Future of Conventions

 IDXC

With respect to the IDXC -- The situation might be more fluid or perhaps I didn't understand the details.

The topics floating around were

1. The 2026 con would be in Santa Maria

2. The 2026 con might be in Visalia at a different hotel (Wyndham)

3. The 2027 con might be back in Visalia at Marriot or Wyndham

 

My opinion -- I doubt though the IDXC will be back at Marriot unless the numbers start to swing in the favor of the larger hotel venue.   Just my rough estimate but the attendance in 2025 was about half as much as it was in 2023.  Of course I have not been to as many of them to know precisely.   It just felt thin.

 

I really couldn't make heads or tails of what the actual plan was -- that's fine -- I think the organizers are still working pretty hard at trying to figure out a solution.   It's up in the air, as far as I can tell.

 

Pacific Northwest DX Convention

 

As far as local cons, the Pacific Northwest DX Con https://pnwdxconvention.com/   (August 15-17) is actively seeking registrations. 

 

The other things I heard -- 2026 and perhaps beyond -- the Pacific Northwest DX Con might be something that coalesces around other group's assemblies in the northwest.  It was not clear what that meant, but the writing is on the wall -- hotel venue conventions are getting expensive and clubs/groups are making difficult choices for how to proceed.

 

WWDXC

 

Thankfully, the WWDXC keeps up with the changes and provides opportunities to do events.  Whether it's monthly meetings, yearly picnics, yearly holiday dinners, and the like -- we're on the right track.    It comes down to how much involvement we each have in the club, I suppose.  Nothing really prevents any member from bootstrapping an event and organizing something.  I'm sure that the leadership will be interested as well as the general membership.

 

 

 

Bouvet and Peter I.

I decided to withdraw from the Bouvet Island (3Y0K) and Peter I. Island (3Y0L) expeditions.

I'm going to focus instead on more personal endeavors in the Pacific/Oceania.  

I wish the team best of luck.

VK2/W7BRS QSL .. Now where?

 VK2/W7BRS QSL

The QSL Cards have arrived from the printer.

You can get a QSL card two ways:

1. By the QSL Manager, M0URX   (Highly Recommended!)
2. Or, with me directly,  (while supplies last!)  (You must send a SASE or $2 for international to QSL direct)

The cards turned out beautifully and I am glad for the hard work from Tim Beaumont (M0URX) and his team who made them.

At any rate -- I've been sending cards to local members of the Western Washington DX Club if asked.  If you need card, just say the word. (WWDXC members do not need to send SASE or postage)

What happens next?

The next DX'p has not yet been fully planned but I expect to return in the Pacific / Oceania within a year (2025).  The island has not yet been chosen.  Still working on the logistics.  

No QSO, no Donut

On the very last day the cafe was open, they sold the special donuts -- one had to pre-order them.  I got one of the last "Jam Filled" donuts.  Best $8 I spent on the island.   I saved it for part of the day until I worked more CW.  It was my way of pushing forward.  More CW QSO, then I get the donut.  /hihi/

The DX'p to Lord Howe Island is over and I've been back in the US for a week.  But, I my mind is still on the island.  It is difficult to really leave.  Although I'm physically home, my interests and imagination about the next DX'p in the Pacific is stronger now than ever.

Cooincidentally, the Pacific Northwest DX Convention is underway in Everett, WA.  It's a yearly convention that rotates hosting between four major DX clubs in the region.

Spokane DX Association

Western Washington DX Club

Willamette DX Club

Orca DX and Contest Club

The first day of the convention is an initial view of the activities that will unfold over the next couple days - meet and greet, and some reconnecting among friends in the DX community.

I gave a short talk about the DX'p to Lord Howe Island on Friday and showed the group a small video that encapsulates the experience in a few minutes -- then we went onto a Q/A period that was interesting.   A couple of questions came forward that I thought were interesting.

What was the process to choose the bands and modes that I worked from LHI?

At first I was depending on anecdotal and past experience of what I could recall working Oceania from the west coast.  But that was an incomplete understanding.  A friend from the club did me a solid favor and sent me a batch of Propagation Data tables and with that information plus the VOACAP Propagation Wheel feature I had a better idea of what region and what bands to work.  

The other impact was my local time schedule on the island -- I had to adjust to work more often when the opening was there and less coordinated to my local 'waking time' hours.

Why did I choose LHI for a DX'p location?

