It seems I will be off the air for at least some of the contest. My inverted vee is down, which is my main antenna. My verticals are still standing and only need the snow knocked off them to return them to service. My 6M beam is listing at a 45 degree angle off horizontal and almost 90 degrees off bearing.

All in all not too bad, but I’m not sure how long it will take me to get to the repairs. At risk is not only this contest but the ARRL DX CW next weekend, another of my favorites.

Mother nature sucks.

73,

Pat, NG1G

I thought I would pass along three bits of info I picked up on the RTTY reflector this week. Thanks to Ed, W0YK.

***First, note the log submission deadline of February 15.

Second, for us M2 stations and operators, the band change limit is now 8 per clock hour instead of the previous 10.

Third, for anyone interested in being spotted by the RTTY skimmers, you must format your transmission to include a space at the end, either after your call sign (as in “CQ NG1G NG1G “) or after a key word (such as QRZ? CQ, or TEST, as in “CQ NG1G NG1G CQ “).

73,

Pat, NG1G

Keeping in mind that everything is subject to change, the following is a list of dates for meetings this wonderful year of 2013. The Calendar on the web site has been updated to reflect these dates. Note that there are no meetings scheduled for July or December. All meetings except the March luncheon are scheduled to be at Crandall House in Ashaway, RI.

February	23 Feb      Location to be determined will post on web site
March		23 Mar	    Annual Luncheon Meeting
April		13 Apr
May		11 May
June		15 Jun
July		No Meeting
August		10 Aug
September	07 Sep
October		05 Oct
November	09 Nov
December	No Meeting    Happy Holidays!!!

Initial results for the 2012 ARRL  November Sweestakes Phone contest can be found on ARRL’s website:   http://www.arrl.org/contest-results-articles

(Hopefully my link works THIS time!)   Big QSO totals from N1HRA and a ‘sweep’ as well from W1AN.  Lots of activity from the Ocean State kept the RI mult out of the super rare category.

Bill  W1WBB

Check it out.  This will be the last chance for a real RTTY practice before you all fly south (or head for W1AN’s shack).  It looks like I will be on the road Saturday and Sunday, so I won’t be able to play.

Good luck.  73, Mike, K1DM

Just a reminder – logs for last weekend’s CQWW 160m CW contest will be due this Friday NLT 2200Z.  The 5-day log submission deadline is now standard for all the CQ WW contest events and WILL apply to the upcoming CQWW WPX RTTY event as well.   Bill  W1WBB

Hello contesters!

Gregg’s Restaurant in North Kingstown, RI has been secured for March 23, 2013 at noon. I told them about 30 people would be there, give or take a few. They would appreciate a count so they can set it up properly. As was last year, we will be ordering off the menu.

Best to all,
Chuck -ka1cqr-

I know this isn’t my responsibility, however, I have all my info ready to go.  10 m didn’t treat me very well, but it’s still points and contacts.

Band	QSOs	Pts	DXC	Are	Con
28	36	36	14	4	2
Total	36	36	14	4	2

Score: 1,296

CTRI CG members should post their claimed scores for this Topband event here — “soapbox” comments are certainly welcome!

I’m half way through the CQWW 160 Meter CW Contest and if you have not been on, conditions have been VERY good.  I put in a couple of hours at the beginning nof the contest starting at 5 PM Friday using my kluge 160 meter vertical…that is…what’s left of it from Hurricane Sandy…plus some added ground level linear loading + coil + tuner in the shack to make it work.  Operated the first couple of hours with only typical results…USA/VE no problem east of the Mississippi…and heard some of the loud EU’s of which only a few could hear me.  So I hit the hay to get back on fresh at 11 PM so as to work EU during their peak time of 11 PM – 3 AM our local  time,.  Fantastic!  EU signals as loud as stateside.  ….answering my CQs.  Stayed up the rest of the night til SR.  Loooked for VK/ZL…no luck, but did get KH6 and CE1.  So if you’re into Top Band…listen tonight especially around midnight.  Worked W1AN, W1CTN, and I don’t think any other CTRI’ers.  Score so far:  Qs = 477; Dom Mults = 51; DX mults = 33; points = 143K;  time on = approx. 9 hours.  Adios! 

