Presidential Visit Special Event Station – K9O – Wrap Up

Work, weather and propagation never did allow for a return to the air with K9O after the first evening.

Had a number of people ask if the Special Event station was political – and the answer is yes, but in the way that it marked a fleeting instance of being noticed for Manitowoc.

The city’s brief flicker in the national limelight for a “safe reason” was welcome.

After the years of being featured for either horrors like the Avery Murderers, controversy like the area nuclear plants & now wind turbines (not), or as a foot note as another town in rust belt economic decline, it was a decent thing to be in the news for a visit.

It is interesting that for the most part the visit was to jobs government largess purchased at huge expense from our collective tax contributions and with IOUs to repay nearly impossible debt which we citizens also hold the bag for.

These jobs would perhaps never exist except for funding assistance from government direct job subsidy, or support from subsidy of the end product, and are jobs that are dangerous footings to build a community’s economic future. With the jobs underpinning in massive government aid being the reason the jobs even exist, they are very fragile. Any disruption in that aid and they’re done for.

What is to keep the subsidies from geographically moving – which appears to be happening for the wind turbine industry as it relocates to states that are putting up towers – what happens?

What is to keep the government cheese flowing when either the government hasn’t anymore to dole out, or decides for political reasons to allocate it somewhere else?

The office of the president did come to Manitowoc on a field trip, to visit the economic projects in an Employment Ghetto.

(Though Skana perhaps was visited just because it was on the same site as his main stop, not because of their jobs were subsidy jobs.)

It is noteworthy he skipped Manitowoc Company. As outspoken as they are pointing out this administration’s failure to hold trade partners to the operating agreements in place, this $800m growing firm was skipped because they were an embarrassing example of success without hiding behind Mother Washington’s apron & living off her subsidies.

Enough of the political worries, from the radio point the event was fun, marked a minor footnote in local history, and going through the special event process a great trial run for a special event this autumn (to be announced later this spring.)

Having a small batch of QSL cards done for the event, so if you are in the log send along your QSL with a SASE!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Presidential Visit Special Event Station – K9O – First Log

<<< Note the log has been uploaded to eQSL as K9O >>>

Work until the noise level on most bands rocketed – basically Local 16:30 to 19:00

Only caught 16 Stations on 20m SSB and 21 on 160m SSB.

The ARRL has kindly extended the use of the K9O call sign for two more days, so we will try and get on the air when propagation is a bit better.

From my paper log sheets (the MixW software simply was UNHAPPY with my Special Event logging effort):

K9O – Worked Stations on Wednesday January 26th 2011
———————————————————
20m – NE5Y, W1CBN, KC9CDW, N5IAC, W9JSB, KG4ZDY, K0XE, KG9E, KD6IRE, KJ4WZV, KI4OXP, KI6QDH, ND4Z, NI5W, VY2RE, KJ4RHP

160m – KC9TZ, WB8AJR, KE8UE, KA8OAT, AB8UG, W8TJT, W0OPN, KB8VAO

K9O – Worked Stations on Thursday January 27th 2011 (after 00:00 UTC Wednesday)
———————————————————————
160m – WB4MDX, K9OW, NX0P, WB3FIZ, KI4YLD, N8DJX, KC8EMF, KM4ZR, WA9QLU, K8FL, K8NK, WS9V, K8CBW

 

73

 

Steve
K9ZW

Presidential Visit Special Event – K9O for January 26th 2011

The ARRL VEC has granted the 1×1 Special Event Callsign of “K9O” (Kilo Niner Oscar) to commemorate the first ever Office of the President visit to Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Two items, respectfulness of security and that little problem called “work” will keep us off the air until some hours after the visit is completed.

Tentative schedule is (times & frequencies are approximate) Staring after work on Wednesday January 26th 2011:

Tentative K9O Schedule

We may be back on 20m SSB if requested.

We will do a special K9O QSL Card to mark the occasion – QSL direct with an SASE via my call (good at QRZ).

Tentative operators Steve-K9ZW, Scott-W9JSB and Tim-N7TAL

Operations will be from the K9ZW Radio Shack, working with a Flex-5000A. SSB will run a kW, PSK 25w and Hellschreiber 80w.

Possible Operations the next day, though schedules do not look good.

Over the local repeaters some 2m activity may be possible.

Hope to catch you on the air.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Presidential Visit – Requested a 1×1 Special Event Call Sign

The day after the State of the Union address, on Wednesday January 26th 2011 Manitowoc Wisconsin is expecting Marine Corps One to bring in Mr Obama for a first time visit to our city.

Manitowoc has only had campaign stops before, and I hear they were over 40 years ago.

To mark this event the call sign “K9O” (Kilo Niner Oscar) has been requested.

[As of Tuesday at Noon the 1x1callsign.org ( http://www.1x1callsigns.org/) has been granted by the ARRL VEC. The special event call is a GO!]

