[CQ-Contest] WRTC comments

[Lee, Thomas J.]

I must also echo N6NT's comments about signal equalization. 

As a referee in 1996, I observed first-hand the difficulty of creating equal
stations.  Although the organizers had obviously made an enormous effort to
level the playing field, the competitors I was with were assigned to a
station with very obvious handicaps.  Consequently, I was interested in
observing relative signal strengths of the various WRTC-2000 stations.

For fun, the gang at K8AZ decided to operate the contest focusing
exclusively on working the 53 WRTC teams.  Almost without exception, we
found that the signals were equivalent at comparable times;  when 15 & 20
were really open, the stations were almost all S9.  And the minor variations
in signal strength could easily be explained by beam headings during times
when the competitors may have been beaming somewhere other than NA.  

Our effort resulted in 212 WRTC QSO's.  We had only a brief opening on 10m
Sunday morning, which resulted in 4 Qs, and we did manage to break through
the EU QRM on 40 CW for 22 Qs, but had no Qs on 40 SSB or on 80m.  (80m
conditions were poor -- even close to S5 sunrise, the EU HQ stations were
barely above the noise).

I also reiterate Bruce's concerns about the callsign accuracy of some of the
competitors.  My guess would be that at least 1/2 of the guys signed their
call every QSO, and that many more signed at least every other Q.  But some
signed only when the pileup died.  Of great interest to me was the number of
guys that we worked who were mis-spotted on the US and EU DXpacket clusters.
We often found that stations were spotted with transposed numbers or with
other minor errors.  This almost always seemed to happen with guys that were
not signing frequently.  Our practice was to work the station -- whoever he
really was -- and then try to get a valid callsign.  Often this proved
difficult;  moreover whenever the guy we worked turned out to be a dupe, the
dupe was not acknowledged.  (Not a problem, I suppose, with computer logging
-- but it should have immediately tipped the operator that we thought he was
someone else (we have a computer too!)  Listening to the pileups on several
of the mis-spotted guys, I am certain that they had dozens (maybe hundreds)
of QSOs with stations who did not log their calls correctly.  

With the immediate e-mail log submission encouraged by the committee, it
will be very interesting to see how much of this shakes out & changes the
claimed scores.  Maybe someone will obtain a dump from the various packet
clusters and see how much the erroneous spots actually cost the guys who
elected not to sign more frequently.

On a separate note, from my discussions with several competitors before the
contest, it appears that the S5 committee has set a standard that will be
difficult or impossible for future hosts to match.  The competitors were
treated with the kinds of ceremonies and events that Olympic athletes talk
of, and the warmth and hospitality displayed was overwhelming.
Congratulations to the S5 committee for a job superbly done.

73,
Tom, K8AZ


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>From Igor Sokolov" <ua9cdc at dialup.mplik.ru  Mon Jul 10 20:47:46 2000
From: Igor Sokolov" <ua9cdc at dialup.mplik.ru (Igor Sokolov)
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 01:47:46 +0600
Subject: [CQ-Contest] WRTC from the West Coast
References: <002001bfea03$a868b8a0$62028ecf at fpfzqlga>
Message-ID: <008f01bfeaa7$e84a88a0$814dfea9 at dialup.mplik.ru>


> run the locals at a rapid clip.  Those stations were S5333G, S544Z, S571W,
> S576K, and S583D.

All of the above except S583D are in my log amongst the 47 contacts with
WRTC participants I have made. I did make 5 qso even on 80 meters but none
on 10 (I only worked in the contest on Saturday and went to bed Sunday
morning before the 10m band got opened).
RK9CWW worked 52 out of 53 participants but they used packet cluster being
M/S.
While most of the WRTC teams were worming up on Friday I have tried to call
them with just 5 watts out to see how well they can hear. Almost all of them
had very good ears (that includes some contacts on 40m with 5W and single el
delta loop).
In the contest though the differences became more pronounced. Some of the
ops were really Top Notch and some seemed about average in speed, reactance
and accuracy.
The bottom line - the event was very well managed and having sent my log for
the cross checking I will be anxiously waiting for the final results.


73,
Igor, UA9CDC


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