Kenwood TS-590 with SDRPlay and HRD

I haven't been writing in this blog for over two years :) Now it is time again, starting with this project: 

Kenwood TS-590 and SDRPlay working together:

Awards received: IARU HF Championship 2012 and 2013

Contest awards 2013

OH3GGQ IARU HF 2013 Championship results

Class: All bands CW, low power (100W):

• #1 of 5 in Finland (#1 also in 2012)
• #19 of 460 in EU (#36 in 2012)
• #30 of  818 in the world (#55 in 2012)

The full result list is shown in the ARRL Results database.

The ARRL report of the contest. (PDF)

My award from the Scandinavian Activity Contest 2013

I was quite happy with my result in the low power class: my first contest with over 1000 QSOs (1190 approved).  I used only wire antennas: 20m and 80m delta loops. Also this was the first contest where my long and complicated call caused significant harm...Vanity call in the next contest?

The contest result table here.

Australia on 80m band with 25W and delta loop antenna

My first contact to Australia on 80m was made tonight. Wow! (my feeling :) ) The mode was JT-65 and power 25W. The antenna was my Inverted Delta Loop for 80m.

I was very weak to VK4CMV Julian, and I had to repeat my info to him, but finally the QSO was finalized.

I have been playing with this vertical delta loop antenna on the 80m band, and I am now convinced that it is especially good in listening. I have hard time getting heard by DX stations when I work 25W (digimodes) and 100W (CW), but I have found out that I almost always hear distant stations that are spotted on the dx cluster. I have worked some U.S. stations before on the 80 meter band (mostly CW), but DX is rare stuff for me on that band.

UPDATE 28. Jan 2014: mail conversation with VK4CMV Julian:

Quoting a mail conversation with VK4CMV after permission from him:

Nice blog page Sauli - great to work you on 80m.
JT65a has opened up the possibility of QSOs on 80m and 160m which were previously very difficult.
73 Julian

PS: Have a look at what I was copying on 18th December (attached) - this should encourage people to try 80m JT65a!!

Julian continues:

Sauli - just in case people think they need a high quality rig like the K3 for JT65a - take a look at this video comparison I did between the K3 and Ft450d ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIaAz94oVo

Scandinavian Activity Contest 2013 - CW

The 24-hour SAC (Scandinavian Activity Contest) 2013 - the CW part- is now over. I participated in the Single operator All band Low power category. Some screenshots:

This is how my contest software (WinTest) looks when in action.

QSOs per hour.  Nice pileup hours and a long night sleep seen here :)

My claimed result: 1212 QSOs and together with multipliers the claimed score is 388 648.

Initially I am quite high up in the claimed results list in my class.

IARU HF Championship 2012 result

My result in IARU HF Championship 2012.

OK-OM DX Contest 2011 Results

I participated in the OK-OM CW contest last autumn 2011. My class was All Bands Low (100W) power. Now I got the results. According to the result table, I was nr. 20 in Europe. There were almost 200 contestants in my class. I had 396 verified QSOs to OK/OM in the contest.

Actually, I found some glory about this result: I was best of north Europe :)

I worked the contest with my Kenwood TS-850S, using an off-center dipole. The antenna choice was easy: since all QSOs were to Chech/Slovakia, there was no need for DX antennas. One antenna and and automatic antenna tuner did the band-switching job perfectly.

I checked the High Power Class result table, and on that my position would have been 13th in Europe. Obviously there is no need for high power in Europe-internal contests :)

My EPC Ranking by 05/2012

I checked my status on EPC Award Ranking List. Obviously I'm ranked 192 in the world, and 4th in Finland:

This is obviously because of my active first year 2011....after my 22 year pause :)

ARR PSK63 Contest results

My first digimode contest resulted in a 10th place: http://www.ct1arr.org/pdf/Class_psk63.pdf

Wow, am I this active?

I admit I have been quite active with my radio lately. It surprised me that it got me listed in the ClubLog first page this morning:

I really recommend ClubLog by the way. It is free. Among the features there is something interesting for competition freaks: It shows you in different League lists and you can compare yourself with other hams.

Yes, almost forgot this: ClubLog enables log search like this: http://oh3ggq.blogspot.com/p/my-log.html

DXCC 100

Got my DXCC country number 100 (Sri Lanka) today, when showing my station to my daughter, who is interested in in the morse code :-) I started my country collecting project in January 2011.

This was a good evening all in all:

• Immediately after number 100 I got also 101on the 15m band and , which was 5M2TT, a DX expedition in Liberia.  Nota bene: with my new antenna, which i described in my previous posting.
• DXCC country number 102 was St.Kitts & Nevis, worked in the 20m band. 

So far all my QSOs as OH3GGQ have been made in CW and digimodes.

(I try to remember: as SM4SWF around 20 years ago I worked around 130 countries in 2-3 years)