November 2000 QST

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fill in other required information such as date, time, band, prefix, country, etc. The logging program takes care of “dupe checking,” too, warning us when we’ve already worked a station on that band. The logging program computes your score and QSO rate throughout the contest, so you always know how you are doing. At the end of the contest, you can output your log to a file and e-mail it to the contest sponsor. The result is that you get to spend more time operating in the contest and less time doing paperwork chores. The most popular logging programs are CT, NA, TR-Log and WriteLog. CT, NA and TR-Log run under MS-DOS, while WriteLog runs under Microsoft Windows. The MS- DOS based programs can be run on very inexpensive IBM-compatible personal computers with a 286 or greater processor and minimal configuration. For more information, get on the Web and go to http:/ /www.contesting.com where you’ll find links to the home pages for the popular logging programs. Entry Categories Virtually every contest has multiple entry categories, providing you with many options for participating. In the standard Single Operator category, one person does all of the operating chores, including sending, receiving and logging, and is allowed to transmit from only one radio at a time. Within the Single Operator category there are usually several power classifications, including Low Power, High Power and QRP. The exact power limits vary depending on the type of contest. In the Multi-Single category, two or more operators share the operating chores, but usually transmit from only one radio at a time. This is a good choice if you can’t allocate enough time to work the entire contest (or can’t stay awake that long!). The Multi-Two category in the ARRL DX contest allows two operators to transmit from up to two radios at a time, on different bands. The Multi-Multi category allows any number of operators to use any number of radios, as long as there is no more than one transmitted signal on each band. One of the hot new trends in contesting is Single Operator Two Radio, or SO2R. This is a station in which one operator uses two radios, but only one transmitted signal is on the air at any time. This allows the station to compete in the Single Operator category, but with the advantage of being able to call CQ on one radio while at the same time tuning a different band on the other radio. Operating two radios at the same time is a little like juggling cats, so I recommend that you get a lot of experience contesting with one radio before you try SO2R. Contest Resources When you’re ready to get started, the first thing to do is to get a calendar of upcoming contests, read the rules, and decide which contests appeal to you. There’s a contest calendar in every issue of QST, in the “Contest Corral” department, and the ARRL Web site at http://www.arrl.org/contests/ has a calendar and rules for all upcoming ARRL contests. You can also find contest calendars and rules on various contest websites, including http://contesting.com, http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/, http:// www.cq-contest.com/, and http://www .hornucopia.com/contestcal/. A great magazine resource for contest news and information is the National Contest Journal. You can subscribe by calling toll free at 1-888-277-5289 between 8 AM and 8 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Try “The ARRL Big Three” Within the next few months you’ll find three popular contests that are perfect for beginners: • ARRL November Sweepstakes ARRL November Sweepstakes is one of my favorite contests, and I try to participate every year. Since the contest is limited to the United States and Canada (W/VE), excellent scores are possible even from modest stations. It’s also a great way to accumulate states for the WAS and 5BWAS awards. The object is to work as many W and/or VE stations as you can in no more than 24 of the 30 hours of the contest (from 2100 UTC Saturday to 0300 UTC Monday). There are separate contest weekends for CW (November 4-6) and Phone (November 18-20). Sweepstakes entry categories are Single Operator Low Power (150 W or less), Single Operator High Power (over 150 W), Single Operator QRP (5 W or less) and Single Operator Unlimited/Assisted (use of packet spots is allowed), Multi-Single, and Club. There’s no Multi-Multi category. Complete rules for ARRL November Sweepstakes may be found elsewhere in this issue, or on-line at http://www.arrl.org/ contests/announcements/rules-novss.html. • ARRL 10-Meter Contest Trying for 10-meter WAS, DXCC or 5BDXCC Then the ARRL 10-Meter Contest is for you! It’s a great DX contest, even for small stations. The object of the contest is to work as many stations as possible on the 10-meter band in no more than 36 of the 48 hours of the contest (from 0000 UTC Saturday to 2400 UTC Sunday). The contest takes place on a single