This coming weekend is the second RSGB 1.8MHz CW contest. Brief rules
are given below and as well as the postal address, logs can be sent
to Laurence G4HTD laurence@lsil.com
Dave G4BUO
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date/Time 2100z 18th November - 0100z 19th November
Freq/Mode 1.820-1.870 CW only
Single operator only. Send RST and serial number from 001. UK stations
also send three letter county code. Overseas may only work UK for
points. Score 3 points per contact plus a bonus of 5 points for the
first contact with each UK county worked.
Logs to G3UFY, 77 Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey, CR7 7AF, UK
postmarked no later than 16 days after the contest.
>From Bob Patten <z002816b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us> Wed Nov 15 13:38:15 1995
From: Bob Patten <z002816b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us> (Bob Patten)
Subject: Asking for fills in CW SS
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9511150802.A13221-0100000@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us>
On Tue, 14 Nov 1995 km9p@is.net wrote:
> When asking for:
>
> PREC send PWR?
> SEC send QTH?
> CK send YR?
>
> This has worked for me the past 3 years. You will cut down on your dit dit
> dah dah dit dit's.
>
Sounds like a winner to me! My tnx to all for their suggestions.
>From Ronald R. Sigismonti" <sig@locke.ccil.org Wed Nov 15 13:59:48 1995
From: Ronald R. Sigismonti" <sig@locke.ccil.org (Ronald R. Sigismonti)
Subject: Help! - Icom 775dsp with CT
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9511150837.A22607-0100000@locke.ccil.org>
Chuck,
I have an IC-775DSP and worked with Ken Wolfe to get CT updated to
support this FB radio. The versions of CT starting with CT9.26 have the
radio available from the startup menu. The default address of 46H should
be used in the radio (set using the instructions in the manual).
If you do not have a late version of CT, try using an address of 2CH for
the radio and IC-765 for the startup screen in CT. This is not fully
compatible, but will work well enough to get limited functionality from
the keyboard.
Perhaps Ken will find time in the future to get the "splits" to work
properly with the 775. As with other ICOM xcvrs CT does not read the
second VFO when putting out spots that involve split frequencies. I
think the radio has all the necessary info brought out through the
interface, but then I am not a s/w type!
GL in the contest & best 73's
de Sig, N3RS
Sig@Locke.CCIL.org
On Tue, 14 Nov 1995 KE5FI@aol.com wrote:
> I hane just received my IC-775dsp and it seems to be a great rig. However, I
> can't seem to figure out how to interface it with CT. How should the rig be
> programed?
>
> It has different addresses, but none seem to match the available CT
> addresses. This rig number is not specified in CT. All I get is "ICOM RADIO
> TIMEOUT" when trying the various rig #s.
>
> I need help before the CONTEST this weekend. Has anyone sucessfully mated
> this rig with CT??
>
> Chuck
>
> KE5FI@aol.com
>
>From Marijan Miletic <s56a@ljutcp.hamradio.si> Wed Nov 15 14:01:14 1995
From: Marijan Miletic <s56a@ljutcp.hamradio.si> (Marijan Miletic)
Subject: RTTY vs CW/SSB contesting
Message-ID: <103205@ljutcp.hamradio.si>
I just wrote an article for our local contest journal about the changing
nature of RTTY contests based on fresh 36h expierence in WAE contest.
I won them twice, in 1992 as S57MM and in 1994 under the present call.
I was delighted to hear OM Ron, ZL1AMO chassing EU on RTTY in his
efficient CW style giving a callsign only once! While my HAL P38 and
good CONDX for Oceania were instrumental in decoding his short bursts,
the others had more problems. It was the opposite case for Jody, VP5JM.
She had huge pile-ups most of the time and delayed copying of a single
signal as required by FSK machine decoders.
Lot of people were asking for QTC, WAE unique feature of exchanging info
about the previous QSO's. RTTY part is WW and EU can send QTC to DX!
I have been nicely using that in my own RTTY contest program for years.
But I understand Ray, WF1B had beta tests of QTC option in his "de facto"
standard RTTY program by several stations including himself! Lot more
people were exchanging RTTY QTC shooting for a higher WAE scores...
