A Primer On Radio Contesting

Explore A Radio Sport

I was recently asked by one of our Basic Ham class graduates about contesting. For those new to the hobby, or looking for a new challenge, this article may assist. I maintain that contesting is the closest simulation of what things may be like during a real emergency. If you can handle the traffic and pressure during a pile-up in a contest, I’m convinced you would do well handling emergency traffic. SARC has many opportunities for its members to try contesting. Just contact one of our Directors and we’ll get you started on one of our stations.—Ed.

Contesting (also known as Radiosport) is a competitive activity pursued by amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information. Rules for each competition define the amateur radio bands, the mode of communication that may be used, and the kind of information that must be exchanged. The contacts made during the contest contribute to a score by which stations are ranked. Contest sponsors publish the results in magazines and on web sites.

Contesting grew out of other amateur radio activities in the 1920s and 1930s. As intercontinental communications with amateur radio became more common, competitions were formed to challenge stations to make as many contacts as possible with amateur radio stations in other countries. Contests were also formed to provide opportunities for amateur radio operators to practice their message handling skills, used for routine or emergency communications across long distances. Over time, the number and variety of radio contests has increased, and many amateur radio operators today pursue the sport as their primary amateur radio activity.

There is no international authority or governance organization for this sport. Each competition is sponsored separately and has its own set of rules. Contest rules do not necessarily require entrants to comply with voluntary international band plans. Participants must, however, adhere to the amateur radio regulations of the country in which they are located. Because radio contests take place using amateur radio, competitors are generally forbidden by their national amateur radio regulations from being compensated financially for their activity. 

Contesting Basics

Radio contests are principally sponsored by amateur radio societies, radio clubs, or radio enthusiast magazines. These organizations publish the rules for the event, collect the operational logs from all stations that operate in the event, cross-check the logs to generate a score for each station, and then publish the results in a magazine, in a society journal, or on a web site. Because the competitions are between stations licensed in the Amateur Radio Service (with the exception of certain contests which sponsor awards for shortwave listeners), which prohibits the use of radio frequencies for pecuniary interests, there are no professional radio contests or professional contesters, and any awards granted by the contest sponsors are typically limited to paper certificates, plaques, or trophies.

During a radio contest, each station attempts to establish two-way contact with other licensed amateur radio stations and exchange information specific to that contest. The information exchanged could include a signal report, a name, the U.S. state or Canadian province in which the station is located, the geographic zone in which the station is located, the Maidenhead grid locator in which the station is located, the age of the operator, or an incremental serial number. For each contact, the radio operator must correctly receive the call sign of the other station, as well as the information in the "exchange", and record this data, along with the time of the contact and the band or frequency that was used to make the contact, in a log. A contest score is computed based on a formula defined for that contest. A typical formula assigns some number of points for each contact, and a "multiplier" based on some aspect of the exchange such as multiple contacts with the same station on different bands.

The rules for most contests held on the VHF amateur radio bands in North America assign a new multiplier for each new Maidenhead grid locator in the log, rewarding the competitors that make contacts with other stations in the most locations. Many HF contests reward stations with a new multiplier for contacts with stations in each country - often based on the "entities" listed on the DXCC country list maintained by the American Radio Relay League ("ARRL"). Depending on the rules for a particular contest, each multiplier may count once on each radio band or only once during the contest, regardless of the radio band on which the multiplier was first earned. The points earned for each contact can be a fixed amount per contact, or can vary based on a geographical relationship such as whether or not the communications crossed a continental or political boundary. Some contests, such as the Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge, award points that are scaled to the distance separating the two stations. Most contests held in Europe on the VHF and microwave bands award 1 point per kilometer of distance between the stations making each contact.

After they are received by the contest sponsor, logs are checked for accuracy. Points can be deducted or credit and multipliers lost if there are errors in the log data for a given contact. Depending on the scoring formula used, the resulting scores of any particular contest can be either a small number of points or in the millions of points. Most contests offer multiple entry categories, and declare winners in each category. Some contests also declare regional winners for specific geographic subdivisions, such as continents, countries, U.S. states or Canadian provinces.

The most common entry category is the single operator category and variations thereof, in which only one individual operates a radio station for the entire duration of the contest. Subdivisions of the single operator category are often made based on the highest power output levels used during the contest, such as a QRP category for single operator stations using no more than five watts of output power, or a High Power category that allows stations to transmit with as much output power as their license permits. Multi-operator categories allow for teams of individuals to operate from a single station, and may either allow for a single radio transmitter or several to be in use simultaneously on different amateur radio bands. Many contests also offer team or club competitions in which the scores of multiple radio stations are combined and ranked.

History of Contesting 

The origin of contesting can be traced to the Trans-Atlantic Tests of the early 1920s, when amateur radio operators first attempted to establish long distance radiocommunications across the Atlantic Ocean on the short wave amateur radio frequencies. Even after the first two-way communications between North America and Europe were established in 1923, these tests continued to be annual events at which more and more stations were successful in establishing two-way contacts over greater and greater distances. In 1927, the American Radio Relay League, which had been principal in organizing and publicizing these tests, proposed a new format for the annual event, encouraging stations to make as many two-way contacts with stations in other countries as possible. The 1928 International Relay Party, as the event was renamed, was the first organized amateur radio contest. The International Relay Party was an immediate success, and was sponsored annually by the ARRL from 1927 through 1935. In 1936, the contest name changed to the ARRL International DX Contest, the name under which it is known today.

