6 Meter Recap: July Fireworks

This year's sporadic E season started poorly. It was easy to become discouraged by the time the season was to supposedly peak at the summer solstice in late June. DX openings were few and weak. That said, by then I had worked at least two new countries -- OD and A7. Yet the overall conditions continued to be surprisingly poor. I lowered my expectations accordingly. This would make 2 years in a row with poor sporadic E on 6 meters. I didn't even bother with a year end recap in 2025. Why report nothing? 

Then July happened.

Before getting into that, let's back up to earlier in the spring. The first DX arrived on schedule in early May with opening to northeast Africa, a little South America and the west coast of NA (W6, W7, VE7). It was another 2 weeks before the first workable European signals arrived. Propagation continued nicely to the west with many openings to the coast and I worked a couple of KH6 stations. Nothing new, except grids which I don't really collect except by chance.

The same story continued throughout June. Perhaps I shouldn't be so negative since there were two or three widespread openings to Europe and west Asia, including several near misses of new DXCC countries. However, the openings were weak and short lived on most days, and I added no more new countries. I am accustomed to Asian openings being more common after the solstice, so I wasn't as yet too alarmed at my prospects for the 2026 season.

July was different. I don't know how to characterize what I (and everybody else) experienced but I'll try by giving you an overview of what I heard and worked:

• There were almost daily openings to the west coast (W6, W7, VE7)
• Almost every early morning there were at least a few signals deep to the northeast, including the Arabian peninsula, central Asia, Russia and the more common eastern Europe and Scandinavia
• On several days I heard 5Z4VJ, an area in Africa I've rarely heard
• Dozens of Japanese stations were worked, perhaps as many as 100, when last year I can't recall working even one, and only hearing a few very briefly
• East Asia stations were heard as never before, including HL, BY, VR2 and others, with several entering my log
• European openings were so common there were days when I questioned whether to even bother announcing them to our local 6 meter DX group
• Many openings lasted far into the night, up to 06Z, for us and for others, including Europe where the opening to NA lasted until almost their dawn
• On at least two days there were concurrent openings to Europe and east Asia; some have reported working WAC in a single day
• One evening ZL1RS was heard here for an hour, which is remarkable since the winter sporadic E season down south is not great for carrying our signals across the equator other than TEP to South America

As momentous as the season was for me and my friends, stations to the east and south of us did better, as they usually do. Propagation weakens as you travel north (or south in the southern hemisphere) despite the signals travelling through the Arctic and sub-Arctic latitudes. Ionization can be just enough to carry the signals but not enough to refract them to the surface. 

Sometimes you get lucky such as when I worked VE8CK in DP22 and a number of stations in northern Scandinavia. Of course there are not many stations that far north in North America so it is possible that the propagation is better than it seems. For example, many evenings the VY0SNO beacon in Nunavut was heard here and elsewhere.

Despite my reluctance to operate digital modes I recognized years ago that FT8 is well suited to the types of DX openings we get on 6 meters. When a station has propagation it is noticed immediately and you can call them. This is what I call the ease of discovery. With CW and SSB you would almost never notice them; who has the time and patience to swish the VFO over a large spectrum? 

CQing attracts the attention of a large prospective population of hams that passively or actively monitor 50.313 MHz. Since so many connect to PSK Reporter I can quickly discover where my signal is being heard even if no one replies or I can't hear them. 

I don't "chat" on 6 meters, and rarely on HF either. My interest on 6 meters is almost exclusively to chase DX. Therefore my operating is and will continue to be on digital modes. I have no disrespect for the rag chewers among us, I just have no interest in that kind of operating. To each his own. You are only likely to hear me use CW and SSB on 6 during contests and aurora openings.

Now, on to the DX during this year's sporadic E season.

Once you get over the pole there is a lot of territory to cover -- those circles are 2500 km apart. It is all far away and very enticing for DXers. Openings, if you get them, are typically fleeting. There are surprisingly many such openings that are brief and only to a small area, perhaps a single grid. This is where CQing or continuous monitoring of 50.313 MHz is vital. You might only get one 2 minute opportunity per year. Whether you want to take the time required to catch these openings is up to you.

I posted screen captures of two such contacts: BG6GQE on July 29 and EX9QT on July 13. The map is easily overcrowded so I separated the messages from UK8OM on July 6. We didn't work although I heard him again another day but only one decoded message. I got lucky in all of these and other cases. 

I knew they were on since other stations scattered to the east and south of me were heard either calling or working them at various times. It was often the case that just one at a time could hear and work these over-the-pole stations. It's spotlight propagation in action. It was difficult not to get frustrated staring at a monitor pane devoid of DX signals while seeing others working them.

This contact with southern China on July 19 was interesting. The path over the pole is more than 12,000 km. A moderate but long duration solar flare was in progress at the time. Was it coincidence or cause-and-effect? Although X-ray flares are typically bad for HF propagation, unless severe (X class) there may be little effect at 50 MHz. Occasionally a moderate flare can enhance VHF propagation by temporarily raising the MUF without an excess of ionization that absorbs signals. Was this an example of that?

It is foolhardy to derive a general rule from a single data point. Some will nevertheless make the leap. In this case I suspect that it was no more than coincidence. Many stations this year experienced these brief, long distance over-the-pole openings when the X-ray flux was low. 

VR2KW, who is very close BD7IS, is seen working K1TOL in Maine. I called but failed to work him, and I didn't hear him after that message on the screen (there were a few just before that one). All I know from PSK Reporter is that he went QRT on 6 meters a few minutes later. That was a shame since we don't get many openings like that one.

He and many others were heard this year and not worked. At a similar distance but not over the pole is the Arabian peninsula with many countries I've yet to work on 6. The only new one this year was A7 (Qatar). I had two partial QSOs with HZ and I heard A6 and A9. Very enticing but that isn't enough to put them in my log.

With what appears to be expanded privileges for hams in Russia and Belarus, many stations from both were widely heard this summer. They are far enough that the openings, though numerous, are brief and unstable. I had many partial contacts with EU and R stations until finally completing one with EU1KY, a new one for me. Many of my friends had more luck with both countries.

I worked none of the many Russian stations heard this year but I have it confirmed from previous contacts with stations in occupied Crimea which count for Russia. I'd really like to at least hear a UA9 or UA0 next year. I know that UA9 was heard and possibly worked from VE1 and W1. I have yet to hear a UA0 even though Vladivostok is very close to northern Japan which is often heard here during opening in that direction.

Speaking of Japan, the openings were numerous, unlike last year. I worked many stations in JA and HL, including stations worked in previous years, and many new ones. It is likely that I worked close to 100 Japanese stations this year, in all parts of the islands, including in the Okinawa island chain. I didn't take the time to count them all. What a change a year makes.

I now turn to the DX stalwart for North American 6 meter operators: Europe. The path was open a lot during July. Openings of many hours duration became routine. Even when the easier western Europe wasn't heard there were openings on the more northerly path through Scandinavia into the Baltic states and Ukraine. The longer paths were the most unstable but also the most productive with respect to interesting DX.

Unfortunately there are few countries in Europe I have yet to work. These include 3A, T7, Z6, ZC, OJ, HV and several others. None are easy, even on HF. I've heard some of them but cannot count on working them to boost my DXCC total. The only new one was SV5DKL who I've chased for a while. We had a partial on 50.313 MHz, then made a solid contact when he QSY'd to 50.323 MHz. The QRM on 313 was too intense for reliable decoding of weak signals. A nice problem to have!

For me the more interesting aspect of Europe on 6 meters is the propagation study one can do due to the large population of hams and the many 6 meter enthusiasts who, like me, push to find the limits of what is possible. It was fascinating to hear the long openings between all parts of Europe and the west coast of North America, and then further into the Pacific. I am sure the Europeans had a lot of fun with it. I had a big smile on my face as I watched these QSOs taking place. It was delightful.

I posted this pic once before for a different reason. There is nothing remarkable about these QSO traces on Gridtracker. They are just the stations I was copying one day in early June. The map is illustrative of what 6 meter propagation is often like. First, look at the intersecting lines in the north Atlantic Ocean. That is a point of enhanced ionization. It can indeed resemble a point since the area can be exceptionally small. It is how spotlight propagation occurs. 

