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The National Contest Journal Volume 36 Number 6 � November/December 2008 National Contest Journal (ISSN 0899-0131) is published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September and November by the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT and at additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: National Contest Journal, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111-1494, USA. Publisher American Radio Relay League 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 tel: 860-594-0200 fax: 860-594-0259 (24-hour direct line) Electronic Mail: hq@arrl.org World Wide Web: www.arrl.org/ Editor Al Dewey, K0AD ncjeditor@ncjweb.com Managing Editor Rick Lindquist, WW3DE ww3de@arrl.org NCJ WWW Page Bruce Horn, WA7BNM, Webmaster www.ncjweb.com ARRL Offi cers President: Joel M. Harrison, W5ZN Executive Vice President: David Sumner, K1ZZ Contributing Editors Gary Sutcliffe, W9XT—Contest Tips, Tricks & Techniques Ralph Bellas, K9ZO—Contesting on a Budget Jon Jones, NØJK—VHF-UHF Contesting! Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA—Propagation Don Hill, AA5AU—RTTY Contesting Scott Robbins, W4PA —NCJ and Station Profi les Bill Feidt, NG3K—DX Contest Activity Announcements Bruce Horn, WA7BNM—Contest Calendar Pete Smith, N4ZR—Software for Contesters Don Daso, K4ZA—Workshop Chronicles Kirk Pickering, K4RO—Contesting 101 ARRL CAC Representative Ned Stearns, AA7A 7038 E Aster Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85254 aa7a@arrl.net North American QSO Party, CW Bruce Horn, WA7BNM 4225 Farmdale Ave, Studio City, CA 91604 ssbnaqp@ncjweb.com North American QSO Party, Phone Bruce Horn, WA7BNM 4225 Farmdale Ave, Studio City, CA 91604 ssbnaqp@ncjweb.com North American QSO Party, RTTY Shelby Summerville, K4WW 6500 Lantana Ct, Louisville, KY 40229-1544 rttynaqp@ncjweb.com North American Sprint, CW Boring Amateur Radio Club 15125 Bartell Rd, Boring, OR 97009 cwsprint@ncjweb.com North American Sprint, Phone Jim Stevens, K4MA 6609 Vardon Ct, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526 ssbsprint@ncjweb.com North American Sprint, RTTY Ed Muns, WØYK PO Box 1877, Los Gatos, CA 95031-1877 rttysprint@ncjweb.com Advertising Information Contact: Janet Rocco, tel 860-594-0203; fax 860-594-0303; jrocco@arrl.org NCJ subscription orders, changes of address, and reports of missing or damaged copies should be addressed to ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 and be marked NCJ Circulation. ARRL members are asked to include their membership control number or their QST mailing label. Letters, articles, club newsletters and other editorial material should be submitted to NCJ, 14800 38th Pl N, Plymouth, MN 55446. The NA Sprint and NA QSO Parties are not sponsored by ARRL. Yearly Subscription rates: In the US $20 US by First Class Mail $28 International and Canada by airmail $32 All original material not attributed to another source is copyright © 2008 by The American Radio Relay League, Inc. Materials may be excerpted from the NCJ without prior permission provided that the original contributor is credited, and the NCJ is identifi ed as the source. In order to insure prompt delivery, we ask that you periodically check the address information on your mailing label. If you fi nd any inaccuracies, please contact the Circulation Department immediately. Thank you for your assistance. Table of Contents 3 Editorial Al Dewey, KØAD FEATURES 4 Contest University 2008 at Dayton Adds Graduate Courses Al Dewey, KØAD 6 NCJ Review: The Elecraft K3 Revisited Rick Tavan, N6XI 9 The Birth of the Louisiana Contest Club Scott Dickson, W5WZ 11 Solving the Long Rotator Cable Problem for Larger Rotators Terry Zivney, N4TZ/9 12 Distributing Receiving Antennas –– Part 2 Eric L. Scace, K3NA 17 Simplifying the Four-Square Tony Preedy, G3LNP 21 Tips for Tuning a Full-Size 160 Meter Verical Jay Terleski, WXØB 26 Dayton Photo Gallery Thomas Roscoe, K8CX COLUMNS 29 NCJ Profi le Scott Robbins, W4PA 31 Workshop Chronicles Don Daso, K4ZA 