Off With a Bang

As promised, KL2R is starting 2018 with great gusto. Several contests have helped the count, but so has the International Grid Chase and a quest for Worked All States on 80 meters, which will also give us 5BWAS. That means we're reasonably active shooting grey line to DX in the morning and evening. Europe, JA, VK, and North/South America are proving to be very workable on FT-8, when openings can be very brief (minutes), but long enough for the new mode. As of this date, we have 40 LoTW QSLs on 80 WAS, and 21 DXCC. A highlight was working Francesco IK0XBX after trying for about three weeks.

This brings me to WPX RTTY last weekend, which was a big blast. Saturday was busy in the shack. Dan KL1JP stopped by late morning and proceeded to spend several hours running on 20 meters, picking up on an early opening that really didn't abate until mid-afternoon. At that time John AL7ID, Paul KL4ET, and Pete KL4IT arrived for a demonstration and tutorial. It was a good time to give the latter two an intro to the shack, as we switched to 40 and 80 meters and the rates slowed down. Pete is a newbie to contesting, but Paul had some experience with WL7F/KL4SD SK running low power. In the end, 900 QSOs and 907k points was more than double the previous best from KL2R.

KL1JP in the middle of a six-hour 20m run for WPX RTTY.

Final Fling with KL7RA

All credits to Wigi AL7IF and Rich's XYL Jyl for supporting one last hoorah for KL7RA on the air.  

The team converged on Kenai on Good Friday from literally around the globe.  Ed K3PN flew in from South Africa via Denver, in a blizzard.  Others converged from points around Alaska to re-connect, make new friendships, and memorialize Rich in the best possible way.   Wigi and Angela came down from Anchorage several days before to prepare.  The Kenai crew of AL2F, KL2HD, and KL8X were there for the duration, as were KL7SB, WL7BDO, and N1TX. Dan KL1JP flew down from Fairbanks for two hours operating on Saturday, cut short by weather delays. Corliss AL1G showed up noon-ish Sunday and worked the final four hours on 20. 

You can find Wigi's summary here on 3830: http://3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=5EaEz8gcfssv8 

It pretty well sums up the great emotions we all shared by activating KL7RA one last time.  

The gravity didn't really start hitting home with me until 1200Z Sunday.  I had avoided focusing on it.  I was working the overnight shift with WL7BDO on 20 and chipping away at 160m.  Rich was always THE top band guy, and there I was at the position with his hat and glasses in front of me.  I answered a call, and another fine op gave me the exchange and said what a wonderful thing it was we were doing.

Then I moved over to 40m.  As long as I knew him, Rich had an autographed photo of Joe Rudi NK7U in his Oakland A's uniform, and it was on the wall right in front of me.  I heard NK7U around 1400Z and called.  It took quite a few times yelling back and forth to finally get through.  "KL7?"  "KL7A?" back and forth.  When he finally got the RA, there was an awkward pause.  The band gods cooperated long enough to clear the freq.  The op (not Joe) and I had a brief conversation, both of us very, very moved.  I fought the tears.  I couldn't do anymore and went to bed.

After the contest was over, we went upstairs and shared a few Rich stories, then Skyped with Rich's widow Jyl.  She was in Indiana.  We offered a toast, and let me tell you, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  The remainder of the evening was spent celebrating a remarkable life and legacy.  It was a memorial I will never forget.  

With Gary AL9A now gone as well as Rich, those of us remaining have more incentive to get KL on the air.  There will be no more huge beacon like KL7RA, but we can try to hold a candle in the cold and dark left behind.

1.5M in ARRL DX SSB

The run up to ARRL DX SSB this year was an exciting one.  Compared to 2014, KL2R was largely silent in the multi-op categories for contests in 2015.  We did a multi-op in ARRL DX CW during 2015, but it was a marginal effort.  A number of factors contributed, chief among them broken and failing equipment.  Last fall N1TX resolved to get the station back to multi-2 capability.  A new PC for the main position brought the shack to life again.  The Shuttle XPC with a 4 GHz i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM, and solid-state drive has no problem keeping up with the multitude of tasks now.  It runs Windows 10.  Also, the Alpha 89 amplifier, long idle since it became deaf during a brown-out, went off to N4UQ for repair and was returned in perfect working order in February.

