The September 2016 NA Sprint saw NCC’s NO3M in fourth place in what is probably the most competitive CW contest in the world.  Eric’s was the top score east of W7 and was only surpassed by N9RV, N2IC, and N6MJ, who all enjoy a propagation advantage over a station located in WPA.  Eric’s score was undoubtedly assisted by his mastery of SO2R.  Eric counted 144 band changes in the four-hour event!  Congratulations, Eric.  (Note that the scores are provisional.)

Here are the individual scores from the joint NCC/MRRC team organized by Tim, K3LR.  The asterisks indicate LP stations:

NO3M    TY PA 99 130 101 330 47 15,510 144
KW8N  BOB OH 84 102 91 277 44 12,188 27
K3LR     TIM PA 80 107 92 279 43 11,997 8
K3UA * PHIL PA 67 89 90 246 43 10,578 2
N8EA *   JOE MI 72 92 86 250 42 10,500 14
NW2K DEAN NY 59 91 84 234 43 10,062 2
W8WTS * JIM OH 56 89 67 212 42 8,904 87
ND8L      RAY OH 62 68 70 200 43 8,600 2
W9PA *   DAVE IN 40 71 54 165 40 6,600 2
K9NW *    MIKE OH 42 77 0 119 38 4,522 5

(Columns show call, name, state, 20M contacts, 40M contacts, 80M contacts, total contacts, multipliers, score and number of QSYs.)

In addition, two other NCC members who did not make it on a NCC/MRRC team posted very respectable scores:

K8MR   JIM   OH    89    96    90    275   43    11,825   14
N3SD  * GREG PA    30    45    58    133   38    5,054    2

The date for the next CW Sprint has not been announced but it should take place on Saturday night local time, February 4, 2017.

A new low power M/S record for W/VE appears to have been achieved by a team of NCC members operating at K3LR in the recent CQWWDX RTTY Contest.  See the pictures in the photo gallery.  We asked Ray, ND8L, who was one of the instigators of this campaign, to give us some background on this operation.  Here is Ray’s report:

Well since you asked…this was the very first CQWW-RTTY contest run from the K3LR Super Station. WW3S and I have been putting a bug in Tim’s ear for years and earlier this year, he agreed to listen to a presentation on our vision of a Multi-Single Low power effort.

One of our selling points was that the RTTY Team would provide all of our own radio and computer gear and when we left on Sunday night after the contest, it would be like we were never there.  All we would use would be his antenna farm and internet access…this was the reason for low power.

While Tim’s station is not exactly engineered for this type of operation…antenna switching challenges were easily overcome.  Selecting and pointing the various arrays was done by someone in the shack, who was not operating at the time.  Sounds kinda clunk…but it worked pretty well.

Tim didn’t operate, but did provide the Team with much needed advice on selection of bands, propagation and optimal use of his antennas.  We wouldn’t have achieved the score we did without that help.

Our final score was a little over 3.5 million, crushing the former North American M/S-LP record of 3.1million.  There is an Italian team with a claimed score of 3.6 million…we’ll see how things shake out after log checking. As much as we would have liked to be #1 World, this year’s effort was a bit of a shakedown cruise and Jamie, George, Eric and I will be comparing notes to see how we can do even better in 2017.

Equipment was three Elecraft K3’s…and microHam digital interfaces.  We used N1MM logging software seamlessly integrated with MMTTY and 2Tone RTTY software.

We had two Run stations on the same band…’one CQ-ing and one sweeping the band looking for Q’s.  What made that work so well was the lockout device that NO3M designed and built especially for the K3’s. We also had a mult station.

The Team consisted of K3GP, WW3S, K3LA, K3LR, K3UA, K8IV, N8NB, ND8L and NO3M.

73, Ray

The preliminary results of the most recent NAQP CW contest were recently announced on the NCJ website and the combined team from NCC and our friends the Mad River Radio Club placed 8th in a field of 94 teams.  And our second team placed 17th.  Well done!  The individual scores from our top team were as follows:

NP2X(K9VV)     167,365   935   179 KP2
NA8V                  149,760   832   180 MI
W1NN                 139,896   804   174 OH
W8CAR               115,830   702   165 OH
K8AJS                   12,200   200    61 OH

Unfortunately, something came up for John, K8AJS, and he was only able to spend three hours in the chair.  Had John been able to operate full time and add another 100,000 points to his score, our combined score would have put us in third place overall.  Maybe next year!

The four NCC/MRRC team scores and their participants were:

NCC/MRRC Superops (NP2X,NA8V,W1NN,W8CAR,K8AJS)                       585,051
NCC/MRRC Fantasticops (K3UA,K8ND,K8YM,AF8A,N8SS)                      280,498
NCC/MRRC Ultraops (N8EA,K9NW,NF8M)                                                      98,776
NCC/MRRC Superiorops (W8KNO)                                                                        1,679

Over in the M2 category, the gang at W2FU once again tromped the competition to place first in this category.  Here are the scores from this time.  Note that the team produced an amazing 1,666 contacts in the 12 hour event.  This was the W2FU team’s seventh win in the last eight competitions.  These guys really know what they are doing.  Congratulations!