32 Contest Tips, Tricks and Techniques Gary Sutcliffe, W9XT 34 VHF-UHF Contesting! Jon K. Jones, NØJK 35 Contesting 101 Kirk Pickering, K4RO 37 Contesting on a Budget Ralph Bellas, K9ZO 38 DX Contest Activity Announcements Bill Feidt, NG3K 39 RTTY Contesting Ed Muns, WØYK 40 Contest Calendar Bruce Horn, WA7BNM CONTESTS 41 Results: 2008 West Coast Regional Radio Team Championship John Barcroft, K6AM 43 Results: July 2008 North American QSO Party RTTY Shelby Summerville, K4WW ADVERTISING INDEX Alfa Radio Ltd.: 30 Array Solutions: Cover II ARRL: 42, 47 Atomic Time: 34 Better RF Company, The: 3 Bencher: 10 Clark Electronics: 36 ComTek Systems: 8 DX Engineering: 11 Elecraft: 48 Green Heron Engineering LLC: 36 Icom America: COVER IV Idiom Press: 46 International Radio INRAD: 16 KØXG Systems: 20 microHAM America: 5, 16 Radioware & Radio Bookstore: 33 RF Parts: 45, 47 SuperBertha: 33 Ten-Tec: 1 Teri Software : 47 Texas Towers: COVER III Top Ten Devices: 48 Unifi ed Microsystems: 47 W2IHY Technologies: 30 Writelog for Windows: 38
Editorial Our “Better Halves” This summer, I had the pleasure of attending the WØDXCC convention in Rochester, Minnesota. It was a fun day with both a DX track and a contesting track. I had a chance to chat with K9LA, K7BV, KX9X, N6BV and many others. The day was capped off by an evening banquet attended by more than 150. At the banquet, I was humbled and honored to receive the WØ Contester of the Year award. I harbor no belief that this means I’m the most accomplished contester in WØ-Land. Perhaps, however, it was more a recognition of how much I love contesting and enjoy promoting it any way I can. When I returned to the table after receiving the award, my wife Marianne looked at the plaque and said, “Congratulations but, you know, I think there should be an award for contesters’ spouses.” As I thought about it, I realized that Marianne was right on the money. Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t be able to be anywhere near as active in radiosport if it were not for my wife. In the fall and winter, she gives up a fairly sizeable number of weekends to allow me to participate in contests. For those contests where I have not abandoned her to do a multi somewhere, she asks me what times I want my meals and what I want for snacks during the contest. When I used to run the amplifi er a lot, it meant that the TV and telephones were all but unusable during the weekend. More recently better technology and fi lters have helped to resolve this problem. When I put up my tower and beam last year and was scouring the Internet for used towers and antennas, she said to me “Look, why don’t you just spend some money, buy new and do it right?” Perhaps an example that best typifi es this support is one that those in the Minnesota Wireless Association still kid me about. One of the statements on my plaque says, “Silver Fist and Silver Zipper.” Here’s the back story. When Marianne and I married in 1991 and I started operating the ARRL November Sweepstakes from our new home, she noticed that I wore the same sweat suit every time I operated CW SS. It’s extremely comfortable, and I sort of consider it my “lucky SS sweat suit.” After one Sweepstakes a number of years ago, I mentioned to Marianne that I might have to retire my favorite contesting sweat suit because the zipper was broken. Nothing more was said, but the following November, as I came out of my pre-SS shower, lying on the bed was my favorite contesting sweat suit — cleaned, pressed and with a brand new silver zipper installed! I know I’m not alone in appreciating the contribution that our better halves make to our hobby. We discussed this a while back on our local refl ector, and there were some other interesting testimonies to true love. Several wives of MWAers volunteer to drive their husbands around the entire state of Minnesota all day on a cold Saturday in February to allow them to play rover in the Minnesota QSO Party. WØAIH tells how his wife Mary accompanies him on tower projects and spends the day operating the