[nrv-hams] This weekend on the bands

[Kay Craigie]

Lots of stuff is happening on the air this weekend.  On Saturday several
club members are going to be participating in "Operation Noah," a severe
weather exercise designed by Glen Sage W4GHS.  As you might guess from its
title, it has to do with a flooding disaster that's fictional but designed
to be like something that could actually happen to our area.

On the fun side of the radio, two events to note are the California QSO
Party and the TARA PSK Rumble.

The California QSO Party is their state contest, running from 1600 UTC on
October 6 to 2200 UTC on October 7. The exchange (what we send and receive)
is a serial number and our state. California stations will send a serial
number and their county. A list of the official 4-letter county
abbreviations is posted at http://www.cqp.org/cqp_multipliers.html.  Just in
case you'd like to know what the gibberish means when the other operator
sends it to you.  

In a contest, a serial number is just the sequential number of the QSO in
your contest log. So for your first contact in this contest you'd send "1
Virginia." For the next contact you'd say "2 Virginia." And so on. On CW you
would send "1 VA" or "NR 1 VA." 

The other contest you might enjoy this weekend is the TARA PSK Rumble. TARA
is the Troy, New York, Amateur Radio Association.  Most people will probably
use PSK31, though it's acceptable to use other flavors of PSK (PSK63,
PSK125, etc.). The exchange, which you will program into a macro in your
software, is name and call area (not your state!).  So I would send "Kay
W4." (Don't just send "4.") 

The PSK Rumble rules, if you should happen to read them, have 3 power level
categories for entries (5 watts maximum, 20 watts maximum, and 100 watts
maximum). Please don't think that means it's okay to run up to 100 watts on
PSK31!  Using a lot of watts on this mode is a great way to have a nasty
wide signal that interferes with others' fun. I never use more than about 25
watts on PSK31, and I always make sure my ALC is not moving when I transmit.
Transmitting a clean, lower power signal on PSK31 helps everybody have more
fun.

To find out about operating events taking place later in the month, check
out http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html

There are a number of state contests going on in October, and then the last
weekend of the month is the huge CQ World Wide DX Contest, SSB edition. 

Have fun on the air! 73 - Kay N3KN