Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

Work’em, Work’em, Work’em

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday period. The approach of the new year has me more anxious than usual to get on the air. The past two months have found me very busy with the CQ Worldwide contests. Both contests were more exciting than usual thanks to very good band conditions and a change of pace to my contesting of the past few years.

I had the pleasure of guest-operating with Ray, KB1SO, and Bruce, W1GQ, in the Worldwide SSB contest the end of October. Ray and Bruce have the unique situation of being avid contesters, big guns, and just a few hundred meters apart from each other. Their proximity to one another meets the requirements of the CQ contests for multi- transmitter/multi-operator operation. By setting up a packet link between both stations and using the networking features of CT, both stations could function as one for the contest. Combining the assets of two very good stations made for a super station.

I had the chance to check out Ray’s QTH a couple of weeks before the contest. Ray has an excellent setup with 3 towers well appointed with aluminum aimed everywhere. I could easily see that Ray has enough energy to make me look like a couch potato. His tallest tower is 120 feet, followed by the second at 100+ feet, and the third a measly 70 feet against the house. Putting up a tower is a lot of work, let alone 3 of them. Putting up a tower mostly by yourself that you fabricated - by yourself - AND hauling the beams and coax up (yep, by yourself) demands a marathoner’s strength and endurance. Strung among the towers and trees was a 2-element inverted-vee wire beam for 75 meters. (Sound familiar?) I couldn’t help but notice Ray’s nicely manicured lawn with just a small scar where he buried the feed lines. (Probably a concession to his XYL.) The tower by the house was surrounded by a large deck that Ray had built - another concession, I bet.

Ray’s work on the antenna farm also manifested itself in the shack. Spread across a long bench were TWO ICOM 775DSP rigs, two desktops, numerous switching boxes for beam stacks on the towers, and packet gear. A standard rack at the end of the bench housed TWO legal-limit, solid- state amplifiers. This was a station clearly loaded for SERIOUS contesting. Last, but certainly not least, my FT-1000MP was on a bench by itself hooked up to an Alpha 76 amp to give me the full output. My part of the contest was to focus on 75 meters because it takes a tough operator to pull Qs out. (Translation: Put the old man on 75; we never get a lot of Qs there, anyway.)

The setup at W1GQ, Bruce, was equally impressive. Bruce also has 3 towers over 100+ feet with dozens of elements on 10, 15, and 20 and at least 5 elements on 40 meters. Bruce also has two immaculate homebrew amps to blast a potent signal. His equipment is neatly mounted in customized shelves so classy I was leery of touching them. (I think his XYL loves elegant woodwork.)

Our plan was to have 5 transmitters on the air throughout the contest. The W1GQ contest crew consisted of Ray on 15, Shane, K1ZR, on 20; Rex, K1HI, on 40; Jeff, N1SNB, on 10; Bruce roaming in search/pounce and 160; and yours truly anchoring 75 meters.

I won’t bore you with details of how the contest went except to say we all had a great time. The W1GQ team amassed over 4000 QSOs and 9 million points. I was amazed at the near total absence of station interference; the only real problem I noticed was the second harmonic of 160 settling right on my listening frequency for 75. Fortunately, Bruce did not spend a lot of time on 160. If there was anything negative about the SSB contest, it was the somewhat mediocre conditions. Ten meters did open to Europe but it was only for part of the day, and running JA’s on 15 just was not in the cards.

What the propagation gods withheld for the SSB contest they poured forth with abundance during the CW contest. I worked this one from my QTH as a multi-single operation, meaning one transmitter and more than one operator. With Rex available to handle the usual crunch after sunrise, we found plenty of stations all across 10 meters. We found conditions to be fantastic with a solar flux index almost 50 points higher than what existed for the SSB contest. With a well-behaved activity index this meant plenty of DX on 10 meters well after sundown, and a chance to run JA’s on 15 meters.

When the final Q was logged Sunday night, Rex and I had worked 1662 stations for over 3 million points. We had nearly 500 contacts on 10 meters with 15 meters a close second, a testament to how good conditions were. While this is a record for K2TE, I was actually hoping for 2000 contacts. I did learn a very useful feature of the CT logging program that, had I realized it in the beginning, would have made 2000 a possibility. Oh well, that is the fun and challenge of contesting - to always try to improve. I also got some new ideas to plant for the antenna farm.

The past two months have been like old times and I have to believe the bands will only get better. Here are some contests to test out my convictions:

ARRL RTTY Round-up, 2-3 January.

What better way to kick off the new year than with a big contest? The contest covers 80 through 10 meters and is open to all digital modes, although everyone uses Baudot. First print starts at 1800Z on Saturday the 2nd, and runs for 30 hours with a maximum operating time of 24 hours. There are two basic categories of single operator unassisted, and multi- operator/single transmitter. Power classes are less than 150 watts or more than 150 watts. (Nice to keep it simple.) Although the focus is DX, stateside can work stateside. Multipliers are the total number of states, Canadian provinces, and DXCC countries worked. Total score is the number of stations worked X number of multipliers. Logs go to the ARRL by 3 February.

NA QSO Party, 9-10 January (CW) 16-17 January (SSB).

The object of the North American QSO parties is to work stations from Panama to the Arctic. Each contest is only 12 hours long, being more of a sprint-type of event. Operation is permitted on 160 through 10 meters for single operator and multi- operator/two-transmitter classes. Power is limited to 150 watts so this levels the playing field. Single operator stations are limited to 10 hours maximum operating time. Contest exchange is the operator name and state for us. Multipliers are states, provinces, and North American countries worked; KH6 and KL7 count as states only. The CW logs go to K6ZZ while SSB logs go to WA7BNM. If you would rather submit logs electronically, send an ASCII file for the CW contest to w9nq@ccis.com, and a corresponding file for the SSB event to bhorn@hornucopia.com.

CQ WW 160-meter CW, 29-31 January.

CQ Worldwide celebrates Top Band activity with its CW contest that starts at 2200Z on the 29th and runs through to 1600Z on the 31st. Single operator and multi-operator classes are permitted, with single operator stations set up for high power (> 150 watts), low power (< 150 watts), or QRP (5 watts or less). Stations may work anyone else for points, scoring same-country QSOs as 2 points, same-continent contacts as 5 points, and other-continent DX as 10 points/QSO. An addition to this year’s contest is the District of Columbia as a multiplier in addition to the states, provinces, and DXCC countries. Logs may be submitted electronically as an ASCII file plus a separate *.sum file via email to cq160@contesting.com. Traditional paper logs or disks plus paper go to K4JRB. However you do it, get your log in by February 28.

So come on out and celebrate the return of good band conditions and the new year!

73, de K2TE