This is located at the top of the Stoney Creek Mountain off of Ridge Road and 20 Highway (Centennial Parkway).
For actual coordinates, go to the ARRL Website to the Field Day Locator ( http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator ) type in VE3DC.
Rules are at:  http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2013/2013%20Rules.pdf

Field Day runs from Saturday June 22, 2pm to Sunday June 23, 2pm.
Field Day is a 24 hour emergency coordinated event with stations all over North America taking part.

Helpers are needed to help setup antennas and stations.

Come and visit just to see us in action.
Anyone is welcome to come out and help set up and operate– you don’t have to be a member to help out.

We will likely be running 4A again this year, using the Club call VE3DC.
4A means 4 stations on HF.  Usually the 2m station is a free station and the G.O.T.A. (get on the air station) is also a free one.

If you want to be our G.O.T.A. for this year, let us know.
To qualify:  You must be a newly licensed ham OR a ham who has been inactive for a year.
The G.O.T.A. station can work all HF bands and modes with his points helping our overall score, some rules apply (check the ARRL rules for details).
We should even have some stations doing CW and digital for bonus points.

Contact me at va3dj@hamiltonarc.ca or call Dan via the phone at 905-643-6390, if you want to be a part of Field Day this year.
73′  Dan VA3DJ

Contributed by: Dan Martinak, VA3DJ
VE3DC 2013 Field Day Coordinator

This year is the 155th Anniversary of the Burlington Lighthouse. We have been operating on adjacent property on the Beach Strip for the last 7 years. We will be looking for participants to help operate and set up temporary antennas again this year. Let Mike Krebs VA3WXS know if you can come and maybe bring some equipment or an antenna to experiment with.

Mike’s number is 905-523-9005. I know that there is a lot of interest in this event. If you can’t get Mike on the phone and you are interested in giving us a hand, you can email me at ve3bk@hamiltonarc.ca. Mike will probably be phoning you for confirmation.

Check out the information on these websites. August is the month of Lighthouse events. If you go to the ARLHS website, you will see there is also a contest on the 2nd weekend but we are not involved with this one, just the ILLW event when many Lighthouses are on as Special Event stations, just like VE3DC.

You can check out the ILLW at their site: http://illw.net/
International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend – Held on the third full weekend in August – An annual amateur radio weekend event conducted under the sponsorship of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group, (AARG), Scotland.

We usually only operate in the daytime on the Saturday and the Sunday, not for the whole weekend and make good use of the two days experimenting with antennas and working as many as we can while we are there.

You can check out the Beach Canal Lighthouse Group. This is a group of volunteers that are working on getting renovations done to the Lighthouse at the Canal: http://www.bclg.ca/

Information on the Canal Lighthouses can be found at:

http://www.rudyalicelighthouse.net/OntLts/Burlngtn/Burlngtn.htm

If you want to help us out this year, let Mike know or send me an email to let us know. Thanks

73 Rick VE3BK
ve3bk@hamiltonarc.ca

Field Day is on the Saturday and Sunday of June 22-23 this year with Canada Day starting at 00:00 UTC or 8pm locally on the Sunday June 30th, 2013 a whole week after Field Day and running till 23:59 UTC or 8pm locally on Monday July 1st, 2013. This year it is on the Monday so everyone will likely have the Monday off for the holiday……..no reason not to come out, run a station, or have fun operating one we have set up.

We will be looking for stations to be run at the contest site. Call me if you can help out (my number is in the bulletin) or run a station or email me at ve3bk@hamiltonarc.ca.  Rules and information can be found in the TCA magazine May/June 2013 issue page 44 or on the RAC website at: https://www.rac.ca//en/rac/programmes/contests/ under RAC Canada Day 2012 Rules.pdf

Hope to see you there. If you can’t help out, at least get on the air and wish your fellow hams in Canada “Happy Canada Day” . Don’t forget to look for us on every band too at VE3DC. We can always use as many contacts from you as you can give us. Let’s make this another great Canada Day Event.

