Operating

Bill Bliss, W1WBB, writes on the CTRI Contest Group mailing list:

The beginning of State QSO Party season is upon us.  This coming weekend (Sat/Sun Feb 5 & 6) the festivities begin anew.  I’d really like to encourage CTRI members to consider joining the fun by participating in some additional State QSO Parties (incl. this coming weekend!) during the 2022 contesting season.  They are fun, interesting and often short but challenging events that target a specific geographic area with SSB and CW as the primary modes of communication.

The State QSO Party Challenge (in it’s 3rd year now) runs concurrently and offers operators a season-long QP competition complete with a Leaderboard and Award Certificate offerings.  It is also expected to include a brand new Club Competition (similar to ARRL’s) which will run throughout the QSO Party season.  New for this year is the Quebec QSO Party as well as the inaugural running of the Canadian Praries (VE4/5/6) QP … exciting stuff for QP ops in 2022!

For the first events of the year, this weekend:  The MN QP (a perennial top 10 in participation), BC QP and VT QP are all running at different times over the weekend.  Make a minimum of two QSOs in each, then post your score to 3830scores (for each), and you will begin the QP season ‘3 for 3′ while beginning work toward the Worked All QSO Party award (min qualification is 50% QP participation by seasons’ end).  And please don’t forget to indicate CTRI as your associated club on the 3830scores.com submission page — you can prefill this on the ‘preferences’ page found via this link:  3830scores.com – prefill preferences page

Some very helpful QSO Party links:

*State QSO Party Challenge 2022

*State QSO Parties Calendar 2022 by WA7BNM

*SQP Challenge, explanatory video by K8ZT

*groups.io – QSO Party group link

I hope this info will encourage you to consider trying out some upcoming QP events!

Good luck & good contesting/73,

Bill  W1WBB

Section Manager: Paul N Gayet, AA1SU, writes on the Vermont ARRL Members List:

Hello Fellow Vermont Hams,

The Vermont QSO Party is in another 3 days. Are you ready?

The event will start Friday night at 7PM and run 48 hours until 7PM Sunday night. Operate as much as you like. Conditions have been all over the place, so there is no telling what openings we might find. However, the best openings will not make up for failure to call CQ. Here is the link to the rules: http://www.ranv.org/vtqso.html. This includes various information, such as the correct abbreviation for your county.

The rules are pretty much the same as last year. A minor change in scoring was made to help the smaller scoring operators on FT8. This year, the grids will be divided by 3 instead of 4 for the FT8 multiplier total.  FT8 (and FT4) are a lot more heavily used, so consider putting up an effort there as well. That’s an easy mode to make contacts on while you do something more useful, like watch TV or read a book!

Feel free to spot yourself whenever you change bands – just don’t overdo it.

Remember, that we run at the same time as the MNQP, BCQP, Eu-DX, NA Spring, 10-10, and XE RTTY contests. Know their exchanges, so you can cross pollinate and have more fun.

Before the event, make sure your logging software and your station is working correctly.

Remember, you cannot put Vermont on the air, unless you turn on the radio AND CALL CQ (tuning around doesn’t count). The guys are looking for us, and if you have a signal out there, they’ll find you!

Help make Vermont proud!

——————————————————————–
ARRL Vermont Section
Section Manager: Paul N Gayet, AA1SU
aa1su@arrl.org
——————————————————————–

Rob Cichon, K1RCT, writes on the ctfoxhunter list:

[Today’s] Meriden ARC Fox Hunting schedule is postponed for a week.

Unless inclement weather is upon us again, I will hide the Fox Boxes next Sunday, 2/6/2022.

Enjoy the snow!

73,

de Rob, K1RCT

From K1USN Happenings, 1-21-2022:

Thanks to Barbara [N1NS] for organizing another event at the Coast Guard Station in Eastham [MA] on January 18, 2022. Special thanks to Russ, K1RTA, for bringing his portable trailer tower and to the other volunteers helping with setup. We had restrictions on the number of operators and visitors due to COVID. This was a CW only operation. There were two stations operated by N1DC and K1RV. We used Elecraft KX3/KXPA100 equipment at 100W with an OCF Dipole and a MyAntenna 80-10 end fed wire. The end fed antenna had the feed point at the Cupola railing with the wire sloping down toward the ocean tied to a fence post pole. The dipole was center supported by Russ K1RTA’s portable trailer tower on the south side of the building.

We had some interstation interference that the coax stubs did not suppress. This may be related to antenna orientation and will have to be investigated further. Overall we were able to manage the situation.

Results

509 QSO’s in 50 Countries. We also worked approximately 36 states and a few Canadian provinces.

Conditions were good especially on 15 and 20M. Europeans were loud. We completed a successful SKED on 20M with GB2GM in Poldhu England. <https://gb2gm.org/> We worked Thaire, W2APF, on vacation in Montserrat as VP2MDX on several bands.  Check out the pictures and videos on Facebook : <https://www.facebook.com/KM1CC>.