My neifhborough Igor, S57W managed to collect a lot of them by hand typing
while I was troubleshooting my P38 driver and other silly software bugs.
I didn't even use permitted DX Cluster with numerous good RTTY spots!
CQ WW RTTY in Sep. had stations participating from potentially wining
locations like CT3, EA8, EA9, P4 and PY0F! Signals were spreading from
14.060-125 kHz with the regular 7 MHz overflows. It would be difficult
for me and Tine, S50A to trail HH2PK again in SOAB HP CQ WW RTTY class as
we did in 1994...
RTTY can be more easily automated than the other two HF modes BUT you
still have to be on the right band at the right time with proper beam
heading and use your eyes and the brain in order to pick-up intelligent
information out of pile-up or QSB garble! My RTTY program does that
even without a mouse so I felt asleep on Sun morning for 2 extra hours
after having a huge breakfast!
As the part of my Ph. D. research, I did a lot of work on DSP HF Morse
decoding in 1990/91. It was described in two NCJ articles and presented
at Dayton Contest Forum this April (well ahead of 9A,T9&YU politicians).
I had my DSP PC program operate ARRL DX CW contest while I was bussy
supervising and debuging it. The whole affair was MUCH MORE BORING than
RTTY contest BECAUSE I COULD use my ears BUT only for the VERIFICATION
that program does it right and FASTER than me! It beats me in pile-ups
and I DO know how to handle them (first EU with G3SXW on KCDXC simulated
tape in Dayton, #6 WW; twice EU winer in DL EU hamfest)!
I also worked on computer speech recognition and I am glad we got so many
different accents on ham radio bands that reliable technology for HF SSB
decoding might wait for a while. Voice keyers and DSP noise cancelers
certainly do make phone contesting more pleasant!
Having done over quarter of century of contesting, I still equally
enjoyed pile-ups on CW from 4U1ITU in 1994, huge 6m UK SSB mess in
1992 and never ending RTTY USA runs on the higher HF bands!
Otherwise, I prefer chassing multipliers even after K3ZO has given up :-)
I like Internet email with fellow contesters but it is greater fun to
have PC decode digital signals from VK6HD, KG6DX, HP1AC, 9Y4VU, W3LPL
and even WW Bob, K3EST!
73 de Mario, S56A, N1YU.
P.S. Sri for a few typos, no spell checker without Windows!
>From Bill Turner <wrt@eskimo.com> Wed Nov 15 05:19:43 1995
From: Bill Turner <wrt@eskimo.com> (Bill Turner)
Subject: NCJ editorial
Message-ID: <199511150519.VAA04715@mail.eskimo.com>
At 09:15 AM 11/14/95 -0500, Randy Thompson wrote:
>I have to agree with Bruce on this one. My experience with RTTY (very
>limited) was kind of ... well - boring. You just call CQ and the station
>that answers either moves the LEDs or not. I didn't see much skill being
>required to pick a multiplier out of a pile-up, or tune in a weak one.
>With WF1B software, you just click the mouse on the call and the QSO is made.
>
>Now before my RTTY friends get upset, I am not against RTTY contesting.
>It is as competitive as any of the other modes. It just doesn't have the
>same appeal to me as an operator. However, if someone gave me a
>demodulator, I would probably get on in all of the RTTY contests (I am a
>sick puppy).
>
>Randy
>k5zd@iconics.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
How interesting... I can see your point of view, but for me RTTY contesting
is far and away my favorite. Phone is second and CW a distant third.
Probably some psychological profile could be derived from all that.
Diff'rnt strokes, as they say.
73, Bill W7LZP
wrt@eskimo.com
>From barry@w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner) Wed Nov 15 14:28:41 1995
From: barry@w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner) (Barry Kutner)
Subject: RTTY Reflectors
Message-ID: <ie4LeD1w165w@w2up.wells.com>
>
> Several folks replied to me saying "I didn't know there was a RTTY
> reflector. How do I subscribe?"
> There are two: The contest oriented one is wf1b-rtty@ve7tcp.ampr.org. To
> subscribe, send mail to wf1b-rtty-REQUEST@ve7tcp.ampr.org with the word
> SUBCRIBE in the message.
