Contesting in Australia
Amateur
radio contesting involves trying to contact as many other stations as
possible in a fixed period of time.
Contests can be sponsored and organised by
clubs, national bodies such as the Wireless Institute of Australia and
the ARRL,
magazines (several of the biggest international contests are sponsored
by CQ magazine) and interested individuals.
The rules for most of
these contests can be obtained from the WIA
website.
(Under "For Members" then "Awards and Contests"). It is handy
for everyone
participating in the contest to know and understand the rules. Although
many operators chose to "hand out a few a numbers" and their
understanding does not have to be as in depth as the keen contester.
Usually some form of exchange of information more than the callsign and
signal report is required. Most Australian contests require a
serial number to be exchanges this usually starts at 001 and is
incremented for each contact; many contests do not require a signal
report. The RD contest requires signal reports and the contest exchange
is a three digit number giving the number of years the operator has
been licenced - licensed 1 year 001, 50 years 050.
The rules may
allow for stations to be worked multiple times -
after three hours since the last contact in the case of the RD or once
in
every three hour block as is the case for the John Moyle field day.
All operators participating in the contest should keep a log and
for those that are going to operate on more than a casual basis they
should have available some form of checking the stations that have been
worked and when they can be worked again.
For the casual operator
a ruler or card can be placed on a paper log which covers
entries older
than the rework time - thus don't work any one whose callsign you can
see in the log. For others a paper system can be devised that keeps
track of contacts and prevents duplicate contacts or dupes as they are
known. The best solution these days is to use a contest logging program
and there are several named below. Note: for the RD contest a
paper
log is not permitted to have ore than 100 Contacts in it - use a
contest logging program!
Paper logging
There
are two things you will need - a log sheet and if you plan on working a
number of stations a Dupe sheet which keeps track of who you have
worked and when they can be worked again.
An example
of a log
sheet can be found here
(Word document) and it is reasonably self explanatory. (Please note you may
have to play
with the header a bit to get it to print properly - it works
OK
on my computer but others have reported problems). As is
normal amateur
practice the time should be in Zulu (GMT) and shown as such on the log
sheet.
An example of a paper dupe sheet can be
found here.
(Word document) (Please
note you may
have to play
with the header a bit to get it to print properly - it works
OK
on my computer but others have reported problems) The idea
is to
index on the last letter of the callsign and write the
callsign of the station in the appropriate rectangle followed by the
time
at which
they can be contacted again. Some operators put the time they worked
the station but this means you have to do the mental addition every
time you
check the sheet, I prefer to to the maths once and then just compare
the time. So for the RD contest where you had
worked VK3CNE on a VHF band (cannot work your own state on HF) at 0800Z
the entry in the "E" row would look like this:
I do not to write
the "E" on the end of the call as it is implied by the look up, nor do
I write the "3" as that can be assumed - others chose to write the
complete call.
[Whatever you choose to do ensure that you do it the same way for every
callsign entered, otherwise you will be very confused. This is
especially important if you are part of a multioperator team in a
contest; everyone must record the callsigns the same way!!]
If you then worked VK5EE at 0815Z then the "E" row
would
look like this:
This means that if you
hear 3CNE
or 5EE on the air you can check the sheet and see that you can work
them after 1100Z and 1115Z respectively. Use a pencil to write the time
in so that when things are a little slow you can work your way through
the sheet and erase the times as they pass. Of course you
enter a
new time once you work the station again.
One of these "Dupe
Sheets" is used for each band. I found it helpful
to write the
band in very large letters (almost
full page high) with a highlighter to make it stand out
late
in the contest when I was getting tired. If you are using Phone
and CW modes, you are permitted to contact the other station on both
modes, then you can use a different colour for the times for each mode,
or add a P or C after the time.
RD Contest
For those who want to
have a go at the RD contest this year, we have prepared a contest kit
for the 2015 contest it
is available here.
This kit includes pdf's of the (WIA) rules, the (WIA) cover
sheet, (WIA) log sheet, WW2 Equipment Declaration (if required) and
NERG dupe sheets.
Suggested VHF frequencies for
use around Melbourne are as follows: 6M 52.525 MHz
FM,
52.1MHz SSB; 2M 146.500 MHz FM (if there is lots of activity try + or -
25 KHz or 146.550 Mhz), 144.250 MHz SSB; 70CM 439.0 MHz FM, 432.250 MHz
SSB We try to encourage VHF activity as each contact gives
two
points to Victoria and none to another state, where as a HF contact
gives a point to another state. Please remember if you
operate in
the contest then submit your log that is what the scoring is based on -
SUBMITTED LOGS!
Computer
Logging
After
you have tried computer logging once you will not go back to paper
ever again it is just so great to have the computer tell you if you
can work the station again and record all the information for you at
the touch of a few keys. Then at the end of the contest, enter a few
commands and you have the log ready to e-mail to the contest director.
You can also transfer your contest log into your normal
station
log.
There are a number of logging
programs available specifically for the various Australian contests,
the best that I have found is VKCL by Mike Subocz VK3AVV and this is
free from Mike's
website.
VKCL has the ability to read the operating frequency from the
rig, if you have an appropriate interface. This saves you
from
the very common error of logging stations on the wrong band.
VKCL now allows you to use two rigs and gives you
the
ability to switch between them, this is great if you are using one
rig for HF and 6M and another for 2M and 70CM, just select the rig to
use and the program detects the band from the radio
and records the contact..
Another
program is
available from John
Drew VK5DJ.
Both these programs will
complete callsigns for you in
the RD contest, so you would enter 3CNE and they expand it to VK3CNE,
however neither programs provides keying for CW operators.
The
NERG has developed a small application to integrate VKCL and K9DUR
Voicekeyer to assist in calling CQ and making contacts in Phone mode.
Details can be found HERE
I
would strongly recommend that you use a rig interface, assuming that
your rig supports one. There are numerous types available depending on
your particular rig. Most ICOM rigs use the CIV interface and
one
of these can be constructed for a few dollars. I have used a
homebrew one requiring a serial port (very similar to this one), cost
about $10, a commercial USB
unit from PIEXX, cost US$59. Ian VK3MZ reports excellent
results with a USB to ICOM CIV unit purchased on ebay for just $10
posted, I have used these to and they are great. Search eBay for USB
CI-V.
Yaesu
rigs have a variety of interfaces some are similar to the ICOM ones
above and just require a separate wire for Tx data and Rx data (ICOM
have these hooked together) - I suggest that you search the internet
for "yaesu cat cable". We have a USB to Yaesu cable
for the NERG's
FT 897D from ebay for $10 posted and it works fine.
Kenwood radios also have similar interfaces and once again an internet
search will return many examples one
site I found was K0BX's. PIEXX also have Kenwood
interfaces.
Electraft,
ten tec and most other rig manufacturers have interfaces, most with
direct RS232 cables.
Many of the latest rigs, from all manufacturers have a USB
interface built in so just need to be connected to the computer.
For those
interested in a full featured program for international
contests have a look at N1MM+
Logger.
If
you want to use your contesting software to key your rig for CW as well
then please contact Greg and he will assist.
The
information given here is derived from a NERG coffee night held on
Thursday 28th June 2007 and was updated on 26th July 2015
by Greg VK3VT. You can contact
Greg at:
Other useful
links:
- OMNIRIG -
this is software that is used by VKCL and VK5DJ RD contest
logger to communicate with your rig.
Updated 26
July 2015 - VT -
