K5CM FMT Nov 1, 2012 (10 PM CDT)

 

TX Frequencies

K5CM - 3567083.747

W6OQI - 3567027.642


N8OB OH EN80 Very bad over S9 noise and didn't hear W6OQI at all. TS-590 and Spectrum Lab software.
W0HBK IA EN-42 Thanks for the practice session!  K5CM 599+20, W6OQI 579 here in Cedar Rapids, IA.  Using direct frequency measurement with Yaesu FT-920.  73, Neale
N7AIG AZ dm42 K5CM moderately weak ~ -85 dBm, W6OQI pretty strong signal ~ -75 dBm Thanks for the fun!
N2GL OR CN85kp Thanks for the test run. Still comparing 1850 beat to synthesizer with dual trace scope. Hope to modify SLM to measure referenced IF for November ARRL run
K6BZZ AZ DM33xb  
KØMZ KS EM28ix Great night for the FMT.  Thanks Connie and Marvin.  Connie's signal was a good 40 over with just a little dopple while Marvin's signal was an S9 with quite a lot of doppler.  Signals received on a Hallicrafters SX-73 here in Kansas.
W9ZB IN EM69xp K5CM very strong at this QTH: S9+10.   W6OQI very weak in the noise such that I  think I was reading some other carrier because my monitor receiver read about 9 Hz higher.
KØMZ KS EM28ix Great night for the FMT.  Thanks Connie and Marvin.  Connie's signal was a good 40 over with just a little doppler while Marvin's signal was an S9 with quite a lot of doppler.  Signals received on a Hallicrafters SX-73 here in Kansas.
N5DM STX EL29fs K5CM S9+20, W6OQI QSB signal buried in S9 QRN.
W7KPZ OR CN84 K5CM extremely weak.  Not surprising with my indoor wire antenna!  Rcvr is IC-718 feeding audio to FLDIGI. Linear correction function derived from WWV @ 2.5 and 5.0 before and after the test.  Fun, even if I'm a mile off!  Thanks.
AB4RS VA FM18hw K5CM signal nice and clear, but W6OQI is just above the noise level. Thanks for running the warmup test, look forward to seeing how everyone does in two weeks. Used my standard method of a delta reference with a HP 3336C signal generator referenced to a Trimble Thunderbolt. In parallel, I referenced to CHU to calibrate the radio oscillator, giving a difference of about 150 mHz. We'll see which is more accurate.
W6OQI LAX DM04 K5CM signal was strong this evening but with usual Doppler.  Also, I was lucky that my intermittent strong QRM did not begin until after the FMT.  Hope to find and eliminate the 10 over nine electrical noise before the ARRL FMT.
KM6QX EB CM87 Both had strong signals here in Northern California. Doppler spread was much less than in past tests, but I still had to 'guess' which peaks might be the true, non-shifted signal. Flex-1500 and GPSDO are very stable and accurate, so FMT is all about picking the correct peaks on the Spectrum Lab waterfalls.
K6APW/7 OR CN93eq Connie S5 to S7, Marvin S6 to S8 but TV/monitor "rot" S4... Thanks for the fun.
N7EP AZ DM43dj Lots of doppler but it seemed to be spread evenly above and below the frequency.  I hope I guessed right.  The signals weren't very strong into AZ.  Thanks to HDRadio.com, I found several AM radio stations to use as my frequency standard.  Then I used the doppler from 5 MHz WWV as a basis for analysis of the FMT signal.  Thanks for the FMT.  As usual great sport.
NF6Z NV DM26 My recorded signals were filtered to only capture +/- 20Hz from nominal.  The K5CM signal appeared to be about 70Hz above nominal.  Receiver was a USRP.  Reference was Rb oscillator calibrated to GPS in June. Thanks for the practice--a lot to fix in the next two weeks.
wb0lxz KS EM27pj HP3586, T-bolt, dipole. I recorded session on spectrum lab, computer said "do you want to save this file?" I stupidly said , "Yes," and it recorded over the file I had just made, but it was still fun. Thanks. -bill
N5LBZ MS EM53qv Very good to be back to doing the FMT's was getting rusty. Connies signal was great. Charles was just barely heard but I managed to get a reading. I will be down in Gulfport for the ARRL FMT and using my TS440S radio in stead of my Harris. Hope it does not make me too far off.
K5RKS OK EM15gj Setup is HP3339B which is injecting signal through T connecter in coax from antenna. Receiver is running in USB mode. Two audio tones are coming out of receiver -- one for signal received from K5CM or W6OQI and one produced as a result of the injected sig
NO5K STX EM10cm Nice signal from K5CM, W6OQI was mostly below the noise. GPS locked Quicksilver QS1R and check with HP 8920B.  Not very confident in the new setup yet.  Thanks for the practice run.
VE3OAT ON FN25eg Weak signals on 80 m.  Couldn't copy W6OQI at all but did detect an unmodulated carrier at about the expected time, so I measured and submitted it.  (Oh boy, talk about trust!)  You will think I am desperate to make measurements.  Thanks for the test. 
W4UK SC EM93 Used GPSDO stabilized Flex 5000a, 43 ft vertical, and FLDIGI. Could not copy W6OQI. Thanks for the test. Jerry W4UK
K9KK OK EM15 Both signals were OK.  Thanks Connie and Marv.  I needed this practice since it's been a long time due to  lightning during previous FMTs.  Used GPS disciplined reference signal generator and Spectrum Lab.
W9TJ IL EM48 K5CM signals loud and clear with 0.18 HZ doppler.  W6OQI was quite weak and swimming in S6 line related noise.  Both I and the spec analizer had a bad time digging any data out.  What I got was what the little boy shot at.  Many thanks to you both for your efforts.   73    Tom  
VE2IQ ON FN15nt Much QRN, K5CM was over it, W6OQI under it.  Had to listen to recording several times to be confident: "OQI" came up but I never got the whole call.  Once ballpark freqs found, actual measurements no more difficult than usual.  Tnx for test.
K7HIL AZ DM42ph Signal strength "OK", Doppler horrid. My spreadsheet looked like the signal was a square wave with +/- 300mHz jumps. I sure like the two frequency exercise as it allows a little bit of skill to enter the effort. My method: calibrate CW pitch using house standard, this allows very narrow bandwidth (100 Hz) as input Spectrum Labs. Also eliminates QRM. Thanks, Michael
N3FG EPA FM29 Conditions were poor here.  K5CM 449 and W6OQI 119.  I could hardly tell W6OQI was in there.  In any case, here is my guesstimate.  I used an IC7200 and Spectran. Thanks to both of you for a fun event despite the cnditions.
W3JW VA FM17TN Signals were weaker than normal (Marvin was barely detectable in my relatively low noise level). Doppler spread/multi-pathing was there in abundance! Glad you did the practice run as I found the regular audio path from my "FMT transceiver" to the sound card input was defective. Used a temporary connection for this run and will trouble shoot the regular interconnect between now and the 14th test. Had cataract surgery at "Oh dark thirty" Thur AM but was ready to go for the FMT at 11PM. However if I could have only done one of them; I am sure you can guess which I would have chosen!  Hi--- Tnx fer the test!----
N5DM STX EL29fs K5CM S9+20. W6OQI buried in the S9+ QRN level with some QSB.
W7JWM AZ DM42kr Just using a HP3586B SLM with GPS-stabilized osc.What were the transmitted frequencies? jwmorgan14@yahoo.com or jwmorgan@hughes.net
WB6BNQ SDG DM12 ICOM 756proII uncalibrated with Spectrum labs and a drifty sound card.  Very poor propagation, as usual, to my area.  So, a bit of a crap shoot on the numbers.
K5CM OK EM25ir This was a tuff one. Normally you can find something in the waterfall to help with the educated guess, but not much there this time.

