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HCRA/SOTA Jerks – 630 meter Challenge Results

The15 States worked by the winner, Bob/WA1OJN

Last fall HCRA and SOTA Jerks put forth a 630 meter challenge to our members. The idea and rules were simple. Get people interested in operating on the new band and offer a $100 prize for achieving the longest confirmed QSO. Yes, there were other rules but lets keep it simple. We’re all about simple!

Staying with simple we’ll let the operators tell their own story.

The WINNER!

Bob/WA1OJN – First Place and wins the $100 prize!

“It’s been a Hell of a ride, and I really enjoyed it!  Thanks for the motivation, got me back to the basics on Ham Radio and I learned a lot! Met some great people and had a lot of fun.”

 

“My longest confirmed QSO ( and the longest in general) was W7UIV in WA state at 2296.96 miles by the link you provided.”

 


“My longest WSPR that was received by another station was LA2XPA in Norway at 3383.5 miles.  See attached PDF.  I know this doesn’t count as a QSO, but pretty amazing. Total of 54 QSOs: JT9(51), FT8(2) and CW(1).”

“All done with a Kenwood TS-440 feeding a WA3ETD 25W converter. Antenna is converted 80M dipole 136 horizontal, 25 feet vertical with home made variometer.”

Thanks for the great effort Bob and glad to see you had fun. As an added bonus Bob will be showing off parts of his 630m station at HCRA’s April 6th Show & Tell meeting – don’t miss it!

 

Jim/KK1W

“First off, a big congratulations to Bob for his outstanding efforts into 630 meters. 54 QSO’s are indeed impressive, there’s not a lot of unique stations to work (yet) on the MF bands. I was quite surprised with the distances possible with low power and small antennas. Some said, “will you even be able to make a QSO across town?”. I guess the answer is YES!”

“I ended up with 29 QSO’s, JT9(25, CW (3) and FT8 (1). I could hear a lot farther than I could work with only 20 watts going into an inverted L antenna. The vertical portion of the antenna is 80′, horizontal about 175′, fed through a fixed tuned loading coil and a half dozen ‘on ground’ radials.  My farthest QSO was with ZF1EJ in the Cayman Islands, a distance of 1668 miles. That means Bob only whipped me by 628 miles! Oh well….”

“My station consists of an Elecraft K3s, MFSolutions down converter modified to be a simple 20W amplifier and an Inverted L antenna. Most receiving was done on a 650′ reversible beverage.”

Nick/K1NZ

Nick modified his IC-735 to work on 630 meters. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to get a viable antenna built before winter arrived. He ended up making one CW QSO with Jim, KK1W, confirmed on LotW for a distance of 7 miles. Hopefully Nick will be up and running on 630 next fall and making lots of digital QSO’s

 


The SWL’s

Al/N1AW

Al didn’t have time to put together a transmit station but received a QSL from AA1A for a beacon reception: Here’s the details:

“Hi,
I am hearing your AA1A beacon on 473.9 KHz. I’m listening with an old IC-706, antenna is a 160m inverted L. The signal does not  indicate on my S-meter, and is pretty close to the noise level, but I don’t expect this rig to be much good at receiving at this frequency. According to QRZ.com I am 105 miles from you in FN32qq. This  is my first go at doing anything on this band.  I have a few other projects to finish before I try to make a transmitter. I wonder what you are using for transmitter and antenna?”
“Maybe you have already heard, one of the clubs I belong to is sponsoring a VLF contest. The info is on their website: https://hcra.org/

73,
Al,   N1AW

“Hi Al, QSL 474 cw and that was a rare CW beacon try,  am usually on WSPR for automatic unattended operation. The TX is a IC718 feeding a home brew transverter then in to a PA amp then directly in to the wire vertical loop, forget radials and variometers!!… That is interesting hcra page, let’s get going and show them how its done, eh?? You will need a few dozen watts minus antenna efficiency to come out @ 5W radiated, also you are in the side null of my loop so that’s pretty good receiving…”

N1AW DE AA1A  TNX Al

Frandy/N1FJ

Frandy listened with his K3 for KK1W’s CW signal on 630m and was able to copy it, a distance of 27 miles. KK1W, being lazy, didn’t send a SWL card.

