Much to my surprise I made 42 contact during this past weekend’s ARRL DX contest. I cannot confirm it, but that just may be more than the sum total of all the contest contacts I have ever made. There is not one reason why I worked so many (for me) stations, but since working DX is not so easy with 25 watts and an attic antenna it was nice to be heard. And no , it did not make me a contester. Not even close!
I like to keep a very detailed log. Why, when time, mode and band Is all that is needed? BECAUSE! Detail about the other station is of interest to me and I am also better prepared if I hear a prior logged station on the air once again. The advantage of a log with a good number of user defined fields is ideal for me. DXLab was great and although MacloggerDX is a very well done program I miss the flexibility afforded me before. My mistake!
Now that I have had MacloggerDX for about a month of actual use I can state the following:
MacloggerDX
Mac mini
I purchased an HW-8 in April 2024. By all accounts it is stock with no mods, just the way I wanted it. I did one minor repair to the meter circuit (cold solder joint), but have left well enough alone. It is fun to operate and I have made many contacts with it. However, there is no doubt it could use some realignment and who knows what else. With old parts that may break and are irreplaceable is it worth the risk? I am not sure if it would be a good idea, but armed with a retired accountants brain, a digital volt meter and a soldering iron I just might be crazy enough to jump in. If there is an HW-8 for sale on eBay for parts only the results will be obvious.
Still in a learning curve MacLoggerDX is doing a good job. So far, the shortfalls are ones I knew of before I made the purchase so I would never consider those items a negative (including being pricy). It runs very well on the Mac and supplied the info necessary to talk to popular digital programs. It has a whole bunch of features and will take some time to work through them all (or most). Of the two digital mode programs I have found that WSJT-X is the most seamless with MacLoggerDX. Fldigi is a bit clunky (I used MultiPSK on the windows machine). I hope I can make improvements with the interface with Fldigi, but I am not too hopeful that will happen.
For information purposes the following are things I knew going in that would have been nice to have:
“Nice to have” items I should have known about:
Not so good:
My aging Windows laptop was in need of replacement. It has been said that you want to replace your old computer the day before it crashes. Having no idea when that would be I decided to bring in the new and out with the old. The new came in the form of a Mac mini (a new monitor also). In the ham radio world running a Mac is not exactly mainstream, but I did it anyway.
By getting an new computer I hopped to accomplish a few things as follows:
With only a week behind the keyboard the following are my thoughts (so far).
The Mac mini itself is an impressive little machine. And I mean little. But as with any computer platform in the end what can I run on the system? Being frugal (aka cheap) I reluctantly put my money down and purchased MacLoggerDX. After using for a few years an incredible software suite called DXLab I was not sure what to expect. I will not comment too much at this time. It would be unfair as I am still in the learning phase (more to come in future posts). In short, MacLoggerDX runs very well on the Mac, does a whole bunch of stuff, appears to be well supported by the developer and is easy to use.
The question that is begging to be asked are there issues so far? The short answer is yes. Although primarily a CW op I have been getting involved with the digital mode Olivia and I did want to get WSJT-X up and running also. For Olivia the use of Fldigi was necessary. I was surprised the hoops one has to jump through to get the digital programs to run. I wanted the two digital programs to see the radio, log a contact and use PTT. It felt like I was back in the days when I dabbled in Linux. After reading the documentation and with help from videos by KØPIR mission accomplished.
More to follow.
Disclaimer: I believe if you don’t like what a group is doing, either get involved or take it for what it is. Said another way, use it as is or move on. After all it is not yours to change and most likely as for a ham radio the group is run by unpaid individuals who truly believe it what they are doing.
As for POTA and me. I am only a hunter, but often thought it would be fun to activate a park. My activity, thoughts and goals (if I truly had goals) for POTA are forever changing as the following list shows:
Final note: I cannot understand why the group went from identifying parks using DXCC Entities to the use of country names. Again, it is none of my business what they do as it is not my organization. It does affect how I view and patriciate in the program. But I am sure that my opinion means nothing to the POTA team.
Well, I am graduating. Olivia 8/250 is so slow, even for me. I kicked it up to 16/500. It is not blazing speed, but a bit faster than 8/250. At this point I only had one QSO at 16/500, but it is promising. Obviously when answering a CQ it will be at the speed of the caller, but now I will respond to CQ’s at two speeds of Olivia and call CQ at the faster speed. I will not get into a conversation at faster speeds as typing is and will forever be a handicap.
MultiPSK is a very good program. I am getting familiar with the interface and have written the proper number of macros (for my needs). Also, it links well with DXLab. The link is not as smooth or as complete as I would like, but better than others I have tried (limit). Keeping in mind that I keep a detailed log more so than others may maintain. Therefore, I like a lot of detail.
Note: I have the utmost respect for those hams who write the software I am using and offer it to the Amateur Radio community. I would not know where to begin to write such great applications. Any comments made in my post are not meant to take anything away from this fact.
My logging program and limited radio control is DXlab. Therefore, it is always preferable that any other applications used interface with the modules of DXlab. Since the digital component of DXlab (WinWarbler) does not support most digital modes, other applications are required to operate those modes. For example, when operating FT8/4 (not my favorite) using WSJT-X with JTAerts is flawless. When it comes to Olivia, I started out with FLDIGI. To try and have it talk to DXLab I used the published gateway between the two applications. Not having the best of luck with that combination I moved on to MULTIPSK, the program I am currently using. This application talks well with DXLab, but at times I struggle with the user interface. I will not go into my issues in this post as I am too new to the application and still learning. I will save that for future posts. I will say that MUULTIPK is a fine program and can do a lot of stuff very well.
Well, as stated before Olivia in the version I am trying (8/250) is very slow. However, for my typing ability, it appears to be just fine. As it is a full duty cycle mode and transmissions are very long, I run only 15 watts. So far, I have done okay and manager to have good QSO’s at that power level. As for software, I have moved from FLDIGI to MULTIPSK. More on that in another post.