Racing is a type of operation, which often causes conflicting reactions in amateurs. Why so many amateurs race so passionately? What excites them so much?? And what it is, that other amateurs do not find anything very interesting in racing? We offer you a closer look at this type of traffic.

Humans have competition in their nature. You will meet him at the stock exchange, where companies try to raise their stock prices as high as possible, in the film industry, where weekend sales are tracked when new movies are released, and of course in sports, where they compete at all levels: from very well organized professional football teams to a few club players, who ping a tennis ball back and forth on Saturday mornings on the court in Dolní Horní. Have you ever thought about racing?? Why don't you race?? You think, that you are not physically up to it? Physical disposition is not important in amateur radio competitions. You think, that it is expensive? It isn't! You need special equipment? You don't need, average equipment is sufficient to begin with. It is difficult? It isn't! It is funny? AGAIN! You can beat the result achieved in OK? AGAIN! Racing has been a tradition since almost the beginning of amateur broadcasting. Immediately after the First World War, there was an effort to explore short waves and establish connections over greater and greater distances. Time periods were set for the establishment of a transatlantic connection. Success came early, and these periods eventually evolved into the ARRL DX Contests. In the past 80 Of course, a lot has changed over the years and the conditions of the races have been adjusted over time. All races have the same basic principle, only the specifics are different, which give individual races a special character. The goal is always to make as many connections as possible with other racing stations during the race while getting as many multipliers as possible. Multipliers in a given race are determined in its conditions. In the so-called. DX contest countries are usually calculated as a new multiplier according to the DXCC list, with whose stations connections were established. U CQ WW DX Contestu, which is one of the most occupied plants, are multipliers of the azone earth, in the CQ WPX Contest the multipliers are different prefixes. In other races, only those are valid as race connections, which are established with stations of several countries, e.g. OK / OM.

Whatever race it is, you try to make as many connections as possible and make as many multipliers as possible. Your point gain – the result in the race – you get by multiplying these two numbers. Simple, that? Not quite! To achieve a good placement, you need to choose a suitable strategy, but more on that later. However, only valid connections are counted in races, so like that, during which we transmit our tag and connection code to the counter station, we will accept similar data from her and confirm everything. Code, which we broadcast, usually consists of an RS or RST report and the serial number of our connection in the plant; in other plants, however, it is passed as a code, e.g. zone number, the age of the operator, district emblem, etc., or even some more complex code. During the race, we try to make as many connections as possible, therefore, work is done quickly and the correct transfer of codes to each other is therefore a matter of operational skill and operational efficiency. The main races last the whole weekend (48 hours). Good races are competitive races. Very competitive – and that's a bit of a snag. The band is full of competing stations, which are in a hurry – they want to achieve the highest result by, that they minimize lost times. Connections are quick and rushed, no time for any politeness. Other, who do not race, they would like a bit of a quiet place on the strip for normal traffic, but on some weekends, when the big races take place, it's hopeless. Most of the time it's just a complaint, but sometimes such a situation results in quite un-amateur behavior. But you can find a place for both contestants on the bands, as well as for non-competitors – all it takes is a little tolerance and understanding, possibly WARC bands.

How to begin?

Let's assume, that you have an adventurous nature and decided to try racing. How to begin? First, give it some thought. If you decide on Saturday morning, that you turn on the device, you throw yourself into the racing frenzy and eventually get a good placement, you are well on your way to disappointment. Remember, that every seller of a device alerts new users, to read the user manual. It should be the same for beginners: Read the race conditions beforehand – they are published in advance in amateur magazines or you can find them on the packet network or on the Internet. It is usually no more than one or two pages. Read and follow racing and racing sections in all amateur magazines, which you can get. A lot can be understood from these pages, there you will also find the results of various past races as well as notices about the dates and conditions of upcoming races; small and large plants, single lane races, e.g. CQ 160 that allows multiple stations to connect on the same frequency at the same time without interference, plants for less common types of traffic, such as. CQ/RJ RTTY Contest and races even more special, such as the ARRL EME Contest. You won't be ready for some of these races yet, but it's good to know, what is happening where.

