Professional Documents
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COMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY
M AY 2018
When N2QV decided to convert his basic HF station at his weekend
home to a competitive remotely-controllable contest station, he and his
friends, software engineer / antenna designer WU2X, and a top-flight
contester N5DX, put their heads together and designed, built, and now
operate a winning remote contest station. This is their story...
A
bout six years ago, after using a
G5RV and a Yaesu FT-1000
Mark V at my weekend home sta-
tion 90 miles northwest of New York
City, I made the leap to make the sta-
tion remotely accessible and see if it
was capable of competitive contesting.
The story that follows is a remarkable
one that contains all the elements of
amateur radio: Friendship between
people of very different backgrounds
focused on one thing — the relentless
pursuit of excellence in amateur radio.
I connected with Scott McClements,
WU2X, a software engineer at IBM and
compulsive antenna designer, and
Kevin Stockton, N5DX, a world-class
third generation contester. (N5DX’s
father, Stan Stockton, K5GO, is a vet-
eran contester who frequently com-
petes from Cayman Brac as ZF9CW.
As a regular consultant to the team,
K5GO provided sage advice on anten-
na design and contesting strategy and
continues to do so.)
It was the beginning of a journey that
has now catapulted the station, piloted
by N5DX, to the coveted #1 USA spot
in the SOAB HP (Single Operator, All-
Band, High Power) category in each of
the CQWW 2015 (CW), 2016 (SSB),
2017 (CW) and WPX 2016 (CW) con-
tests. Plus, although the official scores
are not out yet, it appears, based on
claimed scores, that N5DX may have
taken the #1 U.S. spot in the 2018 CQ
160 CW contest as well. When he hasn’t
finished first, N5DX hasn’t done too
shabbily, achieving the #2 U.S. spot in
CQWW 2016 (CW), the 2017 CQ 160
CW contest, and the 2016 ARRL DX
CW contest. Photo A. The rack full of equipment and the local operating position at N2QV.
The station may be operated locally or by remote control over the internet. (Photos
* email: <n2qv@arrl.net> courtesy of the author)
Photo B. The four-band stack of tribanders at N2QV. See operating in person and operating remotely. When the sta-
text for details. tion is being used locally, no changeover is required in cabling
or setup, so the experience locally and remotely is the same.
(Photo A shows the inside of the shack and the rack-mount-
These results are all the more impressive because the most
ed hardware.)
recent #1 U.S. wins were operated remotely from N5DX’s
home in Arkansas. The 2017 CQWW win, which completed
N5DX’s SOAB HP hat trick in CQWW, was possibly the first The Shack Hardware
CQWW win by anybody operating remotely (There are no The shack, which is about 1,500 feet from the main house,
official records kept of remote operation. –ed.). is located in a clearing deep in the woods. Neither the shack
How did a station with an FT-1000 Mark V and a simple nor the antennas are clearly visible from any of the public
G5RV antenna strung in the trees transform itself so quick- roads, or the house itself. Fiber-optic cable in conduit is run
ly into a remote contesting behemoth? The short answer is from a router in the house to a router in the shack. Remote
through excellent station engineering and a significant contesting requires a reliable internet connection. In order to
investment of time and resources by WU2X, N5DX, and minimize audio drops, latency, and jitter we have experi-
N2QV. Over less than three years, the team, led by WU2X, mented with a number of audio setups. Most recently, WU2X
transformed a sleepy weekend DX station into a highly com- and N2QV have tested dedicated commercial hardware for
petitive world-class remote contesting station. the audio link. While we continue to experiment with various
The goal at N2QV was not just to create a remotely acces- audio solutions, our latency numbers are excellent and audio
sible station, but to design a station that could be operated drops have become very rare. The LAN routers have been
in SO2R (Single Operator Two Radios) mode, both locally optimized as well. The operation of an effective remote con-
and remotely, at the highest competitive levels. Because the test station requires as much skill in computers and net-
station is located on a weekend property of 90 acres within working as it does in setting up radio hardware.
a 90-minute drive from New York City, one key goal was to We have tried different radios, including experimenting with
ensure that the station was just as user-friendly in person as the latest generation of software defined radios. After much
it is remotely. An additional objective was to make sure the testing, a combination of the Elecraft K3 and Kenwood TS
setup was as simple as humanly possible to minimize sta- 590SG has proven to be the winning SO2R combination for
tion failures during high-pressure contesting. N5DX and us time after time. We use a single solid-state amplifier by
K5GO have used the station for contesting both in person SPE (the Expert 2K-FA), which works well for remote con-
and remotely, and there is practically no difference between testing. Because the 2K-FA has six antenna ports and two
Photo D. The four-square transmit array for 160 meters. There are Beverages and other antennas dedicated to
low-band receiving.
Software
A computer running Windows® serves
as the main server. Logging software
has always been the outstanding
N1MM Logger+. Rotors and antenna
switches are controlled by Green Heron
what’s new
SteppIR Insider Club
SteppIR Communications Systems has
begun an Insider Club that offers sev-
eral benefits to its membership such as
special seasonal discounts on its prod-
ucts and a 35% discount on repairs and
extended warranty purchases. Photo E. Detail view of the grounding system at the base of one of the 160-meter
4-square antennas.
Conclusion
While the N2QV station truly comes alive
during contest weekends, it also gets
daily use for general DXing and
ragchewing. It is active on 160 through
6 meters, using almost all modes, includ-
ing the exciting FT8 mode. N2QV and
WU2X can be heard on many evenings
on 160, 80, and 40 meters.
The station could not be maintained
at this level of preparedness and com-
petitiveness without the commitment to
excellence by WU2X, N5DX and the
one or two local residents who keep the
station maintained and secure. It is
important to note that the station is
located inland, just 90 miles from New
York City. While it may be obvious to
many, it does bear repeating that
N5DX’s outstanding contest results