 January 6, 2021 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IN THIS ISSUE
The North American QSO Party, CW, is coming up the weekend of January 9, followed by the SSB version on January 16. All NAQPs are 12-hour contests with a maximum of 100 watts, so why not try running a frequency for a bit? Other "features" of these contests include per-band multipliers, so to maximize a score, you have to be on the right band at the right times. No assistance (spotting networks, skimmers, etc.) are allowed for single ops! There are further rules about band changes, multipliers, and exchanges, so it's best to read the rules and also study what others have done in past years by mining the contest reflectors and soapbox section of 3830scores.com for NAQP-related posts. The Northern California Contest Club Sprint Ladder Series is starting up again on January 8 (Thursday evening in the US). If you enjoy sprints, you might want to join in! There are five consecutive weekly 30-minute sessions, of which only four are scored for position. The UTC dates are January 8, 15, 22, 29, and February 5. Note that the North American Sprint CW contest occurs on February 6. For more information, see the News section below. Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section 7 Jan - 20 Jan 2021 January 7 January 8 January 9
January 10
January 11 January 12 January 13
January 14 January 15 January 16
January 17 January 18 January 19 January 20 The Ohio ARES Simplex Contest is January 9, 2021 from 10AM - 4PM EST. "The purpose of this contest is to give operators an opportunity to improve their station and antenna capabilities, and test their coverage areas on simplex frequencies." This contest is for any band 50 MHz and up, using any mode "accepted by NBEMS/ARES® in Fldigi. (Default = Mt63 2K)." (PCARS Radiogram, January, 2021) Bill, N6ZFO, Northern California Contest Club National Sprint Ladder Competition Director (NCCCNSLCD) writes: "NS Ladder 31 (XXXI) begins on January 7! The National Sprint Ladder (NSL) Competitions are regarded by many as a productive run-up the CW North American Sprint (NAS) contests, and we schedule two ladders yearly in which the last session is the Thursday night before NAS CW. As far as I know the NS Ladder is still the only radiosport event for which scores accumulate week by week, analogous to ladders in chess and bridge. We are planning a 5-week NS Ladder series prior to the NAS CW Sprint according to the following schedule: Complete Schedule for NSL XXXI: (note all times are Thursday evening in the US)
Details:
The Reverse Beacon Network has received a couple of enhancements. Pete, N4ZR, notes: "Thanks to Mark Glenn, K7MJG, the RBN beta site's world map now displays currently and recently active RBN nodes, along with spots. Red dots denote nodes that have made at least one spot in the last 30 minutes, and are refreshed every 15 minutes, unless you uncheck and recheck the 'show spotters' checkbox, in which case they are refreshed immediately. (You can) mouse over a dot to see the call sign of the node." Active Noise Cancelling may be available without headphones in the future. Researchers have come up with a way to cancel ambient noise in a listener's field using a specialized sensor and speakers. Such a system might have application in environments like airplanes, vehicles, and other places where the necessary sensors and speakers could be placed in a headrest. The Radio Society of Great Britain's Contest Committee is sponsoring the Christmas Hope QSO Party series, which extends into January. Christmas HQP Series 2 starts January 4, and runs through January 14. Bob, N6TV, in his 3830scores.com soapbox post for the ARRL RTTY Roundup: "First ARRL RTTY Roundup (?). Just time to test the [Elecraft] K4D in AFSK mode. Works fine!" Chris, N6WM, with a great SO2R claimed score of 212877 operating from the N6RO station in the ARRL RTTY Roundup, had an extensive soapbox post on his strategy, a self-assessment on how he executed, including mid-contest corrections. It's well worth reading... but he also wrote: "... Did I hear N6TV QRV on RTTY???" Robert, W6FGH, commented to the RTTY Operators Facebook group: "...I must try to find a way to burn some oil so it'll bring me back to the full TTY Model 28, smells and all!" The ARRL January VHF Contest is on tap for the weekend of January 16-18, 2021. Don't forget that FT4 mode can provide faster contacts than FT8. While using the FT modes, if the indicated dB signal level approaches or exceeds 0 dB, conditions are likely good enough for CW or SSB. Contacts using those modes can be made more quickly under those conditions. The North American Collegiate Championship, sponsored by the Society of Midwest Contesters, returns this year starting with the NAQP SSB contest on January 16. Now in its third year, the NACC is a competition between colleges and university amateur radio stations using the "contest within a contest" format during the NAQP SSB and NAQP RTTY contests. Competing teams must preregister. The contest sponsors are aware that there are delayed starts of the spring term at many institutions due to the pandemic. Craig, K9CT, notes "It may take some twists and turns but we will see. There are already two Event pages on the ARRL Collegiate Initiative (Facebook) page. We will be using https://contestonlinescore.com/, and there will be a special page for the team competition that everyone can watch." More information on the event is on the NACC page. The December 2021 Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) Jug features a couple of articles on station ergonomics, one by David, WD6T: "Adapt or Perish: Station Ergonomics", and a guest article by John, K3MD, entitled "Ergonomic Considerations for the Contest Station." If you're sore after a weekend of contesting, you