From my experience I have to think that the briefest and most unstable DX paths rely on exceptionally small areas of enhanced propagation, areas that seem to flicker in and out and move from side to side. You may copy just one distant DX station at a time. Later, you hear a different station. Others in a different location, although nearby, hear different stations or the same ones before or after you do. 

I track what others hear since there is a good chance that I will soon hear the same. Notice on the map that I heard a European station along a track that passed through my location (FN24) but not one in QSO with a US station on a different path that appears to utilize the same ionization patch over the Atlantic Ocean.

It's a little like the flickering of the aurorae. The ionization clouds are not themselves in motion, but the rise and fall of ionization throughout the large zone of enhancement can make it seem so. When others see the flickering of stations I pay close attention since I might very soon have an opportunity. Sometimes I will hear them and sometimes not. It's a part of the magic on 6 meters, despite the occasional frustration.

More common are the short, single hop sporadic E openings in eastern North America as shown on the map. QSOs follow a similar pattern of utilizing a single ionization patch, with lines connecting stations crossing at a small area between them. In the case shown, stations are mostly along a single line. That is deceptive since it depends on what propagation allow me to hear and because my yagi was pointed as southern Europe. As is typical for yagis, I can hear stations directly off the back pretty well but not off the sides. 

Internet activity mapping services will show a more complete picture of global propagation. Others rely on those quite heavily while I do not. I monitor the DX spotting networks to discover where in the world there's 6 meter propagation. That is easy and convenient to check without navigating websites with their many options. All I really need to know is that the band is open and some insight into who is hearing what. All that I then need to do is watch and wait, and occasionally CQ to see if I can attract attention.

There were DX openings in other directions this year, though they were less productive for DX from this part of the world. The map centred on FN24 has been deliberately cropped to highlight the circled target regions. Notice that the directions deviate only a little from an east-west line. That is about the extent of what we can hope for with sporadic E propagation. More southerly directions require F-layer (rare now that the solar cycle is waning) or an assist with TEP. Sporadic E can, at best, bridge to southern hemisphere propagation phenomena. Crossing the equator is therefore not easy except directly south to South America.

The Caribbean is an easy shot for us. The challenge is activity. Several of the many countries in the region are very active while others must wait for the occasional traveller with a penchant for 6 meters during the summer season. Most vacationers from northerly latitudes travel south in our winter, which is not very helpful to 6 meter DXers. We take what we can get! One easy shot that I have yet to work is PJ7 since I was never in the right place at the right time.

All of my Caribbean contacts this season were new stations in countries I've already worked. It's possible I've overlooked one but I'm not going to the trouble of checking. My aim was to work stations in countries that are not confirmed since those earlier stations don't upload to LOTW, or not without payment. I don't do that so I go the route of working others. I'm okay with that but others are more impatient with getting contacts confirmed.

Most of Africa has low activity and few native operators, which is a shame considering its large size, number of countries and large populations. Waiting for DXpeditions is usually our only option. The situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. It's the same on HF though less acute. 

Countries with more activity, such as ZS are too far south to be reachable via sporadic E, too far east for TEP and even a challenge via F-layer propagation at solar maxima. V5, which is not too far away, is easier for us. A few hundred kilometers can make a big difference over these long paths.

This year I heard a few from east Africa, in particular stations in SU and 5Z. Several stations more centrally located were heard and worked by others but not by me. Unlike previous years I did not hear any 7Q stations that have been previously active. Perhaps those young hams are more attracted to HF. 6 meters isn't for everyone.

We have more success to ZL located in an almost mirror-edge position from south-central Africa with respect to my location. Sporadic E and F-layer propagation is not equal everywhere at the same geographic or geomagnetic latitude. There is an acute sensitivity to bearing and latitude with northern New Zealand being easier for us than the south island and the south part of the north island. One evening this July I heard Bob ZL1RS for one hour straight with a good signal working many North Americans. I just listened since I've worked him a few times already. I heard two other ZL1 stations but only briefly.

VK4 is far enough that despite a direction that is more westerly I've never worked them. I have only ever been received there (as shown on PSK Reporter) and heard them a couple of times. Australia would be a new one for me, with VK4 being our best bet due to their location. VE3's to our west, as close by as FN03, were more successful. I've heard that their power limit makes it more difficult for us to hear them than vice versa. Maybe next year or, less likely, during our winter sporadic E season which is their summer season. It's less likely since winter sporadic E is poor at our latitude.

In between there is a lot of water. We had several good openings to Hawaii but otherwise the expanse of the Pacific Ocean was a desert this summer. There were stations on 6 meters that were not heard by me.

Robots

As more stations move to 6 meters so do the robot operators. I've even seen longtime ops opt to become robots. They can do what they like as far as I'm concerned, however I don't like what they do to my operating. They pollute my monitor screen so that I have to scroll back to see if I missed any DX, they call me, relentlessly, no matter how directional my CQ messages, and they occupy spectrum with their endless CQs during DX openings.

WSJT-X improved (which I use) has a blacklist function with which I manage some of the problem. To my dismay its limit of 12 stations is no longer enough. Maybe I should put in a feature request to make the blacklist of indefinite length, which is a sad testament to what is seen on the bands. For now I replace calls when a new robot creates a major annoyance and hope that the ones I had to delete don't return. Unfortunately most do.

DXCC & VUCC and other awards.

As I've mentioned a few times in the blog, I don't chase awards. I like to count and chase DXCC entities on 6 meters as on HF yet I've never applied for DXCC. Most others that I know feel differently and will apply for DXCC and VUCC awards on 6 meters. I check what confirmations show up on LOTW (Logbook of the World) but don't otherwise care about QSLing. If I want to confirm a country and a worked station doesn't upload to LOTW I'll work another and hope that they upload.

Despite my aggressive disinterest in chasing awards my DXCC total on 6 meters now stands at 156 worked and 146 confirmed on LOTW. While I didn't bother to count at the end of the 2025 season, I'm pretty sure that I've worked 10 new ones this year. That's a larger annual increase than I've seen in the past few years. It's a combination of good conditions and more activity.

Although I barely pay attention to grids my VUCC total is now 969, which is getting close to the 1000 milestone that many strive to reach. It's likely I'll reach 1000 in 2027 if the trend in my accumulation of grids continues, even though the accumulation is mostly passive. 

I've written about FFMA (Fred Fish Memorial Award) where the objective is to work every grid in the continental US. Although I don't pursue it since I don't chase grids, a friend of mine does. I keep his needed list close by and if I hear one he needs I let him know. He's worked many new ones as a result. 

Often I'll work them as well since, if he still needs it, the grid is rare and attractive in a way. FFMA is tracked on LOTW and my count is rising as a result of helping a friends. However, I don't track what I need so I'll never reach the 488 grids required. The rare FFMA grids that I find for my friend and work myself contribute to my VUCC progress.

I occasionally receive a request to work someone that needs FN24. It usually has to be an off-air request since when I'm working DX that's all I'll work. I don't often work others in North America unless they're on the other side of the continent. Although there are other stations in FN24, Canadians and Americans alike, it appears that my signal is the best, so I'm they one they usually chase. I recall being surprised to learn that I count for FN24 in FFMA despite not being in the US.

I no longer use auto-answer on WSJT-X. It was a useful convenience feature in the first few years I operated FT8 but it has become a hindrance. So many non-DX stations, robot or not, call me when I explicitly specify CQ DX, CQ EU or other directives that I only respond to stations I manually select. It's a little more work but worth the effort. Real operators (not robots) might try once or twice before realizing that I'm serious, which I'm okay with since we all like to play the odds. However, it is not okay when robots persistently follow me around and never stop calling. That's an excellent way to be added to my blacklist.

I want to mention a trend that keeps growing: stations operating remote on 6 meters to gain a propagation advantage. This is seen most often with western US stations renting one of the super-stations in Maine. For awards like DXCC this is permitted as long as they remain in the same country. I find it odd to hear well-known west coast station signing FN64 during European openings. I don't object to the practice but it isn't something I'd do. I don't take awards as seriously as others so I am not too concerned how they go about it.

The end

There was a geomagnetic storm at the end of July that wiped out 6 meters. Propagation never recovered. I had only a handful of DX contacts in August and nothing especially interesting. I don't know whether the storm was responsible for the end of the sporadic E season or if it was merely coincidental. It was time.

