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Contest Calendar Here’s the list of major contests of possible interest to North American contesters to help you plan your contesting activity through January 2009. The Web version of this calendar, www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/, is updated frequently and lists contests for a 12-month period. Please notify me via e-mail, bhorn@hornucopia.com, of any corrections or additions to this calendar. Good luck, and have fun! November 2008 Ukrainian DX Contest 1200 UTC, Nov 1 to 1200 UTC, Nov 2 ARRL November Sweepstakes, CW 2100 UTC, Nov 1 to 0300 UTC, Nov 3 High-Speed Club CW Contest 0900 UTC-1100 UTC, Nov 2 and 1500 UTC-1700 UTC, Nov 2 DARC 10-Meter Digital Contest 1100 UTC-1700 UTC, Nov 2 NCCC Sprint 0230 UTC-0300 UTC, Nov 7 WAE DX Contest, RTTY 0000 UTC, Nov 8 to 2359 UTC, Nov 9 JIDX Phone Contest 0700 UTC, Nov 8 to 1300 UTC, Nov 9 OK/OM DX Contest, CW 1200 UTC, Nov 8 to 1200 UTC, Nov 9 Kentucky QSO Party 1400 UTC, Nov 8 to 0200 UTC, Nov 9 CQ-WE Contest 1900 UTC, Nov 8 to 0500 UTC, Nov 9 SKCC Weekend Sprintathon 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Nov 9 NCCC Sprint 0230 UTC-0300 UTC, Nov 14 ARRL International EME Contest 0000 UTC, Nov 15 to 2359 UTC, Nov 16 JT Hamradio-50 Anniversary Contest 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Nov 15 All Austrian 160-Meter Contest 1600 UTC, Nov 15 to 0700 UTC, Nov 16 RSGB 2 nd 1.8 MHz Contest, CW 2100 UTC, Nov 15 to 0100 UTC, Nov 16 ARRL November Sweepstakes, SSB 2100 UTC, Nov 15 to 0300 UTC, Nov 17 Feld Hell Sprint 2100 UTC-2400 UTC, Nov 15 EU PSK63 QSO Party 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Nov 16 Run for the Bacon QRP Contest 0200 UTC-0400 UTC, Nov 17 NAQCC Straight Key/Bug Sprint 0130 UTC-0330 UTC, Nov 20 YO International PSK31 Contest 1600 UTC-2200 UTC, Nov 21 LZ DX Contest 1200 UTC, Nov 22 to 1200 UTC, Nov 23 SKCC Sprint 0100 UTC-0300 UTC, Nov 26 CQ World Wide DX Contest, CW 0000 UTC, Nov 29 to 2400 UTC, Nov 30 December 2008 ARCI Topband Sprint 0000 UTC-0600 UTC, Dec 4 ARRL 160-Meter Contest 2200 UTC, Dec 5 to 1600 UTC, Dec 7 TARA RTTY Melee 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Dec 6 TOPS Activity Contest 1600 UTC, Dec 6 to 1800 UTC, Dec 7 NAQCC Straight Key/Bug Sprint 0130 UTC-0330 UTC, Dec 10 NA High Speed Meteor Scatter Rally 0000 UTC, Dec 11 to 0200 UTC, Dec 15 ARRL 10-Meter Contest 0000 UTC, Dec 13 to 2400 UTC, Dec 14 MDXA PSK DeathMatch 0000 UTC, Dec 13 to 2400 UTC, Dec 14 SKCC Weekend Sprintathon 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Dec 14 Russian 160-Meter Contest 2100 UTC-2300 UTC, Dec 19 OK DX RTTY Contest 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Dec 20 40 November/December 2008 NCJ Bruce Horn, WA7BNM Lighthouse Christmas Lights QSO Party 0001 UTC, Dec 20 to 2359 UTC, Jan 4 Croatian CW Contest 1400 UTC, Dec 20 to 1400 UTC, Dec 21 International Naval Contest 1600 UTC, Dec 20 to 1559 UTC, Dec 21 Feld Hell Sprint 2100 UTC-2400 UTC, Dec 20 ARCI Holiday Spirits Homebrew Sprint 2000 UTC-2400 UTC, Dec 21 Run for the Bacon QRP Contest 0200 UTC-0400 UTC, Dec 22 SKCC Sprint 0100 UTC-0300 UTC, Dec 24 DARC Christmas Contest 0830 UTC-1059 UTC, Dec 26 RAC Winter Contest 0000 UTC-2359 UTC, Dec 27 Stew Perry Topband Challenge 1500 UTC, Dec 27 to 1500 UTC, Dec 28 Original QRP Contest 1500 UTC, Dec 27 to 1500 UTC, Dec 28 RAEM Contest 0200 UTC-0959 