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WR3O CW WPX - The Long Version

Subject: WR3O CW WPX - The Long Version
From: WR3O@music-city.tdec.state.tn.us (WR3O@music-city.tdec.state.tn.us)
Date: Tue May 28 01:53:03 1996
                          CQ  CW  WPX  SUMMARY SHEET

    Callsign Used : WR3O         Operator : WR3O        Mode: CW

    Category : Single Operator High Power  NON-assisted
               (maybe that Tribander & Wires class but I can't
                find the rules for that at the moment...)

        Team/Club : Tennessee Contest Group              Equipment:

                                                         IC-761 & 75A-4
   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Prefixes      AL-811 ( 500w )
 _____________________________________________________   TR-LOG 5.63

   80CW        7           7         32        3    1/4 wave sloper at 70'
   40CW      266         260        666      131    dipole at 98'  (57A boom)
   20CW      727         708       1098      362    PRO-57A tri-bander at 98'
   15CW       47          46         94       22       "        "
   10CW        4           4          9        1       "        "
 _____________________________________________________

 Totals     1051        1025       1899      519 


    Final Score = 985,581 points.


 Soapbox Comments
 ________________

 My first try at the WPX Contest.  I had a good time despite the QRN.
 This was the first DX contest that I actually enjoyed myself some,
 probably because there was plenty of NA to work if the DX dried up.
 Having a relatively rare prefix helped, as I was able to run Europe
 for the first time (with plenty of NA mixed in...)

 I burned up the amp Thursday at midnight as I was doing the run-through,
 and thought I was going to have to enter the low power category.  Managed
 to fix it hours before the contest started.   Thank goodness for my minimal
 skills & minimal junkbox.  (Fried a padding capacitor on the bandswitch
 position for 160 & 80 by putting 500w into a bad load on 160.)  It turned
 out I really didn't need those bands anyway for this contest...)

 Sunday featured really bad thunderstorms, which limited my total operating
 time to under 35 hours.

 My goals were 1K QSO's and 1M points.  Made the first goal, and it
 was my first time to break 1000 Q's in a contest.  Slightly
 disappointed at not reaching 1 Meg (would've been another first),
 and if the thunderstorms hadn't happenned, who knows???  Quite a few
 zero point QSO's, but along with those come some nice prefixes too.
 Anyway, it gives me something to shoot for in future contests.

 Speaking of future contests, I learned a few things.  First, I'm
 starting to understand that there really are no secrets.  I thought
 that if I had the "secret information" such as propagation knowledge,
 pileup tactics, and contest-specific strategies, then I could increase
 my score.  But it dawned on me that that knowledge comes from MAKING
 QSO's, and not reading it in a book.  I love K3ZO's post contest writeups
 and should (and do) read them carefully; there's a goldmine of information
 in there!  But I don't remember half of anything I've read during a
 contest, and conditions are so variable that knowing what happened in
 last year's contest might be of limited utility.  (As opposed to
 a true general understanding of HF propagation...)  It's funny that
 it is only now starting to dawn on me.  It says right there in the
 rules in each contest, one way or another, that the PURPOSE is for
 "as many hams to MAKE QSO's with as many hams as possible in the time
 frame..."  Well BOINK, that's the SECRET right there!  I'm there in the
 chair, and I've got to MAKE QSO's -- however possible and as fast as
 possible.  Simply by doing that, I'll gain the knowledge.  But the
 knowledge now seems more the RESULT of making QSO's than the CAUSE.

