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The ARRL Contest Update

December 14, 2016
Editor: Brian Moran, N9ADG


IN THIS ISSUE

 *  New HF Operators: Rookie Roundup, TBDC, RAC, and more
 *  Bulletins
 *  Contest Summary
 *  News: Barrel Hitch, Vinyl, Top Band Book, Extreme Interleaving of QSOs,
    and more
 *  Word to the Wise: Sequencer
 *  Sights and Sounds: PNWVHFS Conference Proceedings, HamRadio360 podcast,
    Phasing Line podcast
 *  Results: WRTC 2018, WAE
 *  Operating Tip: On the Fly Macro Modification
 *  Technical Topics and Information: Backscatter Wi-Fi, OTH radar for
    ionosphere visualization, and more
 *  Conversation: Contest Relevant
 *  Contests
 *  Log Due Dates


NEW HF OPERATORS -- THINGS TO DO

The ARRL Rookie Roundup is happening December 18. The mode for this month's
roundup is CW. All amateurs are encouraged to participate, but only those
licensed 3 years or fewer can submit a log. Logs are due 3 days after the
contest's end.

The Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge is coming up December 17. This
grid-based contest has expanded to four sessions yearly, however, the upcoming
December event is the most popular. If you have any aspirations to be on 160
meters, this is the weekend to try, as contesters are incented to pull out low
power and QRP signals for extra points.

Also on the weekend of December 17, the RAC Contest will provide opportunities
for Phone and CW contacts from 160 through 2 meters. There's a
non-award-eligible distributed multioperator category that might be fun to
enter with a group of friends.

This time of year, there are plenty of operating events and low-key contests to
 participate in that have a gimmick or a twist. For example, ARRL Straight Key
Night encourages the use of bugs or traditional straight keys. The Bruce Kelly
1929 QSO Party encourages use of equipment from the year 1929, as you might
expect from the sponsor being the Antique Wireless Association.



BULLETINS

QRU



BUSTED QSOS

John, K9JK, notes that the ARRL 160 Meter Contest logs are due 1600 UTC
Tuesday, January 3, 2017, while the ARRL 10 Meter Contest logs are due 0000 UTC
 Wednesday, January 11, 2017.



CONTEST SUMMARY

Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section

December 15

 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test

December 16

 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  QRP Fox Hunt
 *  NCCC Sprint
 *  Russian 160-Meter Contest
 *  AGB-Party Contest

December 17

 *  AWA Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party
 *  OK DX RTTY Contest
 *  RAC Winter Contest
 *  Feld Hell Sprint
 *  Padang DX Contest
 *  Croatian CW Contest
 *  Stew Perry Topband Challenge

December 18

 *  ARRL Rookie Roundup, CW

December 19

 *  Run for the Bacon QRP Contest

December 21

 *  QRP Fox Hunt
 *  Phone Fray
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test

December 22

 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test
 *  NAQCC CW Sprint

December 23

 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  QRP Fox Hunt
 *  NCCC Sprint

December 25

 *  RAEM Contest

December 26

 *  DARC Christmas Contest

December 28

 *  SKCC Sprint
 *  QRP Fox Hunt
 *  Phone Fray
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test


NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST

The barrel hitch knot can be used to hoist a heavier load in a five gallon
pail.

Ward, N0AX, suggests knowing how to tie the barrel hitch knot. It can replace a
 missing or weak handle on a five gallon bucket to enable lifting heavy items
during tower work.


So far for 2016, UK sales of music delivered on vinyl records exceeded sales of
 digital downloads for the first time ever.


DXing on the Edge - The Thrill of 160 Meters, 2nd edition, a book by Jeff
Briggs, K1ZM, is now available from DX Engineering, and also available from
Array Solutions. Top band contesters will surely find something of interest in
this book, which covers practical antennas, Top Band history, and Top
Band-specific operating techniques.


Jose, CT1BOH, calls the technique used at CR3OO 2BSIQ, or two band synchronized
 interleaved QSOs. In the video, 17 QSOs are made in 2 minutes, reflecting a
rate of approximately 510 QSOs per hour. Jose requests "you hear it with
headphones and in a PC in order to fully understand what station is coming from
 its respective radio, and also read the comments I put in the video to help
fully understand it."


