December 2013 Wrap-Up

DXCC - Not a lot of time spent at the radio this month, what with the holidays and other family business to take care of, but I still managed to work a few new ones -- Zambia (9J2BO), E. Kiribati (T32RC), Senegal (6V7D), and Greenland (OX3XR). I end the month (and the year) with the following DXCC numbers:

• Mixed: 133 confirmed (171 worked)
• CW: 73 (119)
• Phone: 99 (127)
• Digital: 57 (82)

My first DXCC award for Mixed Mode was applied for and received this month. I've also reached 100 confirmed for 20m Mixed (85 on LOTW, the other 15 on paper). I have not applied for the award, though, because I've not yet had the cards checked. I plan to do that at the HamCon in Plano next June, if not sooner.

WAS - My pursuit of WAS Triple Play is getting close to the end with 129 out of 150 blocks confirmed on LOTW:

• Phone: 44 (need AK, DE, IA, MI, RI and VT)
• CW: 35 (need CO, GA, IA, KY, MI, MN, NE, NM, ND, OH, OK, SD, UT, WV and WY)
• Digital: 50 (worked them all in 2009/2010)

WAS Mixed and Digital awards were applied for and received this month.

2013 in the Rearview - A fairly good year for me, with sporadic operating after getting the station back on the air in June. Foremost, I upgraded to Extra Class after years of procrastinating. I achieved DXCC and started getting serious about CW as I've been promising to do for decades. Some new equipment found its way into the shack -- the Flex 1500 and KPA500; hopefully the former will start to get some use (maybe go for a second Triple Play running QRP?).

Long time coming...

2014 in the Windshield - My main objective in the coming year is to get an antenna on the roof; if nothing else, just my old R-7000 vertical that has been sitting in the garage since 2008. Ideally, though, it would be a hex beam for 20m-6m in addition to the R-7000. Wouldn't mind getting the FT-7800 in the car, either. I'm going to try to work as many of the major contests as time allows. The only equipment I think I need is a auto-tuner that can handle the KPA500. The obvious choice would be the KAT500 if I can gather the scratch. More DXCC awards and endorsements are on the horizon -- I've already enough confirmations for 20m DXCC (once I get the cards checked), I'm one shy of Phone DXCC, I have 73 confirmed on 15m, 67 on 40m, and 76 on CW. WAS Triple Play is close, too. 

A CW milestone for me.

My CW DXCC count on Logbook of the World is now at 67 and equal to my Phone count. Before I got back on the air at the start of June 2013 it was at 6 (three QSOs from 1996, three from 2010). It may have taken me a few years but I've finally made good on my 2010 New Year resolution to work more CW.

Update: Less than an hour after posting this, #68 on CW came through.

2013 ARRL 10M Contest

My first all-CW effort in a contest that was mixed mode. Also the first test in which I used N1MM Logger to generate the CW. This worked swimmingly. No more pushing buttons on the K3 to send my call and exchange from CW memories!

Bad noise the whole weekend -- not just the usual electrical noise (though that was bad enough) but the neighbor's dog would not shut up. And the train... folks, never buy a house across the street from the railroad tracks. Union Pacific is at the top of my shit list this weekend.

QRV a bit under 12 hours total operating time with lots of short breaks. Since the Tarheel only tunes up to 21 MHz, I had to keep the amp off and use the K3's ATU to match the antenna. Consequently, I could only hear and work the loudest signals on the band.

In the end, 22 states (not incl. KL7 and KH6), 9 CanProvs, and 29 DXCC. No new all-time countries for me, but every one of the 29 is new on 10m, a band for which I have exactly three QSOs in the log in 26+ years. Got 8 of the 24 state I need for the CW portion of Triple Play (five already confirmed on LOTW!).

DXCC from Texas!

This week, without even realizing it, I passed the 100 mark for DX entities confirmed from my Texas QTH! I currently sit at 103 countries verified total out of 151 worked, including 101 on Logbook of the World. This was done in approximately 14 months of operation since June 2009.

