WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.000 by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables, 00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:12.960 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:17.620 .com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.839 it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:31.989 for more information about ICOM radios. Here 00:00:31.989 --> 00:01:01.189 we go, welcome to Good evening, everyone. It's 00:01:01.189 --> 00:01:07.510 time for HamTalk Live episode number 232. Contest 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:12.250 calendar with Bruce Horn, WA7BNM, recorded live 00:01:12.250 --> 00:01:17.750 on Thursday, October 15th, 2020. I'm your host, 00:01:17.829 --> 00:01:21.849 Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this 00:01:21.849 --> 00:01:24.670 episode of HamTalk Live. And as I said tonight, 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:28.879 we're joined by Bruce Horn. W -A -7 -B -N -M 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:32.359 and we will take your calls live a little later 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:34.319 in the show. We'll give you the phone number 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:36.819 for that here in just a minute. So you can have 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:40.200 that ready to go. Last week here on the show, 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:43.739 Michael Colley, W -4 -M -C -A and John Knott, 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:47.099 N4JTK were here to talk about the cancellation 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:51.930 of... The Orlando Hamcation for 2021. If you 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:54.650 missed that show, you can listen anytime over 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:58.450 at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast 00:01:58.450 --> 00:02:03.810 app or on YouTube. And you can catch the rebroadcast 00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:09.550 of HamTalk Live on Saturday afternoons on WTWW. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:15.860 5 0 8 5 a .m. again that Saturday afternoons. 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:20.860 It's about 3 30 p .m. Eastern time over on WTWW. 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:26.520 So thanks to Ted and the gang for having us on 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:31.539 their afternoon ham radio lineup over on 5 0 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:35.860 8 5. Well, there's a lot of stuff going on right 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:39.479 now and, um, we're going to talk about some contests 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:43.419 that are coming up. Uh, but Jamboree on the air 00:02:43.419 --> 00:02:48.259 is this weekend. So, um, I'm sure COVID is, is 00:02:48.259 --> 00:02:51.039 playing into that somewhat, but, uh, there will 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.300 be some scouts on the air this weekend. So, uh, 00:02:54.300 --> 00:02:57.000 get on the air and give them a call. And also 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.300 school club roundup is coming up next week. We'll 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:02.599 talk about that a little bit later. And then 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:08.340 we want to congratulate Lance Leffler, KD9QNP. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:11.580 He just got his license this week. My friend 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:15.240 Eric Irwin, WB9PTN, let me know about that. So 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:20.319 congratulations to Lance. So get your questions 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.659 ready to go here for Bruce. If you're listening 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:25.199 to us live on Thursday night, you can give us 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:28.560 a call. In the next segment, I'll tell you when 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.240 it's time to call, but here is the phone number 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:36.139 so you can have it handy and ready to dial. It's 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:50.000 859 -982 -7373. Again, 859 -982 -7373. You can 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.979 also tweet us, assuming that Twitter was working 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:57.219 again and it was a few minutes ago anyway, the 00:03:57.219 --> 00:04:00.620 little sluggish, but we'll give it a shot. It's 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:04.639 at HamTalk Live over on Twitter and we'll be 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.960 watching that throughout the night as well as 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.240 the comments here on Spreaker as well. And I'll 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:12.539 be back with Bruce right after this word from 00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:16.480 Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk Live. 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:21.800 Thanks for choosing Tower Electronics. How may 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:25.759 we help you today? We have PL259s, we have in 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:29.379 connectors, we have SMA adapters, we have BNC 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:32.139 adapters. What can I show you today? Where's 00:04:32.139 --> 00:04:35.300 the tower? Well, we don't actually have a tower 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:38.180 with us. But we have all kinds of things you 00:04:38.180 --> 00:04:41.899 can use with a tower. We have power poles, antennas, 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:44.379 soldering irons and meters. Where's the tower? 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:48.279 Ma 'am, that's the name of our company. We can't 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:50.779 haul towers to all the ham fest across the country 00:04:50.779 --> 00:04:53.639 that we visit, but we have almost every connector 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.180 and adapter you would need to connect your antenna 00:04:56.180 --> 00:04:58.300 that's on your tower. I don't think there's a 00:04:58.300 --> 00:05:01.899 tower back there. I really don't. Tower Electronics, 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:06.360 visit us at a HamFest near you or call 920 -435 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:11.939 -2973 or see our whole catalog at PL -259 .com. 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.939 Sorry, one thing we don't have is a tower. Running 00:05:15.939 --> 00:05:19.819 barefoot is for the beach. We're cranking 1 .5 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:23.259 trillion nanowatts right here on HamTalk Live. 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:43.639 Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Thanks to Scott 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:46.720 and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.920 the show tonight to help bring you HamTalk Live. 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:51.800 They do have a couple of hamfests on their calendar. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.060 Bedford, Indiana just down the road from May, 00:05:55.079 --> 00:05:59.199 November 7th and Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 00:05:59.300 --> 00:06:03.500 November 13th and 14th. Or you can visit them 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:12.350 anytime online at PL -259. Joining me tonight 00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:16.930 is Bruce Horn, W -A -7 -B -N -M. He is the creator 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:22.870 and maintainer of contestcalendar .com as well 00:06:22.870 --> 00:06:28.089 as 3830scores .com where contesters post their 00:06:28.089 --> 00:06:31.889 claimed scores. He's also created contest -related 00:06:31.889 --> 00:06:35.370 web apps for log submission and the online certificate 00:06:35.370 --> 00:06:39.470 creation of a variety of contest sponsors, including 00:06:39.470 --> 00:06:43.470 the ARRL, National Contest Journal, and many 00:06:43.470 --> 00:06:48.189 state QSO parties. And we're happy to have Bruce 00:06:48.189 --> 00:06:53.470 with us tonight. And he's the programmer of contest 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:57.029 stuff is what I will call him. So Bruce, welcome 00:06:57.029 --> 00:07:00.980 to HamTalk Live. Thanks, Neil. Nice to be here. 