Contester's Rate Sheet for June 2, 2004

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Contester's Rate Sheet
2 June 2004
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Edited by Ward Silver N0AX

SUMMARY
o June kicks off the summer VHF contest season!
o WRTC-Style Team Challenge - a second running
o World-Wide Young Contester's Club and Dayton Photos
o Coffee can antennas and compressed air spud guns - woo-hoo!
o TV DX-ing and Staying Awake
o Who Was That Masked Operator?

BULLETINS
o No bulletins this issue.

BUSTED QSOS
o George K5KG pointed out that Multi-Two category for WPX was omitted
from the rule summary for both WPX announcements.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICES FOR 2 JUNE TO 15 JUNE 2004

Logs are due for the following contests:

June 2 - ARI International DX Contest, email to: [email protected],
diskettes and paper logs to: ARI DX Contest, c/o ARI, Via Scarlatti
31, 20124 Milano, Italy  
 
June 5 - 50 MHz Spring Sprint, email to: [email protected],
diskettes and paper logs to: 50 MHz Spring Sprint, ETDXA/WU4O, Jeff J.
Baker, 2012 Hinds Creek Road, Heiskell, TN 37754, USA  
 
June 7 - FISTS Spring Sprint, email to: [email protected], diskettes and
paper logs to: Dan Shepherd, N8IE, 1900 Pittsfield St., Kettering, OH
45420, USA  
 
June 10 - Oregon QSO Party, email to: [email protected], diskettes and
paper logs to: Oregon QSO Party, c/o K4XU, 61255 Ferguson Rd., Bend,
OR 97702, USA  
 
June 10 - Mid-Atlantic QSO Party, email to: [email protected],
diskettes and paper logs to: Mid-Atlantic QSO Party (MAQP), Attn:
Chuck Reville K3FT, 6400 Baltimore National Pike 131, Baltimore, MD
21228, USA  
 
June 11 - MARAC County Hunter Contest, CW, email to: [email protected],
diskettes and paper logs to: Norm Beavers, W3DYA, 3320 McMillan Dr.,
Tyler, TX 75701-8239, USA  
 
June 15 - GACW CW DX Contest, email to: [email protected],
diskettes and paper logs to: GACW DX Contest, PO Box 9, B1875ZAA
Wilde, Buenos Aires, Argentina  
 
June 15 - Indiana QSO Party, email to: [email protected], diskettes and
paper logs to: HDXCC, c/o Mike Goode, N9NS, 10340 Broadway,
Indianapolis, IN 46280-1344, USA  

Cabrillo Log Formatter - Bruce WA7BNM has created a Cabrillo log
formatting Web page (http://b4h.net/cabforms) that will create
Cabrillo formatted files from manually-entered logs for all ARRL
contests.  The resulting Cabrillo log is emailed to the ARRL
log-handling robot and you will receive the robot's response as if you
had emailed the log yourself.  This is ideal for small logs and for
cut-and-paste text from non-Cabrillo logging software.  Each page has
a guide for the required information and format.  Thank you, Bruce!

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

QRP TAC Contest - CW, SSB & PSK31 - sponsored by EPA QRP Club from
1800 to 2359Z Jun 5. Frequencies: 80-10 meters. Categories: QRP (<5
W), QRPp (<1 W), Tactical (portable with temporary antennas),
Homebrew, Classic (pre-1985 radios). Exchange: RST, name and telephone
area code (TAC), DX send area code or prefix. PA stations send X after
the area code. For more information: http://www.n3epa.org/. Logs due
Jul 12 to [email protected] or EPA QRP Club c/o Ron Polityka, 1155 Robeson
St, 2nd Fl, Reading, PA 19604-2151.

IARU Region 1 Field Day--CW - sponsored by IARU Societies from 1500Z,
Jun 5 to 1459Z, Jun 6 (SSB - Sep 4 - 5). Frequencies: 160 - 10 meters.
Categories: SOAB (LP, 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).

