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The ARRL Contest Update
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
February 15, 2012
Editor: Ward Silver, N0AX
==> IN THIS ISSUE
- Come One, Come All - ARRL DX CW
- Top of the Phone Band - CQ WW 160 SSB
- Ontario Divided - New RAC Sections
- W5ZL and W5AE - Silent Keys
- History of Early Ham Radio
- Solar Stereo - Crank it Up!
- New ARRL Jan VHF SS Author
- Custom Headphone Electronics
- Web Java Tutorials and Applets
- Something Old
NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO
In the ARRL DX contests, DX stations must work the US and Canada - so
grab your key and load up on DX contacts! You can also get another dose
of digital contesting in the North American QSO Party sponsored by NCJ
magazine or even try phone on 160 meters in
the CQ WW 160 Meter SSB weekend.
BULLETINS
There are no bulletins in this issue.
BUSTED QSOS
No slip-ups noted in the previous issue.
CONTEST SUMMARY
Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section
Feb 18-19
- ARRL Int'l CW DX Contest
- NAQCC Monthly QRP Sprint--CW (Feb 15)
- Semi-Automatic Key Evening (Feb 15)
- Russian WW PSK Contest (Feb 17)
- Feld-Hell Annual WAS Sprint
- AM QSO Party
- Run For the Bacon--CW
Feb 25-26
- North American QSO Party--Digital
- CQ WW 160 Meter SSB (Feb 24)
- REF Contest--SSB
- UBA Contest--CW
- Mississippi QSO Party
- North Carolina QSO Party
- CQC Winter QSO Party
==> NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST
On February 6, Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) issued a statement on
their web site that the Ontario Section would be split into four new
RAC Administrative Sections, effective September 1, 2012. The reason
given for the restructure was "...to create a management model that
better communicates with, and represents the interests of, the overall
Ontario Amateur population." The Ontario Section will be dissolved and
be replaced with four new RAC Sections: Ontario North, Ontario South,
Ontario East, and the Greater Toronto Area. The new section
abbreviations will be announced when final. For ARRL contests that use
ARRL/RAC sections as multipliers - the November Sweepstakes, and 160
Meter Contest - there will be an overall increase of three available
multipliers. ARRL contests that use US states and Canadian provinces as
multipliers - the RTTY Roundup, ARRL DX Contest and the ARRL 10 Meter
Contest - are unaffected by this change. ARRL VHF+ contests and the
IARU HF Championships are also unaffected by this change. The first
contest to be affected by the RAC administrative change will be the
2012 ARRL November Sweepstakes, which will now require 83 multipliers
to achieve a Clean Sweep. ARRL Field Day does not use multipliers, but
Ontario stations will send new section abbreviations as part of their
exchanges. News of the administrative change can be read on the RAC
website and there is more
in this ARRL website report
.
(Thanks, ARRL Contest Branch Manager, Sean KX9X)
The ARRL Rookie Roundup rules
have changed to create a Multioperator category and a team competition
of up to five Single-operator Rookies. A number of clubs have asked for
these changes to help "Elmer" new HF operators. In addition,
recognizing the lack of interest in 6 meters for this contest, that
band has been dropped. Watch for more information in the April issue of
QST.
Amateurs have a new MF (Medium Frequency) allocation from 472-479 kHz
as a result of the WRC-12 World Radio Conference (WRC)
in Geneva, Switzerland. Don't start purchasing surplus broadcast towers
just yet - the allocation doesn't take effect until 1 Jan 2013 and the
FCC has to incorporate it into the Part 97 rules. Hams will be a
secondary allocation and able to use from 1 to 5 watts EIRP depending
on location and what is approved by their country's telecommunication
authority. (Thanks, Tom K1KI)
Tony WA8RJF invites weak signal VHF, UHF and microwave enthusiasts to
the 17th VHF Weak Signal Group banquet to be held on Friday evening
May18th, 2012 at the Dayton Grand Hotel (Formerly the Doubletree Dayton
Downtown Hotel) at 11 South Ludlow Street, Dayton, OH 45402.
Reservations are required at $35 per person. For more information you
can contact Tony by email .
EDN magazine asked the engineering profession, "Why did you become an
engineer?
"
The responses are wide-ranging and interesting, some funny, some
thoughtful. One might see parallels to the question, "Why did you
become a ham?"
Here's a great resource for planning your contest weekend and tracking
down the "who's who?". Bill NG3K has been
tracking upcoming contest expeditions and provides many other resources
on his "one-stop-shop" website.