A few reasons for me to choose LHI stood out.   First, it was relatively desireable.  Not super rare, but at least in the mid 60's in terms of most wanted.   A few very exciting locations were more desireable in the Most Wanted list, but the history of the island was more interesting to me.  Plus, a recent DX'p from members of the Willamette DX Club made it seem approachable.  For a first-try DX'p, it had an easier logistics for transport -- almost daily flights - depending on the weather.  I would learn later that the weather there is far more chaotic than the reports indicate so I was actually lucky to get into the island.  Last, it's an environment that is relatively safe and I wasn't too concerned about personal safety.  It's a small island that is sparsely populated with one law enforcement officer for 300-ish people that live on the island.   Last, but not least the island is so beautiful and magical for a DX'p.

What kind of antenna system was ideal and what antenna system would be recommended for the next deployment in the Pacific?

This is a difficult question to answer.   For pure conveneience and ease of installation, the vertical antenna system is ideal.   Compact (mostly) and just requires a good set of radials (for typical installations) - if it had been on the beach, the VDA (Vertical Dipole Array) would have been selected -- but the common aspect of the preferred antenna system is a vertical antenna.

But that issue is somewhat academic -- with more weight and shipping allowance, of course a beam antenna would have made a lot of sense.  The VDA actually serves both those purposes with the excellent F/B gain ratio, but without the two-element VDA, a vertical wouldn't compete very well on the higher bands as much as a beam.    Beams need elevation and that adds a whole long list of infrastructure that would have been ruled out for this particular DX'p to Lord Howe Island.

The real heart of the issue is the Location of the Antenna relative to everything else.    Permission to place the antenna where I need it to be and with a location that is virtually unaffected by the possibility of coupling with nearby structures is the key.  I didn't have that on Lord Howe Island, but I made due with what I had -- and in retrospect it wasn't al that bad -- I worked into EU and SA as predicted.   Plus despite a few certain areas in NA, I could reach into NA.   Except in all cases, I wasn't very loud.  That makes an impact of course -- and I can assign the issue to the antenna location more so than the particular antenna system (assuming vertical or even VDA.

I think I also added a note to the answer that spending a lot more time optimizing the antenna for the bands I intended to work would have been time well spent.  I used a home-brew clone of the very popular DX Commander antenna.  It's a good antenna (the original) and gets good reviews.  When deployed in an ideal location, it will perform well.  My design was slightly different -- the space between the band-elements was marginally larger and I used aluminum wire rather than copper wire (for weight issues).  I remember having a debate with myself if I was going to bring a retail pre-configured vertical like a CrankIR    -- I was just really concerned about the weight and the size for this particular DX'p.

Is there a list of things you would add or take away from the list of what to bring on the next DX'p?

This was another interesting question that I wanted to answer more fully in the presentation.   I had made copious notes during the Lord Howe DX'p on what I would change about the operation.

Here is the abbreviated list of what would have been different.   Not all of these items are purely "things" but aspects or characteristics about the DX'p.

