[nrv-hams] ARRL DX Phone contest this weekend

[Kenneth Walker]

Kay N3KN

I've found these contest descriptors most helpful as a learning tool.
Thanks.

Ken KO4OM

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Kay Craigie <n3kn at verizon.net> wrote:

> I'm looking forward to Saturday breakfast at Shoney's in Dublin (8 am) on
> Saturday, followed by the band-pass filter session (episode 2) at the
> Dublin
> Fire House. In addition to those club activities, there's even more fun to
> be had with ham radio this weekend. The ARRL International DX Contest,
> phone, starts at 0000 UTC Saturday (That's 7 pm our local time on Friday
> night) and ends at 2359 UTC Sunday (6:59 pm Sunday local time).
>
> In this contest, Americans and Canadians work the rest of the world. Don't
> call stations in the USA (except for Alaska and Hawaii) or in Canada.
> Stations in Alaska, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and other US
> territories that are not among the lower 48 states are fair game, however.
>
> The exchange (what you send and receive) is not complicated. You send a
> signal report and your state (the state name or the 2-letter abbreviation
> in
> standard international phonetics) and you copy the other station's signal
> report and power. So if I work XE1KK, the contact might sound like this:
>
> I send "five nine Victor Alpha" or "five nine Virginia" and he sends "five
> nine kilowatt." Or whatever his power level is.
>
> If you don't plan to submit an entry, you really don't have to log the
> power
> information, but try doing it just for the practice. Contesting develops
> the
> ability to hear well under noisy conditions, which could come in handy
> during an emergency when the ability to dig a signal out of bedlam could be
> a life-saving skill.
>
> Propagation conditions on 10 meters were not the best in the CW contest but
> 15 meters was excellent. A good tip for contesting and DXing is to work the
> highest band that's open. In the daytime, that means start on 10 meters. If
> it's dead or you've worked everybody who can hear you, then go to 15, then
> 20. The 10 meter band can pop open without warning, so check it every so
> often to see if it has come alive while you were on another band.
>
> Additional info about the contest is at http://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx.
>
> See you at the band-pass filter session, and good luck in the contest!
>
> 73 - Kay N3KN
>
>
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