electric winch sending Paul up and down the tower. She refers to herself as his “winch wench,” and Paul could not do what he does without her help. I know that there are many others out there who are able to enjoy contesting even more because of the support we receive from our spouses. Some spouses have gone on to become hams themselves, but even if they haven’t, I hope we will all continue to realize how important they are to the success and enjoyment of our radiosport passion. If you have similar stories of support, I would be interested in hearing them. New Louisiana Contest Club In the past I have mentioned my belief that contest clubs are crucial to the continued growth and enjoyment of contesting. Earlier this year K4RO addressed the benefi ts of contest clubs in his “Contesting 101” column. It was great to hear how a group of contesters in Louisiana last spring decided it was time to form a contest club. I contacted Scott, W5WZ, with my congratulations and asked if he might write an article on the process they went through to form the Louisiana Contest Club. His story appears elsewhere in this issue. For me, Alan Dewey, KØAD kØad@arrl.net it was fun and informative to hear about the process they went through to birth the LCC. I hope their story will be an incentive to other “pockets of contesters” out there who have been thinking about forming a contest club. Mini WRTCs WRTC 2010 is less than two years off. As the event approaches and the teams are selected, contesters will continue to debate the fairness of the selection process. Nonetheless, the teams selected by and large will represent an extremely accomplished level of achievement in contesting. But what about the rest of us? One solution might be to compete in a “mini WRTC.” Although it may not compare realistically with the level of planning and logistics that characterize a real WRTC operation, it still can be a fun event for local contest groups to fi eld some two-person teams during the IARU World HF Championship event in July. One such mini WRTC took place on the West Coast this summer and is described elsewhere in this issue. Maybe this is something your local contest club may want to try next summer. Getting It Right Readers pointed out an inadvertent omission in the September/October issue of NCJ. In Table 1 of “A Simple 2-Element Vertical Array for 160 Meters,” by John Barcroft, K6AM, the front-to-back ratio for the fi rst quarter-wave entry should be 40 dB. In addition, a schematic diagram in the same article contained some incorrect data. In Figure 3, the impedances at the input of the reversing relay should be Z = 31 + j94 and 171 + j37. John thanks CN2R for catching the error. NCJ November/December 2008 3
Page 1 and 2: ■ Contest University 2008 at Dayt
Page 3: “I was struck by how clean, natur
Page 7 and 8: the presenters are entertaining —
Page 9 and 10: adio no longer budges when you’re
Page 11 and 12: The Birth of the Louisiana Contest
Page 13 and 14: Solving the Long Rotator Cable Prob
Page 15 and 16: connecters to the chassis. Replacem
Page 17 and 18: their sunrise enhancement using the
Page 19 and 20: Simplifying the Four-Square The fou
Page 21 and 22: optimum phase angles for the curren
Page 23 and 24: Tips for Tuning a Full-Size 160 Met
Page 25 and 26: Figure 5 — The sidebands show abo
Page 27 and 28: Figure 10 — The VSWR = 1.03 at 18
Page 29 and 30: NCJ November/December 2008 27
Page 31 and 32: NCJ Profi le: Bob Naumann, W5OV Tis
Page 33 and 34: Workshop Chronicles As Plato and ot
Page 35 and 36: mostly runs stations at these times
Page 37 and 38: Contesting 101 Welcome back to Cont
Page 39 and 40: Contesting on a Budget That Very Fi
Page 41 and 42: RTTY Contesting Just two years ago,
Page 43 and 44: Results: 2008 West Coast Regional R
Page 45 and 46: Results: July 2008 North American Q
Page 47 and 48: Call Sign Score QSOs Mults QTH Team
Page 49 and 50: Shortwave Listeners (SWL-ers) have
Page 51: MORE DEALS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STI

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