TopBand: Boring report - N6TR/7

[n6tr@teleport.com]

Well - the distribution to date of European QSOs for this season goes
something like this:

11-Sep-98: DF2PY, PA3ALP
17-Dec-98: G3PQA
18-Dec-98: JW5NM
19-Dec-98: SM4CAN, OH2BO, SM6CTQ, OH3YI, HA8BE, OH3ES, OH9RJ, SL3ZV,
           DF2PY, PA0CLN, DK2FG, DL5AXX, OZ1BTE, DK2JX, G4BUE, G0IVZ,
           GW3YDX, G3XRP, G4AMT, G3ITH and G3PQA.

GM3PPE and G3SED were both heard, but I didn't get my RST.  G3SED was
telling me about missing OM5XX.  I heard OM5XX, but only got his 
prefix and then was being pestered by my three year old to put her
in bed.  

Almost all signals had deep QSB and would require several tries to
get the report.

The SM4CAN QSO was at 0301Z.  Then I got back into it around 0530Z
until 0800Z.  HA8BE had a VERY good signal when he called at 0607Z.
However, SL3ZV had the biggest signal.  OZ1EEZ was good copy, but 
wasn't hearing us folks from the west coast very well.  Most of
the G signals were right in the noise, with lots of QSB.  

With the signal HA8BE had - I am sure I could have heard HA0DU.  He
was on the band a little before I was and guess we missed each other.

Tried some CQs in the morning looking for that opening we had last 
year to Europe, but nothing heard.  Either myself or N5KO will be
beaconing starting around 1400Z during the next week.

There is a big flare coming that might improve things for the next 
night or two, and then screw them up.  Hopefully things will settle
by the Stew Perry contest.  Rules are attacehd below.  If you need
help with your grid square, send me you latitude/longitude and I
will reply with your grid square.  Owners of TR Log can do this 
by typing TR GRID.

73 Tree N6TR/7 
Boring, OR - USA
tree@contesting.com


                                  RULES 
                THIRD STEW PERRY TOPBAND DISTANCE CHALLENGE
                          Revised on 29 July 1998

1. Contest period:  1500Z December 26th to 1500Z December 27th, 1998. 
   Operate for a maximum of 14 hours.  

2. Bands and mode: 160 meters CW only.

3. Categories: Single operator or multi-operator.  Remote or packet 
   spotting shall not be used.  Transmitting and receiving antennas 
   shall be located at the same QTH.

4. Exchange: Four character grid square (i.e. CN85).  

5. QSO Points: The number of QSO points for each contact depends on the
   distance between the two stations.  This is computed by taking the 
   distance between the centers of the two grid squares.  Count a minimum 
   of one point per QSO and an additional point for every 500 kilometers 
   distance.  For example, a QSO with a station 1750 kilometers away will 
   count for 4 QSO points.  No additional distance for long path is allowed.  

   If your logging software does not support this scoring method, we
   will compute your score for you if you submit your log electronically.
   You can also use the public domain program spscore.exe which can be
   found via anonymous ftp to jzap.com in the pub/n6tr directory.

6. Score: Final score equals the total number of QSO points.  There is 
   no multiplier for different grids worked.  Stations running 5 to 100 
   watts output multiply their score by 2.  Stations running less 
   than 5 watts multiply their score by 4.  

7. Reporting: Your log can be sent via the internet to TBDC@CONTESTING.COM 
   or via diskette in MS-DOS/Windows format. It must be sent by 
   January 28th, 1999.  Entries submitted by mail should be sent to:
   Boring Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 1357, Boring, OR 97009 USA.
   Logs shall be in ASCII format.  A summary sheet may be sent, but is not 
   necessary.

8. Plaques will be awarded for categories we have sponsors for.  To 
   volunteer to sponsor a plaque, contact Lew Sayre, W7EW at 
   lew@teleport.com.


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