 February 21, 2018 Editor: Paul Bourque, N1SFE | ||
IN THIS ISSUE
The upcoming North American QSO Party (NAQP) RTTY Contest is a great opportunity to try RTTY. One hundred watts is the maximum power in any entry class, and single operators operate for ten hours. A large part of preparing for this contest is making sure that your equipment and logging program are set up to work together correctly. The RTTY Contesting web pages can be helpful, and past presentations regarding RTTY contesting from Contest University can give you a leg up. You can even get some practice on Thursday evening in the NS RTTY session. Don't assume that your particular logging program "out of the box" will have good contesting messages. Time spent improving your macros will save you time and earn you more contacts during the contest. If your exchanges messages are substantially different from others you hear in the contest it's a sign that you should re-examine what you are doing. The upcoming CQ 160 Meter SSB contest is the last major Top Band contest this Winter season. Some operators are poised to roll up their Beverage antenna wires and put them away for the season. Last weekend's ARRL International DX CW Contest provided some short but reasonable DX opportunities on 20 and 40 meters for those that were in the right place at the right time. The SSB version of this contest is coming up on March 3 and 4. Various DX bulletins, such as The Daily DX, and the OPDX Bulletin, publish details of planned contest operations. It can be advantageous to be familiar with the calls you might hear during the contest. Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section February 22 February 23 February 24 February 25 February 28 March 1 March 2 March 3
March 4
March 5 March 6 March 7
Aluminum has exhibited new properties when it's crystal structure is modified. Researchers at Purdue University introduced what they're calling 'defects' between layers of the material by displacement of aluminum atoms, or by the introduction of other atoms such as Iron. The result is an increased ability to resist corrosion, and increased strength. (Dennis, N6KI) Reflecting on a story in the last issue of the Contest Update, Art, K6XT notes that made his own BNC connector wrench a number of years ago: "Completely solder the rotary sleeve on the male portion of a BNC Tee" being careful not to get solder into the connector portion itself, "so that the Tee will engage a BNC just as it is supposed to." Put the chassis female BNC in the now-fixed male connector, hold the assembly by the female arms, and mount, and tighten the chassis nut. Art finds that a silver-plated Tee works best for soldering. (Art, K6XT) Paul, EI5DI, announces that his HF Contest Logger, SD, will run on the Raspberry Pi 3, if used in conjunction with Exagear's Desktop and the Wine emulation layer. "All of SD's features are supported on the Pi, including rig control and WinKey." (Paul, EI5DI) Add crypto-currency mining equipment to the list of things which can create RFI. Interference powerful enough to hinder cellular phone coverage was found to be generated by hardware devoted to Bitcoin mining in Brooklyn, New York. Some miners don't bother to enclose high-speed computing hardware in metal cases, since that would just add to their overhead. Nominations for the CQ Magazine Contest Hall of Fame are open from now until March 1. Now in its 32nd year, the Contest Hall of Fame recognizes Amateurs who have made major contributions to contesting. "Nominations may be made by individual contesters, contesting clubs, and national organizations. The nominee can be any contester located anywhere in the world." For more information, see the Contest Hall of Fame web page. NTE Electronics Self-Solder Butt Splice Connectors are available, effective immediately, from DX Engineering. These connectors have a solder ring with flux inside a transparent, adhesive-lined heat shrink sleeve. By inserting wires in each end of the connector, then heating the sleeve with an ordinary heat gun, a permanent, waterproof connection is made with no soldering required. The heat shrink sleeves are transparent, allowing easy visual inspection. " NTE Electronics Self-Solder Butt Splice Connectors are available for 10 to 26 AWG wire and are color-coded to industry-standard wire gauges. They come in packs of 50 or 100." (Tim, K3LR) During last weekend's ARRL International DX Contest, CW, some Puerto Rico Amateurs were sending zero, usually using the cut-number 'T', as their power. Why? To raise overall awareness that significant portions of the island are still without commercial electrical power even now, and that recovery operations are still continuing in the aftermath of September's Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. If you dread moving your ham shack to a new location, imagine what moving a multi-ton 1950s telephone exchange building would have been like while keeping it in operation. Aggregator. A software program written by Dick, W3OA, that accepts DX spots from CW Skimmers or Skimmer Servers and then forwards the spots to the Reverse Beacon Network. For more information about all of the components involved in this aspect of the DX spotting network, see the presentation "CW and RTTY Skimmer and the Reverse Beacon Network" by Bob, N6TV. "The Empire of Noise" is a documentary about radio jamming used during the Cold War era. The producers incorporated jamming noise as part of the audio narration, which amply demonstrates why it can be such a deterrent to listening. (Roger, N1RJ, via RFI mailing list) "Receiving Antenna Metrics with Examples," a webinar by Jukka, OH6LI, has been posted on the World Wide Radio Operator Foundation (WWROF) website. New metrics, including a Directivity Metric Figure, are described which can provide additional information beyond gain and front to back measures. (Ken, K4ZW)
