ARRL SS Phone 2018 at my QTH in North Texas

Guest OPS
at
KG5VK

K5PS Scott

Victor WB0TEV

With the extraordinary help of  Scott & Victor

We managed a very respectful entry in this years running of the ARRL SS Phone Contest from my modest shack and even more modest and still maturing antenna farm.

With only three OPS, we had a lot of Butt In the chair time, however we managed to have some fun as well !

With a tad over 4 hours left before the end of the contest tonight, were nudging at over 900 Q's

we managed a sweep first thing Sunday morning on Twenty meters when VO1YY answered my CQ SS Call - What a Thrill !

I will follow-up with another post of the results and try and add some pixs of my very modest atnenna farm

Cheers!
Steve

KG5VK

Rain, Rain and yes More Rain and a few other topics for the post...

Wow !

Have we had enough rain for the the last 30 days or what !
Hard to get anything done outside, it is so wet
Sure would be nice if we had a break and allowed the ground to get a little dry for a change
I guess it's better than a drought :)

Mean while on the health side of things........
Finally relief from my neck pain
Been to see the Nero Surgical guys again and got the second (other side of the Neck)
worked on and I have feeling great again !
It is so nice to now just have the occasional headache, versus the dehabilitating pain I was constantly having.

Go a bit more work done on the antenna Farm (Ham Radio)
even though it is so wet we need hip wanders (wel almost that bad)
I managed to get out on the tractor on the back 18 acres and found that the 80 meter Rhombic is down
Broken pulley allowed the fed point end to fall from the pole

Mean while here is the current antenna Inventory

6 el 20 m monobander
4 el 40m Four Square vertical array
80/160 meter Vertical
8 el wire Sturba Curtain Array (works good on 80 thru ten meters)

2 el Hex Beam for 10/15/20m
80 meter Full size Rhombic (out of commission for now)

Two low band Receive arrays: 

One is the 9 ele YCCC Low band Receive array 

Second is a 3el Hi-Z vertical Array

The 20m OWA M2 is still only at 26 feet above the ground,
which will probably work great for ARRL SS Next week-end
But sure looks way too close to the ground when you see it
Heck the boom is Sixty feet long, so it is barely a third as high as the boom is long !
Goal is to have it at 130 feet on the Tic Ring Rotor, eventually

The 40 m Four square is working great towards the North East
but else where it is only fair....
So I waded out in the water the other day and inspected it
Two of the feed points are broken, hogs chewed on them !!!
Yes we have wild Feral Hogs in these parts of Texas

I still need to get the 80m Four square built
of course priority is to get the 150 feet of Rohn 55g up

Meanwhile I bought an MFJ 1846 antenna (2 ele Hex beam or CobWeb 6 thru 20m)
got it assembled in the cold wx yesterday
plan on putting her up if the rain stops later today
for now she will goon a tilt over pole at about 30 feet
and will be fixed towards West Coast as the 20m monoband is currently fixed towards the East Coast
Long term plans are to have this 2el antenna stay below 30 feet but rotator added

I need to do some work on the 9el YCCC Low Band Receive array
lots of lightning last week and I think I lost several preamps at the base of the verticals
yupp more boards to build and replace !
This antenna system (YCCC Vert Array) requires a lot on maintenance but when she works she is worth it !

Decided I needed to stay close to home for several reasons and not trek to Louisiana for the anual
Multiop get together for ARRL SS Phone, I hope the team does great at W5WZ's QTH this year

Since I am home for ARRL SS Phone, I decided we need to see if a couple of the local guys want to come play....

So far I have two OPS coming
I am greatly looking forward to hoisting an ARRL team again
last time was in Louisiana way back in 2013

Never would have thought it had been that long, but I looked it up
on the http://3830scores.com/ website

I am looking forward to getting to know the guys that are coming over to play
Hope we are able to post a respectable score, Top ten would be nice
but mainly want the ops to have fun and look fwd to coming back again

That's it for now!
Still raining

Cheers!
Steve
KG5VK

September is Here...

While I have been undergoing a lot of pain from a neck injury I sustained many many years ago
I am still staying very busy

Between working at MTC (Yes the Ham Radio Candy Store in Paris Texas)
and maintaining 57 acres of land

I now have my 150 feet of Rohn 55G assembled and ready for the crane to come lift it in place
just need to add some finishing touches on the 4 Element 40 Meter beam She will be mounted at 155 feet.

The Big 6 el 20 Meter OWA yagi is ready to be hoisted up and placed on the TIC Ring Rotor which will be at 130 feet.

