[SESprint] NA Sprint CW Team Registration

[John Laney]

OK.  Looks like we have one full team.  Here is the receipt for the 
registration (way down below):

Now. I will start a stand by or additional team list.  If there are as 
many as two additionals, I will register a Southeast Sprint Coalition #2 
team.  If anyone has to drop out, I will fill from this list.  I'd love 
to have an additional team, but we are so close to the start now, I am 
despairing of getting any additional members.

I will check e-mail for the last time around 2300Z Saturday afternoon. 
If you have an emergency come up, let me know.  Looks like we have a 
real good team and I hope no emergencies will arise.

I encourage everyone else, even if not on a team, to get on and make 
QSOs.  Give the other guys more contacts and have some fun yourself. 
Maybe you will be ready for a team in the fall.

Also remember the NCCC NS sprint practice on 20, 40, 80, and 160M from 
0230 to 0259Z Friday (Thursday-tonight local date).  Any of you who work 
these 30-minute practice sessions every Thursday night that you can will 
be ready for the big time next fall for sure.

Remember to set up your messages in two different forms.

If someone calls you after your CQ or QRZ, send:  "W4AN K4BAI (for 
example) #1 JOHN GA."  Note that you did not send your call at the end, 
so you are not expecting to be called on that same frequency as you will 
have to QSY one Khz to call another station or 5 kHz to call CQ again.

If you call someone who has called CQ or has just finished a QSO and has 
inherited the frequency, your exchange should be:  "W4AN #1 JOHN GA 
K4BAI."  So you sent your call at the end signaling that you will accept 
calls after your exchange is acknowledged.

You won't always be able to hear both ends of the couplet, but usually 
you will, particiularly on the lower bands. So pause long enough for the 
station leaving the frequency to send "TU" or "R" or to ask for a repeat 
before dropping your call in, but drop your call as soon as the 
acknowledgement has been sent.

I recommend using full QSK if you have that capability.  That way, you 
can hear if something unexpected happens on your frequency and you will 
have fewer instances of "doubling" when both you and your quarry are 
sending at the same time.

Caution: This time around, we can expect to contend with a lot of other 
operations on the bands.  K1N has been running big pile ups from their 
transmit frequencies usually up for as much as 30 kHz.  They have 
generally (but not always) been on 3523, 7023, and 14023.  We will need 
to avoid transmitting on their CQ frequency and will have a difficult 
time working each other if we are in their pile up of callers.  So, we 
may need to move to below 022 or above 040 or even higher for QSOs.

Moving higher may move us into substantial RTTY QRM from the Mexican 
RTTY Contest on 40 meters.  We have co-existed with the RTTY guys the 
last few years, but that was without QRM from K1N pileups.  Of course, 
we could be lucky and K1N may be running on SSB during the NA Sprint, 
but we can't count on that.

There is also the annual members only FOC Marathon running at the same 
time as the sprint.  This may be more of a problem for FOC members than 
for non FOC members, but if you run into someone who wants to give you a 
RST and a three or four digit number (such as "599 1121") it will 
probably be someone in the FOC Marathon.  If you can get a QSO number, 
name and section from them, good for you, but that won't be easy.  Their 
frequencies are usually about 020 to 035 kHz on each band, so they will 
be forced lower and higher in the event of a K1N pileup too.

There are several other contests also going on at the same time as the 
Sprint.  About the only one that I have heard much activity in during 
the past few February CW Sprints is the VT QSO Party.  The exchange for 
that one is RST and SPC or VT county.  You may need to try to get a # 
and name from one of them if you want a VT mult in the Sprint.  The MN 
QSO Party  and FYBO QRP Sprint will both end just as our sprint begins. 
  The YL-ISSB QSO Party on CW is also at the same time, but there is 
virtually no activity in it these days.  The exchange is RST, Name, SPC, 
YLISSB# if you have one.  So, you would need to get a QSO # from anyone 
in that one.  There is also the Black Sea Cup International Contest. 
There is quite a lot of European activity in this one, so we can 
anticipate hearing them mainly on 40 during the Sprint.  The exchange is 
RST + ITU zone (or HQ abbreviation or "BS + membership number" for BS 
members).  I doubt we will be able to get a serial # and name from any 
of those contesters.

In addition, there is the BC QSO Party.  The exchange is RST + SPC or BC 
district.  Like VT, you can only work stations in the target area, so 
you may need to try to get a QSO # and name from a BCQP station in BC to 
get that mult.

Also, there will be slower speed contesters around 050 and up on each 
band in the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) Weekend Sprintathon (WES). 
  This one requires RST, SPC, Name, and SKCC# or "NONE."  So, you will 
need to get a QSO # if one of these calls you.  Probably unlikely at the 
speed you will be sending.

You might want to print a copy of this message and keep it near the 
rig(s) in case you run up against some of these other contesters and 
have the patience to try to swap exchanges with them.

Good luck and much fun to all.  The SSB Sprint last Saturday was a ball 
and CW is always more fun to me.

73, John, K4BAI.

P.S.  Someone new to NA Sprints said to me before last weekend that he 
understood we should always start on 40M.  I do recall starting on 40M 
some years ago when long skip was common on 40 trying to get the local 
mults before the skip went long.  We don't usually have bad long skip in 
the early evenings these days on 40M and, besides, we should be able to 
get the local mults on 80M.  Of course, if you are SO2R, you will start 
calling on 20 and listening on 40.  But I think it is better to start on 
20 while it is open to most areas before it starts going long.  For SO1R 
stations, you might want to plan to stay on each band about 80 minutes 
and then QSY to the next.  But, I never QSY to the next one if the rate 
is still good on the present band.  You will have to judge for yourself 
what the rate needs to fall to before you QSY.  Many times, it is a good 
idea to check back on 20M before going to 80 and you might pick up a 
straggling KL7 or western W7 or VE station that you probably won't work 
for a mult on 80.




Thanks for registering your CW Sprint team.

Team Name: Southeast Sprint Coalition

Team Members:
K4BAI
N2NL
K8MR
NP2X (Op: K9VV)
N4WW (Op: WF3C)
K0EJ
W4UX
AA4CF
N4OX
K1TO

Registration recorded at: 2015-02-05 20:48:41Z

Your team registration info has been saved to the NCJ team database. If 
you wish to update your team membership, please use the team 
registration form to resubmit your team members. Please be sure to use 
exactly the same team name, unless you are purposely wanting to change 
the name.

You can easily update your team registration by clicking on the 
following link:

http://www.ncjweb.com/cwsprintteamreg/?ncjarg=a4480ed72363b785fd32f469b86b8ba5

73 de Boring Amateur Radio Club (cwsprintmgr at ncjweb.com)