Episode 4: Volta RTTY DX and the CQ-M International
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This week, we’ll take a peek at one of the great RTTY events on the annual calendar – the Volta RTTY DX contest coming up this weekend. If you want to score 100 million points in a weekend, then this one is for you.
We’ll also look at the CQ-M International DX contest for CW and phone operators. So let’s get started….
100 million points in a single contest?
That’s entirely achievable in the Volta RTTY test, sponsored by the SSB and RTTY Club of COMO and A.R.I. (Associazione Radioamatori Italiani).
This year it’s the 51st running of the Volta RTTY, honoring the Italian discoverer of electricity, Alessandro Volta.
I’ve been in this one every year since 2003. Now, that year I earned 81,000 points and finished 144th overall. Over the years, I have managed to reach the top 25 pack a couple of times, and in 2013 when conditions were at their peak for solar cycle 24, the score I submitted was 299 million.
What a blast this one is, folks.
How do scores get so high? It’s simple. Every contact you make earns points based on a table that gives you more points for contacts in zones farther away from you.
So, if I am in California (in CQ Zone 3) and I work a station in Germany (in Zone 14) we both get 26 points for the contact.
That alone can make the contest a whole lot of fun, and encourages the effort it takes to make those DX or long-distance QSOs.
But there’s a whole lot more.
Now, you get to multiply all those contact points times the number of DXCC countries and call areas in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the USA. Now, that makes your score rocket up the charts. But then it gets really interesting.
In Volta RTTY, you then multiply that calculation times the number of contacts you have made. Boom – into the stratosphere.
Last year, even with conditions that were mediocre at best, I managed 155 contacts in 55 countries and call areas – a pitiful performance really – and my claimed score was 16 million points. I put in six hours, which works out to 2.7 million points per hour.
The year before, when propagation was still pretty good, I had 261 contacts and 106 multipliers, and finished with almost 153 million points in 8 hours. That’s more than 19 million points per hour.
It’s pretty neat to see a seven-digit score.
If you go by recent conditions, I think we’re currently experiencing propagation similar to what we saw back in 2008.
That year for Volta RTTY, the solar flux was 67 – lower than it is right now – but the A-index was just 3 with quiet geomagnetic conditions. We might get a bit lucky and have a more flux than that to keep the bands open longer this weekend.
Anyway, in our comparator year of 2008 I landed 16 million points with 180 contacts and 48 countries and call areas – a rather piddly amount, and over the nine years since then participation in RTTY contests has increased dramatically.
Keep in mind that if you work all 10 call areas in the US, Canada and Japan, that’s 30 multipliers – on just one band. You can work ‘em all on each band, too.
If there’s any opening to Europe from where you are (or to North America if you’re in Europe), this weekend could produce 20 million points or more in just a few hours, without even trying too hard.
A quick tip for North American stations – let’s get on 80M during the evening. In most years, there are very few stations running Volta RTTY on 80M and that’s a huge lost opportunity.
It’s entirely possible to work all 10 US call areas there, and another half-dozen Canadian call areas. But only if we get on to hand out those multipliers. Help one another out and go to 80 – and watch your scores leap.
Volta RTTY takes to the air at 1200 UTC this Saturday, May 13, and goes 24 hours. It’s a straight-up 45-baud RTTY contest, so get out there and give it a try. I’ll be listening for you.
CQ-M International
The P-150-C country list (multipliers in CQ-M)
Now, I know teletype isn’t everybody’s cup of bourbon, but this weekend has something for everyone.
The CQ-M contest is an international event sponsored by Russian hams in the name of peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding.
It’s been going for 61 years now, and provides an outlet for either r CW or Phone contesting starting at 1200 UTC on Saturday, May 13 and going for 24 hours.
You’ll be looking for contacts with anyone, anywhere, with contact points varying depending on where the other station is located.
Multipliers are the P-150 country list, and there are links to that list in the show notes for Episode 4.
I’m going to be honest, every year this weekend I enter the Volta RTTY, and stick with that one pretty intensely. So, I’ve never entered the CQ-M contest – but if I wasn’t such a RTTY hound, I would and I’d encourage you to give CQ-M a whirl if you’re not doing the teletype thing this weekend. I have listened around in previous years, and there’s activity to be had.
Or maybe you can do both – interleaving your time between the two events.
Peaceful coexistence. After all, that’s kind of the message, right?
That’s it for Episode 4. Thanks for listening – I’d sure appreciate a review on iTunes to help get the word out. Tell your friends if you like what we’re doing here.
You can email me at [email protected] — tell me a bit about contesting from your corner of the world.
Let’s go get ‘em… I’ll see you out there!