Contester's Rate Sheet for December 27, 2006

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          CONTESTER'S RATE SHEET
              27 December 2006

        Edited by Ward Silver N0AX

Published by the American Radio Relay League
 Free to ARRL members - tell your friends!
(Subscription info at the end of newsletter)
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SUMMARY
o The Glass Elbow - Not A Party Drink - Straight Key Night
o Contest Combo - Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge and RAC
Winter
o What Is Your Favorite Color? - Kid's Day
o Try That New Software - ARRL RTTY Roundup
o NCJ News by K9LA
o Alan Kaul W6RCL - Silent Key
o KB1SG's Rhombic Pages Back Online
o NA5N's One-Page Guide to Solar Phenomena
o Can You Hear What I Hear?

BULLETINS
o The ARRL has posted information relevant to the FCC's action
regarding Morse Code in WT Docket 05-235, including an FAQ, on its
Web site http://www.arrl.org/fcc/morse/. The FAQ answers some of the
common questions about the changes.  Wouldn't this be a good year to
dust off the straight key, limber up the elbow, and pound a little
brass in the Straight Key Night?
o The change in the 75-meter phone band allocation also changes the
frequencies available for RTTY. The ARRL RTTY Roundup is the first
big RTTY contest under the new allocations.

BUSTED QSOS
o This is a pre-busted listing - the DARC 10m Contest originally
listed in QST Contest Corral for Jan 7th, is actually on January
14th.  It runs on the second Sunday of January. (Thanks, Ulrich
DG1EH)

CONTEST SUMMARY (Rules follow Commentary section)

December 30-31
- Straight Key Night
- New Year's Snowball Contest
- SARTG New Year RTTY Contest
- AGCW Happy New Year Contest
- RAC Winter Contest
- Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge
January 6-7
- ARRL RTTY Roundup
- Kid's Day
- EUCW 160 Meter Contest

--o- ooo - --o- ooo - --o- ooo -  -oo o
NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTEREST
- oooo o   o-o o- - o   ooo oooo o o - -o-

National Contest Journal News by Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA, Editor

The January/February NCJ is chock full of NCJ contest results: August
NAQP CW, August NAQP Phone, September CW Sprint, September Phone
Sprint, and October RTTY Sprint. In addition, this issue has the 2007
Rules for both the NAQPs and Sprints. Tied to the CW Sprint results
is N3BB's description of his improvement efforts in this
most-demanding contest. N6BV finishes up with Part 2 of his WRTC2006
terrain analysis feature. Likewise, K3NA completes Part 2 of his
receiver audio adjustment article. KD5OWO describes his efforts with
WWYC (World Wide Young Contesters), N7MQ narrates a contest
DXpedition to Montana, and K0AD reviews a contest video essay.
Several other short features, along with many of our regular columns,
round out this issue. Also please note that this issue, being around
the busy holidays, may be a bit later than usual.
(http://www.ncjweb.com/)

- - - - -

Registration is now open for the Dayton 2007 Hamvention Contest
University. Go to http://www.contestuniversity.com/ and sign up fast.
Slots are filling up and space is limited. Instructors include the
following:
  Jim, K8MR
  Dean, N6BV
  Randy, K5ZD
  Dick, N6AA
  Dave, W9ZRX
  Andy, N2NT
  Jeff, N5TJ
Have you ever heard of any of those guys? This looks like a great
reason to get to Dayton a day early and soak up some know-how!
(Thanks, Tim K3LR)

The Southeastern VHF Society is calling for the submission of papers
and presentations for the upcoming 11th Annual Southeastern VHF
Society Conference to be held in Atlanta, Georgia on April 27th and
28th, 2007. Papers and presentations are solicited on both the
technical and  operational aspects of VHF, UHF and Microwave weak
signal amateur radio. Send all questions, comments and submissions to
the technical program chair, Jim Worsham, W4KXY at
w4kxy@bellsouth.net. http://www.svhfs.org/ contains more information
about the conference.

The ANDE, RAFT and NMARS satellites were deployed from the Space
Shuttle on 21 December. ANDE and RAFT also carry packet radio
communications systems and join with other US Naval Academy APRS
digipeating satellites such as PCSAT-1 and PCSAT2. More information
on all three satellites is available at
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html (Reprinted from
the AMSAT Weekly Bulletin ANS-358 - http://www.amsat.org/)

Keith NM5G contributes a link (http://www.nyeviking.com/) of interest
to owners of Nye-Viking tuners.  The tuners were quite popular, but
are no longer made. The site has "everything you need to know," says
Keith.

