?-RST 599-?

Ray Rocker rrrocker at rock.b11.ingr.com
Fri Feb 18 15:48:19 EST 1994


That's something that has bugged me since I started contesting...

Why do we have signal reports are part of the exchange if they're 
meaningless anyway? Seems like a waste of time to me. I can send
"AL" faster than "599 AL" and (if cows DO fly and I get into a run)
could make more QSOs maybe.

I get the feeling it's one of those legacies from the early days
of contesting that has never been eradicated, since newer contests 
like NAQP and Sprint don't have the RS(T) in the exchange.

I'd be happy to either just remove the RS(T) from the exchange
or else make them mean something. Either way I wouldn't feel like
I'm wasting time sending 5's and N's over and over.

Until then I (S&P almost 100% in DX tests) will only give honest 
reports to anyone who gives me less than 59(9). I know damn good 
and well I ain't no S9 across the ocean ;)

-- ray // WQ5L // hoping 80m and 40m are good this weekend

>From milewski at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (Steve Milewski)  Fri Feb 18 22:06:09 1994
From: milewski at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (Steve Milewski) (Steve Milewski)
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 14:06:09 -0800 (PST)
Subject: DX TEST
Message-ID: <01H917WZ9K2Q99DNYH at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>

Getting ready to leave work early to get ready for the test. Has anyone
heard what the numbers are for today?

Steve

Steve Milewski
milewski at oregon.uoregon.edu
Ham: AA7FL
 *** Stumps don't lie! ***



>From Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM  Fri Feb 18 18:37:00 1994
From: Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM (Skelton, Tom)
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 10:37:00 PST
Subject: FW: ?-RST 599-?
Message-ID: <2D650D56 at admin.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM>




It'll be a "casual"  multi-single  effort

73 Kevin ... WA8ZDT

But the second most fun I have ever had in a contest was a
casual multi single with my friend Jerry/K4SGL during the
1987 CQWW.  He wasn't a contester -- really just focused
on DX'ing, but we had fun taking turns and seeing what each
other could pull out of the bands.  Antenna was a simple
TH5DXX.  Made about 800 Q's.... (and we each had dates
with our girlfriends that weekend)    73, Tom WB4iUX

ps:  Matter of fact, that is the ONLY time I've ever done
anything besides single op.  Mebbe I'm missing
something...????

>From STEVE BJARNASON <sbjarnas at hpb.hwc.ca>  Sun Feb 20 16:28:23 1994
From: STEVE BJARNASON <sbjarnas at hpb.hwc.ca> (STEVE BJARNASON)
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 11:28:23 -0500 (EST)
Subject: HELP
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9402201131.A13946-0100000 at hpb.hwc.ca>

HELP


>From STEVE BJARNASON <sbjarnas at hpb.hwc.ca>  Sun Feb 20 16:31:09 1994
From: STEVE BJARNASON <sbjarnas at hpb.hwc.ca> (STEVE BJARNASON)
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 11:31:09 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Posting for VE6SH
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9402201149.B13946-0100000 at hpb.hwc.ca>

I was asked by Tim, VE6SH to post the following:

Address:

mail cq-contest at tgv.com

February 15, 1994

TO: CAC Members

FROM: Tim Ellam VE6SH
      Canadian CAC Rep
      VE6SH at VE6YYC.#cgy.ab.can.na

I have read with interest the numerous proposals for regional
recognition in ARRL Contests. Any regional recognition would be
an improvement, and suggestions to have ten or twelve different
regions would be outstanding.

Most of the proposals do not deal with how the Canadian regions
should be represented, so let me give it a shot. First, let me
reiterate that CRRL no longer exists. What is left of that
organization is in a binder in my office! Radio Amateurs of/du
Canada is the new organization resulting from the merger with the
Canadian Amateur Radio Federation on May 2, 1993.

RAC has the following Divisions:

Atlantic
     VO1/VO2 Newfoundland & Labrador
     VE1 Nova Scotia
     VY2 PEI
     VE9 New Brunswick

Quebec VE2/VA2

Ontario North VE3/VA3
     defined by postal code-includes Ottawa

Ontario South VE3/VA3
     includes Toronto, Windsor etc

Mid West
     Manitoba VE4
     Saskatchewan VE5

Alberta/NWT
     Alberta VE6
     NWT VE8

Pacific
     BC VE7
     Yukon VY1

One proposal I read on Internet suggested VE7 and VE6 could be
one region. That would be akin to lumping Colorado with
California! Another proposal was to have regions based on time
zones, while this would be a good start you can hardly say a
station in Texas will compete at the same level as say a VE6.

