[OKDXA] W1AW/5 - ARRL Centennial Event - 2nd week

[W5LE]

Forwarded from Sam Sitton, W5CU:

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OPERATORS NEEDED FOR W1AW/5 OKLAHOMA


Greetings to all Oklahoma amateur radio operators. As you probably are 
aware, the American Radio Relay League, in conjunction with its 
Centennial QSO party celebrating 100 years of existence as an 
organization of, by and for U.S. amateur radio operators, has authorized 
each state and territory to operate using the famous callsign W1AW. Each 
state has been given two weeks of operation. Oklahoma’s first week of 
W1AW/5 operation came in early January, when K5CM and others did a great 
job handing out contacts to the multitudes. Oklahoma’s second week 
begins August 13 Zulu (August 12 CDST). Edmond Amateur Radio Society, 
assisting the Oklahoma DX Association, is coordinating the second week 
of operation in our state and is looking for volunteers to operate on as 
many bands, modes and times as possible. Our goals are 1) to give as 
many other operators around the country and the world a second chance to 
put W1AW/5 OK in the log for the WAS W1AW award and 2) to give as many 
OK operators as possible the chance to participate in what is truly an 
historic and unprecedented operating event. The following Q&A will tell 
you more about this opportunity and how you might participate.

What are the actual starting and ending times for this operation?

Operations begin at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday August 12th CDST and run 
continuously until the following Tuesday, August 19th 6:59 p.m. CDST.
I haven’t had a chance to listen much – is this operation similar to a 
special event like Route 66 or Oklahoma Statehood Day?

Actually, as these operations have developed over the course of this 
year, it is more like a contest than a special event. The W1AW/s find a 
frequency, call CQ, get posted on the DX clusters and then the pileups 
begin. If you have ever participated in a DX contest or tried to work a 
DXpedition in a rare country, that is more like the W1AW/x experience as 
it has evolved. The pileups have been amazing. Exchanges are typically 
short – signal report, state and on to the next one.
If I participate, can I operate from my home QTH or some other station?

Yes, provided that your home QTH (or the location of your operation if 
not your home QTH) is within Oklahoma; also, if you are operating from 
your home QTH you must be an ARRL member (per ARRL). If you are not an 
ARRL member, you can operate from the QTH of someone else, as long as 
the control operator is an ARRL member. Those are the only mandatory 
rules, but there are some guidelines that are "strongly advised" as to 
station hardware.
OK, what are those station hardware guidelines?

In making contacts in a pileup environment, you need a big signal so 
that callers can hear you through the uproar and determine who you are 
responding to – otherwise they just keep calling and calling on top of 
each other, making it difficult for you to pull out anyone’s callsign. 
So, you need power (either a high-output radio ie 200 watts or an 
amplifier, combined with a good antenna. Obviously, a stellar antenna 
might not require high-power on some bands, and high-power might 
partially compensate for a compromise antenna…but both are best! Also, 
your radio should have a modern selective receiver with appropriate 
filtering to allow you to isolate stations calling, and it should be 
capable of operating "split" ie you transmit on one frequency and listen 
"up", which moves the pack off your transmit frequency so that the 
callers can hear your responses.

　

What are the guidelines for logging – paper or computer:

Computer logging, and here’s why: thousands of stations will be trying 
to work W1AW/5 OK for various awards, each relying on their QSOs to find 
"matches" in Logbook of the World during Oklahoma’s second and final 
week of operation. It is very important that participants be comfortable 
with both computer logging of QSOs (in UTC time) and exporting the 
finished operation into an .adi file, which needs to be sent promptly to 
the EARS coordinator via email file attachment for forwarding to ARRL. 
Paper logs would have to be manually entered into a logging program 
after the fact, which introduces high risk of mistakes and inaccuracies 
(as well as a lot of trouble for someone), so they just won’t work for 
this particular activity. Many people use N1MM - available through a 
free download - but N3FJP and many others will work. The exchange and 
logging information is very simple - you will only need to log: date, 
time in UTC, band, mode and callsign of the other station. More 
information about logging and submittal of logs will be included in the 
operating guidelines to be furnished each operator.
What operating skills and/or experience should I have to do this 
activity?

The ideal background would be that of a contester or DXer familiar with 
operating under high band-loading conditions in a competitive 
environment. That said, even if you do not have this background or 
skillset, you can try operations if you will commit yourself to 
listening to the upcoming W1AW/x operations around the country over the 
period of time between now and Aug. 12th – it is helpful to imagine 
yourself as the W1AW operator and practice picking up callsigns and 
mastering the response and pileup management in the mode of your choice. 
If you still are not comfortable with trying an operation on your own, 
you can get in with a club station such as K5EOK with the EARS group in 
the Downtown Community Center in Edmond, where there will be experienced 
operators around to help you try (note, however, that space will be 
limited with priority given to club members typically – get on the list 
as early as possible).
What do you mean by "high band-loading conditions"?

Give a listen to W1AW/x operation any week on Tuesday and Wednesday 
nights and you will get the idea. Plus, there are a couple of other 
factors that make our second week a challenge – 1) where most weeks see 
two states operating W1AW, for our particular week it’s only us and 2) 
the second run of the popular North American QSO Party SSB will run 
Saturday/Sunday for 12 hours. Also – and this is one we will really have 
to be careful with – our week falls in the middle of hurricane season, 
and we certainly want to give wide clearance to emergency nets.
How can I tell if I am ready to do this, since my contest or DX 
experience is limited?

As mentioned before, listen, listen, listen and observe W1AW/x 
operations over the coming weeks – you should have some idea whether you 
can handle it from studying how it all plays out. Take a look at your 
station with a critical and realistic eye – will you be strong enough to 
rule the pileups? Watch the www.k5eok.org website for more detailed 
operating guidelines that cover avoiding interference to nets, ragchew 
roundabouts, weak signal and DX frequencies, etc. Bottom line, we want 
you to succeed and have fun, so if you don’t think you are comfortable 
on your own, look for a club station and observe – jump in if you feel 
like it – but we want to give the world as many Oklahoma contacts as 
possible and really need to be efficient and effective with our 
operations – using this callsign brings with it a responsibility to ARRL 
and our fellow amateurs and reflects on our great state, our clubs and 
our fellow OK operators.

　

　

How much am I supposed to operate?

To each of the states, ARRL says "Operate as much as you want and make 
as many QSOs as you can while still having fun". Our goal in the second 
Oklahoma operation is to cover as many modes, bands and open-band times 
as possible with as many stations as possible. There will be an on-line 
operating schedule accessible through the www.k5eok.org website that is 
set up in 2 hour increments. In order to give as many qualified 
operators an opportunity to work during optimum band times, we request 
that, prior to August 1, each operator limit his/her commitment to 8 
hours (with a maximum of 2 sequential time slots for the same band/mode; 
beginning August 1st through the end of the operation, each operator can 
sign up for as much as their time allows, grab open slots at any time, 
etc.

OK, I want to get some times – how do I sign up?

Send an email to

w5cu at aol.com with the following information:
Name, Callsign, License Class, description of your station and power 
capability, description of your HF operating background, your preferred 
times of operation, whether you want to operate from your home QTH or 
another station (and the callsign of the other station, if known) and 
your telephone contact information including a cell phone where you can 
best be reached.

Someone from EARS will give you a call to discuss your participation and 
to explain how to use the sign-up spreadsheet.


　

Stay Tuned! 73 from Edmond Amateur Radio Society. Let’s go for it!