[3830] W4ZW Field Day 98 Tamiami ARC 1A QRP

[Richard Boyd]

Field Day categories can be confusing.  The B in 1B has nothing to do with
batteries.  B is one or two man portable.  A is three or more than three-man
portable.  C is mobile, D is home station on commercial power, E is home (or
permanent if not "home") station on emergency power.

I have never viewed 1A 5 watt battery as part of the 1A category.  I view
them as separate categories.  That is, 1A 100 watt level is a different
category entirely from 1A 5 watt battery, though the same 1A is given in the
exchange.  But in the results 1A is 1A, 1A batt. is 1A batt.  Doing it any
other way doesn't make sense, since the scoring is heavily skewed toward 5
watt battery, the 5 multiplier.

Likewise, I call the cross category top 10 box on the first page of the FD
writeup "the apples and oranges top 10."  To me the biggest challenge is to
win a competitive category, to repeat as a competitive category winner, and
to go for the category record.  73 - Rich, KE3Q
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon, W4ZW <w4zw at home.com>
To: 3830 at contesting.com <3830 at contesting.com>
Date: Thursday, July 02, 1998 3:23 PM
Subject: [3830] W4ZW Field Day 98 Tamiami ARC 1A QRP


>
>TAMIAMI AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, Venice, FL
>
>      Call: W4ZW                     Category: 1A
>
>      BAND   CW QSO  CW QSO PTS   SSB QSO  SSB QSO PTS
>
>
> 80       23     230             0       0
> 40       90     900             0       0
> 20      243    2430             8      40
> 15      260    2600            56     280
> 10       28     280             2      10
>       --------------------------------------------
>
>               644            +        66     =    710 Total QSO
>
>(6440 CW QSO PTS + 330 SSB QSO PTS) X 5 POWER MULTIPLIER + 400 BONUS =
7,170
>Operator List: W4ZW, W9ATV, N8ZKP, KD4SOJ
>
>Equipment Description: IC-756 @5W; 80M Delta Loop, 80M Bobtail
> 40M Bi-square, 4 element tribander
>
>Club Affiliation: Tamiami Amateur Radio Club, Venice, Florida
>
>The weather cooperated with us for this year's Field Day!  After
threatening
>thunderstorms, it just turned out to be VERY HOT!    The location was the
>same as last year on Casey Key Island next to the public beach.  This year
>we tried the QRP, battery category, and judging from the work to make
QSO's,
>it may be our last.  We used three large capacity, deep cycle, marine
>batteries and they worked very well.  This power level is about 13db (or 2
>S-units) down from the normal 100 watts, but our antenna gain helped our
>signal enormously, especially on the higher bands.
>
>Many of us have operated QRP at one time or another, but let me tell you
>that doing it during a contest is a real experience!  It was frustrating to
>call stations repeatedly and have them CQ in your face.  Added to this was
>the extremely high noise level on 40 and 80 during the night due to the
>massive thunderstorms across the central and northeastern states.   But
when
>15 and 20 were open and the path was in, it was even possible to run on a
>frequency.  But Search and Pounce was the normal mode of operation.
>Sometimes it was easier to call CQ on a clear frequency since if we got a
>call that meant they could hear us!
>
>Our goal this year was 700 contacts as a QRP entry and we just succeeded!
>We made 644 CW contacts and 66 SSB contacts for a total of 710 QSO's.  With
>our low power multiplier and bonus points, our final score was 7,170 which
>is quite good for our 1A class.  Last year we made 1097 contacts for a
final
>score of 4,980 in the same 1A class, and in 1996 we had 920 contacts for a
>score of 4,090 also in 1A class.   So even though our number of contacts
was
>much lower this year, our score improved by using low power and high gain
>antennas.    We had some confusion during the contest about our class since
>we started as 1A and about midway through a 1B (Battery) station told us we
>should be 1B if we were battery operated and not 1A.  So we changed our
>exchange to 1B.  After reviewing the definitions, we are 1A since this is
>the Club entry category.  1B is for a non-club battery entry.
>
>Jon Hamlet, W4ZW
>Casey Key Island, Florida
>
>"A little bit of paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"
>
>--
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>Problems:                 owner-3830 at contesting.com
>
>


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