I yam calling CQ now....

[W3MIV]

I am calling on 14.073.700 in Contestia 8/250.

[W3MIV]

Nice long chat with ham in Beaverton, OR, usng Contestia 8/250. Really an astonishing mode. At times the trace disappeared into the QRM, but the lines kept printing on the page nonetheless. Very robust.

Look at how clean the Contestia is in comparison with MFSK. The baseline is -80dB.

34023403

[NQ6U]

Which software are you using for Contestia? I went looking for you on 20m earlier using MultiPSK.
.

[WØTKX]

You made me upgrade my HRD... :lol:

It's working now, I think. :chin:

[W3MIV]

I have fallen in love with Digital Master 780, and I am using 5.x beta. The screen caps are from that program.

I cannot star at MultiPSK for more than a few seconds at a time. I believe the GUI should be prohibited by federal law.

Finally, I can't imagine that one man's Contestia 8/250 is going to vary from another's. It is very similar to Olivia, which I have used many times (in a former life, of course), but is astonishing in its ability to laugh off QRM. Another feature of DM780 is the Reed-Solomon ID scheme that announces your presence to every other DM780 program tuned to the band that has the RSID receive option activated. A pop-up winnder announces the presence of the mode you are operating and offers a hypertext link that, when clicked, takes you right to the trace.

The only thing that didn't come with this download was a Captain Marvel decoder ring.

[W3MIV]

I am on 14.073.500 right now in Contestia 8/250. My RSID is activated, and I am preparing to fire.

[WØTKX]

In QSO with N6CRR right now after calling CQ on that freq... :dunno:

[NQ6U]

I cannot star at MultiPSK for more than a few seconds at a time. I believe the GUI should be prohibited by federal law.

It's an abomination in the eyes of the LORD, no doubt about it. But it was written by a Frenchman, who probably thinks Jerry Lewis is a genius, so...

[WØTKX]

I have moved to 10.14215, calling CQ with Contestia 8/250

[NQ6U]

I'm calling on 14.073.5 now, Contestia 8-250.

[W3MIV]

A very weak and gibberishy reception from Carl on twenty, but not enough power to make it through the QRM. I have been running eighty watts and better. I have now shifted up to 30m to see if I can find TKX in the clouds...

[NQ6U]

Okay, post or email me the frequency. Having trouble with e-mail in my shack--I can receive but not send. Just a configuration thing but I don't feel like messing with it at the moment.

I'm downloading HRD 5.0 right now, almost done...

[W3MIV]

Nada. Nichts. Nozzzzzzzzzzzzinnk.

[WØTKX]

I lost WB8ROL to signal changes, though he heard me really well. Maybe we need to go lower. :chin:

[W3MIV]

I am going to try one more time on 14.073.500 -- waiting for BSO to get his software up and running.

[WØTKX]

Well okie dokie, I'll be around. MLB has pre-empted the FOX cartoons tonight. :rant:

[NQ6U]

Just sent a Contestia 8-250 CQ on 14.0735

[NQ6U]

Albi, it might be getting a little late for 20m--do you want to try 40? How about 14.076 7.040.50?

[W3MIV]

Nothing here now but low waves of noise. Almost like the rig is turned off. Zero dB attenuation and the receive cranked wide. Nada. Ain't gonna work tonight.

Carl: Once you get to play around with DM780 v5x you will love some of the tricks it can pull. The Signal Link USB that I use, alas, does not do rig control so a CI-V type of level control for the rig is needed and I had to whip that out. Being able to work HRD, DM780 and the Logger as an integrated unit makes handling fast QSOs a snap. I have yet to figure out the contest module, since I may play in the upcoming EPC PSK63 contest scheduled for Nov 10 -- birthday of the USMC.

Mañana.


EDIT: I just saw your post above as I posted this. No, tonight I am finished; it is now going on ten here, and I am like those Amish farmers who bed down early and kick the rooster awake.

From my experience so far, I think thrity, twenty or seventeen best. Today there was good activity on fifteen, ten and twelve. That would be ideal if it continues.

[WØTKX]

Or 80? :dunno:

[W3MIV]

Or 80? :dunno:

I don't think either Carl or I have juice enough for eighty from LG to EC.

[W4BD]

Well If y'all want me in on it and I can hear you post a time and freq and I will try and play. I will be up about 0630-0700 or so and check to see if anybody has posted a time and freq. I will run barefoot because I am having a problem with my 811H.