1. Avoid callsigns for DX'p that involve the pro-sign (/) in the call.   It became extremely tedious having that call with a pro-sign, especially when I was doing S/P during the RSGB IOTA contest.  It confused some operators when they heard my call with the pro-sign.  OC-004 is the IOTA designator for LHI and I'm sure they would have wanted to log a good island in the contest, but they probably didn't come back to my call for reasons that might include the fact it had a confusing pro-sign.  VK2 doesn't "sound like Lord Howe Island".
2. Avoid callsign confusion.   I thought I had prepared enough to get the callsign settled before going, but even as I announced the facts started to emerge that I had made an error in choosing VK9L/W7BRS and even VK9/W7BRS  -- that slowed down the process of getting the Log Book of the World Certificates.
3. Antenna Location -- permission to put the antennas exactly where I wanted to put them.   I don't think anything would have been much different for me on my QTH at LHI, but I think the next DX'p will require a much stricter policy for antenna location.   With this I would add choosing better optimized vertical antenna systems (either the VDA or the CrankIR -- but likely the CrankIR model is preferred).
4. Adopt a schedule based solely on the propagation characteristics and not based on local activities on the site.   For Lord Howe Island, there were so many (good) distractions.   I wanted to enjoy the features of the island as a visitor -- for sure the best part has to be the parts of the island I visited.  But, I also came there to operate DX.   It took too long to figure out how important this issue is.   It comes down to adjusting my schedule to the DX propagation as a primary constraint on when and where to operate.
5. Prepare for the time that I was not able to operate.   This is bit vague -- let me explain.   No matter how serious the DX'p is, the fact that we're on the island is a draw to experience the moment -- go for a walk, take pictures, simply sit and observe and take in the experience.  That refers to the tourist element of the DX'p.   I've seen several after-action reports of very serious DX'p -- and they were definitely serious about focusing on the operations.  But in every one of them there is still an element of fun and the side-show of being on site cannot be simply cast aside for the sake of making Q's.
6. So in order to prepare for this, a bit of effort put into plan out how to take advantage of the time-off effectively -- how to limit it to bare minimum without reducing the fun-factor and optimized for the hours that I should be on the radio.
7. Weather and local conditions will dominate and control the operation more than even propagation.   In extreme weather will it be possible to deploy the antenna?   Is there a limit on the antennas that can be safely put up given the local weather?   It doesn't matter what the RF propagation is, if the antennas you need cannot be deployed or deployed where they need to be to use that propagation.   This is probably a meta-issue that rolls up several of the preceding items -- Antenna selection, Location, Schedule and so on.  But ignoring the Weather Constraints and how strongly they dominate everything that can be done is a blind spot for some DX'p -- it wasn't my worst blind spot for Lord Howe Island, but I saw first hand how important it is.
8. Backups for everything.   I was fortunate.   I did not have any serious equipment failure. Except for a suspicious behavior in the amplifier for 40m, the equipment did not fail me.   But I was prepared for just about any problem.   Every device except the amplifier had a backup.  Backup transceiver, cables, fuses, power sources (two power supplies), second set of plugs and adapters, and even the the antenna -- I had a complete backup antenna in case the fiberglass mast were severely damaged or lost.   I suppose it would have been interesting to have two complete stations operating -- for Digital Modes -- I could have operated FT-8 on two bands.  If I had a second amplifier it would have made the scenario very interesting and exciting.   Of course that adds a lot of weight and space to account - as a solo operation on LHI I didn't have the capability to bring so much gear -- but in a team effort -- then absolutely multiple specimens of equipment would be a requirement.   Two tools made a huge difference and I sort of knew they would, but there's no question they are must-have on a DX'p:   Swiss Army Knife (the most complete) and new roll of Duct Tape.  I solved so many problems with those two things.  I had a tool bag with other tools (drivers, diagonal cutters, etc..) but the pocket knife and the duct tape were so useful in fixing problems with the antenna and in the station.
9. Know your Propagation.   As stated earlier VOACAP data is essential.  But besides having the data, one needs to really understand how to use the data.      Start with the VOACAP propagation tables, and backtrack a schedule that gives access to the bands and regions I want to work.    I suppose with more experience I would have been able to more rapidly deduce the bands/modes and times to work.   I required a bit more time to sort that out -- and those days of getting the bugs worked out in my schedule are precious days that would have been better spent operating fully.
10. Last, comfort.  It sounds weird to talk about comfort on a DX'p, but I challenge you to sit in the most uncomfortable chair you own for 3-4 hours and work CW.  It's difficult. It's actually quite painful to sit in the wrong kind of chair and sustain the ability to "keep working".    Whatever can be done to make it comfortable to operate, do it.   I'll also add a few things to this -- hearing protection.   For some, that might make no sense -- why would I want hearing protection when I'm trying to pick out calls on CW or SSB?  Well maybe not so much on those modes, but even CW can come through fine -- the mode that really needs hearing protection is the digital modes.  I ran my amplifier at maximum cooling which meant the fans were actually quite loud.  The KPA-500 finals never got over 40 C  (intentional, I do not want to roast the finals on a DX'p and although the firmware programming of the amplifier is designed to protect itself I did not want to take chances or operate near the margins of the data sheet for those final power transistors).    The fans are loud.  Ear protection would have been really helpful to sustain comfort and the ability to operate for an extended period of time.

The rest of the questions were pertaining to the modes and bands I used and some great questions about critters on the island that might be harmful (there aren't any).  

The discussion evolved into other topics (mostly about Remote Operations and the Radio-In-A-Box, RIB phenomenon for some DX'p locations).

I may be back home from Lord Howe Island, but as I wrote earlier, my mind is still there.  I am already pondering seriously the next island DX'p in the Pacific and I look forward to doing the next one with a team. 

If we had a QSO while I was on LHI, thanks for the QSO!  I hope it was a new band/mode you needed.  I had tremendous fun working from Lord Howe Island.

Thanks

73

Jeff

Things happening

It has been a busy few months since I hung up my software-spurs.

On deck --

• DX'pedition for Lord Howe IslandLord Howe Island (July 2024)
• Teaching CW and DX'ing at Long Island CW ClubLong Island CW Club  I'm teaching a GOTA class for DX on Wednesday at 5:30 pm Eastern.
• Preparing to give a talk at the June meeting for Western Washington DX Club.give a talk at the June meeting for Western Washington DX Club.
• And, a few other plans that I'm not ready to announce yet.

