CQ MM DX contest

I very much like this CQ Manchester Mineira DX contest.
It's a DX contest, so you can work any station.
There were many stations calling CQ MM.
In total I worked 5 continents.



I participated a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday evening.
Especially the hours late in the evening are of interest to me, since I wanted to work stations from South America.

I very much like the QSO's over long distances.
The 15 m band was "the band" for an number of excellent DX QSO's.

Nearly all QSO's were made with the maximum power of 2.7 watts of my FT-817,
using  an Inverted Vee as antenna.
Only in 3 QSO's I used 800 mW or 80 mW.

All QSO's to South and North America are good for 1000 Miles per Watt, since the distance is more than 2700 Miles.

Thanks to the organisation and the operators for the fine contest.

CQ WPX SSB contest 2013 - 1000 Miles per Watt

I had great fun in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest 2013.
I worked with 58 stations from 21 DXCC countries from all over Europe.
But I also met 19 stations outside of Europe.
I did not expect to work so many DX stations and certainly not from South America. hi

Click to enlarge

To be sure that I would be heard with SSB, I choose to
use the highest available power of 2.7 W.

As a 100% CW operator, until now, I discovered in this
contest, that working with phone, is much easier and faster 
than operating with CW.

In this contest I discovered that working in SSB with QRP
takes about the same patience and perseverance as
operating with CW in QRPp *.
* QRPp is a power of less than 1 watt.

The advantage of CW over SSB is about 13 dB.
(20 x in power)
So 2.7 Watts in SSB, can be compared
with 2700/20= 135 mW in CW.

In Europe most of the QSO's were made on 20 m.
Most of the QSO's outside of Europe were made on 15 m.

1000 Miles per Watt QSO's
The table  below shows only the QSO's that were made with more than 1000 miles per Watt.
The table shows the day and the time.
UTC= 14 means the QSO is made between 14:00 and 14:59 UTC.
This is interesting, since the table also shows changes in propagation.
You can see that I could reach North America from 14:00 UTC on Sunday. (KU1T)

Every time I heard Gilles, VB2T on the band, I tried to make a QSO.
At first he could not hear me, but the propagation slowly got better, so I managed to make
a QSO after 18:00 UTC.

The first station from South America, Rogerio, PY2OE, could be worked after 18:00 UTC.

The QSO with the PQ5B contest team was made in the 5th band sweep.
In each band sweep I encounter the same stations again and again. Usually I call a few times.
When I am sure that my signal is not heard, or when the station is uninterrupted answering
other stations, then I continue the sweep.
After 19:00 UTC the propagation was good enough to make the QSO with PQ5B.
It took a lot of patience and perseverance, but I really enjoyed it.

Click to enlarge

Since I worked with a fixed power of 2.7 Watts in this contest,
every QSO over a distance of more than 2700 Miles is good for
1000 MPW.
In total 11 out of 77 QSO's were made with more than
1000 miles per Watt.

CQ WPX SSB Contest 2013

Most of the QSO's that I make are contest QSO's, all in CW with the lowest possible power. Last year I made 29 QSO's in the CQ WW DX SSB contest with phone With the CQ WW WPX SSB contest comming up, I decided to participate in this phone contest.
I was inspired to use phone by fellow bloggers. Bas, PE4BAS who works from his car with 5 watts in SSB and Bill N2CQR, who was is working with a double side band rig,
with 3 watts. Listen to SolderSmoke #150.

Since I always use CW, phone is very unusual to me.
I had to figure out how to adjust the FT-817 for SSB.
I even had to look up the microphone. After that I placed a small power meter behind the set, to monitor my power while speaking. My maximum power is 2.7 watts, since a serious mismatch more than a year ago.
The antenna is an Inverted Vee.

