 February 17, 2021 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | |||
IN THIS ISSUE
The ARRL International DX CW Contest is coming up this weekend. Don't forget that there's a temporary accommodation for multioperator stations this year. NG3K's Planned Operation page, which lists DX entities being activated by traveling operations is looking a little sparse right now because of the pandemic. The weekend of February 27, look for copious RTTY activity in the North American QSO Party. The CQ 160 SSB Contest will also be held that weekend. South Carolina and North Carolina have their QSO parties on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, see the websites for any pandemic related changes. Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section 18 Feb - 3 Mar 2021 February 18 February 19 February 20 February 21 February 22 February 23 February 24 February 25 February 26 February 27
February 28 March 1 March 2
March 3
Reminder: Please keep frequencies clear if there's an expectation of them being in use for emergency traffic. Over the last couple of days, the 40-meter frequency of 7.050 MHz (and maybe others) was in use as part of the response to Saturday's earthquake in Japan. Rich, VE3KI, N1MM Logger+ team member, recently posted practical advice on how to use the popular logging software in a networked configuration. Nuggets of networking wisdom include how to use in a VPN configuration when not all computers may be connected to a radio, and which stations should and shouldn't be connected to other services like online scoreboards. Here's the relevant information regarding the temporary multioperator accommodation for the ARRL International DX Contest: "ARRL has issued temporary accommodations for multioperator stations competing in the 2021 International ARRL DX Contest (CW and phone). Individual team members may operate from their home stations in conjunction with the multiop station. The home stations must be within a radius of 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the multiop station, and must be within the same DXCC entity, US state, or Canadian province. For more information, visit this link: http://www.arrl.org/news/guidelines-issued-for-arrl-dx-contest-multioperator-stations." In the ARRL Internation DX Contest, DX (non W/VE) stations "send a signal report and power as a number or abbreviation" as the exchange. On CW, cut numbers are usually used. When logging an exchange with a cut number, enter the information as you receive it. How does the exchange in a Cabrillo-format log get scored? Here's something from a past issue of the Contest Update: " First, the character string is read from the submitted log. Then...
2Tone, the popular RTTY software by David, G3YYD, has been updated and is available from the RTTY Contesting website. The new version supports Microsoft Windows 8 and later with binaries for both 32-and 64-bit Microsoft Windows. The 64-bit version will take advantage of certain newer instructions in CPUs equipped with multiple cores for improved performance. David suggests reading the documentation, since it has also been updated. The North American Collegiate Challenge continues with its second event "hosted" by the North American QSO Party, RTTY, the weekend of February 27. Due to the pandemic and restrictions on gatherings at many institutions, some collegiate teams this year are forced to operate with single operators, or not at all. If you see or copy a college station in the NAQP, please make a special effort to give them a contact. Barry, K7BWH, sought to solve the problem of known how far it was to the next grid during mobile operations, so he did something about it. The result is the Griduino, the combination of "GPS, barometer, real-time clock, code generator, audio chain, and a bright display." According to Barry, "It has an audible announcement as you cross into a new grid square, and for microwave ops it optionally announces every 6-digit grid line. It sure beats watching a GPS or tablet while driving." You can find construction details on Github, or join in on the email discussion.
The Dxlog.net programming team is looking for a software developer who is also a RTTY operator to help integrate RTTY into the Dxlog.net logging program. DXlog.net is contest logging software originally developed by 9A5K, and now supported by K1LZ and a small cadre of developers. (D4C via Twitter) Mike, K7MDL, thought that the "PTT Multiplier" from thedxshop.com specifically for the Icom IC-9700 would be of interest to the members of the Pacific Northwest VHF Society. The add-on accessory plugs into the IC-9700's remote and ACC1 socket to provide band-specific PTT signals for each of the 144/432/1296 MHz bands. It also provides a feed-through of the remote and ACC1 signals so "you can still daisy chain on other devices that use the ACC1 or remote sockets." (via PNWVHFS) Whistler From Wikipedia: A VLF radio wave generated by lighting. "They are produced by lightning strikes (mostly intracloud and return-path) where the impulse travels along the Earth's magnetic field lines from one hemisphere to the other. They undergo dispersion of several kilohertz due to the slower velocity of the lower frequencies through the plasma environments of the ionosphere and magnetosphere."
Magic-T, Mr. T... one is a signal combiner, the other is an actor. Find out about one of them by watching Steve, VE6WZ's video "How-to: The Magic-T, or hybrid combiner" Steve's video will help your phased RX antenna plans come together. From The DailyDX comes news of Hal's, W8HC, presentation at the West Virginia DX Association meeting entitled "C6AGU in the 2020 CQWW CW Contest and ARRL 160m CW Contest: Testing RIB (Radio in a Box) Technology in a DXpedition Environment." George, AA7JV, talked about this concept a few years ago at the Visalia International DX Conference, and has been refining it since. You can watch the video via the website link, above. To inspire you for the upcoming 160 Meter contest: OH0W in CQ WW 160-meter CW Contest, and from Tim, K3LR, 160 Meter Tips and Tricks.
