Prefix for Special Event

To all,

Sorry I have been a bit tardy with my work on the CTRI 20th Anniversary Special Event but with the recent holiday and a death in the family the week before Thansgiving I have been away from the hobby.

The Special Event would center around the 2013 NEQP held on May 4th and 5th, but we have a 15 day window of operation so I would suggest we get the 1 x 1 callsigns for the period of May 1 thru May 15.

At W1XX’s we discussed the Special Event but we did not discuss what prefix block ie: K, N or W we would like to use for our 1 x 1 S/E callsigns.

It’s my opinion that a single prefix block would make it more uniform for the stations looking for us but whatever the group would like to do is fine with me.

I prefer the “K” prefix as I find KILO is the one that cuts thru the QRM the best…or it could just be my ears !

We can apply for any prefix block or suffix with exception of an “X” suffix (sorry John).

As I stated during the meeting the special event coordinators will not allow me to apply for all the 1 x 1 callsigns as they did in the past.

It would be nice to get a showing of hands of the members that are interested. Just drop me an email w1ctn@nullyahoo.com in the next couple of days and then I will post the website to go to to request your callsign.

I did a random check of a few callsigns K1A, N1A etc for the period we want and no one as of today has requested any callsigns so we are free to choose.

More to come.

73

Dave

W1CTN

Radio Ansonia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

club member contest claimed scores reporting *update*

As the club’s newly designated ‘Contest Manager’ I wanted to let folks know that Ken K3IU (also our new club V.P.!) has kindly volunteered to take over the maintenance of the CTRI intra-club Champions scoreboard from John W1XX, commencing immediately.  Thanks much John for providing your many updates of member’s scores over the last few contest seasons.  And thanks Ken for your help.

The scoreboard is now updated per Ken’s earlier post of today.  Club members are **highly encouraged** to submit their claimed scores for any of the designated contests VIA THIS WEBSITE as the **preferred method**, using the ‘Create a Post’ button at the top of the main page.  Please make sure your full operating category also appears in your post (esp. indicating HP, LP or QRP power levels) so your score can  be properly credited.   And don’t forget to submit your score to the contest sponsor by the deadline!  (note: the trend is now for shorter deadlines, ie. ARRL Sweepstakes, CQWW SSB/CW and CQ WPX).

I also encourage you to provide your comments regarding your particular contest experience as part of your Post…others members enjoy and can really benefit from your observations.

By the way, a much less preferred method for members score submittal (but available alternative) is to submit directly to Ken at his e-mail address:  k3iu@nullarrl.net   I suggest this route as only a last resort.

Any score, large or small, is welcome!  It’s nice to see contest activity from members, no matter how much time/effort could be put in during any particular event.

Below the ‘content’ area of your Post in the ‘Post Tags’ area (when creating your Post), members may want to enter the words ‘contest results’ so their claimed score info will also be available for history purposes in the Contest Results subforum.

So, the ARRL 160m contest starts this Friday eve @ 2200Z, going to 1600Z Sunday A.M. (exclusively on CW)…word is that a certain South County RI station with a recently repaired tall vertical is planning a strong effort.  Any others??

I hope most folks have plans to support the club effort the following weekend in getting active in some form or another for the ARRL 10 Meter Contest.  With the expected great propagation, choice of SSB, CW or Mixed Modes, large amount of available frequency space and growing interest in contesting in general, this event could be one for the ages!

Good luck and hope to see you in the contests.

73,

Bill  W1WBB / CTRI CG Contest Manager

 

 

Yahoo! Group change of owner

Hi everyone,

Today I received an email from Yahoo! Groups customer support stating that I have been changed from Moderator to Owner of our group.

I don’t remember what we agreed would be the next step in the process of migrating completely away from the Yahoo! Group, but whatever it is I now have the ability to do what the club membership decides.

Oh, I forgot to say “thanks” to all those who voted for me…I think. Putting an end to the online meeting place that kept us together for so many years isn’t an enviable task, but I guess it’s better that one of the oldest active members of the club does it.

73,

Pat, NG1G

2011 CQWW CW – W1WBB

With such good conditions on the upper bands I gave the new Hexbeam a pretty good workout.    Running SOLP(A) my goal was to go for the mults, turning the N1MM ‘available mults’ window from green to red, then blue…then repeat on next best band.  Great choices abounded during daytime on either 20, 15 or 10m!  Allowed me to also better track beam’s effectiveness to various regions around the globe.  Ran a little Sunday when mults thinned/rate slowed.

