I just received my December CQ Magazine today. Congratulations to the following CTRI members for the following awards in the CQWW 160M contests:
Mike K1DM for the #1 CT CW Low Power
John W1XX for both #1 RI CW and SSB High Power
Bill W1WBB for the #1 RI CW Low Power
Chris KA1GEU for #1 RI SSB Low Power
Dave W1CTN for #1 CT Hgh Power Assisted
John W1AN (that’s me) #1 CT SSB High Power
73,
John W1AN
For those who don’t want to fight the QRN on 160-CW this weekend, there are two RTTY contests. The TARA RTTY Melee starts at 0000Z 01 December (that’s Friday evening) and runs through 2359 01 December. Then starting at 0000Z on 02 December (Saturday evening) through 2359 is the 10-meter RTTY contest. In both contests the exchange is RST and STATE, so you should be able to roll from one to the other, or you can pick your favorite 24-hour run. This will be the last chance this year to work out some more bugs in your operating process. I don’t know how busy these contests will be, but the 10-meter test should give you a chance to collect some additional countries and states.
73, Mike, K1DM
Looks like Mike beat me to the punch and has posted a site to collect the results of the CW contest this past weekend. If everyone would post their results by adding a comment to Mike’s posting, it would simplify things.
The question of formatting (or preformatting) results so that the columns are aligned vertically keeps coming up. Looking at the template for New Post, there is actually a way to do this without resorting to the HTML tags <pre> and </pre>. After you cut/paste the table from where ever you get it into the posting, select all of that text and then look above in the bottom tool bar for a pull down menu item that will say “Paragraph”, click the “down” arrow and select “Preformatted”. Then when you publish the post, it should show everything the way you want it. OR… you can move the cursor to a new line (hit ENTER) and select “Preformatted” from the menu bar and then paste the table there. It works either way!
73, Ken K3IU
Gang,
Here is a summary of my attempt at SOAB(A) High Power for the CQ WW CW this past weekend.
Band QSOs Pts Zones Countries
----------------------------------------
1.8 0 0 0 0
3.5 81 226 15 36
7 209 595 21 68
14 51 137 17 35
21 239 684 23 81
28 33 88 13 20
----------------------------------------
Total: 613 1730 89 240
Score: 569,170
Operating time: 26 hours (N1MM)
I did notice some issues with so many spotted stations.Apparently N1MM keeps track of
every spot, and reloads them each time you restart the program. There may be a way to
deal with this, but I don’t know what it is. I also need to investigate removing spots
from the band map that are old. It’s really annoying to have spots from Friday night cluttering the
band map on Sunday afternoon. This might be a good topic to discuss at the January
meeting.
For now, 73, Mike, K1DM
Happy Post T-Day!
Does anoyone have one of those Sling Shot – like an EZ Hang or such – to shoot antenna ropes into high places that I could borrow for a weekend? I’ve tried with a ladder, but only got the antenna ~25′ off the ground. Was hoping for closer to 40′.
Thanks, Mike Visich
KB1RFJ
I just noted this on http://www.spaceweather.com .
I can already hear the affects on 20m. Could be a long weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% to 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Nov. 23/24 when a pair of CMEs is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled toward Earth by the recent eruptions of sunspot AR1618. Black Friday might be tinged red and green by the glow of high-latitude auroras.
This from the Steve London, N2IC, on the N1MM Reflector. Word to the wise and all that rot. Emphasis added by me.
73, Ken K3IU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recommend taking a look at latest entry in the CQWW blog, written by
CQWW director K5ZD. See http://cqww.com/blog/?p=50 .
In particular he makes this comment:
“There is one very popular software package that does not always correct
the zone number when the call sign is edited. This can result in zone 35
being assigned to a station in Germany or 13 being assigned to a station
in Japan. This will result in a lost QSO when we do the checking.”
I suspect he is talking about N1MM Logger. This issue can easily be
rectified by properly setting one option in N1MM Logger. In
Config->Configure Ports->Other there is a check box “Clear populated
exchange on callsign change”. This should be checked for CQWW (as well
as many other contests).
73,
Steve, N2IC
Club members active in SS SSB can post scores, stories, etc. here!
