Elecraft K4 CQ Worldwide SSB Contest 2021 Live Operating / Noise Reduction Filtering Demonstration

[@russozard2626]

Placing an order in 2weeks thanks for posting a good vlog on the K4 👍

[@AaronHuber]

The big stations in Europe were great to work in the contest. Glad to see you had some nice contacts.

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Aaron, yes it was nice to see 15 meters packed with signals from 21.200 khz to 21.450 khz. 10 meters was a lot of fun too, however in Utah there wasn't as much EU as there was on 15. Most of the 10 meter stuff was to the east and south east for me. Max NG7M

[@donr2670]

Enjoyed the video greatly, thanks for taking the time. Although it seems like you are "shooting fish in a barrel" with your setup and the spotting I guess that's the contesters edge. Super glad to see that Elecraft did not go under before the supply chain got rolling. Business is business, even when it's ham radio...

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi, thanks for watching. Yes, I was just chasing spots. SSB is really not my thing, but I had a number of requests to do a demo with SSB. The spots were good to just jump from one to the next. Max NG7M

[@jonlawrence]

Thanks for the QSO on FT8 tonight, we are not too far away, I live in Layton.

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Jon, yes I saw that. Big DX! Have fun. :) Max NG7M

[@911Hammer]

Max, you probably know this but in stead of noise reduction you can also use a (more) narrow filter. Doesn’t help when stations are overlapping but it reduces the impact of it. Better than noise reduction in my opinion. GL 73!

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Rob, very good point. Narrow filters are better in my experience too. With the K4 and the direct sampling, I have never heard better sounding narrow filters and I use CW filters all the way down to 50 hz at times. This just wasn't usable with the K3's DSP filtering below 200hz. Again, great point. Thanks for watching and commenting. Max NG7M

[@PerB_M]

1.9KHz is perfect in contests @@ng7m-ham-shack

[@johnratcliffe6438]

How does a 50KHz filter work with a 2.4KHz signal? That maths isn't mathing... @@ng7m-ham-shack

[@larryak0z672]

Thanks for this great video.

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Larry, I probably show a few things not to do too! :) Glad you liked it. Max NG7M

[@thuff3207]

I like the K4 and you make look easy. Nice to see your setup makes me wonder what software you are running. It the software controlling the K4? Thank you for showing how its done.

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

I'm running the free N1MM Logger+ contest logging software. N1MM is connected to the K4 via TCP/IP. You can download and read up on the N1MM documentation here: n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/ Max NG7M

[@SoulStarLA]

Hi, what antenna were you using? Thank you!

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

I have a SteppIR DB-18 at 80ft. I have some videos on my channel that show it. Look for the station tour with video from a quad copter. Max NG7M

[@steventhebrockwell]

I'm a beginner. What's that "03" you end all contacts with? I hear others use other numbers. First time I thought it was a serial number, but it was 3 the whole time.

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

That is your CQ Zone. Google up CQ Zones. The world is split up into CQ Zones. In some contests the exchange is your ITU Zone which is similar, but it breaks things down a little more granular. There are also awards that are based on confirming stations in CQ Zones. For example the CQ Magazine Worked all Zones award.

[@workingtheworld68]

With the right voice recorder and some clever macros you could let this baby work the contest while you enjoy a cold one and watch the big game

[@kq9l115]

Sounds great, I see your power is 35W, are you driving a linear? How much total power output and what antenna?

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Yes, I was running power... I think I was using my RF-KIT RF2K+ amp during this video. I also have an SPE 2K-FA amplifier and I switch back and forth between them. I would have been peaking around 1500 watts. The RF-KIT amp requires less drive for legal limit output, so with my drive around 35 watts I'm pretty sure I was using the RF-KIT amp at the time. 73 and thanks for watching. Max NG7M

[@jefftylicki1979]

What does the 5 9 0 3 mean and I hear them saying 5 9 14?

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Jeffrey, what you are hearing is the contest exchange for the CQ World Wide SSB contest. Google up CQ World Wide and you will find the sponsor website. For this contest, you change a signal report (which is more of a marker) of 59 and then the CQ Zone. Google up CQ Zones and you will find a map of the world with the corresponding CQ Zones. I'm located in Utah and my CQ Zone is 3. So you will hear me say 59 3(three) in the video. Thanks for watching. Max NG7M

[@dennymagdule4372]

What logging software is that?

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

N1MM Logger+

[@BurninWires]

Nice

[@Lacie1706]

59 for all stations in the contest is a absolute fake RST and is not real, this shows how stupid the OM are

[@ng7m-ham-shack]

Hi Lacie? In a contest, you are maximizing the number of QSO's and multipliers. The signal report is just a marker. By the way, for SSB you don't send RST, you only send RS. No tone in SSB to rate for the signal report. (look up the RST system on Wikipedia) Back to the contest report... if you are going for a good score, you just send 59 because it's fast and it doesn't matter for the score. The part of the exchange that is more important in the CQ WW SSB contest is the CQ zone number. The CQ zone will need to match for log checking. Again, the RS in the case of SSB for this and most other contests will usually be sent as 59. You can send a real RS report, but for anyone competitive, they will just log 59. You could start your own contest an make the RS report (in the case of SSB) a requirement to match on log checking. You should do that. Just start your own contest, nothing says you can't do that. Max NG7M

[@Pit7388]

RV6AVU 73!