Jim AD1C has released a Windows GUI version of the ADIF County
Conversion program. It should work on Windows 2K/XP but there are no
guarantees for older operating systems.
http://software.ad1c.us/#County is the Web page from which it can be
downloaded.

Sorry to note that the 2005 Dayton Ham of the Year, Alan W6RCL passed
on December 22nd. A talented broadcast professional, Alan used his
talents and resources to write and produce many Ham Radio videos to
help share his passion for the hobby. The ARRL Web story
(http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/12/26/100/?nc=1) has a great
deal more biographical information on Alan. (Thanks, Rick KT7G)

Marek SP7DQR (http://www.sp7dqr.waw.pl/eng/index_en.html) has written
several freeware log converter programs that use ADIF, Cabrillo, and
text formats. (Thanks, Jan SM3CER)

On the subject of log conversion, if you are using a spreadsheet as a
logging program for casual entries, WA7BNM's log conversion Web site
http://b4h.net/cabforms/ makes converting it to Cabrillo format a lot
easier.  Jim WA7KYI gave it a try for Sweepstakes contacts in his
spreadsheet. "I first filled in the necessary data (on the Web site).
When it was happy, it then sent me to a page where I could enter the
data.  I had to rearrange the spreadsheet to match the order of
columns that it wanted.  I then just copied the relevant columns from
the spreadsheet and pasted the whole thing onto the page. I then
clicked on "Submit QSO Info".  The next page showed where the errors
were.  I found it didn't like the format of the date or time I had
used. It wanted, 12/9 and not 12/9/06. It wanted 1359 for time and
not 13:59. It took me several tries before it was happy.  When I had
no errors, I clicked on "Submit" and that was it. Here is the format
it wanted:
  Mode Date Time Call RST ST or Ser#
  CW 12/9 450 K6NR 599 CA
  SSB 12/10 2104 LT7W 59 1112"

And you think you have a rough job - here's a good article on some of
Riley Hollingsworth's predecessors, the Radio Inspectors!  It's by
Joe Pyle from Radio Broadcast magazine in 1924. (Thanks, Tad K7RA)

A search for 'amateur' and 'mobile' on Yahoo! Groups
(http://groups.yahoo.com/) produced 73 hits, including the
following...
Backpacking & mobile: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hfpack/
Mobile Amateur Radio:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MobileAmateurRadio/
(Thanks, Brian WA7PRC)

There is a plaque awarded for the top combined RAC-Stew Perry score
that run at the same time this coming weekend.  See the Web sites
listed with the contest rules for more information.

While you're still in a mood for holiday silliness, Jim NN0Q recently
posted a short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6PYMtPQys
titled, "Ham dinner...Not what you think..." You can see members of
the Runestone Amateur Radio Club, Alexandria, Minnesota perform their
version of a Christmas Classic.

While watching the two ISS astronauts trying to get the solar panel
to retract in a spacewalk, Tom K1KI realized it was just like tower
work! Talk to the ground, shake the boom, check the orientation, talk
to the other person on the tower, move it a little more, etc.  I
guess they'd need some serious rope!

URL of the Week - So, HF contesters, you think you have a stack?  Let
me show you a STACK! The owner of the Large Vertical Array
(http://www.directivesystems.com/lva.htm)is Dave Olean, K1WHS, owner
of Directive Systems Antennas. (Thanks, Paul K7CW)

oo-o oo -o -oo   -o-- --- oo- o-o
RESULTS AND RECORDS
-o-o o- o-oo o-oo    oooo o o-o o

ARRL Contest Results

2006 ARRL DX plaques are hitting the mails and the SS pins and mugs
are getting ordered. The list of logs received for the 2006 ARRL
International EME Contest is now available at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/claimed/ (Thanks, Tom KC1J)

- - - - -

CQ Magazine is putting together the VHF WW contest report to appear
in the April issue, but there are two areas in which they could use
some more help. Photos of contest operations, especially if portable,
are wanted.  We haven't received many photos for publication
consideration. Email operating or station photos to contest direction
John W1XX at director@cqww-vhf.com. More plaque sponsors are also
needed. From the contest home pagel (http://www.cqww-vhf.com/) click
the link to "Plaque Program" to learn more about how you or your club
can become a plaque donor. (Thanks, John W1XX)

If you are not an ARRL member, but have participated in an ARRL
contest and would like to see your Log Checking Report (LCR), email
your request to contests@arrl.org.

oo oo-o    oo - ooo    -o --- - -ooo o-o --- -o- o
TECHNICAL TIPS AND INFORMATION
-o-- --- oo- o-o o  -o --- -  - o-o -o-- oo -o --o

A set of photos describing K3LR's PL-259 soldering technique are now
on-line at http://k3lr.com/engineering/pl259/  Bill W6WRT uses a
similar technique, but simply trims the jacket back enough to expose
braid at the back of the connector shell and solders there. Bruce
WA3AFS solders at the body holes, but uses a small hook to pull braid
up through the holes so that it can be heated easier.