To complement the burst of activity and interest being generated in DX communications by the popularity of the International Relay Parties, the ARRL adopted a competitive operating format for events designed for non- international contacts. The first ARRL All-Sections Sweepstakes Contest was started in 1930. The Sweepstakes required a more complicated exchange of information for each two-way contact that was adapted from the message header structure used by the National Traffic System. The competition was immediately popular, both with those operators active in the NTS who participated as an opportunity to gauge the merits of their station and operating skills, and among those for whom the competitive excitement of the event was the primary attraction. The contest, sponsored annually by the ARRL, became known as the ARRL November Sweepstakes in 1962.

Another important innovation in early contesting was the development of Field Day operating events. The earliest known organized field day activity was held in Great Britain in 1930, and was soon emulated by small events through Europe and North America. The first ARRL International Field Day was held in July, 1933, and publicized through the ARRL's membership journal QST. Field day events were promoted as an opportunity for radio amateurs to the ARRL's membership journal QST. Field day events were promoted as an opportunity for radio amateurs to operate from portable locations, in environments that simulate what might be encountered during emergency or disaster relief situations. Field day events have traditionally carried the same general operating and scoring structures as other contests, but the emphasis on emergency readiness and capability has historically outweighed the competitive nature of these events.

Modern contests draw upon the heritage of DX communications, traffic handling, and communications readiness. Since 1928, the number and variety of competitive amateur radio operating events have increased. In 1934, contests were sponsored by radio societies in Australia, Canada, Poland, and Spain, and the ARRL sponsored a new contest specifically for the ten meter amateur radio band. By the end of 1937, contests were also being sponsored in Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, and New Zealand. The first VHF contest was the ARRL VHF Sweepstakes held in 1948, and the first RTTY contest was sponsored by the RTTY Society of Southern California in 1957. The first publication dedicated exclusively to the sport, the National Contest Journal, began circulation in the United States in 1973. The IARU HF World Championship, a worldwide contest sponsored by the International Amateur Radio Union, was known as the IARU Radiosport Championship from its inception in 1977 until the name of the contest changed in 1986. Recognizing the vitality and maturity of the sport, CQ Amateur Radio magazine established the Contest Hall of Fame in 1986.  By the turn of the century, contesting had become an established world wide sport, with tens of thousands of active competitors, connected not just through their on air activities, but with specialist web sites, journals, and conventions.

Without a single world wide organizing body or authority for the sport, there has never been a world ranking system by which contesters could compare themselves. The vast differences contesters face in the locations from which they operate contests, and the effect that location has on both radio propagation and the proximity to major populations of amateur radio operators also conspired to make comparisons of the top performers in the sport difficult. The first "face to face" World Radiosport Team Championship event was held in July, 1990 in Seattle, Washington, United States, and was an effort to overcome some of these issues by inviting the top contesters from around the world to operate a single contest from similar stations in one compact geographic area. Twenty-two teams of two operators each represented fifteen countries, and included some top competitors from the Soviet Union and nations of the former Eastern Bloc for whom the trip was their first to a western nation. Subsequent WRTC events have been held in 1996 (San Francisco, California, United States), 2000 (Bled, Slovenia), 2002 (Helsinki, Finland), and 2006 (Florianópolis, Brazil). The closest thing to a world championship in the sport of contesting, WRTC 2010 took place in Moscow, Russia.  The 2014 event will by hosted in New England.

There have been controversies among amateur operators over the impact of dense contest traffic on the popular HF bands, the use of packet cluster systems, log editing, rare station QSYs and other techniques.

Types of Contests 

A wide variety of amateur radio contests are sponsored every year. Contest sponsors have crafted competitive events that serve to promote a variety of interests and appeal to diverse audiences. Radio contests typically take place on weekends or local weeknight evenings, and can last from a few hours to forty-eight hours in duration. The rules of each contest will specify which stations are eligible for participation, the radio frequency bands on which they may operate, the communications modes they may employ, which other amateur radio stations they may contact, and the specific time period during which they may make contacts for the contest.

Some contests restrict participation to stations in a particular geographic area, such as a continent or country. Contests like the European HF Championship aim to foster competition between stations located in one particular part of the world, specifically Europe. There are contests in which any amateur radio station worldwide may participate and make contact with any other stations for contest credit. The CQ World Wide DX Contest permits stations to contact other stations anywhere else on the planet, and attracts tens of thousands of participating stations each year. In large contests the number of people taking part is a significant percentage of radio amateurs active on the HF bands, although they in themselves are a small percentage of the total amateurs in the world.

There are regional contests that invite all stations around the world to participate, but restrict which stations each competitor may contact. For example, Japanese stations in the Japan International DX Contest (sponsored by Five Nine magazine) may only contact other stations located outside Japan and vice versa. There are also contests that limit participation to just the stations located in a particular continent or country, even though those stations may work any other station for points.

All contests use one or more amateur radio bands on which competing stations may make two-way contacts. HF contests use one or more of the 160 meter, 80 Meter, 40 Meter, 20 Meter, 15 Meter, and 10 Meter bands. VHF contests use all the amateur radio bands above 50 MHz. Some contests permit activity on all HF or all VHF bands, and may offer points for contacts and multipliers on each band. Other contests may permit activity on all bands but restrict stations to making only one contact with each other station, regardless of band, or may limit multipliers to once per contest instead of once per band. Most VHF contests in North America are similar to the ARRL June VHF QSO Party, and allow contacts on all the amateur radio bands 50 MHz or higher in frequency. Most VHF contests in the United Kingdom, however, are restricted to one amateur radio band at a time. An HF contest with world wide participation that restricts all contest activity to just one band is the ARRL 10 Meter Contest. In Canada, two HF contests are sponsored by Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC), the Canada Day and Winter Contests. There are many other provincial contests including the BC QSO Party sponsored by ORCA.

