Day 1 ARRL DX SSB contest

W4WHL

Today was the first time I really got to put my new 6300 to the test.  All I can say was it was a pleasure!  I'm not a big contester, but a hunt and pouncer.  Scanning through the waterfall for DX almost felt like cheating.  Any station I could hear, I was able to work ( most first call). 

The 6300 performed flawless without a single hiccup.  I only worked stations for half the day, but managed 180 contacts and 65 countries.  The auto tuner in the 6300 tuned anything I through at it.

Can't wait for the future software enhances to improve what is already a great radio.  Keep up the good work!  Love it!

W4WHL

Jim Gilliam

It is refreshing to hear such good news!!!!

Jim, K6QE

k3Tim

Thanks for the report and great to hear you're enjoying your new 6300.   Having the panafall is a real eye opener.  I didn't get much chance to contest today - but worked a ZM2 and VK4 on 10 meters with the waterfall being a big help to spot them as the band was getting thinned out.  It is a must have feature.
GL in the contest.  I'll be up very early for some 40 meter work.

  _..--
k3Tim

Jerry Wilk

Just got my Flex 6300 this week and worked about 80 plus countries distributed on 10, 15, 20, 40, and 80 meters during the contest on the seventh and eight.  The Flex performed with no problems using my ALS-600 amp and a Mosley TA-33 jr yagi for the high bands and a Butternut HF2V vertical for 40 and 80.  AA7SN

W4WHL

I also failed to mention that I only use temporary antennas, because I live in an HOA.  Band changes for me involved physically changing the antenna.  For 10m I have a 2 element yagi constructed from buddipole parts.  For 15/20m I have a hybrid homebrew/buddipole 2 element yagi. 

Since I spend a lot of time fiddling with my antennas, I need a radio that will get me contacts fast.  The 6300 fits this bill perfectly.  I also don't need more slices, because I can't watch more than one band at a time anyway.  So for my situation, the 6300 is perfect!

I have an indoor antenna in my attic which work ok for daily ragchewing and DX to Europe, but its way to noisy for contesting.  So for contest, its all temporary antennas erected on my back deck.  You can see some of these antennas on my QRZ page.

The 6300 will be my last radio for a long time, it fits all my current radios into one small package, It does everything all my other radios can do wrapped together.

I hear most talking about the serious contester, but what about us casual contesters.  I do not sit on a frequency and collect QSO's,  I search for them.  This is where the SDR's shine!  A simple glance of the waterfall tells me all I need to know.  It increases my QSO rate exponentially. 

Thanks,

W4WHL

DrTeeth

Honestly, I cannot understand how anybody can use or chose a radio without a wide waterfall to see the band. It was that feature alone that sold me on SDR.

Jim Gilliam

Hi, Guy!

Have you tried HDSDR? It is really a cool program for recording 192 kHz. of the band segment. I recorded about 5 hours last night of 40 meters and am now playing it back. I think that is even cooler than a panoramic display. Even though I can watch it on the recording.

Alan C

Yep, putting HDSDR on my FT-950 as soon as the transceiver gets out of 'surgery'... (my back-up)

Dan -- KC4GO

I put HDSDR on my system the other day and it works well. Like adding a 5th pan-adapter/slice receiver, but  keep in mind the demand on your system. It's doing all the DSP work in your PC. 
As a test I ran 40, 30, 20, & 17 meter WSPR with 30 Meter TX at 15% of the time. Then started I/Q stream on 20 Meters at 192 Khz to HDSDR. With 2 video cards and all this it was pushing the processors to 95 - 100% a lot of the time. The system is an i7 running 3.2 Gig liquid cooled CPU (still got up to 75 Deg C) with 16 Gig ram 2 network cards. One for Flex and other for internet.  Watch the Core temps and GPU temps if you push you system this hard. 

Dan --- KC4GO

W4WHL

I'm done!  the end result 334/112 for 112,224 points.  The 6300 really made it fun.

