Fast and fun CW action. This one is good for lazy contesting using the call history file, but look out for the many club and memorial names being used. Unfortunately I will be away. In fact ur contest mgr has somehow got travel planned on almost every meeting weekend this season.
Time local 1pm Sat–1 am Sun, 10hr max for SO
Bands 160–10
Exchange Name, State
Work stations once per band
Note 100w max power.
Rules http://www.ncjweb.com/NAQP-Rules.pdf

ARRL RTTY Roundup - 2020

Call: W1AN
Operator(s): W1AN
Station: W1AN

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: USA
Operating Time (hrs): 8.5

Summary:
 Band  RTTY Qs  Dig Qs
-----------------------
   80:    99       0 
   40:   203       0 
   20:   265       0   
   15:    13       0  
   10:     0       0          
-----------------------
Total:   580       0  State/Prov = 50  Countries = 41  Total Score = 52,780

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Fun contest. Very little on 10/15M but plenty of activity to enjoy. Good to see NG1-Mike Mike active! Anyone use FT8?
Need to study the “two break rule” which limits off time to two minimum 30 minute periods. Is it too restrictive? I can see where this would penalize those who can’t dedicate full weekends. Maybe topic for discussion at next meeting.

73, John W1AN

The CW Operators Club is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an event running throughout January – details in attached flyer. Get in on the fun and maybe pick up another piece of paper to decorate your shack with!

73 de John AJ1DM
CWops #1973

K1SX SO LP
34 qso’s, 391 raw points, 2 hours or so
Genesis G11 sdr, 100w sspa brick, 65/65′ inverted L with 16 radials

I have AB1BX and AI1TT in the log, and see KA1J posted–anyone else get on?
With my limited experience, I thought conditions were pretty good, and now I see from the comments on 3830 they might have been historically good! Unfortuately I could only put in small blocks of time, so i decided to just chase dx, and there was a lot to chase, many workable on one or two calls. It really was amazing. But it also seems it was just EU and AF here, not Pacific in the morning. RW7K my best, in itself a first for me. — Dave K1SX

This is the main running of the TBDC and usually brings out a big turnout both DX and domestic.
It’s a pretty friendly contest. Action starts around 4pm or so local.

In spite of high A and K index, 160m has been pretty good this week, with quiet weather and long hours of darkness. I’ve worked several Europeans with 100w.

In fact I’m wondering if the popular space weather info box seen on the QRZ front page and elsewhere, is stuck. It’s been showing A-13, K=2 for days. NOAA has A index forecast at more like 4 or 5 and K of 1 or 2 for the weekend.

Local times: 10am Sat–10am Sun

Bands: 160m only
Mode: CW only
Exchange: 4 character grid
Multipliers: None
Assistance: None allowed
Scoring: Points based on distance and power levels. 1 pt. for every 500km increment. After log cross-checking, you get double for working an LP station and 4x for working a qrp’er. They have their own web page to display scores, and your score increases as others send in their logs. You get more data about your log than any contest I know of.
Rules: //www.kkn.net/stew/

HNY and 73 to all!
Dave K1SX

Happy holidays everyone. Hopefully, there was something under your tree to help you have more fun as a ham.
73, Ken K3IU

Hi All –

A reminder re: all ARRL contests… logs are due within 7 days of the completion date/time of the event. Subsequently, ARRL says they will continue to accept logs via its on-line web app page [ https://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/ ] another 5 days after the log submission deadline (likely as checklogs, without explanation of late submission).

It came to my attention that a few CTRI CG entries in the recent ARRL 160m Contest have not yet been submitted! We are currently just shy of 700k club points in this event. So, get your logs in!
73, Bill W1WBB

http://www.arrl.org/arrl-contests-changes-for-2019-2020

Take a leap of faith and visit 10 meters some time this weekend.
Last year t there was activity (outside local) during most of the daylight hours, including propagation to PY and LU. In CQ-WW a few weeks back, I worked V5 and 6W with my 100 watts to a wire.

Period: 7pm local Fri–7pm Sunday
Modes: CW, SSB, mixed
Exchange: RST + state. DX will send RST + SN.
Mults: Per mode, SPC + countries + (unique to this contest) Mexican states
Scoring: 2 pts per qso SSB, 4 pts CW

This antenna is basically one half of a full wave loop held up by a single support, over a counterpoise wire laying on the ground with ground rods at each end to complete the loop by mirror image, and fed at the close end for vertical polarization with a 4:1 balun for an easy match for the tuner. A pdf doc can be emailed to anyone requesting it.

Back in the 1990s when I lived in NNJ on a small lot in dense suburbs I had a pretty compact antenna system for 160m and started operating the ARRL 160m contest. I made antenna improvements and tracked them with contest results. Before long I was also given the opportunity to guest op at several stations with larger and more elaborate 160m antennas than mine. In reference to the experience gained operating a number of different antennas on 160m my conclusions for this particular simple antenna are as follows:
1. Very Quiet Antenna – Hears better than most other stations hear.
2. Only requires a single support 35 to 40 feet high.
3. Requires 2 ground rods (8 feet long), one at each end, and a counterpoise wire laying on the ground between them.
4. Antenna is Grounded from Lightning.
5. Requires a 4:1 Balun for feeding at the closest end, to match to inexpensive RG-6 coax feedline running to the shack, and is an easy match for a tuner.
6. Handles 1 KW power – if the balun is up to the task (mine seems to be).
7. Can work both DX and local with this antenna. Works to Europe, California, Texas, Florida, as well as in between. It really doesn’t seem very directional.
8. This single transceiving antenna performs at least as well as many typically installed separate transmit and receive antennas – by eliminating noise coupling from the noisy transmit antenna situated too close to the quiet receive antenna(s).
9. This antenna outperforms an inverted vee that would fit in exactly the same space, and also a much larger horizontal loop 540 feet around.
10. This simple antenna can be outperformed by more elaborate antenna systems including a good vertical or inverted L with many radials for transmitting, spaced over 500 feet from an array of switched directional receive-only antennas with a preamplifier and incorporating receiver protection during transmit.
73, Chris WB2VVV

