This Saturday local evening (8 May 2300 UTC to 9 May 0300 UTC) is
the 50 MHz Spring Sprint radio contest, sponsored by the East Tennessee
DX Association: http://www.etdxa.org/2004_spring_sprint%20rules.htm
(this contest was sponsored by the ARRL until 1998.)
If we get good propagation, this can be a wonderful four-hour contest
on the six meter band. At least one station has worked over 100 different
grid locators during a 50 MHz Spring Sprint. I'd like to encourage
everybody in North America with a six meter radio to try out the contest.
All you need to know is your four-digit Maidenhead grid locator.* If you
have a radio with six meters, but no six meter antenna, you still have
plenty of time to build a simple horizontally-polarized wire antenna like
a dipole or a horizontal loop. Even a simple antenna just 20' off the
ground is at an excellent height for six meter skywave propagation.
Most of the contest activity will be on USB, between 50.125 and
50.200 MHz, depending on propagation. Even considering the possibility of
disappointing propagation (you never know,) this is an excellent contest
format for novice contesters, and a perfect way to introduce a new
Technician licensee to the contesting/DXing style of operation.
You can download North American grid square maps at:
http://www.icomamerica.com/downloads/usgridsq.pdf
http://www.amt.org/Reference/GridMaps.htm
http://www.newsvhf.com/grid-na.gif
*see http://www.arrl.org/locate/gridinfo.html for more information.
--
(Note: I have changed my primary personal email account. Please replace
your address book or alias listings of kharker@cs.utexas.edu with
kenharker@kenharker.com. Thanks! - 31 March 2004)
--
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker@kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/
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