Southern California Contest Club
CQ WW DX RTTY: September 28-29 California QSO Party: October 5-6 CQ WW DX SSB: October 26-27
CQ WW DX RTTY: September 28-29 California QSO Party: October 5-6 CQ WW DX SSB: October 26-27
A Collection of Old SCCC News Stories (Newest to Oldest)
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
July 2019
Greetings. June and July are slow months for contesting but... As we head into the warmer months of summer, it's time to do that antenna work that you've been meaning to do. And/or that station reconfig and optimizing that has been on your mind. And invite over that nephew or neice, maybe a grandchild to experience the thrill of making a few contacts at your station. Let's make the most of our 2019 summer!
If you are running N1MM+ contest logging software, you may run into an error when the program tries to check for updates or you manually make the check. There was a change to the web site (for example they moved to https which secures data transfer between the server and browsers) but did not rewrite the update routine in the software to reflect the change, at least at first. In my case, I got a 404 error, which is essentially a server not found message. To correct the problem, go to the N1MM web site. Download and run the lastest update file. This will update your copy of N1MM+ and resolve the issue. Note, if you are running Windows XP or (gasp) Vista, the N1MM+ auto update feature is not compatible with the new site. You will have to do manual updates going forward.
The WSJT-X development team has been busy in May and June. They have been working hard on the new FT4 contest mode. The current beta version is WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc7. It is not compatible with earlier release candidates that included FT4. A mock contest was held June 4 to test things out. Installation packages are available for Windows, Linux and macOS. More information can be found here. The software is available at the WSJT-X web site.
more
QRZ.com recently made available Two Factor Authentication. This increases security and can help thwart password hackers. The feature is optional for all users except sellers in the site's swapmeet section. The feature is mandatory for those users. To activate, log in to QRZ.com. Hover on your call in the upper right of the screen and select "Account." Near the top center, you will find a large button with the Two Factor Authentication option. That will take you to the setup screen. It can be configured to work with your cell phone or with a code generator if you don't have cell coverage where you normally use QRZ.
Honda has issued recalls on several models of its very popular portable generators. Models affected are EU2200i, EU2200i Companion, and EB2200i, colored red or camouflage. According to the notice, these generators can develop leaks from the fuel valve. Purchasers should take their units to an authorized Honda Power Equipment dealer for a free repair. More information at the U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission web site.
Results of the 2018 ARRL 10 Meter Contest have been published. Dana, K6NR placed in the Top Ten USA SOHP CW category. John, K6MI took 5th USA SOU Mixed Mode QRP. Dave, N6AN and friend VA6DAF put the W6UE CalTech station in the top ten in the MSHP category. SCCC placed 6th in the Medium Club Category. Hats off to all those that tackled this very challenging HF contest at this point in the sunspot cycle! Full results at the ARRL contest results web site.
Also out now are the 2019 ARRL January VHF Contest results. Tim, N6GP took the top spot in the Limited Rover category in the Southwestern Division. Bruce, KG6IYN took 1st in the FM Only category in the Division. SCCC was pretty far down the list in the Medium Club category in this one. Full results at the same web site as the 10 Meter Contest.
CQ has published the raw scores for the May WPX CW contest. These are the top ten before log checking in each category. You will find the scores here.
The FCC has put on public notice for comment a Petition for Rulemaking (RM-11843) that seeks a new Amateur Radio allocation at 40 MHz (8 meters) on a secondary basis. Hams on 40 MHz is not without precedent. Hams in Ireland are authorized there today. If the FCC were to ultimately approve an 8 meter allocation for U.S. hams, the band would be a very interesting one. Would it be included by contest committees for use in HF contesting or VHF? Probably not. As you know, 30 MHz and above is typically considered VHF. Propagation would presumably be similar to 6 meters but with more Sporadic-E openings. Stay tuned! More on this story can be found here
Strange but true...
If you are enjoying summer picnics, you might want to keep in mind the fact that there are 1,500 known species of fleas and 9,500 known species of ants. Then again, that might be a factoid you'd rather forget!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
If you are running N1MM+ contest logging software, you may run into an error when the program tries to check for updates or you manually make the check. There was a change to the web site (for example they moved to https which secures data transfer between the server and browsers) but did not rewrite the update routine in the software to reflect the change, at least at first. In my case, I got a 404 error, which is essentially a server not found message. To correct the problem, go to the N1MM web site. Download and run the lastest update file. This will update your copy of N1MM+ and resolve the issue. Note, if you are running Windows XP or (gasp) Vista, the N1MM+ auto update feature is not compatible with the new site. You will have to do manual updates going forward.
The WSJT-X development team has been busy in May and June. They have been working hard on the new FT4 contest mode. The current beta version is WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc7. It is not compatible with earlier release candidates that included FT4. A mock contest was held June 4 to test things out. Installation packages are available for Windows, Linux and macOS. More information can be found here. The software is available at the WSJT-X web site.
more
QRZ.com recently made available Two Factor Authentication. This increases security and can help thwart password hackers. The feature is optional for all users except sellers in the site's swapmeet section. The feature is mandatory for those users. To activate, log in to QRZ.com. Hover on your call in the upper right of the screen and select "Account." Near the top center, you will find a large button with the Two Factor Authentication option. That will take you to the setup screen. It can be configured to work with your cell phone or with a code generator if you don't have cell coverage where you normally use QRZ.
Honda has issued recalls on several models of its very popular portable generators. Models affected are EU2200i, EU2200i Companion, and EB2200i, colored red or camouflage. According to the notice, these generators can develop leaks from the fuel valve. Purchasers should take their units to an authorized Honda Power Equipment dealer for a free repair. More information at the U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission web site.
Results of the 2018 ARRL 10 Meter Contest have been published. Dana, K6NR placed in the Top Ten USA SOHP CW category. John, K6MI took 5th USA SOU Mixed Mode QRP. Dave, N6AN and friend VA6DAF put the W6UE CalTech station in the top ten in the MSHP category. SCCC placed 6th in the Medium Club Category. Hats off to all those that tackled this very challenging HF contest at this point in the sunspot cycle! Full results at the ARRL contest results web site.
Also out now are the 2019 ARRL January VHF Contest results. Tim, N6GP took the top spot in the Limited Rover category in the Southwestern Division. Bruce, KG6IYN took 1st in the FM Only category in the Division. SCCC was pretty far down the list in the Medium Club category in this one. Full results at the same web site as the 10 Meter Contest.
CQ has published the raw scores for the May WPX CW contest. These are the top ten before log checking in each category. You will find the scores here.
The FCC has put on public notice for comment a Petition for Rulemaking (RM-11843) that seeks a new Amateur Radio allocation at 40 MHz (8 meters) on a secondary basis. Hams on 40 MHz is not without precedent. Hams in Ireland are authorized there today. If the FCC were to ultimately approve an 8 meter allocation for U.S. hams, the band would be a very interesting one. Would it be included by contest committees for use in HF contesting or VHF? Probably not. As you know, 30 MHz and above is typically considered VHF. Propagation would presumably be similar to 6 meters but with more Sporadic-E openings. Stay tuned! More on this story can be found here
Strange but true...
If you are enjoying summer picnics, you might want to keep in mind the fact that there are 1,500 known species of fleas and 9,500 known species of ants. Then again, that might be a factoid you'd rather forget!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
June 2019
Our own Bruce, WA7BNM has been inducted into the CQ Magazine Contest Hall of Fame! Bruce works very quietly behind the scenes but has made huge contributions to the amateur radio contest world over the years! Witness 3830scores.org and the WA7BNM Contest Calendar to name just two of many. Thanks, Bruce, for all that you do! ARRL's article on the subject can be found here.
Several issues ago, I mentioned that there were many amateur radio podcasts out there for our listening pleasure. ARRL has a new one out now, launched a couple of months ago, called "So Now What?" This podcast is geared toward newcomers to our hobby. It's may not be something that most SCCCers would be interested in listening to but if you know someone new to our hobby, interested in it or returning to amateur radio, you might pass this one along to them. The podcast can be listened to online or on a smartphone or tablet. More information on So What Now can be found on the ARRL web site. I find podcasts great to listen to on my drive to and from the office, or while relaxing in the backyard. Wherever you listen, podcasts are a lot of fun and often educational.
On May 5, DX-WORLD.net and a other sites shared the very sad news that we lost Monk Apollo, SV2ASP/1. While not a contester per se, I believe I have seen evidence of him participating casually in some contests. More importantly, he was the most active ham on Mt. Athos (Monk Iakovos, SV2RSG has been reported to occasionally be active, and in fact participated in the 2016 WPX CW contest. A search on QRZ.com shows only these two as licensed there.). There have been a few attempts to get DXpeditions approved there but all have failed. The governing body there is very protective of the monastery and grounds and has not allowed outsiders to operate from there. Monk Apollo provided many with a DXCC counter. It's now likely that Mt. Athos will quickly rise from its position of #20 most wanted on Clublog to a place in the top 5. You can read a little about Monk Apollo on his QRZ.com page. Also, SV1DPI wrote about his friend, Monk Apollo, here. Also, the ARRL posted this article.
more
ARRL has published the final results of the Sweepstakes CW contest held last November. Southwestern Division winners include SCCCers:
Ken, K6LA, Single Op, High Power and George, W6AYC, Single Op, Low Power.
Final results of SS Phone show K6AM winning the Multi Single High Power category! SCCC placed 3rd in teh Medium Club category with 2.55 million points.
CQ has published the final results of the 2018 CQWW DX CW contest. They report that while the excitement is always high, the number of entities worked in 2018 was down to its lowest level in the past ten years, 194 versus a high of 263. That said, Dan, N6MJ piloted ZF1A to 4th place World Single OP HP All Band! There is a great writeup by Dan in the mag about the annual competition in this contest between him and good friend Chris, KL9A. Chris (at TI7W) took this year's battle, and now has won 2 of 3 over Dan. In the article, Dan says they are investigating potential stations for next year's contest. I suggest the two of you swap 2018's stations for 2019. What say? Ken, K6LA piloted VY2TT to 8th in that category! Axel, KI6RRN placed 3rd USA Single Op LP All Band. SCCC 8th in the USA Club category, about 1.5 million points behind NCCC. We had 72 entrants versus their 95. Be sure to get on in November and submit your score for SCCC!
