CQ WW SSB 2015 Results

Steve Jones gw0gei

Burt

What exactly was the point of the ":( " posting in this thread? Were you trying to add something and forgot to add the words? The thread is reporting on people's experiences in cqww ssb - in a single thread to avoid lots of posts - did you enter the contest?

Simon Lewis

KY6LA_Howard

@Burt Please join us for the Zombie Shuffle Contest http://www.zianet.com/qrp/zombie/zombie.htm This is a perfect contest to begin your contest career. Being that it's a QRP contest you don't have to worry about anyone actually hearing you contesting.

Simon Lewis

Walt - KZ1F

I think it incredible you guys are getting so much enjoyment not only from contesting but just talking about it amongst yourselves. I think that is just so completely cool. One thing I do want to comment on. It strikes me there is a huge tendency to credit the radio with your scores while not crediting either your antenna or your own operating skills. Yeah, the one physical thing that binds us all is the radio. I do get that but I'd tell you your results are more a result of your skills than the radio is. That is something you have direct control over and you should all feel emmensely proud of that. The more you enjoy doing it, the more skilled you'll become. Just, you know, for what it's worth. Walt

Simon Lewis

EA4GLI

Hi Simon, 

All I can say is that I cannot even fathom how to do one of these crowded contest without the panadapter. You can SEE where everything is happening, if the band is closing or opening, if anyone is above or below you, what is causing interference. The visual aspect of the flex is cool in day to day operation, but is just invaluable in these scenarios. You know exactly where you should position yourself for a RUN.

Not everything is compliments for the flex though. I still find the TNF doesn't perform the way it does in PowerSDR. We are just not there yet with SmartSDR. Neither does the ANF.

If I am in a RUN I keep a couple Deep TNF on the sides, outside my receive audio. I made them of the typical tuning width and it is very easy to use them instantly if anyone tunes on my frec. It is faster than having to create a new TNF, make it wider, select depth and position it on the offending signal. I have to do this because if I leave ANF ON it will start distorting to the point that I cannot understand the person on the other end, even if the ANF bar is all the way down. Basically, we just don't have ANF yet.

At times I was able to run with barely 1500 KHz of width and still copy OK. I just had people around me and no other option that stick to my location. 

I have come to appreciate PROC. I hardly ever use it, but it made the difference with 100w between been heard or not. You just can't mix PROC and any significant EQ. The way it worked for me with my voice and my mic (Yamaha CM500) was turning TX EQ OFF and then enable PROC. DX was the sweet spot. I never appreciated the work done with that algorithm until this past contest.

Which reminds me of another thing I wasn't using much... RX EQ. A lot of OMs had horrible audio and using RX EQ I could clear things up to a legible level. Mainly eliminating all the excessive lows and highs.

I found the Focus helper not very useful. I recommend that the default is something larger than 100ms. First time I enabled it I couldn't get back to the Setup screen to increase the time, at 100ms I wasn't fast enough. I had to turn N1MM+ off completely to be able to get back to the Focus Helper menu in SmartSDR.

The default should be 2000ms or more, not 100ms. I found myself thinking that having a key mapped to bring forward N1MM+ (Left SHIFT for example) would be more useful than the focus helper. Then again, I was probably doing something wrong or not using it properly

I should be able to stop the N1MM+ RUN CQ call (automatic caller) by TXing the Flex. I am sure there is a setting for that.... but just in case there isn't, I didn't like having to refocus on N1MM+ and having to click ESC to stop the caller.

Overall though, I think the Flex radios make me a better contester, if I compare to myself with a different radio, of course. Not implying better than other hams with different equipment.

Walt - KZ1F

Salvador, contesters were kicking **** and taking names in these contests long before there were panadapter. That is equally true today. Most contesters don't use Flex. They still know when the band is closely and where people are. That is nothing against Flex, its just fact.

Walt - KZ1F

@Simon, we have to have a conversation about eme.

EA4GLI

Walt, that's what I was trying to say. That Flex makes ME a better contester, but it doesn't make me better than others. I do however think in a few years sdr radios will be winning major contests.

Walt - KZ1F

It's probably not worth discussing. I would call it more a crutch. BUT if, for whatevver reason, it makes you enjoy it more...that's the important thing.

I am looking at the mug of a guy who would agree with your last stmt. Frankly, that remains to be seen.  What IF the performance numbers of the 6700 and the performance numbers of the K3S are as good as they get, either ever or for the foreseeable future? What if he technology has hit the wall. We won't know that until there is a radio that blows what we know and love now into the scrap heap.

Mark_WS7M

I am no big contester but I do believe the pan adapter does what we did manually for field day many years ago.  We setup a listening post about 5 miles away line of site, they looked for band activity and relayed it via 2m to the main operator.  This operator did not transmit so was not counted.  He/she merely looked for stations in placed we had not been.   Before the contest we mapped out a scheme and gave it a try.  It worked pretty well kind of like a manual panadpater in human form.

@Walt sure contesters have been kicking **** long before pan adapters but I do believe that the rig that first came online with a spectrum display was heavily sought for contests for the same reason Salvador likes his pan adapter.

It is not unlike wanting paddle shifters on your race car.  Sure it's been done successfully the old way but once you have the paddles you kind of get spoiled.

Mark_WS7M

I can't wait!

Walt - KZ1F

By the way, this keyboard has a mind of its own...weird. Yeah, I get Sal likes his panadapter. I wouldn't say or do anything to diminish that Mark. I don't think it makes one have better operator skills any more than I think an automatic transmission makes someone a better driver.  Nor is it a mark on the Flex...Skill is skill. If it makes it more fun...that's a good thing.

