This year, I decided rather impulsively to participate in the CQ WW SSB-contest. I was actually ill-prepared; only in the first few hours of participating, I installed the contest software, Not1MM. I also quickly recorded the audio samples for the voice keyer on the radio itself. All far from ideal, but I still felt like running a contest again.
End-Fed Half-Wave Antenna
The immediate reason for participating was actually the remarkably good performance of my recently built and installed End-Fed Half-Wave wire antenna. This allowed me to participate in the contest on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters.
I noticed that on the lowest band (80m), it was quite difficult to call stations. Listening back to myself on the websdr, I discovered that I have weak modulation (bad preparation) and the signal isn’t very strong. This is probably related to the way the EFHW wire is hung (not ideal for 80m). Still, I managed to squeeze 25 contacts out of 80m but it was hard work.
Solarcon Antron A-99
For 10 and 15 meters, I also frequently used my trusty Antron A-99 vertical omnidirectional antenna. This antenna performed exceptionally well. Several times, I only had to call out once or twice in a busy pileup, and I was heard. In fact, the vertical antenna always worked slightly better on the high bands than the EFHW. So it remains a welcome addition to my antenna fleet.
Not1MM logging software
On Mastodon, I discovered the logging software Not1MM. A Linux alternative to, you guessed it, N1MM+. Since I’m an avid Linux user (openSUSE, yes, I embraced the chameleon), it immediately appealed to me. I was a bit nervous about using this software in a contest right away. After all, it has to keep working if you get into a pileup. But this software was written for contest participation, so I took the plunge. Using Not1MM wasn’t disappointing at all. It’s indeed very similar to N1MM+, but in many respects, it’s much better thought out. The screen layout alone is much more logical (everything in one screen with the option to create separate screens for the various functions).
Radio interfacing
Radio interfacing (CAT) for Not1MM works via FLrig. That’s another program I’ve recently come to appreciate much more. Especially in combination with FLdigi, it works very well with my ICOM IC-7610. I also missed features like the appearance of my own spots in the telnet screen, or the input check for the presence of an exchange before saving. But those are really only minor issues. Unfortunately, the built-in voice keyer caused the program to crash when playing the voice messages.
Conditions
Propagation on HF has been fantastic lately, of course. This was made even clearer during the CQ WW SSB-contest. I heard many different continents on both the high and low bands. The fun part is calmly scanning the entire band, searching for unusual stations that haven’t yet been spotted on the cluster. It’s truly enjoyable to watch the cascade of signals on the various bands, filled from start to finish with signals from all corners of the world. It was also quite possible to get through a pileup with less than 100 watts.
Results
In the end, I managed to score 250 contacts in just a few hours on Saturday and a few hours on Sunday. Thanks to the handy scoring table in Not1MM, I aimed for a nice, round number on each band. Of course, that doesn’t exactly put me in the top 10, but I did enjoy a few hours of contesting with my new EFHW and the ICOM IC-7610.