QRP CW Contesting and LotW

All of my HF activity is now QRP CW – and almost all of that is in contests. Recently, I began wondering which of the contests/events I enjoy had the highest Logbook of the World QSL rates.

I miss physical QSL cards, but the LotW has been useful for me. At virtually no cost, my DXCC total has gone up by about 70 countries and I qualified for WAS- QRP/CW. Not that LotW is without fault – insert your personal peeve here – but even in the present form, it's better than the current alternatives.

The table below tabulates my event results for all of 2014. I guessed that my 'big' contests like the CW Open and the Texas QSO Party would have a high rate of confirmations.

That was true, but, I was surprised by some of the small events and by the low percentage for the CW Mini-Test at 1900.

Interesting.

(At this writing, my overall LotW QSL percentage for all of my QSOs since my first Novice contact is around 29%)

cln – Nick

WB5BKL

Packsaddle Mountain: W5T/NT-030

Packsaddle Mountain is private property and the owner does not respond to inquiries about access to the summit.

When the SOTA Summits for the Texas Eastern Flatlands were published, I thought that what is now W5T/NT-030 was going to be my first activation – and I might be the first activator. It is just a short drive from my QTH and I can almost see it when I climb my tower – about 12 miles SW.

 

Click here and scroll down a bit for a great photo of Packsaddle Mountain.

Packsaddle has two prominences separated by the “saddle” area. Originally, it was all part of a single ranch. Now it is two properties and the northern section contains the SOTA summit. I visited the Llano County Tax Assessor/Collector offices and spoke with the Chief Appraiser. I explained SOTA and he kindly looked up the current owner and supplied me with his address.

I've written three letters to the owner explaining both SOTA and Amateur Radio (with its relation to emergency preparedness). I promised that I would leave no trace. I had zero response.

I hope that someone, someday, will gain access and activate Packsaddle. If you do, please leave a comment here and on the SOTA Summit reference page. I would love to be proven wrong!

Speculations and opinions - to be taken with a grain of salt:

For some time, there was a hang gliding club that maintained a launch site near the southern prominence of Packsaddle.  Unfortunately, a glider pilot was killed there in 2010. Though that section is not the summit area, I speculate that the potential of another death may be a reason for the lack of response. Lawsuits are never fun. Additionally, Llano County is prime white-tail deer country and there are sound economic reasons for not giving the deer any excuse to leave their property. Deer hunting can be very, very profitable in this area.

Another consideration are the abandoned mines on Packsaddle. At least one is in the “saddle” adjacent to the summit.

Back in the 1950s, our Boy Scout troop camped in the “saddle” near the site of the last Indian battle in the region and I can testify that parts of Packsaddle are pretty rugged. We investigated a mine and climbed to the summit. I recall a stone cairn, not to mention the rattlesnakes and at least three varieties of cactus.

Also -

As a native Texan, born in this area, I would be very hesitant to enter another person's property without explicit permission or very good reason. If the property was marked “Posted – No Trespassing” (and most ranches in this area are so marked), it's had to imagine circumstances that would make me trespass unless it involved the safety of myself or others. And it might be suicidal to enter in deer season without some means of announcing my presence as a human being and not a deer or a turkey...

Just my opinion.

cln – Nick

WB5BKL

W5N/SS-024: The Kindness of Others

Recently, my youngest son gave us an opportunity for an unexpected short vacation. We elected to head for Taos, New Mexico, our favorite 'local' destination.

Elizabeth and I decided that Saturday would be shopping for her and SOTA for me. Most of the peaks in the Taos area appeared to be 10-pointers. As I am accustomed to an altitude of about a thousand feet, I needed some advice.

I asked on the NASOTA reflector and got helpful responses from WA9STI, NU6T, KT5X and KD5KC. Fred and Scott recommended Sierra de Don Fernando, a 10-pointer that had an approach suitable for raw beginners and was a relatively short drive from Taos.

I began researching and packing up my K1-based QRP station. Here's most of what I took:

Yes, that's a big battery. This was a hurry-up vacation opportunity – and the quickly purchased Walmart back pack confirms me as a complete novice.

Friday, on the way to Taos, we had a chance to identify the turn-off from NM64 and took the opportunity to scout out forest road FR-437. Here is the key turn to FR-437 from 'County Road':

and this is the start:

Saturday, I made several mistakes while looking for the start of the summit trail off FR-437. I lost a lot of time until I spotted two mountain bikers and asked them about summit access. They were encouraging but did not know a path to the top. I then realized two things: the abandoned road I wanted (FR-445) was unmarked (as near as I can tell) and I had driven past the cattleguard marking the start. I turned around and found the unmarked road just as Fred describes in his notes on W5N/SS-024. Oh well.

Backpack on and hydrated, off I went.

