2,700 Challenge Points Reached

With a QSL received from JD1BMH yesterday for 20-M and 17-M contacts, I have now reached the 2,700 point level on the DXCC Challenge.  This is 4-2/3 years after I hit the 2,500 level (https://w8tn.blogspot.com/2020/03/finally-reached-2500-level-on-arrl.html).  The further you go up this "ladder", the harder it is to contact New Ones. (Click on any image to see a larger view.)

 

I wonder if I can order a 2,700 Medallion from ARRL?

Clipperton Island Confirmed on 6-M

 

What a THRILL to get this entity confirmed on 6-M.  I spent a fair amount of my time on Clipperton (FOØXX) in 1985 trying to make even a single 6-M QSO.  We set schedules with California KW stations to no avail.  Not a single Magic Band QSO was made in our 8 day operation of 30,958 QSO's.  (Click on any image to see it larger.)

W8TN as FOØXX from Clipperton in 1985

 

This year's TX5S operation made a total of 226 QSO's on 6-M including EME.
 
In 2013 TX5K made 329 QSO's on 6-M including 56 on EME by W7GJ. 

In 2000 FOØAAA made 139 QSO's on 6-M.

In 1992 FOØCI made 279 QSO's on 6-M.

Those four Clipperton Island operations may have produced all the Magic Band contacts EVER made on 6-M with Clipperton Island - 973 QSO's!  A RARE QSL indeed.

This contact now gives me confirmations on 10-Bands and 3-Modes with Clipperton Island.  Maybe someone will operate 2-M EME from there in the near future?

And, to make this contact even more memorable, I worked ZL7DX, Chatham Island, less than one hour before I worked Clipperton Island.  WOOF!  Some days the Magic Band is truly MAGIC!

These LoTW confirmations bring me to 157 All-Time Entities confirmed on 6-M.  WOW!  I never dreamed of reaching such a level on 50 MHz.

Update WSJT-X to the Latest CTY.dat File

 The following quote is from: https://norfolkcoastamateurs.co.uk/cty-dat-country-files/

Have you ever wondered how all of the various types of amateur radio software, e.g. N1MM and DX Cluster nodes, keep up to date with the plethora of changes that occur to a simple list of countries and prefixes? These changes take place almost daily and getting it right can be vital for contest point scoring and award tracking so you need to log the correct information.

Which DXCC entity is GB4CTY located in this week? It could be any of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Island, Guernsey or Jersey.

What about G3YPP/NHS. Surely the /N places him stateside.

It would be a remarkable feat if every single program was updated individually by their development teams every time a prefix or entity changed or a new Special Event Station was activated.

Fortunately, most logger and contest software makes use of cty.dat files which have been kept updated by Jim Reisert, AD1C as a labour of love for many, many years. Known as country files, full details can be seen on Jim’s website here: Country Files

This is from: https://www.country-files.com/contest/wsjt-x/

The WSJT-X User Guide states, “WSJT-X includes a built-in cty.dat file containing DXCC prefix information. Updated files can be downloaded from the Amateur Radio Country Files website when required. If an updated cty.dat is present in the logs folder and readable, it will be used in preference to the built-in one.”

Starting with Version 2.7, you can update the country file from within the program. In Settings, click on the Colors tab and you’ll find the information at the bottom of the window.

WSJT-X pull down File | Settings... | Colors tab

This update process simply can not be any more painless.  Doing this assures that your WSJT-X decodes are identified as the correct country.  And, if you use supplemental programs like JTAlert or GridTracker, they can give you audible or text/email alerts for those decodes you need.

Configure JTAlert to Send Text Msg or Email User Alerts

JTAlert has the ability to alert the user (you) by playing an audible message for Wanted States, New DXCC, New Zone, New Grid, or several other decodes you want to be notified about when it decodes a callsign matching one of your "Needs."  This feature has garnered me several New Ones on 6-M (both DXCC's and Grids) by playing an audio message of "Wanted Call," "New Country," "New State," "New Grid," or any of a dozen or so other alerts.  This feature is wonderful as long as you are close enough to your computer to hear that audible alert from your computer's speakers. 

