Hi...
Just to add to John's comments... Here are my observations (so far)
about operating stateside contests from North GA :
So far I have done a couple Sprints, NAQP's and some state QSO parties.
My station is pretty simple - 100 watts , a G5RV on 80-10 and an E/W 20
meter dipole. I have found 20 meters to be my best band to run guys
during the day and when it gets dark 40 is pretty good as well.
I have had absolutely no luck running on 80 meters but I would imagine
you could do OK from N. Georgia if you had a decent antenna and ran a
KW.
Don't forget to check 10 and 15 meters for run opportunities too. I
have found those bands pretty good to W1-W2-W3 many times. I even ran a
bunch of east coast guys on 10 meters in the NAQP SSB contest. This
past weekend during CQWW there was ALOT of short skip on 10 and 15
meters to the east coast and even some W8/W9/VE3 stations were booming
in at my QTH too...
GL to all in SS , Jeff
--- John Laney <k4bai@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Hi Archie:
>
> There was talk about closing the Thomasville Federal Courthouse, but
> Judge Sands, who sits in Albany and is now our Chief Judge for the
> Middle District was opposed to it, and I think it is being used more
> than ever now. In fact, both District Judge Land and I will be there
> at
> the same time this week. He will have pretrial conferences in
> chambers
> and I will use the courtroom for hearings and use a jury room as a
> place
> to stay instead of chambers when the hearings are not in session.
>
> You should excel at SS CW. The format was intended to be the same as
> a
> standard ARRL message.
>
> When I first started SS (my first one was in 1955), the exchange was
> like this:
>
> #1 R K4BAI 54 GA 2100Z Nov 2. Later, the R was replaced by the
> current
> (and more informative) A, B, Q, M, etc letters and the time and date
> were dropped.
> The date was originally the current date and was later changed to the
> date of your birthday, and I sent MAR 27 a lot.
>
> So, what is left is a shortened version of the standard heading for
> an
> ARRL message. Number, precedence by letter, call of originating
> station, check (year), and place of origin.
>
> The main thing is to find a frequency and CQ if you get answers. If
> you
> don't get many answers, then you S&P. The number of QSOs affects the
> score more than the sections. It is always fun to work all sections
> and
> I'd not pass up a rare one early on (like VY1/VE8 or NF
> (Newfoundland/Labrador), Virgin Islands, etc, as long as it seems
> likely
> that you can get through in some reasonable time. But most everyone
> will get within two or three of all the sections if they make a lot
> of
> QSOs and the big difference is the number of QSOs. WP3R in Puerto
> Rico
> operated by KE3Q will be one of the really big scores, so I'd not
> wait
> too long for him early on in the contest. But, if you hear a loud
> VY1JA
> or some other VY1 or VY0 or VE8 or even a KL7 early in the contest,
> it
> might be worth a short wait to get through to them while propagation
> permits. KH6 is usually easy, but you never know for sure. Some
> years
> some sections like VE2, VE4, SD, or ND, or Nebraska, or Mississippi
> may
> be hard to find. Eastern NY can be rare. But, most of them will come
> to
> you if you can find a CQ run frequency.
>
> It has been our experience that running from GA is very difficult on
> the
> high bands, 10 and 20, particularly on CW. Most of the running on
> those
> bands is done by the West Coast and off shore guys plus maybe a few
> guys
> with really big stations who are really confident on those bands
> (K4WI
> for example). So, those bands are mostly S&P for us here (and that
> is
> also my experience so far from W4AN). The CQ/run bands are generally
> 20
> and 40 and sometimes 80 if the band is quiet and the high bands go
> long
> early. The exception to running on 10 and 15 is if we get some
> e-skip
> (short skip) to the north/northeast. If that happens, as it does
> sometimes, it is possible to run from GA on those bands even on CW.
>
> You might want to consider running your amp and doing high power.
> There
> you will lose the full QSK that you can have using low power since
> the
> AL80A is not QSK without mod or an external switch. But, you will
> get
> more answers to your CQs and it will in part make up for your lack of
> aluminum. Is it time to check out your neighbors' sense of tolerance
> for one weekend? If not, still try the CQ thing from time to time.
