Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner

The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive

A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

Back to the Future

This time of the year I finally get around to cleaning up some of the piles of paper and sentimental ham stuff in the shack so that I have some breathing room before the contest season kicks off. I was going through my cabinet to see what I could throw out so that I could store some other stuff for the next 10 years. Some of it is really worthless like Dan Qualye for President brochures (must have gathered them up with something else) and some of it is priceless like NARC Field Day records for the past 15 years.

In the midst of this trip down contest lane I found a pile of logging sheets from 10-12 years ago when I first started contesting on a regular basis. I wondered why in the world I had paper logs when the computer is right there. AH! Dummy...how common was a desktop for ham use 10 years ago? With a smile on my face, I thumbed through the sheets to see what I had worked. I noticed that I had mostly Europeans with a smattering of the Far East even though sunspot activity was very good at the time. The early logs showed only 300-400 stations worked and I had a “Q-rate” of about 40/hour maximum, usually running in the 20-25/hour range. I have improved significantly as a contest operator over the years but I wondered why I was so poor in the beginning in spite of the fact that I had been licensed for over 20 years at the time. Then it dawned on me: packet spotting was still new and the CT contest program was still in beta test.

My mind began to wander as I tossed out old log sheets. I smiled and shook my head as I looked up at the darkened terminal in the shack and realized that a lot of sloppy writing and paper shuffling had been replaced by key clicks and <CR>. Perhaps not so obvious was the transformation of single-VFO ham transceivers into dual- VFO/dual receiver, RS-232-compatible, transceiving systems. Band changes have simply become a matter of highlighting the packet cluster spot and hitting return to watch the computer “warp-tune” the rig to the reported frequency. The only work is to turn the beam if the DX station happened to be off the back of it. I understand that some of the high-end rotors can interface with the ubiquitous CT program to automatically read the beam heading and turn the beams within seconds. With all these slick toys, is it any wonder that the big guns work THOUSANDS OF STATIONS even at sunspot minimums?

I found myself feeling a bit of sadness at the ease and efficiency that now characterize DX contesting. I wondered what it would be like if we went back to the future and held one of the major DX contests using rules from 20 years ago. I remember how new and expensive a desktop computer was at the time. A computer interfaced with the radio was still a long way from reality. Solid state rigs were new to the HF bands, usually exhibiting fussy behavior when operating in the presence of a lot of RFI from a linear. I remember frying the flimsy relay in my ICOM 735 when I fired it up to drive my SB200 linear. Most hams operated with separate transmitters and receivers - an idea that still makes sense for contesting. The sunrise and sunset times for DX spots around the world were not displayed next to the callsign on a terminal. Nor could one glance up at a snazzy geoclock and see where the sun terminator was located in order to swing the beams for openings to rare places. The closest thing was the world map with the time zones marked at the bottom; mental calculations of sunrise and sunset for parts of the world did the rest.

The end of the contest was no time to sit back with a cold one and let the computer roll up the band totals and print out the summary sheets. If trying to keep paper logs straight while running the contest was difficult, cleaning up the logs for submission was another challenge altogether. No time for a frosty brew; more like time for Navy coffee, cookies, and a supply of pencils and erasers. Was that an “O” or a “Q” in the suffix for that one double multiplier QSO in 5Z4-land on 80 meters? Lessee...did I work that Italian 5 or 6 times on 20 meters? I got the time as 0520Z but which day was it? I wish I could make out the last 5 calls on this page where I spilled coffee Saturday morning. How am I EVER going to get this mess organized to submit it in a month? Damn! That’s the fourth pencil I’ve broken!

As I slowly tossed the reams of log sheets I realized a sense of weariness as I relived the moment. I also sighed a big relief as I realized that the contest wrap-up with the computer takes all the drudgery and mistakes (well, most of them) out of the submissions. As the union of computing and ham radio progressed, so to have the number of contests supported by the CT contest- logging program. If it is a digital contest, RTTY by WF1B has followed a similar path expanding the list of supported contests with each new release. Programs like these have spoiled contesters to the point where some want a major contest every weekend of the contest season.

Coming “forward to the past” has me feeling refreshed and looking forward to the upcoming contest season. Here are some significant contests to get things rolling:

All Asian DX Contest, 4-5 September.

This is a 48-hour SSB contest that takes place on 80 through 10 meters. Operating categories include single operator/single band, single operator/all band, and the usual multioperator/multiband entry. The objective is for the rest of the world to work all the Asian countries. Contest exchange is a signal report and the operator’s age, which, for YLs is “00”. Contacts on 80 meters are worth 2 points while contacts on the other bands count as 1 point. Each Asian country defined in the DXCC listing EXCEPT US Far East military stations count as a multiplier. Please note that these include countries in the China Sea but NOT places like the Philippines, Indonesia, or any of the island nations in the Pacific. Final score is the total number of points on each band times total number of DXCC worked on each band. Logs go to the Japanese Amateur Radio League (JARL) by 30 October.

Scandinavian Activity Contest, 18-19 September (CW); 25-26 September (SSB)

This contest covers consecutive weekends with each event starting at 1500Z on Saturday and ending at 1800Z on Sunday. The target countries to work are the original Scandinavian countries and their possessions or commonwealth trading partners which include Greenland, Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Jan Mayen, and Svalbard Island. Stations may be worked on 80 through 10 meters.

The usual single operator and multioperator categories apply with single operator categories restricted from the use of spotting networks. Single operator QRP must be limited to 5 watts output, maximum. The contest exchange is simply an RST and serial number. Scoring favors the low bands, counting 3 points for QSOs with each Scandinavian station on 40 and 80 meters while stations worked on 20 through 10 meters count as 1 point/QSO. Each call area (0 to 9) in the Scandinavian countries plus each island call area count as a multiplier. This means different suffixes with the same number in the callsign count the same. Logs for both contests go to the SRAL, c/o OH3WW, by 31 October 1999. The SSB contest takes place at the same time as the CQ Worldwide RTTY contest so things ought to be interesting. Here is a challenge: try to work the same Scandinavian station on each mode for points in each contest.

CQ WW RTTY Contest, 25-26 September

As I mentioned last month, the SARTG RTTY contest often serves as a tune-up to the CQ Worldwide RTTY contest, the first of CQ Magazine’s megacontests to kick off the contest season. The contest is open to all digital modes such as PACTOR, AMTOR, and CLOVER, although everyone uses RTTY. (The new digital rage - PSK31 - is not included but it won’t be long before the mode will have its own contest.) 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 multioperator/single transmitter; Single op/single band; Single op/assisted (packet spotting network); and Multioperator/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). LOW POWER stations send logs to K1RY through snail mail or k1ry@contesting.com. HIGH POWER folks send their logs to K5DJ by traditional means or k5dj@easy.com. Logs would be appreciated by 1 December 1999.

73, de K2TE