(By contrast, I had verified just 68 countries in 21 years while in New Jersey, mostly by accident -- I never really chased DX until now, I just worked them when I could and accumulated a bunch of cards via the incoming QSL bureau. I know I have a couple more verified from working the OSCAR 13 satellite, but they don't count...)

Interestingly, the mode breakdown is pretty even: 56 countries each on phone and CW, and 53 countries on digital (PSK31 and RTTY).

DXCC from Texas -- Yee-Haw!

T32RC Eastern Kiribati

I was checking the 40m CW band around 1230 UTC this morning before work looking for V63XG in Micronesia -- I just barely heard them above the noise yesterday morning, not strong enough for me to feel confident about dropping my call. I doubt I would have heard them come back to me. No sign of them today, however. The hunt goes on.

What I did find, however, was a pileup on 7011. Tuned down 1  to 7010, and there was the T32RC DXpedition on Kiritimati Island (the erstwhile "Christmas Island"), part of the Line Islands in the Republic of Kiribati (better known to WW2 buffs as the Gilbert Islands where the Battle of Tarawa was fought, about 2,000 miles due west along the Equator) and the DXCC entity amateurs know as Eastern Kiribati.

Still half-awake and not yet fully caffeinated, I flipped on the amp and found a clear spot in the pile. Dropped my call once and got him. I think. Lots of electrical QRN this morning. I went about my morning business and came back into the shack about 15 minutes later, when I decided an insurance QSO might not be a bad idea. I generally avoid doing this but I'm not sure I'll have another chance before they go QRT on 10-Dec. Got him on the first call again (how is this even possible, with a screwdriver antenna on 40m? But I digress...). With two QSO's in the log I started to shut down and head to work... but first, I thought, I should check ClubLog just for the hell of it. And there, no more than 30 minutes of my first QSO, T32RC had uploaded their log and I was in it. This is an unbelievably awesome operation.

Did I mention this is another all Elecraft DXpedition? :-)

November 2013 Wrap-Up

Good stuff in November!

DXCC - My Worked count jumped from 143 to 167 countries, I finally got my 100th LOTW confirmation for DXCC Mixed (including cards, the total confirmed is now 121), DXCC Phone is just 3 QSLs away, and I'm almost halfway toward DXCC CW with 49 confirmed. What is truly mind-boggling (to me, anyway) is that I've worked 103 countries on CW since firing up the rig again in June (mind-boggling because I only worked 15 countries on CW between 1987 and 2012). See my previous post for more thoughts on this.

CQ WWDX CW - I played in the contest over the weekend of 23/24-Nov to see if I could snag a few new countries on CW. I surprised myself by working 84 countries with 210 QSOs on 40m, 20m and 15m, twelve of them all-time new ones. Total score: 89,562 all-band, but I submitted my score as a single-band 40m Single Op Assisted entry after noting last year's W5 winner won with less than 5,000 points; my 40m score was over 24,000, so I rolled the dice hoping that I might place well in the 5th call district.

DXpeditions - I managed to work all the big DXpeditions this month. At least all the ones I could hear.

• XR0YY - Easter Island (20m Phone)
• K9W - Wake Island (40m & 20m CW)
• T33A - Banaba Island (40m CW)
• XR0ZR - Juan Fernandez Island (40m CW)
• N8A - American Samoa (15m CW)

Google+ -- There are several active ham radio communities on Google+. I encourage people to check them out, lots of good people the G. These are a few of the best:

• Amateur Radio
• Amateur Radio (different group, same name...)
• Amateur Radio DXing
• Ham Radio Digital Modes
• QRP Amateur Radio
• Minimalist QRP Group
• Elecraft
• Flex Radio SDR
• R.L. Drake Ham Radio
• Amateur Radio Flea Market Gone Wild
• Shortwave Radio
• Amateur Radio Operators
• Vintage Amateur Radio
• Ham Radio Equipment For Sale
• Ham Radio Homebrewing
• Homebrew Nation
• Mobile Amateur Radio

Random QRM:

