Stew Perry Topband Challenge
Call: K4LY
Operator(s): K4LY
Station: K4LY
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: EM85 SC
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 80 Total Score = 537
Club:
Comments:
This is my favorite contest format, but I only had a few hours to play, so I
decided to try my Flex SDR-1000 for the first time. Yes, I had used it for
listening, made a few contacts, but this was the test! Unfortuately, the
firewire card I bought and installed in my older IBM computer stopped working a
few days after installation, so I could not use the Edirol FA-66 professional,
zero latency sound card which seemed to work very well the couple of hours I
played with it. It gives the SDR-1000 world class specs. So I used the old IBM
unsupported sound card which allowed me to run CW with the memories and
keyboard, but not the key, because of the latency issue. Here are the pros and
cons of this rather primitive SDR set-up, as I see it-
PROS- First, even with the old IBM sound card, receive was exceptional. You
can see the weakest signal on the panadapter, and you can use the 100 Hz or
even the 50 Hz bandpass filter to separate signals on top of each other. I
normally used the 250 Hz filter. Second, the memories work fine and you
potentially have a whole hard drive worth of memories. I used just six. Third,
the ATU worked fine, and I set the power with a Bird wattmter even though the
SDR-1000 has an acurate built-in wattmeter. Fourth, with the panadapter you
can see most of the band at one time or just a portion; you can "mouse" to a
signal or just click on it. Fifth, it's really fun to have the visual
experience of seeing the signals you work or try to work, and in a crowded band
you can see any openings in the wall to wall QRM to begin your CQing.
CONS- First, I prefer using a key, and with the old IBM soundcard, the
SDR-1000 monitor would have a several hundred millisecond delay. Try sending
CW listening to that! This problem would not have occured if the firewire and
Edirol sound card were working. Second, using N1MM software I had to
continually click with the mouse from the SDR software to the N1MM software in
order to log my contacts. If I forgot to click to the N1MM software, then
anything I typed changed the frequency band in the SDR software which required
more clicks to get back to 160 and the original frequency. If running,that
would have been a nightmare. So the contest interface between N1MM and SDR
software is not good, the way I was using it, but there may be work-arounds
that I don't know about. Third, even though it's fun to see the signal on the
panadapter, I think you would get very tired eyes if you did that a whole
contest. To be fair, you could easily run stations without looking, and do S+P
in the traditional way, too. Fourth, the SDR-1000 does not have a separate
receive antenna, so I had to use my inverted L for receive, which would have
been a handicap with higher power. I give my setup an A for recive and a D for
transmit.
I actually heard quite a few Europeans on the inverted L. KV4FZ was sometimes
at least 25 db out of the noise (the SDR receivers have accurate dbm readings
AND S-meters) with P40TA almost as strong. CE1/K7CA and some of the CO, NM,
and seven stations peaked 20 db out of the noise. All I got from any of them
was a very occasional QRZ and once or twice a K4 or LY, but no contacts. My
highest point contacts were 9-pointers, and lots of them, but nothing further.
It was fun and a learning experience for me.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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