[nrv-hams] Work lots of states this weekend!

[Kay Craigie]

This coming weekend is the 80th annual ARRL November Sweepstakes contest,
phone edition. Sweepstakes is the oldest non-DX contest -- only USA and
Canadian stations participate. All 50 states will be on the air, which means
we can work some new ones towards the Worked All States award. The ARRL has
added some special honor-system awards that can be earned during Sweepstakes
because of the 80th anniversary.

Learn about Sweepstakes from these web pages:

http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-november-sweepstakes-marks-80-years
http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes

The exchange is complicated, so you'll want to listen for a while to get the
hang of it. You will need to figure out your "precedence" (A is low power, B
is high power, Q is QRP, and don't worry about the rest) and your "check,"
which is the last two digits of the year you were first licensed. Keep a
numbered list of contacts, because the number is part of the exchange. For
example, for my first contact in the event, if I'm working Carter, I would
send:

N3AO 1 B N3KN 83 VA

His callsign, the serial contact number, the precedence, my callsign, the
last two digits of the year I was first licensed, and my ARRL Section.

In my next contact I'd change the serial number 1 to 2, and so on.

The contest exchange is modeled on traffic handling lingo, because the
contest involved message relay when it began way back when. It's the most
complicated contest exchange there is, and it was an even bigger bear in the
days when we logged contests with pencil and paper.

As always, contesting is not practiced on the 12, 17, 30 and 60 meter bands,
so if contesting is not your cup of tea you can operate on those bands
and/or use a mode other than phone.

Have fun on the air! 73 - Kay N3KN