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The ARRL Contest Update
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
July 20, 2011
Editor: Ward Silver, N0AX
==> IN THIS ISSUE
- Endless Waves - the IOTA Contest
- A Hive of Activity - Flight of the Bumblebees
- CW Open - New Contest
- QRN Ringing In Your Ears
- Sights from Space
- ARRL DX CW Results Online
- Mast Lifts - Heave Ho!
- Rolling Circuits Out of Dough
- How To Have A (Contest) Conversation
NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO
There are some interesting contests of the few in the next two weekends
- if you like chasing island contacts, the IOTA Contest is a lot of
fun. County hunters and mobile ops can be found roaming the land in the
MARAC QSO Party. And what are the "bumblebees" swarming around the QRP
CW calling frequencies? Portable stations operating with low power in
remote spots - buzz up the band and bag a bunch!
BULLETINS
There are no bulletins in this issue but your editor is going to be
taking a vacation and so the following issue will be somewhat
attenuated.
BUSTED QSOS
My reference to "Bavaria" in the previous issue was not to the German
state but to the general region - apologies to the inhabitants of the
state of Baden-Württemburg who are justifiably proud of hosting the
Friederichschafen hamfest. Also, Mitch DJ0QN and photographer Bob W5OV
note that the Alps in the photo behind the ferry are Swiss.
CONTEST SUMMARY
Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section
July 23-24
- NAQCC Monthly QRP Sprint--CW (Jul 21)
- Flight of the Bumblebees-- CW
July 30-31
- MARAC US Counties QSO Party
- IOTA Contest
- 144 MHz Digital EME Championship
==> NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST
If you haven't put this one on your calendar yet, now is the time.
Sponsored by the CWops group, the new CW Open (CWO)
contest (Aug 20-21) is unique - a
package of three, 4-hour contests during a 24-hour cycle with separate
scores and awards for each. The idea is to try for fairly similar
conditions in all three ITU regions over that cycle during at least two
of the three events. Of course, it will not necessarily be the same two
events in each region. The scoring is also unique - 1 point per QSO per
band; 1 mult the first time you work that call sign. In other words,
this contest is about working a lot of different participants rather
than working a smaller fraction on multiple bands. As such, it gives
hams with modest rigs and wire antennas a chance to rack up decent
scores. Theoretically, a 100-watt station on a single band could come
in on top in one of the sessions. Team competition is also a part of
the contest. There is already a tested module on N1MM for CWO; one
nearing completion for WriteLog; and completed (but not fully tested)
modules for CQ/X, GenLog and SD. (Thanks, Rob K6RB and Al AD6E)
Win-Test maven Bob N6TV has created the AltDScripts3 package of
configuration scripts for the program to
implement the Enter-Sends-Mode TR-LOG style of SO2R operating. The
July/August, 2011 issue of the National Contest Journal (NCJ) contains
an article written by top contester Scott K0DQ, documenting his
migration from TRlog to Win-Test, using a DX Doubler and PIEXX SO2Rxlat
box for SO2R control. The NCJ website's Bonus Content also includes a
PDF file titled "Downloading and Setting Up WINTEST for SO2R
". with
detailed screen shots and set-up instructions.
You can turn your smartphone into an ISS visible pass predictor
for iPhone and Android operating systems.
Web based predictions are also available using the Simple Satellite
Tracker on the Spaceweather web site.
(Thanks, AMSAT bulletin ANS-191)
Here's something new and interesting from Zone 34 - the second issue
of The Egyptian Radio Amateur Magazine "CQ EGYPT
" for July 2011 is
online. A couple of the articles are in English and perhaps future
issues will have both Arabic and English translations. Let's hope this
is a trend toward more activity from the Middle East as government
restrictions are relaxed!