— John, W1XX

Jay and I took a 4 hour round trip drive to Salem, NH to pick up Carlos’ “NEW” 2 Element 40m beam.  At HRO, they advised us to check the parts list and the boxes to make sure all the parts were there.  So we did.  GUESS WHAT?!?!  The antenna was USED, missing ALL the X-Hats, parts of the tubing for the elements, dinged, scratched and dented.  HRO is shipping another one from California to their Salem store, and it looks like I’m going to have to take another ride to pick it up, along with another $50 in gas.  Good news is Carlos bought 2 new rotators that shipped out at the beginning of the week, and should be installed by the time we get there.

I REALLY NEED A VACATION.

 

73

Bill N1HRA

This is one of the contests in the CTRI Champions Competition. If anyone operated and submitted a score, please post your results here by adding a comment to this posting.

Thanks…

 

While putting together a team to defend our WPX RTTY  NA title (and record) at W1AN, I received an excellent suggestion from Jim, KS1J that we provide one last opportunity to anyone interested in practicing with N1MM/RTTY and (re-)familiarizing themselves with John’s station. To that end, I asked John if he would be willing to open his station this weekend during the BARTG RTTY Sprint, which runs from 1200 UTC Saturday to 1200 UTC Sunday. John has graciously agreed to do that.

If you haven’t operated the BARTG contests, they’re a lot of fun and usually have a great deal of activity. The Sprint does have a Multi category but we are more concerned with folks coming down and getting comfortable with the operation rather than “contesting” per se. Of course, you can always just drop in and chat for a while, too. I’ll bring doughnuts, and John always has plenty of coffee.

I’d appreciate it if those interested in putting in some time at John’s station would let me know either here or via email when they plan on being here so John and I can plan our time. I intend on being there early (0700 local perhaps) to help John with whatever needs to be done in preparation for WPX RTTY, but doubt that I can spend the entire day there.

15 days to go!

73,

Pat, NG1G

 

I did a little research on what plaques the club membership has agreed to sponsor. This list has no bearing on what plaques we are actually paying for now, but is an expression of the club’s past desire to sponsor certain plaques. It gives us a baseline from which we can make future financial decisions. For each plaque I’ve included the last year I could verify our sponsorship, according to the various sponsors’ results articles/rules, and the cost, if known.

For reference, please see messages #7105 and #5044 on the CTRI Yahoo! Group site. I can’t find reference to specific sponsored plaques in any minutes of the meetings for which I found records.

73,

Pat, NG1G

 

ARRL DX Phone #181 (New England SOLP) – last sponsored in 2011 ($75)

ARRL RTTY Roundup #28 (New England SOLP) – last sponsored in 2012 ($75)

NEQP (RI SO) – currently sponsored ($40)

CQ WPX RTTY (M2 USA) – last sponsored in 2012 ($65)

ARRL SS Phone #104 (New England SOLP) – last sponsored in 2009 ($75)

NAQP January SSB (New England SOLP) – no historical info on NCJ web site, but we are not currently a sponsor ($75?)

CQ WPX SSB  – I can verify that we have not sponsored this plaque since at least 2005, perhaps before then. ($65?)

CTRI Intra-Club Contest ($50 ea.)

 

 

Latest results for these two major HF contests have just been published and can be found here:   www.arrl.org/contest-results-articles    Just click on the contest of interest.

Ken K3IU and I helped keep RI just out of the Top Ten Most Rare sections on CW in Sweepstakes this past year.  Activity was strong locally in SS SSB and those results are pending.  GL to those playing in the ARRL VHF contest and NAQP SSB this weekend.

73,  Bill  W1WBB