![]() | NAQCC News |
Sep 27, 2008 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #079 |
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In this issue: 1. October Challenge. 2. September Sprint Results 3. Latest Award Winners 4. Operating Tips 5. General Club News 5a. N3A Operation 6. Member News |
1. CHALLENGE: Our October challenge is an annual challenge that always deals with our special event station N3A. You can learn more about the operation in the special N3A Operation section later in the newsletter. You master the challenge by either operating N3A (you must apply to us to get permission to do that) or working N3A and reporting your results. Full Challenge info here including a link to a worksheet example that makes our alphabet challenges a snap. ![]() 2. SEPTEMBER SPRINT RESULTS: As sort of a preamble to this section, I'd like to offer this: Ever since I (K3WWP) got into contesting, I thought it was totally unfair to punish me for an error on the part of the station I work. If I work station XX2XXX and our QSO is not in his log because of something he did, I get penalized for his error. When I became involved with our NAQCC sprints, I vowed to address that matter. Putting it simply, when I cross-check logs, if X2AAA's log shows a QSO with X2BBB, but the QSO is not in X2BBB's log, we remove the QSO initially, but then give X2AAA the opportunity to check with X2BBB and if X2BBB simply forgot to include it for whatever reason, the QSO is restored to X2AAA's log and added to X2BBB's log. I believe you can't be any more fair than that. And Chas W2SH agrees with that philosophy with these very kind words: "To John, Ed, all members and prospective members: And that is just one thing that puts NAQCC head and shoulders above ALL other similar clubs. May the amply demonstrated fairness and integrity of the Club's administrators, that also seems to prevail within the membership, long prevail! 72, Charles, W2SH" Thank you Chas. This was a record setting sprint thanks to you, our wonderful members and the propagation gods who helped you all to contact each other to the tune of 1,040 QSO's in my cross-checking software this month. That's well over 100 above our previous record. The number of logs submitted (64) was also a record. There were also other records broken as you'll see in the table below. This is the last month for the CW Books on CD giveaway. We certainly want to thank Chuck K7QO for his wonderful generosity in giving away these CD's completely free of charge for these many months now. One way to show appreciation would be to visit his web site and purchase one of his CD's while they are still available. STATS - current month, previous month, all time record, mo/yr (blue indicates a record set this month): Sep Aug Rec Month Logs - 64 58 64 9/08 Stns in logs - 108 93 110 5/08 Hour 1 QSO's - 564 379 564 9/08 Hour 2 QSO's - 476 375 476 9/08 Total QSO's - 1040 754 1040 9/08 20M QSO's - 77 127 185 6/08 40M QSO's - 709 512 709 9/08 80M QSO's - 254 115 481 12/07 Autologger logs - 57 53 57 9/08WINNERS: 1st SWA East - K4CNW 1st SWA Central - W5TM 1st SWA Mountain - W0JFR 1st SWA Pacific - NU7T 1st Gain - K4BAI Special Award (all 10 digits in member numbers) Drawing Entrants: K4CNW, W5RCP, W0JFR Drawing Winner: K4CNW CW Books on CD (donated by Chuck Adams K7QO) Drawing Entrants: K4CNW, W5RCP, K9JWV, NU7T, AB0TX Drawing Winner: NU7T Congratulations to all including winners and non-winners. Actually everyone who participated and sent in a log is a winner because that shows the ham radio world that there are many folks still using and enjoying CW on the ham bands. That's one of our main goals here at the NAQCC. Very special thanks to those who reported their results even though they made only a few QSO's. Your reports are important also. We had 13 stations who didn't submit a log show up 5 or more times in the 64 logs we received and cross-checked. Hopefully those 13 and many others will be back next month AND submit a log. Remember submitting a log doubles the strength of your statement that you support CW operation. We welcome these hams who submitted a sprint log for the first time. We hope they will continue to participate and report their results: W0RSP, W3RT, W4SEC, K2HPV, WA9VEE, W6GMT, VE3KI, WA1WQG, WD0K, WB0OEW, VE4WI, NB1I, WX5SD Full sprint info here. ![]() 3. AWARD WINNERS THE PAST TWO MONTHS: NONE (very disappointing) We now have a nice incentive to work towards and earn our NAQCC awards thanks to Gregg WB8LZG. I'm sure you all know by now of his beautiful hand-crafted bug/paddle handles, and how we gave away 13 sets of them to participants in our monthly challenges. Now Gregg has designed some beautiful hand-crafted knob insets for the K1 and K2 rigs. If you own one of those rigs or are planning on purchasing one in the future, read on after you look at this picture