Field Day planning is under way across the land and the bonus points
for a satellite contact are often on the list of things to do. This
year will present more challenges because of the final shutdown of
AO-51 and gradual degradation of several other smaller satellites. From
the AMSAT ANS-036 bulletin comes word that,
"The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that
we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This
includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO
if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO
with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet
satellite (if operational)." AMSAT goes on to recommend using the
linear transponders on lesser-populated birds such as VUSat
OSCAR-52,Fuji-OSCAR 29 (which may or may not be operational), and even
the venerable AMSAT-OSCAR 7.
How do you type symbols like 0 in Microsoft Word? If you happen to know
the character's four-digit numeric code, you can use the ALT key to
enter it directly. Otherwise, use the Alt-i "Insert" menu. With the
cursor at the point where you want the symbol, type Alt-I, then type s
for symbol. A symbol entry window will appear. You can find most of the
interesting symbols hams need by selecting the Symbol font and
scrolling up and down.
This has been an exceedingly rare occurrence - three newsletters during
the same month and that month being February!
Gary W5ZL and Jerry W5AE both joined the list of Silent Keys this
past week. Gary was the President of the Central Texas DX and Contest
Club and a frequently heard call in contests. He also served as a
referee for the WRTC-2010 competition in Moscow. Jerry was a founder of
Communications Specialists and Decibel Products - both household names
in Amateur Radio. He was honored for his service and leadership in the
wireless industry at last year's Radio Club of America meeting.
(Thanks, Marv N5AW and Tim K3LR)
Web Site of the Week - ARRL PR Manager, Allen W1AGP spotted an
excellent history of early Amateur Radio
by Mark W0BG. Has it really been 100 years?
WORD TO THE WISE
Hams put up antennas but insects have antennae. Just thought you'd like
to know!
==> SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
What will the solar future bring? Now that we can see nearly all of
the Sun's surface thanks to the NASA STEREO
solar monitoring satellites, we can look
at what's "comin' around the bend". If the sunspots headed our way pump
a little UV into the ionosphere, conditions could be pretty good for
the ARRL DX CW contest this weekend!
Be sure to post a few photos of your ARRL DX CW operations on the ARRL
Soapbox web page! It's a great way to let
everybody else know how much fun you had and the writeup authors always
appreciate the material. If you have a really good story - contact ARRL
DX CW writeup author Nate N4YDU .
Wow - here's a thorough history of a BIG antenna - the Wahiawa CDAA
(Circularly
Disposed Antenna Array). The downloadable paper includes the context of
this antenna in the broader HF DF community, too. A photograph of the
array is on Google Maps, enter 21.52228 N, 158.01135 W in the Google
Maps search box - no, that's not a crop circle!
(Thanks, Frank W3LPL)
Another big antenna lived in Christmas Valley, Oregon not far from the
QTH of Lee K7TJR. A "woodpecker" over-the-horizon (OTH) radar
, as Lee says, "at 1 megawatt
transmit power I am glad they
did not operate this one near here." I guess so!
Operating from a rural site in the CQ WW 160 contests makes for low
noise but a cold shack. Take a look at the Field Day-style operation
in January's CW contest
by Ludek OK2ZC and friends as OK5Z!
Here's another monster tower
and one of the
earliest remote station installations. It was located near Hillsboro,
Oregon and one of the largest towers in its day, second only to the
Eiffel Tower in Paris. The station broadcast programming sent over a
special link from Portland, OR. (Thanks, Keven K7ZS)
==> RESULTS AND RECORDS
The ARRL Contest Branch welcomes Kevin W9GKA as the results author for
the January ARRL VHF Sweepstakes. We are fortunate to have Kevin's
experience as a VHF+ focused on the writeups. Kevin is collecting
anecdotes and photos for the article - post yours on the ARRL soapbox
page today!
IOTA Contest Manager, Don G3XTT writes, "I am pleased to announce that
the final results of the 2011 IOTA Contest now appear online
. You will
find Soapbox, Photographs, etc. via the results page. A list of trophy
winners will be published shortly. Trophies are normally awarded at the
RSGB Convention (October) and, for those not able to attend, mailed
after that. We are planning some rule changes for the 2012 contest to
bring the emphasis back to working island stations. Once we have
finalised the rules they will be posted on the RSGB Contest Committee
website ."
WRTC-2014 standings are now updated to include the official results
from IARU HF 2011. The standings show a number of new leaders in their
Selection Areas! Updated Excel spreadsheets for each Selection Area are
posted
online. There is a calendar of qualifying events on the WRTC-2014
website
.
Updates will continue to appear periodically as various contest results
are made public. (Thanks, WRTC-2014 Team Selection Director, Dan K1TO)
Lots of BIG scores were posted in the CQ WPX RTTY contest last weekend.
