K3EST M/M WPXCW Contest

Mon May 27 16:58:14 EDT 1996

     (This writeup was done by WM2C)      

      CQ WORLD WIDE PREFIX CONTEST -- 1996

           Call: K3EST                    Country:  California, USA
           Mode: CW                       Category: Multi Multi

           BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/Q PREFIXES

           160        9       20   2.2        1
            80      242     1028   4.2       29
            40      801     3498   4.4      179
            20     1058     2023   1.9      469
            15      254      435   1.7       67
            10       20       22   1.1        6
          --------------------------------------

          Totals   2384     7026   2.9      751  =   5,276,526

     Club:  Northern California Contest Club

     Operator List:  K3EST, W6RGG, N4TQO, AE0M, WM2C

     Equipment Description:

     Equipment Description:
     160:    Inverted-V @ 120'
     80:     4 ele wire inverted-V yagi to Japan on 160' boom @ 100'
             2 ele wire inverted-V yagi to Carib @ 100' 
             2 ele quad fixed on EU/PAC @ 100'
     40:     4 ele @ 130' 4 ele fixed on Carib @ 70'
     20:     5/5 @ 130'  (flashlight rotor indicator) 
     15:     6/6/5 @ 130'  (Bottom fixed East)
     10:     6/5/5 @ 130'  (only used top ant - with only 4 ele working)

     Stations:  5 Total; TS930, FT990, FT990, TS950, IC736     running 
     1000-1500 W

     Continent Statistics

                          160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

     North America   CW     9   81  251  432  128   14  915    37.9
     South America   CW     0    6   16   10   45    6   83     3.4
     Europe          CW     0    0   16  285    0    0  301    12.5
     Asia            CW     0  139  476  300   72    0  987    40.9
     Africa          CW     0    1   10    8    1    0   20     0.8
     Oceania         CW     0   18   41   36   12    0  107     4.4

     Quote of the Contest: "It could be worse, we could have S9 line noise" 
     K3EST commenting on how bad conditions were. 

     Band summary:

     160m:  The few times we called CQ, we got some replies, and some of 
     them were worth points!

     80m:  Third highest scoring band.  The band was quieter than expected. 
      Signals were strong, but activity was somewhat less than expected 
     into the USA.  Nothing from Europe was heard.  Japanese signals were 
     strong, and very readable.

     40m:  THE money band.  The band was quieter than expected, and we even 
     got called by a few EU and Africa while Cqing, but mostly we had to 
     S&P into that part of the world.  Asian signals were strong.  Some 
     nice African long path at our sunrise netted some ZS stations, an FR, 
     and even a ZS8!

     20:  Highest QSO total, 2nd highest band score.  Signals into EU were 
     much weaker than expected, especially during the morning run time.  
     The 0200-0600 over the pole runs into EU were the most productive, and 
     those openings were longer than expected.  Some neat DX worked, with 
     around 85 countries in total.

     15m:  We expected a lot more from 15 - propagation just wasn't there. 
     We worked more JA's on 80m than on 15 - that says it all.

     BUT!  The most unexpected opening occurred on this band.  I noticed a 
     spot for VK9GA at around 11:00 local - this isnt all that strange, but 
     condx were so flat I first ignored it thinking that the spot was from 
     Japan and I would never hear it.  Then my curiosity got to me, and I 
     checked it out.  Nothing heard, but for some reason, I decided to 
     listen to receiver hiss for a few minutes.  Just when I was ready to 
     put the headphones down, VK9GA came out of the noise.  One call, and 
     he was in the log.  Hmm.  Maybe I should check out the band.  Nothing. 
      Maybe I should call CQ, why not - 20 and 40m were manned, and 80m was 
     flat.  After a few CQs, a JA called!  Then another, and another.  You 
     get the point - I was running JAs (maybe not RUNNING, but working them 
     non the less).  Then I worked some nice exotic Asian stuff.  This was 
     neat.  The opening into Asia and the Pacific lasted until 1:30 local.  
     The moral of the story:  the band  isnt dead until the contest is 
     over.

     10m:  We actually expected more from this band based on the WPX SSB 
     score (WM2C callsign was used).  Sporadic-E had been observed on a 
     regular basis for the past few weeks.  Propagation was often there, 
     but no one bothered to check out the band.

Just for laughs, I thought I would also attach part of our .TLK files..... 
you can't make this stuff up folks.  It all started in the wee hours of the 
night when WM2C needed some of the sugar coated donuts to keep him awake, 
and he spent 20 minutes looking all over the station, house, and car for 
the donuts (only to find them right on the counter...)  FYI:  W6RGG's 
energy weapon of choice was 6 quarts of chocolate milk...

Improper language was modifed

Station 1 is 40m w/ N4TQO op
Station 2 is 20m w/ W6RGG op
Station 4 is 15m w/ WM2C op
Station 5 is 80m w/ WM2C op

08:25 Stn  4:  who stole the f@#!ing donuts??
08:26 Stn  1:  no cursing on the network, pls..
08:27 Stn  4:  why, there might be minors listening?
08:27 Stn  4:  oh, i forgot this was a PG-13 network
08:33 Stn  1:  but where ARE the f@#!ing donuts, anyway???
08:34 Stn  5:  I guess they are being "holed" for ransom
08:35 Stn  1:  and you're next...
08:35 Stn  2:  If you guys were making contacts, there would be less yuks!
08:36 Stn  1:  sitting here with these Vietnamese cab drivers on 40 LSB..
08:37 Stn  1:  and I suppose you're full of the chocolate milk of human 
kindness..
08:51 Stn  1:  the taxi drivers are doing barbershop quartet now..nice..
08:56 Stn  2:  If I tell you where the donuts are, what+s in it for me?
08:57 Stn  5:  life itself
08:57 Stn  1:  you get to keep all your body parts, Bob.
09:03 Stn  5:  maybe the donuts made a hole in one, and we lost them all
09:04 Stn  1:  where is Bafoofnik when we need him?

I guess it was funny at the time.

73, WM2C

ken.silverman at airtouch.com