[3830] N1VF, N14F, NJ4F WPX CW SCORE/STORY (LONG)

[Larry G Schimelpfenig]

           CQ WPX SUMMARY SHEET


    Contest Dates : 30-May-98, 31-May-98

    Callsign Used : NJ4F
     Station Used : NJ4F
    Band Captains : K1SE, K4EC, K4EU, K4GMH, K4ZW, K7SV, NJ4F, WA4JUK,
Daisy
         Category : Multi-Multi   
           Radios : 1 OMNI VI+, 1 TS940, 1 TRICKED C-LINE
             Amps : 1 HENRY 3K Classic, 1 TITAN, 1 L7
         Software : NA 10.21
             Club : Potomac Valley Radio Club



   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points    Antennas    

_________________________________________________________________________

  160CW       00          00         00      
   80CW      168         165        468     Dipole at 55' & Sloper
   40CW      713         699       2638     3EL Mosley
   20CW     1393        1350       3140     5/5 Hygain & 2EL Quad
   15CW      563         532       1308     5/5 NJ4F, 5EL Hygain & 2EL
Quad
   10CW       26          19         59     5/5/5 Hygain, 5EL Hygain &
Quad
 _____________________________________________________

 Totals     2863        2765       7613 X 829 MULTS


    Final Score = 6158917 points.

Excuses:  None. Nothing broke except propagation.  

The team: Several months ago, we decided to form the Rappahannock Valley
chapter of the Potomac Valley Radio Club. In the process we picked up 
K1SE, K4EU and WA4JUK as potential members. K4EC, K7SV and NJ4F have 
been doing m/s contesting from NJ4F since the early 90s. K4GMH has 
been part of the group in recent years, and K4ZW who had his antenna
farm torn appart joined us for this one. We haven't spent a lot of 
time with Bill K1SE or Steve K4EU yet, so can't give them much of a
hard time (yet). Frank K4EC (ex N4GUS) has been the computer whiz, and 
has grown to be an excellent cw contester over the years. Mike K4GMH is 
oriented towards RTTY, but does a great job with the original digital 
mode. Many of you will recognize the Call WA4JUK (Joe da cop!) because
he's active in almost every contest. K4ZW (ne KE9A) is a terrific op
who had the high score on 80 in this contest last year and has been
very competitive against the likes of K3ZO and KT3Y on all bands in
recent 
years (wait until he gets his two tower farm up!). Finally, there's 
Steve NJ4F who says he does this because he likes to see the guys have
fun. And they do.... But if that were really the case would he continue
trying to feed the crew grits for breakfast?

The Call: NJ4F sucks..... I'd really like to know how often we have been
logged as N1VF. I thought I had heard it all, but then someone had it as 
N14F in the ARRL CW DX test. Same happened to K4ZW during this one! I 
think (really really really hope) that Steve is shopping for a new call!

The Station: Normally configured for m/s or m/2, we decided to go m/m 
this time to allow the larger group to have fun. The TS940/Henry and
OMNI/Titan comprise the primary positions. The third station (C-Line/
L7) was thrown together in a back room. This third station had the 
80 meter dipole and a Butternut vertical for antennas. 

The Antennas: For a change, we weren't doing major antenna work on
Friday!
We completed the new 10 meter stack Wednesday evening and got a separate
feed to the 20 meter stack Thursday evening! While we have really
improved things over the years, there are still some limiting factors.
The first tower is 100 feet of Rohn 55 with the 3el 40 at the top, a pair
of 205CAs at 80 and 40 ft and a 155CA at 60 ft. The 80 m sloper is also 
on this tower. This tower rotates, which obviously presents advantages
and
disadvantages. Originally there was a single feed and a remote switch on 
it. The separate feed on the 20 stack helped a lot, but we still couldn't

use the 80 m sloper when we were on 40. The second tower is 80 feet of
Rohn 
45 with 10 feet of mast out the top. There is a 105CA at 90 ft, a stack
of 
2 wide spaced home brew 5 el 15s at 80 and 40 ft, and a stack of 3 105CAs

at something like 70, 50 and 30 feet. This tower is used a vertical on
160. 
The third tower is a 50-some foot crankup with a 2 el triband quad on it.

There is also a beverage on Eur.

The Contest: We didn't have any specific operating schedule. An hour 
before the start would find K4EC trying to get the third computer to 
network with the first two. He made up a nifty board with RJ45 connectors
to allow flexibility in the future. To make a long story short we never
did get the third computer on line with the first two. It helps to read
the directions (who us???) to know that you use loop not link when using
more than two pooters! We'll be ready for the next one (seems to me we're
always saying that about something!). Not having the new position linked
to the the other two resulted in problems with dupes, and in figuring
our final score. There's no point in repeating what everyone else has 
said about propagation. The two main position were manned 90% of the 
time, and the back room was probably manned 60% of the time.

I need to single out Joe (da cop) WA4JUK, because he provided endless 
entertainment and really helped the score.  The first thing I rememeber
is walking around the corner in the back room to find Joe perched on a
plastic bucket sitting on top of two phone books on the chair. To be
fair I have to admit that the operating position is on a workbench that
would normally be accessed while sitting on a stool, but Joe doesn't 
really sit tall in the saddle, so it was kind of funny. Between Friday
evening and Saturday morning, two donuts disappered from the food larder.
Joe was the first to say he didn't eat them, but then he wouldn't let us
use powdered sugar to dust for finger prints on the box. Sunday afternoon
Joe was on 20 while several others sat around gassing. All of a sudden 
Joe gets mad and wants to know why some idiot has fired up in a digital
mode on his frequency. One would think that Mike K4GMH Mr. RTTY)who was 
on 15 in the position right next to Joe would have informed him of the 
facts about operating around 14070! Regardless of all this, it was
amazing to see the number of Qs that were made from the makeshift station
using a fairly low dipole on 80, and most of them can be attributed to 
Joe. He didn't even have the beverage the first night. We got the
beverage
set up for the second night, but conditions didn't appear to be as good
as the first, and there was a good secondary opening to Eur on 20 so
activity was probably down on 80. Joe also milked ten for whatever he
could hear with the vertical and the same on 15. Joe's a great digger,
and once he figures out how to find a clear frequency below the nosebleed
part of the bands is going be just as great at runnin' em!

When we went into this thing we didn't know who we were competing
against. Now, a week later we know who those masked men were behind the
call KO6N. Our hat's off to the Oakley crew for besting the right coast.
W4MYA with a very short crew did a great job as always and the guys at 
WR3L were heard everywhere as well. Don't know of any other M/Ms in the
US. 

We had fun, and I expect we'll be back next year, better than ever.
Thanks
to Steve and Caroline for thier hospitality. And thanks to all of you
for providing our fun.

73 de Larry K7SV - lvschim at 1bigred.com

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