We in our no-monetary-prize environment are not alone. In the world of tournament bridge - another no-prize-money competition - last year it was deemed necessary to prohibit not only the use of, but
A clarification... this ban only applies to the top level nationally ranked tournaments. For the events for the rest of us mere mortals, myself included, use of phones is prohibited, but mainly out o
After a couple of "pre-season" qso parties, the fall season of the NQL (National QSO Party League) begins this Saturday, August 22, with the Ohio QSO Party. The fall season runs through October 18, f
A reminder that the 2009 Ohio QSO Party is tomorrow, Saturday, from noon to midnight EDT (1600z to 0400z Sunday). As anyone familiar with state QSO parties knows, mobiles make the party, so we're loo
On behalf of K8AZ I was looking into making up some files for CT to spoof it into being able use the California QSO Party configuration to handle the Ohio QSO Party. (Both contests use the Serial Num
A speculation: Amateur radio, contesting included, provides an opportunity for practicing a very valuable skill for young people in much of the world: interaction with native speakers of the English
I have a certificate for winning the Western Pennsylvania section in the 16th Pennsylvania QSO Party held in 1973. It was then and now sponsored by the Nittany Amateur Radio Club, and I believe it ha
This year with the October-November transition occurring on a Saturday-Sunday, Daylight Savings time ends on Sunday, November 1. So this year we in the east don't get to start CW SS at 5 pm EDT and h
A few notes for those who are too lazy to look up and read the full PaQP Rules: The PaQP runs from 1600z to 0500z Saturday, and 1300z to 2200z Sunday. Exchange is serial number and QTH. Unlike most s
The ARRL has rules for Field Day and the VHF contests (below 2.3 GHz) prohibiting this. It is unlikely that an operator in CQWW could help out his multiop "mother ship" station with a qso from his ho
A thought: What if the worldwide cluster system allowed X number of spots per hour for any one station, or a minimum time between spots, for any station, whether spotted by others or self spotted? Wh
"When nature calls, give it a report, log it and call QRZ!" But how to log it? GO2P ? IP1SS? PO0P ? Do you log the zone as how long it takes? Just please don't turn on auto-repeat-CQ and leave when y
One we have actually found useful: QRB? Do you want to run the bands? QRB 28025 See you on 28025. 73 - Jim K8MR QPC? am I spotted on the packet cluster? PC you are spotted on the packet cluster _____
Looking at the CQWW SSB 10 meter totals on 3830, I see huge differences between numbers posted in Europe and those from the USA. For example DF0HQ had 676/26/109, vs. 209/14/44 at K3LR. The 15 meter
Back in the very old days of SSB, which was before even I got my license, by generating an SSB signal at 9 MHz and using a VFO covering 5.0 to 5.5, one could take the upper mixing product to cover 20
The benefit of using USB on 7125 could be accomplished with minimal confusion to the rest of us if the king of the lower band edge, whoever it might be, would use USB, while the rest of the band cont
Which again proves that to err is human, but to really screw up requires a computer. 73 - Jim K8MR (Who AFAIK was not clobbered by the ZR computer, but did work N4ZR several times in my four station
I'm not sure that the SS newbies would understand any better if I asked for "CHECK?" But maybe we really should ban cut words in SS. I'll be able to make 2 QSOs in the time someone in "NORTHERN NEW J
If I am running 99 percent of the time and you, that elusive WM5 new mult, are also running 99 percent of the time how can I work you? If I hear you on my second radio on a slow sunday afternoon am I
Now that contest results are scored by one computer and one program, the sponsors', there is no good reason a contest could be scored by several different metrics. In the case of CQWW, start with "CQ