ARRL Bureaucracy
Leonard J Popyack, Jr.
popyackl at ers.rl.af.mil
Wed Sep 7 09:18:19 EDT 1994
On Tue, 6 Sep 94 12:29:12 EDT, Scott Sminkey - Sustaining Eng Group wrote:
>>The ARRL Membership Services Committee (MSC), in response to input from
>>League members, has voiced their oppostion to changing contest dates to
>>avoid conflicts with conventions or hamfests.
>
>Well, how about that! I wrote a long letter months ago to Dave Sumner at
>ARRL headquarters and he said he'd pass my comments along to the "capable
>hands in the Membership Services department". After many months of
[stuff deleted]
Well, the MSC seems to get things done. I wrote to ARRL Prez Wilson
about something over a year ago with no response! I don't expect ever
to get one. However my director (Hugh Turnbul) has had 150% response!
How bureaucratic is the ARRL? From my own experience, I find that the
ARRL can get specialized services done well (contests, QST publishing,
QSL cards, etc) but when it comes to legal, moral, or controversial
issues, many times it gets "lost" (ignored) in the system. This may
be a result of bureaucracy, but more often it is a result of one (or
a few) incompetent people. Overall, I think the ARRL does a good job,
but there are still some issues that get "lost" (either by incompetence
or by policy) in the system. I have some stories to tell, and someday
I will tell them. Not today. 73 Len Popyack WF2V
>From Lau, Zack, KH6CP" <zlau at arrl.org Wed Sep 7 13:46:00 1994
From: Lau, Zack, KH6CP" <zlau at arrl.org (Lau, Zack, KH6CP)
Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 08:46:00 EDT
Subject: Antenna Hints
Message-ID: <2E6DB6CB at arrl.org>
I agree with W7NI's comment. I would further add that for most serious
contest stations, reliability is more important than that last 0.5 dB of
signal.
Thus, I tossed out all the coax known for accumulating water, even if it
has a little less loss.
For separating mast sections, I found that *shaking* the sections
often helps. After all, vibration does a good job of disassembling
other hardware. I wonder how well technique works on taking apart
antenna elements/booms? Quick disassembly is important when
you want to leave the mountain before the weather gets worse.
I have used a coax balun on a HyGain 402BA for years without problems. I
did have probems at first, however. Solution: don't use foam coax. With
high power, the center conductor heats and moves through the foam to the
shiled??
shield. Solid dielectric coax works much much better. I have the same
probems as everyone else does in connecting the 40 meter beam to the final
on 20 by mistake.
W7NI at delphi.com
"If you can't work 'em, it doesn't matter if you can hear "em."
Yes it does, on microwaves enough reports of a deaf receiver may
result in a mast mounted preamp.--Zack KH6CP/1 FN33JC
>From H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil at seattleu.edu Wed Sep 7 15:51:37 1994
From: H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil at seattleu.edu (H. Ward Silver)
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 07:51:37 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Marital Bliss and Contesting
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9409070735.A16616-b100000 at bach>
Where do we find the new contesters? I'd start with Field Day, looking
for the bright young souls looking over shoulders, etc. Another good idea
is to give a talk on contesting to a local club and casually mention that
you like to demonstrate it in the shack; you might get one or two, a
manageable number. I've found NAQP, the phone DX contests, and 10-meter
contest to be great for newbies. The rate's not too high, search and
pounce works pretty well, and the exchange is simple. Working DX really
gets the interest up, too. Actually, the best contesters we'll never see,
probably, are down at the video arcade pumping quarters into game boxes.
Some of those kids have amazing powers of concentration. Imagine what
would happen if the game box was replaced by an FT1000D (or two) and big
aluminum..yow!
As far as qualifying them, let 'em do QSO Parties or 10-Meter barefoot a
coupla times. The amp is probably the scariest part for the station
owner. Once they get the hang of it, though, it's pretty straightforward.
We learned it!
73, Ward N0AX
>From stevem at w8hd.org (Steve Maki) Wed Sep 7 16:19:05 1994
From: stevem at w8hd.org (Steve Maki) (Steve Maki)
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 11:19:05 -0400
Subject: Ring Rot., Rot. Twrs & Coax
Message-ID: <199409071519.LAA22252 at w8hd.w8hd.org>
>Dave Leeson wrote:
>Has anyone else solved this to their satisfaction? Wonder why there is
>never any coax showing in pictures of ring rotators or rotating towers?
RE: ring rotators
Hi Dave
I decided to hang the coax from about 5' or 6' above the top of my boom guy
support. The coax is attached to the top of said guy support and runs down
the support to the boom. I ran the rotator to the extremes to determine how
much coax to let dangle. You don't need very much; not so much that it can
get caught in the moving parts when hung from far enough above.
As always, to prevent the possibility of damage (from flexing) to the coax
jacket at the attachment points, I used large amounts of tape.
Of course, the coax could hang DOWN from the boom, except in most
installations, the rotator is just above a set of guys, which get in the way.
BTW, my SMTP server would not accept your direct address for some reason
73
--
Steve Maki K8LX
stevem at w8hd.org
>From Dieter Dippel" <UNRZ45 at daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Wed Sep 7 18:31:06 1994
From: Dieter Dippel" <UNRZ45 at daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Dieter Dippel)
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 17:31:06 MET
Subject: WAE-Contest 1994 (Reminder)
Message-ID: <16D5FC1721B at daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de>
+--------------------------+
| European DX Contest 1994 |
+--------------------------+
CW : Aug. 13 - 14
SSB: Sept. 10 - 11
RTTY: Nov. 12 - 13
+- Attention ----------------+
0000 UTC Saturday - 2400 UTC Sunday | From 1994 the WAEDC is |
| back to the 48-hour format!|
+----------------------------+
For more detailed information please write to
WAEDC Committee, P.O.Box 1126, D-74370 Sersheim, Germany
(SAE/IRC).