73 Rick Danby VE3BK

http://www.eqsl.cc/Member.cfm?VE3BK

Contesting Manager for VE3DC
Hamilton Amateur Radio Club
Hamilton, Ontario Canada

http://www.hamiltonarc.ca

By Paul VE3HTF

Born in the town Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, in the Urals as the son of a priest, he became interested in natural sciences when he was a child. His father ensured that Alexander received a good education at  the seminary at Perm, and later studying physics at the St. Petersburg University. After graduation in 1882 he started to work as a laboratory assistant at the university. However, due to the poor funding of the university he changed to a teaching job at the Russian Navy’s Torpedo School in Kronstadt on Kotlin Island.
Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who was the first person to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic radio waves.[1] Beginning in the early 1890′s he continued the experiments of other radio pioneers, such as Heinrich Hertz. In 1894 he built the first radio receiver, a version of “The Coherer“. Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895. The day has been celebrated in the Russian Federation as Radio Day. The paper on his findings was published the same year.

In 1888 Heinrich Hertz had produced and transmitted electromagnetic waves, arousing the interest of many scientists. Popov began experiments on the transmission and reception of the so-called Hertzian waves (radio waves) somewhat earlier than Marconi. He modified the coherer developed by Oliver Lodge for detecting these waves, making the first continuously operating detector. Connecting his coherer to a wire antenna, he was able in 1895 to receive and detect the waves produced by an oscillator circuit.

His interests at this time, however, seemed more toward the investigation of atmospheric phenomena such as thunderstorms and lightning; he used his coherer connected to lightning conductors for this purpose. Stimulated by the 1896 patent awarded to Marconi, Popov again turned his attention to radio transmission and enlisted the help of the Russian navy. In 1897 he was able to transmit from ship to shore over a distance of 3 miles (5?km) and managed to persuade the naval authorities to begin installing radio equipment in its vessels. By the end of 1899 he had increased the distance of his ship to shore transmissions to 30 miles (48km). He received little encouragement or support from the Russian government and did not commercialize his discoveries.

The Russians claim, that Popov invented radio communication, is not widely accepted, although he did publish in January 1896 a description of his receiving apparatus that coincides very closely with that described in Marconi’s patent claim of June 1896. Popov is credited however with being the first to use an antenna in the transmission and reception of radio waves. Russia claims that Alexander Stepanovich Popov invented the radio before the Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi. Determining who was the official inventor of the radio is complicated by nationalistic pride, inadequate documentation of events, and differing interpretations of what constitutes inventing the radio. By what most persons in the West consider objective analysis of the facts known, however, Marconi’s work invariably is recognized as having priority over Popov’s. However, Popov’s numerous achievements do merit both recognition and respect.
Popov was the chair of the Department of Physics at St. Petersburg University in 1901 and director of the St. Petersburg Institute of Electrical

Alexander Popov – Russian physicist and electrical engineer (1859-1906)

Engineering in 1905. On May 7, 1895, Popov demonstrated that a receiver could detect the electromagnetic waves produced by lightning discharges in the atmosphere many miles away. Popov’s receiver consisted of a “coherer” made of metal filings, together with an antenna, a relay, and a bell. The relay was used to activate the bell that both signaled the occurrence of lightning and served as a “decoherer” (tapper) to ready the coherer to detect the next lightning discharge. The value this instrument could have in weather forecasting was obvious.

There have been many claims by other prominent people during this period for recognition of similar discoveries related to the coherer device.
See the Commemorative stamp to  Radio pioneer Alexander Popov USSR 1989

In 1900 a radio station was established under Popov’s instructions on Hogland island (Suursaari) to provide two-way communication by wireless telegraphy between the Russian naval base and the crew of the battleship General-Admiral Apraksin. The battleship ran aground on Hogland island in the Gulf of Finland in November, 1899. The crew of the Apraksin were not in immediate danger, but the water in the Gulf began to freeze. Due to bad weather and bureaucratic red tape, the crew of Apraksin did not arrive until January 1900 to establish a wireless station on Hogland Island. By February 5, however, messages were being received reliably. The wireless messages were relayed to Hogland Island by a station some 25 miles away at Kymi (nowadays Kotka) on the Finnish coast. Kotka was selected as the location for the wireless relay station because it was the point closest to Hogland Island served by telegraph wires connected to Russian naval headquarters.[2]

By the time the Apraksin was freed from the rocks by the icebreaker Yermak at the end of April, 440 official telegraph messages had been handled by the Hogland Island wireless station. Besides the rescue of the Apraksin’s crew, more than 50 Finnish fishermen, who were stranded on a piece of drift ice in the Gulf of Finland, were saved by the icebreaker Yermak following distress telegrams sent by wireless telegraphy.

