 December 24, 2008 Editor: Ward Silver, NØAX | |||||
IN THIS ISSUE
NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO If you're just learning the code, don't forget Straight Key Night. It's not really a contest--more of an activity night--but everyone will be fishing out that straight key and "pounding brass". You don't have to go fast...just go! BULLETINS There are no bulletins in this issue. BUSTED QSOS Some of the hyperlinks in the previous couple of issues were mis-mapped. This may have been pilot error, but your editor hopes an extra dose of vigilance will at least allow detection and correction. CONTEST SUMMARY Rules follow Commentary section December 27-28
January 3-4
NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST One of the hottest events at the Dayton Hamvention will be Contest University 2009. CTU is held on Thursday (May 14) before the main Hamvention. Registration for this rave-review-program is now open! Last year's instructor team mustered more than 300 years of experience and the CTU staff is gearing up for another great set of seminars. CTU President, Tim K3LR, thanks flagship sponsor, Icom America, for their support again in 2009 along with CQ Magazine, DX Engineering, Comtek Systems, Dave W9ZRX, SuperBertha, and QTH.com. Flash - CTU crosses the pond! Held in October, the UK version of CTU was a big hit and more European CTU dates will be announced soon! The rules for the 2009 CQ WPX Contest are now available. Scoring is still the same, but there are changes to administrative and operating rules:
The CQ WPX 2008 Contest results will be published in the January (SSB) and March (CW) issues of CQ Magazine. (Thanks, Randy Thompson, K5ZD, Director - CQ WPX Contest)
Were you aware that the NCJ Web site offers bonus content? If not, browse on over there and check it out, including the newest story by Cal K0DXC about his experiences operating at the K3LR multi-operator station during the recent CQ WW CW contest. Good stuff! The IARU HST (High Speed Telegraphy) Competition 2009 will take place during Sept 2009 in Obzor, Bulgaria, a town on the Black Sea coast. The competition includes copying random code groups, sending random code groups, RUFZ, and Morserunner. (Thanks, Barry W2UP) Array Solutions is offering a new product for amplifier owners tired of wearing out relays from full-QSK operation. The QSK Master uses a fast-switching vacuum relay without the losses of PIN diodes and it works up to 6 meters. Rated at 2500 W, it operates equally well with transistorized or reed-relay PTT switching and has compensation that allows it to work with radios that disable the PTT line before RF output. This prevents hot-switching--a frequent cause of relay failure and key-clicks. Put that old amplifier back in service today! As shortwave broadcasters move higher in frequency out of the 7100-7200 kHz band, Canada's official time and frequency standard station, CHU, will also shift transmission frequency from 7335 kHz to 7850 kHz. The change will occur on 01 January 2009 at 0000 UTC. CHU has experienced rather serious interference from broadcasting and this should place their signal in the clear again. Steve KG5VK passes word of a neat add-on for Writelog users called Writelog Friend. Put notes in the "Friend File" and when you work them in a contest, up pops the note! You need never be stumped for a name ever again! Pete N4ZR is collecting your experiences for an NCJ article about using the CW Skimmer program during contests. How well (or badly) did it work? If you ultimately decided not to use it, why not? If you did, what impact did it have? Did anyone try the new "blind mode", which disables decoding and turns it into a very smart software "panadaptor" (spectrum display) for use by traditional single ops? The finer points of using CW Skimmer are discussed on the skimmertalk reflector every day. CQ WW RTTY manager, Ed Muns W0YK, announces the Paolo Cortese, I2UIY, Memorial Plaque for each of the CQ RTTY contests: CQ WPX RTTY and CQWW RTTY. These awards are generously sponsored by CQ Magazine in memory of Paolo, who contributed so much to amateur radio, contesting, RTTY, contest DXpeditions and wonderful friendships around the world. The plaques will be awarded annually for each contest to a Single-operator DXpedition chosen by the CQ RTTY Contest Committee. Doug KR2Q writes in with news of the new solid-state, 1200-watt ALS-1300 amplifier by Ameritron. The RF deck weighs only 22 lbs and the matching ALS-1300SPS 50-volt switching power supply only add another 12 lbs. This carry-on-sized and lightweight combination would pack quite a punch for contest expeditions and portable operation! The holiday season is a time when we often start those "catch up" projects, like entering those old paper logs into our computer logging program. BORING! Dave NN1N found a tool to make the job a lot faster and it's called (surprisingly) Fast Log Entry by Bernd DF3CB. It allows