Multi-Two Scores
W2FU 377,274 1666 227 NY
(K0SM,K2TJ,N8KH,NW2K,W2FU,W2GN)
NC4KW 238,788 1206 198 NC
(AA4FU,N1LN,N4GU,N8BR)
WW4LL 215,460 1138 190 GA
(KU8E,N2WF,N4PN,N9DFD,WW4LL)

See you all in January, 2017!

The preliminary results of the most recent NAQP CW contest were recently announced on the NCJ website and the combined team from NCC and our friends the Mad River Radio Club placed 8^th in a field of 94 teams.  And our second team placed 17^th.  Well done!  The individual scores from our top team were as follows:

NP2X (K9VV)  167,365  935 179

NA8V           149,760   832   180 MI   

W1NN           139,896   804   174 OH   

W8CAR          115,830   702   165 OH   

K8AJS           12,200   200    61 OH  Unfortunately, something came up for John, K8AJS, and he was only able to spend three hours in the chair.  Had John been able to operate full time and add another 100,000 points to his score, our combined score would have put us in third place overall.  Maybe next year! 

The four NCC/MRRC team scores and their participants were:

NCC/MRRC Superops (NP2X,NA8V,W1NN,W8CAR,K8AJS)                       585,051NCC/MRRC Fantasticops (K3UA,K8ND,K8YM,AF8A,N8SS)                     280,498NCC/MRRC Ultraops (N8EA,K9NW,NF8M)                                    98,776NCC/MRRC Superiorops (W8KNO)                                           1,679

See you all in January, 2017!

Apparently hoping to befriend the ghost of Guglielmo Marconi, K8MR recently completed a pilgrimage to South Wellfleet, MA, site of the first transatlantic QSO between the US and the UK in 1903 conducted by the famous Italian inventor.  Jim carried his Elecraft KX3 transceiver and a portable 160 antenna on his bike and spent several hours attempting to make contact with the apparition.  Jim refuses to say whether he completed the QSO but the smile on his face suggests that something happened.  Your webmaster believes that Marconi preferred longer wavelengths and that Jim needed an antenna resonant below the BC band.  It is more likely that his contact was with a Wild Pokemon monitoring 1830, which, of course, is no mean achievement.   See the photo gallery for a shot of Jim behind Gugli’s bronze plaque and for a second photo showing how Jim rewarded himself for his historic QSO.

The 2016 version of what has become the Annual NCC Summer Picnic at K3LR’s beautiful QTH is now history.  Approximately 25 members and friends showed up for the good food, fellowship and station tour.  A highlight was the filming of the fifth K3LR flyby by W8WWV, who surpassed himself by preducing another fantastic aeriel video of Tim’s station.  See the article on this video posted earlier for the link to “WWV’s video.  We have posted a bunch of photos of the picnic in the photo gallery.

On the occasion of the annual NCC picnic at K3LR on July 29, Greg W8WWV created a new flyby video of the K3LR superstation using HD quad copter.  This is a professional-grade video showing the station and the neighborhood in both daylight and again around dusk when the tower lights and the neighborhood lights come on.  The stability of this video is absolutely incredible – Greg is a master videographer!  Be sure to see this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibFyTukErUE&feature=youtu.be

I am constantly amazed at the things our talented members are doing behind the scenes.  Eric NO3M, who has become a major league contester in recent years, has another side of his personality that will surprise many:  he is a major ham radio nostalgia buff and has spent considerable time and energy in recreating the kind of amateur equipment that the first generation of American amateurs were using long before we were born.  Eric has occasionally put his 1920’s equipment on the air in 160 meters contests with good results and wondered what it would be like to put a 30s type station on the air in Field Day.  2016 proved to be the year this was accomplished.

For this year’s FD, Eric had to brew up a new transmitter for 40 meters and he invited a bunch of local ham friends to join him for this inaugural event.  The group was excited to see this brand-new old-time station rack up over 150 contacts on Saturday afternoon, all keyed with an old Vibroplex bug and all contacts logged on paper.  Participating in this most unique FD were:  Mike, WA3TTS; Mark from Pittsburgh; Bob, W3BBO; Gerry, W2FD; Dave, KD3EM; Steve, WA3JJT; Barry, WA3GSH; Bill, KB3PLS; Laura, KB3UIG; Larry, N3BWP; and Ted (callsign?) and Austin.

We have added some pictures of this amazing event to the photo gallery (who would have imagined such a thing back in the 1930s??) but there is much more on Eric’s website at http://no3m.net/2016/06/w8cdx-1930s-fd-setup-at-no3m/ including a couple of really fun Youtube videos created by WA3TTS.  There are links on Eric’s website to these videos as well as plenty of other interesting content on this website.  Don’t miss this!

