Contester's Rate Sheet for March 10, 2004
*********************** Contester's Rate Sheet 10 March 2004 *********************** Edited by Ward Silver, N0AX SUMMARY o Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Virginia QSO Parties o Mother of All Rovers o Dayton 2004 Contest Dinner o California QSO Party Results Available o A Whole Spool of Coax Tips o Put Your Pencils Down BULLETINS o No bulletins this issue. BUSTED QSOS o The ARS Adventure Sprint announced as running on Mar 4 actually ran on Mar 1, which is Monday evening, beginning at 0200Z on Mar 2. (Thanks, Rick N6XI) ANNOUNCEMENT & NOTICES FOR 10 MARCH TO 23 MARCH 2004 Logs are due for the following contests: March 10 - Delaware QSO Party, email to: QSOparty@fsarc.org, paper logs and diskettes to: Contest Chairman - FSARC, Inc., PO Box 1050, Newark, DE 19715, USA March 10 - KCJ Topband Contest, email to: kcjlog@freeml.com, paper logs and diskettes to: Yasuo Taneda, JA1DD, 279-233 Mori, Sambu-town, Sambu-gun, Chiba 289-1214, Japan March 10 - Russian PSK WW Contest, email to: ra3bb@mail.ru, paper logs and diskettes to: Russian PSK WW Contest, Box 180, Moscow 105077, Russia March 14 - ARRL School Club Roundup, email to: (none), paper logs and diskettes to: School Club Roundup, c/o Lew Malchick, N2RQ, Brooklyn Technical HS, 29 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA March 14 - North American QSO Party, RTTY, email to: rttynaqp@ncjweb.com, paper logs and diskettes to: Wayne Matlock, K7WM, Rt 2 Box 102, Cibola, AZ 85328, USA March 15 - Minnesota QSO Party, email to: wa0mhj@arrl.net, paper logs and diskettes to: MNQP, 4745 170th Lane NE, Ham Lake, MN 55304-5233, USA March 15 - OMISS QSO Party, email to: (none), paper logs and diskettes to: OMISS QSO Party, c/o Don Banta, K5DB, 3407 Diana St, Springdale, AR 72764, USA March 15 - FISTS Winter Sprint, email to: W8PIG@yahoo.com, paper logs and diskettes to: Dan Shepherd, N8IE, 1900 Pittsfield St, Kettering, OH 45420, USA March 15 - AGCW Semi-Automatic Key Evening, email to: semiautomatic@agcw.de, paper logs and diskettes to: Manager, Ulf-Dietmar Ernst, DK9KR, Elbstrasse 60, D-28199 Bremen, Germany March 19 - CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest, email to: wpxrtty@kkn.net, paper logs and diskettes to: CQ WPX Contest, 25 Newbridge Road, Hicksville, NY 11801, USA Don't forget that ARRL DX CW logs are due on the 24th! The following contests are scheduled: Note that the following abbreviations are used to condense the contest rules summaries: SO - Single-Op; M2 - Multiop - 2 Transmitters; MO - Multi-Op; MS - Multi-Op, Single Transmitter; MM - Multi-Op, Multiple Transmitters; AB - All Band; SB - Single Band; S/P/C - State/Province/DXCC Entity; HP - High Power; LP - Low Power; Entity - DXCC Entity HF CONTESTS RSGB Commonwealth Contest - CW - sponsored by the RSGB from 1000Z Mar 13 -1000Z Mar 14. Open to British Commonwealth stations only, work stations once per band outside your own call area. HQ stations may be worked by everyone and count as a separate call area. Frequencies: lower 30 kHz of 80-10 meters. Categories: SO - open (full-time), - restricted (12 hrs max), Headquarters -- MO and SO, no spotting assistance. Scoring: 5 pts/QSO, first 3 QSOs with a call area count 25 pts. For more information: http://www.rsgbhfcc.org/. Logs due April 5 to commonwealth.contest.logs@rsgbhfcc.org or G3UFY, 77 Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 7AF, England. Wisconsin QSO Party - Phone/CW - sponsored by the West Allis RAC from 1800Z Mar 14 - 0100Z Mar 15. Frequencies (MHz ): CW - 3.550, 3.705, 7.050, 14.050, 21.050, 10-meters; Phone - 3.890, 7.230, 14.290, 21.350, 28.400; All modes - 6/2 meters, UHF. No repeater QSOs. Categories: SO, MS, MM and Mobile. Mobile operators may not operate on county lines. Exchange: S/P/C or WI county. QSO Points: Phone - 1 pt, CW - 2 pts. Score: QSO pts x WI counties (max 72) + S/P/C (WI stations only) x 2 (< 5 W), 1.5 (<150 W). WI mobiles/portables add 500 bonus points for each county with 12 or more QSOs. For more information: http://www.warac.org/. Logs due Apr 14 to k9kr@powercom.net (in WARAC Cabrillo format - see Web site) or Wisconsin QSO Party, West Allis RAC, PO Box 1072, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Oklahoma QSO Party--Phone/CW/Digital - sponsored by the Oklahoma DX Association (OKDXA) from 1400Z - 0200Z Mar 13 and 1400Z - 2000Z Mar 14. Frequencies (MHz): SSB - 3.860, 7.260, 14.260, 21.360, 28.360; CW - 3.530, 7.030, 14.030, 21.030, 28.030. Categories: SOHF-HP (>100W), -LP, -QRP (<5W), SO-VHF, MS, MM, Rover (OK only). Exchange: serial number and S/P/C or OK county. QSO points: Phone - 2 pts, CW/Digital - 3 pts. Score: QSO points x OK counties (OK stations use States + Provinces), counted only once. For more information: http://www.okdxa.org/. Logs due April 30 to k5yaa@okdxa.org (ADIF or CABRILLO format preferred) or OKDXA, PO Box 2591, Claremore, OK 74018-2591 (<100 QSOs only). North American RTTY Sprint, sponsored by NCJ from 0000Z-0400Z Mar 14. Frequencies 80 -- 20 meters. North American stations work everyone; others work NA stations only. Exchange both callsigns, serial number, name, and S/P/C. The same station can be worked multiple times provided 3 contacts separate the contact in both logs, regardless of band. QSY rule: Stations calling CQ, QRZ, etc, may only work one station in response to that call; they must then move at least 1 kHz before working another station or 5 kHz before soliciting another call. Once you are required to QSY, you may not make a new QSO on the previous frequency until you have made a contact at least 1 or 5 kHz (as required) away. For more information: http://www.ncjweb.com/. Logs due 7 days after the contest to rttysprint@ncjweb.com. Check Web site for expected changes to contest manager and log submission addresses. YL International Single Sideband System QSO Party - Phone - sponsored by YL International SSB System from 0000Z Mar 13 - 2400Z Mar 14, two 6-hr off times required. Frequencies: 160 - 10, no US-US contacts on 14.332 MHz except handicapped. Categories: SOAB. Exchange: Callsign, RST, State, County, YLISSB member number. Score: Number of QSOs. For more information: http://www.qsl.net/yl-issb. Logs due 31 Mar to 2hamsrus@comcast.net to N4KNF/N4ZGH, 2160 Ivy Street, Port Charlotte, FL 33952. Russian DX Contest-CW/SSB - from 1200Z Mar 20 - 1200Z Mar 21. Frequencies: 160 - 10 meters. Categories: SOAB -HP and -LP (<100W), SOSB, MS (10 minute rule), SWL, SO may enter Mixed Mode, CW, or SSB, MO and SWL are Mixed only. Exchange: RS(T) + serial number, RU stations - RS(T) + Oblast designator. QSO points: own entity - 2 pts, different entity, same continent - 3 pts, diff. cont. - 5 pts, with Russians - 10 pts. Score: QSO points x DXCC entity + Oblasts, counted once per band. For more information: http://www.rdxc.org/. Logs due 45 days after the contest to rusdxc@contesting.com or to Russian DX Contest, PO Box 88, 119311 Moscow, Russia. Virginia QSO Party--Phone/CW - sponsored by the Sterling Park ARC 1800Z Mar 20-0200Z Mar 22. Frequencies (MHz): CW - 1.805 and 50 kHz up, Phone - 1.845, 3.860, 7.260, 14.270, 21.370, 28.370, Novice/Tech - 28.370, VHF/UHF - 50.125, 144.200, 146.58, 223.50, 446.00. No repeater or cross-mode QSOs. Categories: SO, MS, MM fixed station and Mobile. Exchange: serial number and S/P/C or VA county/city. QSO Points: Phone - 1pt, CW - 2 pts, VA Mobile - 3 pts. Score: QSO Points x VA city/counties + S/P/C (counted only once). VA mobiles add 100 pts per VA city/county activated. Add 500 pts for QSO with K4NVA. For more information: http://www.qsl.net/sterling. Logs due April 15 to nq4k@arrl.net or Virginia QSO Party, Call Box 599, Sterling, VA 20167. Spring QRP Homebrewer Sprint - CW/PSK31 - sponsored by New Jersey QRP Club, 0000Z - 0400Z Mar 22. Frequencies: QRP CW and PSK31 frequencies on 80 - 10 meters, CW and PSK31 are considered separate bands. Exchange: RST + S/P/C + Output Power. QSO Points: Commercial Equipment - 2 pts, Homebrew Xmtr or Rcvr - 3pts, Homebrew Xmtr and Rcvr or Xcvr - 4 pts. Kits ok as homebrew. Power Multiplier: 0>250 mW = x 15, 250 mW>1W = x10, 1>5W = x7, >5W = x1. Score: QSO Points x S/P/C (counted once per band) x power multiplier. For more information: http://www.njqrp.org/data/qrphomebrewersprint.html . Logs due 30 days after the contest to n2cq@arrl.net (text format) or Ken Newman, N2CQ, 81 Holly Drive, Woodbury, NJ 08096. 