you to only enter the data that has changed from the previous contact. It could be just like working the contest all over again! You have probably heard of or read about Palmdale, CA's city government trying to restrict all ham antennas--a dangerous precedent-setting event, if successful. The legal case may be shaky, but it's going to take resources to prevail. If you are interested in supporting WB6X, donations can be made to Leonard J. Shaffer, Esq (include "WB6X Defense Fund" on the memo line) at PO Box 570936, Tarzana, CA 91357. The ARRL Legal Research and Resource Fund will also be assisting and can accept donations, as well. (Thanks, Marty Woll N6VI, Vice-Director, ARRL Southwestern Division) Those of you (us) that get bamboozled by the blizzard of options and settings in the N1MM contest logging software may find help in Pete N4ZR's "Quick Start" guide. It's available via a link right at the top of the N1MM Web site and will definitely cut down on those "what did I just do?" moments common with any powerful piece of software. (Thanks, Steve N2IC) If your club wants to encourage more roving and activation of the "hard" grids in your region, you might check out the Pacific Northwest VHF Society's Lewis and Clark Award. To be sure, it rewards activity any time and not just during contests, but it does give more stations more reasons to operate from more places and that means more QSOs! More! It would be easy to model your own local award after this one and I'm sure the PNW VHFers won't mind! (Thanks, Frank K3UHF) Can you send faster than you can type? Scott KA9FOX found the Comax software to be very interesting. You can start with mouse buttons and work up to full, high-speed, contest-speed input! They even offer a mouse with a paddle input jack! Here's some great reading about a couple of two young hams getting started back in the 1950's. This will sound awfully familiar to many readers. (Thanks, Tad K7RA) A founding member of the Mad River Radio Club, Val W8KIC passed away just after the previous issue of this newsletter was distributed. A professor of Chemical Engineering and mentor to many, Tom K8AZ relates, "Val had the heart of a lion, the soul of a jazz musician, and the brains of a scientist." A fixture at K8AZ and other W8/W4 multi-op stations, Val's easy humor and pileup skills will be missed. Web Site of the Week - Where were you 25 years ago as astronaut Owen Garriott W5LFL circled the globe in the Space Shuttle, making contacts on 2 meter FM? Did you listen on your handheld or base station? I remember driving a VW crammed with engineers up to a hilltop with a clear view to the west, waiting for the spacecraft to come into range from behind the western horizon, then suddenly hearing Owen's voice breaking my IC-2AT's squelch! We listened breathlessly for the entire pass until his signal finally faded into the noise. In recognition of that achievement and the ongoing presence of ham radio "up there", the ARISS program is offering a special certificate commemorating the Silver Anniversary of humans using ham radio in space! WORD TO THE WISE Zero beat--tuned exactly to the same frequency. This is important on a crowded band when CQing stations may minimize their receive filter bandwidth. Just 100 or 200 Hz off could be enough to make you inaudible. Make sure your transmit frequency is their receive frequency! SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Tower aficionados will enjoy a look at one of the few remaining Blaw-Knox diamond-shaped broadcast towers. Pat AA6EG found this link to a story about the WSM (Nashville) transmitting facility with photos all hams will enjoy. A little closer to Pat, on the other side of the country, is the KGO transmitter that sits right on San Francisco's salty bay. Also quite impressive - take the tour! The Northern California Contest Club recently got together for their holiday banquet and Bob N6TV was there as the roving Contest Update photographer. Lots of familiar call signs are seen in these photos! Enter the time machine for a while by browsing the 1939 Radio Shack catalog! (Thanks, Jim W0FF) RESULTS AND RECORDS The 10 Meter Contest has just recently finished, and already more than 700 electronic logs are in the hopper and more than 1,000 logs have been received for the160 Meter contest, and 1,723 logs for SSB Sweepstakes. Seems like there is plenty of contest activity! Plaques for the 2008 ARRL DX contest were shipped on Dec 15th. Your editor forgot to mention in the previous issue that the expanded Web version of Rick K1DS' fine write-up of the 2008 June VHF QSO Party results is now available. In additions, the searchable database and log-checking reports are up, too. The delay was due to some critical Web site work that took priority for a couple of weeks. Look for the August UHF Contest writeup by John K9JK to follow soon! (Thanks, ARRL Contest Branch Manager, Sean KX9X) Gary K9AY is the author of the results