Monthly Archives: October 2010

Log Check Report (LCR) – But that’s what they sent!

A couple weeks ago was the NA RTTY Sprint and I saw in the ARRL Contest Update that the Log Check Reports were available so I requested mine and received it within a few minutes! My purpose for posting this is not to criticize or blame anyone but to point out that there are cases where you are copying what is being sent isn’t good enough.  I ended up with the following errors in the LCR:

EXCHANGE CHECK RESULTS
———————-
QSO #3 K0YR : T0M Mn should be TOM Mn
QSO #14 K6UFO : MOR Ca should be MORK Ca
QSO #32 W1UJ : JAZ Ma should be JAY Ma
QSO #38 K6UFO : MOR Ca should be MORK Ca

100.0% of your non dupe QSOs had their exchanges checked.

Number of bad exchanges = 4
These QSOs will be removed from your score with no penalty.

CROSS CHECK RESULTS
——————-
QSO #36: QSO not found in log of N7ESU
QSO #51: QSO not found in log of K0AD

81.3% of your remaining good QSOs were cross checked.

There were 2 bad cross check QSOs removed.
NIL Penalty of 2 QSOs will be assessed.

So when I got home from work I pulled up the MMTTY log file that was captured from the contest. The MMTTY log file records all the sent/received information.  So I looked up each of the above and I found, based on what I received, what I logged is correct but of course, what I printed/logged in a RTTY contest is all I really have to go on. Again, hopefully none of the ops mentioned here take this the wrong way and there is no blame. It’s just part of contesting. Here’s what I copied/sent for each of the above exchanges, unedited other then to remove any blank lines.

QSO #3 K0YR : T0M Mn should be TOM Mn
CQ NA K0YR TESTZL
<101010 00:10:12 TX>
K2DSL K2DSL
<101010 00:10:16 RX>
K2DSL TU 007 T0M MN I
<101010 00:10:26 TX>
K0YR TU 003 DAVID NJ K2DSL
<101010 00:10:34 RX>
TU K0YR QSY ET

The actual received/logged name for me was T0M (with a zero) and not TOM (with the letter O). It was just sent once in the exchange and with RTTY it is point & click to add the exchange to the log.

QSO #14 K6UFO : MOR Ca should be MORK Ca
<101010 00:42:58 TX>
CQ NA K2DSL K2DSL CQ
<101010 00:43:04 RX>
DE K6UFO K6UFO
<101010 00:43:08 TX>
K6UFO 014 014 DAVID NJ K6UFO
<101010 00:43:16 RX>
K2DSL 35 35 MOR MOR CA CAUFO
<101010 00:43:25 TX>
TU

Received MOR MOR vs MORK seems odd. I looked at the 2nd contact and it was MOR MORK.

QSO #32 W1UJ : JAZ Ma should be JAY Ma
<101010 01:25:17 TX>
CQ NA K2DSL K2DSL CQ
<101010 01:25:22 RX>
W1UJ W1UJ
<101010 01:25:26 TX>
W1UJ 032 032 DAVID NJ W1UJ
<101010 01:25:34 RX>
X K2DSL 052 JAZ MA W1UJ
<101010 01:25:40 TX>
TU

Print/logged JAZ. Maybe if the name was sent twice, it might have printed Jay for one of them, but that didn’t help for MOR(K).

QSO #36: QSO not found in log of N7ESU
<101010 01:36:48 TX>
CQ NA K2DSL K2DSL CQ
<101010 01:36:54 RX>
DE N7ESU N7ESU Z
<101010 01:37:01 TX>
N7ESU 036 036 DAVID NJ N7ESU
<101010 01:37:09 RX>
K2DSL DE N7ES 029 JIM ID K2DSLEE
<101010 01:37:25 TX>
TU

Sure looks like we had a good exchange. Same goes for the next one.

QSO #51: QSO not found in log of K0AD
<101010 02:30:50 TX>
CQ NA K2DSL K2DSL CQ
<101010 02:30:56 RX>
K0AD K0N
<101010 02:31:02 TX>
K0AD 051 051 DAVID NJ K0AD
<101010 02:31:10 RX>
K2DSL K0AD 76 76 AL M
<101010 02:31:18 TX>
TU

Again it looks like a good exchange. For both the NIL entries, I was calling CQ and they came back to me and sent their exchange after I sent mine so you figured it would be in the log.