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:04.899 Well, you put together a lot of this stuff and 00:07:04.899 --> 00:07:07.779 make it a whole lot easier to keep track of scores, 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:12.360 keep track of when all these things are. And 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.620 we really appreciate all the work that you do 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:19.540 to do all of this. And it seems like people say, 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.459 you know what? It seems like there's a contest 00:07:22.459 --> 00:07:26.449 every weekend. Well, Actually, there is a contest 00:07:26.449 --> 00:07:30.290 every weekend and and you collect all that information 00:07:30.290 --> 00:07:33.370 and post it so people know what's going on and 00:07:33.370 --> 00:07:36.889 and we're getting into what is kind of known 00:07:36.889 --> 00:07:40.930 as contest season Where some of the big ones 00:07:40.930 --> 00:07:44.730 are coming up? So for those that aren't familiar 00:07:44.730 --> 00:07:48.370 with your website and your service tell us about 00:07:48.370 --> 00:07:52.610 contest calendar comm and What people can find 00:07:52.610 --> 00:07:57.480 when they go there? Yeah, thank you. So, as the 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.839 name describes, it's a calendar of contests. 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:03.420 And I'll say right up front, because I get asked 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:06.519 this periodically, it's not a calendar of events. 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:10.480 It's not, you know, the World War II Memorial 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.899 Station, you get a certificate for having a QSO 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:15.920 with them. There's lots of things like that. 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:19.139 The ARL publishes lists of that. I think EM .net 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:22.379 does, but I don't. It's strictly contests, which 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:25.060 means you need to keep score, you need to submit 00:08:25.060 --> 00:08:27.480 your score in some way. That's the simple definition. 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:32.019 So the contest calendar essentially lets you 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:35.879 know when contests are. And then in order to 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.539 be a little more helpful, the idea was to provide 00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:42.460 a summary of information about each contest. 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:45.419 Admittedly, that summary is not complete, but 00:08:45.419 --> 00:08:48.639 it basically tells you. Who the contest is designed 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.759 for? Is it a US -based contest? Is it a worldwide 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:55.080 contest? You know, is it a California contest? 00:08:55.299 --> 00:08:58.379 What are the modes? What bands are involved? 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:01.960 You know, what power levels you can run? What's 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.179 the exchange of information? You know, I need 00:09:04.179 --> 00:09:08.559 to provide you with a signal report MIQTH, something 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:11.940 like that. A basic summary of how it's scored. 00:09:12.190 --> 00:09:15.970 information on how to submit the log and where 00:09:15.970 --> 00:09:19.309 can you actually find the official rules. So 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:21.909 that's always important. I try to do an accurate 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:25.649 summary, but sometimes things change and sometimes 00:09:25.649 --> 00:09:28.210 I have a senior moment and don't get it right. 00:09:28.309 --> 00:09:31.789 I try to avoid those, but it's not impossible. 00:09:32.509 --> 00:09:36.529 So the idea is all of this is stored in a database 00:09:36.529 --> 00:09:40.809 and you just get different views of it. So There 00:09:40.809 --> 00:09:43.049 is something called an eight day calendar. Eight 00:09:43.049 --> 00:09:46.169 day calendar tells you the contest for yesterday 00:09:46.169 --> 00:09:49.870 and the next seven days and gives the detail 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:54.529 I just talked about. The next version that's 00:09:54.529 --> 00:09:57.389 sort of highly uses the 12 month calendar. So 00:09:57.389 --> 00:10:01.830 it's telling you what are the contests over the 00:10:01.830 --> 00:10:06.070 next 12 months? What are their dates? and times, 00:10:06.210 --> 00:10:08.590 and you can click on them to get the detail I 00:10:08.590 --> 00:10:12.250 just talked about. And then the other one version 00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:15.129 that's fairly popular, I call the perpetual calendar, 00:10:15.590 --> 00:10:18.269 because people, some contesters like to really 00:10:18.269 --> 00:10:20.710 plan ahead, you know, as far off as a couple 00:10:20.710 --> 00:10:23.529 of years. So this calendar allows you to look 00:10:23.529 --> 00:10:28.200 out at least five years for Contests that have 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.779 known schedules. The California QSO party was 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:34.340 the first full weekend in October, for example, 00:10:34.659 --> 00:10:36.740 it's always the first full weekend in October. 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:40.679 So if you look in 2023 in the perpetual calendar, 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:44.159 you'll see when that is not every count not every 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:47.799 contest that is known for so not every contest 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:51.350 is on the perpetual calendar. Then in addition 00:10:51.350 --> 00:10:55.509 to the website, you can subscribe to the calendar, 00:10:55.830 --> 00:10:58.710 the eight -day calendar basically as an email 00:10:58.710 --> 00:11:03.450 calendar. I send it out on Monday evenings, my 00:11:03.450 --> 00:11:07.529 time, I'm on the West Coast. You can look at 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:09.990 a Google version of it if you like, if you have 00:11:09.990 --> 00:11:12.149 your own Google calendar, you use Google calendar, 00:11:12.210 --> 00:11:14.950 incorporate other events. There's a Google calendar 00:11:14.950 --> 00:11:17.090 version, although it doesn't go out a long ways 00:11:17.090 --> 00:11:20.460 because I have to do it manually. And there's 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:26.620 also Twitter that you could subscribe to WA7BNM 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:30.700 calendar and you'll get notifications again on 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:34.639 Mondays of the contest for the coming week as 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:36.700 tweets that just say, here's the name of the 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:41.120 contest. Here's the dates and times of the contest 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:43.539 with a clickable link to get you the details. 