The Rhombic Pages of Ian W. Cummings, KB1SG, were an important and
popular resource for this fine antenna. Due to hosting problems, the
site disappeared in 2002. Fortunately, Tim EI8IC has managed to
retrieve most of the original pages and photos, and with Ian's
permission has placed the pages on his own Contester Resource and Ham
Mapping Web site
(http://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/rhombic/index.html), for the benefit
of others who would like to know more about the rhombic. We can
dream, can't we?

Need something to do in your spare time? A great deal of MIT's
technical curricula is on line at:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm. University of CA at Berkeley
also publishes course content at
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/index.php (Thanks, Mike AE6WA and
Michael Taylor)

While you're waiting for the weather to improve, here's some good
reading in preparation for antenna season: The Handbook of Rigging by
W.E. Rossnagel is widely available or you can try the on-line
resource "Wire Rope 101" (https://www.hanessupply.com/page1.html)
from Hanes Supply. (Thanks, Eric K3NA)

Trying to remove a ground rod? Let Jim N2EY give you some tips. "The
first step is to break the adhesion to the soil by turning the rod.
Get a large pipe wrench - not an adjustable wrench or gripping
pliers, but a true pipe wrench. Use the pipe wrench to grab the
ground rod in the classic 3-points-of-contact way. Turn the rod. If
you need more leverage, put a breaker bar or length of pipe on the
pipe wrench. A couple of turns will loosen most ground rods so well
that you can yank them out with one hand. Jacks and chains and such
should only be used after the turning process has been tried."

If you're looking for nearby broadcast stations, "Go to the FCC Web
site http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/ and click on the link for AM query.
 Plug in the lat/lon of your QTH near the bottom of the form, with a
distance of 15 miles or so. You'll get all the licenses, with their
powers, whether they have different day/night power and/or patterns,
and distance from you. DA means directional antenna, DA-N means
directional at night, DA2 means directional with different patterns
day and night." (Thanks, Jim K9YC)

Many of us that have opened up a rotator learned many interesting
things during that first surgery - about ball bearings, gears, center
of gravity, and other similar topics. Randy WB4UNA provides three
helpful hints for disassembling and reassembling Ham-II/III/IV and
Tailtwister rotators.
- Before disassembling, turn the unit to the north or center position
- Make an alignment mark between the housings before separating them
- Hold the rotator upside down when disassembling to keep the ball
bearings at home in the top housing.

TECHNICAL URL OF THE WEEK -- After the recent big solar flares -
quite rare at the bottom of the solar cycle - there is renewed
interest in sunspots. For those interested in some illustrations,
Paul NA5N has put together a very nice one-page guide to solar
phenomena.  It's available from the G-QRP Web site
(http://www.gqrp.com/) under the SPRAT button as "Handiman's Guide to
Solar Activity" in the Datasheets list.  There's quite a lot of good
information on that site, as well.

o- -o-o -o-o oo- o-o o- -o-o -o--   oo ooo   o--- --- -ooo
CONVERSATION
--- -o o   oo -o   -o-o --- -o - o ooo - oo -o --o

Here's a little more holiday fun before we get back to Serious Ham
Radio.  See you again in 2007!

Can You Hear What I Hear?
Heterodyned from the defenseless carol "Do You Hear What I Hear"
By Dr. Beldar

Said the Big Gun to his fellow ham
Can you see what I see
Rising in the sky, fellow ham?
Can you see what I see?
The moon, the moon
Moving through the night
A target that tracks left to right
A target that tracks left to right

Said his fellow ham to the student boy
Can you hear what I hear
Bouncing off the moon, student boy?
Can you hear what I hear?
An "O", an "O"
That traveled EME
The path loss is many dB
The path loss is many dB

Said the student boy to K1JT
We'll use DSP code
With a sound card on a PC
But our dish is so old
The feed, the feed
It just might corrode
Let us plate it silver and gold
Let us plate it silver and gold

Said JT to the stations everywhere
You can hear what I send
Process signals with my new software
You can hear what I send
The moon, the moon
Shining in the night
You can all give moonbounce a try
You can all give moonbounce a try

