WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.339 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:06.740 by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables, 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:13.679 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:18.359 .com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:23.579 it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:58.820 for more information about ICOM radios. Hello 00:00:58.820 --> 00:01:02.700 everyone out there in cyberspace! This is Ham 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:07.719 Talk Live, episode number 307, CQ Worldwide CW. 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:11.480 It's recorded live on Tuesday, November 15th, 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:16.459 2022. I am your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:19.900 for tuning in to this episode of Ham Talk Live. 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:25.560 Tonight, we're joined by John Doar, K1AR, from 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.359 the CQ Worldwide CW contest. Last episode, Joe 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:33.299 Eisenberg KZeroNEB was here to talk about new 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:36.819 kits and new tools. If you missed that show, 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.579 you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or 00:01:39.579 --> 00:01:44.400 on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. And 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.680 make sure you check that out. Okay. It was a 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.560 pretty good one. Well, we're going to talk a 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.920 little CW here with John and what's coming up 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:56.980 in this contest at the end of the month. So we'll 00:01:56.980 --> 00:02:00.579 do that right after this word from ICOM America 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:04.459 right here on HamTalk Live. Keep your competitive 00:02:04.459 --> 00:02:07.799 contesting edge with ICOM, our high powered base 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:09.979 stations cut through pileups, letting you work 00:02:09.979 --> 00:02:12.539 the bands and record those contacts. Contest 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:14.620 from the comfort of your own home or remotely 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:19.340 with the RSBA1 app. Heard it? worked it, logged 00:02:19.340 --> 00:02:23.539 it. The IC7851 gives you a new window into the 00:02:23.539 --> 00:02:27.439 RF world and is HF excellence unparalleled. With 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.080 faster processors, high input gain, high display 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:32.560 resolution, and a cleaner signal, it is truly 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.800 the pinnacle of HF perfection. It has dual receivers, 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:38.960 digital IF filters, memory keyer, digital voice 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:41.719 recorder, spectrum waterfall display, and an 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:46.199 SD card slot. The IC7610 is the SDR every ham 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:49.099 wants. This high -performance SDR can pick out 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.879 faint signals in the presence of stronger adjacent 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:56.240 signals. The IC7610 by ICOM is a direct sampling 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.800 software -defined radio that has changed the 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.599 world's definition of an SDR transceiver. It 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.300 has a 110 dB RMDR, dual digicel, dual receiver, 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:08.319 and RF direct sampling. Create your own band 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:11.979 opening with the IC9700. This transceiver radio 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:15.400 brings direct sampling to the UHF -VHF week signal 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.680 world. It's loaded with innovative features that 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.139 are sure to keep you busy. Faster processors, 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.860 higher input gain, higher display resolution, 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:25.639 and a cleaner signal. With a 4 .3 inch color 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.280 touch screen, real -time spectroscope and waterfall 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.599 display, dual watch operation, full duplex in 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.139 satellite mode, and smooth satellite operation 00:03:34.139 --> 00:03:38.969 with 99 satellite channels. The IC7300 is a high 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:41.469 -performance innovative HF transceiver with a 00:03:41.469 --> 00:03:44.750 compact design that will far exceed your expectations. 00:03:45.229 --> 00:03:48.650 The innovative transceiver digitizes RF before 00:03:48.650 --> 00:03:51.610 various receiver stages, reducing inherent noise 00:03:51.610 --> 00:03:55.490 in different IF stages. The IC7300 changed the 00:03:55.490 --> 00:03:59.469 way entry -level HF is designed. It has 15 discrete 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:02.310 bandpass filters, the large color touchscreen, 00:04:02.789 --> 00:04:05.949 spectrum scope, SD car slot, and RF direct sampling. 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:10.849 Real HF fun starts here. Visit icomamerica .com 00:04:10.849 --> 00:04:15.189 slash amateur for more information on ICOM radios. 00:04:16.209 --> 00:04:42.420 Copy 594 from HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:49.240 Live. Tonight John Doar K1AR joins us on the 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.939 Orlando Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom 00:04:51.939 --> 00:04:56.220 line. We want to thank the Orlando Club and Hamcation 00:04:56.220 --> 00:05:01.399 for providing that Zoom service for us. John 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:06.399 K1AR was named the CQ Worldwide DX Contest Director. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:11.019 Back in 2018, he's been a member of the CQ Worldwide 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:15.699 Contest Committee since the mid -1970s and was 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:21.240 CQ Magazine's Contesting Editor from 1989 until 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:26.680 2011. He's also a two -time World Radio Sport 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.310 Team Championship medalist. and was elected to 00:05:30.310 --> 00:05:35.269 the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 1997. So John, 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:37.550 welcome back. Thanks for coming back to the show. 00:05:38.529 --> 00:05:42.410 All right. I'm excited to be here. And you sure 00:05:42.410 --> 00:05:45.149 that was me you were talking about? Yeah, it 00:05:45.149 --> 00:05:49.170 was. It was. Sometimes when people hear those 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:54.329 bios, they're like, oh, wow. I did that? Who's 00:05:54.329 --> 00:06:00.199 that guy? Well, last time you were here we were 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:04.560 talking about a youth initiative that kind of 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.660 started some youth categories in the CQ Worldwide 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:11.300 Contest and we can talk about that a little bit 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:16.839 later in the show, but CQ Worldwide CW is coming 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.600 up and I got a chance to actually get on the 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:23.360 