00:11:43.940 --> 00:11:49.549 So that's basically the calendar. Okay. And you 00:11:49.549 --> 00:11:53.149 know, and there's a lot to keep track of. And 00:11:53.149 --> 00:11:57.350 it seems like to me that there's been a real 00:11:57.350 --> 00:12:02.730 jump in this last, you know, several months of 00:12:02.730 --> 00:12:05.990 the number of contests, the number of QSO parties 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:10.990 and definitely special events, uh, since the 00:12:10.990 --> 00:12:14.580 pandemic started. And there's been a lot of you 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:16.860 know, noteworthy events that are that are kind 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:21.980 of competing for weekends on the calendar. And 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:25.559 are you noticing a big rise in the number of 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:29.200 events that are sponsored? You're exactly right. 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:31.460 You know, I should have mentioned that currently 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:35.919 the calendar has about 430 active contests that 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.179 are maintained in it. You know, I don't know 00:12:38.179 --> 00:12:41.500 how that's changed, but indeed in 2020, I would 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:46.809 say I've added a A dozen or so contests to the 00:12:46.809 --> 00:12:50.350 calendar. I think that's driven indeed by the 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:53.250 pandemic situation. More people are home, maybe 00:12:53.250 --> 00:12:56.909 have more time to operate in some cases. So they're 00:12:56.909 --> 00:13:00.990 more engaged. The state QSO party challenge. 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:04.820 has been a huge influence on activities in state 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:08.039 QSO parties. So every state QSO party has seen 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:11.720 huge increases in activity on those. And then 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.779 the other thing that's happened, it seems like, 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:16.759 you know, I don't want to denigrate them, but 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:18.879 it's almost like every little group has decided 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:21.840 to have a little one hour contest sometime during 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.299 the week. Contests are no longer just on the 00:13:24.299 --> 00:13:28.200 weekends. They're throughout the weekdays, an 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.769 hour contest here, an hour contest there. Some 00:13:31.769 --> 00:13:34.730 of them really have minimal participation. Some 00:13:34.730 --> 00:13:40.649 are very popular. CFU Ops has a series of contests 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:44.710 that are on, what are the Tuesday, Wednesdays, 00:13:44.990 --> 00:13:49.029 three different times that are very popular worldwide 00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:52.710 contests, for example. But you're exactly right 00:13:52.710 --> 00:13:57.649 that there's been an increase in contests on 00:13:57.649 --> 00:14:03.700 the schedule. And you know the Trying to get 00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:07.139 you know, a weekend that's clear, you know, you're 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:10.580 probably not gonna find one because there's always 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:13.440 Something going on and like you said, there's 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:17.379 the you know the CW ops Contest through the week 00:14:17.379 --> 00:14:25.210 and I know The worldwide sign band activity Contest 00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:28.529 that some of the young people put together is 00:14:28.529 --> 00:14:31.429 also in the middle of the week So there's more 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:34.850 in the middle of the week and not just the weekends 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:38.830 anymore Well, I pulled it up and took a look 00:14:38.830 --> 00:14:45.590 at what was happening This weekend so just as 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:50.730 an example here. We've got the oh boy and I didn't 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:53.990 I should have done my, uh, my pronunciation here. 00:14:54.049 --> 00:15:02.929 Um, the Arakwara? Arakwara? Arakwara. Worldwide 00:15:02.929 --> 00:15:06.929 VHF contest, the Jartz Worldwide Ready Contest, 00:15:07.070 --> 00:15:10.730 the Tin Tin International Fall Contest, CW, the 00:15:10.730 --> 00:15:14.230 New York QSO party, the Illinois QSO party, the 00:15:14.230 --> 00:15:16.789 Stu Perry Top Band Challenge, Worked All Germany 00:15:16.789 --> 00:15:20.399 Contest, the Feldhell Sprint, Uh, which I believe 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.820 is a recurring one, uh, Argentina, the seven 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:27.200 megahertz contest, the Asia Pacific fall sprint 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:32.139 and CW, the UBA, I'm assuming that's O N is that 00:15:32.139 --> 00:15:35.679 Ontario or is that, uh, no, you're right. That's 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:39.200 Belgium. Okay. Belgium. Okay. Uh, on two meters, 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:46.570 um, And the classic exchange, the RSGB CW Rolo, 00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:49.570 the run for the bacon QRP contest and the K1 00:15:49.570 --> 00:15:53.429 US in slow speed net or slow seed test. I'm sorry. 00:15:54.289 --> 00:15:58.990 That's all this weekend. So it, you know, there's 00:15:58.990 --> 00:16:02.289 always something and some of these have, you 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:06.490 know, different modes, different bands, different, 00:16:07.110 --> 00:16:13.700 different. agendas, different clientele, depending 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:17.220 on what you're looking for. So there's, you know, 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:23.059 a variety here to pick from. Well, exactly. And 00:16:23.059 --> 00:16:27.179 it's an international calendar. So it's full 00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:29.919 of contests, regardless of where they occur in 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:32.759 the world. I haven't, it isn't a US calendar 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:34.639 or a North American calendar. It's literally 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:37.639 a worldwide calendar. what I didn't mention when 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:40.220 I was talking about various views of the calendars, 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:42.460 because of that, you may not be interested in 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:46.419 seeing all 430 contests all the time. So there's 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:50.019 a custom version available that actually stores 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:53.220 the contest you're interested in in a cookie 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:56.759 associated with your browser so that you'll just 00:16:56.759 --> 00:17:00.200 see you can check off a whole bunch of checkboxes 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:02.440 the contest you're interested in. And so when 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:05.000 you go to something like the 8 -day calendar, 00:17:05.289 --> 00:17:08.190 You will only see those any new calendar gets 00:17:08.190 --> 00:17:10.549 added automatically gets added to your list. 00:17:11.049 --> 00:17:13.049 So that's one thing to do. But you know, you 00:17:13.049 --> 00:17:16.369 ran down the list there for this weekend is a 00:17:16.369 --> 00:17:19.509 great example. Some of those are annual contests, 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:23.869 JARTS ready contests, and you know, QSO parties, 00:17:24.049 --> 00:17:27.710 state QSO parties are Stu Perry top batting challenge 00:17:27.710 --> 00:17:30.730 is four times a year. Feltail sprint is monthly. 