Contests exist for enthusiasts of all modes. Some contests are restricted to just CW emissions using the Morse code for communications, some are restricted to telephony modes and spoken communications, and some employ digital emissions modes such as RTTY or PSK31. Many popular contests are offered on two separate weekends, one for CW and one for telephony, with all the same rules. The CQ World Wide WPX Contest, for example, is held as a phone-only competition one weekend in March, and a CW-only competition one weekend in May.  Some contests, especially those restricted to a single radio frequency band, allow the competing stations to use several different emissions modes. VHF contests typically permit any mode of emission, including some specialty digital modes designed specifically for use on those bands. As with the other variations in contest rules and participation structure, some contest stations and operators choose to specialize in contests on certain modes and may not participate seriously in contests on other modes. Large, worldwide contests on the HF bands can be scheduled for up to forty-eight hours in duration. Typically, these large worldwide contests run from 0000 UTC on Saturday morning until 2359 UTC Sunday evening. Regional and smaller contests often are scheduled for a shorter duration, with twenty-four, twelve, and four hours being common variations.

Many contests employ a concept of "off time" in which a station may operate only a portion of the available time. For example, the ARRL November Sweepstakes is thirty hours long, but each station may be on the air for no more than twenty-four hours. The off-time requirement forces competitive stations to decide when to be on the air making contacts and when to be off the air, and adds a significant element of strategy to the competition. Although common in the 1930s, only a small number of contests today take place over multiple weekends. These competitions are called "cumulative" contests, and are generally limited to the microwave frequency bands. Short "sprint" contests lasting only a few hours have been popular among contesters that prefer a fast-paced environment, or who cannot devote an entire weekend to a radio contest. A unique feature of the North American Sprint contest is that the operator is required to change frequency after every other contact, introducing another operational skills challenge. Whatever the length of the contest, the top operators are frequently those that can best maintain focus on the tasks of contest operating throughout the event.

Some contests, such as the Maine 2 Meter FM Simplex Challenge, sponsored by the Wireless Society of Southern Maine , offer newly licensed hams the ability to take part in contesting for the first time, by restricting contacts to a single VHF band, and providing entry categories for anything from a handheld radio to a fully equipped contest station.
The wide variety of contests attracts a large variety of contesters and contest stations. The rules and structure of a particular contest can determine the strategies used by competitors to maximize the number of contacts made and multipliers earned. Some stations and operators specialize in certain contests, and either rarely operate in others, or compete in them with less seriousness. As with other sports, contest rules evolve over time, and rule changes are one of the primary sources of controversy in the sport.

Contesting Activity 

The scale of activity varies from contest to contest. The largest contests are the annual DX contests that allow world wide participation. Many of these DX contests have been held annually for fifty years or more, and have devoted followings. Newer contests, those that intentionally restrict participation based on geography, and those that are shorter in duration tend to have fewer participating stations and attract more specialized operators and teams. Over time, contests that fail to attract enough entrants will be abandoned by their sponsor, and new contests will be proposed and sponsored to meet the evolving interests of amateur radio operators.

In a specialized contest in the microwave frequency bands, where only a handful of radio amateurs have the technical skills to construct the necessary equipment, a few contacts just a few kilometers away may be enough to win. In the most popular VHF contests, a well-equipped station in a densely populated region like Central Europe can make over 1,000 contacts on two meters in twenty-four hours. In the CQ World Wide DX Contest, the world's largest HF contest, leading multi-operator stations on phone and CW can make up to 25,000 contacts in a forty-eight-hour period, while even single operators with world-class stations in rare locations have been known to exceed 10,000 contacts, an average of over three per minute, every minute. Over 30,000 amateur radio operators participated in the phone weekend of the 2000 CQ World Wide DX Contest, and the top-scoring single operator station that year, located in the Galápagos Islands, made over 9,000 contacts. Other HF contests are not as large, and some specialty events, such as those for QRP enthusiasts, can attract no more than a few dozen competitors.

Station Locations 

The geographic location of a station can impact its potential performance in radio contests. In almost all contests it helps to be in a rare location close to a major population center. Because the scoring formula in most contests uses the number of different locations contacted (such as countries, states or grid locators) as a multiplier, contacts with stations in rare locations are in high demand. In contests on the VHF and higher frequency bands, having a location at a high altitude with unobstructed line of sight in all directions is also a major advantage. With range limited to around 1000 kilometers in normal radio propagation conditions, a location on high ground close to a major metropolitan area is an often unbeatable advantage in VHF contests. In the large international HF DX contests, stations in the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, close to Europe and eastern North America with their high densities of active contest stations, are frequently the winners. Aruba, Curaçao, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira Island, coastal Morocco and the islands of Trinidad and Tobago have been the sites of some of the most famous radio contesting victories in the large world wide contests. Competition between stations in large countries, such as Canada, Russia, or the United States can be greatly affected by the geographic locations of each station. Because of these variations, some stations may specialize in only those contests where they are not at a disadvantage, or may measure their own success against only nearby rivals.

Many radio amateurs are happy to contest from home, often with relatively low output power and simple antennas. Some of these operators at modest home stations operate competitively and others are simply on the air to give away some points to serious stations or to chase some unusual propagation. More serious radio contesters will spend significant sums of money and invest a lot of time building a potentially winning station, whether at home, a local mountain top, or in a distant country. Operators without the financial resources to build their own station establish relationships with those that do and "guest operate" at other stations during contests. Contesting is often combined with a DX-pedition, where amateur radio operators travel to a location where amateur radio activity is infrequent or uncommon.

