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March 2019 Contest Notes

March is one of my favorite contest months of the year. The ARRL International DX Contest and the CQ WW WPX SSB Contest bookend the month and I’ve done mini-DXpeditions to compete in both contests.

Remember that each month you get a chance to put several states in your log. Even during the doldrums of the solar cycle you can capture the 50 states for that Worked All States award. This month includes four state QSO parties plus a four hour “sprint” that give you a chance at all of them.

KP2/NE1RD 15m beam on St. Thomas March 2010

ARRL International DX Contest [0000Z, March 2 to 2400Z March 3]  In this contest the US stations try to contact as many other countries as possible, and other countries call only the US and Canada. Do not call US or Canadian stations! Exchange: US stations send a signal report and their state; DX stations send a signal report and power. Note that power might be something like “K” (for kilawatt~1000W). Even stations running less than 1000 Watts will send “K” because it is so short, and everything over 150 Watts is considered high-power. As with all contests, just log what you hear and everything works out.

Oklahoma QSO Party [1500Z March 9 to 0200Z March 10 + 1400Z to 2100Z March 10] Don’t miss this opportunity to get this state into your log! Exchange: OK stations send signal report and county. You send your signal report and state. There are 77 counties and you should log the county abbreviation, so it might be handy to print out a cheat-sheet of county names. You can find one here.

Idaho QSO Party [1900 March 9 to 1900Z March 10] This is another rare state so don’t miss it. Exchange: ID send “Idaho” and the county (three character abbreviation); you send signal report and state. There are 44 counties in Idaho. Log the abbreviation for the county using this cheat-sheet.

Wisconsin QSO Party [1800Z March 10 to 0100Z March 11] Exchange: WI stations send county; you send your state. Here is a county map for Wisconsin, and here’s the list of abbreviations used in the contest.

Virginia QSO Party [1400Z March 16 to 0400Z March 17 + 1200Z to 2400Z March 17] This one has a slightly more complicated exchange than most QSO parties. You need to send a “serial number” along with your state. Exchange: VA sends serial number plus county; you send serial number and state.  The list of counties and cities for VA can be found here.

North American SSB Sprint [0000Z to 0400Z March 24] If you’re not familiar with sprint-type contests, now would be a good time to do a refresher on the subject using my article CONTESTING JARGON EXPLAINED. Exchange: [other station’s call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name] + [your state/province/country]. This is a good test of your listening and logging skills!

CQ WW WPX SSB Contest [0000Z March 30 to 2359Z March 31] I confess this is one of my favorite contests. Everybody can work everybody. Multipliers are prefixes. A change in propagation just means you have new people to talk to. Exchange: RS plus serial number. The picture of the antenna above is from my effort in 2010 on the island of St. Thomas that set the North American record for 15m QRP. (All-Buddipole construction!)

Read the rules before the contest. Set up your radio and computer and test everything before the contest. Know how to log the exchanges so you can submit your score. Try all this early. That way, if you do run into trouble, you can reach out to your fellow club members for a helping-hand.

The contesting season is wrapping up but there is still time to get in on the fun. I hope to hear you on the air!

Activities, General, Newsletter

Doing My Hobby At Work: The Saga Continues…

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In some recent posts, I wrote about the opportunity I was given to help organize and lead MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s first amateur radio course alongside Jon Schoenberg, AA1FH. The amateur radio course was born out of a desire to try something different that was perhaps more tangential to people’s day jobs than the typical class. The result was way more successful than I could have originally planned for. In essence, the troops were thirsty for more.

At about the time the course was beginning to wrap up, our Technology Office was launching a new initiative called for a Build-Your-Own-X course in which the participants define the X. To give you a bit of background, the Lab has a Build-Your-Own-Radar course that I believe has been going on for close to a decade now. It used to be taught at MIT campus in Cambridge, but has since grown some legs and also moved to the Lab in Lexington as well as in our Beaverworks program to provide a STEM opportunity for high schoolers. The course has steadily evolved from acquiring lumped circuit parts piecemeal from distributors to supposedly having it’s own SKU from Digikey. (Looking around, however, I can’t find it, so when I do, I’ll update this post.)

Our Technology Office wanted to reproduce the radar course’s success with another class, so I pitched an idea about a High-Altitude Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio (HABCAR). The wrinkle for this project is that it would attempt to build a global circumnavigating balloon (like many hams have already done — you can read about it from QRPLabs) which would carry diverse sensor payloads. For instance, ionospheric sounding data is notoriously difficult to collect over the ocean. These little gems would definitely do the trick. And, having a WSPR transmitter available (also from QRPLabs), would allow us to radio down our telemetry and other associated sensor data. One could even imagine sending down SSTV images which are captured by small lightweight cameras compatible with Raspberry Pis. There are of course many fun technical challenges, but I work with a small army of smart folks, so we can figure it out!

I ended up again enlisting Jon Schoenberg’s (AA1FH) help as well as Dave Cipolle (W1SZ). Some of you may know Dave from the VHF contests twice a year on Mt. Greylock. He’s the no-fear fellow who’s climbing the towers.

After two pitches, we found out today that our project has received $50K of funding to develop a working prototype and preliminary class materials to be delivered by the end of August 2019! To say I am thrilled would be an understatement! I hope once many of the details are ironed out, this is something I can help out with the club’s already successful HAB program.

If you’ve been following my posts about this, I am really looking forward to updating you all with the progress. Besides, blogging about it is a good way to document the entire process. And, as I have said a few times on the site, it’s pretty damn hard to play radio at home when you have a baby. So, I feel fortunate to be in the position I am at work.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for some updates!

73,

Brian, AB1ZO

Digital, Featured, Newsletter, On The Air

February 2019 Contest Notes

We’re about a month into winter and there’s no better time than now to get on the low bands. February brings a few QSO parties that are worth noting, and you’ll be glad those low bands are available.

The Vermont QSO party [0000Z, Feb 2 to 2400Z, Feb 3] gives us a chance to put those close-in neighbors in the log. If you’re working on your Worked All States award this is a great time to ensure you have VT in the log. Exchange: RS(T) + County (for VT), and RS(T) + state for others.

Minnesota has their QSO party [1400Z-2400Z, Feb 2]. It only lasts ten hours so this is a good contest for people new to the game to see if they can do the whole shebang! Exchange: Name + county (MN), name + state for others.

ARRL School Club Roundup [1300Z, Feb 11 to 2359Z, Feb 15] gives you a chance to works some youngsters. You don’t have to Elmer kids to make a difference. Just work them in a contest to encourage them! Exchange: RS(T) + class (I/C/S) + state.

The North Carolina QSO party [1500Z, Feb 24 to 0059Z, Feb 25] should provide a target-rich environment. Again, this is a short contest (just ten hours) so pay attention. Exchange: County (NC), state (others).

February is also a great month to do digital modes. Here are some contests for those enthusiasts:

Go to the Contest Calendar to see the full list of contests this month.

Remember to always read the rules before entering the contest. Know the time boundaries, power limits, and exchange before transmitting.

Contest (not-so) secret of the month: success in contesting is based on BIC (butt-in-chair) time. Challenge yourself to operate for some minimum time and see how well you do. Remember that many contests have multipliers, so your score changes more rapidly as the contest progresses. It can be lots of fun watching your score soar!

Good luck to all and drop me a note at  [email protected] with your 3830 entry. The best scores might get a mention in the March Contesting Notes. 73!

Scott, NE1RD

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