The October CTRI meeting was held at the W1XX QTH in South Kingstown on the 13th. After a successful raising of the 160 meter vertical (Thank you!), a regular meeting was held.
From time to time, CTRI has made a special group effort in selected contests. 1.5 million points (a record) in the New England QSO Party (2011) and the 10 Meter Contest come to mind. The reception to try this again in the ARRL Sweepstakes was somewhat lukewarm but some indicated their intention to give it a go.
Sweepstakes — CW on Nov. 3 – 4 and Phone on Nov. 17 – 18 — is the granddaddy of contests. I think this is the 80th running. If CW is not your thing, then give phone a shot. I’ll be in there on both.
An N1MM+ reminder: enter the data in pairs like 39A and 61RI. That way there is no ambiguity between QSO number and the check (year first licensed). Review the rules on the ARRL website.
N1MM+ has become the de facto default logging program. If you need help, Ken, K3IU, has volunteered to be our “N1MM Resource Person” [kenk3iu AT cox DOT net]. He helped me immensely in transitioning from TRLog a few years back. Ken suggests you reference the on-line N1MM+ manual.
More meeting happenings: Discussion touched on the New England director election, VP6D, Field Day, and oh, yes club elections. Newly elected: John, W1XX, President; Bill, W1WBB, VP; Mike, NG1M, Secy/Treasurer; Charlie, K1ECU, Contest Mgr.; Jim,. KS1J, Recording Secy.
73!
I hope we can get as many club members as possible to operate. Need a place? Let me know. There’s a warm chair ready here at W1AN if you wanna make some Qs.
73 John W1AN
Good conditions and always a fun contest. Hope many other club members were active during this one. Nice to hear the CK of 49 in memory of Paul W0AIH. Interesting to see that NP3X and NP2X swapped sections each signing the others. I wonder how many got tripped up by that? Last sections for the sweep were NNY and VI. Fun test.
73, John W1AN
K1SX QRP Band QSOs Pts Sec Pt/Q 3.5 72 144 20 2.0 7 67 134 20 2.0 14 57 114 25 2.0 21 8 16 3 2.0 Total 204 408 68 2.0 Score: 27,744 Op time 5.5 hoursGenesis G11 SDR, 66′ open wire fed doublet at 50′, classic link coupled tuner.
For 80m, I use a low 135′ efw as a “counterpoise” and tie the ends of the ladder line together, making a “T top vertical” of sorts.
Last year I made about 100 q’s and it showed me that an SS exchange really could make it across with 5 watts and a wire. So I got into it a little more this year as time allowed and it worked well and stayed fun.
Thursday I had a tree cut down because it was leaning in on the house too much, with the side benefit of unsnagging the antenna and leaving it in the clear. I can’t say it had an RF benefit but it sure looks more effective now :). It’s supposed to be best on 40 but it did very well on 20, Sat. early it qualified as real QRP magic. In fact I got suspicious it was too good to CA and has a null to the south, but maybe that was prop.
I did S&P except for a run of 10 or so on 80 Sunday early evening. I lose patience with running but of course on Sunday it’s harder to find new ones. The mults seemed hard to get and I got many in the northeast only late Sunday. Like fighting a pileup to get K4RUM for NLI. With limited time, I passed by the mini-pileups on 20 without trying to find out what was at the bottom, and so I never heard VY1, KP2, KL7 or KH6. No KH6LC? In a quick visit to 15 on Sunday, just to see if it was open, I heard “UT” and was able to catch NG7M with a few calls. Apparently that was a hard one. NP(3?)4A was around on Sat. but too busy for me. I also got VO1BQ on 80 near the end, but it took a lot of calls. I missed QC and KY, for “easy” ones, and also several out west, but I’m happy with 68. Only KS1J for members. Anyone else?
Call/Op/Station: W1XX
Class: Single Op Unassisted LP
QTH: RI
Time: 16.8 hrs
Summary:
Band QSOs
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80: 187
40: 375
20: 127
15: 11
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Total 700 Sections = 79 Tot Score = 110,600
Club: CTRI Contest Group
Comments:
Last 2 years I’ve tried QRP on CW. This time I went with “A” category of 100 watts no amp. I planned on a full 24 hour effort, but just couldn’t hack it. The wind was awful all day Saturday and continued into the start of the contest. My start on 20 was slower than last year’s QRP. Funny things were happening with the tribander on the tower with the SWR jumping with the wind. I also think we had some CME fallout. Things didn’t start to click well until I went to 80 which sounded great and the rate picked up. I stuck with it til the wee hours. But Sunday morning 20 still sounded punk to me. I then decided to take a visit to the “boys” at the NG1M antenna party. I wasn’t much help so returned home in the afternoon where conditions seemed better on 20 and 40. I kept checking 15 for AK and VY1 but never heard them. VY1AAA [op W1VE] was on 20 before the contest loud as ever. Did find PR but no VI. By this time 24 hours of operation was out.
SS sounded like a geriatric convention with the CKs in the 50s and 60s. I worked a bunch of stations with the same CK as me. Means only one thing: old goat (not the Tom Brady meaning). Then I worked a whole bunch of 49’s. Older than me? Turns out it was a tribute to long time contester and recent SK W0AIH.
I worked a few stations who did not send their call in the exchange as required despite QST admonitions to the contrary. I took the time to query then for their call even though I already had it: “call in exchange?” I hope it burned some of their time they were trying to save. I’m not talking about newbies or the uninitiated. Clearly ones who know better.
My funniest moment was the slow speed contact that insisted several time over that he was in the “STA” section. After telling him at 15 wpm that no such section exists (I first thought it might be STX), it dawned on me that he was in “VA.” My bad or his?
Congrats to W1AN on the clean sweep. My only RIs were Andy AB1BX and WA1BXY. I somehow missed working W1AN (heard him once), K1SX, and anybody else. 73!!
Call: KS1J
Operator(s): KS1J
Station: KS1J
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 5
Summary:
Band QSOs
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First time in a long while that I operated SS. It was actually fun and I would have done more than 5 hours if I didn’t have a tone of other things to do. Conditions actually were pretty good considering the dire predictions that preceded the contest. I pretty much stuck to the traditional mother lode of Q’s on 40. Tried 80 some but didn’t have much luck there. I did hear W1XX and W1AN but no Q’s. I did however contact Rick KI1G! Hopefully he will post his score for the club credit.
Anyway here is my contribution.
Jim KS1J
160:
80: 11
40: 257
20: 35
15:
10:
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Total: 303 Sections = 70 Total Score = 42,420