radio for a while and operate the sideband contest, 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.769 picked up several new uh... countries all -time 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:30.129 new ones and uh... so that was great and uh... 00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:33.910 i think uh... things went really well there uh... 00:06:33.910 --> 00:06:37.550 but we've got cw coming up so tell us all about 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:42.670 the cw contest when it is how people can participate 00:06:42.670 --> 00:06:46.029 what's the exchange where can they find the rules 00:06:46.029 --> 00:06:50.990 all that good stuff well the uh... the best place 00:06:50.990 --> 00:06:54.829 to go for information in general is to the uh... 00:06:54.920 --> 00:07:00.579 CQ Worldwide website, which is cqww .com. And 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:03.980 there's just a ton of resource there. Everything 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:08.339 from the rules for the contest to awards programs 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:12.680 and results. You can enter your call in and look 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:16.680 at every CQ Worldwide you've entered. And we 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:19.139 have records going all the way back to the beginning 00:07:19.139 --> 00:07:25.759 in 1948, which is a little before my time. So 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:31.000 it's secret wide has in recent years really continue 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:37.180 to grow in popularity. And this upcoming CW edition, 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.839 which is always on the last weekend of the month 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:45.560 of November, will be nothing short of spectacular, 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.540 I think, because we have we have a little gift 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:50.839 that we've been given. And that is the sun is 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:57.579 waking up a little bit. Yeah. With as often said 00:07:57.579 --> 00:08:00.920 there's no meters like 10 meters, right? Yeah 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:04.839 It's going to be it's going to be a great time 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:10.019 and I think there's enough Resiliency and and 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.899 what the Sun has given us that even if we have 00:08:12.899 --> 00:08:15.379 some solar disturbances things are still going 00:08:15.379 --> 00:08:19.100 to be good because the world wide has, I often 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:23.660 say has magical powers. It can just turn the 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:26.660 bands on no matter what's going on with the sun. 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:32.759 Yeah, I heard this theory that the ionosphere 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:36.799 actually changes with contests, that all the 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:40.200 contest activity actually ionizes the layers 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.299 and everything and all of a sudden there are 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:49.889 people on the bands. It's one of the secret keys 00:08:49.889 --> 00:08:53.090 that they gave me when I became director. Oh, 00:08:53.269 --> 00:08:59.169 you can turn it on and off. Very good. If I'm 00:08:59.169 --> 00:09:02.009 operating and the competition's way ahead of 00:09:02.009 --> 00:09:08.509 me, just flip that baby off and then there you 00:09:08.509 --> 00:09:14.860 go. But we really, all kidding aside. have really 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:19.799 grown in the phone section here last month. In 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:24.720 October, we are now creeping up on 8 ,900 logs, 00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:29.440 so close to 9 ,000 logs. That literally represents 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:35.480 millions of QSOs being made, probably in the 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:40.110 range of 40 ,000 people. getting on the air, 00:09:40.210 --> 00:09:42.370 not all of them submit logs, obviously, because 00:09:42.370 --> 00:09:46.070 we only get 9 ,000 of them, but say some 40 ,000 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:49.789 people are getting on and in some way or fashion 00:09:49.789 --> 00:09:53.029 to operate the contest. And that's really the 00:09:53.029 --> 00:09:57.129 message for anybody who's listening here is that 00:09:57.129 --> 00:10:00.149 the beauty of the Worldwide is it's a great contest 00:10:00.149 --> 00:10:02.990 just to flip on the radio and have a little bit 00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:06.309 of fun. And your definition of fun is whatever 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:09.259 you want to make it. It could be It can be a 00:10:09.259 --> 00:10:11.740 couple hours on Saturday morning before the family 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:15.179 wakes up, or you can be a crazy man like me and 00:10:15.179 --> 00:10:22.700 do it all weekend for 50 straight years. And 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:26.500 there's a lot of guys like me, I guess, out there 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:29.320 that have been going at this for as long as we 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:31.879 have. And I guess you kind of have to ask the 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:35.620 question, why do we do that? And for me at this 00:10:35.620 --> 00:10:39.850 point in the... in operating at all is, I do 00:10:39.850 --> 00:10:42.769 it just because it's fun. And I do it because 00:10:42.769 --> 00:10:45.730 I enjoy the camaraderie of working other guys 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:50.590 and all that comes with it. And, you know, it 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:53.289 doesn't hurt to have a little bit of solar activity 00:10:53.289 --> 00:10:56.889 to kind of spice things up, as I said before. 00:10:57.710 --> 00:11:02.830 So, you know, you can now with, you know, a marginal 00:11:02.830 --> 00:11:07.070 antenna system still get on and Uh, either work 00:11:07.070 --> 00:11:09.870 new countries or, you know, work the most guys 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:13.129 you've ever worked in an hour or, uh, beat your, 00:11:13.129 --> 00:11:15.809 uh, your friend across town, you know, whatever, 00:11:16.250 --> 00:11:18.190 whatever gets you excited about the stuff. Uh, 00:11:18.309 --> 00:11:21.590 that's, that's what's in it for you. Yeah. I, 00:11:21.590 --> 00:11:24.610 you know, I was very casual in my approach to 00:11:24.610 --> 00:11:27.860 sideband, uh, here a few weeks ago. Just, you 00:11:27.860 --> 00:11:31.000 know, did two or three hours, took a break, came 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.860 back, did a couple hours later that night to 00:11:33.860 --> 00:11:36.220 get a little, you know, different band, different 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:40.100 propagation. And then the next day came in and 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:43.620 just kind of wrote out the end of the contest 00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:46.639 when things were kind of thinned out a little 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:52.360 bit. And I went to country searching and just 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:54.940 started spinning the knob and trying to find 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:58.259 some of those and was able to to get several 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:03.559 of them. I'm still waiting on all the confirmations 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:10.159 to come in to see if I got the new DXCC count 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:15.720 