Ok guys I haven’t heard from 1 person yet about flight information. Jay and I have been checking flights everyday since the meeting. Prices are ranging from $280-$450. Really the best bang for your buck is JetBlue out of Boston. Even though the cost is a little more ($370 pp/taxes) you fly in comfort, first checked bag is FREE, you are allowed a carry-on and a personal item (back pack), and everyone flies in “first class”. All seats have their own “free” tv to watch, and non-stop flights to and from. This is the flight we are looking at right now:
2 travelers roundtrip: Boston, MA (BOS) to San Juan, PR (SJU)
USD
Ok guys, getting ready to run sweepstakes. For the life of me, I cannot find the “section” window in N1MM. Where do they hide it?
Thanks
Bill
N1HRA
A Contester is born. Jay KB1LCQ jumped right into the fire during the WAE rtty contest this past weekend. Jay started off the contest working sations on 40m for a few hours. The next day I sat him in the chair and put him on 20m, where he stayed most of the day. As you can see by the score and contacts per band, he did pretty good for the first time out. I have to say that over 75% of the contacts made, he was in the running mode, and experienced many pile ups.
Band Total N1HRA
7 42 42
14 190 190
21 7 7
Total 239 239
Total points for the weekend 43,498
Here’s what Jim, K8JE, Great Lakes Division Director, had to say on the qrz.com forum about the LoTW outage. I can’t speak for the truth of his “facts”:
“+++ Logbook of the World +++
A few members have asked about Logbook of the World (LoTW) being
inoperable. Here are the facts about this situation:
The department manager over Information Technology at HQ has confirmed
that no data were lost. The problem is that storage capacity has been
filled. Apparently, the fact that storage for LoTW was rapidly being
filled due to the rapid expansion of data input into it was not caught
in time to allow capacity to be expanded before the program shut down.
Staff advised the directors that capacity is being added and that
appropriate alarms are being built into the program to prevent this
situation from happening in the future. LoTW should resume full
operations essentially momentarily.
I apologize for the inconvenience this situation has caused.
73,
Jim
Jim Weaver, K8JE
Director, Great Lakes Division
5065 Bethany Rd.
Mason, OH 45040
Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@nullarrl.org
ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio Is
Members: The reason ARRL is”
Some of our members may not know that due to the holidays, for the last several years we have not had a meeting in December. I would imagine this year will be no different, and that the next meeting will be sometime in January.
I would like to suggest two topics for the next meeting, whenever it occurs. First, I would like for us to entertain serious discussion on the issue of finances, specifically how to address our deficiency in that regard (our own “fiscal cliff” approacheth in 2013). Second, I would like for us to finalize discussion on the status of the club web site versus the Yahoo group.
Both of these issues affect every member, so I would encourage everyone to give thought to them in advance and attend the meeting. You will no doubt want your voice heard if any votes are taken. Also, I would suggest that we suspend our usual meeting style (one very loosely based upon Robert’s rules) and try to keep discussion more in line with parliamentary procedure so that everyone will have a chance to speak their mind. I’d also suggest that we ask members to keep comments to no more than 2 minutes so things will flow smoothly. Heck, we could even hash out some of the discussion here (gasp!)
I’m certain that we’ll also need to discuss WPX RTTY, but that should take little time as the group that is going seems to have things well in hand. That could be our first topic so we can get it out of the way.
Comments? Suggestions?
73,
Pat, NG1G
It was great to see everyone at the meeting on Saturday. First I would like to welcome Jay KB1LCQ to the club. Now on to NP3U. I have the following members on the list of operators: Ken K3IU, John W1AN, Jamie K1SG, Matt WE1H, Jay KB1LCQ, Bill N1HRA, Mike K1DM, and Ed W1PN. Ken K3IU will be making contact with Carlos soon. Untill we hear back from Ken confirming that the station will be available, I suggest no one purchase their tickets. Jay and I have been looking at flight costs this evening and found this flight info. This is a one stop flight with your layover in Washington of less than 45 minutes. Price of this flight per person is $279.40 (taxes and fees included). Plan on an extra $25 each way checked baggage. This is the best price found as of yet. All other other flights had layovers of 4-6 hours and much more expensive. Again if anyone else finds anything, please post it here. As stated at the meeting I would like to hear back from all team members attending by Saturday the 17th the LATEST.
Ken K3IU: Please try and make contact with Carlos as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Bill N1HRA
| Tue, Feb 5: | Depart 05:45AM Arrive 12:50PM |
Boston Logan International Airport, MA (BOS) San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, (SJU) |
1 Stop  United – Flight 842 / 1203 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Feb 12: | Depart 01:41PM Arrive 06:57PM |
San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, (SJU) Boston Logan International Airport, MA (BOS) |
1 Stop |
