Tag: contest

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After a few months of radio inactivity I picked up a little idea I read a while ago on the N1MM wiki. Of course I could buy a Winkeyer, but since I’m just a CW-novice with not many miles on the paddle, I want a cheap and simple solution first. I could always buy a Winkeyer in the future. Besides, I really dislike all kind of separate little boxes in my shack. I’m more of a Zen-fan.

When I read the N1MM wiki, the described serial interface for CW was simple enough to put into a DB9-connector. Just solder two parts and off you go. I bought the parts (and the DB9-connector) on a local ham marked for a few euro’s and put things together. Result? It works like a charm! Now N1MM is able to send CW directly from my PC to the rig. Next step is getting my CW-skills up to speed to run my first CW-contest.

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This weekend I wanted to score some contacts in the Ukrainian RTTY contest. Saturday night at 21:00 local time I set down, opened a new log in N1MM with the appropriate contest and went off. But after 4 or 5 contacts I noticed N1MM keeps sending number 001. In the logging windows it shows the correct number but MMTTY keeps repeating 001 with each new contact. Aaargh, searching N1MM manual of several thousand pages didn’t come up with a solution. Double checked contest layout, all seems correct. Restart N1MM a few times. After an hour of searching I gave up. I didn’t had the time or the energy to search any more. I did want to participate in the contest for only a few hours anyway, now I blew the whole thing off.
Next time do some test sending exchanges first long before the contest starts!

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Last weekend I entered the RTTY-contest part of the Greek Triathlon contest. Because we had some family visiting the house in the afternoon, I didn’t had much time for the whole contest. I looked in the schedule and find out the first part of the contest (0:00 – 7:59 UTC) is RTTY only. Because we’re only one hour later then UTC, I figured I could get up real early and make a few contacts. So Saturday morning I got up at 5 o’clock AM (4:00 UTC) and flipped on the radio. Then I struggled with N1MM again for a full hour to switch from SSB-macro’s to RTTY-macro’s. It took me a hour to figure out I had to type “RTTY” in the call log box :S.

After a few hours of search & pounce I collected 26 contacts. I didn’t participate in this contest before so I don’t have any comparison. But I had to search the bands with a magnifier to find stations. The result of a few minutes of giving CQ: 0 replies. So I quickly returned to S&P. Well, at least I earned 1 extra points in our regional divisional league (25 contacts represent 1 point).

Next weekend I’ll participate in the PACC-contest. I read in the contest calendar this is also the weekend of CQ WW RTTY contest! So maybe I switch forward en backward between these two. Because I really like to meet Jim, K5ND in the CQ WW RTTY 🙂