To me it is extremely interesting to review the LCRs to see what occurred and hopefully learn from the mistakes. I have a macro set up to send my name once or twice depending on the condition I’m receiving the other station. Of course, how they are receiving me might be different but I use that as the barometer for what I send. Maybe I’ll always send my name two times and when logging an op on subsequent bands, just send it once.

73,
K2DSL

5V7TT Togo Logged

I turned the radio on tonight to do a little packet work with the ISS as it passed overhead. I had my APRS position received and digipeated as well as a message to RS0ISS-4.

I then fired up VE7CC’s cluster program and saw 5V7TT on 40m CW spotted and I could hear them fine. I went split up 1.5 and after just a few calls I heard them come back to K2DIL. I resent K2DSL a few times before he came back with K2DSL and I confirmed. I then went to their site at http://www.i2ysb.com to check out their info and it showed an online log for 5V7TT. I entered my call and in less then 2 minutes after making the contact, I was already showing in their logs!  I’ll be filling out a QSL card to G6BMY via the bureau for a new one.

73 & good DX,
K2DSL

2010 JARTS RTTY Age Analysis

The 2010 JARTS RTTY ham radio contest this past weekend uses the operators age as the exchange. Operators are supposed to send their age and this analysis is based on what they sent being accurate. A YL can send 00 if they desire and I had 1 operator send 00. There was also at least 1 YL and there could have been more that sent their actual age. Any multi-op participants needed to send 99 as their age. I did this analysis for the 2009 JARTS RTTY contest and the numbers haven’t changed much.

I threw out the 00 and handful of 99’s and out of my 300 contacts and that left 287 Q’s. I eliminated the dups so each operators record occurred just once in the data and that brought it down to 219 unique calls, again excluding the 00 and 99 records. Here’s what the data shows:

Youngest logged was 28. I saw in the 3830 reports that someone logged an operator (young lady) that was sending 10 as their age. Very impressive!

Oldest logged was 85. I logged 4 operators at 80+ years old.

Average age across all the contacts was 58 years.

Median age is 60. Median represents, the middle age (what record #110 out of 219) shows. Half the entries I logged fell at or below that and half the entries I logged were at or above that age.

Mode is 62 which means of all the ages I logged, 62 years old was the most popular age.

US average age logged is 60.5 which is above the overall average across all contacts. The youngest op sent 33 as their age.

Canadian average age logged is 57.5 which is just below the average across all contacts. The youngest op sent 41 as their age.

International (non-US & non-Canadian) age logged is 54.5 which is 3.5 years below the average across all the contacts I made.

Again, the numbers from this year which represent a slightly smaller sampling then my contacts last year are very close to being the same with some numbers identical to last year.

73,
K2DSL

2010 JARTS RTTY Summary

This past weekend was the 24 hour JARTS RTTY ham radio contest. Looking back at my old posts, this is the 3rd year I’ve participated in this contest, and my score and time operating has decreased with 2008’s contest yielding the highest QSO count and 2009’s contest in the middle for QSO count. So how did things go this year?

I operated a couple of hours at the start of the contest in what was a very windy evening.  I did a quick scan on 20m where I snagged Alaska and then spent the evening on 40m & 80m. PJ4B operating from the new DXCC entity was in the contest and I worked it without any wait. I also worked PJ4B on 15m as well as PJ4D on 15m during the contest. 80m was noisy but workable and I even had a little run on 80m before calling it a night at 11:30pm (0330z) with 72 Q’s in the log.

Saturday I had to wake the kids up early to go take the PSAT’s. I got on for a few hours after that and before I needed to head out to a high school football game.  The weather outside was still extremely windy. 15m was pretty good this weekend for me. I could work more stations on 15m then I could in the past few weekends. Most contacts were on 15m and 20m. After a few mid day hours at the high school game I was back on 15m & 20m for a couple more hours before I was off to dinner with my wife’s family.

I had checked 10m a few times during the day but didn’t hear anything. A bit before heading out to dinner I checked 10m again and was able to hear LU5FF in Argentina approximately 5000 miles away and worked him without much effort. I spotted him after making the contact and saw a bunch of US stations then jump in. I got home late Saturday evening and spent 30 mins after I got home on 40m & 80m logging anyone I could hear.  I ended Saturday night with 213 Q’s and I didn’t think I’d have much more then that for the entire contest since I couldn’t operate much on Sunday.

