[SECC] Announcement: VT QSO Party Feb2-3

[John Laney]

A reminder that the Vermont QSO Party will take place in a little over a 
week from now, on February 2-3, 2013.
The event runs the full 48 hours UTC, which, in Eastern Time corresponds 
to Friday, February 1, starting at 7PM and ending Sunday, February 3, 
7PM. There is no limit to operating time - have as much fun as you want!

The QSO Party site is
http://www.ranv.org/vtqso.html
All the details are there.

Vermont stations - PLEASE get on and call CQ. Stations outside Vermont 
can only work Vermont stations for credit, so it's no fun if they can't 
find any of us! Best bet is to get on daylight hours on 20 and 15 meters 
(and 10 if it opens well). Last year, we had good success with lots of 
QSO's on 40 meters at night, but that is propagation dependent.

Stations outside Vermont - We hope to hear you again this year and will 
try to get more stations on the air for you to work!

Log submissions must be in Cabrillo format. We'll accept logs in most 
any form, but please consider setting your software up properly. Logs in 
other formats have to be converted by me and it takes a bunch of time to 
do this. I strongly recommend the N1MM Contest Logger which is a free 
download http://n1mm.hamdocs.com <http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/>

N1MM fully supports the VT QSO Party so it will work well. If you've 
never used this before, be sure to leave a few hours available to play 
with it and get familiar with some of the features (i.e. don't try it 
out 5 minutes before the contest).

Be careful with other contest software - it may or may not give you what 
is needed. I know some have had problems with the free version of 
N3FJP's program as it doesn't include the Cabrillo conversion.

If you are a returning contestant, or are new to the VT QSO Party, we 
hope you will join with us at this on-air event.

There are many ways to have fun in this. Not only will the VT QSO Party 
be running, but also the Black Sea Contest, 10-10 QSO Party, CW Sprint 
and MN, DE and BC QSO Parties will take place at various times during 
the same weekend. Look up their rules and times so that you know what 
contest information is needed. I have a lot of fun working stations and 
submitting logs to many of these contests.

You got a week and a half and plenty of nice frigid weather to do last 
minute antenna work. Hope to see you on the air!

Mitch W1SJ
VT QSO Party Manager