Hi Nizar Thanks for the history and the suggestions. I have to admit I did enjoy the contest, though I found very few hams on the air when I was operating. I guess that's probably partly a function of disspirited attitude generated by generally poor propagation conditions. At any rate, it did whet my appitite for it and will be looking forward to the next SSB event. Meanwhile, I am hoping you will organize a short course for those of us interested in getting started with CW. Of course, I know you have to learn it on your own, but it helps to have a smart plan of attack and I know you've looked into that. JP
JP, I got started in contesting about four years ago when we, the BVARC club members, challenged Big Al (XZ), that we could beat his score. (Actually, he might have bragged that he could beat us all to get us fired up.) Well, we did not succeed the first year, but from then on, we improved and we did beat him eventually. Of course, we had about 16 members against 1. Not a very equitable situation for him. But, he was OK with it since he wanted the non-contesters to get involved. Several of the members did get involved and we got better. That is why the Big Al challenge is no longer in place. Contesting makes you a better operator and makes you improve your station. You get to learn very quickly that in order to get more QSOs in a contest, you need a decent rig and a reasonable antenna. After that, the realization hits you in the face - you need to become a better operator. There is nothing better than working some contests, or working Field Day, or observing good operators, to show you what you need to do to become a more efficient and a better operator. Once you see how to do it, the next part is to just operate more contests and practice. It does not matter how many contacts you make. The main thing is to challenge yourself to do better the next time. Learn, improve and get better. Then, repeat that cycle again. Field Day is a great time to learn from the experts. We may try and implement some programs where people can tag along with an expert and listen in on the QSOs during operation. Of course, putting up antennas, tuning them and getting the rigs ready is all a part of how to set up your rig. A valuable hands-on lesson from the experts. If anyone cannot wait till Field Day, we have several operators who will be glad to help a newbie get better. We can help with setting up antennas and the software. That is what the Elmers are for in our hobby. Nizar K0NM From: BVARC [mailto:bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org] On Behalf Of JP Pritchard via BVARC Sent: Monday, December 12, 2016 4:09 PM To: 'BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB'; 'James Burrough' Cc: JP Pritchard Subject: Re: [BVARC] N5XZ ARRL 10-Meter Contest Same here. Also embarrassingly small. But thanks to John Chauvin K5IZO for all his help in getting me started on this. An Elmer extraordinare! 73 JP Pritchard KG3JPP _____ From: BVARC [mailto:bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org] On Behalf Of KC5RET KC5RET via BVARC Sent: Monday, December 12, 2016 4:02 PM To: James Burrough; BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Cc: KC5RET KC5RET Subject: Re: [BVARC] N5XZ ARRL 10-Meter Contest James, Well put. I'll submit my logs, even though it is embarrassingly small. 73, Rob, KC5RET On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 2:07 PM, James Burrough via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote: Your contacts will get their points. There is another aspect to this. Not submitting a log means your participation is not counted by the sponsoring organization. This may seem trivial but your investment of the few minutes it takes to submit your log means that the sponsoring organization knows of your participation and knows you appreciate the hard work they do to put on these contests. Plus, it is good practice for you for the times you might have a bigger log to report. On Monday, December 12, 2016 11:49 AM, KC5RET KC5RET via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote: Congrats to all the guys that made a bunch of contacts. The SWR on 10m is at 3.1 to 1, (I tried the suggested tuning method, no luck) but it still heard well and suppressed the background noise to almost nothing. I was only able to make 11 contacts in 6 hours of operating. My question is, if I don't submit my log, will the ops that contacted me still get their points? 73, Rob, KC5RET On Dec 11, 2016 6:54 PM, "Allen Brier N5XZ via BVARC" <bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote: N5XZ ARRL 10-Meter Contest Call: N5XZ Operator(s): N5XZ Station: N5XZ Class: SO Mixed Unlimited HP QTH: TX Operating Time (hrs): 24 Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- CW: 445 83 SSB: 550 82 ------------------- Total: 995 165 Total Score = 475,200 Club: Texas DX Society Comments: WOW! I expected conditions to be lousy, which they were. What I didn't expect was to make almost 1000 QSO's and almost 500K points! This was far better than I expected! Quite some time ago, I made just over 1000 QSO's when band conditions were good. I didn't expect to make anywhere near that many. I had a really great run on Saturday, with N1MM+ rate meter clocking in at 403 for 10 minutes and the max rate tool showing 360/hour for 1 minute. Not bad for lousy band conditions. Imagine if the conditions were good! I managed to work two DL's, one EA8, one E51, a bunch of VK/ZL's and a slew of Central/South America/Caribbean stations. Not bad for Texas in these conditions. This is the first time I have done mixed mode for a long time, and it was for sure a lot of fun. Thanks as always to my wife for putting up with me this weekend. Rig: K3/P3 (I'll never go without a bandscope again!) Amp: Alpha 78 @ 1500W out Ant: 4-el SteppIR @ 75 ft Int: microHAM micro KEYER II S/W: N1MM+ Allen R. Brier N5XZ 1515 Windloch Lane Richmond, Texas 77406-2553 (281) 342-1882 (Home) (713) 705-4801 (Cell) ______________________________ _________________ BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/ <http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org> listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org _______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org _______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
_______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