I am okay with the season ending since July was so wonderfully productive. It became an opportunity to get out of the shack more often and enjoy the August weather. When the band is hopping it is difficult to wander too far away because I'm afraid I'll miss a rare opening. Nevertheless, during the season I monitor most of the day and I'll often leave the rig running overnight with the yagi pointed north just out of curiosity of what might come through.

While difficult to predict now that the solar flux is in decline, we could see a resurgence of DX on 6 meters from mid-September through October. That will mostly be to South America which, while nice to see, is unlikely to turn up any new countries for me. There are only a few that I need from that continent and they're rarely activated or without operators active on 6. 

For that reason I don't have high expectations for the fall. I don't expect to work any new countries on 6 meters until 2027. I'm fine with that since I have so many other things to do, including quite a lot of tower and antenna work, and of course the fall contest season. CQ WW SSB isn't far off. I have no excuses to get to work on those projects now that the sporadic E season is behind us.

Building & Tuning the 3-element 20 Meter Yagi

There was no rush to build the new 3-element 20 meter yagi since it can't be raised until the fall for several reasons. I worked on it over the summer as time permitted. It is now largely complete, tested and tuned. This fall I'll take down the TH6 and replace it with this antenna. I also plan a similar antenna for 15 meters. Both are to be fixed south, just like the TH6. They will be more efficient and less prone to multi-station interference than the TH6. Another for 10 meters can wait since the solar cycle is waning.

Although a 3-element yagi is a common directional antenna there are a few factors worth discussing. Those will make the article longer than you might expect. The details may prove useful to others, including how construction choices affect performance. No matter our experience and knowledge there is always more to be discovered even in antennas that we believe to be thoroughly understood.

Element taper and K-factor

The ratio of wavelength to wire diameter (λ/D) affect the SWR bandwidth of an antenna element. The higher the ratio the greater the change in reactance for a given change of frequency (dX/df). Therefore an antenna made from wire has a narrower SWR bandwidth than the same antenna made from tubes -- fat is good! The effect is greater at longer wavelengths (lower frequencies) for a given wire diameter. The effect is noticable at 20 meters, but small enough that it can usually be safely ignored.

Antenna modelling engines readily calculate the effect. It influenced my choice of a 7% spread for the parasitic elements of the 3-element yagi. For contesting I want a low SWR from 14.000 to 14.350 MHz. However, the model utilized fixed diameter elements, while the real antenna uses tapered elements. It is not obvious what the effective ratio is for tapered elements.

The steps for each half element are as follows:

• ~1.5": 3" long, calculated for the boom-to-element clamp, where director and reflector are electrically isolated from the boom; the estimated diameter for the DE (driven element) is not critical since it is accommodated by the matching network
• 1.315": 9" long for DE and director, and 21" for the reflector
• 1": 51-¼"
• ⅞": 51-¼"
• ¾: 51-½"
• ⅝: 21"
• ½": 24" (R), 13" (DE), 4" (D)

Small deviations of actual tube lengths were accommodated during construction so that the half-element lengths are 224" (R), 200" (DE) and 191" (D). The tubing from 1" to ¾" came from 20 meter yagis built by a long-gone Canadian firm almost 50 years ago and I saw no reason to take them apart to change their lengths.

When I ran the model with this taper schedule there arose a problem. The effective λ/D ratio was higher than that of the initial model with fixed diameter elements. The change of SWR at the band edges was enough that I increased the 7% spread to 8%. That achieved the same SWR bandwidth while sacrificing about 0.2 db of gain. Since this is a "multiplier" antenna pointed south the gain difference is not too concerning.

The lesson is that element taper is a significant design factor. The effective wire diameter more closely resembles that of the outermost thin tubes than the average or the large diameter found at element centre.

Boom

I was fortunate to have all the aluminum and attachments in my stock to build this antenna. That includes the boom. With the pieces I had there were several alternatives to make the boom. I finally decided to use a couple of length of 2"×1/16" tubes that came from old yagis. Hy-Gain used the same size tubes but neither of these appeared to come from a Hy-Gain yagi based on the wear marks.

To join the tubes I used a scrap 2' length of 2-⅜ OD schedule 40 6061-T6 pipe. Aluminum flashing fills the small gap since the ID of the pipe is a little more than 2". They are held  together with ¼" stainless (304) bolts and nylocs. Lock washers are not effective on round surfaces so it was nylocs or jam nuts. I've used both techniques in my various antenna projects.

One end of the longer 2" tube has a press fit galvanized tube (left picture). Clearly this was the original boom's coupler to another 2" tube. I intended to use it to join the tubes but I couldn't make it work. There has been enough oxidation over the decades that making it fit would have taken a lot of tedious preparation of the surfaces. It wasn't worth the effort. I cut the steel flush to the end of the tube. 

When I was done the boom was 282" (23'-6" or 716 cm). I reran the model with the slightly shorter boom (24' in the original model) and the performance difference was negligible, as I expected. The actual length of the yagi is several inches shorter, measured centre-to-centre from director to reflector, due to the boom-to-element clamps. One can be seen on the left being tested for its fit. The small clamp you can see on the right picture is one of the boom truss attachments. These were found in my junk box (source unknown).

Elements

Since the widest tubes of the old element sections mentioned above are 1", I slipped them inside 1.315" OD pipe. This is schedule 40 1" (IPS) pipe so the ID is a slightly over 1". For other antennas I've wrapped the 1" tube with aluminum flashing. The amount of flashing is easy to calculate since C = πD and D is 1" so the circumference is ~3.14". I rounded down to 3-⅛" so that the flashing didn't overlap itself.

It didn't work; no amount of forcing the pipe, flashing and tube would make them fit together. I measured the OD of one and the ID of the other with calipers and discovered that the ID of the pipe was a little less than expected. All of this aluminum was milled around 1980, so either the mill finish is responsible or it's a build up of aluminum oxide. Since I'm not equipped with a metal lathe I cut the flashing in half (to ~1-½") and it all fit together nicely.

Notice (top left) the obviously hand cut slits; most of the pipe ends didn't have slits. I didn't discriminate and all were joined in the same fashion as shown in the picture. The rear stainless screw head presses directly on the 1" tube for improved rigidity and electrical continuity (see the larger hole in the bottom left corner). Conductive grease was applied to all surfaces after sanding off imperfections and oxides.

The joints between tubes are peculiar. I don't think that was state-of-the-art a half-century ago! Metal strapping squeezes the slit tube onto the inner one. This would have required a special tool. Under tension the machine folds back and crimps then cuts the strap. It's a very solid if unconventional method of joining tapered yagi elements. I can only remember this method being used on shipping crates. A self-tapping screw further prevents slippage. While unusual I saw no reason to redo any of it. 

The ¾" tube was the tip of the original yagi elements and the elements were roped with ¼" polypropylene twist rope. Those were not a good choice so the rope and plugs were removed. I don't anticipate much singing in this yagi but we'll see how that goes.

The smaller tubes were attached in ways I've done before. The end of the smallest tubes (¾") of these sections and the ⅝" tubes were drilled for #8 stainless screws and secured with nylocs. The ⅝" tubes were slit for hose (gear) clamps to secure the adjustable ½" tips. All except the longer tips on the reflector were pulled from my junk pile. They have holes and other imperfections from earlier projects which don't matter as long as the tubes are structurally sound. This isn't an art project.

Notice the black marker rings on the ½" tubes. The element halves were precisely measured to match the EZNEC model. From experience I know that the SDC (stepped diameter correction) algorithm is very reliable. For a 20 meter yagi I try to match the model to within ¼" -- try to do even better on higher bands. A lot of time and effort goes into the design and construction of a yagi so this is not the place to be sloppy. Don't cheat yourself by talking yourself into believing that precision doesn't matter. 

Boom resonance

I've previously discussed how a 3-element yagi can behave as a loaded dipole at about half the yagi's design frequency, where the boom is the driven element and the outer elements are capacitance hats. The is a significant risk of interaction to an antenna on that lower that is close and orthogonal to the yagi. I have this problem with the 40 meter Moxon (and the XM240 before that) and the south-pointing TH6 above.

I reduced the interaction by raising the TH6 a little higher. When this yagi replaces the TH6 the problem must once again be dealt with. However, unlike the commercial antenna I have design options to nip the 40 meter resonance issue in the bud.