In 1901 Alexander Popov was appointed as professor at the Electrotechnical Institute, which now bears his name. In 1905 he was
elected director of the institute. In 1905 Alexander Popov became seriously ill, after being very uneasy about the suppression of a student movement. He died of a brain hemorrhage on January 13, 1906.

Did you know?

A minor planet, 3074 Popov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1979, is named after Alexander Popov.[4]

At ITU Telecom World 2011, Mr. Igor Shchyogolev, Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation alongside Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of the ITU, inaugurated the “Alexander Stepanovich Popov” Boardroom at ITU’s headquarters in Geneva.

Family

Some of his Alexander Popov’s descendents escaped to Manchuria during the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually made their way to the United States. Among others the cousin, Dr. Paul Popov, became a prominent physician in San Francisco and Paul’s son, Egor Popov (1913-2001), became a UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering.[5] [6]

Wikipedia References

1. Early Radio Transmission Recognized as Milestone”. IEEE. Retrieved 16 July 2006.
2. “Aleksandr Popov”. IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
3. The Guglielmo Marconi Case; Who is the True Inventor of Radio.
4. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 2003, vol.1, p.253
5. Engineering Pioneer Egor Popov
6. The EERI Oral History Series. Egor Popov

Rick Danby VE3BK

The fox can be anywhere with the following guidelines. Must be heard from the start point. Must be in a public location; i.e. no private property. Must be in a safe location; e.g. not in a high traffic area. See the hunting location “Area Maps” for the specific date of interest.

After the hunt we can meet at a specified location to do a post hunt analysis, pick a fox for the next month, and discuss other important events of the day. For more info, contact:

See below for full schedule…

By Paul VE3HTF

This month I am exploring the life and times of Michael Faraday.Ernest Rutherford has called Michael Faraday the “Greatest Scientific Discover of all Time”. In short, Mr. Faraday was a Mathematician and a Chemist, not versed in the mathematics of Trigonometry he was however identified by James Maxwell as “to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order,  one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods.”

Michael Faraday was responsible for many discoveries, several you have heard about, and I believe many you have not. Michael Faraday was an English scientist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include those of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. [1][2] He similarly discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularized terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion.Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. James Clerk Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others, and summarized it in a set of equations that is accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. The SI unit of capacitance, the farad, is named in his honor.

Early life
Faraday was born in Newington Butts, [3] which is now part of the London Borough of Southwark, but which was then a suburban part of Surrey. [4]  James Faraday moved his wife and two children to London during the winter of 1790 from Outhgill in Westmorland, where he had been an apprentice to the village blacksmith. [5] Michael was born the autumn of that year. The young Michael Faraday, who was the third of four children, having only the most basic school education, had to educate himself. [6] At fourteen he became the apprentice to George Riebau, a local bookbinder and bookseller in Blandford Street. [7] During his seven-year apprenticeship he read many books, including Isaac Watts’ The Improvement of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented the principles and suggestions contained therein. At this time he also developed an interest in science, especially in electricity. The book Conversations on Chemistry by Jane Marcet particularly inspired Faraday. [8]

Michael Faraday in the early 30′s

Faraday married Sarah Barnard (1800-1879) on 12 June 1821. [9] They met through their families at the Sandemanian church, and he confessed his faith to the Sandemanian congregation the month after they were married. They had no children. [3]Faraday was a devout Christian; his Sandemanian denomination was an offshoot of the Church of Scotland. Well after his marriage, he served as deacon and for two terms as an elder in the meeting house of his youth. His church was located at Paul’s Alley in the Barbican. This meeting house was relocated in 1862 to Barnsbury Grove, Islington; this North London location was where Faraday served the final two years of his second term as elder prior to his resignation from that post. [10][11] Biographers have noted “a strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded Faraday’s life and work.”[12]

Scientific achievements:
Chemistry
Faraday’s earliest chemical work was as an assistant to Humphrey Davy. Faraday was specifically involved in the study of chlorine; he discovered two new compounds of chlorine and carbon. He also conducted the first rough experiments on the diffusion of gases, a phenomenon that was first pointed out by John Dalton, and the physical importance of which was more fully brought to light by Thomas Graham and Joseph Loschmidt. Faraday succeeded in liquefying several gases, investigated the alloys of steel, and produced several new kinds of glass intended for optical purposes. A specimen of one of these heavy glasses subsequently became historically important; when the glass was placed in a magnetic field Faraday determined the rotation of the plane of polarization of light. This specimen was also the first substance found to be repelled by the poles of a magnet.

