11
votes
Accepted
What happens if a station did not submit a contest log?
In general, it is not a bad thing to work stations in a contest and not submit a log. In the big popular contests that don't have difficult exchanges, such as the ARRL DX contest or the CQ WPX ...
- 9,320
10
votes
Accepted
What does "THREE ALPHA in Virginia" mean?
First, some background on general amateur radio procedure:
Field Day "is not a contest", but acts a lot like one. In any contest contact, the "exchange" is whatever information is communicated, ...
- 25k
6
votes
Why are contest signal reports always "59" or "599"?
"If the report never changes, why do contest rules still require signal reports, when cutting out phony reports would speed things up?"
This question comes up frequently, among contesters (e....
- 902
6
votes
Why are contest signal reports always "59" or "599"?
Signal reports are sent because the contest may require them. Every contest I can think of requires some exchange of information, and a signal report may or may not be among the required information. ...
- 52.5k
6
votes
Is Field Day a contest?
No, Field Day is not a contest, because stations do not submit logs for checking to validate the claimed scores. No plaques or other commemorations of competitive achievement are sponsored or awarded ...
- 7,912
5
votes
Accepted
Emergency/battery power rules for Field Day: do they include computer equipment?
from ARRL:
Q. What equipment at our Field Day site must be operated off of the emergency power in order to claim the 100-point per transmitter bonus?
A. You must operate all transmitting and receiving ...
- 66
5
votes
Accepted
Linux based SDR spectrum capture via CLI
What are the best hardware options for this considering the bandwidth and frequency requirements and availability of stable linux drivers. (I was thinking one of the SDRPlay family of devices but ...
- 17.4k
4
votes
What's the difference between saying “CQ” or “QRZ” in a contest?
The answer is very simple: a contest station "running" a frequency calls "QRZ?" because it is faster than calling CQ and giving the call sign. The station running the frequency isn't trying to get ...
- 9,320
4
votes
Accepted
Not participating in contests
If you're asking if adding "/NPC" (for "Not Participating in Contest") to the end of your call sign or something like that will help, then I'm sorry to tell you that there is no commonly-recognized ...
- 9,320
4
votes
What are the biggest amateur radio contests ("radiosport")?
All major contests report detailed statistics for the benefit of contest participants, who want to know how they did in the contest. I compiled reported totals of logs submitted for several major ...
- 9,320
4
votes
Accepted
Calling in to a contest
Yes, you are always allowed to respond; contests are not given any special consideration in the regulations of amateur radio. And if someone is calling CQ for a contest, then they want all the ...
- 25k
3
votes
Accepted
Why are contest signal reports always "59" or "599"?
The RS(T) reporting system has always been arbitrary. The original intent was for the receiving operator to estimate readability, signal strength, and tone by ear; there never have been universally-...
- 9,320
3
votes
Contesting dialog
So in a radio contest, there are definite rules about what information must be sent and received for the contact to be valid for contest points. The information that must be traded is known as the "...
- 9,320
3
votes
Not participating in contests
If you are calling CQ, then there are a few ways to make sure you don't sound like a contest station.
First, if you are calling CQ:
For SSB, a contest station might call "CQ contest, CQ contest, ...
- 4,669
3
votes
What's the difference between saying “CQ” or “QRZ” in a contest?
QRZ seems to be commonly used to mean “Someone other than the station
I just worked, please call”
This is the way I always understood it.
but while trying to research this answer I found one ...
- 1,019
3
votes
Expected practices for one ham operating under another's privileges?
This question is correctly marked for "United-States" and I am not familiar with the details of license conditions for that region.
I am going to answer this question for "Ireland", to provide for ...
- 2,195
3
votes
Linux based SDR spectrum capture via CLI
4 Raspberry Pi's each with an RTL-SDR dongle may well be cheaper than just one of the higher bandwidth SDR capture devices or a high end Linux PC. They run Linux. Network them together, with each ...
- 13.6k
2
votes
When to log a callsign suffix for a QSO?
Here is a referenced from OFCOM's on the subject dated December 2023 [1]:
3.54
At present, whilst the licence references four suffixes, only the
use of ‘/MM’ is mandated in the licence. However, many ...
2
votes
When to log a callsign suffix for a QSO?
The general rule of thumb is to log what you copy. When the sending station submits their log, they should enter what you copied as the "sent" callsign, which should cover you. If you find otherwise ...
- 7,912
2
votes
When to log a callsign suffix for a QSO?
if they say "callsign portable" then it's definitely "callsign/p". The /QRP has no 'real' value "callsign/QRP" is the same as "callsign".
In my country (Belgium) according to the law only these ...
- 823
2
votes
What are the biggest amateur radio contests ("radiosport")?
Yes, ARRL and CQ sponsored contests on HF are certainly among the "biggest" (I don't think any other contests draw larger participation than the CQ Worldwide DX and the CQ WPX contests). ...
- 902
2
votes
Accepted
Is Field Day a contest?
Based on this affiliated club document, yes, Field Day is a contest.
Field Day is a competitive event sponsored by the American Radio Relay
League (ARRL). The objective is for participating ...
- 4,145
2
votes
Accepted
Can missing QSOs in my contest log adversely affect other operator's scores?
Yes, sending a log with missing QSOs would lead to penalties for those of your QSO partners who are sending a log themselves. There is no way sensible way of "logging" a QSO with incomplete ...
- 902
1
vote
Fox & Hound or regular FT8 for ARRL International Digital Contest?
Regular (please).
Fox and Hound mode is intended for the scenario where everybody on frequency (the "hounds") are working one station (the fox). It's optimized to max out the fox's QSO rate ...
- 13.2k
1
vote
Emergency/battery power rules for Field Day: do they include computer equipment?
For class A battery stations the following rule applies:
All contacts must be made using an output power of 5 Watts or less and the power source must be something other than commercial power mains ...
- 8,174
1
vote
Emergency/battery power rules for Field Day: do they include computer equipment?
Where I see the word commercial is in relation to electrical power only.
In other words, when you are not on commercial power you can be on batteries, solar, whatever, but clearly off-grid.
It is ...
- 2,097
1
vote
Convert maidenhead grid square to lat/long in Excel?
Function FromMaidenhead(m As String) As Variant
Dim lat As Double, lon As Double
lat = (Asc(Mid(m, 2, 1)) - 65) * 10 + Val(Mid(m, 4, 1)) + (Asc(Mid(m, 6, 1)) - 97) / 24 + 1 / 48 - 90
lon = (Asc(Mid(m,...
- 11
1
vote
What are contests? What do I need to know about them being new to ham radio?
Your local HAM club will almost certainly have HAMs who are contesters. Most will be happy to help you. Many contests have website that will explain their rules and procedures.
While not officially a ...
- 1,854
1
vote
How do I increase my phone intelligibility?
From this webpage:
TL;DR:
Get rid of the audio below 300-500 Hz*, and then use audio processing (compression) to raise the average power.
*This is accomplished by:
Choosing a suitable microphone, ...
- 8,174
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible