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The ARRL Contest Update
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
November 24, 2010
Editor: Ward Silver, N0AX
==> IN THIS ISSUE
- Ditsplosion! - CQ WW CW
- Top Banders Jamboree - ARRL 160 Meter
- Categorical Reminder from CQ WW Committee
- Do It Yourself Survey
- Extreme Breadboarding
- ARRL Contest Branch Online Update
- Bacterial Reconstruction
- Propagation eBook from RSGB
- You Can Go Home Again
NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO
New HF operators often shy away from Top Band (160 meters) thinking the
demands of the band too severe for modest stations and antennas. No
need for that! There is lots of potential for Top Band excitement for
the Little Pistol - load up anything you can and see what happens! This
weekend's CQ WW CW and then the ARRL 160 Meter Contest are great
opportunities to try 160 Meters On A Budget
.
BULLETINS
Don't forget that this year's ARRL 10 Meter Contest
will add the 32 Mexican states as
multipliers! Be sure your logging software and CTY files are up to
date, avoiding unpleasant mid-contest surprises.
BUSTED QSOS
A golden issue last time!
CONTEST SUMMARY
Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section
Nov 27-28
- CQ World Wide CW Contest
- SKCC Straight Key Sprint (Nov 24)
Dec 3-5
- ARRL 160 Meter Contest--CW
- Top Band Sprint--CW (Dec 2)
- NS Weekly Sprint--CW
- TARA RTTY Mêlée
- Top Operators Activity Contest--CW
- AWA Bruce Kelly QSO Party--CW
- ARS Spartan Sprint--CW (Dec 7)
==> NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST
CQ WW DX Contest Director, Bob K3EST
emphasizes rules pertaining to the Single-Operator Assisted category
and the use of a CW Skimmer which is permitted for all Multi-Operator
stations, as well:
- The use of a personal skimmer located within the distance rule
limitations of your QTH (500 meter rule) is OK.
- The use of a remote, personal skimmer is NOT allowed. This is the
same as a using a remote receiver outside the 500 m station circle,
which is not allowed for any category.
- If you are a single-op entry and access the Reverse Beacon Network
(RBN), you MUST submit your log as
ASSISTED.
Speaking of CQ, contester Chip Margelli K7JA is moving from Heil Sound
to CQ Communications where he will
be Director of Advertising Sales and Marketing for all of the CQ family
publications. Chip is a member of the CQ Hall of Fame and is well-known
in contest circles. Congratulations, Chip!
It has also been announced that Hi-Z Antennas
will be partnering with Array Solutions
for sales, service, and marketing.
Hi-Z manufactures a number of innovative receive antenna products and
the new partnership will allow Hi-Z to focus on manufacturing and new
product development.
Pete N4ZR has just published two articles on the RBN blog
at that will be worthwhile reading
for anyone planning to use this resource in Assisted or Extreme mode in
the CQ WW CW this weekend. One explains how to connect to the RBN
Telnet node and gives step by step instructions on how to use CC User
to set up your filters exactly as you want them. The other addresses
fail-safes just in case the RBN team hasn't fixed the server and it
goes down during the contest. The RBN can also be used to compare your
signal against those of other stations and between antennas of your own
in real time.
The Getscores live scoreboard at is now set
up for the CQWW CW contest this weekend. Please check out your logger
software's interface early, remembering that the developers are
probably hoping to be eating Thanksgiving dinner and watching football
Thursday rather than fixing bugs. The WriteLog
Web site has been updated
by author W5XD to help post scores from that program, including using
the Universal Posting Application. Note that if you have WriteLog 10.74
or later it is now much easier to set up to post scores than older
versions. (Thanks, David K1TTT)
Don't forget to stop by the ARRL Contest Soapbox
page for some amusing and interesting
tales. Drop in a few photos and words of your own - we'd love to see
them, especially the contest results writeup authors!
These "space bubbles
"
look like something familiar to hams - maybe it's the Universe's
largest Hertzian antenna! (Thanks, Bill WY3A)
More sky-ward events are occurring in December. The most visible is a
"high eclipse" of the Moon, in which the complete sequence of a total
lunar eclipse will be visible across North America on the night of
December 20-21. This is the first such eclipse in nearly three years.
Just before the eclipse, the Geminid Meteor shower of mid-December is
eagerly anticipated by the meteor scatter aficionados known as "ping
jockeys". Often surpassing even the better-known, late-summer Perseids,
the Geminids are one of the year's best showers. This would be a good
time to investigate getting your station set up for FSK441, part of the
K1JT WSJT software suite.
For more information on both events, keep an eye on the Spaceweather
and Sky and Telescope
Web sites.
We'd all like to see more CW activity from new HF hams, so plan on
spending some time with the ARRL Rookie Roundup
on Sunday, December 19 from
1800-2400 UTC. It's a CW contest this time... get on with a straight
key, QRS and work the CW newbies! (Thanks, Sean KX9X)
Sam K5OAI, Dawid SQ6EMM, and Petr, OK1RP came up with a list of several
on-line "Web receivers" that can be listened to over the Internet:
websdr , hb9fx-websdr
, oe3mzc receivers
, smeter.net
, ralabs.com webradio
, and globaltuners
. Remember the restrictions on use of Web
receivers when choosing a contest category!
The CQ WW SSB story of Hurricane Tomas
by 8P5 operator Tom W2SC makes for fascinating (and scary) reading!
A new release of the Super Check Partial database files
is now available from Bob WA1Z.
Update your logger files right away so you aren't scrambling right
before or during the contest. The files contain more than 40,000 call
signs (10,000 for RTTY). If you want to check the version of the SCP
files you are using, look for a call beginning with "VER". Every SCP
file includes the version number in the list of calls. In the format
"VERYYYYMMDD".
