[SESprint] NA Sprint CW Saturday Evening

[John Laney]

Still need one more team member to make up two full teams. Would be glad 
to have some more and form a third team.   Who will join with  K4BAI, 
W8FN, KU8E, N4OX, W4WF, K2SX, WF4W, AA5JF, and NK4O?     Note that Dave, 
N2NL, will be on representing AL, but will be on a team put together by 
K3LR.

If you are entering for the first time and use N1MM+ for logging, select 
the module called "SPRINTCW."  No spotting assistance permitted--single 
op unassisted only.  High power, low power, or QRP.  Exchange is: both 
calls, #, name, SPC.  Set your F keys up so that your call is the last 
thing you send if you are the one who called someone else and will, 
therefore, keep the frequency. If you called CQ or otherwise were the 
one called and, therefore, will have to QSY, send your call near the 
start.   Examples:

KU8E 1 JOHN GA K4BAI  (KU8E called CQ)

KU8E K4BAI 2 JOHN GA (I called CQ)

So, when you hear a station sending his call at the end of the exchange 
with someone else, wait just a short time for the acknowledgement to be 
heard and drop in your call.  Some few ops won't do it this way, but 
those just confuse everyone.

The  QSY rule for this contest is one kHz to call another station and 5 
kHz to call CQ again.  So, if you called CQ and must give up the 
frequency after the CQ, you can call another station after moving one 
kHz or more in either direction.  Under the same circumstance, you can 
call CQ after moving 5 kHz in either direction.

The pace of this contest can be daunting at the start.  If you feel 
overwhelmed by the QSYing or the speeds of the ops, you might want to 
select several frequencies at least 5 kHz apart and call "CQ NA" at a 
speed that is comfortable for you, until you wade into grabbing a QSO at 
the end of a couplet.


Hope many will participate for the fun and to help out the others 
whether or not you are on a team.

There will be other contests going on at the same time:  VT QSO Party, 
BC QSO Party, FOC Marathon (closed members only), European Union DX 
Contest, Mexico RTTY International Contest, to name a few.  You can have 
up multiple files in N1MM+ and log in whichever one you send and copy 
the exchange for, but the NA Sprint is so intense that it may be best 
just to avoid the other contesters and concentrate on those who will 
willingly give you the #, name, QTH exchange of the NA Sprint.  I 
mention the RTTY contest so you will know why higher frequencies on 40M 
CW seem to be taken over by RTTY.  If there is a lot of RTTY QRM on 40M, 
the Sprint activity will be lower in the band than you will expect 
otherwise.  The frequencies 015 to 035 kHz will sometimes be occupied by 
those in the FOC Marathon, a contest open only to members of FOC.  You 
will need to use those frequencies in NA Sprint and try to avoid those 
who won't give you the Sprint exchange information.

Have a good weekend full of contests!  And let me know if I can add you 
to a team.  73, John, K4BAI.