WT5L Blog
2010 ARRL International DX (SSB) Contest
The 2010 ARRL International DX (SSB) contest was held over the 48 hour period from 0000Z 06 March to 2400Z 07 March. During this contest American (K) and Canadian (VE) amateur stations work as many DXCC amateur stations as possible on 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m bands. The mode for this contest is CW (continuous wave) or Morse code.
My final results for this contest were:
| Band | QSOs | Points | Multipliers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40m | 34 | 102 | 28 |
| 20m | 81 | 243 | 52 |
| 15m | 92 | 276 | 46 |
| 10m | 5 | 15 | 4 |
| Total | 212 | 636 | 130 |
Final score: 82,680
SBIG ST-8300M Versus ST-8XME Comparison
After having owned and operated a SBIG ST-8XME CCD camera for the past four years, I now own one of SBIG’s latest CCD cameras, the ST-8300M. Like the ST-8XME, the ST-8300M is a monochrome, temperature controlled, CCD camera. Here, most of the similarities between these two cameras comes to an end. The ST-8300M is an anti-blooming (ABG) camera with a large-format, small pixel-size CCD array. A comparison of the important specification differences between these two cameras is presented in the table below:
| Specification | ST-8300M | ST-8XME |
|---|---|---|
| CCD | Kodak KAF-8300 | Kodak KAF-1603ME |
| Pixel Array | 3326 x 2504 | 1530 x 1020 |
| CCD Size | 17.96 x 13.52 mm | 13.8 x 9.2 mm |
| Total Pixels | 8.3 million | 1.6 million |
| Pixel Size | 5.4 x 5.4 microns square | 9 x 9 microns square |
| Full Well Capacity | ~25,500 e- | ~100,000 e- |
| Dark Current | ~0.02e-/pixel/sec at -15C. | 1e-/pixel/sec at 0C. |
| Antiblooming | 1000X | None |
| Shutter | Mechanical | Electromechanical |
| Exposure | 0.1 to 3600 seconds, 10ms resolution |
0.12 to 3600 seconds, 10ms resolution |
| Correlated Double Sampling | Yes | Yes |
| A/D Converter | 16 Bits | 16 Bits |
| A/D Gain | 0.37e-/ADU | 2.3e-/ADU |
| Read Noise | ~9.3e- rms | ~15e- rms |
| Full Frame Download | ~7.5 seconds | ~3.7 seconds |
| Cooling – standard | Single Stage Thermoelectric, Active Fan, max delta -40C, -36C regulated at ~80% power |
Single Stage Thermoelectric, Active Fan, Water Assist -45 C from Ambient Typical with water, -35 C w/air only |
| Temperature Regulation | ±0.1°C | ±0.1°C |
| Power | 12VDC at 3 amps, universal power supply included |
5VDC at 1.5 amps, +/-12VDC at 0.5 amps, power supply included |
| Computer Interface | USB 2.0 | USB 1.1 |
| Weight | Approx. 1.8 pounds / 0.8kg | Approx. 2 pounds/0.9kg |
Gap Titan DX Vertical Antenna SWR Measurements
Today I completed adjustments to my Gap Titan DX multi-band vertical antenna and took SWR measurements (using a MFJ-259B analyzer) on the five bands that I use most frequently. Here are the results from this adjustment and measurement:
| 80m | 40m | 20m | 15m | 10m | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freq | SWR | Freq | SWR | Freq | SWR | Freq | SWR | Freq | SWR |
| 3500 | 2.8 | 7000 | 1.7 | 14000 | 1.7 | 21000 | 1.9 | 28000 | 1.6 |
| 3550 | 2.6 | 7050 | 1.4 | 14050 | 1.7 | 21050 | 1.8 | 28050 | 1.5 |
| 3600 | 2.4 | 7100 | 1.2 | 14100 | 1.7 | 21100 | 1.8 | 28100 | 1.5 |
| 3650 | 2.2 | 7150 | 1.3 | 14150 | 1.7 | 21150 | 1.8 | 28150 | 1.4 |
| 3700 | 2.0 | 7200 | 1.4 | 14200 | 1.6 | 21200 | 1.8 | 28200 | 1.3 |
| 3750 | 1.8 | 7250 | 1.5 | 14250 | 1.6 | 21250 | 1.7 | 28250 | 1.3 |
| 3800 | 1.6 | 7300 | 1.7 | 14300 | 1.6 | 21300 | 1.7 | 28300 | 1.2 |
| 3850 | 1.6 | 14350 | 1.5 | 21350 | 1.7 | 28350 | 1.2 | ||
| 3900 | 1.8 | 21400 | 1.7 | 28400 | 1.1 | ||||
| 3950 | 2.2 | 21450 | 1.7 | 28450 | 1.1 | ||||
| 4000 | 2.8 | 28500 | 1.1 | ||||||
| 28550 | 1.1 | ||||||||
| 28600 | 1.1 | ||||||||
| 28650 | 1.1 | ||||||||
| 28700 | 1.1 | ||||||||
| 28750 | 1.2 | ||||||||
| 28800 | 1.2 | ||||||||
| 28850 | 1.2 | ||||||||
| 28900 | 1.2 | ||||||||
| 28950 | 1.2 | ||||||||
| 29000 | 1.2 | ||||||||
2010 ARRL International DX (CW) Contest