K5CM 80 Meters  (10:00 CDT)

Call Section Grid TX Frequency Measured Freq Error in Hz Error in PPX
NO5K STX EM10cm 3567083.747 3567083.78 0.033 9.25E-09
VE2IQ ON FN15nt 3567083.747 3567083.706 -0.041 1.15E-08
N7EP AZ DM43dj 3567083.747 3567083.79 0.043 1.21E-08
W9ZB IN EM69xp 3567083.747 3567083.793 0.046 1.29E-08
VE3OAT ON FN25eg 3567083.747 3567083.805 0.058 1.63E-08
AB4RS VA FM18hw 3567083.747 3567083.666 -0.081 2.27E-08
W9TJ IL EM48 3567083.747 3567083.83 0.083 2.33E-08
N5LBZ MS EM53qv 3567083.747 3567083.833 0.086 2.41E-08
W4UK SC EM93 3567083.747 3567083.887 0.140 3.92E-08
N8OB OH EN80 3567083.747 3567083.894 0.147 4.12E-08
W7JWM AZ DM42kr 3567083.747 3567083.9 0.153 4.29E-08
WB6BNQ SDG DM12 3567083.747 3567083.9 0.153 4.29E-08
K5RKS OK EM15gj 3567083.747 3567083.911 0.164 4.60E-08
N3FG EPA FM29 3567083.747 3567083.57 -0.177 4.96E-08
K6APW/7 OR CN93eq 3567083.747 3567083.94 0.193 5.41E-08
K6BZZ AZ DM33xb 3567083.747 3567083.95 0.203 5.69E-08
K9KK OK EM15 3567083.747 3567083.952 0.205 5.75E-08
N7AIG AZ dm42 3567083.747 3567083.968 0.221 6.20E-08
W3JW VA FM17TN 3567083.747 3567083.526 -0.221 6.20E-08
wb0lxz KS EM27pj 3567083.747 3567083.5 -0.247 6.92E-08
W0HBK IA EN-42 3567083.747 3567084 0.253 7.09E-08
KM6QX EB CM87 3567083.747 3567084.116 0.369 1.03E-07
KM6QX EB CM87 3567083.747 3567084.116 0.369 1.03E-07
K7HIL AZ DM42ph 3567083.747 3567084.195 0.448 1.26E-07
W6OQI LAX DM04 3567083.747 3567084.392 0.645 1.81E-07
KØMZ KS EM28ix 3567083.747 3567084.5 0.753 2.11E-07
KØMZ KS EM28ix 3567083.747 3567084.5 0.753 2.11E-07
N5DM STX EL29fs 3567083.747 3567084.5 0.753 2.11E-07
W7KPZ OR CN84 3567083.747 3567092.208 8.461 2.37E-06
N2GL OR CN85kp 3567083.747 3566819.61 -264.137 7.41E-05

