The ARRL Contest Update for December 9, 2009
ARRL Web site
The ARRL Contest Update
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
December 9, 2009
Editor: Ward Silver, N0AX <rate-...@arrl.org>
==> IN THIS ISSUE
- The Band Lives - ARRL 10 Meter Contest
- Announcing the Contest Update Creative Compendium
- WRTC-2010 Judges Announced
- W4PA Takes Control of Key Technology
- Hear Beverage Pouring Signals Into a Receiver
- Multiple Photo Finishes in CQ WW CW
- New Juice Boxes - Sodium-Ion Batteries
- On The Road Again
NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO
Use your 10 meter SSB privileges to get on for the ARRL 10 Meter
Contest <http://www.arrl.org/contests> this weekend. A mobile whip will
do just fine - you can trim down a full-size CB whip to resonate on the
10 meter band. (The final length will be about 98 inches, so cut off
1/2-inch at a time and check SWR.) The exchange for US and VE stations
is a signal report and your state, while DX (yes, there will be DX to
work!) gives out the signal report and serial number of the QSO.
BULLETINS
Calling all clever creators - announcing the Contest Update's
first-ever issue devoted to the aesthetics of the aether! Read the full
details below and start looking for that pencil sharpener!
BUSTED QSOS
A scrub of the eraser to all my contest manager friends - PLEASE update
your Web sites early. Print magazine deadlines can be up to three
months before the contest! Make sure that contact information is clear
and that questions about the contest will be answered. If your contest
is always on the same weekend - first, second, third, fourth, last -
note that in the rules so that even if the dates aren't published, a
reader will know when your contest is held! Contest Corral in QST is
regularly tripped up by out-of-date information. If you would like to
see your contest promoted correctly, please help the editors by
publishing up-to-date information in time for their deadlines.
CONTEST SUMMARY
Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section
Dec 12-13
- ARRL 10 Meter Contest
- North American VHF WSJT Contest
- 28 MHz SWL Contest
- PSK Death Match
- Russian 160 Meter Contest
- Feld-Hell Monthly Sprint
- Croatian CW Contest
- UBA Winter Contest
- Great Colorado Snowshoe Run--CW
Date 19-20
- OK DX RTTY Contest
- RAC Winter Contest
- Lighthouse Christmas Lights QSO Party
- Holiday Spirits Homebrew Sprint--CW
==> NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST
What to do during the season when flakes fly and evening comes early?
Why, pour yourself a hot chocolate, sharpen the ol' No 2 pencil and
write for your favorite newsletter. (This one!) The 20 Jan 2010 issue
will be the first (and possibly last) Contest Update Creative
Compendium. Any written item will do as long as it is 128 words or less
and received by the judges (me - n0...@arrl.org) no later than 2359Z on
10 January 2010. Please post poems, prose, palindromes, palaver,
platitudes -- they're all welcome - prurience and potboilers
prohibited! So there's your holiday project - with all the creative
minds in the Contest Update's readership, I anticipate a surplus of
savory scribbling to sort.
Speaking of scribbling and No 2 pencils, the ARRL Contest Branch
continues to receive those paper Sweepstakes logs - including one with
1000 QSOs! Somebody has to convert those to electronic format - line by
line - and thank goodness for the volunteers that help with this job.
Please help paper loggers submit an electronic log - they'll be amazed
at how much less work they have to do and it will speed the log
processing process dramatically! (Thanks, ARRL Contest Branch Manager,
Sean KX9X)
After a month of discussions the WRTC-2010 Judging Committee has
announced the referees <http://www.wrtc2010.ru/?id=37> to be invited to
Moscow in July 2010. Congratulations to the fifty contest veterans
chosen to monitor the proceedings. Having been a WRTC referee three
times, your editor knows this is not an easy job! (Thanks, Harry
RA3AUU, WRTC-2010 Organizing Committee)
Vibroplex changes hands
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/12/07/11233/?nc=1> - no, not
from right to left, but from Mitch Mitchell W4OA to Scott Robbins W4PA,
formerly Amateur Radio Product Manager for Ten-Tec, effective Dec 21.
Scott is going to move the Vibroplex <http://www.vibroplex.com/>
company from Alabama to Knoxville, Tennessee over the last two weeks of
December and plans to have everything back on-line and ready to go by
Jan 5, 2010. Founded in 1904, Vibroplex is a name that just keeps going
and going! I wonder what brand of paddle Scott will take with him to
compete in WRTC-2010?
At the other end of the Morse technology timeline, Dale N0XAS announces
that his Masterkey MK-1 will support K1EL Winkey commands. You can see
the whole list of MK-1 specifications and features
<http://www.hamgadgets.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=106>
online. A new firmware version should be ready for official release by
the date of this issue. Dale reports that it has been tested with N1MM,
WinWarbler, RCK-Log, Win-Test, WinEQF and several other logging
programs.
WPX Contest Director, Randy K5ZD announces that the new 2010 WPX Rules
<http://www.cqwpx.com/rules.htm> have been published. He is looking for
help in translating the rules to as many languages as possible,
particularly to Russian, Japanese, German, and French. Please contact
him directly at k5...@cqwpx.com.
How is the health of ham radio licensing in the United States these
days? Without some data, it's hard to say, but fortunately there are
Web sites that publish the latest numbers. Len AF6AY has gone one
better and done a fair amount of analysis, presenting and discussing
licensing data <http://www.eham.net/articles/22842> over the past three
years from several perspectives. Elwood WB0OEW took that data and
graphed it <http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html>, as
well. How are we doing? Although growth is slow, it's positive and
steady!
Is drinking from the firehose of spots getting to be too much? Sam
K5OAI recommends VE7CC's "CC Cluster
<http://www.bcdxc.org/ve7cc/ccc/cluster.htm>" software as a way of
managing information overload. The program has excellent filtering
capabilities and displays extra data with the spots. Wes WZ7I notes
that the format of Skimmer spots from the CW Skimmer software
<http://www.dxatlas.com/CwSkimmer/> was causing a problem due to the
"-#" appended to call signs. A version in the "special" directory of
the BCDXC Web site corrects this problem and it will be incorporated in
a future revision.
In the December 2009 EMCOMM QUARTERLY <http://www.emcomm.org/> we
learn "A Navigator's Definition of Latitude and Longitude": Latitude is
where we are lost and Longitude is how long we've been lost there!
>From the 30 November AMSAT Bulletin ANS-340
<http://www.mail-archive.com/amsa...@amsat.org/msg05505.html> we learn
that another long-dormant satellite has returned to life - "The
satellite unexpectedly resumed transmissions recently. It was first
heard by Keith N4ZQ on 19 November 2009 and transmissions continued
until it switched OFF on 27 November. Due to the weak battery and solar
panels, the satellite switches off during any eclipses or even poor
illumination. Launched originally in March of 1984, OSCAR-11 is the
second of the "old birds" to return to service, following OSCAR-7's
recent return to partial service.
Jerry Sevick W2FMI
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/12/01/11226/?nc=1> passed away
on Nov 29th. Gary K9AY remembers him for his popularization of the
transmission line transformer, a part of nearly every contest station
somewhere. As Gary observes, Jerry pioneered the introduction of
transmission-line transformers to amateur radio.
Two other operators also became Silent Keys near the time of the CQ WW
CW contest. Andy RU1AO died in the terrorist train bombing heading to
Moscow before the contest. Katsu JH2AMH was killed in a car accident on
his way home after the contest. We'll miss these call signs in our logs
next year.
Web Site of the Week - Doug KR2Q found this on-line report
<http://pileup.ru/cqww/> of top Claimed Scores from the CQ WW Web site
<http://cqww.com/logs.htm> and the 3830 scores reflector
<http://lists.contesting.com/_3830/>. This is a great way to keep tabs
on "who's who" in the CQ WW - good job!
WORD TO THE WISE
Copying - This is what you're supposed to do with a CW signal. Randy
K5ZD presents the following list of all the ways WPX competitors
mis-copied KH7XS in the 2009 WPX CW contest: K57XS, K5ZHS, K5ZXI,
K5ZXS, KH6XS, KH7HS, KH7X, KH7XB, KH7XE, KH7XH, KH7XI, KH8XS, KS6XS,
KS7XI, KS7XS, KS8XI, KX7XS. The most common bust was KH6XS followed by
KS7XS. There are multiple lessons to be learned from this list - don't
blindly log spotted calls, ask the station or hang around until you're
not sure of the call, and don't guess based on a database.
==> SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Here's a video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmNjvHxJWgw&feature=youtube_gdata> of
what it sounds like to tune 160 meters with a good Beverage antenna.
This one is 720 feet long and fed with 1000 feet of RG-6. (Thanks, Lee
WW2DX)
Bob N6TV forwarded the link to this video
<http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8714738> of a very bright bolide
meteor exploding over Utah. From the narrative, "...the energy of the
meteor coming into Earth's atmosphere was so powerful it had to be
measured in terawatts" and "In some areas, the flash of light was so
bright it caused light-sensor street lamps to shut off." How long do
you think the ping was off that trail?