As many of you have probably noticed, Eric NO3M has been producing some very  noteworthy 160 scores for the last couple of years.  His most recent achievement was in the early December ARRL 160 contest, in which he placed third only behind two 160 powerhouses: VY2ZM and K3ZM, both of whom have significant advantages over Eric, who is less than 25 miles from the Ohio border.  The former was way ahead of everyone else but Eric was not far behind K3ZM.  The final scores were VY2ZM 610,176, K3ZM 479,364 and NO3M 431,238.  Eric came in ahead of two other 160 experts:  AA1K with a score of 417,728 and K1LT at 354,368.  Congratulations, Eric.

Eric has racked up quite a number of high-placing scores over the last few years.  Here are his notable finishes since 2010:

ARRL 160M: 2010 (#7 SOHP), 2012 (#9 SOHP), 2013 (#5 SOHP), 2014 (#4
SOHP), 2015 (#3 SOHP)
CQ 160M CW: 2011 (#9 US SOHP), 2012 (#5 US SOHP), 2013 (#6 US SOHP),
2014 (#4 US SOHP), 2015 (#5 US SOHP)
Stew Perry – TBDC: 2010 (#3 SOLP), 2011 (#3 SOQRP), 2012 (#5 SOHP), 2013
(#1 NA SOHP), 2014 (#3 SOHP), 2015 (#4 SOHP)

See the photo gallery for a picture of Eric’s beautiful transmit Four Square.

Jamie WW3S, Phil K3UA,Eric NO3M and Ray ND8L are planning a low power multi-single operation from the K3LR Superstation in this year’s CQWW RTTY Contest coming up in September.

RTTY enthusiasts gathered at Tim’s WPA shack for a shakedown cruise in the NAQP RTTY Contest in July to make sure the station is shipshape and break in Tim’s antennas to this unfamiliar mode.  The ops managed a second place finish only behind perennial RTTY powerhouse N0NI.

As far as we know, this will be the first major RTTY effort from Tim’s station.  It is likely that the diddlers around the world will notice the impact!

A picture of the NAQP RTTY operation has been posted to the photo gallery.

On May 28, 2016 a lightning strike at W8CAR caused considerable damage and put Dan’s station off the air.  After much work (and expense) Dan is nearly back to normal.  Here is his report.  See the photo gallery for pictures.

W8CAR Lightning Strike 5/28/16

While operating during the CWWPX CW contest at the end of May the W8CAR station had some excitement. My wife alerted me to nearby thunder and an app on my phone let me know it was close by. Time to shut down for awhile. Grounded all antennas and left the shack. My wife and I were talking down stairs when we both jumped as a LOUD “KABOOM” was heard outside. The shack breaker was tripped and once I figured that out, our power was restored.

A quick check of the radios showed both the FT1000MP (which was off and not connected to any antennas) and Elecraft K3 were dead. The picture of the MP shows the display that came on after the strike. All 8s was a rather pathetic sight. The K3 came back up but indicated an ERR code that indicated that the I/O board was dead and the radio showed drawing 22 amps in receive (normal is around .5) and transmit showed no output. The computer was dead and I thought the AL1500 was done but later proved to be okay.

After turning everything off and dragging  myself out of the shack, I ignored it till the weather let up and I could look outside and investigate further. What I found was not good! The 80 meter wire vertical (full size) was lying on the ground. In one of the pictures you can see the burn marks on the top insulator and the antenna wire loop with missing wire. As I investigated further I found more damage. The stepper motor controller was toast (see melted IC in picture),  an Ameritron remote antenna switch has melted relay contacts and the control head is dead, the computer lost a video card used for 2 monitors, The variable capacitors on the 160 and 80 meter verticals were arced and in one the connection was melted, both serial to usb controllers used for the radios were toast and of course, both radios were dead. The amplifier (it has not gotten lighter!) turned out to be okay after testing with my venerable IC706.

At the time I write this I have a claim in with my insurance. I must say so far they have been pretty easy to work with. They required that I have documentation that both radios were damaged by lightning but took my word for the other items. The MP is back from WA4GEG in TN who fixed it in record time. My K3 is being shipped and should arrive tomorrow. I ended up switching computers due to the wonderful people at Microsoft who apparently decided that since I fixed my computer I wanted Windows 10. Even after reverting to WIN 7 it apparently has some other malady.

Upon analysis, the lightning hit about 10 feet from the top of my 80 and 160 antennas peeling bark and some wood off. The tree is now dropping leaves so I hope it will make it. The induced voltage came in on the Ameritron switch, its control cable and the control cables for the stepper motor, then into the computer and radios. I think there was no direct grounding on the computer-I usually do that but must have had a brain cramp.  Strangely, the OLD Heathkit manual antenna switches seem to have survived!

I have replaced the Ameritron switch with a lightning protected one. The ground system will be completely redone as time permits. I plan to do a complete audit of the station and get serious about reducing the possibility of damage in the event of an induced voltage.

—A direct hit—-let’s not go there!

Dan W8CAR