Thanks and a big tip of the hat to John, W1AN, for swapping the rotor in my tower yesterday.

73, Ken K3IU

Call: NG1M
Operator(s): NG1M
Station: NG1M

Class: SOABSSB LP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Location: USA

Summary:   Compare Scores
Band	CW Qs	Ph Qs	Zones	HQ Mults
160:				
80:		8	2	4
40:		53	10	19
20:		116	13	19
15:		77	7	14
10:		5	2	3
Total:	0	259	34	59	Total Score	57,567
 

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Big contest – AND I got 59 more Qs than last year! With a higher rate than last year – which is always a good thing!

But hard slog without an amplifier. Where were all the CTRI CW Wizards!?

New England QSO Party – 2021

Call: W1DX
Operator(s): W1XX W1AN K1DM
Station: W1DX

Class: M/S Mobile LP
QTH: CT/MA/RI
Operating Time (hrs): 4.9

Summary:
 Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs
------------------------
   80:      0        0
   40:    320       48
   20:     32        1
   15:      0        0
   10:      0        0
------------------------
Total:    352       49  Mults = 42  Total Score = 31,626

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Comments:

John W1XX scouted for potential sites on state and county lines and prepared the
route and stops for our mobile operation. In addition to several good sites and
backups he was able to locate one state line we could straddle and include three
counties. The prior week he secured permission from the property owner for
access. At this site and the others a light weight fiberglass telescopic mast on
a tripod with a 40M inverted Vee at 13M was quickly set up for use. It was
easily tuned for 20M with the K3 internal tuner.

For operation in Boston SUFMA, our white work van with roof racks and orange
traffic cones were setup on a side street. Our tripod for the antenna was setup
over an open manhole. We all had our hardhats, but the out of state
“ham” plates gave us away allowing only an hour or so operation before
we were chased.

Mike K1DM was CW operator and chief of tech support. We all welcomed the comaraderie and felt secure after having been vaccinated. Happy full faces please. Need normalcy ASAP! Good to see the CTRI participation.

We did most of our operation on 40M.

Counties and Qs
BRIMA 31
BRIRI 69
KENRI 77
PLYMA 128
PRORI 29
SUFMA 24
WINCT 43

NE Counties working us (21) were minimal due to band and operation times.
73, John W1AN

Hi All –

Hope most of you can make some Q’s for our annual NEQP effort this weekend!

I’ve proposed an 80m (+75m SSB) *RALLY* so members can work each other and many other New England stations during two periods of NEQP (which can be slower times typically) :
— Sat night, last hour, midnite to 1 am local: CW on the hour (04-0430z), SSB on the half-hour (0430-05z)
— Sun eve, last hour, 7 to 8 pm local: CW on the hour (23-2330z), SSB on the half-hour (2330-2359z)
Try 3.540 MHz and 3.850 MHz +/- . Call CQ, look for (and spot!) active CTRI members, work other close-by W1’s, and have fun! I will definitely be in there!! Hope to work many of you in this Activity Hour.

See the updated NEQP.org homepage for times of the other three concurrent QPs — 7QP, INQP & DEQP. Work the 7’s and IN stations Sat night as they won’t be active much on Sunday. Only the DEQP runs 24 hours. For DX mults work all the stations calling CQ ARI (CW and SSB) and just provide a serial # to them. Each unique DXCC worked in NEQP is a mult so it is worthwhile to chase some DX too!

Good luck to our intrepid rovers W1AN, K1DM and W1XX operating as W1DX/m from various CT/RI/MA county lines on both days. Hopefully most of their chosen locations will be free of powerline/other noise.

With the success of the State QSO Party Challenge (now in year #2) bringing hundreds of additional ops to the QSO party table many many non-W1 stations will be hunting for you, so call CQ and Run often. All participants may use spotting networks so use the cluster as a source for new mults. All categories are considered Mixed Mode so don’t neglect your less favorite mode(s) to maximize points.

Good luck / good contesting … 73,

Bill W1WBB
Chief Op @ AI1TT
NEWRI

ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2021

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

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: USA
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   90    39
   80:  156    50
   40:  238    73
   20:  202    81
   15:  114    46
   10:   13     7
-------------------
Total:  813   296  Total Score = 721,944

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Mostly S&P for a part time operation. All the antennas survived the last few storms.
KI1G tops so far in SO Unlimited HP!
73, John W1AN

Long overdue various upgrades of my 5/16 wavelength (~ 170 ft) 160m Inv L have been occuring throughout this month of January during some milder (and less windy) days! Hoping for improved transmit performance in CQWW 160 CW (and perhaps 160m SSB event in Feb?) after disappointing results in recent Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge.

Primary upgrade: a newly installed *elevated* radial system to hopefully reduce existing ground losses…the menace of vertical attennas, esp. on 160m. Three non-resonant 1/8 wave (65 ft) elevated radials were installed, gullwing style, going from 4 ft at feedpoint up to about 10-12 above ground. NO attachment to the already existing on-earth radial system is made, although those radials (18 various length wires mostly shorter than 1/4 wavelength) help reduce the losses from the new elevated system!

Research has shown NON-resonant radials in an elevated position on verticals causes negligible current deviations amongst those radials, thus reduced losses. Due to our poor New England soil conductivity ( a “2” here whereas some Midwestern soils register a very good figure of “30”) l’m hoping the above ground radials will be even more effective in isolating the Inv L from ground losses. And typical for above ground radials, just 4 radials is typically required … I opted for 3 somewhat symmetrically placed wires with my limited 100′ x 200′ space.

In addition, the Inv L was adjusted for a more ideal approximately “up 80 ft/over 90 ft” length and a more robust near 2000 pF series matching capacitor installed. Only the use of an SWR Analyzer awaits for final tweaking (warmer months??)… but for now it requires very little in-shack tuning across the band. Multiple mechanical attachment improvements and relocated feedpoint at the DX Engineering lowband-specific Balun itself round out the system changes.

Six recent Eu contacts and Reverse Beacon Network test reports show the new system is getting out at distance with my 100 watts. Contesting will put it to an even better test of course!

Hope to work many of you on Topband this weekend … or in the near future!!

Good luck/73,
Bill W1WBB
Trustee of AI1TT

The CTRI Contesting Group will hold our regular meeting tonight at 7:00 via Zoom. You should have received an email containing a link to the meeting this morning. If you did not, please email me or any other member of the executive board.

73,
Charlie
K1ECU

2021  ARRL RTTY Roundup 

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

Class: SO(A) RTTY HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 10.2

Summary:
 Band  RTTY Qs  DXC
-----------------------
   80:   164     1   
   40:   319    28   
   20:   251    20    
   15:              
   10:              
-----------------------
Total:   734    State/Prov = 54  Countries = 49 
Total Score = 75,602

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Enjoyable start for the new year. Hope many members were active.
John W1AN

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