[NQ6U]

No, I can't do 80 worth a damn. Can't even get my antenna to tune up to less than a 2.5:1 SWR.

[W3MIV]

No, I can't do 80 worth a damn. Can't even get my antenna to tune up to less than a 2.5:1 SWR.

I don't quite understand that; unless there are environmental issues impacting the antenna, you should be able to tune 75/80 easily with a G5RV. My wire is two feet shorter and tunes well on eighty and forty. I am using window line for feeder, whereas many over-the-counter G5RV pattern antennae come supplied with a standard, solid-web twin-lead. Still, line loss itself should not prevent the tuner from matching the load if the tuner has sufficient range -- though line loss does mean that the antenna will not receive sufficient power to perform well. The tuners built into rigs do not have sufficient range to tune the G5RV much beyond its natural frequency of twenty meters. I am using an MFJ autotuner with a stated range of 6-1600 ohms.

I can easily understand the problems of too-little height above ground, for I have that same problem here. Nevertheless, I can work NVIS very effectively on 75/80, though transcontinental reach is beyond any normal expectation. I have easily worked from ME to FL on 75 SSB running barefoot -- but I admit that was in better times (2004-06).

[W4BD]

Well I started listening at about 0700 but didn't hear anybody much on around 7070 or around 10140 and I am still listening on around 10140 and around 18100.

[NQ6U]

I don't quite understand that; unless there are environmental issues impacting the antenna, you should be able to tune 75/80 easily with a G5RV.

Mine is the G5RV Jr., really only good on 20 and 40. I'd like to upgrade but I'm already using the only two trees on my property tall enough to be useful and the Junior is the longest antenna that would fit between them. Living in a near-desert has it's drawbacks. I'd have to erect a structure of some sort and I don't have the money for that at the moment.

[W3MIV]

Mine is the G5RV Jr., really only good on 20 and 40. I'd like to upgrade but I'm already using the only two trees on my property tall enough to be useful and the Junior is the longest antenna that would fit between them. Living in a near-desert has it's drawbacks. I'd have to erect a structure of some sort and I don't have the money for that at the moment.

I feel your pain. My 100' spread is the max I can manage, so I understand the frustration.

I stumbled across a guy calling CQ on forty from VA yesterday evening. He in Fredericksburg, which is less than a hundred miles from my QTH. As we chatted, he mentioned that he is in an HOA-managed environment, and that he was using a vertical made by "TWA" -- never heard of them, and I doubt it is the airline, but he said he gets good service out of it and that it hides well in the trees in his yard. In passing, he mentioned that since we were so close he would shut down the amp -- so whatever it is, the antenna must be capable of handling a few hundred watts. Maybe some sort of verticle would meet your needs. I have looked at a few of them -- tempting, but I am cheap and may move out of this house in another year or two, so do not want to make any investments beyond a spool of teflon insulated 12-gauge wire from Home Depot.

I did see some traces of gibberish which included fragments of your call when you were trying Contestia on twenty. Last night twenty quickly fell apart, however, and by about nine CW was just about the only effective mode left in the quiver anywhere above forty. Both forty and seventy-five had a bunch of chats going -- mostly the usual cliques of renegades, rednecks, assholes and bandits (with some of the worst redneck assholes centered in New England -- whooda figured that?!) -- all running a kilowatt or more, and all spouting garbage.

I went to bed.

[W3WN]

Flagpole vertical.

Design it to be about 22 - 26 feet high, bottom feed it with a tuner, give it a good radial field, and it should load well on 80 - 30, possibly 20. Make it shorter (16 - 20 feet) and it should be good for 30 - 10. And you can take the antenna itself with you when you move.

I have the aluminum masts to make mine in the garage right now. Just ran out of summer to start on the front-of-the-house project, which will include landscaping to include it. But this will go up in the spring (plan changes not with standing).

I've also heard & read about hams who have gotten their hands on fiberglass flagpoles that are big enough (inside) to fit an Cushcraft or HyGain trap vertical inside, although depending on the vertical, you may lose the capacitor top hat in the process. To the world, it looks like a flagpole, but we all know what is hidden inside!

There's almost always a way. It may not be ideal, but it will get your RF radiating into the ether!

[W3MIV]

...you may lose the capacitor top hat in the process. To the world, it looks like a flagpole, but we all know what is hidden inside!

Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to model some sort of a conductive ornament ( large ball, star with radials, etc) to provide capacitance.

MFJ's latest vertical looks to be a natural for concealment as a flagpole.