On 8/25/2015 3:18 PM, Andrew Chaloupka wrote:
> Hello John,
>
> I will be participating in the SSB sprint this upcoming weekend. I am
> relatively new to ham radio as well as contesting and will be
> participating with the Swamp Fox group.
>
> My station is limited by the lack of trees and the HOA right now but
> it still is better than nothing.
>
> Looking forward to the big event as well as if you have any words of
> wisdom or tips to help me out!
>
> Thanks and 73.
>
> Andrew
> KB9WHV
Hi Andrew: Glad you will be in the SSB Sprint Saturday and are active
with the SFCG group.
Activity will generally start on 20M and move down the bands. Ideally,
you might aim to spend an equal amount of time on each band, which would
be 80 minutes, but that will vary with conditions and activity. When
your rate slows significantly on 20 and there are few new stations to
call, move to 40. The same for moving from 40 to 80. If 80 is very
noisy and the rate drops significantly, you might go back to 40M for a
while. The west coast stations will be easier to work on 40 in the later
hours of the Sprint. You might even listen back on 20 to see if a
Hawaii or Alaska or other rare western multiplier might be there.
If you call someone to initiate a QSO, you will get to keep the
frequency. So, give your exchange like this: K4BAI #1 SC ANDY KB9WHV.
That way anybody listening knows you will be keeping the frequency and
sometimes someone may call and you won't even have had to say CQ. By
the same token, when you hear a call at the end of the exchange of a
station that you have not worked, drop your call in right after he has a
chance to hear the acknowledgement of his info.
If you are called by somebody, give the info like this: K4BAI KB9WHV #2
SC ANDY. So, anyone listening should not call since you have implied
that you will be listening for the other station's information and will
not be listening for callers on that frequency.
Not everyone in the Sprint will follow this procedure every time, but
the more experienced will.
Run as much power as you can legally run because it pays to be loud.
Look mainly in the General Class bands for QSOs, but if you have an
Extra or Advanced, look below the General class frequencies sometimes
too. On 80M, try not to call CQ in the DX Window (3790-3800 kHz).
That's just good courtesy to DXers, not that a lot of DX is worked on
80M SSB in August (but I did hear some there last weekend). I hope
there will be a lot of activity below 3790 in this Sprint. In the past,
everyone has tried to squeeze in above 3850 and some of the ragchewers
there will be upset about this. Don't get into an argument about
frequency use. If someone asks you to move, go ahead and move. It's
not as if you could make more than two QSOs at a maximum before you
would have to move frequency anyway.
Keep on until the end of the period unless something with a greater
priority intervenes. Even if your score isn't high, it will be fun and
you will have a goal of a score to beat next year.
A good practice this week for the Sprint would be the Phone Fray tonight
(every Tuesday night) on 15, 20, 40, 80, and 160M SSB from 0230Z to
0259Z. The power is limmited to 100W and mults count per band. There
is no QSY rule. Exchange is just Name and SPC. Reporting is just to the
3830 reflector. I am out of town without a rig, so I will miss this
Phone Fray. Look at the WA7BNM Contest Calendar for details.
I will copy this to the SECC, ACG, GCG, SSSC, groups in case the
comments might be helpful to others. If you don't mind, please cut and
paste it into a message to the SFCG group.
73, John, K4BAI.s
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