Enjoy photos of some old friends at KB8TAD's Boatanchor Pix
<http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/%7Epostr/bapix/index.html> site - I even
found my Minerva Tropicmaster tabletop receiver! (Thanks, Kirk K4RO)
The scientists at Britain's National Physical Laboratory
<http://www.npl.co.uk/> must have nanomittens because they were able to
create the world's smallest snowman
<http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/worlds-smallest-snowman>! There
must have been some magic in that old scanning electron microscope they
found, for when they turned it on and scanned, he began to emit visible
light all around!
==> RESULTS AND RECORDS
Preliminary claimed scores in CQ WW CW are incredibly close in the top
categories. How close? Let's start with Multi-Multi:
W3LPL -- 18,521,410
KC1XX -- 18,513,315
K3LR -- 18,347,578
Multi-Two is almost as tight:
NY4A(@N4AF) -- 9,702,210
K1AR(@K1EA) -- 9,299,057
As is Multi-Single:
KT3Y -- 6,768,980
K9RS -- 6,584,576
K8AZ -- 6,388,428
And Single-Op All-Band High Power:
K1DG -- 6,960,096
K5ZD -- 6,950,125
I'm not sure there has ever been a closer finish in all these
categories in the same contest. The log checkers have their work cut
out for them! By the way, 3911 CW logs have been submitted as of 7
December.
Dink N7WA has been collecting 3830 soapbox comments from CQ WW CW
Soapbox <http://www.eskimo.com/%7Emwdink/3830/> reports and there are a
lot of them. Last year's collection reached 850 kbytes in size!
Results for the 2009 French CW championship (aka "coupe du REF") are
now online, both CW
<http://concours.ref-union.org/resultats/2009/2009_cdfcw_dx.pdf> and
SSB <http://concours.ref-union.org/resultats/2009/2009_cdfssb_dx.pdf>.
(Thanks, Pascal F5LEN and the French Contest Committee
<http://concours.ref-union.org/resultats/2009/2009_cdfssb_dx.pdf>)
The result of this year's first-ever World-Wide Digital SSTV Contest
are now available on the DICG Web site
<http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/sstv/>. (Thanks, Yoshi ND1A)
OPERATING TIP
We all know we're supposed to have clean transmit audio, but how is not
always exactly clear, so to speak. In addition, we've all heard live
and recorded audio that sounds nothing at all like the same voice. Eric
K3NA published a copy of his paper titled "Can You Hear Me Now -
Adjusting the Transmit Audio Chain" on the Contesting Compendium
<http://wiki.contesting.com/index.php/Transmit_audio_adjustment>. In
his typical thorough and lucid style, Eric walks you through the
process of doing this right, offering some neat tips on how to make
your live and recorded audio sound both good and the same. (Thanks,
Pete N4ZR)
==> TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION
Hams will benefit from research being done to improve batteries used
for energy storage. In particular, the development of sodium-ion
batteries (instead of lithium-ion) looks promising as described in this
Technology Review article
<http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24043/?a=f>. Sodium ions are
larger than lithium ions, but they are far more plentiful. Stay tuned
for further details!
"Gland" is the term for a plastic seal that waterproofs a cable's
passage through a bulkhead. A good assortment of glands is available
from Rose-Bopla
<http://www.rose-bopla.com/Prod_Group_Pgs/Cable_Glands.htm>. John W5NNK
contributed this link and recommended the GD Multiple Sealing Rings
when dealing with more than one cable.
Tod, K0TO found a series of papers
<http://frodo.ce-service.biz/ka2qpg/kh6sr/chapter1.htm> on listening
for long-wave non-directional beacons below 535 kHz. Each chapter can
be obtained by ending the URL with "chapter1.htm", "chapter2.htm", and
so forth. The subject of synchronous noise blankers is covered in
chapter 6.
If the ear cups in your headsets are pressing on your eyeglass
temples, temple cushions may be the solution. Spectacle-sporting Bob
N6TV says that he has used eyeglass temple cushions
<http://davidclark.com/store/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=62> from
David Clark with Heil Prosets and they helped a lot. (Thanks, Bob N6TV)
Finally, a use for the PL-259 outer shells that you just can't force
yourself to throw away after you forgot to put it on the cable and had
to cut the body off and start again. (No, I never did that - I just
heard about others doing it.) The photos in this eham.net article
<http://www.eham.net/articles/22841> illustrate the process clearly.