With activity up and conditions improving, records were falling like
tenpins! And receivers were crunching like granola! RTTY contests used
to be low-key (so to speak) affairs with plenty of elbow room - no
longer. Certainly, some expectations will have to adjust but let's also
use the tools we have at our disposal. Tighter DSP filtering, moving
out of the 080-100 region of the bands, making sure we are not
overmodulating and splattering, and using the many receiver gain
controls - all are great techniques to "drive in traffic."
OPERATING TIP
"What a difference a year makes....!
What a difference a mild winter makes...!
What a difference a rotor makes....!
What a difference adding a new band makes....!
A difference from 5460 pts to 28,764 pts!"
- Joe, KC2TN in the Mount Airy VHF Radio Club
"Cheese Bits" newsletter
==> TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION
EDN magazine for 2 Feb 2012
had a very interesting
project with applications in the contester's shack. "Implement an
Audio-Frequency Tilt-Equalizer Filter" by Francesco Balena also
referenced "Designing A Pocket Equalizer For Headphone Listening
"
by Chu Moy. Both could be put to use on headphone audio out of a
contest radio, particularly to compensate for hearing loss or frequency
roll-off.
Math fans will want to check out the Math Monday column by George Hart
on the Make magazine website
. There are 100 columns with
all sorts of interesting and often visually arresting projects. Check
out the ball of binder clips, for example!
If you aren't getting the ARRL Propagation Bulletin by Tad K7RA,
there is a lot more to it than just solar indices. Tad spices up the
discussion with background on solar events, stories from readers, and
great links to online resources. Log into the ARRL web site
and click "Edit Your Profile" - you'll find the
bulletin on the "Edit Email Subscriptions" tab.
Given the amount of paper ham shacks and workbenches tend to attract,
this do-it-yourself design from the Instructables web site that
combines paper storage with shelf space
should be
attractive to many readers.
There is lots of interest in the "spray-on antenna
"
recently demonstrated in this "Solve for X" video. Somehow, I don't see
this stuff winning the big contests but for putting patch antennas
here, there, and everywhere - it has potential! (Thanks, Scott N7SS)
Bob W9KNI wrote in with a positive review
of a very useful tool - this
time a cable cutter
from
Harbor Freight. This cutter is cheap and does an super job cutting
RG-213 or the like to prepare for installing a PL-259 - clean as a
whistle and no deformation of the cable.
How are we doin' on that solar cycle? This graph of sunspot indices
shows long- and short-term
variations in the cycle. It looks like a lot of up-and-down, which is
typical of a cycle starting out. (Thanks, Mike W4EF)
Every ham needs these ten "electro-commandments
" in the shack!
(Thanks, Bill N2BC)
Technical Web Site of the Week - The website Amanogawa
has many nice online electromagnetic
engineering Java applets that open in separate windows for circuits,
antennas, transmission lines, EMC/EMI, and a very interesting Smith
Chart tutorial .
==> CONVERSATION
Something Old
I was poking around in my toolbox and junk box and rooting through
parts bins recently when I came across a little box marked "Crystals".
Oh yeah, I recalled - I had picked these up from various hamfests and
whatnot when one caught my eye. My rack of crystals from my Novice days
was long gone but I'd never gotten over that feeling of plugging in an
FT-243 and pounding some brass, seeing the needles jump, and just maybe
hearing my call come back over the headphones.
Having several crystals was important if you wanted to call a station
that might be several kHz away and not make them tune the whole band to
find your 3-by-3-by-3 plea for attention. Of course, with the
broad-as-the-side-of-a-barn receivers most of us used in those days,
being a little off frequency wasn't the handicap it is today...you just
had to squint!
I enjoy holding a crystal now - if it happens to be on a useful
frequency, so much the better, but that's not the story. The point is
the feel of it and the way it was manufactured and used. Those old
crystals - from JAN, Texas Crystals, International Crystal, and many,
many other companies from the back pages of QST - were hand-assembled
and had attractive logos and text engraved into the crystal holders.
Each one was an advertisement for the manufacturer and many were
miniature works of art in their own right. Some were even hand-labeled
as the Bliley crystal in the photo.
Everybody ought to have one little thing from 'back then' - maybe a
tube or a key or a meter or an insulator. Hold it in your hand and
think about how many different meanings that artifact has had
throughout its history. At first, it might have been cutting-edge
technology, then a more ordinary commodity, finally to be dropped into
a junk box as obsolete. Someday, someone like me spies and buys it for
a pittance - like a lucky radio buckeye, polished and rounded and
comfortable in my pocket or drawer.
