 March 6, 2019 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | |||
IN THIS ISSUE
Don't forget to turn in your log from the ARRL International DX Phone contest, just concluded. The NAQP RTTY Sprint is coming up on March 10. This contest is only four hours long. Oklahoma, Idaho, and Wisconsin are having their QSO Parties that weekend. Wisconsin's event is unique in that it's only seven hours long, on the Sunday of the US weekend. The weekend of March 16 has QSO Parties from Virginia and Louisiana, but most digitally-inclined operators will be spending their time on RTTY in the BARTG HF RTTY Contest. Serial numbers and Time are used as the exchange in this contest, and a thorough reading of the rules should be done to choose the operating category. The Russian DX Contest will be garnering the attention of CW and Phone operators that weekend, especially in the EU. 7 Mar - 20 Mar 2019 Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section March 7 March 8 March 9
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ARRL Field Day 2019 is less than 110 days away! The Field Day website already has updated content for 2019, and more is planned. While there are no substantial changes from prior years, some website text has been updated and clarified. With appropriate software versions and proper setup, the Field Day exchange can now occur using FT8. Make sure the software you are using (e.g. WSJT-X, MSHV) can support the Field Day exchange, and is set up to do so. You can't work them if you can't hear them, and unfortunately for we Amateurs, any electronics gear that has wired networking capability also has the potential to generate RFI that can mask the signals we'd like to hear. According to DX Engineering, their ISO-PLUS Ethernet RF Filter "fights common-mode RFI and EMI noise interference for radio frequencies from below 1 MHz to over 100 MHz, including 160 through 6 meter Amateur bands." It works both ways: "Installed on either end of Ethernet cables, ISO-PLUS filters mitigate RFI caused to the Ethernet-connected device. At the same time, they reduce interference to radio receivers and other Ethernet devices caused by RFI or EMI generated by an Ethernet-connected device." Check the DX Engineering website for more information. (Tim, K3LR) If you haven't looked recently, the cost of Solid State Disk (SSD) drives continue to drop. It's one of the easiest ways to bring new pep to that laggy logging computer with a hard disk drive that you just haven't replaced...yet. The Elgato Stream Deck is a programmable multi-button USB peripheral that might be useful for some station automation tasks. The concept seems simple enough - a box that sits on your desk, with a bunch of buttons on it. The buttons have small LCD screens built in to each one, so can display graphics or text. They're programmable with a Software Development Kit, so they can be labeled however you like. Button press behavior is programmable, too. SM0MDG tweeted about testing it to switch receive antennas, and wrote a blog article on how the setup works. Another contest announced explicit support for FT8: The Hiroshima Worked All Squares (WAS) Contest. In an announcement to a RTTY email group on February 22, the contest organizers noted that the 2019 contest on February 28 would use the standard FT8 frequencies in addition to others announced on their website, with the 'NA VHF Contest Mode' of operation set in WSJT-X. Falling Derrick A means of raising a tower using a (usually shorter) mast attached to the tower at a 90-degree angle, and guyed to the top of the tower, forming a triangle. Both can pivot about an anchored attachment point. Starting with the tower on the ground and the mast vertical, the mast is pivoted towards ground, pulling up the tower with the guy.
W9SN made a video of tuning the band during the ARRL International DX CW Contest... from his Maine-based station using four-stack of four-element 40m antennas. The Flex Radio SmartSDR screen is displaying call signs received via the spotting network right in the spectrum display. Here's a video of YCCC members putting up a tower using the falling derrick method. Jim, N3BB, has completed the write-up for the 2019 Winter North American CW Sprint, and it and the results are posted on the NCJ website. A few new records were set, those will be added to the results article. The January NAQP SSBB Preliminary results have also been posted to the NCJ website. Bill, AC0W, would appreciate your reports of any issues. Microphone Settings Can Minimize Vocal Cord Wear Save your voice, let your radio do the work. Set up your microphone gain and compression settings to let you phone contest at conversational or even sub-conversational levels. You can still be enthusiastic and excited, just do it more quietly. What good is having stealth antennas when your neighbors can hear you shouting all weekend? Your voice will thank you, and so will any other household members. "Crowdsourced HF Receivers" is a way to describe the Reverse Beacon Network which monitors the HF spectrum and reports Digital and CW activity. "Crowdsourced ADS-B receivers" is how live air traffic websites like FlightRadar24 gather their information. Here's an article about how easy it is to set up a node for ADS-B reception. By nature, ADS-B reception is easier than skimming HF since receivers only need to listen to the one ADS-B frequency. But the installation has been made so simple that nearly anyone can do it. The new Red Pitaya SDR hardware that can be used