Building (or rebuilding) a new tube amp or HV power supply requires
special high-voltage wire. This is pretty pricey stuff but automotive
spark plug wire <http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/truth.htm> is a good
substitute and saves money! You can also use the center conductor and
insulator of RG-8 or RG-213 up to the 5 kV rating of the cable.
(Thanks, Dino KX6D)
Imagine an antenna that heals itself after it breaks! Here's a story
about new flexible antennas made from liquid metal
<http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/12/flexible-self-healing-antennae-made-from-liquid-metal.ars>.
That would be almost as good as shunt feeding the liquid metal robot
from Terminator II - the ultimate SteppIR! (Thanks, Brent W5WW)
Technical Web Site of the Week - For those of you tracking down
power-line noise, Scott WU2X rounded up the URLs for information about
it on the ARRL Web site. There is an index
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/pwr-line-noise/index.html>, an FAQ
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/powerline-FAQ.html>, and the External
Noise Handbook
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/power_line_handbook/ExternalNoiseHandbook.pdf>
to help you douse that buzz!
==> CONVERSATION
On the Road Again
I do a bit of HF mobile operation and have considered entering a VHF+
contest in one of the Rover categories. Articles like the following
analysis by Jim Duffey KK6MC certainly attract my interest - and maybe
yours, too! I'll let Jim take it from here...73, Ward N0AX
Roving is hard work. It is particularly hard work to set up a rover
from scratch. I am interested in what motivates a person to put
together a competitive rover, rove in a couple of contests, perhaps win
a section or division, and then not be heard from again as a rover. It
seems like a big investment in time and effort in an activity not to
continue it. When more people are on it is more fun to rove and to
contest.
Shortly after the initial posting of claimed scores for the June 2009
VHF QSO Party, I did a brief analysis on the Rover activity. Now that
the final results are out, I thought I would use the latest numbers.
Rich K1TEO has also posted a nice summary on the Rover activity in the
June 2009 contest on his Web Report
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/results/2009/jun-vhf/sidebar1.html>. Here
is the chart of activity in the June VHF QSO Party since the inception
of the Rover class in 1991:
Year Entries Rovers % of Total
2009 1152 102 8.9
2008 1074 96 8.9 (1)
2007 860 98 11.3
2006 1047 96 9.2
2005 840 92 11.2
2004 766 91 11.9
2003 818 92 11.2
2002 672 84 12.5
2001 680 61 9.0
2000 749 62 8.3
1999 701 75 10.7
1998 865 72 8.3
1997 837 74 8.8
1996 923 72 7.8
1995 837 52 6.2 (2)
1994 781 68 8.7
1993 818 63 7.7 (3)
1992 840 64 7.6
1991 710 50 7.0 (4)
Note 1 - Three Rover categories
Note 2 - Current scoring implemented
Note 3 - Rules change due to grid circling
Note 4 - Rover category started
The 2009 June VHF QSO Party general and roving activity is at a high
not seen for many years and this is good. It shows that the VHF
contesting community is growing, or at least holding its own. Some of
the increased activity may be due to the popularity of the Fred Fish
Memorial Award as well. The presence of modest, but not pervasive
Sporadic E also helped activity.
73, KK6MC James Duffey
==> CONTESTS
9 December to 22 December
An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format
<http://www.arrl.org/contest> is available. Check the sponsor's Web
site for information on operating time restrictions and other
instructions.
Note: the following contest dates or times are incorrect in the print
version of Contest Corral - the correct data is:
REF French Contest: January 30 and 31 (time OK)
UBA Contest: January 30 and 31 (time OK)
BARTG RTTY Sprint: 1200Z to 1200Z (date OK)
The online PDF is being corrected as this issue goes to press. (Thanks,
Serge VE2AWR)
HF CONTESTS
ARRL 10 Meter Contest--Phone,CW, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 13, 2400Z.
Bands (MHz): 28. Exchange: RS(T) and State/Prov or serial. Logs due:
Jan 13. Rules <http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox>
28 MHz SWL Contest--Phone,CW, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 13, 2400Z.
Bands (MHz): 28. Exchange: Log
ARRL 10 Meter Contest QSOs. Logs due: Jan 31. Rules
<http://swl.veron.nl/swlcontest.htm>
PSK Death Match--Digital, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 13, 2400Z. Bands
(MHz): 1.8-28, 50. Exchange: Name and S/P/C. Logs due: Jan 20. Rules
<http://www.mdxa1.org/deathmatch.html>
Russian 160 Meter Contest--Phone,CW, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 13,
0200Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8. Exchange: RS(T), serial, square ID (see Web
site). Logs due: Jan 21. Rules
<http://www.radio.ru/cq/contest/rule-results/>
Feld-Hell Monthly Sprint--Digital, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 12, 2400Z.
