I did some quick analysis on the contacts I made in the 2009 JARTS RTTY contest this past weekend. Because the contest exchange is the age of the operator, and assuming the age provided in the exchange is accurate, you can do some simple calculations on that age. There are 2 exceptions to the age sent and they are 00 for YLs/XYLs and 99 for multi-op stations. I excluded those values from the below calculations.

There were 348 total contacts  with 306 unique stations.  Of those 306 unique stations, 7 had an age of 00 and 6 had an age of 99 and weren’t counted in the below stats. As for myself, I’m 46 years old.

All (306 unique contacts):
Average Age:   57.9
Median Age: 59
Youngest Age: 30 (2)
Oldest Age: 84 (2)

US Only (119 unique contacts):
Average Age: 60.0
Median Age: 61
Youngest Age: 34
Oldest Age: 84

Non-US Only (132 unique contacts):
Average Age: 54.3
Median Age: 53
Youngest Age: 30
Oldest Age: 78

Canadian Only (16 unique contacts):
Average Age: 53.5
Median Age: 64
Youngest Age: 44
Oldest Age: 76

Here is a chart of the distribution of contacts by age:

73,
K2DSL

After spending as much time as you can in 48 hours over a weekend to participate in a ham radio contest, there is plenty to do when the clock hits 0000z and the contest comes to an end. I use N1MM for contest logging and I use Ham Radio Deluxe as my general logging program and where I import all contacts into if logged in N1MM.

Here’s what I do after the contest ends. Depending on the number of contacts made, the initial wrap up takes about 30 mins for a small contest to 2 hours or so for a larger contest, not counting writing out paper QSL cards.

Within N1MM:
1) Rescore the current contest to make sure everything is up to date.
2) File / Export the contacts in a ADIF file.
3) File / Export the Cabrillo log file.
4) File / Export the Score Summary sheet.
5) Go to http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/ , select the contest at the top, and submit my claimed score using the details within the N1MM Score Summary sheet.

Loading contacts into Ham Radio Deluxe:
1) Create a new logbook (database)in Ham Radio Deluxe to import the contest contacts into.
2) Logbook / Import the ADIF file exported from N1MM.
3) Bulk edit the data to remove the Name which might have been imported as well as the [Grid] Locator. Info from QRZ is better then what I might have cached in N1MM from previous contests.

Updating the imported data:
1) Using Ham Radio Deluxe Utilities (HRDU) by WD5EAE, I update My Station data using the info pulled from my default logbook.
2) Using HRDU, I then update all the imported records based on the QRZ data that matches that call sign. You need to have a QRZ  subscription which covers their XML access. It populats the name, location info, QSL info and locator if provided on the QRZ.com site.
3) Change mode from SSB to LSB/USB based on band.
4) I then run a SQL script in MS Access to compare the main Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) database to the contest one to see if there’s any stations I don’t have a grid locator for that I previously found one for. I update those in the contest database.
5) For all remaining contacts that don’t have a grid locator, I use a page I wrote at http://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php and enter in the callsign of a station and it grabs address info from QRZ and using Google Maps geocoding determines the latitude/longitude of the location and plots it on a map along with displaying the 6 character maidenhead grid square locator.
6) For any record which didn’t find a match on QRZ.com, I use other sources such as Hamcall.net or Google searches to try and find info.

Merging the logs in Ham Radio Deluxe:
1) Within the contest logbook in Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD), File / Export all records in ADIF/HRD format to an ADIF file.
2) Open the main logbook and File / Import the ADIF file to consolidate the contest info into the main logbook.

QSLing:
1) Filter all records in the main (merged) logbook for any records where LotW Sent = No and that shows all new records just imported.
2) Select every record in Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) and send to eQSL.
3) Select every record and send to Hamlog.net.
4) I set the US and Canada contacts to QSL Sent = Ignore. I will respond to any that come in but I don’t normally send paper QSLs to US or Canadian contacts.
5) I run another QSL script in MS Access to list out any stations contacted in the contest for which I’ve previously logged (listed in the main logbook) and I set those QSL Sent = Ignore.
6) I scan through the QSL Via field of the remaining records and see if any say Direct Only or LoTW only, etc and if I don’t need to confirm them for a new entity, I set the QSL Sent = Ignore.
7) I run Ham Radio Deluxe Utilities and have it upload all new contacts to LoTW.
8) Filter records in the logbook for QSL Sent= No and those are the ones I likely write out paper QSL cards for. Writing out the paper QSL cards takes a few evenings to get done.
9) After the contest and usually every day, I launch HRDU and import in any new LoTW QSLs which updates the status in HRD.

Final steps:
1) Review the specific log submission requirements in the contest rules and submit the log to the contact sponsor.
2) Send off the score summary info to my club’s newsletter editor for the info to be posted in the next monthly issue.
3) Write a blog entry about the contest.
4) Take a nap.

