ARRL 10 Meter Prep: Expert Tactics You Need to Know!

Apart from the fact that entering the contest QSO in the qrz.com logbook is not a really good idea, your ADI-Cabrillo converter seems to have messed up.

Take a look here. There is a lot of information about the correct Cabrillo format. http://www.arrl.org/cabrillo-format-tutorial

Click through to here: http://b4h.net/cabforms/arrl10_cab3.php

Then enter all your personal data about yourself and the ARRL 10m contest. After that you come to the QSO entry. Please only enter one (1) QSO there and then let the Cabrillo be generated.

Copy the Cabrillo into the local file "KD9WIF.LOG" and edit it with 'Notepad' (or with another editor, but not with MS-WORD!!!).

All QSO lines in the Cabrillo always look similar.

This is what my line of my first QSO looks like in my Cabrillo:
QSO: 28005 CW 2024-12-14 0704 DF5EN 599 001 XX0XX 599 149

For you, one QSO line could look like this (you're from IL, right?):
QSO: 28444 PH 2024-12-14 0912 KD9WIF 59 IL XX0XX 59 123

If you don't know the exact QSO frequency, it's enough to just write "28000" in the second place. If you have one line correct, then simply copy and paste the other 8 QSOs and edit them accordingly.

That's it. And next time, you'd better use a contest program. Then this huge effort is no longer necessary.

Vy 73
Dieter
DF5EN

 

Hi Dieter,
Thank a lot for your quick response and so knowledgeable advice.
Of course, there will be great to do this process automatically, independence from which site is your log.
Let say:"The best wishes and our"73"
KD9WIF
VLADIMIR (VLAD) ETINGER

 

Hi Dieter,
Why ARRL shows QSO data without frequency:
Enter your QSO data in this text area, one QSO per line. Each of the fields below must be entered for each QSO. One or more spaces must separate each item in a QSO. All dates and times must be in UTC. If the time of the QSO is not known, enter 0000.
------------------------------------------------------
Date Time Call-Copied RST-Copied QTH_or_Serial-Copied
12/14 0000 n7wa 599 wa
Thank you again!

 

Hi Dieter,

This is from ARRL QSO page I just got.....

<-Enter your QSO data starting on the next line. Do not erase this line.->
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 1537 TI1K 599 COSTA RICA
12/14 1545 VE9CF 599 CANADA
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 1640 KQ4ZIO 599 FLORIDA, USA
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 1655 WC1H 599 MA, USA
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 1702 W7MM 599 NJ, USA
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 2017 KZ7O 599 UT, USA
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 2023 KW7MM 599 AZ, USA
12/14 2055 CQ8M 599 AZORES
ERROR--> Following line had too many items:
12/14 2112 XE2JS 599 CHIX, MEXICO

 

´

Excellent.
Another year participating, although I could not do it full time, I finished with 769 qso´s
Thanks to all who facilitated the points and multipliers and happy Christmas and the prosperous New Year for all.

73 de EA8AM

 

Hi Vlad.

Huh, please don't publish any real QSO data. The QSO data will only be public once the ARRL has evaluated the contest. That can take several months.

Well, if everyone published their logs on the internet, you could correct any errors yourself and submit your own corrected log again. That would make the competition in a shortwave contest absurd. It's about finding the best OP and not the person who can correct his log best.

OK, now to your data entry: I can see several errors straight away:

1. Missing mode CW or PH (PH = Phone = SSB)
2. You have written out US/CAN/MEX states by name. Please use 2-letter abbreviations for US and Canadian states and 3-letter abbreviations for Mexico. All other countries have assigned serial numbers starting with 001.
3. There is useless information in there that has no place there. Such as ",USA" and ",MEXICO).
4. There is only one 599 or 59 per line. But there must always be two. The 599/59 that you sent and the 599/59 that you received.
5. For the rest of the world stations, the serial number that the station sent you is missing. A station from the Azores or Costa Rica MUST have sent a serial number.

Here is the list of countries that have assigned 2- or 3-letter abbreviations.
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest Forms/10 Meter Summary 12-2020.pdf

Here is an example of how I made two (fake) QSOs as DF5EN. One in CW with a non-US station and the other in SSB with a US station in NY.

Input:


Output:


You have to do the same for your call sign. However, you are a US station and do not assign consecutive numbers, but you have (presumably) sent an "IL".

Vy 73
Dieter

 

I could imagine that this ARRL input form assumes that the exact frequency is simply not available when entering data manually. I could also imagine that it might be better to enter no frequency at all (just 28000 kHz for all QSOs) than a frequency that appears to be exact but is actually wrong.

Because with every additional character typed in manually, the statistical probability that the next character could be wrong increases.

 

Hi Dieter,

I want just say again thank a lot for your so helpful comments.
The best wishes to you,
"73",
Vlad

 

Nice video and much good information about contesting. I am not out for a contest but I could see, that only the traffic made this 10M band for a short while attractive to many people. And this is sad, because 10M band is much more than only the next step after CBers range.

Personaly I tried in the past to be more active here with an old modified CBers radio. And in the suns passive years it stood very intresting too. The traffic itself is low, sometimes boring and it takes patience to keep an eye on new traffic but with surprises. And when steady traffic like FT8 or different CW signals occured, it showed that the band is useable. There never was a pre-warning or anything else. And how much this band is good for a long range QSO, its to test to that time. I am not a big friend of automatical FT8, but to use it for a beacon its great. And from here other modes are possibel also. That contains modes like C4FM as well.

 

There are very few contests which 'jam up' the entire 10m band. The ARRL DX Contest in early March, the CQWW Contest at the end of October and the ARRL 10m Contest in mid-December are the only ones which generate enough activity to be worthy of such a description. And then, only in the years around solar maximum. In the last decade or so there have probably only been a couple of dozen days (+/- a few days) where the 10m band has been so busy that it's difficult to find a space. To put your complaint into perspective, that leaves in excess of 3600 days where there is no issue whatsoever.

 

Benas tardes, solo quiero que empiese el concurso para estar a tento a todas las estaciones para poder hacer buenos contactos, un abrazo para todos