K5ZD Announcements, SSB

When do logs come in?

This is the third year of the 5 day log submission deadline.  Logs received within 5 days of the contest are eligible for awards.  Logs received after the deadline are still included in the score listings, but are not eligible for awards or to set category records.

The new deadline is being well received.  With 8,280 logs received for CQ WW DX Contest SSB 2014, over 81% were received by the deadline.  Details are shown in the charts below.

Logs received for CQ WW SSB 2014 by date
Logs received for CQ WW SSB 2014 by date

 

The contest was October 25-26, 2014.  Some logs were received before the contest was over.

Table of data values:

Date Logs Received Cumulative %
10/26/2014 32 0.39%
10/27/2014 874 10.94%
10/28/2014 3194 49.52%
10/29/2014 1172 63.67%
10/30/2014 796 73.29%
10/31/2014 684 81.55%
11/1/2014 641 89.29%
11/2/2014 196 91.65%
11/3/2014 113 93.02%
11/4/2014 76 93.94%
11/5/2014 57 94.63%
11/6/2014 89 95.70%
11/7/2014 50 96.30%
11/8/2014 50 96.91%
11/9/2014 34 97.32%
11/10/2014 47 97.89%
11/11/2014 24 98.18%
11/12/2014 18 98.39%
11/13/2014 16 98.59%
11/14/2014 10 98.71%
11/15/2014 6 98.78%
11/16/2014 20 99.02%
11/17/2014 8 99.12%
11/18/2014 7 99.20%
11/19/2014 5 99.26%
11/20/2014 2 99.29%
11/21/2014 12 99.43%
11/22/2014 4 99.48%
11/23/2014 4 99.53%
More 39 100.00%
 Total logs 8280
K5ZD Announcements, SSB

Paper logs from CQ WW SSB 2014

We continue to accept paper logs for the CQ WW DX Contest. A group of committee members and volunteers help type these logs into the computer so we can fully process them along with the other logs.

For CQ WW SSB 2014, our volunteer typists included:

DL6RAI      4 logs      438 QSOs

G0MTN       3 logs      226 QSOs

HA1AG       2 logs      72 QSOs

LU5DX       7 logs      688 QSOs

S50A        6 logs      965 QSOs

US0LW       2 logs      473 QSOs

VE3EJ       3 logs      103 QSOs

W4AU        2 logs      159 QSOs

YO3JR       4 logs      745 QSOs

YU1EW       6 logs      1329 QSOs

ZS4TX       5 logs      347 QSOs

 

Total logs – 44

Total QSOs – 5,545

 

We urge everyone to submit their logs in electronic format.  We will continue to do our best to support submission of logs in any format — including paper.

Thanks to our typists for helping get all of the logs into the system.

K5ZD Announcements, CW, SSB

CQ WW Raw Scores 2014 – Updated

The Raw Scores for CQ WW DX Contest 2014 have been updated for both modes to include late arriving logs.

Raw scores are calculated before any log checking is performed.  All scores have been recalculated against a common country file. Final scores can be expected to change by 2-10% (or more).

View SSB scores – http://www.cqww.com/raw.htm?mode=ph

View CW scores – http://www.cqww.com/raw.htm?mode=cw

As of 2100 UTC 13 December the current totals are 8,277 logs received on SSB and 7,524 on CW.  More logs are always welcome and will be included in the results.

K5ZD Commentary, SSB

How close to the band edge can you go?

We always get a number of emails after the contest complaining about how close USA stations get to the bottom of the US phone allocation on 20, 15, and 10 meters. Doug, K1DG, had done some research into this topic and arrived at the following conclusion.

Quoting from the FCC rules regarding signal bandwidth (in Part 2, not Part 97):

————-

PART 2–FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS AND RADIO TREATY MATTERS; GENERAL RULES AND REGULATIONS–Table of Contents

Subpart C–Emissions

Sec. 2.202  Bandwidths.

(a) Occupied bandwidth. The frequency bandwidth such that, below its lower and above its upper frequency limits, the mean powers radiated are each equal to 0.5 percent of the total mean power radiated by a given emission.

————-

In a few other places, the FCC falls back on that “0.5 percent” standard. Or, if you prefer, -23 dB. In part 97, (97.3 (a) (8)) to be exact, amateur service signal bandwidths are defined at the 26 dB points. (I believe that is an error, where the FCC guy who wrote it did the 1% part in power terms, then did the .5 part in voltage terms).

My conclusion from this is that on USB, you are OK at 500 Hz inside the band. 600 Hz is real safe. Closer than 500 Hz is hard to justify, due to the compromised third-order distortion performance of most ham “linear” amps.

How to measure.  Record the mean S-meter reading right there on 21200.6 USB, then switch to LSB and set the dial on the radio to 21200.0 and record the mean S-meter reading there. If the difference is 26 dB the transmission is legal according to FCC rules in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Part 2, Section 2.202 paragraph (a), and the tighter rules for hams at 47CFR97.3(a)(8).

The above applies only to those operating under the jurisdiction of the USA Federal Communications Commission.  Other governments may have their own interpretation to what is in the band or not.