Here is the new contest season’s first report by our intrepid Contest Manager of the CTRI Championship Leaderboard.
Clicking on the link below should allow you to download the file so that you can open it with Microsoft Office Excel or the Open Office equivalent.
A PROPOSAL FOR USA 40 METER PHONE BAND EXPANSION
To: ARRL New England Division Director
From: CTRI Contest Group
Background: The successful elimination of the vast majority of foreign broadcast in the 40 meter segment of 7100 – 7200 has been a very welcome development for day-to-day SSB DXing and casual ragchews. There has been an unintended consequence to contesting however – not all good – which dominoes to impact negatively on non-contesters as well.
The most noticeable effect has been during DX phone contests. Previous to a couple of years ago, foreign broadcast dominated the 7100 – 7200 KHz segment so that split operation ruled the day. DX stations would call CQ below 7100 and listen for US stations in whatever holes they could locate above 7125. It was aggravating to say the least when the DX station would only listen on his own transmit frequency. This would promote violations by US stations who would call (and sometimes work) the DX station out-of-band or would say “listen up.” Both are violations. Some stations were known to send on CW ‘UP” or “USA” which sometimes worked.
With foreign broadcast vacating the 7100 – 7200 segment, split operation has for all intense and purposes has now gone away with the DX stations now working the USA “on frequency” between 7125 and 7200. This has created a new problem. With the big multi DX stations plus the big USA multi stations all calling CQ in the 75 KHz segment, there is virtually nowhere for the more modest and even well equipped USA station to find a free run frequency to work more modestly equipped DX stations. The band is incredibly overcrowded. It’s almost worse than when one had to contend with the broadcast stations. Seventy-five kilohertz is not nearly enough room to accommodate the activity.
Band Breakdown: Here is the breakdown of the percentage of band available for phone operation compared to the entire band available per license class. Note that it is understood that CW operation is permitted throughout the entire bands cited but the percentage is based on the amount of band where CW/digital is normally used.
80M E = 80%
A = 80%
G = 72.7 %
20M E = 57%
A = 58%
G = 50%
17M EAG = 60%
15M E = 55.6%
A = 56%
G = 50%
12M EAG = 58%
10M EAG = 57%
40 Meter Breakdown: Forty meters is a bit more complicated in that foreign broadcast still is a problem from 7200 to 7300. Here’s the percentage using the ratio as above. The Advanced ratio appears better than Extra only because their phone privilege is the same as Extra but they do not have access to the bottom 25 KHz for CW – thus the whole pie is smaller.
40M E = 58%
A = 63.6%
G = 55%
The rub comes during DX contesting because for the most part operation is below 7200 thus effectively eliminating 100 KHz of spectrum because of foreign broadcast. True, stations do try to sneak in between heterodynes of foreign broadcast stations with some success. Calculating a percentage of the mostly usable band – that is eliminating the top 100 KHz – the story is telling:
40M E = 37.5%
A = 42.8%
G = 20%
The modest to even well equipped Extra/Advanced Class USA station has a huge QRM obstacle to overcome with only 75 KHz of space to maneuver successfully. Actually USA Extra/Advanced Class stations may only operate LSB phone as low as 7128 to allow for sidebands to stay in the band. Unfortunately, not everyone understands this, as it is not unusual for a DX station in a phone DX contest to receive answers from US stations while calling CQ on say 7125. Oh for the days of ARRL Official Observers and FCC “pink slips” to invoke contest disqualification.
What’s the average of spectrum allocated to phone operation? It appears that using the 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands as a guide, the percentage of spectrum allocated to phone operation is about 57 or 58 %. Eighty meters seems a bit of an anomaly as the percentage is considerably higher. Remember that it was quite a surprise when the FCC
expanded phone all the way down to 3600. Far less was proposed and expected.
Forty meters is the real problem especially during DX contests – exacerbated by foreign broadcast in the 7200 – 7300 segment.
What’s going on between 7100 and 7125? Extensive monitoring day-to day and during contests subjectively reveals that this segment is underutilized. Few DX stations operate there on a day-to-day basis. During DX phone contests, few DX stations operate there. During RTTY contests, most of the operation is below 7100. During CW DX contests, there is some activity above 7100 but mostly below.