I started on 15 m. After 6 QSO's most over more than 1000 kilometers with UR, UA TA and 4L, I knew that all was working fine and my wife and I went shopping. After a rest I made a few more QSO's later in the evening on 20m with VE3EJ over the largest distance and good for more than 1000 Miles per Watt. hi

On Sunday I worked European stations in the morning.
The signals had to be at least S9, for my signal to be heard. But I noticed that when the signals were S⁺ or S⁺⁺ that my signal was not always heard. Probably because the signal were not stronger by a better propagation, but by an extra amplifier. hi

For me it's still a strange experience to hear the operators voice in a QSO. In CW no one ever told me that my signal was very weak. hi
The speed of the QSO's is higher than in CW. 
I could easily adopt to the style of the calling operator. Nervous or relaxed. I was surprised how easy it is to remember the received number in phone even with four digits.

Sunday after 14:00 utc I could also make a few QSO's with Canada and the USA. With more than 2700 Miles these QSO's
are all good for more than 1000 Miles per Watt. Click to see the interesting overview.

Later that evening I heard stations from South America. I never believed that I could make a QSO with 2.7 watts and the Inverted Vee in phone, but I did. With every band sweep I tried. First came the QSO with PY2OE and in the 5th band sweep I made a QSO with PQ5B. So my patience and perseverance payed off. hi
I will give an overview for the 11 more than 1000 Miles per Watt QSO's in a later article.

Thanks to the CQ WW committee for the great activity in the CQ WW WPX contest.
I had a lot of fun with low power.

CQ WW WPX contest

Just for fun I entered the CQ WW WPX contest. I was getting enthusiast for this phone contest by my fellow bloggers who work with phone most of the time. This is the second time that I participate in a contest in phone.

As a QRPp enthusiast I participated in many contests in CW using the lowest possible power.
Even when I prepared for the contest, I noticed that I only had worked CW in the past.
I had to program VFOb of the FT-817 for the SSB segments of the 40 m, 20 m and 15 m band.
Further I had to search for the microphone. hi

I tune with the MorseMachine and the set switched to CW and then I have to switch back to phone before I can use the microphone. When I forget I don't have any power. So I use an extra power meter behind the set, to monitor my power. hi

I started on 15 m. My power is 2.7 watts and the antenna is an Inverted Vee.
After 6 QSO we went shopping.
I was very curious how it would go in this phone contest. But now I found out, that just as with CW with very low power, the signals in phone also have to be S9 or better.
At the moment there are already 38 QSO's in the log. Not bad at all. hi

eQSL from Chili

Recently I received an eQSL from Nicolas XQ1KZ from Chili for a more than 1000 MPW QSO.
We made the QSO in the CQ MM DX contest in 2012.
The distance is 6910 Miles. With 2.7 Watts this gives 2559 Miles per Watt.

I used an Inverted Vee.
Thanks to Nicolas for a new DXCC in QRP.

Info on my 1000 Miles per Watt QSL card

Last week I wrote a small pile of 60 QSL cards. Almost all of the cards were for QSO's with more than 1000 Miles per Watt. The used power in the QSO's was 2.7 Watts down to 1.8 milliwatt.

While I was writing the cards, I took up the plan to take a photograph of one of the many "more than 1000 Miles per Watt QSL cards" that I was writing, just to show how I present the "1000 MPW info" on my a card.

Actually I was going to photograph the QSL card, that I would send to LZ6C for a QSO with 1.8 mW.
For this QSO I calculated 559091 Miles per Watt.
But when I just looked on the camera, it turns out to be that I took a picture of an other card for a QSO with LZ6C, that was made with 36 mW. I can not take a new picture, since both cards are already on their way to the Radio Club Silpa. hi

Please click to see all the interesting details for 1000 Miles per Watt

1000 MPW info
At the top of the card I give the power catatgory:  QRP,  QRPp  or  QRPpp.
QRPpp is the (not official) term, that I use for a power of less than 100 mW. hi
The FT-817 can be adjusted to 5 W, 2.5 W, 1 W or 500 mW, so I encircle the used power.
Well, after a serious mismatch the power of my FT-817 is 360 mW when adjusted to 500 mW, so I write 360 mW above the FT-817.
Since I used the 10 dB attenuator, I encircled the value 10 dB in the attenuator.
The most important value is the power to the antenna. Here 36 milliwatts.
My locator is JO22na. The locator of LZ6C is KN13ot.
Using both the locators, I calculated the distance and the Miles per Watt, with the excellent (Click) N9SSA Distance and MPW Calculator.
The distance is 1006 Miles and 27955 Miles per Watt.