N3FJP has updated his ARRL 10 Meter Contest Log program to version 5.3,
reflecting recent changes to the Mexican section abbreviations.


The November 2016 DKARS magazine, published by the Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio
Society, is available on their website. PJ4DX has a retrospective on the 2016
CQWW DX Phone contest, describing the PJ4Q Multi-single operation in comparison
 with other PJ4 stations in the contest.


If you need caffeinated beverage and food suggestions for contest weekends, the
 Center for Science in the Public Interest has compiled a list of foods and
beverages along with their caffeine content. The categories includes coffees,
teas, energy beverages, as well as caffeinated snack foods, ice creams and
yogurts, chocolate candy and chocolate drinks, and over-the-counter pills
containing caffeine. Keep in mind that the Mayo Clinic recommended amount of
caffeine is 400 mg per day for adults.


Registration is open for the International DX Convention to be held April
21-23, 2017 in Visalia, California. This year's format has been expanded to 3
days, with Contest University on the opening Friday.



WORD TO THE WISE

Sequencer

A device which arbitrates and controls connections between various pieces of
equipment in the receive and transmit signal chains. It is commonly used in
UHF/VHF operations where transceivers, transverters, monoband amplifiers, and
preamplifiers are used in combination. For example, sequencers are used to make
 sure that elements of the receive chain such as preamplifiers are switched OUT
 during transmit, and that all proper transmit components such as amplifiers
and filters are switched IN before RF is applied. Modern sequencers are highly
configurable, to accommodate complex topologies with varied switching times.



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Proceedings of the Pacific Northwest VHF Society's 2016 Conference in Bend,
Oregon have been posted. Of particular interest to a UHF/VHF contester may be
Rick, KK7B's presentation on high-performance Yagi antennas.

HamRadio360 Workbench is a series of podcasts around building Amateur Radio
gear. It recently featured a community build of an Arduino based antenna
analyzer, including design of the PC board, and sourcing of parts.

The PI4COM team had hopes to enter the ARRL 10 Meter contest last weekend,
however propagation was not favorable, and instead they put special call signs
PA30EUDXF and PF30EUDXF on the air.

Sterling, N0SSC, and Marty, KC1CWF, have released the second episode of their
Phasing Line podcast. The episode discusses Sweepstakes, operator mentoring at
multiops, and working someone with a peanut butter jar antenna. Sterling, 24,
is a past ARRL Youth editor, and Marty, 14, is an active contester and promoter
 of youth radio activities.



RESULTS AND RECORDS

The final results of the Worked All Europe DX Contest, SSB, are available on
the DARC website. Participants are encouraged to share their contest
experiences on the WAEDC Facebook page. The WAEDC RTTY Raw scores are also
online.

There are fewer than 575 days until WRTC 2018. As always, the standings are
viewable on the WRTC 2018 website.



OPERATING TIP

On-the-fly Macro Modification

Consider using the ESCape key during the playback of a CW Macro to shorten it
to suit your needs. For example, while running, if my "Thank you" message is
"TU N9ADG," I might interrupt it to just send "TU" if I know that there's
another caller but didn't get their whole call. Similarly, I could lengthen a
"CQ TEST N9ADG" message for the slow times by repeatedly stopping the message
after the CQ, and then finally sending the entire message: "CQ" "CQ TEST
N9ADG."



TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION

Backscatter communications is being used by researchers at the University of
Washington for ultra-low-power 802.11b Wi-Fi communications. In their scheme,
portable low-power devices generate 802.11b signals by receiving an
out-of-channel carrier signal, then modulating and mixing the signal so it is
transmitted on the desired band. The modulating and mixing steps require much
less power relative to the generation of the carrier signal, achieving up to a
10,000-fold reduction in energy consumption.


