context: Kyle AA0Z invited me to a roundtable discussion on his youtube channel] this evening, and it stirred up some discord and stoked the ongoing controversy grinding old-school contesters’ gears since his W1DED interview, the K5ZD N6MJ KL9A contester panel followup, his reaction, and the 2024 hamvention contesting forum call-out by K1AR. I wrote this to try to help clear some murky air, and posted to the Ham Radio Crash Course discord #radiosport-contesting channel where the fun was taking place. To a regular reader, this might seem out of place, so sorry about that. I hope you can read through that, and gather some ideas and discourse on the subject of contest modernization i.e. RadioSport2.0.

also long time no see lol

***

ok i got fired up and started typing and wrote a bunch so sorry, but #offmychest…

I wasn’t a big fan of the 1984ing on the stream bc i wanna hear out and debate the hot takes. During the stream I was typing that whole time with @QROdaddy (W4IPC) because he got quieted and I wanted to hear the discord (haha pun). I really don’t like echo chambers, and I really don’t like stuff that doesn’t take holistic perspectives from all points of view, so I think we, the radiosport2.0 community need to take some better care hearing it out. Whether it’s from current youth, young and old, seasoned or noob contesters, non-contesters, or QRZ lol. With that being said, here’s my dissertation on the whole radiosport thing that’s been bouncing in my head since 2011 (https://www.arrl.org/news/youth-hamradio-fun-what-is-radiosport-and-why-do-we-do-it) and opined since 2016 (https://n0ssc.com/posts/320-contest-modernization also rip cqcontest.net but today’s is https://contestonlinescore.com)

I think we want the same thing – we contesters all want to contest, and for there to be people to contest with well into the future. I think the ideas we’re tossing around formulates an inviting, fertile ground for new contesters just coming into ham radio and contesting for the first time. Out of this, I hope we discover and create novel in-roads for normies to get into the next level. Current young contesters may think it’s great right now, because it is, but you are a lucky few who had some kind of magical unmatched personal dedication, brilliant elmering, ham family, or just ADHD hyperfocus (it me) to get hooked for life. And i’m v proud of that. But without pushing for some kind of modern, mainstream aligned ideas, environments, activities, overlays, categories, and just straight up new stuff, radiosport will stagnate as the VAST BULK of contesters pass away, out leaving behind a fraction of today’s young contesters for tomorrow. That’s facts based on statistical projections based on numerous demographic surveys and data, and you can see it plainly in Craig’s K9CT interview. So as content creators, visionaries, and rabblerousers, we’re gonna go in hot and heavy, get complainy, and poke at the hornet’s nest to bring this to the light throughout the ham community to find people interested in making it a thing, only to see if it’s a thing. Might want to work on the delivery, but the point stands.

I also think we are miscommunicating the intent of radiosport2.0 becasuse of all the “reeeeee your killing my contests get off my lawnnnn nothing is wrong why do this nooo reeee” type comments . and I don’t disagree there might be some misinformation, or really just ignorance and misremembering on our (my lol) part. There’s also the weirdness of the K9CT folks, ARRL/CAC people, and log developers keeping their radio sport 2.0 plans close to their chest (compared to us who are baring it all and at least showing somebody is out there thinking “it would be cool if…”in hopes we can garner some grassroots perturbations in the community and do something cool for the sake of the fun of it, and maybe for the sake of the hobby). But imagine things like saving the contest committee 100 hours out of their thousands to check logs by, i dunno, posting every log submission and qsordr capture carte blanche to an academic database and letting the database wizards poke at it to see how close their solutions come to the traditional methods? Or giving those connected to the internet an opt-in option to cryptographically sign their QSOs that get posted to a blockchain ledger as a smart contract for realtime, verifiable adjudication (and figure it’s vulnerabilities to nefarious players? Or let there be a new button in their log’s score reporting menu that says “send to realtime ledger” or “report [entire QSO/band-mode/freq/rotator] data to blahblahblah db/server” for beta testers and early adopters to futz with while also not ruining or even remotely changing their experience as a contester doing a contest – they’ll still be valid (depending on what they’re opting in to send they might need to change to a different category e.g. CQWW Explorer), they’ll still submit a cabrillo, they’ll get a real score in whenever time, meanwhile 99% of people probably won’t notice that button until HRCC hosts a livestream of a radiosport tournament battle royale with your hosts Kyle AA0Z and Sterling N0SSC, backed up by your experts in the field N0AX and N6MJ – all enabled by that button, only just now realizing they too can get in on that action ALL THE WHILE on the air it just sounds like regular contesters contesting; just with more of them doing this goofy livestreamed tournament thing.