"The Empire of Noise" is a documentary about radio jamming used during the Cold War era. The producers incorporated jamming noise as part of the audio narration, which amply demonstrates why it can be such a deterrent to listening. (Roger, N1RJ, via RFI mailing list) "Receiving Antenna Metrics with Examples," a webinar by Jukka, OH6LI, has been posted on the World Wide Radio Operator Foundation (WWROF) website. New metrics, including a Directivity Metric Figure, are described which can provide additional information beyond gain and front to back measures. (Ken, K4ZW) The preliminary results for the North American Sprint, CW, have been posted to the National Contest Journal website. Preliminary results for the 2018 CQ WPX RTTY Contest have been posted. According to the Contest Director, Ed, W0YK, "Typically, there is little change in the order-of-finish but the actual scores will all decrease after log check." For a limited time, the CQ WW Contest Committee has made available a new tool for examining logs in the CQ WW Contest. With this Tableau-based tool, different metrics of various logs can be examined and compared. This is not a 'GO/NO-GO' type of tool. It is a visualization and data exploration tool that can assist in analyses of various aspects of logs to identify areas for further investigation. Always include a Space at the end of your RTTY messages It's accepted practice to put a space at the beginning of RTTY messages to separate valid characters from any spurious decodes preceding them, and to take advantage of the Unshift on Space (USOS) feature of many modern RTTY decoders. It's also wise to put a space AFTER each message, so that any subsequent spurious decodes are separated from the messages. This improves readability and makes copying message text by mouse movement or clicking easier for the receiving operator. Bonus: Don't use too many LINEFEEDs which can cause the other operator to chase the text around the screen. (Inspired by Dave, K2YG, and others via the RTTY email reflector) Dick, W7WKR, suggests that Rudy, N6LF's website be referenced for radial systems for vertical antennas. "He presents a six chapter study of vertical antenna designs with a strong focus on MF and LF (630 and 2200 meter bands.)" The wireless transfer of power is currently in vogue for powering or charging items that vary in size from cellular telephones to electric cars. At least one company has obtained temporary authorization to use radio spectrum to test its technology, and Amateurs should be suitably wary of any technology that has the potential to put thousands of watts of RF near or on the ham bands. There are other technologies that are also being pursued in the quest to eliminate the charging cable such as this one by Disney Research where the test setup is akin to placing a medium-wave loop antenna inside of a Faraday cage containing the devices to be charged. And then using around 2 kW of RF with radiator currents up to 140 Amperes. Dave, NK7Z, has added a second chapter on finding and identifying RFI sources using SDRs to his website: "RFI Site Survey - Part II, Interpretation." Dave discusses his setup, and provides real-world examples of certain types of signals that can be found, including over-the-horizon RADAR, switching power supplies, etc. (Jim, K9YC, via RFI mailing list) Faraday cages block electric fields, and are considered a good way to reduce the thread of electronic eavesdropping. But they don't shield against magnetic fields and in a recent paper researchers describe how an adversary could use regular computer hardware and special software inside a Faraday cage to transmit information via magnetic fields to a receiver located outside the cage. ISOTA Incentives and competition have been shown to be strong motivators for spurring human activities of all kinds. In the Amateur Radio sphere, DXCC and the *OTA activities (i.e. IOTA, SOTA, NPOTA) help keep the bands busy throughout the year. On contest weekends, it's miraculous how busy the bands become at 0000z on Saturday, and how the rate goes down precipitously after 2359z on Sunday. Conditions don't improve during operating activities though we'd think so from the abundance of contacts. But what if by participating in an event we COULD, in aggregate, improve our Amateur bands? That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org 73, Brian N9ADG 22 Feb - 7 Mar 2018 An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format is available. Check the sponsor's Web site for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions. HF CONTESTS CWops Mini-CWT Test, Feb 21, 1300z to Feb 21, 1400z, Feb 21, 1900z to Feb 21, 2000z, Feb 22, 0300z to Feb 22, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: February 24. VHF+ CONTESTS See Novice Rig Roundup, North Carolina QSO Party, and South Carolina QSO Party, above. 22 Feb - 7 Mar 2018 February 22, 2018 February 23, 2018 February 24, 2018 February 25, 2018 February 28, 2018 March 1, 2018 March 2, 2018 March 3, 2018 March 4, 2018 March 5, 2018 March 6, 2018 ARRL Information Click here to advertise in this newsletter, space subject to availability. Your One-Stop Resource for Amateur Radio News and Information ARRL membership includes QST, Amateur Radio's most popular and informative journal, delivered to your mailbox each month. Subscribe to NCJ - the National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly, features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA Sprint and QSO Parties. Subscribe to QEX - A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published bimonthly, features technical articles, construction projects, columns and other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals. Free of charge to ARRL members: Subscribe to The ARRL Letter (weekly digest of news and information), the ARES E-Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), Division and Section news -- and much more! ARRL offers a wide array of products to enhance your enjoyment of Amateur Radio. Visit the site often for new publications, specials and sales. Donate to the fund of your choice -- support programs not funded by member dues! Reprint permission can be obtained by sending email to permission@arrl.org with a description of the material and the reprint publication. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest Calendar and SM3CER's Contest Calendar. | ||
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