Bands (MHz): 1.8-28. Exchange: RST, Feld-Hell number, QTH. Logs due: 10
days. Rules <http://www.feldhellclub.org/>
Croatian CW Contest--CW, from Dec 12, 1400Z to Dec 13, 1400Z. Bands
(MHz): 1.8-28. Exchange: RST and serial. Logs due: 30 days. Rules
<http://www.hamradio.hr/>
UBA Winter Contest--Phone,CW,Digital, from Dec 12, 1700Z to Dec 12,
2100Z and Dec 13, 0600Z to Dec 13, 1000Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-7. Exchange:
RS(T) and UBA section or serial. Logs due: 3 weeks. Rules
<http://users.telenet.be/on6ly>
Great Colorado Snowshoe Run--CW, from Dec 13, 2100Z to Dec 13, 2259Z.
Bands (MHz): 14. Exchange: RST, S/P/C, class, CQC number or power. Logs
due: 30 days. Rules <http://www.cqc.org/contests/snow2008.htm>
OK DX RTTY Contest--Digital, from Dec 19, 0000Z to Dec 20, 2400Z. Bands
(MHz): 3.5-28. Exchange: RST and CQ Zone. Logs due: Jan 15. Rules
<http://www.crk.cz/ENG/DXCONTE.HTM>
RAC Winter Contest--Phone,CW, from Dec 19, 0000Z to Dec 19, 2359Z.
Bands (MHz): 1.8-28, 50,144. Exchange: RS(T) and province or serial.
Logs due: Jan 31. Rules <http://www.rac.ca/>
Lighthouse Christmas Lights QSO Party--Phone,CW, from Dec 19, 0001Z to
Jan 3, 2359Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-28, 50,144. Exchange: Serial or ARLHS
number. Logs due: Jan 31. Rules <http://arlhs.com/>
Holiday Spirits Homebrew Sprint--CW, from Dec 20, 2000Z to Dec 20,
2400Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-28. Exchange: RST, S/P/C, ARCI number or Power.
Logs due: 30 days. Rules <http://qrparci.org/contests>
VHF+ CONTESTS
North American VHF WSJT Contest--Digital, from Dec 12, 0000Z to Dec 16,
0200Z. Bands (MHz): 50-222. Exchange: Both calls, grid square,
acknowledgement. Logs due: Jan 15. Rules
<http://www.sportscliche.com/wb2fko/w09/rules_w09.pdf>
RAC Winter Contest--Phone,CW, from Dec 19, 0000Z to Dec 19, 2359Z.
Bands (MHz): 1.8-28, 50,144. Exchange: RS(T) and province or serial.
Logs due: Jan 31. Rules <http://www.rac.ca/>
Lighthouse Christmas Lights QSO Party--Phone,CW, from Dec 19, 0001Z to
Jan 3, 2359Z. Bands (MHz): 1.8-28, 50,144. Exchange: Serial or ARLHS
number. Logs due: Jan 31. Rules <http://arlhs.com/>
==> LOG DUE DATES
9 December to 22 December
December 12 - Wake-Up! QRP Sprint, E-mail logs to: ru-qr...@mail.ru,
Mail logs to: (none). Rules
<http://qrp.ru/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=7&page=1>
December 13 - High Speed Club CW Contest, E-mail logs to:
hscco...@googlemail.com, Mail logs to: Jo Mertens, DJ4EY, HSC Contest
Manager, Am Muhlebruch 32, 59581 Warstein, Germany. Rules
<http://www.fmcnet.de/hsc/en/contests.html>
December 15 - Homebrew and Oldtime Equipment Party, E-mail logs to:
h...@qrpcc.de, Mail logs to: Lutz Gutheil, DL1RNN, Bergstr. 17, D-38446
Wolfsburg, Germany. Rules <http://www.qrpcc.de/contestrules/hotr.html>
December 22 - EU PSK63 QSO Party, E-mail logs to: ut...@srars.org, Mail
logs to: (none). Rules
<http://eu.srars.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=141>
December 22 - LZ DX Contest, E-mail logs to: lz...@yahoo.com, Mail logs
to: BFRA, P.O. Box 830, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria. Rules
<http://lzdx.bfra.org/rulesen.html>
==> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's
Contest Calendar <http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal> and SM3CER's
Contest Calendar <http://www.sk3bg.se/contest>.
The ARRL Contest Update is published every other Wednesday (26 times
each year). ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by
editing their Member Data Page as described at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/.
Copyright (c) 2009 American Radio Relay League, Inc. All
Rights Reserved