[3830] IARU K1ZD/WRTC M/S LP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: K1ZD/WRTC
Operator(s): K1ZZ, KA1ZD, K1CC
Station: K1ZD

Class: M/S LP
QTH: Wrentham, MA 
Operating Time (hrs): 22.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:     0     0      0        0
   80:   168    16     22       18
   40:   345    68     48       31
   20:   474   161     69       50
   15:   317   167     63       47
   10:    71    15     16       18
-------------------------------------
Total:  1375   427    218      164  Total Score = 2,274,428

Club: 

Comments:

2014 WRTC test site

We were one of 14 stations operating in IARU WRTC-style in preparation for
WRTC-2014.   

Ops:  Dave K1ZZ, Rich K1CC, Linda KA1ZD (Dave's wife).   Linda operated 15
phone for an hour and a half Saturday morning.

We operated using WRTC rules (M/2 setup) with DXCC countries instead of zones. 
No internet, no DX Cluster, no super-check-partial, no second VFO. 

Station:
 
• K3 + IC-756ProIII 
• Cycle 24 TX38 tribander @ 40’
• Inv-V’s for 40 & 80 @ 38’
• INRAD triplexer with INRAD bandpass filters 
• N1MM Logger with WRTC scoring
• 6x2 manual switching

K1ZZ and KA1ZD operated the K3, K1CC on the ProIII.   Band isolation was
perfect, absolutely no interstation interference.    Dave ended up doing a lot
of 15, I did more 20 and 10, at night he did most of the 40, I did 80.   There
was no real operating plan, we just changed bands and modes as needed.  It was
great fun operating, with no Internet distraction and no operating aids, just
old-school skills at finding multipliers, catching openings and maximizing
rate.

The operating site was in the corner of a town-owned recreational area in
Wrentham, MA.   It was a very low noise location and very accessible for a
Field Day style setup.   I was looking forward to this "back to the roots"
experience of operating, though with some apprehension about our ability to
maintain a frequency and be heard through the European QRM.    The first 8
hours were exactly that.   The Europeans had a lot of short skip and breaking
through the wall of QRM required multiple calls and 100% S&P'ing.   Signals
were low angle and our puny antenna and low power just didn't cut it.   Once 20
opened at 20Z (the afternoon opening), the signals got loud and stable and our
low tribander suddenly kicked in.  At that point the rates jumped up and we
could actually call CQ and be heard. 

We worked a JA on 20 and 15 in the first hour, heard JA's on 40 but not much
else over the pole all weekend.    We anticipated the solar flare to disrupt
things at any moment but that didn't happen until 6-7 hours before the end of
the contest when all we could work was US stations.   At 0730Z we were both
getting very tired, considering we spent all day Friday putting up the tent,
antennas and setting up the station and hadn't taken any breaks.   We were also
running low on gas in the generator so we shut everything down and went to our
cars to take a short nap (no alarm clock!).    An hour and a half later I woke
up in daylight, cold and shivering.   We probably didn't miss much, it was just
US stations until the end of the contest.

The low bands were surprisingly good and very quiet.   We got to 80 early and
had no trouble working all the Europeans with our 100W and 38 ft inv-V’s --
welcome to New England! 

Thanks to all the guys from the WRTC Committee for this huge undertaking and
Igor N1YX and his support team in getting the antennas and tents up on Friday
and tearing down on Sunday.    We managed to avoid thunderstorms and rain and
we survived the high 80's temperatures and humidity in the tent.  Also thanks
to Jay W1UJ at the WRTC site across the street who helped us network our
computers on Friday night.   

--- Rich K1CC


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