And I’m not a “*real*” contester. I don’t put up high scores on 3830 because I cannot do a 24/36/48 hr contest. I go to N0AX/W0ECC/W0EEE, sit down for 2 hours, do my 200-300Q/hr rate, let the pile die, and give up for a while with a beer and a chat with the other’s on the bench, and come back at 4am when the grey line is approaching to listen to the world turn from 160m and 10m because that shit is cool. I don’t even have HF at home, and I don’t have the time to set up remote stations and be a basement dweller for a whole weekend. And I have gone a loooong time since I had my butt in a chair for more than a few hours that wasn’t at my day job. But I’ve worked at least 2 or 3 big contests every year since I was 15 years old, I’ve won plaques and paper as a sad teenage G5RV owner in nowhere Missouri, i’ve played in sweeps every year except one (not under my own callsign typically – usually under N0AX, W0ECC, and W0EEE), I drop in at random field day sites and fire through 100 QSOs in half an hour and disappear, and I had elmers like N0AX, Ed K0KL (SK), K0ZT (SK) K0ZH and the WA0FYA Zerobeaters ARC, W0EEE alumni, and K3LR and the Contest University crew who let me in free for like 3 years straight because I was the only one without gray hair. I really love contesting – it’s my favorite part of ham radio. And now as a 32 year old geezer, I do want something I can do in my tidbits of free time, that is just a bit different than a CWT or WWSAC, that isn’t just a 2 hour stint on a major contest – i want to be competitive and be ranked and scored with a pool of other contesters. I want team deathmatch, CTF, in-game perks/power-ups/items, and matchmaking lobbies. I think there’s an untapped reserve of potential new hams that would also be into that kind of radiosport. I don’t want the existing contests or methodologies to die or change, but as they stand now – as they have forever ago and forever on — are excellent grounds for trying out these new ideas unbeknownst to guys like VP5M with barely enough bandwidth for the cluster [thanks connor], the off-grid pacific islanders, africans, antarctic researchers, nordic polar bears all who make CQWW/WPX & IARUHF so much fun, or folks who just don’t do the internet and log with paper. Coexistance is a requirement, and so is the longevity of our hobby.

Tldr I want to play ham radio when I’m retired (25-30 years from now lol) so I have some ideas.

***

a few edits were made for profanity, clarification, correction to K0ZH’s call.

thanks W4IPC and KG5XR for inspo and AA0Z for sticking his neck out to get these ideas on the cutting room floor

73

Where: US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area (near Brighton, MI)
When: 1:00 pm – 4 pm (1700 – 2000 UTC)
Who: On this activation, it was just me.
Weather: Beautiful day.  Sunny skies, temperature in the low 80s, and very little humidity.

Now that I’m back from Dayton, it’s time to start enjoying the summer. For many hams, that means Parks on the Air! I’ve already made a couple of activations, and plan to make many more this summer. I’ve also decided to blog about each activation.

Yesterday, I activated US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area, the park closest to my house. They’re doing some renovations at the two spots where I usually set up—the Bluebird and Hickory picnic areas—so I set up at the Kent Lake beach area. There isn’t a shelter close to the parking lot, but there are plenty of trees to provide shade.