Over-the-horizon radar is an unwelcome intruder into the ham bands. In an
example of making lemonade from lemons, Daniel, M0HXM, received and analyzed
the waveform of an OTH radar operating near 40 meters to compute the height of
ionosphere reflections. He used an IQ recording of the signal, processed by GNU
 Radio and other open source tools to perform his analysis. He has also
improved his analysis in a follow-up article.


While connecting some switchable bandpass filters to a K3, I noticed that the
recent batch of Y cables from a vendor were missing a pin compared to the
previous order. As this was one of the band inputs, this would have put us off
the air for at least a few minutes if we didn't catch it before the contest.


Dave, NK7Z, has posted an article on how he is using an SDRPlay SDR to
characterize and count the potential RFI sources in his environment. He also
points out some tools that are available to help record spectra, and how he
interprets the images that he collects. Parts 2 and 3 of his series (yet to be
published) promise additional information on how to optimize the display to
find particular types of RFI, and then how to find the RFI source using his SDR
 setup.



CONVERSATION

Contest Relevant

The ability to compete in a contest is the result of the coordination of many
different tasks requiring many different hard and soft skills. Consequently,
there are a lot of possible topic areas in an electronic publication about
contesting and many opinions about what topics would be interesting. For each
issue of "Contest Update," there's a balance between here-and-now practical
contesting topics and interesting little tidbits that may not be immediately
helpful in any radio contest. An example of the latter is quantum computing. If
 and when quantum computing technology become a reality and available at the
same cost of a high-end radio, we'll likely see its use as part of improved
digital signal processing and coding techniques in our hobby. But we're not
going to be using quantum computing technology in contesting in 2017 or 2018.

Other topics that today are borderline contest-related could unexpectedly be
mainstream in a short period of time. For example, voice recognition delivered
via cloud computing may be what enables a usable contest SSB skimmer. Suddenly,
 scalable computing resources will be part of contest technology discussions.
And then there are the topics that are solidly qualified for inclusion,
everything from station construction to maintenance of the operator and ethics.
 Your comments and suggestions regarding the Contest Update are always welcome
via the contest_update@arrl.org email
address.

Happy Holidays!

73, Brian N9ADG



CONTESTS

DATE

An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format is
available. Check the sponsor's website for information on operating time
restrictions and other instructions.


HF CONTESTS

AWA Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party, Dec 10, 2300z to Dec 11, 2300z, Dec 17, 2300z
to Dec 18, 2300z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40m; RST + Name + QTH + Eqpt Year +
Transmitter Type (see rules for format); Logs due: see rules.

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 14, 1300z to Dec 14, 1400z, Dec 14, 1900z to Dec 14,
2000z, Dec 15, 0300z to Dec 15, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: December 17.

NCCC RTTY Sprint, Dec 16, 0145z to Dec 16, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules);
Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: December 18.

QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 16, 0200z to Dec 16, 0330z; CW; Bands: 80m Only; RST +
(state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: December 22.

NCCC Sprint, Dec 16, 0230z to Dec 16, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial No.
 + Name + QTH; Logs due: December 18.

Russian 160-Meter Contest, Dec 16, 2000z to Dec 18, 0000z; CW, SSB; Bands: 160m
 Only; Rus: RS(T) + Oblast code, non-Rus: RS(T) + Serial No.; Logs due:
December 31.

AGB-Party Contest, Dec 16, 2100z to Dec 17, 0000z; CW, SSB, Digital; Bands: 80m
 Only; AGB Member: RST + QSO No. + Member No., non-Member: RST + QSO No.; Logs
due: January 13.

OK DX RTTY Contest, Dec 17, 0000z to Dec 18, 0000z; RTTY; Bands: 80, 40, 20,
15, 10m; RST + CQ Zone; Logs due: December 24.

RAC Winter Contest, Dec 17, 0000z to Dec 17, 2359z; CW, Phone; Bands: 160, 80,
40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2m; VE: RS(T) + (province/territory), non-VE and VE0: RS(T)
+ Serial No.; Logs due: January 31.

Feld Hell Sprint, Dec 17, 0000z to Dec 17, 2359z; Feld Hell; Bands: 160, 80,
40, 20, 15, 10, 6m; (see rules); Logs due: December 21.