KL7SB and WL7F joined N1TX in the shack for ARRL DX CW.  It was a good shakedown.  We were able to get the "B" position PC going, but it had suffered the same boot problems and unreliability issues for quite some time despite repeated repair attempts.  After that contest, it failed hard.  With SSB looming within days and more interest in using a second radio to look for multipliers, KL1JP stepped in and donated another zippy PC, which was quickly configured and ready for action.

We have pretty much abandoned Win-Test in favor of N1MM Logger+ over the past year.  The latter is very stable and functional now, while WT support languishes and the program seems to be at a dead end. However, I had choice words for N1MM the night before SSB.  After an upgrade to the latest version, a cascade of runtime errors proved problematic.  They persisted even after a clean re-installation.  In the end, I had to rename the old database files, re-install the logger, upgrade it, and then move the old files into the new directory.  Heart attack narrowly averted.

Finally, KL2R was ready to go a mere few hours before contest start.  It started with a bang on 15 and 20, and just after sunset 40m gained some serious traction by running split.  KL stations can run phone between 7075 and 7100 kHz.  The FTdx5000MP dual-receive made it so easy to listen for Canadians on our transmit frequency as well as for US hams in the high part of the band.  One US ham commented how he'd never had to run such a wide split, which was about 200 kHz.  The bottom line is it works for us.  We can hear you, and you can hear us.

Sadly, Elaine KL6C was ill and missed the event, but the rest of the gang toughed out up-and-down conditions to score an all-time best for KL2R.  Many thanks to KL1BE for being a fantastic hostess again after several years of being out of the game.  Good to have you back.

L-R: WL7F, WL7BDO, KL1JP. N1TX not shown.

NAQP RTTY from February

NAQP RTTY proved to be interesting.  I started off solo, and then Dan KL1JP stopped by to make it more fun as a multi-op contest (although we only used one radio).  Ten meters was a complete bust, and for some reason 15m never opened the way it usually does.  It's odd to see twice as many QSOs on 40 as on 15.  Twenty turned out to be the band we focused upon, mostly running, and not enough S&P time on the other bands for some better multiplier counts.

Many Canadian provinces were lacking, but VY0ERC called all the way from Ellesmere Island for a nice surprise.  Also, Andy VE9DX was able to reach out to us on 20 and 40m.  He is running 50 watts on  RTTY.  It is always a pleasure to work him!  Europeans and JAs called mightily at times, which is always very frustrating when trying to eek out a few new sections and states in a pileup

The boys at WL7CXP, about 40 miles west of KL2R, made a great effort and beat us handily with more multipliers on 15 and several on 80.  Here's what WL7F had to say about it, echoing several sentiments Dan and I had:

Well another RTTY Multi contest using the Skinny Dick’s club call WL7CXP.  This time we had Wes (WL7F), Carl (WL7BDO), and Paul (KL4ET) in the shack working the contest.  We started the contest out on 20M with KE1DS the fist contact from WA and ended the contest with W4MPB on 40M.

15M did not seem to open all day long really and did not hear a single signal on 10M throughout the day. This contest it seemed 20M was the go to band  for contacts which is a slight change from previous ones where 15M was the go-to band. The pace was a bit slower also which leads to good training time and time to hone skills on other aspects of operating. 40M was a good band for getting more multipliers and usually it is not as good so the solar cycle is definitely shifting. A few 80M stations from NVand CA made the log.

Paul worked VY0ERC, a weather station up in NU Canada, and Carl hauled in Japan even though someone came on the frequency and sent No JA. People really need to read rules and understand them. Guantanamo Bay was also on, but the pileup was too big. They were heard on 20 and 40 meters here.

