[SECC] This weekend's contests

[John Laney]

Hello all:

There are several interesting contests this weekend.

1.  YL International Single Side Band System 2004 QSO Party SSB.  Runs 
48 hours of 00 UTC Sat to 24 UTC Sunday.  Exchange:  Call, RS, State or 
Country (guess VEs send Canada) YLISSB# (or "non-member).  Rules say 
"any HF band (no repeater)."  I assume WARC bands are excluded anyway.
Mandatory two "six-hour down times."  (Get some sleep stupid.)  This 
used to be a big activity 30 years ago. 
http://www.hfradio.org/yl-issb/qsoparty/qsodates.htm.  Strange rule 
allows for e-mail submission of logs not to exceed 10 pages.  I guess if 
you go over ten pages (how defined?  Cabrillo format has no pages), you 
should mail in your disk or paper log.

2.  RSGB Commonwealth Contest.  (This used to be called "BERU" Contest.) 
  Sat 10 UTC to Sun 10 UTC.  CW only.  You may hear British Commonwealth 
stations working each other in this one, but the former colonies don't 
have any standing.

3.  AGCW QRP Contest.  Sat 14 UTC to 20 UTC.  Categories:  VLP (1 watt 
max output), QRP (5 watts max output), MP (25 watts max ouptut), QRO 
(more than 25 watts output).  Exchange:  RST, QSO #, category, AGCW club 
membership number (or "NM" for non-members).  80, 40, 20, 15, 10 M. 
Relatively short log deadline of March 31.  Club is HQ in Germany, so 
many Europeans participate.  Can be fun and you count for them no matter 
how much power you are using.  Probably you could have fun as a QRO 
station giving them points. 
http://www.agcw.de/english/contest/agcw_qrp_e.htm.

4.  Oklahoma QSO Party.  Two periods:  14 UTC Sat to 02 UTC Sun. and
14 UTC to 20 UTC Sunday.  Suggested frequencies:  3530, 3860, 7030, 
7260, 14030, 14260, 21030, 21360, 28030, 28360. Also 6 meters. There was 
a good turnout last year, several mobiles moving around, and a number of 
Oklahoma stations have been staunch supporters of our GQP (e.g., K5YAA, 
W5TZN).  I still need a lot of Okla. counties.  Exchange:  Sig rpt and 
Okla county or s/p/dx. There are HP, LP, and QRP awards.  Also Multi 
Single and VHF.  Theoretically, there could be 5 first place GA awards. 
  No repeater QSOs allowed.  Certificates of participation to all 
entrants who do not win a plaque.  Plaque for each category (100 QSOs 
minimum) (that miniumum seems excessive for out-of-state entrants). 
Modules available on the website for CT, NA, TR, N3FJP, N1MM, and 
Writelog.  I have used the NA module with no problem. 
http://okdxa.org/web/html/okqp.htm.  There is also available a county 
abbreviation list that you can download from the website.

5.  Second Class Operator's Club "Marathon Sprint."  Sat 18 UTC to 24 
UTC.  CW only.  I'vd seldom heard anyone working this contest, but maybe 
that's because I usually work on my income tax information this 
Saturday.  The rules don't appear to have been updated since 2003, but 
WA7BNM lists it on his calendar.  Exchange:  RST, s/p/c, SOC # (or power 
out for non-members).  Suggested frequencies:  1810, 3560, 7040, 14060, 
21060, 28060, 50128.  There is a power multiplier that favors operating 
at 5 watts or under.  That's probably the reason that the frequencies 
seem to coincide with the usual QRP frequencies. There is also a strange 
additional multiplier for using a homebrew paddle (kits included).  Logs 
go to N4BP, a great friend of the GQP, who developed the NA module for 
GQP.  2003 rules at:  http://www.qsl.net/soc/030308.htm.

6.  North American Sprint RTTY.  Sun. 00 to 04 UTC.  80, 40, 20 M only. 
  Freq:  3580, 7080, 14080.  The same station can be worked multiple 
times provided 3 QSOs separate the QSOs in both logs, regardless of 
band.  Exchange:  both calls, serial number, name, s/p/c.  North 
American stations work anyone.  All others, work North American stations 
only.  Same QSY rule as in CW and SSB Sprints.  No simultaneous 
transmissions.  Operator may use only one callsign during the contest. 
Teams of up to 10 members must be registered before the start of the 
contest.  http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrules.php.

7.  Wisconsin QSO Party.  Sunday 18 UTC to Monday 01 UTC.  HP, LP, QRP 
and multi op classes.  Exchange:  Wis county or s/p/c.  (This is the 
second QSO Party this year to drop the RS/RST requirement.  NC did it 
for theirs last month.  I think that change contributed to my logging at 
least four QSOs on the wrong mode and I didn't catch it until I got a 
QSL from a SSB QSOs that was logged as CW yesterday.  I think the RST or 
RS helps set up the variable QTH info to follow and it certainly 
impresses on the operator that the mode must be CW for three digits and 
SSB for two.)  We have some great supporters of GQP in Wisconsin, 
including former SECC member, Larry, K5OT.  Larry often goes /M in this 
one.  Also, W9WUU, W9MSE and several other WI stations support GQP each 
year.  Suggested frequencies:  3550, 3890, 7050, 7230, 14050, 14290, "15 
CW", 21350, "10 CW", 28400, 6 and 2 M SSB & FM.  I suggest 21050 and 
28050 also.  Any legal amateur band and mode where contesting is 
permitted may be used.  The rules say:  "Multiply CW + phone points by 
Power Level multiplier to determine CONTACT POINTS."  Problem is that 
the rules do not say what the "Power Level multiplier" is.  There are 
rules on electronic log format and an entry form available on the 
website.  http://www.warac.org/wqp/2004/04rules.htm.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and makes a lot of contacts.

73,


John, K4BAI.