Today I participated in my first RTTY contest – actually it was also the first time I used digi modes at all.
My equipment:
- Aerial: 20/15/10m Tribander, 80/40m Inverted VEE
- RIG: Yaesu FT-897D; PWR: 50 W
- Interface: G4ZLP Digimaster Pro
- SW: N1MM + MMTTY
I started on 40 metres, where I made the first (and only) QSO at about 06:28 UTC (btw. thanks to F5OAM for my 1st RTTY QSO!), then I moved to the 20 metres for the rest of contest (except for 1 QSO on 15m).
During the whole contest I made 65 QSOs to 24 DXCC countries, 7 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. For all the time I was S&Ping, even though now I regret a little I didn’t try CQing for a while…
I had almost no problem transmitting, most of stations read my “DE OK1CLD OK1CLD OK1CLD” right after 1st calling. However, I lost some of potential QSOs, because quite often I wasn’t able to read CQing station’s callsign. Sometimes it was due to weaker signal, sometimes there was a strong signal close to caller’s freq that “erased” everything around. Maybe it would help if I set up either my radio or MMTTY differently – have to try and find some tips on Internet.
Two weeks from now there will be OK RTTY Contest (contest rules – scroll down to the bottom of page), so if I have time I’ll try to set up my equipment better and to make more QSOs than today… and I hope to hear you during the contest! :-)
Table of contacted DXCC entities:
| DXCC entity |
3.5 MHz |
7 MHz |
14 MHz |
21 MHz |
28 MHz |
All bands |
| France |
0 |
1 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
| Finland |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| United States of America |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| Netherlands |
0 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
| Ukraine |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
6 |
| Belgium |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| England |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| European Russia |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| Canada |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Portugal |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Romania |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Scotland |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Asiatic Russia |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Bulgaria |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Cyprus |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Iceland |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Italy |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Japan |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Kazakhstan |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Serbia |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Spain |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Sweden |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| UK Sov. Base Areas on Cyprus |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Wales |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Table of contacted U.S. states:
| U.S. state |
3.5 MHz |
7 MHz |
14 MHz |
21 MHz |
28 MHz |
All bands |
| Illinois |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Maryland |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| New York |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Oklahoma |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Pennsylvania |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Tennessee |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Virginia |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Table of contacted Canadian provinces:
| Canadian prov. |
3.5 MHz |
7 MHz |
14 MHz |
21 MHz |
28 MHz |
All bands |
| New Brunswick |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Quebec |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
My radio activity in 2009
Year 2009 is just ending, so I decided to make a little bilance of my radio activity in this year.
I didn’t transmit very much, I made only 715 QSOs and most of them during the last 3 months – before that I participated only in SSB part of CQ WPX Contest.
I made contacts with 101 DXCC countries and 28 CQ zones. I used mostly Phone way, but I made also 146 QSOs on CW (CW part of CQ WW DX) and 72 QSOs by RTTY – actually this year was the first one when I used digimodes.
This year I also started using ARRL’s Logbook of the World – I like it a lot, at the moment I’ve got 94 DXCC countries (6 more needed for DXCC award) and 27 U.S. States confirmed via the system.
Few month ago I also decided that I’ll try to get basic USA-CA award and started keeping list of contacted counties. At the moment I’ve contacted 95 counties (actually probably much more, these are just counties I know about – usually because of confirmation via LoTW or eQSL).
So that’s probably all, and what are my “HAM radio NYE resolutions”? I’d like to make AT LEAST 1000 QSOs, get DXCC award and contact more U.S. counties, so that my “coloring map” (USA-CA Map by NX5Z – http://www.countyhunter.com/) is much less white than at the moment (white = not contacted county; light gray = contacted; dark gray = confirmed by QSL or eQSL)
My contacted US counties (1st Jan 2010; map by NX5Z)
All the best to the new year 2010!