Bill, AC0W, NAQP SSB Manager, writes: "The January NAQP SSB preliminary results are now posted on the NCJ web site at http://ncjweb.com/current-naqp-ssb-results/. Any questions or concerns should be direct to me at ssbnaqpmgr@ncjweb.com. PS: ...the CW preliminary results are also posted." Ward, N0AX, as NA CW Sprint Manager, writes: "The preliminary results of the NA CW Sprint are available. This is the earliest-ever release of log-checked data -- thanks to the Sprint support team for their quick and thorough work. 215 logs were received - the most in quite a while, as well. The increased activity was quite noticeable -- welcome to all of the new (and a few returning) Sprinters! Congratulations to category winners N6TR (HP), K0EU (LP), K7SS (QRP), and the top team, NCCC #1. The full results article should be available online no later than mid-March and will be excerpted in the May/June issue of NCJ." Claimed scores for the recent EU-DX Contest have been posted. A quick count shows over 1600 logs submitted for the inaugural running of this contest. Results of 2020's California QSO Party are now available. 2020 saw the highest number of logs submitted, ever, and a 48% increase over 2019. Many new records were set, 57 plaques awarded, and forty bottles of wine were eligible to be consumed. Get all of the details and download certificates from the CQP website. Like many other contests during the pandemic, the Scandinavian Activity Contest (SAC) 2020 results acknowledged a new record of 2485 total logs (CW + SSB) submitted. The results are available on the SAC Contest website. Just The Call Sign Please During his Hamcation presentation "Remote Contesting and DXing -- The Journey of Building and Operating a Remote Station" last weekend, Ned, AA7A, was asked whether he signs /7 when contesting in the seventh call area when not at his home station. Ned's reply: "No. It's a real disadvantage to add any length to a callsign. In the US, any US call sign can be anywhere. For award or QSL purposes, always indicate our location on our uploads and QSL." Jim, W8ZR, has been working on an "auto-tuning building block" for homebrew amplifier builders to enable them to build an auto-tuning high-power tube-based linear amplifier. His work consists of a reference design for hardware, and software that will control the reference design. He's ready to show off his progress with a YouTube video discussing the goals of the project, the reference hardware, and demonstrates tuning on the basis of frequency. (via Amps email reflector) Codrut, YO3DMU, author of PstRotator and PstRotatorAz software for controlling rotators, antenna switches, and antennas, has updated PstRotatorAz to support commands and status via UDP. This would be of particular interest to those automating their stations using Node-RED or other network capable dashboards. The Southeastern VHF Conference has been cancelled for 2021, but because "of the hard work leading up to last year's cancelled conference of 2020, the Society has published a Technical Journal containing all of the papers that were scheduled to be presented." The journal is available through Downeast Microwave. The table of contents (available as an image at the link) indicates there is something for everyone in the materials - examples: a proposal for moving stations band to band using FT8, PWM control of winch motors, Digital TV, FM contesting, synthesizers, IF strips, eBay amplifiers, high altitude balloons, and more! Planning for Resilience In collecting information in preparation for a Hamcation webinar, I asked Bob, W2SJ, president of the Mt. Airy VHF/UHF Society, for his thoughts on the state of VHF/UHF contesting, and where it might be going in the future. It turns out I asked him at the right time (end of January). Rather than provide his own opinion, he offered to share part of the collective club feedback (special thanks to Mike, N2DEQ, for providing the summary). The part they shared is the "impact of digital modes on minimal SSB activity on 6 and 2 meters" gathered at the club's customary wrap-up meeting that took place after the January VHF Contest. According to Bob, the all-day meeting usually starts socially with coffee and donuts, transitions to hoagies and other snacks, and ends with planning for next year's contest. This year, everyone had to be content with whatever food they had at their personal end of the Zoom connection. Club member comments generally echoed those that also have been made post-contest by other VHF/UHF contesters: that the newer digital modes are attracting many operators; that the modes are "sticky" and that some operators using them won't attempt to use other modes, even when there would be a rate advantage by doing so; for many "analog" (SSB/CW) operators, using the new digital modes doesn't have the same emotional appeal. The club members found no hard and fast answers to these concerns, but did focus on recommendations for actions that would help no matter what the underlying reasons might be, and would be responsive to the changing contest landscape. These included:
Since the FTx mode software is really only in its second year of contest features, many current users expect that it will continue to be refined in capability and usability of the contest-essential tasks such as moving a station to another band or mode. The club's actions embody a framework for improving scores, accommodating change, and anticipating improvements, but not being dependent on them. That's all for this time. 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 73, Brian N9ADG 18 Feb - 3 Mar 2021 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, Feb 18, 0300z to Feb 18, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: February 20. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Mar 3, 1900z to Mar 3, 2000z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: February 20. VHF+ CONTESTS
See SKCC Sprint, South Carolina QSO Party, North Carolina QSO Party, Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, above. 18 Feb - 3 Mar 2021 February 18, 2021 February 19, 2021 February 20, 2021
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February 22, 2021 February 23, 2021 February 24, 2021 February 25, 2021 February 26, 2021
February 27, 2021 February 28, 2021
March 1, 2021 March 2, 2021 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. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest Calendar, | |||
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