[SECC] This weekend's contests

[John Laney]

Hello all:

There are only two contests on the schedule for this weekend.

The Worked All Europe CW contest runs 00 UTC Saturday until 2359 UTC
Sunday, 48 hours.  Exchange is RST+serial number beginning with 001. 
Single ops may operate only 36 hours with the off times being taken in a
maximum of three periods.  Stations outside Europe may work only
European stations.  There is also a QTC feature where stations outside
Europe may send to each European station (only once to each station
regardless of band) a maximum of 10 QTCs.  A QTC is numbered.  The first
number is the number of the list being sent sequentially and the second
number is the number of QTCs in the list.  So if you sent 10 QTCs to the
first European station, the QTC would be QTC 1/10.  If you had only 5
QTCs in the list, you would number it QTC 1/5.  You can send any number
from 1 to 10 in each list.  If you don't send 10 to given station the
first time, you may send more later, as long as the total to a given
station doesn't exceed 10.  The station may not be sent his own QSO info
as a QTC.  If his call appears, you would skip him and pick him up later
in the next QTC message.  Each QTC consists of the UTC time of a QSO,
the callsign worked, and the serial number received.  So an example
might be QTC 1/1...0004 DL6FBL 007.  Bands are 80 through 10.  We
probably won't get many stations in Europe on 10.  However, when
conditions are marginal on 10, 15 and even 20, remember to check on the
skew path with your antenna pointed toward Africa, sometimes even South
Africa.  There might be some long path on 20 in the mornings, but that
is unlikely except possibly from the far north of Europe.  Most openings
will be short path and the next most likely openings will be on the skew
path from the east to south east.  

There is a club competition, so put South East Contest Club on your
entry.  The logging program CT by K1EA covers this contest very well. 
However, be sure your version is up to date (the latest version is
9.90).  Earlier versions may not create a Cabrillo file and the sponsors
specifically want a Cabrillo file this year, if possible.  CT is now
freeware and available from http://www.k1ea.com.  Actually, I think the
URL has changed, but that address will give you a jump to the new site.  

This is also the weekend for the annual Maryland-DC QSO Party.  Hours
are Sat Aug 9 16 UTC to 0400 UTC Sunday and Sunday 16 UTC to 2359 UTC. 
The exchange is QTH (state for us) and "major category."  Major category
means:  Club, Mobile, QRP, Technician, and Standard.  Most of us would
send Standard or std.  (Don't capitalize that abbreviation or it has an
entirely different meaning.)  The website has rules, a list of MD
counties, and a downloadable summary sheet if you are using paper
logging. Also a reference to where you can download free logging
software for this contest. http://www.w3cwc.org/rules.html.  CW and
SSB.  Major suggested frequencies are:  1895 (I don't know what happened
to 160 CW), 3643 (yes, that is correct for the CW frequency--I think it
is their state net frequency), 3920, 7035, 7230, 14035, 14270, 21035,
21370, 28035, 28370, 50.150.

Hope everyone has fun in one or both of these contests.  

73,


John, K4BAI.