CW CW SSB SSB HQ+
band QSOs pts QSOs pts zones ctys
40 365 730 46 46 18 14
20 768 1536 439 439 41 41
15 327 654 243 243 15 8
10 115 230 89 89 8 5
TOTAL 1575 3150 817 817 82 68 SCORE: 595,050
(claimed)
CONTINENT STATISTICS
40 40 20 20 15 15 10 10
CW SSB CW SSB CW SSB CW SSB total
N America: 316 46 714 425 313 241 113 89 2257 (94%)
(14%) (2%) (31%) (18%) (13%) (10%) (5%) (3%)
S America: 2 0 6 2 1 1 2 0 14 (0%)
(14%) (42%) (14%) (7%) (7%) (14%)
Europe: 0 0 37 5 0 0 0 0 42 (1%)
(88%) (11%)
Africa: 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 (0%)
(33%) (66%)
Asia: 39 0 8 0 12 1 0 0 60 (2%)
(65%) (13%) (20%) (1%)
Oceania: 6 0 1 7 1 0 0 0 15 (0%)
(40%) (6%) (46%) (6%)
QSO RATES
40 40 20 20 15 15 10 10
UTC CW SSB CW SSB CW SSB CW SSB rate total
12Z 114 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 114 114
13Z 104 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 111 225
14Z 0 0 157 0 0 0 0 0 157 382
15Z 0 0 120 0 1 0 0 0 121 503
16Z 0 0 31 83 86 0 0 0 200 703
17Z 0 0 0 23 0 176 0 5 204 907
18Z 0 0 0 0 56 1 80 11 148 1055
19Z 0 0 0 0 79 1 13 68 161 1216
20Z 0 0 2 14 49 33 22 0 120 1336
21Z 0 0 1 127 1 31 0 5 165 1501
22Z 0 0 37 1 50 1 0 0 89 1590
23Z 0 0 112 0 3 0 0 0 115 1705
00Z 0 0 90 0 2 0 0 0 92 1797
01Z 1 0 107 0 0 0 0 0 108 1905
02Z 2 0 56 77 0 0 0 0 135 2040
03Z 27 39 0 98 0 0 0 0 164 2204
04Z 0 0 55 9 0 0 0 0 64 2268
05Z 117 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 123 2392
tot 365 46 768 439 327 243 115 89 ---- 2392
STATION DESCRIPTION:
(2) IC-765 transceivers
Wilson System 1 tribander @ 40'
40M Dipole @ 36'
Like the other competitors, our first hope was to get a "good" station
(i.e., a big tribander on high ground). In the station drawing, we
drew the Electronic Museum Amateur Radio Club station, WB6WSL, located
in Los Altos near Foothills in the middle of a residential area. We
didn't get our big tribander, and the big hills to the west were not
too far away. However, the shot to the northwest and east looked
pretty good and the antenna foreground appeared to slope downhill,
although it was hard to tell because of the residential trees.
We were met at the station by EMARC members Omri, AA6TA and Arv,
WA6UUT, both of whom were a tremendous help throughout the contest.
The shack was pretty small (8' x 10') so we had to remove almost all of
their existing equipment to make room for our gear. There was just
enough room in the shack for three chairs - one for each op, and one
for our judge; Steve, K7LXC.
The club antennas were supported by a 20' tower on the roof of the 20'
high building which housed the club station. The fifteen year old
tribander checked out pretty well, although by the nicely defined SWR
dips up high in each band it was obviously set for SSB. The 40M dipole
was another matter - the MFJ SWR analyzer showed dips at 6800 and 7400
with over 2:1 at band center. We spent three hours messing with this
antenna looking for resonances in guy wires and replacing the balun,
before discovering that the culprit was the nearby 80M dipole. Once
the 80 was removed, the SWR curve looked just as it should. The
internal tuners in the IC-765s handled the impedances of both antennas
quite nicely. The location was not particularly quiet RF-wise, and the
S-meters rumbled at approximately S5 with no signal on 40M.
Since the shack was so small, the club brought out a small Red Cross
trailer for us to use on breaks. We kept food in styrofoam picnic
coolers, Field Day style, and the bathroom was several hundred feet
away across an asphalt parking lot. In order to ventilate the shack,
we had to leave the door open to the outside (immediately next to the
SWL radio). Fortunately, the weather was perfect throughout the
contest.
THE CONTEST
We decided ahead of time to do one hour shifts on the run radio, and I
let Stan have the start. Things started slowly on 40 CW at about one
per minute for the first 20 minutes or so, then the rate took off.
Most 40M QSOs were domestic, but a number of S9 JAs called in. I tried
a short stint on 40 SSB at the end of the second hour - good signals,
but only 7 guys would answer my CQ.
