     12      0      0      0     17    2.8
TN         0      2     10      4      0      0     16    2.6
NTX        0      0     12      4      0      0     16    2.6
SV         0      0      9      5      1      0     15    2.5
NC         0      1     13      1      0      0     15    2.5
CO         0      0     10      5      0      0     15    2.5
STX        0      0      8      4      2      0     14    2.3
IN         0      3     10      1      0      0     14    2.3
AZ         0      0      8      4      1      0     13    2.1
GA         0      0      9      4      0      0     13    2.1
IA         0      0      5      7      0      0     12    2.0
NFL        0      0      6      4      0      0     10    1.6
WMA        0      2      8      0      0      0     10    1.6
SC         0      1      7      1      0      0      9    1.5
SFL        0      0      4      4      0      0      8    1.3
KS         0      0      4      4      0      0      8    1.3
OR         0      0      3      5      0      0      8    1.3
WWA        0      0      1      5      1      0      7    1.1
NM         0      0      5      2      0      0      7    1.1
MO         0      0      6      1      0      0      7    1.1
ON         0      2      5      0      0      0      7    1.1
WPA        0      1      6      0      0      0      7    1.1
CT         0      1      5      0      0      0      6    1.0
SJV        0      1      2      3      0      0      6    1.0
ORG        0      0      2      4      0      0      6    1.0
SNJ        0      4      2      0      0      0      6    1.0
EMA        0      0      6      0      0      0      6    1.0
WCF        0      0      3      2      0      0      5    0.8
AL         0      1      3      1      0      0      5    0.8
AR         0      0      1      3      0      0      4    0.7
SDG        0      0      3      1      0      0      4    0.7
EB         0      0      1      2      1      0      4    0.7
NE         0      0      3      1      0      0      4    0.7
MAR        0      1      3      0      0      0      4    0.7
NH         0      2      1      0      1      0      4    0.7
SF         0      0      3      1      0      0      4    0.7
LA         0      0      2      2      0      0      4    0.7
OK         0      0      3      1      0      0      4    0.7
NLI        0      0      4      0      0      0      4    0.7
KY         0      1      2      1      0      0      4    0.7
NNJ        0      1      3      0      0      0      4    0.7
WV         0      0      4      0      0      0      4    0.7
ME         0      3      0      0      0      0      3    0.5
VT         0      2      0      1      0      0      3    0.5
RI         0      2      1      0      0      0      3    0.5
LAX        0      0      2      1      0      0      3    0.5
NL         0      0      1      2      0      0      3    0.5
SD         0      0      2      1      0      0      3    0.5
MT         0      0      1      2      0      0      3    0.5
BC         0      0      2      1      0      0      3    0.5
SB         0      0      1      0      1      0      2    0.3
ID         0      0      2      0      0      0      2    0.3
EWA        0      1      1      0      0      0      2    0.3
ENY        0      1      1      0      0      0      2    0.3
PAC        0      0      2      0      0      0      2    0.3
NV         0      0      1      1      0      0      2    0.3
WTX        0      0      1      1      0      0      2    0.3
AB         0      0      1      1      0      0      2    0.3
WNY        0      0      2      0      0      0      2    0.3
QC         0      1      0      0      0      0      1    0.2
NNY        0      1      0      0      0      0      1    0.2
DE         0      1      0      0      0      0      1    0.2
PR         0      0      1      0      0      0      1    0.2
MS         0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.2
SK         0      0      0      0      1      0      1    0.2
ND         0      0      1      0      0      0      1    0.2
WY         0      0      1      0      0      0      1    0.2
------------------------------------------------------
Total      0     88    377    130     10      0    605

Sweepstakes Checks
Check  QSOs    Pct
----------------------
  00     4     0.7
  01     0     0.0
  02     1     0.2
  03     2     0.3
  04     2     0.3
  05     3     0.5
  06     1     0.2
  07     0     0.0
  08     0     0.0
  09     0     0.0
  10     0     0.0
  11     0     0.0
  12     0     0.0
  13     0     0.0
  14     0     0.0
  15     0     0.0
  16     0     0.0
  17     0     0.0
  18     0     0.0
  19     0     0.0
  20     0     0.0
  21     0     0.0
  22     0     0.0
  23     0     0.0
  24     0     0.0
  25     0     0.0
  26     0     0.0
  27     0     0.0
  28     0     0.0
  29     0     0.0
  30     0     0.0
  31     1     0.2
  32     0     0.0
  33     0     0.0
  34     1     0.2
  35     0     0.0
  36     1     0.2
  37     0     0.0
  38     0     0.0
  39     0     0.0
  40     1     0.2
  41     1     0.2
  42     0     0.0
  43     0     0.0
  44     1     0.2
  45     0     0.0
  46     3     0.5
  47     1     0.2
  48     2     0.3
  49     3     0.5
  50     1     0.2
  51     5     0.8
  52     9     1.5
  53    10     1.7
  54    21     3.5
  55    28     4.6
  56    16     2.6
  57    22     3.6
  58    33     5.5
  59    26     4.3
  60    20     3.3
  61    14     2.3
  62    41     6.8
  63    22     3.6
  64    17     2.8
  65    19     3.1
  66    14     2.3
  67    18     3.0
  68    22     3.6
  69    15     2.5
  70    13     2.1
  71    11     1.8
  72    18     3.0
  73    13     2.1
  74     8     1.3
  75    11     1.8
  76    25     4.1
  77    15     2.5
  78     9     1.5
  79    12     2.0
  80     6     1.0
  81     6     1.0
  82     1     0.2
  83     7     1.2
  84     1     0.2
  85     2     0.3
  86     8     1.3
  87     5     0.8
  88     3     0.5
  89     2     0.3
  90     2     0.3
  91     1     0.2
  92     7     1.2
  93     2     0.3
  94     1     0.2
  95     3     0.5
  96     3     0.5
  97     3     0.5
  98     3     0.5
  99     3     0.5

Callareas   Worked
Area   QSOs    Pct
------------------
   0    72    11.9
   1    50     8.3
   2    36     6.0
   3    71    11.7
   4    89    14.7
   5    50     8.3
   6    73    12.1
   7    41     6.8
   8    53     8.8
   9    70    11.6

Sweepstakes Precedents
Precedent  QSOs    Pct
----------------------
    A      256    42.3
    B      152    25.1
    Q       41     6.8
    M       27     4.5
    U      129    21.3
    S        0     0.0