ANARTS WW RTTY / Digital Contest - sponsored by Australian National
Amateur Radio Teleprinter Society (ANARTS) from 0000Z Jun 12 - 2400Z
Jun 13. Frequencies: 80 - 10 meters. Categories: SO, MS, and SWL, SO
and SWL only operate 30 hours. Exchange RST, CQ zone and Time (UTC).
QSO Points are determined by an exchange table available from ANARTS.
Score is QSO points x DXCC entities + VK, JA, VE, and W call districts
+ continents (counted only once). For more information: 
http://www.users.bigpond.com/ctdavies. Logs due Sep 1 to
[email protected] or Contest Manager, VK2BQS, Jim Swan, PO Box
93, Toongabbie, NSW 2146, Australia

Asia-Pacific Sprint - SSB - 1100Z to 1300Z Jun 12. Frequencies: 20 and
15 meters, NA stations work Asia-Pacific countries only. Categories:
SO only, 150 watts max. Exchange: RST and serial number. Score: total
QSOs x WPX prefixes (counted once). For more information:
http://jsfc.org/apsprint/aprule.txt. Logs due 7 days after the contest
to [email protected] (no paper logs).

West Virginia QSO Party - CW/SSB - sponsored by the West Virginia
State Amateur Radio Council from 1600Z Jun 12 - 0200Z Jun 13.
Frequencies: 80 - 10 meters, CW - 35 kHz from band edge, Phone - 35
kHz from General Class band edge and Novice/Tech 10-meter segment.
Categories: SO, MM and Mobile, all categories may be HP, LP (<100W),
QRP (<5W), Phone, CW, or mixed mode. Work stations once per band/mode
and WV stations from each county (WV mobiles keep separate log for
each county). Exchange: RS(T) and WV county or S/P/C. QSO Points:
Fixed stations: CW - 2 pts, SSB - 1 pt; Mobiles: CW - 3 pts, SSB - 2
pts; Bonus - 100 pts for QSOs with W8WVA once per band/mode, WV
mobiles add 100 points per county activated with minimum of 1 QSO.
Score: QSO points x WV counties (+ S/P/C for WV stations), add bonus
to final score, multipliers count only once. For more information:
http://www.qsl.net/wvarrl. Logs due Jul 19 to [email protected] or Dave
Ellis WA8WV, 610 Hillsdale Drive, Charleston, WV 25302.

Portugal Day Contest--SSB--sponsored by Rede dos Emissores Portugueses
(REP) from 0000Z -- 2400Z Jun 12. Frequencies: 80 -- 10 meters.
Categories: SOAB only. Exchange: RS + serial number or CT district
abbreviation. QSO Points: different country--3 pts, CT stations--6
pts. Score: QSO points x CT districts counted once per band. For more
information: http://www.rep.pt/dia_de_portugal.htm. Logs due 1 Sep to
REP - Rede dos Emissores Portugueses, Award/Contest Manager, PO Box
2483, 1112 Lisboa Codex, Portugal.

WW South America CW Contest - sponsored by the Confederacao Brasileira
de Radioamadorismo (LABRE) from 0000Z Jun 12 - 1600Z Jun 13.
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.labre.org/. Logs due 31 Jul to [email protected]
or LABRE - WWSA Contest Committee, PO Box 0000470359-970, 70359-970
Brasilia DF, Brazil.

VHF CONTESTS

World Wide Major Six Club Contest - CW/SSB - sponsored by the Six
Meter World Wide DX Club, from 2300Z Jun 4 - 0300Z Jun 7. Frequencies:
50 MHz only. Categories: SO only. Exchange: Grid Square. QSO Points:
own country - 1 pt, diff. country (incl. KH6 and KL7) - 2 pts. Score:
QSO Points x grid squares (counted only once). For more information:
http://6mt.com/contest.htm. Logs due 30 days after the contest to
[email protected] or to Wayne Lewis Sr, Six Club Contest Director, 3338 S.
Cashua Dr, Florence SC 29501-6306.