Several contests are designed to encourage outdoor operations, and are known as field days. The motivating purpose of these events is to prepare operators for emergency readiness, but many enjoy the fun of operating in the most basic of circumstances. The rules for most field day events require or strongly incent participating stations to use generator or battery power, and temporary antennas. This can create a more level playing field, as all stations are constructed in a similar manner.

A Typical Contest Exchange 

Contacts between stations in a contest are often brief. A typical exchange between two stations on voice — in this case between a station in England and one in New Zealand in the CQ World Wide DX Contest — might proceed as follows:

Station 1: CQ contest Mike Two Whiskey, Mike Two Whiskey, contest. (Station M2W is soliciting a contact in the contest)

Station 2: Zulu Lima Six Quebec Hotel
(The station calling, ZL6QH, gives only his callsign. No more information is needed.)

Station 1: ZL6QH 59 14 (said as "five nine one four").
(M2W confirms the ZL6QH call sign, sends a signal report of 59, and is in Zone 14 - Western Europe.)

Station 2: Thanks 59 32 (said as "five nine three two").
(ZL6QH confirms reception of M2W's exchange, sends a signal report of 59, and is in Zone 32 - South Pacific.)

Station 1: 73. Mike Two Whiskey QRZ?
(M2W confirms ZL6QH's exchange, is now listening for new stations.)

On Morse code, suitable well-known abbreviations are used to keep the contact as brief as possible. Skilled contesters can maintain a "rate" over four contacts per minute on Morse code, or up to ten contacts per minute on voice during peak propagation periods, using this short format. The peak rate of contacts that can be made during contests that employ longer exchanges with more information that must be sent, received, and acknowledged, will be necessarily lower.

Logs and Log Checking 

Most serious competitive stations log their contest contacts using contest logging software, although some continue to use paper and pencil. There are many different software logging programs written specifically for radio contesting. Computer logging programs can handle many additional duties besides simply recording the log data; they can keep a running score based upon the formula of the contest, track which available multipliers have been "worked" and which have not, and provide the operator with visual clues about how many contacts are being made on which bands. Some contest software even provide a means to control the station equipment via computer, retrieve data from the radio and send pre-recorded Morse code, voice or digital messages. After the conclusion of a contest, each station must submit its operational log to the contest sponsor. Many sponsors accept logs by e-mail by upload on web sites, or even by postal mail.

Once a contest sponsor receives all the logs from the competitors, the logs undergo a process known as "cross- checking." In cross-checking, the contest sponsor will match up the contacts recorded in the logs and look for errors or omissions. Most contests enforce stiff points penalties for inaccuracies in the log, which means that the need for speed in operation must be balanced against the requirement for accuracy. It is not uncommon for a station to lead in points at the end of the contest, but slip behind a more accurate competitor after the cross-checking process has assessed penalties. Some contest sponsors provide custom log checking reports to participating stations that offer details about the errors in their log and how they were penalized.

Results and Awards 

Most contests are sponsored by organizations that either publish a membership journal, or sell a radio enthusiast magazine as their business. 

The results of radio contest events are printed in these publications, and often include an article describing the event and highlighting the victors. Contest results articles might also include photographs of radio stations and operators in the contest, and a detailed listing of the scores of every participating station. In addition to publication in magazines and journals, many contest sponsors also publish results on web sites, often in a format similar to that found in print. Some contest sponsors offer the raw score results data in a format that enables searching or other data analysis. The American Radio Relay League, for example, offers this raw line score data to any of its members, and offers the summary report of the winners and the line score data in a non-searchable format to anyone through their web site.

Because radio contests take place using amateur radio, competitors are forbidden by regulation from being compensated financially for their activity. This international regulatory restriction of the Amateur Radio Service precludes the development of a professional sport. In addition to the recognition of their peers, winners in radio contests do, however, often receive paper certificates, wooden plaques, trophies, engraved gavels, or medals in recognition of their achievements. Some contests provide trophies of nominal economic value that highlight their local agricultural or cultural heritage, such as smoked salmon (for the Washington State Salmon Run contest) or a bottle of wine (for the California QSO Party).




There is a book written about the international Radiosport Community titled: “Contact Sport” by J.K. George. It gives an interesting insight.

Brasspounders

A History Of Telegraphy Presentation

On Wednesday, September 11 at 7pm, at our first monthly meeting of the 2019-2020 season, Surrey Amateur Radio Communications will host Lavina Shaw as guest presenter. She will speak on the history of telegraphy. Visitors welcome.

See the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFRjn6q39Ig&t=30s

We meet at the Surrey Fire Service  Training  Centre, 14923 - 64  Avenue, Surrey, BC 
Map link: https://what3words.com/markers.addiction.ozone

Follow-up:

Lavina completed her excellent and interesting presentation and shared a video about her experiences and the nature of telegraphy as a means of communication. 

You can watch it HERE.

The September/October Communicator

Projects, News, Views and Reviews... 

Here is the September/October SARC Communicator newsletter: http://bit.ly/SARC19-09.  This month 52 pages of projects, news, views, and reviews from the SW corner of Canada. 

http://bit.ly/SARC19-09

We always welcome contributions of news, stories and your Amateur Radio experiences. The deadline for the November/December issue is October 20th.

73,

John VE7TI
Communicator Editor

CQ Radio Rookies!

