September/October 2000 NCJ

More documents

Recommendations

Info

International ContestsJoe Staples, W5ASPw5asp@aol.comBosnia and Herzegovina Contesting RevealedBoris Knezovic, T93Y, PO Box 59, Sarajevo, BA-71000Bosnia and Herzegovinabknezovi@utic.net.baThis month, inplace of my usual column,we’ve decidedto use these pagesto introduce our newestNCJ RegionalContributing Editor,Boris, T93Y. Boris isa well-known contesterand is eager to W5ASPprovide us with informationon Amateur Radio and contestingin Bosnia and Herzegovina.The NCJ hopes that representativesfrom other countries will volunteer toserve as Regional Contributing Editorsso that the world’s contesters can comecloser together by learning more abouteach other.Boris, T93YBefore I introduce my country to you,I would like to introduce myself. I havebeen a ham since 1987, and until 1995(when I received my first personal call—T94EU) I was active from the Radio Club“Novo Sarajevo,” T91ENS (previously4N4ENS, 4N4U, YU4ENS, T99MT). Ipassed the “A” Class exam in 1996 andbecame the first “Yankee” in Bosnia andHerzegovina with my T93Y call sign.The first contest in which I participatedwas the OK DX Contest in 1988. Sincethen I’ve been “in business.” My favoritemode is CW but I also like to operate SSB.In addition to participating in many contestsfrom T9, I have also operated as5B4/T93Y in 1998 and was a member ofthe A61AJ CQWW CW Contest multimultiteams in 1998 and 1999.I hope that you’ll enjoy this article. It’sdevoted to contesting in Bosnia andHerzegovina and our activities fromsome other remote locations.About Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina is a 51,129square-kilometer (about the same sizeas West Virginia) European country locatedon the Balkan Peninsula in thesoutheastern part of the continent. Theestimated population in 1999 was 3.5million, including about 3,000 licensedAmateur Radio operators. Actually, thereare many more hams in the country, butsome of them have refused to recognizethe T9 prefix issued by the ITU and usepirate calls such as YU4 or 9A11. I hope20this problem will be solved soon, asthere are many good operators who arecurrently QRT and waiting for a resolutionthat will make everyone happy.Bosnia and Herzegovina was one ofthe six federal republics of Yugoslaviauntil April 1992 when, following the resultsof a referendum, it declared itsindependence. Bosnia and Herzegovinahas been a United Nations membercountry since June 1992. It counts as aDXCC country since the 15 th of October1991.The Amateur Radio Association ofBosnia and Herzegovina (ARABiH)—formerly Savez Radioamatera Bosne iHercegovine—was founded in 1947, butthe first QSOs were made in 1950. Thisyear’s ARABiH golden anniversary willbe celebrated with different activities allover the country. Ham radio operatorswho collect stamps might be interestedin a special commemorative stamp. Ifyou would like additional information,please send an e-mail to me or theARABiH (arabih@bih.net.ba).The Bosnia and HerzegovinaCall Sign SystemSince there seems to be a great dealof confusion caused by the variety of ourcall signs, I would like to inform NCJreaders that the DXCC will upgrade theirBosnia and Herzegovina record withYU4/YT4/YZ4/4N4/4O4 QSOs only if thecontacts were made before the 12 th ofMay 1993. After that date, the only validUpcoming International ContestsAll Asian DX Contest 02-Sep-00LZ BulgarianDX Contest02-Sep-00Panama AnniversaryContest03-Sep-00WAEDC European DXContest Phone09-Sep-00Scandinavian ActivityContest CW16-Sep-00Scandinavian ActivityContest Phone23-Sep-00Panama Radio ClubContest23-Sep-00RSGB 21/28 MHzContest, SSB1-Oct-00VK/ZL/OceaniaContest, Phone7-Oct-00EU Autumn Sprint, SSB 7-Oct-00Iberoamericano Contest 7-Oct-00VK/ZL/Oceania Contest,CW14-Oct-00EU Autumn Sprint, CW 14-Oct-00Asia-Pacific Sprint, CW 15-Oct-00RSGB 21/28 MHz Contest,CW15-Oct-00JARTS WW RTTY Contest 21-Oct-00Worked All GermanyContest21-Oct-00Ukrainian DX Contest 4-Nov-00Japan Int. DX Contest,Phone10-Nov-00OK/OM DX Contest, CW 11-Nov-00LZ DX Contest, CW 18-Nov-00IARU 160m Contest, CW 18-Nov-00RSGB 1.8 MHz Contest,CW18-Nov-00Note: With few exceptions logs andsummary sheets must be postmarkedwithin 30 days of the contestSeveral T9 operators at A61AJ in 1999—(l to r) (A61AJ’s brother) Abubakr, Boris,T93Y; Danny, T93M; Ali, A61AJ; Edin, T97M; Sem, PA4AO/T94S; and Sejo, T97C.
Edin, T97M, and Boris, T93Y, in the shack of well-knowncontester Ivo, 5B4ADA/C4A.The T9DX team operating VHF/UHF—Edin, T97M, and Neri,T97Y.prefix for Bosnia and Herzegovina is T9.Amateur Radio operators in Bosniaand Herzegovina can hold one of fourlicense classes. The license class of theoperator can be determined from thecall sign.“A” Class operators are issued T91-T99 call signs with a one-letter suffix.They can operate on all bands and allfrequencies with a maximum power of1.5 kW. “B” Class operators can be recognizedby a T94 prefix followed by atwo-letter suffix. Operators in this classare allowed a maximum power of 300 W.The only band restriction they have appliesto the 30-meter band.“C” Class operators can be identifiedby their T95 prefix followed by a threelettersuffix beginning with a D, an L oran M. This is a beginner’s HF class—they are allowed to use a maximum of150 W on portions of 80, 40, 15 and 10meters. “D” class is a VHF-and-aboveno-code class. These operators are issueda T92 prefix followed by a threelettersuffix beginning with a P or an S.Club stations are identified by T91 callsigns with three-letter suffixes. Specialstations are issued call signs from theT99AA-ZZ block. ARABiH special stationshave the T90 prefix, which is issuedfor special occasions and for alimited time.Bosnia and Herzegovina is a memberof the CEPT (Conference of EuropeanPostal and Telecommunications Administrations).Ham operators from othermember countries do not need writtenpermission to operate from Bosnian territory.As soon as they enter Bosnia andHerzegovina they can operate as T9/homecall. Hams from non-CEPT countriescan easily obtain a license aftersending a written request, including acopy of their home license and passport,to the ARABiH. The T9/homecall call signcan also be changed into a T98 call witha three-letter suffix or special call from theT99AA-ZZ block. Those who need moreinformation on this should write to theARABiH at PO Box 61, Sarajevo BA-71000, Bosnia and Herzegovina or sendan e-mail to arabih@bih.net.baContesting from Bosnia andHerzegovinaContesting in Bosnia and Herzegovinahas a long history that started immediatelyafter Amateur Radio activity beganin 1950. At that time there were just afew personal licenses and most activitywas organized by clubs. Even today,clubs are the only way for young operatorsto get on the air.Most of the clubs that organized teamsback then were active over many years.Here are some club calls that should befamiliar to old-timers: YU4AAW, YU4EBL(also YT4I and 4N4I), YU4EZC (also4N4C), YU4EJC (4N4C), YU4FDE(YT4D), YU4AVW, YU4EXA (YZ4Z) toname a few. There were many others...Let me try to provide a summary ofAmateur Radio contesting activity heresince Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognizedas an independent country.The war period from 1992-1995 was thehardest part of our lives. During thosedifficult conditions, however, hams werenevertheless able to achieve some verygood contest scores. For most of the operators,ham radio served as a means ofescape from the terrible realities of war.We dedicated all of our time and resourcesto DXing or participating in contests.We used wire antennas during most ofour wartime contesting activities. Thereare two reasons for that. First, wire antennasare very hard to spot, and second,most of the bigger antennas were destroyed.It was very dangerous to haveconspicuous antennas on the roof.The first notable scores generatedwith T9 call signs are T99C’s 1 st PlaceWorld Wide on 160 meters in the 1993CQ WPX CW Contest, and T91ENS’s2 nd Place World Wide for 40 meters/LPin the same contest. These were followedby T93M’s 2 nd Place World Wideon 10 meters/LP in the 1993 CQWWSSB Contest (battery powered) andT94NE’s (now T97Y) 2 nd Place WorldWide on 80 meters/LP in the 1994CQWW SSB Contest. There were alsoseveral world class scores generated byT91ENS and T99W.A special memory for us in the 1992-1995 period is our multi-single activityas T9A in 1994. We entered the WPXCW Contest and the IARU HF Championshipand finished 6 th Place World Widein both. Our scores are even more impressiveif you consider that we wereusing a TH7DXX for 10, 15 and 20 metersand wire antennas for the low bands. Iguess our call sign added 10 dB to ouractual signal strength!We wanted to have operators from allparts of Bosnia and Herzegovina on theT9A team and officially formed the“Bosnia and Herzegovina Contest Club,”but since Sarajevo was under siege, itwas impossible. Instead, we foundedthe “Sarajevo Contest Group” which isstill active. Our scores can be found inthe “Clubs” category.During 1992-1995 we did our best tocover all six bands in all major contests.Since our activity was highly dependent1999 Croatian CW ContestCall QSOs Mults ScoreSO/AB High Power6 VE3QAA 404 136 22535214 K2SX 237 91 8108120 K4BAI 62 37 799222 N6ZZ 46 26 416025 VE4IM 22 14 784SO/AB Low Power30 K1RO 136 56 2531231 VE2AWR 104 46 2240239 W1END 82 41 1525249 VE4MF 25 285053 WA2VQV 27 15 148561 N4RP 5 5 7062 KF6YUD 8 4 5221
Page 4 and 5: The National Contest JournalVolume
Page 6 and 7: The Polish Yagis vs QuadsBig Gun Sh
Page 8 and 9: “Team New Hampshire”—(left to
Page 10 and 11: stay off. During that time, we were
Page 12 and 13: tained stations at home as well.Aft
Page 14 and 15: To Contest—Covenants Be DamnedMik
Page 16 and 17: Antennas with Gain andBandwidth for
Page 18 and 19: Figure 5—The SWR plot for the N6L
Page 20 and 21: failed and Ann and I had to start o
Page 24 and 25: on the availability of electricity
Page 26 and 27: Contest Tips, Tricks & TechniquesGa
Page 28 and 29: Contest DX-VenturesThe Contest Trav
Page 30 and 31: DXpedition DestinationsSean Kutzko,
Page 32 and 33: Contesting for FunBob Patten, N4BPn
Page 34 and 35: Trooper was eating lunch across the
Page 36 and 37: on your toes. Very strange, though,
Page 38 and 39: Table 1The approximate total time s

September/October 2000 NCJ

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?