Contester's Rate Sheet for May 22, 2002
*********************** Contester's Rate Sheet 22 May 2002 *********************** Edited by Ward Silver, N0AX SUMMARY o The Rate Sheet has passed 2500 subscribers! Tell your friends and newsletter editors about it -- the price is right...free to ARRL members. o Log Checking Reports are now available for CW and Phone Sweepstakes from ARRL o WPX CW QRP Multi-Multi at TI5N o Utilities and web pages for log conversion and county/city lookup o Conversation - pre-contest publicity and packet spotting BULLETINS o No bulletin-level news this issue. BUSTED QSOS o A Golden Log on the last issue. ANNOUNCEMENT & NOTICES FOR 22 MAY TO 5 JUNE Logs are due for the following contests: o May 24, 2002 Harry Angel Memorial Sprint -- paper logs only to: Harry Angel Sprint, WIA Federal, PO Box 2175, Caulfield Junction 3161, Australia o May 28, 2002 SP DX RTTY Contest - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: SPDX RTTY Contest Manager, Christopher Ulatowski, Box 253, 81-963 Gdynia 1, Poland o May 28, 2002 Florida QSO Party - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Florida QSO Party, c/o Ron Wetjen, WD4AHZ, 5362 Castleman Dr., Sarasota, FL 34232, USA o May 30, 2002 GACW CW DX Contest - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: GACW DX Contest, PO Box 9, B1875ZAA Wilde, Buenos Aires, Argentina o May 31, 2002 JIDX HF CW Contest - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: JIDX HFCW Contest, c/o Five-Nine Magazine, PO Box 59, Kamata, Tokyo 144, Japan o May 31, 2002 Holyland DX Contest - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Contest Manager 4Z4KX, Israel Amateur Radio Club, Box 17600, Tel Aviv 61176, Israel o May 31, 2002 Ontario QSO Party - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Ontario QSO Party, Ontario DX Association, PO Box 161, Station "A", Willowdale, Ontario M2N 5S8, Canada o May 31, 2002 Nebraska QSO Party - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Nebraska QSO Party, PO Box 375, Elkhorn, NE 68022-0375, USA o May 31, 2002 AGCW QRP/QRP Party - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Manager Carsten Steinhoefel, DL1EFD, Puetzstrasse 9, D-45144 Essen, Germany o June 1, 2002 Yuri Gagarin Int. DX Contest - paper logs only to: GC Contest Committee, Krenkel Central Radio Club of Russia, PO Box 88, Moscow, Russia o June 1, 2002 ES Open HF Championship - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Toomas Soomets, ES5RY, ERAU HF Contest Manager, PO Box 177, Tartu 50002, Estonia o June 1, 2002 QRP to the Field - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Jan Medley, N0QT, QRPTTF 2002, PO Box 1768, Socorro, NM 87801, USA o June 1, 2002 Microwave Spring Sprint - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: Microwave Spring Sprint, ETDXA/KG4ENR, Jeff J. Baker, 8218 Foxworth Trail, Powell, TN 37849, USA o June 3, 2002 IPA Contest, CW - email to: (none), paper logs to: Alex Dutkewych, N2PIG, PO Box 211, Pulteney, NY 14874-0211, USA o June 4, 2002 New England QSO Party - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: NEQP, PO Box 3005, Framingham, MA 01705-3005, USA o June 4, 2002 IPA Contest, SSB - email to: (none), paper logs to: Alex Dutkewych, N2PIG, PO Box 211, Pulteney, NY 14874-0211, USA o June 5, 2002 ARI International DX Contest - email to: [email protected], paper logs to: ARI Contest Manager, Fabio Schettino, I4UFH, PO Box 1677, I-40100 Bologna, Italy The following contests are scheduled: CQ WW WPX Contest - CW - sponsored by CQ Magazine from 0000Z, May 25 - 2400Z, May 26. See http://home.woh.rr.com/wpx for complete rules. QRP ARCI Hootowl Sprint -- CW - sponsored by the QRP ARC International from 2000 local - 2400 local May 26. For rules, see http://personal.palouse.net/rfoltz/arci/arcitst.htm for complete rules. MI QRP Memorial Day CW Sprint, sponsored by the MI QRP Club from 2300Z, May 27 to 0300Z, May 28. See http://www.qsl.net/miqrpclub for complete rules. WW South America CW Contest -- sponsored by the Confederacao Brasileira de Radioamadorismo (LABRE) from 0000Z Jun 1 to 1600Z Jun 2. Frequencies: 80 -- 10 meters. Categories: SOAB, SOSB, MOAB. Exchange: RST and continent. QSO Points: South America entrants -- own country -- 1 pt, different country -- 3 pts, diff. continent -- 10 pts; non-SA entrants -- own country -- 1 pt, diff. country -- 3 pts, diff. cont. -- 5 pts, SA -- 10 pts. Score is QSO points x prefixes (WPX rules). For more information -- http://www.csel.com/gacw. Logs due by 31 July to [email protected] or to LABRE - WWSA Contest Committee, PO Box 00004, 70359-970 Brasilia DF, Brazil. IARU Region 1 Field Day -- CW -- sponsored by IARU Societies from 1500Z, Jun 1 to 1459Z, Jun 2 (SSB -- Sep 7-8). Frequencies: 160 -- 10 meters. Categories: SOAB (LP and QRP), MS (HP, LP). Exchange: RST and serial number. QSO Points: non-EU to EU -- 3 pts, with portable EU stations -- 4 pts. Score: QSO points x DXCC and WAE entities counted once/band. See IARU Region 1 society web sites for more information. Send logs to the appropriate