The 10th Annual 13 Colonies Ham Radio Event

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ipfd320

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Its That Time of Year Again---The 10th Annual 13 Colonies Special Event Contest

Event Starts--July 1st at 9am and Runs Thru Till July 7th at Midnight

All HF bands will be in play, including the WARC bands, with the exception of 60 meters. Simplex on 2 meters and 6 meters is encouraged.

Here is the Link for the Event---Click on any of the Tabs for Info--> 13 Colonies Special Event
 

AK9R

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I made the mistake (wink) of sitting down at the radio this morning around 6:30 EDT. There were several K2? stations on 40m and they were fairly easy to work.
 

rescue161

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K2D was missing in action for a good bit of yesterday and when they did show up, they were running CW. When they did show up late yesterday evening, they had such a backlog of people trying to get them for their clean sweep, it wasn't fun. Frustrating was the word.

The BG13COL station sounds like he's using a wet noodle for an antenna. He stayed on 20M in the beginning and I could barely pick him out. He finally went to 40M and was running split and I still could barely hear him as other stations were calling on his TX freq. Very frustrating. First year that I've had so much trouble getting the last two stations.

The first 13 were challenging for some, especially SC and VA as I'm right between those two, but none of them were aggravating to the point of giving up like GB13COL and K2D.
 

AK9R

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I have all the U.S stations except K2D on 40m phone. Hopefully, they'll be on Saturday morning. I haven't even tried to copy GB13COL on any band and may not even try.
 

rescue161

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I finally got K2D this morning. He was in the Extra portion of of 20M (14.2150) and people kept asking him to move to the General portion to give everyone a chance. He finally did a split so he could receive on 14.225.5, so I called on his receive and he gave me a 5/9 report. Then, someone started arguing with him about using splits. Saying that he was not special and that if he wanted General's to be able to get him, that he should move into the General portion and not do split TX/RX. They went back and forth, yelling at each other, then K2D announced that because of K9IU (the person arguing), he was going to remain in the Extra portion. Glad I got him, but it all could have been avoided if he would have just moved up to the General portion and stayed there. If this was supposed to be an Extra-Only contest, then I wouldn't have even wasted my time getting the other stations. It has never been like this in the past. Not sure why the CT stations are being like that. The K2D station actually mentioned that he preferred CW, but got an email stating that they needed to move up to SSB due to complaints.
 

K4EET

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Got my Clean Sweep of all 15 stations including WM3PEN and GB13COL just before 9:30 PM EDT last night. K2E (Delaware) was the elusive station in my case and finally caught them on 40 Meters CW.

For those trying for the Certificate, be sure to read the participation rules at 13 Colonies Special Event. You don't need to work all 13 Colonies to get the Certificate and you don't need to work the two Bonus Stations (WM3PEN and GB13COL) to get a Clean Sweep. That will take some of the pressure off of needing GB13COL which tends to always have a nice pileup.

I hope everybody had a Happy Fourth of July and will have a nice and safe final weekend of the July 4th Holiday Week.

Cheers and 73, Dave K4EET
 

AK9R

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Maybe we need to put on a class teaching the following two subjects:

1. How to work split.

2. When the DX or special event station says they are looking for 8s, let's say, they only want people with an 8 in their callsign. It doesn't matter if you live in MI, OH, or WV, if you don't have an 8 in your callsign, the DX or special event station isn't looking for you.
 

rescue161

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I can't believe how many rude operators were blindly calling on the RX freq after NUMEROUS people told them that they were on the wrong frequency. I couldn't get GB13COL due to them. I'd put my call out after he called QRZ and all I could hear was a bunch of idiots yelling their call on the RX side. I have no idea if he heard me or not. I saw them on PSK31/63, but don't have a digital interface. I have one inbound now though, so hopefully I'll avoid the headache of rude people next year.
 

rescue161

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All I need is K2D as well for a clean sweep.

Good luck as he was MIA for a while. Then only stayed in the CW portion until the complaints got high enough. Then he gladly moved into the Extra portion of phone. I'll say it again, if this was an Extra-Only contest, then they should have stated such before a lot of people wasted their time begging K2D to throw the General's a bone.
 

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Good luck as he was MIA for a while. Then only stayed in the CW portion until the complaints got high enough. Then he gladly moved into the Extra portion of phone. I'll say it again, if this was an Extra-Only contest, then they should have stated such before a lot of people wasted their time begging K2D to throw the General's a bone.



A lot of contest operators work CW. Because this mode is so quick to establish contacts, it allows more operators the chance to log a QSO. Who knows, he may have been upset at receiving all the complaints concerning him working CW. Any operate can work CW, so long as they teach themselves, as I am in the process of doing. My Morse code is marginal and I can still log QSO’s with CW stations. Most, if not nearly all DX stations and parties, work CW during contests.
 

