ARRL April Frequency Measuring Test

Over the years I have always been interested in the ARRL Frequency Measuring Tests. I would see the announcements and then cursorily look at the aspects of the test. Then I’d look at my equipment, consider my limited knowledge, and decide against trying it out.

This time, however, I’d stumbled across the Frequency Calibration capabilities of WSJT-X. I followed their procedure for conducting a frequency calibration of my Icom IC-9100. This resulted in establishing correction factors within the software across the HF spectrum. Then I adapted the procedures outlined in K1JT’s FMT Guide to conduct the actual measurements.

For the April 2018 test, the only station transmitting for the test was K5CM in nearby Oklahoma. I could hear all three of his signals across 20, 40, and 80 meters really well.

Then I recorded all the WSJT frequency measures for the key down period, averaged, them, and submitted my results at the data entry page.

The good news was that I didn’t need to wait long for the results, just a few days. The staggering news was that I had actually measured all three frequencies within one Hz, meriting notice in the “green box.” You can find the results at ARRL FMT April 2018 Results page.

My specific results were -0.39 Hz on 80 meters, +0.22 Hz on 40 meters, and -0.30 Hz on 20 meters. Amazing results for my first time out. I’ll do this again.