[SECC] Some Ideas About Operating CQ WPX

[John Laney]

Hope everyone will be in CQ WPX this weekend as much as possible.  For 
the club aggregate score competition, be sure that your Cabrillo header 
shows for your club:  "South East Contest Club."

Note that maximum operating time for single ops is 36 hours.  Most of us 
will not be able to put in that much time, but if you are getting close 
note that off-times must be at least one hour.  If your last QSO is at 
0000Z, for example, do not make your next QSO before 0101Z or it won't 
count as an off period.

The CQ Magazine's major contest circle is what determines eligibility 
for SECC club members credit, so that means that K2SX and others who are 
outside the ARRL smaller circle are inside our circle. See the website 
for the circle if in doubt.  The circle limit for US clubs is 250 mile 
radius from the center of the club area.

This is a contest that will improve your CW copying skills more so that 
some of the other major CW contests, as you must receive and send 
accurately your serial number.  Begin with one.  Except for leading 
zeros, it is a bad idea to use cut numbers in the serial #s.  Most 
everyone will send "5NN" for the report part of the exchange.  If 
someone sends you something else, such as 579, record what you actually 
receive.

For the most part, CQ WPX is a rate contest.  You don't need to work 
marginal bands as the multipliers count only once in the contest, not 
per band.  You may work each station on each band for QSO points.  Note 
that except for same country QSOs, which count only one point no matter 
what band they are made on, QSOs on 160, 80, and 40M count twice as many 
points per QSO.  So, this means that you should be on the lower bands, 
particularly 40M, during the hours that you can work other countries on 
that band unless you can double your QSO rate on 20 or a higher band.

Surprisingly, for the end of May, 80M has been pretty good the past few 
weeks.  I will probably even take a listen on 160M, but, unless you 
encounter a new multiplier there or unless your rate on 80 or higher is 
practically zero, you will be losing time on that band. But, some 
stations will enter single op 160M and a quick pass across the band a 
couple of times during the night might be worthwhile.

10M has been almost dead lately, but this time of year often brings Es 
propagation, so, if you are working mostly same country QSOs, it may pay 
to check 10M from time to time.  I usually check every 15 to 30 minutes 
after sunrise.  15 and 20M have been pretty poor lately, but those are 
your bands of choice during daylight.

Because of the multiplier structure, you will want to CQ and run as much 
as possible.  The multipliers will call you.

In almost every contest, your CQ replies will drop, particularly on the 
second day, and you will want to do some S&P.  If you don't do both run 
and S&P, you will not work some stations who are doing only one or the 
other and not both.  If you are doing S&P and a station who is not a new 
prefix multiplier doesn't answer you on the first call (and if you don't 
need his QSO for an award of some kind), it's best to move on to the 
next station and not wait in line for a station who will give you only 
QSO points.  But, if the CQing station would be a new prefix multiplier, 
I'd call a few times before moving on.  If it is a new multiplier, it 
would be a good idea to put his frequency in a memory channel and come 
back for the multiplier later.

Most of what I have said applies to unassisted stations.  If you will be 
assisted, you will point and shoot on any band you have an antenna for. 
  If you are running, remember that it isn't necessary to crowd the 
lower edge of the band any more, since the RBN stations will report you 
most anywhere on the CW band.  (Some have broader coverage than others.) 
  If you call CQ TEST anywhere in the CW parts of the bands, you should 
be reported in RBN and on the spotting networks.  Most activity will 
take part in the bottom 100 kHz of the bands, but if conditions are 
good, you will find some stations above 21100, 28100, and even 14100. 
For CQing, you may find that the frequencies often used by RTTY and 
other digital stations might best be avoided.  You will find a lot of 
digital stations between 7037 and 7045 kHz and 14070 and above on 20M. 
Fortunately, there are no major RTTY contests this weekend.

If your rate of answers falls, you might consider slowing your speed a 
bit or even raising your speed a little if you are already sending 
slower than the average.

If you are new to CW or are rusty on CW, one good S&P technique is to 
copy the number of the station you are listening to.  You will know what 
his next number is likely to be and that will help you in copying his 
number sent to you.  Ask for a repeat of the number if you are not sure 
of what was sent to you.  SO2R stations and perhaps some multi op 
stations may not always send consecutive numbers.  Log what you hear is 
always a good practice.  When I am doing S&P, I put the serial number I 
hear the CQing station give in my exchange box plus one, so I have 
anticipated what number he may send to me.  I change that number up one 
if he answers someone else and I intend to stay and call him again.

If your goal is to contribute as many points as possible to a club 
score, you want to run the highest power that you can legally run.  If, 
instead, you want to compete as a low power station or a QRP station, 
you would reduce your power to the maximum permitted for your chosen 
category.  Always try to use an accurate watt meter.  The limit for LP 
is 100W and the limit for QRP is 5W.

Single ops use serial numbers starting with 001.  M/2 and M/M stations 
use a separate number sequence on each band.

There are special over-lay categories in this contest and you would want 
to include the appropriate overlay category in your Cabrillo header.  An 
operator licensed 3 years or less on the contest date who has not 
previously won a plaque in a CQ contest is eligible for the "Rookie" 
overlay category.  Most of us qualify for the TB-WIRES (tribander-wires) 
overlay category.  You must have a single feedline tribander or lesser 
antenna on 20, 15, and 10 and siingle-element antennas on the low bands.

If you use any spotting assistance, you must enter in the "Assisted" 
category.  No problem with that.  Just enter the category that 
represents how you operated during the contest.  If you monitored DX 
summit or any spotting site or chatroom or accepted operating assistance 
from others, enter as "assisted."  Even in the "assisted" categories, 
you may not spot yourself.  And do not ask others to spot you as that is 
also specifically prohibited in the rules.

You may operate a remote station.  Your location is the location of the 
remote station, not your personal location.  You may not use a remote 
receive only site.

Please submit your Cabrillo format promptly to cw at cqwpx.com.  The 
deadline is 2359Z June 3 (8 PM EDT Friday after the contest).  It would 
be helpful to me if you also posted your claimed score to 3830.  Do a 
computer search for "3830scores.com" and you will find a webpage.  At 
the left top, you will find a list of current contests. Click on CQ WPX 
CW and a form will appear which you should carefully complete and then 
click "submit."  If you find an error after submission, you may submit a 
corrected summary in the same fashion.  This is NOT a substitute for 
sending a log to the sponsors.  It does make your claimed score 
available for viewing on 3830score.com.  You can click on the contest in 
the list that goes across the top of the page and your score should 
appear immediately.  If it doesn't, it is probably because you clicked 
on one of those contests before clicking on the contest submission page. 
  In that case, simply refresh or exit and go to the page a second time. 
  You can do a search for "3830 archives" and see the scores submitted 
in a chronological order and do other searches of the data base.  The 
scores on 3830 archive may appear a little later than they will on 
3830scores.com.

If there are other questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me.

Hope everyone has a lot of fun this weekend and a lot of QSOs.  I plan 
to be QRV from home and KU8E will also.  N4XL will be QRV from his QTH 
in SC.  Paul, N4PN, will be at his house, but he will be signing NM1G. 
I am sure a lot more of our group will be active who have not 
specifically said so to me.

73, John, K4BAI.