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Author Topic: 3 Friendly Contests this Weekend: RAC, Stew Perry, Rookie Roundup  (Read 181 times)

K3TN

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The RAC Winter Contest is December 18th 0000z to 2359Z. Both CW and SSB modes and the exchange is RS(T) plus province for VE stations, RS(T) plus serial number for everyone else. This is always a low key, friendly event - especially on SSB QSOs. Full rules here.

The Stew Perry Topband Challenge is a 160M CW contest, running from 1500Z Dec 18th to 1500Z Dec 19th. The exchange is your grid square (no RST) and the scoring is very different and fun. The longer the distance between the two stations, the more points a QSO is worth. When the logs are scored, QSOs with QRP stations are worth more than QSOs with 100W stations which are worth more than QSOs with stations running more than 100W. Full rules here.

The ARRL Rookie Roundup is a short North America CW contests that goes from 1800z December 19th to 2359 December 19th, aimed at getting new CW ops a taste of contesting. Exchange is name, last two digits of year first licensed and state/province. Not a lot of activity in this one, but I tried to get on and work a few of the stations calling CQ.  Full rules here.

If you are going to make it an all radio weekend, there is also the Croatian CW Contest and the OK RTTY Contest this weekend!
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John K3TN

KG9X

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Re: 3 Friendly Contests this Weekend: RAC, Stew Perry, Rookie Roundup
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2021, 05:54:31 PM »

Stew Perry is a fun contest.  I will be on trying out my just finished HI-Z 8 Pro RX antenna.

   73,  Fred  KG9X
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K3TN

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Re: 3 Friendly Contests this Weekend: RAC, Stew Perry, Rookie Roundup
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2021, 03:08:47 AM »

I ended up putting more time  than I had planned in the RAC contest and less in the Stew Perry. The sunspots that recently appeared didn't seem to help 15m and 10M much on Saturday but worked a few VE7/VE6s on 10m.

I dropped in a few times on 160M for the SP but never at a good EU opening, so my highest value QSO (not counting any power multipliers which get applied during log checking/final scoring) was a few 8 pointers.

Since there is no spotting assistance allowed in the RAC single op category or in the SP, it was kind of a throwback weekend - really worked my left wrist muscles twisting that VFO knob!

Sunday afternoon here 10M had a rocking opening to Scandinavia - OH, OH0, SM, etc well over S9 at what I think was about 4 hours after sunset for them.
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John K3TN

K7JQ

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Re: 3 Friendly Contests this Weekend: RAC, Stew Perry, Rookie Roundup
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2021, 07:43:23 AM »

Are some contests non-friendly ;)?

RAC Winter was busy and fun. 500 CW Q's from the black hole of Arizona in limited time.

Bob K7JQ
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K3TN

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Re: 3 Friendly Contests this Weekend: RAC, Stew Perry, Rookie Roundup
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2021, 05:15:52 AM »

Well, there are friendly contests and just plain old contests. Usually in the plain old contests you are trying to minimize time per QSO and only send the required info. RAC (Winter RAC especially and on SSB) is one where the norm is much more "Thanks, Bob" or "Nice signal and happy holidays' getting thrown in.

The only truly "non-friendly" contests I can think of are the FT4/8 contests where the exchange is pretty rigidly controlled. You can sneak a bit more text in but not much!

There are a few closed contests, like the FOC ones and the BERU where only club members or ops in certain countries can participate. There are so many contests during the year, not a big deal. But, BERU usually brings out interesting islands and former British colonies, and is usually the only DX contest that weekend in the month. I think people feel it is unfriendly when loud stations with relative rare calls and calling CQ ignore them!

Years ago there was an "Internet Sprint" where you used the name of the last station you worked, so your name kept changing. I had suggested that instead of name that it should use "PG-rated insult" that would get passed along "5NN Pinhead MD" "5NN Lid SC" "5NN SpaceCadet CA" etc.

Didn't catch on...

73 John K3TN

Are some contests non-friendly ;)?

RAC Winter was busy and fun. 500 CW Q's from the black hole of Arizona in limited time.

Bob K7JQ
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John K3TN
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