[SECC] Announcement and Explanation, NCCC NS Ladder Series

[John Laney]

The 2007 NCCC Sprint Ladder Competition (4th Annual)  is underway . .

Practice tonight, Thursday March 8.

1st of 18 sessions on Thursday March 15 (up to 12 highest scores counted 
for series)

  -- 100 watt power limit;  20, 40, 80, 160 m;  merged NAQP (band mults) 
/NA Sprint  rules (1 KHz QSY).
  -- Dupes allowed: 1 intervening Q on same band, but no restriction if 
changing bands (e.g.. work same stn on 80 then 160 with no intervening Q)
  -- See logging instructions and get the N4AF Score Calculator on 
www.ncccsprint.com
  -- Use the 3830 score reporting form: 
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/ (starting March 15)

The following  writeup by Paul, K3STX, describes the NCCC Sprint Ladder 
competition.  It was a collaborative writing job between Paul and me 
that hopefully describes the event pretty well.  We're hoping for a few 
new NCCC participants this year, so plan on joining in the fun.  Ed, 
W0YK,  has kindly posted updated rules for NS Ladder on 
www.ncccsprint.com and Ken, N6RO has organized  the practice session 
tonight.

73 Bill N6ZFO/6

Contest Director NS Ladder with N6RO and W0YK, co-organizers
NS Ladder Board: K3STX, N3BB, K4BAI
Special Consultant:  Howie, N4AF

"------ Forwarded Message
From: Paul Roche <rochep at comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:48:12 -0500
To: <PVRC at mailman.qth.net>
Conversation: NCCC Sprint Practice ALL SUMMER LONG!!
Subject: [PVRC] NCCC Sprint Practice ALL SUMMER LONG!!

Is the bulk of the CW contest season over for you, but you want MORE? Do you
dread summer cuz¹ you can¹t get your weekly fix of contesting?

Then fret no more, it is time for The NS Ladder Competition!!

This Thursday ... practice session 1[1930-2000  PST ](0330-0400 UTC
Friday).

Subsequent Thursdays ... 1930-2000 PDST (0230-0300 UTC Friday)

[Remember early kick in for Daylight Savings Time]

What is the NS?   Also known as NCCC summer/spring madness, it's a
more-or-less weekly 18-week ladder competition with merged NA Sprint/NAQP
type rules. Just  half an hour each Thursday night. Say goodnight to the
XYL, disappear for 30min, then go to bed ENERGIZED!  Fun, family-friendly,
very competitive, and  a great contest breadboard for testing your new
antenna, modified operating  procedure, or success with SO2R: for example
you could test the effect of a glass of wine before contesting, determine
the efficiency of your new Moxon  antenna for 160 meters, or try out that
Sterba curtain.

If you haven't tried NS Ladder, consider participating this year. 
Review/learn the rules at

www.ncccsprint.com .

The BASICS of Sprinting:

The Sprint is one of the premier contests for domestic contesting. The
exchange consists of a sequential serial number, your name, your
state/province (or DX). Easy, right? WELL  not really, there is a catch. You
can¹t just sit there and call CQ TEST If you call CQ and make a QSO, you
MUST QSY at least 1 kc before making another QSO or 5 kc before calling CQ
again!

[Note: NS Ladder requires 1  KHz QSY, not 5 as in NA Sprint.]

So if you tune across a QSO, and you know ONE of these guys is going
to QSY in 6 seconds, how do you know who to call? Simple, the guy who CALLED
CQ (the ³owner² of the frequency) will send an exchange that tells EVERYONE
what is going on! Let¹s say I call CQ and N4AF answers me. My exchange to
him will be N4AF K3STX 16 PAUL MD. Notice I put my call after HIS. His
exchange to ME will be K3STX 248 AL NC N4AF (Howie is weird, he uses Al as
his name and usually is 10X higher in QSO number than me!). They key here is
HIS exchange, his call was at the END!! It tells EVERYBODY LISTENING that
the guy to call is NOT K3STX, but instead call N4AF!! HE  owns  the
frequency. Once W3LPL calls N4AF, it belongs to Frank, etc. If you think
about it, the ideal strategy is to call somebody else, you can make THAT QSO
AND you own the frequency for the NEXT QSO. But if there are no takers to
your CQ, do you continue to call CQ or QSY to call somebody else?? Well, you
will have to learn that yourself!

Important changes [to NS Ladder]  this year:

1)    NORMALLY, the exchange is Serial #, your name, QTH.
For the first few competitions, Exchange will be:

   Serial #, your first ham radio callsign, QTH  (Ex: for N6ZFO:  1, 
KN6OPI, CA).

2) Dupes.   We're allowing back to back dupes on different bands *without*
an intervening QSO this year to increase rate even further from it's already
insane level.

As before, watch www.ncccsprint.com for score updates, rule changes etc.

Remember, we're especially anxious to welcome newcomers. If your CW isn't
super fast, try NS Ladder anyway. All participants have instructions to be
especially courteous and slow down appropriately.  Remember, in the words of
one of our great boosters Kurt, K7NV, the NS Ladder is all about summer fun.

This is REALLY great fun and GREAT practice for CW contesting in general and
for the real Sprints in particular. All NS Practices are LOW POWER ONLY, so
don¹t think your barefoot signal will get swamped out. I have yet to meet a
Ham who has tried it and who HASN¹T liked it. The more, the merrier. Last
summer some of the guys were making 70 QSOs in 30 min; since you must QSY
after every other QSO THAT is some INSANE FUN! For you old time PVRCers who
might have done this in the past but are ³done² with the Sprint thing,
reconsider and let¹s show a real PVRC presence.

. . . .

Paul K3STX"