[RTTY] NCCC Sprint Ladder - RTTY

[Bill Haddon]

Announcing: Starting this Thursday:  A new 5-wk NCCC Sprint Ladder
competition specifically for RTTY -- a great run-up the NAS RTTY Sprint on
Oct 11.
        - 5 weeks, on Thursday nights 0130-0200Z (Fri UTC) for 30min,   see
        http://www.ncccsprint.com/next_ns.html for schedule
(no Ladder on week of CQP).

Great practice for upcoming NAS RTTY on Oct 11 (the 5th week of NS Ladder
is the Thursday prior to NAS)

What is it?     NS Ladder a his fast-paced 30 min weekly sprint
competition, dubbed "contesting on the edge" by  NCCC's webmaster John,
K6MM.   QSO's are made using the NAS RTTY format with the following
modifications:

   -- Power limit is 100w.
   -- Multipliers are by band (20, 40 and 80m, usual RTTY Frequencies)
   -- The NAS QSY
 rule is relaxed to 1 KHz for all QSO's.
   -- There are four geographic divisions:  Atlantic, E. Central, W.
Central, West, and NCCC in CA/NV.   to determine your division see:
     http://www.ncccsprint.com/ladder.html
    -- Submit only scores, not complete logs.
           use the form at http://3830scores.com

Time:   Each Thursday in NA:
                 0130-0200Z  (Friday, UTC, Thursday Night in NA)

Exchange:  Ser #, Name, State, Prov,  or NA Country
           see: paragraph "Rules"  at
            http://www.ncccsprint.com/rules.html

  Work stations once per band only.

Logging:
   Easiest :  Use the NA Sprint module in your favorite logging s/w, then
compute score by hand adjusting for per band mults, or use the app from
N4AF on your Cabrillo Log:
    see http://www.ncccsprint.com/ns-score.html
   For questions on other options, pose question here or contact W6SX, N6RO
or W0YK.   Ken, N6RO has been hosting a weekly Thursday night RTTY
NCCC-Sprint; the ladder replaces these sessions for the next few weeks.

The CW competitions, which we've been running for 10 years, have been very
popular among sprinters.  The contest is friendly . . don't be shy if
you're not an expert at sprinting. . .this is a good way to learn the
system prior to the more intense RTTY NAS.

Background reading:
     --   the web pages at ncccsprint.com, although written for the CW NS,
might be helpful
       -  the information about sprints on the ncjweb.com.
For a description of the history of the NS Ladder competition, see the
article by N6ZFO in the Nov/Dec 2009 NCJ, March-August 2009 NCCC Spring
Ladder VI Results by N6ZFO.  (If you don't have this NCJ, send request for
a copy to N6ZFO.)

Note: to make the NSLadder "work" we need about 20 stations. .  please
consider joining in!

73 Bill N6ZFO
Director, NCCC Thursday Night Contesting.