Was fun and relaxed, and I was quite pleased to break many pile-ups early by moving up or down just a bit from the spotted frequency, esp. on Sunday when competing vs. fewer big-guns.  Sunday morning brought huge signals on 15m and I ran up my QSO total there.  Agree with Jim KS1J that 10m propagation was very good but not quite the same as during CQWW SSB…BTW, *amazing* QSO totals for Jim again in this contest – 2000+ with, I assume, LP!

Heard K1DM snag 8Q7DV on Sunday, who was too weak with too big a pile to likely work here at the time.  I did get more Africans in the log but was disappointed with the propagation to JA/SW Asia.  Only 1 JA worked but 3 from KH2/KH0 – strange.

No big operating for ARRL 160m here this coming weekend.  Will save time for the ARRL 10m event the following weekend…hope many from CTRI plan activity for that one.

What are the plans at W1AN/W1DX for ARRL 10m Contest John?

73,  Bill  W1WBB

 

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W1WBB
Operator(s): W1WBB
Station: W1WBB

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: RI – USA
Operating Time (hrs):

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
——————————
160:   19     7       10
80:   59    12       45
40:  214    19       75
20:  157    31      101
15:  163    26      109
10:  128    28      105
——————————
Total:  740   123      445  Total Score = 1,160,424

Club: CT RI Contest Group

Comments:

The new Hexbeam worked great on the high bands!

Strategy was to go DXing, using N1MM Logger ‘available mults’ to clear out
unworked zones and countries as best as possible, exercising patience as an LP
stn but knowing when to skip the major pile-ups for later.  Then, repeat on
next band with highest available mult count.  Great results on 10/15/20m,
working DXCC+ on each.

CQ’d a bit Sunday afternoon/eve when point/click rate was slow and few workable
‘available’ mults.  Less than 10% of QSOs made running.  Found a few good mults
late that were not posted while I searched in-between callsigns on bandmap
going ‘old-school’ – turning the dial!

Good fun with great participation from around the radio globe.  Thanks for the
Q’s, and esp. to the many DXpeditions and big sig M-Op stns for getting on.

Log will be uploaded to LoTW.

CQWW CW 2011 – KS1J

This contest was a blast. There was great activity and great band openings. However, I felt that 10 wasn’t quite as hot as it was for the SSB contest in October. The signals were there but seemed a bit weaker and it didn’t stay open as long. Did anyone else notice this or was it just me? Anyway, I shudda moved down from 10 earier on Saturday when things started slowing down but kept at it thinking the band would stay up. I learned my lesson and on Sunday I moved down to 15 then to 20 about an hour or so earlier than on Saturday.

Unlike the SSB contest, I got more balance by operating on the other bands more evenly. That helped in bringing up the mult total. So I guess the lesson here is that despite the great conditions on 10, staying there all day could actually hurt in the final score.

Ken, great job. When conditions are good like this, it is tough getting out of the chair. There is always another mult popping up or endless EU’s answering your CQ’s. When conditions are rotty, it is a lot easier to push the chair away and do something else. Lets hope things stay hot for at least the next several years.

I tried yet another 80 meter antenna and the jury is still out. I put up a two element phased job. I could pretty much work everything but I was expecting better results over the single element I had before. I still have some tinkering to do on it so time will tell.

Like Ken, I heard K1NEF, KI1G and heard Ken. We need more CW participation. So guys keep practicing with RUFZ and jump into the fray.

BTW I didn’t realize I was to prepare notes for the 10 meter contest!! But no problemo.. I will have something out this week. Don’t expect any great revelations. This is still largely a domestic contest and I am hardly the one to provide advice on racking up big scores in any of those (NAQP, NewEnglanQP or SS). With conditions the way they are, the 10 meter contest ought to be real fun.

 

 

 This was Single Op All Band Low Power (Assisted)

 

QSOs   QSO points   Zones   Countries   Multipliers   Score

160m:       0                           0             0

80m:     130            361        17            53

40m:     366           1043       25            92

 

20m:     451           1309       28            93

 

15m:     376           1087       29           104

10m:     695           2046       28            112

Totals: 2018           5846      127           454  581 3,396,526

Jim KS1J

CQWW CW Score: K1DM

Gang,

     Here are the results from the K1DM/W1AN Multi-Single layed back effort this weekend.  We wanted to have fun and still spend some time on the air.  I think we met both goals.  It was too much fun to hear and work prefixes that I didn’t even recognize.  Many times the stations would come back to me first (that’s the High-power category at work I am sure).  On 40 meters, I had to get used to having the beam – an added decibel advantage over my normal wire antenna.

     I didn’t hear any of the CTRI CG gang, but that’s probably because I was mostly shooting the fish rather than trying to reel them in.  I was amazed at the rates I could get going by pointing and clicking on the band map or multiplier list.  Neither John or I tried much “running.”  When I did, the rate dropped, but remember, we were looking to have fun and not get burned out.

     Here is our summary:

<pre>
Contest:  CQWW CW 2011
Call:  K1DM
Club:  CTRI Contest Group
Band  QSOs  Pts  Zones  DXC

 1.8   11    26    9   6
 3.5   32    88   32  11
 7.0  195   566   71  17
14.0  197   567   93  28
21.0  121   335   61  20
28.0  147   393   79  25
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Tot   703  1980  345 107
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Score:  894,960
</pre>

 

     We’ll see if the formatting works here.  I will figure out how much time we spend next time I open N1MM

(I am the forgetful professor, remember:)

 

73, Mike, K1DM

K3IU 2011 CQWW DX CW RESULTS

WOW! I say again… WOW!

I was looking forward to this contest and wasn’t disappointed. My BIC time, according to the N1MM Logger calculation was 22h-47m… put in about 4 hours on Friday night, got a full night sleep on Sat night (From what I hear, I guess I missed the exciting mag storm event from the CME a couple days ago .

To the best of my recollection, I heard the following club members at least once… K1NEF, W1WBB, KI1G, and KS1J. Sorry if I forgot anyone, but I don’t take notes during the contest.

I think that this is the personal best score for me in this contest from home. Actually, to NOT coin a phrase, it was like shooting fish in a barrel using the telnet generated bandmap and S&P I was able to keep up a rate greater than 75 for long periods of time. Overall average for my operating time was about 58/hour. I know, I know… why didn’t I spend more time running! Well, I tried Runnin’ & Gunnin’ several times and was never able to get a rate that warranted more, so most of these QSOs were from S&P.

Call: K3IU
Operator(s): K3IU
Station: K3IU

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: USA - RI
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:   71    14       45
   40:  180    20       79
   20:  359    35      111
   15:  306    31      115
   10:  328    27      118
------------------------------
Total: 1124   127      468  Total Score = 2,100,945
[I tried putting the HTML Preformatted tags in the above score listing]

73,

Ken Wagner K3IU
Portsmouth, RI

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I will be on the road tomorrow so I’ll take this opportunity to wish all CTRICG members and their families a very happy Thanksgiving. I’m thankful to have our club’s excellent hams to associate with.

This weekend I’ll be in the chair for the CQ WW CW Contest, probably as a LP single-band entry (10M), but I also plan on spending time on 160M. Should be a good time, especially given the tasty DX that has been on the air the past several days.

73,

Pat, NG1G

Meeting of November 12, 2011

Eight members assembled Saturday morning as the November meeting returned to Crandall House in Ashaway, RI. High on the list of agenda items was the election of officers for 2011-2012. Three members found out why it is important to attend, in their absence they were elected to office!

The photo below shows the presence of a quorum of qualified members (W1PN was also present but behind the camera).

Elected were:

K1DM, President

K3IU, Vice-President

W1PN, Secretary

KB1BNO, Treasurer

W1WBB, Contest Manager

Reports:

Secretary: Minutes of October 22 are on the website and were distributed. Adopted as presented.

Treasurer: Absent

Contest Manager: Focus should now be on the ARRL 10 Meter contest, December 10-11, 2011. It was attempted to set a specific goal for the club with the intent to involve everyone, much as we did for the NEQP contest earlier. NG1G suggested a goal of 3 billion points, but cooler heads prevailed. K3IU suggested a participation related goal, e.g., at least 15 members operating for 20 hours each. NG1G raised the possibility of a promise of individual achievement (time and/or points) in advance of the contest and then an aggregation of these promises to a club goal. Additional discussion revealed the difficulty of setting a goal without further analysis and comments. It was decided to continue this topic through a post on the website.