The Rookie Roundup

The Rookie Roundup is a contest for  amateurs that have received their license within the last 3 years. (2015/14/13) There are different modes at several times of year April = SSB (Phone), August = RTTY and December = CW.

I qualified as a rookie since I was recently licensed and was interested in this contest. After speaking with Brett VE7GM about the Rookie Roundup Contest he said the contesting calendar was slowing down a bit prior to field day but he thought this might be a good chance for me to get some experience.

John VA7XB opened his station for this event and got me setup on N1MM logging software and the layout of his station and equipment. I had previously monitored along with the operators at John’s QTH during the BC QSO party. Also I  had participated briefly on some other contests from my own home so I had some idea of what to expect but had never run assisted mode myself. That’s where the non-rookies really help out, and I was especially lucky to have experienced contesters showing me the ropes.

Jeremy VE7TMY

After some further setup and coaching from John I started search and pounce on QRP (~5watts) on the 15 meter band.  We chose to run QRP as an experiment prior to field day with the results to be used to help decision making later on. I made a few contacts but it was more difficult at low power to be heard among many others running full power in the pileups. It took several minutes to make each contact so the QSO rate was quite low. I went into run mode for a short time on QRP and I did manage to get spotted on 15 meters which was nice.

Contacts were tough going and then Brett arrived  about the time we switched to 20 meters.  Sheldon VA7XNL was heard over me on QRP. I thought I was being called by the station but they heard VA7 not VE7.  What are the odds on that happening?

I had QSOs from all over the US so even with QRP  and on a good antenna system I could be heard.  The idea was that if they could hear me running QRP and responded to my CQ then QSOs would be possible.  The main concerns were that search and pounce was more difficult on QRP and in run mode other stations setup near me might not have heard me running. I did have to repeat myself a few times and switch phonetics slightly to be heard accurately.

Sheldon VA7XNL contacted me while I was running and gave me another multiplier. Thanks Sheldon for my only contact in BC!  It was still moderately slow going and there was a fair bit of QRM around. The last hour of the contest we switched to 100 watts and I got busy in run mode very near the contest recommended frequency (14.250mhz).  I think many US stations wanted to contact me as I may have been an easy multiplier for them.
After the contest ended I calculated my score by counting my rookie and non-rookie QSOs. Rookies are worth 2 points and

Non-rookies 1 point.

Multipliers were given for each unique state and province, and as luck had it I ended up with nearly 50/50 mix of rookie/non-rookies. I also had a very high number of unique states/provinces worked (37) to multiply my score so I ended up with top rookie score in Canada.

I learned lots of tips with regard to contest etiquette and best practices from both John and Brett. I thank them both again for a great day of radio sport. I would highly recommend this contest be put on the calendar for next year’s rookies, and don’t forget the RTTY and CW modes later this year. This contest gave me some confidence I didn’t have before that I could operate a contest station.  I still have much more work to do on my own QTH but look forward to more contesting.

More information at URL: http://www.arrl.org/rookie-roundup/

~ Jeremy VE7TMY

A Tale Of Two Hams

Radio Ramblings

This story appeared in the May Communicator [page 22] https://tinyurl.com/SARC19-5 and has had a positive response so it is re-published here.

My wife Laura (VE7LPM) and I live in an old house on Smith Avenue in Burnaby.  In fact, I have lived there most of my life.  I came to the house in the summer of 1981 as a renter, and over the next few years was able to convince the owner to sell me the property.  It was expensive for a young police officer, but has turned out to be a good investment.  That aside, the place is centrally located near Boundary and Kingsway, and Laura and I have found it so convenient to practically everywhere that we have never thought too much about moving.  We respected the old place and have tried to keep it up.  

Over the years the house supported all my amateur radio activities, my two towers, and a not insignificant antenna farm.  I participated in contests, deployed dozens of odd antennas, made my first satellite QSO from the back deck, completed DXCC, worked my first EME contacts, and even (literally) blew up my 2 kilowatt 2-metre linear there in 1989.  Ka-boom!

The house was built in 1925, and despite its age, it’s in pretty good shape.  See Figure 1.  I had some time in the past couple of months, so thought that I would do some investigative work to find out something of the history of our home as it approaches the end of its first century.  

What I found is the subject of this month’s column.

Figure 1 – Our House Today

House Genealogy

All we knew about our house was that it was built in 1922  and that it had had a few owners before I moved in in 1981.  A retired police colleague had done research on his own house in Victoria, and suggested that a good starting point for finding out more is the “City Directory”.  

City Directories were published annually and date from a simpler time where residents were not worried about financial scams or identity theft, and when privacy was not a significant social issue.  Directory representatives would visit all homes in the Lower Mainland (and the province) annually and gather details of residents, owners, and occupations of those living in the community.  The information was published in a thick large-format book indexed by streets and surnames.  Directories for all of BC going back to 1860 are now available online courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library (VPL)  .

I used the VPL site to research our house based first upon its address.  Strangely, I could find records of our home going back to the early 1960s, but for earlier years our address did not show up in the City Directories.  This was odd!

I had to try a different approach.  Each City Directory also indicates street and cross-street, so by looking at the combination of “Smith Avenue” and looking for cross street names, I learned that sometime in the late 1950s the block numbers in Burnaby were all “reset” to match the block numbers used in the City of Vancouver.  I confirmed this renumbering by referring to historical street maps .  I could not find our house prior to about 1960 because the house number had been changed!

