Upper Midwest Rovermania VI Plans, ARRL August 2009 UHF Contest

Contesting 101 -- What's it all about, and why should I care?

Here is a simple, 2-page spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format.

It summarizes essential information about all of the rover stations
that we know of in the surrounding area (page 1) and all of the area
fixed stations that have confirmed their intentions to us to be
active in this year's contest. If you plan to participate, and you
are not in the spreadsheet, or if we have your information wrong,
please contact Rich, NØHJZ to update him. He will update the
spreadsheet, and forward the information to the NLRS webmaster,
who will update this page.

This file was last updated on 08/01/2009 at 12:30 AM CDT

You can email Rich at NØHJZ AOL.com

For those of you who want more details, the following files can
provide what you're looking for. Don't be discouraged by the
amount of information here, you don't need a lot of it to have
fun in the contest. So we hope to hear you on the air during the
contest weekend!

As you saw if you took the Contesting 101 micro course above, or
even if you looked at this page, you saw repeated references to
grid squares or Maidenhead Grid Squares.

If you are still confused about the whole idea of Grid Squares,
then I suggest you start reading about the subject here,
and then use this tool to look up grids, callsigns, or cities.

Another fine web-based tool for showing grids or sub-grids can be
found here.

If you have a high bandwidth connection, and you would like to
see a map of each of the 100 grids in Maidenhead field EN, or
in other words, all of the grid squares EN00 through EN99, you
can click here. You will probably have to tell your browser
to zoom out to only 10 or 20% magnification level to fit them
all on the screen at once. At 100% magnification, you will see
only 1 to 4 grids, depending on the resolution of your screen.
If you hover your mouse over each of the maps, a popup should
appear which announces the grid square name.

Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate

This PDF file shows all of the anticipated rover stations,
information on the bands they expect to have available, and
a listing of Grid Locations they hope to activate, shown in
half-hour increments. If you are wondering where a certain
rover station has planned to be at a particular time, this
tabulation allows you to find out fairly easily.

Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate

This PDF file contains basically the same information as the
tabulation above, but it is organized differently. During the
contest, at any particular time, if you wonder what rovers
are active at that moment, and where they are, you can scan
down the page until you find the block of entries that are
within the time of interest (usually "now"), and there you
have the callsigns, grid locations, and band information all
at your fingertips. This table also shows the bearing and
distance from EN34ir to the rover. (More on that later!)

Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate

This PDF file is exactly the same as the table above, except
that it highlights all of the rovers that expect to be
active at the very start of the contest (1 PM Saturday).
There is a spreadsheet near the bottom of this page that
allows you to create the same effect at any time during the
contest, by typing in the date and time into a particular
cell. You can also use the Excel function =NOW( ) in that
cell, and every time the spreadsheet is recalculated (for
example, by pressing the F9 function key), the currently
active rovers are highlighted.

Summary of Grids These Rovers Plan to Activate

This table shows the surrounding grid squares, and inside
each color-coded rectangle, a list of the rovers that hope
to activate that grid at some time during the contest.
You can see that there are a lot of grids that are up for
grabs this year, so try to work as many of them as you can!

In case the grid tabulation in the above spreadsheet is a bit
too abstract for you, here are some maps that show where
many of those grids are located.

Small (156 Kb) Map
Medium (288 Kb) Map
Large (974 Kb) Map

In these maps, the concentric circles are centered on the
middle of the EN34 - EN35 boundary line. Each circle is 25 Km
larger in radius than the circle inside of it. Note the total
distance (in Km) from center is labelled along the northeast
diagonal from the center point outwards.

Upper Midwest Fixed Stations Planning to Participate

This PDF file tabulates the Callsign, Grid Location, and the
UHF+ Bands that the Fixed Stations expect to operate
during the contest. Each of the stations listed here has told
Rich, NØHJZ that they intend to be on the air.