Web Site of the Week - You think you have QRN? The Cassini space probe,
in orbit around Saturn, has been monitoring the enormous "white spot"
storm
since late last year. The noise was so impressive that NASA felt
obligated to post a recording
of
it. Maybe they could use a little DSP in their radios! I don't think
we're going to work Saturn on the low bands any time soon.
WORD TO THE WISE
Haboob - Pheonix, Arizona residents are currently experiencing another
of these intense sandstorms more often associated with the Sahara and
Frank Herbert's novel Dune. As all fans of the original Star Trek
series know, a sand storm can be turned to useful purposes...why not
hang that corroded aluminum outside and let the haboob take care of
scouring it?
==> SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
The AMSAT weekly bulletin ANS-191 had several good video links such as
the news item about the new United Launch Alliance's launch complex.
You can take a complete level-by-level tour
online! Not to be outdone, the Goddard Space Flight Center has released
a video (with sound) so you can experience first-hand a ride aboard a
sounding rocket .
Now here's a rover we'd all like to see spun off from the space
program - the NASA Curiosity
would look good with some VHF+ antennas on it, wouldn't it? I
particularly like the idea of a laser that can vaporize rocks at seven
meters. Surely there is an amplifier-worthy power supply in there
somewhere! To be launched later this year, Curiosity is scheduled to
touch down on Mars in August of 2012 near Gale Crater.
==> RESULTS AND RECORDS
Results for the 2011 ARRL DX CW Contest
are now online on the
ARRL Contest Branch webpage. Look for the DX Phone article before the
next newsletter issue is released! (Thanks, ARRL Contest Branch
Manager, Sean KX9X)
CQ WPX Contest Manager, Randy K5ZD wants to let us all know that the
raw claimed scores for the 2011 WPX CW Contest
are now online. The page
includes a search function so you can quickly locate a particular score
or you can browse scores by continent and category.
Results of the Ukrainian DIGIFEST 2011
(held just a few
weeks ago on June 4 and 5) are online. Serge UX1UA reports that
participation almost tripled and the number of logs received exceeded
200. (Thanks, Yuri VE3DZ)
OPERATING TIP
Symmetry - if you are giving SO2R a try, make it easy on your poor,
overloaded brain by arranging the switching and computer display so
that switches and windows "follow" the layout of the station. If Radio
1 is physically on the left, make switches turn to the left to select
Radio 1 and place windows with information about Radio 1 on the left of
the display. You'd be surprised at how much that helps a tired operator
in the middle of the night!
==> TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION
Heavy masts can be difficult enough to wrangle on the ground and
even more-so at the top of a tower where your leverage is severely
limited. How should you raise a mast to its final position? Assuming
you've lifted the mast to the top of the tower and it's in the sleeve
or thrust bearing, a gin pole often runs out of steam at this point.
Stan K5GO suggests this approach - "I have always used a come-a-long
attached to the top rung of the tower and a muffler clamp around the
mast (as the lift point - Ed.), wrapping the cable with the hook around
the mast below the clamp. Loosen the bearing so it will slide through
and have a short 2x 8 board handy to rest the mast on to reposition the
clamp to go higher." Roger K8RI suggests a variation on this theme to
increase the mechanical advantage. He attaches a pulley to the mast and
runs the come-along cable back up to another rung on the tower. This
makes for a more symmetrical lifting force on the mast and reduces
tower rung loading.
Phillystran non-conductive guy line is marvelous stuff but it is not as
hard as steel. This can be a problem when using ceramic insulators to
join Phillystran to EHS steel guy wire. Tim K3LR fills us in on the
right way to do things - use a metal Preform Guy Grip made for
Phillystran to connect to the ceramic insulator. The hard ceramic with
the tight-radius bend can over-stress Phillystran (guy wires have
minimum radius specifications for bends, too) and the sharp ridges
often present in molded ceramic insulators will cut through Phillystran
and rope, too. The rule is to have metal on ceramic whenever a
load-bearing line is attached to an insulator.
