January 15, 2002
Talking about contests after having enlighten some keys points in part-one, let see something quite concrete which can help everybody to make progress and, therefore to increase the overall MCC score.
We can possess the best talent, have accumulated a lot of experience, know the tricks of the trade but, if we do not have an efficient station setup, in the right place, in the right shape, we will never, unfortunately, be able to thoroughly express our real value as a contester!.
And this is not enough: if we do not strive to have at our disposal a very
efficient station, at least in some occasion, we will unlikely evolve our operating
ability.
It would be like if a Formula 1 team let trains their drivers with a car lacking
of the necessary features, in terms of brakes, roadholding power, speed and
acceleration.
Both these considerations are often forgotten or underestimated, while they
should be emphasized instead.
This happen, on one side, because the contest's world, especially the Anglo-Saxon
background one, traditionally overestimates the operating abilities to the detriment
of other essential and decisive factors, and, on the other side, because something
mysterious could happen, that sometime can allow miraculous performances to
our non optimized stations, which we know it isn't true but we'd like to believe
in, to hope for an "incredible event" to happen, even without the
right means and from the wrong place.
Made it clear to the rocks that the earth is round, that the propagation is
not the same for everyone, and that some rules emphasize this imbalance instead
of reduce it, it is evident that to enter a contest form a favorite country
with not exceptional setup allow, even to the average skill operator, to excel
over those from other areas.
If this is true, nevertheless this does not guarantee at all to always win and, a well equipped operator, both in talent and brain, can surely do much more, even from privileged places, if he knows how to setup his station to make the best use of the advantages he has and, therefore, sonorously beat even undisputed champions (talking about operating skill) but who didn't take care of making use of all the possible opportunities.
Same considerations apply to each geographical entity, at continental or at
national level, as well as to the local challenges, perhaps inside the MCC itself….
First of all you need to resign to the fact that the key point in an efficient setup are the antennas. If this, on one side, let you face with a weak point not easy to solve, on the other side this is argument where you can take advantages, at least over all those people that will continue to believe to the fairy tales on antennas and to hope for miracles to happen and rely on their omnipotent operating skills.
Before to enter the maze of the problems arising from the wish of do not waste
the emitted electromagnetic energy and to get the one wandering ether, it is
worth the effort to spend some word on the radio set, headphones and some other
basic detail.
In the actual digital era there are full of prodigious solutions in transceivers
along with things that, shown as vanguard solutions, have the only purpose to
lower costs. It is a physiological issue, considering the fact the amateur radio
population is going down inexorably and there is the need to offer compact equipment
rather than technological jewels whose price comes after their performances.
A true contester should always operate a true performing and reliable equipment, giving favor to well known and reliable things against the latest innovation, seeing that graphical displays and colored lights do not help to put more QSO in your log.
This doesn't mean that there are no recent equipment able to exhibit excellent performances, this is only an invitation to verify their conformance to one's expectation before decide to use them in a contest, a moment where reality will emerge easily and every malfunction or gap, will directly translate into a lower result compared to what you could have achieved with the right equipment.
Acknowledge it or not, since the mid 80's we didn't see substantial improvements in the analogical part as well as in the spectral purity of the signals generated inside the equipment. Talking about receivers and transmitters in these terms, what was the top class at the beginning of the 90's, is more or less still there today, relatively to the primary circuits which mainly concern a contester.
Before you get cheated by the various DSP characteristics, although quite useful in some circumstances, it is better to see what are the performances in terms of distortion immunity and real selectivity. Any addition device is just useless if a receiver has a poor dynamic range and get saturated with strong signals, or it has inter-modulation and let you hear non existent signals instead of those you would like to hear, or if, moreover, it has well shaped narrow filters but even so, all the IF signals at -40dB already go through and climb over them and get the reception dirty, or if it has an AGC with a slow intervention time, and so on…
In the same way the lack of good transmission characteristics, like splatters and key clicks, that apparently shouldn't affect the sender but only the receiver side, are potentially total score enemies. If it is true that you need to be concentrate on your own and do not waste time, all the discussions you have each 5 minutes with colleagues complaining about your bad splatters or you key clicks is going straight on the wrong way.
Often one can believe that disturbances are symptomatic of the usage of a high power, but that it's not necessarily true. Mainly splatters and key clicks are due to congenital defects of the transceiver itself or to poor, or excessive, setting of some parameter carried out by the operator itself.
In short, let borrow a "serious" equipment from a friend, a contest
proven virtue one, and compare it in similar contest conditions against the
equipment you would like to use in a contest. Be a severe judge, because you
are risking part of your result and, saying that the new set is good, when it
is not true, you would be making fool of yourself.
I think good references of the early 90's (and even before), quite valid as
a second hand equipment, if in good shape, could be the IC765, 761, 751A, as
well as the Kenwood TS950, 940,930, just to quote some of them.
Talking about receivers, the headphones are among the most important elements
of the whole chain, since they have to let the operator be able to discern the
audio information.
Being the operator itself the most subjective thing on the earth, it's quite
difficult to give some technical and audio indications, with regard to this
device, that can be valid for all. Preferences are very variable and everybody
has his own.
Nevertheless some points are objective, and while saying that if you are going
to operate in a noisy environment it is better to adopt the closed pavilion
type, not being disturbed by the external noise.
In the same way, it's worth saying that going to put on the headphone for a
long period, it's better if it is even comfortable besides efficient, so not
to be a source of tiredness itself.
Another important thing to verify before a contest is the level of the disturbances
you can receive. While it is true that some of those disturbances will be difficult
to remedy, for instance a 500 KV power line or a neighbor burner that has a
5 minutes sparkling each time the heating start over, other types has to be
tracked down and eliminated. It would be ridiculous if you couldn't have a good
reception due to the noise generated by objects inside your shack, like your
PC, the monitor, the TNC, or inside your hose, like the TV set EAT, the light-dimmer
of your sitting room, some of those energy saving lamps, and so on.
Having said that, also the way you will "log" the qso's during the
contest is not to be neglected and using paper log is really a not recommended
method in favor of a PC solution.
Naturally also the various contest software differ each other and nothing exists
that one can recommend as the perfect one, from every point of view.
Whatever the software, it is clear that is nonsense to utilize something you
are not familiar with, so you need some early practice, to discover also what
could be some limitations you will face using that program.
Be aware that the PC, in presence of strong RF fields, may have malfunctions
and it is better to verify that such events do not exist, so not to be in trouble
just a minute after the contest start, or just when you do a band change and
you discover that to much RF is circulating and the PC freeze each time you
try to call.
So, to enter in the merit and analyze everything you would need in your setup,
a whole book wouldn't be enough, and I will be satisfied with the antennas only,
perhaps the most important argument, and to start with something up-to-date.
Considering we are in wintertime and that in January and February there will
be the CQ 160m contests, probably the two events alone could give to many the
DXCC in a couple of weekends, we will analyze what we could do to have an interesting
participation…..
73, Mauri I4JMY
(Translated by Bob, I2WIJ).