We hope to operate again in April for International Marconi Day.

73,

Rick N1DC

Amateurs from across New England are preparing to brave winter temperatures on the weekend of January 29-30 to participate in the annual Winter Field Day (WFD) event. 

The New England Sci-Tech ARS (STARS) in Natick, Massachusetts is busy making plans to set up a station for the event. 

Members of the Twin State Radio Club in Canaan, New Hampshire are discussing a WFD club operation, per the club’s December, 2021 meeting minutes.

Maine Section Manager Phil Duggan, N1EP, writes: “My local club [the Maine Ham Radio Society] will be participating in the Winter Field Day event. This should be a lot of fun, and good practice for this summer’s ARRL Field Day!”

“The Barnstable ARC and Falmouth ARA [Cape Cod, Massachusetts] plan to partner up for Winter Field Day,” writes Assistant Director Rob Leiden, K1UI. “Falmouth has a beautifully equipped mobile system that may be the headquarters.  The effort is still in the planning stages.”

The WFD operation at the Newport County RC in Rhode Island is being headed up by John Vecoli, KC1KOO. According to NCRC President Nancy Austin, KC1NEK,  “John is again taking a huge leadership role with planning and logging.”

Drop me an email or radiogram if your club is planning to operate in the 2022 Winter Field Day event.  

73, 

Phil Temples, K9HI
k9hi@arrl.org

 

The 64th Vermont QSO Party will take place during the first full weekend of February 2022. It will begin at 0000 UTC Saturday February 5 and will end at 2400 UTC Sunday February 6, which is a 48-hour period.  In local time, this corresponds to a start time of 7:00 PM EST Friday night February 4th and an end time of 7PM Sunday night February 6th.

The Vermont QSO Party provides the opportunity for Amateur Radio operators to contact and exchange QSO information with Vermont Amateur Radio operators. All licensed amateur radio operators are invited to participate. Stations outside Vermont work Vermont stations. Stations within Vermont work everyone.

Please download The Official 2022 Vermont QSO Party Rules for specific rules.

From ema.arrl.org:

George Allison, K1IG, writes on the NEMassFoxHunters list:

The days are starting to lengthen and that can only mean that fox-hunting season is getting closer! To help get us ready, I’ve scheduled a Webex video conference for all interested fox hunters on Tuesday, February 8, at 7:30 PM. If you haven’t used Webex, it’s very similar to Zoom; I’ll send out an invitation to the groups.io list with instructions and a link you can click on to join the conference. Feel free to forward the invitation to anyone you think would be interested in attending.

The February 8 date is flexible; if there aren’t enough attendees to support that date, I can re-schedule.

I haven’t finalized the agenda, but it could include these topics:

1. Introductions
2. Show and tell of foxes and antennas
3. Discussions of fox-finding techniques
4. Plans for the upcoming season. Suggestions for variations and improvements.
5. Suggestions for recruitment and training.

If anyone has a discussion topic or wants to make a presentation, let the group or me (k1ig@arrl.net) know. We should be able to finalize the agenda by February 1. 

73,

George
K1IG

[Contact George, K1IG, at k1ig@arrl.net for Webex video conference details]

Emily Clarke, N1DID, writes on the Greater Bridgeport ARC mailing list:

W1AW is open and you can be a guest operator.  Even if you are technician, you can operate W1AW with supervision.  I’d like to schedule a trip there, so please email if you are interested, what days of the week you can come, and if you want to drive or carpool.  W1AW gets on the air from 10am to 4pm weekdays only.

I will tell you that this is a great experience that you will never forget.

Cheers,

Emily/N1DID

If you’re new to CW operating, the ARRL Rookie Roundup (CW), December 19, 1800 – 2359 UTC, is a chance to enhance your CW skills. The objective of the event is to encourage recent licensees to experience competitive amateur radio operating on HF.

A Rookie is anyone who was first licensed in the current calendar year or in the previous 3 calendar years (2021, 2020, 2019, or 2018), regardless of license class. If you were licensed earlier, you can still qualify as a Rookie if you haven’t made any contest contacts on CW before this Rookie Roundup.

Rookies will attempt to make as many contacts as possible during the 6-hour event. Rookies work everyone, and non-Rookies work only Rookies. Stations exchange call signs, first names, a two-digit year, and state/province (or DX, if appropriate). In the exchange, Rookies should send the last two digits of the year of your first contact. If you’ve never made any contest contacts using CW, or if you’re a non-Rookie, send the last two digits of the current year in your exchange. — Thanks to ARRL Contest Program Manager Paul Bourque, N1SFE