WRTC Postponed Until 1996

[N3RR at aol.com]

                          WRTC NEWS RELEASE
 
 
 
                         For more     Bill Hider, N3RR 
                         information  WRTC Publicity Chairman
                         call:        301-424-2707 
                                      E-MAIL: n3rr at aol.com 
                                      or via PVDXSN 
 
 
                         NEWS -- April 7, 1995 -- 2230 EDT
 
(Washington, DC) - The WRTC Administration announced today that the World
Radiosport Team Championships, to be held in Washington, DC, will be postponed
 one year.

The WRTC-96 competition will be conducted within the IARU HF Radiosport
Championship Contest held the second full weekend in July, 1996.

The postponement will allow WRTC's financial sponsors a greater opportunity
to publicize their participation well in advance of the event.

Prospective competitors will also find it more convenient to make travel
arrangements for 1996.

In addition, the time frame for qualifying scores for applicants will be
expanded from five to six years, which includes results published during
1990-1995.

In order to have the most similar station sites possible, the field of
competitors has been set to thirty teams for the 1996 event.

Questions and comments may be directed to Bill Hider, N3RR at the
address/phone number above or to:

      Eric Scace, K3NA, Co-Chairman
      10701 Five Forks Road
      Frederick, MD 21702-1674
      (301)293-2448
                              --  end  -- 

>From ng0x at ix.netcom.com (David Curtis)  Sat Apr  8 05:13:08 1995
From: ng0x at ix.netcom.com (David Curtis) (David Curtis)
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 21:13:08 -0700
Subject: DX Sprint thoughts
Message-ID: <199504080413.VAA20860 at ix4.ix.netcom.com>

de ae0m:

>
>I like the idea of a Relay-Team category too.  Several single operators may
>combine their scores for non-overlapping four hour periods up to a total of 
>the total 24 hour duration.  The exchange for a Relay-Team is the team name, 
>but you can work the team once for each operator.  This gives the spirit of
>the multi-multi but the flavor of the Sprint.

Hey, this is a nifty idea.  This could be a very interesting contest format,
WW Sprint Relays.  It would be a great contest for attacking the "part time
contester" problem, but still provide a very competitive operating opportunity.
Also, team members should be required to "pass the baton" as in track relays.
For instance: there must be a zero-point-value hand-off QSO to pass the current
serial number to the next operator within +/- 7 minutes of the end of the
period.  If you drop the baton, the contest is over for that team.  I.E., you
had better schedule hand-off QSO's before the contest!

73, Dave NG0X
(Who 20 years ago did 100 yards in 10.3 and a quarter mile in 0:53.0, and
took the baton from Jim Thomas and gave it to Joe Vopova more times than
I can remember.... ah, to be young again!  Still got the same girl, though :-)


>From ng0x at ix.netcom.com (David Curtis)  Sat Apr  8 05:38:05 1995
From: ng0x at ix.netcom.com (David Curtis) (David Curtis)
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 21:38:05 -0700
Subject: ISDN, remote stations
Message-ID: <199504080438.VAA23224 at ix4.ix.netcom.com>

Being imprisoned in the middle of Sili-Valley, where housing prices are
very nasty indeed, the thought of a remote station controlled over
ISDN has crossed my mind.  Purely to save money.

It should be pretty natural, given the origins of ISDN.  US digital
long distance is 13 bit data samples encoded logrithmicly into 7 bit
codes, sampled at 8 KHz.  This works out to 56 KBPS.  To connect a
long distance call, you need that much data in each direction, plus
some extra bandwidth for control.  ISDN BRI 2D+B is 2 56 KBPS channels
and one 16 KBPS channel (totalling 128KBPS) -- funny how that works
out.  The phone company has never messed with compression very much, 
because most compression algorithms do not compress by a predictable
amount.  That means you have to provide for the worst case anyway,
so it isn't worth the bother to compress.

For ham purposes, the sampling rate could be squeeched a little
(to use thetechnical term :-) for instance 7 KHz and 7 bit data, so 
you get another 7 KBPS per D channel for other control functions.

The going rate for ISDN adapter boards for ISA bus seems to be around
$400.  Pac Bell wants $24/mo for dial-up ISDN (although I'm not sure
if that is 1D+B or 2D+B) and $125 for installation, with the $125
being rebated back to you after two years if you still have the
connection.

Pac Bell seems to be pushing ISDN until it hurts.  A friend that 
works in Santa Cruz needed an ISDN connection at work and when he
called Pac Bell, it took a few months to get the line and in the
end they connected him through Oakland!  Although that was a while
back and things could be different now.

73, Dave NG0X CM87xi <- get ready for GridLoc!

Ooops, almost forgot the 'C' word: this would be an ISDN controlled
  *CONTEST* station, of course.