10-10 Mobile Contest - any mode - sponsored by 10-10 International, from 0000Z-2359Z Mar 20. Frequencies: 10-meters only. Categories: Fixed, Mobile. Exchange: Call, Name, S/P/C, county (US, Canada, and England) and 10-10 membership number, if any. QSO Points: 1 pt/QSO. Score: Fixed - QSO Points x counties, Mobiles - QSO Points x counties worked + counties activated. For more information: http://www.ten-ten.org/. Logs due Apr 3 to tentencontest@alltel.net or Steve Rasmussen N0WY, 312 N. 6th Street, Plattsmouth, NE 68048. CLARA and Family HF Contest--Phone/CW - sponsored by the Canadian Ladies ARA, from 1700Z Mar 20-1700Z Mar 21. Frequencies (MHz): CW - 14.033, 21.033, 7.033, 3.688, Phone - 28.300, 21.225, 14.120 14.285, 7.033, 7.200, 3.750, 3.900, work CLARA and YL stations once per band/mode. Crossmode contacts count as phone for both stations. Categories: SO only, no time limit. Exchange: RS(T), name, QTH, and whether CLARA member, Family member, non-member YL, or OM. QSO Points: 5 pts for CLARA-members, 2 pts for CLARA family members, 3 pts for non-CLARA YLs, 1 pt for OMs. Multipliers are VE provinces and DXCC entities (only if QSO with YL) counted only once. Score: QSO points x multipliers. For more information: http://www.qsl.net/clara/contest.html. Logs due April 24 to ve7vpe@rac.ca or Paulette Schouten, VE7VPE, c/o VECTOR, 3301 East Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 5J3, Canada 9KCC Contest--CW/SSB--sponsored by the 9K Contest Club (Kuwait) from 1200Z -- 1600Z Mar 21. Frequencies: 15-meters only, work stations only once. Categories: SO, SSB or CW for 9K or non-9K. Exchange: RS(T) and serial number. QSO Points: 1 pt/QSO. Score: QSO points x DXCC entities + number of different 9K stations. For more information: http://www.qsl.net/9kcc/9KCCRule.htm. Logs due 30 days after the contest to 9k2rr@9kcc.com or Contest manager: Faisal N. Al-Ajmi (9K2RR) PO Box 1124, Alfarwanya 80000 Kuwait BARTG Spring RTTY Contest - sponsored by the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group from 0200Z Mar 20 - 0200Z Mar 22. Frequencies: 80 -- 10 meters. Categories: SO-Expert, SOSB, SOAB (one band change per 5 min), MS, MM, and SWL. SO operate 30 hours total with off periods of 3 hours min. Operators with a Top Ten log during the past three years must enter as an Expert. Exchange: three-digit serial number and four-digit time. Multipliers: DXCC entities + W/VE/JA/VK call areas, counted once per band. Score: QSOs x multiplier x continents (count only once). For more information: http://www.bartg.demon.co.uk/. Logs via email only in Cabrillo format due May 1 to ska@bartg.demon.co.uk (with the call and entry class in the subject line and the log included as an attachment). VHF CONTESTS No VHF contests are scheduled. NEWS & PRESS RELEASES Certificates for the 2003 IARU HF World Championships have been printed and mailed. Certificates for the June 2003 VHF QSO Party will be mailed within the next week. We also continued reviewing incoming comments to the VHF Contest proposals. Look for an excellent 2003 CW Sweepstakes writeup by KH6ND - the article is in production now and will be available on the Web soon. (Thanks, Dan N1ND) Mother of All Rovers - the DARPA Grand Challenge, a race for robotic vehicles from Barstow, California to Nevada on March 13th has been garnering quite a bit of interest lately. Maybe some of this technology will show up in the Rover contest categories? Take a look at http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge or enter "DARPA Grand Challenge" into a Web search engine. The North Coast Contesters are pleased to announce The 12th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner on Saturday night, May 15th, at 6:30 PM at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 5th and Jefferson St. Tickets are on sale now and seating is limited to 300. As always, new members of the CQ Contesting Hall of Fame will be announced by HOF member Bob Cox, K3EST. The price is 33.00 USD per person. All dinner ticket orders are handled exclusively by Craig Clark, K1QX at: Radioware and Radio Bookstore, PO Box 209, Rindge, NH 03461(full contact information at http://www.radio-ware.com/). The deadline for orders is May 6. For fans of the QRP ARCI's stable of contests, Contest Manager Tom WB5KHC has prepared a scoring and multiplier checkoff sheet. The sheet is in PDF format and can be downloaded at http://2hams.net/ARCI/index.htm. RESULTS AND RECORDS Al AD6E reports that the results for the 2003 California QSO Party have been published at http://www.cqp.org/Results-2003.html or http://www.nccc.cc/jug/jug04mar.pdf. This was the biggest CQP ever! Marc ON7SS has published the 2003 DIG QSO Party results on his Web site at: http://users.skynet.be/bk260445/on7ss/contest_results/dig_qso_2003.html. The VP5X 2003 CQWW CW logs are now online at http://www.vp5x.com/. Click on "online logs." (Thanks, Kyle WA4PGM) TECHNICAL & TECHNIQUE In line with the Web site on putting up large tubing verticals, Dave K1FK has authored a QST article, "K1FK 75' Vertical for 80 & 160 Meters" that will be in the June issue. It