• The K3/KPA500 combination continues to amaze me. I don't know that I pull off half the contacts I make without the afterburner. 
• Still find the Tarheel screwdriver to be limiting me but for what it is, it's performing as well as I can expect. My DXCC Mixed application has been submitted. 
• The JRC KY-3 straight key has finally been getting some use; I'm learning that my fist is a whole lot better with the KY-3 than it is with the paddles. 
• I replaced a single audio cable a few weeks ago and eliminated 90% of the RFI I was getting into my speaker system during transmit. 
• Priced out a hex beam with rotor, cables, roof tower, and everything else I would need. Looking at around $2,500. So it's safe to say that's not going to happen anytime soon. Looks like it will be Plan B for now: getting the R7000 vertical up on the roof. Maybe an inverted V for 12/10/6m, too, before it's too late for those bands.
• Where the hell did I put my Yaesu World Map??? I haven't seen it since the move to West and have run out of boxes to look in.

Is it possible that I've become a CW op???

Up until this year I worked exactly fifteen countries on CW; ten of these were worked in 1996 during a single day when I got brave enough to make a few contacts in a CW contest. Despite managing to pass the 13 WPM test for my General license, I lived my first 26 years as an amateur in fear of Morse Code. I just never came easy to me as it does to so many others.

I always suffered from CW Envy, though -- a secret wish that I could copy code easily so I could start playing around in CW contests and have a shot at working the big DXpeditions, all of which seemed unable to hear my puny SSB signals in the pileups. I was determined to make it happen -- I bought a Bencher BY-1 at Dayton in 1993; it was merely a shack decoration for years. I used to keep ARRL code practice MP3s loaded on my iPod and listened to them while driving 3 hours a day while commuting from Sussex to Bergenfield when we were still living in Jersey. I installed optional narrow CW filters in every radio I bought. But it just never took hold.

Fast-forward to June 2008. I got back on the air after being inactive since 1999. I had purchased and assembled the K3 in 2007 while still in New Jersey but was SWL due to a lack of antenna. After moving to TX I got the Tarheel screwdriver that remains my only HF antenna and began chasing WAS and what little DX I could manage on phone and digital modes. At the end of 2009, I resolved to work CW in 2010, but within a few months I was QRT for over three years after another move. I did work 3 countries on CW in January 2010, but my CW resolution was clearly as binding as my perennial resolutions to quit smoking.

Along comes 2013. After missing the meaty part of Cycle 24, I pulled the antenna out of the garage in June, fired up the K3, and slowly started working a wee bit of CW. Then a fair amount of CW. Now, it's almost 99% CW. Not joking -- of over 270 contacts in November, only 5 were on phone, 1 on PSK31.

The Mic: Still good for something.

Not sure exactly what clicked but I'm copying better than I ever have in the past, even though I'm still shaky whenever a QSO strays from a simple 5NN exchange. I'm relying less and less on cluster spots to ID stations, too. Just since getting back on the air this past June I've worked (as of now) 101 countries on CW and have 40 of them confirmed on LOTW. Nineteen of these are all-time new ones for me. My mic has become simply a place to hang my headphones. These aren't impressive numbers for most people, but knowing that I've done this after being in mortal terror of CW for two and a half decades gives me no small amount of satisfaction.

As I write this, I'm sitting on 43 DXCC CW countries confirmed on LOTW (plus one Ukrainian station that I got a card from in 1988) out of 106 worked. And the day ain't over yet. Having just reached my goal of DXCC Mixed on LOTW, I am now setting my sights on DXCC CW, something that I never thought possible until now. Dit dit.

XR0ZR Juan Fernandez Island - 40m CW

XR0ZR working Europe on 40m CW (2013-11-17 @0700 UTC)

Weekend Haul

A fairly productive weekend at WW2PT...

It Came From The Interwebz...

OK, so where was I?

The station had been shut down since the end of NAQP Phone on 18-Aug due to work and family considerations, but I found some time to fire up the Flex 1500 and K3 and tune around a bit Sunday afternoon (3-Nov).

Got around to configuring the Flex using some recommended settings I found on the Flexradio email reflector, and it seems to help a lot with the latency and raspy CW audio issues I was experiencing. So I tuned around a bit with that but made no contacts.

