Hi everyone,
The CW Sprint Manager, K3UA, is having email difficulties with this
reflector so I am forwarding his message. See you in the Sprint on
Saturday night!
73, Ward N0AX
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Phillip Koch <k3ua1541@me.com>
Subject: Fwd: Announcing the NCJ North American CW Sprint for February 8th
2026 UTC 0000 to 0359
CW Sprint - February 8th 2026 0000 to 0359 UTC (logs due 7 days later)
Note: The recent NCJ had the incorrect date for the 2026 February CW Sprint
event. The correct date is February 8th 2026.
The correct 2026 CW/RTTY rules file are attached to this email.
Complete rules: https://ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf. Submit your log at
https://ncjweb.com/sprintlogsubmit.php.
Conditions look reasonably good for a contest on 80, 40, and 20 meters. 20
should be pretty good for at least a couple of hours, with 40 taking off
around 0100 so you have a good shot at working our VE1, VE9, VO1/2, VY1,
and VY2 friends. Later in the contest, KH6, KL7 and maybe VY1/VE8 will
make an appearance.
Do you know someone who hasn't been on for the Sprint in a while or maybe
have never given it a try at all? This is probably the easiest way to pep
up the contest and make another Sprinter along the way. If we all just
recruit one more station...
After the deadline, the NCJ team takes pride in getting the results out
quickly. Within two weeks after the contest, we'll publish a table of
Preliminary Results with the category winners and everyone's final score.
We'll publish the full results, including the Top Ten and other tables,
some graphical analysis, photos, and comments from the participants on the
NCJ Sprint website at https://ncjweb.com/north-american-sprint. In the
following edition of NCJ magazine, an excerpt of those results will be
published so you get three for the price of one.
For the September CW Sprint we are going to add some contest club stats.
This will be club stats which are separate from the five man sprint teams.
Should be some interesting things to see with this listing.
Hope to hear you on the bands – CQ NA!
The NCJ Sprint Team and the Boring Amateur Radio Club
Phil K3UA - CW Sprint Manager
SPRINT BITS
Sprint veterans, please encourage your club members to give it a try and
explain how it works. Activity on CW generally starts about 25 kHz above
the band edge. Don't forget about the five-person teams which are fun for
new contesters and contest club members, too! Many clubs set up teams
specifically for new Sprinters - it's a great way to get started. Just
register the team at ncjweb.com/cwsprintteamreg before the contest starts.
If you are new to sprinting, why not read Jim George, N3BB's article posted
on the NCJ NA Sprint website at
https://ncjweb.com/sprint-scores/CW-Sprinting-N3BB.pdf.
For DX stations, it may be easy to set a record for your country in the CW
Sprint - see the Non-North American section of the CW Sprint records at
https://ncjweb.com/sprint-scores/CWSprintRecords.pdf. What if a DX station
calls you from outside North America? You know you have a good signal!
Exchange all of the regular information and log their QTH as "DX". Contacts
with non-North American countries do not count for multipliers but do count
for contact credit.
The CW Sprint can be a bit confusing for a first timer but a good way to
get the feel for operating is to try doing your own CQ NA above 45 KHz on
any of the three bands 20 40 and 80. When a station calls you and you both
work then just QSY up or down 5 KHz and do a CQ NA again to get a new
caller. Then just continue to QSY up or down 5 KHz until you become
comfortable and then you can try calling a new station and upon completion
of the QSO you stay there and get to work the next caller.
Once the flow of contacts gets moving then you will feel more comfortable
and will find the operating to be lots of fun and challenging.
If you only have an hour to get on for the contest, why not jump in on 80
meters from 0300-0359? You will be very, very welcome and can work a lot
of stations needing contacts, especially on 80 meters. Stations with
modest 80 meter antennas will be surprised at how well they can do! No
matter how you decide to operate, the last 90 minutes can really be fun on
80 meters with a little 40 or even 20 meters thrown in for good measure.
Throw out a CQ and see who answers! And it is most certain that once the
first QSOs have been made - the flow will be fun and easy.
Teams of five persons are a great way to get your club members on the air.
The teams can be registered on the contest website at any time up to the
start of the contest. Why not challenge a rival club - or how about a
first-timer's team challenge? If you have an activity tracking program,
the CW Sprint is a great addition! As an additional way to recognize your
members, I would be happy to provide the final scoring data in spreadsheet
form - don't hesitate to ask!
Practice sessions in the 30-minute NS Sprint on Thursday night (
https://www.ncccsprint.com/) are a great way to get newcomers interested,
especially those who might not know about the Sprints and could use a
little mentoring to get on and do well. That leads to more contesting of
all sorts and more activity for your club. Sprint veterans can use the NS
to brush off the rust, too! Please give the Thursday evening NS Sprint a
try and you’ll get nice confident with your operating and then the NA CW
Sprint will seem so much more comfortable for you.
Phil K3UA
NCJ CW Sprint Manager
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