FROM BILL: We are two days from start time for the ARRL DX phone contest. There are 48 hours to cover, and we don’t need to cover all of it. I don’t expect anyone to get exhausted over this. So far, we have 7 ops signed up. It’s not a bad number, but I’d be happy to have more. If you have a Tech license and would like to operate, that’s fine too. 10m is open 12+ hours a day, so during that time you can be in charge of the station after you get checked out on its operation. You would stay in the tech frequency and power limits. DX on 10m has been amazing lately. Also, I’m trying to schedule some “control ops” that would have nominal authority over the station while a Tech licensee is operating. This will allow Techs to operate high power (500w in this case) and on non-Tech frequencies. If you’re interested in being on the schedule to operate, please respond to bill@wizardofaz.net with your periods of availability between 5pm Friday and 5pm Sunday, as well as whatever comments you want to make about preferences (when, how much, do you need a partner at the station, etc). If you just want to visit, observe, hang out, then you don’t need to respond to the email but we’ll be happy to see you.

FROM KEN: March 1-2 is the ARRL DX Phone contest. The RST Contesting and Special Events (CASE) SIG has antennas and an operating rig ready to go in OKs (Old Ken’s) corral (Ken, N7NBV QTH: 855 N Camino Cordon, Tucson, AZ 85748). Everyone is welcome to stop by and operate, visit, or offer encouragement. There is plenty of room in the corral, so anyone who wants to bring an RV or camper, you are welcome to set up. The CASE SIG is hoping to earn a “respectable” score, so the more operators the better. See you soon!

DX Contests Feb 15-16 (CW) and March 1-2 (Phone)

Greetings RST members:

The RST Contest and Special Event SIG (CASE SIG) is planning the next contest adventure, once again at Ken’s (N7NBV) OK Corral. This has been a great venue for our recent events, which have been well attended and very successful in their goals. The CASE SIG organizes some events as training, social time, and fun, and a smaller fraction of the events as attempts at high score. In these latter category events, we don’t expect to win but would like to practice what we’ve learned and get as high in the ranking as we can. These 2 upcoming DX Contests Feb 15-16 (CW) and March 1-2 (phone) will be in this category.

For these contests, our SIG is hoping for competitive scores and will be running only 1 station, so there will be more limited space and opportunity to participate. Beginner contesters are welcomed and encouraged to arrange a time to come by and observe. More experienced contesters who would like to participate, please reach out to let us know what time period you are interested in so that we can maximize our efforts. For everyone attending, please plan to keep the station itself a quiet and focused space. We’ll endeavor to keep animated discussions away while others are actively operating at the contesting station, and we’ll have another location for “hanging out” and chatting.

These contests are 5 or 6 band efforts and to the extent possible, we’ll keep the station active for the 48-hour contest period. This depends on enough operators participating to fill the schedule. Please contact one
of the SIG leadership (listed in the signature) to get yourself on the schedule.

We’ll have a 500-watt station with 3 element beams on 10m, and wires and verticals on the other bands. We should be reasonably well heard. It should be a lot of fun, with the possibility of DXCC in one weekend for K7RST.

Hope to see you there.

Bill N7DZ bill@wizardofaz.net
Lloyd K7NX k7nx@cox.net
Ken N7NBV kenwboyd@gmail.com
Helen KE2BPY ke2bpy@gmail.com

Addendum

There’s been fairly limited response to the request for CW operators for this weekend’s Feb 15-16, ARRL DX CW contest. So, in case some of the language about high score, etc., dissuaded some from responding, we are relaxing the “requirement”. Some of us will still strive for high rate relative to personal past performances during the hours we operate, but there aren’t enough yet to fill more than about half the 48 hours. If you want to
operate, please let me know, we’ll get you on the schedule to operate at your own pace, for 1 hour or 20. And as always, anyone who wants to come observe and learn, you are welcome.

Reported by Bill, N7DZ
Uploaded by Ana, WV3RSE