I have seen the light. I have found religion. My life will never be the same.
What's this, you ask ? Has KR0Y flipped out and [finally] decided to give up
ham radio contesting ? No, not yet. But words escape me when I attempt to
describe operating the ARRL DX CW test last weekend. You see, I was at the
K1AR (K1EA QTH) Multi-Two.
During my 14 year contest career, I have had the pleasure of operating from
Missouri and Texas, with an occassional side trip to V3, VP5, P4 and
Pennsylvania. But I have NEVER before experienced the absolute feeling of
domination in a contest like I did this weekend.
To be sure, K1EA has a FB station with excellent antennas. If you could
somehow rank USA stations by size of antenna systems, I'm sure K1EA would be
in the top 50-100. Ken is no slouch of an operator, either. He has won the WW
ya' know, in between writing code for CT and stuff. K1AR needs no accolades
from me or anyone else. But what the hell, we all know John is THE operator.
It was a great experience operating with these two and I had a blast.
A very good station and operators. But I said TOTAL DOMINATION before, didn't
I ?? So what have I left out. Hmmmm, let's see... Oh yes, location ! And I
don't mean the hill that Ken's QTH is on, either !
Sure, conditions this year were down. But down EQUALLY across geographic
areas ? No, not even remotely.
I've never seen it so easy to find hold a frequency. Not even challenged by
wanna-be's who don't care if anyone calls, they just wanna nudge up to a big
boy on the band edge and play. Big rate all the time, you ask ? No, not
really. Figure our best hour was maybe 135. But you sure do hear EU well for
A LOT of hours. And where did all these QRP guys come from in Europe, anyway
? I've never heard them before. Weird working that YB and HS during the
Sunday morning EU run on 15 meters. I was really disappointed that 80 was so
poor. I mean, only 300 QSOs ? What a bummer. How could we miss a JA on 15 too
? And losing one station for 45 minutes Friday night right at EU sunrise.
Ouch, that sure hurt ........
In 1992 I had about 4 M single-op from WM5G. The K1AR multi-two score that
year had about 8.3 M. Two years later the 'AR score is down about 25%. I can
only speculate, but figure the best I could have done from WM5G this year
would have been 2 M. A reduction of 50%.
Does it sound like I'm bitching ? It's not my intention. I simply had no idea
what it was like, operating a DX contest from W1. I won't get caught up in
the argument about what constitutes an "East coast QTH" (I don't think Dallas
is). I'm sure the 2s and 3s think it's W1. And those guys in Maine sure have
an edge over Connecticut, etc. I have no doubt that there are SUBTLE
differences.
While one contest from W1 isn't a statistically significant sample size for a
quantitative analysis, I can safely say one thing: DO YOU GUYS ON THE EAST
COAST KNOW HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT ?!
73
Jeff Steinman KR0Y
jsteinman@aol.com
>From Richard Hallman <0006135537@mcimail.com> Tue Feb 22 03:40:00 1994
From: Richard Hallman <0006135537@mcimail.com> (Richard Hallman)
Subject: ARRL DX CW From the west!
Message-ID: <34940222034043/0006135537NA3EM@mcimail.com>
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST 1994
Call: KI3V/7 Country: United States
Mode: CW Category: Single Unlimited
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES
160 4 12 3.0 4
80 21 63 3.0 16
40 334 993 3.0 64
20 214 621 2.9 66
15 236 705 3.0 51
10 42 117 2.8 29
--------------------------------------
Totals 851 2511 3.0 230 = 577,530
18 Hours On-Time
Excuses:
- 9 feet of snow in past 6 days. Major storm killed the Backbone
link to W6GO Hours before the Contest. This is a 120 Mile
220 Mhz Direct connect Over the Sierra's! Most of the time is
100 Percent connect!
- 80 Meters had 10 Db over line noise ALL weekend. SP&P got a call
the next day to come and fix it!
- Alpha 77 had T/R switching problem. T/R relays hang after about
5-6 Hours. Thought I fixed this problem 6 hours before contest!
- Wont talk about the Snow static we had ALL weekend.....
- S92SS pile-up on 15 meters.....HA!
Observations:
- I see the East Coast complaining about the REAL poor conditions
this weekend......It was Just another West Coast DX Contest
from what I saw in Conditions....Glad to see the East gets
West Coast conditions once and a While! ( Couldnt resist!)
- Thanks to ALL the JA's who showed this weekend! If it wasnt
for the JA's, I dont think you would have seen ONE score over
1 Million from the west.
- Thanks to AD1C for a FLAWLESS .CTY file!
Conclusion.....
As Bevis would say " Conditions Sucked!".
Went skiing twice this weekend and watched a few videos....18 hours
operating time. Most enjoyable part of the weekend was the 40 meter
JA Run Sunday! This WAS the PITS!