The shipping costs for steel push-up masts can be fierce - more than
the cost of the mast! This is at least partly because the masts are too
long for standard parcel services. At least one solution exists in the
form of the Rohn 9H50 -
a 50-foot push-up mast but with a 99-inch collapsed length that UPS
will deliver! (Thanks, Rob K5UJ)
If you are trying to match the special paint on an old radio, Glen
K9STH may have the solution
. Go to a paint store
and have the paint "computer matched". He uses acrylic paint that runs
under $13 for a quart, there is no charge for the matching, and a
number of attempts have all been "spot on".
Weed whacker line can be used to space air-wound coils for mobile
antennas, traps, loading inductors and so forth. It comes in a number
of diameters similar to copper wire and since it is non-conductive,
once you're done winding you can leave it in place to keep the windings
from moving. (Thanks, Mark KA6WKE)
From the July edition of Analog Device's Analog Dialogue features
the article "Differential Interfaces Improve Performance in RF
Transceiver Designs"
discussing the problems of single-ended interfaces at RF. Good reading
for the digital radio designer.
Don't turn the fan - turn the heat sink
!
I guess you would have to use slip rings to get signals into and out of
the amplifier and "balanced feed line" takes on a whole new meaning!
The Air Bearing Heat Exchanger
invented at Sandia Labs is definitely an out-of-the-box solution to a
ham's age-old cooling problem.
If you haven't checked out the Force 12 Loop-Fed Antennas
,
this might be a good opportunity to do so. Not a Quagi-style antenna,
the VHF/UHF LFA uses a loop for the driven element, but in the same
plane as the directors and reflectors. The same web page describes an
OWL - the Optimized Wide-band Low-Impedance Yagi. Both antennas are
designed for 50-ohm feed point impedance and direct-connection of the
feed line.
Technical Web Site of the Week - If you want to get your kids
interested in electricity, why not use this Playdough-based approach
?
No word on whether the circuits will taste good and salty like
the...oh, sorry Mom.
==> CONVERSATION
How To Have A (Contest) Conversation
After the last issue was emailed to readers, I received a most
reasonable request. "This issue shows how NOT to make a Field Day QSO.
How SHOULD I make a Field Day QSO?" Here is a good example of how
experienced operators (i.e. - your editor) can forget that criticism
without instruction is not helpful. One has to demonstrate the right
technique so as to illustrate why the wrong technique is, in fact,
wrong! So here goes...
First, a disclaimer. There is no One Perfect Method for efficient,
effective contest operating. The "right" technique depends on band
conditions, how many are (or aren't) calling, the intensity of the
competition, and the skill of the operators on each end. What follows
are guidelines and I am assuming that the contest is a phone contest.
The reader should be able to apply the same principles to CW and
digital contest operation.
To make a lot of QSOs in a fixed period - the goal of nearly every
contest - you need to minimize the time you spend making each QSO. The
first step in minimizing the duration of a QSO is to remove all
unnecessary verbiage. In a perfect world, the only thing you should
hear going back and forth during a contest is call signs and exchange
information. It should sound like this:
1 - CQ Field Day KO0A
2 - [pileup]
3 - W1ABC 2 Alpha Missouri
4 - 1 Alpha Eastern Massachusetts
5 - Thanks KO0A
Not a wasted bit of transmitting exists in that exchange. Lines 1 and 5
are "bookends" in which KO0A identifies and solicits QSOs. (This style
of operation is sufficient for W1ABC, as well.) This is the standard to
which you should aspire on either end of the QSO. In Line 3, KO0A has
pulled out a full call sign from the pileup, sent it to notify everyone
who the QSO is with, given the information in the expected order and
stopped transmitting. KO0A does not say, "Please copy..." or "You
are..." or repeat any information or say, "Over" or "Go ahead" or any
number of other things that take up time but don't add anything to the
flow of the contact. In Line 4, W1ABC responds when called, gives the
contest information, and stops transmitting. That's it - no extra
"stuff" to slow things down. In Line 5, KO0A acknowledges that the
information was complete and the call sign ends the transmission. No
"QRZed" or "CQ Field Day" or "from" is required. If no stations call,
then a longer CQ transmission starts the cycle again. (A nit to
pick...when a station says "You are" and then describes their own
configuration, shouldn't that really be "I am"?)