Thanks to the Radio Club Silpa with their Excellent Ears.

WSPR with 1 milliwatt

WSPR Database                                                         Click: http://wsprnet.org/olddb 

Go to the WSPR Database to see what is possible with very low power with WSPR.
First choose the band of interest.
Then select sort by: Power
Reverse the order to find the low power spots.
You can see more than 50 spots. Maximum number of spots is 20000. hi.
The lowest power value that can be uploaded to the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network
is 1 milliwatt, which is 0 dBm.
Please ignore all the spots with less than 1 mW.

Results with 1 milliwatt
The table below shows spots for 1 mW. (+0 dBm)  The short table below shows spots that were made with  the 1 milliwatt. The signals have traveled a considerable distance.
In this table all the received signals are "solid copy", since all the signals are received with a SNR of -29 dB or more. The higher the SNR, the stronger the signal.
In one of the spots Joe, K1JT is  received with a SNR of +11 dB. (Horizontal arrow)
This is 40 dB above the threshold for solid copy in WSPR of -29 dB. The signal could still be received if Joe had used a 40 dB lower power. Thus with 0.1 microWatt. hi
For more info on this calculation, please click on: Calculated lowest possible power in a WSPR spot.

WSPR with 1 milliwatt can be compared with CW with 12 to 30 milliwatt 

or SSB with 100 to 400 milliwatt.

Landgoed Oostbroek - Knuppelpad

We hadden de kleindochters te logeren.
Vanmorgen wilden ze het knuppelpad lopen op het landgoed Oostbroek. Op weg er naar toe, viel het niet eens op dat het licht gesneeuw had. Maar het was prachtig met de sneeuw.
Al vonden ze het wel heel koud.

Black Sea Cup International

The Black Sea Cup International is nice contest that is organized by the BSCC.
In just two hours I made 25 QSO's with the lowest possible power.

SOAPBOX: I had great fun with low power, in 25 QSO's
SOAPBOX: In all QSO's, I used the lowest possible power, with 
         search and pounce.
SOAPBOX: Power used 2.7 W down to 18 mW. Antenna: Inverted Vee
SOAPBOX: Used an attenuator for very low power. Hi.
SOAPBOX: Thank you for the activity in the contest.

Band      QSOs     Dupes    Points   Mults
20        23         0       202      19
15         2         0        10       2
=========================================
Total     25         0       212      21

Claimed score is 4452 points

SSB vs WSPR

Bas PE4BAS asked me about the difference in power of WSPR compared to SSB.  
In various publications, the difference between SSB and CW, is given as 13 dB.
The difference in power between CW and WSPR is 13 dB. (Click) 
Or somewhere between 15 dB and 11 dB.
So when I take a figure of 13 dB for both values above, I estimate that the
difference between SSB and WSPR is 13 + 13 = 26 dB or 20 x 20 = 400 in power.
So 400 W in SSB can be compared with 1 W in WSPR.

WSPR - CW - SSB
For an advantage of 26 dB, the power in WSPR can be  1/400th of the power in SSB or 1/20th of the power in CW. This means that the power in WSPR, must be much lower, than the power used in SSB.

My choice for a value of 26 dB is just a guideline to choose your power in WSPR.
If you use a speech processor, you can use a lower value than 26 dB. E.g. 22 dB.
So you can use WSPR for a propagation analysis, to see what is possible with your SSB station.

How to use WSPR to see what's possible with SSB

A power of 80 Watts in SSB or 4 W in CW, can be compared with a power of  200 mW in WSPR.

