Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner
The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive
A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE
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When I was your age…
I was sitting at the rig one afternoon intently
watching the nearby PC screen as the signal
strength bars of a RTTY station danced in
sync with the text being printed. Perhaps it
was my impatience of waiting for the current
station to finish with a DX station that I
needed to work on RTTY, but I felt
exasperated at being subdued by a computer
(sound familiar?). At any rate, I started to
ponder how, in less than 20 years, computers
have ingratiated themselves into ham radio.
I remember that when “C>” first blinked on
the screen, ham gear was happily humming
away in an all-analog world. A serious HF
rig at the time sported a multi-function meter
readout with a mix of scales rivaling a slide
rule. (For those under 35 years old, just
imagine the Microsoft Help display.)
Reading a frequency meant visually keying
on the right color-coded scale and mentally
interpolating where the cursor landed
between 5 KHz increments. There were
other frequency readout schemes that made
human factors considerations significant;
since an awkward readout that was prone to
misinterpretation would not sell many rigs.
In the 1980s rigs began to appear with
reliable LED frequency displays that took
the guess work out of where you were
operating. Technology had also progressed
to make dual VFO rigs commonplace so that
a DX station announcing “listening up 10”
no longer resulted in biting your lip while
squinting at a tick mark about 10 KHz to the
right. I did feel that the digital displays
deprived me of a sense of where I was; I
could no longer see the dial marks for 5, 10,
or 15 KHz either side of my current
frequency. The loss of empathy with my
rig, however, was worth it since I was much
less likely to mistake “14015” for “14115”.
As computer performance raced ahead with
each new microprocessor design, the
digitization of ham gear followed suit. A
number of the external accessories that we
built as part of the station got swallowed up
by the new rigs - SWR meter, tuner, speech
processor, keyer, and, most recently, audio
digital signal processing. What I once
simply called my “ham radio transceiver”
has become my “amateur wireless message
exchange system”.
Lest you think I’m whining for the good old
days, I am not. Quite the contrary, the
proliferation of packet, radio control, and
logging programs has resulted in a quantum
leap in contest scores as logging chores and
multiplier hunting have been minimized. A
modest low-power station using packet and
the CT logging program can easily rack up
1000 QSOs in one of the major DX contests
in a little more than half the contest period.
Today’s “big gun” operators garner more
than 4000 QSOs in a typical DX contest and
have their scores neatly tallied in less than 5
minutes after the contest ends, a far cry from
going through reams of paper and suffering
writer’s cramp for weeks afterward.
Borrowing from a book by a well-known
DXer, I have to ask, “Where do we go from
here?” Ham radio has gone from a
collection of discrete boxes to a digital radio
system happily wedded to a computer. It
seems that the next step is the ultimate union
of the two as what else but the “software
radio”. Just what that means and where it
leads is something I’d like to cover next
month. In the meantime, here are some
contests that I would like to “load” into my
“amateur digital etc. system”:
ARRL SSB DX Contest, 7-8 March
The 48-hour ARRL SSB DX contest follows
on the heels of the CW version two weeks
ago. The rules are the same: listen for a
signal report and a 3-digit number for the
station’s power level. Logs may be
submitted electronically as long as ASCII is
used; “analog” (snail mail) is also allowed.
QCWA SSB QSO Party, 14-16 March
Here is a chance to work stations that have
been around for at least 25 years. Member
stations will be sending the year first
licensed (e.g., “1963” would be given as
“63”) and the QCWA chapter identification.
Non-QCWA members would use “AL” in
place of the chapter. The contest starts at
1400Z on Saturday and runs until 0600Z on
Monday with operation on 160 through 10
meters, although 160 meters is suggested as
two, 1-hour windows at 0400-0500Z and
1200-1300Z. Each contact is worth 1 point.
Multipliers are QCWA chapters, states,
provinces, and countries. W2MM is a
special station worth 5 points and counts as
3 multipliers. Logs go to W4PCO by 4/1/98.
BARTG Spring RTTY, 21-23 March
The British Amateur Radio Teletype
Group’s Spring contest on RTTY starts
0200Z on Saturday and runs for 48 hours.
Operating time is limited to 30 hours for all
categories except multioperator stations.
Operation is on 80 through 10 meters with
categories of single operator/single band;
single op/all bands; multioperator/single
transmitter; multi-op/multi-transmitter; and
SWL. The exchange is RST, serial QSO
number, and the time in UTC. Multipliers
are every call district in the USA, Canada,
Australia, and Japan, and each DXCC
country worked on each band. Each QSO
counts as 1 point. A final multiplier is each
continent worked (6 maximum). Logs must
be received by GW4SKA by 31 May 1998.
Russian DX Contest, 21-22 March
Many countries with sizable ham
populations are holding DX contests and
Russia has joined the list in recent years.
This contest is 24 hours long, starting at
1200Z on Saturday. It is open to CW and
SSB modes, which makes for a unique
“double” opportunity by scheduling a station
to work you on the opposite mode, but AT
LEAST 10 minutes later. Operation takes
place on 160 through 10 meters. Categories
are single operator/all bands either mixed,
CW only, or SSB only; single op/single
band (mixed); Multioperator/all bands one
transmitter (mixed); and SWL (mixed).
There are no separate power operating
classes. Russian stations will send a signal
report and 2-letter oblast designation; the
rest of the world uses a 3-digit serial number
in place of the oblast. Curiously, the contest
allows points for QSOs within one’s own
country and with other DXCC countries as
well as Russian stations. Points are awarded
as 2 points (own country), 3 points (own
continent), 5 points (other continents), and
10 points for Russian stations. Multipliers
are each DXCC country and Russian oblast
worked on each band. Logs go to the
Contest Committee of SRR, POB 59,
105122 Moscow, Russia. Logs can also be
submitted electronically (much more reliable
than the Russian postal system) in .DAT or
.BIN formats plus a .SUM file to
ra3auu@contesting.com.
CQ Worldwide SSB WPX, 28-29 March
Another of CQ Magazine’s 48-hour
marathons that pits everyone against
everyone looking for callsign prefixes. The
48 hours applies only to multioperator
stations; all other categories are limited to 36
hours of operation. Off periods for single
operator stations must be at least 60 minutes.
Power categories are QRP (<5 watts); low
power (100 watts); and high power. There
are a number of interesting operating
categories besides the traditional single
operator/multioperator groups. Modest
stations with a tribander and dipoles have
there own category (tribander/single
element). Another is a restricted band
entrant, such as a novice or a technicians. A
rookie entrant is one who has had a license
for 3 years or less. Contest exchange is a
report plus a progressive 3 digit number;
multi operator stations will use a separate
serial number for each band. QSOs on 10
through 20 meters between different
continents are worth 3 points each while
contacts on 40, 80, and 160 count 6 points
each. Same-continent QSOs in North
America are 2 point and 4 points for the
respective band groups for US/VE and
US/XE, US/TG, etc. Finally, contacts within
the US count as multipliers but not points.
See what kind of March storm of your own
you can stir up with these contests. CU next
month;
73 de K2TE.
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