Long time no blog. Long time no QSO. Long time bad WX. I’ve been QRT for over two weeks now. I was on a roll with nice DX and the antenna works on schedule. Then the weather changed and I had to lower the tower. Next thing was the weather getting worse and I even took down the swinging wires. My hope was to set up and test last weekend in the LZ DX contest. Always fun the week before CQ WW. But the WX was VERY bad. Strong continuous wind with severe gusts on top. And the occasional thunder and lightning. It has been like that for almost 10 days now with more strong winds, almost stormy weather even. So here I find myself, the day before CQ WW CW. The rain is pouring down and the wind is still a major show stopper to put up wires. The predicted winds for tomorrow are even stronger. So there is no way I want to crank up the tower. That’s one, and maybe the only one, drawback of my low profile field day setup. It’s just not sane or safe to crank up an unguyed telescopic tower and load it with about 100m of wire. I’ve seen it swinging once with 5Bft winds, and now it’s even 6Bft.

Today the news reports that November 2009 has been the month with the strongest average wind since they started measuring in 1879. No shit? I follow the long term predictions on a German WX site (ON4CT’s hint) and I must say that even 10 days in advance, they generally are spot on. So I had seen it coming. With the isobars so close to each other right over Belgium… No CQ WW CW for me this year. You won’t catch me using a sports metaphor very often but here’s one for you. I feel like Tommeke Boonen not going to the Tour De France (parallel here). Only, I can’t blame myself or anyone else but the WX. On Monday I had enough information about the weather forecast for this weekend to call off my contest plans. So for the first time I decided to join a serious M/x effort. But where do you go from here? DR1A maybe? I don’t really know anyone there, or at least not very well. But I remembered that Fab DJ1YFK was going there this weekend. He’s a regular at the WWYC chat so I talked to him and –lucky me!– he told me he had to bail out and that his seat was open. After some hesitation I sent a mail to the DR1A ‘chief operator’ and right away I got the answer that they were already overbooked for the weekend. Unlucky me! The PJ2-feeling jumped up on me again. Remember that? Oh well… Today it hit me: the guys at OT2A might be doing a M/x again after their CQ WW SSB effort. I called ON4IA but for various reasons they had to cancel for this weekend too. It just doesn’t work out.

And then there is one of Europe’s biggest M/M stations only 90km away from here that will be sitting idle for another 4 months until it’s CB mode time again. I wanted to title this entry ‘There just is no contest culture in Belgium’. Or just a plain ‘Fuck you’. But I guess you can’t help it either.

I have been VERY busy working on a project lately. Very intense work. Something that suddenly popped up. The intensity even got disapproved by the XYL who told me that I spent too much time on the laptop last weekend. She is very right. I stopped reading blogs or emails, every minute is spent on the project. I spend my lunch breaks writing things and taking notes on pieces of paper. I’m not talking about it publicly for now. It has to do with ham radio, but it’s not a personal project. Well, it is ‘my’ project but not to keep for myself. There is a chance that it’ll never get out and I don’t want to burn myself on this. Neither do I want it to exploded in my face. Very cryptic no? Time will tell what turns the project takes…

Not much radio time was consumed last week. The WX was bad too so the XYL and I spent our holiday by going to indoor places. I lowered the tower last Sunday because the wind became a bit too strong and I knew the days after I wouldn’t be active. Yesterday I cranked it back up although I didn’t get on the air anymore. This morning I hung out on 80m. Currently there is no 160m or 40m antenna in the air so 80 is the place to be. I hear a loud XR0Y. But loud is bad. Yes, loud is bad. When a real DX is loud, even the guys with bad antennas hear the DX and join the pile up. I have a mediocre antenna, so when the DX is weak and I can just copy it , the guys with lesser antennas are not in the pile up. And there are not really a lot of stations with BIG antennas around. So this time the DX was loud and it drew a crowd. There was not a real mess on the DX frequency like we witnessed lately. The occasional simplex caller followed by the DX cops’ serenade and the mandatory carriers now and then. The QSX was big and soon I couldn’t be bothered anymore. Off to call CQ myself.

