| In this Issue: This week’s contest update includes material contributed by Brian Moran, N9ADG. |
| Upcoming Contests — Things to Do |
ARRL June VHF Contest The summer VHF contest season kicks off this weekend with the ARRL June VHF Contest, beginning at 1800 UTC on Saturday, June 8, and concluding at 0259 UTC Monday, June 10. The contest exchange is your four-digit Maidenhead grid square. For more information on grid squares, visit www.arrl.org/grid-squares. Complete rules are available at www.arrl.org/june-vhf. ARRL Kids Day ARRL Kids Day is on Saturday, June 15, and will run from 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. It's the perfect opportunity to introduce youngsters to the excitement of amateur radio. The exchange is the participant's name, age, location, and favorite color. Sponsored by the Boring, (Oregon) Amateur Radio Club, Kids Day is held every year on the first Saturday in January and the third Saturday in June. More information is available at www.arrl.org/kids-day. West Virginia QSO Party For state QSO party enthusiasts, the West Virginia QSO Party begins on June 15 at 1600 UTC, and concludes on June 16 at 0400 UTC. Contacts can be made on CW, phone, and digital modes. |
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See the "Contests" section below for complete contest information. June 6 June 7 June 8 June 10 June 11 June 12 June 13 June 14 June 15 June 16 June 17 June 18 June 19 |
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| News, Press Releases, and Special Interest |
The Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club announced the fall 2024 VHF and UHF sprints. There are some changes for 2024, including expanded award categories, and the moving of the 50 MHz Sprint to Saturday afternoon, with the potential for improved propagation. Here’s the schedule: ● 50 MHz: 1800 UTC to 2200 UTC on Saturday, August 10, 2024 ● 144 MHz: 7 PM to 11 PM local time on Monday, September 9, 2024 ● 222 MHz: 7 PM to 11 PM local time on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 ● 432 MHz: 7 PM to 11 PM local time on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 ● 902 MHz and up: 8 AM to 2 PM local time on Saturday, October 5, 2024 In the early days of electrification, there were many standards for voltages, AC vs. DC, and AC frequency. There was distributed generation with windmills or generators, and lack of connectivity. With the advent of the grid consumer power standards settled on 60-cycle AC, and power was generated by large scale generators on the grid. With distributed generation of renewable power and initiatives to strengthen the grid, utilities are implementing distributed storage and generation of power. And there are new companies that are providing equipment and services at scale, using storage and inverters. Let’s hope they’re not noisy inverters. Scott, N3FJP, and his team have been busy! Maryland QSO Party 4.6.6, available on his website, accommodates the latest rule changes for that contest. During Hamvention, members of the upcoming Jarvis Island DXpedition were talking about using a new variation of FT8, initially called “Superfox Mode.” The new mode has the DX station, or the fox, transmitting an approximately 1.5 kHz wide waveform in the same 15-second interval as today. This new waveform conveys a message that can flexibly acknowledge up to nine different hounds at a time, and has provisions for additional future functionality. The new constant-envelope waveform with multiple streams has approximately the same receivability as today’s single-slot waveform. More “hounds” will be able to hear the fox when multiple streams are being used. Also at Hamvention, the new Airspy HF+ Ranger SDR receiver was being shown, in advance of its release. An RTL-SDR website article lists the frequency range to be 0.5 kHz to 1750 MHz. Ward Silver, N0AX, is the recipient of the 2024 Dayton Hamvention Technical Achievement Award. Ward was also editor of the Contest Rate Sheet, which evolved into the Contest Update. Congratulations, Ward! Coinciding with Hamvention was the announcement of the CQ Contest Hall of Fame inductees, as part of the Dayton Contest Dinner. This year’s honorees include Sergio Lima de Almeida, PP5JR, Steven London, N2IC, and Richard Ross, K2MGA (SK). The CQ DX Hall of fame inducted Cezar Trifu, VE3LYC, Bernie McClenny, W3UR, and Richard Ross, K2MGA (SK) during the Southwest Ohio DX Association dinner in Dayton, Ohio. |
A Rover is a station that operates while in motion, or from multiple locations during the contest period. Rover categories are available in many VHF and higher contests, including the upcoming ARRL June VHF Contest from June 8 - 10. |
Mike Willis, G0MJW, provided a video introduction to using the open source KiCAD application for schematic capture and printed circuit board design. This is an RSGB Tonight@8 webinar. Contest University 2024 was live-streamed via YouTube. If you missed it, you can still watch the eight hours of video. If you’re looking for a particular session, links to the beginning of some of the presentations are below: “What happened last weekend, although it didn’t affect a major contest… could affect us like that again over the next 2 or 3 years or so of this solar cycle peak.” – Frank Donovan, W3LPL, discussing the result of the sun’s coronal mass ejection and associated radio blackout during his talk (see link above). |
Randy Thompson, K5ZD, suggests that on your journey to SO2R skills, you “don’t attempt to use two radios at once until you’ve mastered using one very well.” Mastery includes knowing how to make contacts under various conditions using your radio without thinking about how to use radio functions like filtering, attenuation, and so forth. The process of using the radio should be muscle memory. |
| Technical Topics and Information |
The MorseRunner community edition project had a new release in March. There is now support for the IARU HF World Championship, and ARRL Field Day and CQ WPX contests have been improved. MorseRunner is a fun tool that can help improve your CW contesting skills by simulating real contests with your contest logging software such as N1MM Logger+ and DxLog. A lot of PC enthusiasts and gamers build their own mechanical keyboards by combining a printed circuit board with keyswitches and keycaps of their choice. Some people prefer silent keys, while some want the definitive clack of vintage CHERRY keyswitches. There’s a wide variety of choices, and if you’re designing your own gear you’ll find KiCAD libraries for easy printed circuit board layout. That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting-related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org. 73, Paul, N1SFE and Brian, N9ADG |
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*FREE* Shipping on $30 or more for 2024 Field Day Gear! Use code FD2024 at www.arrl.org/shop/fieldday *Bonus - 2024 Field Day pin is automatically included Offer ends Monday, June 10, 2024 |
June 6, 2024 – June 19, 2024 An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral is available as a PDF. Check the sponsors' website for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions. HF CONTESTS Walk for the Bacon QRP Contest, Jun 6, 0000z to Jun 7, 0300z; CW; Bands: 40; Maximum 13 wpm, RST + (state/province/country) + Name + (Member No./power); Logs due: Jun 13. CWops Test (CWT), Jun 6, 0300z to Jun 6, 0400z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province/country); Logs due: Jun 8. CWops Test (CWT), Jun 6, 0700z to Jun 6, 0800z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10; Member: Name + Member No./"CWA", non-Member: Name + (state/province country); Logs due: Jun 8. NRAU 10m Activity Contest, Jun 6, 1800z to Jun 6, 2200z; CW, SSB, FM, Digital; Bands: 10; RS(T) + 6-character grid square; Logs due: Jun 20. SKCC Sprint Europe, Jun 6, 2000z to Jun 6, 2200z; CW; Bands: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6; RST + (state/province/country) + Name + (SKCC No./"NONE"); Logs due: Jun 13. NCCC FT4 Sprint, Jun 7, 0100z to Jun 7, 0130z; FT4; Bands: (see rules); 4-character grid square; Logs due: Jun 9. |
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