But what about when you are too far away to hear that alert?  To solve that problem Bill, WTØDX, has written a procedure to allow JTAlert to send a Text Message and/or an Email in addition to that audible alert using JTAlert's User Alert feature.  Zowie!  I would say this procedure is the "Bee's Knees" but you have to be "of a certain age" to understand that phrase!  Maybe I should call it "Lit", or "Dope" or "Fire" to be more current in my slang.  In any event, I think this is Absolutely AWESOME!

I  was lucky to be a "Beta Tester" for this procedure.  My findings were that "Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of creating folders and working with text files should be able to follow this procedure with no problems." It took me exactly 1 hour to complete the procedure AND record 2 pages of notes at the same time.  I did already have a Gmail account with 2-Step Verification enabled so that gave me a bit of a head start.

The procedure is contained in a 19-page PDF file.  It is that long because it has a LOT of screenshots to make each step easy to follow.  An overview of the procedure is:

- Create Gmail email account (optional if you already have a Gmail account you want to use)
- Enable 2-Step Verification for the account
- Generate an Application Password for that account
- Edit the Send Alert file and save as a batch file
- Download CMail application
- Store Send Alert batch file and CMail application in a folder
- Configure JTAlert
- Test

You can download the PDF file plus two text files (Send Alert.txt and CMail test.txt) which are described in the procedure, as a ZIP file from this link:  JTAlert User Alert Files.  UnZIP that file then follow the procedure in the PDF file.

Below are screenshots of an email and a text message created by this procedure.  I had left my radio receiving on 17-M and JTAlert decoded 4L7T which would be a New One for me.  It then sent me the email and text messages shown below.  (I missed working 4L7T because I was on the mower and did not hear my phone ding!)

4L7T Email + Text Message

The latest version of JTAlert is 2.60.10 available HERE.  My version is 2.60.5 (Build date: 7-Feburary-2023) and this procedure worked just fine with my older version.

Combine the above procedure to alert you to needed callsigns which your own station copies with the HamAlert feature which will send you a text message when a needed entity is spotted on the Cluster or reported to PSKReporter, and you have covered all the bases.  Here is a Post detailing the HamAlert notification feature: DX Spots that "Only YOU Need on Your Phone.

UPDATE RE Verizon Wireless:

For those of you with Verizon Wireless, please read the following article regarding a new "feature" to disable email to text messages. 

If you have turned off email to text "spam" messages, then you will not receive the alerts.  (Thanks to Jim KC4HW for pointing this out).

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/29/verizon-has-a-new-way-for-customers-block-email-to-text-spam-messages.html

--
73 Bill WT0DX

DX Spots that "Only YOU Need" on Your Phone

Chasing DX on 6-M is always challenging.  The propagation is not very predictable and stations can appear only for moments before disappearing - never to be heard again.  I have long searched for a way to be notified when there was an opening that "might" allow me to add a new country to my totals.  Early on my push was to just reach the 100 entity level for 6-M DXCC.  My quest took 37 years and 10 months on the band before DXCC was achieved.  Still, mine was the first 6-M DXCC in West Virginia and only the 739th award issued worldwide.  During a lot of my pursuit there were very few countries who authorized operation on 50 MHz.  And, most major manufacturers did not include that band in their radios. (Plus, FT8 did not exist!)

Very early on there was a net on 28.885 MHz which alerted folks to openings around the country.  In 1989 it alerted me to an opening for KG6DX on Guam.  That opening lasted less than 90 seconds for me but gave me a New Country. Sometime in the late 1990's, I joined with several of my 6-M DX'ing friends all over the country, and created a telephone alerting network to let others know when an opening was happening.  I kept and distributed a list of calls, names, phone numbers, XYL's name (in case she answered the phone), and a listing of the prefixes that person Did NOT Need.  Below is a snippet of a later copy of this list (click on any image to see it larger):

One tool I also used was to put a "Baby Monitor" at the radio, let the radio scan the lower part of the band, and take the monitor with me when I was out of the shack.   In later years I set up Logger32 to send a text message to my phone when Telnet posted a spot for a New One for me.