This is the 40th annual contest sponsored by the DARC. The acti-
vity will be between European countries and the rest of the world
(except RTTY where everybody works everybody).
Bands:
------
3.5 - 7 - 14 - 21- 28 MHz. Minimum operating time on a band is 15
minutes. A quick band change is allowed to work new multipliers.
Classes:
--------
(A) Single operator, all bands.
(B) Multi-operator, single transmitter. Only one signal may be on
the air at any given time.
(C) SWL.
Note: DX packet cluster spotting is allowed in all classes.
Only 36 hours of operating time out of the 48-hour contest period
are permitted for single operator stations. The 12-hour off time
may be taken in one, but not more than 3 periods any time during
the contest and must be indicated in the log. Off time must be at
least 1 hour.
Exchange: RS(T) plus QSO number starting with 001.
---------
Points:
-------
One point per QSO. If QTC traffic (see there) is made, one point
for each complete QTC.
QTC Traffic:
------------
Additional point credit may be earned by making use of the QTC
traffic feature. A QTC is a report of a confirmed QSO that took
place earlier in the contest.A QTC can only be sent by a non-Euro-
pean station back to a European station. (But only once and not to
the station reported in the QTC.) The general idea is that after a
number of Europeans have been worked by a DX station, a list of
these QSOs can be reported back during a QSO with another European
station.
A QTC contains the time, call and QSO number of the station being
reported (i.e. 1234 DF0AA 031, which means that DF0AA has been
worked at 1234 UTC and gave serial number 031).
DX: A maximum of 10 QTCs to a EU station is allowed.
EU: You can receive a maximum of 10 QTCs from a DX station.
(Exception RTTY, which allows transmitting and receiving of QTCs,
but not between the same continent. The sum of QTCs sent and re-
ceived between two stations must not exceed 10.)
A station can be worked several times to complete the number of 10
QTCs. QTCs are sent in series. 3/7 indicates that this is the
third series of QTCs and 7 QTCs are being reported.
Multiplier:
-----------
The multiplier for Europeans is determined by the number of DXCC
countries outside Europe worked on each band. The multiplier for
non-Europeans is determined by the number of European countries
worked on each band (see WAE country list). In the RTTY part the
multiplier is determined by the number of countries worked on the
WAE/DXCC country lists.
Bonus Multiplier: Multiply your multiplier on 80 meters by 4, on
40 meters by 3, and on 20/15/10 meters by 2.
Final score:
------------
Total QSO points plus total QTC points times the sum total multi-
plier from all bands. (i.e.:
(200 QSOs + 100 QTCs) * 80 multiplier points = 24000 final score)
SWL:
----
Only single operator, all band class may be used. The same call
sign, European or non-European, may be logged only once per band.
The log must contain both call signs of a QSO and at least one of
the control numbers. Each call sign counts one point,each complete
QTC one point (only a maximum of ten QTCs per station). You can
count up to two QSO points and two multipliers in one QSO.
The multiplier is determined by the DXCC and WAE country lists.
Club competition:
-----------------
Club members must operate within a 500 km diameter and the club is
required to be a local club, not a national organization. To be
listed, three entries from a club are requested and the club's
score is determined by its member scores in the CW, SSB and RTTY
part of the WAEDC. A special trophy will be awarded by the DARC to
the winning clubs from Europe and Non-Europe.
Certificates and plaques:
-------------------------
Certificates are awarded to the top scorers in each class in each
country.
Continental winners will receive a plaque.
Logs:
-----
It is suggested that you use the official DARC or equivalent log
forms. Submit a dupe sheet for each band. A summary sheet showing
the scoring and signed declaration is required. Logs may be sub-
mitted on a disk. The 5,25 or 3,5 inch disk must be MS-DOS format-
ted (40 or 80 tracks) and the ASCII files must contain all contest
QSO information in the same order as the usual paper logs.
Deadline:
---------
Logs must be postmarked no later than September 15th for the CW
section,October 15th for the SSB section and December 15th for the
RTTY section.
Mailing address < NEW >:
------------------------
WAEDC Contest Committee, P.O.Box 1126, D-74370 Sersheim, Germany
WAE country list (UA1N deleted):
--------------------------------
C3-CT-CU-DL-EA-EA6-EI-ER-ES-EU-F-G-GD-GI-GJ-GM-GM Shetland-GU-GW-
HA-HB9-HB0-HV-I-IS-IT-JW Bear-JW Spitsbergen-JX-LA-LX-LY-LZ-OE-OH-
OH0-OJ0-OK-OM-ON-OY-OZ-PA-R1/FJL-R1/MVI-RA-RA2-S5-SM-SP-SV-SV5
Rhodes-SV9 Crete-SY-T7-T9-TA1-TF-TK-UR-YL-YO-YU-Z3-ZA-ZB2-1A0-3A-
4U1 Geneva-4U1 Vienna-9A-9H
Meet YOU in WAEDC 1994!
73 Herb DL2DN @ DB0RBS.#BW.DEU.EU
More information about the CQ-Contest
mailing list