When should you deviate from this ideal? There are lots of reasons to
do so. In Line 3, KO0A should not give out any exchange information
until sure of enough of the caller's call sign that only one station is
likely to respond. For example, if KO0A doesn't get the last letter of
W1ABC's call..."W1AB-something 2 Alpha Missouri, what's the last
letter?" W1ABC should respond with something like, "W1 Alpha Bravo
Charlie, last letter is Charlie, 1 Alpha...etc" Why does W1ABC repeat
the full call? To confirm that the missing letter is the last one and
that the call is not W1CAB or just W1AB. Similarly, if KO0A has W1ABC's
call wrong, W1ABC might simply respond with, "W1ABC". At that point,
KO0A can resume with Line 3 shown above.
What about repeating your information? If not requested to do so,
don't! 9 times out of 10, even a QRP station will be perfectly readable
in Line 4 above. The other callers are standing by (hopefully) so KO0A
is probably going to get the information on the first transmission -
don't waste time with unrequested repeats! If a repeat is requested,
repeat only the information requested.
Should W1ABC give KO0A's call sign in Line 4? Whenever there is any
question about the intended receiving station give the call sign. It is
very common under crowded contest conditions for two stations to be
extremely close together or even on the same frequency if they are in
each other's skip zones or have antenna nulls aimed at each other. When
this happens, don't depend on timing - give the other station's call
sign before sending your own information. If you don't, you take a
chance that the "wrong" station will log you. The extra information
often saves losing a contact (and the multiplier and the possible
penalty).
What if W1ABC misses some of KO0A's information? Then W1ABC should
request a repeat ("What is your section?") BEFORE proceeding with "1
Alpha Eastern Massachusetts." W1ABC should not transmit any exchange
information until all of KO0A's information has been received. If W1ABC
waits until after sending the category and section to ask for a repeat,
KO0A will likely assume W1ABC received the information OK and will
proceed with Line 5 too soon. This gets everything out of sync for
everybody, including any callers waiting to contact KO0A. Yes, W1ABC
could wait until KO0A's next contact to copy the information but I can
tell you from personal experience - it doesn't always work out that
way! Get the information you need during the contact and don't assume
you can get it on subsequent contacts - that's a big waste of time for
you.
Obviously, there are many more variations on the basic theme. By
practicing, you'll learn the basic principles of snappy, crisp
operating. To learn more about effective, efficient operating, listen
to the top operators on the air while they are "running" and try to
emulate them.
- Learn to pull a full call sign out of a pileup whenever you can
- Give your full call whenever calling in a pileup
- Transmit exchange information the same way every time
- Eliminate wasted syllables and words
- Speak clearly without rushing or mumbling
- Speech audio should be non-distorted and free of background noise
The top operators are flexible, too. When conditions require it, they
will "change gears" to a faster or slower technique in order to
maintain the flow of information and keep the contacts coming. Just
like a long-distance runner who only lifts each foot enough to clear
the ground, the top operators only transmit enough information to keep
making contacts. You might not think the difference between "Thanks"
and "Thank you" is worth much, but if in a 48-hour contest the goal is
upwards of 5000 contacts, saying the extra "you" 5000 times is
significant. This may be "cutting the tags off the teabags" as the
backpackers say but work on eliminating non-essential transmissions and
see if your log doesn't fill up a little quicker!
Should this be the style of operating for casual, non-contest contacts?