Sunday morning I got up and started to get ready to head to the Giants football game at the stadium. The wind had finally subsided at it was relatively calm out with blue skies. I started with a scan of 40m to grab any station I could hear which yielded about 12 quick Q’s before switching to 20m for another 10 Q’s before turning off the radio to head to the stadium.  8.5 hours later after getting home and unloading the car I popped on for a bit at the end of the contest.  The frequency that the radio was on when I turned it on had a VK station calling CQ and I was able to work him for the only VK contact. After spotting him, there was a jump in activity on the frequency. I did hear 1 other VK but he couldn’t hear me and while I listened to other ops try to contact him, they couldn’t be heard either. I scanned 20m for any new stations and then called CQ for a little bit to get some of the S&P only stations. It was dark out now so I switched to 40m and did the same thing – scan and then call CQ. 40m yielded another dozen Q’s. A quick scan of 20m showed little activity so with 15 mins left in the contest I scanned 80m and then started to call CQ which was productive for those 15 mins. I logged a bunch of VE stations in Canada and I finished the contest with exactly 300 Qs logging NP3D (in NY) at the end. I’m surprised I worked 87 Q’s on Sunday when I didn’t think I’d get much time on, but I’m not complaining!

Here’s a map (click to enlarge) of the ham radio contacts that were made over the weekend:


Here’s the N1MM score summary for the contest:

 Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   Sec
  3.5      55     110    1   11
    7      61     126    9   14
   14     142     340   31   14
   21      41      97   11    9
   28       1       3    1    0
Total     300     676   53   48
Score : 68,276

73 & thanks for all the Q’s,
K2DSL

Makrothen RTTY Contest

This weekend, besides the NA RTTY Sprint, is the Makrothen RTTY ham radio contest. This is an interesting contest because the format consists of three 8 hour segments covering a 24 hour period. Fri night, Sat afternoon & Sun morning make up the 3 operating segments. What is also fun is the scoring is based on the distance between you and the other operator. The farther the distance, the more the points. There’s also a bonus factor for contacts made on 40m & 80m.

Got to operate more this year then last year since the Giants are away and I didn’t need to head to the stadium. First night I started on 40m and switched between 40m & 80m. While calling CQ I had R1ANP (Antartica) come back to me on 40m for 24,762 points! Went to bed with 88 Q’s in the log all on 40m & 80m.

On Saturday after our clubs hamfest when I got back on that afternoon, 15m was dead for me. I made 1 Q the entire day on 15m. 20m was fine though and where I spent most of my time until 6pm when I switched to 40m. I stopped about 30 mins early to eat and prep for the NA RTTY Sprint that was about to start and finished the 2nd day at 210 Q’s.

Woke up Sunday morning and got on the air again about halfway through the final 8 hour segment  which started 4am local time. 20m was doing well to EU and Russia and I worked all the new stations. I then switched to 15m and I was able to log about 13 stations in a row before switching back to 20m. I ended up logging just one 15m station on Saturday and 18 15m stations on Sunday, so 15m was much better for me. I hit 1 million points at 1451z on my 255th logged contact.

Definitely a fun contest with the 3 segments and the distance based grid square scoring. Here’s the score summary for this one and as you can see, even though there were twice as many 80m contacts then 15m contacts, the distance on each of the 15m contacts provides more then a 2x score difference:

 Band    QSOs      Pts
  3.5      39    53500
    7      65   209610
   14     155   724312
   21      19   122636
Total     278  1110058

Score : 1,110,058

The below map shows the location of the contacts. The Antarctica contact with R1ANP is in the lower right corner at a distance of 10,217 miles. The left most spot is with JM1XCW in Japan at a distance of 6,718 miles. The right most spot is UN6P in Kazakhstan.  Click the picture for a larger view.

Thanks for all the Q’s!
K2DSL

NA RTTY Sprint

In the middle (end of the 2nd segment) of the Makrothen RTTY ham radio contest the fall NA RTTY Sprint started. It’s a 4 hour contest where you make a contact and then the frequency is given to you for the next contact and then you need to relinquish the frequency after your next contact.  The contest just runs on 20m, 40 m & 80m.

I had a bunch of chauffeur needs on Saturday night for the kids, so I ended up operating about half of the 2 hour contest.  Because it started after dark, 20m wasn’t the popular band but I managed to work 7 stations with the other 60 Q’s being split between 40m & 80m.

