For the several of us guys owning Elecraft K3s and those planning on going to NP3U in February, here is a link to a pretty “Nifty” resource. This link takes you to the web site of a company NOT affiliated with Elecraft who has published a compact K3 Mini-manual. I have seen one but have not yet actually studied one; however, it has gotten rave reviews on the Elecraft reflector. It is 4.5″ x 8″ with 24 laminated pages of detailed instrtuctions and helpful information. I am planning to buy one to use as a reference in developing a training cirriculum for the K3 in our lead up to NP3U. I have no financial relationship with Elecraft or the Nifty! Accessories™ Company. Well… over the years I’ve spent a lot of money at Elecraft, but you know what I mean. 🙂
Member Posts
Boxboro Food for Thought
I thought I would recap my comments from Saturday’s meeting regarding Boxboro. Tom Walsh, K1TW, called me last week to discuss our club’s plans for Boxboro and to see what the convention committee can do for us. Tom, as some of you may remember, was the convention’s volunteer coordinator before he left for CA in 2007. He’s back in New England and taking over the reins once again.
As it does every year, the convention needs volunteers in order to run smoothly and get everything done. This year, as in years past, they are asking for volunteers to contribute two hours of their time to activities like ticket selling/taking, hleping with the forums, doing odd jobs, or counting money (no, you don’t get to keep any of it). The majority of the need is with ticketing, and the busiest time slots are Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8 am – 12 am, but can start as early as 7 am. The work is fun and easy, and goes by very quickly if you take an early time slot. If you’d like to volunteer some time please let me know. We already have 7 volunteers, so it looks like CTRI will lead the way again this year! The sooner we give him names the better, because we get first pick at time slots.
Tom also mentioned that with the WRTC occurring in New England, he thinks the convention is in a good position to help advertise it and increase interest, and if done correctly, the convention will benefit as well. What he wants to know is what we as contesters think the convention could do to help publicize the WRTC, and how we might be able to do that while increasing interest in the convention as well. If you’d give this some thought and pass along your ideas to me I’ll make sure Tom gets them. Thanks in advance.
As if that weren’t enough to stimulate your brain, Tom also wants to know what the convention can do to help publicize CTRI. This could take the form of supporting a forum, or providing a booth in the exhibitor’s hall as in years past, etc. Our continued strong support of the convention has not gone unnoticed, so if you can think of anything you’d like to see them do for us, please pass it along.
I think the big message here is that, as has been said many times, we are recognized and appreciated not only for what we’ve done within the sphere of contesting, but also for what we’ve done to help make the convention the success it has been over the years. Again we’re being given an opportunity to make ourselves heard and known better, so I’m asking that everyone take a few minutes to come up with some ideas. All hams in New England will benefit if we do.
73,
Pat, NG1G
Minutes, Meeting of April 21, 2012
Mike reminded us that NEQP was couple of weeks away. Discussion of members’ plans and last year’s results.
Boxboro is how we make money. Last time we didn’t make a whole lot of money (less than a year’s expenses while we usually make 2.x times that much).
We couldn’t field a big enough team to perform like previous years.
Raffle now would cost each member an assessment of $???. Would it be better to have dues and cut out the middleman?
Field Day operate RTTY practice for Peurto Rico – require rigs to be bbrought in, pcs and network for N1MM, operate sat till 9pm or so and call it a day.
Promised town do it this year, but they said we couldn’t use facility this May and June.
Operate in W1AN’s outbuilding.
Meet at W1PN’s QTH in May.
make final decision on what to do for FD
W1AN have PCs and N1MM setup ready
Boxboro — is it going to happen?
1×1 ops w/o stn can visit at w1an
Original 13 colonies 6/30-7/5 – URL
JFK carrier to RI 2-3 years
Mystic Seaport – Chas Morgan whaling ship restoration – launching will be historic event — special event stn? Motion passed to have w1an approach them.
Consider mass migration to Dayton next year —
w1an demo of rf noise detector —
LoTW Instructions Addendum
Here are the instructions for adding a location and uploading a file to LoTW.
73,
Pat, NG1G
Addendum to How to Create a 1×1 Call Sign Certificate for LoTW
May 19th meeting of CTRI CG
Gang,
If you are planning on attending the meeting on Saturday, please make sure you let Ed, W1PN know right away. If you have not signed up for the meeting, then there will be no lunch for you should happen to show up. Let’s please be courtious about this so our hostess doesn’t have to react to our lack of RSVP.
Thanks. Mike, K1DM, president.
1×1 Call Sign Cabrillo Files
Gents,
Please submit to me the Cabrillo file(s) from your operations under your 1×1 call signs as soon as possible. Importing the data into a spreadsheet is slightly labor-intensive, and I’d like to be able to have it all done before the 1st of June.
If recent QSL card deliveries are any indication, we might have well over 100 requests in total. As of today I have 28 requests, including one certificate request (based on only one QSO!), and I know other members are receiving cards directly.
If anyone has questions on what exactly I need, or how to export the data, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help. Same goes for signing/uploading logs to LoTW. As soon as I can rectify my inability to include media files in my posts, I’ll upload the instructions for everyone to use. That should happen Saturday after the meeting.
Thanks for your cooperation.
73,
Pat, NG1G
Meeting Notice, May 19, 2012
It’s that time again.
If you are familiar with the interactive meeting notice skip down to “Topics“. This is an interactive meeting notice. What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice? As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice which requires interaction by the readers. For example: we need to have topics for presentation at the meeting; we need presenters; we need volunteers to provide lunch; we need to know who is coming to the meeting so the quantity of lunch portions may be determined, and so on. This post will be updated as interactions (comments) are appended.
