From: J. Medley
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 0:41 AM
To: Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion
Subject: Open the Pod Bay Doors HAL....

Announcing....Norcal's QRP To The Field 2001 Boy are we going to have fun this year! I've lined up a whole academy of space cadets that will make this contest more than you can imagine. There are 20 different stations that will be sending a special "name" that will count for QSO points as well as bonus points. Be sure to get the summary sheet since only the stations listed qualify for the bonus points. Work everyone once per band. We've got the stars of the movie and then some...HAL, Dave, UFOs, ETs, Mars, the Moon, and of course the VLA. Hey! That means we can do this again in 2010 :)

One thing I do want to mention just because it's sooooo neat.

The Valley of the Moon ARC is having it's hamfest the same day as QRPTTF. My thanks to Darrell Jones, WD6BOR, for helping coordinate this. They will have a very nice public display for amateur radio at the hamfest, so if you have some time, by all means drop in and see them in the Sonoma area (?). They will be using the club call of W6AJF and sending "MOON" as their name. I'm sure that Darrell will post more details.

Another cool things is that we've received special clearance to operate from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's VLA antenna site. We'll be using the W9GFZ callsign. Paul, NA5N, will post more about this.

Following are the rules and summary sheet. Jerry will also have them up on the Norcal web site. If you have any questions, please email me privately and I'll do my best to answer them.

Let's have some fun!!!!!!!

Jan N0QT

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• Date: Saturday, April 28, 2001
  
• Time: 1500 to 2400 UTC (pick any 6 hours)
  
• Bands: 40-20-15-10 meters, in the vicinity of the QRP calling frequencies, please be courteous to others
  
• Mode: CW only Power out (QRP only): 5 watts or less As usual, this event is geared toward having fun while operating in the field, away from commercial power.

If you haven't seen the movie, then by all means, go out and rent it. It's still one of the classics. The theme for this year is to get outside and get as close as possible to a monolith! You'll remember that recurring black monolith if you've seen the movie.

Just about everyone has a nearby location that involves some kind of water tower, windmill, tall rock formations, park statues, big old oak tree, whatever! If it's a large, looming object it's a monolith...before you ask, the Washington Monument would qualify as a monolith...

If you can't determine a monolith location, then look for shuttle landing sites, launch areas, UFO crash sites, anything to do with outer space.

If you can't get away to be near a monolith or space site, then set up out in your back yard or on the back porch on battery power and be a field station.

The whole idea of QRP to the Field is to get outside and operate! If you're lucky enough to operate from an interesting or historical site, please take the time to send pictures and a little write-up about the area.

As a special treat, there will be several super stellar stations on the air!

These stations will be sending a special "name" so look for them. You'll earn bonus points for each band they're worked on. Only the specific stations listed on the Summary Sheet qualify for these bonus points, however.

There will be DAVE and HAL stations (open the pod bay doors Hal...), a friendly UFO invasion by a bunch of ET's, and where would we be in this spaced out event without the MOON or the planet MARS? So pack a lunch, grab your friends and get out there. Let's have some fun!

A note of seriousness here. Please keep your personal safety in mind.

After all, an object isn't "looming" unless you're at the base of it. We want to have everybody around for next year too. So use a little common sense and please obey the laws governing your location.

Select any 6-hour operating period that works for you. If you need to split it up into two or three hour intervals or more to accommodate other plans, then feel free to do so. Jump in there when you can, but only work a total of 6 hours. Work all stations once per band, bonus stations count once per band as well (see summary sheet).

Exchange: RST + SPC + LocationID + Name

Example: 559 NM 4 UFO

Total QSO Points:

• 20 pts - for each Monolith Station worked per band (LocId=4,5)
• 10 pts - for each Field Station worked per band (LocID=2,3)
• 5 pts - for each Home Station worked per band (LocID=1)

SPCs: States/Province/Countries - count once per band

Categories/LocationID:

• Single Op Monolith = x5
• Multi Op Monolith = x4
• Single Op Field = x3
• Multi Op Field = x2
• Home Station = x1

NOTE: Bonus stations count for QSO points as above AND additional bonus points (see summary sheet)

A scoring summary sheet is available at the Norcal web site:
          http://www.fix.net/~jparker/norcal.htm

Deadline: Send complete logs and summary sheets by June 1, 2001.

Summary sheets: must include a description of location and equipment used. Please also include photographs and a brief write-up, it will be much appreciated! Your log should include a minimum of time (in UTC), callsign of station worked, complete exchange received, RST sent (if not a static exchange). Incomplete submissions will be used as check logs. Take your time and use a calculator if needed.

Snail mail: send complete logs and summary sheets to: