Category: Contests
The CARC Challenge completes its second month with one month to go. Whole lotta movin’ and shakin’ goin’ on!
Rookie WA3KCP blasts into Number 1 with 3 contests under his belt.
KC3CPT leads the EXPERTS with 2 contests, and 2nd place overall.
The Number 3 spot is horse race. Will Rookie K3EYL, Expert K3EYK or KB3PQT or Rookie N3AIR break out of the pack and move into sole possession in March?
It’s not over folks. We still have March to go!
Tangible Rewards® await!
Scott Davis, N3FJP, the creator of the N3FJP line of computer logging programs from Affirmatech, answered a question on the N3FJP reflector with a link to the FAQ page.
This contesting is nuts. Why do we do it?
This question isn’t software specific, but the reasons for the tremendous fun of contesting aren’t always evident and they are too important to miss, especially for new folks just entering the hobby. What draws us to spend major contest weekends happily glued to our radios?
Following CQ World Wide CW 2020, one of our club’s excellent, experienced contesters, having just made over 1,000 Qs, wrote on our virtual clubhouse text chat group, tongue in cheek and rhetorically: This contesting is nuts! Why do we do it?
Spent from the weekend, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, but the question stayed with me. This contesting IS nuts. It’s hard work, takes education, effort, dedication, experimentation, knowledge, ingenuity, planning and serious time in the chair. Why DO we do it?
It turns out that, at least for me, there are lots of great reasons! Here are a few off the top of my head. I’ll bet that you can add to this list…
Amateur Radio’s basis and purpose includes emergency communication. There is no better opportunity than during a contest to determine, band by band, the strengths and weaknesses of your station. If your station can’t make many contacts during a contest, you will be ineffective in passing emergency traffic out of your affected area.
And that is just one piece of how contesting enhances our emergency communications ability. A contest provides the opportunity to:
– Practice copying information from stations both weak and strong.
– Check the ergonomics of our station during extended operations.
– See how we hold up with significant time in the operator chair.
– Learn about propagation and what to expect at various times of the day on different bands.
And if the emergency communications contest benefits don’t stir your juices, many of us find the contest experience itself to be tremendous fun! The contesting experience alone keeps us coming back and circling the next events on our calendars because:
– It is thrilling to communicate to every state, section and the four corners of the Earth, including some rare and exotic locations, with nothing but a piece of wire or metal in our yards, from the comfort of our homes and families.
– It is thrilling to set goals, like beating your previous personal best score, having the fastest QSO rate in the club for a one-hour period or scoring top five in the club and then striving to accomplish it.
– It is joyful to share a quick connection, however brief, with all the other stations that have become familiar on contest weekends.
– It is thrilling to watch the bands rise and fall like the tide over the course of the contest weekend, anticipating what may open next.
– It is thrilling to watch our individual and club’s collective QSO rates soar when the bands come alive, on our club’s real time leader board.
– It is thrilling to simultaneously, whole heartedly cheer our NEMARCS brothers and sisters on, while doing our very best to leave them in the dust!
– It is thrilling to recognize the very real accomplishments of our scores, individually and collectively, with our club total. We know full well what goes into building a successful station and putting in a successful contest effort!
– It is joyful to exchange quick banter on our virtual clubhouse text chat group during propagation lulls, as well as share needed multipliers, mentor new folks and encourage everyone to do their best.
– It is thrilling to see our club rankings in print and moving up the list when the final results are released!
– It is thrilling to watch our club’s scoreboard participant numbers grow, seeing new guys jump in for the first times, knowing the fun that awaits them!
– It is thrilling to get that certificate in the mail, after you have placed well enough to earn one!
– It is fascinating to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our stations, that are so quickly revealed on contest weekends.
– It is thrilling, after the contest is over, to improve our stations, our antennas and our operating skills, to see what we can do better next time. In fact, the grand contest never ends. We are always looking for that edge and helping each other find theirs!
– It is thrilling to befriend such a fine group of folks, with whom to share this amazing adventure!
This is really, really fun stuff!
Thank you, Scott for fun piece.
What have you learned today>
For more articles like this, please follow the trail below:
https://www.radioclub-carc.com/resources/
See ‘ya down the log.
Frank KB3PQT
• Do you have an interest in DMR radios?
• Perhaps you are hesitant to wade into digital radio communications because it seems as if there are so many different “standards”.
• D-STAR, WIRES, FUSION, C4FM — Where do I start?.
