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One of the most enjoyable operating events of the year is fast approaching — the Novice Rig Roundup or ‘NRR‘. Technically, it is a contest, but I have the feeling that most participants think of it as just a lot of fun and a nice opportunity to hear and work some of the great old ‘classics’ of the past — rigs that were used when they were teenage Novices or rigs that they could only drool about owning, back in those formative years when they each discovered the magic of radio.

Once again the bands will be alive with the sounds of Heath AT-1s, DX-20s, DX-35s, DX-40s and DX-60s, Johnson Adventurers, Eico 720s, Drake 2NTs, Knight T-50s and T-60s, Ameco AC-1s and of course, an endless variety of lovingly-constructed homebrew delights and … a full 9 days to celebrate the ‘good old radio days’ of their teen years, as many of us remember them.

The dates to remember are 0000 UTC March 2 to 2359 UTC March 10 and this multi-day opportunity is, for me, what makes the NRR so enjoyable. With a nice diversion from the usual ‘contest frenzy’ associated with standard weekend operating events, the NRR can be enjoyed throughout the week, whenever you choose to participate. If last year’s operating patterns continue, you should find activity at any time of the day … and even more as sunset arrives.

With the fast-approaching solar minimum, we will be hard-pressed to relive the glory days of worldwide 15m propagation, as even last year’s event proved to be tough on this band. With a little luck and, hopefully, a well-timed solar flare, we may get lucky! If you operate during the daylight hours, please get on 15m and give it a shot … and be sure to announce your activity on the NRR’s sked and chat page here, so that others will know where to find you, especially if you are rock bound in true Novice fashion. With our present spotty conditions, we need all the help we can get and the sked page proved a very valuable asset during last year’s affair.

Although technically not required, if you plan to participate it’s best to obtain your own NRR number, which is an easy 30-second process.

Additionally, there is an online logger where participants can post their daily log. The nifty logger also keeps track and figures out your score as it goes and no ‘after contest’ log needs to be submitted. If you plan on submitting a log, the logger is a requirement. The logger will also require you to set up a ‘log-in’ and once again, a simple 30-second process will take care of that from here. If you used the logger last year, you will have to set it up again for this year as the old system has been changed.

Stations may run either crystal-control or VFO or can switch between either method … the online logger will keep track and score things appropriately.

All of the rules and information can be found on the NRR’s excellent website. As well, the soapbox comments and station pictures from last year’s NRR may provide the inspiration that you need to spark-up your own activity in this year’s event … from what I can tell, this year will be bigger and busier than ever!

There is also a dedicated NRR Yahoo Group, often the source of much valuable discussion but there is a now HUGE group of great NRR chat and activity now on Facebook’s NRR Group here. I avoided Facebook for many years and have now discovered that it is an excellent forum for real time chat and information exchange … one can still choose to maintain a very low profile and avoid unwanted interaction if set up correctly.

In 2017 I ran my homebrew Longfeller in the (now eliminated) QRP category, and had a ton of fun. You can read about it here. Last year, I refurbished a nice Drake 2NT that had been gathering dust in the basement for over 25 years and ran it during the 2018 NRR. You can read about my activity and some of the rigs encountered during last year’s fun here.

If you have access to the web while operating, be sure to bookmark and check into the NRR’s realtime chat page. Many ops that are crystal controlled will announce their operating frequencies, making it easier for you to find them … sometimes way up or down from the normal NRR watering holes of ~  3550 – 3650 kHz,  7100 -7125 kHz, 21.100 – 21.150 MHz and 28.114, 28.120 MHz … and don’t forget to check the colorburst crystal frequency of 3579!

‘CQ’ers should always remember to tune up and down the watering hole for replies from other NRR stations that may be crystal controlled and not able to answer you on your own frequency!! This is extremely important and a real reminder of what was common practice back in the Novice days.

courtesy: Harry – VE7AIJ

Harry’s homebrew 6AQ5 crystal oscillator (Feb ’55 Popular Electronics) and Hallicrafters S-53, pictured above, allowed him to work the world back in the amazing radio days of Cycle 19. Let’s relive some of that excitement in the closing days of Cycle 24 … in the NRR!

You still have time to get that old clunker on the air but if that’s not possible, you can join the fun with your modern rig as well … all are welcome to jump in and have a great week of radio-fun. I think you will be surprised, just as I was last year, how good some of these old classics can sound … and you’ll hear some great bug-fists as well.

As indicated on the NRR website, this is “more of an EVENT than just a typical contest … once again taking our OLD ham radios off the shelf and putting them to use again! “

See you in the 2019 NRR!

Hello everybody! In this episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast, I am stuck by myself talk to yall. I unfortunately didn’t remember that I my next scheduled update was due until 4pm the day before. So I worked all afternoon, while at work, trying to figure out what I was going to talk about. When I got off work at midnight, I ran home and did my couple honey-dos and then went straight to recording the episode.

So what is in this episode?

First off, I made a mistake! Yea, I know, nobody is suppose to make mistakes right? Well, in my last episode I did. In last episode, my semi regular co-host Ian KM4IK and were talking about the big stink that was doing on with some things that the ARRL Board of Directors were going to be voting on. Neither one of us were really up to speed on the whole thing as much as we should be, but we did our best, and we even said that we weren’t. However, after the episode I did receive multiple emails saying that I said something wrong, so I corrected it in this episode.

With that out of the way, I went on to talk about an upcoming event called the School Club Roundup. It is this month only a few days away actually. The event run February 12-16, 2018. It is an event that is geared for school amateur radio clubs to get on the air and make some contacts. Even if you are not in a school club though you can still get on the air and make contact with the school clubs that are on the air and help them make the points.

After that, I moved on to Hamvention. Another correction from last episode. Well I say correction, this time it wasn’t me though. In last episode we talked about how a new building was going to be built and available by this Hamvention. However, this week, the Hamvention committee released that it wouldn’t be started on until later in the year due to a material shortage.

I wrap up the episode reading some emails that I have received over the past few weeks. The last episode of 2017, I told yall what my plans were for 2018 and asked what some of yalls were and also asked some questions about what were yalls opinions on how my show is. I got a few responses, wish I would’ve had more though.

Until Next Time Yall…

73 de Curtis, K5CLM

I’m sure that you have heard of NPOTA, National Parks On The Air, and SOTA, Summits On The Air, and probably even POTA, Parks On The Air, The US program for the World Wide Flora and Fauna, but have you heard of the latest event that starts on Sunday, Dec 11, 2017?

Starting at 0000 UTC time on December 11, 2017 the new year long event celebrating multiple anniversaries for the NASA program will start. It is called NOTA or NASA On The Air.

With several NASA clubs doing several special event stations of the coming year, they decided to make a year long event where you, as the end user, can contact the stations to earn points through the year. You can even gets points during other events like Winter Field Day, the ARRL Field Day and others.

Losten to my latest podcast episode where I talk with Rob Suggs about it:

http://www.everythinghamradio.com/Podcast/93