James/WD1S

James did a lot of listening on 630 meters with his Kenwood TS-590. Unfortunately the 590, like the K3s, only generates about 0.5 milliwatts on 630 meters. That’s just not enough power to run barefoot on 630. I’m not sure if James was able to copy signals from either me or Bob, but I think he did. If so the distances would be 37 and 8 miles respectively.

WRAP-UP

That about wraps it up for our first 630 meter challenge. Thanks to HCRA and the SOTA Jerks for contributing $50 from each club towards the prize and allowing us the opportunity to run the challenge. Everyone learned from their efforts: building and tuning antennas for 630m, designing and building loading coils, modifying radios and amplifiers, learning new digital modes, understanding MF propagation…  the list goes on.  Our entrants elected not to ‘sit on the sidelines’ but get active and try new things. Not everything worked as planned but, in the end they were successful and had fun. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Good luck with your amateur radio adventures in 2018!

’73…
Jim/KK1W

 

DX Bulletin 39

QST de W1AW
DX Bulletin 39 ARLD039
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT September 25, 2014
To all radio amateurs

SB DX ARL ARLD039
ARLD039 DX news

This week’s bulletin was made possible with information provided by HA3JB, ZL4PW, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, The Daily DX, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

VIET NAM, 3W. Bruce is QRV as 3W3B from Da Nang on the HF bands using CW and RTTY. This includes an entry in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. QSL via E21EIC.

BHUTAN, A5. Operators Pekka, OH2YY and Pekka, OH1TV are QRV as A52O from Paro until October 2. Activity is on the HF bands with two stations using CW and SSB. QSL via OH2YY.

CHINA, BY. Operators Zhang, BA3AX, Wang, BA3CE and Lu, BD3AEO will be QRV as BA3AX/2, BA3CE/2 and BD3AEO/2, respectively, from Juhua Island, IOTA AS-151, from October 2 to 5. Activity will be on 20 to 10 meters. QSL via BA3AX.

NAURU, C2. Stan, LZ1GC will be QRV as C21GC from September 28 to October 14. Activity will be on the HF bands using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL to home call.

ANDORRA, C3. Members of the Unio de Radioaficionats Andorrans will be QRV as C37NL in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. QSL via C37URA.

BAHAMAS, C6. Phil, G3SWH will be QRV as C6AYS from New Providence Island, IOTA NA-001, from September 30 to October 10. QSL to home call.

SOUTH COOK ISLANDS, E5. Operators Mathias, DJ2HD and Gerd, DJ5IW will be QRV as E51HDJ and E51XIW, respectively, from Rarotonga, IOTA OC-013, from September 30 to October 6. Activity will be holiday style on the HF bands using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL to home calls.

CANARY ISLANDS, EA8. Members of the Union de Radioaficionados Espanoles plan to be QRV as EF8U in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. QSL via operators’ instructions.

JERSEY, GJ. Kazu, M0CFW is QRV as MJ5Z and plans to be active in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest as a Single Op/All Band/Low Power entry. Before and after the contest he is active as MJ0CFW. QSL both calls to home call.

LUXEMBOURG, LX. Operator LX7I will be QRV in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest as a Multi Op entry. QSL via LX2A.

ARUBA, P4. Al, W6HGF is QRV as P4/W6HGF until October 1. He plans to be active as P40HF in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest.
Otherwise, he’ll be active as P4/W6HGF. QSL both calls to home call.

SABA, ST. EUSTATIUS, PJ5. David, OK6DJ, Petr, OK1FCJ and Pavel, OK1FPS are QRV as PJ5/home calls from Sint Eustatius, IOTA NA-145, until October 3. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY and other digital modes with up to three stations active. This includes an entry in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. QSL via operators’ instructions.

INDONESIA, YB. Members of the Orari Daerah Jawa Tengah Contesting Team will be QRV as YE2C in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest as a Multi/Single entry. QSL via operators’ instructions. In addition, Gab, HA3JB is QRV as YB9/HA3JB as part of the International Police Association Expedition until October 7. Activity is on the HF bands using CW, SSB and RTTY. This includes an entry in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. QSL to home call.

VANUATU, YJ. Members of the Quake Contesters will be QRV as YJ0X from October 3 to 15. Activity will be on the HF bands, including 6 meters, with two stations using CW, SSB and RTTY. This includes an entry in the upcoming Oceania DX contest. QSL via ZL3PAH.