 A second thing that I learned is that I still don't know the code.
 Everyone who worked me knows this, because I probably asked you for
 a repeat, even though you were Q5.  This includes sending and receiving.
 While asking for the 3rd repeat, I'd have to go to the paddles, and I
 would further make a mess of things.  It's sometimes embarassing.  I keep
 at it though, because like playing a musical instrument, it is a skill
 with no upper bound -- and an opportunity for a lifetime of satisfaction.
 But back to contesting... I now realize that I could spend big money on
 antennas and assorted hardware, and it wouldn't come close to helping my
 score like learning the code would.  Some 10,000 contest CW QSO's so far
 and I'm not even close to knowing the code yet.  I suppose there are no
 secrets here either.  Like an instrument, if I want to excel I will have
 to PRACTICE regularly.  And that means on the air, because practing with
 TR-LOG simulator doesn't do much for my fist. :-)

 Wow, what a Ham Radio week this has been.  Dayton -> WPX.  Talk about
 a good infusion of radio!  Sure was great to visit with some of you at
 Dayton.  (I was the guy with NO hair - a condition called alopecia.)
 As usual, I am already looking forward to next year.

 Thanks for the QSO's!   73, Kirk  WR3O

>From Ingemar.Fogelberg@cec.comm.se (Ingemar Fogelberg)  Tue May 28 07:47:35 
>1996
From: Ingemar.Fogelberg@cec.comm.se (Ingemar Fogelberg) (Ingemar Fogelberg)
Subject: All-Asia Club entry. What is the age? SUMMARY
Message-ID: <31AAA187.3844@cec.comm.se>

Hi!
A couple of days ago I asked:
Can anyone tell me what age you are supposed to use when you enter
the All Asian contest in the multi-multi class using a club station
call or you own call?

This resulted in a couple of mails from (among others):
5B4WN, UA9CIR, JH1HRJ, JE1CKA, AA6TY, LA9HW, WR3E

1. The majority said that the exchange age should shift as the operator 
shifts.

2. Some said pick out the most good-looking op and use his name during 
the entire contest :-)

3. Other said that they would use 99 as age.

I will stick to the no. 1.


Thanks everyone and cu in contest. I will probably work from OH0 during 
All Asia.

73 de Ingo / SM0AJV

>From hmantila@kauha.kauhajoki.fi (Harri M. Mantila OH6YF-OH0MYF)  Tue May 28 
>07:54:31 1996
From: hmantila@kauha.kauhajoki.fi (Harri M. Mantila OH6YF-OH0MYF) (Harri M. 
Mantila OH6YF-OH0MYF)
Subject: WPX off times
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.93.960528094744.32654A-100000@kauha.kauhajoki.fi>

Hello!

> Correct me if I am wrong but do Europeans work neighboring countries for 2/4
> points?? So a DL can work an F for 4 points on 80 mtrs.

No, they get just 1/2 points and that's why you get every time much bigger
scores with the same number of QSO's compared to Europeans. QSO's here are
also hard to work during bad conditions, as hard as in your continent!

Probably, we all just have to move to South America. Hi...

73's de Harry OH6YF-OH0MYF
hmantila@kauhajoki.fi
http://www.teuva.fi/yritykset/mantila/oh6yf.html



>From shawn.lightfoot@lun.lis.ab.ca (SHAWN LIGHTFOOT)  Tue May 28 08:57:00 1996
From: shawn.lightfoot@lun.lis.ab.ca (SHAWN LIGHTFOOT) 
(shawn.lightfoot@lun.lis.ab.ca (SHAWN LIGHTFOOT))
Subject: WPX contest
Message-ID: <8C17039.0065002FA3.uuout@lun.lis.ab.ca>

Even though condx were atrocious from the up here..I did have fun.

A VERY meager effort, since the contest fell on the company engineering
group camping trip (drunk fest) and was difficult to find time to
operate seriously.

Operated from the Kananaskis country in South West Alberta, with an
FT-990 and a butternut HF6-V vertical antenna- generator powered.

My point:

For those considering operating a CW contest during this type of campout
I have a golden rule:

CW copy ability drops 5 WPM per 807, up until 5 807's - in which case it
starts dropping 10 WPM per 807.

Never in my life was anything so hard as to copy HH2PK after a few
807's.

It was a LOT of fun however and decided to call it quits when I started
to send the serial number before the sig report.

Thanks to those stations who took the time to hear our puny signal in
the ruckus.