Faraday invented an early form of what was to become the Bunsen burner, which is in practical use in science laboratories around the world as a convenient source of heat. [13][14] Faraday worked extensively in the field of chemistry, discovering chemical substances such as benzene (which he called bicarburet of hydrogen), and liquefying gases such as chlorine. The liquefying of gases helped to establish that gases are the vapors of liquids possessing a very low boiling point, and gave a more solid basis to the concept of molecular aggregation. In 1820 Faraday reported the first synthesis of compounds made from carbon and chlorine, C2Cl6 and C2Cl4, and published his results the following year. [15][16][17] Faraday also determined the composition of the chlorine clathrate hydrate, which had been discovered by Humphrey Davy in 1810. [18][19] Faraday is also responsible for discovering the laws of electrolysis, and for popularizing terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion, terms proposed in large part by William Whewell.  Faraday was the first to report what later came to be called metallic nanoparticles. In 1847 he discovered that the optical properties of gold colloids differed from those of the corresponding bulk metal. This was probably the first reported observation of the effects of quantum size, and might be considered to be the birth of nanoscience. [20]

Electricity and magnetism
Faraday is best known for his work regarding electricity and magnetism. His first recorded experiment was the construction of a voltaic pile with seven halfpence pieces, stacked together with seven disks of sheet zinc, and six pieces of paper moistened with salt water. With this pile he decomposed sulphate of magnesia (first letter to Abbott, 12 July 1812).  One of Faraday’s 1831 experiments demonstrating induction. The liquid battery sends an electric current through the small coil. When it is moved in or out of the large coil, its magnetic field induces a momentary voltage in the coil, which is detected by the galvanometer.  Faraday’s breakthrough came when he wrapped two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring, and found that, upon passing a current through one coil, a momentary current was induced in the other coil. [5] This phenomenon is now known as mutual induction. [21] The iron ring-coil apparatus is still on display at the Royal Institution. In subsequent experiments, he found that, if he moved a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current flowed in that wire. The current also flowed if the loop was moved over a stationary magnet. His demonstrations established that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field; this relation was modeled mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell as Faraday’s law, which subsequently became one of the four Maxwell equations, and which have in turn evolved into the generalization known today as field theory. Faraday would later use the principles he had discovered to construct the electric dynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators.

In 1839, he completed a series of experiments aimed at investigating the fundamental nature of electricity; Faraday used “static”, batteries, and “animal electricity” to produce the phenomena of electrostatic attraction, electrolysis, magnetism, etc. He concluded that, contrary to the scientific opinion of the time, the divisions between the various “kinds” of electricity were illusory. Faraday instead proposed that only a single “electricity” exists, and the changing values of quantity and intensity (current and voltage) would produce different groups of phenomena. [5]  Near the end of his career, Faraday proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor. His fellow scientists rejected this idea, and Faraday did not live to see the eventual acceptance of his proposition by the scientific community. (Editor’s note: Imagine if this theory never evolved!  We would not have antenna’s radiating signals!)  Faraday’s concept of lines of flux emanating from charged bodies and magnets provided a way to visualize electric and magnetic fields; that conceptual model was crucial for the successful development of the electromechanical devices that dominated engineering and industry for the remainder of the 19th century.

Diamagnetism
Michael Faraday holding a glass bar of the type he used in 1845 to show that magnetism can affect light in a dielectric material. [22] In 1845, Faraday discovered that many materials exhibit a weak repulsion from a magnetic field: a phenomenon he termed diamagnetism. [23] Faraday also discovered that the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light could be rotated by the application of an external magnetic field aligned in the direction, which the light is moving. This is now termed the Faraday effect. He wrote in his notebook, “I have at last succeeded in illuminating a magnetic curve or line of force and in magnetizing a ray of light”. Later on in his life, in 1862, Faraday used a spectroscope to search for a different alteration of light, the change of spectral lines by an applied magnetic field. The equipment available to him was, however, insufficient for a definite determination of spectral change. Pieter Zeeman later used an improved apparatus to study the same phenomenon, publishing his results in 1897 and receiving the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for his success. In both his 1897 paper [24] and his Nobel acceptance speech, Zeeman made reference to Faraday’s work.