W4WHL

Mike NN9DD

Well I am done with another good contest.  Running a Flex 6500 in the ARRL International DX SSB contest for the second time. SOAB Low Power

FIrst time was a win in my section and division.  This year is to be seen but the score was even better.  About 23 hours total BIC time.

 Total Contacts = 816
 Total Points = 663,408

Total multipliers were 271.

 Total Contacts by Band and Mode:

 Band       CW   Phone     Dig   Total       %
 ----       --   -----     ---   -----     ---
   80        0      38       0      38       5
   40        0     103       0     103      13
   20        0     163       0     163      20
   15        0     211       0     211      26
   10        0     301       0     301      37
            --   -----     ---   -----     ---
 Total       0     816       0     816     100

k3Tim

Nice job guys!

10 meters was red-hot.  Managed to work French Guinea.  He was a good op.

_..-- 
k3Tim  -  MS-EE / PE / PP-SEL / IFR

Jerry Wilk

I  also worked French Guinea (TD1A) on 10 m. AA7SN

Rick Hadley - W0FG

I didn't spend much time in the contest except to grab a few LoTW phone countries I need, but yesterday I snagged E30FB in Eritrea on 10m while most everyone else was contesting!  Got him tonight on 20CW too, and discovered afterwards that I had forgotten to switch antennas and was still on the vertical!  Thank you, Flex...and thank you, Ed W2RF!

Ken - NM9P

I just scored my best ever in a contest... again... thanks to the 6500!
Put in 24 hours and 24 minutes.
Barefoot, with 160 OCF Dipole at 38 ft. and my homebrew 40/20/15/10 elevated vertical at 8 ft. with 4 sets of elevated radials.  All S&P action.  I don't think my antennas are quite good enough to "Run" a frequency yet.  Next year, perhaps...



This year's score is 2 1/2 times better than last year's score of 202,800 with which I won the Indiana Section Single Op Low Power Unlimited Class.  (Score was reduced to 191,484 after log corrections ) 

I put in a few more hours this year, and used N1MM+.  Last Year I used N3FJP's contest program.

I wonder how well I will be able to do with a tower and Log Periodic?

Next year, I might try to master SO2R, , or try running a frequency.etc.!

Ken - NM9P

Mike NN9DD

Well done Ken. Big step up. I too run wires only but was able to make a couple of runs on ten. I tried on other bands but got no where, put some steel in the or and your going up exponentially again. Would love to figure out SO2R ergo Because I was finding myself board when trying to run. I did use the other slices to monitor band changes Good job again Mike N9DFD

Ken - NM9P

Well done, Mike!  You beat my score by 30%
I had to quit about 10 pm Saturday night and missed Sunday morning until about 1:00 pm, due to my usual Sunday activities.  These were probably some very productive hours that I missed.  I also took some time out all three days to do some activities with my 7 year-old son.  It is going to be difficult to be a big gun and run any contest all the way through due to my profession.  But it IS only a hobby!

BTW, little David's big thrill was speaking into the mike and making a contact with Saudi Arabia on Sunday Afternoon!  He wanted to do some more after that, but got impatient when the second contact wasn't as easy as the first one!

Ken - NM9P

Mike NN9DD

Working Saudi Arabia today was a thrill for me too. I worked Antarctica South Pole station as my first (35 years ago) and will never forget. A very special experience. I struggle with 48 hour contest due to time commitments as well. I enjoy CQ contest as some of them have a classic category that is 24 hours. I usually do that in those contests. Wish there were more sprints and classic contests that didn't eat up all the time.

Mike
N9DFD

kg5eiu

Agree!! First ever contest - big learning process for me but I got it figured out now - My flex 6500 made it a snap to jump in - start at the bottom work my way up the band - go back adjust the display and pick out some faint stations - it was a blast of fun to use!!  Really good experience all that on a simple wire antenna - now the log files and all that nonsense that needs some work between the ADI formats and and the Cabrillo I finally got a log submitted - will see what happens - but I'll be ready for the next one.