The director and reflector elements are electrically isolated from the boom. That prevents them from becoming capacitance hats with respect to the boom resonance. The stray capacitance between the 1.315" pipe and boom clamp is negligible in this application.

The insulators are cut from a flexible ABS pipe that was surplus to a property drainage project. They fit nicely and are strong enough to take the compression of the u-bolts to keep them in position. If you do something similar I will warn you that the insulators must be slipped on before the second half element is attached to the centre pipe, otherwise the tapered section joint hardware (screws, hose clamp, etc.) will block their passage. You'll would then have to cut the insulator, in one place if the insulator material is flexible or in two places if it is rigid. Those cuts can make it difficult to prevent insulator distortion and eventual failure.

The driven element is grounded to the boom. This is for the convenience of building the gamma match (see next section). Since an element near the centre of the boom does not electrically load it in the same way as the outer elements it is an acceptable choice.

I modelled this combination of element brackets to confirm that the 40 meter boom resonance was eliminated. Notice that placing the source at different places on the boom (top: near the DE; bottom: boom centre) effects its impedance at higher frequencies just as it would in any dipole. However, those are irrelevant to this scenario; you could feed the boom this way for real if you cared, but that is hardly typical! That peculiarity does not bear on the fact that the boom resonance on 40 meters is gone. Problem solved.

Gamma match

In the EZNEC model the impedance matching network is a beta (hairpin) while the built antenna uses a gamma match. The former is quite easy to model while the latter is not. In practice, the beta match is a good proxy for designing the driven element of a yagi with a gamma match. 

The reason is that both matching networks perform best when the self resonance of the DE includes -20 to -30 Ω of capacitive reactance, and both work well for the typical 20 to 30 Ω feed point resistance range typical of yagis. There is often no need to adjust the tips of the DE when a gamma match is used despite a beta being employed in the model.

The gamma match saved me the trouble of isolating the DE from the boom and splitting the DE at the centre as the beta match requires. That is, it's convenient and the gamma match works well, though often misunderstood. No, it doesn't cause the antenna pattern to be measurably asymmetric or promote common mode on the coax shield. A CMC (common mode choke) is advisable no matter the matching network.

The design of the gamma match differs in a few respects from those I built for my stacks of 10, 15 and 20 meter 5-element yagis. First, it is more rigid at the centre. A ⅛" thick aluminum bar ¾" wide is attached with a galvanized saddle clamp to the DE adjacent to the boom-to-element clamp. That is the minimum width to comfortably accommodate an SO-239 UHF panel connector. Hanging below it is a piece of rigid PVC that I pulled from my junk box. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a pack rat? I throw nothing out. Particularly astute readers will recognize that rectangle of PVC from a previous project.

The RG213 gamma capacitor is stripped of jacket and shield and inserted into the 7/16" gamma rod. The rod and shorting stub came from one of those ancient 20 meter yagis I scavenged so they are the correct dimensions for this antenna. When fully assembled the gamma match is stable and rigid, and should be up to the rigours of the elements. If not, since this is a 3-element yagi, the gamma match is easily accessed from the tower for service. 

One addition I may add before the yagi is raised is an aluminum jumper from the bar to the element to bypass any galvanic incompatibility due to the interposition of the galvanized saddle clamp. It is fine as it is to conduct initial testing and tuning.

Assembly

Once the boom and elements were built the antenna had to be assembled in the hay field. Although it is reasonably lightweight, an assembled 20 meter yagi needs a lot of room. I did this at the planned launch point for tramming it onto one of the guyed towers for testing and tuning. 

Of the alternatives for getting it high enough off the ground -- preferably λ/2, or at least 30' (10 m) -- this seemed most convenient since for a 3-element yagi the DE is adjacent to the tower. It is easy to adjust the gamma match with minimum fuss. For yagis with any other number of elements (2 or 4+) the DE is out of reach from the tower and other tuning arrangements are necessary.

Since the 2" sections of the boom are different lengths and the longer one has the steel insert that I couldn't extract, the reflector was placed on the short section, since it is heavier, to help balance the antenna. With the DE closer to the reflector than the director the final balance point was almost exactly midway along the 2-⅜" coupling pipe. That's convenient even though the halfway mark by distance is on the longer 2" section.

I used my usual method to weigh the assembled yagi by placing an ordinary scale on a flat surface, then measuring my weight and the weight while lifting the yagi off the ground. The weight is 40 lb (18 kg), which is quite light for a yagi of this size. It will be up to 10% heavier when the boom-to-mast clamp and boom truss are added. Neither is yet built nor needed for initial testing and tuning.

Test & tune

The yagi sat in the field for two weeks while I travelled to Labrador. Back home with August racing to a close I really needed to get this project moving. The bugs were fierce before the trip and they were likely to subside later in the month. Despite that hope being dashed I ploughed ahead.

Yet there was no real reason to do this test. From long experience, models built with NEC2 and the SDC correction within EZNEC are remarkably accurate. It nevertheless gives me piece of mind and confidence that when the yagi is raised to its final position on the tower that it will work correctly. A fault at that time would be more expensive to fix. I judged that a few hours of work would be time well spent.

I set up a tram line between my two big towers to tow the yagi up above the lowest set of guys. A height better than ½λ is more than enough for precise tuning. The tram is at a shallow angle since the towers are 200' (60 m) apart. That makes it an easy one man job. Both the tram line and haul line are ropes so that they don't interact with the antenna. The biggest hassle was unravelling the long lines since no matter how well I fold them after use they still like to tangle.

Tram lines have featured so frequently in this blog that I see no need to say a lot about it. Put the term in the search box if you want to read more. One point to mention is the yellow rope from the tower to the link between the tram line and the winch-driven cable. It is a safety line so that if the winch fails the tram can't collapse. Another point is the height of the anchors and haul cable pulley at around 45' (14 m). The bottom guys of the destination tower are at 35' (11 m).  That allows the element tips to clear the guys and place the yagi midway between the first and second set of guys to minimize interaction.

Hauling a 40 lb yagi at a shallow angle requires little effort. The penalty is that it takes a while due to the length of the tram line. It's a trade off I liked since it made the job easy to do myself. Once the yagi was up the tram line was slackened to bring the boom into the tower so that all parts of the gamma match could be reached from the tower. 

The gamma capacitor was purposely made long. By the time I was done it as almost a foot shorter. I'll make it a little longer for the final version and add the support insulator for the gamma rod near the feed point. Tuning went quite well as you can see on the left. The final SWR curve will be slightly different and better since I stopped when I was close enough. Recall that this is a test to ensure that the yagi is performing as expected. So far so good since it closely resembles the EZNEC model.

Note the connection of the analyzer to the feed point with a male-male UHF adaptor. Although this is less convenient than a short jumper cable it has an important advantage: no need to compensate for the impedance transformation of the coax while adjusting the gamma match. Without it I'd need to guess at each step or use a tool like TLW to transform each measurement to the impedance at the feed point. This way is awkward but saves a lot of time and frustration.

With a successful test in hand I lowered the yagi and parked it in the hay field. It can stay there until I'm ready to raise it to its final location on the tower. Mechanical work on the gamma match, boom truss and other items are ongoing. I'll probably reuse the CMC that's currently on the TH6 or I may make a coax (solenoid) choke for it as I've done for my other monoband yagis.

Next steps

Obviously the next step is to raise the yagi. That will have to wait until the fall. First, it will take planning to arrange for the removal of the TH6. The 40 meter Moxon, which is not far below it, will have to be navigated around. I have a few alternatives to get it done. Aside from that I have other projects and obligations to deal with. 

The second reason is that I'd like to have a 15 meter yagi ready to go at the same time. The TH6 covers  20, 15 and 10 meters, and although I can delay a south-pointing 10 meter yagi to the next solar cycle, 15 meters is more critical for the multiplier rich south. I have been assembling the parts but as yet I'm not far along. I will also need to bury more Heliax since I am running out of transmission line capacity. The 15 meter yagi will go on the tower with the 15 and 20 meter stacks, but low enough that it will not appreciably interact with the stack.

The 15 meter yagi will be a relatively easy project since the antenna is smaller. I will most likely keep it to 3 elements so that it can fit on a short boom while having similar or better performance than the TH6 which, although it has 4 elements on 15 meters, some use traps. I'll write about it when it's done.

