IARU HF Championship -- 2002
Call: W0TM
Category: Multi Single
Power: High Power
Band: All Band
Mode: Mixed Mode
Section: Colorado
Country: United States
Operators: W0TM, N0KE
BAND QSO QSO-PTS PTS/Q ZONES HQ STNS
160 9 15 1.67 3 2
80 15 35 2.33 6 2
40 123 389 3.16 17 16
20 589 2301 3.91 39 38
15 226 768 3.40 27 35
10 40 152 3.80 7 6
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 1002 3660 3.65 99 99
Score: 724,680 points
Equipment Description: FT-1000MP, Alpha 91B, KT-34XA w/36 upgrade kit,
KLM 2 el. 40 meter beam, 80/160 dipole
Club Affiliation: Grand Mesa Contesters
Comments: I was amazed how every OJ was EXACTLY the same signal level,
unlike WRTC in Slovenia two years ago where there was quite a mix of
tri-banders. I understand the Finns supplied each team the EXACT same new
tri-bander of local manufacture.
A truly world-class contester goes way beyond just being able to correctly
copy three different call signs in heavy QRM all at the same time and at 40
WPM. I think they must have a sixth sense. It's beyond me so I can only
guess. All day Saturday I searched for OJ's. I tuned looking for REALLY
weak stations that were sending 40 WPM. They each sounded exactly alike.
All S2 at best. I thought working more than 20 of the 52 would be
impossible. But, at about 0000z on 20 CW, I listened to one of the few
OJ's on 20 go from S1 to S7 within minutes. Most of the other OJ's were
spotted on 80 CW at the time which ruled them out for me. Within minutes
of that, most of the other OJ's SWARMED to 20 like a pack of hornets. It
was amazing. That's the sixth sense. I know the second op's job of each
team was to keep checking other bands for propagation but, sometimes, a
truly great contester just smells a change in propagation. After that, I
couldn't work them fast enough. By the time second-op Phil (N0KE) returned
from a dinner party, I had just two left to work. Phil took over and, by
midnight, he had the remaining two worked and he even had all 52 worked on
20 CW. We also worked W1AW/5 all bands and modes and only missed NU1AW/4 on
160 CW and 10 SSB. LOTS more HQ activity this year. ONLY disappointment
was the continued lessening of participation by JA's in contesting. Even
five years ago, Asia made up a good half of my contacts in every DX contest.
Asia was less than 15% in this one. With sunspots headed south, it's going
to be really tough in the future to turn in a good score anywhere west of
Chicago without the JA's. PLEASE come back!
IARU is still my favorite contest. All the extra excitement of WRTC every
two years and the various HQ operations plus the side challenges of trying
to work W1AW and NU1AW on all bands and modes makes it a truly fun contest
with no boring moments. A special thanks to Phil, N0KE, for doing a
multi-single with me at the last minute. It had been a tough week and I
arrived late Friday night with little sleep. I never would have made it
the entire 24 hour period by myself.
73,
Gary, WØTM
gary@WØTM.com
@9,000 feet 20 miles West of Vail, Colorado
Please visit my Web site www.W0TM.com to view pictures of my station and the
mountains of Colorado. See the 2002 CQ ham station calendar (February
page).
Continent Statistics
W0TM IARU HF Championship Multi Single
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL percent
CW
North America CW 7 9 70 81 49 8 224 22.4
South America CW 0 1 3 4 8 7 23 2.3
Europe CW 0 0 19 224 69 0 312 31.1
Asia CW 0 0 25 28 12 0 65 6.5
Africa CW 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 0.3
Oceania CW 0 0 4 5 4 0 13 1.3
SSB
North America SSB 2 5 2 99 27 5 140 14.0
South America SSB 0 0 0 7 14 20 41 4.1
Europe SSB 0 0 0 62 31 0 93 9.3
Asia SSB 0 0 0 62 7 0 69 6.9
Africa SSB 0 0 0 3 2 0 5 0.5
Oceania SSB 0 0 0 11 3 0 14 1.4
|