The May/June issue of NCJ, The National Contest Journal, is filled with the latest news from the contesting world. Whether you are new to contesting or are a seasoned pro -- or somewhere in the middle -- you will find something in NCJ just for you.

Since the early 1970s, most of the stations that Tom Taormina, K5RC, and Grady Ferguson, W5FU, have built have had at least two operating positions. Finding a way to effectively share amps, wattmeters, antenna switches, rotators and phasing boxes among the operating positions has always been what they call “a logistical nightmare.” Taormina and Ferguson both prefer multioperator contesting, and “have experimented with many equipment configurations to achieve the goal of Multi-Two/SO2R, so the stations can be used single-op or multi-op without reconfiguring equipment for every contest.” In their article “Some Solutions for Sharing Resources in Multioperator Stations,” learn how these two veteran contesters share peripherals and share common resources at the Comstock Memorial Station, W7RN.

Every contester knows that if he or she wants to do well, “time in the chair” is a key factor. But spending a lot of time in the chair can get pretty uncomfortable after only a few hours. Realizing he was starting with a “blank slate” as built his new station, Jim Smith, VE7FO, came up with a design that maximizes operator comfort and safety: “One thing that dawned on me during this process was that, unlike the old days, the focal point had shifted from the radio to the computer keyboard and display. This meant designing the operator’s position around those accessories as opposed to the radio.” How he built his new station -- based on the requirements for a low-power CW, RTTY and SSB station in the single operator, multi-single and multi-two categories, as well as on the needs of a ham first licensed in 1953 -- is detailed in his article “Optimizing Rig Placement and Ergonomics for Contesting.”

When you’re thinking about putting up a high performance contesting antenna, a full-wave rhombic is probably not the first antenna that comes to mind -- especially on a typical city lot. But what about when you have 120 acres for an antenna farm? Paul Bittner, W0AIH, realized with such acreage, a full-size rhombic hardly takes up any room -- so why not put up four of them! NCJ Editor Al Dewey, K0AD, and Bittner tell the tale in their article “The Rhombics at W0AIH.”

The corrected results from fall 2009’s North American Sprint (SSB), as well as the results from the March 2010 North American Sprint (RTTY) are in the May/June issue of NCJ. This issue also features “NCJ Profiles” and “NCJ Club Spotlight”: Tom Menas, K3WT, introduces us to Ron Dohmen, N0AT, of Plymouth, Minnesota and Bill Brown, K0UK, shows us Colorado’s Grand Mesa Contest Club.

Of course, there are all the regular columns and features you expect from NCJ: “Workshop Chronicles” by Don Daso, K4ZA; “Contest Tips, Tricks and Techniques” by Gary Sutcliffe, W9XT; “VHF-UHF Contesting” by Jon Jones, N0JK; “RTTY Contesting” by Don Hill, AA5AU; “Propagation” by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA; “Contesting on a Budget” by Ralph Bellas, K9ZO, and “Contesting 101 “by Kirk Pickering, K4RO.

All this and more in the May/June issue of NCJ. NCJ is published six times a year by the ARRL; it is edited by Al Dewey, K0AD. NCJ is what every contester needs in their shack -- subscribe today!