 March 31, 2021 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | |||
IN THIS ISSUE
The Mississippi and Louisiana QSO Parties are this weekend. Mississippi allows the use of the FTx modes to make contacts, only requiring a grid square to be exchanged for that mode. For some DX opportunities, try the EA RTTY Contest, where everyone works everyone, but contacts with Spanish stations are worth more. Only Polish stations on CW and SSB count for points during the SP DX Contest, also this weekend. If you've never done a sprint-format contest, try the North American SSB Sprint for 4 hours on Saturday evening. Sprints can be unnerving for the first-timer. On April 10-11, look for four state QSO parties: Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Georgia. Nebraska allows FTx mode contacts, but they are in a separate competition from the other modes. North Dakota QSO Party allows FTx modes to be used, but you still need to exchange the correct information. The Georgia QSO Party allows multiple stations in a single Georgia county to combine as one due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Yuri Gagarin International DX Contest this weekend is another everyone-works-everyone event. There are multiple categories, some handsome trophies, and the rules even allow contacts made via satellites (both kinds, geostationary and regular), which is kind of a fitting tribute to the first human flight to space made in April 1961. With all contests, and especially with QSO parties, check the rules for special bonus stations, suggested frequencies, and operating hints. Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section 1 Apr - 14 Apr 2021 April 1 April 2 April 3
April 4 April 5 April 6 April 7
April 8 April 9 April 10
April 11
April 12
April 13 April 14
If you entered the unassisted class in last weekend's CQ WPX SSB Contest, the Unassisted Challenge sponsors also ask that you upload your logs to their website: http://www.unassisted.org/logs. Last weekend's CQ WPX SSB Contest revealed many challenging call signs to copy. One of them, OH100SRAL, was the special call sign for the Finnish Radio Amateur League (SRAL). According to OH1NOA, the operator for the contest, some stations were just unable to comprehend this call - "it didn't help to say it slow, repeat or use different phonetics." If you like participating in QSO parties, don't forget the State QSO Party Challenge, and the new Worked All QSO Party awards program, both sponsored by Icom. There are currently 45 separate events that qualify, and all that an operator needs to do is "simply submit their scores to 3830Scores.com to be included in the Challenge." The North American SSB Sprint Contest is coming up April 4, 2021, from 0000 - 0359 UTC. That is Saturday evening, April 3, starting at 8 PM EDT in North America. All previous results have been updated on the contest website, and for the upcoming contest, there's a Planned Activity page. You can team up for the contest to increase the fun. This contest features a chance at a "door prize" for participation with a minimum number of contacts, and a Worked All States T-shirt if you work all states! (Bob, KW8N) The JIDX CW and SSB Contests features a new Multi-2 category starting in 2021. According to the rules, "A maximum of two transmitted signals on two different bands may be used at any time (Two Running stations).
Chris, NX4N, writes: "The 2021 Florida QSO Party coming up April 24-25 has some rules changes/notes:
The FQP enjoyed a whopping 70% increase in QSOs last year, thanks to all of you -- hope to see you again April 24 and 25! The rules, results, details, and much more are at floridaqsoparty.org." Tuner Genius XL is a soon-to-be-available fully automatic antenna tuner from Flex Radio Systems. Mack, W4AX, talked about the anticipated features and capabilities of this unit in this YouTube video. One interesting aspect is that it handles SO2R out of the box, in concert with the PGXL ampligier. There are some field units undergoing testing under real-world conditions in various locations, the commercial release is anticipated later this year. Splatter Interference caused by a signal with spectral components outside of normal and/or accepted boundaries for an emission type. It can be caused by distortion when an amplifier is driven outside of its linear range, when the input signal to an amplifier is itself is overly broad, or when one stage of the signal chain is overloaded. It is poor operating practice, and against the rules for most contests, for stations to purposefully use splatter as a means to keep adjacent frequencies clear during contests.
LZ9W was in the recent Russian DX Contest, and made a YouTube video of the station. It's nice to see the online contest scoreboard featured prominently on the "big screen" to keep the multi properly motivated. The Mercer County Amateur Radio Club hosted well-known contester Doug, K1DG, via a Zoom meeting. The topic of Doug's talk was moonbounce!
