User Panel
Posted: 2/28/2021 11:08:58 AM EDT
OK all you non-CW and non-RTTY guys here is your chance. The ARRL International DX Contest - SSB runs this coming weekend from 0000Z on 03/06/21 until 2359Z on 03/07/21. Central Time is Z-6 so it will start here at 6:00pm Friday and end at 6:00pm Sunday. All of the major DX stations will be out playing so if you want to work them this is your weekend.
I'll tell you this though, unless you have a lot of antenna and a lot of power you probably need to be stealthy on 20 meters. As soon as a DX station says "QRZ?" there will be a hundred stateside stations calling him, and they will be rude. They will talk over the top of other stations, they will repeat their callsign over and over and over, and anything else they can think of to get the DX station's attention. If you're running barefoot and/or just have a wire or other low-gain antenna you have to be stealthy. Wait a few seconds until the pileup starts to listen and THEN give your call. The DX station might catch the last couple of letters before it all starts over again. Also use the lower bands. Not everyone has a 40 meter beam antenna like they do on 20, 15, or 10 meters so you stand a much better chance there. That's not so say you can't get through on 20-10 but it will be more difficult so don't get frustrated. And don't just crank the mic gain up, that doesn't help it hurts your signal. Exchanges are quick and easy. US and Canadian stations send a signal report (which will ALWAYS be 59) and their state. DX stations will send a signal report (which will ALWAYS be 59) and their transmit power. They will work fast because time it is a contest and they need as many contacts as possible. US and Canada stations normally won't even answer other US or Canada stations. Some will, many won't. If you've never played in a contest before this is a good opportunity to try one out. You can work a LOT of DX stations (Europe on 20 meters during the day, South America and the Caribbean on 40 meters at night, Asia in the wee hours of the morning on both) and it is fun. Fast paced, but fun. Get out and give it a try. |
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Note that many stations make contacts but do not actually submit a log to contest headquarters.
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Attached File
Propagation was poor last night and I am not hearing much today. I will listen and maybe I will hear something I need. Mount Athos would be good. |
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I'll dabble and not submit a log. It's my daughters birthday, I'm taking her out lunch started at 1400utc hoping to hear some 10m. 10 is dead 15 is marginal 20 is cooking, worked https://www.qrz.com/db/j68hz yawn think I'll go clean guns . |
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Made a half dozen South America contacts on 15 and 20M this afternoon while portable running 10 watts, thank god for those DX contesters and their mega beams.
Had to stop because the wind decided to knock over my antenna and broke the loading coil. Oh well, 3D printer go BRRRR and a new one will be ready in a day or so with better reinforcement. |
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Quoted: In an ARRL contest a not in log (NIL) contact gets you a penalty. Making contact with a contesting station and not submitting a log for verification is poor conduct in my opinion... View Quote I did not know this. If the other station submits a log and you are not in their log, then penalty, but if the other station does not submit a log at all, you still get penalized? Never knew that. |
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I don't know, you could be right.
For some reason I thought when they checked the logs, if station XYZ made say 5 contacts and showed up in 5 logs, but didn't submit a log, I thought they accepted those. But I'm not much of a contester, so I don't really know. I do agree that submitting a log, even if you only made 5 Q's is the right thing to do. ETA - and if you only made 1Q, then it's really the right thing to do! |
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It's kind of ironic that as the OP of this thread I only made about a half dozen contacts last night and gave up. 40 meters was so jammed up I could barely hear anything. Spanish-language AM radio stations with S9 carriers, people tuning up for minutes on end, and monstrous pileups on even the most mundane contacts. I spent a couple of hours going up and down the band and only got 6 contacts for my efforts. So today rather than mess with it again I spent a lot of time playing FT8 since all the big guns were out chasing the contest. I made about 90 contacts, maybe a third of them DX, got eWAS down to just 2 states needed and had a lot of fun. 15 and 20 meters were open to Europe through late afternoon and then South America and the Caribbean started coming in on 20 and 40 meters. Not the best propagation conditions but certainly not the dead bands everyone was worried about either.