Provided the ARRL VEC approves the call in time, expect to hear the call on the air outside of work hours on the day of the event & day directly afterwards. Details will follow on award of the 1×1 call, though expect some 20m SSB and some 160m SSB (around 14.280 and 1.890 respectively) for a start.

In respect to the security of the office, and the reality that work comes first, the call sign will NOT be on the air (or my station whatsoever) within 4-5 hours either side of the visit.

Provide we get the call sign and some airtime, a special QSL Card will be available.

[ Please note that this is an individual 1×1 Special Call effort, no radio club involvement of any sort. ]

You can read about the visit at: http://fb.me/Gt4WTAgf

More when the call sign request is acted on.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Living and learning – the 2010 CQ WPX SSB Contest K9ZW Check-Log

Living and learning – the 2010 CQ WPX SSB Contest was not a major effort on my part – barely had any time to operate.

What is really cool is that the contest organizers have put logs online and provided me a “score card” of how I did!

Here is the email I received (some links/addresses anti-spam modified):

Thank you for submitting a log in the 2010 CQ WPX SSB Contest.
The log checking report for your entry (K9ZW) is available online …..
The log check report is a standard text file that can be viewed with any text editor (such as Notepad, Wordpad, or Microsoft Word).
The log you submitted may be viewed at http://www.cqwpx.com/publiclogs/2010ph/k9zw.log
All participant logs are available from http://www.cqwpx.com/publiclogs/2010ph/
The full results of the contest are in the January 2011 issue of CQ Magazine. An electronic version of the results will be available from the http://www.cqwpx.com web site on January 28, 2011.
We hope to see you again in the 2011 CQ WPX Contest.
SSB March 26-27, 2011 CW May 28-29, 2011
73,

Randy Thompson, K5ZD
Director – CQ WPX Contest

email: k5zd-nospam@cqwpx.com
web: http://www.cqwpx.com

I muffed Seven Calls and Two Exchanges out of a very modest 227 claimed QSOs.

This isn’t good, as I lost 6 multipliers and 10% of my points through being sloppy.

Here is what the check-log looks like:

Contest: WPXPH10
Call: K9ZW
Category: Single Operator High Power All Band
Location: WI

Thank you for submitting a log in the 2010 CQ WW WPX SSB Contest.

Your log checking report is below. We believe it is helpful for participants
to receive information on the errors found in their log. We hope you use
this opportunity to look for ways to improve. Remember, a big part of
contesting is the exercise of perfect information exchange.

Explanation of the report sections:

Summary – A summary of the log checking results and final score for your
entry.

Results by Band – A band-by-band breakdown of the QSOs and points for your
entry.

Not In Log – These contacts were not found in the other station’s log. QSO
removed with additional penalty.

Incorrect Call – The call logged for these contacts was determined to be
incorrect. QSO removed with additional penalty.

Incorrect Exchange Information – The information you copied does not match
what was in the other station’s log. The QSO was removed.

Unique Calls Worked – These calls were not found in any other log. They
have not been removed, but our experience indicates they are often the result
of copying errors.

Lost Multipliers – This section lists the multipliers that were lost in your
log due to callsign or exchange copying errors.

Multipliers – This section lists all prefixes that were counted as
multipliers in your log.

Stations Copying Your Exchange Incorrectly – This is a list of contacts
where the station you worked copied your exchange incorrectly. You do not
lose credit for these contacts. They are only provided for your information.

Stations Copying Call Incorrectly – This is a list of all contacts we
could identify where the station you worked copied your call incorrectly.
You do not lose credit for these contacts. They are only provided for your
information. If you have a lot of similar errors, you should concentrate on
ways to send your call differently that may be easier for others to correctly
copy.

All logs are checked using custom software. If you believe an error was
made, please provide us with more information. It may help us do a better job
in the future. Do not expect us to engage in a debate about whether a
particular QSO was valid or not. The decisions of the CQ WPX Committee are
final.

73,

Randy Thompson, K5ZD
Director, CQ WPX Contest
email: k5zd-nospam@cqwpx.com
web: http://www.cqwpx.com

************************** Summary ***************************

227 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)
218 Final QSO after checking reductions

558 Claimed QSO points
517 Final QSO points

188 Claimed mults
182 Final mults

104904 Claimed score
94094 Final score
-10.3% Score reduction

0 (0.0%) duplicates (without penalty)
7 (3.1%) calls copied incorrectly
2 (0.9%) exchanges copied incorrectly
0 (0.0%) not in log
0 (0.0%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)

