Contester's Rate Sheet for April 2, 2008
******************************************** CONTESTER'S RATE SHEET 2 April 2008 Edited by Ward Silver N0AX Published by the American Radio Relay League Free to ARRL members - tell your friends! (Subscription info at the end of newsletter) ******************************************** SUMMARY o Radio Track Meet -- VHF Spring, Low Power, EU CW Sprints o MO, GA, MT QSO Parties o Roofing Filter Presentation by NC0B o Equinoctical Propagation Demystified o Word To The Wise -- New Feature o Deutsche Welle's Big Aluminum o Time Reversal With the Pd'A o Shrinking Wire Antennas o Crack A Smile, Will Ya? NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO o With a plethora of smaller contests available, the coming couple of weeks would be a good time to stock up on propagation know-how. Focus on one band or get on the air at "interesting" times, like sunrise or sunset. BULLETINS o No bulletins in this issue. BUSTED QSOS o The link to the Kosmonavt photos was left out of the last issue. Here it is: < http://tinyurl.com/34qbwj> (Thanks, David Coursey) CONTEST SUMMARY (Rules follow Commentary section) April 5-6 - Montana QSO Party - MO QSO Party - QCWA Spring QSO Party - QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party, CW - SP DX Contest - EA RTTY Contest - VHF Spring Sprint, 144 MHz (May 7) - Low Power Sprint, CW (May 7) - DX to NA YL, Phone (May 8-10) March 12-13 - EU EME Contest - EU Spring Sprint, CW - PSK31 Flavors Contest - Japan International DX Contest, CW - Yuri Gagarin DX Contest, CW - GA QSO Party --o- ooo - --o- ooo - --o- ooo - -oo o NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST - oooo o o-o o- - o ooo oooo o o - -o- CQ Communications, Inc, publisher of CQ Amateur Radio magazine, and Buckmaster Publishing jointly announce that Buckmaster's searchable online archive of CQ magazine back issues, dating back to the magazine's first issue in January 1945, is now complete and available via <http://hamcall.net/cq> or the CQ Web site <http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/>. All issues through early 2006 are now online. By agreement with CQ, issues are not posted until two years after their publication dates, as paper copies are still available from the CQ bookstore. Newer issues will be posted as the two-year "window" expires. Full issues are available to CQ subscribers while the first 10 pages are available to all. (Thanks, CQ and Buckmaster) Rob Sherwood NC0B of Sherwood Engineering recently published a new presentation called "Roofing Filters, Transmitted IMD & Receiver Performance" in PowerPoint and PDF formats. <http://www.sherweng.com/> Also posted is an MP3 audio file. Play the audio and follow along with the PPT or PDF. The presentation with audio lasts about an hour, followed by another 30 minutes about AGC in modern rigs. The presentation was made to the Boulder, Colorado Amateur Radio Club in February. (Thanks, Chet K8RA) Tim K3LR announces the program list for the 2008 Dayton Hamvention Antenna Forum (Friday, May 16 from 1430-1700 EDT at Hara Arena): "Real World Antenna Patterns vs. Theoretical Computer Antenna Plots" by Mike Wetzel, W9RE and Tom Chance, K9XV "A New Approach for Measuring Complex Antenna Currents in a Vertical Array" by Greg Ordy, W8WWV "Multi-element Lowband Vertical Arrays - Approaches for Small Lots" by Dr Ted Rappaport, N9NB and Ray Sokola, K9RS And don't forget the Contest Supersuite < http://contestsupersuite.com/> while you're at it! If you're a bit nostalgic for Straight Key Night, why not give the Weekday Straight Key Sprint a go? <http://www.skccgroup.com/sprint/sks/sprint-rules.html>. It would spice up Wednesday evening (in the States). (Thanks, Mark K5GQ) Looking for a lightweight portable gain antenna for the Magic Band? Ken VE3HLS suggests a stressed Moxon from PAR Electronics. <http://www.parelectronics.com/stress_moxon.htm> It weighs 3 pounds and needs only a Phillips screwdriver to take it apart. Assembly and takedown