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Quoted: In an ARRL contest a not in log (NIL) contact gets you a penalty. Making contact with a contesting station and not submitting a log for verification is poor conduct in my opinion... View Quote Hmmmm . . . . I didn't realize that I made one QSO so far, then cleaned my new Cap & Ball revolver, took my daughter out for lunch, loaded up 600 rounds on my DILLON, and then went eagle spotting with my wife. It's been a good day. guess after I clean up my Dillon mess, I'll make some more, and submit my log. thanks Attached File |
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Submitting a log is generally pretty easy, I've submitted them with one contact before...
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well I am a newb.
I have a paper log and a QRZ.com electronic logbook started. |
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Here is the contest page:
http://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx To have a contact count for anyone, you'll need to fill out a cabrillo formatted log and upload it here. If you'd never made a cabrillo log before, here is an ARRL page about them: http://www.arrl.org/cabrillo-format-tutorial There are webapps that can format one for you. |
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am trying to get my cabrillo formatted logs uploaded.
i keep getting errors of wrong dates and time despite being in UTC. Rejected by the arrl uploader. Using the BHorn formatter page. edit found another cabrillo formatter on arrl but still getting location code erors. not sure what exact code they are looking for cq or itu or??? |
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Quoted: well I am a newb. I have a paper log and a QRZ.com electronic logbook started. View Quote I've been a ham for over 30 years but still keep a paper log. Wouldn't do this any other way. No program can log as good as I do by hand. Sometimes I write down comments or notes for myself. It's a lot faster by hand than on a keyboard. Sometimes I draw pictures, diagrams, etc. No logging software can do this. The shack computer is for browsing Arfcom and occasionally checking info on QRZ. So, should I tear off the pages with my contest contacts and mail them to the judges and the jury. BTW, is must be another flicker of the Mandela Effect, because I remember the rules where we could participate in the contests but didn't have to submit any logs. |
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Quoted: I've been a ham for over 30 years but still keep a paper log. Wouldn't do this any other way. No program can log as good as I do by hand. Sometimes I write down comments or notes for myself. It's a lot faster by hand than with a keyboard. Sometimes I draw pictures, diagrams, etc. No logging software can do this. The shack computer is for browsing Arfcom and occasionally checking info on QRZ. So, should I can tear off the pages with my contest contacts and mail them to the judges and the jury. BTW, is must be another flicker of the Mandela Effect, because I remember the rules where we could participate in the contests but didn't have to submit any logs. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: well I am a newb. I have a paper log and a QRZ.com electronic logbook started. I've been a ham for over 30 years but still keep a paper log. Wouldn't do this any other way. No program can log as good as I do by hand. Sometimes I write down comments or notes for myself. It's a lot faster by hand than with a keyboard. Sometimes I draw pictures, diagrams, etc. No logging software can do this. The shack computer is for browsing Arfcom and occasionally checking info on QRZ. So, should I can tear off the pages with my contest contacts and mail them to the judges and the jury. BTW, is must be another flicker of the Mandela Effect, because I remember the rules where we could participate in the contests but didn't have to submit any logs. well I got my yesterday’s log submitted. Not for me but for the actual contesters. I wish they had more clear instructions. Being a newb it is a fumbling process. or it is old age. I can remeber what I had for breakfast and lunch. and desert last night was bread pudding with a rum hard sauce. . when I was on the police dispatch desk I was a mad scribbler on a notepad. From there I could take my disjointed notes and reorganize into a sensibly ordered blotter entry. I still work that way, just its date, time, freq, call sign, message exchanged,.....not necessarily scribbled in that order. grab the details as you get them. figure out what it means in a moment if necessary to decipher. Heck I am still trying to remember my q codes without looking them up. |
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Listening today, I've heard Italy, Germany, and the Dominican Republic and the usual mix of US hams.