I might be doing consulting work in my main field of expertise anyway.  It was always going to be a "semi-retirement".   I think the prefix "semi" is important.

Then, there is the backlog of projects that need attention.  I'll probably restart them after I get back from LHI.

• Installation of 60 foot self-supporting tower and beam antenna at the QTH
• Building a few "French" VDA (Vertical Dipole Array) antenna for a DX colleague.
• And, due to the up-coming DX'pedition opportunities, re-develop a streamlined "kit" for going on adventures.  The LHI trip has identified a few areas to improve.  But, in terms of equipment setup, I have a good list and worksheet to base the next trip.
• Establish the fund-raising needed for a DX'p every year.   I think that at least every two years, and perhaps every year (depending on fund-raising), I will be trying to go on a DX'pedition.    When I get back from LHI, I'll have a much better idea of how that should work.

7-QP 2024

Now that my ears have stopped ringing, I can write a bit about the last big contest.

The 7-Area QSO Party

Again, as last year Rusty (W6OAT) and I Ran CW only from his marvelous QTH out on the Kitsap Peninsula.

We talked this over a bit at Visalia this year.  The idea we had was -- let's run and run hard on CW only.  My advice was -- let's keep the operations going.   We can always take a break here and there, but someone was always at the key for the entire duration.    The other thing we agreed to was speed -- Last year I was a bit nervous and not yet ready for fast WPM so I ran it about 22-23.   We scored reasonably well, but that was a year ago.   In that time since 2023 7-QP, I've been practicing and running in as many CWT/MST as I could (Until the KPA-500 lost the finals).

This year, with Rusty's advice we turned it up to 27-28.  Yee-Haw.   I didn't have too much anxiety about that speed since he was right there with me.

So it was settled -- as we were waiting for the plane back to Seattle after Visalia this April --

• CW Only, let's not do SSB
• Speed up
• Work it hard.  Keep the seat warm
• And we're going to try our best to win.
• But, again as always -- HAVE FUN.

I got the phone call just the week before and Rusty and I ironed out the logistics.    The excitement was there and I felt it too.  This was going to be fun.

(Side note -- I feel like saying that running M/S in any contest is by far one of my favorite things.  You may not win, you may not have a great signal conditions -- but it's always fun to be around your friends when on the radio.   It's about the company.)

Due to some scheduling, I had to wake up Saturday morning at 2 a.m. and then dose up with coffee and hit the road for making the journey AROUND the sound (which means taking I-5 through Tacoma, and then up Highway 3 towards Rusty's place).

About 5:00 a.m. or so I get to Rusty's and the house is dark, but Rusty is up stairs putting on (more) coffee.

We're ready!

The station is switched on and Rusty and I add my Heil Pro-7 to the splitter as well as my N3ZN paddle.

The greyline wall map is turned on and we're watching.  The solar numbers were initially really weird,  K 15, and A 0 (zero).   There was some news about a CME glancing by but the bands were their usual snap-crackle-pop.

At 6:00 a.m. we pressed "F1" on N1MM and began.   We were ramping up the numbers really well.

Within the first hour or so I think we had 8 or 9 of the DX Mults we needed.

Within the first few hours we had pretty much worked all the States except for ND and SD and CT.

Then CT came on, we added that Mult.  Then we had a lull for a while.   A zero call came back to us and Rusty, jokingly said "I hope that's a Dakota."  And sure enough, when we got the exchange it was.

We literally high-fived on that QSO.

The VE Mults proved to be elusive for us.   VE4 VE5 VE6 came later  and it was those YV0  and eastern seaboard stations we really wanted. 

Upstairs food was getting prepared and as the sun was starting to go low, so did our VFO.  20 to

40 then to 80..   Rusty has a really good 160m wire and we were bringing stations to 160 that we had already worked on 80 and 40.

One response was this cryptic  "Let ,, me .. see."

Near the end of the contest, we had already passed our 2023 score.  We had literally four hours more to go and we had already reached the same QSO count we had in 2023.    In my mind I was thinking we could crack 1000 Q.    In 2023 during Salmon Run our count was 1033 Q on CW only.   But that was a differently spaced contest.  If I remember, there was a down-time.

But in this year 7-QP we already passed our Q-count and I think we even topped our Mult from 2023.  We had 62 or 63 now.