time is estimated as 5 to 10 minutes. From NASA Science News, "For reasons not fully understood by scientists, the weeks around the vernal equinox are prone to Northern Lights. In other words, spring is aurora season. Observations from NASA spacecraft are shedding new light on this old mystery." Check out the full story at < http://tinyurl.com/3c4ety> (Thanks, Tim K3HX) For the linguistically curious, Randy K5ZD sent a link <http://www.word2word.com/coursead.html?link_id=54> to a selection of online language courses with more than 100 languages to choose from. I might try my hand at Dakota! URL of the Week -- Before Texas Instruments and silicon wafers changed the face of modern electronics, there was the Loewe Radio Company <http://tinyurl.com/2cfyu3> and some fairly amazing tube-like-objects! (Thanks, John K0IO) --- oooo o- o-- oo ooo o --o oo- -o-- oo--oo WORD TO THE WISE -o --o-- oo- -o- -o --o-- oo- -o- -o --o-- oo- -o Here's a new feature for the Rate Sheet -- a technical or radio-type word that isn't common ham lingo. Let's start with one from John N9RF, whose post gave me the idea! Ampacity - The current carrying capacity, expressed in amperes, of a conductor under stated thermal conditions. This is useful when specifying power cable for your new linear amplifier or the like. oooo o -o-- -o-- o- o-oo o-oo SIGHTS AND SOUNDS o-- o- - -o-o oooo - oooo oo ooo Peter DF3KV sends some URL's of Web sites guaranteed to make the ham with even the biggest antennas feel inadequate: The rotable arrays of Deutsche Welle Nauen, 80m high, 87m wide, 6-26MHz based on Telefunken technology at <http://sfbb.sf.funpic.de/bilder/nauen03.jpg> <http://www.senderfotos-bb.de/nauen.htm> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALLISS> Another type on rails in Vatikan and Vienna: < http://tinyurl.com/2tlfsx> Remember listening to the time-at-the-tone signals from various shortwave stations around the world? You can still do it! <http://www.intervalsignals.net/> has dozens of these melodic little memory ticklers. (Thanks, John K1AR) oo-o oo -o -oo -o-- --- oo- o-o RESULTS AND RECORDS -o-o o- o-oo o-oo oooo o o-o o From Sean KX9X, ARRL Contest Branch Manager, "We've received 1,962 logs via email for the 2008 ARRL DX Contest so far. Logs will be accepted through April 1, 2008. All 2007 Sweepstakes mug and pin orders have been processed and shipped. Many thanks to Carol Michaud, Ashley Rakus and Dawn Trigilio for their help with this project. ARRL EME contest results have been updated and should be on the web shortly." There is now a complete listing of the 2008 CQ WPX plaques and sponsors available at <http://www.cqwpx.com/plaques.htm>. Special thanks to Ken K5KA who manages the CQ WPX Awards program and Randy K5ZD who manages the CQ WPX Web site. There are plaques currently without sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring a plaque, please contact the Awards manager at awards@cqwpx.com. (Thanks, CQ WPX Manager, Steve K6AW) The results for the 2007 Fall Sprints, sponsored by the Southeastern VHF Society, are now available at <http://svhfs.org/2007_fall_sprint_results.htm>. Rules for the 2008 Fall Sprints will be posted soon. (Thanks, Jim W4KXY) Preliminary results are now posted for the NA RTTY Sprint of two weeks ago at http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrttyprelim.php. Official results and article will appear in the May/June NCJ which is about to go to the printer. Please let me know any questions or errors ASAP. LCRs (Log Check Reports) are available upon request to rttysprintmgr@ncjweb.com. Thanks to everyone for their participation despite poor conditions. (Thanks, Ed W0YK) A listing of the logs received for the Canada Winter Contest 2007 and the corresponding entry categories has been posted at: <http://ritcb.sasktelwebsite.net/>. Please advise VE5SF@rac.ca if you see any errors in the logs posting. We have had to resort to a private Web site due to problems getting information posted on the official RAC site. (Thanks, Sam VE5SF, Canada Winter Contest Manager) Preliminary results for the HA-DX 2008 Contest are available at <http://www.ha-dx.com/> under 'Results' on the left hand side. Everyone who has submitted a log for the contest can have a look at their evaluated log via 'Your Log'/'Show your evaluated log' on the home page. Questions and remarks should be sent to contestmanager@mrasz.axelero.net. (Thanks, Tibor HA1AH) The results of the 2007 Ohio QSO Party are now posted at the Ohio QSO Party Web site <http://www.oqp.us/>. (Thanks, Jim K8MR) Taking the lead in contest reportage, the results for the annual Poisson d'Avril (April Makes Me Sick) Contest have been released before the contest itself. The Physics Dept at Princeton is looking into this phenomenon. Also in keeping with grand tradition, K1DG has won the contest once again. The Pd'A contest -- a technology leader -- allows (nay, encourages) remote stations, demotivations, public relations, prevarications, adjudications, preadaptations, pure fabrications, exfoliations, Code Skimmers, backswimmers, lightdimmers, hedgetrimmers, linetrimmers, Bimmers, and The Zimmers. Full details are online at <http://www.freewebs.com/poissondavril> oooo o -o-- -o-- --- oo- OPERATING TIP o-- o- -o- o oo- o--o After a weekend of mangling unusual call signs, your talking muscles may seem pretty worn out, especially if you used an unfamiliar call yourself! Take this as a sign that you should spend some time studying your regular contest call. Do the phonetics "flow" into each other so that your mouth works as little as possible? It might be a good idea to get together with a friend on a quiet band and try out different combinations of phonetics that have plenty of audio punch with a minimum of syllables and effort. You'll thank yourself after the next phone contest. oo oo-o oo - ooo -o --- - -ooo o-o --- -o- o TECHNICAL TIPS AND INFORMATION -o-- --- oo- o-o o -o --- - - o-o -o-- oo -o --o Stan WA1LOU's ARRL Web column "Surfin'" for Mar 21st <http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/03/21/10020/?nc=1> includes some links to useful low-band receiving antenna designs and Web sites. This information might be helpful for portable operating. Steve XE1UFO suggests the following solution for capturing audio and video streams that don't lend themselves to the usual downloading techniques - FreeDownloadManager <http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm> It has filters to restrict capture to MP3 or GIF or whatever type of file you want. While the dip meter (aka -- grid dip meter) is no longer the ham shack fixture it once was, it remains a very versatile piece of equipment. CW AI4MI also notes that they are very good for tuning 160 meter antennas in the presence of strong broadcast RF where an antenna analyzer may be unusable. He notes that the techniques to perform more than a dozen useful tasks are illustrated in the manual for the Heath HD-1250 at <http://bama.sbc.edu/heath.htm>. Dennis N6KI reports that Heathkit manuals are also available on-line at <http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/heathkit.htm>. W7FG <http://www.w7fg.com/> sells original versions of the manuals as well. No word on whether original shipping boxes are also available to complete your collection. Here's a neat site on antenna stacking for VHF+ contesters <http://www.sm2cew.com/gt.htm> that gives a figure of merit for quite a number of antennas. The more positive the published G/T figure, the better the combination. (Thanks, Gene W3ZZ) Lynn N7CFO reports rediscovering an amazing technological breakthrough on page 122 of the October 1954 issue of QST by W9TO regarding wire size: "Formed by reverse drawing extremely fine wire, this conductor has the velocity factor of .07. Thus a 40-meter half wave is 4.62 feet long and a ten-meter mobile whip shrinks to a mere 6.7 inches. One experimental antenna being pruned for operation on 147.3 Mc. disappeared altogether." This is an incredible discovery, and