for the just-completed ARRL 160 Meter contest and wants to hear your "interesting, inspirational - or offbeat - stories, mainly for the expanded ARRL Web coverage. I will also review Soapbox submissions on 3830 and ARRL Web, as well as some e-mail reflectors." If you contribute photos, remember that print media require the high-resolution version. The results of the second Pre-Stew event are now up on the Stew Web Page. The database shows 615 different calls were active which is fantastic for a practice contest! The main Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge is this weekend. (Thanks, Tree N6TR) The Claimed Scores for SAC 2008 are now published! Links can be found on the home page of SM3CER's Contest Service. (Thanks, Jan SM3CER) OPERATING TIP "We attack at dawn!" Those classic movie words also work on the low bands. If you're a low-power operator, picking the time of day that favors your location pays big dividends on 80 and 160 meters. The famed "dawn enhancement" can raise your signal level to the west by a lot--enough to make it through to a far-off station. Sometimes the enhancement only lasts a few minutes, so be prepared! TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION Some reports of second harmonic interference to stations above 3600 kHz from 160 meter operation occasionally surface. Bill W4ZV describes how to get rid of that pesky harmonic when operating on Top Band. "My solution was a shorted 1/4-wave stub for 160 at the output of my amplifier. Use (246/1.83)*Vf to determine the length in feet and cut it a little longer if you aren't certain of the velocity factor of your coax. I used an MFJ-259B analyzer and pruned the stub for minimum impedance at 3650 kHz." The stub has to be switched out when not operating on 160, of course! More on spurious signals - this time generated by a receiver! After receiving reports of such, Gary KA1J found that the large signals during transmit were being coupled back into the RX ANT connector of his transceiver and then into the low-level transmit circuits, causing distortion. Different models of radios treat the RX ANT connection differently, but if you have this problem, an external relay that grounds the RX ANT input during transmit would prevent the external signals from getting back into the radio. (Thanks also, Bud W2RU)
The recent ice storm in New England has caused a lot of damage to amateur installations from New York to Maine. Well-known stations such as KC1XX, K1TTT, and K0TV have all lost a lot of aluminum. Many smaller stations have also been hit pretty hard. The Contest Update extends the best wishes of its readership to these station owners as they rebuild! Turning to the mode of ice-removal, a "kolkutin" (loosely - "clanger") is used by the Finns to knock ice off booms and elements. This Web page shows how Jari OH8LQ built his model--pull on the rope and "Clang!", down comes the ice! I'm sure a Q-signal for "Does your antenna need clanging" will be developed soon...perhaps QCE? Dick Tormet N8YSK's book titled "Electronics Bench Reference" is handy around the ham shack workshop. You can see the table of contents at the Kanga US Web site. Amplifier-building is still a popular activity with amateurs and what VHF+ contester hasn't helping the ionosphere out a bit with a more powerful signal? Thomas OZ1JTE has published an article in this month's "OZ" Danish ham radio magazine about his 600-watt 6 meter amp and published it on-line as well. It is a 2x2 push-pull amplifier that uses TH430/SD1728 transistors. Just the right accessory for your 100-watt all-band rig! Tube amplifier owners and builders know that arcing and other types of overload in amplifiers can cause significant power supply damage. Circuits for overload protection are described in Mark K5AM's extensive paper, "Overload Protection for High Voltage Power Supplies" The article also includes ideas for other aspects of high voltage power supply design. I'm not sure this is what the originators of the term "short skip" had in mind, but maybe some of the sky really is "falling"! Here at the bottom of the solar cycle, NASA's geophysical measurements show those reflecting (and absorbing) layers to be closer to the Earth's surface than expected. Maybe a little more solar UV would inflate our atmosphere a bit? Another story about a possibly related phenomenon describes weak spots or "holes" in the magnetosphere. (Thanks, Dave K1TTT and Bob K7RH) One more time-sync software tool and then I'm hitting the snooze button! Mitch DJ0QN highly recommends Dimension 4 from Thinking Man Software. It is free and you just set it once, have it automagically sync your clocks every so often, and forget it. Poof! No more missing that first contest second! Randy K5ZD was looking for an audio splitter that could boost or cut audio levels to balance his headphone and sound card input volume. The Behringer HA400 turned out to be his choice. Even with all the