Most recently I have been using JTAlert to announce NEW COUNTRY or NEW GRID over the computer speakers when my station copied a New One.  This has been very helpful and alerted me to the fact that I was copying China while I was on the back porch grilling burgers!

But if I depend on only being alerted when my station actually copies a New One, I may not make it to the radio in time to score a QSO because the openings are so short.  Over the years I have missed many New Ones because I did not have the radio turned on, I was at the store or otherwise unaware of an opening, or multiple other reasons.  In reality you can not sit at the radio all day waiting for the propagation gods to favor your location.  But, as we know, (per K4OM) the way to succeed on 6-M (or most bands) takes your "Butt in the Chair!"

The trick is an "Early Warning" system.  Something that would tell me that a country I need is being heard or spotted "somewhere near me."  Call it my 6-M DEW Line.  I think I may have found that!  It is HamAlert which is a is system that allows you to get notifications when a desired station appears on the DX cluster, the Reverse Beacon Network, SOTAwatch, POTA, or PSK Reporter. You only need to sign up for a HamAlert account (free), load the HamAlert app on your phone, and enter "Triggers" to tell the system when you want to receive an alert. AWESOME!  As you can see below, HamAlert processed over 13 MILLION spots and sent over 218 THOUSAND Alerts just TODAY!

You can set up the parameters (Triggers, Limits, Destinations, etc.) on the online HamAlert page.  Under "Destinations" I chose the HamAlert app on my iPhone as where the alerts would be sent and chose "Morse" for the sound.  I made no changes from the defaults on the "Limits" page.  On the "Triggers" page, I set up a Trigger for 6m and attempted to load my Club Log records into the "DXCC" condition.  Unfortunately after the upload, HamAlert only had 104 entities for me on 6-M instead of the 143 it should have had.  So, I ended up editing the DXCC list manually for the 197 entities I have not worked.  NOTE: Do not take too long editing your list without SAVEing it as you can be logged out of HamAlert and will have to start over.  (This is the voice of experience talking!)

The first time I did this I was getting a lot of spots from VK's for VK and ZL stations which I need.  But, that was just Too Much Information (TMI) that I could not use.  This was because HamAlert was processing spots from everywhere to generate my alerts.  So, I set a condition where the CQ Zone of the "Spotter of the DX" had to be in the U.S. or Canada (Zone 3, 4, and 5) - see above image.  That stopped the spots completely.  But would it still work the way I wanted?  Since I could see on the Cluster that U.S. stations were working Brazil, I edited the DXCC list so that it showed I needed Brazil.  The alerts started coming in (only from U.S. hams) so I knew I had it working.  Editing the DXCC list to remove Brazil from my "needs" and the PY alerts stopped.

Then, a spot for ZP, Paraguay, appeared!  That was one I need!  But, after rushing to the radio, I did not have propagation.  Still it alerted me to the "possibility" of a ZP in the future.  Below is a screenshot of what appeared on my cell phone.  I received an alert sound in CW and the alert information appeared on my phone's Notification Screen just like other news or weather apps.

 

 

As "Sources" I chose spots from the "Cluster" and spots received by "PSKReporter."  That way, if a station copies a country I need but they do not post it to the Cluster, and if they have WSJT-X or JTDX set to send their reception information to PSKReporter - I'll see that spot!  No need to just depend on ONLY stations who choose to spot a station on the Cluster. 

The second night after setting this up my phone started receiving alerts from hams on the West Coast spotting VK and ZL stations.  BINGO!  Just what I wanted.  No alerts "from" VK or ZL hams.  ONLY alerts from those in the U.S.

With the 6-M season just around the corner and the Sunspots ramping up, I have great hopes that this app will assist me in working more New Ones!