Switched over to the K3 and came across the Wake Island DXpedition on 20m phone. Didn't actually hear K9W, only the lunatics and lids making fools of themselves calling on the DX frequency rather than up 5-10 as indicated in EVERY. SINGLE. CLUSTER. SPOT. Shook my head, moved on.

Soon found the Easter Island DXpedition (XR0YY) on 17m phone. The band was going in and out, I could barely hear him and even with the KPA500 kicked in he clearly wasn't hearing me, either. So I figured I'd missed my chance on this one since they're scheduled to close down operations before next weekend. Oh well.

Back on 20m I found ZD8O (Ascension Island) fairly strong on CW. Got him on first call (did I mention how much I love the KPA500?), new one (#144) in the log .

Had a little time Monday morning (04-Nov) around 1230 UTC before getting ready for work and saw in a post on Google+ that XR0YY was on 20m phone, so I took my coffee into the shack and dialed it up. There he was, fairly clear with not too many people calling. I dropped my call a few times and got him. #145 in the log!

This evening (05-Nov UTC) I found and worked ZF2KG (Cayman Islands) on 40 CW. Not a new one for me, but needed on both 40m and CW.

Back up to 20m, I got 9L1BTB (Sierra Leone) on CW and FR5HA (Reunion Is.) on PSK for #146 and #147 -- the latter had been evading me all summer, kept seeing him on PSK Reporter but never while I was at the radio. Nice to finally get that one in the log.

So five QSOs, four new DXCC notches on the belt, and I'm wondering why I stayed away from the rig for almost 3 months.

NAQP Phone August 2013

About 8 hours spent in this contest. Band conditions were horrible at the start (A index up around 30) but got a little better as the evening progressed. Still, not a great time for me.

Propagation Hell

Some of the states needed for Triple Play and 20m/40m WAS on LOTW that I worked were WV, MI, OH and TN (20m); OK, NE, and MT (40m); 15m was awful -- other than ME, NB and Mexico all I heard were CA stations.

I threw in the towel just after 0300 by which time the local RFI noise became unbearable. Haven't they outlawed plasma TVs yet?

QRV: Approx. 8 hours for 137 QSOs

• 1800-1900: Off
• 1900-1945: 20m (11 QSOs)
• 1945-2020: 15m (6 QSOs)
• 2020-0030: 20m (69 QSOs)
• 0030-0100: 15m (8 QSOs)
• 0100-0110: 20m (3 QSOs)
• 0110-0305: 40m (40 QSOs)
• 0305-0600: Off

Station: Elecraft K3 @100w, Tarheel screwdriver vertical.

Final Claimed Score: 7,124
33 states; 2 Canadian provinces (ON & NB); 2 DX (XE & KP2).

NAQP CW August 2013

First CW contest I've worked since 1996, I think. Just over 4 hours operating time (2330-0445), logged 68 QSOs, 28 States, 3 CanProvs.

K3 Receiver Sensitivity Loss With KPA500

Ever since adding the KPA500 to my station, the bands have been dead. Perfect timing as always, or so I thought at first. After a week and all propagation indices suggesting the ionosphere had not in fact packed up and left, it slowly began to dawn on me that perhaps there was something wrong in the signal chain.

I went as far as bypassing my Delta 4 antenna switch and connecting the antenna feedline directly to the amp -- a drop in signal strength being one of the signs that the gas cartridge might have gone bad --  but no change. I did not, however, bypass the amp and connect the antenna directly to the K3.

Finally, I saw a thread entitled K3 Receive Attenuation with KPA500 in Operate while perusing the Elecraft email reflector and it all clicked. Brian W3BW wrote:

I am running a newly assembled "K-Line" --- K3/100, KPA500 and KAT500.  The K3 is pretty "loaded" with KRX3, KAT3, KXV3A, etc.

I just noticed that received signals are down 4 S-units when the KPA500 is in Operate.  In Standby, signals pop right up. 

Reading past reflector emails on the topic, I found one thread that suggested this may have to do with the state of the KPA500 PTT.  I found that pulling the PTT RCA plug out ended the problem. 

