CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
Call: WK5T
Operator(s): N2IC
Station: WK5T
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 176
40: 693
20: 960
15: 671
10: 0
------------
Total: 2500 Prefixes = 826 Total Score = 4,956,000
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
Believe it or not, this is the first serious effort I have ever made in a RTTY
contest. Made more QSO's this weekend than the total of all previous RTTY QSO's
!
Finally have a computer that is up to the challenge of running N1MM+ with 2
radios, multiple decoder windows per radio, RBN feed, 2 keyboards. It was time
to challenge the operator, too.
A few observations:
- Running SO2R with simultaneous, interleaved QSO's is great fun ! I probably
operated this way 90% of the time, doing very little S&P until Sunday. Very
few slow times.
- I expect my error rate will not be good. When one decoder prints the received
QSO number as "026-026", and the other decoder prints
"016-026", I took 026 as the correct number. Not sure if I should
have done that, or asked for a repeat. Of course, the same QRN/QRM/QSB could
hit the repeat, giving the wrong answer !
- Didn't really have an effective 80 meter antenna. The wire beam is tuned to
3520, unusable with a nearly infinite SWR above 3580. The rotatable 80 meter
dipole is also tuned for the bottom of the band, at best 3:1 above 3580, and
often worse depending on interaction with the wire beam. This all showed in my
low 80 meter QSO number.
- Wanted to be sure to preserve my geriatric Alpha 76's for ARRL DX CW next
weekend, so only ran them at 750-800 watts. There were times, especially on the
low bands, where the extra 3 dB running the legal limit would have made a
difference.
- My time-off strategy could have used some tweaking. Too little time on the
low bands. But 15 and 20 were so good from here !
- 15 meters was as good as it can be at the sunspot minimum. Solid, but short
openings both days to EU and JA. 40 was very poor to EU, which really
restricted the number of 6 point QSO's.
- More contesting education is still needed. A number of stations called, then
simply played their RTTY brag tape to me, with no QSO number. Of course, those
same stations were often new prefixes ! Argh ! Also had a large number of
busted QSO's where I would come back to a station, and they never responded, or
I needed a fill, and they never responded.
- I could use a few more radios to more successfully interleave S&P QSO's
while running :)
- Why can't all 3 CQ WPX contests have identical rules now that RTTY activity
has grown so much ? I very much dislike the WPX RTTY contest rule that lumps
together assisted and unassisted into the same category. And the 30 hour time
limit. And the slightly different point value for low band QSO's.
Congrats to AC0C on a great score from the western USA. I don't know how Jeff
does it with relatively low antennas, but it's certainly an inspiration to
those who can only put up beams at modest heights.
Thanks for all the QSO's, and putting up with my occassional keyboard fumbling
if I didn't immediately respond to you. I will be back for more RTTY contests
!
73,
Steve, N2IC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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