I tried to participate in the Colorado QSO Party.
They were talking about the Colorado QSO Party on the LARC Tuesday night Hamlet a few days prior to the party. I downloaded and read the rules on https://ppraa.org/coqp and familiarized myself with them.
I’d never participated in a QSO party where my State was the one people were trying to QSO with. Of course I had some experience doing local POTAs which became relatively easy once you spotted yourself or were spotted.
I was confused because some areas of the document talked about many digital modes but some others only talked about PSK and RTTY. I wanted to use JS8Call at QRP or 10W with my IC705 and a small laptop. I knew I didn’t have a fighting chance on SSB at QRP at my QTH which has S7 noise levels.
So Saturday morning came. I slept in, knowing the party started at 7 AM local time. I hooked up my IC-705, brought up FLDigi expecting to just be able to operate RTTY an PSK without learning it. Boy was I wrong. I had zero clue what I was doing. I don’t really use FLDigi and its pretty much not user-friendly. I felt like a fish out of water or more like a Mac user using a Windows machine where most of your time is spent futzing with things rather than doing the thing you are sitting in front of your computer trying to do.
I read up on and watched a few YouTube videos about using RTTY. I had a sad face looking at my waterfall seeing the FT8 and FT4 action just a few khz down from where I was hunting for RTTY signals, knowing that those operators were having a great time.
CW was also busy and I wished I knew how to fake it with FLDigi. I learned a few letters after I 3D printed my iambic paddle but didn’t continue with it. I certainly wasn’t up to the contesting lingo to do it anyhow.
Anyway, I did find some RTTY signals but had varying levels of sucess with my signal and antenna. I couldn’t hold on to listening to 1 side of a conversation.
I was especially excited for RTTY because its used in contests and its a mode that you really just need a special keyboard (vs. a whole computer) to talk since my Icoms decode RTTY internally.
I also was ignorant about contesting on RTTY. For example I did see “CQ TEST..” and thought that it was someone testing their RTTY setup. Later I would read that TEST is short for CONTEST. I would also learn that letters are sent uppercase even though you type them in lower case in FLDigi.
Then I tried PSK. There wasn’t really anyone on PSK frequencies on 20 meters. I figure 20 meters would be fine all day.
With digital modes not working, I tried my 100 watt Icom 7100 and a EFHW. Not many people were able to be raised on SSB. I thought that people just couldn’t hear me. So I took out the old girl.
I setup my Kenwood TS-180 downstairs and hooked up the SuperAntenna onto my fence and got a 1:1 match on the SSB sections of 20 meters. I cranked it up from 50 to 100 to 150 to 200 watts calling CQ. It was then that I really appreciated the voice recorder on both my Icom’s that loops your CQ calls.
I wasn’t able to raise anyone. I tried several times over a few hours. I was stupified. Was my signal not getting out? How do I check?
I went back to RTTY and PSK to try and see if I could use PSKReporter https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap?callsign=ae0rs&search=Find to see if anyone heard me on those modes. No dice.
At this point I had zero clue if my SSB, RTTY, or PSK signals were being heard. I even tried the digital modes at an astounding 35 watts with my 7100 to no avail. I assumed that no one was listening or they didn’t have their FLDigi reporting.
Most of the day went like this. I waffled between PSK, RTTY, and SSB on 20 meters using my 7100 and TS-180 (screw QRP even though I’ve SSB DX’d with 5w) at higher powers that I usually use. I gave up in the evening, knowing full well that 20 meter is still open after dark these days of Solar Cycle 25.
Oh well.
I think next time I will try to operate at a remote location away from noise. Perhaps people did hear me but my antenna was too comprimised to hear the. Its not like I was trying to bust pileups with watts or anything. There simply weren’t people on the air when I was, I guess.