ARRL June VHF QSO Party - 1800Z Jun 12 - 0300Z Jun 14. Frequencies:
all bands 50 MHz and higher. Categories: SO-LP, SO-HP, SO-Portable,
Rover, MO, Limited-MO. Exchange: 4-digit grid square locator. QSO
Points: 50 & 144 MHz -- 1 pt, 222 & 432 MHz -- 2 pts, 906 & 1296 MHz
-- 3 pts, 2.3 GHz and higher -- 4 pts. Total score: QSO Points x grid
squares (counted once per band). For Rovers: QSO Points x unique grid
squares + grids activated with at least one QSO. For more information
- http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2003/june-vhf.html. Logs due 16
Jul to [email protected] (Cabrillo format only - see note in Logs Due
section) or June VHF, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.

Amateur Television Contest - sponsored by Amateur Television
Quarterly, from 1 Jun - 31 Aug. The purpose is to raise activity and
promote long haul contacts on ATV. While most contacts will be on the
440 MHz band, contacts are encouraged on the 33 cm, 23 cm, and 13 cm
and above with extra points per mile being given for the higher
frequencies. For complete information, see http://www.hampubs.com/.
(Thanks, Gene WB9MMM)

NEWS AND PRESS RELEASES

Web writeups for the 2003 RTTY Roundup and the 2003 Ten Meter Contest
are now available to ARRL members. (Non-members will gain access when
the print version of the article is published.) Gavels for contest
winners to date have been shipped or presented. The combined list of
Logs Received for the 2004 Phone DX Contest is posted to the web.
(Thanks, Dan N1ND)

Challenge your friends for some summertime fun! The WRTC-Style Team
Challenge will be sponsored once again this year during the IARU HF
Championship by your editor with the kind assistance of the Western
Washington DX Club. Last year's event drew 18 teams on three
continents and kept the WRTC spirit burning bright. The contest is
between two-operator teams that adhere to the WRTC-2002 rules (with
some exceptions) and compete with each other in the IARU's
Multi-Single category. Complete rules can be found at
http://wwdxc.org/wrtcrule.htm and the writeup for last year's
inaugural event was printed in the Nov/Dec 2003 issue of the National
Contest Journal.

NCJ News (by NCJ Editor Carl K9LA) -- With Field Day right around the
corner, the May/June NCJ also carried the annual Field Day record
listings by W4DC. Several old records were broken, and many new
records were set because of the new F class. N5OT penned an article
about the history of the SSB and CW NAQP contests, which included some
comments about the recent reflector postings of NAQP rule changes.
N0JK's VHF-UHF Contesting column talked about rule changes to the ARRL
VHF contests, and had a helpful hint for portable 6-meter antennas.
W9XT's CTT&T column provided some interesting data on how much time we
spend on non-operating activities. NW0L was the guest columnist for
WA9ALS's RTTY Contesting column, and told us about their January ARRL
RTTY Roundup effort. Rounding out the regular columns was K5AF with
information about using Russian tubes. (NCJ's Web site is
http://www.ncjweb.com/)

On May 24th, 1844 - 160 years ago last week! - Samuel Morse sent the
world's first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?" To find out
more about Mr. Morse and who suggested that initial message, browse to
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may24.html. By the way, for visitors
to Washington, DC, the site of the transmission was in the basement of
the Capitol Building. (Thanks, Alex KR1ST)

Tim EI8IC has released 34 new prefix maps for free download from his
Web site http://www.qsl.net/ei8ic/maps/maps.html#pre. The maps are
available separately or as a combined zipped archive.

Tom K8CX has finished this year's Dayton picture gallery, which is
available at http://hamgallery.com/dayton2004. Lots of great photos of
the Dayton partygoers are there for your amusement. Almost (but not
quite) as good as going yourself!  (Thanks, Tim K3LR...Scores?)

Scott N3FJP announces the release of support for the RAC Contest as
well as upgrades to his Field Day logging software. (Field Day Contest
Log 2.3 and Field Day Network Log 2.0 are the latest versions.)
Complete information about these programs is available at
http://www.n3fjp.com/.