NCJ published the final results of the January NAQP SSB. N5ZO, KI6RRN, W6TK and W6AFA all placed in the top ten in W6. SCCC#1 placed 12th in the team category.
Final results of the 7th Call Area QSO Party (7QP) are out. This one is somewhat popular with SCCCers even though we are a bit close to work W7's on the higher bands. That said, Alex, W6AFA took first place in the Single Op HP Phone division for non-7's. John, N6MU took first place in the Single Op LP CW catergory for those outside of W7. Tim, N6GP placed 3rd in the same category. You'll find some other SCCCers sprinkled in the final results here.
As you may recall, I sent a donation in the name of SCCC to Team Exuberance for the youngsters planned trip to K3LR to operate in the WPX SSB contest. The kids (including our own Levi, K6JO) did very, very well. The team sent us a thank you card for our donation. Click the image on the right for a larger view.
DAYTON HAMVENTION 2019!
The big announcement at Hamvention this year was from the guys at Elecraft! This should be interesting! The highly respected Elecraft K3 and K3S have been the choice of many top contesters and DXers for many years. Now, coming on the scene is the newly announced K4 and K4D! the P3 panadapter is no longer required! Elecraft describes the new user graphic user interface as super easy to use. The K4 has a new HDMI output with a few different video outputs available, and more to follow. They plan to have a 2m/440 option in the near future. The K4D is a step up and includes a diversity receiver, opening still more options on HF. But wait, there will be a K4HD too! This one will be especially good for contesters. All upgradable from the base K4. Check it out here! There are also many other videos on the K4 on the web. It sounds like a very well thought out, very modern rig!
Watch an interview with Elecraft here.
Whew! My head is spinning! Can't wait to see some reviews! Elecraft is expecting to ship the first orders around the end of this year... K4 $3,999, ATU $399, K4D $500 extra (factory MSRP). More photos can be found here.
Also announced at Dayton was the introduction of the RF-KIT RF2K-S legal limit solid state amplifier available from DX Engineering. The amplifier also does 1 KW out on 6 meters. Watch the video here.
And a new HF clock with satellite tracking and solar index plus grayline. You can check this one out here.
Of interest to low power contesters perhaps was the announcement of the Mission RGO One, an all new homebrew HF transcievier. See it here.
SDRplay announced its new RSPduo dual-tuner 14-bit SDR receiver. Check it out!
Flex Radio announced its new multiFLEX software (2 operators, 1 radio). Learn more here and here.
ARRL has announced that LOTW is now accepting contacts for the new FT4 contest mode. In order to submit FT4 QSLs, you will need to run TQSL manually and let it install the new config.xml file. The ARRL announcement can be found here. And in case you missed it, there is also a new version of TQSL (v2.4.7).
Bruce, WA7BNM announced a new addition to his 3830scores.com web site. The new feature is an Activity Tracker. It allows one to select a given club and see submitted claimed scores over a number of time periods (up to one year). SCCC scores are tied to the Club Roster. Other clubs are tied to the operator's submission to the site. I am finding this to be a really nice addition! Click the "Activity Trackers" button on the top menu.
Strange but true...
Do animals grieve their own? Perhaps so--at least some animals. When an elephant dies, other elephants in the herd will cover the body with leaves and branches, and often will stay with it for days.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Several issues ago, I mentioned that there were many amateur radio podcasts out there for our listening pleasure. ARRL has a new one out now, launched a couple of months ago, called "So Now What?" This podcast is geared toward newcomers to our hobby. It's may not be something that most SCCCers would be interested in listening to but if you know someone new to our hobby, interested in it or returning to amateur radio, you might pass this one along to them. The podcast can be listened to online or on a smartphone or tablet. More information on So What Now can be found on the ARRL web site. I find podcasts great to listen to on my drive to and from the office, or while relaxing in the backyard. Wherever you listen, podcasts are a lot of fun and often educational.
On May 5, DX-WORLD.net and a other sites shared the very sad news that we lost Monk Apollo, SV2ASP/1. While not a contester per se, I believe I have seen evidence of him participating casually in some contests. More importantly, he was the most active ham on Mt. Athos (Monk Iakovos, SV2RSG has been reported to occasionally be active, and in fact participated in the 2016 WPX CW contest. A search on QRZ.com shows only these two as licensed there.). There have been a few attempts to get DXpeditions approved there but all have failed. The governing body there is very protective of the monastery and grounds and has not allowed outsiders to operate from there. Monk Apollo provided many with a DXCC counter. It's now likely that Mt. Athos will quickly rise from its position of #20 most wanted on Clublog to a place in the top 5. You can read a little about Monk Apollo on his QRZ.com page. Also, SV1DPI wrote about his friend, Monk Apollo, here. Also, the ARRL posted this article.
more
ARRL has published the final results of the Sweepstakes CW contest held last November. Southwestern Division winners include SCCCers:
Ken, K6LA, Single Op, High Power and George, W6AYC, Single Op, Low Power.
Final results of SS Phone show K6AM winning the Multi Single High Power category! SCCC placed 3rd in teh Medium Club category with 2.55 million points.
CQ has published the final results of the 2018 CQWW DX CW contest. They report that while the excitement is always high, the number of entities worked in 2018 was down to its lowest level in the past ten years, 194 versus a high of 263. That said, Dan, N6MJ piloted ZF1A to 4th place World Single OP HP All Band! There is a great writeup by Dan in the mag about the annual competition in this contest between him and good friend Chris, KL9A. Chris (at TI7W) took this year's battle, and now has won 2 of 3 over Dan. In the article, Dan says they are investigating potential stations for next year's contest. I suggest the two of you swap 2018's stations for 2019. What say? Ken, K6LA piloted VY2TT to 8th in that category! Axel, KI6RRN placed 3rd USA Single Op LP All Band. SCCC 8th in the USA Club category, about 1.5 million points behind NCCC. We had 72 entrants versus their 95. Be sure to get on in November and submit your score for SCCC!
NCJ published the final results of the January NAQP SSB. N5ZO, KI6RRN, W6TK and W6AFA all placed in the top ten in W6. SCCC#1 placed 12th in the team category.
Final results of the 7th Call Area QSO Party (7QP) are out. This one is somewhat popular with SCCCers even though we are a bit close to work W7's on the higher bands. That said, Alex, W6AFA took first place in the Single Op HP Phone division for non-7's. John, N6MU took first place in the Single Op LP CW catergory for those outside of W7. Tim, N6GP placed 3rd in the same category. You'll find some other SCCCers sprinkled in the final results here.
As you may recall, I sent a donation in the name of SCCC to Team Exuberance for the youngsters planned trip to K3LR to operate in the WPX SSB contest. The kids (including our own Levi, K6JO) did very, very well. The team sent us a thank you card for our donation. Click the image on the right for a larger view.
The big announcement at Hamvention this year was from the guys at Elecraft! This should be interesting! The highly respected Elecraft K3 and K3S have been the choice of many top contesters and DXers for many years. Now, coming on the scene is the newly announced K4 and K4D! the P3 panadapter is no longer required! Elecraft describes the new user graphic user interface as super easy to use. The K4 has a new HDMI output with a few different video outputs available, and more to follow. They plan to have a 2m/440 option in the near future. The K4D is a step up and includes a diversity receiver, opening still more options on HF. But wait, there will be a K4HD too! This one will be especially good for contesters. All upgradable from the base K4. Check it out here! There are also many other videos on the K4 on the web. It sounds like a very well thought out, very modern rig!
Watch an interview with Elecraft here.
Whew! My head is spinning! Can't wait to see some reviews! Elecraft is expecting to ship the first orders around the end of this year... K4 $3,999, ATU $399, K4D $500 extra (factory MSRP). More photos can be found here.
Also announced at Dayton was the introduction of the RF-KIT RF2K-S legal limit solid state amplifier available from DX Engineering. The amplifier also does 1 KW out on 6 meters. Watch the video here.
And a new HF clock with satellite tracking and solar index plus grayline. You can check this one out here.
Of interest to low power contesters perhaps was the announcement of the Mission RGO One, an all new homebrew HF transcievier. See it here.
SDRplay announced its new RSPduo dual-tuner 14-bit SDR receiver. Check it out!
Flex Radio announced its new multiFLEX software (2 operators, 1 radio). Learn more here and here.
ARRL has announced that LOTW is now accepting contacts for the new FT4 contest mode. In order to submit FT4 QSLs, you will need to run TQSL manually and let it install the new config.xml file. The ARRL announcement can be found here. And in case you missed it, there is also a new version of TQSL (v2.4.7).
Bruce, WA7BNM announced a new addition to his 3830scores.com web site. The new feature is an Activity Tracker. It allows one to select a given club and see submitted claimed scores over a number of time periods (up to one year). SCCC scores are tied to the Club Roster. Other clubs are tied to the operator's submission to the site. I am finding this to be a really nice addition! Click the "Activity Trackers" button on the top menu.
Strange but true...
Do animals grieve their own? Perhaps so--at least some animals. When an elephant dies, other elephants in the herd will cover the body with leaves and branches, and often will stay with it for days.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
May 2019
Congratulations to SCCCer Bill, N6RV who was voted the Southern California DX Club DXer of the Year for 2019! He has an impressive station, including a mix of new and classic radios and a plethora of Collins gear.
According to a news item published by ARRL, scientists are now predicting that Solar Cycle 25 will be very similar to Cycle 24. Cycle 25 may get off to a slow start and is anticipated to hit its peak between 2023 and 2026 with a sunspot range of 95 - 130. The typical average is between 140 and 220. More on this story can be found here.