Been a long time since I took my last tower down at the old QTH in Louisiana
and I am looking forward to once again having a commanding signal into EU and JA
during the DX contests and Expeditions

Currently I am only 4 away from DXCC Honor Roll
anxious to get there but as KR5D says enjoy the journey,  I am :)

Steve
KG5VK

Enjoyed the limited amount of Time I got to play in WRTC this year

Only 9 hours of Butt in the Chair
20m Beam only at 24 feet
40m Four Square
43 foot vertical for 80M
Had Fun !
Steve KG5VK

Software Tools for Today's DX OP by Steven Lott smith Presented at HamCom 2018

Here is the Link to the PP File that I used in my Presentation at HamCom 2018

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h2yLaOqXz4eNCR2jRbdCIZcmdeVbNaiyuaKQ3nfRXy0/edit?usp=sharing

Any feedback is welcome

Cheers!
Steve
KG5VK

Friends Meet at Dayton 2018

K8KI  &  KG5VK

Bob and I first met while we were serving in the United States Air Force, back in 1979
We have stayed in touch and seen each other at a few Ham Fest over the Years at Dayton.
I had been absent from Dayton for the last 8 years. it was great to run into Bob in the Flea Market Saturday afternoon.

2018 Dayton here I come !!!

Looking forward to another long over do trip to Dayton Ham Fest
I also signed up for the DX Dinner as well as Contest University.
I ave been neglect in posting the the Ole Sundown DX Association Blog
let's see if I can start posting now that Spring is around the corner :)
By the way if your an ARRL member, and if not why not !!!
Check out page 125 of the March QST.....
How about that guy in the Red ICOM Shirt and next to me is my better half.
I am off from the shop here at MTC tomorrow to sleep in and get ready for some major Butt in the Chair time for this week-end's edition of the ARRL Phone DX Contest
Lately most of my Q's have been either FT8 or CW.....

Cheers!    Steve

QUICK MSK144 and JT9 Fast Modes Setup

QUICK MSK144 and JT9 Fast Modes Setup

Stud Mounts by BreedLove

Stud Mounts



https://www.breedlovemounts.com/stud-mounts.html

N1MM+ MACRO Cat commands to FTdx5000 with a DVS-6

Another way for sending voice messages is to use the optional DVS-6. 
With the macro {CAT1ASC PB0#;} 
in the N1MM F-keys you can send the 5 available voice messages.

also a Note from K3CT on this......

Make sure you check “Internal Radio Codec” in the Logger+ Audio, Playback tab. This will cause the program to send commands to the radio to switch between the MIC and radio codec. It should not be necessary to change radio menu items to perform this switching.

John, K3CT

Cheers!

Steve

KG5VK

A thought on the Mining WSPR transmissions

http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots

Click on "Specify query parameters" and specify your callsign or callsign of a particular spotting station.

Copy the screen data to a text file then import the data into MS Excel (or equiv.) and plot like shown further on down on this webpage:

http://www.qsl.net/wb5wpa/EHantenna/EH_Mark_2_Vert/

A Presentation on DX LABS Suite Logging Software by KG5VK

click here to download my powerpoint presentation on DXlabsSuite

Any questions you are welcome to email me

LottsPhoto at Gmail  dot com

Cheers!
Steve
KG5VK

Setting Up Ve7CC User Filtering and use with N1MM+

http://kg5vk.com/Setting up ve7cc user Filtering.ppt

Clicking The above Link will down load a power point file I created on the topic KG5VK

My newest antenna at Area 57 aka 125 Contest Ln An 8el Sterba Curtain Array

It's just a wire antenna
But it has an estimated 8db of gain over a dipole
Mine is ladder line fed from a home made 9:1 Balun
It appears to work much better than my 20m ground mounted vertical that has 32 radials
Very few trees here and what we do have are short scrub brushes
So I installed two surplus Telephone poles

The LA QSO PArty is coming..........

