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The ARRL Contest Update

October 19, 2016
Editor: Brian Moran, N9ADG


IN THIS ISSUE

 *  New HF Operators: UK/EI DX, SPTBDC, CQWW DX SSB
 *  Bulletins: Affiliated Club Competition
 *  Contest Summary
 *  News: Makrothen changes, Waterfall Bandmap, and more
 *  Word to the Wise: Quagi
 *  Sights and Sounds: California QSO Party Portable
 *  Results
 *  Operating Tip: Submit Logs Successfully
 *  Technical Topics and Information: Dielectric Constants, Smaller
    Transistors, History of RPi, RFI-free SMPS on Kickstarter, and more
 *  Conversation: And So It Goes
 *  Contests
 *  Log Due Dates



NEW HF OPERATORS - THINGS TO DO

Have you tried JT65 on HF?

The best bet for some DX this weekend could be the UK/EI DX Contest, unless
you're outfitted for 160 meters, and can participate in the warm-up to the
Stew Perry Top Band Distance Contest, sometimes called the "Pre-Stew." As it's
a weekend without an abundance of contests, you might want to "contest
different." Try a new mode, put up a new antenna, or fix a piece of gear.

Many hams will be traveling to multipliers this week, putting up antennas and
fixing gear as they get ready for the CQ WW DX Phone contest on October 29-30.



BULLETINS

Hey Affiliated Club Competition Coordinators! Remember that for your club to
be included in the ARRL Affiliated Club Competition, your information needs to
be up to date on the Affiliated Club Competition website. You'll receive an
authentication email after your information is updated. Note that there is
also the ability to update club eligibility rosters before each contest.



BUSTED QSOS

Here is the correct link to the Feld Hell Club Spooky Sprint, which was held
last weekend. Logs are due October 19. https://sites.google.com/
ite/feldhellclub/Home/contests/sprints/spooky-sprint (Doug, KD4MOJ)



CONTEST SUMMARY

Complete information for all contests follows the Conversation section

October 20

 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test

October 21

 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  NCCC Sprint
 *  MCG Autumn Sprint

October 22

 *  ARRL EME Contest
 *  UK/EI DX Contest, SSB
 *  Stew Perry Topband Challenge
 *  SA Sprint Contest

October 26

 *  SKCC Sprint
 *  Phone Fray
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test
 *  UKEICC 80m Contest

October 27

 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test
 *  RSGB 80m Club Sprint, SSB

October 28

 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  NCCC Sprint

October 29

 *  CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

November 2

 *  Phone Fray
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test
 *  UKEICC 80m Contest



NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST

If you participated in the Makrothen RTTY Contest last week, you'll want to
send your logs to scottmcleman36@gmail.com, who has volunteered to collect
them for scoring. The continued sponsorship of this contest is evolving, stay
tuned for more information.

Steve, N2IC, submits: "The Waterfall Bandmap (WB) combines a live waterfall
display with call sign and frequency spotting information. The beauty of the
WB is that you do not need complex and potentially unreliable tools to
interface the WB to your station. The WB tracks the frequency of your
transceiver, and obtains DX spots directly from N1MM+. Unlike other waterfall
implementations, the WB does not require virtual COM port splitters, VSPE,
Omnirig, separate telnet connections, and the like. N1MM+ provides all the
information that WB needs to work with your SDR receiver or sound card I/Q
output to synchronize with your non-SDR station transceiver. WB works with any
radio compatible with LP-PAN (such as the K3), Flex 6000 series, and the
majority of SDR receivers, such as the Perseus, QS1R, or SDRplay. Best of all,
Waterfall Bandmap is freeware. More information is available from the
WaterfallBandmap Yahoo group.

RSGB's Youth Committee is raising funds for YOTA (Youngsters On The Air) 2017
by providing supporter pins at various funding levels. One hundred percent of
all donations will go to YOTA.