WPX SSB raw scores are out (these are before log checking). Alex, W6AFA is shown as 8th in the world Single Op HP 40 meters. Read more here. Late May brings the WPX CW contest! Watch for our own Jim, N6TJ operating at KH7M. Jim tends to really tear it up on CW!
CQ Magazine has published the final results of the 2018 CQWW RTTY Contest. Paul, WN6K placed 5th in Zone 3. We had a total of 16 SCCC log submissions in the contest.
CQ also published the final results of the 2018 CQWW DX SSB contest. The write-up says that less than 200 countries were reportedly worked for the first time in a decade. Low sunspot numbers obviously reared their heads. Or didn't as the case may be. 199 were in the logs this past contest, down slightly from 2017. Dick, W6TK placed 3rd USA 21 MHz high power. That must have been brutal! Bill, N6RV placed 6th USA All Band low power. Bruce, WA7BNM landed 2nd USA 14 MHz low power. And Bill, W8QZA operated W6QU to 4th USA All Band QRP. All of those were unassisted. Full results can be found here.
more
ARRL announced on April 15 that it will roll back rates for outgoing QSL Bureau cards to 2011 levels effective May 15. The current rates had been put into effect a while back and were quite controversial. The new rates were high enough that many amateurs had discontinued use of the ARRL Outgoing QSL Bureau. The rates effective May 15 will be $2 for 10 or fewer cards in one envelope, $3 for 11-20 cards in one envelope or $75 cents per ounce for packages of 21 or more cards. There will be no transaction fees associated with these rates. Cards received before May 15 will be charged the current rate, not the new lower rate. The announcement can be found here. Keep in mind that there is no charge for using the Incoming ARRL QSL Bureau, short of funding your account, and you do not have to be an ARRL member to use it. Information on the ARRL incoming Sixth District QSL Bureau can be found here.
Bob, N6TV has posted his usual stellar array of photos from the Visalia DX Convention. These are from the recently concluded 2019 Convention. All photo credits: N6TV. Link to the full array of photos is here. A few samples below...
W6YA and K7JA N6TJ N6CW and N6AN
This month brings the Dayton Hamvention. Last year, there were several announcements of new transceivers of interest to contesters and DXers alike, along with some very nice accessories. It will be very interesting to see what announcements are in store for the 2019 edition.
The following was published on April 21 by Joe Taylor, K1JT and the WSJT-X development team.
From Joe Taylor and the WSJTX development team regarding FT4:
“To: WSJT-X users interested in testing FT4
From: K1JT, K9AN, and G4WJS
Soon after the "FT8 Roundup" held on December 1-2, 2018, we started serious work on a faster, more contest-friendly digital mode that can compete with RTTY-contesting QSO rates while preserving many of the benefits of FT8. The result is FT4 -- a new digital mode specifically designed for radio contesting.
Over the past month a small group of volunteers have been conducting on-the-air tests of FT4. The early tests were very successful and helped us to make a number of important design decisions. We believe FT4 has considerable promise for its intended purpose.
We'll soon be ready for testing by a larger group. If you might be interested in participating and offering your considered feedback, please read the descriptive document "The FT4 Protocol for Digital Contesting", posted here.
We plan to post downloadable installation packages for WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc5 on April 29, one week from today. The document linked above includes:
- Instructions for installing WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc5 and FT4 configuration
- Operating instructions for FT4
- Basic description of the FT4 protocol, modulation, and waveform
- Detailed sensitivity measurements for FT4 under a wide variety of simulated propagation conditions
- Schedule for upcoming test sessions
Please consider helping us to make FT4 a successful mode for digital contesting.
With best wishes and 73,
-- Joe (K1JT), Steve (K9AN), and Bill (G4WJS)"
Still more on this was published on the ARRL web site here.
And, on April 29, the WSJT-X team released v2.1.0-rc5, complete with the new FT4 protocol. This is a beta version, and you should donwload and read the FT4_Protocol.pdf file to learn more about it. The beta version of the software can be had at the WSJT-X web site. As you may know, you can install new versions in their own folder and run them separately. Your config file is in a Windows folder and will be accessed from the various versions as you run them. Thus, there is no need to uninstall your current version when installing a new version.
Please note that the WSJT-X has now released the new release candidate, and hams are already checking out the new FT4 mode! Discussion on the CQ-CONTEST reflector is especially active on the subject.
Strange but true...
Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Bob, N6TV has posted his usual stellar array of photos from the Visalia DX Convention. These are from the recently concluded 2019 Convention. All photo credits: N6TV. Link to the full array of photos is here. A few samples below...
W6YA and K7JA N6TJ N6CW and N6AN
This month brings the Dayton Hamvention. Last year, there were several announcements of new transceivers of interest to contesters and DXers alike, along with some very nice accessories. It will be very interesting to see what announcements are in store for the 2019 edition.
The following was published on April 21 by Joe Taylor, K1JT and the WSJT-X development team.
From Joe Taylor and the WSJTX development team regarding FT4:
“To: WSJT-X users interested in testing FT4
From: K1JT, K9AN, and G4WJS
Soon after the "FT8 Roundup" held on December 1-2, 2018, we started serious work on a faster, more contest-friendly digital mode that can compete with RTTY-contesting QSO rates while preserving many of the benefits of FT8. The result is FT4 -- a new digital mode specifically designed for radio contesting.
Over the past month a small group of volunteers have been conducting on-the-air tests of FT4. The early tests were very successful and helped us to make a number of important design decisions. We believe FT4 has considerable promise for its intended purpose.
We'll soon be ready for testing by a larger group. If you might be interested in participating and offering your considered feedback, please read the descriptive document "The FT4 Protocol for Digital Contesting", posted here.
We plan to post downloadable installation packages for WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc5 on April 29, one week from today. The document linked above includes:
- Instructions for installing WSJT-X 2.1.0-rc5 and FT4 configuration
- Operating instructions for FT4
- Basic description of the FT4 protocol, modulation, and waveform
- Detailed sensitivity measurements for FT4 under a wide variety of simulated propagation conditions
- Schedule for upcoming test sessions
Please consider helping us to make FT4 a successful mode for digital contesting.
With best wishes and 73,
-- Joe (K1JT), Steve (K9AN), and Bill (G4WJS)"
Still more on this was published on the ARRL web site here.
And, on April 29, the WSJT-X team released v2.1.0-rc5, complete with the new FT4 protocol. This is a beta version, and you should donwload and read the FT4_Protocol.pdf file to learn more about it. The beta version of the software can be had at the WSJT-X web site. As you may know, you can install new versions in their own folder and run them separately. Your config file is in a Windows folder and will be accessed from the various versions as you run them. Thus, there is no need to uninstall your current version when installing a new version.
Please note that the WSJT-X has now released the new release candidate, and hams are already checking out the new FT4 mode! Discussion on the CQ-CONTEST reflector is especially active on the subject.
Strange but true...
Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
April 2019
Welcome aboard to new member Paul, W6PNG (pictured left). Paul is located in Laguna Beach. Paul has been active of late in SOTA and NPOTA activations, which has led to suitcase DXpeditons, as he calls them. While he is antenna impaired at his home QTH, he is able to get on for contesting from other locations. He did ARRL DX Phone for the second consective year from TI7 for example. He was also interviewed by Eric 4Z1UG on QSO Today. Welcome Paul!
Also, welcome to NI6V. Matthew is in Long Beach and enjoys CW, RTTY and QRP. He too is antenna challenged at his home QTH but he will be purchasing an Elecraft KX3 and Buddipole so that he can go portable.
We are hams. Amateur radio operators. Radio guys. As such, we use batteries. Probably more than the average person. Certainly we have more of an interest than most in how batteries work, how to properly charge them, and how to prolong their life. Battery University has all sorts of information on batteries. You'll find chapters under "Crash Course on Batteries," "Battery Types," "Battery Testing and Monitoring," and "How to Prolong Battery Life," among others on the site. There is a plethora of interesting material there. There is even a fascinating section called "Charging Without Wires -- A Solution or Laziness." Most of us are familiar with the basic concept but this chapter provides some interesting information on the topic. Battery University is a good place to learn a lot about batteries.
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The following story has been added April 2, after the original publishing date of the April News (SCCCORE).
Congratulations to Team Exuberance, a group of youngsters including our own Levi, K6JO! The group, with the support of many amateur radio operators nationwide via a GoFundMe page, traveled to the K3LR superstation in Pennsylvania to try their hand at the CQ WPX SSB contest the final weekend of March. While these youngsters are not new to contesting, they don't have the many years of experience that many of us in the club have. Tim, station owner of K3LR, provided some great coaching, according to the team, and their claimed score benefited from that as well as their own recent contest experiences. According to their 3830scores.org submission, the team scored nearly 23.8 million points and is currently listed in first place in the M/2 HP category! Congratulations to all of them for a superb outing! Photos and more from this effort can be found on the K3LR web site.
Reminder, we are always on the look out for photos of your station, antennas, and portable or expeditions. Also member web sites and award photos. We also have a For sale/wanted section here on the web site.
The results of the September, 2018 NA Sprint SSB have been published. Marko, N5ZO placed 3rd. NX6T operated by KK6NON (now K6JO) placed 10th. The SCCC #1 team placed 6th. Full results can be found here.
Preliminary NAQP RTTY results of the February, 2019 edition have been published by NCJ. SCCC #1 scratched and clawed its way to an 11th place finish. Not our best showing. Conditions were mighty punk on that weekend. Read the article here.
Preliminary results of the 2019 ARRL DX Contest CW have been published by the ARRL. You can read them by clicking here.