Mike_N1MD

I thought I would share my score with all since I think there are more FlexRadio contesters on the air than we know. I am sure we have all been subject to and heard the comments that "real" contesters use "real" radios. That talk has led me to keep quiet about my scores but now I feel empowered!

   ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: N1MD
Operator(s): N1MD
Station: N1MD

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Putnam CT
Operating Time (hrs): 15

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:    0     0
   40:   32    22
   20:  220    80
   15:  211    88
   10:  243    83
-------------------
Total:  706   273  Total Score = 578,214

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

I am a little pistol and cannot "sit in the chair" for a 48 hour contest (or a 24 hour one). So, I do what I can.

I have a 72 foot tower with a 10 M thru 40 M log periodic on the top (M2). I have a 1/2 wave dipole for 80 meters in a sloper configuration favoring Europe. I did not use it this weekend since my dipole is cut for the low end of the band. My next project is to re-deploy my inverted L for 160 M.

My rig is a Flex-6700. I have just put an Alpha 9500 amp into service and this was a joy to use during the weekend contest!

I am really thrilled with my station at the moment and in the last two years I have submitted my best contest scores and added DXCC entities at a much faster rate.

The Flex radios are REAL radios. SDR technology is here to stay and flourish. I am proud to be a Flexer.

Mike N1MD

DrTeeth

With an antenna system like that you would do great with an FT101 ;-)

Ken - NM9P

Nice job! We're you S&P or Running most of the time?

EA4GLI

@Mike N1MD, I use the grandfather of your antenna, a KLM 7 element Logperiodic. Which eventually became the M2 one you have. They are identical, but I do not have the 40m element, which adds forty and it is supposed to improve 10 to 30Mhz performance. Great antenna. Having a lot of fun with Flex 6300, SPE Expert 1k and the log. Too bad I couldn't participate on this contest this time around.

Mike_N1MD

Ken, I was strictly S&P. The only mode I am comfortable running on in a contest is my favorite -- RTTY. I am working to get my code proficiency up to run on CW. I operate phone only rarely.

Mike

Ali 9K2WA

This is my second contest worked, the first one CQ WW SSB Contest, I made 4755 QSOs with the  Flex-6700, scored  5,884,572 points running full power on all bands, the second was with the Flex-6300 made 1141 QSOs on 20 meters band only full power during the ARRL SSB contest.
I had much more fun during the CQWW than the ARRL contest, conditions were poor most of the time, I stopped 3 hours before the end of the contest, and had plenty of rest and sleeping times, there were no takers and I did worked every contester who was calling from NA on 20 meters,  got all the states except KY and NE,and I had plenty of time to bother contesters from Alaska and Hawaii !

It was so bad, I was calling for long time periods which tempted callers from every where to find out which country I was calling from I was using my 9K9Z contest call. 

The waterfall was fully packed on my screen, but it always comes to the rescue when I have to fined a better spot to work, I set it up slow enough to see longer time periods with a brighter intensity to make sure that these openings are really free with minimum splatter.  It works every time with no time wasted.

For those who say that the Flex is not a real radio, I would reply it is way much more than that, it is absolutely a real radio with virtual reality.

Mike_N1MD

Ali,
I worked you in both contests!

Stick with it. It just gets better and better.

73
Mike N1MD

Mike NN9DD

Real contesters use why make high scores. While we're not in the millions we are start to win classes and divisions and sections. It's a matter of time and programming on some issues. Anyone know if on a 6700 you can you listen on one SCU and transmitting on the other with out disruption due to transmit. Mike N9DFD

Mike NN9DD

I now stand corrected on my earlier statement. There is in the millions. Well, done Sir. Mike N9DFD

Ken - NM9P

I just looked up the Results and noticed that my adjusted score of 499,770 rated 1st in Indiana Section in Class Single Operator, Assisted, Low Power.  And was 3rd in the 9th Region (IN, IL, WI) in the same category.  Not bad at all!  (And this was with my wires and vertical, before the LP went up.)  I wish it didn't take so long for results to be published...