Faraday cage
In his work on static electricity, Faraday’s ice pail experiment demonstrated that the charge resided only on the exterior of a charged conductor, and exterior charge had no influence on anything enclosed within a conductor. This is because the exterior charges redistribute such that the interior fields due to them cancel. This shielding effect is used in what is now known as a Faraday cage. Amazing!

Nice to know
Faraday is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Hastings County. The township comprises the communities of Bow Lake, Faraday, Monck Road, and Paudash.  There is also a street named after Faraday in Deep River, Ontario.  Lord Bessborough (1880-1956, Governor General of Canada) unveiled over the telephone from Ottawa a plaque to Faraday in the then-new Battersea Power Station, in London England.

References

1. a, b, c, Michael Faraday entry at the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica hosted by LovetoKnow Retrieved January 2007.
2. a, b, c, d, “Archives Biographies: Michael Faraday”, The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
3. The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell Volume 1 page 360; Courier Dover 2003, ISBN 486-49560-4
4. “Einstein’s Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics”, by Robyn Arianrhod UQP, reviewed by Jane Gleeson-White, 10 November 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald.
5. C.N.R. Rao (2000). “Understanding Chemistry”. p. 281. Universities Press, 2000.
6. “Michael Faraday.” History of Science and Technology. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 4 June 2007.
7. Plaque #19 on Open Plaques.
8. John H. Lienhard (1992). “Jane Marcet’s Books”. The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Episode 744. NPR. KUHF-FM Houston.
9. The register at St. Faith-in-the-Virgin near St. Paul’s Cathedral, records 12 June as the date their licence was issued. The witness was Sarah’s father, Edward. Their marriage was 16 years prior to the Marriage and Registration Act of 1837. See page 59 of Cantor’s (1991) Michael Faraday, Sandemanian and Scientist.
10. See pages 41-43, 60-64, and 277-280 of Geoffrey Cantor’s (1991) Michael Faraday, Sandemanian and Scientist.
11. Paul’s Alley was located 10 houses south of the Barbican. See page 330 Elmes’s (1831) Topographical Dictionary of the British Metropolis.
12. Baggott, Jim (2 September 1991). “The myth of Michael Faraday: Michael Faraday was not just one of Britain’s greatest experimenters. A closer look at the man and his work reveals that he was also a clever theoretician”. New Scientist. Retrieved 6, September 2008.
13. Jensen, William B. (2005). “The Origin of the Bunsen Burner” (PDF). Journal of Chemical Education 82 (4).
14. See page 127 of Faraday’s Chemical Manipulation, Being Instructions to Students in Chemistry (1827).
15. Faraday, Michael (1821). “On two new Compounds of Chlorine and Carbon, and on a new Compound of Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen”. Philosophical Transactions 111: 47. doi:10.1098/rstl.1821.0007.
16. Faraday, Michael (1859). Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London: Richard Taylor and William Francis. pp.33-53. ISBN 85066-841-7.
17. Williams, L. Pearce (1965). Michael Faraday: A Biography. New York: Basic Books. pp. 122-123. ISBN 306-80299-6.
18. Faraday, Michael (1823). “On Hydrate of Chlorine”. Quartly Journal of Science 15: 71.
19. Faraday, Michael (1859). Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London: Richard Taylor and William Francis. pp.81-84. ISBN 85066-841-7.
20. “The Birth of Nanotechnology”. Nanogallery.info. 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2007. “”Faraday made some attempt to explain what was causing the vivid coloration in his gold mixtures, saying that known phenomena seemed to indicate that a mere variation in the size of gold particles gave rise to a variety of resultant colors”.
21. Van Valkenburgh (1995). “Basic Electricity”. pp.4-91. Cengage Learning, 1995.
22. Detail of an engraving by Henry Adlard, based on an earlier photograph by Maull & Polyblank ca. 1857. See National Portrait Gallery, UK
23. Frank A.J.L James (2010). “Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction”. p. 81. Oxford University Press, 2010.
24. Zeeman, Pieter (1897). “The Effect of Magnetisation on the Nature of Light Emitted by a Substance”. Nature 55 (1424): 347. Bibcode 1897Natur..55..347Z. doi:10.1038/055347a0.
25. “Pieter Zeeman, Nobel Lecture”. Retrieved 29 May 2008.