Z66X, Rep. of Kosovo, Confirmed on 6-M

Between June 28 and July 4, 2022, Adrian, KO8SCA, Martti, OH2BH, Ville, OH2MM, Driton, Z61DX Enver, Z61EK, and Naim, Z62NS, carried out an activity from the Republic of Kosovo.  Their plan was to concentrate on 6-M to hand out the most recent DXCC entity, Z6, to as many as possible.  Their plan was also to concentrate on stations in the USA and Japan.  They took an Elecraft K3S, an SPE amplifier and a 7-element InnovAntenna (LFA-2) with an 8.9m boom.

Of course, I was primed and ready to try and work them as this would be a New Country for me on the Magic Band.  Day after day I was sitting at the radio with my antenna headed toward Kosovo but no signals were received.  In fact, from what I could see on PSK Reporter, there was no one in the U.S. copying Z66X.  Then on June 30th I saw PSK Reporter spots showing that Z66X was being copied in the USA.  (Click on any image below to see it in a larger size.)

However, the opening seemed to favor the South East part of the country and not me. Note there was 1-1/2 hours between that first spot (on the left) and the ones on the right.  This was good information.  It told me not to give up if an opening seemed to be short lived.

As the days wore on, it seemed that almost no one in the U.S. was working Z66X.  I was there, in the chair, every morning - just in case.  That patience was rewarded on July 3rd when I had my first decode of Z66X:

The bad news is that was a "one and done" decode.  Nothing else was copied from Kosovo for some 2-1/2 hours.  Still, I remembered what had happened three days earlier so I stuck with it.  That effort was rewarded almost 3 hours after my first decode when I again began decoding Z66X.  I began to call and call and after many transmissions, made a good QSO:

 

 

There was a lot of jumping up and down and many "YA HOOO"s taking place in my shack after that!  A VERY RARE New One had been added to my 6-M Entities Worked.  Just 16 days later I was rewarded with an LoTW Confirmation and today, a beautiful QSL arrived in the mail:

 

When I found the following recap on Twitter, it really put into perspective the magnitude of my QSO:

KOSOVO Z66X 6M DX-PEDITION RECAP

Many have wondered about the delay on publishing the Z66X QSO statistics and log updates for the variety of databases such as ClubLog and LoTW.

The truth is that Martti, OH2BH was diagnosed with COVID following the Z6 trip and he is still suffering of it. The other Z66X team members, Adrian, KO8SCA and Ville, OH2MM have shown no symptoms yet and they are assisting with the log process. In total some 3572 QSOs were made, out of which 44 QSOs on 6M FT8 were made with North America. Please QRX for a few more days for the log update.

Meanwhile, Champ, E21EIC had the entire Siam DX Group present in the temple to talk to Buddha about Martti’s case. The message was loud and clear: “Buddha says that the DX-ers never die!”

You can also delight Martti, OH2BH with your “get well” wishes by email.

73 Al 4L5A

 6-M is always the "Magic Band" but sometimes you have to "make your own magic" with planning, patience, and perseverance!

Ham Radio STILL Gives Me a Thrill!

Last night provided me with a thrill in Ham Radio that just never seems to get old.   Snagging that elusive DX on a New Band.  Working a New One is only surpassed by working an All-Time New One (ATNO) and it seems several in the West Virginia DX Association (WVDXA) scored one of those "rarest of the rare" contacts with this DX'pedition to A2, Botswana.  CONGRATULATIONS to all those folks!  Hopefully you got your piece of pie as a reward for scoring that QSO!!!

I am reminded of how it was "back in the day" when a New One was worked.  Back then there were no WARC bands (30-M, 17-M and 12-M) so the record keeping was a "little" easier.  Still, it meant having separate PAPER DXCC lists for each band AND for each mode!

Note: at the beginning of my DX'ing career, I had only ONE DXCC List because there were no 5-Band awards.  If I worked A2 on one band, that was all I needed in my mind.  And, if I worked them on SSB, I made no effort to work them on CW let alone RTTY (digital.)