covers how to construct and erect these large verticals. Just in time for summer antenna season! Several report excellent service and quick turnaround from Heil Sound in repairing broken headsets and boom mikes. They will also rebuild older units to good-as-new status. For more information, browse to http://www.heilsound.com/heil_hospital.htm. Those of you interested in using the PIC processors to make neat "gadgets" may find the PIC Elmering series of Web pages at http://www.amqrp.org/elmer160. The American QRP club offers a lot of building tips and projects. Jim W6EU relays a recommendation for W4SM's Web site, http://www.keplerian.com/. In particular, the WinGrid software determines heading and distance of 160-meter contacts. The site has several other interesting freeware offerings, including an RF Safety Calculator and a Transmission Power Loss calculator among a number of other things. A lot of the RG-6 coax available from CATV is "flooded", meaning that it is filled with a viscous fluid designed to keep water out of the cable and can be buried. It also seems to discourage nibbling by rodents. If you do bury it, splicing may be a problem to keep dry. Bill VE3NH recommends bringing the joints up above ground inside a piece of large diameter plastic pipe covered with a pipe cap. Dwight W5USM suggests that a regular barrel connector can be used if covered with a self-sealing piece of heat-shrink - the type with a glue seal. John K9DX points out that a 70-ohm cable about the diameter of RG-11 may also be available and has much lower loss. Steve K7LXC reminds us not to use coax with a solid center conductor for the rotator loop at the top of the tower where it must flex. The solid wire will eventually crack from metal fatigue. It might also work its way through the insulation (this is a particular problem with air and foam dielectric cables) and short to the shield. Run the solid conductor cable to the top of the tower and then use a short service loop of stranded conductor cable. As long as we're on the subject of handling coax, Tree N6TR offers some pointers on handling surplus or CATV coax and hardline. "The first step is to figure out what kind of coax you have. I found most of mine on the Commscope Web site (http://www.commscope.com/). K2UA says that pin-type connectors can be converted into male N-type connectors by screwing the output housing of an N-connector onto the threads of the pin connector, then trimming (and smoothing) the pin to the right length. Pin connectors can be found at http://www.tmbrokersmontana.com/ as well as splices for hardline. Coring tools that prepare the coax for connectors can often be found on eBay for $20 to $35. If you have 75-ohm hardline and want to convert it to 50 ohms, you can use a simple coax transformer as described in the 1981 July/Aug issue of the National Contest Journal. The transformers consist of a 0.08165 wavelength length of 50-ohm and 75-ohm coax in series. The 75-ohm end connects to the transmitter and the 50-ohm end to the hardline run. The NCJ article shows the following lengths for coax with solid and foam insulation: Band Solid (.66VF) - Foam (.79VF) 80M 14' 8" - 17' 7" 40M 7' 5" - 8' 10" 20M 3' 9" - 4' 6" 15M 30" - 36" 10M 22" - 27" They are pretty broadband and I have also used them on six meters at 1500 watts without any problem. For 2 meters and above, cut the hardline to be some number of half wavelengths long so that the impedance will be the same at each end. You can test this with an SWR meter while leaving the cable's far end open. Trim the length to get a high impedance (>= 1000 Ohms). With this length, the impedance of the line doesn't matter - whatever impedance, such as 50 ohms, connected at one end will be repeated at the other." CONVERSATION Put Your Pencils Down Watching some of the post-contest chatter on the reflectors after the ARRL DX contest weekends, one wonders how long, exactly, the contest does run. I believe the rules say that the contest is over at 2359Z on Sunday and I take that to mean stop working stations and close down your logging software. It's over. I suppose that there's room for flexibility in making corrections based on notes you made during the contest and even making a pass for obvious typos (see below). But really, folks, if you didn't copy something correctly or missed a call, them's the breaks. You'll just have to do it better next time. Name another sport in which the competitors get to go back and "edit" the competition. "Well, gee, I