80 Meters – 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!

I Broke An All-Time Record

I received some very interesting news, today. I got an email from 7QP, which is the 7th Area QSO Party. Attached to the email were two certificates.

First place – North Dakota
Third place – Outside 7th-Area Single-Op Low-Power Phone

On top of that, I also went to the 7QP website, and realized that I had also broke an All-Time Category Record. On page 33 of the liked PDF file, I am now listed as the record holder for Non-7 Single-Op Low Phone for ND.

I honestly never expected this, since I really wasn’t trying that hard during the contest. It was quite a surprise and I am really excited about it.

Now, I’ll just have to make sure to do even better, next year.

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.

A Bad Name For Ham Radio

The title might suggest an anti-amateur radio stance, but that’s far from what I mean. There are certain places on the ham bands that seem to be the exact opposite of what the hobby is all about, though. One of these is 3840.00kHz, lower sideband. While there are some good conversations and ragchew, once in a while, there is also a lot of crap.

Here’s a sample from October 8, 2016 (NSFW):

A lot of the things that I hear on this frequency (luckily, it seems to be mostly limited to this frequency) are reminiscent of the way some people on CB radio used to be, back in the 1970’s and early 80’s. On 3840 kHz, it seems like nobody obeys the rules of amateur radio. Almost nobody identifies themselves… especially any “troublemakers”.

Definitely gives a bad name to ham radio, and everybody that plays by the rules. This is not how most amateur radio operators act, though.

Here’s another sample from the same night (again NSFW):

Do you have any other examples of people giving ham radio a bad name?