Due to the racing jargon used, the information presented may not be completely clear to you at first, but you will understand them before long – everything is mostly simple and logical. You will meet e.g. with single-op expressions, multi-op a multi-multi. They look quite mysterious, but you will find out after reading the race conditions, that they are only abbreviations for different categories of cohabitants: Single-op means one operator – the competitor himself. Without help, without connecting to a packet network, without DX cluster. Completely alone. A multi-op is usually a group of operators, who take turns at one transmitter (more often than not, they only have one transmitter in operation at any given time). The multi-single category means multiple operators and one transmitter. Multi-multi is short for multiple operators – multiple transmitters. A large number of experienced competitors already compete in this category. If you have the option, go to one of the clubs, where someone is involved in racing, get to know him and get his wits out of him. He is not above experience! If you think, that you will not disturb too much, ask him, can you sit with him?, when the next race starts. The conditions of any race do not prohibit one operator in any category, to sit next to the competitor and watch him, unless you help it operate or listen. But try to put yourself in his situation – Keep on mind, that he is competing and that he is in the middle of the race. So don't interrupt him and ask questions, that come to mind, ask after the race is over. Maybe you will meet someone, who is in a multi-single or multi-multi team. The same rule applies here: stay away. There is something else, if you can talk to the operator, who is currently free and willing to attend to you. This is a good opportunity to ask questions and learn a lot, especially if you are lucky enough to have a really experienced operator. At home on your device during the race, just listen for a few hours. Find out, what is happening on the individual bands, at different hours, day and night. It is e.g. clearly, that in the DX contest there will be no traffic on 80 meters. But you can find out, that operation on 15 meters is bigger, than in bands 10 a 20 meters. Such findings can be very useful for your eventual participation in the race.

Strategy

Now is the time to start thinking about it, how to participate in the race to achieve the best possible result. Success can be a matter of strategy. What antennas do you have available?? You may have a multi-band antenna for 20, 15 a 10 meters and wire dipoles to lower bands. Some races, e.g. CQ WPX, they have a special category for low power stations (100 watts and less) and simple antennas. Some races have a special QRP category. Read the terms and conditions (and if you can, then also last year's results) and find out, where you have the best chance of a good placement; then start preparing. As you gain experience and if your own pod- mink allows, you can start thinking about using more powerful antennas. Subjects, there is a lot of information and experience and even if their implementation looks perhaps too bold to begin with, think about them for the future.

So far we haven't mentioned any peculiarities of poison- demanding types of traffic. Everything applies to voice and telegraph traffic. Now you might be saying: But I don't drive CW. Why? After all, the races provide a perfect opportunity to practice CW under tough conditions and make connections with a lot of countries (or prefixes in the WPX Contest).

There is a certain tactic, which was initially used by many amateurs, who are in the first places in the results today. There is: You need a memory key. Find out, what code is being passed and store it in some memory. Tune by band, until you hit the station, which calls a challenge on one frequency. Makes several connections and calls CQ again, until other stations call her. Speed ​​doesn't matter, which it broadcasts (usually about 150 to 175 characters/min.), you can gradually capture his mark, because he gives it over and over again. Once you capture his mark, send in an instant, when he is on the receiving end, your brand; here you have it ready in another memory. Now you just need to capture your brand, when the opposite station answers you. Then you can send your code, which you have previously saved to memory. In races, there is usually always a report 59 on SSB or 599 that CW, regardless of actual signal strength and readability. If it seems silly to you, feel free to give any other report. However, this practice is advantageous, because the goal of the race is to make as many connections as possible and get as many multipliers as possible, so any simplification is welcome. And in the conditions of any race it is not said, that you have to give a really real report. It is very important to keep a clear diary during the race, where, in addition to station marks and received and sent codes, the time of individual connections is also recorded (it is given in UTC). The diary is sent to the evaluator after the race- winter. If you are sending it in paper form, use the official format, required by the race organizer. Amateurs, who devote themselves intensively to racing (but not only you), today they mostly use a computer to keep a racing diary. For that, there is a dis- position several excellent programs, some of them have modules corresponding to the conditions of all the most popular races. Using a good journaling program eliminates the possibility of miscalculating the result, majority for- grams also won't let you make duplicate connections, which may mean a point loss. You can find information about such programs in amateur magazines.

Racing is fun. Only then will you like him, when you participate in several races. It is not so bad. Just try it.

Jan Kučera, OK1NR