[3830] IARU W1AW/5 Headquarters HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: W1AW/5
Operator(s): N2IC N5RZ K5RZA AA5B N5IA K5TA WA5TYJ K8TE
Station: W1AW/5

Class: Headquarters HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:   111      3    10        3
   80:   457     55    24       17
   40:  1049    604    37       45
   20:  1112   1973    44       61
   15:   419    244    30       41
   10:    27     12     7        1
-------------------------------------
Total:  3175   2891   152      168  Total Score = 5,655,040

Club: 

Comments:

First of all, thank you to Dave Sumner, K1ZZ and Dave Patton, NN1N, for giving
New Mexico the honor and privilege of representing the ARRL in the IARU HF
contest. It was great fun for the team to be on the "receiving end"
of a HQ multiplier !

We had many challenges to overcome. New Mexico does not have a large number of
contesters and big contesting stations.  As a result, we had a thin, but
dedicated crew to cover all the bands and modes. July is the start of the
monsoon in New Mexico. Yes, the southwest USA has a yearly monsoon season, just
like other better known parts of the world ! It is common to have slow moving
thunderstorms almost every day. Even without overhead storms, the QRN level on
the low bands is extreme. Did I mention that for the first 12 hours,
propagation was terrible ?

160 meters was covered by Milt, N5IA, operating from N5BG. Milt was a little
late getting started in the evening due to the wedding of his daughter on
Saturday !

Ralph, N5RZ, travelled from Texas to put on the 80 CW show from the QTH of
N2IC. Ralph did a great job, even working a number of European HQ multipliers.
Not an easy task from New Mexico in July.

Steve, N2IC, covered 40 CW. Conditions were surprisingly good, although I'm
sorry there were many stations that could not be pulled through the QRN.

40 SSB was covered by Bill, K8TE, from his home station, and Deborah, K5RZA,
operating from N2IC. 

Scott, K5TA, gets the iron man award for single-handedly covering 20 CW for the
entire 24 hours !

20 SSB has handled by Bruce, AA5B, during the daytime, and Denis, WA5TYJ,
during the nighttime. Bruce joined the team at the N2IC QTH and had a great
rate all day. Denis is a new contester, who was bitten by the bug during the
W1AW/5 centennial operation last year. Welcome aboard, Denis !

15 CW was managed by Ralph, N5RZ and Steve, N2IC.

15 SSB was covered by a number of folks and stations. More on that later.

Bill, K8TE, pounded away on 10 CW, while Deborah, K5RZA, spent hours CQing on
SSB on a dead 10 meter band. Simply no Sporadic E here for the entire 24
hours.

Our already small team was stretched even more, when a major storm knocked out
parts of the power grid in extreme southern New Mexico. Dave, WD5COV, assisted
by Rick, W5CF and Paul, KW7D, were all set to put on a great show on 80 SSB and
15 SSB. Unfortunately, they had no power for over 48 hours, including the entire
contest period ! That left the rest of the team scrambling to provide at least
some coverage.

Despite the challenges, we all had a great time (except for WD5COV :( ), and
did the best we could to fill the holes and get W1AW/5 into your logs.

73,
Steve, N2IC


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