Notes

• I chose kind of a public place for this activation. Public places are good for attracting visitors, but you have to be more careful with your antennas. I put some caution tape on both legs of my inverted V antenna, but even so, you should keep an eye on the antenna. A family with small kids claimed a couple of picnic table near me, and at one point, one of the toddlers decided it might be fun to play with the antenna. Overall, I think that I prefer a more secluded spot. I’ll just have to hike a bit further from the parking lot.
• Having said that, the young(ish) father of the toddler came over when I started tearing down and inquired about what I was doing. He said that he was thinking of getting an SDR, so that he could start monitoring different services. I gave him my card and encouraged him to contact me if he developed an interest in amateur radio.
• I spotted my first sandhill crane of the year. Last year, they were regular visitors, and I’m happy that they’re back this year.
• 20 meters sounded kind of dead, even though I was getting some decent spots on Reverse Beacon. I’m thinking that there are fewer hunters in the early afternoons, for whatever reason.
• I was getting a weird, intermittent, man-made noise that I had not heard before at this park. I thought it might be from passing cars, but I couldn’t really figure out where it was coming from.
• I have some fancy banana plugs that I’m using on the radio end of my twisted-pair feedline. These do provide a good connection, but for some reason, the screws holding the wire in place are coming loose. I’m hoping a little LocTite on the threads will cure that problem.
• Immediately after going QRT, I downloaded the log to Evernote. I didn’t do this last time, and unfortunately, my phone completely died and I lost that log.
• Next time, I’ll bring a rag or a brush, to brush and dirt or branches on the table before I begin operating.

Good news! The licencing authorities in Spain have decided to open up the 40 MHz (8m) amateur radio band with conditions.

The national association for radio amateurs in Spain is the URE and they released this notice... "After hard work by the URE before the administration, today the Resolution of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure was published on the Amateur Radio website, which authorizes holders of Spanish amateur radio authorizations to make broadcasts. in the 40,650 – 40,750 MHz band, with a maximum peak envelope power (PEP) of 25 W, for a period of eighteen months.

Broadcasts will only be made from fixed stations that have the corresponding license. In addition, the radio amateur must inform the Provincial Telecommunications Inspection Headquarters of the province in which he or she resides about his intention to operate in this band before broadcasting for the first time on these frequencies."

Customers for Inaugral SaxaVord Spaceport Launch

Two more amateur radio satellites, MARIA-G (HADES-F) and UNNE-1 (HADES-E), are planned to launch from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport later in 2024.

Previously announced amateur radio payloads on the launch are:
ERMINAZ-1U and -1V from AMSAT-DL
GENESIS-MA and -ME from AMSAT-EA
QUBIK 5, SIDLOC-PQ-1 and -PQ-2 from Libre Space Foundation

MARIA-G

SaxaVord UK Spaceport under construction

A 1.5u Pocketqube. MARIA-G will offer radio amateurs around the world the opportunity to relay FM voice and AX.25 / APRS 300 / 1200 bps communications. The satellite will also transmit telemetry with its status and voice and CW messages. This all will be achieved by implementing a SDR based FM and FSK repeater. The FM / FSK repeater will be available all time and opened by squelch level without the need of a PL tone/CTCSS.

Main mission for MARIA-G is to be a FM repeater but it will also include a simple guess game being implemented by students at Maria Guerrero High School in Collado Villalba – Madrid (Spain). The satellite will send a clue each week in CW so radioamateurs will have to solve the mystery by having all the clues.

A small experiment, developed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research organization (Germany) will also fly on the satellite to make proof of concept transmissions of a TS-UNB waveform from a low Earth orbit. It will transmit a TS-UNB message according to the ETSI standard ETSI-TS-103-357. It is intended solely as a research and development project with no commercial intent, all its data public and open.  ITU modulation classification would be 100K W2DWW but the bandwidth will be narrowed. The operation of this experiment will be managed by AMSAT-EA.

UNNE-1

A 1.5u Pocketqube. UNNE-1 will offer radio amateurs around the world the opportunity to relay FM voice and AX.25 / APRS 300 / 1200 bps communications. The satellite will also transmit telemetry with its status and voice and CW messages.

This all will be achieved by implementing a SDR based FM and FSK repeater. The FM / FSK repeater will be available all time and opened by squelch level without the need of a PL tone/CTCSS.

