WEBVTT NOTE Contesting, DX, Remote Operation, and Logging 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.794 Working a pile-up. 2 00:00:01.794 --> 00:00:12.559 Question. How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup? 3 00:00:13.459 --> 00:00:18.419 Answer. Send your full call sign once or twice. 4 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:33.139 Full call sign, partial calls waste everyone's time when the DX comes back to a fragment and three stations answer. Once or twice, longer and you are still transmitting when they reply. 5 00:00:33.139 --> 00:00:49.326 Question. Why do DX stations often transmit and receive on different frequencies? A. Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations. B. 6 00:00:49.326 --> 00:01:01.739 To separate the calling stations from the DX station. C. To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference. D. All these choices are correct. 7 00:01:02.639 --> 00:01:06.159 Answer. All these choices are correct. 8 00:01:06.759 --> 00:01:26.537 Split operation. With everyone calling on one frequency, nobody hears the DX and the DX hears mush. Split puts the DX in the clear and spreads callers across a few kilohertz, so the DX can pick individual stations out. 9 00:01:26.537 --> 00:01:35.519 It is the dual-VFO feature from the General track, and this is what it is for. Contest conventions. 10 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:43.191 Question. From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded? 11 00:01:44.091 --> 00:01:46.836 Answer. 30 meters. 12 00:01:47.436 --> 00:02:14.109 Thirty metres is unusually constrained, and it is worth separating what is rule from what is convention, because the pool's answer is the convention: Rule (section 97.303(j)): amateur stations on 30 m are secondary to other nations' fixed services and must accept interference from them and stop causing it. 13 00:02:14.109 --> 00:02:30.443 Rule (section 97.313(c)(1)): 200 W PEP maximum on 10.10 to 10.15 MHz, the only HF band with a general power cap below 1500 W. Rule (section 97.305): the band is CW and data only; no phone. 14 00:02:30.443 --> 00:02:36.872 Convention (ARRL band plan): no contest operating. This is not in Part 97. 15 00:02:36.872 --> 00:02:50.513 It is a voluntary band-plan restriction, universally observed, and it exists because 30 m is only 50 kHz wide and shared with services that were there first. 16 00:02:50.513 --> 00:03:05.196 The pool asks about the convention, so "30 meters" is the answer. But if someone contests on 30 m they are being rude, not illegal, while running 500 W there is illegal. 17 00:03:05.196 --> 00:03:17.281 Question. During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity? 18 00:03:18.181 --> 00:03:25.541 Answer. In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency. 19 00:03:26.141 --> 00:03:38.763 VHF contesting is weak-signal work: SSB and CW near the bottom of the band, clustered around the calling frequency. Not the FM repeater segment. 20 00:03:38.763 --> 00:03:52.243 Question. What indicator is required to be used by US-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the US? 21 00:03:53.143 --> 00:03:57.543 Answer. No additional indicator is required. 22 00:03:58.143 --> 00:04:14.097 The transmitter is where it always was, in the US, so nothing changes. Consistent with the General rule that the rules of the transmitter's location apply. File formats. 23 00:04:14.097 --> 00:04:32.600 Three formats, three purposes, and the pool distinguishes them. Format, ADIF; For, exchanging amateur radio log data between programs. Format, Cabrillo; For, submission of electronic contest logs. 24 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:36.943 Format,; For, LoTW uses its own signed upload. 25 00:04:36.943 --> 00:04:44.343 Question. Which of the following file formats is used for exchanging amateur radio log data? 26 00:04:45.243 --> 00:04:48.043 Answer. ADIF. 27 00:04:48.643 --> 00:04:52.723 Question. What is the Cabrillo format? 28 00:04:53.623 --> 00:04:59.423 Answer. A standard for submission of electronic contest logs. 29 00:05:00.023 --> 00:05:16.583 ADIF moves logs between programs; Cabrillo submits them to a contest sponsor. Different jobs, and sending the wrong one to a contest robot gets your entry rejected. Confirmations. 30 00:05:16.583 --> 00:05:35.783 Question. Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the Logbook of The World (LoTW)? A. Special event contacts between stations in the US. B. Contacts between a US station and a non-US station. C. 31 00:05:35.783 --> 00:05:42.335 Contacts for Worked All States credit. D. All these choices are correct. 32 00:05:43.235 --> 00:05:46.755 Answer. All these choices are correct. 33 00:05:47.355 --> 00:06:06.835 LoTW is universal: any band, any mode, anywhere. Both stations upload cryptographically-signed logs and matching contacts confirm automatically, which replaces the paper QSL card for award purposes. 34 00:06:06.835 --> 00:06:12.075 Question. What is the function of a DX QSL Manager? 35 00:06:12.975 --> 00:06:19.495 Answer. Handle the receiving and sending of confirmations for a DX station. 36 00:06:20.095 --> 00:06:28.254 A DXpedition or a station in a country with unreliable post cannot handle thousands of cards. 37 00:06:28.254 --> 00:06:41.150 A QSL manager elsewhere does it on their behalf, which is why DX call signs are often published with "QSL via" another call sign. Remote operation. 38 00:06:41.150 --> 00:06:51.150 Question. What indicates the delay between a control operator action and the corresponding change in the transmitted signal? 39 00:06:52.050 --> 00:06:54.657 Answer. Latency. 40 00:06:55.257 --> 00:06:58.968 Latency is the practical limit on remote operating. 41 00:06:58.968 --> 00:07:15.703 A few tens of milliseconds is unnoticeable; a few hundred makes break-in CW impossible and turns a pile-up into guesswork, because you cannot tell whether the DX came back to you until after you have decided whether to call again. 42 00:07:15.703 --> 00:07:17.377 Mesh networking, again. 43 00:07:17.377 --> 00:07:24.777 Question. Which of the following frequencies can be used for amateur radio mesh networks? 44 00:07:25.677 --> 00:07:32.237 Answer. Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services. 45 00:07:32.837 --> 00:07:40.586 Question. What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network? 46 00:07:41.486 --> 00:07:46.446 Answer. A wireless router running custom firmware. 47 00:07:47.046 --> 00:07:58.133 The Technician answer at Extra level: consumer hardware, amateur firmware, amateur frequencies that happen to overlap the unlicensed bands. 48 00:07:58.133 --> 00:08:13.447 And the General rule still holds, you may not communicate with the unlicensed stations sharing them. Check yourself. A DX station is working split. Where do you transmit, and what do you send? 49 00:08:13.447 --> 00:08:27.326 You want to submit your contest log to the sponsor and also import it into your logging program. Which formats? Why does 200 ms of latency make remote CW operating difficult? 50 00:08:33.326 --> 00:08:45.951 On their listening frequency, not their transmit frequency, and send your full call sign once or twice. Cabrillo to the sponsor, ADIF to the logging program. 51 00:08:45.951 --> 00:08:52.143 Break-in CW depends on hearing the other station between your own characters. 52 00:08:52.143 --> 00:09:04.286 With 200 ms of delay you cannot react in time, and in a pile-up you cannot tell whether a reply was meant for you before you must decide to call again.