LOUISIANA QSO PARTY March 18, 2017

14:00 UTC, March 18, 2017 to 02:00 UTC, March 19, 2017 

(Nine AM to nine PM CDT Saturday, March 18, 2017)

Sponsored by

LOUISIANA CONTEST CLUB

https://louisianacontestclub.org/

Louisiana Qso Party – March 18th 2017

A New Tool for Propagation forecasting

http://www.predtest.uk/index.html

Cheers!
steve
KG5VK

Work at Area 57 AKA 125 Contest lane begins on the holes for the Two Towers

Follow up 4 December 2016

Rented a very large CAT Backhoe with supposedly rock teeth
got a bit deeper on all the holes but the north Guy anchor needs to go Four more feet
yup I am in solid rock at only two feet down

Ordered a large SDS MAX Hammer Drill and a couple of bags of some stuff called DexPan
which is supposed to go in the drilled holes in the rock and twenty four hours later will have expanded enough to break the rock

We shall see if this works, at this point I have my doubts
and may need to move my Northern Guy anchor out fusrther and pary I don't hit another Vein of the same rock !

I guess this is my real welcome to North Texas :)

-------------------------------------------

Rented a small back hoe got most of the holes dug for the front tower Then at the front Guy anchor point I hit shale rock while only down 2 feet So now I am on hold to find a much bigger track hoe and or a jack hammer !!!                                       

Mean while I now have started on wiring for the
new Ham Shack building

I also received delivery of 8 utility poles that are
begging for my attention I plan on using these for
a large Rhombic antenna on the back 24 acres

All nine elements of the YCCC low band Receive
array are now up however the electronics are not
mounted as of now as they were getting destroyed
by lightning.
So I am building some rather large RF chokes to
go in parallel with some inexpensive lightning
arrestors I bought from Mouser Electronics

This image taken before I had all the elements up
wife like to call this one the Wagon Wheel

Cheers!
Steve
KG5VK

W4ZV's Pile Up buster Technique..........(For the K3 with cw skimmer)

KQ5S wrote I looked at this. The reason I want to use SKIMMER is to help locate where an OP is listening. By having my own SKIMMER I am able to see 599 or a call sign almost instantly and can click on the call or 599 and QSY to where it OP is listening (a little RIT helps to move off the exact frequency). The RBN only shows calls and there is the obvious internet latency. I am not sure this would work for my intended purposes.

That's exactly how I use Skimmer for pileup busting. You need the following: 1. K3 with KXV3 and KRX3. 2. LP-PAN ~$200...probably don't need the preamp option. 3. LP-Bridge free...allows running Skimmer and N1MM simultaneously 3. CW Skimmer software $75 4. A decent soundcard $100...see http://www.telepostinc.com/soundcards.html 5. P4 2.5 GHz computer...mine cost $90 on eBay.

You do NOT need: HamRadioDeluxe PowerSDR NaP3 (I haven't tried it but it's not necessary for what you described) CW Skimmer includes OmniRig which is all that's needed to drive the K3 directly (none of the above is needed).

The only limitation is that you're limited to 24 kHz bandwidth, which is a limit Alex VE3NEA imposes on the "Softrock on IF" mode. However I haven't found any pileups wider than 24 kHz! You do need to set the Sub RX on the DX station because Skimmer only sees IF OUT for Main and because the K3 always transmits on Main (VFO A).

The procedure is:

1. Tune in the DX station. If you prefer using the Main knob, double tap A>B to copy everything to the Sub RX. If you want to listen to the pileup and the DX station simultaneously you can set L-R MIX audio options in CONFIG. I use a Pileup Buster Macro to set everything up with a single button press.

2. Next set Main (VFO A) to the approximate center of the pileup. Skimmer will then see +/- 12 kHz around VFO A.

3. Listen to the DX station. When he answers N6KR, look for the "N6KR 599" decoder dot on the display.

4. Click the dot and you're ready to transmit.

I usually crank in ~50 Hz XIT so I'm not dead zero beat with others doing the same thing. :-)

Believe it or not, I've actually busted some huge pileups without even listening to them. One I recall vividly was the ST0R pileup on 160 in August. 73, Bill ---------------------

transmit and other Macros for the k3 with many thoughts and thanks to Alan K2ACK

K3

1 RAGCHEW TE+06+06+00+06+00+04+08+12;MN110;SWT12;SWH45;MN255;

2 DX TE+00+00+00-06+00+04+08+12;MN110;SWT13;SWH45;MN255;

3 VERYDX TE-06-06+00-06+00+04+08+12;MN110;SWT24;SWH45;MN255;

4 FLAT TE+00+00+00+00+00+00+00+00;MN110;SWT11;SWH45;MN255;

as found on the following website

Also see his Chaining of Macros discussion...

Thanks to Alana K2ACK for the posts at his site.

Cheers!

Steve

KG5VK

AGC settings for the K3 explained rather well...

http://www.w3fpr.com/K3_AGC.htmhttp://www.w3fpr.com/K3_AGC.htm