If you want to know where your SSB QRP signal of 4 Watts will be received, you should use a power of 10 mW in WSPR.

As a CW enthusiast you can use WSPR spots made with 20 mW or 50 mW to analyse with WSPR where your CW signal of 400 mW to 1 Watt can be heard. 

Please notice that 5 Watts in WSPR can be compared with about 2 kW in SSB. hi

ARRL internationl DX CW 2013

Looking back, after  nearly  two weeks, I am still confused by the great results.

I made much more QSO's, than I expected. I worked much more states.

Morse Machine

I had programmed the Morse Machine for two different reports.

For QRP: 599 003 003 for QSO's with 2.7 Watts and 599 001 001 for QSO's with 800 mW or less.

Further I programmed a button to give my power instandly, 3W 3W, if any one should ask my power. 

Click to see the States

21 MHz and 14 MHz

I did not start early.
I first went to 21 MHz and answered 8 CQ's per hour for 3 1/2 hour.
I started on 21 MHz because on 14 MHz there was more activity, but on 21 MHz it was more relaxed. After 3 1/2 hours I had 30 QSO's in the Log.
Not bad. Since I hoped to make between 60 and 90 QSO's. hi
Then I went to 14 MHz and the speed increased to 12 QSO's per hour.
So at the end of the evening I had 83 QSO's in the Log. WOW

On Sunday I first made some QSO's on 21 MHz.

At the right moment to 28 MHz
When I went to 28 MHz, there were not that many stations on the band.
The longer I stayed on the band the more stations also came on the band,
so I continuously met stations, that I had worked before on 14 and 21 MHz.
At first with 12 QSO's in a hour and later with 16 QSO's per hour.

When 28 MHz closed there were about 150 QSO's logged.
After some more QSO's on 14 MHz and 21 MHz, the final number of QSO's is 162.

QRP
In 144 QSO I used a power of 2.7 Watts and gave 5NN TT3 TT3.
I programmed the Morse Machine to give the 003 twice in each QSO.

QRPp
In 9 QSO's I used 800 mW and in 7 QSO's I used 360 mW.
For these QSO's, I gave an exchange 5NN TT1 TT1.
In all most other contests, I use the lowest possible power in each QSO.
But in this contest, I only reduced my power, when the signals were much stronger than usual and only when the station was calling CQ continuously. So I did not make that many QRPp QSO's.
But I am very content with the results

3W FB  -and-  QRP GL
On many occasions the operator on the other side informed me, that he was aware of the fact that I was using QRP. From a simple CFM TU, to 3W FB or QRP GL. hi

Repeated exchange
The exchange 599 003 can be an confusing experience.
Just for fun I kept note, of the times, that I had to repeat or explain my exchange.
On Saturday I had to repeat in 8 QSO's on 21 MHz and later in only 2 QSO's on 14 MHz.
On Sunday I had to repeat my exchange only in 3 QSO's.

Antenna
My antenna is an Inverted Vee for 40 meters. which also works very well on  higher frequencies.

PA1B 0 - 36 dB Attenuator for QSO's

Last week, the info  on the interesting Attenuator page  of my web site was updated.
I added new info on the PA1B 0 - 36 dB Attenuator, specially designed for QSO's (Click)
I also placed new info on the PA1B 0 - 36 dB Attenuator, under the Tab's on the top of this Blog.

A simple way to reduce the power of your QRP transceiver, without modifying the set, is the use of attenuators.  This acurate PA1B  0 - 36 dB attenuator, is an excellent attenuator, to use in QSO's with very low power. This attenuator enables you, in contest QSO's, to go to the next setting instandly, when your call is not heard.
The combination   20 dB - 10 dB - 3 dB - 3 dB  is very quick to adjust in contest QSO's.
The choice of the values, makes it very easy to calculate the power at the output instantly.
This accurate Power Attenuator is designed for the use in QSO's.
With only 4 switches it is surprisingly fast and easy to operate.