Armed with the new block number (the 3800-block rather than the current 5400-block), I was then able to track our home and its owners/residents back to 1925.  Prior to 1925, there were no records.  This too seemed odd.  I discovered through inquiries at Burnaby City Hall that our home had been built not in 1922, as Laura and I had always thought, but rather, in 1925.  This was our first interesting discovery.  City Directory searches confirmed that a new house and new residents showed up at 3854 Smith Avenue in 1926.

By googling our old street address, I was amazed to discover that City of Vancouver Archives  had a photograph of our house in 1931 .  See Figure 2.  I deduced through some online research in the Vancouver Archives and some corresponding VPL information that our home had been photographed as part of an advertising program for a 1930s-era furnace company.  Somehow the photos had been preserved.  Very interesting!

Figure 2 – Our House on July 21, 1931

Back to the City Directories, I was able to track the owners and residents of our house from 1926.  Armed with resident names, I was able to cross-reference from the street index to the directory’s name-based entries and find out about occupations and businesses that the residents had been involved in.  

This was interesting and I was able to build a chronology of owners and residents.  Laura and I are the sixth family to live here.  I googled the past residents, their occupations and businesses and discovered that prior to 1946 the house had been owned by a fellow who was involved in the auto business; and next by a large family who also owned another house on the block.  One of their daughters attended UBC.

I learned that in 1946 the house had been sold to a fellow named Edward James Fowler.  Naturally, I thought I’d do a bit of research on Mr. Fowler as I had on the other owners of our home.  See Figure 3.

Figure 3 – City Directory for 1946, “F. Fowler” 

Serendipity

Googling “E.J. Fowler” and our old address, I discovered that Edward James Fowler was known as “Ted”, and that he was, in fact, VE7VO.  Ted Fowler was a very well-known personality in the local amateur radio community.  He had been in Vancouver since at least the late 1930s .  

A prolific contester and DXer with several awards, he had been written of in QST and “Shortwave Magazine”, another popular radio magazine of the 1930s and 1940s.  This was very interesting!  

See Figure 4 for a photo I found in the BC DX Club Archives of VE7VO and colleagues at the 1958 DX Convention in Vancouver .

Figure 4 - DX Convention, Vancouver 1958

Spurred to do further research, I next discovered that all of the old Radio Amateur Callbooks from the 1920s onwards  have been scanned and made available by the Internet Archive  – an excellent site for information on radio and television history and on old radio technology.  

I downloaded several callbooks from the late 1940s and 1950s and looked up VE7VO.  See Figure 5 for VE7VO’s entry in the Fall 1947 callbook.  Note his address is that of our house at (then) 3854 Smith Avenue, shown as “New Westminster” rather than in Burnaby.

Figure 5 – VE7VO in the Fall 1947 Radio Amateur’s Callbook

I thought next that I would track VE7VO backwards from his purchase of our house in 1946.  I learned two more interesting things.  First, the VE7 call district did not exist prior to 1939.  This was news to me!  By searching for “Fowler” in the 1939 Callbook  I learned that VE7VO was in fact VE5VO at that time, but that he was already in Vancouver, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 – VE7VO was VE5VO prior to WW II

The second thing I learned is that Mr. Fowler was a commercial pilot, as I am.  Unlike me, however, he had military flying experience.  I decided to follow this lead.

VE5VO had served with distinction in the Royal Air Force in Britain during the war.  As a pilot he flew several missions over Europe, and then after cessation of the war had been part of the RAF’s mission to disarm the German Luftwaffe.  “Shortwave Magazine” included a story in April 1946 about how Flight Lieutenant Fowler, VE5VO was instrumental in restarting amateur radio in Europe post-war .  He was issued the callsign D2VO.  See Figures 7 and 8.

Figure 7 – Shortwave Magazine, April 1946

Figure 8 – D2VO in Summer 1946 Radio Amateur’s Callbook

Post-war, Mr. Fowler was listed in the City Directory as a pilot and technician for TCA: Trans Canada Airlines, the forerunner of Air Canada.  However, I determined that he had changed careers by the 1950s and was involved in technical management of commercial radio transmitters .  He moved to Surrey in the early 1960s and passed away in 1983.  He was survived by a son, but there is no record of his son having an amateur radio license .


Other Interesting Observations

VE7VO lived in our house for about fifteen years, until about 1960.  He was active in amateur radio at that time.  I started thinking about whether I could find evidence of where his shack was, or perhaps where his antennas had been located.

When I moved into the house in the summer of 1981, I noted that one of the basement window frames had a number of strange large holes drilled in a linear fashion in its bottom frame.  I plugged the holes to keep mice and insects out, and eventually the window itself got replaced.  Now I am thinking that these holes were likely the ingress points for feedlines.  I had had evidence of “hamming” right before my eyes but had missed it!

A few years ago, Laura and I were doing yard work, as couples do.  She was digging up a rough patch in the backyard to smooth it out, and unearthed a large turnbuckle.  It was about a foot long and encased in rust.  She showed me the turnbuckle and I remember thinking “hmmm, when it was new that would’ve been great for securing a tower guy line”.  I didn’t recall losing a turnbuckle for my own towers, which were up at the time, but never really thought more of it.  The turnbuckle got tossed into our metal recycling.  Perhaps this was a leftover from one of VE7VO’s antennas.

The only other further evidence I have of antennas or antenna supports is weak, but I will present it here as it highlights another valuable resource for people doing historical amateur radio research.  Many cities have begun to make archival aerial photos available to the public.  These photos are integrated with modern GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and typically made available online.  Burnaby is no exception.  

