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.

A fun CW event with three independent 4-hour competitions.

When: Sept 4 (Tonight) 8-midnite, Sat. 8-noon and 4-8pm
Bands: 160-10
Exchange: SN + Name. SN’s are per session
Scoring: Work stations per band, 1 pt per quo
Mults: Unique calls per band (NOT S/P/C’s)

Rules: https://cwops.org/cwops-tests/cw-open/

Hi all,
This VHF contest had a lot of activity last year, and it was across all the modes, not just digi. Be sure to use the latest WSJT-x version, 2.2.0 or higher, and set VHF Contest Mode. Try FT4 mode on 50.318 during strong openings.

Local time: 2pm Sat–5pm Sun
Bands: 6m, 2m
Modes: all legal
Exchange: 4 character grid
Scoring: Work stations once per band. 1 pt 6m, 2 pts 2m
Mults: Grids per band
Assistance: Allowed for all, except no self-spotting

Last minute reminder. There have been some excellent 6 meter openings to Europe already this month, including this morning. It may be mostly an FT8 affair, or it may not. Last year’s CQ VHF contest in July had a good mix of modes.
There is a new 2.2.0 release of WSJT-x with amazing decoding ability. I’ve had over 30 decodes on 6m from Europe in a single cycle, and I have only a mini antenna.
Look for FT4 on 50.318 for faster action when there are strong signals.
I don’t have any other bands so I can’t comment on how to operate there!

Local: 2pm Sat. to 11pm Sun.
Modes: anything legal
Exchange: 4 char. grid square (FN31 or FN41 for most of us)
Scoring: Work once per band. 1 pt 6 & 2 , More points for higher frequencies
Mults: Grids per band

Don’t forget to get on in the big work-everyone event. I’ve often missed it because of Memorial Day weekend trips, but this year, no camping.

Time: 48 hours UTC (SO max 36 hours)
Bands: 160-10
Exchange: RST + SN
Scoring: 3 points non NA. 2 pts NA non-US. 2x this for 160-40. Not that 15-10 have been good for much lately. 1 point US regardless of band.
Mults: Prefixes, once only

Hope to work some members!

Dave K1SX

I guess I will start this off. As I write there was a cluster of CTRI members in the LP category, just below the YCCC posters 🙂 Notably AB1BX with a ibg CW total from his wire antennas!
K1SX
SO LP

80 cw 32 4
40 cw 56 22
20 cw 99 26
20 ssb 2  2
15 cw 1  0  (AK1W, having no luck either afaik)
Total 190--50--18950
3:40 op time

Genesis SDR twith homebrew sspa brick, maybe 60w, except 10w on 80m Doublet at 50 ft.
Picking up the mic got me only comments on the bad audio. Will figure that out another day. But lots of running fun. Probably the best rates I ever had in any contest. A good contribution from dxcc mults also. I did remember to get on 80 at the end and besides NY and NJ, OM2VL called in to my 10w cq. AB1BX, AI1TT, NC1CC in log at least — Dave K1SX

K1SX

SOAB LP CW

65–30–3900, actually 7800.    2h45m op time.  60 watts to doublet at 50 ft.

Well, I take back what I said about good propagation, and I see also I had the mults incorrect also, of course it is once per mode, not per band.  In any case, it was a 2 band activity.  Saturday I got beat out a lot even running 60 watts or so.  However, with patience I worked a lot of weak stations.  I never found N4V. (but who was looking?)  After posting my score to 3830, I realized I didn’t multiply my score by 2 for being LP.    I think Andy BX also forgot this bonus.   So we were lower down than we needed to be 🙂  Fun anyway.  I heard only W1WBB among members. — Dave

This is a very active QSO Party with lots of categories and bonuses like spelling out words. And we can count on good propagation to FL.

Local time: Noon–10pm Sat, 8am–6pm Sun.
Bands: 40–10 (Note, no 80m)
Categories: Mixed, CW, Phone
Exchange: RST + state
Scoring: 2 pts CW, 1 pt phone
Mults: FL counties per band per mode

Rules: http://floridaqsoparty.org/rules/

This weekend features the SP DX contest and several state QSOP’s.

I also notice the RSGB has started a series of daily contest activities called the Hope QSO Party. These will be in the morning for us. The idea is mutual encouragement, which we all could use! There is something every weekday, with rotating modes. It starts April 6.
https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2020/rhqp.shtml

–Dave K1SX

Update:  This week’s Friday event is 1430-1600Z, CW.  3830 says that somebody fired up W1KM and made a bunch of q’s earlier this week.

