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[SECC] CW Sweepstakes Final Update - All Members

Subject: [SECC] CW Sweepstakes Final Update - All Members
From: Kt4zb at aol.com (Kt4zb at aol.com)
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 10:26:06 -0400 (EDT)
Hi all - Our officers have done a great job in planning ways to increase  
activity in the club and on the reflector,  so I echo Ralph's plea.   Jump in 
and add your name to the list and have fun in this great hobby.   While I'm 
not a cw kinda guy, I am planning on bringing along a couple of newer  
contesters to run a Multi-Single in SSB SS.  Great contest and completely  
different from last weeks CQWW.  I know I owe a great deal to SECC for  helping 
me develop skills and a station.
 
Good hunting - Jere, KT4ZB
 
 
 
In a message dated 11/4/2010 9:08:58 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
k1zzi at comcast.net writes:

 
SECC  Members,

Six (6) award plaques are sponsored and only 7 people  have committed to 
show up for Sweepstakes CW.  Your officers have tried  to put together a nice 
internal awards program to stimulate participation,  however, it has had 
little positive effect.  

The officers  have discussed participation issues since day one, however, I?
m sorry to say  that it appears that you want simply a place to post your 
scores and little  more than that from your club.  We have 231 members, yet 
our contest  participation levels are consistently below 6%.  We have asked 
you  for ideas/suggestions for the direction you want to see the SECC take, 
but  even that has yielded very few responses. Tommy W4BQF asked what you 
wanted  from your contest club and because of the lack of feedback, we can only 
 deduce that you want a place to post your scores and nothing more.  We  
share Tom's frustration in getting almost no feedback and little  
participation from the membership.

We sincerely thank all the  plaque sponsors that came forward to help us 
and we are sorry that it did  not provide the incentive that we had hoped for. 
 

Ralph  K1ZZI
SECC VP


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ralph  K1ZZI <_mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net_ (mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net) 
 
<_mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net_ (mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net) > >  
To: _secc at contesting.com_ (mip://05a12870/secc at contesting.com)  
<_secc at contesting.com_ (mip://05a12870/secc at contesting.com) >  
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 10:54 AM
Subject:  Nov 6th CW Sweepstakes - Sponsor Update

We had a very good response  from volunteers willing to sponsor plaques for 
SSCW.  Here are the  categories and sponsors:

Rookie - Contesting 2 years or  less - WB4MAK
SOLP Tribander / Wires 40-160 (no yagis) -  W4IX
SOLP - K4BAI
SOHP - NA4BW
QRP -  NT9K
Unlimited -  K1ZZI

Award  Eligibility:
    *   Signup - commit to  contest  and post score       
    *   All SECC members in or  out  of Circle*  
    *   Need minimum of 2  people  competing per category      
    *   Log 50 QSO's minimum   
    *   Prior 2010 winners  limited  to one plaque annually      
    *   SECC officers not  eligible

*Unlike the NAQP contest,  the club aggregate score cannot include OP's 
from outside the SECC Circle  for this contest,  
however, we still want to provide award  eligibility to all our club 
members regardless of your  location.

We will need at least 20 participants to support  the investment of six 
sponsors.   Except for our sponsors there  has been practically no response or 
input received from anyone.  Please  reply by Nov 1st if you want to 
participate.  I will add you to the  current big list of (2) contesters!

73,
Ralph K1ZZI
SECC VP
_k1zzi at comcast.net_ (mip://05a12870/k1zzi at comcast.net) 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ralph K1ZZI  <_mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net_ (mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net) 
> 
 
To: _secc at contesting.com_ (mip://05a12870/secc at contesting.com)   
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 10:58 AM
Subject: Nov  6th CW Sweepstakes - SECC Get Ready!

Nov 6th - 8th CW  Sweepstakes   


One of the  favorite contest events of the year! SECC get ready to for some 
fun  competition.   