This 4 S-unit drop was exactly what I was experiencing. A response from Don W3FPR confirmed it to be the PTT cable used in parallel with the KPAK3AUX control cable:

I have heard this before, and as I recall it has to do with the DB15 cable and the PTT cable when used together. 

Are you using the PTT cable in addition to the cable from the K3 ACC cable?  If so, pin 10 of the cable should not be included.  See the note on page 8 of the KAT500 manual. 

Normally you would not have to use the PTT cable with the K3.

The KPA500 manual does not mention this, at least not clearly, in the Cabling instructions:

1. Connect your station ground to the GND thumbscrew {10}. A good station ground is important for safety and to minimize local radio frequency interference (RFI).
   
2. Attach the RF INPUT {11} to the output of your driving transceiver or transmitter using a 50 ohm coaxial cable with a PL-259 male connector on the KPA500 end. The driving transmitter must supply up to 40 watts for full output from the KPA500.
   
3. Attach the RF OUTPUT {1} to a suitable load with an SWR of less than 1.5:1. A dummy load is strongly recommended for initial testing.
   
4. Connect the PA KEY {6} to the driving transmitter Key Output. A suitable cable is supplied with your KPA500. The transmitter must ground this circuit during transmit while sinking up to 1 mA from the PA KEY line. If the transmitter Key Output is not a contact closure or equivalent, it must be at a level between +4 and +16 VDC during receive. (Compatible with all known transmitters. No key line buffer required.)
   
5. Optional: An auxiliary (AUX) connector is provided that permits more closely integrating the operation of the KPA500 with many transceivers, including the Elecraft K3. A suitable cable for use with the K3 is available from Elecraft. See AUX Connector Interface on pg 18.
   
6. Optional: RS232 (PC) {9} connects the KPA500 to your personal computer with a standard 9-pin serial cable. Required for updating the KPA500 firmware.
   
7. Optional: RS232 (XVCR) {8} connects the KPA500 to a Kenwood transceiver using a standard 9-pin serial cable. This connector cannot be used to update KPA500 firmware (see pg 14).
   
8. Optional: ALC OUT {7} provides level information to control the driving transmitter RF level. The output is negative-going from 0 VDC to -12VDC. 
   

I read the above as, "You need to connect the PTT cable, and the AUX cable if you want additional control of the amp with the K3." And what receiver sensitivity might have to do with the PTT key line is beyond my understanding. But at least I had a clue.

Removing the PTT cable seems to have done the trick for me. Now both signals and background noise are back to normal levels.

July 2013 Wrap-Up

DXCC - Worked 57 DXCC entities in July, 20 of them new for Texas, 13 all-time new ones for me. I'm getting braver with the paddles, five of the new ones were worked on CW (SV5 Dodecanese, FO/M Marqueseas Is, V7 Marshall Is., 3B8 Mauritius, 5W Samoa). Ended the month with 142 worked/112 confirmed all-time (112/80 from TX).

WAS - Closing in on 50 for 20m and 40m WAS. Still only two states on CW (NJ & MD), but that will change in August after NAQP CW. Still need AK, DE, IA, MI, NE, OK, RI & VT for Triple Play Phone.

 Triple Play 

Digital: 50

Phone: 42

CW: 2

2013 RSGB IOTA Contest

I didn't really give this any serious effort, did not even get on the air until after 0200, so I'm not even going to send in a log. But it gave me a chance to give the KPA500 a good shakedown and she performed as well as I could have expected. The screwdriver antenna is still the limiting factor for me -- no amplifier is going to help me work DX that I can't hear. And it was slim pickings for a while. But when 20m opened up to the Pacific after 0330, I cracked a small pile and worked South Cook Is. (E51GC) on the first call.

In all, I only made 20 contacts (16 DXCC, 10 WAZ), picked up a new one (E51), worked Corsica (TK) and Ireland (EI) for the first time since moving to Texas, and the usual assortment of VK, ZL, KH6, and South America/Caribbean stations.

My hearty congratulations...

To GoDaddy.com for failing to inform me that my domain name was due to expire, and...

To the douchebag in Japan who snatched up WW2PT.com within minutes of its expiration, figuring he could sell it back to me. You know what? You can keep it. And suck a bag of dicks while you're at it, too.