I worked a couple of Texans, a K3, a K9, and a real K6 from California. Before my sunrise there was as weak ‘…L1…’ calling me. Weak with an L? ZL1? Let me turn the beam away from USA to ZL… oh wait: no yagi on 80m. ZL1AIH is worked with 549 report. He was louder last weekend so conditions aren’t as bright as that morning. But today was before my sunrise and ZL peaks just after my SR. Anyway ZL on 80m becomes too easy HI. Just kidding, it always amazes me. Then W7HPW calls in with an S7 signal. Quite loud from W7 is rare so I ask for his QTH. Turns out he’s in Utah. I guessed it was a new WAS on 80m but I wasn’t sure. I did check my LotW account later and sure enough: Utah is a new state on 80m. I also miss UT on 40m… To close the series of DX another ZL1 called me. Ten minutes after my sunrise, with an S8 signal. But there was a sudden and short local QRM so I had a hard time completing the call. Soon enough the QRM vanished and I could copy the ZL1 just fine. Nice harvest again on 80m.

I went to listen to XR0Y again. He was even louder now but was working a lot of USA. I heard those in the pile up and they were loud too. Since there were a lot of NA-EU spots on 160m, I realized I need to start building the permanent version of the test setup I build (read it here). So QRT I went and off to work on the antenna. The 'suspension assembly’ is finished and the ‘feedpoint assembly’ is almost ready. But it started raining so putting it up and trying to get the wires to resonate will be done later. Other than that, there are some other things that I was wondering about or that caught my attention.

Given the bad weather this week, I uploaded all pending logs to eQSL and LotW and processed a dozen ‘QSL direct’ cards. There was a card that came in from Arizona on November 3 for a contact made October 29 on 17m. The operator put his card in the mail that same day. That should be the fasters turnaround DX-ON5ZO-DX for a direct QSL ever.

Scott W4PA announced his resurrection on the CQ Contest reflector. He’s going to WRTC next July. He quit contesting a year ago (read the story here) and suspended his blog. I liked his blog. It was about hardcore contesting and he had some interesting things to tell. I thought he would have returned sooner but apparently his disgust was rooted deeply. We all go through those periods but it seems the stronger you are involved, the harder you need to get away from it all if that day comes. Speaking of his blog, I clearly remember his posting the day he decided to take his entire QSL card collection to the dumpster. He said that many people consider this blasphemy, and it is indeed a drastic measure. I’m not up to the point yet where I would throw all my cards into the paper shredder but now I can relate.

I got a request in the email to help a local ham to make his Signalink USB interface work with N1MMLogger. I don’t know the guy, I don’t know his setup, I don’t know the device. A request for help on the N1MM-reflector yielded no results. Zero replies. So I did some Googling myself. I answered the ham that I conclude that it should be possible if he has the right cable to connect the interface to his rig. I must say the manufacturer’s website offers poor support and almost no practical information. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the fast, extensive and to the point support for the microHAM products?

The bad weather made for some wondering and thinking. I’d like to go to the Friedrichshafen ham fair again. ON4CCP offered to go this year but we couldn’t match the agendas on such a short notice. Both our jobs got in the way. I was there in 2005 and 2006. But it’s a long drive and I hate driving a car especially that far and that long. So that got me thinking. Could I gather enough people to fill up a touring car (coach) for a hit and run visit? Leave overnight on Friday, visit FH fair on Saturday, maybe attend the BCC banquet on Saturday night and leave overnight to return on Sunday morning. I sent the proposal to a Belgian ham reflector and a few individuals. So far replies have been scarce. I need to be sure I can get 20-30 people on the bus, preferably 40. Then I can address travel companies to see of it is possible at all. We’ll see what gives.

K5ZD’s recent survey about CQ WPX and more precise Survey Results #4 - Operating Time Limits once again triggered a discussion CQ-Contest. Some people believe that adding new categories with less operating time, like 30 out of 48 hours in CQ WW, might bring more people into contesting. I beg to differ. Furthermore I don’t see why many some of the posters there always try to mould the rules to their likings. So I wrote a rather long reply that I decided not to post in the end. But since this is my personal soap box, I’ll just put it here so that the time spent isn’t completely wasted.

> If we want to know whether shorter time categories would lure more
> people into contesting, or make them more seriously active, we need to
> particularly ask that group of people.

> Dave   AB7E

It has been established here that the vast majority of contacts comes from hams active on HF that do not consider themselves ‘contesters’. Their motivation to make contacts in contests is irrelevant to us, as long as they keep doing it.

They like to be active on the air, they like HF, they like DX. I assume they don’t care about scores. Most of the time they don’t even submit a log to the sponsor. They only care about the contact for DXCC credit and a nice DX QSL card.

It is my believe that those people do not want to be hassled with polls and questions. They don’t care about how long a contest lasts or how long they can operate according to the rules. Their ‘on time’ is dictated by their daily life and how much fun they have on the bands.

