WAE DX Contest, RTTY
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: SW NM
Operating Time (hrs): 22:09
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts QTCs Mults
------------------------------
80: 83 83 0 60
40: 264 264 0 132
20: 316 316 290 132
15: 100 100 160 68
10: 4 4 10 6
------------------------------
Total: 767 767 460 398 Total Score = 488,346
Club:
Comments:
QTCs add a challenge, some stategy, and a lot of points, but it takes two to
tango! Unlike the CW and SSB WAE, bidirectional QTC exchanges are allowed in
the RTTY event, so long as the two ops involved are in different continents.
And unlike the EU ops in the CW event, who are relentless in requesting QTCs to
be sent or received, the majority of RTTY ops simply don't want to bother with
them. Why?? I'll offer a discussion below.
QTC exchanges could have helped my score approach last years, where 771 QTCs
were exchanged (nearly the same as my QSO total). Look at this year's unearned
points--points that could have been earned by both me and other ops:
QTCs Rcvd: 70 (points earned by both)
QTCs Sent: 390 (points earned by both
QTCs Unsent: 377 (points unearned and left on the table)
My post event notes from last year included, "Don't wait until Sunday morning
to clear Friday and Saturday's QTCs. Clear all you can on Saturday."
Translation: Be as relentless as the EU CW ops! Hence, I sent a macro message
to every non-North American station saying, "I HV QTCS FOR U," whether I was in
Run mode or S&P mode. From the above figures, you can see that 39 ops accepted
my offer. A few offered to send QTCs to me--usually they were running stations.
Heck, points are points, so I didn't refuse! An additional 38 ops could have
enjoyed additional points from me (or sent me some of theirs). About half of
the ops I asked responded with "SRI NO QTCs" or some such. The other half made
no response at all, even though my request message was clear enough. How come?
I'm an N1MM logger user, so I'm not familiar with other contest loggers. For
RTTY contesting, Rick Ellison, N2AMG, has done a spectacular job of developing
logging and operating modules for RTTY. In a nutshell, his work product makes
it possible to operate a RTTY contest for an entire weekend as point and click
with the mouse plus a few isolated keystrokes (the F-key macros, if you don't
like point and click). There's no need to type callsigns or serial number
exchanges--just point and click on the digi interface window. Here's the best
part: sending and receiving QTCs is also point and click--there's no need to
enter any portion of any QTC by hand. Need a QTC repeated because of a garble?
Simple--just point and click. There's time to sip your coffee while the monkey
in the computer does the work.
For N1MM users, there's no excuse not to send and receive QTCs and improve your
scores. If you use another logging program, I encourage you to dig in and find
out if your logger is as easy as point and click. If it isn't, then I urge you
to migrate to N1MM and improve your scores. Perhaps if more DX stations
received the message, "I HV QTCS FOR U," they might just jump on the giveaway
QTC points bandwagon, too.
I broke in a new amplifier, and so I didn't want to push it very hard. The
cooling fan speed was "adjustable," that is, if the operator is willing to
remove 45,678 screws to remove the cover, unsolder one of the fan's power leads
and resolder to another terminal post. I did just that when I could no longer
place my hand comfortably on the top cover (which occurs at a surface temp of
about 135 F). And I kept looking to see if the 3-500 plates were glowing (they
never did). N1MM's RTTY Digital Interface window includes up to 24 macro
buttons (in addition to the 12 per Run/S&P mode Entry Window. I programmed
most of the 24 RTTY macro buttons to do various things, like DSP filter widths,
toggling K3's Dual Bandpass Filter, and, for this event, K3 exciter power to the
amplifier, resulting in outputs instantly selectable of 500, 750, and 1000
watts. I ran at 500 and bumped power accordingly for pileups, new mults, weak
sigs, etc. Thanks, Elecraft!
For the dream list: a similar expansion of the Digi Interface macros for CW
and SSB. The wheel has already been invented by Rick...
Condx on 80 were similar to last week's SSCW--low QRN and good propagation.
Too bad there weren't more ops chasing the 4 point bonus on that band!
40m was good, despite the loss of my SteppIR 30/40 meter trombone a couple of
months ago. That left only the SteppIR vertical to do the work. I worked
everyone I could hear, just wish I could have heard more with it.
20m wasn't quite as effective over the pole to EU as it has been recently.
Best 20m contact was VK3TDX, who was calling "CQ long path" while my SteppIR
yagi was only 20 degrees away from long path. He was an honest S7, and we each
took a few moments to chat--more like a QSO party than a contest. Good fun.
15m was solidly following classical skip propagation, not Es, and 10m was
mostly dead, whenever I checked it.
Hats off to DARC for the WAE events. The QTCs really make it far and away more
interesting than the usual exchanges. You just never know when a single QSO can
put ten more Qs into the log. There's a year to go before the next WAE RTTY
(and slightly less for the CW event)--plenty of time to bone up on QTCs and/or
migration to a logging program that makes it effortless.
73 and thanks to all for the fun,
Dan k7ia
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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