[SECC] Weekend contests

[John Laney]

Hello all:

The big contest this weekend is the North American Sprint.  You can work
anyone, including DX, but only NA states/provinces/countries count as
mults (maybe KH6 too).  This runs for four hours from 00 to 04Z Sunday
UTC -- 7 to 11 PM EDT Saturday.  Exchange is QSO #, Name,
State/Province/Country/DX for those outside NA.   The station who
solicits a QSO (CQ) must work only one station and then must QSY at
least one khz to call someone else and 5 khz to solicit another call.
It is only on 20, 40, and 80.  Most start on 20 and work down, but some
will start on 7040 or so to pick up close in QSOs before the band goes
long on 40 as it sometimes does in the winter.  The contest is supported
by the NA logging software and I assume TR and Writelog and maybe SD.
This can be a lot of fun and is certainly different from most other
contests.  No one can sit on a frequency and hold it for any length of
time.  QRO is allowed, but QRP stations will have QRO stations to call
them if they find a clear frequency to call on.  There will be a team
from SECC and TCG together, including at least K4BAI, NE4S and I think
W4NTI from SECC.  Please give it a try and give us some QSOs.

On Saturday afternoon, the FISTS CW club will hold one of their 4 time a
year 4 hour sprint contests.  I think the exchange is RST/SPC/FISTS
membership # or power.  It is CW and I think on all frequencies, but
usually up 058.  So 28058, 21058, 14058, 7058 and 3558.  It  runs from
17 to 21Z (12 noon to 4 PM) so 160 isn't practicaly if allowed.  Watch
out for the CHN (county hunter's net on 14056.5 and try not to QRM it
too much).  This is a much lower pressure type of contest and
non-members are welcome.  Info is on the FISTS webpage at www.FISTS.com
I think.  There is a contest entry form that can be downloaded.  Logs
are by mail only to W8FAX.  This club is dedicated to preserving CW and
their members are at all speeds.  Anyone who likes CW or who wants to
work on his CW will find this an enjoyable activity.  This club is worth
joining.  They have a QSL bureau (run by K4UK and his club in Moneta,
VA) that very efficiently exchanges QSLs among members, including those
in the same country.  So for those of you who would like to exchange
QSLs with other US stations without the cost of first class postage for
each one, this bureau only requires you to mail your cards to them
alphabeticalized and to keep them supplied with business sized envelopes
and postage and you will receive US and DX cards from members this way.
It often beats the Bureau system for DX cards because it involves only a
one place exchange and sorting rather than multiple places as in the DX
bureau system.  The club also has a nice newsletter almost monthly and
sponsors such things as "Code Buddy" programs etc to help beginners.

Hope everyone has a good week and weekend getting ready for the big ARRL
DX CW contest the next weekend.

73,

John, K4BAI.


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