A small guessing-game is being implemented by students of Universidad de Nebrija (Spain). The satellite will send a clue each week in its telemetry so radio-amateurs will have to solve the mystery by having all the clues. Game will be detailed in AMSAT-EA and Universidad de Nebrija websites.

The main mission for the satellite is acting as a FM voice repeater although due to its SDR nature it can repeat data too. This satellite is based on the hardware of HADES-D (SO-121) that’s currently being used to amateurs worldwide. The guess game implemented by the University is a small challenge for the radio-amateurs and its mission is to make the reception of signals from the satellite fun for youngsters, expecting them to be future radio amateurs.

Proposing a UHF downlink, VHF Uplink for FM voice, FSK data up to 1200 bps, APRS up to 1200 bps and FSK telemetry and experimental data up to 1600 bps and CW.

These two satellites are part of the Erminaz mission, a joint effort by AMSAT-DL, AMSAT-EA and Libre Space Foundation. Planning a DLR/ESA launch from the UK SaxaVord Spaceport in Summer 2024 into 500/600 km polar orbit.

IARU satellite frequency coordination pages https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/index.php

AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ https://amsat-dl.org/en/erminaz/

AMSAT-EA projects https://www.amsat-ea.org/proyectos/

Libre Space Foundation projects https://libre.space/projects/

December 24, 2023 – It has become a tradition over the last few years to do a POTA activation on Christmas Eve. Christine is Danish, so we have a big celebration on Little Yule, December 23, and again on Christmas day, but Christmas eve is sandwiched in the middle with not much going on. This is especially true with the kids now out of the house. So what could be better than going out and doing a park. This year I selected a park that I hadn’t been to since December of last year, K-4310 Mead State Wildlife Area.

Mead State Wildlife Area

The Mead State Wildlife Area consists of 33,000 acres of lowland, marsh, and small lakes straddling the edges of Marathon, Wood, and Portage counties in central Wisconsin. The Mead is best known as being a bird estuary and countless numbers of migratory birds and native birds can be spotted there year round. The history of this land goes back almost 9,000 years ago when the first Paleo-Indians hunted there, but its history gets really interesting at about the turn of the 20th century.

In the early 1900’s logging was still king in northern Wisconsin and the Wisconsin river, of which the Little Eau Claire river that flows through the Mead is a tributary. Harnessing the river and moving logs down to the mills in Wausau, Stevens Point, and Wisconsin Rapids was important. It was believed that if these lowlands could be dredged and the and water channeled, that there would not only be abundant farm lands but also limitless water for transporting logs. By 1920, George Mead, the president of the Consolidated paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids bought 20,000 acres of land and proceeded to dredge. Unfortunately, the land wasn’t that good for farming and logging pretty much bottomed out by the early 1930’s as the forests in Northern Wisconsin were almost completely cut over.

Having this land on the books wasn’t good for the mill and a growing environmental movement in the 1940s and 50s led George’s son Stanton Mead to donate the land to the State to create a nature preserve and wildlife area. Over the years the Mead State Wildlife Area has grown to over 33,000 acres and hosts a diverse amount of flora and bird species. The scars of the dredging operation and still visible and offer an excellent habit for countless animals.

Setup

I’ve done the Mead twice before, both times I’ve set up near the visitors center. This year, since there wasn’t any snow on the ground yet, and the temperatures were a unseasonable 40 degrees, I decided to try out one of the many parking spots along the lIttle Eau Claire River. I found a beautiful spot along the river that was a couple miles north of the visitor center on County Highway S.

I’ve been testing the Chameleon Multi Configuration Coil (MCC) which is part of their PRV or Portable Resonant Vertical kit and wanted to use this activation to see how it performed when I added the Chameleon 17 foot stainless whip. The winds were calm to I used their carbon fiber tripod as the base, screwed on the MCC, added the whip to the top and extended it to the full 17 feet. For ground radials, instead of using the four radials provided by Chameleon, I deployed 8 16 foot wires (in two bundles of four with spring clips on the end). This is my standard package when I use radials instead of the ground screen. At 17 feet, the whip was a little long for the 20 meter band, so checking it with the analyzer, I collapsed one section about halfway (approximately 12 inches) until I had a match of about 1.3:1. I fed the antenna with 50 feet of coax attached to my FT-891 running 50 watts. I was ready to get on the air on 20 meters.

