Contests
The Silver Comet ARS frequently participates in a number of contests. You can find information on our Club Scoreboard below as well as see a calendar of upcoming contests.
Club Contest Scores
Below are the latest scores from participating members, updated automatically every 60sec during a contest. Click on a call sign to view details of a member’s recent contacts.
Upcoming Contests
Contests coming over the next few days.
Feed provided by WA7BNM Contest Calendar
State QSO Parties
Click here for an up to date and comprehensive list of State QSO Parties courtesy of WA7BNM. A great way to track down and log missing states for your Worked All States (WAS) award.
Log Submission & Results Websites:
- ARRL Contest Logs & Results
- CQ Contest Logs & Results (Select contest at top of page)
Live ham radio contest results can be viewed at these online score boards:
Silver Comet Amateur Radio Society Annual AM Broadcast Band Contest
This unique contest is a local “just for fun” club contest that lasts for a whole month. That gives everyone a chance to participate. Prizes such as a paper certificate, used batteries, worn out tubes and a nice custom made, “one of a kind trophy” are awarded.
DXing the AM Radio Broadcast Band is like watching grass grow or paint drying. You must have plenty of patience. Be prepared to listen to atmospheric noise, strong interference, static and fading signals just to hear a low powered distant station.
The AM broadcast band covers 525 kHz to 1705 kHz and you can hear stations from hundreds and even thousands of miles away at night using an ordinary household radio, auto AM radio, or your ham radio.
Depending on the broadcast license class and target audience, broadcast stations can transmit anywhere from 1,000 watts to 50,000 watts and use either directional or non-directional antenna arrays. Some are clear channel and some share the same frequency as others, some are part time and some operate 24hrs. Almost every AM broadcast station uses a vertically polarized antenna.
If your amateur receiver has general coverage capabilities, it will be well suited for this contest. The length, height and polarization of your antenna will affect the quality of your reception. If you don’t have a vertical antenna, a vertical piece of wire will work great for reception.
This is a local contest and is based on the honor system of logging your contacts. What makes it fun is listening to the different announcer dialects and mannerisms, the different and sometimes unique or funny product advertisements, and the perceived target audience.