Topics
- Contest Report
- Boxboro
- Field Day plans
- LOTW handout including How To for 1×1 calls.
- Winning the World from NP3U in 2013 DECISION TIME
Lunch provider: W1PN
XYL is preparing lunch. Please RSVP as soon as possible so a count may be determined.
Coffee and Drinks by: W1PN
Members who will attend: W1PN, K1DM, NG1G, W1AN, K3IU, W1WBB, NR1H, KA1GEU, K1SD, WE1H, N6ERD
Venue: 7 Juniper Ln, Johnston, RI, 1100 to about 1400
Top Honors for KI1G & KS1J – 2011 CQWW RTTY!
Hearty congrats to Rick KI1G for achieving the highest score for *any* Single Operator in *the World* during the 2011 CQWW RTTY Contest and winning the World – Single Operator Assisted High Power All Band category and associated plaque with 6.4M pts…while establishing a new North American record! Amazing effort Rick!!
Jim KS1J placed in the “Top Five” United States for Single Operator Assisted Low Power All Band in this contest…another outstanding effort! **Well done to these fine CTRI CG contesters.**
Full details in the May 2012 CQ magazine with on-line results I believe in early June.
BTW, the May issue cover photo features WA1VQY of Tiverton, RI… the town Fire Chief here in my town of Portsmouth, RI — and a big-time ‘boat anchor’ collector (and avid CW op) looking at his shack.
Bill W1WBB
CQ WPX CW – May 26-27
The CQ WPX CW contest is coming up in a couple of weeks, May 26-27. Please post your plans here. If there is interest in operating a Multi-2, my station will be open.
73,
John, W1AN
Yemen DxPedition 7O6T
Socotra Island (IOTA AF-028; CQ Zone 37), Yemen 7O6T
The Yemen DxPedition has been underway for several days. This is a rare DXCC country near the top of the most wanted list. I think it’s number 6. We worked them on two bands as K1T during the NEQP and last night they were loud on both 160M and 80M. Unfortunately they were not copying anybody well so I could not add those bands to my log. Maybe tonite?
It may be a long time before Yemen is active again considering the turmoil there. They are easy copy on both 20M and 15M, so see what you can do.
73,
John, W1AN
LoTW Certificate Info!!!
Hey guys,
For those of you who are adding your 1×1 call sign QSOs into LoTW, remember that after you receive the certificate for the 1×1 call, you’ll need to create a new location in the TQSL program for the 1×1 call. That’s how you enable the 1×1 call’s certificate to be used to sign .adi files. I did not make that clear when I wrote up my instructions, and I should have.
If you already happened to upload your QSOs to LoTW and inadvertently signed the .adi file with your home call’s certificate, have no fear. All that does I think is put those QSOs under the wrong call, which means they’ll never be QSL’d. To fix the problem you just need to add the location for the 1×1 call in the TQSL program, re-sign the .adi file with the new location you created (which will use the 1×1 call’s certificate), and upload it to LoTW.
If anyone encounters difficulty or would like me to write up a quick instruction on how to do that I’d be happy to help or put that together. You can post your question here or email me at ng1gATverizonDOTnet
73,
Pat, NG1G
2012 NEQP Results
Since I was delinquent in posting this repository for the NEQP Results and others have already posted results in another posting, please post results in the NEQP and Special Event posting below.
I guess this falls into the category of being “overtaken by events.”
Ken K1K/K3IU
NEQP and Special Event
Only a few hours until NEQP starts! Is everyone ready?
I checked on how many members have added their 1×1 call signs to their qrz.com page and it’s only a few. It’s easy to do, and it would be great if everyone would do it, that way stations you work can get all the info they need right there. You might also want to let them know when you expect to be uploading your LoTW data (assuming you use LoTW).
Here are the instructions for adding the 1×1 call to your database: You will need to request that the qrz.com admin people add it. On qrz.com Under the “Contact” menu is “Help Desk”. Click on that and then click on “Contact the Administrators”. You’ll need to fill out the identifying information and then tell them that you would like whatever your 1×1 call is added to your database for the period of May 1-May 15, 2012, and what SE the 1×1 call is for. You’ll get an email back shortly telling you they received your request, and then usually within 20 minutes they will send another email telling you they made the change. Then you can log in to qrz.com, search for your 1×1 call sign, and then, using the “Edit” menu, add the Special Event info to the page.
Since there is no information on wa1rr.org regarding the Special Event, I would not send people there. I’d send them to your qrz.com site, and you should have S/E and QSL information for them there. You can use my page (K1W) as a guide if you want, just make sure you let them know to QSL via NG1G. Editing your “home call” qrz.com page with NEQP and SE info would be a good thing to do as well, check out my NG1G page.
Have fun!
73,
Pat, NG1G/K1W
K1C Activated
To all:
K1C was briefly active tonight on 40 phone. QRN was terrible at Radio Ansonia, but I worked 38 stations in less than 20 minutes. Many others in the noise. I might have to erect a 40 meter Beverage if the QRN keeps up.
73
Dave K1C
NE QSO Party Birthday
Not only do we get to celebrate the CTRI Contest Group’s 20th anniversary of ARRL affiliation, but this year’s NE QSO Party is 10 years old, and CTRI helped to get it all started! Kudos to all those original members of the group, and Good Luck to everyone this weekend!
73 de KB1LN Bob
