Hi.
Below is a post I distributed to the Burlington Ontario club about this
weekend's VHF contest. Please feel free to distribute it to your club as
well if you wish. It is written primarily for first-time contesters or those
who only have FM capability. Comments or corrections on this post are
welcome. I try to double-check everything, but if I got something wrong, let
me know.
Thanks and 73
Chris
*** The ARRL September VHF Contest Is This Weekend! ***
TLDR: If you are already familiar with contesting,
Here is the Official ARRL Page <https://www.arrl.org/september-vhf>
And
Click Here for Complete ARRL September VHF Contest Rules (PDF)
<https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/JanJunSep-VHF-Rules.pdf>
Rule Changes Starting September 2023:
Participants in the FM Only category can now count contacts made on 902 MHz
and 1.2 GHz toward their scores.
The rest of this post is for people new to contesting.
What Is A Ham Radio Contest?
An Amateur Radio contest is a friendly competition to see who can contact as
many stations as possible during the contest period. Every contest has
Contest Rules:.
During the contest, hams accumulate points by making direct contact with as
many stations, in as many different locations (Maidenhead Grid Squares) as
possible. Benefits of Contesting Include
* Beginners and expert operators depend on each other for success.
* Contesting increases activity on the bands.
* Contesting can improve your operating skill running your station,
logging contacts, time management etc.
* All contacts are direct - no repeaters allowed! - so you find out
quickly what your station is and is not capable of.
When is it?
This contest runs from Saturday, September 9, 2:00 PM, until Sunday at 10:59
PM.
Where Is It:
Bands: 50 MHz and up.
Modes: FM, SSB, CW, FT8, and more... you can use it, as long as the contact
is unassisted. Absolutely no repeaters, hot spots, or satellites are
allowed. This is strictly simplex operation, from your station to another.
What The Heck Is a Grid Square?
The Maidenhead Locator System, named for the town in England where it was
conceived, is used by amateur radio operators to describe their location, in
as concise, accurate, and robust a manner as possible, to survive difficult
conditions. The world is divided into 324 (18×18) grid squares, identified
by a short string of letters and numbers. Each of these squares represents
1° of latitude by 2° of longitude. More characters increase the accuracy.
For example, my station is located in FN03AF.
Find Yourself ON This Map <https://www.qrz.com/gridmapper>
Or use this Grid square finder based on address or callsign:
<https://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php>
And this tool gives you the baring and distance between two stations:
<https://www.chris.org/cgi-bin/finddis>
Wikipedia has much more information
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidenhead_Locator_System> for the curious.
For a contact to be included in someone's score, you must exchange callsigns
and grid squares. A signal report is nice to receive as well. If things are
slow at the time, why not have a brief chat too? If you are not formally
participating, meaning you are not planning to submit a log of completed
contacts, you can still join in the fun by contacting others, and seeing
where your station is capable of reaching. Every contact counts. You do not
need to be participating yourself to help others increase their score.
What Is A Rover?
A rover is a mobile station, usually traveling to multiple locations during
the contest period to both give and receive more contacts from additional
grid squares.
Scoring
A completed contact is worth one or more points. The more contacts, in more
grid squares, made on higher bands you make, the higher your score! Grid
squares are multipliers or "mults", meaning you multiply the number of grid
squares by the number of points, and you do that for each band. Also, the
higher the frequency, the more points the contact is worth, so don't be shy
about asking people if they have other bands, and try making contact there
as well. For instance, Contacting someone on 6 or 2 M is worth a single
point each, whereas contacting that person on 1.25 M or 70 CM are each worth
two more points. See the official rules for more specific information about
scoring. Don't worry! Most of us use software like this,
<https://www.n3fjp.com/vhfuhf.html> or this <https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/>
to log and take care of all the math.
This Contest Is For Everyone
There is an FM-only category in this contest, meaning anyone can
participate, even if all you have is a handheld and a quarter wave whip!
Half the fun is figuring out where your station performs, and where it may
need improvement.
The FM simplex folks will be found on or near the following frequencies:
* 6 M: 52.525 MHz
* 2 M: 146.520, 146.550, 146.580 mHz etc.
* 1.25 M: 223.500 MHz
* 70 CM: 446.000
(and starting this September)
* 33 CM: 904.500 mHz
* 23 CM: 1294.500 mHz
Besides FM, lots of people will be looking for contacts on the so-called
"weak signal modes": SSB, CW, and digital modes like FT8. Check the bottom
of each band for people using those other modes if you have them and
Consult the ARRL Band Plan <http://www.arrl.org/band-plan> for more
information.
or RAC if you are in Canada, eh? <https://www.rac.ca/operating/bandplans/>
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Can I let people know about the contest, on repeaters, when checking into
nets, on social media, etc.
A. Absolutely. Please spread the word on the air and on social media.
Although somewhat controversial, Yes, you are allowed to contact people on
repeaters to let them know the contest is taking
Place. Just be sure to change to a simplex frequency to make the actual
contact.
Q. Are people allowed to contest on 146.520 MHz, the "national FM simplex
calling frequency"?
A. Yes, this has been allowed since 2015, but if someone needs to use the
frequency, please let them make their call, and move to an adjacent
frequency to continue contesting.
This page announces the rule change.
<http://www.arrl.org/news/use-of-146-52-mhz-fm-simplex-frequency-cleared-for
-arrl-contests>
Q. Are people going to be on particular frequencies, from particular grid
squares, at particular times?
A. Yes. Often, people publish when and where they will be operating. If you
are roving, meaning mobile, consider posting your plans to this group, along
with a preferred contact method such as an email address or phone number.
Also, if you are participating more seriously, please add your plans to this
database. <https://w3sz.com/k1rz/K1RZDataBaseInstructions.html>
When entering your information in the database, specify the contest date and
time as starting at 2023-09-09 at 18:00 UTC, and ending at 2023-09-11 at
02:59 UTC. UTC is four hours ahead of Eastern Daylinght Saving Time (EDT).
After entering your planned grid site(s), don't forget to scroll down and
click on Submit.
Usual Objections (or, Chris tries to be funny)
"Why bother?":
Some of us find this to be "fun". Other people watch golf on television.
"What's the point?"
The point is seeing what you and your station are capable of, and the
accumulation of meaningless points and bragging rights, and possibly a
certificate you can print and stick on the wall. (We love paper.)
"But all this noise clogs up the bands and disturbs my piece."
This contest only happens on three weekends per year, in January, June, and
September. Don't despair. The bands will be far too quiet again all the
other weekends.
Most of all, have fun! Thank you in advance for making contacts during the
contest!
73,
Chris
VE3RWJ (FN03)
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