ALBANIA, ZA. R.C. Nikola Tesla club members Igor, Z32ID, Mome, Z32ZM, Oz, Z35T and Venco, Z36W will be QRV as ZA/Z35T in the CQ World Wide RTTY DX contest. Outside the contest they are active on the newer bands. QSL via operators’ instructions.

SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS. W1AW Centennial Stations W1AW/5 in New Mexico and W1AW/7 in Idaho are QRV until 2359z on September 30. In addition, W1AW/KL7 in Alaska, W1AW/6 in California and W1AW/3 in the District of Columbia will be QRV starting at 0000z on October 1.
They will be active until 2359z on October 7.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO. The CQ Worldwide RTTY DX Contest, NCCC RTTY Sprint Ladder, NCCC Sprint, AGCW VHF/UHF CW Contest, Texas QSO Party, UBA ON 6-Meter Contest and the Peanut Power QRP Sprint are all on tap for this upcoming weekend. The 222 MHz Fall Sprint is scheduled for September 30. The CWops Mini-CWT Test is scheduled for October 1. Please see September QST, page 81, and the ARRL and WA7BNM contest web sites for details.

(Copied from an E-Mail sent by the ARRL)

Massachusetts to Host USA ARDF Championships June 5-8

The USA ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding) Championships return to the Northeast this year. ARRL ARDF Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV, said on-foot foxhunting fans of all skill levels will gather near Boston in early June for 4 days of intense competition. Registration to participate in the event has been extended to June 1.

Activities begin on Thursday, June 5 with a 10-transmitter short-course sprint competition on 80 meters. The following day is the foxoring event, a combination of RDF and classic orienteering on 80 meters in which participants navigate to marked locations on their maps where very low-power transmitters can be found nearby. Saturday morning will be the classic full-course 2 meter main event, with five transmitters in a very large forest. The banquet and awards presentation follow that evening. A similar full-course 80 meter main event takes place Sunday morning, with awards presented afterward.
ARDF champ Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, is this year’s lead organizer, event host, and course-planner.

National ARDF championships typically take place in late summer or early fall. This year, though, the ARDF World Championships will take place during early September, however. To provide plenty of time for selecting Team USA members and planning overseas travel, the 2014 USA ARDF Championships must take place 3 months before.

ARDF championship rules are set by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). For scoring and awards, participants are divided into 11 age/gender categories. In classic ARDF championships, competitors start in small groups comprised of different categories.

The USA ARDF Championships are open to anyone who can safely navigate the woods solo. A ham radio license is not required. Each participant competes as an individual.

Stateside winners will be considered for membership in ARDF Team USA, which will travel to Kazakhstan for the 17th ARDF World Championships.

An online entry form and more information are available on the Boston ARDF website. Read more. — Thanks to Joe Moell, K0OV, ARRL Amateur Radio Direction Finding Coordinator

 

HCRA Foxhunt – June 1st


HCRAfoxhuntsmall

 

Now that things are warming up in Hampden County, I think it’s time to have ourselves a Foxhunt. So dust off your direction finding equipment and make sure it works. With thanks to Larry, W1AST (ex WB1DBY), We had a decent turnout for our last foxhunt that took place in the fall of 2013. Jeff, NT1K has volunteered to the be the fox this time. If you are interested and want to join in on the hunt, please contact NT1K. You can either reply to this post, fill out the form below, e-mail (my call @ arrl.net) or see NT1K at the next meeting. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to join in on the fun. Home stations with a beam could also help the operators by providing beam headings.

We have permission to use the K1ZJH repeater. The fox will transmit on the repeater while the hunters will be using the input frequency to look for the location of the FOX.

  • Frequency: 146.715 MHz
  • Input Frequency: 146.115MHz (This is the frequency you want to track the fox on)
  • PL: 100hz
  • Date: Sunday, June 1st, 2014
  • Time: 3:00pm Local
  • Starting Location: Holyoke Mall Overflow Lot (Behind Sears)
  • Duration: 1-2hrs

If you are new to Amateur Radio and  never participated in a fox hunt, This would be  the perfect time to get your feet wet. Take some time and read an excellent post by Larry (W1AST) about fox hunting basics. You can also check out homingin.com for more information.

