10 Meter – NDØTS

2019 November Sweepstakes

UPDATE: This year, I was able to get a total of 216 contacts for a total of 29,808 points. The log has been submitted, and I will be waiting for the results.

Once again, this year, I will be trying my luck on the SSB November Sweepstakes. Last year, I had a total score of 5,694. I hope to top that, this year. The contest begins on November 16th at 2100 UTC Saturday (3pm Central time) and runs through 0259 UTC Monday (9pm Sunday, Central time).

I will be mainly operating on 20m & 40m. I will also give 80m, 15m, and possibly 10m a try, depending on the conditions.

There is quite a long exchange for this particular contest, but once you get a rhythm, it’s not too much of a mouthful. It consists of a Serial, Precedence, Callsign, Check, and Section. All of that is explained on the ARRL website.

This year, I have also decided to set up a second antenna, which I will be using on 20 & 40 meters. The antenna is the one that I normally use for portable operations. It actually has a much lower noise floor than my OCFD. It is also set up “north/south”, whereas my OCFD is set up “east/west”. I will use an antenna switch that I borrowed from Jason (ND0JL) to alternate between the two.

I have never been very good at (or had much luck with) sitting on a frequency and calling CQ, but I will, once again, attempt it. I think that the main reason for this is that my normal set up at my QTH talks a lot better than it hears. Although I have become pretty good at listening to and being able to copy stations that are “in the noise”, doing that in a contest seems much more difficult.

I will be Single-Op Unlimited Low Power. Basically, this just means that I will be making all contacts, myself, with 100 watts or less, and I will be using spotting networks. I will have three of my four computer monitors up and running, while I’m operating. The more information that I can pull in during the contest, the better.

You can watch the Contest Online Scoreboard and see how many contacts are being made. I will be listed at the bottom of that page, in the “SO-ALL LP (A) PHONE” section. Although that page may list me with the club information (Jamestown Amateur Radio Club), I will be using my personal call in the contest, and not submitting any logs for the club.

If you’re reading this before or during the contest, I hope to make contact with you, somewhere. If we’ve already had a QSO during the contest, thank you very much!

Winter Field Day Update

I added an update to the original post on November 27th that said “Just registered and added myself to the Winter Field Day map, this morning. At this time, I’m the northern-most (and probably coldest) spot on the map.” Well… The first part is still true. I’m still registered and on the map, but I am no longer the “northern-most” spot on there. I am, however, still the northern-most “outdoor” station on the map.

Since I posted the original post, I have come up with a “plan B”. I now have an 80 meter end-fed half wave antenna that I will be using. In fact, the EFHW will probably become the “plan A”, and I’ll let the Big Ear antenna be the plan B. I think that I have everything that I need to get it up into a tree and on the air. I may need to hit up a friend for a smaller piece of coax, though. Everything I have is much longer than I probably need, and if I don’t need to cut it up, I don’t want to.

The place where I’ll be running WFD from is all set up, and I’ve got the proper permission that I need. The only thing that I may have to worry about is if we get any kind of really bad weather during that time period. Getting in and out of there may be a little tricky if things get bad enough. I’ll hope for the best, but plan for the worst, though.

Speaking of planning, I was thinking that I would be using a small electric heater that I have, in order to keep the van warm. I pulled the space heater out, the other day and fired up the generator. I realized that the heater (on high) pulls 1500w. The generator that I have is capable of 2000w. This would leave me 500w (pushing it) for the radio and anything else that I connect. The radio pulls just under 200W at full power and the laptop that I use for logging would pull about 150w. That would leave me about 150 watts of wiggle room. I’m not comfortable with that, at all.

My solution is to put about a $130 initial investment into a propane tank and heater. It’s all locally available, so I don’t even need to order anything. This solution should work out much better, since I will be “saving” all of those watts, and the propane heater should do a much better job of heating the van. This really showed me that the planning is about 80% of this whole exercise.

The location that I chose is very ideal, since it is a relatively open area, but has a couple trees that I can get a wire antenna up about 40 feet in the air. When I looked at the distances that I needed, the location of the “station” set up puts the antenna(s) on one side of the van and the generator on the other side, behind a small brick building (which should do a good job at blocking any interference from it). Also, it should shield the generator from the weather and wind. I may need to come up with something to protect the “connection” side of the generator, so nothing gets wet, though.

I did purchase the full suite of N3FJP software, and have started using Amateur Contact Log as my main logging program. I plan to use his Winter Field Day Contest Log during WFD. My son (KE0MHY) also plans on helping me out, and he’s familiar with the N3FJP software, since he used it during last Field Day. This should make the logging the least of any of my worries about the whole event. There’s a lot of “extras” in his software that I wasn’t even aware of when I purchased it that I’m really happy about.

Since the last post, I have also talked to Shawn (AD0ND), and he told me that he does not plan on running an outdoor station, this year. In a way, I wish he would, but in another way, I’m kinda’ happy he isn’t, since this will give me a little better chance at getting higher in the results. Not that it will get me much more than bragging rights. but like he said, “it’s fun, but the bragging rights are even better”.