The way I see it is that ‘we the contesters’ should offer ‘them casual operators’ a timeframe as big as possible to work as many of us as possible. If we reduce the operating time, activity in certain periods of the contests may / will diminish which in turn may cause casual ops to bail out and never to return again in that particular contest, because they get the impression that there is little activity that weekend. In stead of making more QSO, we make less. CQ WW is the biggest contest, with a huge number of callsigns appearing. Yet there is only one category: 48 or bust. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t turn his rig on that weekend will do so if there is a category 24/48 or 30/48.

This is the way I see it, because it is the way I ‘changed camps’ from a newbie HF DXer who worked a few DX stations off and on during the weekend, to a ‘contester’ who likes to make the most of the weekend. First I was on for a few hours on the daylight bands, then I discovered at night there was DX on 40/80 even with limited means. Soon I tried to operate the whole contest FOR THE CONTEST.

We have a nice set of contests, each with its own particular properties. I don’t think we need to mess with the rules by adding new classes or cut operating time. If you are in the game for a win, and you get beaten by the guy who does manage to stay awake longer than you, he is the better operator and deserves to win.

Furthermore, I can imagine that contest sponsors have a lot on their mind, like enforcing the existing rules and dealing with complaints and cheating. We should applaud their work by participating and not giving them more work by demanding new rules.

As long as the hardcore contesters operate as much as they can by being present on the bands, the casual operators will join us on those bands adding to everyone’s pleasure.

Most of us are not in the contesting game to win. Most of us know we can’t win for various reasons. Maybe we’re after a personal victory like beat your previous score? Or kick that fellow club member’s butt? But I think all of us are in this for the fun. And when it’s fun, it should last as long as possible, no?

Bottom line: Maximize your time on the bands, massive activity will lead to more activity. In the end, this might keep more casual operators busy for longer periods. Then we all benefit.

Sorry for the ‘them’ versus ‘us’ terminology when referring to contesters and casual operators. But that division was part of the issue. Sometimes this contester casually strolls around on the bands in a contest, like ARRL DX SSB, or RTTY contests.

73 de Franki ON5ZO = OQ5M

This ‘bloggy’ is becoming more of a Twitter with something rolling out almost daily. This morning I woke up at about 06.45 local time. The plan was to check 80m but I got distracted by some household chores that took longer than expected. One hour later I fired up the shack and got me some DX spots to fill the bandmaps. On the target band 80m I saw a spot for 8R1PY. Definitely a new DXCC. And with the S-meter showing S7. Some callers but not a huge pile up. He sent his call and ‘UP 3’. I quickly set the QSX and sent my call. He returned with “OK5?”. There aren’t many active OK5 prefixes and most of the time they mess up OQ5 to OK5 so I sent my call twice and there you go. New DXCC on 80m. Sweet! And most of all: easy! Not new but always nice to work was TF/DL2JRM/P. Also easy but quite weak. Maybe it’s the /P setup.

I started CQ’ing and soon I got called by a quite loud ZL4PW. Sweet! Then K5NTT called me from Arkansas. Then ZL3NB, regular guest W6OAR and ZL4AS in a row. That’s 3 ZL’s on a Sunday morning. Then K9OT called me followed by ZL1AIH. ZL #4! And California. And we’re only calling 10 minutes so far. Fifteen minutes later a weak and noisy signal messes with the noise floor. Must be a ZL, what else HI HI. The ZL3 part was easy but it’s way past my SR and after his SS so the path is dying. Finally I manage to log ZL3JT and gave him 549. ZL #5. Thunder from Down Under!

Around 09.30 UTC I work ZL/AI5P on 30m. Not quite as thrilling as working antipodes on 80m but given the time of the day (pretty late) it was a surprise to hear ZL. But my plan was to work 12m and once there I log 9J2FM with 2 calls. I tried yesterday but I didn’t persevere then. I call CQ and I’m pleasantly surprised to hear Z21BB call me. I’m not sure but I think that’s a new one on 12m. In between a batch of UA I copy 9J2BO coming back me. Call CQ and the DX will come! I work some more on 12m but it’s only UA and similar.

Then I drop to 17m. TF/DL2JRM/P is loud so I work him. I work a lot of EU on 18072, and some UA9. Then a PY calls me followed by PZ5RA and to close the series another PY. A Sunday morning full of DX, with the ZL’s on 80m totally unexpected with the vertical only suspended as an inverted L. Working DX on the low bands once again proves to be more a matter of timing and propagation than hardware.