should consider how to improve your "operating conditions." Four out of five doctors recommend good ergonomics for happy, healthy contesters. Have you seen the Periodic Table of Major Amateur Radio Contests? It's been going around on email, Twitter, and websites for a while now, but where did it come from? Maybe EA3O! Thinking about Winter Field Day later this month? This Eskimo insulated ice fishing tent might make it more comfortable. With no floor, coax can go right out the bottom! Animals can often see wavelengths of light beyond those visible to humans. For many years it's been known that birds have this ability, but after recent studies of the eyeball structures of the 38 mammalian species, it's also suspected that dogs, cats, ferrets, and reindeer can also see UV. Scientists in the UK and Norway hypothesize that ultraviolet-sensing animals can see the corona of high-voltage power lines, which might appear as bursting and popping flashes. (Dennis, N6KI) (Sure, cats can see that the amplifier is on with the lid off, and there's high voltage. Will they warn you before you touch anything? No. -- Ed.) Auroral Flutter Rapid changes in the ionosphere influence the radio signals using it as a medium. On HF, signals traversing the polar regions may experience flutter in slightly disturbed geomagnetic conditions. In the northern hemisphere, when strong Aurora Borealis is present (along with a high Kp index) HF polar paths are likely shut down, while North American VHF and UHF operators can beam north and use the aurora itself as an imperfect reflector to make contacts. Signals have a distinctive sound, both on SSB and CW. Dan, K7SS, suggested this video taken by Adam, K6ARK, to the Western Washington DX Club's email reflector. K6ARK operated portable for the ARRL 10-meter Contest as part of a Summits on the Air (SOTA) activation. His operation bordered on deluxe: Operating from a peak near San Diego, he set up a four-element beam with rotator, along with an Icom 7300, and even had an operating chair! (Dan, K7SS) Ewe, SM7BHM, notes that the SARTG WW RTTY Contest Results for 2020 are available at www.sartg.com. 2021's SARTG WW RTTY Contest will be held the third weekend in August, 2021. Looking at some of the soapbox comments from last weekend's ARRL RTTY Roundup, there was no lack of activity. It appears that the FTx mode users are indeed spreading out to other portions of the band, many competitors are using both FT4 and FT8 along with RTTY, and there are some indications that from some locations DX multipliers may have been easier to work using the FTx modes.
You Can Never Have Too Many Antennas -- Except You Can This one is from Frank, W3LPL, excerpted from a discussion about takeoff angles: "You can never have too many antennas -- but this is very important -- unless they interfere with each other as they very often do. It takes a huge piece of property to avoid antenna performance degradation caused by multiple antennas within a few wavelengths (or more) of each other." SDR# (aka SDRSharp) is a program to take advantage of RTL-SDR, Airspy, and other SDR hardware. It's a versatile and popular program, with a number of plugins available to enable decoding of various modulation schemes, audio tones, TV formats, digital broadcast information, and so on. Jeff, KE9V, notes that Paolo, IZ1MLL, has augmented the program documentation available from the RTL-SDR website and has translations available in English, Italian, and Spanish. Paolo's SDR # User Guide is available on the Airspy download page. Q65 is the designator of a new VHF/UHF transmission scheme due to arrive with WSJT-X 2.4.0. According to the Q65 Quick Start Guide "Q65 is particularly effective for tropospheric scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME on VHF and higher bands, as well as other types of fast-fading signals." Presentations from GNURadio 2019 are now available on YouTube. (RTL-SDR.com) This issue's Conversation section is from ARRL CEO David A. Minster, NA2AA Thinking Anew in the New Year At last, a new year is here! And hopefully, with it, changes for the better and a brighter outlook than 2020! One of my roles as ARRL CEO, as I see it, is to challenge the status quo and explore ways to innovate within the hobby. Contesting is my favorite of all aspects of amateur radio, and I have many ideas about it. As we look farther into 2021, perhaps it is time to start thinking anew. To that end, I want to touch on three simple notions: Evolution, Revolution, and Fair Play. My favorite of all forms of contesting is multi-operator. Dealing with planning, operating, and the variabilities that arise out of human interaction leads to an adrenalin-filled and unpredictable experience. With this said, are you aware of any organized sport, other than radiosport, where the team sizes are not defined? Perhaps the time has come for contest organizers to evolve and take a position on exactly how many participants should be allowed on a "team." What is your view on how this makes sense in making radiosport more competitive? Then there's the big-picture issue of remote operating in contests -- and, more specifically, the question of creating yet another category for remotes. I look at it this way: I travel to PJ4 to operate, and I remote into PJ4 to operate. In both cases, I must pay to rent the station. Whether I fly there or connect there, it's still me, a radio, and an antenna. Why wouldn't one category cover both scenarios? What are your thoughts on needing a new category for remote stations? There are legitimate issues with remote stations, such as when one station is being accessed by different operators over the course of a contest, but the station itself is limited to one call sign. The rules that exist today did not foresee this issue! John, W2GD, recently did a fantastic write-up (pages 14-17) for the Frankford Radio Club's newsletter, covering the issues and considerations of remote radio and contesting. Contesting from remote stations is here to stay. It will continue to grow. Opportunities to rent stations that are not yours will also grow. We can choose to deal with the implications, or continue to bump into restrictions that never took these scenarios into consideration. At ARRL, we have begun reviewing how the issue of remote operating impacts all ARRL contests, and will be providing suggestions to the PSC on how contest rules might evolve accordingly. In terms of revolution, it seems to me that contesting is being affected by the one real truth of the digital transformation of society: people are "on" 24 hours a day, and yet never have time for anything. We must revolutionize radiosport to create "contests within contests" that offer ways to spend a portion of the weekend operating and competing for a win. Brooke Allen, N2BA, a brilliant Wall Street technology guy, has many ideas on creating new forms of contesting, especially for younger hams who may be more driven by shorter "games" where real-time scoring drives the adrenalin rush of competition much in the way a first-person shooter game does. When writing my column for an upcoming issue of QST, I went into the scores database of CQWW to do some analysis. As I went through the results year by year, there was one thing that never changed: if you don't operate from Africa, it is very likely you cannot win, place, or show in CQWW. It may be time to take a page from Stew Perry and analyze what a big DX contest looks like when your score is based on band, distance, and power for each contact made. What becomes important? Does location get neutralized so that a station in Asia now has a chance of winning? Analyzing the years of excellent data from both CQWW and ARRL DX could revolutionize these events and lead to the creation of a more globally competitive contest. And finally, on the issue of fair play, there are a number of topics worthy of mentioning: excessive power, VPN self-spotting, and the implications of an operation streaming in real time, among others. One contesting issue that ARRL is looking at is the consequences of a wide or dirty signal. On one hand, there are those who shun one type of radio because it is "too clean," and allow stations to elbow in too close to hold a run frequency. On the other hand, hearing key clicks on the bands during a CW contest today is unforgivable, and yet, they are there, in every contest. In the name of fair play, ARRL is evaluating ways to create operating standards, use voluntary reporting and education to improve conditions, and ultimately hold accountable those stations that are not living up to proper signal quality. The views and ideas that I have highlighted here are far from being the only ones that are worthy of attention. For me, the steps toward innovation in contesting come down to identifying an issue or idea, fearlessly challenging the status quo, and seeing how we can make radiosport more exciting, and engaging -- and for more participants, so that it can grow! I'd love to hear your ideas. Drop me an email at ceo@arrl.org. Here's wishing you a great remaining contest season, and a very happy and healthy 2021. David A. Minster, NA2AA That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org 73, Brian N9ADG 7 Jan - 20 Jan 2021 An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral is available as a PDF. Check the sponsors' website for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions. HF CONTESTS AWA Linc Cundall Memorial CW Contest, Jan 6, 2300z to Jan 7, 2300z and, Jan 9, 2300z to Jan 10, 2300z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40m; RST + Eqpt Year + Input Power (see rules for format); Logs due: February 1. CWops Mini-CWT Test, Jan 13, 1900z to Jan 13, 2000z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: January 16. VHF+ CONTESTS
7 Jan - 20 Jan 2021 January 7, 2021 January 8, 2021 January 9, 2021 January 10, 2021 January 11, 2021 January 12, 2021 January 13, 2021
January 14, 2021 January 15, 2021 January 16, 2021 January 17, 2021
January 18, 2021 January 19, 2021 January 20, 2021 ARRL Information Click here to advertise in this newsletter, space subject to availability. Your One-Stop Resource for Amateur Radio News and Information ARRL membership includes a choice of one print magazine: QST, the monthly membership journal, or On the Air, ARRL's new bimonthly publication for beginner and intermediate hams. All ARRL members can access all four ARRL magazines -- QST, On the Air, NCJ, and QEX - digitally. Subscribe to NCJ - the National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly, features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA Sprint and QSO Parties. Subscribe to QEX - A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published bimonthly, features technical articles, construction projects, columns and other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals. Free of charge to ARRL members: Subscribe to The ARRL Letter (weekly digest of news and information), the ARES E-Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), Division and Section news -- and much more! ARRL offers a wide array of products to enhance your enjoyment of Amateur Radio. Visit the site often for new publications, specials and sales. Donate to the fund of your choice -- support programs not funded by member dues! Reprint permission can be obtained by sending email to permission@arrl.org with a description of the material and the reprint publication. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest Calendar, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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