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Amateur Radio reviews, setups, and RFI information |
Overview:
This quickstart document will provide information for starting MixW for the first time. It will cover the initial setup and configuration of MixW. You can click any image for a larger version. I am using an Icom 756 Pro III, and the the settings here are what is working for me. My computer is using COM 1 for the serial connection via a Rigblaster Pro.
West Mountain Radio’s Rigblaster Pro
West Mount Radio has a device called the Rigblaster Pro. This device is designed to connect your radio audio, and control lines to and from your computer in a safe and effective way.
This device does exactly what it says! When finished, you will have a pretty much hands free operation, you tell the computer to use a sound card mode, and if you are in CW mode, the rig will switch to SSB mode for you, and you begin.
The Rigblaster Pro comes with a truly massive set of cables, and is quite intimidating upon unpacking. Fortunately the manual is written clearly and concisely. If you try to second guess the manual you will find that things don’t go well… If you just turn off your brain, and do exactly what the manual tells you to do, it works. I know because I tried to get ahead of things and not read the manual, got lost, and just turned off my brain, removed all cables, and started again. This time it went right together, working the first time I tested it.
Rigblaster Pro Rear Panel
The biggest problem in the physical install was the sheer number of cables. I use an Icom 756 Pro 3, using Icom CIV to control the rig, so that made things a bit simpler, however the number of cables you will be connecting to your computer and radio are not small.
When I initially purchased the Rigblaster Pro, I spent a lot of time looking for a unit which would allow me to never touch it again once installed. I have seen far too many station, where you need to rewire things and change levels every time you change modes. I just want to select SSB, (using my program of choice for digital modes), and be able to do all sound cards modes, or select CW, (again from the computer), and be in CW mode. The Rigblaster Pro looked to be a device which would allow this.
Preface to MixW Setup:
You will see a number of images on this page, click any image to get a larger version of it. Don’t forget to look over the MixW review.
Contest Setup:
MixW has a mode which the user can select where it will aid you in contesting. MixW must be in contest mode to use contest mode. Once in contest mode, MixW will show the log differently, allow a separate set of macros for each contest, keep a running score, (and in some cases other data), and in general make your contesting life simpler. If you couple this mode with a custom set of macros, you can make some impressive scores, as long as you have a good signal.
Mitigation of Radio Noise from External Sources at Radio Receiving Sites
As a result of the RFI post in the blog a few days ago, a fellow ham sent me a link to this document, (which is in the public domain), and suggested I look at the pdf for help in tracking down the RFI at my home QTH. This document strikes me as one of the nicer items I have seen over the past few years dealing with RFI and how to deal with it. This document covers all aspects of Power Line Generated noise. It also covers some basic RFI location techniques. This book starts with a background and general approach chapter, and progresses forward in a clear and easy to read process, showing you how and where to look for RFI. Here is abrief excerpt:
EXCERPT:
The noise floor of a typical HF receiver is about –130 dBm for a 3-kHz bandwidth. This
indicates that the broadband dynamic range of components in the RF path from the antenna to a
receiver, and in the front-end portion of a receiver or noise instrumentation, must be about 100
dB for the daytime measurement of noise at a receiving site. A broadband dynamic range of
about 140 dB is required to ensure that nighttime noise data will not be contaminated by intermodulation products or inter-modulation noise generated by components in the RF path between
the antenna and the receiver. Alternatively, filters can be used to reduce the level of the
broadcast band signals. Daytime noise measurements can usually be made by the careful use of
conventional instrumentation. While some care must be made to ensure that instrumentation has
sufficient dynamic range to handle the daytime signal power, much greater care must be taken to
cope with the increased nighttime signal power.
