SARC

One of the special features IARU HF Championship contest is bonus points for contacting the headquarters stations for each of the IARU member societies. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) itself also counts as one of these stations. While the Union does not maintain their own station, the privilege to operate their NU1AW call sign is awarded to different contest stations each year. WB9Z and K9CT were chosen this year to operate SSB and CW respectively. These stations are expected to work on multiple bands simultaneously to maximize the number of contest participants that can get these bonus points. This requires a team of operators.

Matt AC9IG was asked to be part of the SSB team hosted by Jerry WB9Z and Val NV9L in Crescent City, IL. He answered a few questions for us regarding operating in this contest.

How did the station differ from your setup at home?

The station at WB9Z is set up for three radios to operate simultaneously. Each one has an amplifier capable of 1500W as well as a high-end radio that really helps to pull out call signs and exchanges in crowded band conditions. The radios each have access to an array of antennas for all bands. Some of these rotate, others are oriented in different fixed directions to take advantage of the gain they provide to different continents for DX. At home I have a dipole that propagates east-west and a 100W transceiver.

Each radio is also attached to a computer to facilitate logging. This is similar to my home station, however we took advantage of having three logs available to us by networking the computers. This once a station was in any log the contest exchange (in this case an ITU zone) would automatically be looked up by any other station completing a part of the log for you automatically.

With the contest station the goal is to get as many contacts as possible. There are a few features of the station that help this. A high quality set of headphones nearly cuts out all noise from the room so you can focus on the audio from the radio. With three stations operating in the same room this is very helpful. The headphones also have a microphone attached so there is no need to pick up a hand mic leaving your hands free to enter call signs into the computer. To complete keeping your hands on the keyboard, the push to talk switch is actually a foot pedal. It takes a few minutes to get used to this setup.

Continue reading “Club Member Invited to Operate IARU Headquarters Station”

Our team of Volunteer Examiners (VEs) dedicates one Saturday morning per month to administering Amateur Radio license exams for all three license levels. They also spend additional time submitting paperwork for all of the new licenses generated from the tests as well as keeping their testing materials up to date with the latest question pools. In 2017 the team granted 68 new or upgraded licenses.

You can find more information on our test dates and times here.

Kevin K9AAB put together the following from photos and videos he collected while visiting our Field Day operation.

SARC is sponsoring two scholarships for W9DXCC this fall. Forms are due August 1, 2017 and should be sent to the club president.

Thanks to a generous donation from a member, the club will be sponsoring two people to attend the W9DXCC convention on September 14 and 15 at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumburg.

The criteria for awarding the scholarship as well as other conditions are in the attached form. The due date is August 1, 2017.

W9DXCC Scholarship Form