It's pretty hectic, and I only have 100 watts. |
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Quoted: Listening today, I've heard Italy, Germany, and the Dominican Republic and the usual mix of US hams. It's pretty hectic, and I only have 100 watts. View Quote it is, very little practical dispersion across the band. Stations setting up just a KHz away. I noticed things are sounding a lot more Donald Duck distortion today. For me I am still happy, made contacts in Italy 5x Slovenia, 2x Czech R. 1x Spain 1x could not pick out Ireland, Suriname again today, nor Panama. I am now hunting the weak stations in the grass and avoiding the pile ups. S America seems to be beyond my reach. my dipole is orientedion a NNE to SSW line |
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Quoted: So, should I tear off the pages with my contest contacts and mail them to the judges and the jury. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: So, should I tear off the pages with my contest contacts and mail them to the judges and the jury. Mailing them in is perfectly acceptable. " Logs may be submitted either online or via mail, but electronic Cabrillo logs are the preferred method." " Submitting Paper Logs By Mail - Be sure to mail your completed Summary Sheet and Log Sheets (include a dupe sheet if over 500 QSOs) postmarked before the log submission deadlines." |
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Quoted: well I got my yesterday’s log submitted. Not for me but for the actual contesters. I wish they had more clear instructions. Being a newb it is a fumbling process. or it is old age. I can remeber what I had for breakfast and lunch. and desert last night was bread pudding with a rum hard sauce. . when I was on the police dispatch desk I was a mad scribbler on a notepad. From there I could take my disjointed notes and reorganize into a sensibly ordered blotter entry. I still work that way, just its date, time, freq, call sign, message exchanged,.....not necessarily scribbled in that order. grab the details as you get them. figure out what it means in a moment if necessary to decipher. Heck I am still trying to remember my q codes without looking them up. View Quote If you submitted a log I'm pretty sure that you ARE an "Actual Contester". There will be thousands of hams around the world that don't submit logs. I can't imagine that they would penalize every log entry that doesn't have a corresponding entry in a non-entrant's log that they never got. IF that were the case people would just stop entering because the penalties would push the score into negative numbers. I don't know that for certain though. The only contest I actually entered was the Novice Roundup in 1976. My score as posted in QST was the same as on my log sheets. I didn't get deductions or penalties for people that didn't turn in a log. That was a long time ago though so the rules may have changed. |
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Do I get penalized for transmitting out of General band?
i missread the band chart in my ARRL book and went 5hz to far. They have 14.175 on the left edge of the general band but it is meant for the advanced bar graph above it. Two great easy contacts with no pile ups from the unwashed general heathens like myself. Germany and another in Italy. Edit, time to install my edge limits in the radio. |
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Quoted: @PoiDog 100 watts is plenty, with a decent antenna, especially above 10mhz. . View Quote I'm using a Chameleon MPAS 2.0 right now, but I have a ZS6BKW I'm installing this coming week, weather permitting. It will be a sloper with the high end 40' or so. That should make a difference in my signal. |
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Quoted: Listening today, I've heard Italy, Germany, and the Dominican Republic and the usual mix of US hams. It's pretty hectic, and I only have 100 watts. View Quote There is a lot of good stuff on 40m FT8 right now. Common stuff like Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico, etc. but some other more unusual stuff like Peru and Chile. Plus there are some European stations coming in like Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, and Cyprus. Edit ... Add Turkey and Qatar to the list above ;) |
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Quoted: In an ARRL contest a not in log (NIL) contact gets you a penalty. Making contact with a contesting station and not submitting a log for verification is poor conduct in my opinion... View Quote @Nmbmxer email reply from ARRL... Good morning Derek, Thank you for your question. If you made a few contacts casually during the event and do not submit a log, other participants will not be penalized. 73, Paul Bourque, N1SFE Contest Program Manager |
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Quoted: @Nmbmxer email reply from ARRL... Good morning Derek, Thank you for your question. If you made a few contacts casually during the event and do not submit a log, other participants will not be penalized. 73, Paul Bourque, N1SFE Contest Program Manager View Quote |
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Quoted: Don't forget about offsets for LSB and USB or a View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: They have 14.175 on the left edge of the general band but it is meant for the advanced bar graph above it. Don't forget about offsets for LSB and USB or a Good point. ETA band edges set and tested. I set my limits to just to phone with the 3 KHz margin for LSB or USB as appropriate. CW areas can wait until I get there. Just reading the downloaded full icom manual on setting band edges now to not go there again, Really my mistake was in the reading of the chart. I am good at looking at it when I move, I just misread it due to where they put that 14.175. I was still wrong of course but I know how I got wrong. I also bought some of those 292 radio or camo net mast tubes on Ebay. Same guy in PA, hopefully he doesn’t cancel. |
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