Please check back often as this page is currently being updated as QTT Hour develops [FRANCAIS]
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NO LONGER USED.
Objective: to increase contacts and friendship among radio amateur CW Operators which is often facilitated by sharing a common former radio profession or current CW club membership. Members of the many CW Clubs around the world, don't share their Club membership during QSO and thus don't know what other clubs and club members there are, or if the person you are in QSO with belongs to even the same CW Club as you, or had the same former CW Telegraphist profession perhaps as a ships Radio Officer, an INTERPOL Morse Code operator, etc. QTT Hour is thus a chance to have a QSO that goes a little beyond the usual, and where this information is exchanged. Those who do not belong to any CW Club and/or are not former professional CW operators, are therefore unable to participate in this activity. Get to joining one of those many CW Clubs today!
Guidelines for QTT Hour NO LONGER USED.
- On the 1st through 24th (UTC dates not local dates!) of each month at the corresponding UTC times QTT Hour takes place around any of the corresponding approximate frequencies using simple easy-to-remember forumula: UTC DATE = UTC HOUR = kHz ABOVE BAND EDGE on the 30m band. Thus, on the 17th of the month (UTC date), at 17:00UTC for one hour, on or near 10117kHz, on clear frequencies.
- Note that times are the same UTC hour as the date, and thus shift one hour each day but 24th is 00:00-00:59 thus on the final day there are 2 QTT Hours back to back, effectively giving you a chance to catch up if you were slack that month, with up to an additional 120 points possible!
- On or after the 25th of each month and before the 30th, send your QTT Hour Logs results (see below for details).
- Exchanges: In addition to an honest RST, Name, etc, QTT followed by a previous professionally held callsign, or a CW Club and membership number, e.g. QTT VIB or QTT SKCC15007 or QTT FIST14185. If you have more than one, choose any as you like. If more than one is sent, the log submission may contain only the first one sent in the series. Make the QSO for as long as both parties are willing. You can have more than one QSO with the same station during QTT hour, log each QSO separately.
- If you do not belong to any CW Clubs (time to join one!) nor operated any commercial or service callsign, please join a CW Club such as FISTS, SKCC, CWOPS, HSC, UFT, RCWC etc so you can exchange numbers in QTT Hour.
- Remember everyone can participate in QTT Hour, you don't have to have used a former (commercial or ex radio amateur) callsign, nor be a member of a CW Club to participate. You may not be able to exchange a QTT without a club membership number or former callsign, but you can still join in just as well and have a QSO for as long as you can to total up your minutes.
- Calling: QTT or just CQ (NOT TEST, as this is not a CONTEST!)
- Log keeping: Keep a log of QTT activities during the activity periods with UTC Date, Start and End Time, Frequencies, Callsign and QTT sent and received. Total the number of minutes of QSO during each QTT Hour between 1st and 24th of month. After 25th, submit logs with subject line "QTT Hour Logs" via Email to gro.lliamee|ttq#gro.lliamee|ttq after joining the list here. All logs MUST be submitted before the end of the month. QTT Master is the one each month with the highest total of minutes in QTT QSO inside the QTT periods. Note: if you start a QSO during the QTT Hour but it extends beyond the QTT hour, only count the minutes that were inside the QTT Hour for your total. See next section below for more details on log submission.
- Multi-way QSO. If a third or more stations break in and join in a QSO in round table style and QTT details are exchanged, each station joining in as well as others able to exchange QTT details in the QSO, can be logged, thus parallel minutes are possible. Such QSO must have start time no earlier than when the station joined in the existing QSO and end times must reflect when each station leaves the QSO.
Submitting QTT Hour Logs
Please send your log either in the body of the Email text with each QSO listed on a new line with date, time start and time end of QSO, frequency, callsign, QTT info sent/received, and total minutes of QSO. See example at the bottom of this page. RST need not be included in log submission, but please give honest RST reports on air — not 5NN! The exchanged QTT data must be sent and received accurately to be valid. You can enter additional comments at the end of the log if you wish.
Meaning of QTT
See QTT
Who can take part in QTT Hour?
You do not need to subscribe to all the QTT values to take part in QTT Hour, however only radio amateurs who are a member of at least one CW club and/or have held at least one previous professional (non-amateur) callsign will be able to exchange QTT details. If you aren't a member of a CW Club, now is the time to join so you can share your info during Hour! Joining a CW Club shows your support for CW and many clubs are free and easy to join online. In future we will include below a list of CW Clubs that publicise QTT Hour. Meanwhile you can search Google for CW Club to see which one(s) you may like to join.
(Those who have worked as a professional CW operator before can give their previous call sign e.g. ship, coastal station, police station or formerly used radio amateur callsign etc, can exchange that information and/or give a CW club membership number during QTT exchange).
Benefits of QTT Hour
QTT Hour, by counting the total minutes spent in QSO with other qualifying QTT Hour participants, encourages longer QSO and the exchange of some information beyond a mere signal report and name. In doing so, we become aware of more CW Clubs around the world, both national and international.
We also become aware of those who were formerly professional CW operators. The QTT exchange shows easily if it is a club or a former professional call sign. If a CW club it will be the letters of the club followed by the membership number. Shorter group of letters or number would clearly indicate a Callsign. E.g. QTT FIST1124 is clearly a member of FISTS, with membership number 1124. QTT SVA would clearly be a former professional CW operator who worked at SVA.
Also QTT Hour gives an increased chance for those who like a more interesting QSO, Quality Telegraphy Time, to get a chance to find others, rather than just engage in a short "5NN TU". Moreover, as QTT Hour is only possible to participate in if you are a member of a CW Club (unless you are a former professional CW radio operator), it helps increase CW club memberships.
Further it increases friendship between members of CW clubs both the same and different and can lead to other conversations regarding the CW Club or the former profession.
By rotating an hour each day, it also allows a much fairer participation as those who have limited opportunity to operate amateur radio will have more of a chance to find a UTC time/date that is possible for them to participate, and the duration is just one hour so there is no pressure to stay longer. Even a single QSO counts, it is the duration of the QSOs when added up that counts.
By changing the center of activity each day around similar frequency in kHz from lower band edge corresponding to the UTC date, this allows for a greater spread of QTT activity that varies day by day.
Finally no one has to engage in QTT Hour, but it just provides an interesting worldwide CW activity shared by any and all CW Club members — the only thing of its kind!
Sample Log Submission
YOURCALLSIGN: VK5EEE
YEAR/MONTH: 2016/04
DATE/UTC-UTC/KHZ/CALLSIGN/QTT-SENT/QTT-RCVD/TOTAL MINUTES INSIDE QTT HOUR
21/2100-2112/10121/VK4CU/SWXX/VJFY/12
21/2113-2117/10120.7/VK4CU/SWXX/VJFY/4
21/2117-2121/10121.3/VK4CU/SWXX/VJFY/4
22/2200-2229/10122/VK2BTJ/SWXX/VLNB/29
22/2206-2236/10122/VK4CU/SWXX/VJNX/30
22/2240-2336/10122/VK4CU/SWXX/VJNX/20
23/2306-2312/10123/VK3CAB/VKQRP880/VKQRP150/6
TOTAL: 105 minutes
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