KPA500 Passes Smoke Test

The KPA500 arrived Thursday. I started assembling it after work and got as far as sorting the parts and mounting the tilt bail and feet, power supply module, and left side panel. Finished the job on Friday night... er, Saturday morning, around 2am. Hit the sack after testing into the dummy load. Looks like full 500w takes about 35w drive from the K3 on 20m.

Flex 1500 and DM780

After a long and grueling day yesterday working the NAQP RTTY test (more on that anon), I decided Sunday was going to be spent getting the Flex 1500 working with DM780. Had to install Virtual Serial Port Manager to create (you guessed it) virtual serial ports, then Virtual Audio Cable to create (wait for it...) virtual audio cables, all so I can connect the Flex to the laptop with a single USB cable and run the PowerSDR software and Ham Radio Deluxe *and* pass TX and RX audio through the USB port to DM780 simultaneously.

What a ball buster. The first time I tried doing this, the VAC trial software refused to install. Today I downloaded the most recent version (whether it is the same version I tried previously, I cannot say) and tried again. No problems at all. I read the book of words on the Flex Knowledge Center, and fortune smiled upon me. Transmit and receive appear to be working, just a few issues to look at like long pauses after hitting the Send button, and even longer hangs whenever I seem to to anything at all in the Options panel.

NAQP RTTY July 2013

I worked the whole 12 hours (less 2 hours off time) even though conditions were pretty noisy for me and distractions were aplenty. Used HRD Logbook instead of N1MM since I still do not have MMRTTY installed and figured out. I know I picked up several 15m WAS state/band/mode grids on LOTW since the contest ended (NJ: mixed, digital, and, RTTY; TN: RTTY; WI: mixed, digital, and RTTY). Maybe more that haven't been confirmed yet.

QRV: Approx. 10 hrs, for 175 QSOs

• 1800-2145 - 20m
• 2145-2230 - Break
• 2230-0200 - 20m
• 0200-0230 - 40m
• 0230-0345 - Break
• 0345-0600 - 40m

Final Claimed Score: 14,175
38 States, 4 Canadian provinces, 1 DX.

KPA500 on the way

There goes the grocery money for the next two months. But it had to be done.

2013 IARU HF World Championsip

Phone operation only, low power (100w), three bands (40m/20m/15m).

Band conditions were not great, but my local noise level was downright oppressive, as high as S9+20dB on 40m. Bad transformer out on the pole? I dunno. Thankfully the K3 has the best NB system of any radio I've ever used, so I was able to knock it down to a mere (!) S7 or so and manage to hear stations near the noise level (thank you Elecraft!), otherwise it was going to be a short test for me.

N1MM Logger once again makes me wonder how people operated contests before contest logging programs.

DXCC: 26 Countries. Only new one, I think, was the "new" PJ4 Bonaire (PJ4NX on 20 and 40).

WAS: 32 States (per QRZ). Got some needed state/band combinations, I'm sure.

QRV: Approx. 16 hrs, for 176 QSOs -- not exactly big gun performance. Sometimes I felt like I was working QRP. Into a dummy load. With bad coax...

• 1230-1430 - 20m
• 1430-1830 - 15m
• 1830-2115 - Break
• 2115-0130 - 20m
• 0130-0300 - 40m
• 0300-0600 - 20m
• 0600-0700 - Break
• 0700-0745 - 40m

Final Claimed Score: 30,876

Two Needed Islands on LOTW: Saba and Rhode

Woke up to a couple of needed verifications. PJ5/K3TRM, who I worked on 20 RTTY twice (wasn't sure if the first one was a good contact, but I got the QSL for both so I guess it was...). And that's #107 in the bag.

Also in: K2C in Rhode Island on 20m PSK31, a state that I didn't really "need" (I have a paper QSL for RI), but it fills in another grid place for 20m PSK31 on LOTW, so I'll take it.

Three more to go (MS, NE and NH) for WAS 20m PSK31. To do it all on LOTW, I'll also need ME, MN and OK as I have those three verified on paper.

