CQ WPX CONTEST
Call used: NZ8O
Category: Multi-Multi Unlimited Mode: CW Power: 1500
Calls of all operators and loggers:
K8CC, K8GT, NU8Z, W8MJ, W8UA
band QSOs points equipment
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80 36 62 FT-1000, 2K-3, dipole, 4-square
40 526 1721 FT-1000D, 4-1000A, 3L, dipoles
20 1597 4084 FT-1000D, 2x3-500Z, 5/5, 4L south
15 1822 4894 FT-1000, 3-1000Z, 5/5, 4L south
10 173 327 FT-1000D, PT-2500A, 5/5
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TOTAL 4154 11088 X 934 multipliers = 10,356,192
Club or Team Name: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
First time out with the new callsign. The previous holder warned us that
"its a great call, but people can't send it". Only had a few cases of
that, but we'd welcome comments from the other side as to whether the call
is hard to understand.
Also the first time for our group to do CW WPX in the multi-multi category.
Its hard to find ops on the holiday weekend, and this year was no
exception. Five calls are listed, but only two were full time so we had
the equivalent of 3-1/2 full operators. Its hard to feel like a
multi-multi when there are only two ops (or less!) in the chairs at any
given moment.
Two weeks ago (the Monday after Dayton) a big thunderstorm came through
here and took out the Intenet modem, two logging computers, the CATV system
and the K8CC PacketCluster node. Fortunately, none of the important stuff
(radios) was hurt so by moving some equipment around we managed to get
three radios/computers on-line with one on 20M, one shared between 40M/10M
and the third shared between 80M/15M. It seemed really strange to do a
multi-op without any packet for the first time in ten years.
For us, the contest turned out to be primarily a two band affair. 15M was
workable almost around the clock. 20M was great all night, but went
incredibly flat from 15Z-22Z both days. The only good signals on 10M came
from the south, but it was fun to work a number of Europeans on scatter
over Africa. 40M was OK by summertime standards, but our totals on that
band were hurt by not always having an operator available when it was
workable. 80M was the big disappointment - just nobody to work most of the
time.
Its interesting to look at our QSOs per prefix breakdown - we worked 132
OK1s for by far our most active prefix, followed by OK2 (64), F5 (47), G3
(44), UA3 (43) and JA1 (41).
This weekend was again a clear example of amateur radio contesting's caste
system at work. We were running the same K8CC radios, antennas,
propagation, etc. and yet because of the unknown callsign we get no
respect. Certain stations (you know who you are) seemed to think nothing
of zero beating us and trying to start their own run on the QRG we were
using. It seemed that run frequencies were not all that hard to come by
(after all, this was not CQWW or ARRL DX) so why be a bully?
Great weekend. Look for us again next year, now that we have a WPX call.
73,
Dave/K8CC
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