I did well for the first mile or so. Then I could not pick out the landmarks Fred noted and was not finding a route to the summit. I was headed back to where I thought I had turned wrong when a hiker (and his dog, Ruth) caught up with me. I asked, and he kindly said “Follow me” and led me back to an area where he pointed to a vague set of ruts that led downhill to the north. He said, “You'll hit an abandoned road in just a few minutes. I remember the path to the summit to be marked and about a quarter-mile to the west.” Then he and Ruth continued on. Sadly, I never got his name.

I followed his instructions (and realized that the 'abandoned road' he mentioned was most likely the unmarked FR-445). After a quarter-mile of so, I found this:

The sticker on the fencepost says something like 'Road Closed – Do Not Enter', so of course I had to give it a try. In just a few yards, it was apparent that I was on the right path. After stops to catch my breath, I was on the edge of the mountain meadow mentioned by Fred. Here is the path leading out of the trees to the clearing (looking back the way I came):

And, in the opposite direction, here is the summit area. The high-point is near the center of the photo:

Here's a link to the best on-line map I could come up with that shows my approximate route. The turn off the abandoned FR-445 is marked “003”:

Sierra de Don Fernando Peak

I picked a couple of likely aspens that were near some shade and with a lucky rock I had one end of the 20M dipole up. The lucky rock then lost all its power and it took 6 tries to get the south end of the dipole to a nice height.

After just two “CQ SOTA”s, I got a call from K6EL at 1926 (2014-07-19) and I was off and running. Signals were strong and the noise I experience at home was completely absent. Wow.

I got past the fourth QSO and a minor pile-up appeared. I was really having fun when I heard a rumble.

I looked up from the rig and thunderstorms were surprisingly close. Thunder boomed again – and I decided that the top of a mountain with just a few trees is not exactly a safe place to be in an electrical storm. My last QSO was with ND0C at 1943. I packed up quickly and was off the summit in about 15 minutes. Here is were I set up the station:

Back in the auto and on the way down FR-437, I ran into the mountain biking couple and they asked how it went. I suppose it was pretty obvious from the grin on my face...

I had a great first experience at being an activator. I realize that some have done this many hundreds of times, but this was my first – and it will be one of my treasured Amateur Radio memories.

My thanks to the amateurs mentioned above, to the two mountain bikers, and to Ruth and the unnamed gentleman who saved the day.

cln – Nick

WB5BKL

The EZKeyer

AAØZZ EZKeyer II

After looking around for a external keyer to be used with my K1, I decided on the AA0ZZ EZKeyer from the Four State QRP Group.  

It was a very easy and quick build.  The instructions for both the build and operation are great.  Works fine with the K1.

For me, the features that caught my eye were the three memories (with more space than I anticipate using), the easy and quick speed change and the miserly battery consumption.  

I decided to package  my EZKeyer in an Altoids tin - like several of my other projects - and here's the result:

Adapting the Altoids tin was a lot more time consuming than using the very clever enclosure that is supplied with the kit.   Knowing what I know now, I would have built the supplied enclosure.



Also, as the battery life will approach the battery shelf life, I would have just soldered up a battery pack - and saved buying the 3xAAA holder.  No switch is supplied or needed except for a hard reset.

Recommended.

cln - Nick
WB5BKL

Wall-wart Repair

Friday, July 4, 2014

Wall-wart Repair

Yes, I know it's a waste of time and I could have bought a new one for the price of a couple of cups of coffee - but it was very satisfying.

We have one audio device at our house which has become a major part of how we enjoy television.  It's portable and depends on an occasional re-charge using a 5V wall-wart.

These things fail - and re-charging becomes a problem.  We have had failures in two modes:  as the result of a lightning strike and because the cable failed. 

It was pretty obvious that the lightning strike victim was toast as it was blown to bits.  The other failure took us a while to notice as the LED charge indicator is not readily visible in normal use.  We finally figured out that the charging was intermittent and a few simple experiments identified the culprit as the cable.

We ordered a new one and it occurred to me that if I could repair the broken one, we could have a spare.

I know that even if I value my time at half the minimum wage, I would be wasting money in trying the repair, but I like to fix things.  To quote my friend and co-worker Murel:

Use it up

wear it out

make it do -

or do without.

The first thing was to open it up (and make sure it wasn't toast).  The tools I used are in the first photo and the 'technique' (if you will allow me to characterize hitting something with a hammer as a 'technique') is in the second.  This was easier than expected:

Inside was what appeared to be a fairly nice regulator - and as you can see below, it was still working! 
 



 

I note here that I did not try to reuse the cable.  I have the advantage of being near a Goodwill Computer Store and cables with the appropriate connector are about 50 cents - in the USB to mini-DIN style.




