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Here comes the weekend
May. 25th, 2012 12:56 pmThe Igors are spending time with Mom and Dad this weekend so no playing fish or facilitating Officer Igor. Which is fun and all, but there's a bunch of stuff coming up the littles wouldn't be interested in.
* Folklife!
OK, the littles would love some parts of the Northwest Folklife Festival, and I hope their parents take them, but I for one don't envy anyone trying to chase Igor the Younger around a cheek-to-jowl Seattle Center. He's just too big and too fast and could be in the wading pool next to Key Arena before you can say "Bob's-yer-uncle."
Some of the things I like about Folklife:
. The price is right. It's free (funded by donations actually).
. Picking a spot and just watching "the free show" as my dad used to say. Just seeing the amazing variety of people going by.
. Listening to the buskers performing along the walkways and under the trees.
. Wandering around through the vendor displays. All kinds of food and lots of cool items I can't afford. I really miss the Musical Instrument Showcase; they used to have an entire room dedicated to selling instruments topped off by an auction, but the auction closed down several years ago and the Showcase wasn't far behind. I bought a didgeridoo and a Pyrex flute at the Showcase in years when I was a bit more flush; I still have both of them.
. Plopping down in a performance venue without knowing what's going to come up. You could get old novelty tunes from the 20s and 30s on fiddle and uke, followed by a bandura concert and then by a traditional Thai dancer. We've seen gamelans and zydeco, storytellers and Irish bands.
This year we have a destination in mind rather than completely surrendering ourselves to serendipity. Miss Thing, our 15-year-old choir student, has an assignment to go to a choral concert and write a report by the end of the school year. Folklife is showcasing the Seattle Women's Choir, the Seattle Men's Choir, and the Seattle Girls' Choir on Sunday. I think that should qualify.
* Radio!
The bands have been a bit more active lately. I'm still not hearing anyone outside North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand on HF, but that doesn't mean I should quite looking. I still need to get the antenna up in the air.
* Contest!
Ham radio contests are interesting critters. The idea is to make contacts with as many participants as possible during the span of the contest. Some contests are limited in scope (hams in Michigan, for instance, or veterans), and the idea is to contact members of that scope for contest credit, or if you're a member of the scope, make as many contacts with anyone participating as you can. Some are open to everyone who wants to participate, and everyone contacts everyone else. There are byzantine rules about how to calculate your score, but the basic idea is, work as many stations as you can. Contacts tend to go pretty quickly.
This weekend will be the CQ Worldwide WPX Contest, CW (Morse code) version, sponsored by CQ Magazine. It's a free-for-all where your score is in part based on the number of different prefixes you work during the contest. In this context the "prefix" is the part of a radio ham's call that precedes the block of identifying letters. It generally has both alpha and numeric characters and ends in a number. So for my call, WA7KPK, the prefix is "WA7". It's not as common a prefix as it used to be, but it's by no means rare. Then there are calls like 4U1ITU, the ham radio station at the headquarters of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN body charged with international radio regulations. Their prefix, 4U1, is literally unique. There's only one station with that prefix.
CQ Magazine sponsors an award called the WPX, which you can earn by getting verified contacts with ham stations with 300 different prefixes. It is probably possible to work enough stations for the WPX during a contest weekend. Certainly if you're attacking the contest seriously, you can do it if you can get the contacts verified. It's been many years since I did any heavy-duty contesting, and I don't know how involved I'll get with this contest. I may just hang around, give some participants a new multiplier, and not take it too seriously. The contest starts at 5 tonight and runs for 48 hours; there's no way I'll spend that much time at it (especially since you're required to take some time off during the contest). Or I may see how close I can get to that magic 300. I have over 50 now in about two months of operation, so who knows?
* General hamming!
Just getting on, doing some casual and digital operation. One of the interesting things about contests is that a big free-for-all like WPX can crowd the bands, leaving hams who don't want to participate grumbling about "those *%!@(& contesters". Some years ago three new bands were added to the ham radio spectrum; part of the deal for allocating those bands to us hams was that contest activity would not be allowed on them. I may meet up with some refugees from some of the more crowded bands on these so-called WARC bands if I decide the contest has crowded everyone else out. That, and my normal nets on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
* Work!
Yes, the curse of the working class. I'm a contractor and need the money and don't get paid time off on this contract, so hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go. I have a couple of jobs I can do while everyone else is off enjoying the weekend.
