Posts Tagged ‘Contests’
CQ WPX contest + DXCC = Jubilee…….
May 23rd, 2012 | 
Author: 
Other goals for the weekend adventure
1. I have been playing with the Morse runner program each day working on keyboard copying....we will see how that works in a contest situation.
2. I want to take advantage of my sub receiver in my Elecraft K3. Use it to scope out other bands or listen for pileup's to die down.
To everyone participating in the contest all the best. May the propagation god's be smiling on us this weekend......rest up hammy's and hope to see you on my Elecraft P3!!!
Good luck all!
Spinning my ham wheels…………
New Categories for ARRL VHF Contests
The April 25th issue of Contest Update from the ARRL had this item:
The ARRL Programs and Services Committee has approved a rule change for ARRL VHF+ contests effective beginning in 2013 (not this year) to create a Single-Op FM-only category (100 W max, 50/144/222/440 MHz) and a three-band Single-Op category (100 W PEP on 50 and 144 MHz, 50 W PEP on 432 MHz). These changes will apply to the January, June, and September contests – again, beginning with the 2013 January VHF Sweepstakes.
I am always looking for ways to get more people involved in VHF contests and these two new categories may help. The basic idea is to create categories for simpler stations to participate in the contests without having to be in the same category as The Big Guns.
73, Bob K0NR
Have fun on digimodes and win an antenna analyzer
The Annual Digifest will be held on the first full weekend of June (2012 dates are June 2nd and 3rd ). This will be Digifest’s 5th year. Its popularity is growing with more than 200 logs received last year.
A peculiarity of this Contest is the great variety of different categories of participants in five digital modes: RTTY 75, BPSK 63, MFSK 16, HELLSCHREIBERand OLIVIA. The points calculation is based on the distance between the stations.
The contest consists of 3 convenient periods (8 hours each) during the weekend. To add more excitement those who like competing in real time will be able to see their results on a server.
There are lots of nice prizes, mostly RigExpert AA-230 and AA-30 Antenna Analyzers and RigExpert USB Interfaces. All prizes sponsored by RigExpert Ukraine Ltd.
As the number of the participants is relatively small and the most populated competing area is Europe, stations from NA, SA, Africa, Asia and Australia are at a great advantage. Last year those stations were the most prize winners. To support growing participation from Europe the sponsors have doubled the prizes so separate main prizes are now offered both for Europe and the rest of the world.
For those won’t be able to win a main prize there will be a lot of small gifts like T-shirts and paper awards. All the prizes will be mailed to participants’ home addresses. The results are usually available just 2 weeks after the end of the Contest, So, lets meet on the first weekend of June and have fun!
Complete rules can be found at http://www.mixw.net/misc/DigiFest/index.html and http://www.rigexpert.com/index?s=main&f=digifest
Great Propagation forecast but that’s it…..
No contest
At the weekend I noticed that the CQ WW WPX phone contest was on. I’m not a fan of phone contests – hollering your call into a mic over and over again is not my idea of fun – but I thought it might be interesting to see what I could hear or work on 10m when so many stations were on.
In the end I only made a handful of contacts. It was just too manic for my current state of mind. I couldn’t remember the serial numbers I was given before typing them into the log, so I would have to wait for the station I worked to make another contact and see what the next serial number was. I much prefer CW contests using a code reader to print up the exchange so that I can just double-click the information to enter it error-free in the log.
I’ve just started my final cycle of chemotherapy and it has knocked me back a bit. So I think I’ll stick to pastimes like WSPR and JT65 that have a more relaxed pace until I’m feeling better.
ARRL DX CW contest done for 2012
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| Action on 20m |
- As always I operate the contest QRP at 5 watts but I also I was able at times to drop the power down to 5mW's. My longest miles per watts in this contest was 9339 miles per watt.
- I was able to collect 65 DXCC countries during the contest.
- I made it into Japan and Hawaii with 5 watts I tried lower power setting but it was not working.
- All bands (for me that's 10,15,20 and 40m) were open at one time or another and I had contacts on all these bands.
- This was the one and only downside I found for the whole contest.....at times when I came across rare DX and rightfully so there was a pileup. I found some stations would continue to send their call even over the DX station who was trying to answer a call. It's hard to find a hole to enter your call when (and they were very few) operators keep sending their call no matter what is going on in the pileup.
