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[3830] W1AW/5 ARRL HQ Score

To: <3830@contesting.com>
Subject: [3830] W1AW/5 ARRL HQ Score
From: k5na@texas.net (Richard L. King)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 02:42:30 +0000
2002 IARU Contest

W1AW/5 ARRL Headquarters Station

Location - Central Texas (Austin, Texas area)

                 CW                      Phone 
Total
Band            QSOs    Points          QSOs    Points          QSOs 
Points  Mults

160               177     375             156     296             333 
671     11
  80               329     771             444    1048             773 
1819     27
  40               824    2545             760    1778            1584 
4323     55
  20              1594    5966            2319    7522            3913 
13488     87
  15              1274    4766            1585    5339            2859 
10105    92
  10               402    1098              467   1277              869 
2375    39

Total            4600   15521            5731   17260           10331 
32781   311

Claimed Score: 32,781 x 311 = 10,194,891

This past year has been a busy one here in Central Texas while we prepared 
for W1AW/5. Though we were given the W1AW/5 assignment over 3 years ago, 
the planning got started in seriousness a year ago immediately after the 
2001 IARU.

Six of the premier Central Texas stations agreed to participate - K5NA, 
K5TR, N5CQ, N5TW, NX5M, and W5KFT. Each of these stations could have been a 
powerhouse on any of the bands or modes but the assignments were:

         K5NA - 80M CW, 40M CW, & 15M SSB.
         K5TR - 80M SSB & 20M SSB
         N5CQ - 10M CW
         N5TW - 160M CW & 20M CW.
         NX5M - 160M SSB & 10M SSB.
         W5KFT - 40M SSB & 15M SSB

W5XD wrote a special version of WriteLog for use by the headquarters 
stations. Basically the new version allowed us to connect to a central 
Internet server that fed QSOs back to all the W1AW/5 sites in real-time. 
Each site could always tell what QSOs and mults each of the other band/mode 
sites needed. The software also fed the frequencies of the radios back to 
everyone to allow each station to move QSOs to other bands easily.

We had a total of about 15 computers set up at all the sites and each ended 
up with the same QSO and multiplier numbers at the end of the contest. The 
software was really awesome.

The 24 hours of the IARU were noisy because Central Texas was being hit 
with wave after wave of thunderstorms. This condition caused high QRM on 
all the bands and especially affected the low bands. The thunderstorms had 
been occurring for several days before the contest and there was a lot of 
flooding in the area. But no W1AW/5 sites were affected by flooding. The 
rain static and thunderstorms were another matter.

The thunderstorms forced the N5TW, NX5M, & W5KFT sites to shut down at 
different times during the contest as thunder cells passed by. Since the 
logging system was real-time and current at all the sites, it was possible 
for other sites to start working the vacated band/modes almost immediately 
after the affected stations were shut down. A lot of cell phone calls were 
made to coordinate this. Later the band/modes were switched back to the 
original stations.

Our goal was to beat the old W1AW/p record set by W1AW/4 in 2000. However, 
10 meters just didn't have much in the way of good conditions here and we 
fell a little short. With sun spots going down, the W1AW/4 record may stand 
for a few years. Our secondary goal was to beat NU1AW and the other 
headquarters stations. But I haven't heard any other official HQ scores yet.

All the stations owners and operators had a great time doing this. It was 
great fun.

Thanks to the K1ZZ and the ARRL for allowing us to do W1AW/5 in this 
contest. Also thanks to W5XD for his work developing his terrific software 
to support our effort and to AB5K for the special telnet node used 
exclusively by all the W1AW/5 stations.

There will be more detailed information and breakdowns of the W1AW/5 effort 
available on the net very soon.

73, Richard - K5NA

k5na@texas.net


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