QRS CW Net: 03-30-2013 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM

[Todd KF7NLX]

Thanks for the analysis Kurt. Looks like a definite correlation to what we've observed.

I don't have an 80 meter antenna, so my vote is an hour earlier start time to get the whole net in. Then maybe we can linger around in an informal roundtable to see if the fading occurs at or about 0230Z or slightly earlier.

I was tied up last Sat night as well, but this weekend should be good. I have the Cactus Cha Cha event earlier in the day, then a nice post Cha Cha nap in the afternoon and Ill be ready to play CW.

Fill us in on your Mogollon Rim NVISpedition.

Out here Sir,
Todd

[KE7KUS]

OK...looks like moving earlier is the first attempted fix for our fading band...this coming Saturday we'll get together at 0130Z (1/2 hour earlier) and see if we can't make a go of it.

For my trip to the Rim, my setup was incredibly simple. I threw the 897 and the 40m EF in a bag and dragged it with me while camping. Setup took all of about 10 minutes...I set up the radio, ran coax out the camper, and hung the EF off the side of the camper. The antenna was hung flat at about 4m up oriented primarily E-W. I ran 50W for the net, and until the fade, sigs were great up there...Brian was the loudest by about 3dB, but everyone was well over S9. I also jumped into a couple of West Coast Saturday AM SSB nets on 40m that morning, with equally great results. I like the ease of hanging an EF...and for NVIS I don't really sweat getting the antenna up too high. Lower down means a little bit of signal loss, but at the power levels we usually run it's not enough to be noticeable, and actually helps keep out some of the QRM on the band from foreign stations. The night I ran the net from Flagstaff using Chris' KX1 @ 5W I only had an EF up about 2m off the ground and it seemed to work quite well. Not a booming signal, but strong enough to keep the net going...and to me that's the whole point of practicing field NVIS communications...expedient setups to quickly get on the air, get a message out, and pack up and get moving again. Useful for EMCOM applications, and other more tactical applications.

I may pull the trigger here and get an 80m EF up around the back yard over the next couple weeks, so if anyone is interested in playing 80m at some point, let me know...I haven't really ever had a significant 80m presence, but apparently there's a nightly 80m NTS net here that I want to get some practice working.

[KF7ORO]

1/2 hour earlier sounds good. I know you guys don't have a time change. After the time changes here, the net time may get a little early for me to make once in a while but it should work most of the time. As we get farther into Winter, will the band drop move even earlier?

Probably no big deal not making the net last Saturday Kurt. 40m was wall-to-wall CA QSO Party. It would've been tough to find a clear spot.

I was going to try to check-in with an SDR kit radio that I've been working on for a year and finally got working. Realized you can't see much trying to watch 192khz of the band all at once. Made a few contacts with the rig but the keyer is acting strange. It seems to send some extra dits and sometimes locks in TX and won't send anything. I'm thinking maybe a little RFI getting in? Do you have any issues with the keyer on your Flex Kurt? Mine uses a modified version of PSDR so it works pretty similar I think.

[KE7KUS]

That's a good question on later in the winter, Brian. I looked at VOACAP and it looks like December and January are going to be the worst months for MUF (makes sense with winter & shortest days). For both those months it looks like MUF drops below 7 MHz around 0115Z, which would probably drive pushing the net back to about 0030Z to get a full net in with a comfortable margin. I don't know how easy that is for everyone else to do...maybe a shift to 80m would be a better option?

Funny you mention keying on the Flex. I had a few issues with it when I got started, but I found out it was because I had the audio output of the Flex set up incorrectly. I was getting significant delays between when I keyed and when the audio came out of the speakers. Steve, W6SDM, finally got me squared away by getting a dedicated set of speakers just for the radio...then my keying seemed to work fine. I am not using the internal keyer of the Flex, just so you know, as my Touchkeyer has its own internal keying circuitry. Sounds like you might be getting some RFI if you're getting erratic issues like stuck TX. Are you using an external keyer? Or just a set of paddles and an internal keyer on the SDR?

[KF7ORO]

I can do 80m but I know at least for Todd that may be a problem. I'm good with moving it earlier too. 0030Z will be 1630L here and I could make that work most of the time I think.