Back to Labrador

There are times when we go the extra mile -- or 2000 km -- to help a friend in need. I joined Chris VO2AC on another long drive to Labrador to work on his remote station in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Unlike two years ago this time it was just the two of us. Other friends had to decline due to obligations despite their willingness.

He had a long list of jobs to be done but we were confident that the two of us could get it done. So he went ahead and booked vacation time from work. The total trip was 10 days: 4 days driving and 6 days working. On several of those days we worked late into the evening. Including driving around town he put over 4500 km on his truck. He had a full load in the bed of his F150 and a full load on the drive back. More on that later.

This article will mostly deal with the work that would most interest readers. Suffice to say that we were spoiled by the hospitality of his mother Thelma and aunt Judy who prepared most of our meals. Other relatives of Chris invited us to their houses with typical Newfoundland hospitality and introduced me to several dishes I'd never heard of before. Then there were his many friends that provided our accommodation, flew a large yagi to Labrador and much more. I'm convinced that Chris is related to half the town and the other half are childhood friends. I felt very welcome even if it was all a bit overwhelming.

What had to be done

These were the major tasks that we needed to accomplish:

• Repair the rotator, or discover what might be interfering with its proper operation
• Matching networks for several antennas
• Upgrade, repair and replace various station equipment, hardware and software
• Non-radio work on the property

The first item was why my presence was particularly useful. I came in handy for the second as well. For the rest I was just another pair of hands to get the job done. I wasn't there for just the "glamorous" work.

Rotator

The T2X (Tailtwister) rotator failed some time ago and attempts to diagnose and repair it from the ground were unsuccessful. Since that was the most important job we got to work on it the very first morning. That meant lifting the mast and yagis so that the rotator could be removed and brought to the ground for inspection and service.

There are many ways to lift a mast and its complement of yagis that ought to be the subject of its own article. It's one that I've touched on several times on the blog. For now I'll just say that I used a chain, come-along (hand winch) and a pulley attached to the mast to take the weight off the rotator. This seemed to be the most convenient approach for this job among the several alternatives I've used over the decades.

I couldn't fit everything in one photo since I was too close for a wider view. This one will do until I write that article about mast lifts. The chain wraps around tower members and attaches to the winch and a rope through the pulley to pull the mast straight up. The thrust bearings are loosened to allow the mast to slide past.

Without lateral support the yagis can spin freely despite a modest resistance to torque from the lifting mechanism. It is vitally important to put a "block" on the mast or yagis to prevent that, especially if it is windy or the mast and antennas must be left like that for hours or days. Weather is unpredictable. It is also recommended to "lock" the mast with, for example, an ordinary muffler clamp sitting on a thrust bearing so that the weight doesn't relax the rope or chain enough to interfere with reinstalling the rotator. However, be warned that almost all thrust bearings used by hams are not designed for axial loads.

Well, that's enough for what I intended to be a brief description. In this case the weight lifted was only about 150 lb (70 kg) but we had to leave it like that until the next day. I tied the bottom yagi (JK Mid-tri) to the tower with rope to keep the mast from rotating more than a few degrees. There was some rope relaxation overnight but not enough to get in the way of the rotator installation the next day.

The fault was in the rotator and not the controller, specifically the brake solenoid. This was despite the nominal resistance checks recommended for this series of Hy-Gain rotators. It failed to operate when powered and drew enough current to blow the controller's AC fuse. The solenoid and brake mechanism looked pristine and there were no apparent mechanical flaws. Chris can look into the problem at his convenience now that he has the rotator back home.

The substitute rotator also experienced a fault! After opening it up we found a wire that was cut. I say cut rather than broken because there was evidence of a wire cutter being used. We don't know where or when that occurred but it was easily repaired. The rotator was installed on the tower and performed admirably. Hopefully it'll last for years to come. 

We didn't have too many ball bearings escape us during the disassembly and both rotators were quickly reassembled using my usual alignment procedure. Neither T2X needed grease or other attention beyond that already mentioned. 

Antenna matching

The tower supports verticals for 80 and 160 meters and inverted vees for 40 and 80 meters. Deployment isn't optimal due to the wires being close to the towers and, for the inverted vees, the interior angles are not greater than 90°. Shunt feeding the tower isn't currently an option but could be in the future. For 40 meters Chris also has a 3-element vertical yagi (modified K3LR array) that can point northeast and southwest in addition to omni-directional.

The vees and verticals have fairly narrow SWR bandwidths. Adjusting the lengths of these antennas is not easy and our time was limited. Mounting matching networks at the feed points of the inverted vees was also inconvenient. Chris chose an alternative that can work very well on the low bands: put the matching networks on the ground where they can be easily maintained and adjusted. 

Provided that the SWR is reasonable the mismatch loss on the coax (LMR400 in this case) from the matching network to the antenna can be quite low. For a given length, type of coax and SWR the loss rises with frequency. The loss is easily calculated and there are formulae and charts in every antenna design book commonly used by hams, and plentiful online calculators. There is no need to get into the mathematics here. It is up to each station owner to make the calculation and decide what is acceptable to them. There is no excuse not to do the calculation; don't fool yourself.

With a set of measurements made at the base of the tower (where they plugged into antenna switches) I sat down with TLW (comes with the ARRL Antenna Book) and designed L-networks -- there are many alternatives and also online calculators such as this one that I picked at random. Chris already had the boxes built, including high-Q coils, so all I had to do was determine L and C values, and the L-network topology (there are 4). 

I experimented with different arrangements to find one that allowed a capacitor substitution to switch a narrow SWR range from CW to SSB band segments with reasonable SWR. The prepared boxes included a relay (for switching capacitors) and a coil with a clip lead to adjust L to the design value calculated by TLW. The process is easier than it sounds.

We had bags of vintage mica transmitting capacitors of every type and value imaginable. A group of us pool our resources and pick what we need for our antenna projects. Despite their age they work well. I have never had one fail.

A perfect SWR is not necessary provided that it was below 2 or, better, 1.5 over the desired range. Those are upper values acceptable to his solid state amplifiers. Careful design will usually find such a solution across a few hundred kHz on 40 and 80 meters, and less on 160 meters. Success is only limited by the Q of the antenna. A simple matching network can move the frequency of the ideal match but cannot broaden it.

For the 40 meter inverted vee I was able to find a solution that worked pretty well from 7.0 to 7.2 MHz (picture above). The L-network for the 80 meter vertical degenerated to a series C since the shunt L approached infinity. The reason is that the measured R value was close to 50 Ω. The positive reactance is cancelled with a series capacitor (see the photo). Since this antenna has a narrow SWR bandwidth and the inverted vee was made switchable between CW and SSB we opted to tune it to the CW segment.

Chris programmed his software to allow operator selection of the various network options. That went well so all we had to do was weatherproof the coax connectors and antenna feed points. A rainstorm moved in during the work so we got quite wet. Letting the connectors get a little wet is not really a problem but then we'd have to thoroughly dry them the next day before wrapping them in tape.

Antenna matching woes

Not everything went smoothly. I'll mention a couple of items that gave us grief since our experience can be educational. We dealt with them easily enough but only because we understood what was happening. 

First were the two antenna analyzers: they didn't agree. The differences were small but large enough to matter. One or both of them had to be incorrect. This could be due to poor quality analyzers or damage. I've seen too many hams using inaccurate instruments or not being aware of how they can give incorrect measurements when used improperly. 

An antenna analyzer is single port network analyzer that generates a signal at the displayed frequency and compares that to the signal that the network being tested returns. That is, an S11 measurement. In our case both analyzers are by RigExpert (AA54 and AA55-Zoom) which has a well earned reputation for reliability and accuracy. That said, they are designed for field use and are not laboratory instruments. Some compromises are required to harden them for the intended application.

What happened? The X measurements closely agreed but there were significant deviations for the R component of the complex impedance. Chris told me that the AA55 had previously suffered an accident that destroyed part of the bridge circuit. The precision SMD resistors that replaced them were not exactly 50 Ω due to availability. I tested the device with a dummy load that showed an SWR of about 1.1 at all frequencies, or an impedance of about 54+j0 Ω. The error was larger when measuring low impedances. 

I used my AA54 for measurements after discovering the problem despite its lack of features in comparison to the newer AA55. The bridge circuit in a network analyzer is critical to its accuracy and the one in mine was working perfectly.