73,
K2DSL

I had an obligation on Friday evening at the start of the contest so I got on the air a couple hours after the start and was on for just over 1 hour before I turned the radio off. 20m had no activity when I got on so I went to 40m and made some contacts before heading to 80m. I made a total of 28 contacts in that hour with all but 2 being North American contacts.  The weather on Friday was rainy and unseasonably cold and that was for the forecast for the entire weekend.

Saturday morning, after dropping off my oldest daughter to take her PSATs (poor kid) I fired up the rig on 20m at 1200z. At least there’s some DX active on 20m that I can hear and they can hear me. Made a bunch of contacts in S&P mode and as I moved up the band I heard E21YDP in Thailand calling CQ with no one coming back to him. I had heard him for a short time last weekend during the Makrothen RTTY contest but couldn’t get through before I could no longer hear him. I put out my call and he immediately came back to me. After sending my info he confirmed the exchanged and I just logged my first contact of any kind with Thailand! I then watched him make a few more contacts with 100% copy on my screen before moving on. 20m was fine but 15m seemed empty every time I popped over to see if I could get any mults. Right around 2100z both days the JA stations came onto 20m and I think I worked each one I heard/saw spotted for a total of 8 JA contacts over the weekend. I am sure there were more then 8 JA stations but I didn’t hear any others. I also worked Barry in South Africa – same as last year. 40m ws so-so late on Saturday and 80m wasn’t so hot. I made ten NY QSO Party contacts on SSB and 2 on RTTY when it was real slow in the evening.

On Sunday I started out in the morning on 20m and made DX contacts until late in the morning and the US stations on the western half were awake when I made more US contacts. I continued to work stations until around 1700z when football started. It wasn’t a good game but I watched most of it. I got back on the radio, but it was harder to find stations I hadn’t worked. 15m was still quiet, at least for me. When I went into run mode, it wasn’t as productive as S&Ping as I could call for 10 mins and get just a few stations coming back to me. It was probably the contest that was easiest to find a spot to call CQ as it wasn’t wall to wall.  Late in the day there was again some activity on 40m but not what I would have expected and 80m had no one on it.

Maybe it was the multiple QSO Parties and the Worked all Germany contest that occupied folks that go on the air this weekend or maybe it was the upcoming CQ WW SSB contest and folks were resting up, but it seemed less active then I would have expected.  Once all the results are in, I guess I might be able to compare the overall activity. Comparing my score to last year I was down 37 contacts and 6,709 points.

2009 JARTS RTTY Score Summary:

Band    QSOs     Pts  Cty   Sec
 3.5      34      69    1   11
   7      54     118   10   14
  14     258     664   43   17
  21       2       5    1    1
 Total   348     856   55   43

 Score : 83,888

73,
K2DSL

I had a lot of non-contesting activities this weekend so I had a very part time effort in this years Makrothen RTTY contest. It is a 24 hour contest broken up into three 8 hour sessions over the course of the weekend. I put in a couple hours on Fri night and a few hours on Saturday in the late afternoon / early evening after my local clubs hamfest all morning and a high school football game in the afternoon. I was able to get on the air for just 1 hour on Sunday morning before heading out to the NY Giants football game.

What is neat about this contest is the points for each contact are based on distance as calculated between my grid square and the other operators grid square which is part of the exchange. In addition, contacts on 40m are worth a 50% bonus and contacts on 80m are worth a 100% bonus. It’s also why the scores are so high in this contest.

For the most part I operated S&P but I went into Run mode a couple times and was surprised to have many DX stations call me including South Africa which was my longest contact in the contest at over 8100 miles. I also had an Alaska station call me and then spot me which gave me a nice run of station after station for a few minutes.  I also had a contact with a station in Panama. I don’t have Panama confirmed for DXCC yet so I sent a QSL card off to the US based QSL manager for the station and I hope to get a reply to have that one confirmed.

Below is my score summary:

Band    QSOs    Pts
 3.5      15   35610
 7        38  147108
 14      129  531984
 Total   182  714702

 Score : 714,702

QSL cards have already been written for new contacts made and ready to be sent out via the bureau.

73,
K2DSL

This past weekend I didn’t think I’d be doing any contesting, but as things ended up, I had the afternoon and early evening free on Saturday and the California QSO Party was in full swing, so I started making contacts.  I ended up making about 120 contacts on Saturday. On Sunday before the football games began I made more contacts and ended up with 186 total contacts. There are 58 counties in California and I was able to make contact with 55 of them. This QSO Party was tremendous fun and the ops were fantastic. I’ll definitely try and catch this QSO Party next year.

I’d like to note a nice contact with Budd, W3FF, of Buddipole fame. Though I don’t have one, I do follow the Buddipole Yahoo group. Budd made a point of having a brief chat with anyone he made contact with during this contest. This was my 2nd contact with Budd with the earlier contact being in Feb 2009 where he was golf cart mobile near Orlando.

