[HCRA] Fwd: ARRL 10 Meter Contest is just around the corner!

Sun Dec 5 19:53:42 EST 2010

Howdy Fellow Club Members,

Thanks to Jim-KK1W for his nicely detailed reminder that he sent out on
Friday about the 10 meter contest this coming weekend.  I'd like to add a
few more things.

Last year the 10 meter contest was my first time using HF and I'm very
excited about participating one year later.  I hope that excitement is
contagious to the rest of you.  Please help remind the rest of the amateur
community that HCRA is alive and well by participating in the contest and
adding your points to the overall club score.  We don't care if it's only
one QSO, anything will help.  And to all of you who say that the band has
been dead, I just checked my logs and here is a list of all the countries
I've worked on 10 meters in the last two months:

Antigua, Argentina, Aruba, Azores, Bahamas,Barbados, Bonaire, Brazil,
Canada, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, France, Germany, Grenada, Hungary, Madeira Island, Martinique,
Mexico, Montserrat, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Sierra Leone,
Slovak Republic, Spain, Surinam, Tanzania, The Gambia, United States,
Uruguay, Venuzuela, Virgin Islands

No excuses folks. Let's get those radios turned on and start making some
contacts.

HCRA will again be giving out certificates this year:

 Bronze for five Q's
Silver for 25 Q's
Gold for 50 Q's
Platinum for 100 Q's
Endorsements:
 *ONE QSO with another HCRA member!*
One CW contact during the contest
Following the tradion of K1JAW, I will be calling CQ in CW at slow speed and
at predetermined times and frequencies for those ops who have been learning
CW or feel their code is a bit rusty.  This will allow you to get the CW and
Member QSO endorsements on your certificate in just one QSO. I will send out
those times and frequencies as we get closer to the contest this weekend.
If the times don't work for you, let me know and we can setup an alternative
time.  Keep an eye out on the reflector for the announcement.

 If you have any questions about particpating in the contest or if you're
looking for a station to operate from, please contact me (w1msw at arrl.net).
Make sure to look over the rules and info at <http://www.arrl.org/10-meter>
and some of the tips at our own website <http://www.hcra.org/tutorial.htm>.
I'm looking foward to hearing everyone on the air this weekend.

Thanks and 73,

Matt - W1MSW

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jim Mullen <kk1w.jim at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:30 AM
Subject: [HCRA] ARRL 10 Meter Contest is just around the corner!
To: HCRA Mailing List <hcra at mailman.qth.net>

______________________________________________
-------Hampden County Radio Association-------
-----------e-mail list (reflector)-------------
______________________________________________
Hey gang, are you ready to have fun next weekend (December 10th - 12th)?
Once again, like clockwork, the annual ARRL 10 Meter Contest returns to the
airwaves. And just as usual HCRA will be mounting a club effort to win our
section (WMA) in the club competition. We had a lot of entrants last year
and are hoping even more of you will find some time over the weekend to put
down the shopping cart or credit card and work some DX instead. Once again
this year HCRA will be offering nice certificates for participation. Learn
more about the contest and see how we have done in past by pointing your
browser to http://www.hcra.org/tutorial.htm.

What's different this year? Well for starters Matt, W1MSW has volunteered to
coordinate our club effort in the contest. See his latest article in the
December ZB and lets all get behind a great HCRA participation again this
year. Even more exciting (but Matt can be exciting too) is we actually have
SUNSPOTS!!! No more calling CQ on an empty band, only getting responses from
ground wave stations in the next county. Actual DX is out there and
workable, how cool is that? Take a look at what Sean, KX9X from ARRL has to
say about expected conditions next weekend:

*Soar High in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest
*

*The highest of the HF bands will be the central operating focus of many
amateurs in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest <http://www.arrl.org/10-meter>,
December 11-12. During the event, many propagation modes will be available:
Sporadic-E will help you work stateside stations, a touch of meteor scatter
in the morning will give you split-second chances to work stations -- you’d
better be quick, though! -- and DX stations could find their way into the
log, thanks to some recent signs of life from the F-layer.*

*“Ten meters was open from the United States to Africa, Europe and South
America during the CQ World Wide DX CW contest on the weekend of November
27,” said ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X. “Let’s see if those
conditions remain for the second weekend in December.”*

*Single Operator entrants can use CW only, SSB only -- or a mixture of both.
They can choose between High Power, Low Power (150 W or less) or QRP (5 W or
less). Want to share the fun with your friends? Invite them over and enter
in the Multioperator category.*

*US Novice and Technician class operators can get in on the fun, too. Both
classes are permitted SSB operation between 28.3-28.5 MHz with 150 W. No
antenna for 10 meters? A dipole for 28.4 MHz is about 16.5 feet long --
build it and get it up in the air as high as you possibly can. Kutzko said
that it’s an easy construction project and you **will work stations!*

*This year also introduces a new element to the contest: The addition of 32
Mexican states as multipliers. For a list of the Mexican states, download a
free map provided by Grupo DXXE
here<http://www.dxxe.org/concurso/xe-mults.pdf>.
“This will no doubt add a new excitement to this long-standing ARRL
contest,” Kutzko said.*

*The ARRL 10 Meter Contest runs from 0000 UTC Saturday, December 11 through
2359 UTC Sunday, December 12. Logs must be e-mailed <10meter at arrl.org> or
postmarked no later than 0000 UTC Wednesday, January 12, 2011. Paper logs
should be sent to ARRL 10 Meter Contest, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.*

*From the ARRL Letter, December 2, 2010*

So there you have it, sunspots, club competition, DX, NO SHOPPING - how can
you go wrong? Take a moment to read the rules, make sure your station is
ready to roll on December 10th, don't forget to put 'Hampden County Radio
Assn' in the affiliated club field of your log but most of all HAVE FUN!

'73...

Jim, KK1W
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