of 100 started over on that. So I've been right 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:19.139 there on the edge and I'm hoping that CQ Worldwide 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:23.159 Sideband finished that off for me. We'll see 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:27.000 how that goes, but this is CW. So, so after all 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:29.399 the turkey and the tryptophan and everything, 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:36.580 you're supposed to stay awake and work CW. Well, 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:41.220 you know, I will say this at one, one thing that, 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:44.500 uh, certainly the worldwide and other, other 00:12:44.500 --> 00:12:47.799 big contests approving is that For the naysayers 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:51.100 out there that are sort of saying CW is a thing 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:54.379 of the past. CW is dead and all of that. Boy, 00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:58.059 you just got to take a listen during this upcoming 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:01.519 weekend and let's say 20 meters, for example. 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.080 You're going to find signals from the bottom 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:07.159 all the way up to the top. And, you know, 14 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:12.899 000 up to 100 and actually even above that. And 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:17.259 it's just wall to wall. madness, you know, there's, 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:20.419 on any given worldwide weekend, you know, ground 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:22.399 numbers, there's just a couple hundred countries 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:27.019 that are actually on the air. So a significant 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:32.279 line share of DXCC is actually operating. And 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:38.299 now that, you know, what we all hope is the COVID 00:13:38.299 --> 00:13:44.409 pandemic being behind us for the most part. You 00:13:44.409 --> 00:13:46.730 know, you're starting to see the de -expeditions 00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:49.830 and the people traveling and, you know, putting 00:13:49.830 --> 00:13:53.110 interesting places on the air and it's becoming 00:13:53.110 --> 00:13:56.809 almost back to the good old days again, where, 00:13:56.809 --> 00:14:00.789 you know, some people would argue the Worldwide 00:14:00.789 --> 00:14:03.669 is a good tune up for the Bouvier Expeditions 00:14:03.669 --> 00:14:10.730 coming up. Indeed, indeed. Well, let's talk a 00:14:10.730 --> 00:14:13.750 little bit about the exchange for people who 00:14:13.750 --> 00:14:19.490 maybe haven't done CQ Worldwide CW before, or 00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:21.929 maybe some people that are just casually on the 00:14:21.929 --> 00:14:25.950 air and, oh, there's a contest. What should I 00:14:25.950 --> 00:14:30.870 give to people who work? Let's go over the exchange 00:14:30.870 --> 00:14:39.269 and how that works. Sure. attractions of the 00:14:39.269 --> 00:14:42.730 CQ Worldwide in particular is the simplicity 00:14:42.730 --> 00:14:47.330 of the contest. And what I mean by that is when 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:50.269 you get on and work other guys, other folks in 00:14:50.269 --> 00:14:53.429 the contest, you simply exchange a signal report, 00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:58.450 599, and your CQ zone. So there's 40 of them 00:14:58.450 --> 00:15:01.870 divided around the world. You can look up your 00:15:01.870 --> 00:15:06.549 zone on the CQ website. But as an example, on 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:08.730 the East Coast of the US, your zone is five. 00:15:08.769 --> 00:15:11.330 If you're in Western Europe, your zone is 14 00:15:11.330 --> 00:15:16.870 and so forth. And just simply sending a call 00:15:16.870 --> 00:15:23.049 and a 599 and the zone and getting the same in 00:15:23.049 --> 00:15:26.970 return is all you have to do. A lot of people 00:15:26.970 --> 00:15:29.090 ask me, do I have to pre -register? Do I have 00:15:29.090 --> 00:15:32.090 to do anything? There's only one requirement. 00:15:32.250 --> 00:15:35.549 Uh, and it's, it's a fairly significant one. 00:15:35.710 --> 00:15:38.250 Uh, it takes a lot of thought, but what you have 00:15:38.250 --> 00:15:40.850 to do before any secure worldwide is sit down 00:15:40.850 --> 00:15:45.009 in front of your radio and turn it on. And, uh, 00:15:45.129 --> 00:15:48.269 and once you had accomplished that task, uh, 00:15:48.409 --> 00:15:51.809 you are ready to rock and roll. And it's a, it's 00:15:51.809 --> 00:15:56.250 really, really that, uh, that simple. And let's 00:15:56.250 --> 00:15:59.830 go over the official start and end times and 00:15:59.830 --> 00:16:01.950 dates here. Make sure we've got everybody on 00:16:01.950 --> 00:16:06.269 the same page here. So, so it's a, it's a 48 00:16:06.269 --> 00:16:09.710 hour contest in total. Uh, you can operate anywhere 00:16:09.710 --> 00:16:13.830 from 48 hours to 30 seconds. So again, that's 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:16.629 just a function of, of, uh, what your schedule 00:16:16.629 --> 00:16:20.090 and, uh, perhaps what your spouse allows, um, 00:16:20.269 --> 00:16:25.190 or other significant. Yes. You know, one of the 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:27.710 challenges of this contest, and we deal with 00:16:27.710 --> 00:16:31.870 this except once in 10 or 11 years, is this thing 00:16:31.870 --> 00:16:35.330 called Thanksgiving in the U .S. And of course, 00:16:35.409 --> 00:16:37.909 this is Thanksgiving weekend and there's always 00:16:37.909 --> 00:16:42.230 that balancing act. So the contest this year 00:16:42.230 --> 00:16:44.750 is going to be starting on the evening of the 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:49.769 25th, the 26th GMT and run through Sunday, the 00:16:49.769 --> 00:16:59.889 27th of this year. for 48 hours. And like I said, 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:02.409 one of the nice things about the worldwide is 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:06.390 there's also a category, there's many categories 00:17:06.390 --> 00:17:09.609 we can get into a lot of detail on that. But 00:17:09.609 --> 00:17:11.950 one of the things, one of the areas that is really 00:17:11.950 --> 00:17:15.089 popular is we created this idea of the classic 00:17:15.089 --> 00:17:19.369 entry. And with that thing, they were like the 00:17:19.369 --> 00:17:22.420 classic car, you know, where... Roll many of 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:26.660 us are becoming antiques so we can probably relate 00:17:26.660 --> 00:17:29.480 to this to some degree but you know back when 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:33.079 I was a young pup you know that doing 48 hours 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:38.339 is not a big deal but as we say mature the idea 00:17:38.339 --> 00:17:41.059 of being up for 48 straight hours physically 00:17:41.059 --> 00:17:44.299 is a pretty big challenge so we create his idea 00:17:44.299 --> 00:17:47.880 of a 24 hour window that you can operate. And 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:51.559 it's really the idea is just a boy and his radio. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:55.279 And what I mean by that is we've stripped away 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.279 all the other things that people are doing, such 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:03.920 as SO2R, meaning using two radios, we've taken 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.700 away spotting. And it's just a basic get on for 00:18:08.700 --> 00:18:11.920 24 hours. And you can operate more than that, 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.259 by the way, but the 24 hours is what will count 00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:21.059 for your actual score. And that's it. And then 00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:24.680 in terms of the actual scoring for the CQ Worldwide, 00:18:25.380 --> 00:18:27.539 one of the things that is, I think, important 00:18:27.539 --> 00:18:32.119 to know is that you can submit a log and you 00:18:32.119 --> 00:18:33.839 really don't even have to worry about your score 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:36.259 because we ended up calculating them all anyway. 