The table also shows the bearing and distance from EN34ir to
each of these fixed stations. There is an Excel spreadsheet
lower on this page that produces this table, but using Excel,
you can enter your own grid square in place of EN34ir, and all
the bearing and distance calculations are automatically updated
to refer to your location.

Summary of Grids These Fixed Stations Plan to Activate

This table shows the surrounding grid squares, and inside
each color-coded rectangle, a list of the fixed stations that
plan to operate from that grid during the contest. As you can
see, there are a lot of grids that are going to be active on
the UHF+ bands this year, so try to work as many of them as
you can!

All of the fixed and rover station grids combined

This table combines the data on rover station grids
being activated, plus the fixed station grids that are
going to be on the air. The fixed stations are listed
in a Red font and the rover stations are listed in a
black font, to help distinguish the two types of stations
from one another. Also, if you click on any of the grid
names, you will navigate to a map of that grid square.

All of the above fixed and rover station information, in
an Excel Spreadsheet file

This Excel spreadsheet was used to create the PDF files on
this page, so if you download just this file, you will get
all of the other PDF tables automatically. The tables that
have bearing and distance calculations are designed so you
can change from the default location, EN34ir, to your own
grid square location, to get bearing and distance info
that is relevant to your station. Also, as mentioned above
on the RoversByTime page, you can not only enter your own
grid square in the shaded turquoise cell near the top left
of the sheet, but you can also change the date & time in
the shaded light green cell near the top middle of the
page, to highlight available rovers at any time of your
choosing. Another handy trick is to replace the date and
time entry with the Excel formula =NOW() so that
every time you hit the F9 function key, the time
will update, as will the rover availability highlighting.

Warning:
This spreadsheet uses VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)
code to speed up the computation of bearing and distance
information while keeping the file compact. Unfortunately,
depending on how your Security settings are set in Excel,
the VBA code may be stripped out without warning, or you
may be given a dire warning about the possibility of the
file containing dangerous macros or other malware
(malicious software), and asking you if you really want
to proceed to enable macros. There is nothing dangerous
lurking in this file, so it is safe to "enable macros".
If you don't (or if you are not given the option), none of
the bearing or distance calculations will be correct.

This page, and/or pages linked to it, were last updated 2009-08-01 at 12:45 AM CDT by WØJT


	Contesting 101 -- What's it all about, and why should I care?

	Here is a simple, 2-page spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format. It summarizes essential information about all of the rover stations that we know of in the surrounding area (page 1) and all of the area fixed stations that have confirmed their intentions to us to be active in this year's contest. If you plan to participate, and you are not in the spreadsheet, or if we have your information wrong, please contact Rich, NØHJZ to update him. He will update the spreadsheet, and forward the information to the NLRS webmaster, who will update this page. This file was last updated on 08/01/2009 at 12:30 AM CDT
	You can email Rich at NØHJZ AOL.com

	For those of you who want more details, the following files can provide what you're looking for. Don't be discouraged by the amount of information here, you don't need a lot of it to have fun in the contest. So we hope to hear you on the air during the contest weekend!
	As you saw if you took the Contesting 101 micro course above, or even if you looked at this page, you saw repeated references to grid squares or Maidenhead Grid Squares. If you are still confused about the whole idea of Grid Squares, then I suggest you start reading about the subject here, and then use this tool to look up grids, callsigns, or cities. Another fine web-based tool for showing grids or sub-grids can be found here.

	If you have a high bandwidth connection, and you would like to see a map of each of the 100 grids in Maidenhead field EN, or in other words, all of the grid squares EN00 through EN99, you can click here. You will probably have to tell your browser to zoom out to only 10 or 20% magnification level to fit them all on the screen at once. At 100% magnification, you will see only 1 to 4 grids, depending on the resolution of your screen. If you hover your mouse over each of the maps, a popup should appear which announces the grid square name.

	Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate This PDF file shows all of the anticipated rover stations, information on the bands they expect to have available, and a listing of Grid Locations they hope to activate, shown in half-hour increments. If you are wondering where a certain rover station has planned to be at a particular time, this tabulation allows you to find out fairly easily.

	Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate This PDF file contains basically the same information as the tabulation above, but it is organized differently. During the contest, at any particular time, if you wonder what rovers are active at that moment, and where they are, you can scan down the page until you find the block of entries that are within the time of interest (usually "now"), and there you have the callsigns, grid locations, and band information all at your fingertips. This table also shows the bearing and distance from EN34ir to the rover. (More on that later!)

	Upper Midwest Rover Stations that are Planning to Participate This PDF file is exactly the same as the table above, except that it highlights all of the rovers that expect to be active at the very start of the contest (1 PM Saturday). There is a spreadsheet near the bottom of this page that allows you to create the same effect at any time during the contest, by typing in the date and time into a particular cell. You can also use the Excel function =NOW( ) in that cell, and every time the spreadsheet is recalculated (for example, by pressing the F9 function key), the currently active rovers are highlighted.

	Summary of Grids These Rovers Plan to Activate This table shows the surrounding grid squares, and inside each color-coded rectangle, a list of the rovers that hope to activate that grid at some time during the contest. You can see that there are a lot of grids that are up for grabs this year, so try to work as many of them as you can!

	In case the grid tabulation in the above spreadsheet is a bit too abstract for you, here are some maps that show where many of those grids are located. Small (156 Kb) Map Medium (288 Kb) Map Large (974 Kb) Map In these maps, the concentric circles are centered on the middle of the EN34 - EN35 boundary line. Each circle is 25 Km larger in radius than the circle inside of it. Note the total distance (in Km) from center is labelled along the northeast diagonal from the center point outwards.

	Upper Midwest Fixed Stations Planning to Participate This PDF file tabulates the Callsign, Grid Location, and the UHF+ Bands that the Fixed Stations expect to operate during the contest. Each of the stations listed here has told Rich, NØHJZ that they intend to be on the air. The table also shows the bearing and distance from EN34ir to each of these fixed stations. There is an Excel spreadsheet lower on this page that produces this table, but using Excel, you can enter your own grid square in place of EN34ir, and all the bearing and distance calculations are automatically updated to refer to your location.

	Summary of Grids These Fixed Stations Plan to Activate This table shows the surrounding grid squares, and inside each color-coded rectangle, a list of the fixed stations that plan to operate from that grid during the contest. As you can see, there are a lot of grids that are going to be active on the UHF+ bands this year, so try to work as many of them as you can!

	All of the fixed and rover station grids combined This table combines the data on rover station grids being activated, plus the fixed station grids that are going to be on the air. The fixed stations are listed in a Red font and the rover stations are listed in a black font, to help distinguish the two types of stations from one another. Also, if you click on any of the grid names, you will navigate to a map of that grid square.

	All of the above fixed and rover station information, in an Excel Spreadsheet file This Excel spreadsheet was used to create the PDF files on this page, so if you download just this file, you will get all of the other PDF tables automatically. The tables that have bearing and distance calculations are designed so you can change from the default location, EN34ir, to your own grid square location, to get bearing and distance info that is relevant to your station. Also, as mentioned above on the RoversByTime page, you can not only enter your own grid square in the shaded turquoise cell near the top left of the sheet, but you can also change the date & time in the shaded light green cell near the top middle of the page, to highlight available rovers at any time of your choosing. Another handy trick is to replace the date and time entry with the Excel formula =NOW() so that every time you hit the F9 function key, the time will update, as will the rover availability highlighting. Warning: This spreadsheet uses VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code to speed up the computation of bearing and distance information while keeping the file compact. Unfortunately, depending on how your Security settings are set in Excel, the VBA code may be stripped out without warning, or you may be given a dire warning about the possibility of the file containing dangerous macros or other malware (malicious software), and asking you if you really want to proceed to enable macros. There is nothing dangerous lurking in this file, so it is safe to "enable macros". If you don't (or if you are not given the option), none of the bearing or distance calculations will be correct.