One of our members suggested we setup  teams for a little extra internal 
fun.  What do you think about that  idea?  Depending on the total number 
interested we could have 4 or 5  people on a team.

Are you planning to participate in SS CW?  Would you be interested in 
joining a team?  Let me know if you  are and I will start a list.  I would like 
to get something going and  make this a fun event for everyone.  We are open 
for ideas and I  encourage discussion.  We could blow the doors off this one 
and win the  ARRL Gavel?  The SECC has won it before so we have the power.  
It's all up to you.  Sign up now!  

Wait there's  more:  NA4BW, K4BAI,  K1ZZI  will sponsor one  plaque each 
for SOHP, SOLP and "Unlimited".  How about plaques for QRP,  Multi-Op?  Or can 
you think of another category of interest?  Oops  we will need more 
sponsors!  No club dues / nothing in the treasury.  If you are interested in 
sponsoring a plaque for a particular category  just let me know.  Plaques are 
$20 
each and they are very nice, first  class.  Same as our NAQP and GQP plaques.

Ralph  K1ZZI
SECC VP
_k1zzi at comcast.net_ (mip://05a12870/k1zzi at comcast.net) 

 
____________________________________
Complete ARRL SS Rules here:  
_http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20Packets/2010%20ARRL%20November%20Sweepstakes%20Package.pdf_
 
(http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20Packets/2010%20ARRL%20November%20Sweepstakes%20Package
.pdf)   <_http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest_ 
(http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest)   Packets/2010 ARRL November 
Sweepstakes Package.pdf>  
<_http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest_ 
(http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest)   Packets/2010 ARRL November 
Sweepstakes  Package.pdf>    

----- Original Message -----  
From: _Ralph  K1ZZI_ (mailto:k1zzi at comcast.net)  
To: _secc at contesting.com_ (mailto:secc at contesting.com)  
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 1:43 PM
Subject: [SECC] ARRL Sweepstakes Contest Overview &  Tips




This is an  informative article written by John, K3TN on ARRL Sweepstakes  
Contesting.    A good read for all experience levels and  some excellent 
tips to help get you started!!
73, Ralph K1ZZI
History 
The ARRL Sweepstakes has its roots in ?The January Contest? announced in  
December 1929 QST. It was originally structured as a message handling  
contest for hams in Canada and the US (which at the time included Cuba, the  
Philippines and ?Porto Rico?) and ran for two solid weeks in January. A  
successful two way exchange of a minimum ten word message would result in  two 
points for each station. The number of message points would be  multiplied by 
the number of ARRL sections at the time (68) for the final  score. A key rule 
was ?Participating stations will be limited for the  purposes of the 
contest to sending but one test message to each station  worked; that is, 
further 
messages can be transmitted but will not add to the  contest score of either 
station.? Thus was born the dreaded ?work stations  once per band? rule.  
While a lot about the contest has stayed the same over the years, much  has 
also changed. Sweepstakes was moved to November in 1932; a separate  phone 
contest was added in 1941; and operating time was limited to 24 hours  along 
the way. However, for the past half-century not much has changed,  other 
than the ARRL section list gradually expanding to its current level of  80. 
Description and  Rules Summary 
The ARRL Sweepstakes consists of two contests, one for phone and one  for 
CW, that are open to US and Canadian hams only. A summary of the  important 
rules: 
 
Contest  Period: 
CW: First full weekend in November 
Phone: Third full weekend in November 
Operating Period ? 24 of the 30 hours from 2100Z Saturday to 0300Z  Sunday 
 
Exchange ? Serial  Number; Precedence; Your Call; Check; Section 
Where: Precedence = Q (5 watts output or less), A (under 150w), B (above  
150w), U (Single Op Unlimited), M (Multiop), or S (school station)  
Check = last two digits of the first year of license of the operator or  
station  
Section ? ARRL/RAC section location of the station. List of standard  
section abbreviations is _here_ 
(http://www.arrl.org/contests/sections.abv.html)  
  