00:18:36.819 --> 00:18:38.980 So it's not something you have to get too hung 00:18:38.980 --> 00:18:44.039 up on. But it fundamentally comes down to you 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.119 know, multiplying the number of countries and 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:49.759 zones that you work in the contest by the number 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:53.380 of QSOs that you make. And QSOs have a certain 00:18:53.380 --> 00:18:55.420 number of points assigned to them. And all this 00:18:55.420 --> 00:18:59.240 is written down in very clear, very clear way 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:02.420 in the rules that I would suggest anybody take 00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:04.920 a peek at because we're always changing little 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:08.819 things. Sometimes we do bigger things in rule 00:19:08.819 --> 00:19:12.809 changes. This year we did not. But we're always 00:19:12.809 --> 00:19:15.269 doing things like creating new categories such 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:18.410 as the focus on youth that we did last year as 00:19:18.410 --> 00:19:23.089 a new thing and other kinds of things. There's 00:19:23.089 --> 00:19:27.190 also tons of awards. We have something on the 00:19:27.190 --> 00:19:32.190 order of close to 200 plaques available. And 00:19:32.190 --> 00:19:34.990 I kind of struggle and wrap my head around that 00:19:34.990 --> 00:19:39.589 as I'm the guy that gets to prepare all those 00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:45.670 and send them out. But it's all part of the excitement 00:19:45.670 --> 00:19:49.829 around the contest. The most populated, most 00:19:49.829 --> 00:19:52.750 popular contest with the best awards program 00:19:52.750 --> 00:19:55.730 reaching the most number of people in the world 00:19:55.730 --> 00:19:57.569 in one weekend. It doesn't get any better than 00:19:57.569 --> 00:20:01.609 that. Oh, yeah. You bet. Well, we're talking 00:20:01.609 --> 00:20:07.740 with John Doar, K1AR. He is the... Director of 00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:11.700 the CQ Worldwide DX Contest and a member of the 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:15.440 CQ Worldwide Contest Committee. And we're talking 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:19.319 about CQ Worldwide CW coming up Thanksgiving 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:24.799 weekend here in the US. Yeah, let's dig into 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:26.799 the categories a little bit. You talked about 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:29.900 the classic overlay, that that's an option to 00:20:29.900 --> 00:20:35.839 kind of trim out 24 hours. Kind of simplify things 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.400 a little bit, but let's let's dig into those 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:40.640 categories and you mentioned the youth which 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:45.319 of course is is one that's that's near and dear 00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:49.059 to my heart because I do so much with that but 00:20:49.059 --> 00:20:53.259 There are some some rookie things and others 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:56.940 that Will give a chance for some people to enter 00:20:56.940 --> 00:21:00.150 and you just never know you you know sometimes 00:21:00.150 --> 00:21:02.589 you might be the only one to enter that category 00:21:02.589 --> 00:21:06.509 so so what are the choices here for uh... for 00:21:06.509 --> 00:21:11.769 categories well uh... you know the the category 00:21:11.769 --> 00:21:14.769 definition in the world wide was really designed 00:21:14.769 --> 00:21:18.349 to to give people as many different options as 00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:23.349 reasonable uh... and without going completely 00:21:23.349 --> 00:21:26.589 crazy in terms of uh... you know making everybody 00:21:26.589 --> 00:21:30.660 a winner so to speak but Fundamentally, they 00:21:30.660 --> 00:21:34.460 come down to the idea of operating by yourself 00:21:34.460 --> 00:21:38.000 as a single operator or operating as a group, 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:42.420 meaning a multi -operator situation. And then 00:21:42.420 --> 00:21:45.980 within the construct of that, as a single op, 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:50.380 for example, you may have a station that specializes 00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:54.900 in mediocrity on every band, but say 15 meters. 00:21:55.820 --> 00:21:59.920 15 meters, you got a 700 foot tower with stacked 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:02.660 yagis up and down and that's what you got, right? 00:22:03.299 --> 00:22:07.299 So you might be the kind of person who says, 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:09.940 you know what, I'm going to enter the single 00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:13.660 operator, single band, 15 meter category. And 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:16.079 that would be for you, right? Or you might want 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:20.779 to do 20 or 40 or whatever. So that's one way 00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:25.519 to slice it. Another way to slice it is uh, high 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:30.140 power, low power QRP. There are people who through 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:32.380 the bottom of the sunspot cycle have entered 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:37.839 QRP every year. Uh, God bless them. Um, you know, 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:41.660 if you, uh, if you want to win a category, a 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:44.579 good shot of winning a category would be to enter 00:22:44.579 --> 00:22:48.079 single up QRP, 10 meter model band at the bottom 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:53.660 of the cycle. Yeah. You probably win that category, 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:57.059 or certainly be in the top couple. And believe 00:22:57.059 --> 00:23:01.819 it or not, people do that. And that's their idea 00:23:01.819 --> 00:23:05.940 of having fun, right? So in the multi -op category, 00:23:06.539 --> 00:23:10.099 there's the idea of multi -single, meaning you 00:23:10.099 --> 00:23:13.160 and just you and a group and a single transmitter. 