[3830] WAE RTTY WS7I/4(@W4AAW) M/S HP

[webform at b4h.net]

WAE DX Contest, RTTY

Call: WS7I/4
Operator(s): AA5AU KJ0D MM0LID N1MGO W4AAW W4TMO W6IHG WS7I
Station: W4AAW

Class: M/S HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Remote Operation

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   QTCs  Mults
-------------------------------
   80:  147   147         184
   40:  481   481   438   255
   20:  696   696  1232   202
   15:  101   101   125   124
   10:   18    18          36
-------------------------------
Total: 1443  1443  1795   801  Total Score = 2,593,638

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Only one word to describe this one - WOW!  A Totally Remote effort.

With a solar flux of 78, an A index of 19 and the K at 3, (and later A=23,
K=4) you would not expect these kind of numbers to produce record scores
especially for a contest that has been around for 44 years (the first WAE
RTTY Contest was in 1972). But at 1542Z on Sunday, Team W4AAW operating
remotely as WS7I/4, unofficially went past the current North American
Multi-Single record of 2,071,144 points set by W0LSD in 2012. From there we
willed 20 meters to continue to produce QSOs and QTCs and the band didn't
let us down. We had to rely mainly on 20 on Sunday because 10 and 15 were
dead for all practical purposes and we had already sucked them dry of
multipliers. Europe did eventually start going away on 20 but the damage was
done - we had destroyed 20 meters and obliterated the old record.

Yes, 20 was the money band but it was only good when the sun was up. At
night, the low bands were pretty good to us too. 40 meters produced
excellent runs into Europe and 80 produced an abundance of European
multipliers to boot. 15 was good briefly on Saturday and there were good
multipliers found on 10. However, both 10 & 15 suffered terribly from the
horrible numbers.

What makes this result so satisfying is how it came to be. Earlier this
year, Mike W4AAW, started assembling a group of gung ho RTTY contesters to
operate his totally remote contest station. Over the course of just a few
months, we seemed to have figured out this remote contesting thing (or so we
think), and now have unofficially set two North American records in a row
(also JARTS last month). But this story isn't so much about the operators
listed below, who turned in a gutsy performance this weekend, but it's more
about the other operators on this team - the CW and SSB guys - who welcomed
us into the fold and have played a major role in helping us get up to speed
by providing excellent technical support and donating top-line equipment.

To be commended are guys like John K3TN who furnished the K3 on position 2
and who did extensive load testing on the system before the contest to help
eliminate audio dropouts on the network. And Rick N1RM who recently supplied
the team with a new amplifier for position 3 so it could be identical to
position 1. Rick also supplies us with the VPN router configuration file for
all of us to connect remotely to the network. Rowland, K4XD, keeps our
website (remotecontesting.com) and its interactive operator schedule
up-to-date. I know there are others too and they all deserve a big thanks
from us hotshot RTTY contesters who seem to screw things up so often that
Mike must be pulling his hair out.

The Internet connection was solid the entire weekend and I'm not 100% sure
on this, but I don't think we blew anything up. Thanks to all the operators
who worked us and especially those who exchanged QTCs. We sure appreciate
it. Thanks to DARC for sponsoring the most interesting RTTY contest of the
year. QTCs are king! Thanks to Jay for allowing us to use his call.

Then there's the guy who puts it all together - the master of it all - Mike
W4AAW. Without his genius, we wouldn't get to have all this fun. It takes a
special kind of guy with considerable patience and top-notch technical skill
to put this whole package together each contest. Thank you Mike from all of
us remote RTTY contesting rookies who seem to go out of our way to make your
life miserable during RTTY contests.

Operators
AA5AU-Don    Louisiana
KJ0D-Eric    Missouri
MM0LID-Scott Scotland
N1MGO-Gordon Massachusetts
W4AAW-Mike   Virginia - Frankford Radio Club 
W4TMO-Jim    North Carolina - Potomac Valley Radio Club 
W6IHG-Jerry  Virginia - Potomac Valley Radio Club
WS7I-Jay     Washington State

73, Don AA5AU


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