Looking for a fun and relaxing “evening” wireless activity this weekend?

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Your in luck this weekend starting Friday afternoon at 22:00 z ?5 PM local December 6 (just after local sunset) the ARRL 160 meter contest kicks off. It runs thru 16:00 Z on Sunday December 8

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This is a great opportunity to get on “Top Band” also know as the gentlemen’s band and joy in the fun.

Never been on 160 or don’t have an antenna this is a great weekend to give it a try.

Modern HF rigs have internal antenna tuners which will “Load Up” a 80 meter dipole or end feed antenna on 160 and allow you to make contacts and maybe even some DX. Many years ago while living in a third floor apartment I used a random length about 60 feet of 22 gauge wire from my balcony to a tree branch. This allowed me to work stations located along the east coast, west to Colorado, and a couple of DX stations in the Caribbean

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This is a CW only contest and the exchange is simply a signal report and ARRL Section. ENY, Eastern New York if you are in Saratoga or Warren County. The CW Speed is slower than in the recent CQWW CW contest.

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A typical contact is like this

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CQ: ?????? ?CQ Test de NJ1F

Caller:?? K1LZ

CQ :?????? K1LZ 5nn ENY

Caller:?? 5nn ME

CQ: ?????? TU QRZ NJ1F

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Complete rules at

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This contest is a good opportunity to get Worked All States on 160 meters!

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A couple of pointers about 160 meters:

Sunrise and Sunset are truly the best opportunity to work some DX. Our sunset will yield a fantastic opportunity to work DX stations towards the east like Europe and Africa. While our Sunrise is the best opportunity for DX to the West KH6, KL7, and ZL.

A friend will be on this weekend from Hawaii KH7M and he said that his local sunset is around 4:00 z 11 pm local. There might be a brief peak in his signal then, however the W6 and W7s will have a huge advantage over east coast. So I have had great success in working KH6 before our just before our local sunrise which is 7:14 local on Saturday morning.

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I hope that you will get on this weekend!

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See you on Top Band.

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73

Brian

NJ1F

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