00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:16.140 You could have multi -two, where you can have 00:23:16.140 --> 00:23:18.869 two transmitters going at the same time. where 00:23:18.869 --> 00:23:23.690 you can have a room filled with equipment and 00:23:23.690 --> 00:23:26.950 a room filled with people and have what's called 00:23:26.950 --> 00:23:29.609 multi -multi which is kind of the granddaddy 00:23:29.609 --> 00:23:35.609 of all of this and everything in between. And 00:23:35.609 --> 00:23:38.230 then to make it a little more interesting we 00:23:38.230 --> 00:23:44.809 added a few extra what we call overlays or special 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:48.759 categories. So I already mentioned the 24 -hour 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:53.359 classic. We've mentioned the youth. So if you're 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:58.539 25 or under, you can essentially now compete 00:23:58.539 --> 00:24:01.839 against your peer group from an age point of 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:06.039 view. We also have a rookie category where if 00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:09.900 you've been licensed just for three years, I 00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:14.579 think it is a couple years, you can enter that. 00:24:14.589 --> 00:24:17.609 as a rookie and compete against other rookies 00:24:17.609 --> 00:24:20.569 and see how you do against other newer folks 00:24:20.569 --> 00:24:24.069 as opposed to trying to only compare your score 00:24:24.069 --> 00:24:25.849 against somebody who's been doing it for a hundred 00:24:25.849 --> 00:24:28.490 years and kind of say, well, that's not fair. 00:24:30.450 --> 00:24:35.769 It's another way to just have interest created 00:24:35.769 --> 00:24:39.890 and make it special for you. And then we just 00:24:39.890 --> 00:24:43.769 kind of go from there. With all of these categories 00:24:43.769 --> 00:24:47.670 and groupings, of course, it makes it challenging, 00:24:47.670 --> 00:24:51.190 frankly, when you get 9 ,000 logs coming in to 00:24:51.190 --> 00:24:54.029 kind of keep all this straight. And believe it 00:24:54.029 --> 00:24:57.029 or not, in years gone by, when I was in the early 00:24:57.029 --> 00:25:01.009 days of doing this, everything was on paper. 00:25:02.190 --> 00:25:07.730 And I'll never forget the one fatal question 00:25:07.730 --> 00:25:11.250 I asked. Uh, one of my predecessors, Bob Cox, 00:25:11.390 --> 00:25:14.849 K3ST, back, uh, when I first discovered this 00:25:14.849 --> 00:25:18.190 thing called, uh, the CQY and the contest committee 00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:21.029 and all that, I went to his house and in his 00:25:21.029 --> 00:25:23.569 family room, he had all these boxes all over 00:25:23.569 --> 00:25:26.910 the room. And I made, I asked him one fatal question. 00:25:27.130 --> 00:25:32.369 I said, Hey Bob, what's in those boxes? Fast 00:25:32.369 --> 00:25:35.150 forward, uh, 40 years and now I'm directing the 00:25:35.150 --> 00:25:37.690 contest, right? But what was in those boxes? 00:25:37.950 --> 00:25:42.069 all the paper logs from those days. And somehow, 00:25:43.109 --> 00:25:46.269 again, more of this magical power thing, somehow 00:25:46.269 --> 00:25:49.690 we managed to figure out how to receive logs 00:25:49.690 --> 00:25:54.029 from hundreds of countries, tabulate them all, 00:25:54.269 --> 00:25:56.670 get them into a format that we could then send 00:25:56.670 --> 00:26:00.130 to CQ, get them to figure out how to put that 00:26:00.130 --> 00:26:03.009 into a format that could result in a magazine. 00:26:03.549 --> 00:26:06.210 And that magazine gets shipped to a newsstand 00:26:06.210 --> 00:26:09.819 in New Delhi. and have an Indian ham pick up 00:26:09.819 --> 00:26:12.680 his copy of CQ and see his call sign on page 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:17.559 96. And now that's happened year after year after 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:21.339 year now for over 70 years in the CQ Worldwide. 00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:24.740 Yep. And now we've got those nice little contest 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:29.319 robots to go through and crunch all those numbers. 00:26:30.099 --> 00:26:33.019 Here's a question for you. How long does it take 00:26:33.019 --> 00:26:36.420 to run through once you've got all the logs? 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:40.119 How long does the computer take to figure out 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:43.740 all that stuff? It's, um, we've been constantly 00:26:43.740 --> 00:26:47.960 upgrading, uh, our systems. Uh, it's all, it's 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:50.240 all, you know, largely PC based. So it's not 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:53.140 like we have a, you know, a Cray supercomputer 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:57.259 running in, uh, in a secret military location. 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:01.799 Um, but, uh, you know, the, the run of the logs 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:05.319 is, um, you know, under an hour and it's got 00:27:05.319 --> 00:27:10.240 faster and faster over time to do that. What's 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:14.519 interesting now is with computers, and we should 00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:16.960 probably talk a little bit about what it takes 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:20.200 to actually submit a log, which I'll help you 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:23.220 with here in just a second, but with computers 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:27.000 now we actually are able to produce what we call 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:30.380 the raw scores or the preliminary results. It's 00:27:30.380 --> 00:27:33.190 just what everybody claimed they did. and we 00:27:33.190 --> 00:27:35.630 tabulated all and we published a set of results 00:27:35.630 --> 00:27:39.750 and we published that for the phone contest six 00:27:39.750 --> 00:27:44.130 days after the contest where we had at that time 00:27:44.130 --> 00:27:47.890 probably about 8 ,000 logs and you can go on 00:27:47.890 --> 00:27:49.970 there now on the CQ website if you submitted 00:27:49.970 --> 00:27:53.849 a log and you can see now before scores get you 00:27:53.849 --> 00:27:56.470 know checked and adjusted and all you can see 00:27:56.470 --> 00:28:00.349 where you actually are standing in placement 00:28:00.349 --> 00:28:04.589 for your your call area or your country or, you 00:28:04.589 --> 00:28:07.890 know, various ways to slice and dice it. Um, 00:28:07.890 --> 00:28:10.890 and that's all available now online on, on cqww 00:28:10.890 --> 00:28:16.089 .com site. Um, so some, some people are, and 00:28:16.089 --> 00:28:17.990 for good reason, if you're not experienced in 00:28:17.990 --> 00:28:21.069 this game or, or a little bit intimidated when 00:28:21.069 --> 00:28:23.730 they start hearing all these words like, uh, 00:28:23.769 --> 00:28:27.390 you know, Cabrillo and, and ADIF files and all 00:28:27.390 --> 00:28:29.940 this stuff, right. and they're saying, oh man, 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:31.920 you know, I guess I have to go back to computer 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.299 science school to be able to enter the CQ Worldwide. 00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:37.259 Well, you know, the good news is that if you're 00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:40.359 using any kind of a logging program like N1MM 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:45.079 or WinTest or something like that, N1MM is a 00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:47.660 great choice for a lot of people because it appeals 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:55.799 to HAM's basic DNA. It's free. all of the logging 00:28:55.799 --> 00:28:58.480 programs do all the heavy lifting for you. They 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:01.240 create the files you need on the output side 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:05.640 after the contest and submitting the log is really 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:09.380 honestly a pretty simple process that when you 00:29:09.380 --> 00:29:11.960 go on to the CQ Worldwide site, you'll see it 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:15.039 just kind of guide you through the steps. And 00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:18.490 you know, everybody gets challenged. with this 00:29:18.490 --> 00:29:20.990 including myself sometimes when I'm working on 00:29:20.990 --> 00:29:22.769 somebody's blog and trying to get it submitted 00:29:22.769 --> 00:29:25.750 for them. But you can always, always, always, 00:29:25.750 --> 00:29:29.730 always reach out to us with the contact page 00:29:29.730 --> 00:29:33.509 on the CQ site. All that mail comes to me, all 00:29:33.509 --> 00:29:38.710 three, the 400 of them per mode. And all three 00:29:38.710 --> 00:29:41.390 to 400 of them, every single one of them usually 00:29:41.390 --> 00:29:44.410 gets answered within a day or less when I get 00:29:44.410 --> 00:29:49.789 it. So it really does work. So worst case, if 00:29:49.789 --> 00:29:51.690 you're having problems and you can't figure out 00:29:51.690 --> 00:29:54.230 how to do this stuff and I get it, just send 00:29:54.230 --> 00:29:57.369 me a note and say, I'm struggling here and we'll 00:29:57.369 --> 00:30:01.650 work through. What doesn't work as well, and 00:30:01.650 --> 00:30:05.930 as you might imagine, we see logs that come in 00:30:05.930 --> 00:30:13.750 with amazing variants of formats. 