[3830] WPX CW G5W(@G3BJ) M/2 HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: G5W
Operator(s): G2NF G3BJ G3XTT G4DRS
Station: G3BJ

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Woolston
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   77
   80:  441
   40: 1132
   20: 1925
   15: 1567
   10:  138
------------
Total: 5280  Prefixes = 1419  Total Score = 17,933,322

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

An interesting contest here. We were M2 with four operators - G2NF, G3XTT, G4DRS
and myself. LF conditions seemed a little down on last year at the start, with
80/160 seeming to have high absorption. HF however went well over the first
night, as did 40.  We found out early Saturday morning that although the K9AY
was working fine, the feeder to the beverages had been attacked by the furry
friends - repaired during the day on Saturday.

We found the "targets" facility on Win-Test to be a great motivator.
We had loaded last year's results as a baseline, and it was interesting to
watch the effect of having the cumulative points difference permanently
displayed as a graph on the screens. We tried very hard not to drop below the
line of any advantage gained in the previous hour, and this I think influenced
the operating strategy a bit.

WinTest performed faultlessly again. We have cracked the slurred CW problem
which seemed to be an issue last year with the Microham and the EZMaster, by
having a separate cluster server delivering the spots to the Win-Test network.
The CW was very even with no function key delays.  The rest of the equipment
seems to have bedded in well, and was fine. We found a silly issue with the
selector for the 80m antennas on one rig, which did not seem to operate first
time, and required the FT5000 to be changed from VFO A to B and back to get it
to respond. Investigation needed.

The new dual band BPF for 80 and 160 for the receive antennas worked very well
(thanks Mike, G3WPH) and it was a pleasure to have the gain balanced between
main antenna and receive antennas, so that switching between them did not need
any change in FT5K settings, thanks to low noise high dynamic range pre-amps
after the two outputs of the filter. So the effect of switching in the receive
antennas was simply a very significant drop in background noise.

In terms of results, it was fairly close to last year. We improved about 10% in
overall score, and this was as a result of several small movements: Points per
QSO (up 2.3%) multiplier numbers (up 4%) and QSOs (up 2.6%). We won't be high
in Europe because of the "Northern Europe" effect, but it was a fun
contest. Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and to the team for travelling to
Shoprshire for the weekend.

Usual equipment: 2 x FT5000 + linears, 3 HF yagis (one inc 40m), dipoles,
Titanex vertical, K9AY and beverages.

73

Don, G3BJ


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