If the item Is truly fortunate, its new owner may go home and put it on
the air once again. I am reminded of many childhood stories of
forgotten toys that were rescued from an attic or basement to find new
purpose. I have a soft spot for crystals, obviously, but you might find
a tool or connector equally evocative. "Old" is subjective - perhaps
all we mean is just "from a period preceding mine". These visitors from
era gone by help connect us to the traditions of radio. Like
grandparents, they connect us to history and might be no farther away
than the next hamfest or swap meet, in a little box marked "Crystals".
73, Ward N0AX
==> CONTESTS
15 February through 28 February
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
ARRL International CW DX Contest--CW, from Feb 18, 0000Z to Feb 19,
2400Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-28. Exchange: RST, state/province or power.
Logs due: Mar 21. Rules
North American QSO Party--Digital, from Feb 25, 1800Z to Feb 26, 0600Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: Name and S/P/C. Logs due: 14 days. Rules
NAQCC Monthly QRP Sprint--CW, from Feb 15, 0130Z to Feb 15, 0330Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-14. Monthly on 2nd Tuesday or 3rd Wednesday local time
(alternating). Exchange: RST, S/P/C, and NAQCC mbr nr or power. Logs
due: 4 days. Rules
Semi-Automatic Key Evening--CW, from Feb 15, 1900Z to Feb 15, 2030Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5. Exchange: RST, serial, first year of bug use. Logs
due: Mar 15. Rules
Russian WW PSK Contest--Digital, from Feb 17, 2100Z to Feb 18, 2100Z.
Bands (MHz): 1.8-28. Exchange: RST and oblast code or serial. Logs due:
15 days. Rules
Feld-Hell Annual WAS Sprint--Digital, from Feb 18, 2000Z to Feb 18,
2200Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-28. Monthly on 3rd Saturday. Exchange: RST,
S/P/C, Feld-Hell member nr. Logs due: 7 days. Rules
AM QSO Party--Phone, from Feb 18, 2300Z to Feb 19, 2300Z. Bands (MHz):
3.5-14. Exchange: RS, name, and S/P/C. Logs due: 4 weeks. Rules
Run For the Bacon--CW, from Feb 19, 0200Z to Feb 19, 0400Z. Bands
(MHz): 1.8-28. Monthly on 3rd Sunday night (local). Exchange: RST,
S/P/C, Flying Pig nr or power. Rules
CQ WW 160 Meter SSB--Phone, from Feb 24, 2200Z to Feb 26, 2200Z. Bands
(MHz): 1.8. Exchange: RST and state/province or CQ zone. Logs due: Mar
31. Rules
REF Contest--Phone,CW, from Feb 25, 0600Z to Feb 26, 1800Z. Bands
(MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: RS and French dept or serial. Logs due: 30
days. Rules
UBA Contest--CW, from Feb 25, 1300Z to Feb 26, 1300Z. Bands (MHz):
3.5-28. Exchange: RS, serial, and ON province. Logs due: 2 weeks. Rules
North Carolina QSO Party--Phone,CW, from Feb 26, 1700Z to Feb 27,
0300Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-28. Frequencies: CW
3.54,3.74,7.04,7.14,14.04,21.04,21.14,28.04,28.14, Phone
3.86,7.26,14.26,21.36,28.36. Exchange: RS(T) and NC county or S/P/C.
Logs due: Apr 1. Rules
CQC Winter QSO Party--Phone,CW, from Feb 27, 0100Z to Feb 27, 0259Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-14. Frequencies: 3.560, 7.040, 14.060. Exchange:
RS(T), S/P/C, name, CQC nr or power. Logs due: 30 days. Rules
VHF+ CONTESTS
Mississippi QSO Party--Phone,CW, from Feb 25, 1500Z to Feb 26, 0300Z.
Bands (MHz): 3.5-28, 50-432, Frequencies: CW 3.545,7.045,14.045,21.045,
28.045;Phone 3.857-862-867,7.238,14.275,21.375,28.375;VHF
50.13,144.22,146.55,446. Exchange: RS(T) and MS county or S/P/C. Logs
due: Mar 31. Rules
==> LOG DUE DATES
15 February through 28 February
- February 15 - Midwinter Contest
- February 18 - Asia-Pacific Spring Sprint, CW
- February 18 - WAB 1.8 MHz Phone
- February 18 - North American Sprint, SSB
- February 19 - SKCC Weekend Sprint
- February 19 - SARL Field Day Contest
- February 20 - 10-10 Int. Winter Contest, SSB
- February 21 - Hungarian DX Contest
- February 22 - ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
- February 27 - Hunting Lions in the Air Contest
- February 28 - CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
- February 28 - REF Contest, CW
- February 28 - AGCW Straight Key Party
- February 28 - RSGB 1st 1.8 MHz Contest
==> 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) 2012 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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