Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

1 June 1997

This a time of the year when I seem to get a strange set of anxieties. Summer is finally upon us, judging from going to work 3 days in a row without a jacket in the morning. I suppose I should be just relaxing and enjoying the nice mild weather that is always beautiful in New England. It is certainly nice that our blustery, wet Spring is finally gone; having one weekend after another like a typical holiday weekend (wet and cold) was getting pretty old.

So what is bugging me? I guess it the fact that I'm still ramped up from getting prepared for Field Day. No doubt you will be reading this within a day or two of Field Day so things will seem like old news. It is still early June as I write this, and I'm putting the finishing touches on the inverted Vee beam for 80 meters. I am just as apprehensive about how this thing will work as I am about how to put it up - and take it down. It would be nice to throw it up and do some thorough testing before Field Day, but time does not usually cooperate.

Maybe I should not fret so much. After all, Field Day means more than just setting up the same station year after year and operating for 24 hours. One of the many things that makes a NARC Field Day so enduring is the willingness to try something different. It could be as simple as a harness to easily raise the beams or a convenient master distribution panel for the power grid. It could also be as ambitious as 2x2 beams on 40 phone - AND 4x4 beams on 20 phone. Hopefully, the end result of such schemes is positive: a reduction in time and frustration for the set-up crews and a new QSO record for the operators.

One thing that has certainly changed in the last few years is logging Field Day contacts. I remember when I was "Field Marshall" spending hours going through paper logs and dupe sheets to tally our score. It was a rush to get everything collected in a month's time to submit to the ARRL. Now, logging and dupe checking is automatic thanks to the CT program. The final tally involves merging a couple dozen disks into one log. The next logic step is to set up a wireless LAN to network each station to a central computer and compile logs instantly for every QSO. We may try this someday if we can prevent interference to the LAN from all the stations we operate. I understand that Jim, WW1Y, plans to provide near real-time tally reports during Field Day on the NARC web-site so everyone at home can see how we are doing right from their terminal.

I can see Field Day 10 years from now being even easier. During set-up on Friday, a group of us will show up with Nintendo-like controllers and customized, personalized robots. At the 1400Z start up whistle, everyone presses into action - pressing buttons and joysticks, that is. The marriage of computers and mechanics will allow us to direct tireless robots to assemble and erect towers, hoist beams, string guy wires, lay out the power grid, and make the coffee. All this from the comfort of a lawn chair. This would be the closest thing to Field Day utopia; let us just hope it is not running under Windows 2007.

Enough of Field Day for now. As Summer gets into high gear and my thoughts turn to antenna projects to get ready for the Fall contest season, there is not a whole lot of time left for operating. Here are a few events to occupy some of the weekend time during the month of July:

IARU HF World Championship,12-13 Jul

This is a 24-hour contest that starts at 1200Z on the 12th and takes place on 160 through 10 meters. This year's contest does not have the "major league" operating teams vying for honors as the "Top Gun" of contesters. Nevertheless, it should be fun looking for IARU member-society headquarters stations throughout the world. Single operator categories are allowed for phone-only, CW- only, or mixed-mode. Multi-operator/single transmitter is also permitted and must remain on a band for at least 10 minutes. The IARU HQ stations are allowed to operate simultaneously on more than one band on each mode, so they should be very workable.

Contest exchange for us is a signal report and ITU zone (zone 8 for us), while the IARU HQ stations send a report and their member-society abbreviation. Qs within your zone count 1 point; Qs with same- continent, different zones count 3 points; and Qs with a different continent count 5 points. Scoring is computed as multipliers (total ITU zones plus IARU HQ stations worked on each band) times total QSO points. Logs go to IARU HQ, Box 310905, Newington, CT 06131-0905 by 13 August 97. They may also be uploaded to contest@arrl.org.

NA RTTY QSO Party, 19-20 July

This contest is one of the North American QSO parties and is for RTTY fans from Panama to the Arctic. Operating takes place from 1800Z on July 19 to 0600Z July 20 on 80 through 10 meters. The exchange is operator name QTH (state, province, or country). Operating categories are single operator and multi-operator/2-transmitter. Output power is limited to 150 watts. Single operators are limited to 10 of the 12 hours of the contest. Each contact counts as 1 point; stations outside North America count for QSO points only.

Scoring consists of totaling the sum of multipliers (states (including KH6 and KL7), provinces, and countries in North America) times total contacts. Logs go to AB5KD by 20 August 97. Logs may be submitted on disk as long as they are MS-DOS compatible ASCII files.

Russian RTTY WW Contest, 26-27 July

This RTTY contest covers the full 48 hours of the last weekend in July on 80 through 10 meters. Categories are single operator/single band; single operator/all bands; and multi- operator/all bands. The exchange is simply an RST and CQ zone for us while Russian stations will send their 2-letter oblast code in lieu of the CQ zone. Same-continent Qs count as 5 points and other-continent Qs are worth 10 points. Scoring: multiply QSO points times total multipliers (DXCC countries and oblasts on each band). Logs go to UA4LCQ.

It looks like this is a nice break from the bugs and heat without getting swallowed up in operating. Next month I hope to have a recap of Field Day 97. 73 es CUL!