Mark_WS7M

I think it boils down to how you look at things.  Yes I agree... If you take operator A with skills A and give them a Elecraft K3, then give them a Flex with the same exact band conditions and possible contacts will you get a better performance?  Probably not.  In that light I agree.

But what will change is the technique.  Assuming operator A is semi-intelligent they will perform differently on the K3 than they will on the flex.  This is because the data is more available.  And for this I'm thinking a K3 without the pan.   

In the K3 the op has to learn to search and search smart.  On the flex he learns to search but differently and it would normally be my guess that he would be faster on the flex assuming he understood how it worked.  Being able to see is probably our biggest helper when it comes to doing anything at all.

Don't get me wrong. I've known some blind people that **** my doors off in just about everything but I think the panadpater concept whether it is on a k3, a flex, or an icom or whatever will present data to the op faster than the old tune and seek.

But I could be wrong.  Frankly half the time I don't know what I'm talking about!  :-)

Simon Lewis

"What IF the performance numbers of the 6700 and the performance numbers of the K3S are as good as they get, either ever or for the foreseeable future? What if he technology has hit the wall. We won't know that until there is a radio that blows what we know and love now into the scrap heap."

Well Walt .. working in technology now for the past 30 years or more I know one thing ... there is no wall .... brick by brick the wall gets moved, some times faster, sometimes slower. The worlds been moving forward, slowly but surely.  AM to SSB, tubes to transistors, diode to uprocessor, to FPGA. Step by step, little by little, the wall moves a bit further.

Even the K3 has been developing. Better phase noise, better audio. I am quite sure that the 6K will move forward too. You can be sure at some point a Flex 7000 will appear which moves the bricks forward another row or 2

But what we do know is that right now the bricks can be moved with software improvements and with some tweak and that's the exciting bit!

I love downloading the latest version when they come out .. even if there is some odd bugs or features not quite right or being developed, all very cool  

I think when I had my IC7600 I got maybe 2 minor updates before I sold it. Now my radio gets an update every few months

So ..no wall ... just a steady **** of the bricks

Simon Lewis

Walt - KZ1F

I disagree though Simon. That's the whole point of Moore's Law (the real one) or Butter's Law or Wirth's law. In a sense, reducing the size of something could be seen as making it better, maybe but maybe you just made it smaller. Lowering the cost of production ditto. The reason I used those two examples is they represent different technologies with roughly the same performance specs. Yes, one could argue...but let's not. Simon, I've worked in the technology field for over 40, so perhaps we have some professional overlap.

Yes, tubes to solid state, solid state to integrated circuits, integrated circuits to rom, rom to eprom.

Yes, technology moves on but I'd argue it moves on slowly. There are people alive today that don't know what a cd is. But is the music any better or was it just technology changed It's after midnight here... What are we discussing again, and why isn't it EME.

I was very bummed the last of the Phase III-C went SK before I could get a HEO station set up. But we do have a satellite that is impervious to radiation and requires no batteries. I suspect you know the one I refer to.

Simon Lewis

KY6LA_Howard

Of course I totally disagree with Walt because I speak from ACTUAL contest experience We use K3 with P3 panadapters at NX6T contest station and a 6700. There is no doubt that my unassisted rate in S&P is significantly higher on a 6700 than the K3 and P3. The 6700 panadapters with high resolution waterfall makes all the difference However in the assisted S&P when I use NaP3 software which places spots directly into the panadapters then the K3 rate is significantly higher. For Run situations the 6700 ergonomics **** as you have to take your hand off the keyboard to move the mouse to make minor adjustments. Hopefully Maestro will make the 6700 competitive.

Burt Fisher

Salvador I totally admire your command of TWO languages.  I cannot learn another language and you clearly are so good at it. It was and is a true compliment. I am not going to respond to some comment on You Tube. Nor am I going to be goated to respond to insults posted here.If I were indeed a "troll" I would respond to many other comments, but your guys are really enjoying bragging about what you have done and I am sorry for the disruption by posting a .  I too like to brag, but about my students. One little girl sent a note to me while I was in another class, "you are the meanest strict teacher I ever had." I went to her class to ask why she said that. She said she knew I would come see her so she could give me a hug.

Burt Fisher

Now that sounds like a contest worth starting my career. Is this real or a joke?

KY6LA_Howard

Its very real. Check out the. Website for the rules and how to get ur Zombie Number

dlwarnberg

one big hangup for me... CW only.. still trying to force myself to learn CW

Walt - KZ1F

Simon, I encourage you to look at my qrz page.

Walt - KZ1F

Actually, much of my contention came from things you've said about Dennis and and nx6t. You disagree with me because you enjoy it.. The words I was circling around last night was disruptive technology. Was the DVD disruptive technology? One could argue yes but the music sounds no better, there is just more of it. DXExpeditions use k3s but no pans.. Every now and again technology lurches forward. However that happens infrequently.

Walt - KZ1F

Awwwww

EA4GLI

OK Burt Thanks the compliment then. I went to the university in the US. I started to learn English at 18 (I am 40 now). It is never too late. My kids are bilingual and I hope they learn a third language. Learning a new language is one of the most wonderful things you can do in life. It's not about communicating alone, it is about learning a different culture, getting to know people from different countries and truly understand them, getting to enjoy their humor, their literature, their approach to life... 

Ken - NM9P

Sounds like a hoot! I had never heard about this, or have forgotten if I did. I haven't played QRP CW for a long time. My 1500 has been used mostly for SSB and Digi. Unfortunately I have other plans for Friday night.

Tim Hill - KI6LSB

Hi Ken, what Logging Program are you using?

Tim - KI6LSB