Last November 6, the on-set station of the television show "Last Man Standing" (licensed as KA6LMS, get it? LMS...Last Man Standing) was put on the air during a break in taping at Studio City. Special guest operators KN4AQ, KD4ACW and W0DHG took turns operating the station. Also, youngster Jet Jurgensmeyer who plays Boyd on the show spent some time operating along side KN4AQ. Jet had a good time, and expressed an interest in getting his ham license. In this video, Jet looks and sounds like a natural at the mic. Perhaps we can interest him in contesting once he gets his license! The show Last Man Standing airs Fridays at 8:00 pm on Fox. Do any of you find yourself checking the QSLs on the wall of the station while watching the show? I always look to see whose cards and calls I recognize!
The WPX SSB contest was concluded this past weekend (Mar 30-31). Conditions were pretty punk at this point in the sunspot cycle. 10 meters opened for a brief time Sunday morning. And 15 was only slightly less evasive. However, the fun thing about WPX contests is that they are a mixture of DX and USA contacts, keeping things interesting and the strategy a bit different than other contests. With the plethora of USA call sign prefixes out there, multipliers are plentiful. The CW version of WPX occurs in late May.
Strange but true...
The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Congratulations to Team Exuberance, a group of youngsters including our own Levi, K6JO! The group, with the support of many amateur radio operators nationwide via a GoFundMe page, traveled to the K3LR superstation in Pennsylvania to try their hand at the CQ WPX SSB contest the final weekend of March. While these youngsters are not new to contesting, they don't have the many years of experience that many of us in the club have. Tim, station owner of K3LR, provided some great coaching, according to the team, and their claimed score benefited from that as well as their own recent contest experiences. According to their 3830scores.org submission, the team scored nearly 23.8 million points and is currently listed in first place in the M/2 HP category! Congratulations to all of them for a superb outing! Photos and more from this effort can be found on the K3LR web site.
Reminder, we are always on the look out for photos of your station, antennas, and portable or expeditions. Also member web sites and award photos. We also have a For sale/wanted section here on the web site.
The results of the September, 2018 NA Sprint SSB have been published. Marko, N5ZO placed 3rd. NX6T operated by KK6NON (now K6JO) placed 10th. The SCCC #1 team placed 6th. Full results can be found here.
Preliminary NAQP RTTY results of the February, 2019 edition have been published by NCJ. SCCC #1 scratched and clawed its way to an 11th place finish. Not our best showing. Conditions were mighty punk on that weekend. Read the article here.
Preliminary results of the 2019 ARRL DX Contest CW have been published by the ARRL. You can read them by clicking here.
Last November 6, the on-set station of the television show "Last Man Standing" (licensed as KA6LMS, get it? LMS...Last Man Standing) was put on the air during a break in taping at Studio City. Special guest operators KN4AQ, KD4ACW and W0DHG took turns operating the station. Also, youngster Jet Jurgensmeyer who plays Boyd on the show spent some time operating along side KN4AQ. Jet had a good time, and expressed an interest in getting his ham license. In this video, Jet looks and sounds like a natural at the mic. Perhaps we can interest him in contesting once he gets his license! The show Last Man Standing airs Fridays at 8:00 pm on Fox. Do any of you find yourself checking the QSLs on the wall of the station while watching the show? I always look to see whose cards and calls I recognize!
The WPX SSB contest was concluded this past weekend (Mar 30-31). Conditions were pretty punk at this point in the sunspot cycle. 10 meters opened for a brief time Sunday morning. And 15 was only slightly less evasive. However, the fun thing about WPX contests is that they are a mixture of DX and USA contacts, keeping things interesting and the strategy a bit different than other contests. With the plethora of USA call sign prefixes out there, multipliers are plentiful. The CW version of WPX occurs in late May.
Strange but true...
The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
March 2019
Welcome aboard to new member Paul, K6PO. Paul hails from San Diego and enjoys CW and RTTY contesting. We are looking forward to having Paul's scores added to the club scores in coming contests!
Also, welcome to new member Roy, KK6M. Roy recently purchased an Elecraft K3S and is really enjoying it. He also has a Yaesu FT5000MP that he loves. Roy is looking to improve his CW contesting skills, and racked up 170 Q's in last month's ARRL DX CW contest. The picture to the left is Roy's well equipped station.
And welcome to Gary, KK6YB from La Jolla, CA. Gary enjoys HF, VHF, UHF, FT8 and RTTY. He was first licensed in 1972.
And...welcome aboard to another new member, Joe, W6AYC in Atascadero. Joe tells us that CW contesting is his speciality.
A recent note from Jim, N6TJ brought to my attention that this month, he is celebrating 70 years of contesting! And this is his ninth decade in the contesting fray! Wow! Jim is planning on operating as 9K2HN in CQWW CW in Zone 21 this November, another new one for him. Jim perennially turns in very high scores in CQWW, and judging by the antennas seen in the 9K2HN QRZ.com photo, he will do so again this November! KB, Jim and congrats on the contesting anniversary!
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There is still time to donate to Team Exuberance and their CQ WPX SSB effort in late March. As you may recall from an earlier SCCCORE writeup, the team is made up of six youngsters (mid-teenagers) who plan to travel to the K3LR contest station to compete. Donations will be used to fund transportation, hotels, meals and other trip related needs for these six and a few accompanying adults. The team consists of KM4ATT, KG5HVO, VE7DZO, HA8RT, K6JO and NN1C. You might recognize one of the calls in there as an SCCC member. Hint, formerly KK6NON and W6BQ, now K6JO! The Team Exuberance fund raiser has a goal of $5,000 and is very nearly there. I personally donated earlier in the name of SCCC. If you feel this is a worthy effort to encourage young contesters, you are invited to donate as well. Their Go Fund Me page is located here.
During last month's CQ WPX RTTY contest, my mind got to wandering while S&Ping Sunday morning. I worked out 40 meters, 15 wasn't open yet, and signals on 20 were still weak and fluttery. I was having trouble decoding much of anything, and started wondering if the 2Tone decoder would help. A quick search on the web brought me to the excellent RTTY Contesting web site. Installation looked simple enough. Hmm. I'm normally not one to fool around with things in the middle of a contest, and indeed, I told myself, no, don't do it! However, another 20 or 30 minutes of weak and fluttery signals caused me to throw caution to the wind. As it turns out, installation of a second receive window and 2Tone is very simple, and I had it up and running in minutes. This setup allows MMTTY and 2Tone to operate in parallel under N1MM+. I quickly noticed that yes, sometimes 2Tone would fully decode a signal where MMTTY didn't. However, there were other times where the opposite was true. Never-the-less, the addition of 2Tone to my N1MM+ setup was helpful as it gave me some decodes that I otherwise would have missed. You might even say that I finally got with the program! Pun intended! I'm often slow to try new things, and I know many of you have 2Tone and even GRTTY installed next to MMTTY, but if not, and you're interested, read up on it at RTTYcontesting.com.
Speaking of the WPX RTTY, the raw scores were published post haste (mid-Feb, a mere week after the contest)! W0YK tells us that the raw scores are generated by the log checking software before any reductions for errors and omissions. He stated that the final results will be published in the July issue of CQ Magazine and on the CQ WPX RTTY Contest web site. The raw scores page shows Bill, W8QZA piloting W6QU to 3rd place in All Band QRP in North America. Way to go, Bill!
There seems to be quite the attraction to the lower 10 kHz of the contesting spectrum for many that like to run. During a RTTY contest, it's especially challenging there. Everyone is on top of each other and despite heavy duty filtering, narrow receive bandwidths, IF shifts, et al, it's very challenging to decode anything. Meanwhile 20 kHz and up from the lower edge, no sweat. Perhaps those that pack themselves into the lower 10 kHz will consider spreading out a bit instead.
Final results of the February North American Sprint CW have been published. Participation was up substantially, making the contest even more fun than usual. Over the past decade the article says, the twenty winning operators (two Sprints per year) have predominately been in the western USA, and most of those in the Pacific Time Zone. Dan, N6MJ finished 7th overall. It now takes 15K points to make the top ten. Wow! The Top Ten QSO Totals box shows Dan at 5th and Marko, N5ZO at 10th. Axel, KI6RRN dipped his toe into this one, his first time ever in a Sprint. His 285 QSO total was outstanding for a first timer. We hope he'll be back for more down the road. The SCCC #1 team finished 2nd overall, just 6K points behind NCCC #1. Let's get 'em next time!
The 2018 IARU HF World Championship results were published in the March, 2019 issue of QST. Dick, W6TK placed 4th in the Single Op, Mixed Mode HP category. Axel, KI6RRN at WA6TQT took the top spot in the Single Op, Mixed Mode LP category. Paul, WN6K was 5th in that category. Alex, W6AFA placed 3rd in the Single Op, Phone Only HP group. Marko, N5ZO took 4th in the Single Op, Unlimited, CW Only HP category. All of these are in the US/Canada standings.
Preliminary results of the 2018 ARRL 10-Meter Contest have been published on the ARRL web site, although they are not complete. The only news I gleaned from there is that Bill, W8QZA operating with club call W6QU has won the Single Operator, Phone Only, QRP category. Bill you must be a masochist, but congrats!
Last month's ARRL DX CW contest brought out the troops! And by all accounts, was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone despite being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. The SFI was at 70, A index at 4 and K index at 2. That made for quiet conditions, which helped with the lower strength signals all around. There were even a few spots on 10 meters! Let's see if the March Phone contest results in similar good fun. Some of the comments by SCCCers follow. "I have never worked as many Italian stations. It must be WRTC fever." "Nice opening to Europe on Saturday morning." "Great conditions Friday evening (stateside guys down in signal strength while DX was coming through well)." "Much noisier on Saturday than Friday." "40 meters opened to Europe both days before sunset and on Sunday, they were coming in just after 2 pm." "160m propagation from the Central Coast was pretty good into Zones 7, 8, 9, 14 and the Pacific. 80, 40, 20 and 15 had good propagation and were also pretty crowded." "Only put in 8 hours but had a couple of very nice EU runs on 20m both Saturday and Sunday." "Decent JA run on 20 on Saturday afternoon. Most notable moment was being called off the back of the antenna by ZT1T during a JA run." "Nice opening to EU Saturday morning, but was surprised by what seemed like fewer SA stations. Glad to hear and work a 4X, since I haven't heard one in a DX contest in quite some time. Fun contest." "Not much on 10, 15 was a little better but hardly great. 20 was fantastic most of the weekend. I heard/worked many strong Eu stations on 80." "Broke one of my old records - DXCC in 7.5 hours. This time, did it in 7.1 hours."