********************** Results By Band ***********************

Band QSO QPts Mult

Claimed 160M 0 0 0
Final 160M 0 0 0

Claimed 80M 0 0 0
Final 80M 0 0 0

Claimed 40M 0 0 0
Final 40M 0 0 0

Claimed 20M 110 261 0
Final 20M 106 244 0

Claimed 15M 91 223 0
Final 15M 87 205 0

Claimed 10M 26 74 0
Final 10M 25 68 0

Claimed All 227 558 188 Score 104904
Final All 218 517 182 Score 94094

*********************** Incorrect call ***********************

14000 PH 2010-03-27 2129 K9ZW 1 CU3A 916 Incorrect call
14000 PH 2010-03-27 2213 K9ZW 23 DX8N 1099 correct DQ8N
21000 PH 2010-03-27 2303 K9ZW 57 PP1H 1665 Incorrect call
28000 PH 2010-03-28 2024 K9ZW 131 LW7G 590 correct LW7H
21000 PH 2010-03-28 2102 K9ZW 151 KH6XS 4702 correct KH7XS
14000 PH 2010-03-28 2154 K9ZW 176 KI7MP 229 correct KI7MT
14000 PH 2010-03-28 2224 K9ZW 194 HI3TIJ 2864 correct HI3TEJ

*************** Incorrect Exchange Information ***************

21000 PH 2010-03-27 2238 K9ZW 38 PP1CZ 395 correct 1095
21000 PH 2010-03-28 1557 K9ZW 81 LP1H 000 correct 1685

********************** Lost Multipliers **********************

14000 PH 2010-03-27 2129 K9ZW 1 CU3A 916 Incorrect call
14000 PH 2010-03-27 2213 K9ZW 23 DX8N 1099 Incorrect call
14000 PH 2010-03-28 2224 K9ZW 194 HI3TIJ 2864 Incorrect call
21000 PH 2010-03-28 2102 K9ZW 151 KH6XS 4702 Incorrect call
14000 PH 2010-03-28 2154 K9ZW 176 KI7MP 229 Incorrect call
28000 PH 2010-03-28 2024 K9ZW 131 LW7G 590 Incorrect call

************************ Multipliers *************************

4B1 5D5 6W1 8P5 AA6
AE6 AI5 AJ1 AK6 AL1
AN5 AY5 AY8 CE1 CE4
CN2 CO8 CQ3 CQ8 CR3
CR6 CT1 DK2 DL2 DM2
DR1 E51 E7 EA3 EA4
EA7 EB8 ED1 EI4 EI9
EJ6 F5 FY8 G2 G5
GI5 GW7 HC2 HC8 HG1
HH4 HQ2 HR2 II5 IK3
IR2 IR4 IZ0 JH7 K1
K2 K7 KG0 KG7 KK1
KL7 KP2 KP3 KT4 KT6
KV0 KW8 KX7 KZ2 KZ7
L33 L60 LO7 LP1 LP2
LQ5 LR2 LT1 LT4 LU3
LU5 LU7 LV6 LW1 LX7
LY7 M0 M6 N5 N6
N7 N8 N9 ND2 NH6
NH7 NK7 NM6 NN7 NQ4
NR5 NR6 NX0 NX6 OE6
OG2 OG6 OH8 OL0 OL1
ON4 OP4 OS8 OT2 OT5
P33 P40 P41 P43 P49
PA6 PI4 PJ2 PJ4 PP1
PQ5 PR5 PS2 PT1 PW2
PW5 PX2 PY2 PY3 PY5
PZ5 RT3 S52 S55 S58
SN2 SN3 SN7 SP9 TE2
TG9 TM1 TM4 TM7 TM77
TO7 UW8 VA1 VC6 VE5
VE6 VG7 VO2 VP50 VX6
VX7 VX9 VY1 W6 WC6
WD5 WF3 WK0 WQ7 WX3
WZ7 XE1 XR1 XR6 YV5
YW2 YY1 ZP8 ZV2 ZX2
ZX5 ZY7

********* Stations Copying Your Exchange Incorrectly *********

21344 PH 2010-03-27 2303 LP1H 1685 K9ZW 0057 should be 81
21263 PH 2010-03-28 1613 EA4FSL 469 K9ZW 293 should be 93
14232 PH 2010-03-28 2344 VX7CC 2946 K9ZW 0425 should be 225

************* Stations Copying K9ZW Incorrectly **************

 

21000 PH 2010-03-27 2236 YW2LV 774 K9SW 37
14000 PH 2010-03-28 2342 TE2M 430 K9SW 224

Lessons learned are that accuracy counts, better to never log something I question and spend more time operating to tune-up those listening skills!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Reference Book Download: “The New DXers Handbook” by Bryce K7UA

Utah DX Association‘s Bryce K7UA put together a compilation of all the articles during 2010 for the UDXA’s DX’er Corner website feature.

Recently Bryce K7UA and UDXA reworked the series into a great PDF eBook format as “The New DXers Handbook.”

The New DXer's Handbook Cover by Bryce K7UA

Well done Bryce K7UA and a thank you to the UDXA for providing amateur radio & public access to the download.

LINK: http://www.udxa.org/attachments/148_The New DXers Handbook.pdf

73

Steve
K9ZW