really shouldn't have taken turn four quite so high on lap twenty." Or, "That brick I threw up on my second free throw of the fourth quarter...let's make that a swish." I don't think so. Once upon a time, Doug K1DG made a posting to the Yankee Clipper Contest Club reflector on the subject and I think he nailed it spot on. Holder of many contesting titles, including a WRTC win with K1AR, and perennially found in the Top Ten, Doug's credentials as a contesting sage are impeccable. "This is a sport that I do simply for the enjoyment of doing it and competing against my peers. Like most sports, it is more fun to play when you know how to do it well. I am always trying to improve my skills which include all of the following (not in any particular order): - Understanding propagation - Understanding the "language of callsigns" - Ability to copy CW and SSB signals under difficult conditions - Typing callsigns correctly - Building (or gaining access to) a station with good radios, antennas, location, etc. - Understanding the capabilities and limitations of that station - Controlling a pileup for maximum rate - Timing my calls right to crack pileups even when I'm not the loudest guy calling - Using tools like computer logging (and all the hardware/software setup skills involved) - Understanding the rules of more-complex categories and complying with them (like band-change limits in multi-singles) - Knowing when to run and when to search-and-pounce - Understanding what the winners are doing differently so I can learn from them "If my score is reduced or I lose because I do not excel at one or more contest skills, I will learn from my mistakes, suck it up, and try to improve. My ultimate goal is to one day submit a winning log with no errors. This is, of course, close to impossible. But the fun is in trying to get there. I've only submitted a Golden Log once. And it felt great. "Over the years, I have been fortunate to become friendly with most of the guys you see in the Top Ten boxes. I can assure you that post-contest log massaging has CONSISTENTLY failed the smell test among the guys who excel at this game. Some guys are OK with making corrections that have been noted during the contest (note file, scrap of paper, whatever) or "obvious" typos. But where do you draw the line on "obvious"? Sure - "XBG3F" or "DK6" is a typo. But what about "G3FXD"? Or how about "N1DG", if you worked K1DG on the other 5 bands? Do you change those? It becomes a slippery slope. With RARE extenuating circumstances, the best way to avoid the temptation is not to give in to the first step. When the contest is over, send in the log. "It is correct that the WRTC rules allow a 15-minute period for "fixing things" - most of the competitors spend the time making sure that the log file to be submitted is complete and not corrupted somehow! (Several WRTC logs have suffered corruption during this handoff - Ed.) Log editing tools, callsign databases, and similar things are not permitted in WRTC. "WRTC is a far cry from the situation of most up-and-coming contesters, who are just beginning to understand which skills they need to acquire or develop. These guys need to learn the real skills, not get advice on what post-contest processing tools are the best. They need to learn the fundamentals of the game or they will never get a shot at WRTC. "Every contester can decide what contesting means to him or her and conduct their operations accordingly. Some have taken the position that the high road ("strict") is where we ought to be as a rule. Good. But as others have pointed out, this is a hobby. If some of you want to take this whole issue less seriously, that's OK. But the sport is more fun when you get proficient at the fundamentals. "While this sounds a bit preachy. I certainly don't mean it that way. Please take my comments and advice as simply that - advice from a grizzled 30-year contest veteran to newcomers or newly-returning contesters that should help you enjoy the sport more." I thank Doug for clearly stating some principles that should have a wide resonance out there in contest land. I couldn't have said it better. 73, Ward N0AX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Contester's Rate Sheet wishes to acknowledge information from the following sources: WA7BNM's Contest Calendar Web page - http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/ ARRL Contest page - http://www.arrl.org/contests/ SM3CER's Web site - http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/
