Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

I look out the shack window and see snow on the ground and it can mean only one thing: Its antenna weather ! It could also be December but everyone knows it doesn't snow before Christmas. That 2 and 1/2 hour commute on a glazed road that would make Dunkin' Donuts proud must have been a bad dream. But wait...it has to be December...I just did the CQ Worldwide CW contest a couple of weeks ago and the ARRL 160 meter contest just the other day; besides, I hear a lot of activity from local stations on 10 meters so I know the ARRL 10 meter contest is underway. Yep, that proves it is December. Frontiersmen had the seasons and the environment to tell the month but hams just have to remember what contest they worked and when to know what month it is.

I have managed to do some contesting over the past few weekends but not as much as I usually do. I only worked about 60 stations in the ARRL SS sideband contest in a few hours of operation. For the first time in many years, I past up part of the CQ Worldwide CW contest in favor of visiting my folks in Ohio. They aren't getting any younger and Dad's wheelchair just doesn't make traveling much fun. At any rate, I managed to jump into half the contest starting Saturday night. I've often said that the 48-hour contests are more fun the second half because it is easier to work the rare stations when the big guns have already snagged them during the first half. I managed to work about 380 stations in a total of 11 hours of operation. My big regret is that I didn't get on 15 meters until after 10:00 AM on Sunday. It seems that 15 opened early in the morning to Europe; I got there as the Europeans were fading out, hi. This was one of the few times I actually worked more stations on 80 than on 15!

I hope some NARC members have noticed the new sound of K2TE in recent days. No, I don't have a cold. After 13+ years with my faithful IC 02AT "handmobile" rig, I finally broke down and got a genuine 2-meter mobile rig. I would have been happy staying with the handheld and Daiwa brick that I've used for years. (Editor’s note: None of the rest of us would have been happy.) I could always depend on the courteous reminders on .045 letting me know it was time to clean out my mic switch. But, alas, the brick broke and I have no schematic to poke around in it.

Anyway, the new rig is an Alinco DR130T that sports 20 memories, scan features, and 5 or 50 watt power choices. I like the continuous receiver operation from 140 to 174 MHz so I can load the NOAA weather boys in memory. I had a little trouble programming the memories the first time through. Everything worked fine on the second try, so my finger choreography must have missed something. I suppose if I program memories often I would get the hang of it, but usually one just enters a half dozen repeaters and a couple of simplex frequencies. Programming more memories does me little good since Its more important to keep my eyes on the road that the LCD of the rig. I have the rig mounted on the glove compartment door facing up so its easy to get at the controls. I've noticed that I get a reflection of the display face off the back window of the truck into the front window. Its not distracting and I'm wondering if I can put a small mirror in the right spot of the back window to reverse the image so I have a poor man's "heads up" display. (Gotta see if the XYL has a compact around somewhere...)

Now that I'm a "big gun" on 2 meters and antenna weather is just great, time to get busy tweaking my 160 meter half sloper. During the daytime hours of the 160 contest, I added about 20 feet of wire to the antenna and proceeded to trim it 2-3 feet at a time to bring it in to resonance. The best I've gotten it is down to 2.0:1 from 1800 to 1850 KHz. I've checked it with a noise bridge and it surprisingly it presents a resistive load (at least it is quiet) in the 1825-1835 KHz region. If continued pruning doesn't do the trick, I think I'll try WS1E's suggestion and relocate it on the tower. I have to wait for the weather to drop to single digit temperatures, though, so I can make sure the antenna sticks to the tower when get up to the top and lick it. I'm hoping it will stay stuck while I play around in these upcoming contests:

ARRL RTTY Roundup. 6-7 January. This is the 8th year of the RTTY roundup contest sponsored by the ARRL and I'm looking forward to getting in it. Although it says RTTY, other digital modes such as ASCII, AMTOR, and packet are permitted. The contest starts 1800Z on Saturday and runs for 30 hours with a 24 hour operating limit on 80 through 10 meters. The exchange is simply a signal report and state for us, while DX stations will use a serial number. Scoring is 1 point/QSO and multipliers are the total states, Canadian provinces, and DX stations worked. Send your logs to the ARRL contest committee by 7 February.

JA CW DX Contest. 12-14 January.

Here is a chance to fill in your low band needs as all those thousands of Japanese stations get on. I'm not sure of the contest start time, but look for stations on 80 and 160 meters starting around dusk here on the 12th. This is the morning greyline for Japan when they should be strongest here (and hopefully the Europeans are eating dinner). The exchange is RST and a serial number for us while they will send their prefecture. I've been hearing several JA stations on 80 meters here early in the morning so conditions should be decent a month from now.

NA QSO Party (CW), 13-14 January.
NA QSO Party (Phone), 20-21 January.

Something that is closer to home and not so daunting a challenge are the North American QSO Parties held on consecutive weekends. This contest is open to everyone in the North American continent to work each other and the rest of the world. The contest covers 80 through 10 meters.

Michigan QRP Club CW Contest. 13-14 January

For those who like to test their "peanut whistles," there are two established QRP contests during the month. The Michigan QRP Club starts its CW contest early Saturday morning and runs through 2400Z on Sunday the 14th. There are 4 power classes to choose from: (1) less than 250mW; (2) 1W to 250 mW; (3) 5W to 1W; and (4) greater than 5W. The exchange is RST, State, and power output (MI QRP number for Michigan members). The contest stretches from 160 through 6 meters. Remember to look for them near the top end of the CW portions of the bands. Scoring: 5 points/MI QRP member; 2 points/stateside and Canada; and 4 points/DX. Multiply the total number of points by the total states/provinces/DXCC countries worked. N8CQA is looking for logs a month later.

ARCI QRP Winter Fireside SSB Sprint. 21 January

Shifting gears, the ARCI QRP Fireside SSB Sprint is a 4-hour mini-contest that is held from 2000Z to 2400Z on the 21st. The contest features 4 categories: single band, all band, high band (20 through 6 meters), and low band (160 through 40 meters). The exchange is similar to the Michigan QRP contest except you use an ARCI QRP member number (or power output if a non- member). QSO points and multipliers are also the same as the Michigan contest. Power multiplier is determined as follows: (1) more than 10W output, x1; (2) 2W to 10W, x7; (3) 0 [!!!] to 2 W, x10. If you use batteries, solar panels, or waterwheel generator, use an additional 1.25 multiplier. There are also bonus points for using a home-brew transmitter, receiver, or transceiver. Logs go to N6GA by 19 February.

CQ Worldwide 160 meter DX Contest. 26-28 January.

Bringing up the rear is CQ Magazine's assault of Top Band. This one starts at 2200Z on the 26th and runs through 1600Z on the 28th. Operating classes are QRP, low power (less than 150W) and high power, with categories of single operator or multioperator. Scoring is 2 points/stateside, 5 points/other North American countries, and 10 points/DX. Multipliers are the total states/provinces and countries. Logs go to K4JRB a month after the contest.

Boy, I sure hope it snows a lot in January!

CU next month!

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