The moon, the moon
Shining in the night
You can all give moonbounce a try

73, Ward N0AX

-o-o  --o-  - o ooo - -o-o  --o-  - o ooo -
CONTESTS -- 27 DECEMBER 2006 TO 9 JANUARY 2007
-o-o  --o-  - o ooo - -o-o  --o-  - o ooo -

Note that the following abbreviations are used to condense the
contest rules summaries: SO - Single-Op; M2 - Multi-Op - 2
Transmitters; MO - Multi-Op; MS - Multi-Op, Single Transmitter; MM -
Multi-Op, Multiple Transmitters; AB - All Band; SB - Single Band;
S/P/C - State/Province/DXCC Entity; HP - High Power (>100 W); LP -
Low Power; QRP (5W or less)

HF CONTESTS

There are several New Year's Eve or New Years contests:
o ARRL Straight-Key Night - from 0000Z - 2359Z Jan 1,
http://www.arrl.org/contests
o New Years Snowball Contest - sponsored by the Activity Group of
Belarus (AGB) - http://www.qsl.net/eu1eu/index_e.htm
o SARTG New Year RTTY Contest - sponsored by the Scandinavian Amateur
Radio Teleprinter Group (SARTG) -
http://www.sartg.com/contest/nyrules.htm
o AGCW Happy New Year Contest--sponsored by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft
CW-- http://www.agcw.de/

RAC Winter Contest--CW/Phone, sponsored by the Radio Amateurs of
Canada, 0000Z - 2359Z Dec 30. Frequencies (MHz): CW--25 kHz up from
the band edge (check on the half hour), Phone--1.850, 3.775, 7.075,
7.225, 14.175, 21.250, 28.500, 50 and 144 MHz. Categories: SOAB (QRP,
LP, HP), SOAB-CW, SOAB-Phone, SOSB, MS-LP, MS-HP, MO-HP, and MM. VE
stations exchange RST + Province, VE0 and non-VE stations exchange
RST + serial number. QSO Points: Outside Canada--2 pts, VE/VE0
stations--10 pts, RAC stations--20 pts. Score: QSO points x VE
provinces + territories (counted once per band and mode). For
information: http://www.rac.ca/downloads/canwin2006.pdf  Logs due 31
Jan to ve5sf@rac.ca or Radio Amateurs of Canada, 720 Belfast Road,
Suite 217, Ottawa, ON Canada, K1G 0Z5.

Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge--CW, sponsored by the Boring
Amateur Radio Club, 1500Z Dec 30 - 1500Z Dec 31. Frequencies: 160
meters. Categories: SO and MS. Operate 14 hours max. Exchange: grid
square only. QSO Points: 1 pt + 1 pt for every 500 km distance
calculated between grid centers (see Web page for calculation
information), QSOs with QRP stations x2 and LP stations x4. Score:
QSO points x Power mult (<5W x 4, 5-100W x 2, >100W x 1). For more
information: http://jzap.com/k7rat/stew.rules.txt  Logs due 31 Jan
(Cabrillo format only) to tbdc@contesting.com or Boring Amateur Radio
Club, 15125 SE Bartell Rd, Boring, OR 97009 USA.

ARRL RTTY Roundup--1800Z Jan 6 - 2400Z Jan 7. Operate for 24 hours
max. with no more than two off periods. Frequencies: 80 -- 10 meters.
Categories: SO-LP, SO-HP, MS-LP, MS-HP, 10-minute band-change rule
for MS. Exchange: RST + state/province/serial number. QSO Points: 1
pt/QSO. Score: QSO points x States + Provinces + DXCC entities
counted only once (KH6, KL7 count as DXCC only). For more information
- http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules  Logs due Feb 6 to
rttyru@arrl.org (Cabrillo format only) or RTTY Round-Up, ARRL, 225
Main St, Newington, CT 06111.

Kid's Day--Phone, sponsored by the ARRL and the Boring Amateur Radio
Club from 1800Z to 2400Z Jan 7. Frequencies (MHz): 28.350-28.400,
21.380-21.400, 14.270-14.300 kHz, and 2-meter repeaters with
permission of repeater control ops. Exchange: Name, age, and favorite
color. If the operator has changed, a station can be contacted again.
For more information: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html 
No scores or logs are required - every participant is eligible to
receive a colorful certificate. Send a 9 X 12 SASE to Boring Amateur
Radio Club, 15125 SE Bartell Rd, Boring, OR 97009.