RF of a high-power contest station, there were no RFI problems. Randy says, "The output sounded clean and no different than what comes out of the radio. It is a great solution for any time you want to have multiple people listen to audio and each have their own volume control." Art W4AA came across a Web site hosting out-of-print technical references. He found the book Radio Antenna Engineering by EA Laport to be particularly good. It's in the "Electronics" section of the site. Knowing when a battery is being run down is a good idea, so Hendricks QRP Kits has created the Tayloe Battery Status Indicator (BSI) kit. It monitors the battery voltage of a battery pack or battery and can be mounted on the battery or inside a radio by drilling two holes. A bi-color LED changes color at different voltages based on your settings of two voltage setpoint control. You could also put this to work monitoring a power supply. Here's another entry in the ongoing contest to fit absolutely anything into an USB adapter. Charles KB8WSG found this USB tuner that turns a PC into an HDTV. He suggests that this might be a great solution for portable or emergency communications (emcomm) use and I agree! Thumbing through the 5 Dec issue of EDN Magazine, I was pleasantly surprised to see Paul Rako's article on Prototyping Techniques. It covers some of the older, time-tested techniques like wirewrapping all the way to new sophisticated methods more suited to the more complex IC's and printed-circuit boards used today. Technical Web Site of the Week - Web seminars or "webinars" are a fast-growing source of information for engineers and serious amateurs alike. If you're really, really serious about RF amplifier design, Besser and Associates hosted a recent webinar on just that topic. You have to register to see the presentation and then you'll be notified of future topics. Analog Devices also sponsored a similar online seminar on simplifying active filter design. CONVERSATION Another Golden Age Another golden age of what? Surely, I'm joking? The economy and solar cycle are in a race to see which can be most disappointing. Half the world seems angry with the other half. Long faces are seen on every television screen--and even that old black-and-white set we've kept forever is going dark in February. Bah, humbug...golden age, indeed! Of what? Well, amateur radio. Oh, right! Tell me another! Our licensee totals are flat, code hasn't been heard in a testing room for years, and your homeowner's association board faints like goats at the very mention of antennas. Electrical shop has been expelled from the high school curriculum, vacuum tubes are surely made from moon dust for what they cost, and "they" are taking lead out of solder! Golden age...what holiday nog has the editor gotten into this time? Not so fast, you Ebeneezers of Electronics, you Scrooges of Software, let's take a moment to remember a time long ago. There was another time when things really were tough. It was called the Great Depression and if you think radio stuff was expensive now, go back and compare prices of radio stuff to wages in the 1930's! There were exactly two big contests--Sweepstakes and the ARRL DX Contest. Most hams didn't even know what sunspots were and DX meant "out of state". Yet in many ways, that era of deprivation and hard-scrabble ham radio is remembered as a Golden Age of Amateur Radio. It was during those cold winters and hot summers (without forced-air heating and central air conditioning) that many of the characteristics of modern amateur radio were forged. The elements that came together were technology, materials, tools, and an interest in experimentation and self-improvement. I see many of those very same elements converging today. To be sure, technology has a much broader scope than when "Radio Was King!" but this is a technological age! The materials are vastly more sophisticated, although no one seems to have figured out how to calm an obstinate roll of Copperweld(tm) even yet, but amazing capabilities are available for a pittance. We are awash in tools, both of the hardware and software persuasion, many of which are even free! That leaves the interest in experimentation and self-teaching element. To the skeptics out there grumbling and muttering about appliance operators and "dumbed down" stuff, have you tuned into any of the "do it yourself" movement? And that's what it is...a movement! The first spark was struck with "This Old House" on PBS and slowly the ember grew. Cable TV channels picked up local and national shows on food, crafts, and science, providing kindling to the flame. The number of channels grew, creating an insatiable demand for content. Programmers of the entertainment industry discovered that people like shows about DOING THINGS. The Web fanned the flames with the sudden realization that everyone can be content. And then the "Mythbusters" phenomenon exploded! Jamie and Adam took stuff