I visited the City’s “Burnaby Historical Aerial Photo Viewer”, which contains zoomable orthophotos of Burnaby going back to 1930 .  Heading back in time to 1930, I was able to look at our house and the neighbourhood and watch it develop over the subsequent decades.  In particular, I noted that my then-state-of-the-art “TH6” Yagi antenna was clearly visible in photos from the 1980s to the early 2000s.  See Figure 9a and 9b.  As an aside, note how the quality of these photos has improved due to advances in technology.  

Maybe I could use historical orthophotos to find evidence of an antenna or tower!

 

Figure 9a – VE7ZD’s (VE7CPT’s) TH6 Yagi in 1985

Figure 9b – VE7ZD’s (VE7CPT’s) TH6 Yagi in 2004

  

























I turned next to orthophotos from the VE7VO period, 1946 to approximately 1960.  While I could not find obvious evidence of an antenna, I did note, however, the presence of an odd structure in the backyard of the house that cast a long shadow relative to other elements in the picture.  The photo is quite grainy, but you can make things out.  See Figure 10.

Figure 10 – House and Possible Antenna Support Structure in 1950

A tower or antenna support pole?  I will likely never know, but the structure’s location and characteristics do not look like a fountain, table, or other common garden element.  There is no evidence of the structure in our backyard today.

Interestingly, the structure was within about two metres of where I placed my own tower base in late 1981 after I moved into the house.  If the structure in the 1950 orthophoto was a tower or antenna support, it shows that hams even across time think alike!

Conclusion

This was an interesting journey into amateur radio history, and the history of one radio amateur, and his residence in the period from 1946 through about 1960.  I found out a lot about the history of our home, and located a fantastic 1931 photo of our house, showing it to be in essentially the same condition as it was nearly ninety years ago.  

It was amazing to think that another ham, and such a prominent one, had lived in the same house as Laura and I, and that VE7VO and I have both enjoyed the challenges and thrills of amateur radio from this location.  I wonder if we chose the same room for our shack?

An ongoing project for me is to try and find an old QSL card from VE7VO, or even VE5VO .  QSLs usually give the op’s address and often list station details and other information which would be of great interest to me.  It would be really neat if VE7VO’s QSL included a photo of his QTH, or of his shack!

One final point.  In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was extremely active on the bands, and was a member of a couple of local radio clubs, including the “Fraser Valley DX Club”, FVDXC.  We met in Surrey and Langley on a monthly basis.  I do not recall ever meeting Ted Fowler, VE7VO, but it is possible that, as a prominent DXer (then with decades of experience) and a then-Surrey resident, that he might have been a member of the FVDXC as well.  If he was, then I wish I had met him, and that the fact that serendipity had led me to live in his old home had come to light.  We would have had a lot in common, and meeting him would have been a really interesting experience!

That’s it for this month!  Feedback can be directed to the Editor, or directly to me at mcquiggi@sfu.ca.  Have a great month and 73,

~ Kevin VE7ZD / K7MCQ


Follow Kevin's "Radio Ramblings" monthly column in The Communicator

This article first appeared in the May 2019 SARC Communicator newsletter https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-may-2019-communicator.html 

Bringing Order To Chaos

One Ham’s Answer

I readily admit that I have a modest station compared to the local big guns in our club. I have been fortunate to work at some of them over the years including stations at Fred’s VE7IO, John’s VA7XB and Jim’s VE7FO. I’m always amazed at the number of contacts during a session, how a thousand Watts pushes through a pile-up and the variety of countries, some of which I have never even heard on my home station, let alone work them. 

Over the past year or so I have written several articles for the Communicator and the RAC TCA magazine on my efforts to put together a better station. First there was “Refinishing a Tower” in the January 2014 Communicator, then rebuilding a rotor in the December 2014 issue, and my next installment was to be refurbishing a 3-element HF beam… but that’s another chapter, as yet unfinished.

My shack is part of a home office I share with my wife, and is somewhat cramped in comparison to other home stations I have worked. My transceivers have to share desk space with a computer and various other work and hobby related equipment. It became clear some time ago that I had two options… significantly reduce my radio footprint by divesting assets or find a way to bring organization to the clutter. Well, actually it was more like chaos when I worked a contest. Up to three transceivers, a tuner, a power supply, voltage monitor, SWR meter, rotator control box, SignaLink digital interface, audio patch panel and the wires that held it all together, on my desk.  I’d have included a ‘before’ photo but it would be embarrassing.

I was cleaning house last fall and as part of the process listed some stuff on Craigslist that I no longer needed. One of these items was a legal size file rack, the type that rolls around with hanging file folders [photo above]. The thing wouldn’t sell despite a very competitive price, not even a single inquiry. I was about to haul it to the metal salvage when it struck me! I could transform this into a compact rack to hold my Ham gear. A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is 19 inches (482.6 mm) wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws. Equipment designed to be placed in a rack is typically described as rack-mount. The height of the electronic modules is also standardized as multiples of 1.752 inches (44.50 mm) or one rack unit or ‘U’. The industry standard rack cabinet is 42U tall [http://www.rackmountmart.com/html/sPt.htm]. There are usually ads for this stuff, and in used condition, often sells  for the price of the scrap metal. My file rack was 21 inches wide, lots of room. Using the standard 19 inches for the front width I dug out some used blank IT panels from commercial racks that I had been saving. 

I started work on it earlier this month. I pictured my gear accessible from the front and my connections for power, antennas and audio at the side. I removed the casters from the file rack—I could see that sucker rolling off the desk in my excitement during a pile-up! I added some channel aluminum to enclose one side as well. I already had a section of standard rack mounting channel that I mounted on either side of the front opening. 