98 % of them 00:30:13.750 --> 00:30:16.529 are the ones that are created by the computer 00:30:16.529 --> 00:30:19.650 logs, the logging programs. But every once in 00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:23.269 a while, we'll get a PDF, we'll get an Excel 00:30:23.269 --> 00:30:28.869 spreadsheet, a Word document, a JPEG, and things 00:30:28.869 --> 00:30:34.450 like that. And even those, we'll work with you 00:30:34.450 --> 00:30:37.210 and get it figured out for you. And you'll get 00:30:37.210 --> 00:30:40.430 to see your call in print and on the website 00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:44.930 and everywhere else. uh it's it really is is 00:30:44.930 --> 00:30:48.470 helpful for us to as we're going through the 00:30:48.470 --> 00:30:51.390 log checking process which is not a court of 00:30:51.390 --> 00:30:54.190 law it's simply saying hey you said you worked 00:30:54.190 --> 00:30:58.569 this guy let's see if you did and the way we 00:30:58.569 --> 00:31:01.309 can tell is by looking at his log oh you're in 00:31:01.309 --> 00:31:03.630 that log and you're in your log check you made 00:31:03.630 --> 00:31:07.170 it you passed the test um so that's why we do 00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:10.960 all this and and whether you got a a tiny little 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:16.420 100 QSO or 50 QSO log, or 10 ,000 people, they're 00:31:16.420 --> 00:31:18.940 all valuable. And we really would ask that you 00:31:18.940 --> 00:31:23.220 all try to send them in. Very good. All right. 00:31:23.220 --> 00:31:24.799 Well, we're going to take a break right now. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:30.380 But when we come back, I've got a kind of tough 00:31:30.380 --> 00:31:33.299 question to ask John here. So we'll talk about 00:31:33.299 --> 00:31:36.180 that. And we'll talk about some of the hardware 00:31:36.180 --> 00:31:39.799 that you can receive. when we come back with 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:42.480 John right after this word from Tower Electronics 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:48.940 right here on HamTalk Live. His two cents is 00:31:48.940 --> 00:31:57.319 worth $37 in change. He once ran a marathon because 00:31:57.319 --> 00:32:06.019 it was on his way to Dayton. He works FT8 by 00:32:06.019 --> 00:32:13.039 ear. He once worked North Korea on every band 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:20.740 in one minute using only a microwatt. He slowed 00:32:20.740 --> 00:32:24.380 down his code speed to work a de -expedition 00:32:24.380 --> 00:32:33.380 to 200 words a minute. He is, indeed, the most 00:32:33.380 --> 00:32:38.619 interesting ham in the world. I don't always 00:32:38.619 --> 00:32:43.440 put on my own PL259s, but when I do, I prefer 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:47.220 them from Tower Electronics. Stay resident, my 00:32:47.220 --> 00:32:51.440 friends. Tower Electronics has all the adapters, 00:32:51.799 --> 00:32:56.819 cables, connectors, and yes, PL259s you need 00:32:56.819 --> 00:33:03.039 at a ham fest near you. Or visit PL -259 .com. 00:33:07.419 --> 00:33:10.180 And on the tower electronics ham fest schedule 00:33:10.180 --> 00:33:13.799 will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana on November 19th 00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:17.299 and 20th Ocala, Florida December 2nd and 3rd 00:33:17.299 --> 00:33:20.480 and Plant City, Florida December 9th and 10th, 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:25.619 but you can visit them anytime at pl -259 .com 00:33:25.619 --> 00:33:28.900 Running barefoot is for the beach. We're cranking 00:33:28.900 --> 00:33:32.799 1 .5 trillion nanowatts right here on ham talk 00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:49.069 live Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Make sure 00:33:49.069 --> 00:33:52.809 you check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 00:33:53.809 --> 00:33:57.109 Coming up here in just a moment, we'll come back 00:33:57.109 --> 00:34:00.890 to John Doerr, K1AR, talking about CQ Worldwide 00:34:00.890 --> 00:34:05.809 CW. But for right now, it's time for the joke 00:34:05.809 --> 00:34:09.489 of the week. Now it's time for the HamTalk Live 00:34:09.489 --> 00:34:12.409 Ham Radio Joke of the Week, the part of the show 00:34:12.409 --> 00:34:15.730 where Rick tells us a ham radio joke. The HamTalk 00:34:15.730 --> 00:34:18.230 Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week is brought to 00:34:18.230 --> 00:34:22.170 you by QRM Labs. Now, here's Rick Garrett in 00:34:22.170 --> 00:34:26.610 9GSU with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. 00:34:31.710 --> 00:34:34.070 The other day a buddy of mine told me he got 00:34:34.070 --> 00:34:37.469 Mexico on his ham radio. That's no big deal. 00:34:37.929 --> 00:34:42.670 I opened my window and got killy. This has been 00:34:42.670 --> 00:34:45.969 the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week with 00:34:45.969 --> 00:34:49.710 Rick Garrett N9 GSU. Tune in again next week 00:34:49.710 --> 00:34:55.869 for another joke from Rick. We are back here 00:34:55.869 --> 00:35:01.170 on HamTalk Live with John Doar K1AR the CQ Worldwide 00:35:01.170 --> 00:35:06.199 DX Contest Director and we have CQ... worldwide 00:35:06.199 --> 00:35:11.099 CW coming up Thanksgiving weekend in the United 00:35:11.099 --> 00:35:15.019 States the last weekend of November. So we want 00:35:15.019 --> 00:35:19.019 to try to help get you ready for that. And, and 00:35:19.019 --> 00:35:23.460 John, one of the big controversial things right 00:35:23.460 --> 00:35:27.699 now in contesting is, is, you know, we do have 00:35:27.699 --> 00:35:33.059 some, some war time situations going on and And 00:35:33.059 --> 00:35:37.360 there's been a lot of controversy over Russian 00:35:37.360 --> 00:35:42.619 participation in contesting and CQ Worldwide 00:35:42.619 --> 00:35:46.539 is no exception. So kind of wanted to ask you 00:35:46.539 --> 00:35:54.159 what's being done here with the Russians participation 00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:58.940 in these contests. Sure. Well, you know, this 00:35:58.940 --> 00:36:04.659 is a topic that Frankly, every sponsor of a contest 00:36:04.659 --> 00:36:09.360 as well as awards programs and any kind of on 00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:13.360 -air activity is dealing with right now. And 00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:17.900 the question is, how do we respond to what's 00:36:17.900 --> 00:36:24.039 happening in the geopolitical world of the Ukraine 00:36:24.039 --> 00:36:29.840 and Russia in particular? And it's been a challenge. 