Transmissions will start at approximately 3:00pm. It’s Important that you check in with the fox.
I will transmit for 1-2 min every 10 min. I will also chat it up with anyone else on frequency. My power level will vary from 55W (at the start) to 5W to make it easier for people to track me. 
I will stop transmitting either when all checked in stations arrive or at 5:00pm whichever is first. That is why it’s important to check in.

Home stations with the proper equipment are encouraged to help out and provide headings if possible. 

foxhuntdia


Are you Interested? Contact NT1K below

Error: Contact form not found.


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Next HCRA Meeting Friday, January 3rd

Next HCRA Meeting Friday, January 3rd

Guest Speaker Fred Hopengarten – K1VR

Bundle up and come on out to HCRA’s January meeting where guest speaker Fred
Hopengarten – K1VR will discuss the legal aspects of antennas and towers. Fred is the author of the book Antenna Zoning published by the ARRL and has been a lawyer handling federal communication law since 1990. His presentations are filled with advice on working with local governments and zoning regulations as well as success stories from his clients who have hit legal roadblocks. We are looking forward to his presentation and hope that you will join us.

Along with Fred’s presentation, we will be discussing regular club business and future events, selling raffle tickets for the FT-857, taking membership renewals for 2013/2014, and taking deposits for WRTC equipment that the club is selling at a discount to members. Don’t forget to come early for Bob – K1YO’s Tech Corner!

Meeting starts at 7:30PM (Tech Corner at 7:00pm)

Holyoke Medical Center Auxiliary Conference Center
575 Beech St. Holyoke MA, 01040

Fox Hunt Coming Soon – Sun, Nov 3rd – BE THERE!

That’s right folks, time to break out your RDF equipment because there will be a fox loose on Sunday, November 3rd, 2013.

When: Sunday, Nov 3rd
Where: Forest Park, Rt.5

Picknelly Field (RT. 5 Enterence To Forest Park @ Indian Sculpture)
Columbus Ave, Springfield, MA 01106

Starts at 2pm and should last a couple hours.

From Larry: WB1DBY

We’re holding the First Fall Fox Hunt of 2013 on Sunday afternoon, November 3rd at 2 pm. Yours truly is the fox. Starting point is the parking lot at the “Indian” aka entrance to Forest park across from the King Philip Stockade on the way to Longmeadow.

Max 2 hours. Should be an easy and FUN hunt. The fx will give out clues. Hoping for at least 5 mobile hunters (more welcome!) and also base stations welcome to give headings too.

If you plan on particpating, please let me know. It’s possible we may have some future hams at the starting point looking for rides.

Come and find me!

If you never have been to a fox hunt before, Larry wrote a very nice article about fox hunting and what to do!


The Basics on Finding the Fox
By
Larry, WB1DBY
(with special thanks to my XYL for proof reading this)

So you want to hunt down the fox? What do you need to get started? Are there any tricks to help? What do you do? What hardware do you need? How prepared should you be?

Suggested Equipment:

  • Some sort of receiver be it a scanner, ht, mobile rig for 2 meters

You can hunt with just that, but you’ll need a LOT of luck. You also should have:

  • A directional antenna

  • receiver with a S meter to hunt with

  • 2nd receiver (explained below)

  • Attenuator

  • Compass & piece of string or small rope (or 3 or more pieces of rope or string – see Steps 14 & 15)

  • Physical Map That shows Hartford, CT to Northampton, MA and everything in between (a gps just doesn’t cut it here)

  • Pad and pen

  • watch or clock

  • Co Pilot or two

The Fox will transmit one minute out of every 5 minutes. The Fox will also give a one minute warning (or try to).

Step 1: Meet other hunters at the starting point. For Sunday, November 3rds hunt, we are starting at the parking lot at the entrance to Forest park off exit 1 of route 91. This is the parking lot at Picknelly Field near the Indian and nearly into Longmeadow. It’s also across from the entrance to the King Philip Stockade. You should arrive at least 15 minutes (or more) before the hunt starts to give you time to get ready.

  • Note: Sometimes others will arrive at the starting point looking for a ride. It’s important for the hunters to have room in their vehicles for future hunters to observe (or help you).

