[HCRA] 10 Meter Contest - Starts tomorrow night!

[Jim Mullen]

Hey gang,

The ARRL Ten Meter contest starts Friday at 7:00PM local time (December
8th). If you have a chance to get on I hope you make a few contacts.
Although we are still at the bottom of the sunspot cycle there will be many
contacts to be made. The contest creates so much more activity you will be
surprised at the number of stations you will hear.

The fun part of this contest is you can play and send in your own personal
score as well as participate as a club. All you need to is put "Hampden
County Radio Assn" in the club line on your entry form. You get your score
and the club score is the combination of everyone that sends in a log with
HCRA identified.

So, you are new to contesting and want to give it a try. This is the perfect
contest for starting out. The band is not crowded, the pace is relatively
slow and it's unlikely the band will be open for more than 10 to 12 hours
out of the possible 48 hours. So now we know it won't be stressful, lets see
how easy it is.

First off, it is worth a glance at the rules. Point your browser to:
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2006/10-meters.html and take a few
minutes to familiarize yourself with them. It's not complicated, but can be
a bit daunting when you first look at them.

Now that you've read them, lets see how easy it actually is. The whole idea
is to work (talk to) as many different stations as possible on the 10 meter
band. You get points for each station, each state (or country) and each mode
(CW or phone). When all is said and done you add up all your QSO points (1
for phone contacts, 2 for CW), add up your states & countries and multiply
them. That's your score. There are additional QSO points for different power
levels and station types. I'm guessing most of us will be operating low
power (up to 100 watts), and as a single operator. The contest runs for 48
hours, starting at 7:00 PM Friday evening and ending at 7:00 PM Sunday
evening.

Where to operate? Most of the activity will be on phone, between 28.300 and
28.500 MHz. If the band gets really busy and crowded activity will creep
higher than 28.500 - not likely unless the band opens up and DX starts
rolling in! If you want to take a stab at CW then look between 28.000 and
28.060.

Who do you talk to and what to you say? The best way to start is to tune
your rig to 28.300 and start tuning slowly upward. You will probably come
across some loud stations calling CQ. These are the dedicated contesters and
the best ones to make your first contacts as they have good stations and are
competent operators. Here's an example of what your first QSO might sound
like:

Sending station: CQ CQ CQ, this is K1KI calling CQ contest, CQ CQ CQ
contest, QRZ

You transmit your call: KK1W

Sending station: KK1W you are 59, CT (charlie tango)

You transmit: K1KI you are 59, MA (mike alpha).

Sending station: Thanks!, QRZ contest...

And then the next station calls K1KI

That is the exchange. Signal strength (usually 59, even if it's not!) and
your state. If you're not sure of the state be sure you ask the station to
repeat so you don't make a mistake. That's all there is to it, write it down
in your log and start tuning for the next station. Remember as you go up in
the band if you are a Tech Plus you can only go as high as 28.500!

As you log more contacts, especially if the band is busy it gets more
difficult to remember if you have worked a station before. You can manually
keep a 'dupe sheet' or resort to using a logging program on your computer.
There are many out there but a really good one, and free too, is N1MM
logger. Take a look at: http://www.n1mm.com/. Another nice, easy to use
program is available from http://www.n3fjp.com/. It's not free but for $6.00
it is hard to beat. This is the same program we have been using for Field
Day the last two years. Using a logging program makes the contest fun and
easy, and really takes the sting out of submitting your log when the contest
is over. You can export your log to a 'Cabrillo' file and simply email it to
ARRL when you're done. For some people using a contest logger can be
addictive, kind of like a video game.

So that's it - not hard, lots of fun and a good way to spend time this
weekend. You really didn't want to go out and shovel snow or go to the mall,
did you?

So have fun, send in your log when you're done and don't forget to put
'Hampden County Radio Assn' in the club field when you're done. Oh, don't
forget to send me a copy of your score so I can post it on the HCRA web site
too. Click the links at the top of the page to see how our club has done in
prior years: If you have any questions don't hesitate to drop me an email
at: mailto:kk1w at arrl.net

Thanks as always for your support of HCRA and don't forget, its all about
the fun!

'73...

Jim, KK1W