Power Attenuator Calculator
I use the excellent Power Attenuator Calculator (Click), for the
design of the Power Attenuators.
With the Power Attenuator Calculator, you can design an attenuator for any input power.

Read more about attenuators on the attenuator Page.

On  my web site: Home - PA1B QRPp page 

PACC with QRPp

Although I had to take it easy, I had fun with QRP and QRPp in the PACC.
I found out that calling CQ was to much for my.
After just 3 QSO's, with 360 mW, in just less than 3 minutes, I had to take some rest.

So I decided to work in a relaxed way, with Search and Pounce.
I worked with Search and Pounce from 2.7 watts down to 1.8 milliwatts
When the S-meter goes up, my power goes down.

I frequently alternated S&P and calling CQ, with just 800 milliwatts.
While calling CQ with 800 mW, I made a total of  30 QSO's , in a number of short run's.
In the last 15 minutes of the contest I made a run of 13 QSO's with 2.7 W.
To my surprise, I noticed only a small difference between 800 mW and 2.7 W.

I worked YT6T with 8 mW and LZ6C with only 1.8 mW.
It's a long time since I could make QSO's with less than 5 milliwatts. hi
The signal of LZ6C wasvery strong:  S9 plus more than 20 dB.

REF CW contest 2013

This year I only participated for a total of 45 minutes on Sunday.

In a relaxed way, I used search and pounce with the use of the lowest possible power in each QSO.

The conditions were good for the use of low power on 14 MHz.
On 14 MHz all QSO are good for 1000 Miles per Watt.

Despite the short distance to France, 5 out of 6 QSO's are made with QRPpp*.

On 7 MHz I had to use the maximum power of 2.7 watts in most QSO's.

The changes in propagation can be very large.

In the afternoon, I met a station from Corsica, that I had worked earlier with 360 mW.

I tried to make an second QSO with 36 mW. His signal was S9 + 10 dB. He recognized my call and gave QSO B4. I gave a new report. But then we ended up, transmitting at the same time. So.....this QSO will probably not make it into the log. hi

I enjoyed the opportunity to work with very low power in the REF CW contest.

QRPpp* is the (not official) term that I use for a power of less than 100 mW. Bert PA1B QRPpp

QRPp in the ARRL int DX contest

In my first ARRL international DX contest, I used 5 watts. My exchange 599 005 gave no problem for the receiving station.  In CW of course given as:  5NN TT5.
It was obvious, that I was using QRP.

I very much like the ARRL international DX contest. In this contest, the DX stations, like myself, will give their power in the exchange. So the receiving station knows immediately, that I am working with QRP.

 When the S-meter goes up my power goes down. 

In most contest QSO's, I often use the Lowest Possible Power, in each QSO, using S&P.
When I hear a station calling CQ, I look on the S-meter to determine the power with which I will answer.

In later years, I reduced to 500 mW, when the propagation was very good. The use of 500 mW in a contest QSO is no problem, because most of the time, the response will be immediate and correct.

pwr? . . .100? . . . 1kW?  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 1W FB

The lowest value for the power in the Cabrillo file is 001.
Over the years, I found out, that when I was using 1 W, it was best. to use the exchange 599 001.

How to indicate, that I am using only 500 mW? Well, that's simple. The DX station give their estimated power. So for a power of less than 1 W, I also give the exchange : 599 001.

But don't think that all problems are gone with 599 001. Some stations keep asking pwr?, because they think that 001 is a number or they respond with 100? or even 1kW?.
In that case I will respond with:   599 1W 1W 

* I met operators, that fall out of their chair, when they realized, that my exchange 599 001 indicated, that I was using only 1 watt.
Two seconds of silence and an additional "1W FB", from a station that is transmitting not a letter to many, I consider a huge compliment. hi

Please notice that when you use low power, that any QSO between Canada or the USA with Europe with 3 Watts or less, is good for 1000 Miles per Watt.

Power of the FT-817 at PA1B's, after serious mis-match.