to operate an 8-band skimmer is now available for order. Larry, K8UT, has a combination hardware/software project for those that want to do more station automation: "For those interested in a Do-It-Yourself project that supports Band-Drive or Frequency-Driven antenna control, the freeware program FreqEZ runs as a Windows Console that connects via Ethernet or Wi-Fi to a Raspberry Pi controller and antenna selector... configuration and definitions are done in software - no switches/jumpers/diodes/solder bridges. Communication is done with UDP and TCP packets - no messy serial ports." More information about FreqEZ can be found on Larry's website. During big contests, 20 meters can get really congested. Too many users, too little spectrum. The US military also has this issue, and they have radar systems that are in the mix. Their Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications (SSPARC) project is kicking off its second phased, where they're going to be focusing on users of the S-band (2 to 4 GHz). (Dennis, N6KI) There's a new upgrade to GNU Octave. Some experimenters use it to model new communications models, construct digital filters, and in general to perform signal processing on data sets. A number of articles by Maynard Wright in QEX have used it for "the solution of problems in radio, antenna, and transmission line design." Choose Your Own Adventure A perennial question in online contest discussions, and occasionally sent to me via email, is a variation on "Why aren't there any contests that are just for a person and their radio: no computer, no spots, no amps? Just a single operator with a radio and an antenna." I find that answering this question really involves knowing the context in which it's asked. If this question appears somewhere in the discussion about how "XYZ new technology is going to ruin Amateur Radio as we know it," then, well, it's not really a question. It's a challenge, more of a comment about how the hobby has changed since the time that the commenter remembers liking it, and they are pining for their personal golden days of Amateur Radio. There is no answer that will satisfy this person. They will continue to ask the question. Someone that doesn't contest much might ask this question while they are setting up for a contest, while facing issues that aren't radio-related. Sure, it's possible to just operate in the contest and hand out a few contacts, log by paper (or never log at all!) and never send in a log. But some casual operators are also excellent operators, and might make a few hundred contacts on their favorite band. The contest sponsors ask, and maybe pester, them to send in their log just so it can help them in the cross checking. But the sponsors want the log in Cabrillo electronic format, which requires logging with a computer. For this person, helping them get the right logging program set up for their interest level is important, and there are a number of good choices available, many of which that don't even require radio control. The person that is new to Amateur Radio and genuinely curious about contesting might ask this question when they see pictures of multi-operator contest stations with banks of screens and big amplifiers, or hear about huge scores, or ponder how to use the many operator aids that Assisted category allows. They don't know if they'll like contesting yet, and they don't know if their HF radio and vertical in their backyard even gets them in the game. Luckily, we can answer this person: "Nearly every contest has a single operator, low-power, unassisted category. You'll be able to make contacts with everyone, but you're only scored against others in your category. To turn in a log, you'll still need to generate it using a computer, so you might as well use a computer to log in the first place. The 100-watt radio that you have will work, the bands will be crowded during the contest, that antenna will work fine to see if you like contesting. Don't be intimidated by the extensive setups of many stations. Most of those stations started where you are right now. You actually have an advantage - you probably will never have to learn how to use a dupe sheet." 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 Mar - 20 Mar 2019 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 CWops Mini-CWT Test, Mar 6, 1300z to Mar 6, 1400z and, Mar 6, 1900z to Mar 6, 2000z and, Mar 7, 0300z to Mar 7, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: March 9. VHF+ CONTESTS SARL VHF/UHF Analogue Contest, Mar 9, 1000z to Mar 10, 1000z; Analog (CW/SSB/AM/FM); Bands: 50 MHz, 70 MHz, 144 MHz, 432 MHz, 1296 MHz; RS(T) + 6-character grid locator; Logs due: April 1. AGCW VHF/UHF Contest, Mar 16, 1400z to Mar 16, 1700z (144) and, Mar 16, 1700z to Mar 16, 1800z (432); CW; Bands: 144 MHz, 432 MHz; RST + "/" + Serial No. + "/" Power class + "/" + 6-character grid locator; Logs due: April 1. Also, see F9AA Cup, SSB, SKCC Weekend Sprintathon, Oklahoma QSO Party, QCWA QSO Party, Wisconsin QSO Party, Louisiana QSO Party, Feld Hell Sprint, CLARA Chatter Party, above. 7 Mar - 20 Mar 2019 March 7, 2019 March 8, 2019 March 9, 2019
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March 18, 2019 March 19, 2019 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 QST, Amateur Radio's most popular and informative journal, delivered to your mailbox each month. 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 and SM3CER's Contest Calendar. | |||
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