AmQRP Contesting Page

QRP Contesting

by Ken Newman, N2CQ

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QRP Contesters,

Please send me your sprint or contest information and we'll get it listed in our popular QRP Contesting calendar!

February 2004 QRP CONTEST CALENDAR

40 METER FOXHUNT - Wednesday 0200z to 0400z (Tue eve USA)
Info: http://www.cqc.org

Truffle Hunt - 30 min before Fox Hunt
Info: http://fpqrp.com/pig_hunt.html

UBA DX Contest (Belgian) (SSB) ... QRP Category
Jan 31, 1300z to Feb 1, 1300z
Rules: http://www.uba.be

North American Sprint (CW) ... QRP Category
Feb 1, 0000z to 0400z
Rules: http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrules.php

Adventure Radio Society - Spartan Sprint (CW) ... QRP Contest!
Feb 3, 0200z to 0400z (Monday Evening US/Canada)
Rules: http://www.arsqrp.com/

New Hampshire QSO Party (All) ... QRP Category
Feb 7, 0000z to Feb 8, 2400z
Rules: http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/nhqp.htm

Vermont QSO Party (All)
Feb 7, 0000z to Feb 8, 2400z
Rules: http://www.ranv.org/vtqso.html

10-10 Int. Winter QSO Party (SSB - Ten Meters) ... QRP Category
Feb 7, 0001z to Feb 8, 2400z
Rules: http://www.ten-ten.org/

Minnesota QSO Party (All) ... QRP Category
Feb 7, 1400z to 2400z
Rules: http://www.w0aa.org/

FBYO Winter QRP Field Day (CW/SSB) ... QRP Contest!
Feb 7, 1600z to 2400z
Rules: http://www.extremezone.com/~nk7m/fybo04.htm

AGCW Straight Key QSO Party (CW 80M) ... QRP Category
Feb 7, 1600z to 1900z
Rules: http://www.agcw.de/

Delaware QSO Party (All)
Feb 7, 1700z to Feb 8, 0500z
Feb 8, 1300z to Feb 9, 0100z
Rules: http://www.fsarc.org

North American Sprint (Phone) ... QRP Category
Feb 8, 0000z to 0400z
Rules: http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrules.php

QRP ARCI Fireside Sprint (SSB) ...QRP Contest!
Feb 8, 2000z to 2400z
Rules: http://2hams.net/ARCI/firesid.htm

FISTS Winter Sprint (CW of course) ...QRP Category
Feb 14, 1700z to 2100z
Rules: http://www.fists.org/sprints.html

Run For The Bacon (CW) *** QRP Contest ***
Feb 16, 0100z to 0300z
Rules: http://fpqrp.com

ARRL International DX Contest (CW) ... QRP Category
Feb 21, 0000z to Feb 22, 2400z
Rules: http://www.arrl.org/contests/

Colorado QRP Club Winter QSO Party (CW/SSB) ... QRP Contest!
Feb 22, 2200z to Feb 23, 0359z
Rules: http://www.cqc.org/contests

CQ WW 160-Meter DX Contest (SSB) ... QRP Category
Feb 28, 0000z to Feb 29, 2359z
Rules: http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/awards.html

UBA DX Contest - Belgium (CW) ... QRP Category
Feb 28, 1300z to Feb 29, 1300z
Rules: http://www.uba.be

High Speed CW Club Contest ... QRP Category
Feb 29, 0900z to 1100z
Rules: http://www.morsecode.dutch.nl/hscindex.html

North Carolina QSO Party (CW/SSB) ... QRP Category
Feb 29, 1700z to Mar 1, 0300z
Rules: http://www.w4nc.com/pages/2/index.htm

Thanks to K3WWP, LA9HW, SM3CER, WA7BNM, ARRL and others for assistance in compiling this calendar.

Anyone may use this "QRP Contest Calendar" for your website, newsletter, e-mail list or other media as desired. (Of course, please include a credit to the source of this material.)

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QRP Contesting "Tips & Techniques"

I may not have anything new in contesting but it wouldn't hurt to review on these points. Anyone with more to add, PLEASE DO, and we'll add your input to the review.

ANTENNAS, ANTENNAS and ANTENNAS. Many would agree that antennas are the first three thing to improve our results in contesting for any kind, whether Sprint or Contest.

Sample of the above:

QRP Afield '96 was won easily by AC5AM, Bob Stolzle. Having been in the contest, we wondered how it could be that this guy was S9 the whole contest, and always there sending 950 MW power. Now we know. The complete story was published in the "72" of Jan. '97. Again, antennas. He found the highest point in the area which just happened to have an old, unused broadcast radio tower. He raised two full wave delta loops (20 and 40 meters) and inverted vee's (20/40 mtrs) at the 100' level. A coax switch is used to choose the best antenna for the incoming signals.

The 100' level probably made the difference, being a strong signal from a QRPp station. His point too is that resonant antennas do much better than those with tuners. The idea was to call CQ on the loop. If no answer, call CQ on the Vee, and so on. If answered on a weak signal, switch to the other one if received better.

Now on to the rest of the real QRP World. Not many are going to find a unused 100+ foot tower to raise these types of antennas. Given that for the Contest type of event, the next thing would be the Op.

For the Op, the biggest thing would be the amount of operation time he is having fun with. Very few put in the 24 hours for the QRP ARCI Spring and Fall contests. The ones in the "TOP TEN" list reached that level according to the hours spent, assuming they are more than average stations. How do they do that? First one have to have the desire. It becomes less desirable at the 15 hour level unless you had plenty of sleep before the contest. To stay there, you have to have the necessary operator comforts. You know what they are for you. Things like a comfortable chair and headphones will take you further.

The first thing that took me to longer operating duration was the memory keyer. With this you can be relaxed much longer and your fist won't give out.

In recent years, computer logging will go even further. I use "NA" for the QRCI contests. When calling CQ, you can set a repeat every few seconds. All you need do is listen. If a station is answering, press the "ESC" key to stop the repeats, and enter his callsign. Press the "INSERT" key, and the station is answered and your info is sent. (You can input an RST if you wish). Enter his info and press the "=" key and you have sent an OK and a QRZ. That is it. (Except the log that is printed at the end.) Given that, you could be there a much longer time.

What else for the operator? Practice, practice, and practice! The more you do the better you get.

There are some excellent links to more contest tips. I would recommend the K3WWP link first. If you have been in contesting, chances are you worked John. He is using a homebrew QRP tube transmitter with an indoor antenna. If you don't have the antenna like AC5AM had, you can relate to K3WWP. Look for his tips at: http://home.alltel.net/johnshan/contest_ss_tips.html

After that, you may want to check the tips from the top contesters. Check them out at: http://www.contesting.com This is not QRP but many of the suggestions will help us all in contesting. This covers the pre-contesting, equipment, operating, and post-contesting. Most tips assume that you are running a KW, beams and contest software.

Anyone have more QRP contesting tips? I'm sure all would like to hear about them and we'll add any that can help us along.

CU in the next 'test!

72/73,
Ken Newman, N2CQ
Woodbury, NJ
n2cq@arrl.net

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