The Activation

I kind of figured that being the holidays, the bands would be busy and that activating on 20 meters, I would have some massive pileups. I was not wrong. My goal for the activation, since I had about three hours before needed to leave for home, was to get on 20 and work the pile up for as long as I could. Phone service was marginal but I had one bar of LTE, so I found an open frequency at 14.257 MHz, spotted myself and was off to the races.

The band being busy was an understatement, it took me less than 2 minutes to have a solid pileup going and it only got worse. It was so deep, that I would take periodic breaks just to do park to park and QRP stations. In doing so, I would then log 4-6 park to park stations in a row. I kept at it, though. I wanted to see how long this pileup could last and what it would take to work them all.

Signal reports were excellent, most stations were a true 59 or better. 20 meters had been running short as of late, but this day that didn’t seem to be the case. I got good propagation on the band, favoring the east coast, but a fair amount of lower midwest and Rocky Mountain stations.

After 257 contacts things had really started to slow down. My last contacts were a park to park in Michigan, KE8UTX and KB8QJF where at two parks, we did the round robin with the microphone and got a hearty ‘Merry Christmas’ at once from the both of them as we signed 73. That was a pretty fitting place to stop.

Stretching my legs for a few minutes, I felt like I couldn’t just stop at 257, I was so close to 300 that I needed to hit that mark. Since running 20 meters with the full whip didn’t give the coil much of a workout, I decided to switch to the 40 meter band. I fully extended the whip, and raised the coil until I got an SWR that was around 1.7:1. Not bad, not perfect, but good enough.

It was already after 20:00 UTC, so I knew that 40 meters above 7200KHz was going to be full of international broadcasters. Fortunately I found an open spot at 7187 KHz and set up camp there. It didn’t take long to get a pile up going, although the 40 meter pile up wasn’t as massive as the 20 meter one. It was good enough, though for me to work 38 stations in about 30 minutes with one of the last ones being Shane KD9NJJ over near St Croix Falls, WI. 40 meters was starting to go long and I probably could’ve worked many of the 20 meter stations I worked earlier if I stayed another hour. But sunset was near, so I stopped at 20:50 UTC with 300 contacts in the log.

Conclusion

This was a big activation, there is no doubt about that. I think this may have been my largest single session contact log ever. I’ve done a few QSO parties were I got more contacts, but nothing like this. The combination of good band conditions, a holiday weekend, and favorable antenna setup all worked together to generate this massive log.

The Chameleon PRV kit worked very well. I like their MCC coil, it is a solid product and it really seems to perform. Some people complain about the the price, but with Chameleon, you get what you pay for. I not terribly fond of their non-resonant antennas, but I think they really have something good going with their resonant coil. I still prefer using the 213 inch whip for the higher bands and Wolf River Sporty Forty for 40 meters, but I may put this antenna in the rotation for a change of pace. I certainly like this coil much better than the Gabil antenna that I seem to still struggle with (I can’t get a good match on 20m with the Gabil to save my life). I’ll have to asses if the MCC’s size is compact enough to be my QRP vertical kit.

I need to get back to the Mead more often, it’s only a 30 minute drive and the scenery is awesome. I tend to avoid it during the summer months due to bugs, but it is a bird watching mecca. I guarantee I will be back soon.

K-4310 Mead Wildlife Area 20 meter contacts, December 24, 2023

K-4310 Mead Wildlife Area 40 meter contacts, December 24, 2023

Contact maps courtesy of qsomap.com

PRV POTA heavy antenna kit courtesy of Chameleon Antennas.

If you go

Mead Wildlife Area
201517 County Rd S
Milladore, WI 54454
(Mead visitor center address)

There are countless parking areas in the Mead suitable for activations. Cell service can be marginal to non existent in most of them. Check your provider’s map for service availability.

The post Activation Log: Christmas Eve with the Chameleon PRV appeared first on KB9VBR Antennas.