The 2010 ARRL International DX (CW) contest was held over the 48 hour period from 0000Z 20 February to 2400Z 21 February. During this contest American (K) and Canadian (VE) amateur stations work as many DXCC amateur stations as possible on 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m bands. The mode for this contest is CW (continuous wave) or Morse code. During this contest I achieved personal bests of 418 QSOs and 220,704 points.
My final results for this contest were:
| Band | QSOs | Points | Countries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80m | 6 | 18 | 6 |
| 40m | 119 | 357 | 48 |
| 20m | 139 | 417 | 52 |
| 15m | 135 | 405 | 59 |
| 10m | 19 | 57 | 11 |
| Totals | 418 | 1254 | 176 |
Final score: 220,704
Computer Upgrade
In the past week, I have completed the latest round of major upgrades to the desktop computer that sits by and is connected to my amateur radio transceiver. Here are the details of this upgrade:
LCD Monitor
After years of working with nothing more than a 15″ CRT monitor at any of my desktop computers, I have now purchased a 24″ widescreen LCD monitor. The monitor is a Samsung Model 2494SW with a native resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. This unit was purchased from amazon.com for $201.45 with free shipping.
Video Graphics Card
When considering this monitor or any widescreen, high resolution monitor, I quickly realized the integrated video on the computer’s motherboard would not be up to the task of driving any such monitor at its native resolution. This realization led me to start looking for a suitable video graphics card. Specifically, I was looking for a AGP card since my motherboard had an unused AGP slot (Advanced Graphics Port). After some looking and comparing, I settled on a SPARKLE SF8855DT GeForce FX 5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X video card purchased from newegg.com for $34.99 plus $5.99 shipping. This graphics card features NVIDIA chipset and 256MB of video RAM. It also has has one D-SUB connector for analog video, one DVI connector for digital video, and S-Video connector for a TV connection. An image of this video card is shown below:
DVD-RW Drive
Now having access to a widescreen, high resolution LCD monitor, I then decided I needd to replace the very old CD-ROM drive that originally came with this computer. After a short search, I replaced this IDE drive with a Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable serial ATA (SATA) drive. Since this is an OEM drive, I also had to purchase the SATA power adapter and data cable. These items were purchased from newegg.com for $27.99 (drive), $5.79 (cables), and $8.13 shipping. (Total order: $41.91)
Hardware Integration
The video card and DVD drive were installed in the computer case with no issues. The XP system automatically detected and loaded a driver for the DVD drive and I manually loaded the drivers for the video card and for the monitor from the supplied disks. Despite working the issue for a while, I was unable to get the graphics card to drive the monitor at its native resolution via the digital DVI cable but was able to get the native resolution via the analog interface. (I was pre-warned of this potential problem from user feedback on the newegg.com site for this graphics card.) For now, I will stick with driving the monitor through the analog cable.
Summary
I have now replaced every hardware item in this computer except the legacy floppy disk drive that I never use. In previous upgrades, the motherboard, motherboard memory, and power supply were replaced and the operating system was upgraded from Windows 95/98 to Windows XP Home. With a widescreen monitor in place, I now have enough room on the display to place windows side-by-side instead of having to stack them on top of each other. This capability will be particularly useful during radio contests where I was continually having to swap windows around due to a lack of room on the screen.