ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: N7GP
Operator(s): W7MCO, NI5L, N5IA
Station: W7MCO
Class: M/S HP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1106 Sections = 79 Countries = 18 Total Score = 228,338
Club:
Comments:
The N7GP crew set a goal to better the score for our station for the 4th year in
a row. Sunspot count going down; good condx in the CQWW; ought to be a slam
dunk. We forgot about "Mother Nature" and one of the reasons we like Top Band.
You just never know what you are going to be dealt.
The 1st night the Band was excellent stateside until shortly after midnight
local. To give you an idea, here is a minature breakdown of the last of the
Worked All States routine.
At 0107 Z, just 3 hours and seven minutes into the contest, we worked WT0A in
Nebraska for the 46th of the 48 states.
At 0131 we worked NN1E in Kentucky for # 47.
At 0248 we worked N1CGP in Maine for # 48.
>From there we had to wait a bit for the sun to get farther west so we could
at 0513 work KH6ZM in Hawaii for # 49 and
at 0547 work NL7Z in Alaska for # 50.
So, WAS on 160 Meters in 7 hours and 47 minutes.
I have no idea if this is a record of any sort other than for us, but I doubt
many, if any, have accomplished it so quickly. We have done it in one night
before but usually there is one elusive state until the early morning hours.
By the same time we had worked Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and a few
carribean stations. Also, we had worked all Canadian Sections except Manitoba
and North West Territories. And that is where the good times ended. After
three good hours of averaging almost 100 contacts per hour, the doldrums set
in.
No European opening. No Africans heard. The QRN built up, the US east coast
went to bed and we had to settle in for the balance of the night with 25-30
contacts per hour.
We worked one JA station at his sunset and thought great; no Euros usually means
a decent JA opening. Not so. We ended up with 13 total JAs in the log, and it
was WORK. No ZL and only one VK for that multiplier. Nothing out of Russia,
Korea or the Far East.
So, night one had us 100 contacts and 18 multipliers behind last year's pace.
It would take a super 2nd night to make up that size of gap, but we were game.
Got to get some prop to Eu especially, for the mults, and a bunch more stations
on the air. Then a good JA opening to maximize the points.
The 2nd night, early on the conditions again were good stateside. Then the
spotlight shown on central Europe for about 15 minutes and we worked 7 mults.
Thanks guys for being there. And that was it. As the terminator crossed over
the Iberian peninsula and the British Isles not a dit was heard.
We picked up the MB mult and only NWT remained for the sweep. Never happened.
We suffered through three 8 Q's per hour periods when the CQ machine hardly got
answered and the mult operator found NO new meat.
The JA stations were few but we may have not heard many calling due to the high
level of QRN. We did find the TI, CM and ZL mults. Eric, W3DQ checked in but
DC wasn't a separate mult. Shucks!! CU in CQWW160 Eric, and maybe a personal
visit in mid January.
Then right at sunup JT1CO's signal came up above the noise long enough to get
him in the log.
So, the final 2005 end results were way behind 2004. Here is the comparison of
2005 to the last three outings.
2002: 978 77 6 178,616
2003: 1,018 78 12 198,630
2004: 1,247 79 29 295,272
2005: 1,106 79 18 228,338
Here are some more stats so you can have an idea of what it is like to operate
from way out west.
DX worked:
6Y, DL, CM, HB, F, I, JA, JT, OH, OK, ON, P4, TI, VK, VP2, XE, ZF, ZL
Continent Stats:
N America: 1059 (96%)
S America: 1 (0%)
Europe: 11 (1%)
Africa: 0 (0%)
Asia: 24 (2%)
Oceania: 5 (0%)
Some have commented that California was not out in force as in the past. We beg
to differ. It was the conditions, because for us the Golden State provided far
and away the most Q's per state; a total of 139, a full 12.5% of our total. The
least amount from any CA section was 9 from each of SB, SDG, and SF. The 2004
percentage of the total for CA was 12.9%.
This is my comment on the 2004 submission.
"The Golden State boys again were our bread and butter with the accumulative Q
count from all the CA sections totaling 161. The Lone Star State of Texas was
next highest as it's great operators provided 91 Q's from it's 3 Sections.
The east of the Mississippi leader was MN with 52 stations going into our log.
VA and OH each contributed 42. The combined 1st District call area was well
represented with 56 call ins. Amazingly, VT led the pack with 13."
This year the Lone Star state of Texas provided 61 Q's, down from 91. Last year
the Texans provided 7.3% of our total Q's. This year 5.5%. Nearly 2% less is a
BIG drop.
Would you believe the Texans were tied by the call ins from the Gopher State?
The Gophers dueled the Armadillos to a tie in the N7GP log. Yep, MN tied for
2nd with 61, up 1.3% from their total of 52 in 2004. WOW!!!
Also out west, WA provided 47 contacts and came in 3rd. Our own state of AZ
provided 31 Q's, with OR-22, NV-16, UT-10, ID-9, MT-8, and WY-3.
Behind MN in ZERO land were CO-34, WI-30, on the high side with ND-5, & SD-3 on
the low end.
Back east notables were OH-42, IL-41, PA-35, NY-33. The 4th district was led by
TN-29, then VA-25, & FL-24. The entire 1st district gave us 61 contacts. CT
led with 14 but amazingly 7 ME's and 4 RI's called in.
Our Canadian neighbors were well represented by 23 ON's and 13 BC's. Just
needed that elusive NWT for the sweep.
And what hardware was in use on the N7GP end? Two FT-1K-MP's with keying mods
and roofing filters, the venerable XZ1N/XZ0A tested Alpha 91b, a full sized 1/4
WL Ground Plane for TX and a field of Beverages. The Bev field has 8, two wire
antennas spaced at 22.5 degrees and one full WL horizontal loop for an omni RX.
The Bevs are from 1.2 to 2 WL long. The antennas did their job but the
propagation and atmospherics just did not cooperate for a 4-peat of upping our
score. NEXT YEAR!!!!!
Thanks to all that answered our calls. Our apologies to the bunch that I know
we couldn't copy through the static, or just didn't hear.
73 de Milt, N5IA, one of the ops at N7GP
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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