AntenneX has released a new 433-page ebook on Antenna Modeling by LB
Cebik W4RNL. The 3-book series is over 1200 pages with 240 modeling
files. LB's books are also a great tutorial on antenna modeling.
They're available at http://www.antennex.com/.

The contingent of youthful faces from the World-Wide Young Contester's
Club was everywhere at Dayton. Are you unfamiliar with WWYC?  This is
a great way to introduce our hobby's younger members to each other.
Send them to http://www.wwyc.net/ for the complete story. Look for
several WWYC teams in the WRTC-Style Team Challenge mentioned earlier.
(Thanks, Fred K9YO)

RESULTS AND RECORDS

If you participated in the just completed Mid-Atlantic QSO Party and
wanted to see if your log had been successfully received, check the
MAQP Web site under 'LOGS RECEIVED' at
http://www.qsl.net/maqso/index.html. (Thanks, Chuck K3FT)

The results of the April 2004 EU Sprint Contest - Spring CW have just
been released. Score listings and UBN reports are available on the new
EU Sprint web page, http://www.qsl.net/eusprint. Once again both the
UBN and the logs are public. Click on a call sign to see the UBN
report or to download the log in .ASC format. (Thanks, Paolo I2UIY)

TARA announces their Four Seasons Contesting "2003/2004 Tour'ney
Winner." The winner had to participate in four distinctively different
digital contests, testing his skills to the max. Congratulations to
this season's winner, Tony N3FX!  The complete list of participants is
available at http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_tourney_results.html.
(Thanks, TARA President Bill NY2U)

The official results of the 2004 EUCW 160-meter Open Contest have been
put online on Jac F5YJ's Web site:
http://perso.club-internet.fr/jacar/resultats/res_04_g.html. For the
2005 contest (8 - 9 Jan) Alain F6ENO, has written logging software
that runs under Windows. It will be available for downloading on the
EUCW contest Web site when testing is completed. (Thanks, Maurice
F5NQL)

Marc ON7SS reports that the claimed scores for the 2004 UBA DX Contest
- CW can now be found on the UBA Web site at
http://www.uba.be/hf_contests/pdf/2004_ubatest_cw_claimed.pdf.

Also from Belgium, the results of the 2004 UBA-SWARL 365 Days Contest
2004 (Part 1) are online at
http://users.skynet.be/ONL4299/Contest/365/UBA-SWARL-01-2004.htm.
(Thanks, Pat ONL04299)

If your club would like to promote its certificates in South America,
the CUYO Radio Club (http://www.lu1ma.org.ar/) invites you to post the
information on their site. For more information, visit the site or
send email to [email protected].

TECHNICAL

Have you ever been puzzled about how to convert a quantity from one
type of units to another? This page has an Imperial Ton of converters
and calculators for just about every imaginable need. If you ever need
to convert parsecs into electron diameters, this is your page -
http://www.csgnetwork.com/converters.html.

With the June VHF QSO Party coming up, getting a few points on 2.4 GHz
can be a lot easier if you know how to make some simple antennas. Do
you have a few metal cans around?  Turn that coffee can into a
high-gain microwave antenna by following the instructions at
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html.

Field Day is not far away, either. Getting an antenna into an
unclimbable tree occupies more ham-hours on that last full weekend of
June than anything. For those of you that want to apply a little
technology, this site has construction details on a very manageable
antenna launcher. Powered by compressed air, no hair spray is used and
no potatoes need be harmed in the launching process as shown at
http://www.qsl.net/k5lxp/projects/Launcher/Launcher.html. (Thanks, Tom
WB5QYT)

Electronic designers are always on the lookout for tutorials and
instructions to increase their expertise. Electronic Design magazine
publishes "Basics of Design" on their Web site at
http://www.elecdesign.com/Departments/DepartmentID/24/24.html. These
are not introductory electronics, but will be useful if you have some
electronics background. 

eHam.net provides a number of links to contest simulators for those
dreary between-contest periods. eham.net News Manager, Mike N2MG
directs us to "Go to http://www.eham.net/ and click "Ham Links" in the
left  menu area (under Resources). Then use either "Links by Category"
(Software (Shareware/Freeware)), or enter simulator (or simulation)
into the Links' "Text search" tool to browse. If you have a favorite
trainer (or any other ham  website) that's not listed, it's easy to
add it yourself."  John W0UN also contributes another link at
http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Morse_Code_Training. The
popular PED simulator/trainer can be found on page 3.

Finding the elusive VHF/UHF openings can be a lot easier if you know
where to listen for beacons and commercial stations. Gene W3ZZ's "50
MHz and Up" column in the June QST has some good pointers. Gene also
recommends Doug W9WI's site for an excellent set of references to TV
DX-ing and other useful links - http://www.w9wi.com/. Hearing the FM
sound carrier or video buzz is a sure sign of propagation.

Is this technical?  Well, technically, I suppose it is...staying awake
is a subject on every contester's lips. The Boston Globe recently ran
this story about caffeine in small doses. Wake up and smell the coffee
at
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2004/05/12/study_small_doses_of_caffeine_best_to_stay_awake/.
(Thanks, Jim AD1C)

CONVERSATION

Who Was That Masked Operator?

While operating in the annual Costume Ball Contest known as WPX, I
greatly enjoyed all of the special and unusual prefixes that make
their appearance like a brood of one-year cicadas. These call signs
hibernate through the year, emerging to mate frenetically in a 48-hour
period on the last weekends of March and May.

No prefix is too extreme. Fame and fortune are distributed regardless
of seniority since even a newly-hatched KE7 counts as much as A61. It
is the ham radio "Freaker's Ball" where all the usual rules-of-thumb
about length, phonetics, ending letter, and so on are gaily tossed
aside. We replace our functional and efficient call signs, carefully
streamlined, with gaudy and wild nom de plumes. I mean, S5046A?  Only
in WPX and only from Slovenia - well done!

I also succumbed to the lure of identity shift, using KU0W for the
weekend (thanks to my newly hatched Extra-Class neighbor, Rick). It is
so...strange...to be busily working a pile of callers and having
friends call in who have no idea that it's you. My mask stayed firmly
in place all weekend as I flirted shamelessly with other unknown and
unusual calls. Relax, Rick, I didn't do anything you'll be hearing
about from an OO or a certain Mr. Hollingsworth!

Our identities are so tightly tied to those few letters and numbers
that disconnecting from them is more than a little disorienting. It's
mighty hard to retrain your brain, mouth, and fingers to smoothly
shift to new patterns. When you do finally accomplish the task, it's
like you have license (so to speak) to take on a different persona.
Shy, retiring Walter Mitty is suddenly transformed to X321ZZ - master
of twenty, vanquisher of the slow and clobberer of the weak. On
Monday, he's back to casual DXing, but curiously refreshed.

I would be very interested in observing the frequency of vanity call
applications over the months preceding the WPX contests. The traffic
at http://vanityhq.com/ must reach a feverish crescendo some time in
February as contesters go shopping for WPX costumes. Should it have
funny phonetics?  What about spelling a word or name?  The data base
knows all of the palindromic calls backwards and forwards.
Onomatopoeias anyone?

How many different prefixes are there, really?  In the US (including
all of the territories and protectorates), there are 1080 possible two
and three-character prefixes. Worldwide, if one sticks closely to the
two-character, one-number format, there are 6760 prefixes. There are
lots and lots of variations on the theme and so the number is
theoretically much higher. Just adding one more letter and number
results in 1,757,600 prefixes!  It must give the software authors and
poor AD1C, keeper of the sacred CTY file, fits.

How refreshing to wrap up the HF contest season with a happy-go-lucky
free-for-all where we can all be in demand, if only for a little
while!  We'll meet again for IARU-HF and then resume the battles in
October as the leaves fall. Good luck to all of you with your summer
antenna projects. It's been a good season!

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
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