Any time Heathkit gets mentioned, ears of hams of a certain age perk up.
Electronic Design argues that manufacturer and aftermarket development kits
have taken the place that Heathkit once occupied as the supplier of
educational electronics platforms. (Ward, N0AX)

In a bit of an interesting twist, a Kickstarter effort, goTenna, has built a
mesh network hardware add-on to cellular phones so that they can be used in
locations where there is no mobile operator infrastructure, for example remote
DX locations, Burning Man, or inside a Faraday hangar. It uses Bluetooth to
communicate with the cellphones, and it sounds like it has a bit of 'cognitive
radio' capability. (Dennis, N6KI)

The 41st IPARC (International Police Association Radio Club) contest is coming
up on first weekend in November this year. The International Police
Association is an international friendship and cooperation organization, with
chapters in many parts of the world. The German section of the IPARC hosts the
rules for the radio contest, and more information on IPARC is available on the
German website. (Uwe, DJ6QQ)

If you operated in the Oceania DX Contest, logs are due by the end of October.
Cabrillo phone logs go to ph@oceaniaDXcontest.com, CW logs to cw
oceaniaDXcontest.com, SWL logs to info@oceaniaDXcontest.com.



WORD TO THE WISE

Quagi

The Quagi is an antenna for UHF or VHF that combines helpful characteristics
of a Yagi with those of a cubical quad antenna. It generally consists of a
quad-style loop for the reflector and driven elements, with Yagi-style
director elements. An eight-element design was originally described by Wayne,
N6NB, an April, 1977 issue of QST, followed up by an easy to build 15 element
"Long Boom Quagi" in QST for February, 1978. The quad elements allowed for
ease in construction and impedance matching.



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Jim, K9YC, and Frank, W6JTI, usually "operate from very quiet places in the
middle of nowhere" for contests like the California QSO Party. Here's a
write up of their 2016 operation http://www.k9yc.com/7QP.pdf (PDF).



RESULTS AND RECORDS

The results of the August UHF Contest are now online, including line scores
for all log submissions, as well as club aggregate scores and top-ten lists.
There will be an expanded results article for the contest in the not too
distant future. (Wayne, N6NB)

"Thanks to the efforts of N5KO and K5OT, complete sets of Sweepstakes records
for both modes are now available at Sweepstakes page on the ARRL website as
well as the Contest Records page. The records are available by category, by
division, and by section. A complete list of winners by category, extending
back to the first Sweepstakes in 1930, is also provided. For fans of
statistics, the number of logs submitted each year and a cross-reference of
call signs is also provided. This is some nice work! Is there a record in your
location or favorite category that might be within reach this year?" (Bart,
W9JJ)



OPERATING TIP

Submitting Logs Successfully

Many contests are shortening the time between contest end and the log
submission deadline. It pays to check the rules to make sure the log deadline
hasn't changed since the last time you entered the contest. Also, more and
more contests are publishing the list of submitted logs on their web site. Get
in the habit of checking the 'received logs' pages to make absolutely sure
your log was received.

If you have a question about the rules, first, read the rules again. If your
question is still unresolved, a polite email to the contest sponsor/director
could clear things up in a jiffy.

For example, here's a question I sent to Ed, W0YK, CQ WW RTTY Contest Director:

"Hi Ed, in the RTTY contest a couple of weeks ago, there was a station in zone
8 sending zone 11 as the exchange. When asked for his 'CQ zone', he replied
with 11; for the CQ WW RTTY Contest, what is the correct number for a station
to log? What was sent, or what the correct zone would be?"

Ed wrote back:

"In this case, I'd go ahead and log '11' if you think that is what he will
have in his log. The log checking will assign multiplier credit based on what
the actual multiplier is, not what the station sent. But for cross-checking,
it is safer for you to have in your log what he has in his log. If he was
insisting on '54', then I'd log 8, because the robot and log checking will
complain if the number is not in the range of 1-40."

An email exchange with the contest director could be more insightful than a
dozen email reflector messages for rules interpretation questions.



TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION

If you're building your own capacitors out of various materials, you might
want to measure the dielectric constant. KE9V tweeted this link to a hackaday
article on doing just that. http://hackaday.com/2016/10/12/measu
ing-the-dielectric-constant-for-diy-capacitors/ (KE9V via Twitter)

Molybdenum disulfide was used recently by researchers to create a transistor
with a gate size of one nanometer. The gate was formed out of a single carbon
nanotube, and another unconventional material, zirconium dioxide, was used for
the channel material. The size reduction reflects a 5 to 1 advantage over what
is presumed to be a five nanometer lower limit for silicon transistors, but to
be commercially successful, manufacturing process optimization will have to
occur, according to an article in EE Times.

We're beginning to see the use of Raspberry Pi computers for the foundation of
a number of Amateur Radio projects. Design News recently published the history
of the Raspberry Pi project.