KS1J observed that we should have a Tips, Hints, Strategy post for this contest. Jim volunteered to write the post.

Old Business:

W1AN continued the on-going discussion of the club going to Puerto Rico in 2013 for the CQ WW WPX RTTY contest. Carlos would like to host our operation. (See http://w1pn.com/wp/2011/11/17/plan-ahead-2/ for more information.) A sometimes raucous discussion ensued on the vicissitudes of operating in a tropical environment. NG1G is the ramrod for this effort and will bring order out of this chaos and report on the website.

New Business:

Jim, KS1J, is trying to assemble records of our performance in the past. Please append a comment here with your recollections of contests in which we have scored at or near the top to assist Jim in this data collection task.

W1AN raised the question of what to do about the Yahoo reflector. Consensus was to shut it down since its function has been replaced by the new website. Mechanics of how and when this will be done must be resolved. Discussions revealed that some members do not know how to accomplish their needs with the website. This is exemplified by how to use RSS to cause notification of new and changed information. Additionally it would be useful if non-Members could see some things on the website for the purpose of recruiting. It was agreed that we should limit the reflector to being a repository of old but perhaps useful information and change its parameters so that the origination of new emails, files, etc, is not possible. NG1G is responsible for the implementation of this decision which implies that we find ways to help members who have trouble understanding how to use the new website.

The issue of club members vs reflector members arose several times in the preceding discussions. Who gets unrestricted access to the website and who does not? Who are the members? How do we serve both groups? Should we? While lots of issues were raised none were resolved and were left for subsequent meetings.

Holiday Luncheon (February meeting) at Greg’s. Chuck will be asked by W1AN if he will organize again. Club will not pay for the dinner this time because we don’t have the money (an issue that has to be discussed at a future meeting).

Motion to bestow Honorary Member status to Bill, N1HRA, was passed unanimously.

It became obvious that members were becoming fatigued so the meeting adjourned at 1350.

Respectfully submitted,

Ed Haskell, W1PN, Secretary

Post SS SSB Scores Here

Call:  W1XX

Operator:  W1XX

Station: W1XX

Class:  Single Op HP

QTH:  RI

Operating Time (hrs):  11.5

Summary:

   80:  115

   40:  509

   20:  140

   15:   50

   10:  282

————————————————–

Total:  1096 Sections = 80 Total Score = 175,040

Club:  CTRI Contest Group

Comments:  Operating less than full bore time-wsie was kinda neat as the runs almost never stopped.  After opening up with 5 solid hours, went to sleep as per normal and operated in short burts thereafter.  RI was apparently a tough one this time as the pileups kept the rate-meter burning.  10 meters was a difference maker as I’m sure I worked a lot more west coast LP stations who probably can’t make it as well on 20 or 40.  40 started out slow but came through with the most Qs in the long run as per usual.  Found VY1EI on 10 a half hour before the contest…so set one vfo on him while running elsewhere and called in about an hour into the contest when his pileup had subsided somewhat. Think I only worked one PR…SK was last to fall but got another one later….KL7s were plentiful….KH6 no problem….I think only one VI.  Unlike on CW, plenty of NEs.  Only heard W1WBB and W1CTN from CTRI.  Worked the last hour of the contest on 40 and it was wall-to-wall callers looking for RI right up the end.  I’m usually done by this time…so maybe I’ve been missing a very productive hour.  SS is always fun!!  73!  –John, W1XX    

Formatting Contest Scores

Hi Gang, I’ve found a way to instruct WordPress to display your contest score results in aligned columns. Prepare you contest results in your text editor, add the pre and /pre formatting tags with the <> brackets as shown and then copy it into WordPress. The score will show in an equally spaced font, typically “courier”



Contest: Bogus DX
Call: W1AN
Club: CTRI Contest Group

Band      QSOs    Mults    Prefixes
160M       567       89          12
 80M     1,234      567          89
 40M        87       65          43
-----------------------------------
Total:   2,345      234       1,234

Score:   1,234,567

Without the html formatting it may look like this:

Contest: Bogus DX
Call: W1AN
Club: CTRI Contest Group

Band QSOs Mults Prefixes
160M 567 89 12
80M 1,234 567 89
40M 87 65 43
———————————–
Total: 2,345 234 1,234

Score: 1,234,567

John, W1AN

KI1G in Guam

Our very own Rick Davenport has landed in Guam. It’s already tomorrow there. Depending on his workload, he plans to get on the air from someplace while he is there. Here is latest info from him just received. I’ll post new information here as I get it.

