CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: NT5C
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 1
80: 63
40: 1058
20: 993
15: 414
10: 35
------------
Total: 2564 Prefixes = 794 Total Score = 4,759,236
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
What a contest! In addition to the usual competitive nature of these things, it
was clear from scuttle-butt at Dayton that all the folks in the W5-W0 WRTC
region who are trying for good WRTC qualifying scores would be on (with the
exception of N2IC (who simply wins almost every contest he enters-it makes
qualifying easy! :-) ), so I entered this knowing that K5NA, KU1CW, and N5DX
all would be taking this seriously. Also, local stalwart K5PI was doing a
serious effort from the W5KFT ranch station, and there were good local bragging
rights on the line with Robert, Richard, and myself. My wife had scheduled a
trip to see our daughter and her family for a special occasion, so I was
batching it for the week. I was really unassisted in every sense of the word,
and even had to take off a few minutes each morning to feed our kitty cats and
water some plants outside. I also had to "stock" the shelves with frozen
dinners for the microwave and have snack bars and drinks, as there was one else
here at all.
The weather reports were the best possible for us, as the usual Memorial Day
storm stalled over W7 and W0 (too bad about the bad problems to our north). I
hope that N5DX and KU1CW didn't have problems from the storms, but it was a
break for us here, and I planned my off-time strictly around the breaks when
there would be no propagation to Europe and/or Japan.
That strategy worked out perfectly, and I took breaks in the middle of the
night after EU faded out on forty meters and before the band opened to Japan.
In the WPX contest, six pointers rule! In the middle of the day, after
absorption kills off twenty meters, and with no openings of any real sort to EU
on fifteen meters, I took off from about noon local time until three or four PM
when twenty meters picked up again, and there was a small possibility of
fifteen opening to Japan (this didn't happen here).
This off time plan worked out well, and I got some rest and never did feel
really tired and lost concentration.
I set up TR to look at points, not QSO totals, on the rate meter, an idea I got
from K5TR after the WPX SSB contest. That's a great idea, and it kept me from
freaking out with the lower QSO rates on forty meters, as those six pointers
kept the points rate high. I could tell that K5NA and N5DX and K5PI were well
ahead of me on QSO totals and could only hope that the six pointers I was
grinding out on forty meters was keeping me in the game. I would think that
N5DX did very well and I expect a huge score. I managed to end up about the
same on points locally with K5NA, and managed a slight lead on K5PI. All in
all, my station strength is better on forty than on twenty, so that was my plan
and I am sticking to it!
On the first day, I had the following band QSO totals for the first openings to
EU and JA. These take place on Friday night to EU and on Saturday morning to JA.
I concentrated on forty meters for the six pointers, going to twenty meters only
when necessary:
00Z-05Z (Europe propagation)
40 meters 392 Qs, 20 meters 30 Qs, 15 meters 20 Qs
06-08Z sleep break
09-12Z (Japan/Oceania propagation)
40 meters 221 Qs 20 metes 33 Qs, 15 meters, zero Qs
So after the first round of openings to EU and JA, I had focused on forty
meters. The somewhat amazing results, in my quest for the elusive six point DX
QSOs were: 40 meters 623, 20 meters 66, 15 meters 20!
I spent the non EU and non JA propagation periods running US and VE stations to
get the prefixes, even though the US all are one pointers. The activity was
good, with good prefixes on the bands. That makes the WPX contest interesting.
The second day's EU and JA propagation totals were:
02-06Z (EU)
40 meters 235 QSOs, 20 meters 45 QSOs, 15 meters zero.
Sleep break: 0630-0930Z
09-13Z (JA)
40 meters 179 QSOs, 20 meters 43 QSOs, 15 meters zero.
The summary for "day two" of the openings to EU and JA for me were:
40 meters 414 QSOs, 20 meters 88 QSOs.
Wow! Is this a 40 meter contest for me or what!
