Contesting

OPERATING TIP Your Exchange Should Be Correct and Not Be Unique It's time for an operating tip repeat: If you're in a contest and you want to work others in that contest, your exchange should be in the same format as the other people you are working. For example, if the contest exchange is RST, CQ zone, and state, it's most common to send "599 03 WA" as an exchange. Sure, you could send "599 03 Washington" or "5NN 03 Washington" (in 5-bit Baudot, 5NN takes slightly longer to send than 599) but most logging programs are expecting a two-character abbreviation for state. If you're getting asked for frequent repeats by different stations, it may be a sign that your exchange has something unconventional in it. -ARRL Contest Update Remote Hands Make Light Work I subscribe to a variety of amateur-radio-related email lists devoted to things like particular transceiver models, logging programs, contest clubs, keyers, RTTY decoders, FTx software... and so on. Traffic on many of the lists has increased over the last few months as people have had time to devote to this hobby. None of the lists are solely devoted to troubleshooting problems at the computer-radio gear boundaries, but on occasion my inbox will fill up overnight as one person posts a problem, and one or more people enter a multi-round dialog to solve the problem. Watching a problem be presented in email, seeing additional information about it being teased out by the community, coming to an eventual resolution - it has the feel of a TV crime or medical drama where we're all trying to solve the case along with the actors. Often times the pathway to a solution reveals more information on the inner workings of the components involved, which helps educate the mailing list readership. Sometimes the methods that used to troubleshoot can be applied to other situations, again, helping the entire community. But on occasion one person's very particular problem might be more easily solved if a knowledgeable helper could just sit down next to the person and go over the problem, collect the necessary information, and provide suggestions on how to proceed. Rather than troubleshooting these kinds of problems using the back and forth of email messages, it might be better handled through... additional tools. One appropriate group of tools that we've all become more familiar with lately includes Zoom, Join.me, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and a number of others - meeting and video conferencing tools. Most, if not all of these have the "feature" that enables screen sharing by the meeting participants. The person that is experiencing the problem can share their screen with others in real-time, and the troubleshooting can happen in real-time. Using these lightweight, mostly non-invasive, and sometimes free conferencing tools for this purpose can shorten the time required to gather relevant information and apply appropriate remedies. Other related tools that might be useful include TeamViewer or NoMachine for when closer control of the target system is necessary. Beyond troubleshooting, conference tools can be used for contest station building activities. For example, the Pacific Northwest VHF Society has a group that meets on weekends via video conferencing to build and troubleshoot microwave gear. Another: as Tim, K9WX, pointed out in this issue, the virtual SMC Fest's use of these tools allowed Cedrick, WT2P, to interactively demonstrate the measurement of filters and stubs to the Fest's audience. One other feature to consider: Many of these tools also have the ability to record the session for later sharing. Perhaps that recording will be able to help someone else troubleshoot a similar problem in the future. Just don't forget to post a link to that video with a description to the email reflector. That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org 73, Brian N9ADG Contests: October 10 • QRP ARCI Fall QSO Party • ARRL EME Contest • Makrothen RTTY Contest • 10-10 Int. 10-10 Day Sprint • Nevada QSO Party • Oceania DX Contest, CW • Microwave Fall Sprint • Scandinavian Activity Contest, SSB • SKCC Weekend Sprintathon • Arizona QSO Party • Cosack's Honor VHF/UHF Contest • Pennsylvania QSO Party • FISTS Fall Unlimited Sprint • South Dakota QSO Party • PODXS 070 Club 160m Great Pumpkin Sprint October 11 • Makrothen RTTY Contest • Pennsylvania QSO Party • UBA ON Contest, CW • UBA ON Contest, 6m October 12 • K1USN Slow Speed Test • 4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint October 13 • Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest • RTTYOPS Weeksprint October 14 • NAQCC CW Sprint • Phone Fray • CWops Mini-CWT Test • VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest • RSGB 80m Autumn Series, Data • AGCW Semi-Automatic Key Evening • CWops Mini-CWT Test