Some of the statistics from WL7CXP:

Band   QSOs Sec

     3.5       3   2

7        73  28

     14      192  46

     21       52  52

 Total       320 100

Score: 32,320

ARRL DX CW 2016

Steve KL7SB and Wes WL7F joined me (N1TX) to form a pretty potent multi-single team at KL2R. Band conditions were really good, especially considering how iffy things were in the weeks and days prior.  In fact, it's safe to say propagation was so good at times the team's capacity to log was nearly saturated.  A big surprise was the solid-rate openings on 40m. The phased verticals worked stupendously.  The final claimed score bested a 2014 SO effort (N1TX) by about 350 QSOs and 100k points.

One of several highlights was working Phil AK7DD (ex-KL8DX), who now resides in Oregon. Check out his QRP activity (with an indoor antenna) here. He works us at around 5:30 into the video.

Score Summary

 Band     QSOs     Pts  Sec

   3.5      25      75   16

     7     489    1461   55

    14     636    1908   52

    21     781    2343   57

    28     104     312   22

 Total    2035    6099  202

Score: 1,231,998

Sweeps SSB 2014

We did a lot of work over the past two months to prepare for the 2014-15 contest season.  For one, we added a two-element, phased vertical array for 40m.  It is a well-engineered system (mostly) from DX Engineering components and proved to be a great listener.  The 20-30 dB front-to-back is impressive, and it has compared very favorably to a Force12 EF-140 dipole at 120 feet for receiving.  Casual contacts have shown it to be very effective in busting DX pileups as well as ragchewing between here and the Lower 48.

A second addition is the FTdx5000MP, which was previously owned by long-time member Gary NL7Y.  The operators had some learning curve, and we learned quite a bit more about its functions.  The receiver does not leave you fatigued.  To reduce the likelihood of operator fatigue in general, we rotated ops every hour.  "On deck" meant they were tuning The FT-950 for multipliers on the second position.

Since the FTdx5000MP has the SM-5000 Station Monitor, we moved the FT950 + DMU-2000 combination to position #2.  Both radios with band monitors is extremely helpful.

Fun and fellowship.  At one point we had six people in the shack, 100% over capacity.  New-new guy Wes KL3WY stopped by and introduced himself Saturday afternoon.  Elaine KL6C got us out of the gate on 10 and 15.  KL1JP had a very good run, and KL3WY jumped in and lent a hand as well.  KL3UI got plenty of air time, and Carl WL7BDO rounded out the heavy lifting.  Each one of the 419 QSOs was hard-won.

Respectable Showing in ARRL DX

2014 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)

Displaying entries for Class=MM and Division=Non-US

Entries 1 to 9 of 9 listed

#	Call	Score	QSOs	Mult	Class	DXCC Entity	Continent	Club
1	II9P	7,466,391	7,688	327	MM	I	EU
2	LP1H	6,049,953	7,605	267	MM	LU	SA
3	HG1S	5,431,968	6,354	288	MM	HA	EU
4	JA3YBK	3,454,908	4,568	254	MM	JA	AS
5	C6ANM	3,015,699	3,651	277	MM	C6	NA	Yankee Clipper Contest Club
6	KL2R	1,439,955	2,924	165	MM	KL7	NA
7	JE1ZWT	1,091,196	1,815	204	MM	JA	AS
8	LI5O	581,544	1,195	164	MM	LA1	EU
9	9A5BWW	339,465	1,882	61	MM	9A	EU

Guest op AC0W led the charge with the usual cast of characters at KL2R pushing hard into a respectable #6 place worldwide in the DX listings.  We used a multi-2 configuration.  

A Little Action for ARRL Centennial

The ARRL Centennial QSO Party brings with it some motivation to activate my personal call N1TX. Working me is worth 12 points, because I am a Technical Specialist.  This year-long QSO Party has been incredibly popular, and of course any Alaska signal chumming the waters generates a lot of action anyway. The European pileups have been bodacious.  Listen for N1TX/KL7 evenings after 0100Z and on non-contest weekends. CW is my preferred mode, but I'll be ramping up the digital modes, especially RTTY, in the coming weeks.  I'll toss in regular phone contacts for good measure. Since extended daylight hours are upon us, listen primarily on 10-20 meters.