Charlie N1RR is planning a YCCC dinner in the Bristol/Tiverton area. He’s trying to pick a suitable date. Contact him directly for info. charles.morrison.n1rr@nullgmail.com

— Dave K1SX

K1SX SO LP

235–44–21–47,255

9.5 hours, not necessarily at the best times
Genesis G11 SDR, homebrew SSPA, inv L 65-65′ w/16 radials
I actually got the SSPA heat sink hot for the first time 🙂

Still on the learning curve for how to do a 160m contest well. I made a big improvement over last year with only a few more q’s, by concentrating on mults and higher point values.
I had 19 ten-pointers. But other NE ops outscored me anyway, with much higher qso numbers. Some 3830 posters are excited about the great conditions, but to me they were mediocre to average, with deep qsb that cost a number of points. Sat. was better definitely. The crashes were luckily only occasional with the storm. I had a couple ok runs–I held down 1802.3 for a long time at one point, K3LR move over! But my runs didn’t attract the Eu callers that some seem to find. Or were they calling and I heard nothing? In the big picture I think I need more balance of running, easy s&p and the digging. Maybe a beverage can happen this spring–but that might have me calling even more stns that can’t hear me.

I heard KL7SB faintly–that was a first. CR3W was the strongest Eu throughout. I wasted a lot of calls on the very loud FM5–no luck. Yet some very weak stns also heard me.

Other members heard or wkd–AB1BX patiently running up higher in the band, W1WBB doing qrp (I’ve sworn off for 160 Bill!) , W1XX, W1HI, KA1J, W1CTN. Ri gets you some attention in this one.
73, Dave K1SX

Conditions seem reasonable with A=5, K=1. Weather unsettled, but we can hope.
This contest tends to spread out, so I’m reminding myself to look high in the band.

Local time: Fri. 5pm–Sunday 5pm
Exchange: RST+State for us, RST + CQ zone for DX
Scoring: 2 pts. US, 5 pts NA, 10 points rest of world
Mults: States, provinces, countries (but not zones)
Assistance: This is getting complicated. Better just read the rules!
Rules: https://www.cq160.com/rules.htm

GL & 73,
Dave K1SX

Fast and fun CW action. This one is good for lazy contesting using the call history file, but look out for the many club and memorial names being used. Unfortunately I will be away. In fact ur contest mgr has somehow got travel planned on almost every meeting weekend this season.
Time local 1pm Sat–1 am Sun, 10hr max for SO
Bands 160–10
Exchange Name, State
Work stations once per band
Note 100w max power.
Rules http://www.ncjweb.com/NAQP-Rules.pdf

K1SX SO LP
34 qso’s, 391 raw points, 2 hours or so
Genesis G11 sdr, 100w sspa brick, 65/65′ inverted L with 16 radials

I have AB1BX and AI1TT in the log, and see KA1J posted–anyone else get on?
With my limited experience, I thought conditions were pretty good, and now I see from the comments on 3830 they might have been historically good! Unfortuately I could only put in small blocks of time, so i decided to just chase dx, and there was a lot to chase, many workable on one or two calls. It really was amazing. But it also seems it was just EU and AF here, not Pacific in the morning. RW7K my best, in itself a first for me. — Dave K1SX

This is the main running of the TBDC and usually brings out a big turnout both DX and domestic.
It’s a pretty friendly contest. Action starts around 4pm or so local.

In spite of high A and K index, 160m has been pretty good this week, with quiet weather and long hours of darkness. I’ve worked several Europeans with 100w.

In fact I’m wondering if the popular space weather info box seen on the QRZ front page and elsewhere, is stuck. It’s been showing A-13, K=2 for days. NOAA has A index forecast at more like 4 or 5 and K of 1 or 2 for the weekend.

Local times: 10am Sat–10am Sun

Bands: 160m only
Mode: CW only
Exchange: 4 character grid
Multipliers: None
Assistance: None allowed
Scoring: Points based on distance and power levels. 1 pt. for every 500km increment. After log cross-checking, you get double for working an LP station and 4x for working a qrp’er. They have their own web page to display scores, and your score increases as others send in their logs. You get more data about your log than any contest I know of.
Rules: //www.kkn.net/stew/

HNY and 73 to all!
Dave K1SX