Padang DX Contest, Dec 17, 1200z to Dec 17, 2359z; SSB; Bands: 40m Only; RS +
Serial No.; Logs due: December 24.

Croatian CW Contest, Dec 17, 1400z to Dec 18, 1400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40,
20, 15, 10m; RST + Serial No.; Logs due: January 17.

Stew Perry Topband Challenge, Dec 17, 1500z to Dec 18, 1500z; CW; Bands: 160m
Only; 4-Character grid square; Logs due: January 2.

ARRL Rookie Roundup, CW, Dec 18, 1800z to Dec 18, 2359z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20,
 15, 10, 6m; NA: Name + 2-digit year first licensed + (state/province/XE
area/DX); Logs due: December 21.

Run for the Bacon QRP Contest, Dec 19, 0200z to Dec 19, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160,
80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; RST + (state/province/country) + (Member No./power); Logs
due: December 25.

QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 21, 0200z to Dec 21, 0330z; CW; Bands: 80m Only; RST +
(state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: December 22.

Phone Fray, Dec 21, 0230z to Dec 21, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15m;
NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: December 23.

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 21, 1300z to Dec 21, 1400z, Dec 21, 1900z to Dec 21,
2000z, Dec 22, 0300z to Dec 22, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: December 24.

NAQCC CW Sprint, Dec 22, 0130z to Dec 22, 0330z; CW; Bands: 160m Only; RST +
(state/province/country) + (NAQCC No./power); Logs due: December 25.

NCCC RTTY Sprint, Dec 23, 0145z to Dec 23, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules);
Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: December 25.

QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 23, 0200z to Dec 23, 0330z; CW; Bands: 80m Only; RST +
(state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: December 29.

NCCC Sprint, Dec 23, 0230z to Dec 23, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial No.
 + Name + QTH; Logs due: December 25.

RAEM Contest, Dec 25, 0000z to Dec 25, 1159z; CW; Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Serial No. + latitude (degs only) + longitude (degs only), N=North, S=South,
W=West, O=East (e.g. 57N 85O); Logs due: January 24.

DARC Christmas Contest, Dec 26, 0830z to Dec 26, 1059z; CW, SSB; Bands: 80,
40m; DL: RS(T) + DOK (or Special Station abbreviation), non-DL: RS(T) + QSO
No.; Logs due: January 16.

SKCC Sprint, Dec 28, 0000z to Dec 28, 0200z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15,
10m; RST + (state/province/country) + Name + (SKCC No./power); Logs due:
December 30.

QRP Fox Hunt, Dec 28, 0200z to Dec 28, 0330z; CW; Bands: 80m Only; RST +
(state/province/country) + name + power output; Logs due: December 29.

Phone Fray, Dec 28, 0230z to Dec 28, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15m;
NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: December 30.

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Dec 28, 1300z to Dec 28, 1400z, Dec 28, 1900z to Dec 28,
2000z, Dec 29, 0300z to Dec 29, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: December 31.


VHF+ CONTESTS

See Feld Hell Sprint, ARRL Rookie Roundup, and RAC Winter contests, above.


LOG DUE DATES

December 15, 2016

 *  NRAU 10m Activity Contest
 *  QRP Fox Hunt

December 16, 2016

 *  Phone Fray

December 17, 2016

 *  QRP Fox Hunt
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test

December 18, 2016

 *  SKCC Weekend Sprintathon
 *  NCCC Sprint
 *  EPC Ukraine DX Contest
 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  NAQCC CW Sprint

December 19, 2016

 *  REF 160-Meter Contest

December 21, 2016

 *  Feld Hell Sprint
 *  Homebrew and Oldtime Equipment Party
 *  ARRL EME Contest
 *  ARRL Rookie Roundup, CW

December 24, 2016

 *  OK DX RTTY Contest
 *  Padang DX Contest

December 25, 2016

 *  Run for the Bacon QRP Contest


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ARRL Contest Update wishes to acknowledge information from WA7BNM's Contest
Calendar and SM3CER's Contest Calendar.

____________________________________________________________________________


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