Hello all:
I will register SECC teams late afternoon today and send out a copy of
the registration confirmation. I hope all of you will participate to
the extent you have time. Let me know right away if you will be on a team.
The contest runs from 1800Z Sat to 0200Z Sun. That is twelve hours.
Single ops may operate no more than 10 hours with a minimum off time of
thirty minutes. Be careful how you count the off time as some loggers
do not count it correctly. If the last QSO in your log before a break
is 2000Z, you have not taken 30 minutes off unless you next QSO is 2031Z
or later. Do not make QSOs at 2030Z or you will have taken only 29
minutes off at that time.
The exchange is Name + SPC (meaning state, province, or NA country).
States, provinces, and NA countries are multipliers. Stations in the
District of Columbia count as Maryland and should be logged as "MD."
All 50 states count as states, including Hawaii ("HI"). Thirteen
Canadian provinces or territories count as multipliers: BC, AB, SK, MB,
ON, QC, NB, NS, PEI, Newfoundland/Labrador ("NL"), Yukon, NorthWest
Territories, and Nunavit. Likely some ON stations will send their new
RAC Section (ONE, ONS, ONW, TOR), but they are all logged just as "ON."
Multipliers count per band, not per contest, so multipliers on each band
are very important to your score. If someone from a mult you haven't
worked asks you to QSY to another band, you should try to comply. If if
would not be a new multiplier for you, but you can easily QSY, it will
at least be a new QSO for you and the other guy may help you out with a
QSY some other time. It is usually a waste of time to ask someone who
is running to QSY unless he is a close friend. On the other hand, when
you are running, you shouldn't hesitate to ask someone to QSY to another
band where you need him as a multiplier. You do likely give up your CQ
frequency, but you can probably find another one when you come back to
that band.
It is important that you do both S&P and CQ on each band. If you don't
CQ, there are some stations (who never themselves CQ) that you will
never work. If you don't S&P, you will miss a lot of multiplier and
QSOs with guys who almost never do S&P. You should keep up with your
rate (most logging programs have rate meters) and try to maximize your rate.
If you find 10 meters open, strike then. It may not be open again.
Same to a lesser degree with 15M. 20M should be your early "meat and
potatoes" CQ band and 40M later on. Lastly 80M can be that at night if
you have a good antenna for that band. Don't neglect 160M even in
August for some QSOs and as many mults as possible. It is often
possible to work the west coast on 160M during the last two hours of
NAQP with 100W and a decent antenna.
Here is my general game plan for NAQP CW: I will operate straight
through until dinner time with my XYL. I will take out at least 30
minutes then. I will then operate until I run out of time, which means
that I usually miss the last 60 or 90 minutes. That gives me a more
normal sleep period Saturday night to Sunday morning.
W4AN's advice was different. Remember that he had a good antenna or
antennas for 160M. He would take off time in 30 minutes segments in the
afternoon when rates seemed to lag. He would always operate the last
few hours of NAQP. My experience has been that the rate is often slower
the last hour of NAQP that it would have been for me in the afternoons,
but part of that is that my 160M antenna is only adequate and is time
consuming to change the feedline configuration from 80 to 160M.
W4AN would encourage attempts to move new mults to higher bands as long
as the contest lasted and, in fact, it is sometimes possible to work
mults on 10 and 15 M by moving stations there after the bands seem dead
otherwise.
You may want to select a QSY frequency in the General class band and
high enough that it isn't likely to be occupied when you QSY to it and
low enough that some S&P stations might find you there. Sometimes you
learn this by trial and error. If you QSY to a frequency and it is
occupied, try calling up or down a bit from the frequency. Don't give
up without calling a few times.
In so far as bands are concerned, I try to check 10M at the top of each
hour and 15M at the bottom of each hour as long as they are open and
have signals. In between, I try to run on 20M. So, it may be 5 minutes
on 10M at 1800Z, then on 20M both running and S&P until 1830Z, then a
few minutes on 15M, then back to 20M until 1900Z, then check 10M etc.
It is my experience from this part of the country that, under usual
conditions, running on 20M is pretty easy, running on 10M is almost
impossible unless we get a short distance Es opening (and then make hay
while it lasts), and running on 15M in generally difficult and
unproductive. But, give it a try on each band and determine for yourself.
We have had some long skip already even in daytime on 40M. I have not
noticed that for about 20 days, so I will assume that we won't get long
skip on 40M at all or, if we do, it will be after sunset. If we do get
long skip early on 40M, we may regret not going to 40 early and picking
up local mults. Generally, it is a mistake to abandon the high bands
too early as you are likely to have many hours where 40M is your only
really productive band after sunset. After 10 and 15 seem to be closed,
I try to check 20M on the hour each hour even after going to the lower
bands.
15M has been open to many areas of the country and in particular the
west coast as late as 02Z the past few weeks. 20M has often been open
almost all night to Europe. When conditions are like that, you usually
also have 20M open to the west coast and pacific northwest.
The only way you will work some multipliers on the high bands is
backscatter. If you have a beam, you beam toward the sun. Beam west to
work the north east. Beam west to south west to work the north central
section of the country. Try turning your beam while listening to weak
mults running on the high bands until you find out where their signal is
strongest. That is where you will likely be the strongest to them even
though it seems counterintuitive to beam away from the short path to
them. Sometimes, you will get groundwave signals from nearby states on
the higher bands and you will usually get best results by beaming toward
the other station. But, not always. If you can't make it by beaming
toward them, try other directions.
This is generally not a very high speed contest. I think anything over
34 WPM is too high in NAQP and generally reduce my speed when CQing when
I am not getting answers until it gets down to 28 WPM or so. Sometimes
when low bands are noisy, a slower steady pace of 24 to 26 WPM will be
more readable than at higher speeds. On the other hand, if QRN is the
main problem, slowing down may make it harder to get the info across.
Always slow down as necessary when asked and be prepared to slow your
speed with the computer or keyer when a slower station calls you. The
exception is WA6URY who can copy at high speeds, but is operating his CA
station remotely from Japan and sends at a fixed slower speed. No need
to slow down for Dan.
Remember that any station may be worked for QSO points, but (except for
HI) stations outside NA do not count for multipliers. So, don't waste a
lot of time calling an European or South American station since it will
only count for QSO points, but don't skip a chance for a quick and easy
QSO with someone outside NA. Log stations outside NA (except for HI) as
"DX." NA countries outside US and Canada may be logged with their
prefix or accepted country abbreviation. I usually try to log what they
send me as their exchange, but, if it won't work, with my logging
program I know it will accept their prefix as the exchange.
After the contest, if possible, go to 3830scores and fill out the NAQP
CW form to report your scores for information of those interested. But,
that is no substitute for sending your log to the sponsor as specified
in the NAQP rules. If you have any problem accomplishing this, let me
know and I'll be glad to try to help.
There is nothing magic about what I have said and I hope that others of
you will chime in with other thoughts that might benefit the newer
operators of this contest.
Good luck and 73, John, K4BAI.
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