I did some tuning of my ZS6BKW antenna just before the 2012 ARRL CW Sweepstakes contest. My goal was to get the SWR in the CW Bands down to 3:1 or better. The reason I wanted this was that the internal tuner on my IC-7600 can quickly tune that range, without the need for my... Continue Reading →
ARRL CWSS 2012 – Preparation
Well, hurricane Sandy did no damage to my Chesapeake Bayside QTH. I am thankful for that and I wish a quick recovery to those that were ravaged by this nasty storm. The winds did leave one of my antennas needing attention. The winds pulled my anchor for the center of my ZS6BKW antenna out of ... Continue Reading →
ZS6BKW Antenna
The ZS6BKW Antenna is one of many HF multi-band wire antennas. It is similar to the famous G5RV antenna, which can cover multiple HF Bands but requires an antenna tuner on most bands. The ZS6BKW follows the design of the G5RV, but makes improvements. These improvements allow it to be used on more bands, and... Continue Reading →
Options for using the IC-7600 on RTTY with a PC
There has been a bit of discussion on the IC-7600 newsgroup about using FSK vs. AFSK when connecting a computer to the radio. Here is a summary that I posted in that group. Hopefully it will help some others get a kick-start on the process: I found what I think is a good summary of... Continue Reading →
Antenna Design: 20 meter 4-element Colinear
After looking at articles in the ARRL Antenna Book and on L.B. Cebick's web site, I thought a 4-element colinear wire antenna might be useful for my station. I currently use only wire antennas which work fine on 40 and 80 meters, but on the higher Bands, I need some gain. My main goal is... Continue Reading →
20 Meter Colinear Antenna Project
I like to try a new antenna every year for one of my favorite contests. A year or two ago I had great hopes for a 20 meter Colinear wire antenna in the ARRL CW Sweepstakes. I ran out of time and threw one together quickly. It did not do much for me, but I... Continue Reading →
Logbook of the World – a Great QSL Tool
I recently started using the ARRL's logbook-of-the-world (LOTW) as my primary means of tallying QSO confirmations. The initial setup took a little time, but once you are setup it could not be easier. LOTW provides a nice user interface, making it easy to see your progress if you are chasing any awards. The LOTW page... Continue Reading →
RTTY Test with IC-7600 and MMTTY
I used the North American RTTY QSO Party this weekend to try and get MMTTY working with N1MM for RTTY using my IC-7600 radio. It took me about 2 hours to get it all working, and the result is good. Here is a quick screenshot It is all nicely integrated. It was a little strange... Continue Reading →
Morse Code – Why Would Anyone Use It?
A friend in my local club recently made me aware of a group, CW OPS, that is an international alliance of Ham Radio Morse Code (CW) users. As fewer Hams are taking up the CW skill, I wondered what might make a new Ham actually want to use CW, now that it is not a... Continue Reading →
N1MM and Rig Control Macros
I am using my K2 remotely with N1MM for CW operation and Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) for other modes. My problem was that I did not have good rig function control with N1MM. So I fnally started reading the N1MM manual and saw that you can encode rig control functions in the Macros, accessed via... Continue Reading →
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