I'm using the internal keyer and headphones. I was so excited to get it on the air that I didn't get the enclosure together on Sat. Got that done and tried it out again but it acted the same. I guess I'll try a bunch of clamp-on ferrites on all the cables to see if that makes a difference.

[WB7X]

Tough night. Had pretty much 100% copy on you Kurt, but as you said painful with the S0 signal and high QRN.

The NB was working as well as it could. I was on the wire, and tried the vertical for giggles.

Anyhoo, thanks for making the effort.

[KF7ORO]

Band was in pretty bad shape. I was able to copy about half of the 5 minutes to net start message Kurt. My meter had about S3 noise and your signal wasn't moving it any farther up. Then a couple minutes before 6:30 somebody with a 4-call came up right on the freq (also very weak) and I couldn't hear you at all.

[KE7KUS]

Wow...rough night. I was worried about all the guys from the AZ QSO party crowding out the band, but I worked 40m a little before the net and after the net and made contact with K7A for the QSO party, and partial contact with N6ZZO in Humboldt County, CA. A couple of PSK-31 stations around 7.035 and that was about it.

Marty, you were readable, but signals were drowned out by the QRN. I though I heard someone in there when I called for QNI after you, but it may have just been my imagination. Brian, if that was you trying to get in it was way down there. I checked out solar conditions after the net and noticed that the A-index was all the way up at 38. The K-index was only at 3, and the weekly K7RA forecast only predicted the A-index at 5, so my guess is that there was some sort of CME or other solar activity that wiped the band tonight. There was a forecast for increased solar activity due to a coronal hole on October 14-15...maybe we got that a little bit early.

I worked K7A at 599 about 1 hour prior to the net start with only 5W, so I'm thinking that as long as the MUF holds out above 7MHz, the earlier net is going to fix our fading problem. The QRN tonight was a completely separate issue. The forecast is quiet for next week; however, I'm going to be out of town without a radio, so if someone else wants to take the lead on getting the riff-raff rounded up, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for giving it the college try tonight, guys. My ears are still hurting...

[WB7X]

Nice quiet band tonight.

Did an informal "net" with Todd KF7NLX for about 30 minutes. Called a couple of times but no one else.

Had a great time with you Todd, thank you. If you find time to play a little on other nights, just drop me an email at my callsign at cox net.

I spent the day in Prescott with the hamfest and some running around up there. Left at 0630 and got back a bit before net.

[Todd KF7NLX]

GE Marty and thanks for the practice! Definitely a good night for it with the band that quiet (for a change).

I was working from my folk's house around 59th ave and Greenway, 857D, same OCF dipole and running a conservative 30 watts. You were perhaps the best I've ever heard you for RST and I believe I copied a good RST from you on my sig. That was really fun

I am currently working on a loop antenna like Kurt's and have the copper tubing cut and ready to sweat. I am going to try and finish that up this week so I don't have to run down to my parent's house to operate 40m every weekend. As you may recall, I don't have enough property and an HOA to contend with. The loop should be ideal for doing local NVIS for the net and ragchew practice with you on nights we can get together.

Thanks again Marty!

73
Todd

[KE7KUS]

Sorry guys...not gonna' make it again this week...called away by work at the last minute. Hope the band holds up OK. Will call next weekend from the Cherry Creek Lodge Scoot & Shoot. See you then!

73,
Kurt
KE7KUS

[WB7X]

No worries mate, I missed it too.

Between going to 2 carshows (The KOOL FM show was almost 600 cars) and CQWW SSB I was worn out.

On a lighter note, I have a Logikey K5 keyer coming.

[KF7ORO]

Glad I didn't miss it even though I missed it. I didn't even get on the air all weekend. Hopefully next weekend won't be quite as busy.

[WB7X]

No joy tonight. Tried for 15 minutes.

C U next time.

[KE7KUS]

What a flop. 40m was good tonight, just seems like the band was long and not good for NVIS. Marty, I heard you in there, went QRO and tried to call you for 10 minutes with no effect. I could barely hear you in there, but I guess you couldn't hear me? I think we're done on 40m for NVIS for the winter. How about next week we move to 80m? Let's try 3.550 at 0130Z and see if we have any luck down there. Is there anyone who can't get down to 80m?