In June, we shared that Kenwood had announced the new TS-890S and Yaesu had announced the new FT-101D during last April's Dayton Hamvention. At the time, a few dealers were taking pre-order reservations. Well, the wait is over. Dealers are now taking full orders on what appears to be two FB new radios. These two radios are expected to be awfully good rigs for contesting and DXing. Reviews from users will be interesting to read. I, for one, will be watching eHam for new reviews.
I run across some really interesting, bizarre and sometimes scary things in my travels. Here, a picture from Kent's N6WT QRZ web page. I presume this is Kent in the Jeep. And no, I don't think this was an accident. I think this was intentional! His other hobby is the Desert Dawgs off road club. Thanks to them, Kent also got into amateur radio!
Managing contest teams can be hazardous to your health! Mental health, that is! The goal, of course, is to put everyone on the team where their score will maximize that team's score. That is, your highest scorers on team 1, next highest on team 2, etc. As a team organizer, your hope is to get that right every single time. In practice, it is VERY difficult to achieve. Despite your best efforts, things can happen. One of your high scorers has rig problems, software problems, or worse, and turns in a lower than expected score or a goose egg. Of course, no one is to blame for the unforeseen, but I still smack myself in the head sometimes when it happens. Conditions can play a part too. While we all live in Southern California, our territory is pretty far and wide. Conditions can vary just enough across the region to affect scores differently depending on where an operator is. Local QRN or interference can also tank one of our team member's scores. Or an unexpected visit from relatives. There are a plethora of things that are well beyond our members' control and that can affect a team score. Sometimes we get a late entrant/volunteer to be on a team, and that person should be on team 1, but I've already published the teams. Or, I misjudge the anticipated score by an entrant and place him or her on the wrong team. Argh. I take it all very personally because I want us to field the highest scoring teams that we can. I will say this. The February CW Sprint was a team manager's dream come true. We had ten operators volunteer to be on a team, and all were historically high scoring operators! I had to carefully select whom to put on which team. I mulled it over very carefully, and was pretty sure that no matter what, I would have several on the wrong team. It all worked out in the end, and we had two very strong performing teams with awesome final scores. Two full teams with everyone over 11K points in the Sprint?! Crazy good. That said, I hope that everyone will always sign up to be on a team. No matter your score, high, medium or low, we need you. NCCC had four teams in the February Sprint. There is no reason we can't have that many. We always, always, always want all of our club members to contribute to SCCC team and club scores!
ARRL is reporting that LOTW (Logbook of the World) has reached one billion QSO records! That's crazy! The one billionth QSO record was uploaded by 7X3WPL. It's true though that many DX stations (and even some domestic stations) have found it challenging to register for LOTW. I'm sure that many of you have read some rants about that on QRZ.com web pages. I know that ARRL is working to streamline the process. That said, it's an awesome (and quick!) way to get that needed QSL for DXCC, WAS, WPX, or WAZ. Impressively, contesters seem to be in tune with LOTW. Confirmations generally pour in quickly within hours of the end of a contest. And I must salute ARRL for its efforts in preserving the integrity of DXCC and other awards through the system.
Strange but true...
Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
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During last month's CQ WPX RTTY contest, my mind got to wandering while S&Ping Sunday morning. I worked out 40 meters, 15 wasn't open yet, and signals on 20 were still weak and fluttery. I was having trouble decoding much of anything, and started wondering if the 2Tone decoder would help. A quick search on the web brought me to the excellent RTTY Contesting web site. Installation looked simple enough. Hmm. I'm normally not one to fool around with things in the middle of a contest, and indeed, I told myself, no, don't do it! However, another 20 or 30 minutes of weak and fluttery signals caused me to throw caution to the wind. As it turns out, installation of a second receive window and 2Tone is very simple, and I had it up and running in minutes. This setup allows MMTTY and 2Tone to operate in parallel under N1MM+. I quickly noticed that yes, sometimes 2Tone would fully decode a signal where MMTTY didn't. However, there were other times where the opposite was true. Never-the-less, the addition of 2Tone to my N1MM+ setup was helpful as it gave me some decodes that I otherwise would have missed. You might even say that I finally got with the program! Pun intended! I'm often slow to try new things, and I know many of you have 2Tone and even GRTTY installed next to MMTTY, but if not, and you're interested, read up on it at RTTYcontesting.com.
Speaking of the WPX RTTY, the raw scores were published post haste (mid-Feb, a mere week after the contest)! W0YK tells us that the raw scores are generated by the log checking software before any reductions for errors and omissions. He stated that the final results will be published in the July issue of CQ Magazine and on the CQ WPX RTTY Contest web site. The raw scores page shows Bill, W8QZA piloting W6QU to 3rd place in All Band QRP in North America. Way to go, Bill!
There seems to be quite the attraction to the lower 10 kHz of the contesting spectrum for many that like to run. During a RTTY contest, it's especially challenging there. Everyone is on top of each other and despite heavy duty filtering, narrow receive bandwidths, IF shifts, et al, it's very challenging to decode anything. Meanwhile 20 kHz and up from the lower edge, no sweat. Perhaps those that pack themselves into the lower 10 kHz will consider spreading out a bit instead.
Final results of the February North American Sprint CW have been published. Participation was up substantially, making the contest even more fun than usual. Over the past decade the article says, the twenty winning operators (two Sprints per year) have predominately been in the western USA, and most of those in the Pacific Time Zone. Dan, N6MJ finished 7th overall. It now takes 15K points to make the top ten. Wow! The Top Ten QSO Totals box shows Dan at 5th and Marko, N5ZO at 10th. Axel, KI6RRN dipped his toe into this one, his first time ever in a Sprint. His 285 QSO total was outstanding for a first timer. We hope he'll be back for more down the road. The SCCC #1 team finished 2nd overall, just 6K points behind NCCC #1. Let's get 'em next time!
The 2018 IARU HF World Championship results were published in the March, 2019 issue of QST. Dick, W6TK placed 4th in the Single Op, Mixed Mode HP category. Axel, KI6RRN at WA6TQT took the top spot in the Single Op, Mixed Mode LP category. Paul, WN6K was 5th in that category. Alex, W6AFA placed 3rd in the Single Op, Phone Only HP group. Marko, N5ZO took 4th in the Single Op, Unlimited, CW Only HP category. All of these are in the US/Canada standings.
Preliminary results of the 2018 ARRL 10-Meter Contest have been published on the ARRL web site, although they are not complete. The only news I gleaned from there is that Bill, W8QZA operating with club call W6QU has won the Single Operator, Phone Only, QRP category. Bill you must be a masochist, but congrats!
Last month's ARRL DX CW contest brought out the troops! And by all accounts, was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone despite being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. The SFI was at 70, A index at 4 and K index at 2. That made for quiet conditions, which helped with the lower strength signals all around. There were even a few spots on 10 meters! Let's see if the March Phone contest results in similar good fun. Some of the comments by SCCCers follow. "I have never worked as many Italian stations. It must be WRTC fever." "Nice opening to Europe on Saturday morning." "Great conditions Friday evening (stateside guys down in signal strength while DX was coming through well)." "Much noisier on Saturday than Friday." "40 meters opened to Europe both days before sunset and on Sunday, they were coming in just after 2 pm." "160m propagation from the Central Coast was pretty good into Zones 7, 8, 9, 14 and the Pacific. 80, 40, 20 and 15 had good propagation and were also pretty crowded." "Only put in 8 hours but had a couple of very nice EU runs on 20m both Saturday and Sunday." "Decent JA run on 20 on Saturday afternoon. Most notable moment was being called off the back of the antenna by ZT1T during a JA run." "Nice opening to EU Saturday morning, but was surprised by what seemed like fewer SA stations. Glad to hear and work a 4X, since I haven't heard one in a DX contest in quite some time. Fun contest." "Not much on 10, 15 was a little better but hardly great. 20 was fantastic most of the weekend. I heard/worked many strong Eu stations on 80." "Broke one of my old records - DXCC in 7.5 hours. This time, did it in 7.1 hours."
In June, we shared that Kenwood had announced the new TS-890S and Yaesu had announced the new FT-101D during last April's Dayton Hamvention. At the time, a few dealers were taking pre-order reservations. Well, the wait is over. Dealers are now taking full orders on what appears to be two FB new radios. These two radios are expected to be awfully good rigs for contesting and DXing. Reviews from users will be interesting to read. I, for one, will be watching eHam for new reviews.
I run across some really interesting, bizarre and sometimes scary things in my travels. Here, a picture from Kent's N6WT QRZ web page. I presume this is Kent in the Jeep. And no, I don't think this was an accident. I think this was intentional! His other hobby is the Desert Dawgs off road club. Thanks to them, Kent also got into amateur radio!
