Andy: Our ham radio contesting team is now back in the U.S. after our expedition to northern Canada for the 2009 CQ World Wide Single Sideband competition. Our results this year were the best ever in more than 8 years of traveling to sparsely populated Zone 2.

We traveled 10 hours north of Quebec—and 1,000 miles from home—to Zone 2, a feat that requires we bring everything we need and that every piece of equipment works flawlessly when we arrive.

Operating nonstop

This year, in addition to new radios, new antennas and two new operators, we were 100% HP-powered for our computing needs. We used three HP laptops and an HP router with Internet connectivity. Over the contest’s 48-hour period, our HP computers were never turned off and we had multiple users making contacts and doing data entry. We operated nonstop from 8 pm Eastern time on Friday, October 23, through 8 pm Eastern time on Sunday, October 25, making contacts at the rate of almost 1 per a minute.

GPS navigation

In addition to the routine uses of our laptops for logging and data entry, we used our HP computers for a couple of very novel tasks this year. One was for GPS navigation and geo-location to prove to contest organizers that we were indeed above the 50th parallel, as required of Zone 2 contest teams.

Our GPS navigation used the power of our HP computers and wireless technology1 to plan, route and display our entire journey on a moving map. With it we were able to precisely document our exact geographic location above 50 degrees north latitude. Another great feature of our GPS system was that it used Bluetooth connectivity to wirelessly1connect to our HP laptops.

Antenna analysis

Our laptops also helped us perform antenna analysis and testing—giving our amateur radio operation a competitive edge. To contact as many countries as possible and to earn a high score in the competition requires radios and antennas that are efficient, well-designed and well-matched to each other.

As recently as 20 or 30 years ago, antenna measurements and calculations were done by hand using slide rules and graph paper to plot patterns. Today, we use computers and vector analyzers to accomplish the same tasks faster and with a higher degree of accuracy. With the help of our HP laptops, we are able to measure all of the technical parameters of our antenna systems, display the results using the vector analyzer, and determine which antennas would get better results in the competition.

Even with the latest technology, we were reminded that we’re still at the mercy of the weather. When we set up our transmitting antennas in Zone 2, they were on dry ground along the St. Lawrence River. After a cold, driving rain the first night, the ground became very soft, submerging our antennas in a foot of water and causing the metal stakes holding them down to start tipping over. Irwin, Sebastien and I braved the elements to re-string our antennas and tie down everything, so we could get back in the competition.

Digital voice recorders

Another new way we used our laptops this year was to develop custom software in Microsoft's .net framework to control the digital voice recorders in our new Elecraft radios.

Custom software was not something we thought we’d get into in a radio competition. But when we upgraded our operation to Elecraft K3 software-defined radios, we gained the ability to have digital voice recorders (DVK) built into the radios. During the contest, we have to say our call sign, VE2DXY, nearly once a minute for 48 hours straight.

When Ken N3PSJ learned about the DVK capabilities, he developed a software utility that would more closely integrate our radios, computers and logging programs. Ken’s K-Keys utility allows us to automatically record and playback our voices through the built-in recorder in the Elecraft K3 without ever taking our hands off the computer keyboard. This meant we were able to contact more stations faster and earn a higher score.

The results

Over the 2-day contest, we made contact with 2,757 other amateur radio stations in 247 countries. Our final score in the contest was 1,926,357 points—our best performance ever! For additional details about our October 2009 CQWW SSB contest results, visit our daily blog at http://www.wix.com/andyvavra/VE2DXYM.