00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:34.320 Um, the, uh, the original position that, that 00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:38.800 CQ magazine took, uh, which, uh, really, uh, 00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:42.480 was initiated right after the, uh, uh, the events 00:36:42.480 --> 00:36:46.599 over in Ukraine began in March was to basically, 00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:51.619 uh, put a ban on accepting, uh, entries from, 00:36:51.619 --> 00:36:56.519 uh, Russian, uh, uh, hams. Um, and basically, 00:36:56.519 --> 00:36:59.260 uh, they could They could operate the contest, 00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:06.480 but their logs would not be accepted and they 00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:08.739 were not eligible for awards or anything like 00:37:08.739 --> 00:37:12.960 that. In this case in the WPX contest, which 00:37:12.960 --> 00:37:16.420 takes place the end of March and then later in 00:37:16.420 --> 00:37:21.280 the end of May for CW. So as we were rolling 00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:23.800 through the summer, I think everyone hoped for 00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:27.039 many better reasons that uh, things would change 00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:30.639 geopolitically. And as we're sadly seeing, uh, 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:33.500 you know, the conflict continues. And as we were 00:37:33.500 --> 00:37:36.780 coming up to the time of the CQ worldwide here 00:37:36.780 --> 00:37:40.019 in the fall, uh, we had to ask the question again, 00:37:40.019 --> 00:37:43.800 and that is, do we maintain this policy? Uh, 00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:45.719 should we do something different? Because the 00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:49.000 thing that was nagging, I think, at us was the 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:53.059 fact that Ham Radio for all of its existence 00:37:53.059 --> 00:37:56.380 has really taken pride in sort of separating 00:37:56.380 --> 00:38:00.219 itself from all the controversies that seem to 00:38:00.219 --> 00:38:04.380 in particular are rising to the surface nowadays, 00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:09.199 whether it's politics or religion or gender or 00:38:09.199 --> 00:38:13.480 war. All of these things are things that Ham 00:38:13.480 --> 00:38:17.019 Radio has kind of avoided very intentionally. 00:38:17.469 --> 00:38:23.050 And it seemed a little bit contradictory to be 00:38:23.050 --> 00:38:27.010 taking a position with that backdrop in our history. 00:38:28.630 --> 00:38:31.889 So after a whole lot of discussion, the bottom 00:38:31.889 --> 00:38:34.809 line that was included was for the CQ Worldwide 00:38:34.809 --> 00:38:37.610 and actually all of CQ's contests going forward 00:38:37.610 --> 00:38:42.849 is that we have allowed for Russian and Belarus 00:38:42.849 --> 00:38:46.630 hams both. who were previously banned to now 00:38:46.630 --> 00:38:50.010 operate and participate. They can submit logs. 00:38:50.829 --> 00:38:53.829 We did have one caveat though, and that is that 00:38:53.829 --> 00:38:57.550 we're continuing to exclude their ability to 00:38:57.550 --> 00:39:02.030 receive awards in the CQ contest, but other than 00:39:02.030 --> 00:39:05.949 that, they are basically allowed to operate and 00:39:05.949 --> 00:39:08.809 enter the contest. And the thinking behind it 00:39:08.809 --> 00:39:10.909 was actually very simple, and that is that... 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:13.739 Rather than trying to create a one -size -fits 00:39:13.739 --> 00:39:18.360 -all sort of moral statement on what you should 00:39:18.360 --> 00:39:22.840 do as a ham in this situation, we decided that 00:39:22.840 --> 00:39:25.940 we should leave that up to the operators themselves, 00:39:26.559 --> 00:39:30.519 individually, one by one. And you have the choice 00:39:30.519 --> 00:39:36.320 of working other Russian hams or not, or anybody 00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:40.329 for that matter. rather than trying to create 00:39:40.329 --> 00:39:44.590 a role that fits all that you may in fact disagree 00:39:44.590 --> 00:39:47.650 with. And what we learned as we reached out to 00:39:47.650 --> 00:39:49.949 the conscious community is that this was a much 00:39:49.949 --> 00:39:54.989 more desirable conclusion. And what we saw was 00:39:54.989 --> 00:39:58.269 that there was a number of folks who did take 00:39:58.269 --> 00:40:01.489 a personal stand and did not. operate the contest 00:40:01.489 --> 00:40:06.750 for moral reasons. And the vast majority of folks 00:40:06.750 --> 00:40:10.010 did, as we see by the 9 ,000 logs that came in. 00:40:11.070 --> 00:40:13.230 And I think for now, that's probably the right 00:40:13.230 --> 00:40:18.889 position. CQ is holding to the idea that if things 00:40:18.889 --> 00:40:23.650 change, for the worse or the better, that's certainly 00:40:23.650 --> 00:40:27.039 the option to adjust. what is happening right 00:40:27.039 --> 00:40:30.239 now can take place just like we did recently 00:40:30.239 --> 00:40:34.380 for this round. And I think it's everyone's hope 00:40:34.380 --> 00:40:37.719 that all of this goes away and we can really 00:40:37.719 --> 00:40:40.539 just get back to doing what we love and that's 00:40:40.539 --> 00:40:43.480 just getting on the radio and having fun. So 00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:46.079 that's really why we do all this. And that's 00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:48.599 why I hope we continue to do it in the future. 00:40:49.980 --> 00:40:55.420 Okay. Very good. Well, Let's talk about some 00:40:55.420 --> 00:40:58.400 of those awards. You said you have several plaques 00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:01.980 and you get the fun job of making sure those 00:41:01.980 --> 00:41:05.760 get distributed to the winners and created. So 00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:08.739 let's talk about the plaques and who those go 00:41:08.739 --> 00:41:13.500 to and how all that works. And do you need any 00:41:13.500 --> 00:41:20.800 sponsors for plaques? Well, we have a group of 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:24.940 incredibly generous sponsors who are sponsoring, 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.260 as I mentioned earlier, pushing close to 200 00:41:29.260 --> 00:41:33.900 plaques, which is far and away the largest program 00:41:33.900 --> 00:41:37.800 out there in any contest I'm aware of in terms 00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:45.739 of numbers. And the need for sponsors is not 00:41:45.739 --> 00:41:48.760 large, but it's greater than zero. The best way 00:41:48.760 --> 00:41:53.440 to to review that. Again, just go to the CK Worldwide 00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:57.079 website. There's a tab on the top there for plaque. 00:41:57.179 --> 00:42:00.739 So you can see what's being offered as well as 00:42:00.739 --> 00:42:03.219 where there's need for sponsorship. And I update 00:42:03.219 --> 00:42:07.679 that in real time as things change. It's very 00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:10.659 easy to do. And one of the things that's nice 00:42:10.659 --> 00:42:14.559 about it is that you can see something that maybe 00:42:14.559 --> 00:42:19.019 is a fit for you. in terms of your station or 00:42:19.019 --> 00:42:22.159 your experience or your desired operate, and 00:42:22.159 --> 00:42:24.860 you can actually set as one of your personal 00:42:24.860 --> 00:42:26.960 goals to say, I want to go after that plaque, 00:42:27.019 --> 00:42:30.679 right? And those plaques are available for all 00:42:30.679 --> 00:42:34.500 those categories I mentioned earlier. I mentioned 00:42:34.500 --> 00:42:40.019 briefly how we initiated a new program centered 00:42:40.019 --> 00:42:45.420 on under 25 youth. Neil here has been a very, 00:42:45.420 --> 00:42:49.039 very strong supporter of that, both in terms 00:42:49.039 --> 00:42:53.619 of sponsorship and encouragement. And, uh, we, 00:42:53.619 --> 00:42:57.739 um, we created 14 plaques just for youth, uh, 00:42:57.739 --> 00:43:01.639 last year. And, um, you know, it's funny, uh, 00:43:01.639 --> 00:43:04.980 uh, I am because there's just a lot going on. 00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:07.679 I'm perpetually behind in the plaque game of 00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.579 getting these things out the door. Uh, so I, 00:43:10.579 --> 00:43:13.949 I, I beg in advance for, uh, for mercy. Uh, from, 00:43:14.170 --> 00:43:16.829 uh, from those that are do one and, uh, are listening, 00:43:17.570 --> 00:43:21.630 but, um, I will say that, uh, not surprisingly, 00:43:22.190 --> 00:43:24.889 the youth guys who are used to instantaneous 00:43:24.889 --> 00:43:27.250 results on the internet and everything else, 00:43:27.449 --> 00:43:29.670 you know, the contest will be about three, three 00:43:29.670 --> 00:43:32.909 hours old. They'll say, Hey, have you shipped 00:43:32.909 --> 00:43:40.050 my plaque yet? Surprised me at all. So but that's 00:43:40.050 --> 00:43:42.389 a good for them. I'm glad they're they're they're 00:43:42.389 --> 00:43:45.369 beating on us and in a good way and keeping us 00:43:45.369 --> 00:43:49.809 honest, but particularly for the youth I What 00:43:49.809 --> 00:43:53.309 I learned in talking to a number of young guys 00:43:53.309 --> 00:43:56.710 about how to put this together These things are 00:43:56.710 --> 00:44:00.269 meaningful They're they're meaningful in a lot 00:44:00.269 --> 00:44:04.329 of different ways Which is why I take it so seriously. 