Step 2: Have your directional antenna connected to your receiver. Verify that it is connected. Can you DF (direction find) the repeater? Does it point in the correct direction? If yes – good.

Step 3: Now tune to the input and lock it there. If you’re hunting on 94, tune your receiver to 146.34 and lock it there. Do not hunt on the 146.94 OUTPUT of the repeater (you wouldn’t be the first) otherwise you’ll end up at Mt. Tom eventually.

Step 4: Make sure your compass is in your hand or pocket (or better yet, have your co-pilot be ready with the compass, have the pad and pen near too.

Step 5: Listen for the fox to ask for check ins. Check in or ask someone else to check you in. There may be a person designated to collect everyones name and call.

Step 6: Listen for the ONE minute warning. You should be ready by then.

Step 7:  When the Fox is transmitting, sweep the antenna around to the strongest signal on your S meter. Once you find it, reverse the antenna 180 degrees. Can you NULL the Fox out or greatly reduce his signal? If yes, you probably have a good heading. If you have trouble receiving the fox, sometimes moving a few feet is enough to pick up the signal better.

Step 8:  Look to see where your antenna is pointed. If you are by yourself, find a spot where the antenna is pointed and remember it. Put the antenna down and use the compass to take a directional heading – looking at this spot. (or have your co-pilot do this while you aim the antenna) – Your co-pilot should stand behind the back of the antenna and point the compass down the boom of the antenna and read where it points. Reading a compass is a whole other thing – find a boy scout to help you if you can’t!

Step 9: WRITE down starting point and the heading you just took

Step 10: Open up your map and find the starting point. Put one end of the string at the starting point and using the compass, extend the string out onto the map. Look to see where it goes.

  • At this point, you could drive along the path where the string goes and some will do that. It’s up to you if you’re feeling lucky.

  • You might want to compare your headings with the other hunters

  • You might also want to listen for headings from base stations. If base stations check in, write their call and location down and their heading. (more on this further down)

Step 11: Looking at the map, find a location that is not along the string line to take your next reading. The idea here is to triangulate and find the fox. Write down that location on the pad. Put everyone and all your gear safely into your vehicle and drive to that spot you noted.

Don’t worry about missing a transmission or two by the fox. Go to the point you chose. (it takes a lot of will to not stop and swing the antenna around, try not to)

Step 12: Find a safe spot away from buildings, big trucks, maybe high up or in a clear area to take your next reading.

Step 13:  Repeat steps 4 thru 8 and write down your new bearing on the pad. Don’t commit it to memory as I guarantee you’ll never remember it. Write it down.

Step 14: Plot your original heading with the string. Plot your 2nd heading with another piece of string. Do they cross? Let’s hope so. If not, take another reading OR move your location a bit and take another reading. If there are base station readings with headings, you may want to plot their headings too. Make sure it is from their QTH and not yours!

Step 15:  If the lines cross, you can figure out where on the map that is and drive there OR repeat steps 3 thru 8 again from another selected spot not along the lines and plot another heading.  This should give you a much more exact location where all 3 headings cross. Go there!

Step 16: So you got close, but not close enough. That’s normal. If you haven’t already, put your attenuator in line, you’re going to need it. Repeat steps 4 thru 8 again.

Now comes the exciting part – going in for the kill! It’s also where a lot of hunters get extremely frustrated –  When you’re so close you can not attenuate or null out the fox anymore. How to reduce the signal strength?

You can tune your receiver OFF the exact receiving frequency by first 5 kHz then 10 kHz until the signal is reduced in strength.

If tuning with a HT, hold the HT close to your body and rotate around. IF the signal is super strong, take off the antenna. Still super strong? Open your eyes wider, you’re very close!

Be careful when getting close. Getting excited is normal, but watch out for non-hams in the area. Keep your speed down. You don’t want to get into any trouble for driving too quickly or recklessly!

If you find the fox, go up and check in with him so that your time can be recorded. Maybe you’re the first one there? If you are, don’t say anything on the repeater about being first. That’s the quickest way to discourage the other hunters.

Base Stations:
So you have a 2m beam at home? Or you hear the fox on the input? What to do?

 First, those with beams. Take a good reading and also try to get a null too. Then go outside your house and take a compass reading. DO NOT rely on the rotor control heading as it could be off quite a bit. Write the heading down and then go back inside and announce your finding. Sometimes you want to listen to a few Fox transmissions to make sure your heading is good.