For the next four hours it was bursts.   We'd run (which we did for most of the contest) and we also S/P a few times to snag a new Mult.    When it was on fire, it was on fire and we were clocking in 4-5 Q per minute.  Then there would be some minutes before we heard a call.  You think it's rapid but after it's all over the rate was about 0.97 Q per minute for the entire contest.

We ended the contest on 40m.  We had already reached the bottom of the peanut butter jar on 160 and 80m.   40m was still good and open and we could tell people were packing it in.   Our last CQ happened about 30 seconds before the end of the contest.   I turned to Rusty and said, I think we did it.

Score wise, I'm sure.

I love the 7-QP contest as much as any other.   And, it was truly an amazing night of good QSO and lots of good practice at the station.   For reasons that I will post about later, the effort is a training ground for some good work on handling pile ups and DX.

My thanks to Rusty and the members of the Western Washington DX Club who worked our Run.

I also want to give my appreciation to the regulars of the MST/CWT contesting ---  learning your calls helped me quite a bit.    

I hope to hear you all again and be part of a great contest.

LICW Comments

In order to brush up on copying long form QSO, I resumed taking part in the Long Island CW class.

It's a different style of class than those offered by CW-Ops.  In LICW, the classes run all week so it's possible to hop-scotch through two or three classes at the same level during the week for more reinforcement.  No sign ups, just join the Zoom.

One of the questions that was asked during class got me thinking.

The question was (paraphrased) "Is there any scientific study in literature that this method works?" -- The "this" was referring to the method taught by LICW.  For those who haven't done Long Island CW Club classes the method for the most part (at least in the intermediate classes) is based on:

• Copying long form QSO.   Find a novel, and send the first paragraph.  That sort.
• Show a picture of a animal in a comical pose and then send (on the fly) some brief sentence about what you see.
• Listen to recognizable phrases and try to copy (and anticipate) the words that come next.

What made me consider this is my own experience.   What I've come to realize is that there is almost a 1:1 correspondence between an amateur radio operator learning CW and a method that is ideal for him or her.  One size does not fit all.

Seldom do I hear students across the board indicate that the method works uniformly across the class.

My response to the question went along these lines:

For those who like to divide the world in threes, there are three types of copy to deal with.

1. Contest copy (Call sign, signal report or exchange).  Rapid.  Just call signs, exchange and TU
2. Abridged QSO (DX'ing or casual CQ'ing for just the basics -- antenna, rig, power, QTH, FB, etc.. nearly all of the 'words' being abbreviated or coded slang.  Goal is simply to get the station in the log and not much else -- except maybe some niceties.
3. Long form QSO without any urgency to finish the QSO -- long words, full sentences,  the rest.

Whichever style the student gravitates towards, I've noticed that the common element is something that isn't taught but acquired -- confidence.   Confidence to just try -- confidence to work simple contests (K1USN SST) or state QSO parties can lead to confidence to calling CQ and that can lead to confidence to doing long-form QSO -- but there is no road map.  No one has to do contesting, or CQ'ing or long-form QSO.  You end up where you're comfortable.    Whichever way you do go, just doing it -- even with the mistakes -- is really valuable because it builds confidence.   Being on the air, using the CW mode is the point -- that's the goal.   If you'll never be motivated for contesting, then don't contest.  Just call CQ and work the stations as you like.

In my experience, nothing beats just doing it.  Whatever it is.    I do contesting so I can practice Running and copying callsigns for DX.  If I wanted to have rag-chew long form QSO in CW, I would.  But I don't because it doesn't go to my objectives of running DX pile ups.   Contesting is a trial by fire approach -- learning to copy call signs and timing responses to CQ in contests isn't necessarily going to make you better at rag-chew long-form.     

Nevertheless, doing anything with CW is going to make it easier to do it the next time and so on.   And, if QSO's is your thing, then just call CQ and muddle through.  Or if rag-chew long-form QSO is your thing, then drop your call and get into it.

Unless it's a contest situation where people are just trying to keep up rate, no one is really going to care much if you make mistakes.  In all the time I worked CW, I found that every QSO over CW was greeted with kindness.  "They" want to work you.

I don't know if scholarly papers have been written about methods to teach CW.   My guess is whatever those papers say, they'll likely be with a conclusion of "this is the right way to learn CW because we say so."    Fair enough.  But, no matter what the method is -- gaining confidence is not a lesson plan -- confidence comes from within you.   If you want to learn CW, you will.  

As Tom Berson, ND2T said "Aspiration without allocation is folly."  -- the gist of what is saying is: put the time into leaning and practice those elements that you are weak on.  Practice to your weaknesses.   

Good luck.