AK9R

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All I need is K2D as well for a clean sweep.
They were on 40m phone last night. Working by the numbers. I listened to three stints of working through the 9s when I finally got 'em in the log around 10:15 pm EDT.
 

rescue161

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A lot of contest operators work CW. Because this mode is so quick to establish contacts, it allows more operators the chance to log a QSO. Who knows, he may have been upset at receiving all the complaints concerning him working CW. Any operate can work CW, so long as they teach themselves, as I am in the process of doing. My Morse code is marginal and I can still log QSO’s with CW stations. Most, if not nearly all DX stations and parties, work CW during contests.

Oh, I get it. I just do not enjoy CW. I had to learn it back in the day, but it was always frustrating to me to be able to send it faster than I could copy. I just never stuck to learning to copy faster as I just didn't enjoy it. So, I stick to SSB phone and soon to be digital. I guess out of the times that I have done this contest, I have never had trouble getting all of them on phone. It just rubbed me the wrong way to hear an argument on the air and the station that a lot of folks needed, took his ball and went home (to the Extra portion of the bands). Frustrating to no end.

At the end of the day, it's a hobby, so I turned the radio off and went for a dip in the pool. Next time, I know that I need to either get better at copying CW or learn how to make the best digital station that I can out of what I have.
 

N4GIX

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2. When the DX or special event station says they are looking for 8s, let's say, they only want people with an 8 in their callsign.

If they call for 4s and I answer, how is that helpful since I've lived in 9 land for the past 27 years?
 

rescue161

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It doesn't matter where you live, it matters on the call. Let's say that they only asked for operators that live in Florida. How does one verify that they are actually in Florida? They don't, but if they ask for 8s and you answer with your 4 call because you live in 8-land, then everyone knows that you "cut in line."
 

AK9R

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They don't, but if they ask for 8s and you answer with your 4 call because you live in 8-land, then everyone knows that you "cut in line."
Which is what I heard last night. The K2D station was calling for 3s. Some guy with a 2 call kept answering and he had a big signal at my station. I looked him up and, sure enough, he had a PA address. Doesn't matter that the guy lived in 3 land, he didn't have a 3 call.

I heard basically the same thing happen a couple more times last night. And, then, I heard a guy who lives close to me do it right. K2D called for 8s, a guy with an 8 call answered, and gave his state as Indiana. That's doing it correctly.

Now, to N4GIX's question, your actual location could matter if the calling station was using a directional antenna. If the calling station points his beam at 4 land and calls for 4s, he may have a hard time hearing you up here in 9 land. I don't have a good answer for that. Maybe wait for the calling stations to ask for 9s and give your call as N4GIX/9.
 

N4GIX

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It doesn't matter where you live, it matters on the call. Let's say that they only asked for operators that live in Florida. How does one verify that they are actually in Florida? They don't, but if they ask for 8s and you answer with your 4 call because you live in 8-land, then everyone knows that you "cut in line."

Thank you both. I am now better informed. :D
 

N2AL

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Oh, I get it. I just do not enjoy CW. I had to learn it back in the day, but it was always frustrating to me to be able to send it faster than I could copy. I just never stuck to learning to copy faster as I just didn't enjoy it. So, I stick to SSB phone and soon to be digital. I guess out of the times that I have done this contest, I have never had trouble getting all of them on phone. It just rubbed me the wrong way to hear an argument on the air and the station that a lot of folks needed, took his ball and went home (to the Extra portion of the bands). Frustrating to no end.

At the end of the day, it's a hobby, so I turned the radio off and went for a dip in the pool. Next time, I know that I need to either get better at copying CW or learn how to make the best digital station that I can out of what I have.



I am not sure which radio you have, but I saw an order model Yaesu or Kenwood radio which had a CW copier at Field Day 2018. It was pretty awesome! That may be a possibility if you wanted to use something like that. You can also use fldigi to send and receive CW. Personally, I am more of a phone and digital fan than CW.

I obtained my Extra class after receiving an “Official F.C.C. Observer” post card in the mail. On LSB I dipped into the Extra class portion on 80 meters. To ensure it did not happen in the future, about two months later I obtained my Extra class. I did a lot of CW on General class portions of the bands before though. Side note, but it is kind of odd that Canada has lower 20 meter band portions than the United States does. I hate it during contests, but it is what it is.
 

rescue161

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Yeah, I never looked into the HF digital modes until this time around on this contest. I was seeing a ton of digital data and got even more frustrated when I couldn't call back. Well, I did make a couple of contacts on PSK31 and OLIVIA by holding my mic to my computer speakers. That got old real quick, so I ordered a RigBlaster Plug-n-Play. I'll be ready next time for sure.

Yes, I was using HRD to decode some CW, but it depends heavily on how the sender is sending. I was able to make out by ear what they were sending when HRD was getting is completely wrong. I just don't enjoy CW. I guess it could be fun if I could force myself to copy faster, but to me forcing isn't fun. I spent most of my time trying to build my send speed instead of learning to copy better/faster. I learned real fast that sending CQ CQ at 20 WPM sucked real bad when I couldn't copy the guy coming back at me even at 15 or 10. I gave it the good old college try, but found that I enjoyed SSB better.
 
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