national societies (NA hams to RAC or ARRL). QRP TAC Contest -- CW -- sponsored by EPA QRP Club from 1800 to 2359Z Jun 1. Frequencies: 80 -- 10 meters. Categories: QRP (<5W), QRPp (<1W), Tactical (portable with temp. antennas), Homebrew, Newbie. Exchange: call, RST, came and TAC (telephone area code). DX send area code or prefix. PA stations send X after the area code. QSO Points -- 5 pts/ QSO, 10pts with PA. 500 bonus pts for each QSO with N3EPA. Score: QSO points x TACs plus 500 pts for every category entered. For more information -- http://www.n3epa.org/Pages/TAC-Contest.htm. Logs are due by July 8 to [email protected] or PA QRP Club c/o Ron Polityka, 1155 Robeson St., 2nd Floor, Reading, PA 19604-2151. NEWS & PRESS RELEASES Data entry for US paper logs for 2002 ARRL International DX Phone logs has been completed by the ARRL Contest department. In addition, the really nice result packages for both CW and Phone Sweepstakes are available at www.arrl.org/contests/results. (Thanks, Dan N1ND) And if you were wondering what in the world happened to that big score you submitted, Log Checking Reports (LCRs) for selected ARRL contests are now available. ARRL members registered in the Members-Only area of the ARRL web site may access the reports at: http://www.arrl.org/members-only/contests/lcr.html If you were a single operator, your log-in username (callsign) must be the same as that which appears on the log that you submitted. If you were a guest operator at another station or part of a multioperator entry, you may access the LCR for that entry if your callsign appears in the Cabrillo header (summary) as an operator for that log. Non-ARRL members may obtain a copy of their LCR by sending a request along with $3 and a SASE to: LCR Request, ARRL Contest Branch, 225 Main Street, Newington CT 06111. You must make a separate request for each event (Phone and CW modes of the November Sweepstakes are separate events), and include the name and year of the contest, as well as the callsign of the entry for each contest. Each report incurs a separate $3 fee. (Thanks, Dan N1ND) TI5N will be a QRP Multi-Multi entry in 2002 CQ WPX CW from TI5KD. It will be perhaps the first serious multi-multi DX contest operation where 100% of the operation will be QRP (5 watts). QRP operation is one of the fastest-growing segments of contesting and it is hoped this operation will encourage more QRP operation and add many new participants to ham radio contesting. Operators will include N0KE, W8QZA, W1XE, CX6VM and others. TI5KD has been the station for a QRP SOAB and 40-meter worldwide wins, so the signal should be plenty loud. QSL manager is W3HNK. For more information, see http://www.yantis.net/ti5kd/ or contact N0KE at [email protected]. (Thanks, Gary W0TM) Claimed scores of OK-OM DX Contest 2001 are available at http://okomdx.radioamater.cz/ (Thanks, Martin OK1FUA/OL5Y) Support for the RSGB Jubilee Contest (June 8th and 9th) - Files for TR, and a fully functional module for WriteLog (thanks, G4FON and W5XD) are now available from http://www.rsgbhfcc.org. Select the 2002 contests tab, then from the list, the Jubilee contest. The full rules are found there, and towards the bottom is a link to software for the contest which also includes information for other loggers such as SD, CTJ ,N1MM and YPlog. (Thanks, Clive GW3NJW) TECHNICAL & TECHNIQUE To convert CT files to ADIF (for importing or exchanging logs) there is a free utility for Windows, DOS, and Linux at http://www.qsl.net/ka5wss/logconv/. It will read CT7, CT8, and CT9 format log files, and will output to ADIF. The utility does react to certain contest types and adjusts its output data accordingly. (Thanks, Ken WM5R) Your Editor received a number of comments about last week's tip regarding unbypassed rectifiers causing RFI. Fred K1VR asked for an example of the rectifiers I had to bypass. The piece of equipment that was definitely causing trouble for me was my Tailtwister rotator (not "rotor" -- thanks, Fred) control box. The schematic shows a number of diodes, but the ones that were causing the most problem were CR3, CR4, and CR5 which steer reverse current around the indicator LEDs. Bypassing these diodes also bypasses the LEDs CR6-8. Not wanting to repeat the operation more than once, I also bypassed CR1 and VR1 in the power supply. (CR2 is omitted from my schematic.) The rectifiers were generic 1N4000-series devices (they look like black resistors with a single white stripe). The capacitors I used were 100V disc ceramic types -- they're not polarized, so I just tack soldered one across each diode. Voila -- no more RFI! A query on CQ-Contest about looking up counties turned up a number of useful web sites that allow all sorts of city/county/zip code cross-references. From LA8OM - http://zipfind.net/ (enter city and state), http://zipinfo.com/search/zipcode.htm, and http://www.wm7d.net/ (county lookup). From K1PX - http://www.naco.org/counties/queries/city_srch.cfm -- you can enter a county name or a city name and you can get a listing of ALL