By the time we hit 20 CW in the third hour, Stan had the keyer speed on
the IC-765 against the max stop and was sending the entire exchange by
hand. I, on the other hand, needed the computer. (I teased our
referee that my rusty CW fist was my way of telling that K8CC was at
W6P...) Surprisingly, everybody seemed to handle the fast CW speed OK,
and we spent the entire contest around 40 WPM all the way to the end.
Both Stan and I prefer CW, and the WRTC rules giving double points for
code made it the preferred mode. However, when things slowed down
(i.e., below 100/hr) we'd go to SSB for short bursts. I'll never
forget my 20/15 SSB stint in the 17Z hour (204 QSOs including a
bandchange) - it was just like being in the Caribbean; "KA5XYZ five
nine six...Whiskey Six Papa". On at least one occasion I had the Last
10, Past 10, and Last 100 indicators all over 300/hr, although it
wouldn't last through an entire hour. Incredible!
Working W/VE was easy; making DX and multiplier QSOs was where our 100W
had a hard time being heard. Most of the time we had moderately severe
interference on the SWL radio, which made finding multipliers
difficult. By late afternoon, we began to be more successful finding
multipliers and getting them into the log. Best QSOs were finding
ZD8DEZ on 40 CW at 0142Z (over an hour before sunset!) and snagging
9K2MU from a CQ on 20 CW at 0439Z. The only station we moved was
VY1RAC from 15M to 20M - in the end, it was obvious we should have
moved more stations for band-multipliers.
All the radio equipment functioned flawlessly, however Stan's TI 5100
laptop with an external keyboard, monitor, paddles, and CW interface
crashed several times per hour throughout the contest. Adding RF
chokes made only minor improvement. Fortunately, we had a spiral-ring
notebook that we would use to log on paper until we could get the
computer to re-boot.
RESULTS
Back at the "WRTC Village" (a.k.a. Motel 6), it appeared that our 595K
claimed score put us in a pack of stations all around 600K. During log
checking, the judges found 23 unique QSOs, 6 deemed "bad" and 2
not-in-log. In the final analysis, we lost 22 QSOs and a multiplier.
With lost QSO points for penalties, our official score was:
CW CW SSB SSB HQ+
band QSOs pts QSOs pts zones ctys
40 361 698 46 46 18 14
20 760 1472 436 427 41 41
15 324 630 242 239 15 7
10 114 230 87 81 8 5
TOTAL 1559 3020 811 793 82 67 SCORE: 568,435
A lot of discussion has centered around the log checking process
employed at WRTC, so after looking at the referee's analysis I feel
qualified to offer my opinion concerning how our log was treated.
Nobody would argue that the two not-in-log QSOs should be removed. I'm
not sure how the judges characterize "bad" versus "unique" QSOs in the
printouts. Where clear similarities exist, the QSO was removed - for
example, we were the only ones to log KA4GA, but 111 other QSOs were
logged with AA4GA. On the other hand, nine of our uniques appeared to
be truly unique, and the judges left these in. Overall, the process
seems pretty reasonable to me.
That's not to say that everything was fair. K6OG was removed from the
log because a number of similar calls were worked. However, K6OG lives
just down the block from WB6WSL, came by during the contest to visit,
then went home and worked us (no, we didn't solicit a QSO from him).
Another case was that our QSO with ZL1GQ was removed. Most contesters
would figure that we busted ZL3GQ's call, but Stan asked the guy to
repeat his call and it was pretty clear what he sent. The QSO was
removed because 29 other QSOs were logged with WB1GQR. Go figure...
Overall, we're very proud of our score. We wound up tenth in overall
points, sixth in total QSOs, fourth lowest in unique QSOs, but
(arrrrgh!) twentieth in multipliers. K8CC should have listened to his
partner more...
KUDOS TO THE ORGANIZERS
I cannot say enough good things about the way the WRTC was run. The
final playing field (40M-10M, tribanders/dipoles, 100W) was perfect.
The hotel was more than adequate, and the social events were superbly
executed and paced to not wear anyone out. If I start mentioning
calls, I'll undoubtedly forget someone, so please accept my highest
accolades to the team that pulled off this wonderful event.
Once again, thanks to Omri, AA6TA and Arv, WA6UUT who graciously let us
ransack their club station and antennas to deploy our WRTC setup.
Thanks also to our referee, Steve Morris, K7LXC, who jumped in to help
with the 40M dipole and got the VCR working. And finally, thanks to
Ann, KC7RN, whose cheerful enthusiasm and willingness to make "go-fer"
runs kept W6P humming along.
WE WANNA BE PART OF THE NEXT WRTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
73,
Dave Pruett, K8CC
Stan Stockton, K5GO
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