00:17:31.549 --> 00:17:34.309 Asia Pacific falls sprint. The CW is once a year, 00:17:34.369 --> 00:17:40.009 but there are three versions of that. Run for 00:17:40.009 --> 00:17:44.150 the bacon is a monthly contest. So, and like 00:17:44.150 --> 00:17:48.710 the K1 USN slow speed test is a relatively new 00:17:48.710 --> 00:17:53.650 contest. I think it's maybe. or instances old, 00:17:53.730 --> 00:17:57.569 something like that. It's designed for people 00:17:57.569 --> 00:18:00.670 who are trying to get more comfortable with their 00:18:00.670 --> 00:18:05.829 CW, and it keeps the speeds below 20 words per 00:18:05.829 --> 00:18:08.910 minute. And for the guys who are fast, 20 words 00:18:08.910 --> 00:18:12.250 per minute seems like it's really, really slow. 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:14.759 But I remember when I was first trying to get 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.099 to 13 words per minute to get my general license 00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:20.140 at the time, 13 seemed like, wow, I don't know 00:18:20.140 --> 00:18:22.900 how I can copy this. You know, I sort of maxed 00:18:22.900 --> 00:18:26.460 out at 10 and finally made it to 13. So, uh, 00:18:26.460 --> 00:18:28.859 you know, there's a lot of different things for 00:18:28.859 --> 00:18:33.079 a lot of different audiences here. Well, and, 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:34.960 and, you know, we're coming in, like I said, 00:18:35.059 --> 00:18:38.180 some of the big ones are, are coming in at the, 00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:42.599 the proverbial contest season coming up. Uh, 00:18:43.019 --> 00:18:46.759 so we're going to take a look at a few of those 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:51.339 bigger ones. Uh, but first I want to talk about. 00:18:51.779 --> 00:18:54.319 School club roundup next week, just because I'm 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:57.579 always involved with that and have the school 00:18:57.579 --> 00:19:01.619 on. And unfortunately, because of COVID, we're 00:19:01.619 --> 00:19:03.579 not going to be on next week. And it's the first 00:19:03.579 --> 00:19:06.519 time we haven't been on school club roundup since 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:12.420 like 2003 or 2005, something like that. Um, but 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.619 it's still going on. There's a lot of schools 00:19:14.619 --> 00:19:17.259 that aren't going to be able to be on that much. 00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:21.740 So you may not hear as much, um, on school club 00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:25.240 roundup next week, just because. the schools 00:19:25.240 --> 00:19:28.299 can't actually get into the shacks and can't 00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:31.519 actually, um, you know, run, you know, the whole 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:34.859 24 hours through the week, but, but school club 00:19:34.859 --> 00:19:38.480 roundup is one that, um, that's running next 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:41.279 week. So any, any comments about the school club 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:44.940 roundup Bruce? Well, I think it's really a great 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:47.500 contest to support. Uh, I always enjoy reading 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:50.240 the comments, uh, from the various schools and 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:53.250 their participants. You know, it, it, divide 00:19:53.250 --> 00:19:55.450 schools clear down to the elementary school level 00:19:55.450 --> 00:19:59.609 up through universities into the different categories. 00:20:00.369 --> 00:20:03.630 And it sounds like kids have a great time with 00:20:03.630 --> 00:20:07.369 this and it's sort of like helping the future 00:20:07.369 --> 00:20:09.730 of ham radio to encourage kids to participate 00:20:09.730 --> 00:20:13.509 in these kinds of things. So I think you're right 00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:15.829 that that activity will be down, but I would 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:19.650 certainly encourage people to help schools participate 00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:21.650 in this by getting on the air and contacting 00:20:21.650 --> 00:20:25.259 them. Yeah, I think you're gonna see, you know 00:20:25.259 --> 00:20:28.140 some schools on it's just probably not quite 00:20:28.140 --> 00:20:32.500 as long of a period of time and and You know, 00:20:32.660 --> 00:20:35.859 maybe not as persistent as some but hopefully 00:20:35.859 --> 00:20:38.799 there'll be some that will be able to do that, 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:42.380 but I know Here we're not going to be able to 00:20:42.380 --> 00:20:46.740 I know several in our vicinity are not going 00:20:46.740 --> 00:20:51.539 to be able to to be on so hopefully in the February 00:20:51.539 --> 00:20:54.660 one will be a little bit better. And already 00:20:54.660 --> 00:21:01.619 Troy, who is W9KVR, he is the sponsor at a school 00:21:01.619 --> 00:21:04.039 over in Illinois that we kind of talked to a 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:07.160 lot, has already given me the, yes, it's not 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:14.400 a contest. We always say it's kind of like field 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:15.980 day we have this thing, you know, it's field 00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:18.779 day a contest it's field day not a contest and 00:21:18.779 --> 00:21:23.119 and so Technically, it's not a contest but there's 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:27.059 still a score. So the kids see it Oftentimes 00:21:27.059 --> 00:21:32.279 as a as a contest. So we'll leave that one but 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:35.000 let's talk about some of the ones that are definitely 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:40.819 contests here and you know Probably the biggest 00:21:40.819 --> 00:21:45.380 out of the bunch is a CQ worldwide sideband that's 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:50.500 coming up here in a week. A week from this weekend. 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:55.859 So we're really just getting started in the contest 00:21:55.859 --> 00:22:01.079 season for the major contests. I know I participated 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:04.720 in my first CQ worldwide sideband back in 1990. 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:07.420 I was mainly interested in DXing at the time. 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:10.819 had never entered a contest. And I was quite 00:22:10.819 --> 00:22:14.279 a ways into ham radio by that time. And I was 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:16.480 just looking for new countries. And hey, it's 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:18.579 an easy way to find new countries when you've 00:22:18.579 --> 00:22:21.079 got the whole world talking to each other. Easy 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.759 exchange signal report in your zone. Not too 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:29.109 tough. So you have to do is managed to work your 00:22:29.109 --> 00:22:32.230 way through the QRM and hear a copy of call signs 00:22:32.230 --> 00:22:35.730 and sideband. So that's certainly one of the 00:22:35.730 --> 00:22:38.190 biggest contests of the year. And then you get 00:22:38.190 --> 00:22:41.769 into November, you have ARL sweepstakes, a very 00:22:41.769 --> 00:22:47.289 popular contest in the US and Canada, has a complicated 00:22:47.289 --> 00:22:52.640 exchange is the downside of sweepstakes. You 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:54.740 need to read the rules and understand what's 00:22:54.740 --> 00:22:56.819 expected of you, and you have to give a sequential 00:22:56.819 --> 00:22:59.880 serial number, so it's a little tough for casual 00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:02.000 operators who just sort of show up and go, hey, 00:23:02.019 --> 00:23:04.240 what's going on the band here? You know, I want 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:07.759 to jump in. Then at the end of November, which 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.059 is actually the largest contest, I believe, of 00:23:10.059 --> 00:23:14.559 the year, is CQ Worldwide CW. And just like CQ 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:17.599 Worldwide Sideband, but in CW mode, another great 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:19.660 opportunity to work countries all over the world. 