of them. ![]() We're giving away 5 of Gregg's K2 knobs and 2 of his K1 knobs. You can win one by earning and applying for any TWO of the following NAQCC awards. It's first come, first served, so make haste. QSO-A-DAY 30-30 Alphabet Prefix Worked Members - Advanced Suffix Words See the 'Current' page in the 'Awards' section of the web site for rules for these awards. Only new applicants on or after October 1, 2008 are eligible. Full List of all award winners here. ![]() 4. OPERATING TIPS: Hurricane Ike added another delay to our postponed NAQCC Elmer program when it roared into Houston, Ron K5DUZ's hometown. Thankfully Ron was spared any direct serious damage, but it did delay his work on the Elmer project. And because I am so busy organizing our October anniversary events, I only have time for a brief tip in this newsletter. I apologize for that, but there are only so many hours in a day. It's a tip for those of you who operate our NAQCC sprints. Did you know that if you log on paper and then after the fact type all the log info into a word processor, notepad, etc., that there is a much easier way to do it? GenLog has an 'after the contest is over' mode. All you need to do is to start GenLog with your paper log at your side, then: 1. Choose our NAQCC Sprint from the list of contests. 2. Enter a file name (Sept2008NAQCC or some such name). 3. Set the band to the one you made your first QSO on. 4. Set the mode to 'After contest'. 5. Enter the time of the first QSO, press the spacebar. 6. Enter the call of the station worked, press space. 7. If you have the latest GenLog data file loaded, the St/Pr/DX and member number fields will fill in automatically if the station is a member. If needed, type in the RST received and press space. 7a. If the station is a non member fill in the needed info, pressing space each time. 8. press space 3 or 4 times till the QSO is logged in the box at the bottom of the screen. 9. The cursor will return to the Time field. Go to step 5 and repeat the steps for each contact. After you've entered all the QSO's, Use the Log menu, Write ASCII file [K3WWP.log] to create your log file you can copy into our autologger. Of course it will be your call, not mine as the name of the file. It's harder to explain than to do, so get out an old paper sprint log and practice. Questions? - Ask. We'll have more tips to help you improve your operating skills in each newsletter until Ron and Karl get the Elmer section started on the web site. Then we'll just refer you there for the great tips they will have. YOU can help US by letting us know what you would like to see discussed here. Just email ![]() ![]() 5. GENERAL CLUB NEWS: ![]() ![]() FISTS 3,4,8 NAQCC 2 If you reside in those areas and would like to operate N3A in the sprints, all you need do is send us an email expressing your interest, and we'll immediately sign you up. It's first come, first served, so hurry. Just email ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() More details will be forthcoming as January draws nearer. My, aren't Tom's hands becoming famous! On the cover of WorldRadio magazine and now this! ![]() ![]() ![]() 5a. N3A OPERATION FOR OCTOBER 2008: ![]() Specifically we still need ops from the following call areas for the following sprints. Our ops already signed up from those areas have other commitments at the sprint times. Still open are these positions: FISTS sprint - 4th and 8th call areas are open. K3WWP will do the 3rd area IF no one else wants to do it. W5TM is pretty sure he can do the 5th call area, but there's a slight possibility he can't. NAQCC sprint - 2nd call area. Here's your chance to help the club in a very important way and to have fun doing it. Remember both the FISTS and NAQCC sprints are friendly to newcomers to CW. You don't have to be a CW 'hot-shot' to participate by any means. That is why these two sprints are so popular. So come on and help us out. We have promised FISTS to have all 10 N3A stations active in their sprint and of course we want all 10 active in our own sprint. The FISTS sprint is on the 11th from 1700-2100Z and our NAQCC sprint is on the 15th from 0030-0230Z. Thanks in advance to you for your help. Just email ![]() See the N3A Operation page in the Home section of the club web site for complete info on N3A, and ask questions if it isn't as complete as I think. ![]() 6. MEMBER NEWS: We all want to hear about your exploits using CW and QRP, and this is the place to post that info. So send the info to our news editor Paul KD2MX at ![]() ![]() ![]() At the top of the Sked page just click on FISTS and click on "logged in" at the bottom of the page. Fill in the info as instructed. You will then be able to make real time skeds with me or any other operator there. Thanks and hope to see you in October N3A!! |
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