UTC, Dec 28 January 2009 SARTG New Year RTTY Contest 0800 UTC-1100 UTC, Jan 1 AGCW Happy New Year Contest 0900 UTC-1200 UTC, Jan 1 ARRL RTTY Round-Up 1800 UTC, Jan 3 to 2400 UTC, Jan 4 EUCW 160-Meter Contest 2000 UTC-2300 UTC, Jan 3 and 0400 UTC-0700 UTC, Jan 4 Hunting Lions in the Air Contest 0000 UTC, Jan 10 to 2400 UTC, Jan 11 MI QRP January CW Contest 1200 UTC, Jan 10 to 2359 UTC, Jan 11 Midwinter Contest, CW 1400 UTC-2000 UTC, Jan 10 North American QSO Party, CW 1800 UTC, Jan 10 to 0600 UTC, Jan 11 SKCC Weekend Sprintathon 0000 UTC-2400 UTC, Jan 11 NRAU-Baltic Contest, CW 0530 UTC-0730 UTC, Jan 11 Midwinter Contest, Phone 0800 UTC-1400 UTC, Jan 11 NRAU-Baltic Contest, SSB 0800 UTC-1000 UTC, Jan 11 DARC 10-Meter Contest 0900 UTC-1059 UTC, Jan 11 LZ Open Contest 0400 UTC-1200 UTC, Jan 17 Hungarian DX Contest 1200 UTC, Jan 17 to 1159 UTC, Jan 18 UK DX Contest, RTTY 1200 UTC, Jan 17 to 1200 UTC, Jan 18 North American QSO Party, SSB 1800 UTC, Jan 17 to 0600 UTC, Jan 18 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes 1900 UTC, Jan 17 to 0400 UTC, Jan 19 Run for the Bacon QRP Contest 0200 UTC-0400 UTC, Jan 19 NAQCC Straight Key/Bug Sprint 0130 UTC-0330 UTC, Jan 22 CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW 2200 UTC, Jan 23 to 2159 UTC, Jan 25 REF Contest, CW 0600 UTC, Jan 24 to 1800 UTC, Jan 25 BARTG RTTY Sprint 1200 UTC, Jan 24 to 1200 UTC, Jan 25 UBA DX Contest, SSB 1300 UTC, Jan 24 to 1300 UTC, Jan 25 SKCC Sprint 0100 UTC-0300 UTC, Jan 28
Results: 2008 West Coast Regional Radio Team Championship “Start small and build.” — Bill Gates The first-ever West Coast Regional Radio Team Championship (WCRRTC) is now in the record books. The Southern California Contest Club fi elded a small but dedicated group of competitors. We hope you had a chance to work one of the three W6 1×1 stations during the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF World Championship in July. All stations sported two-operator teams running mixed mode in the style of the World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) events (the next WRTC is scheduled for 2010 in Russia). The results of WCRRTC 2008 have been tabulated, and — as it happened — the three teams fi nished in alphabetical order by call sign: ♦ W6A (N6KI + N6OX) — 288,768 ♦ W6B (WA6L + N6ERD) — 276,360 ♦ W6C (WN6K + W6NOW) — 149,804 Dennis, N6KI, and Bob, N6OX, barely edged out newcomers John, WA6L, and Dan, N6ERD, operating from John’s horse ranch in the hills east of San Diego. Coming in third was veteran contester Paul, WN6K, with new papa Juan, W6NOW. See the box scores for details, which differ because the three teams did not use the same logging software. Ordinarily the race would be too close to call until the logs were checked. Because WCRRTC rules differ from IARU rules, however, the ARRL is unable to provide a log-checking report. As a result, and per our rules, we must go by claimed score to determine the winner. The fi rst-place team receives a plaque, while the second and third-place teams get certifi cates. Awards will be presented at the 2009 International DX Convention in Visalia, California. W6A W6A deployed an ICOM IC-7800, ACOM 2000A amp, 4-element MonstIR SteppIR antenna — modifi ed with one element for 40, an 80 meter inverted V coaxial stub dipole and a 160 meter longwire. “As the contest weekend approached it was looking like N6KI might have to forgo the