An RFI-free switching power supply is the goal of a recently tri
ly-oversubscribed Kickstarter project. Who would have thought there would be
such demand for a board level +/- 15 volt power supply module?

One terabit per second data transmission via radio waves may be within reach,
as researchers at Rice University are using pulses of RF at up to 10 GHz to
achieve these data rates. (Dennis, N6KI)

A counterpoint to exercise treadmill RFI horror stories? Here is a teardown of
an RFI-free treadmill, made by Johnson Fitness. Highlights include separate
toroids on the power and ground leads to the DC motor, a single point ground
for DC, AC, and electronics grounds. (John, NU3E, via RFI Reflector)

On the high end of network-enabled receiving hardware would be the EM100XT
from Rohde & Schwarz. Besides being weatherproof with an IP67 rating, it also
has a built-in GPS for timing and frequency accuracy. A direct audio output
complements its built-in demodulation capabilities for modes including USB,
LSB, AM, FM, CW. I/Q sample data is available via an Ethernet interface.
Frequency coverage is from 9 kHz through 7.5 GHz. The EM100XT has the same
functionality as the R&S EM100 unit.



CONVERSATION

And So It Goes...

Today's gear is more reliable, and has more features than ever. Today's radio
manufacturers face new and increasing challenges when comparisons of
miniaturization, portability, power consumption, connectivity, user interface,
and industrial design sense are being made between their products and consumer
electronics items such as cellular phones and tablet computers.

For consumers of radio gear, "consumer electronics-esque" rapid innovation can
have some downsides; our rigs may not stay current for as long as they used
to, despite the ability to upgrade firmware. Manufacturers may End-of-Life a
radio for various reasons related to cost or continuing availability of key
components. And to repair or modify our equipment, we need to have continually
newer tools, and newer skills.

I was recently troubleshooting a transceiver that I originally purchased new
in 2001. At the time, it had all of the performance of the brand's top of the
line radio, without some user interface bells and whistles and second
receiver. It was great as a main radio for a time, then slid into its role as
a multiplier radio, then mostly for RTTY and VHF. Four years ago, I put it
aside for repair after the transmit power diminished markedly and consistently
during a contest, and found that the manufacturer no longer repaired this
model. Last year I started to work on it, but discovered that some of the
driver transistors were now made of unobtainium, and that to really get into
the radio I'd need to upgrade my tools and techniques to handle surface mount
parts. I ordered an inexpensive hot-air rework station, a head-mounted
magnifier, and some replacement silicon, then reassembled and put the rig
aside, as that's the best way I find to not lose anything. I've seen the
sentiment that surface mount technology is hard, and bad for amateur radio
gear. Perhaps the same was said of printed circuit technology in the 1950s as
it supplanted point-to-point wiring. I would argue that the benefits of SMD
clearly outweigh the drawbacks. Other projects and demands intervened, and I
was unable to get back to the radio until last week.

With the radio back on the bench last week, I found the service manual on
line. An interest group dedicated to this radio model indicated that there
were some parts of the driver chain known to have issues. Crowd sourced repair
information on the Internet is an essential part of the new toolset, and the
skills I needed were the ability to find the information, and then filter that
for what was important and valid. Every repair begins with Google.

I determined that the fault was likely in one or both of two successive driver
stages. Using the hot air tool, I removed the transistor in the first driver
stage, and then easily re-installed it with my eBay-sourced replacement.
Turning on the power led to rapid dismay, as the claimed exact same-numbered
replacement provided a dead short and burned up a surface mount resistor.
After extensive examination of the circuit for other problems, I still found
that two others transistors in the same snippet of tape and reel exhibited the
same behavior, leading me to disbelieve that I'd received the correct parts.
Avoiding mislabeled, substitute, or counterfeit parts is another modern
challenge.

So, I researched and found a very reputable source which had the parts in
stock, ordered them, and reassembled the rig, and put it aside...

That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting related stories, flea
market pictures, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata,
schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and blog links to
contest-update@arrl.org

73, Brian N9ADG



CONTESTS

20 Oct - 2 Nov 2016

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



HF CONTESTS

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Oct 19, 1300z to Oct 19, 1400z, Oct 19, 1900z to Oct 19,
2000z, Oct 20, 0300z to Oct 20, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: October 22.

NCCC RTTY Sprint, Oct 21, 0145z to Oct 21, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules);
Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: October 23.