I should clarify that I was not attempting to create a Grab ‘n Go Kit though the end result looks a bit like the excellent SEPAR kits, as seen in the April Communicator [video at https://youtu.be/E-a0yC--k6Q]. My rack can be lifted by one person but it was meant to stay in one place. I also wanted it to be flexible enough to shift gear around if my inventory changed and be accessible to wiring and the inevitable equipment re-configurations over time.

I cut several pieces of the panels to fit the openings for my transceivers, painted them black and edged them with black automotive door moulding from Canadian Tire. I added a panel mount LED voltmeter and a car 12 volt accessory outlet (I guess we don’t call them cigarette lighters anymore). I have a USB 5 volt plug-in for this outlet that I can use for charging my iPhone or for a USB LED light to softly light the front of the unit at night.

On the side I added a speaker, four PL-259 UHF feed through connectors. My feedlines enter here and I can use a patch panel approach to connect them to the transceiver of choice. I have a PowerPole 12 volt distribution panel which supplies fused protection and powers the gear, and I added two PowerPoles to an external side outlet. I don’t have a use for them yet but I plan for the future J. All wires are bundled and routed to the side and rear of the chassis.

Because I also use the gear while mobile and travelling, I needed an easy method to remove and replace it. The units are held in by heavy duty releasable zip ties which are inexpensive, strong and secure. 

My audio enters and exits through a ProCo PM-148 patch bay. This is another rack mount surplus item and allows me to feed anything that takes a ¼ inch phone plug and connect it to anything else. There are 24 pairs of jacks on the front and a matching 24 pairs on the back of the ProCo. Audio from the devices goes into the rear jacks and I can patch them at the front so that I can hook up multiple headsets, mics or foot switches in any combination. I also added a built-in mobile transceiver speaker to the side as an additional listening option.  I have since added a Xenix 802 2-bus mixer to handle my inputs and output levels after a segment on HamNation that convinced me that it was a needed station accessory.

I have used it for several years now and what a treat! I have sufficient space on my desk for my coffee cup and a snack and all my gear is less than an arms length away. I have ordered a new panel volt meter because I found one on eBay for $6 that does triple duty, adding a clock and thermometer—built-in overheating protection and UTC at a glance! 

So far I haven’t experienced any interference or noise issues but I have a supply of ferrites available should the need arise. I even have some rack space left in the event I need to add another ‘toy’.

Because I had all the parts and connectors already, the only cost was a can of semi-gloss black spray paint. That plus my time; not a bad investment for a functional [and portable] station.

~ John VE7TI

Outdoors With Ham Radio

Get Out Of The Shack And Discover New Opportunities

In this nice August summer weather it becomes harder to sit inside at a radio when the sun, blue skies, birds, and blossoming trees, shrubs and flowers are beckoning outside. Fortunately, the outdoors and ham radio make a superb combination, thanks to today’s miniaturized and power-saving technology.

VHF/UHF FM handhelds (HTs) often provide the most available way of taking ham radio outdoors. An HT with a decent whip antenna (something rather better than the usual rubber ducky), an external microphone, and an ear bud can be used for “pedestrian mobile” radio, bringing the old expression “walkie-talkie” to life. (Try this for your next check-ins to the Tuesday night SARC and SEPARS nets!) Alternatively, and with appropriate precautions to avoid collisions and other nasty mishaps, an HT and whip antenna can be secured to a bicycle for “bicycle mobile” radio, perhaps making use of VOX operation with a suitably compact one-sided headset.

A suitable clamp can fasten a whip antenna to a park bench for portable, rather than mobile, operation, allowing the less energetic but peripatetic ham to enjoy the fresh air, sunshine, and sights and smells of spring in a local park, taken one bench at a time, moving from location to location as fancy dictates.

Even more fun for some of us, at least, is the opportunity to work some HF DX contacts while walking along the beach, following the example of Peter Parker VK3YE (see Peter’s website at http://home.alphalink.com.au/~parkerp/projant.htm or his YouTube channel for some videos of beach pedestrian mobile HF SSB operation using his “Wadetenna”).  HF pedestrian mobile operation makes use of highly compact and light-weight yet high performance QRP (low power, typically 4-5 Watts) transceivers such as the popular Yaesu FT-817 or the highly regarded Elecraft KX3. Even smaller and less expensive (but often lower power and definitely less flexible) rigs are available for pure CW operators.

For even more outdoors adventure, the physically fit ham can take part in the Summits on the Air (SOTA, http://www.sota.org.uk) program. SOTA operation is possible with either HF (and modest antennas) or VHF (with lightweight portable beam antennas) radios, and is a superb way to combine mountain hiking (or even technical climbing) with ham radio.
For hams not yet sufficiently fit to climb mountains, the Islands on the Air (IOTA, http://www.rsgbiota.org) program offers a fun and challenging alternative for HF operations at picturesque locations on coastal islands.

Mt. Seymour, within an hour's drive of Vancouver

More information is available on all of these outdoor activities on the internet by using search terms taken from the above descriptions. All are suitable for either solo or group activities, as your personality dictates.  If you are interested in outdoor radio operations, whether VHF/UHF or HF, but would like more information, contact the club, either at the end of any Tuesday night SARC net, or via email using our email directors@ve7sar.net. If you are ready to try it but are reluctant to go solo, let us know and we’ll put you on a list to see if we can partner up some members.

If enough members would like to take part in joint outdoor radio activities, an Outdoor Radio special interest group (similar to the groups for Contesting, Satellite, and CW groups) could be organized under the SARC umbrella to coordinate partnering and possibly group outings. 

Hoping to work you outdoors, 73