cities within a county as well. (Thanks, K3FT as well) CONVERSATION Pre-Contest Publicity and Packet Spotting During the past contest season, there has been a fair amount of discussion about the publicizing of contest operations before the event, as well as certain aspects of packet spotting during the contest. Since WPX CW is nearly upon us, a short conversation on the topic is worthwhile. As long as we have had contests, there has been pre-contest publicity and schedules between stations. As long as the intent is to encourage activity, benefiting all entrants, that's probably OK. What is clearly wrong is for a competitor to set up a QSO with a rare station who would only work the competitor, for example. Sending out email to the effect of, "I'll meet all club members on XYZAB.C at 2355Z Sunday afternoon" is bogus. There are lots of ways to be excessive or attempt an unfair advantage. Remember that solicitating QSOs is not allowed EXCEPT during the contest period -- that much is clear from the rules. Don't misunderstand - letting your club or friends know that you will be on Bouvet Island during the upcoming contest is fine. It's OK to send out a note on CQ-Contest or to the DX newsletters that advertises your upcoming effort from Bechuanaland. Contesting is supposed to be fun and this is fun. Encouraging your club to get on and be active is fine - they'll work others, too! My bottom line is that I consider it unethical to encourage an individual or group to perform acts on behalf of or render assistance to a specific station. As far as the use of packet, I thought it would be useful to take a look at some of the major contest rules to see exactly what is permissible for the most popular of all categories - Single-Op. From the CQ WPX 2002 rules - "Passive use of packet or internet DX spotting nets is permitted for [SOA, MS, and MM] stations only. No self-spotting by a station or one of its operators is permitted." From the section on Disqualification - "The use by an entrant of any non-amateur means such as telephones, telegrams, internet, or the use of packet to SOLICIT contacts during the contest is unsportsmanlike and the entry is subject to disqualification." From the CQ WW 2001 rules on Single-Operator category - "The use of DX alerting assistance of any kind places the station in the Single Operator Assisted category." A similar statement to WPX rules is found in the Disqualification section. From the ARRL General Contest Rules - "3.14. In contests where spotting nets are permissible, spotting your own station or requesting another station to spot you is not permitted." And from the Rules for Contests Below 30 MHz, Single-Operator Category - "2.1.1. Use of spotting assistance or nets (operating arrangements involving other individuals, DX-alerting nets, packet, Internet, etc) is not permitted." These rules are fairly clear - Single-Op entrants are forbidden from obtaining information from any kind of spotting system or from spotting themselves in any way, such as using a fake callsign. Duh. What is not so clearly stated is the interpretation of the rules with respect to encouraging others to make use of spotting systems on your behalf. "Hey Ward, spot me on the cluster during the contest, will ya?" or "PSE QSP Packet" - these clearly violate the "one operator should perform all functions" intent of Single Operator category. What if someone wants to spot you of their own volition? Fine! That's what the networks are for. Some people spot everything they hear -- logging programs make it easy to do so. This may result in a disproportionate amount of spots for the active stations. Since these spots are not under the control of the stations being spotted, they're not a transgression. It clogs up the system rather badly, but that's a different story. For those of us not running the big pileups, we should all avoid cheerleading and spotting one station to the exclusion of others. Be fair, be reasonable, be balanced. Tom Frenaye K1KI contributed a few tips for making better use of packet, in general: o - Get the callsign and frequency right! o - Always spot with the callsign you are using in the contest (not your club call or something else) o - Be gentle on those who bust callsigns, sometimes it's best to talk to them after the contest one on one o - Don't trust the callsign in the spot - verify it live on the air o - It doesn't help to spot someone struggling with a big pileup, it just makes it worse o - Don't spot something you heard someone else work, only those you can hear o - If you have an out-of-district callsign, use an identifier on packet so that people know where the spot is coming from - N0AX-7, for example Packet can add a significant amount of enjoyment to contest activity - particularly for casual entrants. However, there are lots of ways to abuse it. By considering the issue a little bit before 0000Z on Saturday, we can all have a bit more fun during the contest with less unnecessary discussion afterwards. 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/
