[SECC] CQWPX RTTY WX4TM SOABLP

[Tom Moore]

CQWPX RTTY 14-15 FEB 04

CALL: WX4TM

CATEGORY: SOABLP

BND      QSO      PTS      PREF
80M      103      250       19
40M      284      858      105
20M      445      764      125
15M      436     1000      158
10M       16       36        8

TOTAL   1284     2908      415

CLAIMED SCORE 1,206,820

Rig: new FT1000MP MV Field

Ants: TH5MKII triband at 50 ft, 40M dipole at 45 FT, full size 40M Vert
at 35FT, 80M dipole at 65FT, and full size gound mounted 80M Vert.

Max pwr authorized in this contest is 150 watts..  ran that using MP at
abt 10 watts into QRO HF2500DX
amp.. with front panel ALC holding output to exactly 150W.

SOAPBOX: Bettered last year's QSO total by 36 but missed last yrs points
by 159 and prefixes by 9.. so
missed last year's score by about 93K. At 6 pts ea, those 40/80M EU Q's
are really critical in this one.. and though I 'voluntarily' missed 5
prime 40/80M hrs by taking the wife to dinner and dancing for valentines
(sat pm), I still managed to get in the allowable 30 hrs even with one
hr to spare!

This was just the 2nd contest using the new FT1000MP Mark V Field..
(XERTTY was 1st).. and I had some minor learning curves on how best to
set it up.  Still don't have it the way I want it. The absence of 'all'
selectable filter options, like on the old FT-990 was pretty annoying.
I overcame this using a little 'MPfilters' utility that I found on the
FT1000 webb page on the internet. It allows precision/ timely selection
of filter settings but uses the same comm port as the radio-control port
in the Writelog contesting software which I didn't use with the FT990 so
didn't miss it here - even tho I had hoped to use radio control.  Am
sure there must be a better way to set up this radio so I can make use
of all the available Writelog contesting software features.

Tom WX4TM