> The other is primarily DX oriented and it's address is
> digital-dx@st.rim.or.jp. I think you send a message to this address with
> the first line SUBSCRIBE and a second line with you name and e-mail
> address. I may be wrong on this one... If so, subscribe to wf1b and ask
> there :.)
> 73 Barry
--
Barry N. Kutner, W2UP Internet: barry@w2up.wells.com
Newtown, PA Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
Packet Cluster: W2UP >WB2R (FRC)
.......................................................................
>From Jorma@salor.pp.fi (Jorma Saloranta) Wed Nov 15 15:28:01 1995
From: Jorma@salor.pp.fi (Jorma Saloranta) (Jorma Saloranta)
Subject: too much mail in cq-contest@tgv.com
Message-ID: <199511151528.AA16994@personal.eunet.fi>
Dear mail enthusiasts: Trey might give his comment for
"what was and is cq-contest-reflector for" - recommendation:
From time to time I subscribe and very soon I unsubscribe, reason
being that my interest is CQWW Contest topics, not much how good
a transceiver is or who knows what.
But in upcoming CQWW CW there is ZB2X for you, friends!
Good luck to everybody.
Jorma OH2KI
>From George Cook (AA3JU)" <george@epix.net Wed Nov 15 15:30:43 1995
From: George Cook (AA3JU)" <george@epix.net (George Cook (AA3JU))
Subject: Lack of a Horse!
Message-ID: <199511151530.KAA10561@epix.net>
At 08:00 AM 11/14/95 -1000, you wrote:
>
>The guy at Kenwood says it is now between me and UPS
>to determine responsibility; sounds like I don't have much
>chance. UPS statement to Kenwood is that the box was
>"inadequately packed"; guess they figure it should withstand
>being dropped off a belt or by a man carrying it, to the concrete
>floor, or whatever, and survive. Well the UPS guy at Lihue seemed
>satisfied, after he cut the box open, added packing and then sold
>me the insurance. So what is the insurance for,
>who stands behind the insurance? Sounds like it is pointless to
>buy it if it doesn 't pay to fix a shipping accident or replace a
>several thousand dollar radio. The fellow at Kenwood had no
>estimate of the cost of repair, but he thought that one was provided
>to UPS.
>
>73, Jim, AH6NB
>
>
>
This is UPS standard line. They damaged an article shipped to me and rather
than inspect it here while it was still repairable they insisted that it be
shipped off to a facility in another state. Where they determined that it
was "inadequately packed" returned the item to the original shipper and at
this point the obejets were completely and irevocabley destroyed. UPS never
made good on there insurance and I urge you all not to ship your valuable
radios with them.
Here is a light at the end of the tunnel. The company that I work for ships
to me daily a fair amount of computer gear via Federal Express. I have
NEVER not once gotten a shipping damaged part and I recieve at least 5
monitors per week. If I was going to ship my rig anyplace I would spend the
extra few bucks and ship FedEx.
I do not work for Federal Express or any other shipper.
GC
AA3JU george@epix.net AA3JU@W3PYF
Proudly F R C...........
"FRC When second best just isn't good enough!"
>From Lau, Zack, KH6CP" <zlau@arrl.org Wed Nov 15 16:02:00 1995
From: Lau, Zack, KH6CP" <zlau@arrl.org (Lau, Zack, KH6CP)
Subject: Winning Contests
Message-ID: <30AA0F44@arrl.org>
The really tough way to win contests is to have the rules
changed to give your station a significant advantage.
Even if you do manage to get them changed, you might
sufficiently infuriate someone enough that he might make
sure you never win.... Its awfully tough to beat an exceptionally
motivated guest op at an outstanding station.
My approach is simple--devote more effort toward contests
best suited for your station/skills. For instance, my rates have
never been exceptional--those short sprints really aren't for me.
For those in apartments, perhaps the best category to compete
on a National level is the QRP Portable category in the VHF
contests. I know you can win this category with a portable station
stuffed into a compact sedan that runs off batteries. West Coast
and Midwest stations have done well--you don't have to be on
the East Coast to be competitive.
Don't know which contest best suits you?--why not give them
all a try? :-).
Zack KH6CP/1 zlau@arrl.org
|