Radiosport Fun for Beginners

Radiosport Fun for Beginners Presenters:

Mike Ritz, W7VO Steve Gette, W7XQ

Outline • Definition of Radiosport, types of Radiosport

• Overview of Radio Contesting

• Types of contests, operating modes, equipment required

• Assisted verses Non-Assisted categories

• Contest scoring and logging

• Contest operating techniques for the beginner

• Brief discussion of solar propagation charts

• Digital contesting

• Resources

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Definition of Radiosport • Used to describe any of several “real time” competitive amateur radio activities

– Radio Contesting (Phone/CW/RTTY/Digital)

– Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF)/T-hunting

– High Speed Telegraphy (HST) contests- (Primarily EU based)

• Generally not thought of as:

– Amassing most number of countries (Honor roll, DXCC), counties, gridsquares, etc.

– Most of the above thought of as personal goals

• That said, contesting goals can be:

– Try to do better than last year

– Try to win a friendly rivalry with a similarly-equipped friend

– Try to improve CW and/or phone operating skills

– Try to contact some new states or countries

– WIN !

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Radio Contesting • What is a radio contest?

– An amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information.

– Goes back to the trans-atlantic tests of early 1920’s. • The ARRL 1928 International Relay Party was the first organized radio contest

• In 1938 the name was changed to the ARRL DX Contest

– The Super Bowl of Radio Contesting, the World Radio Team Championship(WRTC) • Started in Seattle in 1990, will be in New England in 2014

• Have to qualify to be asked to enter

– Rules for each competition define the amateur radio bands, the mode of communication that may be used, and the kind of information that must be exchanged

– The contacts made during the contest contribute to a score by which stations are ranked. Contest sponsors publish the results in magazines and on web sites.

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Radio Contesting

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• Why radio contest? – Increases your operating skills (Immersion!)

• Listening, transmitting, CW, RTTY and Digital modes

• Operator skills make you better in Emergency traffic handling

– Very quick path to WAS, DXCC, WAZ awards

– Multi-op contests good reason to throw a party

– Comparatively cheap adrenaline rush for some

– Get out of weekend chores!

What do I need for equipment? • What do you have?

• Minimum- Just your basic ham radio station

– Transceiver or Transmitter/Receiver/ Antenna(s)

– Personal Computer (highly recommended)

– Internet connection (required for assisted category)

– Voice or CW memory keyer (MFJ/Unified Microsystems, or built into rig) (recommended)

– Headphones/Footswitch (recommended)

• Maximum- The sky is the limit!

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Types of Contests • By Mode

– CW, Phone, RTTY/Digital, Mixed

• By Geography – ARRL DX, State QSO Parties, ARRL EME Contest

• By Power Level, QRP Only – “QRP in the Field” Contest

• By Frequency – ARRL VHF/UHF Contest, ARRL and CQWW 160M Contest, Stew Perry

• Club Competitions – Hellschreiber, 10-10, CW Ops

– “Everybody works Everybody” – CQ WPX, IARU HF

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WA7BNM Website

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Types of Operating

• Single Operator, Single Band (SOSB)

• Single Operator, All Bands (SOAB)

• Single Operator, 2 Radios (SO2R)

• Multi Operator, Single Transmitter (MS)

• Multi Operator, Two Transmitters (M2)

• Multi Operator, Multi Transmitter (MM)

• Some of these have subsets: – Assisted, or non-assisted

– Low Power, High Power, or QRP

• Bottom Line- Something for EVERYBODY!

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Simplest

Most Complex

Assisted or Non-Assisted?

• Not applicable for every contest

• Non-Assisted

– Bans the use of any technology or outside method that provides call

sign and frequency information regarding any other station to the operator. It includes, but is not limited to, use of DX cluster, packet, local or remote callsign and frequency decoding technology (e.g., CW Skimmer), Internet chat rooms or web sites, operating arrangements involving other individuals.

• Assisted – The above is allowed

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Typical Contest Scoring • Most common scoring is:

(# of contacts) X (# of mults) X (# of bands)

• What is a multiplier? – Could be a DXCC entity, CQ Zone, US State, County, Grid Square, Callsign prefix, etc.

– Multipliers are your friend! Work as many mults as you can early on, then work on numbers

• Scoring Example: 500 contacts X 90 mults x 5 bands = 225,000 points

• Varies by contest, sometimes there are added multipliers or additional points per QSO if CW/Digital mode used verses SSB

• The best metric is how you do against yourself!

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CQ Zone Map

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Contest Logging

• One method is to use paper logs-

– Not recommended! • Have to use paper dupe sheets

• Have to manually calculate score

• Have to mail in paper logs

• Much better chance of errors

• Errors can cost points!

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Contest Logging • Recommended- Use a logging program

– N1MM (very widely used, and FREE!)