I ran into 3 operators which obviously didn’t know/understand the rules as they were holding a frequency and just calling CQ after someone worked them. They need to relinquish the frequency after they worked someone when they were calling CQ. I noted their calls and will see if I can find a way to contact them via QRZ later today so they know for next time.

A fun contest format for a nice change of pace.  Here’s the short summary report:

  Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
   3.5      29     29    7
     7      31     31   14
    14       7      7    5
 Total      67     67   26

 Score : 1,742

73,
K2DSL

Another ISS Packet Session

In the middle of the Makrothen RTTY ham  radio contest I took a break and set things up for another ISS (International Space Station) packet session. As the ISS came into my coverage area I sent my APRS packet info. I also started to decode packets from others from the central US and from the east coast. Halfway through, I stopped xmitting and decoding for some reason so I shut down the apps and started them back up and it seemed fine again.

My APRS position was received and sent back and repeated onto the Internet by KB8YSE. I also sent a received a message with N1RCN in Rhode Island. Here’s the exchange from http://www2.findu.com/cgi-bin/msg.cgi?call=K2DSL:

fromtotimemessage
N1RCNK2DSL10/10 13:06:09zReplyGood Morning From Fletch In Bristol, RI
K2DSLN1RCN10/10 13:05:34zSend anotherHi from Waldwick, NJ, USA

That looks like this mornings overhead pass is the only pass today worth trying. There are some new astronauts on the way to the ISS and they should dock in another day or two.

73,
K2DSL

California QSO Party (CQP) Summary

Spent some of the weekend working the TARA PSK Rumble contest and then the California QSO Party (CQP) got going and I made a bunch of contacts there in between all the other goings on over the weekend. The CQP is nice because it has a tremendous amount of activity and a lot of stations on the air for both CW & SSB contacts.

I switched to CW and noticed a spot for KA3DDR/6 and immediately recognized the call being that of Scot Morrison, a blogger I’ve followed for quite a while now. Unfortunately, Scot was no longer on the frequency but I was able to subsequently work Scot on 40m CW and then 20m CW on Sunday. Probably the highlight of my ham activities for the weekend!

I had a difficult time this weekend on 15m. I couldn’t hear but a few stations that were spotted in the cluster. It could have been just that 15m wasn’t good between NJ and CA or it could be that throwing up a 15m dipole vs tuning the G5RV will provide me a better chance.

I stopped early on Sunday to get ready to head out to watch the Giants beat the Bears on Sunday night. A good ending to a good weekend.

Here’s the score summary for the contest. Looking back at last year I had a few more Q’s and a couple more counties. I didn’t hear any counties for the ones I missed. Must have just not been on the air when I was.

  Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec
     7  CW      27     81    4
     7  LSB      5     10    0
    14  CW      58    174   11
    14  USB     70    140   35
    21  CW       2      6    0
    21  USB      4      8    1
 Total  Both   166    419   51

 Score : 21,369

73,
K2DSL

TARA PSK Rumble Summary

Just spent a little time in the 2010 TARA PSK Rumble contest. It runs for 24 hours and started Fri evening and finished Sat evening. I just worked stations before the California QSO Party started up and ended up logging 37 stations all in the US. 29 of them were on 40m and the other 8 were on 20m. I used MMVARI with N1MM for the contacts. I guess there could have been some more activity to make it a bit better and there was a PSK63 contest going on that made it difficult to find the TARA ops. But its fun to work another mode and get some contacts in the log.

73,
K2DSL

Market Reef OJ0B worked for a new one

Read about Market Reef getting active in the Daily DX and this morning, while waiting for more California stations to come on the air for their QSO Party, I saw a spot for OJ0B on 17m so I tuned there and they were load. They were working split on CW so I went up a little and put my call out. After about 10 or so times they came back to me and I had them logged for a new one @ 1253z!

QSL for OJ0B is via OH2BH. The OJ0B QRZ page isn’t updated with any 2010 info and reflects what must have been their last DXpedition there in 2009. The Daily DX indicated that OH2BH & OH2PM were the operators as well as OH2BH being the QSL manager.

Hopefully I can work them on some other bands, especially 20m. The info from Daily DX says they should be there until the 11th of October or so.

73 & Good DX,
K2DSL