Since there was no PacketCluster spotting system back then, you found the DX by simply tuning your radio and checking out EVERY signal you heard until you could identify that station.  If you happened to run across a pileup on the band, you had to then physically check your list(s) to see if that was a New One.  But I can tell you that if it was an ATNO, that list was kept in your brain and you knew instantly you had never worked that country before!

There were check-boxes in your paper logbook to let you record if a QSL had been sent or received.  But you still needed to keep paper records to record when you sent for a QSL, where you sent for it (bureau, manager, direct, etc.), and what you enclosed ($$$, SAE, etc.)  All this paper-shuffling made you feel more like an accountant than a ham radio operator.  That data can now be easily recorded in your logging program and instantly available to you.  It is simply amazing what an improvement that is.

Plus, today with the PacketCluster, computer logging, Club Log and LoTW - that record-keeping "burden" has been removed.  Today you don't need to tune the bands looking for DX, your logging program will take the incoming PacketCluster spots, check them against your log, then color-code them for you to tell you not only what stations have been spotted but whether or not it is a New One or an ATNO for YOU personally!

On the image at the upper-right, you can see that there are three spots from the PacketCluster that are color-coded Blue.  (Click on any image to see a larger version.) These spots are displayed in my logging program's BandMap.  Those are New Ones for ME.  If they were Red, those would be ATNO's.  If I hover my mouse over any of those (like I did with AP2HA in the above screenshot) I get a pop-up (shown in Yellow) with tons of detail.  BOY, that's so much of an improvement over the "old days" that you just can't believe it unless you were there.

The Green square shown just to the left of most of those calls indicate that station is an LoTW user, as does the "+" sign in the Yellow pop-up.  LoTW has improved the DX'ing hobby beyond measure.  At one time I waited 13 YEARS to get a QSL from an ATNO!  And, when that card came, it was still an ATNO as I had never worked that country again in all those years.  Today, you can sometimes get an LoTW confirmation while the DX'pedition is STILL UNDERWAY!  WOW!

All one needs to do is to click on any spot in the above BandMap and your radio jumps to the exact frequency and mode for the spotted station plus the callsign gets placed in the Call field of the logging program and is ready to be logged once the station is worked.

Your logging program can also tell you where you have and have not worked that particular entity (band/mode/QSL Rcvd or not.)  In the screenshot on the left, I have A2, Botswana, Confirmed (shown in Red text) on 10-M and 20-M SSB plus 30-M and 40-M CW.  The two Yellow "DIG" fields show that I have "Worked" (Blue not Red text) A25RU on 17-M and 30-M Digital Modes.  They are Yellow since I typed A25RU into the Call field to see these Worked/Confirmed records and the Yellow says I have worked "A25RU" (not some other A2 station) on those Bands/Modes.  If I had just typed "A2" in the box, there would have been no Yellow boxes, just the Mode shown in Blue text since it was not confirmed on those QSO's.  Plus the Yellow box for 80-M CW indicates my QSO from last night (as recorded in my log.)  It is SO easy to check what bands/modes you need an entity on now, just enter the prefix for the entity and your Worked/Confirmed window will display all that data!  No need to shuffle through all those PAPER DXCC lists!

From this data I can easily see that from this A25RU DX'pedition I have added two New Bands to my A2 list of stations worked as well as one New Mode.  And, it also shows a gaping hole for 12-M which is one I still need.

If I want to check when I worked those stations, I can just click on any of the above boxes and get a pop-up with my log data.  For instance, if I click on the Red SSB for 20-M, what I see is shown above.

Are you kidding me?  1973 for that A2 QSO?  WOW!  Some of you reading this may still have been in diapers or not even born then!

Still, the way things used to be, you were never 100% sure your QSO made it into the DX Station's log until you got his QSL (or not) which would always take 6-months or more and sometimes YEARS!  Today, you just need to check out an online log to see if the DX has recorded your QSO.  Below on the right is a screenshot of Club Log for the log of the A25RU DX'pedition checked against my own call.

