Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

Here I am preparing my column for the April issue of the NARC Bulletin and I’m wondering why am I doing this in January. The calendar says it is March 7, but looking out the window says it is more like January 7. By the time you read this, we may have a new snow record for the winter of ‘95/96.

One benefit of the lousy weather is that I have a chance to participate in the major contests without worrying about the XYL scheduling some place to go. The K2TE contest station was active during the ARRL CW and SSB DX contests. These contests are two weeks apart; the strange thing is that we had a snowstorm for both of them. (What major contest is this weekend?)

I’m happy to report that my effort for the CW DX contest went very well. With the help of Mike, NE1V, and Jon, KB2FD, we managed to operate nearly the whole 48 hours, ending up with about 965 Qs for our efforts. Jon and Mike have a better pair of ears than I do and enjoy running a frequency while I tend to roam the bands in a search- and-pounce mode. The count is a little less than last year, but I’m not at all disappointed since conditions were considerably better last year. The biggest disappointment was 15 meters; we managed only 39 contacts where we would normally expect more than 200.

For the SSB DX contest the first weekend of March, I decided to try something different for a change. Rex, K1HI, and I teamed to operate the contest as the 2-transmitter class, a unique category that the ARRL contest features for those stations who want to do more than a single transmitter but don’t have the capability to mount a serious multi-multi operation. The key to operating with two transmitters is to have two computers linked together with both machines running the CT contest program. I managed to get the interface working in time for the contest with some reconfiguring of my computer and a hookup to Rex’s laptop. We used one station as the high-power station and used the other as a barefoot search-and-pounce station on another band. The QRM between the two stations was not as bad as I thought it would be, largely because of the separation of my two towers.

Rex and I managed to work about 800 stations in less time than the CW DX contest. Much of the total was the result of Rex’s perseverance and great SSB contest skills. As befits any contest, this one was not without its trials and tribulations. We used my 735 as the main station and Rex’s 751 as the secondary station. I thought conditions were unusually poor because of the frequent retries I had to do for the DX stations to understand my callsign. It wasn’t until Saturday night when Mike, NE1V, called and asked how things were going that I had an idea to check my audio. A few minutes on 75 meters convinced me that my rig’s audio made me sound worse than Sylvester the Cat. At Mike’s suggestion, I dashed over to his house and borrowed his 735 to keep things going.

Rig problems were not the only gremlin we had to deal with. Late Saturday afternoon, Rex managed to jam the beams on the big tower against the stops of the rotator. The flaky indicator on my rotator control panel reared its ugly head at the worst time. The only alternative was to climb the tower and see if I could force the antennas loose while Rex worked the controls. Oh well; at least the weather was right for it - it was snowing steadily. I definitely know my top priority antenna project once “lousy” antenna weather arrives.

As April approaches and my Marathon training ramps, I look forward to semi-nice days and laid-back contests. Its kind of nice seeing the flowers and trees trying to push out new shoots. The next few weeks should be great since the bugs usually lag the warmer weather by a few weeks. Lets see what I can get involved with while nursing sore muscles.

Worked All Potholes (WAP) Contest,1 April

I’m happy to report that the second annual Worked All Potholes contest will be held again this year. The fate of the Worked All Silent Keys contest is still in limbo since SK superstation WA1UXA is still under construction. But not to worry; this year, propagation has been great for pothole generation. The idea of the contest is simple: try to find as many potholes in the tri-state area as possible during the 24 hours of April 1. The contest is restricted to mobiles and requires VHF/UHF operation. Mobiles are required to maintain contact with one another to provide the location of potholes so other participants can avail themselves of the opportunity to hit them. Repeater use is allowed. Each pothole hit counts as 1 point, and each pothole reported for others to find is worth 2 points. Bonus points may be earned by collecting the residue surrounding a pothole: wheel balancing weights, 5 points; hubcaps, 10 points; dented rims, 50 points, and broken shocks or struts, 100 points.

Total score is the number of points times the number of potholes encountered. Logs go to the contest committee of Larry, Gene, and Mike by 1 May, while your collection of bonus material goes to Brooks, KC1PD. I understand Brooks plans to use the stuff to refurbish the venerable Hollis Hilton courtesy van.

EA WW RTTY Contest, 6-7 April

This is a 24-hour RTTY contest that starts at 1600Z on April 6. I don’t have a lot of information on this one, except that EA stations try to work the rest of the world on RTTY. The good thing about the contest is that propagation to Spain should be decent to work them on 15 meters.

Japan International DX Contest, CW, 12-14 April

This 48-hour CW contest starts at 2300Z on April 12. The object is to work all 50 Japanese prefectures on 20 through 10 meters. The contest is very similar to the ARRL DX contest in terms of objective and rules, right down to the 10-minute band dwell rule. Maximum operating time is 30 hours which makes sense since nobody hears JA stations at night on these bands. Scoring is 1 point/20 meters, 2 points/15 meters, and 4 points/10 meters. QSO points per band are multiplied by the total number of prefectures worked on that band; the sum total is the final score. Logs for the contest go to Five Nine Magazine, Box 59, Kamata, Tokyo 144, Japan by 30 April.

SP DX RTTY Contest, 20-21 April

Contest activity starts at 1500Z on the 20th and runs through 2300Z on the 24th, with participation covering 160 through 10 meters, CW only. Contest exchange on our end is RST and a serial QSO number. The object is to work all 49 Polish provinces, each Polish station counting 3 points. Total score is the number of QSO points times provinces worked.

73 de K2TE