Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club
Contesting SIG Past News and Information

• Current News
• December, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report
• November, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report
• October, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report
• September, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report
• August, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report
• July, 2000 - Monthly Contesting Report

December, 2000

The winter months are great fro staying next to the fire and warming up the nights with RF. So at least fire up those rigs (no pun intended) and get on the air and at least listen to the fun your fellow hams are having. If you do not have the equipment to get on HF then go down to the Club Station and worked from there. You can call Walt K6YJE, Joe K6DXW or any Club Station committee member and get access to this well equipped shack.

The ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes is on the weekend of January 20. Anyone interested in this mid-winter contest should let the group know. We can operate from Ham Hill again or from the club station.

Again we present the list of contest that you can get involved in. This is a short version of Bruce Horn, WA7BNM hard work that is available on the Internet. Check this site out at http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestcal.html

Please note that you may not be able to operate during all of the total hours of the contests listed below. Total operating time may also vary by entry category. See individual contest rules for allowed operating hours.

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November, 2000

Well, only two of the Contest SIG group worked the California QSO Party, W6DNN and W1PR (as NN6DX his contest call sign). In the future we would like to have quick reports from anyone who worked any of the contest we post to the column. The idea is to generate some competition amongst the club members even if it was a minor personal involvement in any of the contest. The other objective to generate some contesting training at the Club Station. Anyone interested in these activities please drop me a note or e-mail.

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October, 2000

Well, we did it the Contest SIG worked the annual September VHF QSO Party (9/9-10). This was our first concerted effort in a VHF contest for SBARC in 20 YEARS!

We moved our towers and Van on site Friday Evening and started setting up early on Saturday. The contest started at 11:00 local time on Saturday September 9 and went through Sunday evening. We operated 6 meters, 2 meters, 220 MHz, 432 MHz, 900 MHz?, 1296 MHz, 10 GHz and 24 GHz. There were three operating positions, two in F.D. tents and the 6 meter station in the SBARC Van. We powered everything from the Honda generator from the van. We put in a very great score of 4960 points considering we had several technical problems with equipment in the high microwave frequencies.

Here are the members that enjoyed the weekend contesting from "Ham Hill" at Elings Park:
Operators: K7AMI, W6DNN, KF6IKO, WB9KMO, WB6OBB, W1PR and W6VLM.
There were several more members that came up to the site to help or just see what was happening. Here is the list of our "Support Group":
K6DXW, WA6MBZ, KD6NBZ, N6OLT, K6PDQ, K6RCL, KA6RPM, KF6TRT, W1UUQ, WA6VNN and K6ZSR.

Our next SBARC contest activity will probably be the VHF Contest in January and you guessed it we will be back at Ham Hill. But until then we will be having a couple of work parties to help clean up the site and mow down the weeds to show our gratitude to the Elings Park management.

Meanwhile we will be setting up the rules for "INTRA CLUB contesting which has not been done in twenty years. This enables everyone to operate from their own QTH and compete on a local level with other club members. I encourage everyone interested in Contesting to check out all the contests that are happening in the next few months.

The WA7BNM Contest Calendar has been updated October and November. Get out there and get involved or at least listen to the fun.

73, gud luk in the contest George K6HOZ

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September, 2000

The California QSO Party (CQP) is the premier state QSO party held every year on the first weekend of October. The Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) has sponsored CQP since 1974. CQP has traditionally opened the annual contest season by providing an opportunity for contesters to prepare for the ARRL November Sweepstakes since the format is similar. Stations outside of California, worldwide, work stations in the 58 counties of the state which serve as the multipliers. California stations work any station outside of the state with the 50 US states and 8 ARRL Canadian sections as multipliers. Stations outside of Canada and the US add to one's QSO total but do not count as multipliers. See the full set of CQP Rules for more detail at http://www.cqp.org/. On this site you will find lots of information about CQP. The 2000 CQP is coming up on 7-8 October. See the Rules page for details. Check out the "Reserve-Your-County" page for who will be on from which county.

Be sure and let us know any operations that we haven't listed. The 1999 Results page shows how things went last year. Also, be sure to visit the NCCC web site for the latest scoop on a super contest club.

Contact Information
Many NCCCers contribute to making the CQP a success. Feel free to contact any of the following members for additional information or comments:

• Rules, Log Submittals & General Information: Al Maenchen, AD6E\
• County Operation Plans: Bob Wilson, N6TV
• Awards: Ed Muns, W0YK

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August, 2000

The new Contesting SIG is preparing for the ARRL VHF QSO Party this coming weekend.

I met with Joan the director of Elings Park and she said we have full use of the site whenever we want it. To show her and the board our appreciation we are scheduling a clean up party to remove the remaining trash and debris left on the top of the site from the previous tenant.

There is also a wrecked car that we need to have removed and I'm working on having an a Wrecker or towing company remove it for free or very little money. It is an eye sore and a thorn in Joan's side. I think we should take care of it for them, again to thank them for such a great operational site for us.

Now for a request: We have had very poor results with the clubs existing 5 element 6 meter beam at Field Days and at the last VHF contest that we entered. We ordered from Mike Staal K6MYC at M2, and will have delivered in time for this weekend a new 5 element wide- spaced beam (6M5X, 18' boom). The cost of the antenna with shipping should be about $250.00. I would like to present this to the board for approval. We had to order it right away in time for the contest and if there is a problem with this, I will permanently install it on my own tower. It could come out of the Field Day budget since that is an major activity of the Contesting SIG.

Yes, I will see you at the board meeting.

73, George Richardson, K6HOZ

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July, 2000

Well we did it. Filed the biggest score ever for a SBARC Field Day exercise with a score of 7330 in category of 3A. This should be a real respectable score for a non-hard core contesting club. As I stated last month, the new location at Elings Park met all our expectations. Now all we have to do is wait for the published results in QST.to see how we stand nation wide for low power club operations.

The excitement, exposure and re-introduction to all those that were involved has now generated further interests in a new Contesting SIG. So our next club entry is the ARRL September VHF QSO Party on September starting at 1800Z Sept.9 through to 0300Z Sept. 11. There will meetings and antenna parties to fine tune our multi-op and multi band operation. If you are interested in getting involved or even getting your feet wet in contesting just drop me a line and we will put you on the mailing list.

Meanwhile you can jump in and try this exciting facet of Amateur Radio by trying the several contest that are sponsored by other clubs and organizations. Here is an example of the number of contest that you can enter from your home QTH or even down at the SBARC K6TZ Club Station:

That’s 19 contests in August alone and you will notice that you have to make a decision on which one you want to participate on any weekend! Now tell me that contesting is not a big sport in ham radio. If you want additional information you can go one of many contesting web site, an example is http://www.contesting.com/

So check it out and jump in and give it a try. Meanwhile we will be looking forward to you helping the Contest SEG in September.

73, George K6HOZ

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