apart! They wired, they drilled, they welded, and they measured things! And they blew stuff up! And laughed like hyenas as the fragments pinwheeled and beams shattered and frozen chickens blasted through windscreens! And no-nonsense Jamie fixed the viewer with a steely gaze from under his cap and said, "Don't try this at home." Well, what more encouragement do you want? It is now officially desirable to be able to tinker, to build, to design, to think, boys and girls. This groundswell of interest did not go un-noticed by the media and now there are literally dozens of magazines, books, Web sites, television shows, blogs, and whatever media was invented this week, all dedicated to some aspect of doing-it-yourself. There is even a Do-It-Yourself Network - check it out! Make Magazine hosts an event called Makerfaire that in four events has attracted around 200,000 people, each paying $25 to get in and see people...that's right...doing stuff. The Web site Instructables is crammed full of individually-contributed projects from people beating down the door to contribute! These three examples are but a ripple on the pond. Who are these do-it-yourselfers? They're people just like you and me with one important difference. They don't know about ham radio yet...or maybe they know the wrong things about ham radio. These are our people! If they can just find the door to ham radio, they'll find an amazing hobby in which you can be an inventor, a collector, an emergency worker, an athlete, an engineer, a radio show host, a scaler of heights, a teacher and mentor, an astronomer, and a geophysicist. All at the same time. Whatever it is that they are doing now--robotics, hang-gliding, geocaching, hiking, bike racing, programming--has some facet that can link up with a complementary facet of ham radio. These people love the smell of solder in the morning, the thrill of competition, the feel of a well-cut thread, the sound of a well-modulated signal, the satisfaction of watching a network spring to life. They're our people! They just don't know we're here. Why? Because we're afraid to tell them. The Ebeneezers are shifting uncomfortably, worried that these newcomers won't do things just like us, they'll want to change ham radio, I won't like it! Oh, fiddle-dee-dee...the exact same worries bedeviled ham radio as the transition was made from the old spark to the new CW. And again when hams started using phone. And then when SSB displaced AM. And when we started using FM. And when we started using computers. You'd think ham radio had died a dozen times to read the letters in old QSTs about rotten this and rotten that. But we're still here.
Those flat licensing numbers are hiding something, dear readers. There's a quiet change afoot as new hams are signing up, masked by natural attrition and the whittling away of dead wood in the ranks. Below the surface of that still water, powerful tides are flowing. More and more new faces are joining us every day. They're finding out what ham radio is really all about--the original open-source technology, the 'net before the 'net, where hands-on lives on. Just as seventy-five years ago, ham radio can be a melting pot of many good things, creating something even better out of the resulting alloy. If we let it and if we let them. That's a good thing to ponder as we prepare to turn the page on another year, hoping that 2009 will bring us a sunspot or two. Golden Ages look a lot different coming than going. They're new, they're challenging, they're risky, they're scary. It is said that it's not a Real Adventure if you enjoy it while you're having it, but that's no reason not to have an adventure. Or have we forgotten the exciting possibilities that pulled us up to the tower top and down to the workbench and onto the bands in the first place? I don't know what's coming, but I'm feeling those tides of change. And it's going to be golden. CONTESTS 24 December through 6 January An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format is available. Check the sponsor's Web site for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions. HF CONTESTS DARC Christmas Contest--Phone,CW, from 26 Dec 0830Z to 26 Dec 1100Z. Bands (MHz):3.5-7 Exchange: RS(T) and DOK or special station code. Logs due: 3 weeks. Rules RAC Winter Contest--Phone,CW, from 27 Dec 0000Z to 27 Dec 2359Z. Bands (MHz):1.8-2850,144 CW--25 kHz above band edge; Phone--1.850, 3.775, 7.075, 7.225, 14.175, 21.250, 28.500. Exchange: RS(T) and province or serial. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules RAEM Contest--CW, from 27 Dec 0200Z to 27 Dec 0959Z. Bands (MHz):3.5-28 Exchange: Serial and lat/long in degrees. Logs due: 8 Jan. Rules Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge--CW, from 27 Dec 1500Z to 28 Dec 1500Z. Bands (MHz):1.8 Exchange: Grid square. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules Original QRP Contest--CW, from 27 Dec 1500Z to 28 Dec 1500Z. Bands (MHz):3.5-14 Exchange: RST, serial, and category. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules 070 Club QRP DX Scramble--Digital, from 28 Dec 0000Z to 28 Dec 2400Z. Bands (MHz):14 Exchange: Call sign, first name, DXCC entity. Logs due: 28 Jan. Rules ARRL Straight-Key Night--CW, from 1 Jan 0000Z to 1 Jan 2400Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-28, 50+. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules New Years Snowball Contest--Phone,CW, from 1 Jan 0000Z to 1 Jan 0100Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5. Exchange: RST, serial, AGB number. Logs due: 3 weeks. Rules SARTG New Year RTTY Contest--Digital, from 1 Jan 0800Z to 1 Jan 1100Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-7. Exchange: RST, serial, "Happy New Year". Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules AGCW Happy New Year Contest--CW, from 1 Jan 0900Z to 1 Jan 1200Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-14. Exchange: RST, serial, AGCW number. Rules ARRL RTTY Roundup--Digital, from 3 Jan 1800Z to 4 Jan 2400Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: RST, state/province/serial. Logs due: 4 Feb. Rules EUCW 160 Meter Contest--CW, from 3 Jan 2000Z to 3 Jan 2300Z and Jan 4 0400Z to Jan 5 0700Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8. Exchange: RST, serial, club name, member nr or "NR". Logs due: 15 Feb. Rules Kid's Day--Phone, from 4 Jan 1800Z to 4 Jan 2400Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: Name, age, location, favorite color. Rules VHF+ CONTESTS RAC Winter Contest--Phone,CW, from 27 Dec 0000Z to 27 Dec 2359Z. Bands (MHz):1.8-2850,144 CW--25 kHz above band edge; Phone--1.850, 3.775, 7.075, 7.225, 14.175, 21.250, 28.500. Exchange: RS(T) and province or serial. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules ARRL Straight-Key Night--CW, from 1 Jan 0000Z to 1 Jan 2400Z. Bands (MHz): 3.5-28, 50+. Logs due: 31 Jan. Rules LOG DUE DATES 24 December through 6 January December 29 - Run for the Bacon QRP Contest, email logs to: (none), upload log at: http://www.fpqrp.com/autolog.php, paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at: http://www.fpqrp.com/fpqrprun.php December 31 - JIDX Phone Contest, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: JIDX Phone Contest, c/o Five-Nine Magazine, P.O. Box 59, Kamata, Tokyo 144-8691, Japan. Find rules at: http://www.jidx.org/jidxrule-e.html December 31 - All Austrian 160-Meter Contest, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: OEVSV-HQ, HF-Contest Manager, Eisvogelgasse 4/1, A-1060 Vienna, Austria. Find rules at: http://www.oevsv.at/export/oevsv/download/AOEC/Aoec_160m_2008.pdf December 31 - IPARC Contest, CW, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: Uwe Greggersen, DL8KCG, Hurststr 9, D-51645 Gummersbach, Germany. Find rules at: http://www.ipa-rc.de/cont-e.htm December 31 - IPARC Contest, SSB, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: Uwe Greggersen, DL8KCG, Hurststr 9, D-51645 Gummersbach, Germany. Find rules at: http://www.ipa-rc.de/cont-e.htm December 31 - Kentucky QSO Party, email logs to: (none), paper logs and diskettes to: Western Kentucky DX Association, P.O. Box 73, Alvaton, KY 42122, USA. Find rules at: http://tinyurl.com/9ueptl December 31 - TARA RTTY Melee, email logs to: (none), post log summary at: http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_melee_score.html, paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at: http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_melee_rules.html December 31 - TOPS Activity Contest, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: Ioan Branga YO2RR, Str. Imparatul Traian nr.2, RO-305500 LUGOJ, ROMANIA. Find rules at: http://www.procwclub.yo6ex.ro/tacrules.pdf January 1, 2009 Feld Hell Sprint, email logs to: (none), post log summary at: http://www.bambinomusical.com/autolog.html, paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at: http://sites.google.com/site/feldhellclub/Home/contests January 1, 2009 JT Hamradio-50 Anniversary DX Contest, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: JT DX Contest, Mongolian Amateur Radio Society, P.O. Box 830, Ulaanbaatar-24, Mongolia. Find rules at: http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/jt50.pdf January 4, 2009 ARCI Topband Sprint, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: ARCI Top Band Sprint, c/o Jeff Hetherington, VA3JFF, 139 Elizabeth St. W., Welland, Ontario L3C 4M3, Canada. Find rules at: http://tinyurl.com/a4ogll January 6, 2009 ARRL 160-Meter Contest, email logs to: [email protected], paper logs and diskettes to: 160 Meter Contest, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111, USA. Find rules at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2008/160-meters.html ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest Calendar and SM3CER's Contest Calendar. | |||||
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