The proposal: Expand USA phone operation to 7100 for Extras and Advanced. Forty meters will continue to be a QRM problem during contests no matter what. But expanding USA Extra and Advanced Class phone privileges to 7100 would be a significant improvement. Presumably General Class operators would then be allowed to operate from 7150 KHz instead of 7175 as presently. This is how the percentages would then break out with the first number based on the whole band and the second based on not considering the top 100 KHz of foreign broadcast dominated spectrum:
E = 66.6%/50%
A = 72.7%/57% (Not permitted to operate 7000 – 7025)
G = 66.6 %/40% (Not permitted to operate 7000 -7025)
Actually this club would not be adverse to allow General Class operators the same phone privileges as Extra and Advanced. There is still a 25 KHz incentive at the bottom of the band for CW/digital.
This is put forward as a proposal from the CTRI Contest Group to the ARRL New England Division Director for his appropriate motion to be made at the next ARRL Board or Executive Committee meeting.
Respectfully submitted as approved by its membership at its meeting of October 22, 2011 – CTRI Contest Group
Hi everyone,
I am selling my station and wanted to give the members first shot before posting anywhere else. The complete station is going, radios, towers, and ant and all misu stuff. I’m not sure when the next meeting is but if you’d like to come look around and see if there is anything you might like i can open the shack up after the meeting. The big idems are: FT-1000D, Ameratron 575, 50′ Rohn 45 with flat top with Alpha spid rotator & TH-5 Tribander, 35′ Rohn 25 with flat top Ham 4 rotator , TH3 Mark III tri-bander, all coax , Extra guy cables and more. If you can”t make it to the next meeting you can contact me at: billc230@nullcox.net with your phone number and I can give you a call.
Bill N1HRA
WANTED BY RADIO ANSONIA…
CUSHCRAFT D40 40 METER ROTARY DIPOLE
OR
D40 COILS AND HAT KITS
DAVE
W1CTN – RADIO ANSONIA
203 333 4112 OFFICE
203 735 9725 HOME AFTER 6 PM
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 what 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
Lunch provider:
Lunch fixins by: Hot dogs and hamburgers and soda will be served, courtesy of W1XX
Members who will attend:
W1PN, W1XX, NG1G, KA1GEU, W1WBB, KA1VMG, K1FUG, K3IU, NR1H, KA1BNO, KB1VEZ, W1CTN, W1BYH, K1SD, K6NDV, K6ND
Hi Gang! I thought I would make an abbreviated posting for the results of the W1DX CQWW RTTY contest operation. We operated in the Multi -2 category. There was approximately a total of 32 hours of operating time put in by W1AN, K1DM, W1PN, NG1G, NR1H and the newest contest operators Steve, KB1VEZ, and CG Academy Cadets Laura KB3VQN and Ryan, KB3VQM. We all had a great time and it was a pleasure having the operation here at W1AN.
John W1AN
You might want to download and register it very soon. According to the ARRL Letter, the rights to HRD have been sold to a group of hams who intend to fix some bugs in it before releasing v5.1. That version will be free to registered users, but there is no word on whether future versions would be free.
The full article can be found at http://www.arrl.org/news/hb9drv-sells-rights-to-ham-radio-deluxe
73,
Pat, NG1G
Other Posts have made the case for the club multioperating this contest so I won’t repeat that information. It would be useful to know who will be available to operate at W1AN. Please enter a comment below about when you would like to operate.
As a reminder (not that we necessarily need one), the CQ WW RTTY contest is on this weekend, and we’re trying to drum up some support for a multioperator, two-transmitter effort. If you can manage the time, please make the trip to W1AN’s station and participate. I think you’ll find it to be a lot of fun!
As an aside, while thinking about posting this request I came to realize that in order to assure myself of reaching everyone, I need to post this on the Yahoo group and on the web site. I would sincerely like to see us migrate away from the Yahoo group and use the web site exclusively. I can’t understand why we are still posting the majority of messages on the Yahoo group when so much work has gone into creating a better environment on the web site.
If there are issues with the web site let’s please discuss and resolve them. If not, can we PLEASE exit the Yahoo group for good within the next week or so (and then simply delete the group)? Certainly we should be able to agree that we are worse off with two discussion forums as opposed to the one we used to have, can’t we?
73,
Pat, NG1G
I like this contest but wish there was more activity. That said, I was happy to work into DE and northern VT on 2M, as well as working grid FN51! I worked many of the same stations as last year – and pretty much every VHF contest – but that’s no different from any HF contest.
My station is very simple, consisting of an FT-847, a 4-el 6M beam at @27′ and a 13-el 2M beam at @25′. I have 100W on 6M and 160W on 2M. Maybe I’ll get on 70cm next year.
50 Qs x 1 pt x 20 grids = 1,000 points. Probably enough to win RI, woo hoo!
73,
Pat, NG1G
THE CONTEST YEAR AT-A-GLANCE
The 2011-2012 contest season is upon us. Time is running short to make improvements to our stations, get used to the new software that we downloaded, or get better acquainted with that new mode that we learned. One of the things that we should be doing as a club is deciding in which contest(s) we’d like to operate in one of the multi-operator categories. The following is a list of the major (and some not-quite-so-major) contests in which our club has participated in the past, with some recommendations for multi-operator efforts:
The CQ Worldwide (WW) RTTY DX contest is September 24-25. This contest offers an excellent opportunity for a multi-operator entry, either as a multi–single or multi–two. As I mentioned during the last meeting, as a club we seem to have really latched onto the idea of RTTY contesting and have gotten quite good at it. Because it’s a digital mode, it allows folks to sit around and chat while actively making Qs, as well as providing an excellent forum for contesting training and practice.
In October there are a couple of contests that, while not considered “major”, present good opportunities to practice or maintain skills, check out our stations, or work DX. The Oceania DX Contest Phone contest occurs on the first weekend. Many rarely-heard Pacific stations get on the air for this one, which provides a great opportunity to chase DX and test low-band antennas. Its CW counterpart is the next weekend. The Makrothen RTTY Contest is also the second weekend of October and provides some good DX opportunity as well as great RTTY contesting.
Of course, if we’re talking about October, then we’re talking about the CQ WW DX Phone Contest! This is one of the biggest and most popular contests of the season. Few contests provide the same excitement, DX, and fun as the CQ WW contests. DXCC is easily within reach during this contest. This is another good multi-op contest, although of course as a phone contest our ability to sit around and shoot the bull is significantly impaired. We do well in the Multi-Single category in this contest, and are always in need of overnight operators willing to do battle on 40M and 80M.
November IS Sweepstakes month! The ARRL Sweepstakes is a very old and popular contest, with the CW portion falling on the first weekend and the SSB portion on the third weekend. They are, in my opinion, a true test of an operator’s ability to copy exchanges, as it’s a lengthy one. With a modest effort, one can achieve Worked All States in a single weekend on both modes.
The very next weekend after the SSB Sweepstakes is the CW portion of the CQ WW DX Contest. This is a fantastic way to improve your code speed. But, you don’t need to know the code to work the contest. Interested in how to do that? Ask me!
Generally speaking, winter offers the best conditions for 160 Meters, as atmospheric noise in the northern hemisphere is at its lowest. The first weekend in December offers the ARRL 160-Meter Contest. This CW contest is one of the best chances to work both stateside and DX stations on Topband, and lasts 42 hours with no time limitations. The Stew Perry Topband Challenge is the third weekend of December. This self-styled “friendly” contest offers a lot of chances for smaller stations to work good DX as the band is less crowded. This contest runs concurrently with the ARRL Rookie Roundup’s CW portion, which is, as its name implies, specifically designed to get rookies on the air and work not only each other but “Old Timers” as well. It’s a great way to foster interest in those who are new to contesting.
January is a HUGE contest month, with something for just about everyone. The ARRL RTTY Roundup takes place the first full weekend of January and runs for 36 hours. It’s very popular with the US RTTY crowd and offers a great way to get Worked All States in this mode. It’s very friendly and you only give a signal report and your state for an exchange, so QSOs can go quickly. The second full weekend brings us the North American QSO Party, CW, which is just what it sounds like. It’s another great contest, only 12 hours long (so you won’t get quite as numb in the derriere), and its SSB counterpart is on the third full weekend. Part of this contest’s exchange is the operator’s name, and you get some pretty funny and weird ones. You can make one up just to make it interesting.
Following close behind is the CQ 160-Meter CW Contest, which is another great way to get those needed states and countries on 160 Meters. Throw a dipole up into some trees and try it!
Finally, for us RTTY enthusiasts, is the BARTG RTTY Sprint, a 12-hour contest that is concurrent with the CQ 160-Meter Contest. So you can stay up all night and work Topband and be up all day “diddling”!
February brings us the contest in which I think we have been most successful as a club, especially from a multi-op perspective. The CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest is a slugfest that provides great excitement and fun for RTTY operators. Our club has won #1 World in the Multioperator, Two Transmitter (M2) category from NP3U, as well as US and North American M2 awards from KI1G and as single operators too, so we pretty much have this contest down. It’s a prefix contest, meaning the multipliers are based upon the call sign prefixes worked. If you have a fairly unique prefix you become very popular.
