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

 

 

It has been nearly a year since members Ken Wagner K3IU, John Spigel W1AN, Mike McKaughan K1DM, Pat Atwood NG1G, and Ed Haskell W1PN gathered at W1AN for the 2012 CQ Worldwide WPX RTTY Contest. Most of these OPs were members of the 2011 CPWW WPX RTTY team that won for North America with a US record setting score.

 

 

 

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There is a problem with the web site creating multiple copies of new postings. The source has been narrowed down to the “CREATE A POST” item in the menu bar.

Until we get this fixed, if you want to create a new posting, please look at the TOP menu bar above the CTRI logo and move the mouse over the  “+ New” item and select “Post.”

Using this template seems to work without the problem of multiple postings. I have deleted most, if not all, of the multiple postings and test postings.

73, Ken K3IU

More required text.

I have sent in the sponsorship for the 2013 CQ WPX RTTY Plaque.  Now lets win that bad boy!

I originally posted this in late 2011 and thought it would be good to repost it to let everyone know what we are going after down there next month. I just rechecked and the records below are still standing.
73, Ken K3IU

Looking Towards New World Record for CQ WPX RTTY

There has been recent discussions about a crew from CTRI heading to Puerto Rico in February 2013 to make a run for the World Record in the WPX RTTY contest. This should be near the peak of the sunspot cycle and will be a great opportunity run up a BIG score at Carlos’ station.

I just did a little research to identify exactly what the records are at the present time. This posting is to put that information in plain view. You should particularly note that the North American record and the United States record are held by pretty familiar callsigns….

Category              Record Holder      Year            Score           WPX

WORLD - Multi-2       EA8AH              2007            17,001,420      895
North America - M2    NP3U               2008            14,053,680      894
United States - M2    NG1G (W1AN)        2011             7,862,238      873

A crew from CTRI also went south to NP3U in Februray 2009 for this contest. However, the gods weren’t with us on this trip. Equipment problems and antenna problems caused us to be Multi-Single for about 25% of the contest time. The score from that effort for NP3U (9.895,184) was still enough to win First Place Honors, Multi-2, in both the World and North America.

 

Talked to Carlos on the phone this afternoon. I got some answers to some of our questions.

Internet: Same as we used last time: However WP4Z has and internet company with a tower with a bunch of anteenas on it that we can access via a 2m link. I guess he (WP4Z) uses it that way for his station. Carlos will talk to him. Lets plan on bringing the gear down to set it up.

Anteena update: They did get the beams up but found the rotors did not work so he has ordered two new ones and they (Carlos & his friends) will have them installed.

Would Like: Cables for the ICE filters  that connect to the radios to make them swicth freq together?

A center insolator for the 80M Delta loop you can take a look at what he means at http://www.alphadeltacom.com/pg11.html Maybe someone has something like this in thier junk box.

I asked him again to send a list of wants and needs via email.

I was going to have a meeting of the group that is going next weekend but we’ll have to put it off until the weekend of the 26 or 27th if you think that will work. If not I can cancel what I need to do next weekend.