Here I have re-connected the new cable.  What might appear to be a solder blob at the end of the cable is actually a bit of aluminum foil shielding that I finished removing after I noticed it in the photo:



 

Then I glued it back together.  You can see the unused USB cable end which I used when I mixed the epoxy.

Sure enough, about a week after I got the 'spare' working, we had another failure.  The spare will allow us to continue until we can visit someplace large enough to buy another replacement.

20-20 hindsight:  I should have bought a longer cable - and I should have bought more than one while I was there!

cln - Nick
WB5BKL

"Re-Stringing" the delta loop

My 10 and 15M two-element delta loop uses wire for the top elements.  Unfortunately, the 15M wire element failed at the connector this spring.

Then this loose element cleverly wrapped itself around the 10M reflector (and later the driven element), rendering the entire antenna almost useless.  Sigh.

After some thought, I decided that the soldered connection was an error on my part and elected to replace all of the wire elements with much stronger stranded wire attached with a mechanical - unsoldered - connection.  Taking the advice of those who know better, I selected The Wireman #531: insulated 13 AWG, 19 strand 40% Cu-clad steel 400# breaking strength (No affiliation with The Wireman, just a satisfied customer, etc.) 

Fortunately I had carefully measured the lengths of the elements before the original went up in 2010.  Here's my assembly technique for the wire terminations:

 

Note that I am depending on the clamping force of the stainless steel hardware at the ends of the tubular elements (not shown) with the crimp of the ring terminal for additional security.

I made up all four wire elements and then again contacted AB5K, Terry, who originally stacked the tower and mounted my antenna:
 

This time the antenna came down smoothly (note the reflector wire tangled around several elements):

It took about a half-hour to install the new wire elements and the antenna went back up much easier than in 2010.  It may not be obvious, but delta loops of this design are very difficult to handle as the center of gravity is nowhere near any metal.  This antenna was difficult to handle even on the ground - and AB5K and K9MBB are credited with a very clever way of stabilizing the antenna for re-mounting.  The second image shows a better view of the counterweight they devised (AB5K on the tower): 

Elapsed time:  ~3.5 hours.  Temperature 104F.   Antenna performance:  good as new.  Thank you AB5K and K9MBB.

Now for some sunspots...

Shack Sloth

On January 14, 2013, I became a SOTA Sloth.

SOTA is an award scheme conceived in the UK that promotes Amateur Radio activity by hikers who reach qualifying summits.

As in all human endeavors, we keep score.   :-)

Points are awarded to the hikers (the activators) based on the difficulty of reaching the summit and also to those who contact them (the chasers).  The lowest level of recognition for chasers is at 1000 points - Shack Sloth.

I became interested in SOTA after finding LA1ENA on the air from California signing W6/LA1ENA.  He noted that his was a SOTA operation on  W6/CC-075, and I looked it up - along with SOTA.  It sounded like fun - and it has been.

It's taken 13 months to reach the 1000 confirmed point level given my operating habits.  I operate exclusively QRP (5 Watts or less) and only using CW (Morse code).  CW, my mode of choice,  is actually an advantage for weak signal work.  I cannot remember more than a very few times when I could hear a SOTA activator but could not get their attention.  

My family responsibilities take me away from the shack daily around local noon, so I miss lots of activators.  I credit the K3 with most of my success, along with a nice location.  Here's what 1000 points worth of contacts look like plotted against time of day.  You can probably tell that I am retired:

Note the dip around 1800Z - noon-ish here in Texas.  I suspect there are two explanations:  First, I am usually away around noon - and second, lots of activators try for two summits, one early and one late.  Sometimes I could catch one or the other - and occasionally both.

The SOTA database says I qualified as Shack Sloth on 31 December 2012 but lots of the contacts counted toward the award were "unconfirmed".  I elected not to consider myself at the award level until I had 1000 confirmed points, so I looked into why some were not.

After I corrected several of my typos, about half of the problems were with activators who either had not submitted logs or had deleted their logs.  Most of the remainder were activators who did not hear my call correctly.  Another very active chaser and activator, Mike - KE5AKL, has a very similar call to mine, WB5BKL.  In a lot of cases, I suspect they heard **5*KL and translated that as his call.  I bet Mike has seen the opposite problem.

  

I was most disappointed with the activator who withdrew his logs.  Oh well.

Here are the 6 top activators in my log ranked by number of QSOs:

Activator	QSOs
WO6M	36
KE5AKL	16
WA2USA	15
N1EU	10
WS0TA	10
KD7WPJ	9

The SOTA QSO that put me over the 1000 point level was with Dan, WO6M.  73 Dan.

Many thanks to ALL activators who made the effort, especially the above, along with the 39 others in my log who made this a fascinating quest.

Also my thanks to the thoughtful originators of SOTA, who cleverly made it fun for both the activators and the chasers.

Nick - WB5BKL