Bingo!  All my A25RU QSO's made the log!  That is SUCH a benefit that you can't imagine.  Years ago I was certain I had worked A5, Bhutan, for my very last country.  That would have put me on the Top of the Honor Roll.  Two of my friends heard the QSO and congratulated me on the contact.  BUT, almost a year later I got back a "Not in Log" to my QSL request.  I was CRUSHED!  If I had been able to check online at that time for my contact and seen it was not there, I would have tried for another.

Finally, my logging program, Logger32, even tracks my progress toward various awards.  Looking at my confirmations for Mixed DXCC I can see my totals in the screenshot at the bottom of this Post.

That 80-M QSO with A25RU last night gave me 240 entities worked on 80-M All-Time and 237 Current since I have 3 Deleted entities worked on 80-M.  You can see two Yellow boxes with a "W" in them.  That indicates that A2, Botswana, has been "Worked" on those Bands but not yet Confirmed.

The Green boxes with a "G" in them indicate those QSO's have been Confirmed AND Credit for them has been "Granted" by ARRL.  The Orange "C" box tells me that QSO is "Confirmed" but not yet Granted toward my DXCC.  

This table is a HUGE help in trying to confirm your contacts.  Just scroll through the list and see what contacts are "Worked" but not "Confirmed."  Click on the "W" box and a pop-up will give you the log information on that entity/band QSO.  Below is what I see if I click on the Yellow box for 80-M on the A2, Botswana line.  This gives me the information for ANY station marked as "W" (Worked and NOT Confirmed.)  That will allow me to track when (or if) I sent for a QSL and give me access to all the information regarding that QSO.  Using these tools you can stay up to date on your QSL'ing.  And, we all know, the QSL is supremely important.  Without a QSL or an LoTW Confirmation, you have NO Credit for working that entity.  Anyone can "claim" they worked anything but if you can PROVE it, that makes all the difference.

The Red boxed text in the image below simply shows I've been DX'ing for a LONG time.  I have Worked and Confirmed 18 entities which no longer count for DXCC!  Some of those countries I have worked on as many as 3 modes and NINE bands!  But, none of those QSO's count anymore because those entities have been DELETED from the ARRL DXCC List.  BUMMER!

 

 

Below is the list of countries/entities I have Worked and Confirmed in the past that no longer count for DXCC:

  1.  Abu Ail Is.
  2.  Yemen Arab Republic
  3.  Saudi Arabia/Iraq Neutral Zone
  4.  Germany
  5.  German Democratic Republic
  6.  Bajo Nuevo
  7.  Serrana Bank & Roncador Cay
  8.  Kingman Reef
  9.  Canal Zone
10.  Czechoslovakia
11.  Territory of New Guinea
12.  Bonaire, Curacao (Neth. Antilles)
13.  Sint Maarten, Saba, Saint Eustatius
14.  Malyj Vysotskij Island
15.  Southern Sudan
16.  Aldabra
17.  Penguin Islands
18.  Walvis Bay


So, even though I have been DX'ing for over 50 years, I probably enjoy it now more than I ever have.  That is because of all the new technology that makes the hobby easier to enjoy.  For me, this thrill of contacting some far-off country on a band where I have never worked them before, is STILL powerful!  It just does NOT get old!

Please remember this history when your QSO does not show up in an online log as fast as you expect.  Or when you think it is taking too long for LoTW to update after your upload.  Today things are so much better than before so please - have a little patience!  Remember, I waited 13 YEARS for one country to be confirmed!!!  Just enjoy what we have now and keep working the New Ones!

FINALLY! Reached the 2,500 Level on the ARRL Challenge

Thirteen years after I first achieved the basic ARRL DXCC Challenge Award with 1,000 confirmations, I have now reached the 2,500 confirmation plateau.  When the envelope arrived with my 2,500 Medallion, it was a feeling quite a bit more exciting than receiving the QSL for an All-Time New One! (See photo of my 2500 Medallion at left - Click on any photo to see a larger image.)

