Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

Marconi Mode

A couple of months ago, I was coming back from a trip to Texas on business. I traveled with a colleague of mine and arrived at Logan late at night. As luck would have it - or probably by design with Logan - a storm had passed through earlier in the evening so that limo pickups from the airport were all messed up. My colleague is one who packs his laptop along like a security blanket, sports a pager like a seasoned gunslinger, and pops out the cell phone to call the company transportation while in line at the airport to see if he can change flights before getting up to the counter to do just that (honest!). So it was no surprise when he flipped out his phone and deftly pressed the buttons with his thumb. (Is it considered proper operating technique to carry something in one hand so that you have to use just one hand to dial?) After a few minutes he succeeded in reaching the company transportation folks to inquire about airport pickup. He flipped the phone closed slicker than Captain Kirk and offered it to me to check on my ride.

Now it was my turn. Despite working in communications most of my career, I do not own a cell phone for several reasons: (1) the daily commute that pits me against Mass drivers is no place to be distracted by fooling with a cell phone; (2) I have enough trouble hearing with a normal phone let alone while driving or walking around; and (3) I never call work before I get there or after I leave so why waste company money on a cell phone account? All these excuses explain my sudden apprehension at what I had to do. “First, you have to enter my PIN number,” said Greg. Reading my “What-is- it,-stupid?” look, he hastily followed with, “Just press memory 24 where I have it stored.” (What could he possibly have in the other 23 memories?). I smiled bravely when I heard the dial tone and proceeded to finger in the phone number. Mercifully, traffic was light enough so that I did not need to ask for too many retries. I flipped the phone closed like I a pro and tossed in back to Greg.

During the ride home, I reflected on how much wireless personal communications have exploded in just the past 10 years. I found myself thinking back to the time before satellites existed and I was a kid fascinated with radio. The next door in my dream world opened on the Marconi Museum where I had been less than a week earlier. I remember Ray, W1BC, explaining the operation of a large, cylindrical spark gap transmitter built by Guglielmo Marconi for a revolutionary new mode of communications called wireless telegraphy. Marconi, a wealthy Italian engineer at the turn of the century, frequented the coast of the United States from New Jersey to Massachusetts to prove his idea that the ether could carry radio signals WITHOUT wires. He built towers that were a rather strange sight with wires hanging off them but not traveling for miles like telegraph lines. Thanks to his efforts, wireless communications was born and a whole new industry sprang up to capitalize on it. Where there is money to be made, there is also playing to do; ham radio soon followed.

The transmitters and receivers built in the early days of radio that are on display in the museum are as much a mechanical marvel as an electrical wonder. Pioneer radio builders often hired cabinet makers to package the electronics, resulting in beautifully crafted and stained wood enclosures. Some of the radios had intricate chain drives to simultaneously tune tank circuits. I remember one radio that had a series of key chain-type links aligned in a tandem configuration. The chains tuned several capacitors in a radio that sported several tubes that bobbled like marionettes on spring seats to reduce microphonics.

As we walked forward in time, I spotted familiar rigs from my novice days: Heathkit, Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, Eico, and National, to name a few. Some of them were in need of cleaning and restoration but I think they looked beautiful the way they were. There were several pieces of single- function test equipment that had yellowed scratchpads for data recording, a far cry from the Hewlett-Packard fully integrated, complete-spectrum, multi-function self- storage system analyzers of today. I had to smile at the collection of early table-top radios that looked like they were modeled after the Edsel front end - and whined and wheezed about as much. Turning away from the radios of my youth I was smacked into the present at the display of calculators and, alas, cell phones.

Ray and his wife Priscilla have done a great job assembling a century of development in radio. They are also stocking a reference library that features a collection of old QSTs, ARRL Handbooks, and other ham magazines. Ray saved the best for last: a complete ham station in its own shack! The station sports a TS-820S and a Dentron amplifier. Presently, there is just an indoor dipole on 20 meters that Ray says works fine for DX into Europe. Ray is planning to put up a tower just outside the shack window with a beam on it. The station is licensed as W1FGM, a sister station to IY4FGM in Balogna, Marconi’s family home.

The sight of an idle ham station is not a pretty one. To correct such a travesty, I immediately offered to volunteer the club to activate the station in the near future. I would like to hear from you if you would be interested in helping with antenna installations and other work to get ready for operating contests or special events. As a starter, I offered to take action to get W1FGM recognized as a special station for the NH QSO Party that takes place in February 1999. If your interested in operating, drop me an email and stay tuned for further announcements at club meetings.

While you’re pondering possibilities, check out some of this month’s contests as a tribute to the versatility of the Marconi Mode.

All Asian DX Contest, 5-6 September.

This 48-hour contest is on SSB and covers 80 through 10 meters. Operating categories are single operator/single band, single operator/multi-band, and multi-multi. Contest exchange is a signal report plus operators age (“00” for YL stations). Each Asian contact is worth 2 points on 80 meters and 1 point on all other bands. QSO point totals are multiplied by the number of Asian prefixes worked on each band. Logs for the contest go to the Japanese Amateur Radio League (JARL) by 30 October. The rise in sunspot activity I noticed in early August should point to a similar increase at the time of this contest so that 10 and 15meters should be very productive.

Air Force QSO Party, 19-20 September.

Last year, they hosted a 50th anniversary QSO party. They’re again holding an event running the full weekend. You work active or former Air Force members on CW or SSB. Contest participants will append the point identifier “AF#” after there calls on CW, or “Air Force (#)” on SSB where the “#” indicates how many years ago the operator joined the Air Force. A station whose operator joined in 1947 would sign “Air Force 51” on SSB. Stations who are not Air Force affiliated would sign with a “1” so that I would be “K2TE/AF1” on CW. This year’s contest changes the multiplier to a tally of the number of different point multipliers worked and multiplying your score by that multiplier. For example, if I worked 4 stations signing “AF4, AF8, AF22, and AF8”, I would first add the point totals (42) and multiply this by the total number of DIFFERENT multipliers I worked (3 in this case). This would give me a final score of 126. Stations operating from Air Force installations are worth an extra 100 points. Operating frequencies on 80 through 10 meters will be grouped around those frequencies ending in “47”: 3547, 7247, 14247, etc. (I hope flying isn’t this complicated). Point of contact for more info is K5XS, at k5xs@compuserve.com.

CQ WW RTTY DX , 26-27 September.

The biggest RTTY contest of the year caps the end of the month and covers 48 hours with no off periods required. The recent activity that I’ve seen on 17 meters for RTTY stations indicates the growing legions of “print fans”. Although Baudot is by far the most common mode used, contacts are encouraged on AMTOR, PACTOR, CLOVER, and plain old Packet. Like other CQ Magazine contests, there are a variety of categories to choose from for operating: High power or low power (<150 watts) for single op/all-bands and multiop/single transmitter; Single op/single band; Single op/assisted (packet spotting network); and Multiop/multi-transmitter. Operation takes place on 80 through 10 meters. Eligible stations are all 48 continental states, 13 VE provinces, and all DXCC countries. The exchange for stateside is an RST, State, and CQ zone number (5 for us), while DX stations send an RST and CQ zone. Each state/province and DXCC country counts as a multiplier on each band, and each CQ zone worked on each band counts as a multiplier (maximum of 40 CQ zones). Logs should go to KT1N by 1 December 1998.

Jump in and experience the fun of Marconi Mode!

73 till next month! de K2TE