Thursday

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Thursday Night Contesting

Sponsored by the Northern California Contest Club

Practice Contests
The Northern California Contest Club sponsors Thursday evening (NA local time) CW and RTTY and FT4 contest practice sessions of 30 minute duration.  On the Thursday (and, sometimes Friday also) prior to a major contest weekend, the practice format follows the upcoming contest. The power limit for the CW, RTTY and FT4 sessions is 100 watts.

NS (NCCC CW Sprint)
Generally, on other Thursday evenings, a special format is followed, called NS or "NCCC Sprint". The NS began in the summer of 2004 as a snappy, concise contest occurring most Thursday nights, North American time.  The power limit is 100 watts. 

NS rules vary from week to week according to announcements to CQ-Contest and the NS/NSL Reflector, nccc-blue. Often, same-band duplicates are allowed, the exchange format is varied, or applicable bands are changed. As with NS Ladder, scores are reported to 3830 scores.

CW Ladder Competition (NSL)
During periods of infrequent major contests, an NS CW ladder competition may be held.  Usually there are three 8-week ladder competitions per year.  A ladder competition is a series of NS events. There are usually 8 Thursday evening NS events per ladder. Ranking is based on one's best 6 events in the series.  For details on the current ladder competition, and current / past ladder results, go to the NS Ladder page.

FT4 NS ^new
NCCC also sponsors a Thursday evening FT4 practice. Complete details can be found on the FT4 NS Page. 

Logging Software
Logging Software information is available for the major logging programs listed in the left-hand navigation menu.  Please send N6ZFO any information you have on these and other loggers when used for NS.  This will enrich this web site and make it easier for others to join in NS.

Communication
Weekly announcements are made as to the format for these Thursday evening contest sessions and other related information.  Watch the Next NS web page or the email reflectors, e.g., CQ-Contest, NCCC, CT-User, TR-Log, etc.  CW questions can be directed to N3ZZ or N6ZFO, RTTY questions to AJ6V, and FT4 questions to VE7AB or W1UE.

If you would like to receive all the latest info about NS CW, RTTY and FT4 as well as have a place for comments and questions, sign up for the NS mailing list:  https://groups.io/g/nccc-blue