There is an excellent weekly SSB practice contest lasting half hour every Tuesday evening. This is an informal session that is excellent for people who want to learn or improve their skills in SSB communications and contesting. The practice session lasts only half an hour. The exchange is very simple – Name and State.

You do not have to keep a log if you just want to practice. Otherwise, you can setup N1MM to log your QSOs and report your score on 3830scores.com .

Time - Wednesday, 0230-0300 UTC (Tuesday evening, in NA)

Bands - 15, 20, 40, 80, 160.

You may work a station once per band.

Bands - 21.325, 14.250, 7.175, 3.800 (avoid 3.790-3.800, lower is better), 1.875

Power & Mode - 100 watts

SSB Exchange - Operator name and station location (S/P/C) for NA stations.

Here are the rules for this fun half hour http://www.perluma.com/Phone_Fray_Contest_Rules.pdf

Help us recognize (memorialize) the BVARC hams that have passed away. Many of these SKs have ELMERED us and taught us so much in the past. BVARC has a special place for them on the WHO IS BVARC page. We don't get notices of everyone that dies, so if you know of anyone, please let us know web@bvarc.org

Eddie Runner and I made a bet that VERY FEW actually read the BVARC web pages. So our bet is that he would put a statement on the web site on the main page (what you are reading now) stating that for the month of January, the first BVARC member, who is the first to text “BVARC FREE RADIO” to 713-569-8799 would get a free handheld radio. This is of course limited to only one radio to the first person to send the text (judged by the time sent/received). The person will be notified by text if they have won and the radio will be presented at the January 31st awards banquet. If no one sends in the text, we will try again in the near future. If someone does claim the radio, there will be a contest next month! Good Luck!

N5VCX