It is a simple fact that in Canada the further north you go the
worse propagation becomes. For example there is a vast difference
between operating in Calgary and Edmonton which is only 200 miles
to the North. Some parts of VE6 have only a few hours of daylight
during the winter months! Try operating on 10M in those
conditions! Canada is simply too big to try and allocate regions
based on call areas.

My suggestion is to ignore regional differences based on call
areas(which are really an artificial attempt to separate
different areas of the country), and designate say a dozen
"regions" based on latitude and longitude. That way you can
recognize unique regions such as the North or the Mid-west
without being restricted by call areas.

For example, any stations north of 54 deg would be designated as
one region, which would include the northern part of VE7 to VE2
most of VO1 and all of VE8 and VY1.

I can hear objections already! How will ARRL recognize what
region a participant is in if the regions are not defined by call
area? The quick answer is to have each participant indicate on
the summary sheet what region they fall in to. You can easily
find you Latitude and Longitude coordinates(what contester does
not know this information!)

My point is simply to suggest we are restricting our debate in
attempting to allocate regions based on callsigns. Lets take a
more realistic approach to how we recognize different regions of
North America.

If you insist on recognizing regions by call area, for Canada I
would suggest the following five areas:

VO1/VO2, VE1, VY2 and VE9

VE2 and VE3

VE4, VE5 and VE6

VE7

VE8 and VY1

Attempting to recognize regional differences will never be a
perfect exercise, but any proposal is better than what we have at
present!

73

Tim 

___________________________________________________________

STEPHEN BJARNASON (VA3GE)
AIR QUALITY - HEALTH EFFECTS RESEARCH SECTION
RM. 337, BLDG. 8
TUNNEY'S PASTURE
OTTAWA, ON  K1A0L2

ph. (613) 957-1309
FAX (613) 941-4768

INTERNET: SBJARNAS at HPB.HWC.CA
____________________________________________________________


>From AGDM25A at prodigy.com (MR KEVEN J DROST)  Mon Feb 21 07:40:30 1994
From: AGDM25A at prodigy.com (MR KEVEN J DROST) (MR KEVEN J DROST)
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 02:40:30 EST
Subject: the "BLACK HOLE"
Message-ID: <013.00364882.AGDM25A at prodigy.com>

Attention passengers ... its 0000Z, Friday night, the BLACK HOLE EXPRESS is
now departing ... stopping in MICHIGAN, WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, ILL, MO, and
points west ALL ABOARD!

1st stop . 40mtrs ... listen to the all those W1s - 2s CQ.  If you try real
                      hard, you can barely pull out a charecter or two of
                      the replying station.  They're running 60/hr but
                      you can CQ for 30 minutes without a reply.  Maybe
                      now would be a good time to explore the RPT function
                      on the F1 memory...

2nd stop  160mtrs ... See all those European packett spots on 160?  Don't
                      bother... You might occasionally hear a beep from the
                      DX stn, but forget transmitting through the
                      "East Coast Wall"

3rd stop   20mtrs ... 1100Z - All night 20's been so dead - you thought
                      maybe your ant fell down!  Not even any band noise!
                      But now mornings here, so swing the beam to EU and
                      prepare to rip off a modest run.  But NO! The loudest
                      EU big guns are barely in there.  And they take 3
                      calls and repeats  to work!  Forget running - you
                      frantically search and pounce to squeeze out 20/hr,
                      and they're all bug guns who'll be there all weekend.

3rd stop   20mtrs ... Meanwhile, you hear N2RM running 75/hr on .005

4th stop   10mtrs ... 1600Z You feel lucky to work an EA8! Thats it for EU

Thank you for joining me on this tour of the  RF "BLACK HOLE"
This ARRL DXCW TEST sure gave a new meaning to the work "weak-end"!

        .... your host ... Kevin, WA8ZDT
                           multi-single op at K8LX




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