Here’s my score summary:

Band   Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec
  7    LSB      4      8    0
 14    CW      46    138    6
 14    USB    121    242   49
 21    CW       1      3    0
 21    USB     14     28    0
 Total Both   186    419   55

 Score : 23,045

73,
K2DSL

This past weekend was the 2009 CQ WW RTTY contest, one of the big RTTY contests over the course of the year.

I got a late start on the first night missing the first couple hours because of family obligations so I spent a couple hours on 40m and 80m making contacts before calling it an early night.

Saturday I was able to spend a good part of day on the radio and worked 20m throughout the day switching to 15m occasionally. 15m is a weak band for me on my G5RV but I can usually make a few contacts local in the US or to Central/South American stations that are strong. More then anything, 15m is good for multipliers and occasionally a country I don’t have on 20m or 40m. I saw some new DXCC’s on 20m on Sat but they had big pile ups and with 100w I decided to just move along and come back if they were on later. Other then a couple of brief attempts in Run mode with not enough activity to warrant the effort, I did S&P mode for most of the contest.

As the sun started to get low in the sky I alternated between 40m and 20m as 20m was still active. As the evening was in full swing I alternated between 40m and 80m and occasionaly 20m to see if anything new popped up. Though this is a DX contest, there are multipliers for each US State on each band so it is worth working local contacts as well. I didn’t stay up late and even took breaks in the evening to watch a movie.

Sun morning I woke up and for most of the day I was able to be on the radio, working 20m and switching from time to time to 15m to see if anything new could be heard. Before noon I emailed a nearby club member working the contest and we were about neck and neck. I did notice he had more countries on 15m then I did even though he had less 15m contacts showing that maybe a dedicated 15m dipole or one string in a different direction might help vs the G5RV. He was heading out for a while but I was going to keep going for a couple hours before the NY Giants football game started. When the game came on, I watched it for about 3.5 hours before getting back on the radio. I worked 20m again until dusk and then started switching to 40m and then to 80m again as I did the day before.

When the whistle blew at 00:00z I had logged 578 contacts and ended up with 343,840 points beating last years totals (see CQ WW RTTY Contest post). After reviewing the log I ended up logging 69 different DXCC entities, 20 different zones,  478 unique stations, 41 US states and 9 Canadian Providences. It doesn’t look like I logged any new entities this time around.

I logged 6 Alaska stations that were all booming into NJ on Sunday. One even commented on how strong I was. I also logged 3 Japanese stations over the weekend which is always a nice treat. I find it funny how I can log 6 stations in Alaska yet it wasn’t until 45 mins left in the entire contest that I logged a station from Georgia – go figure.

I worked 2 stations on all 4 bands I operated and 13 stations on 3 bands. Of the 578 total contacts with 478 unique stations, 334 were non-US/Canadian stations  and 178  I had previously worked giving me a contact with 156 new DX stations. Germany was the non-US/Canadian country with 31 contacts followed by European Russia with 21 and Italy with 16.

I really enjoy RTTY contests whether they are 2 full days or a couple of hours long. It is a fun mode and with my modest 100w station and a G5RV wire antenna it provides a tremendous amount of excitement. Many thanks to all the operators both US and international that pulled my weak signal out to allow me to log another contact. After the contest I uploaded my logs to eQSL and LoTW and there were already many that were confirmed with about 100 confirmed on LoTW within 3 hours of the contest ending and even more this morning when I checked before heading off to work.

Band    QSOs     Pts  Cty   ZN  Sec
 3.5      52      76    9    7   22
 7       128     218   34   14   38
 14      350     834   65   20   32
 21       46     100   17   11   11
Total    576    1228  125   52  103

Score : 343,840

73,
K2DSL

Saturday night was the NA Sprint for SSB. Someone calls CQ, you come back to them, you exchange names, serial numbers and states and then the person that was calling CQ has to QSY to another frequency and the other station takes over the frequency to call CQ. It’s fast and a lot of fun.

I was very busy on Saturday and didn’t get home until the 4 hour contest was half over, so I only participated for 2 hours. Ops were already on 40m so I didn’t have any 20m contacts. Conditions weren’t bad on 40m but a lot noisier on 80m. I ended up making a contact with 29 different states including ND, ID & WY and 2 Canadian Providences. I heard 2 different Alaska stations on 40m coming in strong but in a sprint like this, the loudest station is usually the one that wins until later on when the loudest stations have already worked most stations, but I didn’t hear Alaska much after I first heard them.

I made a total of 52 contacts in the 2 hours which isn’t bad. It’s nice when the op on the other end says things like ‘Nice to hear you David” or recognizes a portion of your call and completes your call and knows your name.  I find this style contest on SSB to be very friendly and I enjoy it a lot.  The RTTY version of this contest is mid Oct and then then the CW, SSB and RTTY contests all have a 2nd running in Feb/March. Maybe I’ll see you then!

Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
3.5     37      37   22
7      15      15    9
Total    52      52   31

Score : 1,612

73,
K2DSL