Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

My column this month is being created in surroundings that are both old and new. The old part is the Microsoft Word application that I’ve been using for years at work and home. The new part is that I am typing this on my new super-duper, RAMmed up, warp- speed, run-of-the-mill Pentium computer. Back at the beginning of November, I leapfrogged a computer generation going from my 386 right to the Pentium. I have spent the past month wandering through the bewildering maze of pull-downs, balloons, and idiot gongs to learn Windows 95. I swear that the personal computer has become as addictive as cigarettes in our society. I think it was invented not to solve incredible problems or do numbing, repetitious work but to prove how primitive we are at communicating. To give you an idea what I mean, how many times have you gone over the same “screenmap” of menus when trying to do a certain task on the machine? I’m sure the instructions in those 3 or 4 terse, 4th-grade-English HELP paragraphs are very easy to follow - for the committee of 10 who spent 6 months drafting them. It is said that Napoleon used a lowly guard outside his tent to read his “orders du jour” to guarantee his officers would understand them. Too bad for the rest of Europe he didn’t have a computer.

Anyway, enough whining. I’ve succeeded in getting my DXbase logging program to work on the new machine. Its pretty neat having it operating in the background while I’m off wrestling with another application. I can easily pull it forward whenever I hear a beep that something has been posted.

The CT contest program, however, is another story. I’ve been able to get it to work with the packet window but it really bogs down when I used the link to the FT- 1000MP. The best I’ve been able to do is to limp along at a 3-second clock cycle when using both interfaces. What this means is that a keystroke takes a nominal 3 seconds to execute, something that would be catastrophic in a contest. I plan to check the CT BBS for some help - just as soon as I figure out how to get the plug-n’-play modem to sync up with the BBS. God, how I love computers!

Leaving work aside for the moment and turning to play, I’m happy to report that I enjoyed operating the ARRL CW Sweepstakes and CQ Worldwide CW contests the past month. I used the trusty 386 machine to handle the logging and let me do one-finger Morse for these events. In the CQ Worldwide contest, I teamed up with Mike, NE1V, and Jon, KB2…OOPS, W1SU, to run a multi-single station. We didn’t quite make it the whole 48 hours but we did manage 1118 Qs. It was not a record here but certainly not too shabby given the lousy sunspot numbers. The K2TE contest station now sports an SB220 linear to give it a little more punch. The amp features several mods to make it compatible with today’s solid-state rigs. It also sports a larger fan assembly and protection circuitry to reduce the short-circuit current shock at turn-on. It easily puts out over a KW and seems to be pretty clean. The computer didn’t complain and I didn’t make a single contact to earn the WASTE award (Worked All Stereos, TVs, Etc.).

As NARC enters the new year, a lot of club members have a new look about them. Besides Jon, Chris has shed the A and E to become K1SI. Stu, WR1O, went back to the future to become W1ZUD. Vic, K1JUL, is now Puny Weak as W2PW. Ken is no longer a Dirty Yellow Volkswagen, having cleaned up to become KE1GI. Former VD Warren, WB1HBB, shed his Heavy Boston Baggage when he moved to Florida to become K4VP. Saving the best for last, the forgettable club call of WB1FFZ has been righteously dumped in favor of Number 1 Field Day: N1FD. After many years of being Number 1 New Hampshire with the appropriate call of N1NH, NARC members have proven the past two years that we are NUMBER 1 FIELD DAY for the whole country. (If you are reading this, Jim, PLEASE come on out this year; we can always use a great fist.) Congratulations all the way around and good luck to start the new year. Lets see how some of these “newbees” do with these contests on tap for January:

Japan International DX Contest, 12-14 January.

The new year contest sun rises on the Japanese DX contest. The Japanese have organized this one as a split CW contest where low-band CW is featured in January and high-band CW takes place in April. This month’s contest takes place on 160 up to 40 meters, starting at 2200Z on the 12th and running for 48 hours. JA stations can operate the whole 48 hours while the rest of us are limited to 30 hours maximum. The contest categories are similar to the CQ Worldwide groups with single operator, multioperator, high power, low power, and single band or all band. JA stations will be sending an RST and a 2-digit prefecture number; we will send an RST and our CQ zone.

A contest like this is a piece of cake; that is, if you happen to be lucky enough to tap in to places like the antenna farm in Cutler, ME. Working JAs on 80 meters is a challenge and almost unheard of on 160. On the bright side, however, January is a good time to run that 1000+ foot spool of wire out through the neighborhood backyards for a beverage receiving antenna. I don’t know what the Japanese do for 160 but lets hope they find a way to tap the bullet train rails for receiving, or load a long suspension bridge for sending.

North American QSO Parties, 11-12 Jan (CW) and 18-19 Jan (SSB)

The North American QSO parties are a couple of 12-hour contests that are a sort of Sweepstakes and mini-DX contest in one. Multi-operator stations may operate the full 12 hours while single operator stations are limited to 10 hours on the air. The object is to work stations in North America which includes Hawaii (special exception), Central America, and the Caribbean. The exchange is your name and state (province or country elsewhere). Each contest starts at 1800Z on the respective Saturdays and covers 80 through 10 meters. Logs prepared in paper or electronic, MS-DOS compatible form go to W9NQ no later than 30 days after the end of each contest.

ARRL RTTY Roundup, 3-5 January.

This will be my second year working the ARRL RTTY Roundup. The contest starts at 1800Z and runs for 30 hours with a maximum operating time of 24 hours allowed. The exchange is simply a signal report and state for us while DX stations send a signal report and a serial number. Contest categories include single and multi- operator, low power (<150 watts) and high power. Each QSO counts as 1 point, regardless of the station worked or the band. Logs go to the ARRL by the usual media. There are still a whole lot of countries I need out there on RTTY so this one is bound to produce some new ones.

CQ Worldwide 160-Meter CW Contest 24-26 January

As I await the start of the ARRL 160 meter contest, here I am writing about the CQ Worldwide 160 CW contest. Like its ARRL counterpart, this contest starts at 2200Z on a Friday night and runs for 42 hours. We exchange signal reports and states, while DX stations send their prefix or country abbreviation. Scoring is broken down as 2 points/stateside QSO; 5 points/North American countries; and 10 points for all other DX stations. Each state, province, and country worked counts as a multiplier so that the final score is the total number of QSO points times the total number of multipliers. Logs for the contest go to K4JRB within 30 days of the end of it.

Well, I hope see you in one of these contests. 73 till next month!