Bill, AC0W, writes: "While the final results for the Winter 2021 NAQP (North American QSO Party) contests are to the editors for publishing, certificates are now available for download by those that earned them via the NCJ website (ignore the date on the "Print Your Certificate" - Ed.)" The criteria for earning a certificate is the "highest single-op score in their state, province or NA country OR top-3 overall M2 finishers." Inspection and Preventative Maintenance Don't forget to make time for your annual station inspection, including your outdoor equipment. Before you get to the antenna and cable part, take some time to review Frank's, W3LPL, "Contest Antennas and Coaxial Cables" presentation from Contest University. There are so many details, it's easy to forget some simple things that can cause problems, like using an inappropriate type of cable for burial, or not preventing energy-discharge-created pinholes in the cable running up the tower. Grant, KZ1W, recommends the The Crosby Group for information regarding wire rope, wire rope terminations, and sheaves. Their catalog includes product information as well as reference information for all types of rigging. Most of the knobs on radios of today are attached to rotary encoders. These devices are relatively inexpensive, and come in many variations, for example with/without detents ("clicks") or high and low pulse per revolution counts. It's easy to use your favorite search engine to find code examples to incorporate encoders into your Arduino or other microcontroller project. Hackaday featured an article that uses a more advanced technique for handling encoders using the STM32 family of CPUs. The technique utilizes the interrupt handling capabilities of the microcontroller to handle faster knob movements with more reliability than a polling method. For a different kind of knob solution, Gerry, W1VE, announces the availability of his "CatMapper" software. It is a sort of "universal translator" between radio CAT streams, using Alex, VE3NEA's Omni-Rig in the middle to "map" one type of radio to another. Here's the application: If you have, say, a K3/0, and you want to control a friend's FlexRadio using SmartSDR, you can set up the CatMapper to do it. Turning the knob on the K3/0 tunes the FlexRadio. With an appropriate Omni-Rig configuration software also opens up the possibility of building whatever type of tuning knob you like and configuring an appropriate description for it for Omni-Rig. KA9Q tweeted that a second version of a marine buoy transmitter carrying a WSPR beacon transmitter is now floating in the Pacific Ocean. You can track progress on the APRS website. It's based on some of the same electronics that are used for high-altitude balloon flights. One of his later tweets: "Our buoy continues to work well, but we're getting concerned that, with our luck, we may actually hit Guadalupe Island." Ward, N0AX, writes: "For receiving antenna builders, these two specialty cables for home installations could come in handy: Using cables with separate power conductors would get around the need for bias tees and that sort of thing. Or the power pair could be used as a control cable if the RG-6 shield/drain was the signal return. I'm thinking of my pair of switched-direction Beverages, for example." (Ward, N0AX) Some experienced station builders recommend using always using separate conductors, keeping DC voltages off of conductors carrying RF signals. It's too easy for electrolysis to occur with any ambient moisture, causing corrosion at connectors or mechanical connections between dissimilar metals. Corrosion can be the source of RF noise, particularly in the presence of high RF fields. The Contest Update is Serious This issue of the Contest Update "lands" on March 31. Many will read this issue on April 1, also known as "April Fools Day," and so might expect to see some humorous, satirical, fantastical, or outright deceptive item or tidbit. Alas, you will not. Not long after I started in the role as the Contest Update editor, I inquired about whether or not it would be possible to have an issue that was a complete farce. There would be a serious analysis of the annual Poisson D'Avril contest (link to last year's rules post by Doug, K1DG -- sorry, you already missed this year's contest, though I heard it was a lot of fun as usual - this year there were bonus points for spelling "GODOT"). Announcement of the new N1MM Logger+ "Dupe Sheet" window for those who like the old way of keeping track. The Word to the Wise, which is usually a phrase anyway, due to the fact that all of the good contest words have been used up already, was going to be a detailed examination of "Please Copy" and its translation into various languages for use in DX contests. I was