Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

As I sit here writing this, the memories from the NARC Field Day 1996 are only a week old. Every Field Day is different and this one had its share of unique highlights. One would think that with an operation using 3, 70-foot towers, a novice/tech tower, at least 15 stations, and participation running around 100 people, it is easy to get jaded and - well - bored. Well, I’m happy to report that in 10 years of NARC Field Days I have yet to be bored.

If there is a word to describe this year’s Field Day it is reunion. We were happy to have two prominent former members come out to join the fun and reminisce about old times. Bill, WB1BRE, and Dot, KA1LDS, made the trek down from their retirement home in Vermont to renew acquaintances and do some operating on satellite. Many of you know Bill as the ARRL New England Division Director, a job that usually means spending Field Day as a “non-participating Class 1C” operation - i.e., running all over New England visiting club sites. Well, this year Bill had a bit of good news and bad news: the bad news is that Bill had some health problems that curtailed his plans for a Field Day whirlwind; the good news is that the boss (Dot) said OK to an invitation to join the club for some laid back operation and renewal of friendships. Bill was more than happy for the chance to demonstrate his skills on finding amateur satellites with a modest station setup. It has been a few years since Bill’s retirement (from work and NARC) and I’m happy to report his looks fine except for moving from VHF to UHF (ultra-high forehead) with the years.

The other former NARC member paying us a visit this year was Vic, K1JUL. I had not met Vic until this year since he had moved to Rochester, NY before I moved up to the Nashua area. Many of the club members served as a “preamp” describing Vic and I must say they were accurate. An accident many years ago left Vic with useless legs but he has a terrific spirit and a don’t-give-up attitude. Vic rolled right in with Field Day set-up activities by deftly assembling the beams at one of the tower sites. Vic proved his operating skill by anchoring the 40-meter SSB station (always a tough job in the heterodyne zone) and almost equaling the club record of QSOs.

Speaking of records, we set a number of them across the spectrum, no pun intended. The exact scores appear elsewhere in this newsletter for those interested in numbers. The NARC “Sesame Street Twins” Bert and Ernie (AKA, John, WS1E, and Ernie, NO1V) played dueling keyboards for the 24 hours trying to be king of the CW bands. When the final siren blared Sunday afternoon, John had amassed a new, all-time CW record for the club with 850 Qs on 40 meters. Ernie was right on his tail with 830 Qs on 20 meters, also a new record for the band.

On sideband, Rex, K1HI, put the pair of 4- element monobanders for 20 meters to good use. Ably assisted by the “Barking Voice” of Windham, Dean, N6BV, Rex set a new all-time SSB score with 1545 Qs. I think Rex may have also started something by introducing us to his dog, True. True is a lovable “goofy Newfy” who is as easygoing as Rex. I think we would love to have True as a club Field Day mascot. After all, he seems to respond to being called “Field Day” or “HI Jr.”. Now if only he can be trained to fetch the coax instead of eating it...

While the club veterans showed they still have what it takes, my hat is off to the young lions who hustled the Novice/tech and UHF/VHF stations. We set new records on 10 meters for the novice/tech station, 6 meters CW and SSB, and on 220 and 440 MHz. It sure is great to find kids that, in the Age of Nintendo, think its coo-ool to talk to a bunch of folks while camping out and having a ball with such a “low tech” hobby.

Aside from the records, we had fun all the way around. (When is a NARC Field Day ever NOT fun?) Don. KA1GOZ, and his “galley gang” of Pauline, KA1LDF, Mary Jane, WA4WIJ, Colleen, N1HAJ, Brooks, KC1PD, Gene, WA1UXA, (yes, he showed up!), and Laura (XYL of AK1K) were excellent all the way around with keeping everyone fed.

On 80 CW, I played host to Huey, Dewey, and Louie - Jim, N1NH, Mike, NE1V, and Jon, KB2FD - as we tried valiantly to break last year’s record. We fell just short, but not for lack of trying; must have been all those storms in the midwest this year. I understand Kathe, N1NYT, and the girls working 75 had a number of date and marriage proposals. Maybe we should petition the ARRL to credit 5 points/date request and 10 points/marriage proposal. I’m sure that will make 75 popular on Field Day.

This year’s Field Day had a dark side in addition to the periods of rain. On Sunday, the weather cleared on the heels of a very strong wind. During one nasty gust, one of the canopies collapsed, giving Pauline a hard whack on the head. The bad news is that Pauline had to sit under an ice bag for a while. The good news is that is she is permanently 2 inches taller. (You still have to stand up at the club meetings, Pauline.)

Last but not least, Rich, W1HZN, passed the leads to the sacred transformer to Don, N1UBD, to supervise operation of the Private Service, NARC Hams -PSNH - power grid. Don and the 60 Hz “operators” did an excellent job as things purred smoothly throughout Field Day. It seems that every year Rich frets about suffering a massive meltdown with the stations, computers, coffee pots, etc. that stationmasters figure on using. Kind of reminds of Scotty and the engines of the Enterprise.

Well, that is my brief look at Field Day 1996 and the memories I have. If you have some memories you would like to share - good or bad - why not let Jim, WW1Y, know via e- mail or packet BBS (KA1GOZ-9)? It is surprising how often new ideas for the next Field Day just pop up.

With Field Day behind us and the Summer ahead, here are some contests that are sure to keep your skills sharpened and let you explore new contest venues:

NA QSO Party. 3-4 August (CW); 17-18 (Phone)

The North American QSO Party covers two weekends in August for the respective modes. The CW contests runs from 1800Z 3 August to 0600Z 4 August, and the phone contest covers the same hours on 17-18 August. Both contests cover 160 through 10 meters. Operating categories are single op and multiop 2-transmitter. Like many ARRL contests, there is a 10-minute rule on band changes. Single operators are limited to 10 hours for each contest period while multiop stations are unrestricted. Exchange: name/state/province/DXCC country; 160-10 meters. Frequencies for CW are: +10 KHz above Extra part of bands while the Phone frequencies start at the general class band edge. Multipliers are states, VE provinces, and other NA countries. Score: 1 pt/QSO x # of multipliers. Logs are due 30 days after each contest to W9NQ (CW) and N4TQQ (Phone).

SARTG Worldwide RTTY Contest. 17-18 August.

The Swedes sponsor a RTTY contest that is just the ticket for a newcomer to RTTY contesting like myself. The contest time blocks are 0000Z to 0800Z, 17 August, and 0800Z to 1600Z 18 August. Operation is on 80 through 10 meters featuring several operating classes: single op, single op/single band, and multiop/single transmitter. Contest exchange is RST and a QSO #. Scoring: 5 points/QSO (own country), 10 points/QSO (same continent), and 15 points/QSO (different continent). Call areas in US, VE, VK, and JA count as separate countries (figure that out !). Multipliers are countries worked/band. Logs by 10 October to SARTG Contest Manager SM4CMG.

I had fun operating in this contest for the first time last year and am looking forward to participating again this year. I recently purchased the upgraded version (v2.5) of RTTY by WF1B contesting software. The program supports several new RTTY contests and also supports mouse operation so that all one has to do is the familiar “point and shoot” for QSO capture and logging. I have not tried this mode yet, but it should be interesting to see if I like it better over the usual function keys approach.

73, de K2TE

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