[VHFcontesting] REMINDER:CQWW VHF Contest and CU2QSO Pioneers

[Ev Tupis (W2EV)]

A number of us have been experimenting with The BEACONet Project's CU2QSO System
on 147.585 FM.  The experiments have been going e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y well, I must
say.  More on that in a future email.  First though...this is a note to those
folks:  PLEASE CHANGE YOUR CONFIGURATION IF YOU ARE OPERATING IN THE CQWW-VHF
CONTEST TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE SIMPLEX, UNASSISTED, AND UNASSISTING OF OTHERS! 
Failure to do so may subject you to disqualification...and that would be sad.

Because of the few number of signals overall (CU2QSO and PropNET on this
frequency is in it's infancy), some participants have setup their stations to TX
periodically and digipeat (so that others will have signals to plot and
fine-tune their stations against).  While that's fine for now...the system
operates legally ONLY if home-based participants LURK (RX-only) and are NOT
setup to digipeat or to be digipeated by others.

Make the following changes to your software, to assure VHF Contest compliance of
your system:

Within UI-View...
Setup | Station Setup
  Unproto address = VK,RFONLY
  Beacon interval (min) Fixed = 9999
Setup | Digipeater Setup
  Enable digi = [ ]   (blank)
Action | Disconnect from APRS Server  (this option exists only if you
                                       were connected to a central
                                       server in the first place)

By doing the above, your station will TX once...then not again for 9999 minutes
(almost a full week).  If a CU2QSO equipped Rover enters simlex range, they will
appear as an icon on a map, and you may engage them in a keyboard-to-keyboard
QSO to log them on 2-meters...then be sure to "run the bands" with them.

Information on The BEACONet Project's CU2QSO system is available at:
http://www.BEACONet.org under the hyperlink for CU2QSO.  There is now a
text-based alternative hyperlink for those with slower Internet connections (the
primary site is heavily Flash grafic'd)...look for the hyperlink at the top.

Best wishes and most of all...have fun!
Ev Tupis,W2EV