Contester's Rate Sheet for October 19, 2005
*********************** Contester's Rate Sheet 19 October 2005 *********************** Edited by Ward Silver N0AX SUMMARY o NCJ News by K9LA o The Three B's - Part III BULLETINS o No bulletins this issue BUSTED QSOS o Normal error-making and correcting will resume with the next issue. I hope we were able to put your calls in the K7C log! ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICES FOR 19 OCTOBER TO 1 NOVEMBER 2005 Please check http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/duedates.php or http://www.sk3bg.se/contest for log due dates during this period. The following contests are scheduled: Note that the following abbreviations are used to condense the contest rules summaries: SO - Single-Op; M2 - Multi-Op - 2 Transmitters; MO - Multi-Op; MS - Multi-Op, Single Transmitter; MM - Multi-Op, Multiple Transmitters; AB - All Band; SB - Single Band; S/P/C - State/Province/DXCC Entity; HP - High Power; LP - Low Power; Entity - DXCC Entity HF CONTESTS USI W/VE Islands QSO Party-- CW/Digital/SSB, sponsored by the US Islands Awards Program from 1600Z Oct 22 to 2359Z Oct 23. Frequencies: 160 -- 6 meters. Categories: W/VE-phone, W/VE-CW/Digital, as Non-Island, Island, or Island Rover, plus DX and SWL. Exchange: RS(T), island name and USI or CISA number (S/P/C for non-island stations). Non-island stations work island stations only. Work stations once per island per mode. QSO Points: island - 5 pts, non-island -- 1 pt. Score: QSO Points x states + provinces. For more information: http://www.eng.mu.edu/usislands/usvetest.html. Logs due Nov 30 to wa4ja@arrl.net or to WA4JA, John Almon, 105 Flintlock Drive, Franklin, TN 37064-2351. QRP ARCI Fall QSO Party--CW, sponsored by QRP ARC International, 1200Z Oct 22 - 2400Z Oct 23, operate 24 hrs max. Frequencies (MHz): 1.810, 3.560, 3.710, 7.040, 14.060, 21.060, 28.060. Categories: SOAB, SO-High Band (20-6), SO-Low Band (160-40). QSO Points: member QSOs--5 pts, non-member on same cont--2 pts, non-members on diff cont--4 pts. Score: QSO points x S/P/C x Power Multiplier (< 55 mW x 20, <250 mW ×15, <1 W ×10, <5 W output ×7, >5 W ×1). For more information: http://www.qrparci.org/. Submit entry form via contest Web site. Logs due 23 Nov to contest@qrparci.org or ARCI Fall QSO Party, c/o Jeff Hetherington VA3JFF, 139 Elizabeth St W, Welland, Ontario, Canada L3C 4M3. CQ Worldwide DX Contest--SSB, sponsored by CQ Magazine, 0000Z Oct 29 - 2400Z Oct 30. (CW is 0000Z Nov 26 - 2400Z Nov 27). Frequencies: 160-10 meters. Categories: SOAB and SOSB (HP >100W, LP, QRP <5W), MS, M2 (new), MM. MS have 10 minute rule. Exchange RS(T) and CQ zone. QSO Points: same cont--1 pts (NA stations count 2 pts), diff cont--3 pts. Stations in the same country may be worked for zone credit only. Score: QSO points x CQ Zones + DXCC entities and WAE countries counted once per band. For more information: http://www.cqww.com/. Logs due Dec 1 (Jan 15 for CW) to ssb@cqww.com (CW logs to cw@cqww.com) or to CQ Magazine, 25 Newbridge Rd, Hicksville, NY 11801. 4th Annual Fists Coast to Coast Contest--CW--sponsored by FISTS Northwest Club, K7FFF, 0000Z - 2400Z Oct 30. Frequencies: 80-10m. Categories: SOAB, MS, (QRP/QRO). Exchange: RST, name, state or DX prefix, and FISTS number or power. QSO Points and scoring depends on number of times club is worked, for more information: http://www.tomochka.com/k7fff. No logs are required, just send total score and list of clubs contacted to FistsC2C@yahoo.com within 30 days of the contest. 10-10 Int. CW/Digital Contest, sponsored by Ten-Ten International from 0001Z Oct 29 - 2400Z Oct 30. Exchange: call, name, state and 10-10 number (if available). QSO Points: nonmembers - 1 pt, members - 2 pts. Total score: sum of QSO points. For more information: http://www.ten-ten.org/. Logs due 15 Nov to tentencontest@alltel.net or Steve Rasmussen N0WY, 312 N 6th Street, Plattsmouth, NE 68048-1302. VHF+ CONTESTS ARRL International EME Contest, 0000Z Oct 22 - 2400Z Oct 23. Frequencies: 50 - 1296 MHz. Categories: SOAB, SOSB, MO, Commercial. Exchange: signal report. QSO Points: 100 pts/QSO. Score: QSO points x W/VE states/provinces + DXCC entities (counted once per band). For more information: http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms/. Logs due Dec 13 to emecontest@arrl.org or EME Contest, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111. VHF Fall Sprints--CW/Phone/Digital--sponsored by the Southeastern VHF Society as follows: 50 MHz--2300Z Oct 22 - 0300Z Oct 23. Fixed and Rover categories. Exchange: Grid Square. QSO Points: 1 pt/QSO. Score is QSO Points x Grid Squares, score each sprint separately. Rovers all grids worked from each grid. For more information: svhfs.org/fall_sprint_rules.htm. Logs must be emailed or postmarked within four weeks of the contest. 50 MHz logs to wa4njp@bellsouth.net or Ray Rector WA4NJP, 3493 Holly Springs Rd, Gillsville, GA 30534. NEWS NCJ News by Carl K9LA (NCJ Editor)- The November/December NCJ is at the printer, and it should be in the mail soon. In addition to regular columns by W9XT (tactical decisions), N0JK (2005 September VHF QSO Party), W6WRT (effective use of your mouse), K5AF (the prioritization matrix), K4ZA (protection from the Sun), K9LA (sporadic E in IARU 2004), NG3K (DX contest activities), and WA7BNM (contest calendar), a sample of the features that made it in are: PJ2T WPX SSB 2005 by DF7ZS, a history of the 10m contest by WM5R, Part 1 of building a new contest station by N3HBX, a short feature about SR2O (yes, SR2O) by N4GG, the Stew Perry TBDC by N6TR, a review of the Green Heron RT-20 rotor controller by K1IR, Part 3 of verticals by the sea (2-el phased vertical array vs a 2-el Yagi) by K3LC, and detuning a tower to get the proper performance from a tower-supported 4-Square by WX0B. Again, that's just a sample -- there's even more in the November/December issue. CONVERSATION The Three B's - Part II Part III When confronted with a seeming intractable problem, the "trivial solution" is often suggested. In this case, why have any sub-bands at all? Let people operate where they want to and see what happens? Other countries don't have sub-bands and they seem to do just fine. There is a famous quote by H. L. Mencken that applies squarely in this case, "There's a simple solution for every complex problem; that's wrong!" First and foremost, to eliminate all barriers flies in the face of incorporating behavioral realities into the solution. It doesn't take many operators that can't tell "should" from "can" before we would have a real problem. Second, one must realize that the United States has the most active amateurs on HF of any region in the world and what hams in other countries do can hardly be considered independent of the US arrangements. With a few significant exceptions (such as 40-meters) other countries can avoid specifying sub-bands because the US does have sub-bands. Conversely, chaos on the US bands will generate chaos worldwide. Do machine-copy signals need protection, too? Of course! At this stage of machine-copy technology's development, the behavioral rules or protocols simply can not deal well with the normal hurly-burly of non-channelized radio that human hams have learned how to navigate over the years. Digital modulation and encoding schemes have become quite good at dealing with the vagaries of propagation and noise, but QRM is much more difficult to handle, particularly since many of these systems are not very frequency agile, i.e. - they don't know how to tune. This will change. The improved "busy detector" outlined in the Winlink-sponsored SCAMP protocol (http://winlink.org/Presentations/SCAMPspec.pdf) is a start towards better coexistence with other types of signals, both machine- and human-copy. You may not be aware that CW automatons have been around for years! For example, if you ever worked WU1F with a name of "TACO", you worked a robot station. TACO stands for Totally Automated Control Operator. N6TR developed a program called Z80 that could make Field Day CW contacts on its own. They worked, within strict limits and with close human oversight. It's going to take a long time, though, before machine- and human-copy signals can mix it up together to the point of a human not realizing that they are communicating with a machine. When will an automated operator take the top spot in a major contest? That would be the Ham Radio Turing Test, I suppose. My conclusion from all this is that while we don't want a completely open system, we don't want to completely wall off "robots" from humans on the bands, either. We can share the bands, but with refuges for both groups where only one genre of behavior is expected, machine or human. Shared areas of the bands will be "open ranges" where "inter-species QRM" might occur, but is the price we pay for continuing development of technology and the radio art, both elemental justifications of our reason for existence. Trying for a formal set of regulations to divide the bands is probably not fruitful. Regulations can take years to development and enact such that they are obsolete on introduction. The solution might be found in band planning by a recognized international authority such as the IARU, still subordinate to the ITU and all treaty constraints.. Backed by ITU and FCC recognition of the band plans as "best practices," they could be developed and implemented in a timely manner, just as VHF repeater coordination is adjusted today to meet changing demand and technology. As the populations and protocols change (and they will), band plans can be adjusted far more efficiently than formal regulations. How would this work on the ham bands? Luckily we have a prototype arrangement already - human-copy is found at each end of the band, separated by a small region of machine-copy in the middle. For example, such a band plan might look like this: 14.000 - 14.050 Human-copy, narrow bandwidth (< 1 kHz) 14.075 - 14.100 Mixed-copy, narrow bandwidth 14.100 - 14.150 Machine-copy, any bandwidth (< maximum bandwidth) 14.150 - 14.225 Mixed-copy, wide bandwidth 14.225 - 14.350 Human-copy, wide bandwidth Do not panic! Do not fixate on the exact frequencies! Focus on the idea of managing the areas so that operators will have reasonable expectations of what behavior to expect on the air. As machine-copy protocols improve, the shared regions can be expanded and the machine-copy-only regions reduced. I doubt very much that any of the regions would go away entirely. Yes, this would have an effect on or have to take into account many other areas of amateur radio administration; licensing, privileges, non-aligned allocations, etc. Yet it's a possible response to mode-based administration, an obsolete and rapidly becoming unworkable relic. By opening the door to development of machine-copy technology, hams will be given a new opportunity to return to developing state-of-the-art communications technology. The engineering press is full of articles about "cognitive radio" and spectrum efficiency. Who knows more about getting the most out of a crowded band than hams? We have been doing it since before there were bands! All of the things that we have learned over a century of QRM and round-tables, lids and key clicks, fades and nulls, "sliding up a little" and "holding our frequencies" can be incorporated into the new behaviors we build into our radios and computers. The accumulated knowledge of what hams know about the Three B's can be put to great use as radio enters its second century on the air. It would be a boon for the hobby, for radio as a tool, and most importantly, for radio as an art. 73, Ward N0AX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Contester's Rate Sheet wishes to acknowledge information from the following sources: WA7BNM's Contest Calendar Web page - http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal ARRL Contest page - http://www.arrl.org/contests SM3CER's Web site - http://www.sk3bg.se/contest