Kurt
KE7KUS

[WB7X]

What a flop. 40m was good tonight, just seems like the band was long and not good for NVIS. Marty, I heard you in there, went QRO and tried to call you for 10 minutes with no effect. I could barely hear you in there, but I guess you couldn't hear me? I think we're done on 40m for NVIS for the winter. How about next week we move to 80m? Let's try 3.550 at 0130Z and see if we have any luck down there. Is there anyone who can't get down to 80m?

Kurt
KE7KUS

Sorry Kurt no joy. I was on the wire and in SSB mode so that I had the filters wide and didn't hear you.

At least I know the Logikey works.

I have to see what I can do for an 80m wire. I can put the SGC on the 40m dipole and it will load but I don't think that will be optimum.

Maybe I'll just add to it and make it a "folded" dipole.

[KE7KUS]

I have to see what I can do for an 80m wire. I can put the SGC on the 40m dipole and it will load but I don't think that will be optimum. Maybe I'll just add to it and make it a "folded" dipole.

I tried loading up my 40m EFHW on 80m tonight and working some of the Sweepstakes guys. No luck, even at 100W, to places like San Diego or Lake Havasu. I think I may break out the FC-40 and make an 84'/17' longwire to string along the block wall out back and see if I can get something better on 80m. I also might try my OCF dipole I took to Afghanistan last year and see how it works down low. I'll post up some reports from later this week once I get the wires hung and see what we can't do next Saturday. I was listening to 80m on my EFHW for a while tonight and it sounded great...lots of regional stations coming in. I'm hoping this is the answer to getting reliable connectivity between all of us.

On another exciting front, I've joined Brian and others in the ranks as the proud owner of an FT-817, so I'm hoping that I can put that to work on a couple of weekends this winter from out in the field while I'm backpacking. Always fun to go places, but stay in touch via the net. I may also try to get the 817 running in the truck and try my hand at mobile CW. Gonna have to work really hard on my head copy...ugh!

Kurt
KE7KUS

[KF7ORO]

I was about 15 min late getting on last night so either I missed you guys or just couldn't hear you. I think 80m will work for me next week though.

Congrats on the 817 Kurt. I've been having a lot of fun with mine. I added a 500 Hz filter and it helps a lot. If you're going to use digital modes with the SSB filter, the stock filter is workable but if you get very far away from the center of the passband your output power drops fast. So you pretty much have to center up anyone you want to work. I may send mine off for the W4RT dual filter upgrade eventually.

[KE7KUS]

Congrats on the 817 Kurt. I've been having a lot of fun with mine. I added a 500 Hz filter and it helps a lot. If you're going to use digital modes with the SSB filter, the stock filter is workable but if you get very far away from the center of the passband your output power drops fast. So you pretty much have to center up anyone you want to work. I may send mine off for the W4RT dual filter upgrade eventually.

I picked this one up off eBay with the 500Hz filter already installed, as well as a W4RT 2700mAh batt pack and the microphone speech processor. Good words on the digital modes via the stock filter...that will definitely be a departure from how I normally work. I'm tinkering around with a Raspberry Pi right now that I just got up and running. I'm going to see if I can't get that working alongside the 817 for a low-voltage portable computer to do digital modes. My bench test for that will probably be to hook up the Pi to the DVD aux input in the XYL's car. I'm sure she's going to just love that...

[Todd KF7NLX]

Sounds like I didn't miss out on much Saturday night. I had other things going on and didn't get back in time to load up my gear for a Glendale deployment.

I currently don't have 80m capability, but what a great excuse for getting an antenna! The problem is that I don't have a tuner (or the experience) to do a random wire "around the roof" setup like Brian has. Two options I'm considering is to deploy somewhere and setup a NVIS dipole antenna or go mobile. If I invest in an inexpensive 80m Hamstick, will I still require a tuner? Or can I mechanically tune in for best SWR on our chosen frequency? I haven't researched this yet, so I'm open to any and all suggestions. The mobile option seems apealling in that I could just cruise my Jeep out to an open area around here and operate fixed mobile.

Kurt, I know that you and Chris (OZY) do CW on 2m simplex from time to time. Am I too far out for 2m simplex? You and Marty are both about 20 miles as the RF flies. Maybe with a horizontal yagi?

Thanks for the CW commaradarie OM's.

73
Todd