Note: Video’s embedded, supplied by You Tube

Tom VE3CX (recipient of our OQP Plaque from the H.A.R.C.) answers:

While I am not a top guy, I sometimes manage to turn in a decent score.  Here are a few things that may help.

I have attended Contest University (CTU) at Dayton, and if you are looking for a one day course full of contesting information, it is highly recommended.  At the same time, I do understand this may not fit into everyone’s budget.

Contesting boils down to one basic issue: time management.  Whether a contest is 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours or 48 hours, you need to make all your QSO’s in that period of time.  Time spent eating, sleeping, walking the dog, etc. is not making you any points.  You may hear variations on this such as “An empty chair makes no QSO’s”.  For most people, more time in the chair will result in a better score.

A contest in not won in 48 hours.  Rather, it is won minute by minute, hour by hour.  Focus on what you need to be doing this minute to maximize your score.  When the hour is done, put it behind you, and focus on the next hour’s goal.  When the contest is over, all those minutes and hours add up to reveal your final score.

The next thing is to make your time in front of the radio more productive.  You should be calling CQ continuously.  Your radio has a second VFO – learn to use it to search for more QSO’s between CQ’s.  The idea being – find strong stations you can work with one or two calls.  To someone listening to you calling CQ, they should not be able to tell your attention was diverted to make a QSO on the second VFO.  If you are gone too long, you can lose your run frequency.  N1MM supports SO2V.

When you are doing S&P, work the easy ones.  For example, you are tuning the band, and hear someone loud.  Might only be one point, BUT you can work him with one call.  Every QSO helps.

Don’t waste time in pileups.  Yes, you need the multipliers, but at the same time, you are not making any QSO’s.  It is a tradeoff, but if you do not get through within 3 calls, move on.  Yes, it’s hard to not stop and chase DX, but chances are you will work him later…No QSO’s in the log means no points.

Take time to make sure the call/exchange is correct.  Most contests will exact a one or two QSO penalty for errors.  Taking a few seconds to make sure you have things right pays big dividends.  The top guys usually have score reductions under 1 percent.

When you are working the contest, keep a notepad handy.  Did something go well?  Is there something that is bugging you that you need to fix?  Write it down.  Also, when the contest is over, sit there for about 5 minutes, collect your thoughts and write yourself a note.  What can you do to make your station better?  Is your chair too hard?  Switch in the wrong place?  Sun in your eyes?  Arm sore from reaching for something?  The idea here is to capture that moment, figure out what you can do better next time, and then fix it.  This note is only for you, but the idea is to fix the easy problems (the low hanging fruit).  When those get fixed, move on to the next thing to fix. It is a process of continuous improvement, and over time, this should make your station better.  What I like to do is look at my note(s) from previous years before a contest.  By making note of certain things, I can carry that information forward to next year’s contest.

That said, it all *sounds* easy.  What separates the guys with low scores to the middle tier to the top guys is execution. It takes time to master these skills, and it takes practice, practice, practice.  Practice your pileup busting techniques between contests.  Practice listening to both VFOs (on different frequencies) to see if you can follow two QSO’s by mentally shifting your attention from one ear to the other.

Last but not least:  accept reality.  While we all aspire to be top guns, precious few actually achieve that level of performance. That is what makes their performance stand out – not all of us can get there.  While it is fun to dream of having a huge amount of aluminum at your fingertips, top notch radios, amps, etc., we need to be happy with what we have, and not worry so much about the other guy.  Take time to enjoy the magic of radio, have fun with it, and set realistic goals that you can achieve.  Take pride in reaching your goals (whatever they may be).  It is after all a hobby.  Have fun with it.  Smile a lot. That too will improve your scores

You worked through the contest with a broken shoulder.  Take pride in your accomplishment – others may have just sat this one out, but you chose to participate.  Be happy with your score, and figure out what you need to do better next time around.

Good luck with the next one!

