Kansas

I gotta hand it to those Kansas QSO party organizers.   They pull off a great event.

I didn't hear too many regular KS stations, but whole lot of 1x1 special event call signs.

That rover K0A, I think it was was just killing it with 3 and 2 county mults.

Thanks!

It makes me want to get better organized for next year.  For sale of explanation this is what I mean:

Print out the rules.  And study them.

Print out the county prefix list.  Read the map and get familiar with the layout.

Sort out the "goal" file used by N1MM.

Not just counties but the special event call signs.

As far as the special side goal in KsQP, the postage stamp challenge was great.

I think I managed to get enough Q to spell out all of the magic words; KANSAS, SUNFLOWER, and YELLOWBRICKROAD.

I hope you had a good time.

Off to the side I also worked the Hawaii QP and think I got all of the CW ops there who were on the bands for a significant time.

Shout out to KH6KO, Stan from CW Ops and KH6KW, Craig from ANZANet.

I was also glad to hear some acquaintances WA7CPA, Robin and K4BAI, John.  Nice to hear them on the bands scooping up Q's along with me.  It seems they were everywhere I was.

73.

Dusty Mic

It has been a lot of CW work lately....   Why do we call it "work"?  

Anyway.

The last SSB contact in the log was during the 13-Colonies contest.  K2F.  July 4th.

Between now and Salmon Run (WA QSO Party) I have three sets of MST (9 sessions in total), three sets of CWT (12 sessions in total), 3 sets of AWT (3 sessions total), and four sessions of SST.

That's 28 sessions possible, and I usually can make about half of them.

It is important I keep practicing to be ready for operating CW for the 2023 Salmon Run.

Can you hear me now?

WWU, Sehome Hill Arboretum

Radio tower.

CWOps / Salmon Run / PNW DXCON

Salmon Run is happening in September the weekend of September 16-17.

The WWDXC is the host of the contest and I will be working from Rusty's station (W6OAT).

He and I are going to work just CW and make a good effort to WAS and all the counties in WA.  If we're really lucky we'll get to work the counties in WA that are sometimes operated by rovers who loop through the remote side of the state.   Plus there's also a real chance we can get the Canadian prefixes too.

It will be a really fun time.  I am excited to operate again from W6OAT QTH soon.

~~

The PNW DX Convention in New Westminster is over and I've been home now about a week since that ended.

I really cannot express how much I appreciate the event and the kindness from the hosts from the ORCA DX Club in Vancouver -- they put on a wonderful event and the venue was awesome -- right on the water front (river).      I made a lot of new friends and heard many presentations about DX-peditions and other details from those who went "over there".

The final dinner presentation about AI (artificial intelligence) was done by Guy Immega, VA7GI.  A tremendously gifted speaker and a pleasure to listen to.   A good talk that created a bit of a buzz and a slew of questions -- all about AI, the risks and benefits.  It had a lot of people raising their hands.  A nice way to cap the weekend filled with DX technical talks.

I was so glad to see my friends from WWDXC -- especially Rusty W6OAT who has made introductions to some of his friends and helped me become aware of a wider world of DX and CW operations.   

As the year winds down, I don't think I will be travelling much at all until next spring when it will be tine for Visalia, CA  IDXC.   I believe it will be the 75th anniversary of that convention.

At any rate, I have a lot of practice to do before Salmon Run.  I need to catch up a bit on my homework with head-copy.

PNW DX Con

Arrived at the Quay.

New Westminster, British Columbia.

Looking forward to seeing friends and making new ones.

Beautiful setting.

INN at the Quay..

Reflections on MST and CWT

In the recent months I have participated in the weekly MST (medium speed test) and CWT (CWOps Mini Contest).   In total, that's 7 hours in one hour slots divided up on Monday and Wednesday.

I could add the SST (Slow Speed Test) and probably the AWT (the Japanese A1 Club).

In general the strategy I've had was 

Practice copying calls in a contest setting.

Get better at getting the call down in one hearing, and avoid the delay of 2-3 more hearings to log the contact.

In general it's working but on reflection there are some problems --

I hear a lot of the same calls.    There are the "regulars".   I just need to hear the tone of the signal and the first bits of the call and I have a good guess of who it is.  Not always, but sometimes.

And the population of the "regulars" is actually about 2-3 dozen or so.   

If I sit on a frequency calling CQ and "Run" I can expect to work in the first 40 minutes 40 QSO.   And mostly the same calls.  Which begs the question -- if I keep hearing them over and over, why is it so hard for me to copy on the first hearing.  I'll get to that later.

The AWT is actually interesting to me because it's partially W stations and partially JA stations.  That makes the effort a bit more interesting because I'm not used to those JA calls and so copying them is both more fun and more challenging.

In SST (Slow Speed Test) the directions are to not exceed 20 wpm.  Many get up to 20 wpm.  I set my speed to 17-18 and then try to work them at that speed.  

In MST, I set to 22 wpm (the speed limit of MST is supposed to be 25 wpm, and many approach it).

In CWT there is no speed limit.  It's the Autobahn of CW.   Put your blinkers on, the traffic is fast, etc..

Can I honestly copy CWT at 30+ wpm?  No, well yes but no.  I can verify the call sign I hear matches the spot-network.  Yes, that is the station, the call is right to what is spotted.   Could I rely on head-copy of CWT without the spot?  Yes and no.  If I hear it a few times, probably.  But 34 wpm is fast.  It's bar-code fast (for me at least).