Managing contest teams can be hazardous to your health! Mental health, that is! The goal, of course, is to put everyone on the team where their score will maximize that team's score. That is, your highest scorers on team 1, next highest on team 2, etc. As a team organizer, your hope is to get that right every single time. In practice, it is VERY difficult to achieve. Despite your best efforts, things can happen. One of your high scorers has rig problems, software problems, or worse, and turns in a lower than expected score or a goose egg. Of course, no one is to blame for the unforeseen, but I still smack myself in the head sometimes when it happens. Conditions can play a part too. While we all live in Southern California, our territory is pretty far and wide. Conditions can vary just enough across the region to affect scores differently depending on where an operator is. Local QRN or interference can also tank one of our team member's scores. Or an unexpected visit from relatives. There are a plethora of things that are well beyond our members' control and that can affect a team score. Sometimes we get a late entrant/volunteer to be on a team, and that person should be on team 1, but I've already published the teams. Or, I misjudge the anticipated score by an entrant and place him or her on the wrong team. Argh. I take it all very personally because I want us to field the highest scoring teams that we can. I will say this. The February CW Sprint was a team manager's dream come true. We had ten operators volunteer to be on a team, and all were historically high scoring operators! I had to carefully select whom to put on which team. I mulled it over very carefully, and was pretty sure that no matter what, I would have several on the wrong team. It all worked out in the end, and we had two very strong performing teams with awesome final scores. Two full teams with everyone over 11K points in the Sprint?! Crazy good. That said, I hope that everyone will always sign up to be on a team. No matter your score, high, medium or low, we need you. NCCC had four teams in the February Sprint. There is no reason we can't have that many. We always, always, always want all of our club members to contribute to SCCC team and club scores!
ARRL is reporting that LOTW (Logbook of the World) has reached one billion QSO records! That's crazy! The one billionth QSO record was uploaded by 7X3WPL. It's true though that many DX stations (and even some domestic stations) have found it challenging to register for LOTW. I'm sure that many of you have read some rants about that on QRZ.com web pages. I know that ARRL is working to streamline the process. That said, it's an awesome (and quick!) way to get that needed QSL for DXCC, WAS, WPX, or WAZ. Impressively, contesters seem to be in tune with LOTW. Confirmations generally pour in quickly within hours of the end of a contest. And I must salute ARRL for its efforts in preserving the integrity of DXCC and other awards through the system.
Strange but true...
Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating.
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
February 2019
Welcome aboard to our first new member of 2019, Stephen, K6AW! Stephen hails from Santa Barbara and enjoys HF contesting.
Have you heard this before? "Read the contest rules before starting the contest." That one hit home for yours truly last month. I added my call to the SCCC #4 team in NAQP CW so as to fill out the five member team. I knew I had limited time to operate but thought I could get in a few dozen Q's. I wound up having a little more time than I thought though. Surprisingly (at the time), I was able to work everything I could hear, even the extremely weak stations. Having fun with that, I put in more time than I expected and logged 135 contacts in just over three hours of mostly S&P. I had to admit that I was pretty happy with that. The following morning, I noticed that almost all of the entries on 3830scores showed as low power. DOH! I'd run high power the entire time, totally forgetting the fact that NAQP is a LP affair. Sorry SCCC #4. The NE6I log became a checklog. Repeat after me, "Read the contest rules before starting the contest." And take nothing for granted!
ARRL reports a "dramatic uptick" in the number of logs submitted in this year's ARRL RTTY Roundup (which took place the first weekend in January) as compared to 2018. Their informal polling indicates that RTTY and FT8 successfully shared spectrum during the contest as well. Early returns indicate that most operators operated one mode or the other but a small percentage operated both. WSJT-X co-developer K1JT logged an astounding 585 FT8 contacts during the contest! As a reminder, if using FT8 in an ARRL contest, you must enter one of the Unlimited categories if operating single operator. This is because WSJT-X is a multi-decoder.
Preliminary results for the ARRL SS Phone contest are now out. The K6AM station is atop the MSHP category. Full results will be published in the June issue of QST.
Preliminary results for the January NAQP CW are also out. Marko, N5ZO shows as 2nd place overall, followed closely by Axel, KI6RRN in 3rd. The SCCC #1 team shows as 2nd place in the team competition, with only 65K and a smidge points separating us from the top spot in a 1.3M point battle! Oh so close! Those preliminary results can be viewed here.
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Have you heard this before? "Read the contest rules before starting the contest." That one hit home for yours truly last month. I added my call to the SCCC #4 team in NAQP CW so as to fill out the five member team. I knew I had limited time to operate but thought I could get in a few dozen Q's. I wound up having a little more time than I thought though. Surprisingly (at the time), I was able to work everything I could hear, even the extremely weak stations. Having fun with that, I put in more time than I expected and logged 135 contacts in just over three hours of mostly S&P. I had to admit that I was pretty happy with that. The following morning, I noticed that almost all of the entries on 3830scores showed as low power. DOH! I'd run high power the entire time, totally forgetting the fact that NAQP is a LP affair. Sorry SCCC #4. The NE6I log became a checklog. Repeat after me, "Read the contest rules before starting the contest." And take nothing for granted!
ARRL reports a "dramatic uptick" in the number of logs submitted in this year's ARRL RTTY Roundup (which took place the first weekend in January) as compared to 2018. Their informal polling indicates that RTTY and FT8 successfully shared spectrum during the contest as well. Early returns indicate that most operators operated one mode or the other but a small percentage operated both. WSJT-X co-developer K1JT logged an astounding 585 FT8 contacts during the contest! As a reminder, if using FT8 in an ARRL contest, you must enter one of the Unlimited categories if operating single operator. This is because WSJT-X is a multi-decoder.
Preliminary results for the ARRL SS Phone contest are now out. The K6AM station is atop the MSHP category. Full results will be published in the June issue of QST.
Preliminary results for the January NAQP CW are also out. Marko, N5ZO shows as 2nd place overall, followed closely by Axel, KI6RRN in 3rd. The SCCC #1 team shows as 2nd place in the team competition, with only 65K and a smidge points separating us from the top spot in a 1.3M point battle! Oh so close! Those preliminary results can be viewed here.
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In the ARRL September VHF Contest, Bruce KG6IYN finished second in the Single Op, 3 Band category and John, K6MI placed 5th in the Unlimited Rover category. As this was written, the January, 2019 edition of the contest had just taken place. Conditions in Southern California were less than great, but there were definitely Sporadic-E openings on six meters late Saturday and Sunday.
The 2018 ARRL November Sweepstakes CW results have been published. There is a humorous (or some would call it sad) blurb in the writeup that captures the essence of the 2018 contest: "Welcome to Sweepstakes at the bottom of the cycle: when 10-meters is a wasteland, 15 only slightly better and the bulk of activity is concentrated on 20 during the day." No kidding. The article reports that there were only 7-14 QSOs on 10 meters in the submitted logs. Wow! Dave, K6LL placed 6th overall in the SO Unlimited HP category and right behind him was Marko, N5ZO. Full results can be found here.
In the 2018 ARRL 222 MHz and Up Distance Contest, Wayne, N6NB ran through 8 grids to log 231 contacts. Greg, W6IT accounted for many of those, and logged 117 Q's to post the regions' top SO score. Full results for this contest can be found here.
And in the North American Sprint RTTY, September edition, Levi KK6NON (now K6JO) placed 7th overall, and 2nd in the Low Power category! Nicely done! We didn't enter any teams in this one but if we had, the SCCC team would have placed fourth.
Somewhere in my travels, I came across a company in Japan that makes a MASSIVE antenna for amateur radio. The Versa Beam KA-1 411X operates on 40 through 6 meters and sports a boom of 20 meters in length (just over 65 ft)! The beast has 5 elements on 40/30 meters, 7 elements on 20/17 meters, 9 on 15/12/10 and 15 elements on 6 meters! The gain figures are crazy. 15.6 dBi on 20 meters, 17.2 on 15 meters and 17.6 on 10 meters. By comparison, the SteppIR MonstIR DB-42 is spec'ed at 10.1, 11.0 and 12.2 dBi respectively. Obviously, the two antennas are not quite in the same class as each other, other than being massive pieces of hardware and the top of the line for each of the two manufacturers. The OB16-5 by Optibeam comes close but is shy in the numbers a bit. Want to check out the Versa Beam yourself? Slide on over to their web site and check it out for yourself. (I don't mean this to be an advertisement or endorsement of Versa Beam. I'm simply admiring this massive antenna!)
Carl, K9LA writes a column about propagation and has long been fascinated by the subject. In his article in the recent issue of NCJ, he says the current solar minimum will be another long one. He says that the Cycle 25 peak should occur in 2022 or 2023 and will be lower than Cycle 24. Ugh. The earthsky.org web site suggests that the bottom of Cycle 24 will occur in December of this year.
Now we know the secret to Marko's N5ZO big scores! Lots of video monitors! Not to mention a plethora of equipment in his finely equipped station! This photo, courtesy of QST magazine, shows Marko operating SO2R in the NA Sprint CW. His station sports a pair of Elecraft K3's. It looks an awful lot like he is smiling here, and he well should be. He cracked the Top Ten in this particular Sprint!
If you subscribed to the free weekly Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin edited by KB8NW, please note that the server HAMNET.org, which he has used since the late 1980's, was hacked and wiped on January 11. The Mailing List is currently in limbo. The weekly bulletin may still be accessed on the web at www.papays.com/opdx.html. More details about the hack can be found at the top of Bulletin 1399 (January 21, 2019 issue).
It has been reported that there have been some changes to the rules that will be in effect for WRTC 2022. The initial qualification rules can be found here. The change log is reportedly as follows.
2. Category Weighting for SO-LP is 0.9 and for SOA-LP is 0.85
2.1, 2.2 Clarified that SOSB and SOAB of the same power level are compared directly for Qualification Event Scores
2.5 WRTC-Style MS/M2 teams have been removed.
3. Selection Areas (SA) and Team Leaders (TL) (renamed)
New column headings TL from Continent and TL from Area
Removed limit of max. 2 per country from EU
Increased TL for EU from 17 to 18
Moved OX from EU#1 to NA#2
Moved OY from EU#3 to EU#1
Moved UA1 from EU#1 to EU#4
EU#1, EU#2, and EU#4 have 2 TL, EU#3 has 3 TL
NA#4, NA#7, NA#10 changes
Added VP9 to CA#1
AS#4, AS#5 changes
SA#1 – noted that PJ only applies to PJ in Zone 9
Moved PY0S/PY0F to SA#2, leaving PY0T in SA#4
SA#3, SA#4 changes
List of exceptions to 1 TL per country rule. Added note that TL must qualify, not guaranteed slot except for UA1/UA3/UA4
4. Added special scoring for UA and non-UA stations in RDXC.
5. Corrected regular MS/M2/MM scores to 4.
6.1 Noted the process of choosing TL/TM for Sponsored or Wild Card is TBD.
6.2 Changed to last three WRTC and top twenty (20) places, including Sponsored and Wild Card TL
6.3 Required proof of license and permission for scores from outside SA of residence
6.6 New Determination of Home SA rules
7. New TM qualification rules
7.2, 7.3 Clarification that TM rules does not apply to Sponsored Teams
8. Reduced Youth Teams from 7 to 6
Strange but true...
Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
The 2018 ARRL November Sweepstakes CW results have been published. There is a humorous (or some would call it sad) blurb in the writeup that captures the essence of the 2018 contest: "Welcome to Sweepstakes at the bottom of the cycle: when 10-meters is a wasteland, 15 only slightly better and the bulk of activity is concentrated on 20 during the day." No kidding. The article reports that there were only 7-14 QSOs on 10 meters in the submitted logs. Wow! Dave, K6LL placed 6th overall in the SO Unlimited HP category and right behind him was Marko, N5ZO. Full results can be found here.
In the 2018 ARRL 222 MHz and Up Distance Contest, Wayne, N6NB ran through 8 grids to log 231 contacts. Greg, W6IT accounted for many of those, and logged 117 Q's to post the regions' top SO score. Full results for this contest can be found here.
And in the North American Sprint RTTY, September edition, Levi KK6NON (now K6JO) placed 7th overall, and 2nd in the Low Power category! Nicely done! We didn't enter any teams in this one but if we had, the SCCC team would have placed fourth.
Somewhere in my travels, I came across a company in Japan that makes a MASSIVE antenna for amateur radio. The Versa Beam KA-1 411X operates on 40 through 6 meters and sports a boom of 20 meters in length (just over 65 ft)! The beast has 5 elements on 40/30 meters, 7 elements on 20/17 meters, 9 on 15/12/10 and 15 elements on 6 meters! The gain figures are crazy. 15.6 dBi on 20 meters, 17.2 on 15 meters and 17.6 on 10 meters. By comparison, the SteppIR MonstIR DB-42 is spec'ed at 10.1, 11.0 and 12.2 dBi respectively. Obviously, the two antennas are not quite in the same class as each other, other than being massive pieces of hardware and the top of the line for each of the two manufacturers. The OB16-5 by Optibeam comes close but is shy in the numbers a bit. Want to check out the Versa Beam yourself? Slide on over to their web site and check it out for yourself. (I don't mean this to be an advertisement or endorsement of Versa Beam. I'm simply admiring this massive antenna!)
Carl, K9LA writes a column about propagation and has long been fascinated by the subject. In his article in the recent issue of NCJ, he says the current solar minimum will be another long one. He says that the Cycle 25 peak should occur in 2022 or 2023 and will be lower than Cycle 24. Ugh. The earthsky.org web site suggests that the bottom of Cycle 24 will occur in December of this year.
Now we know the secret to Marko's N5ZO big scores! Lots of video monitors! Not to mention a plethora of equipment in his finely equipped station! This photo, courtesy of QST magazine, shows Marko operating SO2R in the NA Sprint CW. His station sports a pair of Elecraft K3's. It looks an awful lot like he is smiling here, and he well should be. He cracked the Top Ten in this particular Sprint!
If you subscribed to the free weekly Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin edited by KB8NW, please note that the server HAMNET.org, which he has used since the late 1980's, was hacked and wiped on January 11. The Mailing List is currently in limbo. The weekly bulletin may still be accessed on the web at www.papays.com/opdx.html. More details about the hack can be found at the top of Bulletin 1399 (January 21, 2019 issue).
It has been reported that there have been some changes to the rules that will be in effect for WRTC 2022. The initial qualification rules can be found here. The change log is reportedly as follows.
2. Category Weighting for SO-LP is 0.9 and for SOA-LP is 0.85
2.1, 2.2 Clarified that SOSB and SOAB of the same power level are compared directly for Qualification Event Scores
2.5 WRTC-Style MS/M2 teams have been removed.
3. Selection Areas (SA) and Team Leaders (TL) (renamed)
New column headings TL from Continent and TL from Area
Removed limit of max. 2 per country from EU
Increased TL for EU from 17 to 18
Moved OX from EU#1 to NA#2
Moved OY from EU#3 to EU#1
Moved UA1 from EU#1 to EU#4
EU#1, EU#2, and EU#4 have 2 TL, EU#3 has 3 TL
NA#4, NA#7, NA#10 changes
Added VP9 to CA#1
AS#4, AS#5 changes
SA#1 – noted that PJ only applies to PJ in Zone 9
Moved PY0S/PY0F to SA#2, leaving PY0T in SA#4
SA#3, SA#4 changes
List of exceptions to 1 TL per country rule. Added note that TL must qualify, not guaranteed slot except for UA1/UA3/UA4
4. Added special scoring for UA and non-UA stations in RDXC.
5. Corrected regular MS/M2/MM scores to 4.
6.1 Noted the process of choosing TL/TM for Sponsored or Wild Card is TBD.
6.2 Changed to last three WRTC and top twenty (20) places, including Sponsored and Wild Card TL
6.3 Required proof of license and permission for scores from outside SA of residence
6.6 New Determination of Home SA rules
7. New TM qualification rules
7.2, 7.3 Clarification that TM rules does not apply to Sponsored Teams
8. Reduced Youth Teams from 7 to 6
Strange but true...
Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
January 2019
Welcome aboard to Mike, KX6A in Newport Beach. Mike was first licensed in 2007, and enjoys Summits on the Air (SOTA). Two of his sons are also licensed (N6NGG and N6WMG). Mike is new to contesting but is enjoying learning about it.
December is typically a slow month for contesters. There aren't a lot of major contests going on, and we are all busy dreaming of amateur radio gifts under the tree. Uh, busy shopping for gifts for family and friends! Okay, we are busy doing both of those! The weather has cooled and we aren't typically busy with antenna work either. Although... as I type this particular paragraph on Xmas Eve day, it's 70 degrees at my QTH and I've tried to be outside to enjoy it much of the day.
In case you missed it, registration has opened for the 2019 ConTest University presentation at the Dayton Hamvention in Xenia, Ohio. The faculty lineup, posted on the CTU website, includes several new and returning members. Newcomer Bryant, KG5HVO, will present ideas for attracting youth into contesting, while Dan, N6MJ, and Chris, KL9A — the gold medalists at WRTC 2014 — will present advanced operating papers. More info can be found here.
more
On Christmas Eve, K6AM announced that the 2018 California QSO Party results had been published at the CQP web site.
John's announcement included the following:
(quote)
Once again, all 58 CA counties were on the air for CQP 2018. We received 905 logs before the log submission deadline on October 22, 2018. Over the last 8 weeks, under the leadership of Cabrillo Conquistador Tom Epperly (NS6T), the CQP team worked carefully and efficiently to streamline the log-checking process without sacrificing quality or accuracy of results. Adjudicating 905 logs in just 8 weeks is a new record for the CQP team.
What you’ll find on the website:
- A list of all 51 Plaque Winners — a record number of plaques this year. Congratulations to all !
- A list of the 40 Wine Winners — thanks to our sponsor Twisted Oak Winery
- Complete reports for California, USA, Canada, DX
- Club Competition Results - Congratulations to MLDXCC (Large Category) and REDXA (Small Category)
- Top-10 Reports - CA and Non-CA
- Top-YL Reports - CA and Non-CA
- All-Time Records Updated
- Soapbox Comments
- 2018 “Print-Your-Own” Certificate Of Achievement
Thank you for participating. We hope you had fun! If you couldn’t make it, not to worry. In just 284 days the 54th Running of the CQP will take place. Hope to see you on the air October 5th and 6th !
(unquote)
So how did SCCC do? Well, I would say Not Too Darned Bad!
N6MJ took top honors in SO HP.
Right behind him in second was N6WIN.
KI6RRN took first in SO LP.
K6ZZ was second in SO LP.
W6TK was second in SO HP Assisted.
KM6Z was first in SO LP Assisted.
W6RFU operated by AC6T and non-member W6AAF was first in the Top School category.
NO6T operated by N5ZO and N6AN took top honors in the MS category.
N6WIN had the most Phone QSOs.
WA6KHK took 2nd in the QRP category.
Many of these stations won CQP wine and will be seeing their prize arrive at their door step before long!
And of course, there really was no competition in the Medium California Club category. SCCC earned another plaque in that one. And while we were at it, we beat the Motherlode DX/Contest Club's score in the Large California Contest Club category by 400K plus. In other words, we trounced every other club this year! (Granted, NCCC did not put in an effort here. Their members were spread out amongst other clubs.)
Congratulations to all on a GREAT SHOWING!
The 2018 CQ WPX CW contest results were published in the November issue of CQ Magazine, which arrived at my door in late December. This was the 40th running of this very popular contest. K6LA took #4 in the world Single Op All Band High Power operating VY2TT. N6CW placed 3rd in the USA Single Op 14 MHz High Power category. KI6RRN took 3rd in the USA Single Op All Band Low Power category. And W8QZA piloted W6QU to 2nd place in the USA Single Op All Band QRP category. The SCCC placed 6th in the USA Club standings with just over 44 million points!
A very spirited conversation took place on the CQ-CONTEST reflector in throughout December about FT8 and contesting. This was prompted by the FT8 practice contest and the January, 2019 addition of FT8 as a newly allowed mode in the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest. There were very strong feelings on both sides of the fence. I had to wonder if this is how it felt back when SSB was introduced to the bands and AM users thought it was the end of the world. Hint: FT8 won't be the end of ham radio as we know it, just as SSB wasn't and the end of CW as a USA licensing requirement wasn't. Et al. In the meantime, we will see a lot of conversation about FT8 and how it fits or doesn't fit into contesting. And as many of you know, I've been gathering comments from SCCCers that were there when amateur radio SSB started to replace AM. I'm still working on that article for future publication here on our web site. Lots of great stuff has come in so far!