00:23:20.190 --> 00:23:26.369 Then you're into December ARL 160 and ARL 10. 00:23:26.569 --> 00:23:28.930 160 will probably be more exciting if you have 00:23:28.930 --> 00:23:33.490 an antenna for it than 10 is. Not a whole lot 00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:35.930 happened on 10. I know I've been on 10 meter 00:23:35.930 --> 00:23:38.430 contests where I was lucky to work a couple other 00:23:38.430 --> 00:23:41.210 people here in Los Angeles and didn't really 00:23:41.210 --> 00:23:43.930 hear much outside. So I don't know that that's 00:23:43.930 --> 00:23:46.490 going to be really exciting. And then there's 00:23:46.490 --> 00:23:48.670 another Stu Perry there by for the end of the 00:23:48.670 --> 00:23:55.000 year. And also the rack Canadian winner contest 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.519 is in late December. Another opportunity to work 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:06.599 lots of people. Okay, so all all great contests 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:10.220 and like you said, it's It's a great time to 00:24:10.220 --> 00:24:12.259 pick up some countries and I know that's that's 00:24:12.259 --> 00:24:15.559 what I do I am NOT going to be able to run, you 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:20.099 know 24 48 hours You know on a lot of these longer 00:24:20.099 --> 00:24:22.680 contests and there are sprints out there that 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:27.660 are our short -term period Contest but I'm not 00:24:27.660 --> 00:24:32.160 gonna run, you know 48 hours. I'm gonna run a 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:35.700 few hours and my goal isn't necessarily to win 00:24:35.700 --> 00:24:39.759 but to pick up some some countries, pick up some 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.539 new ones or some that I don't have confirmed. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:47.740 And that's a great time to get in there and do 00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:51.039 it. And then so I always look forward to doing 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:55.859 that, especially CQ Worldwide Sideband. So some 00:24:55.859 --> 00:25:01.220 good ones coming up here as the year comes. closer 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:06.519 to the end so we are coming up close to a break 00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:08.940 so Bruce we're going to take a break right now 00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:11.619 and then we'll come back and we'll talk some 00:25:11.619 --> 00:25:14.599 more about the contest and we'll take your calls 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:21.309 at 859 -982 -7373 and your tweets and Comments 00:25:21.309 --> 00:25:24.150 and all that stuff when we come back after this 00:25:24.150 --> 00:25:27.690 word from ICOM America right here on HamTalk 00:25:27.690 --> 00:25:33.869 Live. Get out and be active with ICOM's new IC705 00:25:33.869 --> 00:25:37.650 and its optional multifunction backpack. 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Or, if you'd 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:11.700 rather type than talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live. 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:15.700 Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. 00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:32.089 Copy 594 from HamTalk Live. And welcome back 00:27:32.089 --> 00:27:36.869 to HamTalk Live. ICOM America helps bring you 00:27:36.869 --> 00:27:41.569 HamTalk Live every week. Check them out at icomamerica 00:27:41.569 --> 00:27:46.369 .com slash amateur in that new IC 705. HamTalk 00:27:46.369 --> 00:27:48.569 Live is on the air every Thursday night, 9 p 00:27:48.569 --> 00:27:52.690 .m. Eastern Time, right here on HamTalkLive .com. 00:27:53.109 --> 00:27:55.250 And be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, 00:27:55.509 --> 00:27:59.009 and Instagram. And it's time for your phone calls 00:27:59.009 --> 00:28:01.150 right now. So if you have a question for Bruce, 00:28:01.349 --> 00:28:10.829 give us a call. It's 859 -982 -7373. Again, 859. 00:28:14.119 --> 00:28:17.440 Or you can tweet us, it's at HamTalk Live on 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:20.200 Twitter. And if you're listening to us on WTWW 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:23.759 or on the podcast edition, I'm sorry, but we're 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:27.220 not here anymore. This was on Thursday evening. 00:28:27.339 --> 00:28:30.839 So you won't be able to. to reach us here. So 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:34.299 we have several comments and a few questions 00:28:34.299 --> 00:28:36.559 here. So we'll just kind of start running through 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:40.440 those. Troy W9KVR over in Whatseek, Illinois 00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:44.079 says look for them during the Illinois QSO party 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:51.799 this weekend. And Chris AA4CB is here and says 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:57.089 VHF and UHF contests are his thing. And Troy 00:28:57.089 --> 00:28:59.230 also mentions they're going to try some remote 00:28:59.230 --> 00:29:02.130 operations for School Club Roundup. So hopefully 00:29:02.130 --> 00:29:06.829 they'll be on some from Glen Raymond Middle School 00:29:06.829 --> 00:29:10.990 over there. And let's see, we have another question. 00:29:11.069 --> 00:29:14.910 We have a question here from John. W4USF down 00:29:14.910 --> 00:29:17.950 in Florida says, what is the longest running 00:29:17.950 --> 00:29:21.650 ham radio contest and when did it start? So Bruce, 00:29:21.869 --> 00:29:26.579 any ideas on that one? Yeah, so Luckily Neil 00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:30.099 gave me a heads up and that mean meant that I 00:29:30.099 --> 00:29:33.940 could Google this So what I found was is that 00:29:33.940 --> 00:29:38.920 ARL sweepstakes is the longest running domestic 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:44.819 ham radio contest And it started in 1930 obviously 00:29:44.819 --> 00:29:48.420 with some timeouts during World War two But as 00:29:48.420 --> 00:29:52.589 far as the oldest from when it started Um, that 00:29:52.589 --> 00:29:58.170 would be the oldest contest domestically. All 00:29:58.170 --> 00:30:00.829 right. So there's, uh, the answer for you, John. 00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:05.069 And, uh, let's see, let me run over here to Twitter 00:30:05.069 --> 00:30:08.009 and see if we've got anything over here. And 00:30:08.009 --> 00:30:13.519 then I've got one that came in earlier. Okay, 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:16.920 don't see anything there. So let's go actually 00:30:16.920 --> 00:30:23.180 to Ed Durant DD5 LP from Germany and Ed wants 00:30:23.180 --> 00:30:27.680 to first of all, thank you for all of your volunteer 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:32.519 time that you put into all of this and he also 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.750 wants to know How does information get from one 00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:39.849 contest calendar to another? Is there a main 00:30:39.849 --> 00:30:42.210 one that feeds the others and is that all done 00:30:42.210 --> 00:30:47.309 manually? He says I believe in one mm -plus Which 00:30:47.309 --> 00:30:51.490 is a popular contest logging software Uses one 00:30:51.490 --> 00:30:54.670 specific one, but there are so many around and 00:30:54.670 --> 00:30:58.069 some contests are in some and not in others So 00:30:58.069 --> 00:31:01.069 are all these contest calendars islands or are 00:31:01.069 --> 00:31:03.390 they networked kind of like the DX clusters? 