00:44:04.329 --> 00:44:11.150 I got a an email from a family, obviously, not 00:44:11.150 --> 00:44:14.409 obviously, but an email from a family over in 00:44:14.409 --> 00:44:18.010 Eastern Europe who the ham and the family had 00:44:18.010 --> 00:44:21.170 passed away from COVID, but they received the 00:44:21.170 --> 00:44:24.309 plaque and they were just so happy to be able 00:44:24.309 --> 00:44:27.039 to honor their family member. and put it on the 00:44:27.039 --> 00:44:30.260 wall was kind of that person's last thing they 00:44:30.260 --> 00:44:33.019 did in ham radio contesting. And that plaque 00:44:33.019 --> 00:44:35.460 probably meant more to them than any other thing 00:44:35.460 --> 00:44:39.300 that came in the mailbox in all these years that 00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:42.980 they were participating. So you can never underestimate 00:44:42.980 --> 00:44:46.860 the story. So many of these plaques are now done 00:44:46.860 --> 00:44:50.940 in memory of people who have left us become silent 00:44:50.940 --> 00:44:53.949 keys. And we can perpetuate their memory in a 00:44:53.949 --> 00:44:57.590 very positive way and have that name hanging 00:44:57.590 --> 00:45:02.269 on somebody's wall proudly that they achieved 00:45:02.269 --> 00:45:05.590 that award and that accomplishment in memory 00:45:05.590 --> 00:45:09.630 of the individual and the family that sponsored 00:45:09.630 --> 00:45:14.860 it. So it's really a great thing. Well, I know 00:45:14.860 --> 00:45:19.039 there were some young people that will be anxiously 00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:25.500 awaiting those plaques. And, you know, it was 00:45:25.500 --> 00:45:29.440 nice to be able to jump in. And I know with the 00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:33.940 youth, I think all yours were filled within like 00:45:33.940 --> 00:45:37.619 a few days, weren't they? Oh, it was phenomenal. 00:45:37.900 --> 00:45:43.579 We put the word out. I didn't even have to really 00:45:43.579 --> 00:45:46.920 ask. People were kind of coming to me, which 00:45:46.920 --> 00:45:50.440 was a nice problem. One other thing I'd say about 00:45:50.440 --> 00:45:55.920 awards is that if you submit a log and the log 00:45:55.920 --> 00:45:58.139 is on time, in other words, it's not past the 00:45:58.139 --> 00:46:03.739 deadline, you're able and eligible to get a certificate 00:46:03.739 --> 00:46:07.900 regardless of where you're placed. And you can 00:46:07.900 --> 00:46:11.739 download that right off the website. And it's 00:46:11.739 --> 00:46:14.159 actually a pretty, pretty handsome certificate 00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:17.820 in the same format that the CQ's used for many 00:46:17.820 --> 00:46:21.639 years. And everyone who participates and sends 00:46:21.639 --> 00:46:26.920 a log in can get one. Yeah, those are very, very 00:46:26.920 --> 00:46:31.099 nice and much appreciated. And yeah, I know what 00:46:31.099 --> 00:46:36.860 we just signed on for. Another plaque from from 00:46:36.860 --> 00:46:41.380 Yoda for the ready contest which you don't have 00:46:41.380 --> 00:46:44.000 to handle the plaques on though that one but 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:48.599 But that's being added the youth category over 00:46:48.599 --> 00:46:52.760 there and you know same kind of story with a 00:46:52.760 --> 00:46:55.139 few of us got together and those plaques were 00:46:55.139 --> 00:47:00.179 all filled Within no time So make sure you check 00:47:00.179 --> 00:47:03.280 out that list on the website and if there's one 00:47:03.280 --> 00:47:06.500 out there that that needs a sponsor but you know 00:47:06.500 --> 00:47:10.519 consider doing that it's a It's not overly expensive 00:47:10.519 --> 00:47:14.440 to do that but it can be a nice reminder and 00:47:14.440 --> 00:47:16.719 I'm glad you shared some of the stories here 00:47:16.719 --> 00:47:21.760 of What those plaques do mean to to families 00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:25.760 and people? around the world. So that's pretty 00:47:25.760 --> 00:47:29.219 cool. Well, John, I think we're, I could add 00:47:29.219 --> 00:47:32.760 one. Sorry. I could add one other quick story. 00:47:33.400 --> 00:47:36.940 Uh, uh, this just happened recently. Um, uh, 00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:40.480 one of the winners last year, uh, in last year's 00:47:40.480 --> 00:47:44.579 contest was a Mongolian station. Um, and it turns 00:47:44.579 --> 00:47:48.420 out that there's no easy way, uh, for, I guess 00:47:48.420 --> 00:47:51.920 COVID reasons or whatever to get mail from here 00:47:51.920 --> 00:47:55.659 to Mongolia. And it turned out that there was 00:47:55.659 --> 00:47:58.940 a Mongolian ham who lives here in the U .S. now, 00:47:59.300 --> 00:48:01.460 who was going to be traveling back to Mongolia. 00:48:01.559 --> 00:48:05.579 And I was able to snag the plaque, ship it to 00:48:05.579 --> 00:48:08.260 him out in the West Coast, U .S. West Coast. 00:48:08.460 --> 00:48:11.099 The ham carried it on the plane to Mongolia. 00:48:11.460 --> 00:48:13.659 And then they sent me a picture of the team together, 00:48:13.820 --> 00:48:16.179 all holding their plaque, you know, in the shack. 00:48:16.500 --> 00:48:20.579 And I just thought about again. What transpired 00:48:20.579 --> 00:48:23.800 from the time I typed in the letters that were 00:48:23.800 --> 00:48:26.059 going to be on that plaque to ordering the plaque, 00:48:26.079 --> 00:48:28.800 to having it sent to me, having it paid for, 00:48:29.119 --> 00:48:31.440 to getting it shipped, to getting it hand carried 00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:33.880 over there and have it eventually be on their 00:48:33.880 --> 00:48:36.719 wall. Right. And it's just so cool to see these 00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:42.219 things. They were super proud. Oh, I bet. I bet 00:48:42.219 --> 00:48:45.900 that's a very cool story. Thanks for sharing 00:48:45.900 --> 00:48:50.250 that. Well, John, we are out of time here today, 00:48:50.250 --> 00:48:52.449 but I want to thank you for coming on and sharing 00:48:52.449 --> 00:48:57.289 some information about CQ Worldwide CW coming 00:48:57.289 --> 00:49:00.670 up and all the things around it, and I look forward 00:49:00.670 --> 00:49:04.650 to doing this with you again soon. All righty. 00:49:04.650 --> 00:49:08.469 My pleasure, and please reach out through the 00:49:08.469 --> 00:49:11.449 contact page on the website if you have questions 00:49:11.449 --> 00:49:14.449 or problems or anything that's on your mind. 00:49:14.449 --> 00:49:17.039 I love hearing from people. So don't be shy. 00:49:17.940 --> 00:49:22.619 And that website is cqww .com. Correct? You got 00:49:22.619 --> 00:49:25.420 it. Yep. That's it. All right. So make sure you 00:49:25.420 --> 00:49:28.099 check that out. Looking forward to a busy, uh, 00:49:28.599 --> 00:49:31.760 busy time in a couple of weeks. All right, John, 00:49:31.960 --> 00:49:35.099 thanks so much. For being here and yeah, let's 00:49:35.099 --> 00:49:37.320 let's try to keep John busy with all this stuff. 00:49:37.780 --> 00:49:43.039 So Well, that is a wrap for this edition of ham 00:49:43.039 --> 00:49:45.739 talk live I'd like to thank my guest John door 00:49:45.739 --> 00:49:49.519 k1 AR and everybody out there in cyberspace for 00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:52.260 listening and invite you back next time For a 00:49:52.260 --> 00:49:54.719 list of all of our upcoming guests. Just go to 00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:58.940 ham talk live .com So for now, this is Neil rap 00:49:58.940 --> 00:50:03.170 WB nine VPG saying seven three Seven five and 00:50:03.170 --> 00:50:06.030 may the good DX be yours