Rich KI3V/7
>From Randy A Thompson <K5ZD@world.std.com> Tue Feb 22 04:50:00 1994
From: Randy A Thompson <K5ZD@world.std.com> (Randy A Thompson)
Subject: K5ZD ARRL CW Score (full breakdown)
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9402212314.A29386-0100000@world.std.com>
K5ZD - ARRL CW
If you lived in NE, it was an entertaining contest. If you didn't, it was
probably a good weekend to do something else. The rates were low enough
that it was easy, and extremely effective, to tune with the second
radio. Kind of reminded me of SS on Sunday afternoon where you will do
anything for a QSO.
Here's a full report from here:
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST 1994
Call: K5ZD Country: United States
Mode: CW Category: Single Operator
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES
160 39 114 2.9 32
80 187 561 3.0 56
40 800 2400 3.0 83
20 816 2448 3.0 87
15 782 2346 3.0 82
10 49 147 3.0 31
--------------------------------------
Totals 2673 8016 3.0 371 = 2,973,936
Breakdown by continent:
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL percent
North America 16 24 21 24 27 24 136 5.1
South America 5 10 9 18 19 17 78 2.9
Europe 14 146 722 698 697 6 2283 85.3
Asia 1 0 22 67 28 0 118 4.4
Africa 3 5 11 8 8 1 36 1.3
Oceania 0 2 17 4 3 1 27 1.0
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults K5ZD Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... 110/34 1/1 ..... ..... 111/35 111/35
1 . . 72/10 6/3 . . 78/13 189/48
2 . 5/4 41/4 4/3 . . 50/11 239/59
3 . 18/12 36/2 . . . 54/14 293/73
4 3/2 24/12 7/0 4/2 . . 38/16 331/89
5 5/4 23/5 10/3 1/0 . . 39/12 370/101
6 4/4 18/2 . 2/2 . . 24/8 394/109
7 . 7/2 63/4 . . . 70/6 464/115
8 ..... 6/3 32/4 ..... ..... ..... 38/7 502/122
9 . 4/3 8/3 7/6 . . 19/12 521/134
10 1/1 2/0 1/1 6/4 . . 10/6 531/140
11 . . 4/2 88/16 . . 92/18 623/158
12 . . . 80/12 20/10 . 100/22 723/180
13 . . . 8/6 93/16 . 101/22 824/202
14 . . . 3/1 103/9 . 106/10 930/212
15 . . . . 101/4 . 101/4 1031/216
16 ..... ..... ..... 41/7 46/5 4/4 91/16 1122/232
17 . . . 97/2 . 10/8 107/10 1229/242
18 . . . 66/2 . 12/7 78/9 1307/251
19 . . . 61/1 12/10 2/2 75/13 1382/264
20 . . . 43/3 11/5 2/1 56/9 1438/273
21 . . 53/3 5/0 5/2 . 63/5 1501/278
22 . . 71/1 8/6 . . 79/7 1580/285
23 . . 15/0 34/2 . . 49/2 1629/287
0 ..... ..... 30/1 15/0 ..... ..... 45/1 1674/288
1 . 6/1 26/0 . . . 32/1 1706/289
2 5/4 14/3 5/0 1/1 . . 25/8 1731/297
3 10/9 12/2 . . . . 22/11 1753/308
4 3/3 9/3 . . . . 12/6 1765/314
5 2/1 8/0 20/0 . . . 30/1 1795/315
6 4/3 22/1 5/1 . . . 31/5 1826/320
7 1/1 2/2 44/2 . . . 47/5 1873/325
8 ..... 1/0 32/3 ..... ..... ..... 33/3 1906/328
9 . 2/1 7/3 . . . 9/4 1915/332
10 . . 1/1 1/1 . . 2/2 1917/334
11 1/0 1/0 3/0 43/0 . . 48/0 1965/334
12 . . . 27/0 18/4 . 45/4 2010/338
13 . . . 1/0 79/2 . 80/2 2090/340
14 . . . . 92/1 3/2 95/3 2185/343
15 . . . . 80/1 2/2 82/3 2267/346
16 ..... ..... ..... 2/0 69/1 4/2 75/3 2342/349
17 . . . 60/1 12/1 1/0 73/2 2415/351
18 . . . 45/2 5/2 . 50/4 2465/355
19 . . . 38/0 3/2 3/0 44/2 2509/357
20 . . 4/0 12/1 7/1 4/1 27/3 2536/360
21 . . 42/1 . 1/1 2/2 45/4 2581/364
22 . . 46/0 . 7/4 . 53/4 2634/368
23 . 3/0 12/0 6/2 18/1 . 39/3 2673/371
DAY1 13/11 107/43 523/71 565/79 391/61 30/22 ..... 1629/287
DAY2 26/21 80/13 277/12 251/8 391/21 19/9 . 1044/84
TOT 39/32 187/56 800/83 816/87 782/82 49/31 . 2673/371
Op time/rate per band:
DAY1 0.6/21 2.6/41 7.9/66 7.1/79 4.1/95 0.4/70 ..... 22.8/71
DAY2 1.5/17 2.6/31 6.7/41 5.1/50 5.5/71 0.3/55 . 21.8/48
TOT 2.1/18 5.2/36 14.7/55 12.2/67 9.6/81 0.8/63 . 44.6/60
-end-
>From Randy A Thompson <K5ZD@world.std.com> Tue Feb 22 05:42:39 1994
From: Randy A Thompson <K5ZD@world.std.com> (Randy A Thompson)
Subject: W1KM ARRL CW Score
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9402220049.A29386-0100000@world.std.com>
Talked to Greg this evening and got his score for ARRL CW.