Here's hoping you enjoy your weekend and get to do something fun.
* Folklife!
OK, the littles would love some parts of the Northwest Folklife Festival, and I hope their parents take them, but I for one don't envy anyone trying to chase Igor the Younger around a cheek-to-jowl Seattle Center. He's just too big and too fast and could be in the wading pool next to Key Arena before you can say "Bob's-yer-uncle."
Some of the things I like about Folklife:
. The price is right. It's free (funded by donations actually).
. Picking a spot and just watching "the free show" as my dad used to say. Just seeing the amazing variety of people going by.
. Listening to the buskers performing along the walkways and under the trees.
. Wandering around through the vendor displays. All kinds of food and lots of cool items I can't afford. I really miss the Musical Instrument Showcase; they used to have an entire room dedicated to selling instruments topped off by an auction, but the auction closed down several years ago and the Showcase wasn't far behind. I bought a didgeridoo and a Pyrex flute at the Showcase in years when I was a bit more flush; I still have both of them.
. Plopping down in a performance venue without knowing what's going to come up. You could get old novelty tunes from the 20s and 30s on fiddle and uke, followed by a bandura concert and then by a traditional Thai dancer. We've seen gamelans and zydeco, storytellers and Irish bands.
This year we have a destination in mind rather than completely surrendering ourselves to serendipity. Miss Thing, our 15-year-old choir student, has an assignment to go to a choral concert and write a report by the end of the school year. Folklife is showcasing the Seattle Women's Choir, the Seattle Men's Choir, and the Seattle Girls' Choir on Sunday. I think that should qualify.
* Radio!
The bands have been a bit more active lately. I'm still not hearing anyone outside North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand on HF, but that doesn't mean I should quite looking. I still need to get the antenna up in the air.
* Contest!
Ham radio contests are interesting critters. The idea is to make contacts with as many participants as possible during the span of the contest. Some contests are limited in scope (hams in Michigan, for instance, or veterans), and the idea is to contact members of that scope for contest credit, or if you're a member of the scope, make as many contacts with anyone participating as you can. Some are open to everyone who wants to participate, and everyone contacts everyone else. There are byzantine rules about how to calculate your score, but the basic idea is, work as many stations as you can. Contacts tend to go pretty quickly.
This weekend will be the CQ Worldwide WPX Contest, CW (Morse code) version, sponsored by CQ Magazine. It's a free-for-all where your score is in part based on the number of different prefixes you work during the contest. In this context the "prefix" is the part of a radio ham's call that precedes the block of identifying letters. It generally has both alpha and numeric characters and ends in a number. So for my call, WA7KPK, the prefix is "WA7". It's not as common a prefix as it used to be, but it's by no means rare. Then there are calls like 4U1ITU, the ham radio station at the headquarters of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN body charged with international radio regulations. Their prefix, 4U1, is literally unique. There's only one station with that prefix.
CQ Magazine sponsors an award called the WPX, which you can earn by getting verified contacts with ham stations with 300 different prefixes. It is probably possible to work enough stations for the WPX during a contest weekend. Certainly if you're attacking the contest seriously, you can do it if you can get the contacts verified. It's been many years since I did any heavy-duty contesting, and I don't know how involved I'll get with this contest. I may just hang around, give some participants a new multiplier, and not take it too seriously. The contest starts at 5 tonight and runs for 48 hours; there's no way I'll spend that much time at it (especially since you're required to take some time off during the contest). Or I may see how close I can get to that magic 300. I have over 50 now in about two months of operation, so who knows?
* General hamming!
Just getting on, doing some casual and digital operation. One of the interesting things about contests is that a big free-for-all like WPX can crowd the bands, leaving hams who don't want to participate grumbling about "those *%!@(& contesters". Some years ago three new bands were added to the ham radio spectrum; part of the deal for allocating those bands to us hams was that contest activity would not be allowed on them. I may meet up with some refugees from some of the more crowded bands on these so-called WARC bands if I decide the contest has crowded everyone else out. That, and my normal nets on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
* Work!
Yes, the curse of the working class. I'm a contractor and need the money and don't get paid time off on this contract, so hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go. I have a couple of jobs I can do while everyone else is off enjoying the weekend.
Here's hoping you enjoy your weekend and get to do something fun.