The only big thing that I have major concerns about is the BIG THING that will prevent me from getting even close to obtaining those bragging rights. The HF conditions, lately have been (to say the least) AWFUL. If you’ve been on HF over the past couple weeks, I’m sure you would agree. 100 watts and a wire can usually do a pretty good job, but if the propagation isn’t there, it makes things “really” difficult. I really hope that the conditions improve before the end of January. The only thing I have on my side, if they don’t improve, is that I am a member of OMISS and the 3905 net. Those two nets have done more for me to improve my radio “hearing” than anything else. Using headphones and training my ears to ignore the static has been essential for making a lot of contacts on those nets. I’m proud to say that I’ve become pretty good at it.

This may be the last update before WFD, but I will post an update after WFD, no matter what.

Let me know, in the comments, if you are also planning to participate in Winter Field Day, and what your plan is.

Fun With SDR

A couple weeks ago, I got my first SDR (Software Defined Radio). I’ve been messing around with it, every chance I get, and I’m really liking some of the things it does. At first, I had it hooked up to a discone antenna on my lower roof, and it seemed to work really well.

Within the past week, I discovered ADS-B, which is basically data frames that are sent down from airplanes on 1090 MHz. The information sent includes altitude, location, speed, identification, and more. That information can be received by a program that decodes it, then another program will allow you to visually “see” the plane on a map. Even in the middle of nowhere, it’s amazing to see just how much flies over us.

I got into it so much that I wanted to build a better antenna, just for 1090 MHz, and put it in a better position on my roof. The other day, in under two hours, I had built a ground plane antenna for that frequency, and had it mounted and the wires ran to the SDR. It actually performs a lot better than the discone. Not sure if it’s because of the design or the location, though.

The antenna was built for receive only, so I wanted to see how it performed on other frequencies, too. Since there’s no transmitting, there’s no way I could hurt anything by listening. Amazingly, the antenna actually picks up the local 2 meter repeater better than the discone, too (which really makes me think it’s the mounting location difference).

Yesterday, I wanted to see if I could also pick up any satellites or the ISS with it. I fired up the ISS Detector app on my phone, and started switching through different satellites as they passed over. The only thing I was actually able to pick up was a couple of NOAA satellites. I really wanted to catch the ISS (which passed over, almost overhead at about 10:20pm), but I wasn’t able to hear anything. I’m sure I’ll try again, when I have some time.

In other updates, I have been making more contacts on 10 meters, and started logging them on LoTW. I also sent my very first physical QSL Card. Chad – KD9AXO – asked me if I send them, and I told him that I wanted to, but haven’t done too much HF, and was waiting. He gave me the kick I needed to get something designed and printed. It wasn’t real pretty and not on as heavy of card stock as I wanted, but hopefully he understands. The funny thing is, the first QSL Card that I sent was for a 400 mile contact on 2 meters during a beautiful Tropo event. He was running 5 watts through a vertical, and I was going through the repeater. IMO, it counts.

UPDATE: Chad actually sent me a QSL card, as well. I received it the day after I originally posted this. He sent his out before mine even reached him, so they crossed in the mail. Very nice surprise!

Small Update

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated, so I thought I should let you all know what’s been happening.

Back on April 29th, we attended the Optimist Club Respect for Law and Emergency Services Day which was held at the Buffalo Mall in Jamestown, ND. The attendance was not too bad, considering that the mall, itself, is becoming a lost cause. The local police, fire department, and other emergency services were all there, and all of the kids that came we treated to a movie and given a bicycle helmet.

We set up a trailer in the parking lot, as well as a “booth” inside the mall, and provided information about amateur radio.

KCØGCJ (Jason) and I had built a 10 meter inverted V antenna that was put up next to the trailer in the parking lot. No actual contacts were made, but not for the lack of trying. KCØLAC (Michelle) manned the inside booth for most of the event, and quite a few people showed interest in the hobby, and picked up flyers when they stopped by.

After the event, we had talked about planning for the upcoming Field Day. More on that, next!

Couple New Radios

A while back, I purchased a used 10/12 meter radio. I found a really good deal on a Ranger RCI-2985DX. It’s the low powered little brother of the 2995dx. While the big brother will do 150+ watts, the one I have will do 25+ watts. It’s definitely not a fancy, modern HF radio, but for me, it’s a step in that direction. Sure… It would be nice to have a Kenwood TS-990S, but at this point, I have no use for it. Even if I was able to afford it (I don’t have $6,800.00 laying around), the thing would just sit there, for the most part, until I upgraded my license. Right now, I can legally get on SSB between 28.3 and 28.5MHz. Hopefully at the end of February, I’ll be able to expand that out to the full 10 & 12 meter bands.

As it sits right now, though, I am still waiting until spring, before I can throw up another antenna without worrying about sliding off the roof. I’m just listening to it using a temporary antenna, right now.

Today, I also received another radio in my mailbox. I found a Realistic HTX-202 for $27, and couldn’t pass it up. It was the first kind of HT that I owned, back in 1997, when I got my first license. The guy that I bought it from even sent me an Icom HM-46L speaker/mic. I quickly realized why it was such a low price and why he sent the speaker/mic, though. The internal mic doesn’t work. It’s not a huge deal, and I may rip it open and see if I can fix or replace it, at some point.

For now, though, I decided to use it as the receiver for the Broadcastify feed that I provide. It can be directly powered by 12 volts, so there’s no transformer or step-down converter to use. I used to have a small ground loop buzz on my feed, when I was using the scanner, and there was really no way to completely get rid of it. Now, the feed sounds a whole lot cleaner than it used to. Because of that, the audio is quite a bit louder and easier to hear.

I suppose that’s it, for now. Until next time…