It’s important that base stations announce their call and name, approx cross street location or well known street and then their heading for the hunters.

Second, for those base stations without a beam. Your signal reports are just as important. Listen on the input and then announce who you are, where you are to the nearest cross street or well known street and relay how strong the fox is, whether full scale or noisy. If super loud, take off your antenna and listen again. Can you still hear the Fox? If yes, is he in your driveway? Or your neighbors?

All signal reports are important to the hunters. If you’re lucky while at home, you can take other base station readings and those of the mobile hunters and plot them on a map and announce where you think the Fox is or maybe drive there yourself.

All are welcome to the Fox’s den.

The goal is to start out the hunts easy. That means drive up, publicly accessible property without paying a fee with parking available for others. A safe location. We want lots of hunters out there and we Foxes will try to make the hunts fun, easy but challenging.

A word of warning when hiding. Sometimes the easy hunts are real hard. Sometimes the hunt you think is going to be long and difficult ends up being easy. There’s no reasoning until it’s over.

When the hunt is over and all hunters are in, or the hunt has ended, the Fox shall announce his location to the public.

Happy Hunting!


Here are some photos of some past fox hunts in the area (click image to enlarge)
Old Fox Hunts045
Old Fox Hunts042
Old Fox Hunts041

1st Long Range Fox Hunt Picnic p10431st Long Range Fox Hunt Picnic p2044Photo provided courtesy of Larry WB1DBY

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Foxhunting meeting tomorrow night – don’t miss it!

February first is indeed tomorrow – also the date of our next HCRA meeting.

We’re putting on an ‘all about foxhunting’ presentation by a few of our members. If you’ve never heard of foxhunting this will be the time to learn. If you have foxhunted in the past that’s OK, we’re going to cover some exciting new material, both technology and methods, you may have missed over the last few years.

We’ll have a brief presentation with visual information and a video, presentations by some experienced foxhunters, examples of equipment used and then it is YOUR turn. Would you like to jump on board and ‘re-invigorate’ foxhunting in the area and if so – what type(s) of hunts would appeal to the majority of our members?

In the back of the hall Jeff/NT1K will conducting the ‘Build-a-Beam’ workshop.The results will be a perfect foxhunting antenna. If you are one of the dozen or so folks signed up don’t forget to bring your payment along. I don’t believe our Paypal account is setup for payments quite yet.

Don’t forget to pick up a KX3 raffle ticket while you’re there – they’re going fast and the drawing is only a month away.

See you tomorrow night,
Jim/KK1W

OPERATING TIP

OPERATING TIP

CQ WW RTTY Director, Ed WØYK, shares the log submission issues experienced by all contest sponsors. “It is apparent that many people do not read the robot email reply they receive. At the bottom of that email, the robot lists the format errors in the log. If you don’t understand what the robot is telling you, then simply compare that specific QSO line with the format specified on the Logs web page. The problem should be obvious.

“Major logging programs like Win-Test, N1MM Logger and WriteLog all create compliant Cabrillo files … IF you enter your data correctly. For example, if you enter your sent exchange as ‘CA 03’ in N1MM Logger (which is backwards from the required order for CQ WW RTTY), it will come out in that (incorrect) order in the Cabrillo file.

“You can easily edit your Cabrillo file with a text editor. Since is it common to add, change or move the same parameter field in every QSO line, a column editor is invaluable. I recommend the freeware Crimson Editor.”

So read that robot message! If it tells you there is something wrong with your log – do something about it and resubmit it. Double- and triple-check your operating category and all of the information for your station. Once you have a happy robot and you are a happy log submitter – save the confirming message in an easy-to-find location. My email software has a folder named “Contest Log Submissions” for all of my log submission confirmation messages. It’s easy and helps avoid the dreaded “forgot to send in my log” disease.

SOTA Activation on Mt. Monadnock

Nick (K1MAZ), Jimmy (KB1PRA), and John (Kx1x) activated Mt. Monadnock (W1/HA009) on October 20th. Here, Jimmy is holding the 2m tape-measure beam while Nick operates. I’m probably looking for lunch. More on this SOTA activation and the Summits on the Air program at the next HCRA meeting, November 2nd.