The second problem was quite interesting, and predictable had we thought about it in advance. To improve ground loss for the verticals -- 80 and 160 meters and the 3 elements of the 40 meter array -- we tied them together at the radial plates. It's a good idea and I do it whenever I can for my antennas where the radials overlap. However, radials are an integral component of the antenna system's behaviour, not only its efficiency (protection against near field ground loss). Except in a very extensive radial field any change to the radials will impact the impedance of the antennas.

The match we had obtained for the verticals was no longer quite so good after doing the work. Realizing what had occurred we disconnected those wires. There was no time to rework the matching networks for each antenna; it was left for the future. In the case of the parasitic 40 meter array the impedance change was less concerning than the pattern changes. Element tuning in an array is critical to its performance. A slightly higher SWR in a single element antenna is easier to live with. 

Inter-station interference

Chris's station is fully SO2R and 2BSIQ capable. With so many antennas fit into a tight space there are challenges preventing harmonics from degrading reception on higher bands. This is despite a full complement of high power BPF (band pass filters) and triplexer by VA6AM, and a 2×8 switch and ancillary switches with pretty good isolation between ports. The laws of physics are not negotiable.

The addition of stubs to the BPF to attenuate the second harmonic made no discernible difference. We were pretty sure that the problem was more fundamental than that. As is typical done in many stations, the BPF are placed on the antenna side of the N×M antenna switch. Unfortunately that makes the station susceptible to the relatively poor port isolation of the antenna switch in comparison to the ultimate rejection of the BPF and stubs.

I can get away with it in my station since most of my antennas are far apart or usually pointing in different directions rather than at each other. The best approach is to place the filters on the transmitter side of the antenna switches. That is really only practical with two sets of high power BPF since you'll otherwise be faced with leakage through the relays that switch the BPF between radios. Most choose to have switchable coaxial stubs after each amplifier and leave the BPF where they are. There is no perfect solution, we do what we can with the situation as it is.

Sundry items

When a station can only be occasionally accessed for brief periods of time there are certain to be overlooked items and other mishaps. I won't go through them all, but I will mention a few related to the tower and yagis.

My usual technique for installing rotators is to loosely bolt it to its tower plate and do the same for the plate to the tower members it mounts on. That way I can ensure that the rotator and mast are aligned and only then tighten the various bolts. I do the same with antennas, only slightly tightening bolts on the boom-to-mast clamps and other mounting hardware until I am satisfied that the yagis are pointing the right direction, are level and the rotation loops have been tested.

It is not uncommon that I'll miss a few bolts when I'm done. I discover the mistakes soon enough and then make sure that all are properly tightened. For a remote station you may not get that second chance. Not only were several nuts only finger tight, a few were entirely missing! I can't be certain that these oversights were my fault but I'll take the blame regardless. I'd have discovered them quickly in my own station since I am frequently on the towers.

When you run cables to a tower you have a few ways of doing it: overhead, on the ground, or underground. The initial install used a conduit buried in the sandy soil common throughout Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Digging a trench isn't difficult, which is good since he needed another one

The new trench was short and was not for coax or control lines. Chris has cameras so that he can remotely view the tower and antennas and all the critical equipment inside the shack. He handed me a shovel and I dug a new trench to the fence that separates the tenant's yard from the antennas and tower for more cameras.

I placed the new trench directly on top of the existing conduit. It is only about 6" (15 cm) deep. Other than being careful not to damage the fabric over the conduit it was quick and easy work. Certainly I've dug enough trenches of my own. He may eventually need a deeper trench out to the tower for more cable as the station grows. 

Detours on the return drive

After passing through the town of Churchill Falls we made a couple of stops. Public tours at the generating station were temporarily suspended so Chris chose alternatives. The first was a hike to a lookout over the real Churchill Falls (see picture at the start of the article). The waterfall isn't impressive since almost all the water is dammed and diverted to the generating station. If the water gets too high they open the gates to let the excess escape over its natural outlet over the falls. It's a rare event that I am told is very impressive.

Our next stop was at a place where two westward transmission lines abut the highway. We took a close look at the towers. Well, of course we did: hams love towers! One line uses self-supporting towers with 4 legs and the other uses guyed towers. At the end of the article is a picture showing Chris standing next to the pillar base of one of the latter. Their size is impressive, to say nothing of the many megawatts on the wires the towers support.

There are 4 guys per tower and the pillar base. In that regard they are similar to the guyed towers found in larger amateur stations like mine. The towers are bolted together rather than welded. That allows lower cost of transport to the site and no need to coat the towers beyond the factory galvanizing. 

It would be interesting to watch them erect these monsters. Every tower, pillar and anchor has unique requirements engineered for the the site. 

They must work with the local soil and rock, whatever it is and no matter the lack of levelness since the tower position can't deviate far from the transmission line's path. Unfortunately we couldn't tell how the anchors were done. 

There are really only two alternatives: drill and set anchors into the rock if its tensile strength and size are sufficient, or excavate the rock for a conventional dead man anchor where the overburden resists the guy tension. 

The guy cable and hardware are approximately 1" diameter (2.5 cm) so the breaking strength must be close to 100,000 lb, with a preload of about 10,000 lb. There's a lot of force on each tower and its supports. Failure of the transmission line is really not an option; a reliable electricity supply is critical to our modern civilization.

The real reason for the trip

If you read the article from 2024 you'll see a room full of Heliax, almost all of it AVA5 (⅞"). It came from the decommissioning of a commercial site. Naz VO2NS stored it at the Labrador City club station. They eventually decided that they have no use for it and offered it to us. We had very little room in Chris's truck on the earlier trip. We did better this time.

I have no exact measurement of how much is there other than it's a lot. I don't need all of it, but I can find good homes for the rest. Many hams don't appreciate the difference low loss transmission line can have on their on-air success, especially as the frequency climbs. It's one reason I do well on 6 meters and it is absolutely essential for the long runs necessary to traverse the hay fields and climb my tall towers. The average run on HF is more than 100 meters.

I'm showing my age (on the right)! Chris VO2AC is on the left and Naz VO2NS is in the centre. This is a roll that Naz and I compressed from about 4' diameter to 3' so that it would fit inside another roll. Space in the truck bed was at a premium. Heliax this size can be wound tighter, but only if done carefully. Naz's neighbours were entertained by our (eventually successful) attempt. It was done by rolling the Heliax down the back lane into a tighter bundle while laughing over our many mistakes along the way.

Mission accomplished

For most of you, the outcome of this trip to Labrador will be an easier shot at zone 2 and Newfoundland-Labrador (NL) for DXing and contests from 160 to 6 meters. Chris wins because he has a more competitive station that is SO2R capable on HF and 6 meters, whether for daily operation or in contests. Since he'll do better so will you.

Building and maintaining a remote station that is thousands of kilometers away is not for the weak of heart. Much can go wrong, or at least fail to go right. If something fails it can be months until a repair is feasible, even if it's to reset a computer or jiggle a connector. Although it helps to build well it is inevitable that trouble will make an appearance sooner or later. 

I must also mention that the climate in FO93 is harsh and the flies are fierce. Working outdoors this time of year is unwise without an ample supply of bug repellent. There are no bugs in winter so you only need to deal with the cold and snow which are both in ample supply. Having come from VE4, I am familiar with what winter tower work is like for Chris and others in Labrador. On the other hand, the electricity supply is ample and unbelievably inexpensive due to the local generating capacity.

Chris is committed to this venture in his homeland and he will make every effort to keep it going, even when that means hopping on a plane or making a 2000 km drive each way. That is less burdensome than it seems since every trip is an opportunity for him to visit with his large family and reconnect with old friends.

I don't expect to make many more trips to VO2, perhaps none if all goes well. I leave Labrador with the satisfaction of helping Chris be successful. I can also look forward to a reliable multiplier in every contest that I enter. Of course there's all that Heliax waiting to be put to good use. That is, once I figure out how to move it the 50 km from his home to mine.

WAE Rookie

I never entered the WAE (Worked All Europe) contest until this past weekend. I could claim that the unusual QTC rule is the reason but that's really not it; only some laziness on my part to learn how it works. The bigger reason is that it takes place in the summer when I mostly avoid HF and contests.