W6OQI 80 Meters

Call Section Grid TX Frequency Measured Freq Error in Hz Error in PPX
W3JW VA FM17TN 3567027.642 3567027.638 -0.004 1.12E-09
VE3OAT ON FN25eg 3567027.642 3567027.628 -0.014 3.92E-09
VE2IQ ON FN15nt 3567027.642 3567027.623 -0.019 5.33E-09
AB4RS VA FM18hw 3567027.642 3567027.663 0.021 5.89E-09
W9ZB IN EM69xp 3567027.642 3567027.67 0.028 7.85E-09
N3FG EPA FM29 3567027.642 3567027.73 0.088 2.47E-08
KØMZ KS EM28ix 3567027.642 3567027.5 -0.142 3.98E-08
wb0lxz KS EM27pj 3567027.642 3567027.5 -0.142 3.98E-08
WB6BNQ SDG DM12 3567027.642 3567027.8 0.158 4.43E-08
K5CM OK EM25ir 3567027.642 3567027.8 0.158 4.43E-08
N7EP AZ DM43dj 3567027.642 3567027.818 0.176 4.93E-08
K5RKS OK EM15gj 3567027.642 3567027.889 0.247 6.92E-08
K6BZZ AZ DM33xb 3567027.642 3567027.9 0.258 7.23E-08
KM6QX EB CM87 3567027.642 3567027.953 0.311 8.72E-08
K6APW/7 OR CN93eq 3567027.642 3567027.99 0.348 9.76E-08
W0HBK IA EN-42 3567027.642 3567028 0.358 1.00E-07
K9KK OK EM15 3567027.642 3567028.032 0.390 1.09E-07
N5LBZ MS EM53qv 3567027.642 3567028.1 0.458 1.28E-07
W7JWM AZ DM42kr 3567027.642 3567028.1 0.458 1.28E-07
NO5K STX EM10cm 3567027.642 3567028.2 0.558 1.56E-07
N7AIG AZ dm42 3567027.642 3567028.248 0.606 1.70E-07
K7HIL AZ DM42ph 3567027.642 3567028.277 0.635 1.78E-07
N5DM STX EL29fs 3567027.642 3567028.4 0.758 2.13E-07
W7KPZ OR CN84 3567027.642 3567036.308 8.666 2.43E-06
NF6Z NV DM26 3567027.642 3567001.178 -26.464 7.42E-06
W9TJ IL EM48 3567027.642 3566897.18 -130.462 3.66E-05
N2GL OR CN85kp 3567027.642 3566764.07 -263.572 7.39E-05

 

Transmitting equipment used by K5CM for this FMT:

A HP Z3801 GPS frequency source clocks a HP-3336B and a PTS-250. The outputs are combined and feed to a 10 db transistor amp which drives a 12BY7 / pair 6146.  Each signal was first set to 10 watts out. There are no mixers or any device in the chain of amplifiers that might impact the accuracy of the GPS frequency source.  As a reality check,  I periodically log the frequency source against WWV and other GPS referenced sources.  I monitor each transmission with a completely separate receive system to look for any instability or short term drift. 

I typically see considerably less than 1 mHz difference at 10 Mhz when comparing  two Z3801's or a Z3801 and a Thunderbolt, over a 10 to 10,000 second period. 

 

Antennas:

160 - Vertical

 80 - New Sloping dipole. Sloping down from 140'. (favors West, North, East)

 40 - Standard Dipole hanging between two 80 foot towers. (favors East, West)

 20 - 4el SteppIR at 70'

 

Current W6OQI FMT transmitting equipment for this FMT:

 

 

My Transmitting setup consists of a HP Z3801 clocking a HP 3336B which drives a Johnson Viking I transmitter, the output of which is attenuated by a 6 db attenuator, to then drive an Icom PW-1 amplifier to about 500 watts. The antenna is an inverted Vee which favors north and south from the Los Angeles area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Because I put the results up quickly, there will be mistakes, so don't hesitate to point them out quickly. 

 

73,

Connie

K5CM

 

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