MST is actually the best challenge.  The speed 22-23 wpm is actually in my range.  I can get most of the calls and I think without the spot, I could copy them.   In fact for the most part when I am "running" in MST, I just have to glance at the spot band-map and there they are -- the regulars.   Whoever is calling me is likely a station in that list.

When I "ran" in the RSGB IOTA it was an open ended thing where any call would happen and it was even more difficult and challenging to copy.  I surely enjoyed it, but it was the best test of all of this MST/CWT practice.

In the Fall of this year, I hope that I am allowed to attend the CWT classes.   I'm looking for some regimen that I can easily remember and do.  So far the self-study is mixed -- Yes, I can do MorseRunner and do daily.  But it's not quite the same as getting feedback from a teacher/coach on what to work on.  After CWT class my hope is that I will have a regimen to continue that advances me from 22 wpm to 25 wpm -- and -- all in head copy -- and all without the aid of a spot -- and copy on the first hearing.

The good thing is that over the last few weeks, I've had several conversations with operators face to face who say essentially "I learned to copy at speed with CWT classes".   That is really good.  It's reassuring.    

As promised, the issue that I still deal with is is that 'short term' memory issue where while I'm hearing the call I am trying to pack it in my mind while copying the rest of the call and that's where I get into trouble.  If I don't try to pack the call in my mind and hear it out, I sometimes forget what I just heard.  But if I try to preserve the call, as heard (either by typing it out, or writing it down), I sometimes miss a part that happened during the call. 

Not trying to single this person out, but let's take an example -- they are actually one of my favorite calls to copy.

If I hear 

WA5LXS

Here's what happens.

I hear the WA. Then I hear the dits of 5.  Then I'm thinking, "wait was that really a 5 or was there a 6 there, but it can't be likely a 6 because that would mean it was WE6 which is odd. No, it was a 5. Yes a 5.."

So in that time I was puzzling out that indeed it was WA5 the rest of the call just whizzed by.  I couldn't THINK about WA5 while copying LXS.

So I wait and the call is sent to me again.  I hear the WA5.. Ok that was right. Now I can focus on the LXS.   Not LXH.. No that doesn't match my memory.. Yes.  LXS makes more sense because I've heard that call before.  LXH would be odd -- in the contest -- in CWT or MST.

In RSGB IOTA or any other QSO Party, I would have had to be really carefully listening.

See, the problem is that I am thinking about the call as I hear it and that blocks me out from listening to the rest of the call.    Does this change ?  Does this habit get broken?  I am hoping that I can break that habit -- and instead LISTEN to the entire call THEN try to enter the callsign.   Hence my short term memory issue.  Can I remember what I heard well enough to then enter the call sign in the Log/Software.

If the CWOps classes have advice on this, I'm eager to learn it.  So far I'm just trying to overcome this habit myself and it's difficult.

NN7SS and RSGB IOTA

 A brief recap.

The goal was to work from Mark (K6UFO) station on Vashon Island NN7SS for the full 24 hours. The other goal was to average at least 1 Q every 2 minutes. I had been able to keep that rate in MST over the last few weeks as practice. I arrived at the QTH NN7SS Friday evening and settled in. Mark showed me the station and we worked out how the Flex operated. A lot of automation and good organization on his part made that straight-forward. I can appreciate those "remote stations for hire" much more now. At 4:00 am I woke, got ready and shuffled into the 'shack' to get the radio ready. On the dot, at 5:00 am (1200Z) I was on the air. Then I dropped the call and began working stations.. It was a flurry and I appreciate all of the patience from those who had to do a AGN? now and then. Highlights were to work some new and old friends.. K4BAI (on three bands), Dan N7SS/M, Tim W7EEE, and Joe AA2IL from CWOps, as well as some others. If I left someone off the list, forgive me. I'm just off the ferry and home.. Unpacking. Anyway, back to NA-065 --- At around 11.5 hours into the contest I started to fade and I hadn't not taken any real break. My mind was going to QRN. I couldn't copy too well and it was creating too much stress. I didn't want to disappoint the operators with my disfunction, so I bid a QRT and several TU before closing down. 24 hrs at 2Q /min would have been 720 Q. Since I threw in the towel at 12 hours, that would have been 360 Q. So my 200 Q was shy of my goal by an amount. But on the plus side -- it was all 'head copy' and I probably got most of the S/N right... I was having fun and I was glad to give the IOTA NA-065 to all of those who took my CQ. The NN7SS station worked flawlessly. The 50+' tower was racked with a multi-band beam and the station control let me work the propagation changes. There were some things that I should have planned better for. - I need to make an inline switch to adjust which paddle is dit/dah. I'm really used to my paddle and it was difficult to adjust to a new one. - My headphone cable was a bit too short and I should have brought the extension and a AF amplifier bus so I could hear a bit better. But no complaints. Mark kept me fed and watered. I had a superb dinner and breakfast. The donut was enormous. A gracious host and in some breaks we had a chance to chat. Before and after the contest, great eyeball-QSO about all sorts of things involving DX. The key -- The coffee was always just a moment from being poured and I was for want of nothing. Last words: Contesting CW builds character. It builds confidence and there is nothing quite like trying to unpack a pile up of stations and provide everyone the Q they deserve. The more contests I work, the more I appreciate the skill and dedication real DX'p people put in. I have a long way to go. My next big challenge is Salmon Run. But between now and then is a lot of MST to do. Thanks. Be well.