I decided to give  WAE CW a try this year. I did it part time with low power since I didn't want to attract many callers while I learned how to do QTC. I studied the N1MM+ documentation before the contest, noted the key features needed to bring up the QTC window and send them and started calling stations. I assume there are similar features for DXLog and other popular contest loggers.

I did S & P for most of my time in the contest so that I could control the pace. My only CQing -- I hesitate to call it running, as we'll come to later -- was Sunday afternoon. In retrospect, this is an unusual contest that may be an acquired taste. I remain undecided, as you'll see.

Many contesters love WAE and may be offended by what follows. Please keep in mind that I am writing this in good humour and poking a little fun at a contest with peculiar rules that lead to peculiar behaviours.

Multipliers

Multipliers came up while briefly reviewing the rules before the contest. They seemed a little odd. I decided not to worry about the details since my score was not a concern. As I worked stations the multipliers accumulated and that was good enough.

As time went on there was a puzzle: the multipliers were growing at an alarming rate. I worried that there was a scoring bug in N1MM. Apparently not. It is actually possible to have more multipliers than QSOs in this contest. Had I only known I'd have looked for more. I ended up with 297 multipliers from 311 contacts.

With effort you could do the same in CQ WW if you restrict yourself to working only one station in each zone -- that's up to 2 multipliers per QSO. But that would cut your effective operating time, and score, since there are only 40 zones. The sky's the limit in WAE.

Endless clicking

When doing S & P while assisted it is routine to click on human or RBN spots to find stations to work. On CW the skimmer network is so good that few contest operators bother to spot stations. There is almost no need to touch the VFO.

Well, that's simple, right? Not in WAE. Far too often I found that when I clicked on a spot I would find two stations in the midst of a long exchange of QTC. Not knowing how long that would take, and it can be quite some time, I would click on another spot. Time is of the essence in a contest.

But the next station is doing the same! With some dismay I click again. And again and again. Finally I find a station either finishing a QSO or a bunch of QTC and my finger hovers over the Enter key. Then they don't sign. I patiently wait for the next caller to make their contact, hoping to hear a call sign. Then they close with "QTC?" and off I go again looking for a station to work. 

I don't think I've ever had so low an S & P rate as in WAE. Not even years ago when I operated QRP.

Polite or rude?

When I don't have QTC or too few to go to the trouble of sending them, what should I say? There are endless ways to say no: "sri", "nil", "no qtc", "later", etc. I heard them all during WAE. It matters since I had to deal with the situation quite a lot.

Not having anticipated the frequent need I did not program a function key to politely decline. I did it manually by paddle but found that at over 35 wpm lengthy and dit-laden messages could be tricky to send. Eventually I settled on a simple "no". It's not particularly polite but it is short and effective. 

That worked for me and it certainly didn't deter the eternally hopeful from returning later to ask again. Some would do it 2 or 3 times. They might have come by even more had I operated longer.

The one respite was 80 meters. Nobody asked me for QTC on 80. Let's see...summer QRN, 100 watts...hmm. Maybe that's not so surprising. I think the European strategy is to hunt for QTC on the higher bands where copy is better. That's sensible. Maybe if I want to avoid QTC requests in the future I should do a single band 80 meter entry. There are no single band categories in WAE but I don't see why that should stop me.

Sending QTC

Sending QTC is absurdly easy with N1MM+. I could read a book while doing it and still respond to requests for repeats. Other than keyboard shortcuts to open the QTC window and send the header, you just press enter after each QTC is acknowledged, or press another key to repeat part or all of the QTC. All of the real work is done by the European operator.

It's boring, but points are points. I look at the points as compensation for the sheer tedium and annoyance. This might seem to be an opportunity for SO2R ops to make use of the dead time, but you really can't since the gaps between QTC are too short to fit in a transmission on the other radio. Copy an "R" and on to the next. Many operators do SO2R in WAE so it is certainly possible, but I wonder if that is only because the rate is not so high as in other contests.

QTC are not simple message. They consist of a UTC time, call sign and serial number. There are ample opportunities for copying errors and requests for repeats. Yet it rarely occurred. The European operators are good at the WAE game. Only once out of about 40 QTC series was I asked to QRS, and I was typically sending at 35 wpm. There was one instance of many repeat requests during a QTC series, which was on a noisy and interference plagued 40 meters. I don't recall who it was but he worked hard for those QTC. Bravo!

Who gets my QTC?

Since my supply of QTC is limited and the demand is almost unlimited, I have to deal with economics of a scarce resource, a resource that I control. DX stations have this peculiar superpower in WAE. Who gets my QTC? Do certain stations deserve them more than others? How do I decide? They may care but no matter who I give them to the impact on my score is the same. The potential dynamic is interesting.

It isn't as simple as bestowing them on my friends. Each can only get 10. What do I do with the rest? If I refuse to give QTC to anyone else my score will suffer. To get the most out of my contest effort I'll eventually have to give them to anyone who asks.

The alternative is more devious. I can give them to all except stations I want to hurt. That is, I withhold those 10 QTC from certain stations. I can still send my full load of QTC while (marginally) hurting selected stations.

Is that fair? No, of course not, but it breaks no rules. With the recent controversies in WRTC about cheerleading and pirate multipliers it's a good thing that there are no QTC in that competition. The situation is ugly enough already.

I want to run!

It was all S & P until Sunday afternoon when I decided to try some running. It didn't go well. I would attract a few casual European participants and then the QTC requests arrived from those I'd worked before. It seemed that as soon as the small pile up heard the first letter of "QTC?" they all scattered to the winds. Like me they had no intention of sticking around for a lengthy QTC exchange. 

I knew they'd gone when I declined the QTC request and no one was there to call me again. I would resume CQing in an attempt to run stations but then another previously worked station would jump in to ask for QTC. It was inescapable; running was next to impossible. Imagine how much worse it would have been had I been running high power.

It was both amusing and aggravating. Again, points are points, but sending (or refusing) QTC makes running very difficult and sending QTC is boring. I didn't like it so I stopped trying to run.

Activity

Let's be blunt, it wasn't great. Having heard so much about the contest and its importance to European contesters I expected more. I was surprised how quickly I ran out of stations to call. Running elicited calls from smaller and more casual participants, however as already noted, all my runs were rapidly interrupted by QTC seekers. 

Was this simply a bad year because qualifications for the next WRTC are slated for the future? Perhaps that had an impact on a few but not the bulk of European operators. Maybe the problem is us, the non-Europeans. If we were more active in WAE maybe that would encourage more European activity. I can't speak to the activity level in Asia and elsewhere since I usually couldn't hear them at the same we had our openings to Europe. 

Going by the reported scores on 3830, we worked far more Europeans than vice versa. The QSOs on their side were especially low considering the contest duration. However the QTC achievements of the serious European competitors were very high, far higher than their QSOs.

When the roles are reversed in ARRL DX contests there is certainly more activity on both sides of the Atlantic. Is it because of the season? QTC? Something else? I don't know. Of course neither holds a candle to the activity in CQ WW and WPX.

QTC? What's a QTC?

Quite a few Europeans are happy to work DX in WAE while having no interest whatsoever in QTC. They are in it for the enjoyment, not the score. They never ask for QTC and they never accept if you offer. I can sympathize.

I wonder how many of them there are? Presumably there are some outside Europe that are too casual to post to 3830 and may not even bother to send in their logs. However it must be said that sending QTC is pretty easy with a modern contest logger, so why not do it if asked. It's easier for a European operator to avoid QTC since if they don't ask it is rare that someone will offer to send them some.

So it's possible to enter WAE and avoid QTC. But be prepared to say no a lot if you're outside of Europe.

Next year

After this year's brief experiment I just don't know. It didn't seem too exciting, just different. All I can say is that I like to go to others' parties when I'm invited since they so readily come to ours. Putting a few contacts (and QTC) in their logs is a neighbourly way to return the favour.

NAQP CW & 2BSIQ Notes

I don't practice contesting techniques. I've tried Morserunner and other tools and I hate them all. It's just too fake for my tastes. That said, they work -- ask any top ranked contester. The only "practice" I get is live, on air, in contests.

I made a last minute decision to enter NAQP CW last weekend. This is a contest where you must do SO2R and especially 2BSIQ to place well. The contest is short and fast paced. It can be very intense since there is little leeway for mistakes. Pick the wrong band at the wrong time and you can't compensate for the mistake the next day.

