Contests this weekend: CQ WW SSB Oct 24-25, School Club Roundup

The biggest phone weekend of the year is about to arrive. The CQ World Wide DX Contest, SSB, runs the full weekend on 160 through 10 meters, and the ARRL School Club Roundup has its final day Friday. Anyone who wants a gentle CW warm-up can also try the K1USN Slow Speed Test on Friday afternoon.

CQ World Wide DX Contest, SSB: 0000 UTC Saturday, October 24 to 2359 UTC Sunday, October 25 (7:00 p.m. Central Friday through 6:59 p.m. Central Sunday). Phone only, on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. The exchange is a signal report plus your CQ zone number, and each station counts once per band. A contact with another continent is worth 3 points. For North American stations, a different country on the same continent is worth 2 points, and contacts within your own country earn no points but still count as multipliers. Multipliers are each CQ zone and each country, once per band. Single operators can enter at QRP (5 watts), low power (100 watts) or high power (1500 watts), with Classic, Rookie and Youth overlays among the many categories. The WA7BNM calendar lists the event as active historically but not yet confirmed for this year. It gives the log deadline as 2359 UTC October 27, with upload at https://www.cqww.com/logcheck/ and a web-to-Cabrillo form at http://www.b4h.net/cabforms/cqwwssb_cab.php. Rules are at https://www.cqww.com/rules.htm.

New to contesting: the exchange is just a short, fixed piece of information both stations send, then you move on. In CQ WW, a typical QSO is the other station's call, "five nine" and a zone number. US stations are in CQ zones 3, 4 or 5, so confirm yours before the start.

ARRL School Club Roundup: runs from 1300 UTC Monday, October 19 to 2359 UTC Friday, October 23 (ends 6:59 p.m. Central Friday). CW, phone and RTTY/digital are allowed on all bands except 60, 30, 17 and 12 meters. Send a signal report, your class (I for individual, C for non-school club, S for school club or group) and your state, province or country. Phone contacts are worth 1 point and CW or digital contacts 2 points. Working school stations is especially valuable, because class S contacts count as five multipliers and class C as two. Operating is limited to 24 hours total, and no more than 6 hours in any 24-hour period. Log summaries are due by 2359 UTC November 7 at http://contests.arrl.org/arrlscrscoresubmission.php, and the rules are at http://www.arrl.org/school-club-roundup. The calendar also lists this one as historically active but unconfirmed.

K1USN Slow Speed Test: 2000 to 2100 UTC Friday, October 23 (3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central). CW at no more than 20 wpm on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters, sending name and state, province or country. It is a friendly hour for building CW confidence, and the rules are at http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html.

The weekly sprints come early on the UTC calendar, which is Thursday evening in the US: the NCCC FT4 Sprint at 0100 to 0130 UTC (8:00 to 8:30 p.m. Central), the Weekly RTTY Test at 0145 to 0215 UTC (8:45 to 9:15 p.m. Central), and the NCCC CW Sprint at 0230 to 0300 UTC (9:30 to 10:00 p.m. Central), all on October 23 UTC.