NCCC Sprint, Oct 21, 0230z to Oct 21, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial
No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: October 23.

MCG Autumn Sprint, Oct 21, 1600z to Oct 21, 2000z; CW, SSB; Bands: 160, 80,
40, 20m; RS(T) + Serial No.; Logs due: November 5.

UK/EI DX Contest, SSB, Oct 22, 1200z to Oct 23, 1200z; SSB; Bands: 80, 40, 20,
15, 10m; UK/EI: RS + Serial No. + District Code, DX: RS + Serial No.; Logs
due: October 23.

Stew Perry Topband Challenge, Oct 22, 1500z to Oct 23, 1500z; CW; Bands: 160m
Only; 4-Character grid square; Logs due: November 7.

SA Sprint Contest, Oct 22, 2000z to Oct 23, 0000z; CW, SSB; Bands: 40, 20m;
RS(T) + Serial No.; Logs due: October 28.

SKCC Sprint, Oct 26, 0000z to Oct 26, 0200z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15,
10m; RST + (state/province/country) + Name + (SKCC No./power); Logs due:
October 28.

Phone Fray, Oct 26, 0230z to Oct 26, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15m;
NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: October 28.

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Oct 26, 1300z to Oct 26, 1400z, Oct 26, 1900z to Oct 26,
2000z, Oct 27, 0300z to Oct 27, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: October 29.

UKEICC 80m Contest, Oct 26, 2000z to Oct 26, 2100z; CW; Bands: 80m Only;
4-Character grid square; Logs due: October 26.

RSGB 80m Club Sprint, SSB, Oct 27, 1900z to Oct 27, 2000z; SSB; Bands: 80m
Only; [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name]; Logs
due: November 3.

NCCC RTTY Sprint, Oct 28, 0145z to Oct 28, 0215z; RTTY; Bands: (see rules);
Serial No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: October 30.

NCCC Sprint, Oct 28, 0230z to Oct 28, 0300z; CW; Bands: (see rules); Serial
No. + Name + QTH; Logs due: October 30.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB, Oct 29, 0000z to Oct 31, 0000z; SSB; Bands: 160,
80, 40, 20, 15, 10m; RS + CQ Zone No.; Logs due: November 4.

Phone Fray, Nov 2, 0230z to Nov 2, 0300z; SSB; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15m;
NA: Name + (state/province/country), non-NA: Name; Logs due: November 4.

CWops Mini-CWT Test, Nov 2, 1300z to Nov 2, 1400z, Nov 2, 1900z to Nov 2,
2000z, Nov 3, 0300z to Nov 3, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m;
Member: Name + Member No., non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs
due: November 5.

UKEICC 80m Contest, Nov 2, 2000z to Nov 2, 2100z; CW; Bands: 80m Only;
4-Character grid square; Logs due: November 2.



VHF+ CONTESTS

ARRL EME Contest, Oct 22, 0000z to Oct 23, 2359z; CW, Phone, Digital; Bands:
50-1296 MHz; Signal report; Logs due: December 21.



LOG DUE DATES

October 20, 2016

 *  NRAU 10m Activity Contest

October 21, 2016

 *  Phone Fray

October 22, 2016

 *  Microwave Fall Sprint
 *  CWops Mini-CWT Test

October 23, 2016

 *  RSGB RoLo CW
 *  NCCC RTTY Sprint
 *  NCCC Sprint
 *  Asia-Pacific Fall Sprint, CW
 *  Run for the Bacon QRP Contest
 *  UBA ON Contest, SSB
 *  WAB HF Phone

October 25, 2016

 *  10-10 Int. 10-10 Day Sprint

October 29, 2016

 *  New York QSO Party
 *  TARA PSK Rumble Contest

October 30, 2016

 *  GTC CW Cup
 *  UBA ON Contest, CW

October 31, 2016

 *  10-10 Int. Fall Contest, CW
 *  New Hampshire QSO Party
 *  Texas QSO Party
 *  FISTS Fall Slow Speed Sprint
 *  JARTS WW RTTY Contest
 *  Oceania DX Contest, CW
 *  Oceania DX Contest, Phone
 *  Worked All Germany Contest
 *  YLRL DX/NA YL Anniversary Contest



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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

____________________________________________________________________________


The ARRL Contest Update is published every other Wednesday (26 times each
year). ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their
Member Data Page as described at http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/.

Copyright (C) 2016 American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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