Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

How do You Top THIS?

Field Day 1995: The annual NARC Field Day gathering takes place in Hollis, NH as it has for the past 11 years. This year we are told that this will probably be our last time at the site because the stumps we use for anchoring the tower guy wires are starting to rot. The thought of moving on fires NARC up to amass 24 stations on the air, a far cry from our paltry 15 stations of the past few years. We also want to go out with a bang by winning the whole thing. The result: NARC is Number 1 in the USA with over 21,000 points and new club records on 160 through 20-meter CW. How do you top this?

Field Day 1996: NARC Field Day is again held at the Hollis site after the aging stumps are deemed fit enough for one more time. Still flush from our victory last year, everyone wonders, “Can we do it again?” Everyone rises to meet the challenge and pulls together to put 20 stations on the air. When the final siren wails on Sunday afternoon, weary operators stumble out to another club total points record - and Number 1 in the USA AGAIN. New band records are set for 40 and 20-meter CW and SSB and the Novice station, with near- misses on 2 other bands. How do you top this?

Field Day 1997: NARC Field Day is being held in Hollis again for the final last time since the site is being sold. Everyone figures that we REALLY ought to go out with a bang by having our biggest field day ever and go for a “3-peat”. The NARC juggernaut takes to the air with 27 stations, topped off with tower 3 rising 100 feet with stacked beams for 20 SSB and 40 SSB. With this kind of firepower, NARC wins for the third year in a row with still another club point total and new records on 40 and 20 SSB (surprise, surprise) and 2-meter phone. How do you top this?

Field Day 1998: NARC Field Day is being held in Hollis for the definite last...oh forget it. Well, maybe it will be the last time. This year’s field day featured 26 stations and the same dominating 100-foot aluminum tree on tower 3 as the year before. We also had a new wrinkle thrown in for the annual emergency preparedness exercise in that all our equipment was stored miles from the site unlike the past. There was a bit of edginess in the air as many of us wondered about repeating last year’s mega-operation, especially since we weren’t sure how things would work out with the new logistics. In addition, Mother Nature and her bratty kid Murphy looked like a sure bet to turn the Field Day site into the “bog that ate NARC”.

All the fretting appears to have been for naught. In what can only be described as the indomitable NARC spirit, everyone rose to the challenge. Mother Nature just pestered us briefly Friday night and on Saturday morning to leave us with the most comfortable Field Day in years. Even Murphy got shackled as the propagation Gods shone upon us with great conditions on 15, 10, and 6 meters and all the way up to 440 MHz. CW and SSB records on 15 and 10 meters were shattered as both bands stayed open all night. The Novice station, anchored by “supernov” Jeremy, KB1AWE, more than doubled its previous record. The raw score club record is over 4000 points above our previous level. As if this wasn’t enough, NARC was blessed by an unforgettable visit by Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the man who started this whole thing. HOW DO YOU TOP THIS?

Wow! I don’t think I’ll come down from this one! (No, I didn’t spend my whole Field Day on top of tower 3.) First of all, I’d like to say a special thanks to Ray, W1BC, curator of the newly opened Marconi Museum in Bedford, NH for the surprise visit of Princess Elettra. As always, NARC Field Day cannot achieve consistently new levels each year without the collective energy and creativity of all of us, veteran contesters and new no-codes. It was a pleasure seeing N1NYT return to contesting and clipping off stations on 10 SSB using a torturous hand-mike. The 10 CW station had no shortage of operators - especially new club members - to mine the rare night-long opening. Even some of the little things didn’t go unnoticed; many thanks to N1JWA for the neat idea for stringing the 160-meter sloper through the tangle of beams on tower 3. It looks like we are a shoe-in for winning an unprecedented 4th year in a row.

Where, indeed, do we go from here? I think next year will be our greatest challenge yet since the site may finally succumb to age and progress. (Goodbye, poison ivy!). Wherever we go, I’m sure NARC will make the best of it. In the meantime, why not practice some of those newly-acquired contesting skills with some of these events for August?

North American QSO Party, 1-2 August (CW), 15-16 August (SSB).

Here is a contest that is sort of a repeat of Field Day since everyone in North America is eligible. Each contest features single operator and multi-operator 2-transmitter station classes. Both classes are limited to 150 watts output power. Each contest begins at 1800Z on the first day and runs through to 0600Z on the second day. Single operator stations may operate only 10 of the 12 hours while the multi-operator stations can operate the full 12 hours. Contest exchange consists of report, operator name, and state/province/country. Logs for each contest must be sent in within 30 days of the end of each contest. Logs for the CW contest go to K6ZZ and logs for the SSB contest go to WA7BNM.

Worked All Europe DX, 8-9 August

This CW contest covers the full 48 hours of the weekend. Operating categories are single operator, all band and multi-operator, single transmitter. As in other contests, single operator stations are limited in the amount of time they may operate (36 hours). Normal QSO exchange is RST plus a serial number. Multipliers are the number of European countries worked on each band plus bonus multipliers for the specific band: 80 meters - 4 points; 40 meters - 3 points; 20/15/10 meters - 2 points.

This contest features QTC or traffic handling as part of scoring. A QTC is a report of a confirmed QSO sent only by non-European stations to European stations. The report contains the time, call, and report number of the station being reported. Each QTC counts as one point; a maximum of 10 QTCs may be reported to a station. The QTC element makes for some intent listening to copy everything correctly.

SARTG Worldwide RTTY, 15-16 August.

The Scandinavians host one of the popular RTTY contests of the Summer. The contest covers the weekend in 3, 8-hour blocks: 0000-0800Z and 1600-2400Z on Saturday, 0800-1600Z on Sunday. Operation is encouraged on 10 through 80 meters for single operator stations, all band or single band, multi-operator single transmitter, and SWL. Contest exchange is an RST and QSO number. QSO points are 5/own country, 10/own-continent countries, and 15/other- continent countries. Logs must be sent to SM7BHM by October 10, 1998.

Why not give one of these a try as you prepare for Field Day 1999?

73 till next month! de K2TE