This weekend during the annual 160 meter International Contest I experienced heavy interference on 1.840 MHz, up to 18 dB above my noise floor from 1.835 – 1.845 MHz, and knocking out some ten (10) lanes of potential CW operation during a once per year international operating event.

I also regularly encounter this same type of interference on 40 meter CW at 7.045 – 7.060 MHz where SKCC members and others operate slower conversational CW with straight hand keys/bugs and often antique radios. This is a small area of the band where CW skill building is commonly taking place – until you plop a 10 KHz wide noisemaker there.

In all cases this digital interference sounds like what I hear on 50.3 MHz – which is why I think it is the new modern digital modulation which some misinformed folks say causes no interference to other operators. I do agree that up on 50.3 MHz this causes no interference to the Beacons, CW, and SSB operation.

I have already written Bob W1YRC about this growing interference problem, and asked for escalation.

I was able to operate the ARRL 160 meter contest this past weekend with the same antenna I had just put up a couple of years ago to make 50 or so QRP QSOs – because I was afraid back then of scorching the home-brew 4:1 balun I had “temporarily” installed. This is an interesting antenna that has only one single central support that is only 35-40 feet high, and receives very well, so it is a single transceiving antenna. Running QRP I wasn’t terribly convinced that it transmitted very well since it was pretty obvious that a lot of stations weren’t hearing me – though having previously operated QRP on other bands at other times I knew this is quite normal when running QRP.

Naturally as with other good antennas it fell down between then and now – the central support rope became abraded and broke. With it back up, and with the same questionable home-brew balun I decided to try operating this year’s contest QRO and started the contest running only 300 Watts and as the hours passed by and I gained more confidence in my still “temporary” balun. I slowly worked my way up to 1 KW and the balun held up fine with my intermittent Search & Pounce operating style. The log says I made 175 QSOs including 7 DX QSOs, and stateside I was able to work out to California, Texas, and Florida. Operating QRO was so much easier with less repeats, though I again concluded I could hear better than 90% of the stations I worked. OTOH, without a wall of stations between us some of the overseas stations were hearing me very well and I was able to work them on the first call on pretty clear frequencies with no repeats – as I think very few folks were even hearing them at all. I ended up with 20,034 points for the club, Single Op – No Assistance – High Power.

If anyone has further interest in my 160 meter transceiving antenna I would be happy to provide more details.

Conditions were all not that good for me to the west coast. But did manage KL7 & KH6 which fills 2 new spots for top band. EU were very few but did manage to work total of 20 countries. Also first time for my station to be run remotely. I was no able to start the contest to having to work Friday night so my friend in DL ran my station. Yes he holds a W1 Lic. and it worked out FB. Summary M/S LP de nc1cc-wa1bxy
Band QSOs Pts Sec Pt/Q
1.8 588 1227 79 2.1
Total 588 1227 79 2.1
Score: 96,933
1 Mult = 7.4 Q’s

K1SX SO Unlimited LP
167–48–14–22,940
Genesis G11 SDR, homebrew sspa, 100w to inv L 65’/65′ in tree with 16 radials
5 hrs

I know a lot of members were on and congrats W1XX and NC1CC for fb scores on 3830 so far. I heard KS1J, W1AN and wkd XX, AI1TT and K1DM. I have trouble associating the term “Unlimited” with my station, but such is the rule, even tho I didn’t use the bandmap but just glanced at spots occasionally.
With limited time I tended to drift into dx’ing instead of pursuing the numbers, and so I was happy with the country count but wish I had tried more running. When I did, briefly, I got loud zero beat pileups and was really stumbling over the keys. Few Europeans heard and fewer worked–6 in all, and 8 carib. mults. Best was EM2Q. Noise levels seemed normal, but propagation didn’t seem too special. I did get 4 west coast mults which is a lot for me. KH6”s were right at noise and will have to wait for another day. This is a fun, very straightforward contest. But it seems the mysteries of 160m antennas are still before me.–Dave K1SX

ARRL 160 Meter contest this weekend–from 5pm Friday local, to 11am Sunday. I’m hoping to get in some time. This is a contest where DX stations will be looking for W/VE’s.

Info: http://www.arrl.org/160-meter

I was only able to put in about 5 hours but had fun doing what I did. Here is the summary of my results…

CQWWCW Summary Sheet

CallSign Used : K3IU

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Assisted Category : NON-ASSISTED
Band : ALL
Power : HIGH
Mode : CW

Club/Team : CTRI Contest Group

Band QSOs Pts ZN Cty
7 21 50 14 13
14 162 474 12 49
21 35 97 11 24
Total 218 621 37 86

Score : 76,383