rebuffed, for multiple reasons. One problem is that even though they don't look like it, radio contesters are a very diverse group, and having a joke "land" with everyone is even more difficult than getting a Starship back in one piece. One W4's hyperbole could be a sensible power choice for an N6. How can we possibly have a common basis for humor, when we as a group cannot even agree on a good method for installing PL-259s? Another big concern involves the "fact" that the Contest Update is just like some of this new-fangled spooky quantum physics stuff, where "reality" is defined in most of the ways that matter by the observer, you, the Contest Update reader. If a "funny" story were put in the 'Update about, say, cats being able to copy CW and log via keyboard, and enough people thought the satire was real, well, there's a larger non-zero probability that we'd need a lot of Friskies at the next WRTC. Safe, non-hobby-changing content includes facts about solder, contesting anecdotes, and the features and fixes in this week's release of N1MM Logger+. We had some nice video of solder melting in the last issue of the Contest Update, so that's out until at least next issue. Because I'm writing this on Sunday, and the next Logger+ release comes out Tuesday, I only have this operating anecdote to relate: Sometimes, members of our radio club play tricks on each other, and sometimes this even occurs during contests. A few years ago, during the Salmon Run (a QSO-party-like event for Washington State, not occurring in April), I was operating in the contest, working through a modest pile of callers, and I heard one of our members, Denny, W7SNH (SK), calling me on 20 meters. His signal was pretty weak, since he's local but not local enough to be loud on 20 meters during the day. You know, a contest 59. He was strong enough that I could hear him "ok enough," and knew exactly who was calling. So the following happened: N9ADG: Q-R-Zed Salmon Run, November Nine Alpha Delta Golf W7SNH: W7SNH N9ADG: Is there a W7 W7? This could be tough, I have some QRN. W7 again? W7SNH: W7SNH, W7SNH N9ADG: W7S... W7S... Again? W7SNH: Whiskey Seven Sierra November Hotel N9ADG: Whisky Seven Sierra, Whisky Seven Sierra Something? W7SNH: Whisky Seven Sierra November Hotel N9ADG: Whiskey Seven Sierra November? Denny, I just need the last letter. Give me the last letter, Denny! W7SNH: Whiskey Seven Sierra November Hotel! N9ADG: W7SNH, 59, King County! W7SNH: 59, King! Okay, if you already understand the humor of the situation, please stop reading now. You get it. I'm going to explain what's funny about it, and just reading the explanation could change your opinion of that practical joke from "humorous" to "mildly amusing." Still reading? This is a good example of why the Contest Update must remain serious - only 62% of the readers stopped reading after the last paragraph! What makes the situation funny is related to the context of this contest: I was in a QSO party, from Washington state. My call sign is from call area nine, while the contest was for a state in call area seven. I should have been using N9ADG stroke seven, to indicate to potential callers that I was an in-state station! I thought I was pulling a fast one, but Denny turned it around: Because he didn't ask me to repeat my state, he was in on the joke, and just accepted my exchange, completely turning the situation around -- so the joke was on me! Denny was quite the kidder! We all HI-HI'd it up after that one. 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 [email protected] 73, Brian N9ADG 1 Apr - 14 Apr 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, Apr 1, 0300z to Apr 1, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: April 3. VHF+ CONTESTS 144 MHz Spring Sprint, Apr 5, 1900z to Apr 5, 2300z; Any; Bands: 2m Only; 4-character grid square; Logs due: April 19. 222 MHz Spring Sprint, Apr 13, 1900z to Apr 13, 2300z; (not specified); Bands: 222 Mhz; 4-character grid square; Logs due: April 27. VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest, Apr 14, 1700z to Apr 14, 2000z; FT8; Bands: (see rules); 4-character grid square; Logs due: April 19. Also, see SKCC Sprint Europe, Mississippi QSO Party, Louisiana QSO Party, Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, SKCC Weekend Sprintathon, Nebraska QSO Party, New Mexico QSO Party, North Dakota QSO Party, Georgia QSO Party 1 Apr - 14 Apr 2021 April 1, 2021 April 2, 2021 April 3, 2021 April 4, 2021 April 5, 2021 April 6, 2021 April 7, 2021 April 8, 2021 April 9, 2021 April 10, 2021 April 11, 2021
April 12, 2021 April 13, 2021 April 14, 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 [email protected] 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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