The Centennial QSO Party Leaderboard shows some respectable standings for several Alaska stations. KL7RA is currently ranked #6 overall.  WL7E is #19, AL9A is #24.  KL2R is ranked #57 without even trying.  

ARRL Sweepstakes CW 2013

KL2R was on the air in a good form for Sweeps CW as SOHP UNLIMITED for about 17 hours during the weekend.

 BAND   QSO DUP SECT  POINTS 

-----------------------------

  160     0   0    0       0 

   80     6   0    0      12 

   40    89   0    3     178 

   20   128   1   12     256 

   15   201   2   10     402 

   10   281   1   58     562 

-----------------------------

TOTAL   705   4   83    1410 

=============================

    TOTAL SCORE : 117 030

Operators       : N1TX

I resolved to work no more than 12 hours, but the conditions were just too good to pass up. 10m was phenomenal at the start, and you can see it was a real money band. I had worked 70-odd sections early on, many of them usually difficult, and I decided to go for a CLEAN SWEEP. Achieved with hours to go thanks to N7IV in ND. I thought I would NEVER get a QC, but I camped on VE2AWR for over an hour before conditions permitted. The 80m dipole project didn't make it up the tower, but it will be ready for phone SS.

I nearly forgot to mention one guy -- a willy billy five? -- who called me in the heat of 110+ per hour and then sent me 5NN signal report. WTF?!? I then asked him for his details, and he sent me his name was Tom and his QTH was East BF (or whatever). One of the guys patiently waiting in the pileup sent HI HI. Ugh!!! NOT IN LOG YOU RAT BASTARD QRZ?

Keep Looking Up

Today KL1AZ mustered me and quite a few other folks to erect his tilt-tower. Using a small John Deere tractor as well as some good block and tackle, AL7F, N1TX, WL7GK, KL1NU, KL7EDK, KL3SP, WL7TV, KL3RP, and KL1SG managed to do it with ease. It was an incredibly warm fall day (55F). This evening, the sun was shining on the KL2R tower during JARTS.

ARRL 10M Brings Joy to the Far North

Conditions on 10 meters in the latest ARRL contest were overall excellent from Alaska.  From the Fairbanks and Denali areas, KL1JP, KL6C, WL7BDO, and KL8DX reported spectacular results.  Although there were no true openings to Europe, A65BD did make a brief appearance at KL2R just after midnight on Sunday morning.  South of the Alaska Range, propagation was apparently excellent, too. JAs were plentiful when the eastern US died down.  A number of Asian and Pacific stations were loud but sporadic to appear.  Ten meters seemed to burst to life around 0830 local time and shut down quickly about eight hours later. Some UA9s and UN stations could be worked around 2100 local (0600 UTC).  During the final few hours on Sunday, the band became somewhat unstable, and signals came and went quickly.

Contest         : ARRL 10 Meter Contest
Callsign        : KL2R
Mode            : CW
Category        : Single Operator (SO)
Overlay         : ---
Band(s)         : Single band (SB) 10 m
Class           : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/...  : AK
Locator         : BP64KU
Operating time  : 15h28


 MODE   QSO DUP DXC MLTS  POINTS   AVG 
---------------------------------------
   CW  1271  22  26   67    5084  4.00 
  SSB     0   0   0    0       0  0.00 
---------------------------------------
TOTAL  1271  22  26   67    5084  4.00 
=======================================
         TOTAL SCORE : 472 812

Operators       : N1TX


Soapbox         : That was fun.  Too bad the band never opened to Europe.  Sunday night I heard A65BD at midnight  for about 2 minutes before he faded.  Dang.  A surprising number of dupes.  Hmmm...Thanks to all  who worked me, even if twice for good measure.  You made it a real pleasure.