W1KM
Single Operator
160 25 23
80 239 62
40 613 75
20 584 86
15 758 77
10 36 25
--- ---
Tot 2255 350 = 2.36M points
>From Tim Totten <kj4vh@iglou.com> Tue Feb 22 05:53:10 1994
From: Tim Totten <kj4vh@iglou.com> (Tim Totten)
Subject: N4AR M/S ARRL DX CW score
Message-ID: <Pine.3.88.9402220041.D25915-0100000@iglou>
N4AR 1994 ARRL DX CW Multi/Single
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL pct
NA 16 26 23 28 29 25 147 9.3
SA 3 9 11 30 31 23 107 6.8
EU 6 92 306 218 480 5 1107 69.9
AS 0 16 56 42 27 1 142 9.0
AF 0 5 9 8 13 3 38 2.4
OC 0 3 17 7 8 7 42 2.7
JAs 0 15 45 26 23 1 110 7.1
QSOs 25 148 420 331 571 62 1557
Mults 19 59 91 86 93 41 389
Score: 1553 * 3 * 389 = 1,812,351 Ops: N4AR, N4TY, KJ4VH
(we had 4 zero-pointer Qs) Club: Kentucky Contest Group
Comments (de KJ4VH): Sure wish more DX would make the effort for scatter
QSOs on 10. This is going to be a fact of life for the next few years!
9A1A was like a "scatter beacon." And JA1YDU knew what they were doing
too--they were our only Asian on 10.
It's very tempting, but we decided to shun the contesting tradition of
qualifying one's score with a list of excuses. Suffice it to say that we
know we can do significantly better, and that's just what we plan to do
next year!
73, Tim
--------------------------------------------------
Tim Totten, KJ4VH Home tel +1-502-239-6486
kj4vh@iglou.com Home fax +1-502-239-7766
Kentucky Contest Group
>From oo7@astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) Mon Feb 21 23:50:31 1994
From: oo7@astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) (Derek Wills)
Subject: ARRL contest observations
Message-ID: <9402220550.AA29429@astro.as.utexas.edu>
>>First, the ARRL is a *lot* different from the CQ WW. There is just
>>no comparison in the level of activity.
>>Soapbox comment: Couldn't the ARRL do something about this?
>>Is support for contests now politically incorrect?
>>-- Pat WA8YVR
The obvious response is to remember what the "WW" in "CQWW" means,
and that for the rest of the world the ARRL contest is almost a
local affair. I don't see many reports on this reflector giving
US scores in the Oceania contests, and only parts of this country
take the WAE and JA contests seriously.
There's a lot of incentive for the little stations all over the globe
to get on during CQWW and work some new countries, but if I lived in
Africa, I don't know that I'd want to spend a weekend working just Ws
and VEs - it would get boring after the first few. Not that many
people outside N. America are working on their WAS or county awards.
I'm actually surprised by the high level of activity in this contest,
considering how one-sided it is. It's hard to realize, but for many
people in the world, the ARRL contest is just not interesting - when
you've worked one W and one VE you've worked them all. Plus the fact
that unlike the CQWW, you don't have 24-hour propagation. You probably
saw James 9V1YC's note on the reflector, mentioning his 4 hrs per day
propagation to the US, so while James and others might (and did) travel
to VS6 for the CQWW weekends, there is little point in their doing so
for a contest where the targets are only available for a total of about
8 hrs over the weekend. In spite of this, 9V1YC, VS6WO and VS6BG were
all on during the contest at some time - thanks, guys.
Perhaps the League, who after all sponsor this contest, could do some of
the "work 200 station and you can buy a cute coffee mug" stuff for this
contest - it seems to have worked well for SS.
Derek "just another boring W" AA5BT
>From robert penneys <penneys@freezer.cns.udel.edu> Tue Feb 22 06:53:12 1994
From: robert penneys <penneys@freezer.cns.udel.edu> (robert penneys)
Subject: WN3K to HRO Delaware
Message-ID: <9402220653.AA15024@freezer.cns.udel.edu>
Heard that HRO was opening up here and ran up to talk to them in NH about
it Sunday. Was a different experience spending a ARRL contest day in
YCCC-land. Tried to lull them on repeater.
Spend a little time on at home just to get a log in.
Will be in ham radio from different perspective--certainly puts the knife in
VE activities and will get in the way of some contests. Hope it's fun.
I'm excited about the amount of contact I'll have with the wide variety
of hams with their different knowledge and criteria. Should be quite
interesting.
CU on ARRL phone from N2MM.
Go FRC!!
Bob WN3K
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