Click below for this free book:
The Mitigation of Radio Noise from External Sources at Radio Receiving Sites
Sponsors
Amateur Contact Log V3.x Main Screen
This is a review of N3FJP’s Amateur Contact Log 3.x. A new version of ACLog has been released. See the review for it here. There have been considerable improvements, and many updates with new features are still coming, as of 08/25/14. Now that Scott has retiered, he is putting in serious time improving, and adding features to this fine piece of software. Note– some items are covered here, that are not covered in the 4.x review. It is best if you read both if you are considering purchase of this fine program. It has been in use here at NK7Z for many years. ACLog is a general purpose Amateur (Ham) radio logging program. It is designed to perform just a few functions, and perform them well. The author has selected the needed functions carefully, and the logging program does those functions well. Overall it is a good logging program for general use. If you want a contest logging program, get one of those, if you want general logging, get ACLog.
Many years ago I decided I needed an electronic log, I wrote a few, downloaded and tested many, and selected ACLog. Amateur Contact Log seemed to fit the bill for my needs. I do not want a contest logging program, (I use MixW for that), and the author has correctly decided to not make ACLog a contest log. He has created fifty other logging programs designed for many different contests, thus not attempting to make ACLog all things to all people.
Let’s look at features:
ACLog 3.x is starting to show it’s age, there have been no updates in the past few years, (actually nothing has been broken, by no updates I mean no new features), however that seems to be changing, the author has decided to retire from his job, and he expects to be able to put more time into the software. I have followed his support forum on Yahoo for many years, and he seems responsive to support questions, and in general there all the time. I expect he will follow through and start work on the software again.
MixW Multimode Software
MixW is a multimode digital decoding/logging/contesting software package. MixW was initially released in the year 1998. It has gone through many revisions, and still continues to be useful today. Although the updates have been sparse over the past few years, the software may be coming back to life with updates coming from the authors recently. MixW is designed to be a lot of things to a lot of people, unlike many software packages, it has not become unusable during this process. MixW has evolved over the years, getting more and more functions, and showing surprisingly few bugs. Make no mistake, it has bugs, all software has bugs, however for me, they don’t bother me. Others, (less careful types), have lost logs, and config files. I have not used other contest loggers as extensively as I have MixW, so I have some bias towards MixW. Please keep this in mind as you read this.
Some of the functions MixW performs:
This is a review of ARRL Log book Of The World, or LOTW, also see my review of eQSL QSL Service. The ARRL is currently sponsoring a program for exchanging QSL information in a secure way for use in obtaining various awards from the ARRL. This program is called “Logbook of the World”. The ARRL was late to the blocks in implementation, eQSL.cc was first, however the ARRL decided to implement a tighter security model than eQSL initially, hence eQSL ended up being on line earlier than LOTW. Both services have a level of authentication which is similar now, however eQSL has a lower level of authentication because of the lack of digitally signed uploads. The individual ham operator decides which level he or she wants to use. Using the lower level of authentication with eQSL disqualifies you from some awards. Both services are free, although if you want awards, you need to pay eQSL, even if you want the CQ awards, you are into eQSL for at least $5.00 as of 10/10/15.
This is a review of LOTW, so lets stop talking about eQSL, for now… LOTW only allows one level of authentication, the postcard process to prove who you are, and where you live. The ARRL sends you a postcard at your address of record, and you respond to this card. This has caused the ARRL no end of bad PR over the years, and still is. You exchange a postcard with ARRL, and they use this process to verify you are who you say you are, and that you are a licensed station. While this process works well for US hams, it seems to be a problem for non-US hams. I have no idea why, perhaps someone will add to this with comments…
Given that the ARRL is the key holder for the major US awards, it stands to reason that they will accept their own users, as opposed to others. This gives the ARRL a distinct advantage in the “Service of Choice” decision. If you want an ARRL award, your three choices are; send in the cards, have them verified by a “Card Checker”, or join LOTW. From here on lets assume you have been authenticated by the ARRL for use of the LOTW program.
First lets look at the features.
Ease of Setup:
Initially I was less than pleased with all the fuss needed to verify that I was really who I said I was. TSQL is used to digitally sign your log submissions to the ARRL LOTW, and is really two programs, TSQL Certificates, and TSQL itself. TSQL Certificates is for requesting and managing your digital certificates. TSQL itself creates a digitally signed upload file of your contacts for submission to the ARRL using the certificates generated from TSQL Certificates. This all sounds like a very complicated process, and it is, however the process is completely invisible to the operator in normal use assuming the programmer of your logging software knows what he or she are doing. Anyway, back to the setup discussion… If you want a complete detailed, explanation of how it works visit the PDF file the ARRL has prepared for you. The ARRL explains it much better than I would here… Of late, (2014), the TQSL program has been rewritten to make it simpler to use… These changes have made TQSL a lot better than it was initially… One thing that would be really nice in TQSL, is when there is a duplicate contact, if TQSL would list the dups by call sign in a dialog box. Currently it just asks you if you want to resend, and does not point you at a call sign to remove.
Ease of Use:
Using LOTW is simple. Most users are interfacing with LOTW using some sort of logging software. For me I use N3FJP’s AC Log, (ACLog is reviewed here).. All I do is select the LOTW option, select upload unsent contacts, wait a few moments, then hit “DONE”. After that if I want to see who has matched me, (same as a QSL card), I hit the “DOWNLOAD” button, and in a few moments I have an ARRL approved certification that I worked a station, or stations. All decent software provides LoTW support, and I simply would not use a logging program that does not support LoTW.
The ARRL also provides a web interface for LOTW. After logging in, you get a rather utilitarian, but full featured interface. Missing is all of the fluff that has characterized web pages. I like the interface, it is clean and makes sense, and most of all it lets me manage my QSO lists, sort them, make lists of what I need, and don’t need, etc.
Once logged into the ARRL LoTW interface, you are presented with a set of buttons on the left side, all the normal functions are in place you would expect for a web site, plus QSO management functions. The meat of the site is the “Your QSO’s” tab. The user is presented with a front end to search for logged contacts, in order to see if a station has been worked and if you have gotten a confirmation back yet. You can download your log in .adi format. This enables you to re-import the log into a different logging program should you want to, it also provides a backup in the event your logging program ever eats your log. The interface provides links to see your DXCC count, your WAS counts, etc… All in all a very useful set of tools for viewing your log. If only more awards were supported, like the CQ awards! So far, of the CQ awards, only the WPX award is supported.
Renewal of Certificates:
The renewal process is pretty much the same as the initial setup, minus all of the postcard verification, unless you allow your Certificate to expire– not a good idea, as you will need to do the post card thing again. All in all the renewal process is pretty simple.
Now lets look at the pros and cons:
Cons:
Pros:
Conclusion:
All in all I really like LOTW. The ARRL is worried about degrading the quality of their awards, (hence all of the postcard verification’s, and the use of tQSL), and in today’s climate of degrading standards, it is good to see an organization take a solid stand, (even though it causes the ARRL some bad PR from time to time), and not reduce the quality standards of their awards. Of late there has been a lot of complaints on the Yahoo groups regarding LOTW taking a few days to process the thousands of entries after a major contest. It is still a lot faster than the old postal days ever thought about being. All in all the LOTW is force for good in the Amateur Radio community. I would be very sad to see it end for any reason.
Addendum (07/02/12):
It appears that the ARRL now has the LOTW CQ WPX Awards section working.
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TH-F6 Handheld by Kenwood
The Kenwood TH-F6 is very compact handheld three band transceiver for radio amateurs. It can be MARS modified, allowing extended transmit ranges. The radio is NOT type accepted for commercial use. The radio comes with a reasonable sized battery pack, a wall charger, and no case. I’d recommend getting a larger Battery Pack, there are some really large packs available. The Kenwood TH-F6 has a power saver feature, which basically turns the radio off for some many milliseconds every second. This is a nice feature, but if it is in power save mode, you will miss the first word of a new call. This feature is well worth the few missed words as opposed to losing the radio to a dead battery.
There are a few foibles with the Kenwood TH-F6:
DX-World News: DX Maps News: