 December 22, 2021 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | |
IN THIS ISSUE
UPCOMING CONTESTS -- THINGS TO DO Straight Key Night - Saturday January 1, 2022 0000-2359 UTC Many hams look forward to Straight Key Night (SKN) as one of the highlights of their operating year! SKN is not a contest, so there's no need for quick exchanges. All you Send your list of stations worked, SKN stories and photos, along with your votes for Best Fist and Most Interesting QSO to straightkey@arrl.org before January 31, 2022. BULLETINS New Low-Power Limit for ARRL HF Contests Starting January 1, 2022 Effective January 1, 2022, the power output limit for low-power categories has been lowered from 150 watts PEP to 100 W PEP. With the exception of ARRL Field Day, this change is in effect for all ARRL- sponsored HF contests as well as the IARU World HF Championship. This change has been implemented to standardize the low-power categories in the contesting community. Additionally, the previous 150 W limit is no longer applicable to low power contest categories because most modern HF transceivers only have a power output of 100 W or less. --- ARRL Seeks Input from VHF Contest Participants. Through the ongoing work of ARRL's Contest Advisory Committee (with input from their Ad Hoc VHF Subcommittee), a survey has been sent to recent participants in ARRL's January, June, and September VHF Contests. The objective of the survey is to better understand participation in ARRL VHF Contests, in particular how digital modes contribute to the ARRL VHF Contest Program. VHF contest participants from 2020 and 2021 events were sent invitations to participate in the survey to the email address supplied upon entry. If you wish to participate in the survey, but have not received an invitation, we are seeking your input until December 28, 2021. Follow the link at surveymonkey.com/r/VHF-Contest-Survey-2021 to complete the survey. --- WSJT-X Development Team Releases Version 2.5.3 The WSJT-X Development Team - Joe Taylor, K1JT; Steve Franke, K9AN; and Nico Palermo, IV3NWV - have announced the release of version 2.5.3. This new release includes a feature of special interest to users participating in the ARRL January VHF Contest (January 15-17, 2022). The new feature for the ARRL VHF contests is an enhanced macro facility for Tx messages, aimed at making it easier to ask another station to QSY to a new band. The feature is described briefly in the User Guide at physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.5.3.html#TXMACROS A download link has been posted on the WSJT-X web page at physics.princeton.edu//pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html. CONTEST SUMMARY Complete information for all contests follows the Technical Topics and Information section December 23 December 24 December 25 December 26 December 27 December 28 December 29 December 30 December 31 January 1
January 3 January 4 January 5
NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST DX Club Scores to published for ARRL International DX Contest ARRL has announced that aggregate scores for foreign clubs will be published in the 2022 ARRL International DX Contest results. Clubs located outside of the United States and Canada will have their club's aggregate scores listed separately in the results from the existing ARRL Affiliated Club Competition. International contest club secretaries should remind their members who wish to participate to include their club's name in the Cabrillo log when submitting their logs. Club members should take care to use the same spelling of the club name and avoid abbreviations/acronyms to ensure the aggregate score will be calculated correctly. ARRL hopes that this will boost participation from international clubs outside of the US and Canada in the event. For more information, contact the ARRL Contest Program at contests@arrl.org. --- Contest University is Coming to Orlando in February Contest University (CTU) is coming to Orlando, Florida for the first time on Thursday, February 10, as part of the 2022 ARRL National Convention. This all-day Training Track will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld and includes a seat at the ARRL National Convention Luncheon. Learn from some of the top contesters in the world. CTU will be led by Tim Duffy, K3LR. Presenters include Fred Kleber, K9VV/NP2X; Chris Blake, NX4N; Luis Romero, W4LT; Max Fountain, KJ4EUT, and Claudio Veroli, I4VEQ. This is an opportunity for new contesters as well as already-competitive operators looking to hone their skills. Instruction includes general contest operations and contest station skills, and many resources for additional information and tools to further enjoy contesting. ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, will deliver the keynote at the National Convention Luncheon. Register by December 31 to receive the early bird rate at www.arrl.org/expo. DX Engineering is the Official Sponsor of the 2022 ARRL National Convention Program. --- The WRTC 2022 Committee has announced a first time ever award, promoting World Radiosport Team Championship 2022. Starting on January 1 and concluding July 10, 2022, over 100 Italian operators will activate special WRTC callsigns, one for each Italian call area. These special WRTC callsigns will also be active during some contests, concluding with the 2022 IARU HF World Championship. Each participant's QSO totals and award hunter scores will be displayed on a real-time leaderboard at www.wrtc2022.it/award. Each participant will be able to download the award in digital format at the end of the event. Read the full rules at www.wrtc2022.it/award. SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
RESULTS AND RECORDS ARRL and the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) have announced the winners of the 160-Meter Transatlantic Centenary QSO Party. The December 12 on-air event commemorated the 100th anniversary of the successful Second Transatlantic Tests that contributed to the dawn of international amateur radio communication.
The cup winners are Rick Niswander, K7GM, and Bob Barden, MD0CCE. Logs from those taking part in the 6-hour event included 496 contacts, 261 from W1AW. Each participant recorded in the official W1AW and/or GB2ZE logs is eligible for a commemorative certificate designed by ARRL and RSGB. TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION The Spokane DX Association is presenting a workshop on December 30 via Zoom entitled Exploring N1MM+'s Statistics: Tools to Improve Your Score Next Time, presented by Randy Foltz, K7TQ. N1MM+ has several tools to help you see how you did in the current contest so that you can do better next time. The workshop will cover the following topics:
The workshop will start at 7:00 PM PST December 30, 2021. The Zoom conference link will be active at 06:45 PM PST. The Zoom meeting link and login credentials are below. Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86908227967?pwd=UENncDJrTy9VQnhQR3lRaXpDTXgvUT09 Meeting ID: 869 0822 7967 Passcode: 562084 The workshop will be recorded and available a few days after the presentation on the Spokane DX YouTube Channel. Participants are reminded to change the displayed name to their name and call sign, and to keep their audio muted unless asking a question or making a statement to the group. For more information, contact Mel Ming, N7GCO, at teammel@gmail.com.
That's all for this time. Have a great holiday! Good propagation to all, and to all a good night! Remember to send contesting-related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org. CONTESTS December 23, 2021 - January 5, 2022 An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral is available as a PDF. Check the sponsors' website for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions. HF CONTESTS CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 23, 0300z to Dec 23, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Dec 25. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 23, 0700z to Dec 23, 0800z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Dec 25. RTTYOPS Weeksprint, Dec 23, 1700z to Dec 23, 1900z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40, 20; [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name]; Logs due: Dec 30. EACW Meeting, Dec 23, 1900z to Dec 23, 2000z; CW; Bands: 80, 40; EACW Member: RST + Member No. + Nickname, EA non-Member: RST + Nickname + EA province, non-EA: RST + Nickname + DXCC prefix; Logs due: Dec 25. NCCC RTTY Sprint, Dec 24, 0145z to Dec 24, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules); Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: Dec 26. NCCC Sprint, Dec 24, 0230z to Dec 24, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: Dec 26. K1USN Slow Speed Test, Dec 24, 2000z to Dec 24, 2100z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Maximum 20 wpm, Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Dec 26. Gedebage CW Contest, Dec 25, 1200z to Dec 26, 1159z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + Serial No.; Logs due: Jan 9. RAEM Contest, Dec 26, 0000z to Dec 26, 1159z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Serial No. + latitude (degs only) + hemisphere + longitude (degs only) + hemisphere (see rules), N=North, S=South, W=West, O=East (e.g. 57N 85O); Logs due: Jan 9. DARC Christmas Contest, Dec 26, 0830z to Dec 26, 1059z; CW, SSB; Bands: 80, 40; DL: RS(T) + DOK (or "NM" if not a DARC member), non-DL: RS(T) + QSO No.; Logs due: Jan 2. K1USN Slow Speed Test, Dec 27, 0000z to Dec 27, 0100z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Maximum 20 wpm, Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Dec 29. QCX Challenge, Dec 27, 1300z to Dec 27, 1400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + Name + (state/province/country) + Rig; Logs due: Jan 2. OK1WC Memorial (MWC), Dec 27, 1630z to Dec 27, 1729z; CW; Bands: 80, 40; RST + Serial No.; Logs due: Dec 31. QCX Challenge, Dec 27, 1900z to Dec 27, 2000z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + Name + (state/province/country) + Rig; Logs due: Jan 2. Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, Dec 28, 0100z to Dec 28, 0159z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6; RS + age group (OM, YL, Youth YL or Youth); Logs due: Dec 29. QCX Challenge, Dec 28, 0300z to Dec 28, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + Name + (state/province/country) + Rig; Logs due: Jan 2. RTTYOPS Weeksprint, Dec 28, 1700z to Dec 28, 1900z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40, 20; [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name]; Logs due: Jan 4. QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 29, 0200z to Dec 29, 0330z; CW; Bands: 20; RST + (state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: Dec 30. Phone Weekly Test - Fray, Dec 29, 0230z to Dec 29, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15; NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: Dec 31. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 29, 1300z to Dec 29, 1400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 1. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 29, 1900z to Dec 29, 2000z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 1. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 30, 0300z to Dec 30, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 1. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 30, 0700z to Dec 30, 0800z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 1. YOTA Contest, Dec 30, 1200z to Dec 30, 2359z; CW, SSB; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Single Op: age (on Jan 1 of year of contest), Multi-Op: average age of ops (on Jan 1 of year of contest); Logs due: Jan 6. RTTYOPS Weeksprint, Dec 30, 1700z to Dec 30, 1900z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40, 20; [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name]; Logs due: Jan 6. EACW Meeting, Dec 30, 1900z to Dec 30, 2000z; CW; Bands: 80, 40; EACW Member: RST + Member No. + Nickname, EA non-Member: RST + Nickname + EA province, non-EA: RST + Nickname + DXCC prefix; Logs due: Jan 1. NCCC RTTY Sprint, Dec 31, 0145z to Dec 31, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules); Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: Jan 2. QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 31, 0200zto Dec 31, 0330z; CW; Bands: 20; RST + (state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: Jan 1. NCCC Sprint, Dec 31, 0230z to Dec 31, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: Jan 2. Bogor Old and New Contest, Dec 31, 0900z to Dec 31, 2359z; SSB; Bands: 80, 40; RS + operator age; Logs due: Jan 31. K1USN Slow Speed Test, Dec 31, 2000z to Dec 31, 2100z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Maximum 20 wpm, Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 2. AGB New Year Snowball Contest, Jan 1, 0000z to Jan 1, 0100z; CW, SSB, Digital; Bands: 80; AGB Member: RST + QSO No. + Member No., non-Member: RST + QSO No.; Logs due: Jan 22. SARTG New Year RTTY Contest, Jan 1, 0800z to Jan 1, 1100z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40; RST + QSO No. + name + happy new year (native language); Logs due: Jan 31. AGCW Happy New Year Contest, Jan 1, 0900z to Jan 1, 1200z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20; AGCW: RST + Serial No. + "/" + Member No., non-AGCW: RST + Serial No.; Logs due: Jan 14. WW PMC Contest, Jan 1, 1200z to Jan 2, 1200z; CW, SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; PMC: RS(T) + PMC abbreviation, World: RS(T) + CQ Zone; Logs due: Jan 9. Original QRP Contest, Jan 1, 1500z to Jan 2, 1500z; CW, SSB; Bands: 80, 40, 20; RST + Serial No. + "/" + Power category; Logs due: Jan 31. QRP ARCI New Years Sprint, Jan 1, 1500z to Jan 1, 1800z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + (state/province/country) + (ARCI number/power); Logs due: Jan 15. ARRL Kids Day, Jan 1, 1800z to Jan 1, 2359z; SSB; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 2m repeaters; name + age + QTH + favorite color; Logs due: Jan 31. K1USN Slow Speed Test, Jan 3, 0000z to Jan 3, 0100z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Maximum 20 wpm, Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 5. OK1WC Memorial (MWC), Jan 3, 1630z to Jan 3, 1729z; CW; Bands: 80, 40; RST + Serial No.; Logs due: Jan 7. Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, Jan 4, 0100z to Jan 4, 0159z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6; RS + age group (OM, YL, Youth YL or Youth); Logs due: Jan 5. ARS Spartan Sprint, Jan 4, 0200z to Jan 4, 0400z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; RST + (state/province/country) + Power; Logs due: Jan 6. RTTYOPS Weeksprint, Jan 4, 1700z to Jan 4, 1900z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40, 20; [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name]; Logs due: Jan 11. QRP Fox Hunt, Jan 5, 0200z to Jan 5, 0330z; CW; Bands: 20; RST + (state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: Jan 6. Phone Weekly Test - Fray, Jan 5, 0230z to Jan 5, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15; NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: Jan 7. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Jan 5, 1300z to Jan 5, 1400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 8. VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest, Jan 5, 1700z to Jan 5, 2000z; FT8; Bands: 144 MHz; 4-character grid square; Logs due: Jan 10. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Jan 5, 1900z to Jan 5, 2000z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jan 8. UKEICC 80m Contest, Jan 5, 2000z to Jan 5, 2100z; SSB; Bands: 80; 6-Character grid square; Logs due: Jan 5. VHF+ CONTESTS AGCW VHF/UHF Contest, Jan 1, 1400z to Jan 1, 1800z; CW; Bands: 144 MHz, 432 MHz; RST + "/" + Serial No. + "/" Power class + "/" + 6-character grid locator; Logs due: Jan 9. See also: Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest LOG DUE DATES December 23 December 24 December 25 December 26
December 27 December 28 December 29 December 30 December 31
January 1 January 2
January 4 January 5 ARRL Information Click here to advertise in this newsletter, space subject to availability. Your One-Stop Resource for Amateur Radio News and Information ARRL membership includes a choice of one print magazine: QST, the monthly membership journal, or On the Air, ARRL's new bimonthly publication for beginner and intermediate hams. All ARRL members can access all four ARRL magazines -- QST, On the Air, NCJ, and QEX - digitally. Subscribe to NCJ - the National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly, features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA Sprint and QSO Parties. Subscribe to QEX - A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published bimonthly, features technical articles, construction projects, columns and other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals. Free of charge to ARRL members: Subscribe to The ARRL Letter (weekly digest of news and information), the ARES E-Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), Division and Section news -- and much more! ARRL offers a wide array of products to enhance your enjoyment of Amateur Radio. Visit the site often for new publications, specials and sales. Donate to the fund of your choice -- support programs not funded by member dues! Reprint permission can be obtained by sending email to permission@arrl.org with a description of the material and the reprint publication. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest Calendar. | |
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need is your favorite straight key or bug. Many participants dust off their vintage rigs and keys, but all gear regardless of its age is welcome. The number of contacts you make is not important, and many new and longtime friends get together on the air for the event.
The K7IR multi-single Sweepstakes team gathered at K7IR's QTH in Western Washington for a post-contest meeting and to spread a little holiday cheer. Pictured are (Back L-R) Adam Blackmer, K7EDX; John Mertel WA7IR; Mike Fischer, K7XH, (Front L-R) Brian Moran, N9ADG; Mike Mertel, K7IR. [Brian Moran, N9ADG, photo]
The