73, Ken K3IU

==============================

Hello from tomorrow,
Arrived safe and sound, temp in middle 80’s with tropical humidity.
Daybreak is just starting to light up Tumon Bay here Friday morning.
Will keep you posted
73,
Rick KH2/KI1G

On 11/15/11, Ken K3IU<kenk3iu@nullcox.net> wrote:

Thanks, Rick! I’ll put the word out around here when you sort out your schedule.
73,
Ken K3IU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On 11/15/2011 5:18 PM, Rick Davenport wrote:

Ken

I finally got in touch with N2NL, I am planning on going to see him either Saturday or Sunday Guam time so Friday or Saturday here. I will try to give you more notice once I get settled in out there.

 73,

Rick

PLAN AHEAD

Looking Towards New World Record for CQ WPX RTTY

There has been recent discussions about a crew from CTRI heading to Puerto Rico in February 2013 to make a run for the World Record in the WPX RTTY contest. This should be near the peak of the sunspot cycle and will be a great opportunity run up a BIG score at Carlos’ station.

I just did a little research to identify exactly what the records are at the present time. This posting is to put that information in plain view. You should particularly note that the North American record and the United States record are held by pretty familiar callsigns….

Category                                 Record Holder               Year                        Score                    WPX

WORLD – Multi-2                    EA8AH                                  2007                       17,001,420           895
North America – M2             NP3U                                      2008                       14,053,680            894
United States – M2                NG1G (W1AN)                      2011                        7,862,238              873

A crew from CTRI also went south to NP3U in Februray 2009 for this contest. However, the gods weren’t with us on this trip. Equipment problems and antenna problems caused us to be Multi-Single for about 25% of the contest time. The score from that effort for NP3U (9.895,184) was still enough to win First Place Honors, Multi-2, in both the World and North America.

 

Low Bands Are Alive and Well

Low Bands Are Alive and Well

 

With the upswing in 10 meter propagation conditions, I feared that this might not be good for low band DXing.  Fortunately I was wrong. On Top Band for example, it is beginning to look pretty good.  I worked my first JA this season this morning (JA7NI) on 1813 – his favorite frequency – at 6:15 AM local.  His signal came up to 579 by 6:25 and faded out around 6:35.  I also heard Will, K6ND, get him. The 4s have been working JAs for the last couple of weeks.

 

JA signals last about a half hour longer to somewhat after 7:00 AM on 80 meters with Takar, JA7BXS, the easiest to work.  K6ND really gets around, as I heard Will work JA7BXS this morning.   If you are up a bit earlier around 5:55 AM, listen for the outstanding signal of XU7ACY who is workable on 3513 KHz.

 

Just hearing JAs on 80 or 160 can be rather exciting, so get up early and turn on your radios.  GL!

 

— John, W1XX

Wed. 11/16/2011

Meeting Notice — November 12, 2011

If you are familiar with the interactive meeting notice skip down to “Topics“.

This is an interactive meeting notice.

What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice?

As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice what requires interaction by the readers. For example: we need to have topics for presentation at the meeting; we need presenters; we need volunteers to provide lunch; we need to know who is coming to the meeting so the quantity of lunch portions may be determined, and so on.

This post will be updated as interactions (comments) are appended.

Topics

  1. Election of Officers. Someone is likely to nominate you, so reflect before the meeting on whether you have the time and interest to serve.
  2. Contest Report
  3. Future of the Yahoo reflector
  4. NP3U in either the 2012 or 2013 CQWW WPX RTTY contest
  5. We need to discuss the whole subject of recruitment, who is a ‘member’, who should be a member, how we support the group’s activities, etc. By ‘member’ is meant a Member of CTRI CG (as defined in the bylaws), not a ‘subscriber’ to the Yahoo Group, or a visitor to the new web site.
  6. Holiday Dinner
  7. Special Event 1×1 callsigns

Lunch provider:

Lunch fixins by: K3IU. Coffee and soft drinks by W1AN

Members who will attend:

W1PN, K3IU, W1AN, K1DM(in spirit), NG1G

Venue: Crandall House, 1100 to about 1400