00:31:04.049 --> 00:31:07.950 So, um, you're, you're the programmer guy. So, 00:31:07.950 --> 00:31:10.950 so hopefully you've got an answer for that one. 00:31:11.450 --> 00:31:15.049 Yeah. So that's an interesting question. Um, 00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:21.369 generally they're islands. Um, you know, if you 00:31:21.369 --> 00:31:24.410 Google contest calendar, I have to say mine will 00:31:24.410 --> 00:31:28.950 come up first. It's been around since 1996. SM3 00:31:28.950 --> 00:31:35.470 CER had a contest calendar for a long time and 00:31:35.470 --> 00:31:38.809 was very popular in Europe, which I can understand. 00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:43.200 and did a great job. I actually had more information, 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:45.880 not just contest information, but the exit information 00:31:45.880 --> 00:31:51.400 than I do. Unfortunately, Ion had medical problems 00:31:51.400 --> 00:31:54.079 and he hasn't updated his calendar in I think 00:31:54.079 --> 00:31:58.119 about two years now. So it's pretty much defunct, 00:31:58.220 --> 00:32:00.759 I believe. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. 00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:05.119 But if you're talking about other calendars, 00:32:05.819 --> 00:32:08.799 I collect all my information from primary sources. 00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:12.720 I'm well enough known that contest sponsors tell 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:14.700 me when they have a contest or tell me they're 00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:18.480 thinking about a contest. So I think I've got 00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:21.000 it pretty much covered. There's a few little 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:24.000 very small contests that probably aren't on there. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:27.380 I'm going to guess that others collect information 00:32:27.380 --> 00:32:31.799 from other calendars. I'm quite certain that 00:32:31.799 --> 00:32:35.539 there are calendars that get put out. by picking 00:32:35.539 --> 00:32:38.180 contests off of mine that they think are interesting 00:32:38.180 --> 00:32:41.759 to their audience, you know, such as life. It'd 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:43.700 be nice if they credited the source, but they 00:32:43.700 --> 00:32:45.920 don't always do. The one thing I would say that 00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:49.759 is organized is that ARL has contest corral that 00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:53.119 they publish in QST every month. And that is 00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:58.299 a direct feed for my calendar. I do a version. 00:32:59.539 --> 00:33:02.960 data dump for them that they can then easily 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:05.519 translate into what you see as the formatted 00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:09.779 corral. It has a deadline of about two months 00:33:09.779 --> 00:33:13.619 prior to the issue. So that's when all that information 00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:16.900 gets updated. I'll call it the second part of 00:33:16.900 --> 00:33:21.599 the question is how do logging programs get this 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:24.380 information? And there are certain features that 00:33:24.380 --> 00:33:27.019 I didn't talk about in my calendar that makes 00:33:28.369 --> 00:33:30.970 basic information about the contest available 00:33:30.970 --> 00:33:35.710 to logging software authors if they're interested 00:33:35.710 --> 00:33:39.549 to avail themselves of that. But how you get 00:33:39.549 --> 00:33:43.230 a new contest that's not a big contest and something 00:33:43.230 --> 00:33:46.930 like N1MM, for example, you know, has the ability 00:33:46.930 --> 00:33:50.589 to have a module that you write for sort of custom 00:33:50.589 --> 00:33:54.910 contests to include in it that's not, you can... 00:33:55.160 --> 00:33:58.259 Tell people, download this module, it'll work 00:33:58.259 --> 00:34:01.119 with the N1MM, and you can use it to operate 00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:05.819 the contest. Okay, very good. Well, thank you, 00:34:05.900 --> 00:34:09.179 Ed, for your question all the way from Germany. 00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:12.360 We appreciate you listening and submitting that. 00:34:12.809 --> 00:34:15.590 If you have a question, you can send that to 00:34:15.590 --> 00:34:18.570 us by Twitter at HamTalk Live or give us a call 00:34:18.570 --> 00:34:27.829 right now at 859 -982 -7373. Again, 859 -982 00:34:27.829 --> 00:34:32.570 -7373. And we're getting through most of this, 00:34:32.590 --> 00:34:36.369 so we'll leave it open here for a few more minutes 00:34:36.369 --> 00:34:40.349 and see what we get here. Let's see, I want to 00:34:40.349 --> 00:34:43.929 make sure we've acknowledged everybody in the 00:34:43.929 --> 00:34:47.510 comments here, and I think we have. So again, 00:34:47.550 --> 00:34:56.349 859 -982 -7373 if you have a question. Now you 00:34:56.349 --> 00:35:00.150 set up the calendar and everything, but you're 00:35:00.150 --> 00:35:04.030 also setting up a lot of these web submission 00:35:04.030 --> 00:35:08.329 forms for contests and getting these beautiful 00:35:10.269 --> 00:35:14.269 certificates to generate from that data. So talk 00:35:14.269 --> 00:35:17.690 a little bit about those. So, you know, I've 00:35:17.690 --> 00:35:20.389 been doing this for some time. I don't know which 00:35:20.389 --> 00:35:23.789 ones I started with and I did it on one of my 00:35:23.789 --> 00:35:28.250 servers. But earlier this year, I made a decision. 00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:33.420 to, I guess, partner is the right word with the 00:35:33.420 --> 00:35:36.599 Worldwide Radio Operators Foundation, WWROF. 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:42.500 And Trey in 5KO and I have done the work for 00:35:42.500 --> 00:35:46.800 contest .arl .org, the new contesting portal 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:51.360 for the ARL has up. And out of that, I sort of 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.340 got this idea of rather than running on my servers, 00:35:54.820 --> 00:35:57.079 that maybe it would be better if it was in a 00:35:57.150 --> 00:36:00.090 common server supported by an organization like 00:36:00.090 --> 00:36:05.630 WWROF. So existing ones like, I'm trying to think 00:36:05.630 --> 00:36:08.630 what's an existing one, Oceana DX contest, which 00:36:08.630 --> 00:36:11.969 were just concluded, were existing ones that 00:36:11.969 --> 00:36:17.550 we moved over. Louisiana QSO party we put on 00:36:17.550 --> 00:36:21.269 this year. Washington State salmon run we put 00:36:21.269 --> 00:36:24.750 on this year. Florida QSO party we moved over. 00:36:25.010 --> 00:36:30.070 So it gives, these, I would call them medium 00:36:30.070 --> 00:36:34.050 size contests or QSO parties, more sophisticated 00:36:34.050 --> 00:36:38.469 tools for handling logs, handles the log submission, 00:36:39.070 --> 00:36:41.429 make sure the log is formatted right before you 00:36:41.429 --> 00:36:43.309 can get it through. It's essentially the same 00:36:43.309 --> 00:36:45.550 kind of logic you see in the big guys contest, 00:36:45.730 --> 00:36:51.630 ARL or CQ, and gives you a list of logs received. 