Tom – VE3CX

By Paul Fleck VE3HTF

Over the years many of us as Ham operators have exercised our curiosity and some say our wallets to build, buy and operate various devices that enable us to reach out and talk to fellow hobbyists.
I was intrigued by such enthusiasts and curiosity seekers since attending the Lawfield Public School in Hamilton, Ontario those many years ago (1960s). I was introduced to Amateur Radio by Mark Gibson, VE3MWH, and his father Glenn Gibson, VE3FHQ. Although at that time I knew nothing about Ham radio,  there was a mystery to be solved, how could someone talk to places far away without a telephone? VE3FHQ had the answers and I had the questions!
Mark and I traversed the stairs, over the wires, squeeze between boxes and enter the inner sanctum.  I would watch as Glenn operated a phone patch for the ALERT station up on Ellesmere Island, or pound out C.W. and then to my amazement, read back what someone else was sending to him! There is a long history  attached to VE8At later to be renamed VE8RCS. If you are interested in the ALERT story, click here
The shack as I can recall was a mess of wires, boxes, lots of radio magazines and had a glow about it from the warmed up tubes inside the radios and alike.  I am endeavoring to this day to have a Shack with the same personality though I think the Mrs. might have something to say about it! I digress as my intention  is to bring to those of us who consider  themselves such experimenters, curiosity seekers, Amateur Radio operators the story of twenty five scientific icons in our midst. No less than twenty four men and one woman have brought to the field of science the critical thought processes, the experiments, patents and successes that brought wireless radio to us.I will be publishing on a regular basis the story of each member of this distinguished group. Some you will recognize, some you may not.

Our Distinguished Guests: Michael Faraday – 22 September, 1791 – 25 August, 1867; Mahlon Loomis – 21 July, 1826 – 13 October, 1886; David Edward Hughes – 16 May, 1831 – 22 January, 1900; James Clerk Maxwell -13 June, 1831 – 5 November, 1879; Wilhelm Von Bezold – 21 June, 1837 – 17 February, 1907; Edouard Branly – 23 October, 1844 – 24 March, 1940; Thomas Alva Edison – 11 February, 1847 – 18 October, 1931; Alexander Graham Bell – 3 March, 1847 - 2 August, 1922; John Ambrose Fleming – 29 November, 1849 – 18 April, 1945; Karl Ferdiand Braun – 6 June, 1850 – 20 April, 1918; Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge – 12 June, 1851 – 22 August, 1940; Julio Cervera Baviera – 26 January, 1854 – 1929; Charles Summer Tainter – 25 April, 1854 – 20 April, 1940; Nikola Tesla – 10 July, 1856 – 7 January, 1943; Heinrich Rudolf Hertz – 22 February, 1857 – 1 January, 1894; Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose – 30 November, 1858 – 23 November, 1937; Alexander Stepanovich Papov – 16 March, 1859 – 31 December, 1905; Nathan Stubblefield – 22 November, 1860 – 28 March, 1928; Father Roberto Landell de Moura – 21 January, 1861 – 30 June, 1928; Reginald Fessenden – 6 October, 1866 – 22 July, 1932; Ernest Rutherford – 30 August, 1871 – 19 October, 1937; Guglielmo Marconi – 25 April, 1874 – 20 July, 1937; Ms. Hedy Lamarr – 9 November, 1913 – 19 January, 2000.

I would invite any comments or observations you might have regarding the articles and look forward to learning more about the works of those before us that have enabled us to practice communicating without wires.

73

Callsign         Score             CDN         RAC      DX         QSOs     Mults
VE6AO         537,240           432          23       1240         1695         74
VA2RAC       307,392          457           14          777         1248        48
VE3DC         280,016          452           14          782         1248        44
VA5AA          272,688         324           17          832         1173         52
VE6RAC       181,896          335           12          537           884        39
AA3B            108,720          188           17          400          605         36
VE5RAC       75,454            172             9          267           448        31
AB1OD          72,000           108           17           90            215        45
VE7RAC        66,216            135            6          333           474        31
VY0RAC        46,002          207          10          218           435        17
AL9A              37,812           113           12           137           262       23
VE7CMR       29,376            87             9            87            183       24
CG7CWPC    27,440            64             8            90            162       28
VE1DT           21,150             81             8          220            309      15
N0AC             18,468            70             3          106            179       19
NK6A             13,024            57             6            62             125      16