The ARRL International DX Contest, CW, is February 18-19. In this contest, we are the DX, so you can call CQ and have many DX stations answer you! This is a great contest for low power operation, because the DX stations are looking for us. The next weekend is the CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB, which can be an especially tough one for low power operators or those of us with small antennas for Topband. But the results can be worth the effort, so give it a try!
Rounding out the month of February is the North American QSO Party, RTTY. This is as much fun as its CW and SSB counterparts.
The first weekend of March brings the ARRL International DX Contest, SSB. Just like the CW version, we are the DX, so everyone is listening for us. March provides interesting propagation, and next year I would expect some decent high band activity. The third weekend gives us the BARTG HF RTTY Contest, a 48-hour RTTY-thon that has really gained popularity the last few years. If you’re serious about RTTY contesting, this is not one to miss!
That same weekend is the Russian DX Contest, which is very popular in our club and the contesting community in general. So if you get tired of hearing diddles in your head you can switch to this contest and work zillions of Russians as well as other DX.
The last weekend of March is for the 36-hour CQ WW WPX, SSB Contest. Good propagation should prevail, so dust off that microphone (if you can find it) and give it a whirl!
April doesn’t have what most contesters would consider to be “major” contests, but there are four state QSO parties (MI, GA, MI, FL) and one Canadian province QSO Party (ON) to keep you busy. I’m sure the April showers will keep us inside on at least one of these weekends. Might as well contest!
The first full weekend in May provides us with “our own” contest, the New England QSO Party. This is a very popular contest in the US, and thanks to John, W1XX, our club has really gone all out to make it fun and full of RI and CT signals. Next year I expect we will be challenged to do even better than 2011 (which CTRI won in the club category). There is talk of us getting special 1×1 call signs for this event, which will make us even more desirable to work, so stay tuned!
The last weekend of the month is for the CQ WW WPX Contest, CW. Lots of good DX is to be found, and don’t be shy about working CW!
June is the beginning of the VHF contesting season, and the ARRL June VHF QSO Party is the second weekend of the month. This contest has gained some popularity in our club, as members have found that they can actually win a certificate with modest participation. 6 meters is a fun band to work with 100 watts and a simple antenna, and when conditions are good you can work all over the US and beyond. If you have 2 meters you might be surprised at what you’ll work. Just last weekend during the ARRL September VHF QSO Party, I worked into Delaware and northern Vermont on 2M, using a 13-element beam at 25′ and 160W!
ARRL’s Field Day is the last full weekend in June, and provides the opportunity to find out if you can operate under emergency conditions (but you don’t have to). There are many stateside stations on the air, so it’s also a great way to work those last few states for WAS.
Many people don’t normally consider July a good contesting month but nothing could be further from the truth. The 24-hour IARU HF World Championship falls on the second full weekend and is a fast-paced DX contest with lots of participation. In 2014 New England will host the World Radiosport Team Championship, which is a sub component of this contest. It’s a huge world-wide event and will surely bring the entire radiosport community’s attention to our little corner of the US.
The next weekend is the 12-hour North American QSO Party (NAQP), RTTY. This is the last big RTTY contest of the year, and gets lots of activity. It coincides with the CQ WWVHF Contest, which lasts 15 hours longer, so you can work both contests. It’s an interesting mix of HF and VHF, RTTY, CW, and SSB, all in the same weekend.
The first full weekend of August brings the NAQP, CW. The North American QSO Parties are good fun and give us a chance to work each other in a competitive but friendly way. The third weekend is for the sideband version of this contest.
There are a multitude of other contests during the year, of course. Many state QSO parties, DX contests, etc. The best place to see the entire contest calendar is Bruce’s, WA7BNM, Contest Calendar web site at http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html. There’s something for everyone, so jump in and check it out!
73,
Pat, NG1G
This is an interactive meeting notice.
What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice?
As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice what 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
Lunch provider:
Coffee by: K1DM
Lunch fixins by:
Members who will attend:
W1PN, W1AN, NG1G, KA1GEU, K1DM, W1XX, K3IU, KS1J, K1NEF
Working (struggling) to integrate the Yaesu FT1KD with the RIGblaster pro, as well as with N1MM both SSB and Digital – esp. MMTTY.
Does anyone in this astute group have any experiece, tips, or other guidance?
73 / Jim / k1sd / Rhode Island
Hi all,
For those of you who want a plaque for our NA win in the 2011 WPX RTTY at W1AN, I can place an order with Mike, K4GMH, who manages the program. They are $65 each. Since CQ orders the plaques in bulk to save money, the next order will be in March, 2012. Please let me know if you want one, and then I can either collect the money at our meetings or you can send it to me at my qrz.com address.
73,
Pat, NG1G