Of course not! But it would be completely appropriate for a net control
station trying to run an emcomm net with many calling to check in, pass
traffic, report status, etc. When trying to handle that load "extra
stuff" can really gum up the works. The habits and skills formed under
contest conditions help make you an effective operator when the chips
are really down - in a disaster or emergency situation when every
minute counts.
73, Ward N0AX
==> CONTESTS
20 July through 2 August
An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format
is available. Check the
sponsor's Web site for information on operating time restrictions and
other instructions.
HF CONTESTS
NAQCC Monthly QRP Sprint--CW, from Jul 21, 0030Z to Jul 21, 0230Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-14. Monthly on 2nd Tuesday or 3rd Wednesday
(alternating). Exchange: RST, S/P/C, and NAQCC mbr nr or power. Logs
due: 4 days. Rules
Flight of the Bumblebees--CW, from Jul 24, 1700Z to Jul 24, 2100Z.
Bands (MHz): 7-28. Exchange: RST, S/P/C, Bumblebee nr or power. Logs
due: 8 days. Rules
MARAC US Counties QSO Party--Phone, CW, from Jul 30, 1200Z to Jul 30,
0600Z and Jul 31, 1200Z to , 2359Z Jul 31, Multiple operating periods;.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-28, 50-144, Frequencies: CW - 50 kHz above band edge;
SSB - 1.85, 3.85, 7.25, 14.27, 21.4, 28.4, 50.135, 146.53. Exchange:
RS(T), state, county abbreviation. Logs due: May 31. Rules
IOTA Contest--Phone, CW, from Jul 30, 1200Z to Jul 31, 1200Z. Bands
(MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: RS(T), serial, IOTA number if island. Logs
due: 3 weeks. Rules
VHF+ CONTESTS
144 MHz Digital EME Championship--Digital, from Jul 30, 0000Z to Jul
31, 2400Z. Bands (MHz): 144. Exchange: TMO or RST and R. Logs due: Aug
8. Rules
MARAC US Counties QSO Party--Phone, CW, from Jul 30, 1200Z to Jul 30,
0600Z and Jul 31, 1200Z to , 2359Z Jul 31, Multiple operating periods;.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-28, 50-144, Frequencies: CW - 50 kHz above band edge;
SSB - 1.85, 3.85, 7.25, 14.27, 21.4, 28.4, 50.135, 146.53. Exchange:
RS(T), state, county abbreviation. Logs due: May 31. Rules
==> LOG DUE DATES
20 July through 2 August
July 20, 2011 West Virginia QSO Party
July 20, 2011 RSGB 80m Club Championship, SSB
July 24, 2011 Run for the Bacon QRP Contest
July 25, 2011 10-10 Int. Spirit of 76 QSO Party
July 26, 2011 ARCI Milliwatt Field Day
July 26, 2011 ARRL Field Day
July 26, 2011 Marconi Memorial HF Contest
July 26, 2011 Ukrainian DX DIGI Contest
July 30, 2011 North American QSO Party, RTTY
July 30, 2011 GACW WWSA CW DX Contest
July 30, 2011 RSGB Low Power Contest
July 31, 2011 RAC Canada Day Contest
July 31, 2011 Stew Perry Topband Challenge
July 31, 2011 SEANET Contest
July 31, 2011 All Asian DX Contest, CW
July 31, 2011 Original QRP Contest
August 1, 2011 Feld Hell Sprint
August 1, 2011 DRCG Long Distance Contest, RTTY
August 1, 2011 SMIRK Contest
August 1, 2011 WLOTA Contest
August 2, 2011 PODXS 070 Club 40m Firecracker Sprint
==> ARRL INFORMATION
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==> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's
Contest Calendar and SM3CER's
Contest Calendar .
The ARRL Contest Update is published every other Wednesday (26 times
each year). ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by
editing their Member Data Page as described at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/.
Copyright (c) 2011 American Radio Relay League, Inc. All
Rights Reserved
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Address all comments and questions to the editor as described in this
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