Category Archives: Operating

Don’t Forget – International Grid Chase

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The ARRL’s International Grid Chase is a contest that runs all year long, but it actually resets at the first of every month.  So everyone has a chance to participate on an even footing with every new month.  February just started, so get on the air and have some fun!

As a reminder, all you need to do is make contacts and upload your log to LotW.  There are no special exchanges required, although some folks might choose to activate rare grids that are not near population centers and call CQ accordingly.

You can check your standing at the Leader Board, which is updated about every four hours.  The features are still being worked on, and it isn’t clear how things will finally be displayed month-by-month, but it is keeping track of your score.

Digital modes can be quite useful, especially the new FT-8 mode.  Our next club meeting on February 12th, will feature a presentation from Mike, K1VI (a repeat of the January Consortium meeting).

And They Are Off and Running

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W1SYE Winter Field Day is off and running.  Things were delayed a bit by black ice and closed bridges, but everything was ready when the event began at 2 PM.  There are two stations:  A Fone Station that will be on the air for the full 24 hours, and a CW or Digital mode station that will swap in/out depending on activity.  We had a satellite station on-air for a single contact (all that is allowed) in the afternoon.

Things are still going on tomorrow through 2 PM.

Willy W1LY used his pneumatic cannon to get two dipole antennas up in the trees for WFD 2018

Conditions were warm for winter (about 50 degrees) but very windy — Even so, it’s going to be cold at night!

Conditions were great — This is a map of the coverage of our 20 meter signals

Great 40 meter coverage into Europe

Satellite Station (used for a single contact) — antenna visible out the side window

Good Signal Levels on 80 meters tonight!

Join the Chase: 2018 International Grid Chase

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Don’t forget that for all of 2018, the ARRL is sponsoring an International Grid Chase.  Hams all over the globe will be looking to work as many different grid squares as possible.  Here in RI, our grid square is FN41.  From an ARRL Post:

“The objective of the ARRL International Grid Chase is simple: Work stations in as many grid squares as possible and upload your log data to ARRL’s Logbook of The World. If you are not currently registered with Logbook of The World, this is a good reason to get started. Go to https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/. Registration and uploading are free.

Every new grid square contact confirmed through Logbook of The World counts toward your monthly total, so you have an incentive to start the chase as soon as you ring in the New Year.”

If you have a LotW account you can check your score here (while updated several times a day it is not real-time)

Continued Work on 3.900 Wed Net

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NCRC members and some other fine folks from far away joined us between 19:30 and 20:30 Local time on 3.9 MHz. This is the second week we’ve tried this and various folks from the East and West Bay checked in. Just like last week, signals that were S5 to S7 at 19:30 dropped entirely into the mud by 20:00, so the consensus was to move the net to 19:30 hours.

John, WA1ABI, shared a link to a real-time F2 Layer map, which showed that the F2 frequency dropped from about 5 MHz at 19:30 to 4 MHz at 20:00. So the assumption would be that everyone except Willy is mostly relying on NVIS signal propagation.

Folks that joined the net were:

KC1SD – Jim (NH)
W1LY – Willy (RI)
W1DEC – Dave (RI)
WA1ABI – John (RI)
W1LAB – Pete (RI)
N1PSX – Paul (RI)
NJ3K – Bruce (PA)
WD8ORB – Seth (OH)
N7SKI – John (MT)

80-meter SSB Net Wed 20:00L 3900 KHz +/-

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Several members of NCRC have expressed interest in establishing an 80-meter SSB net.  David Cain, W1DEC, did some scouting for us and observed that 3900 KHz is usually clear around 20:00L, and that was the case on Wed Nov 23, when we had our first get together.  Members who participated were:

  • W1DEC, Dave, in Jamestown
  • W1LY, Willy, in Jamestown
  • WB4SON, Bob, in North Kingstown
  • KA1ZOU, Jim, in North Kingstown
  • KC1SD, Jim, portable in New Hampshire
  • W1LAB, Pete, in North Kingstown
  • KD4MCB, Barry, in Syracuse NY
  • KC3BOM, Joe, in Pittsburgh PA
  • NO5G, Philip, Minden LA
  • KI4ODO, Marvin, Louisburg NC
  • KA4IZN, Jim, New Bern, NC
  • KC4SC, John, Portable in NC

Willy’s signal seemed to hold up the best, with a mostly vertical oriented antenna and a solid KW of output power.  It was interesting to hear other stations and their relative strength compared to some of our own local stations — HF propagation is always fun!

w1sye-80m-net

Jim Kyle is hearing signals about 40 dB lower than the same time last night, which might support the thought that skywave propagation is not the same as last night.