Once again, a minimal effort from K3IU. It was sure nice to have 15 open again. Every once in a while I would drop in the shack and work a few, then get on about with other things.

Call: K3IU
Operator(s): K3IU
Station: K3IU

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 2:20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:   13     4       11
   15:  104    11       44
   10:    3     2        2
------------------------------
Total:  120    17       57  Total Score = 25,826

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Member posts should be working now. Let me know if you are unable. Some of you may have a new password, so email me if you are locked out by new security policies…
————–
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: FN41bi

Summary:
————
80: 89
40: 82
20: 53
15: 12
————
Total: 236 Sections = 69 Total Score = 32,568

Had another commitment Saturday evening, so the show didn’t start until Sunday. Could not find many VE sections. Finally worked PE and DE near the end. Almost had PAC, but he couldn’t quite copy me. Never heard AK. Overall, a bit better than last year, but if I really want to work all those rare or distant sections
I’ll need that tower…

Did change the EQ on my mic settings after Lars suggestion to compress the daylights out of it, but my options on this rig vy limited. Had fun overall, but it’s getting harder to beat my past scores just S&P.

Charlie

In 2018 the club purchased a Hex Beam from Germany’s “FoldingAntennas” to be used on Field Day. Ken, K3IU, took on the laborious task of assembly. It wasn’t easy. We used it on Field Day 2018 to great acclaim on performance. Ask NG1G. Its novel feature is that it folds completely assembled into a four-foot carry bag. It was folded away intact twice before FD.

When checked just prior to FD 2019, the wires were hopelessly tangled – a veritable rat’s nest. We went ahead without it which limited our band selections during FD.

My best intentions were to repair it prior to FD 2020. But as a normal FD this year loomed not doable, the antenna languished in my garage untouched.

Fast forward tom the club’s recent Zoom meeting to elect officers. Informal discussion led by user W1WBB focused on the virtues of Hex Beams: small footprint, lightweight, somewhat visually undetectable, equal to a 2 element Yagi. Wow. What a great antenna for K1PAD’s Charlestown beach location to be used from time to time between FDs. Up one day. Down the next. No hassle from ocean gazing neighbors.

Rick was down to the beach QTH last weekend. Following some discussion, he agreed to take on the task of redoing the antenna. He picked it up Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day patiently removing and labelling all the myriad of wires. See photos by K1PAD. TNX to Rick, the antenna is well on its way to good health for future Field Day use and careful “folding” protocol under his watchful eye to avoid future complications. Meanwhile, as originally intended, make good use of it when not QRV for FD.

Kudos to Rick for stepping up to the plate.

For further history on this, search the club website archives for “FoldingAntennas[DOT]com.” – John, W1XX

Worked the WAE RTTY contest QRP even though there is no QRP class! So here is a short breakdown for CTRI!  90 QSOs.

All the antennas are finally up. 3 Element Tri Bander @35 Feet – – 5BTV on the ground and the AlphaDelta Plus at 45 feet.

 

Bob W1IG

  Contest       : Worked All Europe DX Contest (WAEDC) RTTY
  Mycall        : W1IG
  Category      : Single-OP low
  Claimed Score : 9450
  Club          : CTRI Contest Group

CW Sweepstakes starts today at 4 PM Eastern (2100Z). Br sure your logging program has been updated
to reflect the addition of Prince Edward Island (PE) as a separate multiplier for a total of 84. PEI was previously included in the Maritime (MAR) section. Good luck.

I saw in the rules that at least 4 members of a club need to submit logs for the club to be listed in the club competition. I operated SO Unassisted for a few hours yesterday on only 20 meters, only S&P for around 18K points and submitted my log for the CTRI Contest Group. Logs need to be submitted within 5 days of the end of the contest.

OK, I don’t often operate CQ’s contests and this was the first time I ever saw in the rules a requirement for keeping an audio recording from both earpieces (as two separate channels) of your headset to be provided upon audit?!? Does anybody actually do this? I think it only applies to the top 5 stations, which I’m clearly not. I don’t even know how I would do this, and my HF headphones are all mono and wired Out-Of-Phase, LOL, so both channels would be the same…

I was “searching up in frequency” and came across several large pile-ups on a few of the rarer stations, where I called a few times and gave up and wrote their freq/call info on my pad and continued searching to try again on my next search up the band, after the stations with obviously better propagation had already completed their contacts and left the pile-up. I was able to work all of those stations on my second pass – except the guy from Namibia that was running his pileup by call areas. An hour later when he was back to running a regular pileup I worked him on my second call. There were also a coupe of interesting long-path contacts.

Anyway it was a good reason to fire up the woodstove in my shack out back.

Best 73, and Stay Well, Chris WB2VVV

CTRI will hold it’s annual elections meeting via ZOOM this Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9 AM. President Charlie,K1ECU, will preside. Meeting host is W1XX.

The IMPORTANT Election is at hand. The CTRI Election!

Game time for the big contest season. Personally, if I’m going to watch my computer decode stuff, it’s more fun to see it one character at a time.

Call: W1AN
Operator(s): W1AN
Station: W1AN

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 7.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   37    15
    2:   58    21
  222:   26    15
  432:   23    14
  903:           
  1.2:   10     7
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  154    72  Total Score = 16,056

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Almost missed contest. Checked on Friday night for the schedule. There was quite a bit of activity and enhancement on the upper bands. Not much e-skip on 6M, however.
73, John W1AN

To offer respite from COVID-9 restrictions, this is an invitation to a CTRI informal ZOOM ragchew hosted by W1XX. This is not an official meeting.

You can download the ZOOM.com app to check into this meeting.

You should use your callsign as a screen name.  Once you are in the “waiting room,” a.k.a. the QRX room, the host will accept you in.

Agenda:  Share your recent contest activity with the group with your expectations for upcoming contest events.  For example,  I have had fun in  the SP DX Contest, YO DX Contest, and All Asia Phone Contest.  I know several of you have  done similarly.

Details follow.  If you need an individual email invitation, please let me know.

John Lindholm is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: W1XX’s CTRI ZOOM Ragchew

Time: Sep 14, 2020 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71643272511?pwd=K1NZSFoyb3ZGZGhNRFdOTWJETnJVUT09

 

Meeting ID: 716 4327 2511

Passcode: 2RjMHW

Hope to see then 73. – John, W1XX