Lynn is attempting to locate a source for this wire. It could revolutionize all radio operations, but the possibilities for VHF/UHF are truly staggering. Think about it - six meter stacked Yagis that can be stored in a shoebox! While we are a bit past winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, cold weather performance of rotor grease is still a topic of concern in places. Doug VE5RA uses Canadian Tire low temperature grease recommended for snowmobiles, NGLI grade 00. Since he lives in Saskatchewan, he should know. Still using "password" as your password? Maybe you should toughen up that easily-guessed string, but what makes a password "strong"? Dennis N6KI sent this story <http://forums.pcworld.com//docs/DOC-1231> that explains what you can do about changing from an 8-character weakling to something typed from stouter stuff. And here is a company that sells some cool parts -- Sparkfun <http://www.sparkfun.com/> has an interesting collection of goodies that run the gamut of adapters to IC's and networking gewgaws. (Thanks, Tom K1KI) Laptop too hot? Rig too hot? Bill KC4PE posted a link to a series of "laptop coolers" < http://tinyurl.com/2n8dxh> that sit under the equipment to be cooled. Fans pull air through the equipment into the cooler, where it is, um, cooled. It seems to work well on radios large and small. TECHNICAL URL OF THE WEEK -- Amplifier builders and maintainers will want to bookmark the WD7S Web site <http://home.earthlink.net/~wd7s/updates.htm>. It features a lot of discussion about vacuum relays and shows the actual timing of their operation. (Thanks, Jim W7RY) o- -o-o -o-o oo- o-o o- -o-o -o-- oo ooo o--- --- -ooo CONVERSATION --- -o o oo -o -o-o --- -o - o ooo - oo -o --o Crack A Smile, Will Ya? I've been doing a lot of multi-op contesting over the past few years and have grown to like it more and more. There's always something happening, a new multiplier makes the rounds, the team keeps each other motivated and busy. But the best parts are the myriad moments of mirth. It would be a pretty unusual circumstance for the K3LR team not to have a wildly funny "gab" file built up at the end of a big contest. No, I can't reproduce it here -- family values and all that -- but just going back through it takes me right down to the radio room with all of us laboring away, throwing out a bon mot or two. Why, operating without the gab window jiving away would be anathema! Pity the poor single operator, pounding away with no teammates jollifying the contest with rude noises, pithy remarks, or the occasional prank. (Hint -- Slightly diluted Listerine looks a lot like ginger ale when poured over ice cubes! Not that I have ever made such a substitution, mind you.) When the going gets tough, it's a lot easier to throw in the towel in isolation than when you know the other operators will razz you if you let that rate meter fall too far! And the conventions -- surely you don't think we go mainly for the seminars and forums and presentations? Why, where else than those late night hullaballoos would I be able to gaze upon the results of the beverage can stacking competitions, creating their teetering excrescenses that balance atop the slumbering bodies of stalwarts unable to stay awake in the contest suites? And the improvised signage held in place by their somniferent fingers loudly proclaiming their owner "Will Operate for Beer"? Their bedecked visages will live forever on Web image repositories! This is a pretty serious group sometimes -- maybe a little too serious on occasion. After all, this is AMATEUR RADIO and you just never know who might need to be impressed with all the cool radio stuff that we know and do! The late, great Jim Maxwell W6CF had forgotten twice as much as most of us could ever hope to know, yet I never met a guy that seemed to just get a laugh out of radio more. His ability with a limerick was unsurpassed and the stuff of legend. I sure hope you have a Chicken Feathers in your circle! On this High Day of the Foole (it was when I uploaded this file, so humor me, so to speak) I doff my topper to those clowns and clownesses that perform their prestidigitations, transmuting leaden interludes to golden smiles. Ya done good! 73, Ward N0AX -o-o --o- - o ooo - -o-o --o- - o ooo - CONTESTS -- 2 APRIL THROUGH 15 APRIL 2008 -o-o --o- - o ooo - -o-o --o- - o ooo - Note that the following abbreviations are used to condense the contest rules summaries: SO - Single-Op; M2 - Multi-Op - 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 (>100 W); LP - Low Power; QRP (5W or less) An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format is available at <http://www.arrl.org/contest>. HF CONTESTS Montana QSO Party, Phone/CW/Digital, 0000Z Apr 4 to 0000Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10, 50-432. Exchange: RS(T), S/P/C or MT county. Logs due: 31-May, Web site: http://www.fvarc.org/ MO QSO Party, Phone/CW, 1800Z Apr 5 to 0500Z Apr 6 and 1800Z Apr 6 to 2400Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10, CW 40 kHz from band edge; Phone 1.880,3.980,7.280,14.280,21.380,28.380. Exchange: RS(T), serial or MO county. Logs due: 30 days, Web site: http://www.W0MA.org/mo_qso_party.htm QCWA Spring QSO Party, Phone/CW, 1800Z Apr 5 to 1800Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10, 50 and up, CW 1.810,3.540,7.035,14.040,21.050,28.050; Phone 1.845,3.890,7.244,14.262,21.365,28.325. Exchange: Year licensed, QCWA chap or S/P/C. Web site: http://www.qcwa.org/qso-party.htm QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party, CW, 1200Z Apr 5 to 2400Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10, 1.810,3.560,7.040,14.060,21.060,28.060. Exchange: RST, S/P/C, power or QRP ARCI number. Logs due: 30 days, Web site: http://www.qrparci.org/ SP DX Contest, Phone/CW, 1500Z Apr 5 to 1500Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10. Exchange: RS(T), serial or SP province. Logs due: 30-Apr, Web site: http://www.contest.spdxc.org.pl/en/index.php EA RTTY Contest, Digital, 1600Z Apr 5 to 1600Z Apr 6. Frequencies (MHz): 80-10. Exchange: RST, serial or EA province. Logs due: 9-May, Web site: http://www.rttycontesting.com/rules/earttyrules2007.pdf Low Power Spring Sprint, CW, 1400Z Apr 7 to 2000Z Apr 7. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10. Exchange: RST, grid square, category. Logs due: 30 days, Web site: http://om3kfv@zoznam.sk/ DX YL to North American YL, Phone, 1400Z Apr 8 to 0200Z Apr 10. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10. Exchange: RS, serial, ARRL section/Prov/DXCC entity. Web site: http://www.ylrl.org/ EU Spring Sprint, CW, 1600Z Apr 12 to 1959Z Apr 12. Frequencies (MHz): 80-20, 3.550,7.025,14.040. Exchange: both callsigns, serial, name. Logs due: 15 days, Web site: http://www.eusprint.com/ PSK31 Flavors Contest, 1200 local Apr 12 to 1800 local Apr 12. Frequencies (MHz): 20, 14.070-14.080. Exchange: S/P/C and name or 070 number. Logs due: 12-May, Web site: http://www.podxs070.com/ Japan International DX Contest, CW, 0700Z Apr 12 to 1300Z Apr 13. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10. Exchange: RST, JA prefecture or CQ Zone. Logs due: 31-May, Web site: http://jidx.org/ Yuri Gagarin DX Contest, CW, 2100Z Apr 12 to 2100Z Apr 13. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10. Exchange: RST, ITU Zone. Logs due: 7-May, Web site: http://www.srr.su/ GA QSO Party, Phone/CW, 1800Z Apr 12 to 0359Z Apr 13 and 1400Z Apr 13 to 2359 Apr 13. Frequencies (MHz): 160-10, 50, CW 1.815,3.545,7.045,14.045,21.045,28.045,50.095; Phone 1.865,3.810,7.225,14.250,21.300,28.450,50.135. Exchange: RS(T), S/P/C or GA county. Logs due: 15-May, Web site: http://gqp.contesting.com/ VHF+ CONTESTS VHF Spring Sprints, Phone/CW, 1900 local Apr 7 to 2300 local Apr 7. Frequencies (MHz): 144. Exchange: Grid Square. Web site: http://www.sysadnet.com/vhfsprintrules.htm EU EME Contest, Phone/CW, 0000Z Apr 12 to 2400Z Apr 13. Frequencies (MHz): 144, 2.3 GHz,3.4 GHz. Exchange: TMO/RS(T) and "R". Logs due: 12 days, Web site: http://www.dubus.org/ -oo --- -o - -- oo ooo ooo -o-- --- oo- o-o LOG DUE DATES - 2 APRIL THROUGH 15 APRIL 2008 o-oo --- --o -oo o o- -oo o-oo oo -o o ooo April 3 - Open Ukraine RTTY Championship, email logs to: krs@model.poltava.ua, paper logs and diskettes to: George Ignatov (UT1HT), PO Box 87, Kremenchug-21 39621, Ukraine. Find rules at: http://www.ucc.zp.ua/rtty2008rules_eng.htm April 6 - High Speed Club CW Contest, email logs to: hsccontest@googlemail.com, paper logs and diskettes to: Lutz Schroer, DL3BZZ, HSC Contest Manager, Am Niederfeld 6, 35066 Frankenberg, Germany. Find rules at: http://www.fmcnet.de/hsc/en/contests.html April 6 - UBA Spring Contest, 6m, email logs to: ubaspring@uba.be, paper logs and diskettes to: Michel Gertis, ON4CAQ, Mommestraat 69 B-3550 Heusden Zolder, Belgium. Find rules at: http://www.uba.be/hf_contests/rules/uba_spring_en.pdf April 7 - SOC Marathon Sprint, email logs to: n4bp@arrl.net, paper logs and diskettes to: Bob Patten, N4BP, 2841 NW 112 Terrace, Plantation, FL 33323 USA. Find rules at: http://www.qsl.net/soc/070310.htm April 8 - Idaho QSO Party, email logs to: NT4TT@MSN.COM, paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at: http://www.nt4tt.com/main_page_link/rules.htm April 8 - BCC QSO Party, email logs to: qsoparty@bavarian-contest-club.de, paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at: http://www.bavarian-contest-club.de/contest/qso-partys2008/253,709.html April 8 - ARCI HF Grid Square Sprint, email logs to: contest@qrparci.org, paper logs and diskettes to: ARCI Spring QSO Party c/o Jeff Hetherington, VA3JFF, 139 Elizabeth St W, Welland, Ontario L3C 4M3 Canada. Find rules at: http://www.qrparci.org/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,/extmode,view/extid,56/lang,en/ April 9 - Wisconsin QSO Party, email logs to: k9kr@tds.net, paper logs and diskettes to: Wisconsin QSO Party, West Allis Radio Amateur Club PO Box 1072, Milwaukee, WI 53201 USA. Find rules at: http://www.warac.org/wqp/2008/wiqp_rules.htm April 9 - RSGB Commonwealth Contest, email logs to: commonwealth.contest@rsgbhfcc.org, paper logs and diskettes to: RSGB-G3UFY, 77 Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 7AF, England. Find rules at: http://www.contesting.co.uk/hfcc/rules/2008/rberu.shtml April 9 - NSARA Contest, email logs to: ve1pjs@rac.ca, paper logs and diskettes to: Peter J. Surette, VE1JPS, 55 Edgewood Drive, Turo, Nova Scotia B2N 1P1 Canada. Find rules at: http://nsara.ve1cfy.net/nsaracst.htm April 15 - 9K 15-Meter Contest, email logs to: 9k2rr@9kcc.com, paper logs and diskettes to: Faisal N. Al-Ajmi, 9K2RR, PO Box 1124, Alfarwanya 80000 Kuwait. Find rules at: http://www.9k2hn.com/9kcc/9KCCRule.htm April 15 - CLARA and Family HF Contest, email logs to: ve7ony@rac.ca, paper logs and diskettes to: Leona, VE7ONY PO Box 266, 2475 Dobbin Road #22, Westbank, BC V4T2E9 Canada. Find rules at: http://www.clara.comm.sfu.ca/contest.html April 15 - Virginia QSO Party, email logs to: nq4k@arrl.net, paper logs and diskettes to: VA QSO Party, Call Box 599, Sterling, VA 20167 USA. Find rules at: http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2008_VQP_Rules.html April 15 - UBA Spring Contest, 2m, email logs to: ubaspring@uba.be, paper logs and diskettes to: Michel Gertis, ON4CAQ, Mommestraat 69 B-3550 Heusden Zolder, Belgium. Find rules at: http://www.uba.be/hf_contests/rules/uba_spring_en.pdf ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION The Contester's Rate Sheet wishes to acknowledge information from the following sources: WA7BNM's Contest Calendar Web page - <http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal> SM3CER's Web site - <http://www.sk3bg.se/contest> ARRL members may subscribe at no cost by editing their Member Data Page as described at <http://www.arrl.org/contests/rate-sheet>. Copyright 2008 American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved Windows and Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation