[nrv-hams] Stuff to know about

[Kay Craigie]

The ARRL's annual on-line auction will begin soon. You can preview the
things that will be for sale. See the story on the ARRL web site at
http://www.arrl.org/news/preview-for-the-2013-arrl-on-line-auction-starts-no
w.
One of the items up for bids is an Elecraft KX-3 transceiver! They also have
a number of very old editions of the ARRL Handbook.

The other thing to know about is that this coming weekend is the CQ World
Wide DX Contest, phone. You can work all sorts of DX in this event. Ten
meters has been very good for the past few days, giving us hope that it will
be open for the contest.

If you want to make contacts in the contest, the exchange (what you send to
the other station) is a signal report (always 5-9) and your CQ zone. For us
east coast USA folks, that's zone 5. So I would say to the other station
"Five-nine-oh-five." 

Another tip is not to call stations in the USA (except for Hawaii and
Alaska). Operators get no points for working stations in their own country,
so calling them makes them grouchy and unpleasant.

If you would rather avoid the contest, you can work some other mode or use
one of the bands where contesting is not done, such as 30, 17, and 12
meters.

73 and have fun - Kay N3KN