– WriteLog

– TRLog

– There are others

• Frequency, bands, scoring and dupe checking is AUTOMATIC!

• Generates a Cabrillo file for e-mailing results, and ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format) for LoTW use

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N1MM Sample Screen

Contest Operating Techniques • “Search and Pounce”

– You go to them, moving around the band

– Best for beginners

– Also used to find multipliers, and new stations to work

– Can still make a LOT of contacts if you are quick

– On USB, start low and work up from bottom of band

– On LSB, start high and work down from top of band

– Don’t waste a lot of time on one station. Work them later if you need to after things quiet down

• “Running” – Staying on one frequency, and they come to you

– Generally best for larger stations, and rare multipliers

– Fastest way to work a lot of stations quickly

– Calling short CQs, then listening, working the pileups

– Better have good ears!

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Using Propagation to your advantage • Follow the propagation reports (sunspots, solar flares)

• Know which bands will be open to where and when (grayline map):

– Pre-sunrise- 40M or 80M best

– Sunrise- 20M openings to EU

– Late AM- 15M and 10M open

– Afternoon- 20M open to SA, Africa

– Late afternoon- 20M opens to East Asia

– Evening- 40M

– Late evening- 80M

– Even later- 160M

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Watching the solar numbers

• SFI (Solar Flux Index)

– < 70: propagation potentially bad.

– 80-90: propagation potentially are somewhat low

– 90-100: propagation tend to be average

– 100-150: propagation will tend to be good

– >150: propagation will tend to be ideal

• SN (Sunspot number)

– The higher the better for 10-15 meters. <50 is bad, >100 is good, 150 is great.

• A Index (relative geomagnetic activity)

– Between 1 and 5: Best conditions on 10-20 meter bands

– Between 6 and 9: Average conditions on 10-20 meter bands

– From 10 and above: Very Bad conditions on 10-20 meter band

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Watching the solar numbers • K index (Geomagnetic activity compared to a quiet day)

– From 0 to 1: Best conditions for 10-20 meter bands.

– From 2 to 3: Good conditions for 10-20 meter bands.

– From 4 to 5: Average conditions for 10-20 meter bands.

– From 5 to 9: Very bad conditions for 10-20 meter bands.

• Geomagnetic field

– Calculated value. Indicates how quiet or active the earth's magnetic field is based on the K-Index value. Reports as Inactive, Very Quiet, Quiet, Unsettled, Active, Minor Storm, Major Storm, Severe Storm, or Extreme Storm. Higher indications can cause HF blackouts and auroral events

• Sig Noise Level

– Indicates how much noise (in S-units) is being generated by interaction between the

solar wind and the geomagnetic activity. A more active and disturbed solar wind, the greater the noise

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Being a good contest operator • Follow your license class for operating frequencies

• Listen before running; “Is this frequency in use?”

• Watch out for “special frequencies”

– 14.230 MHz SSTV

– 14.070-080 MHz Digital modes

– Be wary of normal net frequencies (14.300 MHz, etc.)

• Everybody is ALWAYS “59”, or “599” for RTTY/digital or CW

• Be succinct, but polite- Give report, then move on

• Know the band edges:

– High end of 20M is NOT 14.350 MHz!

– Low end of 40M general band is NOT 7.175 MHz!

– Frequency allocations NOT the same everywhere in the world

• Know the rules for your contest

• Always send in your logs

• Strive to be a “World-Class” operator 20

Alan Plant, N5UM , Tim Duffy, K3LR

Digital Contesting

• So how do you contest digitally? – Unlike CW using a keyer, digital uses a PC and a keyboard/mouse.

– Most digital mode software uses macros for communicating. Each macro is setup by you and usually follows a minimum protocol for ham interchange. (ex. CQ CQ CQ de W7XQ) For contesting, usually just one macro for CQ, one macro for the exchange, and one macro for Thank You (TU is acknowledgment) is all that is needed.

– Very quick to use, only three mouse clicks and a swipe to save the call sign.

– A fast operator can do a CQ through the log entry in about 15 seconds

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Digital Contesting

• Common Sights and Sounds – a quick review

– The 'Waterfall' is used to see a digital signal on a PC and a PC sound card or interface to your transceiver is used to hear it. (ex. SignalLink and RIGblaster)

– Each vertical display is an active QSO

– When you click on the colored bar you are 'tuning' to that frequency and your digital software will then display the interpreted signal within the receive area display

– A good understanding of the mode's digital sound is helpful

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Digital Contesting • Typical frequencies for digital modes on different bands