Once I took the photo on the left, I pealed off the 3M backing tape and affixed the 2,500 Medallion to my DXCC Challenge Award.  You can see the on the right.  This plaque hangs right on the wall as you enter my shack!

The way this award is figured is by counting your CONFIRMED "Band-Points."  Each "Band-Point" is earned by working a country on one band and getting it CONFIRMED.  Since this award applies only to the 10 bands from 160 through 6-M (60-M does not count), and since only "Current" countries (entities) are counted, when you multiply those 10 bands by the current maximum number of countries (340) you find that the maximum number of "Band-Points" you can achieve is 3,400.  But, to reach that level, you would need to work (and CONFIRM) each and every country in the world on each of those 10-bands.  Imagine trying to confirm 340 countries on 6-M!

Below is the basic rules statement for the DXCC Challenge Award as found on the ARRL web site:

"The DXCC Challenge Award is earned by working and confirming at least 1,000 DXCC band-points on any Amateur bands, 160 through 6 meters (except 60 meters). Certificates are not available for this award however, there is a distinctive wall plaque available to display your achievement. Plaques can also be endorsed in increments of 500 additional band points. Deleted entities do not count for this award."

Should you manage to reach the rarefied height of having 3,000 Confirmations, your "Medallion" would look like the photo on the left.  It is difficult for me to imagine my achieving that level but, as I make this post, I have 2,513 Confirmed and am waiting on another another 13 QSL's for stations already Worked.  So, only 474 more to go - Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

DX Cluster Client Program - CC User

Many, if not all, logging programs have the ability to connect to a PacketCluster server to obtain DX spots.  However, if you want to control the spots that are coming into your logger, you need to issue archaic DOS type commands.  VE7CC has created a program called "CC User" which resides on your computer and easily allows "mouse click" changes to the spot information which is displayed in your logger.

This software, which you install on your computer, allows you to connect to the VE7CC PacketCluster or any other cluster you want.  You then connect to the "CC User" program from your logger.  "CC User" has the advantage of being able to supply spots to other programs like contest loggers (N1MM+ for example) at the same time.  Or, if you have other computers in the house, you can connect to the "CC User" program on your main computer and save on the usage of your Internet uplink/downlink while maintaining the settings you have created for receiving spots.  Plus, there are tons of ways to filter the spots coming from "CC User".

One of the main reasons I started using the "CC User" program a few years ago was that you can tell it to "Auto Reconnect" if the link to your chosen PacketCluster fails.  And, not only can you reconnect if you get dropped, but you can also automatically pull in all the DX spots you missed.

CLICK HERE for the page describing all the features of "CC User."  It is free software.  Once on the CC User web page, scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page to find the "Installation of CC User" instructions.  Under that heading you will find the link to download the program: "Download CC User Full Version (ver 2.421)"   Clicking on this link will allow you to download a ZIP file.  Just Un-ZIP and proceed as you normally would with any program installation.

There are tons of ways to filter the spots with just a mouse click (instead of sending an archaic DOS command to the Cluster.)  For example, on the top left of this Post is a window showing how easy it is to reject spots from certain bands. On the right is a snapshot of the screen where you can filter the station sending the spots, not only by country (as by telling it you only want to see spots from the USA) but you can drill down and filter only spots from a particular STATE or PROVINCE.  Again, on the left, is a screenshot of the "Set" menu with just some of the options available available in "CC User."  Click on any image to see a larger view. 

On the right is a "Tab" in "CC User" which I use often.  The screenshot is captioned "DX Tab."  Say I'm trying to work a station that I see spotted on 40-M.  But, the most recent spot only says "UP" with no indication of how far up he is listening or, the spot does not even SAY UP, it just gives the DX station and frequency.  So, I click on the DX "Tab" of "CC User" and select "40" for the band and I can then see all the spots that have come in on 40-M in chronological order.  I can then scroll up through the spots and look for any spots with good info for me.  Check out the spots for T33C on the "DX" tab screenshot and you can see what I mean.  Using this will also help me find spots with comments giving QSL information or the fact that the DX station changed bands, etc.  Your logging program may only show the most recent spot which may not give you this info and trying to scroll back through all the spots for all bands to find any useful info is a PITA and usually unsuccessful.