competition due to other pressing matters that would keep me from reassembling the station after Field Day,” Dennis reported. “I worked into the wee hours Friday night to get everything back together and confi gured.” He said two other ham friends he’d approached about being his teammate also had to decline at the last minute due to busy work schedules. At the eleventh hour, Dennis explained, consummate world traveler and DXpeditioner (TX5C and others) Bob Grimmick, N6OX — just back from Europe where he’d attended the Ham Radio 2008 gathering in Friedrichshafen, Germany — happened to call. Dennis recruited him as his WCRRTC partner. “Knowing that Bob was an SSB-only op, I jumped on 15 CW only to fi nd a few sta- W6A Scoring Summary Band QSOs Zones HQ Stns 160 2 1 0 80 125 8 3 40 356 26 8 20 532 26 13 15 39 6 3 10 0 0 0 Total 1054 67 27 Figure 1 — Dennis, N6KI, operating W6A. Figure 2 — Bob, N6OX, the other operator at W6A. John Barcroft, K6AM tions left at midday, and then jumped in the fray on 20 CW,” Dennis recounted. “Then at mid-afternoon, Bob started cranking out Qs on 20 SSB.” Dennis reported that “some issues” arose in getting the control box of his MonstIR SteppIR antenna to retract all but the driven element so the antenna would qualify as a single-element antenna on 40 meters. “Every time I tried to QSY back to 15 and 20 meters, the antenna would not extend its related elements properly,” he explained. “So I fi nally gave up.” Only after fi guring a way to extend only the driven element on 40 did the pair shift to that band at 0520 UTC. “We gave up trying to get back on 20, which, though milked out, might have yielded a few more Qs and mults,” he said. For W6A, 20 and 40 meters turned out to be the money bands. “We found 80 meters at 0800 to be relatively quiet with no storms in the area, and we picked up eight zones and three HQ stations there,” Dennis recalled. “If there was an opening on 10 meters Saturday morning we missed it, and we erred by not putting in a bit more time on 160. Forty meters was really hopping the last three or four hours of the contest, and we had great openings to JA.” Dennis said it came as a surprise that with only slightly more than 1000 Qs the team found itself in contention for fi rst place. “It ironically and coincidentally turned out that all three stations had one op who only worked SSB and one who could operate mixed mode, but I suspect the mixed-mode ops at each station worked mainly CW, leaving SSB to their teammates.” “Bob and I were very happy that we were able to participate,” he concluded. “Thanks to John for putting together this new, fun competition, and we hope it becomes an annual event during WRTC ‘off years’ for many years to come.” W6B “This was the fi rst full 24-hour effort for both me and Dan,” reported John, WA6L. “We both learned quite a bit from the experience.” “You reach a point in the early morning where that little part of your brain that decodes CW goes to sleep,” John continued. “At one point you are enjoying a modest NCJ November/December 2008 41
Page 1 and 2: ■ Contest University 2008 at Dayt
Page 3 and 4: “I was struck by how clean, natur
Page 5 and 6: Editorial Our “Better Halves” T
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: RTTY Contesting Just two years ago,
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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