EUCW 160 Meter Contest--CW, sponsored by the Union Francaise des
Telegraphistes from 2000Z - 2300Z Jan 6 and 0400 - 0700Z Jan 7.
Categories: EU (HP, LP, QRP), non-EU, SWL. Exchange: RST, serial
number, club name, member number or "NM". QSO Points: own entity--1
pt, different entity--2 pts, diff. Continent--5 pts.  Score: QSO
points x clubs. For more information:
www.uft.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=22   Logs due Feb 15 in Cabrillo
format to f6cel@wanadoo.fr or F6CEL - Ghislain, Barbason 5 Rue
d'Ecluse, 02190 Pignicourt, France.

VHF+ CONTESTS

No VHF+ contests are scheduled.

-oo  --- -o - -- oo ooo ooo   -o-- --- oo- o-o
LOG DUE DATES - 27 DECEMBER 2006 TO 9 JANUARY 2007
o-oo  --- --o     -oo o o- -oo o-oo oo -o o ooo

December 30 - ARCI Topband Sprint, email logs to:
contest@qrparci.org, paper logs and diskettes to: ARCI Top Band
Sprint, c/o Jeff Hetherington, VA3JFF, 139 Elizabeth St W, Welland,
Ontario L3C 4M3, Canada. Find rules at:
http://www.qrparci.org/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,/extmode,view/extid,42/lang,en/

December 31 - All Austrian 160-Meter Contest, email logs to:
hf-contest@oevsv.at, paper logs and diskettes to: OEVSV-HQ,
HF-Contest Manager, Eisvogelgasse 4/1, A-1060 Vienna, Austria. Find
rules at:
http://www.oevsv.at/export/oevsv/download/Aoec_160m_2006.pdf 

December 31 - EUCW Fraternizing CW QSO Party, email logs to:
eucwfp@agcw.de, paper logs and diskettes to: Werner Jochem, DK7VW,
Wendelsborn 34, D-66606 St Wendel, Germany. Find rules at:
http://www.agcw.de/eucw/eucwp.html 

December 31 - TARA RTTY Melee, email logs to: (none), Post log
summary at: http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_melee_score.html, paper
logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at:
http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_melee_rules.html

December 31 - Kentucky QSO Party, email logs to: (none), paper logs
and diskettes to: Western Kentucky DX Association, PO Box 73,
Alvaton, KY 42122, USA. Find rules at:
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/2006kyqp.pdf 

December 31 - JIDX Phone Contest, email logs to: ph@jidx.org, paper
logs and diskettes to: JIDX Phone Contest, c/o Five-Nine Magazine, PO
Box 59, Kamata, Tokyo 144-8691, Japan. Find rules at:
http://www.jidx.org/jidxrule-e.html 

December 31 - IPARC Contest, CW, email logs to: dl8kcg@darc.de, paper
logs and diskettes to: Uwe Greggersen, DL8KCG, Hurststr 9, D-51645
Gummersbach, Germany. Find rules at: http://www.ipa-rc.de/cont-e.htm 

December 31 - IPARC Contest, SSB, email logs to: dl8kcg@darc.de,
paper logs and diskettes to: Uwe Greggersen, DL8KCG, Hurststr 9,
D-51645 Gummersbach, Germany. Find rules at:
http://www.ipa-rc.de/cont-e.htm 

December 31 - EU-PSK-QRP Contest, email logs to: box73@comail.ru,
paper logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at:
http://dqso.net/eupsk-2006-en.html, January 3, 2007 ARRL 160-Meter
Contest, email logs to: 160meter@arrl.org, paper logs and diskettes
to: 160 Meter Contest, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111, USA.
Find rules at:
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2006/160-Meters.html 

January 9 - RAEM Contest, email logs to: rw4wr@srr.ru, paper logs and
diskettes to: RAEM Contest, PO Box 3945, Izhevsk 426011, Russia. Find
rules at: http://www.srr.ru/CONTEST/cup_raem_engl_06.php 

January 9 - MDXA PSK DeathMatch, email logs to: (none), Post log
summary at:
http://pub1.bravenet.com/forum/add.php?usernum=30470248&cp=, paper
logs and diskettes to: (none). Find rules at:
http://www.mdxa1.org/deathmatch.html

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

The Contester's Rate Sheet wishes to acknowledge information from the
following sources:
WA7BNM's Contest Calendar Web page -
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal>
SM3CER's Web site - <http://www.sk3bg.se/contest>

ARRL members may subscribe at no cost by editing their Member Data
Page as described at <http://www.arrl.org/contests/rate-sheet>.

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