After some consideration, these are my goals for 2020
Obviously some of the on-air goals are getting more difficult, as progress on DXCC slows down (at the mercy of when rare country activations happen), and simple geometry prevents one from making WAS via Satellite from the East Coast.
Happy New Year!
What a busy year for me in Amateur Radio. I managed to complete all but one of my goals:
I also discovered and completed the VUCC Satellite in 2019, which was a major accomplishment. This required confirmed satellite contacts with 100 different grids.
So little time to complete my 2019 goals. Only one remains unfinished, but several other things were accomplished. We shall see.
In any event the past couple of months have been nice for me with respect to Ham Radio. I’ve picked up a few more countries on 160m, a few more states on FT4, and several boxes of no longer needed “stuff” were sent out to recycling. I’m two classes away (plus the exam) from finishing up my second Technician Class of the year.
Not that is has a whit to do with Amateur Radio, but December 1st brought the first snow to Rhode Island — not much, about 0.3″, but a taste of things to come. Others to the North and West of us will have a foot or more.
In early 2018, a friend of mine came to one of our radio club breakfasts with a fun gizmo he had built from a kit; a K1EL Paddle Stick Keyer (PS2B). At the time we had been discussing possible “Hands-on” build night kits for the club. I was immediately taken with the simplicity of the kit, and actual utility. Put it together and you’ve got a full blown memory keyer capable of interfacing to any modern radio.
Now I need another paddle like a submarine needs a screen-door (I have shelf of different ones from Begali, N3ZN, Bencher and others), but I decided to purchase one to see how quickly it goes together and how well it works. It took a total of about 2 hours to put together, nothing was complex, the manual was very complete and useful. In terms of its operation, it works as advertised. It doesn’t claim to be a $500 precision mechanical paddle, its a $60 kit that uses capacitive touch sensing. It is perfectly adequate for CW practice, teaches good paddle techniques, and doesn’t break the bank.
Sadly, these are no longer kept in stock by K1EL, which has introduced a lower cost “Morse Tutor” without paddle (using touch-pads on a PCB). Unfortunately that does not teach proper paddle skills.
I had a nice surprise today when 6 new band confirmations showed up for VP6R today. Need 104 more to get my next DXCC Challenge Award endorsement.
Missed a clean sweep by failing to get them on 30-meters. I did hear them booming in one day on CW, but by the time I had my antenna setup, they had gone QRT. Never heard them again on 30.
Great DXpedition by a wonderful group of superior operators.
It’s hard to beat fall in New England. Beautiful colors, amazing apples (cider, hard and soft, plus donuts!). It means all the busy summertime activities are fading away, and being replaced with more leisurely ones. In my case, that means fall & winter construction projects.
I was involved with an event sponsored by my radio club (Newport County Radio Club), that we call “Hands-on Radio”. Unlike a formal club meeting, this gives our members (and guests from the public) a chance to do things in a informal setting with mentors available to coach. About a month ago the topic was soldering skills, and I was one of the mentors.
I was surprised at the range of soldering gear brought by the students, ranging from fairly new to ancient. I saw solder that had to be 0.125″ in diameter, and so oxidized over decades(?) that it was dull grey. In fact, in several cases, I was concerned that folks were using acid core solder, as the rosin was pitch black. Believe it or not, solder has an expiration date — 3 years from date of manufacture. Of course you can use it beyond that date, but the effectiveness of the rosin as well as the oxidization of the metals becomes an issue. Just for the record 0.031″ diameter is fine for through-hole, but something like 0.020″ should be used for SMT work. 0.025″ is a decent compromise.