DX Tab

If you are serious about getting your spots or have questions about certain PacketClusters, you can run multiple instances of "CC User" to test various Clusters and answer questions like:  Which node should you connect to? Which nodes are faster? Are you missing DX by connecting to a certain node? Does the "Get Missed Spots" really work?  Just set up multiple instances of "CC User", connect to various nodes, and compare them side-by-side.

When you setup "CC User" you need to look at the "Port Setup" screen like what is shown next on the Left.  I've marked in Red the part that deals with your connecting to "CC User" from your Logging Program.  If you are going to use Telnet to connect to your logging program you can ignore the settings for RS-232.

With the setup shown, the program is waiting for incoming connections from logging programs on port 7300. If the logging program is running on the same computer, use the local telnet loopback port (127.0.0.1 :7300). If the logging program is in a different computer, telnet to this computer's IP address at port 7300. The number of logging program connections is unlimited. To enable or disable this feature, you need to go to "Configuration>Ports/Logging Program>Logging Program Connection>Telnet" in the "CC User" program.

To enable this connection in the Logger32 logging program, Right-Click in the Telnet window of Logger32 and choose Setup | Setup remote hosts.  You should then setup a remote host to look like the screenshot shown on the right for "Telnet connection setup..."

You can see the address for connecting to VE7CC-1 is the telnet loopback port address of 127.0.0.1 and the Port is 7300.  This Port has to be the same as what you set up in "CC User."  In my setup I was already using Port 7300 so I clicked on "Use Custom Port" and entered "7100" - then that is the Port I had to use in Logger32.

This may seem like a lot of work just to set up a source for PacketCluster spots but, for me, the other benefits of the "CC User" program are well worth the effort.  I let my computer run 24/7 and "CC User" is always running.  I may shut down and later re-start Logger32 but when I do, my VE7CC-1 Cluster is always there.

VP6DX - A Clean Sweep

With the VP6DX DX'pedition to Ducie Island drawing to a close, it has now broken the record for the most QSO's worked by any previous DX'pedition. Many people have managed to work Ducie for a new one or for new Bands or Modes that they were not able to do in previous DX'peditions. Personally, I only had three Bands and two Modes confirmed from previous operations.

But, now that I have moved to the New QTH on the Top of the Hill, and have installed the Monster-L for 160-M, I decided to see if I could fill in some of those needed Bands and Modes. As you can see from the VP6DX "Leader Board" below, I managed to do that - in style!


I do not believe I have ever swept a DX'pedition on ALL Bands and Modes they were operating on before. And, this is especially pleasing since I only have two antennas - an 80-M Inverted-L and the Monster-L for 160-M. All other bands were worked by loading one or the other of those two antennas with a Drake MN-2000 tuner. Working 20 Band/Mode "slots" is the MOST that ANY operator has accomplished with this DX'pedition! But, I'd trade a lot of those "slots" for a single 6-M QSO - Hi!

The most difficult contact by far was the 30-M RTTY QSO - and it was the last one I made. I probably spent 5 hours on the air calling them on that Band/Mode. Being restricted to 200-watts on 30-M and not having a 30-M antenna was really a challenge. But, as the DX'pedition was drawing to a close, lots of folks had already made their QSO's and that left room for the "little pistols" to make it into the log.

Now that I have all the "Greenies" showing in the VP6DX log, I'll send for my QSL's using their on-line QSL request service. And, I'll include an extra contribution for the huge expenses incurred by this operation to take all their equipment to such a remote location and, at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, pull off one of (if not THE) best DX'peditions of all time! Thanks VP6DX!