> You
> may find it easier to do so high in the band or low in the bands with
> Extra class segments. I don't even listen down there except in the
> multi op situations, but I find in FD that it is often possible to
> get a
> CQ frequency down there with 100 watts that works pretty well.
>
> Don't hesitate to ask for repeats if you aren't sure about something.
>
> There is still a penalty for calls "not in the log" and you will lose
> credit for the QSO if you get some of the info wrong.
>
> I don't know what Writelog does for SS, but, NA (and CT, I think)
> used
> to have a "default" for the precedence of "A," since more guys are
> low
> power than any other precedence. I found one year that most of my
> errors were where I left the default "A" in and failed to change it
> to
> "B" or "Q" or whatever. The problem is that you don't realize that
> you
> didn't copy the "A." If you are having trouble getting a message
> logged, you may finally think that you got it all OK, but you have
> never
> heard the "A" that the computer program put in as a default. So,
> later
> versions of NA have no default in them. This change was suggested by
> me
> and W4AN got K8CC to make the change. So, if your Writelog program
> has
> a default precedence in it, you might see if it is optional and
> remove
> it or just be very careful that you know that the other guy actually
> sent the "A."
>
> It helps to become familiar with the ARRL section abbreviations.
> Probably some of them will be familiar from the old CD Parties. But
> there are some new sections since then, such a WTX, ENY, WCF (West
> Central FL), VI (used to be with PR as a part of WI (west indies)),
> the
> VE1/9 and VO1/2 and VY2 sections used to be all MAR, etc. A few
> minutes
> studying the current section list will be helpful. This is
> particularly
> so on SSB where a lot of casual ops will need help in determining
> what
> their section is. This is particularly true in California, where
> many
> guys (even ARRL members) may not remember what their section is.
> Sometimes they will give their Division instead or just Southern
> California. It really helps on phone for a run station to have
> familiarity with Calif (and Fla etc) sections. I have the impression
> some guys even have a data base with county names in it to help the
> casual guys get their section right. That is not much of a worry on
> CW
> since, basically, there are no casual CW ops in CW SS. And, if there
> are a few, the chance that you may be their first attempt at a QSO is
> not very great.
>
> As we discussed before, I'd listen to the bands for a few hours
> before
> the contest starts and try to get a feeling as to what they are doing
> and what might work best for you. Since you can only work a guy once
> in
> the whole contest, it matters little what band you work him on. But,
> you will not work many VE8, VY1, KL7, and KH6 stations on 80 and 40.
> And you will not work many Southeastern US stations on 10, 15, and
> 20.
> So, you will want to work all bands when they are best for your rate
> and
> trying to maximize the chances that you will get all sections in the
> log
> by the end. If 10 and 15 aren't too hot, I might start out by CQing
> on
> 20. Then do so S&P on 10 and 15 and try for those few rare sections
> and
> the loud guys that you can work on the first call.
> You can check 40 before dark for some close in stations, but there is
> no
> real urgency on that because you can get all those sections and
> stations
> on 80. So, stay on the higher bands as long as your rate is good
> there. If you go to 40 and the rate drops, you might want to go back
> to
> 20. I have never made an SS QSO on 160 even during the three years
> doing SO2R from W4AN. (I did listen on 160 in the middle of the
> night,
> but that was probably too late. I assume some SS QSOs are possible
> on
> 160 and some of them might even be guys who work only that band, but
> I've never really proved out that theory myself.)
>
> The real test for every SS operator who is doing close to full time,
> is
> the Sunday afternoon doldrums. The rates will drop and the bands
> will
> be full of stations you have already worked calling CQ SS. Varying
> speeds (more slowly) and going higher (or lower?) in the bands may
> help
> some. This is the time when many guys could have a ball. If the
> guys
> who are not doing it close to full time would get on on Sunday
> afternoon
> and evening, they would be "fresh meat" for the serious contesters
> and
> could have a ball and have some nice pileups to work down. Some guys
> who are good contesters do this and this is one reason for the
> fulltime
> guys to save some operating time for the latter part of the contest.
>
>
> I don't recall the details now, but the QRP guys have a short sprint
> SS
>
=== message truncated ===
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/
|