• Are you just itching to learn more about a new mode that has revolutionized the Plain-Jane HT?
• Have you been put off by new buzz words like CODE PLUGS and TALK GROUPS?
Do these questions sound familiar?
If so, we have some articles in place that take a 10,000 foot view of the digital landscape.
And, over the new few months, the digital world explorers at CARC expect to produce new material about digital amateur radio.
For more articles please follow the trail below:
https://www.radioclub-carc.com/resources/
See ‘ya down the log.
Frank KB3PQT
RTTY Software and Contesting
RTTY – radio teletype – is a fun digital mode. I became active in the hobby when I learned about FLDIGI software and PSK31 and Domino. Andy AF3I suggested I’d like RTTY and gave it a try. I think I actually have more RTTY contacts in the log than PSK31 contacts. RTTY unfortunately seems to be used more often as a contesting mode and less often for casual conversations.
The ARRL promotes a few RTTY contests each year as does CQ magazine. The last full weekend in September is the CQ World Wide RTTY contest. That was September 26 and 27, 2020. I normally have other things to do, but I played around in the contest a bit. Band conditions were horrible, and while I saw a few stations I suspect were running a lot of power making QSOs, my 100 watt station didn’t do so well. I also found it interesting that most of the US call signs I saw were 1×2 and 2×1 (K3FM and AF3I would be examples). Not sure why that was.
Not sure I passed this tip along, but FT8 can be a good predictor of the band conditions. I am finding if there is a lot of FT8 activity and the noise levels are conducive to FT8, other modes may work. But if FT8 is essentially dead, or all you are seeing are -15 and worse reports, other modes like RTTY, and Olivia will not do so well. PSK31 is a toss-up.
I spent most of the time comparing RTTY software packages. For more information follow the trail below to the Know-How Resources tab to read the full article. https://www.radioclub-carc.com/resources/
See ‘ya down the log.
Frank KB3PQT
With a special focus on the Maryland — DC QSO Party
Scheduled for August 8, 2020
Cumberland Amateur Radio Club recently recapped its performance in the ARRL 2020 Field Day Operating Event. The short version is that we believe the event will be more enjoyable if we take steps to sharpen our skills.
One way of sharpening skills is to practice regularly. Almost every weekend provides an opportunity to practice those Field Day operating skills by operating in one of the on-air Radio Sport contests.
With that in mind, the purpose of this post is to share a few thoughts about the upcoming Maryland – DC QSO Party. CARC Club Members and other ham radio operators may enjoy spending quality time on-the-air as they develop their skills and share contest points with colleagues.
[ There is a lot of good information in the accompanying PDF which rounds-out and completes the introductions shown above. Click the button and the file will download right before your eyes.]
I want to read. Take me to the PDF
#####
Notes from the shack….
Winter Field Day, 2020
Ah… Field Day. Summer temps, picnic food, setting up outside… can’t wait!
UH…wait….you said “Winter Field Day? Huh? Winter?? as in freezing outside? Ummm…no thanks.
Really. Winter Field Day is a thing., It was started several years ago as basically a club activity in Ohio and has grown into one of the larger events in amateur radio. Winter Field Day seems to be most popular from Virginia south. Why? In part because it’s warmer there. And in some places Winter Field Day on the 4th weekend in January is a lot more fun to be outdoors than the ARRL Field Day the 4th weekend in June. The 2020 ARRL Field Day is the weekend of June 27. CARC has already reserved the cabin at Shaffer Park in Carlisle, PA. Watch this website for more info.
Winter Field Day has essentially the same rules. With one important exception: the entry classes. ARRL Field day uses the number of operating transmitters and a combination of how they are powered and where they are located. CARC has operated ARRL Field Day as 4A (4 radios, club, commercial power). If we ran our radios off batteries we could enter as 4B. Winter Field Day uses the number of transmitters and the environment were they are located: Outdoor, Indoor or Home. Outdoor means just that. Indoor is a room or building without an existing antenna system and not normally used as a space for radios. Home is a place where you normally have a ham radio station of some sort. Most of the stations I worked this weekend were Indoor or Outdoor.
I got the current N3FJP Winter Field Day software downloaded Saturday morning so I could keep my log electronically and was ready to start at 1400 EST (1900 UTC) except that I was just getting up from my nap. So I was a bit late. I am a 1 transmitter Home station, or IH for WFD purposes. 20M was quiet but dead. 40M was busier. I figured 80M would be really noisy so I started on 40M phone (voice). I was hoping to pickup the nearby ARRL sections (EPA, WPA, MDC, SNJ, NNJ, WNY, VA, CT, WMA, ONS, ONE, QC and perhaps some others then work longer distances on 80M after dark, Nope. 40M was long. My goal is to work a new ARRL section on every QSO until I run out of ones I can realistically get. I think 3 of my first 5 were Indiana (IN) and the other 2 were I think Ohio (OH) and Illinois (IL). By supper time I had something like 24 QSOs in the log and the closest were NC and OH. Not good. After checking into the Virginia Fone Net on 75m (I could hear the Net Control in Virginia’s Northern Neck, but to check-in I had to rely on a relay in South Carolina, I went down 75m looking for WFD activity. I found 2 stations. One I had worked on 40m who moved to 80m after dark and still had a big pile up. I was surprised at the lack of activity on 80m. 40m had lots of it earlier. Due to band conditions though many stations I could hear were on top of each other; they could not hear each other and I could hear both but could not reach either without getting stepped on by the other one. Frustrating!
Got up this morning and found 80m quiet, full of nets and rag chewers and no WFD activity. 20m was very good, but no WFD activity there, so I went back to 40m and worked another 15 stations or so. Then at 1030 EST my voice quit. I was trying to reach a station in KS. I think he was running QRO (high power) with at least 800 watts, and everyone seemed able to hear him and he heard no one.
Then my voice just quit. I knew no one would hear me.
I tried CW, thinking 40m and maybe 20m and 80m would have a fair amount of WFD activity but I found none. Still not sure what to do, so I shifted my log to my second monitor and fired up FLDIGI, the Fast Light Digital modem software discussed on this website in the “How Do I…” articles featured on the RESOURCES pages. I went to 40m and switched the mode to PSK31. Found nothing.
PSK31 is fun. I like it, but since the advent of the WSJT-X modes (FT65, JT8, FT8) etc, it has become very hard to find on the air. Many of the call signs I worked on PSK31 I have since worked on FT8. I started calling CQ WFD on PSK31 and after a few calls someone came back to me. I collected a couple more, then began seeing other folks calling CQ WFD and worked some of them. I expected it would be a slow process. I eventually switched to 20m on 14.070 MHZ then back to 7.070 MHZ to end the contest. I lost a few Q’s as band conditions just blew them away mid contact. I finished with 12 and added at least 2 new sections in the process.
The end result was about double my total QSO’s for last year’s Winter Field Day and close to 4 times last year’s score. (Multipliers are your friends!). Last year I worked I think 2 bands, all on phone. This year I had 3 bands, and both phone and digital. I figure I left about 11 sections on the table as I was unable to find a band short enough to work them.
If Winter Field Day is kinda like the NASCAR race at Daytona, the contest season is just starting. Next weekend (February 1 and 2) is the British Columbia QSO Party as well as the Minnesota Party and Vermont’s.
South Carolina is February 29 and North Carolina is on March 1, 2020.
The Oklahoma QSO Party is March 14.
The Virginia QSO Party is March 21.
The Pennsylvania QSO Party is October 10 and 11, 2020. CARC plans to set up and operate a multi operator station somewhere again this year. Watch this website. We have not decided yet if we will try for a three peat from York County or take the Traveling Radio Road Show caravan elsewhere this year.
Frank
KB3PQT
CARC held its monthly Face-To-Face meeting on Wednesday September 18, 2019. At least two Special Thank You moments came out of that meeting.
1.) A Special Thank You goes to Glenn Kurzenknabe, K3SWZ, who delivered a very nice presentation teaching us all about the PA QSO Party. Glenn has many years of experience operating and winning the PA QSO Party. It was a great experience for those who were present to learn from a Master. Thank you, Glenn. The 2019 PA QSO Party will take place Saturday October 12 and Sunday October 13.
2.) Another Special Thank You goes to Bobbe Rothermel, WA3BKK, who shared this photograph of the presentation. Glenn is up front at our meeting venue — Hoss’s Steak and Sea House Family Restaurant, located at 61 Gettysburg Pike in Mechanicsburg (Upper Allen Township). The room-full of meeting attendees is off-screen to the left of what you see in the photo.
If you hear K3IEC on-the-air that is us — the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club.
Posted by: Andrew Forsyth, AF3I
#####