W5WW SOAPBOX M/S 1997 WPX RTTY Claimed Score

[Reid Bannon, N5MTS]

IDRA WPX CONTEST

CALL USED:  W5WW
LOCATION:   North Texas

ENTRY CLASS:  MULTI OP,  ALL BAND,  HIGH POWER

BAND    QSO's   	PTS     MULTS
--------------------------------------------------------------
80	113	280
40	246	726
20	425	767
15	139	201
10	0	0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL	923	1974	311

Prefixes counted only once  (not once per band)

SCORE:  611,940
---------------------------

Equipment:

TS-850SAT
BTI LK-2000 3-1000 Amplifier
K6STI RITTY Version 2.0 Prerelease
WF1B RTTY Version H

Ops:

N5MTS - Reid
K5MR - Steve
W5WW - Brent
KI5PA - Bill (bailed out)

Location:

K5MR - Gunter, Texas

Soapbox:

This was the first contest using the W5WW call, looks like it worked pretty
well.   Reid and I had done the ARRL RTTY Roundup from my QTH last year and
we wanted to give HP a try this time.  K5MR was kind enough to let us use
his QTH for the test.  The two weeks before the contest, I decided to buy
K6STI's RITTY software instead of using Reid's PK-232.  Reid and I tinkered
around with the software for the next couple of days.  With some great help
from VE3WQ and K6STI on the air, we got things ironed out (Thanks guys!).
During the contest everything 
worked to perfection, except for RTTY kicking us out every hundred QSO's
because of my new callsign (old call was KI5JC).  But other than that,
everything chugged right along.  Band conditions were very good, we had good
propagation to JA on Friday and Saturday evening.  Sunday we had good
openings into EU.  Best contacts 
were when we called by a V85 and 9X4WW on 20M Saturday and working S57DX on
80M Sunday before our sunset.  Had the usual problem of someone trying to
take our run frequency twice, and ACTOR/AMTOR/CLOVER firing up on freq.
Other than that, everyone was very well mannered.  The BTI amp is a real
workhorse, it also makes for a good heater.  When we were on 15M, the power
supply got very hot and smelled like an old Lionel train transformer.  But
it was able to crank out 1500 W the whole time.  

Also of note, we went through the whole contest using only one radio, one
PC, one logging program, and one TNC program.  We did not monitor/make
contacts using an extra radio.

Thanks to everyone who worked us and hopefully well see you again next year.

		73 de W5WW and crew

P.S. Looks like I had better gets some QSL cards printed!




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