[SMCARA] Upcoming Contests

[Tom Shelton]

Hi All – And especially to the newer hams among us.

There are three upcoming contests that are great for collecting QSO’s, and working towards your paper collection of DXCC and WAS.  With the solar cycle on the upswing, and the associated increase in activity on 10 meters, Techs have a good opportunity to participate.

These are contests, but if your not up to contesting yet, there’s nothing wrong with just using them as operating opportunities.

The first one is the CQ WW SSB contest.  It starts at 0000Z, 29 October and goes through 2359Z October 30th.  Local start and stop is Friday, 28 October at 8:00 PM through Sunday 30 October at 7:59 PM.  

If you just want to make a contact, the exchange is the signal report and our CQ Zone (which is 05).  Remember that during contests the signal report is always 59 (or 599 for CW), so your report to the other station will be 59 05.  If you’d like to participate in the contest, you can find the full rules at http://www.cqww.com/rules.php – if you need any help understanding them, I’ll be happy to help.

The next contest you may want to put on your calendar is the ARRL November Sweepstakes which consists of two separate contests for CW and SSB.  The CW contest starts at 2100Z on Saturday November 5th and continues until 0259Z on Monday, November 7th.  Local times are Saturday, November 5th at 5:00 PM, continuing until Sunday, November 6th at 11:00 PM.

Of greater interest to the newer hams will probably be the Nov SS SSB contest which starts at 2100Z on Saturday November 19th and continues until 0259Z on Monday, November 21st. Local times are Saturday, November 19th at 5:00 PM, continuing until Sunday, November 20th at 11:00 PM.

The exchange for this contest is a bit more complicated than the CQWW test.  You’ll need to send:
1.  A consecutive Serial Number
2.  A Precedence (your operating status): “Q” for Single Op – QRP, “A” for Single Op – Low Power (150W or less), “B” for Single Op – High Power (greater than 150 Watts) – there are more, but these should cover most of us.
3.  Check: The last 2 years of the year of your first license
4.  ARRL Section (Maryland-DC or MDC)

So, if I were responding to W1AW and it was my 123rd contest contact, I would send “W1AW 123 A AB3IC 86 MDC” – clear?  I didn’t think so, but after a few contacts it gets easier.  Note that you are not exchanging a Signal Report.

If you are interested in actually operating the contest, you can find the full rules at http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes – again, if you need any help making sense of the rules, let me know and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Tom Shelton, AB3IC

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