Despite my previous so-called practice in the IARU contest I have hardly operated HF at all recently. Summer is sporadic E season, and that means monitoring and running FT8 on 6 meters all day, every day. Outside of these contests I had only a handful of CW contacts in June and July. With most of my antennas and rotators fixed I had little excuse, so I configured the station for SO2R and went into it cold.

My biggest lack was 160 meters. With no radials on the vertical during farming season and Beverages that seem to be suffering from difficulties (probably nothing more than corroded connectors) there was no reason to stay up late. Unlike other times I did this one for a straight 10 hours, from 2 PM local to midnight. I only made a handful of contacts on 160 since I was either not heard or I had difficulty copying stations. I wasn't fussed about it.

Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   28    14
   80:  168    38
   40:  379    53
   20:  311    50
   15:  224    46
   10:   12     5
-------------------
Total: 1122   206  Total Score = 231,132

Despite the flaws of the station and operator I did respectably well. You can check 3830 for how my score compares to the raw scores of others in the highly competitive SOABLP category. I joined a team but our total wasn't great since several excellent operators in our club were not available and others could only participate part time. Did I mention yet that it's summer?

The contest started slow for me. It took me at least an hour to get fully into SO2R and then 2BSIQ, and to finally abandon 10 meters. I tried for too long on 10 since my neglect of it in January hurt my score. This time trying too hard hurt my score. After those misfires the contest went more smoothly with a consistent rate of over 100 QSOs per hour. Not great but okay.

As in January, I did 2BSIQ as much as possible. That raised my rate but hurt multipliers. It could have been worse because, as usual, participation is lower in summer than winter. The reason is that a lack of callers meant that I frequently scoured the bands for stations to work -- run on one radio while S & P on the other -- which added both contacts and multipliers. You have to do this anyway if you want to work others who are mostly 2BSIQ since they'll never call you. That is, unless they're assisted and the runs dry up. I didn't worry about them too much since they are more likely to click-and-call me than I am to find them. Tactics are quite different for assisted and non-assisted operators.

I envy the Europeans. Overlapping NAQP was the European HF Championship that has similarities to NAQP. Although the contests are about the same length -- more of them used high power, could use SSB and CW and were (by default) assisted -- their QSO totals were impressive. I could hear many of the European big guns off the back of my yagis. I sometimes had to QSY to avoid QRM.

We just don't seem to have the numbers on CW in NA any more. I last noted how this hurts our global competitiveness in my article on the IARU contest. It also hurts us in domestic contests.

Timing woes

2BSIQ, and also conventional SO2R, can only succeed with carefully aligned transmissions. However the process of syncing can cause unwanted behaviour in callers and others. There are many ways to "force" alignment that are acceptable to others but not always. Here are a few I dealt with during NAQP.

• Hair trigger callers: Some people just won't wait. If you delay even half a second they call again. They are constantly doubling with me. There is little I can do to work them other than by annoying someone on the other radio, which I try not to do. If there's another caller I'll pick them up instead so that I can make progress. The hair trigger guy never sticks around when that happens. Rush, rush, rush.
• Point-and-click: Other callers send their call once and if they don't hear a reply in a second or two they vanish. I don't notice until I send the exchange to them and hear silence in response. I try again even though it is pointless. They have already clicked on another spot. These callers often click and call later so it isn't a big problem.
• Click and run: A few seconds silence encourages some to grab the frequency. They are not actively stealing the frequency, just not bothering to check first by sending "QRL?". Depending on the circumstances I'll either resume my run or QSY. Many of them will disappear when they hear my CQ. They may be rude but they also don't persist when they're called out.

While SO2R and 2BSIQ are beneficial for those practicing these techniques they are also of value to others. The reason is that more QSOs overall are made and that fills everybody's logs, raising scores across the board. There are still some who don't see it that way and are too sensitive to transmission delays. It's a contest and they are understandably impatient. Whatever the reason, it is necessary to deal with callers like that.

Chris VO2AC sent me recordings of my two QSOs with MB1A, the WRTC team for which he was referee. In one case I was 2BSIQ and in the other case I was running while hunting on a different band and called MB1A. I won't include the recordings in this article since there is nothing noteworthy about them. It was interesting to hear the transmission delays as I waited for the transmission on the other radio to end.

In these cases the delay was brief, indicating smooth 2BSIQ and SO2R timing. That doesn't cause problems. Most contesters have learned to wait that fraction of a second for the SO2R operator to get to them. It would have been more interesting to have a recording where the timing goes awry. I'd find it painful listening but also instructive.

Call history fills and errors

I use pre-fills from a call history file to save typing. I favour any tool that makes 2BSIQ easier. The danger of the pre-fill is that many contesters don't check that it matches what is sent by the other station. That will earn them many errors, and they'll deserve every one of them. There's no excuse for it.

I use the call history file that is compiled by VE2FK and is easily imported with N1MM+ and other major contest logging applications. It is possible to make your own call history file from the logs of previous editions of the same contests, but I never do; I like the low effort convenience of Dub's files. No call history file can be entirely correct and it is of no interest to me whether an incorrect pre-fill was my fault or somebody else's! I watch, copy and override where necessary.

It is interesting that perhaps 5 to 10 call signs when entered during NAQP received a "?" indicating that they are not in the SCP (super check partial) database, yet when I moved to the exchange fields there was a call history pre-fill. That's unusual. I have no explanation.

However, when a call is not in the SCP and there is no call history pre-fill I question whether I copied the call correctly. Although I send the call when responding with my exchange it is a sad fact that many will not correct their call. I have to explicitly ask them to repeat their call when I run into this situation. In most of these cases I found that I had indeed copied their call incorrectly. 

A mistake I made was not to have a function key pre-programmed to send "cl?" or "call?" Keyboard and paddle CW is awkward in a contest, and with SO2R can easily be sent on the wrong radio depending on context and timing.

Error rate

It's certainly too soon to know my error rate for this contest. That will come out in due time. My hope is that I performed better than in the January NAQP CW where my error rate was over 2%. 2BSIQ is no excuse for that, and indeed there is never an acceptable excuse.

Instead I'll talk about my errors in CQ WPX CW in May this year. The result were just published and participants were sent their LCR (log check reports). Of the approximately 700 contacts in my log there were 9 errors, for an error rate of 1.3%. That's not too bad for a contest with (unpredictable) serial numbers, but still a little higher than my 1% objective.

Of those 9 errors, none were for call sign errors and 3 were for NIL (not in log). I am pleased with the former and there is no easy way to determine whether the latter were due to my error or theirs. So let's look at those 6 exchange errors; that is, serial numbers.

21048 CW 2026-05-30 1701 VE3VN  0244   G4R    0100  correct   200
14049 CW 2026-05-30 1918 VE3VN  0299   OM5MX  0129  correct   127
14029 CW 2026-05-30 2121 VE3VN  0311   SN7O   0792  correct   892
14036 CW 2026-05-31 1130 VE3VN  0453   SP4TKR 0103  correct  1034
14029 CW 2026-05-31 1941 VE3VN  0594   UW8SM  2196  correct  1196
 7018 CW 2026-05-31 2341 VE3VN  0685   DK6SP  2074  correct  2064

The copying errors were almost all due to dits. I'm not surprised. At high CW speeds, QRM and QRN, and SO2R it is quite easy to lose or add a dit. I'll just have to be more careful. Really that means more operating and thus more practice. It is not practical and is poor procedure to constantly send their number back to them with a "?" appended. That should only be done when truly in doubt. I was not in doubt, just wrong. I don't even have the weak excuse that the low bands are noisy since all but one were on 15 and 20 meters.

Of course it isn't just me. Countless time during the contest my call was copied as VE3UN. I had it removed from SCP by Bill W9KKN yet the incidence of this error has not diminished. I correct it when I hear the error but I also suffer many unwanted dupes. They hurt my rate which lowers my score. There is little I can do about the errors made by others.

Coming up

I am seriously considering operating in this weekend's WAE CW contest. I've never done it before. I've been reading the N1MM+ documentation on sending QTC, which tries really hard to make it easy. I expect I'll make mistakes anyway. Hopefully I won't confuse or slow down others too badly. If I do enter it will only be a brief effort to get a taste of how it is done. Any serious effort will wait for another year.