00:36:51.909 --> 00:36:54.780 And then if they want, we can provide them with 00:36:54.780 --> 00:36:58.280 certificates. So for instance, I just got the 00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:01.739 information from the Washington Salmon Run last 00:37:01.739 --> 00:37:05.400 night and uploaded their data. So now if you 00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:09.619 go to their site and go to the click on certificates 00:37:09.619 --> 00:37:13.780 and enter your call sign, you'll get an online 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:17.679 PDF certificate just like you would on ARL site 00:37:17.679 --> 00:37:24.380 or NCJ or Uh, seek you worldwide. So lying to 00:37:24.380 --> 00:37:27.239 give us service for that. We provide it for free. 00:37:27.500 --> 00:37:32.239 Uh, WWROF pays for the server and, um, just the 00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:35.139 way to try to make things a little more, I'll 00:37:35.139 --> 00:37:38.800 call it professional in quotes for smaller contest 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:42.860 to be able to take advantage of. Very good. Well, 00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:45.800 we appreciate all of your efforts on that. And 00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:48.639 I know I see that myself with school club roundup 00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:51.730 a lot because, uh, You know, we submit those 00:37:51.730 --> 00:37:54.329 twice a year and see those certificates come 00:37:54.329 --> 00:37:56.969 out and we're always looking for the scores and 00:37:56.969 --> 00:38:01.650 we're always counting down the days to see when 00:38:01.650 --> 00:38:05.590 the scores are posted. So that's always great. 00:38:05.750 --> 00:38:08.650 And you also are doing some of the work on these 00:38:08.650 --> 00:38:12.369 live scoreboards to where you don't have to wait. 00:38:13.889 --> 00:38:18.250 Yeah. So about 10 years ago, I worked with them. 00:38:18.440 --> 00:38:23.440 a group who had come up with this concept. And 00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:26.880 we sort of laid out what the data should look 00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:29.099 like that should be exchanged for live scoring. 00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:31.679 And there were sort of fits and starts about 00:38:31.679 --> 00:38:33.800 a live scoreboard then. In some ways, it was 00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:36.659 too early, didn't really gain much traction. 00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:41.780 But about two, three years ago, it really started 00:38:41.780 --> 00:38:45.280 to gain traction again. I was actually sort of 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:50.460 surprised that they were using the XML data that 00:38:50.460 --> 00:38:53.340 blob definition that we had come up with 10 years 00:38:53.340 --> 00:38:59.280 before. And then I suggested rather than individuals 00:38:59.280 --> 00:39:01.260 having to decide, well, which scoreboard should 00:39:01.260 --> 00:39:04.739 I send my score to? that I would build a score 00:39:04.739 --> 00:39:06.679 distributor. And so that's what we would encourage 00:39:06.679 --> 00:39:08.880 people to do. Send it to the score distributor, 00:39:09.860 --> 00:39:14.519 which is at scoredistributor .net. Most contest 00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:17.139 logging programs now have that as the first choice 00:39:17.139 --> 00:39:18.980 if you're going to do live scoring. And what 00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:21.719 it does is it forages your posted scores as they 00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:23.559 occur, every three minutes, every five minutes, 00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:27.219 whatever. to the two existing scoreboards, CQ 00:39:27.219 --> 00:39:31.739 contest, which is Russian based and the COSB 00:39:31.739 --> 00:39:34.960 contest online scoreboard, which I think you 00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:39.239 had on your show at an earlier date, which is 00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:43.579 Canadian based. And that way your score goes 00:39:43.579 --> 00:39:46.539 both places and you get to pick and your buddy 00:39:46.539 --> 00:39:49.300 gets to pick whichever scoreboard they like the 00:39:49.300 --> 00:39:54.000 best. Okay. So that's some other great stuff. 00:39:54.659 --> 00:39:57.219 And, and, uh, I don't see anything else here 00:39:57.219 --> 00:39:59.659 and we've got a few minutes. So let's, let's 00:39:59.659 --> 00:40:02.059 talk about a little bit about 38 30. Now the 00:40:02.059 --> 00:40:04.260 serious contesters are going to know about 38 00:40:04.260 --> 00:40:07.699 30 scores, but, uh, tell us a little bit about 00:40:07.699 --> 00:40:14.559 38 30. Yeah. So 38 30 comes from people. I think 00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:18.440 it started with the Yankee clipper contest club 00:40:18.440 --> 00:40:22.760 many moons ago. many years ago, they'd get together 00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:26.599 on 3830 kilohertz after contests and change their 00:40:26.599 --> 00:40:30.760 scores. Then the internet came along and people 00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:35.380 started exchanging them on the original CQ contest 00:40:35.380 --> 00:40:38.880 email reflector, wasn't in a very organized manner. 00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:42.960 Some volunteers collected that information and 00:40:42.960 --> 00:40:46.199 tried to make sense out of it. And then, I don't 00:40:46.199 --> 00:40:49.960 know, I... woke up one day and had this idea 00:40:49.960 --> 00:40:51.980 that maybe we could do this in a more organized 00:40:51.980 --> 00:40:54.860 manner. So I built a web form that collected 00:40:54.860 --> 00:41:00.179 the information and sent it via email in a standard 00:41:00.179 --> 00:41:03.469 kind of form and people volunteering. to do the 00:41:03.469 --> 00:41:06.730 collection, which was DINK in 7WA for a very 00:41:06.730 --> 00:41:09.750 long time, could take that. Then I realized, 00:41:09.949 --> 00:41:11.730 jeez, I'm collecting information. I should put 00:41:11.730 --> 00:41:14.389 them in a database. So I collected them in a 00:41:14.389 --> 00:41:17.489 database for a long time. And then finally, I 00:41:17.489 --> 00:41:21.170 started making those available on the web. And 00:41:21.170 --> 00:41:26.869 so that evolved into the more refined 3830 scores 00:41:26.869 --> 00:41:29.449 website where people post their claim scores. 00:41:29.869 --> 00:41:33.150 You know, we expect people to be honest about 00:41:33.150 --> 00:41:35.510 what they think their score was, not say, oh, 00:41:35.510 --> 00:41:38.449 I'm sure I scored 2 million points, even though 00:41:38.449 --> 00:41:42.369 I only had 20 QSOs. You know, not to game the 00:41:42.369 --> 00:41:45.750 system. You want other people to post good data, 00:41:45.909 --> 00:41:50.130 you need to post good data. And that's evolved 00:41:50.130 --> 00:41:53.610 to where it is now. So it's pretty popular. It's 00:41:53.610 --> 00:42:00.400 used by hams in about 130 countries. cwops for 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:02.699 instance in their three times weekly contest 00:42:02.699 --> 00:42:05.420 uses it exclusively as their means to collect 00:42:05.420 --> 00:42:09.920 their scores as do a couple of other uh you know 00:42:09.920 --> 00:42:12.679 weekly kind of contests which works well if you 00:42:12.679 --> 00:42:14.820 don't want to have to deal with logs and you're 00:42:14.820 --> 00:42:16.780 going to accept the claim score as the score 00:42:16.780 --> 00:42:21.440 um and then you can do comparisons, you can search, 00:42:21.559 --> 00:42:23.719 you know, you can compare yourself different 00:42:23.719 --> 00:42:27.780 years, you can compare with other people, a variety 00:42:27.780 --> 00:42:32.960 of tools like that. You can look at your contest 00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:35.780 club, how you other members of the club are doing, 00:42:36.139 --> 00:42:38.940 or you can define a group that you want to sort 00:42:38.940 --> 00:42:41.079 of say, hey, we want to see how we're doing against 00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:44.300 each other. All right, very good. Well, we've 00:42:44.300 --> 00:42:47.739 got a call and we've got a Another message that 00:42:47.739 --> 00:42:50.960 came in. So let's go to the phones first. Good 00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:55.079 evening. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Good evening, 00:42:55.079 --> 00:42:57.980 Neil. This is one of your fans from downtown 00:42:57.980 --> 00:43:02.679 picturesque Rochester, Minnesota. Good evening, 00:43:03.179 --> 00:43:07.440 Scott. I just wanted to say that Bruce has the 00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:10.420 most popular contest website on the web globally 00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:13.599 and probably does more for contesting than any 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:16.699 single person around with his website. One thing 00:43:16.699 --> 00:43:18.940 that hasn't been brought up that Bruce provides 00:43:18.940 --> 00:43:22.780 is certificates. And even for the National Contest 00:43:22.780 --> 00:43:25.679 Journal -sponsored contest now for the QSO parties 00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:29.820 and sprints, he has contest certificates available 00:43:29.820 --> 00:43:33.880 and has done this all just really with no charge 00:43:33.880 --> 00:43:35.860 or cost to the contest community. He does it 00:43:35.860 --> 00:43:39.920 out of the just the generosity of his usual self. 00:43:39.940 --> 00:43:43.059 So I wanted to call and thank him. and let your 00:43:43.059 --> 00:43:45.820 listeners know what a really strong advocate 00:43:45.820 --> 00:43:51.340 he is for contesting and what a really, you know, 00:43:51.619 --> 00:43:55.820 high contributing ham radio operator. Totally 00:43:55.820 --> 00:43:59.539 agree. Bruce? Well, I appreciate that. Thanks, 00:43:59.639 --> 00:44:03.380 Scott. Obviously, I know Scott about to come 00:44:03.380 --> 00:44:07.519 off as editor of NCJ and active contest or even 00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:13.460 though he's an extremely busy physician. Thank 00:44:13.460 --> 00:44:16.079 you, Bruce. Neil, thanks. Congratulations on 00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:18.099 another good program tonight. I'll let you get 00:44:18.099 --> 00:44:21.260 on to the next caller and also your promotion 00:44:21.260 --> 00:44:27.139 of the Wildcat Nation. Okay. Thanks, Scott. Appreciate 00:44:27.139 --> 00:44:30.679 your call. All right. Well, let's see. We do 00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:34.539 have another question here before we get to wrapping 00:44:34.539 --> 00:44:37.619 things up here. John, W4USF wants to know, are 00:44:37.619 --> 00:44:42.199 there any AM contests still around? There are. 00:44:42.860 --> 00:44:47.500 But very few. So I can think of the AM rally. 00:44:47.780 --> 00:44:50.719 I remember the AM rally because we've plugged 00:44:50.719 --> 00:44:54.500 that on the show. I need to go back. I think, 00:44:54.539 --> 00:45:02.019 I think the classic exchange has AM, AM, SSB 00:45:02.019 --> 00:45:09.039 and FM, which is coming up this weekend. Time 00:45:09.039 --> 00:45:15.889 to get your boat anchors out. There you go. Transformers, 00:45:16.510 --> 00:45:18.269 uh, Troy, do we, and I KBR says that you always 00:45:18.269 --> 00:45:20.269 thought 38 30 would be a great place to show 00:45:20.269 --> 00:45:25.469 scores for school club roundup, perhaps. Well, 00:45:26.510 --> 00:45:28.469 one of the reasons we don't do that is cause 00:45:28.469 --> 00:45:31.690 school club roundup has pretty quick scoring 00:45:31.690 --> 00:45:37.630 and pretty minimal participation. So we just 00:45:37.630 --> 00:45:41.280 never added it. Could be if there was a desire 00:45:41.280 --> 00:45:46.260 out there, but to be honest, the difference between 00:45:46.260 --> 00:45:51.280 when the scores are available and when the contest 00:45:51.280 --> 00:45:54.719 is over is so short that I'm not sure there's 00:45:54.719 --> 00:46:00.400 a lot of benefit in claims scores, but no. I 00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:04.900 know where Troy's coming from on this one because 00:46:04.900 --> 00:46:07.539 when you have a whole bunch of people in your 00:46:07.539 --> 00:46:11.559 school. saying, so how did you do this week? 00:46:11.860 --> 00:46:17.320 Yeah. They want that instant gratification. And 00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:20.340 I think maybe the live scoreboard would be good, 00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:24.699 but we'll have to get some people to volunteer 00:46:24.699 --> 00:46:29.480 and try it out. I'm not sure. You know, the school 00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:32.199 club roundup is you get on as you have time as 00:46:32.199 --> 00:46:35.800 a school. And, uh, I'm not sure how much overlap 00:46:35.800 --> 00:46:39.039 there is there to watch that live, but you know, 00:46:39.059 --> 00:46:43.980 um, I'm not sure it. Like you said earlier, you're 00:46:43.980 --> 00:46:46.059 going to get that much participation this year, 00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:49.460 but Hey, let's put up on 38 30 and see what happens. 00:46:50.559 --> 00:46:54.360 Okay. Well, maybe, maybe we'll, we'll see some 00:46:54.360 --> 00:46:57.239 advances in that and people can voluntarily, 00:46:57.239 --> 00:47:01.630 uh, Put their scores on and and we can take a 00:47:01.630 --> 00:47:04.030 look at those so that that's always something 00:47:04.030 --> 00:47:06.230 that yeah the kids always want to know hell did 00:47:06.230 --> 00:47:10.389 we win did we win did we win did we win and So 00:47:10.389 --> 00:47:13.489 I know where Troy's coming from on that one. 00:47:13.570 --> 00:47:18.010 Well, Bruce. I think we've everything so what 00:47:18.010 --> 00:47:21.309 It'll be available. It'll be available. All right, 00:47:21.369 --> 00:47:24.219 there you go. You've got it All right. Well, 00:47:24.219 --> 00:47:28.039 I think we're through everything on the question 00:47:28.039 --> 00:47:30.820 So I thank you so much for being on and for all 00:47:30.820 --> 00:47:34.460 you do and if you have any closing Remarks you 00:47:34.460 --> 00:47:36.539 want to make why go ahead and do that and then 00:47:36.539 --> 00:47:40.800 we'll sign off No, I had another hour of stand 00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:47.039 -up to do but no, that's I Appreciate the opportunity, 00:47:47.039 --> 00:47:52.989 you know, thank you Well, we appreciate all of 00:47:52.989 --> 00:47:56.409 your efforts because you do so much and as Scott 00:47:56.409 --> 00:48:04.860 said You do so so much for Just you know nothing 00:48:04.860 --> 00:48:09.219 for volunteering to help the the contesting community. 00:48:09.280 --> 00:48:12.539 So we thank you for that and Appreciate it and 00:48:12.539 --> 00:48:17.300 remember it's contest calendar comm and 3830 00:48:17.300 --> 00:48:23.519 scores comm and then on Twitter it's at Wa7 bnm 00:48:23.519 --> 00:48:27.679 calendar and I get that right. Yes Okay, very 00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:32.619 good. We'll check out the WA7 B &M contest calendar 00:48:32.619 --> 00:48:37.099 and that's gonna be a wrap for this edition of 00:48:37.099 --> 00:48:39.880 HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest Bruce Horn, 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:43.699 WA7 B &M and everybody out there in cyberspace 00:48:43.699 --> 00:48:47.159 for listening and calling in and typing in and 00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:49.500 I'll invite you back next Thursday night 9 p 00:48:49.500 --> 00:48:52.099 .m. Eastern Time and for a list of our guests 00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:55.380 go to HamTalkLive .com. And if you like the show, 00:48:55.519 --> 00:48:59.000 please leave us a review. That will help us more 00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:01.219 than anything. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, 00:49:01.420 --> 00:49:06.059 WB9VPG, saying seven three, seven five, and may 00:49:06.059 --> 00:49:18.460 the good DX be yours. Well you came right back 00:49:18.460 --> 00:49:22.780 to my CQ call Your readability 5 and strength 00:49:22.780 --> 00:49:28.179 9 You never once mentioned your weather at all 00:49:28.179 --> 00:49:33.380 And I didn't mention mine We talked and talked 00:49:33.380 --> 00:49:37.519 for hours and hours I completely forgot you're 00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:37.679 a h -