Meteorologists have forecast cooler weather for the April round of the VKV PA. It might even be record-breaking. At Černecký Hill, I’m greeted by a temperature of 2.5°C and a pretty strong breeze. But I have something new I’d like to test out: the KST4Contest.
KST4Contest
This client, developed by Marca DO5AMF for the KST chat, allows synchronization with several logbooks (it tracks worked stations and QRGs) and features an AirScout connection. What can it do?
- In the table, it shows for each station how many minutes until the next airplane scatter QSO and what the probability is
- The table displays the frequency where, according to reports, the station is located
- In the table, it highlights in bold the stations that are on the sked path toward me
- By clicking on a station, you can pull up the messages that station has received or sent. You can see if it’s communicating, who it’s communicating with, and more
- You can filter out stations you’ve already worked. MEGA! If there are 150 stations in the chat, I can then see only the ones I’m missing—say, 30—which is much clearer
- You can filter by azimuth. For example, if I send a call to the south, I can filter and contact only stations from the south. I don’t have to scroll through all the stations logged into the chat
- You can insert a variable into the macros that reads the current TCVR frequency
- etc.
Combined with filtering by distance, log entries, azimuth, or notifications about a sked in my direction, it worked great. Even though I don’t like Java applications, this one was made by a ham radio operator who knew how to handle chat controls.
One drawback is that KST4Contest requires a large screen area. I dug out an old 15-inch LCD monitor, on which I ran N1MM+ and PSTRotator. This monitor actually has a lower resolution than a laptop screen. It worked very well.
What can I say about KST4Contest? It definitely won me over. If you want to try it too, the application and manual are available at https://do5amf.funkerportal.de/
VHF PA – April
Thanks to the switch to daylight saving time, I leave home at a comfortable time—just before 7:30 a.m. A few raindrops fall along the way. The wind is bending the trees. It’s clear it’s going to be windy up on the hill. And it was—and how! The video shows Černecký vrch with the VKV PA antennas shortly after 1:00 p.m. Despite the sunshine, the temperature is only 4.5°C:
Great, isn’t it? Setting up the DK7ZB Yagi antennas in the morning, when it was only 2.5°C, was even more fun. I struggled the most with the anchor ropes, which the wind was determined to tangle no matter what. Even setting up the transmit table wasn’t exactly easy, because holding the car door open while maneuvering the equipment is quite a challenge.As I mentioned, I’ve added a 15-inch LCD monitor. I still had some time to spare, though. Just one last adjustment of the antenna azimuth into the wind, and I’m all set. The band is pretty quiet, though. However, I can hear I4GHG quite well on 144.390 MHz, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.
I’ll scan the band and try a few contacts. Since I want to test out the KST4Contest, I start calling on 144.394 MHz. IK4GNG alerts me that he’s already on that frequency. It’s not often that you interfere with someone’s contacts on 144 MHz when they’re nearly 650 kilometers away. Otherwise, I forgot to log IK4GNG later, so he’s missing from my log this time.
However, IK4ZHH was added, which is 745 kilometers away and thus the longest contact. It was also easy to make contact with IQ4SC from nearly 700 kilometers away. However, I wasn’t able to make a contact with Michael DB7MM/p. We tried several skeds, and the contact finally went through at the very end.
I didn’t have much luck with Romanian stations. I tried several times to send a sked request. YO5DAS surprised me by calling on his own, securing a multiplier from KN17. However, not many stations respond spontaneously to a call.
DXCC VHF PA April 2024
The KST4Contest is working great. It also resulted in a contact with SP8WJW via an airplane bounce. It was clear that Piotr is familiar with this method. A moment before the contact, he wrote that he wasn’t calling yet—he’d wait a minute until the bounce occurred. That’s exactly how it went. He called briefly, and the entire contact was very quick, with no repeats. Thanks again for KN09!
Stations from E7 always put in a lot of effort to make contacts. I worked four stations in a row: E75DSB, E73PS, E70SIC, and E71EZC. In the final hour, I really appreciated the KST4Contest filter, which hides stations that are already in the log. I finally managed to make a contact with DB7MM/P as well.
I made 92 contacts, but only up to 28 locator squares, which gives 9,324 points. However, several stations in the log are new, thanks in part to KST4Contest.
Next comes taking down the antennas in the wind, which I’m really not looking forward to. After 45 minutes, everything is packed up and stowed away. Finally, home!