Soldering, especially now with lead-free, no-clean rosins, requires fairly modern tools that can achieve the correct temperature and maintain it despite the thermal load. Today that means an iron of 50 watts or more, and thermally controlled, with various tips to deal with through-hole or SMT devices. For decades (think mid 1980s), I have been using a workhorse Weller machine with thermal sensors built into the tips. It was accurate, but the temperature was either 700F /371C or 800F /427C, depending on the tip used. Current lead-free solder from Kester has a narrow temperature range of 371 to 400C. So the 700F tips were the bare minimum (and when cooling during the soldering process would drop too low), while the 800F tips were too hot, causing oxidizing issues.
So I decided to upgrade to a WE1010 Solder Station which has adjustable temperature settings — so it is easy to set it to 382C, pretty much ideal for lead-free/no-clean soldering (Like Kester 24-7068-7617 , lead-free no-clean #275 flux, with a diameter of 0.025″).
I found that the new solder station was about 40% less expensive through Amazon, but tips were about half the cost when purchased through an electrical distributor like Newark or Mouser.
So my old station is relegated to reworking older lead solder devices, while the new station will remain lead free for any new construction projects.
A friend of mine, Bob W1YRC, has often said that some of his best DX happens during sunspot minimums. He certainly is right. While it is true that we lack effective sunspots, so our Solar Flux readings are very low, we do experience a large number of coronal holes, as this image shows:
The holes in the corona allow for many high speed particles to escape the sun’s magnetic field. When these particles hit the earth’s magnetic field, it becomes energized, potentially causing geomagnetic storms, but also improving F-layer propagation.
Here’s a snap of my waterfall around noon today on 15 meters. Things are hopping!
The same is true for 10 meters, which is often open during the day, but is ignored by many operators based on the mistaken belief that 10 meters is only open around solar maximum.
The Mediterraneo DX Club is on an adventure again, this time to Comoros Island, off the northeast coast of Mozambique Africa. Signals are booming in on 30-meters today, which is not surprising.
But their website is absolutely AMAZING. Everything is done real time, including an activity chart, and plotting contacts on a map. Almost makes things too easy (but I’m not complaining; we all need easy from time to time). Within seconds of making my contact, I was in their log and shown on the website.
I managed to finish up some other tasks last week right before the CQ WW SSB Contest. So I started listening for VP6R and found them on 17-meter CW. I wasn’t sure if it was an All Time New One (ATNO), but it wasn’t. I had worked them a few years ago, also on 17-meter CW. But having worked them this time, I figured I would shoot for a clean sweep, working them on all bands.
As of today, I have them on 10/12/15/17/20/40/80-meters. All but the 10-meter FT8 QSO have been on CW. I have yet to hear them on either 30 or 160-meters. My fingers are crossed that I can pick up at least 30 meters before they QRT in a two days.
Photo of one of many VP6R antennas against the night sky
I received a nice note from Sharon Taratula, the Awards Manager at the ARRL today. She mentioned that the 5BDXCC award is so old that it predates computers, so all records are on paper. She also indicated that the most recent award, issued yesterday, was #9492.
Thanks to digital modes like FT8 & FT4 plus LotW confirmations, I am certain it is vastly easier to obtain 5BDXCC today than it was back when I was 13 years old sorting QSL cards into bins at the 4-land Bureau. I would handle each card like it was a delicate flower from some exotic land. Many were from places that I had never heard of, like far away Pacific island nations. At the time, my best DX was a contact with Arkansas, so even Canada and Europe were nothing but a dream to me.
As usual, I digress, so back to my main point…
My 5BDXCC arrived in March of 2015. Since I started DXing in 2012, that represented about 3 years of effort for me. All the contacts were using wire antennas, many were made using QRP, and only a few required more than 100 watts. At that point 8,178 awards had been issued. In the 55 months since then, another 1,314 awards have been issued, or about 24 per month. During the first 75 years, They were issued at a rate of about 9 a month. In fact, W1AW obtained its 5BDXCC in 2012!
So 5BDXCC is still very rare, but is far less so today than it was in decades past.
My quest for 9BDXCC continues. I lack 24 countries on 160 meters, so you can guess where I will be focusing during the quiet months ahead.