weekend, December 9-10, so the CW and Phone portions are combined. The ARRL 10-Meter Contest has Single Operator (Low Power, High Power, QRP). In the Single Operator categories you can work CW only, Phone only, or Mixed (both CW and Phone). The only other category is Multi- Single, which is mixed mode only. You’ll find complete rules for ARRL 10-Meter Contest elsewhere in this issue, or at http://www.arrl.org/contests/ announcements/rules-10M.html. • ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes You don’t have an HF rig or antenna The ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes may be just the ticket for you. It’s the big Winter contest for VHF and UHF enthusiasts, and you can do very well with modest equipment and antennas. You can even operate with your mobile FM rig or an H-T. The object of this contest is to work as many stations as possible in as many “grid squares” as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz. The contest lasts 33 hours and takes place the weekend before the NFL Super Bowl (1900 UTC Saturday January 20 to 0400 UTC Monday January 22). The January VHF Sweepstakes designates grid squares as multipliers. For more information on grid squares, see the April 1994 issue of QST, page 86. Even better, surf to http://www.arrl.org/locate/ gridinfo.html. There you will find a link to the QST article, along with links to a Web page and a program for your PC that will compute the grid square for any set of coordinates. You can work each grid square once per band for multiplier credit. A Roving Rover Rover is a special category unique to contests above 50 MHz. It’s designed for operators of mobile stations that move among two or more grid squares during the contest. In addition to the grid squares of stations they work, Rovers can count each grid square from which they make a contact as a multiplier. The rules allow either one or two operators for a Rover station, so you can hop in the car with a buddy and have some real fun driving from one grid square to another making contacts. Complete rules for ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes may be found in the December issue of QST or at http://www.arrl.org/ contests/announcements/01vhfss.html. You can contact the author at 190 Lyme Rd, Hanover, NH 03755-6602; dick.green @valley.net. 44 November 2000
By Dave Pruett, K8CC Coping with Cabrillo ew developments have affected F Amateur Radio contest operating as much as the development of logging software for personal computers. Such programs quickly replaced paper logs, dupe and multiplier sheets on the operating desk. These same programs make it a simple task to submit your log electronically to the contest sponsor. Standardization Needed In early 1999, computer professional Trey Garlough, N5KO, worked with many of the major developers of Amateur Radio logging software to develop a standardized electronic contest entry specification for the ARRL. The result was the Cabrillo File Format Specification, which in late 1999 was adopted by the ARRL as its standard format for electronic contest entries. Beginning with contests in November 2000, all logs for ARRL contests that are electronically generated must be in the Cabrillo file format. The ARRL will continue to accept paper logs written by hand. However, contest entries generated using a computer must submit the electronic Cabrillo file. A Look at Cabrillo Information about the Cabrillo File Format Specification is available on-line at: http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo. An example of a Cabrillo file is shown below. Each line in a Cabrillo file begins with a keyword ending with a colon. This keyword identifies the data contained in that line. The file begins with the “START-OF-LOG:” keyword. Other keywords identify summary information defining the contest entry. Non- QSO data lines can appear anywhere in the file; however, QSO data lines must appear in chronological order. The format of each QSO data field is defined in the Cabrillo specification, and there is at least one blank space between adjacent data fields. These fields must be positioned in a specific order. The line starts with the “QSO:” keyword, followed by the frequency (in whole kilohertz for HF contests, or a letter designating the band for VHF/UHF) and mode of the contact. Next is the date (in YYYY-DD-MM format) and four-digit UTC time. The entrant’s call sign and sent information comes next, followed by the call sign of the station worked and the received information. The log file ends with the “END-OF- LOG:” keyword, which is very important. On occasion, the ARRL has received electronic log files that have been cut off or truncated. This sometimes happens during the e-mail process, usually beyond the control of either the entrant or the ARRL. With a Cabrillo log file, if the “END-OF-LOG:” keyword is missing, it is obvious that the file has been truncated and the entrant can be contacted to send another copy. With the non-Cabrillo ASCII files generated by the popular logging programs today, this truncation can be difficult, if not impossible to detect. Generating Cabrillo Files Recent versions of most popular contest logging programs can generate Cabrillo files. Specific instructions for these programs and the Cabrillo-compatible version number follows. If you have a pre-Cabrillo version, you should contact your software provider about obtaining a current version. • CT by K1EA—As of version 9.49, CT supports Cabrillo files for the CQWW, ARRL DX (either domestic or DX), Sweepstakes and ARRL 10-Meter contests. A Cabrillo file can be created from within the program by typing the command WRITELOG in the call sign field of the logging screen. The Cabrillo file will be created along with the other log output files. It will be named yourcall.TXT, where yourcall is the call sign used during the contest. • NA by K8CC—NA has supported Cabrillo since version 10.43. A Cabrillo file can be created when exiting the program. On exit, a screen prompt appears saying “END PROGRAM: rite Log to Disk, rint, xit”. Press “W” to write the log to disk. The Cabrillo file will be created along with the other log output files in the NA output directory. It will be named yourlog.LOG, where yourlog is the base filename of the NA log being processed. • TRLog by N6TR—The first Cabrillocompliant version of TR is 6.50. A Cabrillo file is created using POST, the separate post-contest program provided with TR to generate entry files. Run the POST program, select “C” from the menu of commands and follow the prompts on the screen. The Cabrillo file will be created in the same directory as the log file being processed. It will be named yourlog.CBR, where yourlog is the base filename of the TR log being processed. • SD by EI5DI—A Cabrillo file can be START-OF-LOG: 2.0 CONTEST: ARRL-SS-CW CALLSIGN: K8CC ARRL-SECTION: MI OPERATORS: K8CC, WB8T CATEGORY: MULTI-SINGLE CLAIMED-SCORE: 172536 CLUB: Mad River Radio Club SOAPBOX: Big pileup on KP2N to get last section for sweep! NAME: Dave Pruett ADDRESS: 2727 Harris Road ADDRESS: Ypsilanti, MI 48198 USA QSO: 28002 CW 1999-11-06 2200 K8CC 1 M 69 MI KH7R 1 A 67 PAC QSO: 28002 CW 1999-11-06 2200 K8CC 2 M 69 MI KE9I 1 B 75 IN QSO: 28007 CW 1999-11-06 2201 K8CC 3 M 69 MI N7VM 2 A 76 UT QSO: 28010 CW 1999-11-06 2203 K8CC 4 M 69 MI N0AH 4 B 95 WY QSO: 28023 CW 1999-11-06 2204 K8CC 5 M 69 MI W5VX 8 A 59 STX An example of the Cabrillo file format. November 2000 45
Page 6 and 7: November 2000 Volume 84 Number 11
Page 11 and 12: THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE INC
Page 14: Get to Know Your Section Manager Th
Page 18: The FCC Office of Engineering and T
Page 22 and 23: When it’s Kid’s Day, everyone g
Page 26 and 27: CORRESPONDENCE Your opinions count!
Page 30 and 31: By Shelby Ennis, W8WN Utilizing the
Page 32 and 33: (in the clear) are quite usable. A
Page 34 and 35: Many of the HSCW web sites have a f
Page 36 and 37: By L. B. Cebik, W4RNL A Beginner’
Page 38 and 39: might be very close to zero. As we
Page 40 and 41: “take-off” angle—reported by
Page 42 and 43: Figure 1—Schematic of the flexibl
Page 44 and 45: accessory jack LINE input. If you
Page 48 and 49: created using SDCHECK, the separate
Page 50 and 51: WORKBENCH PROJECTS AND INFORMATION
Page 52 and 53: THE HELP DESK The relationships bet
Page 54 and 55: Ham University As someone who teach
Page 56 and 57: 54 November 2000 Figure 1
Page 58 and 59: Table 1 KISS TNC DB9 Connector Pin-
Page 60 and 61: RITTY 4.0 Several years ago, Brian
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Page 64 and 65: HINTS & KINKS STRENGTHEN YOUR CUSHC
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Page 72 and 73: The NorCal SMK-1 QRP Transceiver Ki
Page 74 and 75: Astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, checks sup
Page 76 and 77: ment there. Larry Kayser, VA3LK, an
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Page 86 and 87: RADIOS TO GO The Good and The Bad I
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Page 92 and 93: November 1925 ◊ The cover illustr
Page 94 and 95: I-10, follow Hwy 609 S to second li
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General Rules for All ARRL Contests
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2.1.3.2. Low Power: 150-W PEP outpu
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2000 ARRL 160-Meter Contest Rules 1
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Yoshi, JF2FIU, is putting together
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VE3WIB 782,100 1100 237 B VE3BUC 49
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Net NM Sess QNI QTC QSP NJM WA2OPY
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WA1RI, listing the ARRL affiliated
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AB4XK 116, KF4KSN 106, KE4VBA 101,
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