2 Meter band: 144.900- 145.200 MHz

6 Meter band: 50.290-50.295 MHz

10 Meter Band: 28.110 - 28.125 MHz

12 Meter Band: 24.920 - 24.930 MHz (Cannot contest on this band)

15 Meter Band: 21.060 - 21.080 MHz


20 Meter Band: 14.060 - 14.080 MHz <===== most popular band


40 Meter Band: 7.060 - 7.080 MHz

80 Meter Band: 3.620 - 3.640 MHz

160 Meter Band: 1.800- 1.810 MHz

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Digital Contesting • Some popular contesting modes:

– PSK31 is very popular,. and is one of the best digital modes on Ham Radio

• Increased usage, and a rival to RTTY (check out PSKContesting.com)

• In the same bandwidth as one SSB conversation, there can be literally dozens of "keyboard-to-keyboard" text QSO's

• Extremely narrow bandwidth (31Hz) with power levels at or below 30 watts

• Simple to tune and use

• Sounds like …….

• Looks like:

Digital Contesting

• Rocket Science? – PSK is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating,

the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave)

– For those of you who have a burning desire to know but are afraid to ask......

• The general form for BPSK follows the equation:

• This yields two phases, 0 and π. In the specific form, binary data is often conveyed with the

following signals: for binary “0”, and

• Hence, the signal space can be represented by the single basis function:

• This assignment is, of course, arbitrary

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for binary “1”, where fc is the frequency of the carrier wave.

Where 1 is represented by and 0 is represented by

Digital Contesting

• Some popular contesting modes:

– RTTY "Radio Teletype" has been in use longer than any other digital mode

(except for morse code).

– Uses a five-bit code to represent all the letters of the alphabet, the numbers, some punctuation and some control characters.

– Typical width is 170 Hz at a speed of 45 baud and corresponds to a typing speed of 60 WPM.

– Currently the most popular contesting mode.

–Sounds like this: ........

–Looks like this: ...........

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Digital Contesting

– HELLSCHREIBER is a method of sending and receiving text using facsimile

technology.

– This mode has been around prior to World War II

– The single-tone version (Feld-Hell) is the method of choice for HF operation. It is an on-off keyed system with 122.5 dots/second, or about a 35 WPM text rate, with a narrow bandwidth (about 75 Hz)

– Text characters are "painted" on the screen, as apposed to being decoded and printed

– You can join an active contest club to enjoy

– Sounds like this: ........

– Looks like this:

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Digital Contesting

• Some additional 'fun' modes

– JT65 is intended for extremely weak signals. It can decode signals

many decibels below the noise floor, and often allows amateurs to successfully exchange contact information without signals being audible to the human ear. After messages are encoded, they are transmitted using MFSK with 65 tones. You must have patience when using this mode as it takes five minutes minimum for a QSO completion!



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Digital Contesting OLIVIA is a mode designed to work in difficult conditions (low

s/n ratios) on HF bands (though it also works as well on VHF/UHF)

– The signal can be decoded even when it is 10-14 db below the noise floor.

– Is only available in a handful of programs at present. (HRD DM780 (cost), FLDigi (free), MultiPSK (free), MixW (cost)

– Sounds like this (500/16)………..


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Digital Contesting

Contestia is a digital mode directly derived from Olivia, but not quite as

robust

• It is more of a compromise between speed and performance

• Contestia sounds almost identical to Olivia, can be configured in as many ways, but has essentially twice the speed

• Sounds like this: ........

• Looks like this:

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Digital Contesting

• THROB is a newer digital mode and not near as popular as other

modes such as PSK31 or RTTY. It is based on tone pairs and sends two out of a possible nine tones simultaneously at a user-selectable rate of 1, 2 or 4 baud (10, 20 or 40 WPM) and a bandwidth of 72 Hz (144 Hz at 40 WPM). The 4 throb/second version is the fastest and the easiest to tune.


– Looks like this: .........

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Digital Contesting

• In Summary:

– RTTY is most popular contest mode with several contests throughout the year (check schedules on WA7BNM contest calendar)

– Don't be afraid to try other modes as they are challenging and fun!

– Stay within the allotted band plan frequencies

– 50 watts is plenty of power for most digital modes

– Be courteous of others near your intended transmit frequency

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But most of all…….. HAVE FUN!

Resources • Contesting Resources:

– ARRL website: www.arrl.org

– National Contest Journal (NCJ) Magazine: www.ncjweb.com

– CQ Magazine: www.cq-amateur-radio.com

– Willamette Valley DX Club: www.wvdxc.org

– WA7BNM website: www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php

– N1MM Logging software: www.n1mm.hamdocs.com

– ARRL HF Digital Handbook

– Local club Field Day- Get involved!

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http://www.ncjweb.com/

http://www.wvdxc.org/

http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php

http://www.n1mm.hamdocs.com/

[Thank you!] Questions?

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Radiosport Fun for Beginners