JT9 - not dead!

In times of #stayhome and corona crisis some of us have plenty of time to play hamradio.

Today I did some JT9 and it is everything but dead!!

Current setup: Icom IC7300, 75W power into the HyEndfed 10-20-40m Antenna

Thanks for the QSOs!!

New award on eQSL: E-Grid HF FT8

Hi guys!

There's a new award available on eQSL. It's the "E-Grid HF FT8". 
I applied immediately with 601 grids squares in FT8, made out of 3672 FT8 QSOs in total.
That was an easy one ;)

worked over 500 prefixes :)

Worked over 500 prefixes mixed and over 400 prefixes FT8 

The contest last weekend and the use of FT8 helped a lot.

Happy happy happy :)

Howto log with JTDX / WSJT-X and Log4OM WITHOUT JTALERT

WARNING: This is old, don't do it like this. Logging is on a whole new level with Log4OM v2 now!

This article explains my logging setting for FT8 / JTDX(/WSJT-X) and Log4OM

How it works

From my understanding the chain works as follows, feel free to correct me in the comments down below: 

1. We make a contact in FT8 using either WSJT-X or JTDX (I use JTDX here)
2. As soon as we receive the "RRR" (not 73) or the combined "RR73", JTDX logs the contact to it's ADIF and makes a UDP call to the defined UDP server
3. The UDP server receives the poll and rereads the defined ADIF
4. The contact is added to the database and defined actions are taken (in my case uploading to LOTW,EQSL, QRZ.com etc)

How is that configured?

We have to configure both sides: Log4OM and JTDX / WSJT-X

In Log4OM 

1. go to Settings -> Options
2. Open the tab 'Services'
3. Tag 'Autostart' - this will start the Log4OM Communicator in background every time Log4OM is started
4. restart Log4OM
5. after startup, Log4OM Communicator should have been startet. Watch your taskbar. Open it
6. Click 'STOP' (necessary to change settings)
7. Click 'Settings' -> 'Inbound' -> 'Inbound settings'
8. Check 'UDP Connection (ADD message)
9. make a note of the UDP Port (2236 in my case)
10. Check 'Enable File Monitor'
11. Hit 'Select file'
12. Navigate to the ADIF file. In my case it is c:\users\username\AppData\Local\JTDX\wsjtx_log.adi (This can be read out in JTDX under 'Settings' - 'Audio' - the path of the AzEI Directory should be the same as for the log file
13. Start and close the Log4OM Communicator - it should go right to the background

In JTDX (nearly the same for WSJT-X)

1. Goto 'Settings' -> 'Reporting'
2. Enter UDP Server '127.0.0.1' and port you have got in Log4OM (2236)

DONE

Make a QSO  and see what happens. If it doesn't work, check the path of the adif-file again.

The Log4OM Communicator has a great activity log in case something goes wrong.

Simple 20 minute DIY magnetic loop for FT8

This is what happened yesterday evening: I made a magnetic loop out of old coax. I was really excited to know if magnetic loops really work so I made a quick test setup. It looks crap, is built crap and most probably can perform much better If built from appropriate material. But thats what we found here. 

• 3m Coax RG213
• 1m Coax RG58
• some SO/PL 259
• wooden sticks, ca 80cm long
• tie straps
• end caps for the stick (not really needed but love to play with the 3d printer ;) )

Nothing more. That costs less than 10 bucks and 30 minutes of time.

all the pieces I had to cut off during the tuning process

The tuning was an easy task. I first tuned to 30m by cutting pieces from the RG58 which is my capacitor in this case. After 5 minutes I had an SWR of 1:1.3 on 30m FT8 frequency. I tried to make a contact, increased power to 10 watts...20 watts...30 watts...BAM -> bad SWR. I went back to the balcony. What happened? The end of the RG58 melted and made a shortcut. NOTE: Never leave the end of the coax open. It has to be insulated.  

The cap - cable was now too short for 30m so I decided to tune for 20m. Did that, tried 50 watts, went back to 25 watts to be safe. 

SWR on 20m 14.07 :) FT8ed!

I was even able to work a couple stations, but the band was already in a bad shape since it was night time. 

Conclusion: It may be worth to go through the build process of a good magnetic loop and invest into a good capacitor. I am sure, these things could perform well. Mine was only on the balcony, 50cm away from the wall and did already work better than other balcony-things I've tried. 

'Finished' (ugly) antenna - thank god it's dark!!

By the way: This link helped me -> https://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/frank_radio_antenna_magloop.htm

The hidden power of FT8

The new fascinating digital mode FT8 took off like a rocket. But do people know the real power of FT8? To be honest, I didn't. Today I was in the mobile and the band was absolutely dead. I mean really, not a single station heard on 20m SSB. But what about FT8? I tuned to 14.074. Nothing. Maybe there is something. A really quiet tone in the noise. Not sure. I gave it a try. Turned decode mode to "deep" (usually I am on "fast") and... surprise!

South America showed up. Remember: I was in the car with the 30bucks antenna. Nearly nothing to hear from the speaker but W-SJTX was decoding like hell!! 

And then... tada! KC4AAA from Antarctica showed up. For those who don't know: That's the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. That's 14500km from my position!

I gave it a try and he confirmed me immediately. Fantastic.. Remember: From the car, cheap antenna and a windows tablet :) 

Conclusion: With the right propagation FT8 rocks. With bad propagation FT8 rocks even more! 

If you didn't try it yet, go to https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html and start NOW!!