Thursday 15 September 2016

The AFRICA DX all band all mode 24 hour contest




The 2nd ALL AFRICA-DX contest

1200Z Saturday 17 September to 1200Z Sunday 18 September

The objective of this all mode contest is to stimulate contesting from Africa. All participating stations worldwide may work any country during the contest period, QSO’s with amateurs from Africa is encouraged as reflected in the higher points being awarded in the scoring mechanism. 

African DXCC entities are defined as those valid per the ARRL DXCC AF Listing published at the time of the contest.

Please note the use of the term Africa and not South Africa. We strongly encourage all African stations to take part in this event. The rules are in no way biased in favour of any one single group or country within Africa. We would like nothing better than seeing a bunch of African stations active during this 24 hour event.

This will contest will be beneficial to all concerned. The station worldwide will benefit from increased activity from Africa on all bands and modes, this will bolster their much needed empty DXCC band / mode slots. On the other hand, the Africans will benefit due to the fact that the world outside of Africa will be turning there beams towards Africa for a change and this will be a great opportunity to be at the centre of activity, with its associated benefits, pileups and hopefully finding new entities towards their own DXCC status.

Rules can be downloaded here:
  
A N1MM+ contest template is available here:


With a bit of luck that this may in time become a popular annual event, I sure hope others feel the same.


Sunday 11 September 2016

CW Pileup simulation – Pileup Runner



Some years ago I discovered and wrote about the free program “Pileup Runner” created by Alex VE3NEA
I recently rediscovered and started using this fantastic tool on a regular basis.

I am a little surprized that something this good is kept under wraps. We seldom hear any reference to this program. 

This is an awesome tool to improve one’s accuracy with copying and logging of CW under very realistic on air conditions.



Pileup Runner V1.4