Duplicate Contacts ? stations can only be worked once per band.  
The full rules can be found _here_ 
(http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/novss.html) . For any given year 
substitute the current year for  ?2009? 
in that URL. 
Strategies  
Like any contest, selecting the best strategy for Sweepstakes depends  on 
your goals. You can play to win in one of many categories or in your  
section, just help out your local club?s score, try to fill in the states  you 
need 
for 5BWAS or just try to see how quickly you can make a Clean  Sweep. As 
long as your strategy matches your goal, you are bound to have  fun. 
 
Whatever your goal is, scoring more points is always more fun. Maximizing  
score per hour means the most fun per unit time invested. Look _here_ 
(http://wiki.contesting.com/index.php/Wisdom_from_CQ-Contest#Secrets_of_Operating_S
weepstakes.2C_mostly_by_N6TR)  for some great operating tips on maximizing 
your SS  score. 
Equipment  
Station design is always an important starting point. Sweepstakes is a  
very ?little gun? friendly contest and doesn?t require huge antenna farms  
Since SS is a domestic contest, low antennas in many cases are preferable.  
N6BV has some excellent pointers on optimizing your antenna choices for SS ?  
click _here_ (http://www.kkn.net/dayton2006/N6BV-Dayton-2006.pdf) . In low 
sunspot years, forty and eighty meters are the  ?money bands? in Sweepstakes, 
with 20 meters being the usual workhorse. Near  sunspot peaks, 15 and 10 
meters provide wide open spaces for more QSOs.  
 
Sweepstakes doesn?t have any unique demands on other aspects of station  
design, though the ?work once per band? rule does give a lot of benefit to  
having a second radio. Run rates on Sunday often slow down to glacial speed  
(especially CW SS), and having a second radio to search and pounce between  
automated CQs brings in a lot of extra QSOs.  
If you aren?t planning an extensive effort, you can still get paper forms  
_here_ (http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms/novsslog.pdf)   and log by hand. 
However, logging contests real time on a computer is just  so much more 
efficient ? and green. Just about every popular contest logging  program 
supports SS ? check _Contest  logging software_ 
(http://wiki.contesting.com/index.php/Contest_logging_software) . If you aren?t 
going to use a computer to send 
CW, the  long exchange in SS means at least using a memory keyer with an 
incrementing  serial number capability, to maintain your sanity. 
Operating  Time 
There are all kinds of theories on strategies for selecting the optimal  
operating time periods for SS, but like all contests more hours in the chair  
will always translate to more points. In general, if you are going to put  
more than 12 hours or so into SS being on from the start for the first 8-10  
hours is key to getting that QSO total up. If you can only put in a few  
hours, calling CQ on Sunday afternoon will bring some nice high run rates  
since you will be fresh meat to all the stations putting in full time  efforts. 
If your goal is to maximize points for your club, a common strategy  is to 
operate from one station on Saturday and then from another station  (with 
that station?s call) on Sunday ? basically combining both of the above  
strategies. 
 