VE6EY sent us a link to his series of very interesting articles. The web site, which he calls "Making It Up", includes some fascinating articles about beamforming, including doing so in ham radio with phased arrays. Other articles include information about beamforming used in other communications spectrum and industries. Did you know that some of the wi-fi routers we use for internet connectivity today use beamforming to improve coverage in parts of our home? John also has many other interesting articles on the web site. If you're like me, you'll wind up spending quite a bit of time reading them.
Results of the the 2018 FT8 Roundup contest have been posted here, and the write up is pretty interesting. FT8, of course, has become one of the most quickly adopted new modes in amateur radio history. It's ability to facilitate relatively quick QSOs (compared to the JT modes, that is) with receive signal levels as much as 20 dB or so below the noise has allowed a whole new group of hams to work DX that they never before dreamed of working. I personally worked all states in a few short weeks using 1 watt or less myself! As we know,
the mode is being debated ad infinitum on reflectors and forums. Does it have a place in amateur radio? Contesting? DXCC? The answer to the first and last of those three is a whole hearted YES. The
mode allows for a whole group of hams with limited stations to work the world like never before, not to mention the rest of us working stations on bands otherwise thought to be dead. The answer to the second one, contesting, is still up for debate. A dedicated FT8 Roundup of course answers that, but mixing it with the RTTY Roundup? Well, we shall see. ARRL has approved it for use in this January's contest. We can all speculate but even for the high rate junkies amongst us (and that's ALL of us, no?), we may want to add FT8 to our list of tools to add Q's to the final score. It's interesting to note that in this initial FT8 Roundup in December, WV4P won operating as SO2R (one TX on the even time slot and one TX on the odd time slot) with 693 QSOs and 95 mults in 30 hours. Not too bad for a "slower than CW and SSB mode!" Perhaps more importantly, he is brand new to contesting. Another addict? Let's hope! Meanwhile, Dave, K6LL (pictured here) finished 2nd! Dave is new to FT8 and also operated SO2R. There is obviously promise in this new mode in the contest world. And even if we determine that it's not necessarily a good mix with the RTTY Roundup, etc., perhaps we get another contest fix by operating the FT8 Roundup! Time will tell how this new mode fits into our contesting world. Hats off to the software developers for responding to requests to explore this area!
The December ARRL 10-meter contest seems to have awakened the band! Despite an A index of 10 and K index of 2 (SFI 71) on that Saturday (only slightly better on Sunday), a healthy number of spots were observed. SCCC pre-arranged 28.040 and 28.440 for some local contacts during the contest. Unfortunately, at my limited QTH, I heard no activity on either frequency. I spent the last couple of hours on Sunday CQing on 28.040 (the only time I had available to get in on the fun that weekend) and raised a small number of answers, all local to me though. I did get a couple of XE's but they are pretty close to me so... From the spots and reports I saw though, it is pretty amazing what can be done on 10 at the low end of the sunspot cycle during a contest that is focused on that band!
I trust that everyone had a good holiday season and rang in the new year with resolutions of going bigger and better in the 2019 contests! See you on the air!
Strange but true...
In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
John's announcement included the following:
(quote)
Once again, all 58 CA counties were on the air for CQP 2018. We received 905 logs before the log submission deadline on October 22, 2018. Over the last 8 weeks, under the leadership of Cabrillo Conquistador Tom Epperly (NS6T), the CQP team worked carefully and efficiently to streamline the log-checking process without sacrificing quality or accuracy of results. Adjudicating 905 logs in just 8 weeks is a new record for the CQP team.
What you’ll find on the website:
- A list of all 51 Plaque Winners — a record number of plaques this year. Congratulations to all !
- A list of the 40 Wine Winners — thanks to our sponsor Twisted Oak Winery
- Complete reports for California, USA, Canada, DX
- Club Competition Results - Congratulations to MLDXCC (Large Category) and REDXA (Small Category)
- Top-10 Reports - CA and Non-CA
- Top-YL Reports - CA and Non-CA
- All-Time Records Updated
- Soapbox Comments
- 2018 “Print-Your-Own” Certificate Of Achievement
Thank you for participating. We hope you had fun! If you couldn’t make it, not to worry. In just 284 days the 54th Running of the CQP will take place. Hope to see you on the air October 5th and 6th !
(unquote)
So how did SCCC do? Well, I would say Not Too Darned Bad!
N6MJ took top honors in SO HP.
Right behind him in second was N6WIN.
KI6RRN took first in SO LP.
K6ZZ was second in SO LP.
W6TK was second in SO HP Assisted.
KM6Z was first in SO LP Assisted.
W6RFU operated by AC6T and non-member W6AAF was first in the Top School category.
NO6T operated by N5ZO and N6AN took top honors in the MS category.
N6WIN had the most Phone QSOs.
WA6KHK took 2nd in the QRP category.
Many of these stations won CQP wine and will be seeing their prize arrive at their door step before long!
And of course, there really was no competition in the Medium California Club category. SCCC earned another plaque in that one. And while we were at it, we beat the Motherlode DX/Contest Club's score in the Large California Contest Club category by 400K plus. In other words, we trounced every other club this year! (Granted, NCCC did not put in an effort here. Their members were spread out amongst other clubs.)
Congratulations to all on a GREAT SHOWING!
The 2018 CQ WPX CW contest results were published in the November issue of CQ Magazine, which arrived at my door in late December. This was the 40th running of this very popular contest. K6LA took #4 in the world Single Op All Band High Power operating VY2TT. N6CW placed 3rd in the USA Single Op 14 MHz High Power category. KI6RRN took 3rd in the USA Single Op All Band Low Power category. And W8QZA piloted W6QU to 2nd place in the USA Single Op All Band QRP category. The SCCC placed 6th in the USA Club standings with just over 44 million points!
A very spirited conversation took place on the CQ-CONTEST reflector in throughout December about FT8 and contesting. This was prompted by the FT8 practice contest and the January, 2019 addition of FT8 as a newly allowed mode in the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest. There were very strong feelings on both sides of the fence. I had to wonder if this is how it felt back when SSB was introduced to the bands and AM users thought it was the end of the world. Hint: FT8 won't be the end of ham radio as we know it, just as SSB wasn't and the end of CW as a USA licensing requirement wasn't. Et al. In the meantime, we will see a lot of conversation about FT8 and how it fits or doesn't fit into contesting. And as many of you know, I've been gathering comments from SCCCers that were there when amateur radio SSB started to replace AM. I'm still working on that article for future publication here on our web site. Lots of great stuff has come in so far!
VE6EY sent us a link to his series of very interesting articles. The web site, which he calls "Making It Up", includes some fascinating articles about beamforming, including doing so in ham radio with phased arrays. Other articles include information about beamforming used in other communications spectrum and industries. Did you know that some of the wi-fi routers we use for internet connectivity today use beamforming to improve coverage in parts of our home? John also has many other interesting articles on the web site. If you're like me, you'll wind up spending quite a bit of time reading them.
Results of the the 2018 FT8 Roundup contest have been posted here, and the write up is pretty interesting. FT8, of course, has become one of the most quickly adopted new modes in amateur radio history. It's ability to facilitate relatively quick QSOs (compared to the JT modes, that is) with receive signal levels as much as 20 dB or so below the noise has allowed a whole new group of hams to work DX that they never before dreamed of working. I personally worked all states in a few short weeks using 1 watt or less myself! As we know,
the mode is being debated ad infinitum on reflectors and forums. Does it have a place in amateur radio? Contesting? DXCC? The answer to the first and last of those three is a whole hearted YES. The
mode allows for a whole group of hams with limited stations to work the world like never before, not to mention the rest of us working stations on bands otherwise thought to be dead. The answer to the second one, contesting, is still up for debate. A dedicated FT8 Roundup of course answers that, but mixing it with the RTTY Roundup? Well, we shall see. ARRL has approved it for use in this January's contest. We can all speculate but even for the high rate junkies amongst us (and that's ALL of us, no?), we may want to add FT8 to our list of tools to add Q's to the final score. It's interesting to note that in this initial FT8 Roundup in December, WV4P won operating as SO2R (one TX on the even time slot and one TX on the odd time slot) with 693 QSOs and 95 mults in 30 hours. Not too bad for a "slower than CW and SSB mode!" Perhaps more importantly, he is brand new to contesting. Another addict? Let's hope! Meanwhile, Dave, K6LL (pictured here) finished 2nd! Dave is new to FT8 and also operated SO2R. There is obviously promise in this new mode in the contest world. And even if we determine that it's not necessarily a good mix with the RTTY Roundup, etc., perhaps we get another contest fix by operating the FT8 Roundup! Time will tell how this new mode fits into our contesting world. Hats off to the software developers for responding to requests to explore this area!
The December ARRL 10-meter contest seems to have awakened the band! Despite an A index of 10 and K index of 2 (SFI 71) on that Saturday (only slightly better on Sunday), a healthy number of spots were observed. SCCC pre-arranged 28.040 and 28.440 for some local contacts during the contest. Unfortunately, at my limited QTH, I heard no activity on either frequency. I spent the last couple of hours on Sunday CQing on 28.040 (the only time I had available to get in on the fun that weekend) and raised a small number of answers, all local to me though. I did get a couple of XE's but they are pretty close to me so... From the spots and reports I saw though, it is pretty amazing what can be done on 10 at the low end of the sunspot cycle during a contest that is focused on that band!
I trust that everyone had a good holiday season and rang in the new year with resolutions of going bigger and better in the 2019 contests! See you on the air!
Strange but true...
In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
