[3830] CQ WPX SSB NK7U M/M HP

k7zo at micron.net k7zo at micron.net
Wed Mar 29 09:03:53 EST 2000


                     CQ WW WPX - SSB
                    
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): 
Station: 

Class: M/M  Power: HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): ~36

Summary:
 Band     QSOs
-------------------------------
  160:     27
   80:    145
   40:    120
   20:    796
   15:   1871
   10:   1372
-------------------------------
Total:   4331 x   1110  =  11,691,639

Club: Snake River Contest Club

Comments:

          2000 CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest

CALL: NK7U                        LOCATION: Oregon
CLASS: Multi-operator/Multi-transmitter

Band     QSOs    QSO points Prefixes
160m:      27     42             2  1/4 wave ground plane
80m:      145    274            30  3 element yagi @ 180'
40m:      120    493            24  4/4 @ 180/90’
20m:      796   1898           316  5/5/5/5 EU, 6/6 rotating
15m:     1871   4809           448  6/6/6/6 EU, 4/4/4/4 JA,
                                    6/6 rotating
10m:     1372   3017           290  5/5/5/5/ JA, 7/7 rotating
         ====   ====           ===
Totals:  4331  10533           1110  11,691,630

Operators: NK7U, K7ZO, K7MK, W7ZRC, KC7DPD, KD7CB

Last year Team NK7U mounted a major Competitive Class M/M effort for WPX SSB and placed third in the US. This year we decided to pioneer a new approach in M/M contesting with what we called the Leisure Class. For those of you wondering about how you might duplicate our contesting philosophy we offer the following Users Guide to proper Leisure Class M/M contesting.

Competitive: Stay up all night trying to work JA 6 point QSO’s on 
             40M and 80M.
Leisure:     Go to bed about 11PM and get a good night’s sleep.

Competitive: Eat a carefully balanced diet and be careful what you 
             drink.
Leisure:     Send someone to Dairy Queen to bring back a six pack of
             their giant sized deserts.  Feel like having a beer? 
             Hey it must be 5PM somewhere!

Competitive: Glue yourself to the operating chair for 12 hours 
             straight
Leisure:     Hey it’s a nice day outside. Grab a chair, put it on 
             the porch and take a nap. Or, take a walk around the 
             towers imagining radio waves from around the world 
             being sucked into the yagis.

Competitive: Rate, rate, rate, rate.
Leisure:     An HS calls in at 4AM his time on 15M saying you are 20 
             over 9. Chat with him a while about HS, his rig and 
             antennas, his experience in contesting, and if he knows 
             HS0/G4UAV. 

Competitive: Post someone on 40M all day to work 10 Q’s an hour from 
             folks that causally tune by.
Leisure:     Sounds as much fun as getting your teeth pulled, I’ve 
             got better things to do with my time. Anyone want me to 
             run into town and bring back some burgers?

Another innovation of the NK7U team this year was the active use of a SpyCam. Pioneered possibly by the K1TTT team in ARRL CW this year, K7MK lead our effort to provide a video feed of our operating efforts. Based on the on-air and on-line feedback we received it was a big hit among many of you. Perhaps the most memorable shot posted was what will be known forever as the “Big Butt in Baker”. For those of you that voiced their concern, K5ZD or AA4NC we can’t remember for sure, yes we think we have solved our Butt problem. We hope you enjoyed both our inside and outside shots. K7MK was an Energizer Bunny when it came to moving the camera around for different shots over the weekend. For those of you that asked for live streaming audio, maybe next time. We do have a issue that there is not a broadband connection to NK7U, so we are bandwidth challenged. If someone can provide a solution we will implement it for CQWW this fall.

Seriously though, our observations and comments include:
* We really only had four full time Leisure class operators running three stations. Two of our operators were part time. Though reading that KM3T did their score with the equivalent of 2 1/2 full time operators is amazing. Originally we has though about naming our strategy “Operator Limited Leisure M/M Class” but that is probably not appropriate now. We feel bad that the west coast relinquished their first place finish from last year when WT6V at N6RO took the crown. WPX is one of the very few contests where the west coast has a chance of winning. 
* Congrats to KI7Y at W7RM who (we think) recaptured the Pacific Northwest M/M title from us. Of course it took several of the operators from our 1999 team defecting to W7RM to do it. As one of them said to us: “Glad to know I will be on the winning team again!” Bah Humbug.
* Having one of our up and coming operators, KC7DPD, make that breakthrough from a S&P to a Running contester. He put long hours in the chair and by the end was able to keep up with the best of us.
* Wow was it fun to have 15M and 20M open so late. 15M was open to both JA and EU at the same time for a couple of hours. Luckily NK7U has fixed stacks for both so it is as easy as flipping a switch to keep working both regions. Sunday afternoon we worked several stateside stations on 15M with very pronounced echoes indicating both short and long path propagation. I commented on this to one, K5TR if I remember, and he replied: “you should hear your signal!” Wish I could have. 
* 10M on the west coast was a big washout on Saturday toward Europe. Several others have noted a general dip in 10M performance on Saturday due to a flare. Well for us in the Pacific Northwest is was a disaster.  We had only 30 or so Q’s into Europe on Saturday on 10M, with most into EA/CT/I. The high latitude path was just not there. Pictures on the Internet seemed to confirm a fairly active auroral zone blocking our EU path. Sunday on the other hand was unbelievable with us making QSO’s into EU 4 hours or more after their local sunset. If was the absolute best conditions any of us have ever encountered. We may have had some of the late night 10M openings noted by others, but per the operating rules in the Leisure class, we were sleeping. Also our operating into Europe was done on a single 7 element yagi at 60’. The 6/6/6/6 stack is still on the ground.
* VQ9GB blew me out of the chair with an absolutely rock crushing signal calling in on 15M. 
* Breaking the 5A23PA pileup on 10M on the first call.
* Our prefix multiplier total was only 16 less than last year on about 720 less QSO’s. 
* We were really hoping for a 2,000 QSO performance on 15M but it was just not to be. That would have been a first for any NK7U operation.
* We agree, those CB interlopers on 10M sure are funny aren’t they. About as funny as a migraine.

That’s all for now. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or comments, send them my way.

Scott/K7ZO and one of the NK7U gang
K7zo at micron.net



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