Common wisdom in Sweepstakes is to let the multipliers come to you ?  
unless your goal is to just get a Clean Sweep, the best strategy is to  
maximize 
QSOs. For a 100,000 point SS effort, a multiplier is worth about 8  QSOs - 
spending more than 10 or 15 minutes to get that elusive section will  
basically lower your score. But if you just want that Clean Sweep mug,  knowing 
propagation paths from your location is the secret sauce: what  times/bands 
will give you the short hops to nearby sections and which will  provide 
openings to the Pacific or quasi-polar distant sections. Barring  entering the 
unlimited category and using packet spotting, working the rare  sections that 
don
?t have a lot of operators is pretty much just luck of the  draw.  
As in any contest, maximizing score means running (calling CQ) as much as  
possible, and SS is one of the easier contests for the average station to  
find and hold a CQ frequency. However, if you did a lot of running on  
Saturday, searching and pouncing on Sunday to find those ?Sunday drivers?  will 
be important. 
Sweepstakes  Etiquette 
Sweepstakes is a contest that attracts the full spectrum of hams: top  
operators at big stations looking to win, serious contesters looking to beat  
last year's score or come in ahead of their buddies, club members just  
looking to help the club score, and first time contesters just trying this  
thing 
out. Just like in a marathon running race, that means there are  competitors 
at a wide level of capabilities. To deal with that there are  some norms of 
?etiquette? that have evolved to let everyone have the most  possible 
amount of fun. These are not hard and fast rules, just common norms  that have 
evolved over the years. You won?t be disqualified by going against  any of 
these norms, but by following them you will definitely save a lot of  whining 
on CQ-CONTEST after SS is over. 
 
There many areas where standard contest etiquette applies, but there are  
also some specific norms for SS:  
    *   The exchange in Sweepstakes is  complicated on purpose ? 
Sweepstakes tradition comes  from traffic handling - this is what makes SS fun 
and 
different. Learn  the exchange before the contest and get comfortable sending 
and  receiving it in the expected order. There are basically three scenarios  
to be comfortable with: 
    1.  The CQ Scenario: You will either  be calling CQ or answering CQs 
and following a standard protocol will  make everything go faster and more 
smoothly:

K3TN: CQ SS K3TN  K3TN SS
W8ABC: W8ABC
K3TN: W8ABC 123 B K3TN 69 MDC
W8ABC: 55 A  W8ABC 74 OH
K3TN: TU K3TN SS

Remember, SS is one of those  contests where you do not have to send RS(T). 
When you send the exchange  the first time, no need to send anything twice ?
 send it once and let  the other station ask for a fill if needed. Also, 
there is no need to  send ?NR? at the start of your exchange when replying to 
a CQ, though  some feel it helps the receiving station get ready to copy 
the  exchange.

Note: Sweepstakes does  not require that the station answering the CQ send 
back the CQers  call. It is not a bad idea to do so if you think there is 
any doubt who  you (W8ABC above) are responding to, such as on a crowded band 
where  multiple CQers are ?sharing? a frequency. In that case, W8ABC would  
reply ?K3TN 55 A W8ABC 74 OH?
    2.  The Fill scenario: Contests are  about speed and accuracy, so 
before you hit enter in the log you  want to make sure you have the info right. 
Good operators will always  ask for a repeat or ?fill? if they missed part 
of the exchange or aren?t  100% certain they copied it right. The generally 
accepted ways to ask  for fills are:

CK? ? Please send the Check (last two digits of  the first year you were 
licensed) again
NR? ? Please send the serial  number again.
PREC? ? Please send the Precedence (A, B, M, U, S, Q)  again.
SEC? ? Please send your Section again.
CL? ? Please repeat  your call?
AGN or ? ? Please resend the entire exchange  again.

It is only really necessary to send the entire exchange if  the station 
sends AGN or ? but many operators aren?t familiar with  the abbreviations for 
Check and Precedence and so on. 

K3TN:  CQ SS K3TN K3TN SS
W8ABC: W8ABC
K3TN: W8ABC 1%& B K3TN 69  MDC
W8ABC: NR?
K3TN: 123
W8ABC: 55 A W8ABC 74 OH
K3TN: TU  K3TN SS

If there appears to be any confusion, just resend the  entire exchange.
    3.  The Dupe Scenario: This is a  tricky one. When you are calling CQ 
and a station calls you that you  have already worked, in most contests it is 
just faster to work them a  second time. However, the long exchange in SS 
changes that equation a  bit ? many stations choose to not work dupes and 
will send ?K3TN B4? or  ?K3TN QSO B4? or ?K3TN DUPE.? This may or may not be 
the right thing to  do, depending on circumstances. N6TR (who manages the 
log-checking for  SS) has made it clear that a repeat QSO in one log that is 
a first QSO  in another will not result in a penalty to either op. On the 
other hand,  a NIL (not-in-log) QSO, where a QSO shown in one log is not even 
loosely  matched in another log, will result in a fairly significant 
penalty. On  Saturday evening, when rates are high, it may make sense to say 
"QSO 
B4"  and go on to the next station, because if you are not in his log,  
chances are good that the station will call you again on Sunday. On  Sunday, 
when 
rates are low and "fresh meat" is scarce, it makes sense to  insist that 
the previous QSO is "not in my log" and say "pse work  again". You're really 
doing the other station a favor, and not costing  either of you much precious 
time. 
    *   Send the entire exchange! - don't  forget, you must send your 
callsign as part of the exchange.  
    *   Cut numbers and leading zeroes: In  contests where RST is required, 
sending 5NN is universally recognized to  mean 599 ? just as CW is 
universally recognized as an abbreviation for  Continuous Wave. However, in SS 
using 
cut numbers in the CK field (6N  instead of 69) or even in the serial 
number field leads to confusion  because of the mix of numbers and letters in 
the 
exchange. Just avoid  cut numbers. Similarly, there is no reason to send 
leading zeroes ? they  just increase the chance for confusion.  
    *   Use the standard abbreviations for sections  on CW and standard 
phonetics on SSB. In Sweepstakes, you are  not in ?Maryland? or ?Massachusetts,
? you are in ?Maryland DC (MDC on  CW)? or ?Eastern Mass (EMA on CW)" or 
wherever. You can find the list of  standard ARRL sections _here_ 
(http://www.arrl.org/contests/sections.abv.html) . Similarly, leave the fun 
phonetics 
on the shelf  for contests ? stick with the ICAO standard phonetics found 
_here_ (http://www.emcomm.org/svares/training/itu_phonetics_10_30_2001.htm) .  
    *   Send (or say) the exchange in the standard  order: number, 
precedence, your call, your check and your  section. There's no need to say 
"precedence", "check" or  "section" if they are in sequence, making it faster 
and 
clearer both for  you and for the other station. In general, the fewer words 
the better.  
    *   Don?t repeat what you copied back to the  CQer. Especially on SSB, 
it is tempting to say ?Thanks for  number 123 B in MDC, you are number ?? 
Just stick to sending your  information and everything will move along more 
quickly.  
    *   Send ?QRL?? or ??? twice to check if a  frequency is in use. The 
long SS exchange also means that  there will be longer than usual gaps while 
a CQer is listening to  someone reply. Just sending ?dit dit? and then 
hitting that CQ key is  just rude ? do the right thing and check twice. If you 
are running  stations and don?t respond to QRL? checks, the frequency is 
assumed to  be up for grabs. A corollary to this principle is?  
    *   Just because you own two radios doesn?t mean  you own two 
frequencies. If you are operating SO2R and don?t  respond to a legitimate 
?double 
QRL?? because you were off on the other  radio trying to break the VE8 pileup, 
that frequency is up for grabs.  
    *   Send CW at the code speed of the other  operator, or the fastest 
you are comfortable copying ? whichever is  lower. If you answer someone CQing 
at 35 wpm,  but are only able to copy 20 wpm, reply at 20 wpm. If you are 
sending CQ  at 35 wpm and someone responds at 20 wpm, slooow down to 
something near  the other station?s code speed. Hitting Page Down or twisting 
the 
K1EL  knob a bit isn't that hard. Exceptions: on Sunday, everyone slows down  
their CQ code speed to attract casual operators. Also, if you hear a  buddy 
calling CQ at 20 wpm and you know they can copy 35 wpm, call them  at the 
higher speed. Even more fun: call him or her at 45 wpm and throw  in some cut 
numbers: "ATN B K3TN 6N MDC" Remember: only do this out of  love.  







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