Two more on CW

Worked Greece (SV1CQN) and Nicaragua (H70ORO) on 20m CW this evening. That makes 21 DXCC countries worked on CW for me. Baby steps.

I'm starting to feel more comfortable dropping my call when I hear a DX station. I think my biggest problem at this point is being able to hear the DX. I mean, I might hear something when I pull up a cluster spot, but I ask myself whether I could really be able to copy my own call if he sent it back to me. Most of the time the answer is no. The noise level here is debilitating, a constant S8 or S9 with the noise blanker off. DSP noise reduction doesn't offer much help with that kind of noise level. Copying CW is difficult enough for me without having the double-handicap of competing with my neighbor's plasma TV and the noisy power lines and transformer that are just 10-20 feet away from my antenna. So I pick my battles carefully, try to go for the stations which are relatively pile-up free and easily copyable, and do the Happy Dance every time I put a new one in the log.

#106

Hmm. This CW thing might just be worth the effort.

June 2013 Wrap-Up

DX - I worked just 28 countries from June 12 through June 30, giving me four new DXCC (BV, DU,YB, and ZD7) and three new CQ Zones (24, 27, and 28).

So with DXCC behind me Triple Play has become my short-term goal. Digital is done, all 50 states confirmed on LOTW. Thirteen states are needed on phone, I should be able to close that column out with a few contests. CW... OK, this will require real commitment.

DXCC count as of 05-July

CW - To this end, I've been working some DX on 20m CW, which is great since "TU 5NN 5NN 73 DE WW2PT" is about the extent of my CW vocabulary at the relativistic speeds typically found at the extreme low ends of the bands. I'm getting more comfortable venturing into that territory, however. I can copy my own call at ludicrous speed, and that's pretty much all that's needed 90% of the time.

I've also been listening a lot to the QRP guys up around 14060; they usually operate inside my 15-20 wpm comfort zone. Haven't worked any of them, mind you -- I seem to get paddle shy at the prospect of having someone starting an honest to God conversation, sending me into a panic spiral once the QSO strays from the signal report exchange. It's completely psychological; if I'm not working a station, I can comfortably copy a CW QSO at this speed. Only when it's my QSO does the brain meltdown occur. This too shall pass.

Flex 1500 - Loving the new toy, for the most part. Still messing around with the settings, trying to get the noise blankers set to best handle the electrical noise ever present at my QTH. Unless I'm just not finding the optimum settings, I have to say the noise blankers are no match for those in the K3. The filtering, on the other hand, is simply amazing. Clean sounding CW right down to 25 hz. At times some distortion of signals starts to occur, gradually increasing until I have to reduce the size of the audio and DSP buffers. This makes the distortion go away, but also limits the minimum passband width, apparently. Not sure why this is happening, since CPU usage doesn't seem to be excessive (usually hums along in the 15-25% range while running PowerSDR, Ham Radio Deluxe, and Chrome). It's a clean install of Windows 8 (yeah, I know...) with a minimum of junk installed. Hasn't happened in a while, however, so maybe operator retardation is to blame.

I've been unable to install the trial version of VAC, and I've not yet wired up cabling for audio I/O, so no digital ops with the Flex as of yet. Really was hoping to run both control and audio through a single USB cable just to simplify things. But VAC simply refuses to install (I forget the error message). Compatibility issue with Windoze 8?

Also ran into latency issues with the CW keyer. Messing again with the buffers fixed the problem at the time. I've since set all buffers back to max size and there no longer seems to be any issue with sending CW. So again, maybe something I did.

So I continue to play with the Flex. Some CW contacts, but haven't been able to work anyone on phone. Patience is not one of my virtues, so if I don't get through after 5 or 6 calls, I switch over to the K3 and almost always get through at 100 watts. I remind myself that I didn't buy the Flex 1500 to work DX on phone.

Hardware - When putting the shack back together I discovered three pieces of gear were not working: the MFJ-267 wattmeter/dummy load is now just a dummy load; the meter is completely inoperative, as it the meter's light. My KX1 appears to have gone belly-up on me; just a very faint "0" on the display and no audio output at all. And my NCS-3230 Multi-RX audio console had no audio output, even though it powered up just fine and the input peak lights would flash when I turned the volume up on the radios.