It was nice to be *not serious* for this one.

GL

Shawn
VE6PV

>From lyndon@ve7tcp.ampr.org (VE7TCP)  Tue May 28 09:13:22 1996
From: lyndon@ve7tcp.ampr.org (VE7TCP) (VE7TCP)
Subject: WPX contest
Message-ID: <199605280813.BAA03737@ve7tcp.ampr.org>

>>>>> "shawn" == shawn lightfoot <lun!shawn.lightfoot@lis.ab.ca> writes:

    shawn> CW copy ability drops 5 WPM per 807, up until 5 807's - in
    shawn> which case it starts dropping 10 WPM per 807.
    shawn> Never in my life was anything so hard as to copy HH2PK
    shawn> after a few 807's.

I have pictures (and transcripts) of a certain gang consisting of
VE6ABC, VE6FD (ex BGN), and Hubert (be damned if I can remember his
callsign) accompanied by one VE6VQ (who transiently appeared here as
VE7UDP, but bailed out for B4 operating at ZZZ) operating field day
from points north of Edmonton. (They don't remember how far north, either,
near as I can tell.) After the first 807 they couldn't even *find* the
key let alone drive it :-) The phonetics there were a bit different
than the ones I'm aware of: Call for Whiskey! (I think VE6WP was
in attendence as well :-)

Then there was field day 1979? 8? We let '6BGN explain to the Royal
Canadian Constabulary why we had all the towers, stubbys (remember
*those* ???), and prone bodies lying about the campsite. (He earned
the call VE6*F*D* for a reason :-) As a young whipper-snapper who
preferred CW to phone, I found it *necessary* to ply the masses with
lubricant before they would embrace the paddles.

Finally, after VE6LX managed to slaughter NARC (the "Northern Alberta
Radio Club" for the paranoid) and all the little field day operations
spun off from the big effort, I have evidence of some tail-end NARC
operations where certain operators dented the ground while trying to
get out of their chairs. 807's? More like 8877's :-) (They never found
the *radio* let alone the key :-)

    shawn> It was a LOT of fun however and decided to call it quits
    shawn> when I started to send the serial number before the sig
    shawn> report.

Bah! This is the best way to spot the people running the contest with
a COMPUTER! (EEEvil nasty things that they are :-)

    shawn> It was nice to be *not serious* for this one.

See you July 1 !!!

--lyndon

>From je1cka@dumpty.nal.go.jp (Takao KUMAGAI)  Tue May 28 12:13:35 1996
From: je1cka@dumpty.nal.go.jp (Takao KUMAGAI) (Takao KUMAGAI)
Subject: [cq-contest 15790] WPX CW via E-mail ?
Message-ID: <199605281113.UAA12057@dumpty.nal.go.jp>


IK0HBN:   as usual, is it possible to send logs via E-mail ?

Read the original WPX contest rule. There is the answer.

>(i) Logs may be submitted via E-mail to SDB@AG9V.AMPR.ORG or
>    N8BJQ@ERINET.COM.  Binary files may be sent providing they are in 
>    MIME or UUENCODE format.  Internet submissions will also require a 
>    summary sheet and prefix multiplier sheet.  Logs received via E-mail 
>    will be confirmed via E-mail upon receipt.  
        ---------
        Tack Kumagai JE1CKA/KH0AM
        TEL:81-30-066-6408, FAX:81-423-93-4449
        Internet: je1cka@nal.go.jp

>From edam015@apolo.eafit.edu.co (Alejandro Angel Mejia)  Tue May 28 07:09:48 
>1996
From: edam015@apolo.eafit.edu.co (Alejandro Angel Mejia) (Alejandro Angel Mejia)
Subject: DXCC List
Message-ID: <31AA98AB.7EFF@apolo.eafit.edu.co>

Hi OM's

If anybody know where could i obtain a NEW DXCC list on the Internet, I 
will apreciate it
73's DX de Alex HK4QIM

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