Some very brief comments about conditions:
The quiet conditions both weather-wise and magnetics wise resulted in the best
conditions I have ever experienced on 40 meters. I was able to run EU, really
really difficult from here even with good antennas. The conditions were
absolutely quiet, and the S meter dropped to zero when no one was calling. It
was a wonderful experience. Also, there were some very brief polar openings,
but not strong enough with the low solar flux numbers to do much good, on
twenty meters to EU around 0530 on 5/24.
As K1TO mentioned in his 3830 report, copying the serial number was hard at
times, with many many requests for repeats, and five or ten stations not making
it in as contacts when I finally gave up. Sorry.
The conditions Sunday afternoon and early evening were really difficult for me.
Forty meters was too noisy to use, and twenty meters was tough for me. I would
be on fifteen meters, trying to eke out some spotty openings to one pointer
stations, and SO2Ring on twenty trying to find someone to work, and would come
across NN5J (N5DX) and KT2Z (K5NA) running stations on twenty. I would get
excited and find an open frequency and try it on twenty but never could get
anything going. Some EU stations called, and they were quite readable, but
always there was a buzz of stations trying, but they never made through the S7
noise levels. I just could never get enough gain from my antenna system to work
this second and third level from central Texas. It was frustrating, as my
friendly competitors were one to two hundred QSO numbers ahead of me, and I
just sat there for the last two to three hours a kept plugging away, feeling
like a ninety pound weakling. I've got to get more gain on twenty meters, and
plan to add a middle twenty meter yagi to the stack, fixed on good old Europe.
Hopefully that will help some.
The rate numbers are included below for detail. But the strategy is outlined
above. Hopefully it will be interesting and will help others. The WRTC region
competition is interesting, as we have an entirely different contest here than
the east coast. There is no sense of competing with them, so it's intense to
compete with ourselves, which is what the WRTC qualifying brings out.
Congratulations to the wonderful scores everywhere. The CW WPX is indeed a
celebration to great ham radio in general and wonderful CW skills all over the
world. Yeah!
Thanks again to John Warren, the real NT5C, a classy ex-Brit gentleman, who
graciously allows me to use his otherwise SSB-only call sign for this contest.
Jim George N3BB
NT5C WPX CW 2008 rate
HOUR 160CW 80CW 40CW 20CW 15CW 10CW TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
0 0 0 47 15 0 0 62 62
1 0 0 54 0 20 0 74 136
2 0 0 92 0 0 0 92 228
3 0 0 79 6 0 0 85 313
4 0 7 70 0 0 0 77 390
5 0 0 50 9 0 0 59 449
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 449
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 449
8 0 5 13 0 0 0 18 467
9 0 6 62 0 0 0 68 535
10 0 2 63 0 0 0 65 600
11 0 10 66 0 0 0 76 676
12 0 0 30 33 0 0 63 739
13 0 0 0 60 19 0 79 818
14 1 1 1 30 63 1 97 915
15 0 0 0 14 65 13 92 1007
16 0 0 0 12 63 21 96 1103
17 0 0 0 2 7 0 9 1112
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1112
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1112
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1112
21 0 0 0 78 3 0 81 1193
22 0 0 0 75 9 0 84 1277
23 0 0 0 95 4 0 99 1376
0 0 0 8 93 0 0 101 1477
1 0 0 8 78 0 0 86 1563
2 0 0 22 45 0 0 67 1630
3 0 0 72 0 0 0 72 1702
4 0 0 54 0 0 0 54 1756
5 0 3 64 0 0 0 67 1823
6 0 3 23 0 0 0 26 1849
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1849
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1849
9 0 9 28 0 0 0 37 1886
10 0 11 48 0 0 0 59 1945
11 0 5 53 0 0 0 58 2003
12 0 1 14 24 0 0 39 2042
13 0 0 36 19 0 0 55 2097
14 0 0 1 50 12 0 63 2160
15 0 0 0 39 36 0 75 2235
16 0 0 0 12 0 0 12 2247
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2247
18 0 0 0 45 13 0 58 2305
19 0 0 0 26 36 0 62 2367
20 0 0 0 29 28 0 57 2424
21 0 0 0 52 1 0 53 2477
22 0 0 0 32 6 0 38 2515
23 0 0 0 20 29 0 49 2564
TOTAL 1 63 1058 993 414 35
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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