Web Site of the Week - A team at Carnegie Mellon University has
published the results of a large-scale survey
of more than 2600 members of six do-it-yourself communities;
Instructables, Etsy, Dorkbot, Ravelry, Adafruit and Craftster.
Creativity, learning, and open sharing are key values of these
communities - that sounds a lot like ham radio, doesn't it? Contesters
are resourceful individuals, so maybe "Do It Yourself" (DIY)
competitions
would be of interest!
WORD TO THE WISE
Move and Pass - ask a station to QSY to another band temporarily to log
a new multiplier there. In 2003 Jim AD1C wrote the program PASS
to find passes in contest log. It takes
a Cabrillo log file and finds two or more QSOs with the same station
(on different bands) within a given window of time (default is 5
minutes). This enables you to see how many passes you made during a
contest. The program is command-line based and will (should) run either
in DOS or in a CMD window under the various flavors of Windows except
for 64-bit versions.
==> SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Tim K3LR sent a picture of a strange-looking broadcast transmitter and
a little research dug up the related Web site describing home-brew
projects like these. In case
you are wondering, those are 833A tubes. (Thanks, Tree N6TR)
Take a few minutes to watch this map animation track 1000 years of
European history ! Imagine
trying to keep the European DXCC list up to date! Contesters missed out
on some serious multiplier proliferation a few hundred years ago. Then
think about communications coming to a place for the first time as
described in this photographic essay about the trans-Pacific cable
found by Tim
K3LR.
If there had not been Sporadic-E clouds all throughout Europe, the WRTC
2010 competitors would probably not have enjoyed what has been called a
flat-out "European rate fest." N6BV explores the effects of Sporadic-E
on 20/15/10 meter propagation during WRTC 2010 using
propagation-prediction tools and actual ionograms in this latest of the
Potomac Valley Radio Club video Webinars
. (Thanks, Dean N6DE)
==> RESULTS AND RECORDS
A table of results of ARRL contests downloadable in CSV format
is now online. The secret word
for the night is "Rover!" in the online results of the 2010 ARRL August
UHF Contest by John
K9JK. You can also find the updated records for the ARRL 10 Meter
Contest by Ken WM5R on the ARRL Contest Branch Web site and on Ken's
Web site . Curtis K9AKS has also delivered
a complete, updated package of records for the ARRL June VHF QSO Party.
(Thanks, ARRL Contest Branch Manager, Sean KX9X)
Results from the November ARRL Frequency Measuring Test
(FMT) have been posted
online, as well. As hoped for, two "cross-pond" measurements were
submitted by G3WW and PA3FWM - nice going! The Method and Soapbox
comments make for some very good reading. Thanks to the FMT team led by
K5CM for running the event and to WA7BNM for providing the reporting
compilation page.
Radio-sport.net has a bunch of new
stories about recent and upcoming contests, including the news of the
first European CQ WW SSB Single-Operator, All-Band High-Power win in 52
years! Keep an eye on NS3T's site for more great writing about
radiosport activities.
Official results for the 2010 EU HF Championship
are now ready, verified by
the SCC Contest Committee and published on the SCC Web page. All UBN
reports are publicly available as usual, too. (Thanks, SCC Contest
Manager, Robert S57AW)
Marc ON7SS/OO9O reports that the results of the 2010 UBA Contest - SSB
are online now. To receive
your contest certificate, follow the instructions on the results page.
The results have been posted for the 2010 Connecticut QSO Party
and certificates are printed and ready for
mailing. (Thanks, Bob W1IG)
The list of logs received for the 2010 NY QSO Party
has been posted - if you have sent a
log, please check and make sure we have received it and that we have
your information correct. (Thanks, Ken N2ZN)
OPERATING TIP
It has been noted that 40% of the ARRL CW Sweepstakes Top Ten didn't
get a sweep. 100% of the next 38 stations all got sweeps but had lower
scores than the Top Ten. This might indicate it is better for your
score to keep running than to go off looking for that last section.
(Thanks, Rich KL7RA)
==> TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION
A research team at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom
have engineered a new type of bacteria
that can be used to patch cracks in concrete structures. Injected into
the crack, three types of cells produce calcium carbonate, act as
reinforcing fibers, and generate a glue to hold it all together. The
next task for these mighty mites is growing the tower!
Information about coaxial receiving loops can be found online from
authors such as K9FD
, W8JI
,
and GU4YOX
.
These small antennas can be helpful in Top Band operating from small
lots or when portable. (Thanks, Petr OK1RP)
Uwe DL9NC checked nearly 20 different transceivers to see which
output high-power transients when the transmitter is activated in CW or
SSB. The article
is in German,
but the diagrams speak for themselves!
Gene AD3F references an online archive QST article
from August 1996
(page 35) that shows the proper way to attach a tower to a house by
using a wall bracket.
How good are the Shure E2C
and SE-115
ear buds? Bob W5OV says, "The first pair I got were stolen by my wife
because of how much better they made her ITouch sound." While they are
not cheap, they are comfortable, have good sound quality, and have a
connector at chest level to let you disconnect and move around without
taking them out. Tree N6TR recommends the less-expensive Yamaha Inner
Ear headphones
. Both got
high marks in recent contests.
Here is a detailed description of a 90-foot vertical
for 160 meters by Greg W8WWV. (Thanks, Tim K3LR)
Are the HAM-IV and Tailtwister pin connections the same and can the
same controller be used for either type of rotator? According to tower
climbing pro, Steve K7LXC, the answer to both questions is "Yes." You
still have to write down the wire colors in your station notebook,
though!
The technically-inclined reader
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* Origin: RRN BBS: Your fidonet ham radio connection! (1:116/901)
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