Getting this last issue sorted out was No. 1 priority because the Multi-RX is a central fixture of my station -- audio from all radios go through it and feed a single set of speakers -- so having it out of action was not good. I emailed NCS to ask about possible repair suggestions and got a response from Doug, K4SWJ who told me he sold the company and the new company no longer supports the ham equipment, but he did offer some ideas about the cause. Sure enough, it was an internal fuse on the input of the audio output amp chip.

Since the chip manufacturer later determined that there is no need for the fuse, Doug advised simply soldering a jumper wire across the blown fuse. I did just that, and everything is working again. Image below shows the location of the fuse, in case anyone stumbles upon this page while Googling about their deaf Multi-RX.

The dead KX1 is more troubling, I have no test equipment anymore other than a voltmeter and honestly don't even know where to start. I suppose I'll apply power and start measuring voltages to see if I can find something obvious. If not, I guess off to Elecraft it goes. I really was hoping to finally building and adding the 80/30m board that I've been sitting on for years. Oh well.

As for the MFJ-267... I'll deal with it later. The SWR-Wattmeter never really worked that well anyway, the dummy load still works, and I have a Daiwa 410 meter that I've been using in its stead. From what I've been able to discover online, I'm not the only one who has had issues with this unit.

And that's June in a nutshell.

QRZ FD

More like "QRT FD" for me. Plans to stop by the Heart O' Texas ARC field day site were thwarted by other obligations. Instead, I operated 1D from the house for a couple of hours to try to pick up a few of the 13 states needed on phone for Triple Play, and 20m WAS on LOTW. Worked nine empty slots (MI and NC for Triple Play Phone, and GA, IL, MI, NC, OH and SC for 20m Phone), now waiting to see if these stations upload their logs to LoTW. Also HI on 15m, my only Q on that band.

Took the opportunity to update N1MM Logger to the latest version and make sure everything was working in prep for IARU HF.

One week later...

QRV: The station has been put back together, mostly. The K3 is connected to the old Dell desktop running XP, the  Flex 1500 to the laptop which I wiped clean and installed a fresh copy of Windows 8. Everything seems to be playing well together. One week back on the air and two new ones in the log: St. Helena and Indonesia.

Flex and DM780: Using VSP Manager, I was able to get the rig talking to HRD but still need to configure VAC to get DM780 working with the Flex. Either that or make a set of cables to get audio in and out of the rig. Much rather keep it down to a single USB connection, though.

DXCC!: The Awards tab in HRD kept telling me I had 80-something countries confirmed. Then I noticed a couple that were not checked, even though I know I had them. So a careful recount by hand ensued. Lo and behold, I have 102 confirmed. Only took 26 years of halfhearted card chasing.

I'm back.

Three years QRT after the move to West, and just now getting around to setting up the station again. Some prodding from my Google+ co-conspirators helped, but the clincher was the XYL who suggested demanded we go to the Plano Ham-Con so I could take my Extra Class test (passed with zero studying and just 6 missed questions!) and buy a new toy.

The new toy in question is a Flex 1500, something I've wanted for a while just to get dip my feet in the SDR pool. I had a chance to play with it a bit last night after finishing the coax run and setting the Tarheel up in the backyard. Initial impression is something along the lines of "HOLY CRAP!!!!" I envision this rig to be dedicated to digital modes. No intention of giving up the K3, just wanted to see how green the grass is on the other side of the fence.

We sat in on K5GJ's talk on SDR and the new 6000 series from Flex. Pretty amazing stuff they're doing down in Austin...

The Elecraft booth was hopping, and I lusted over the KPA500 amp. And the KX3. And probably would have picked up a K1 kit had I not already dropped $700+ on the Flex. Maybe next year.

Got to spin the knobs on a bunch of rigs I'd up until now only seen in QST -- TS-990S, FT-3000, FT-1200. All handsome rigs.

Did I mention I passed my Extra Class test? [Fist pump.]

They call it "wireless." They lie!