KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Have more fun in state QSO parties with the State QSO Party Challenge

Posted: 20 Jan 2021 08:44 AM PST
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I have always been a fan of QSO parties. There are several reasons for this:

They are a lot more laid back than most contests. Operators will often take
an extra ten seconds or so to wish you good luck or joke with you a bit,
especially on phone.
You can be a big fish in a small pond. Since there are fewer contestants in
a state QSO party than say in the CQ World Wide DX contest, you have a
better chance of being up towards the top than down towards the bottom.
You get to learn a lot of cool county names such as Snohomish (WA) and Rio
Arriba (NM).


In 2020, operating state QSO parties got even more fun with the advent of
the State QSO Party Challenge. According to the website,

The annual State QSO Party Challenge recognizes all radio amateurs’
participation in the U.S. State and Canadian Province QSO parties. It is
open to any radio amateur who participates in any of the approved State QSO
Parties (SQPs). Participants must simply submit their scores
toÂ*3830Scores.comÂ*to be included in the Challenge.

There are 45 QSO parties included in the Challege:

7th Call Area QSO Party
Alabama QSO Party
Arizona QSO Party
Arkansas QSO Party
British Columbia QSO Party
California QSO Party
Colorado QSO Party
Delaware QSO Party
Florida QSO Party
Georgia QSO Party
Hawaii QSO Party
Idaho QSO Party
Illinois QSO Party
Indiana QSO Party
Iowa QSO Party
Kansas QSO Party
Kentucky QSO Party
Louisiana QSO Party
Maryland/DC QSO Party
Michigan QSO Party
Minnesota QSO Party
Mississippi QSO Party
Missouri QSO Party
Nebraska QSO Party
Nevada QSO Party
New England QSO Party
New Hampshire QSO Party
New Jersey QSO Party
New Mexico QSO Party
New York QSO Party
North Carolina QSO Party
North Dakota QSO Party
Ohio QSO Party
Oklahoma QSO Party
Ontario QSO Party
Pennsylvania QSO Party
South Carolina QSO Party
South Dakota QSO Party
Tennessee QSO Party
Texas QSO Party
Vermont QSO Party
Virginia QSO Party
Washington State Salmon Run
West Virginia QSO Party
Wisconsin QSO Party


Participants are recognized for reaching five levels of achievement–Bronze,
Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond—and this year, you must participate in
at least 50% of the SQP Challenge approved contests and submit a log with
at least two valid contacts to the contest manager in addition to the
3830scores.com scores submission. Visit their website for the complete
rules. Theres also a video explaining the Challenge:

According to ContestCalendar.Com, it looks like the first state QSO party
of 2021 is the Minnesota QSO Party on February 6, 2021. The Vermont QSO
Party follows right behind on February 7, 2021. February, March, and April
are big months for state QSO parties. I count 14 total during these three
months.

This year, Im going to make a more concerted effort to participate in these
contests. So, if youre going to be operating the state QSO party in your
state, be listening for me.

The post Have more fun in state QSO parties with the State QSO Party
Challenge appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.


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Will we soon be operating DXpeditions remotely?

Posted: 19 Jan 2021 08:11 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


This is a guest post from Bill, WC3B, one of my fellow presenters on the
ICQPodcastDan


I posted this on Twitter the other day:

ok, Im going to call it first @RemoteHamRadio

+ @SpaceXStarlink

+ Solar Power with cold wx batteries + some custom @stepp_ir

verticals + Mars Rover drone like frame = remote droppable portable
DXpediation to the most hostile places Dan @kb6nu

Feels like a blog post.

Two things brought this on:

Remote Ham Radio is a thing now via Internet connected Flex Radios with a
custom web interface. Ive been watching a few live stream videos of the
folks over at Remote Ham Radio, which offers a subscription service to rent
airtime on a HF station. It is very impressive, and a real possibility for
folks who cant build their own HF stations due to HOA issues or folks in
retirement homes that dont allow antennas.
Someone I know on twitter is starting to post SpeedTest stats from SpaceXs
Starlink service that they are beta testing. Bandwidth seems sufficient for
todays needs and the latency is way lower than I expected. Low enough that
it has been reported by multiple folks they can do WebEx/Zoom like video
conference calls over their StarLink connections.


Which leads me to my not so original idea—remote DXpediations using a Mars
Rover like device. I say not so original idea because a few folks on
Twitter pointed out that other folks are already discussing this idea,
including some seasoned DXpeditioners.

OK, now that youre finished getting a chuckle, follow me on this one. A
very small team delivers the rover to a really wanted DX entity. I say
rover, because it could be a remote control (think drone) vehicle that
could be driven to the proper location. Once its on location, a remote
operator would press a button to activate the station.

Within seconds, the rover would auto level itself, deploy a StarLink
antenna, local WiFi antenna for local team, GPS antenna (for time and proof
the radio is at a specific location), solar panels, and an HF vertical
antenna. I envision the antenna to be something like a custom SteppIR
vertical antenna. There may even be more than one of them. It seems logical
that the DXpedition would want tuned antennas, and that thing will
definitely be resonant as you remotely tune it.

Once the antenna is deployed, the onboard computer checks in with whoever
will be controlling it via the Internet. Once checks are good, it starts to
power up the radios and HF amps. At this point, radios are remotely
configured to pick the proper amplifier, and pick the proper band pass
filters, and the station is on the air! The startup time dould be a matter
of minutes!

The remote operators could be located anywhere in the world and the station
operated 24 x 7. Operators change as the sun changes, and band changes and
choices are coordinated remotely via a web platform built specifically for
thisÂ* DXpedition. The DXpedition might want a small local team that might
be on a boat, or a safe location to remotely operate from. QSOs start
flowing in.

The team will monitor power usage to achieve the proper balance between
charging the batteries and draining them. Because this device is self
contained, it could be left on site for a much longer thanÂ* most
DXpeditions are on site. A local team could make sure the station is
working OK for a few days, leave, and then return 12 months later, or at
other times when travel is safer.

Imagine a DXpedition lasting a whole year! Imagine running FT8 in fox/hound
mode for months on end, making hundreds of thousands QSOs. Imagine hundreds
of remote operators making hundreds of thousands of CW contacts, and
because these operators are operating from the comfort of their own homes,
theyll avoid DXpedition fatigue. Imagine hundreds of thousands of SSB
contacts made by hundreds of different remote operators, catching the best
band openings over a few months.

This does sound kind of crazy, but all the pieces exist today. And, it
would cost a lot less than transporting equipment, supplies, and fuel, plus
a dozen or more people, to a remote location. That being the case, I dont
think this is as far fetched as it might have been a few years ago.

Makes me wonder, and makes me ponder what other possibilities exist with
ubiquitous high speed / low latency Internet access world wide and the
newer radios that allow remote operation over the Internet.

I will find it interesting to see if any DXpedition picks up on this and
attempts it at some point as the solar cycle improves. I also wonder how
such a remote DXpedition will be received by the general ham community.

73, de Bill, WC3B

The post Will we soon be operating DXpeditions remotely? appeared first on
KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.