[SESprint] SECC & Friends Teams for CWOpen 2016

[John Laney]

The first session of CWOpen for this year begins in about five hours, at 
0000Z Saturday and runs until 0359Z Saturday.  I still could use up to 
five team members if anyone would still like to be on a team.  At this 
time, I have two full teams of 10 each plus five more.  I am not 
registering the teams yet, hoping to hear that Don, W4OC can join a 
team.  So, if you can be QRV tomorrow for one or more sessions and would 
like to be on a team, please e-mail me right away.

Some more or less random thoughts on CWOpen this year. The first session 
will start at 0000Z.  At that time and for a few hours afterward 15 and 
20 meters may be open for DX and domestic QSOs.  I'd start on the 
highest open band and work down the bands.  If your goal is to maximize 
your individual score and the score of your team, use as much power as 
you can legally use.  There are three power levels of competition:  QRP 
up to 5W.  LP up to 100W.  HP up to 1500W.  Generally speaking, the more 
power you run, the higher your score can be if everything else is equal. 
  While it is fun to work rare DX, the scoring for this contest rewards 
the number of QSOs and the number of unique calls in your log per 
session.  The three sessions are scores separately and your scores for 
each session are added together to obtain an over-all score.  There are 
nice plaques offered for each power level in each ITU Region (not each 
zone) for each session and for the combined scores for all sessions.  To 
be awarded a trophy, the log must contain at least 100 QSOs after log 
checking.

Read and understand the rules.  The rules permit you to use an open 
packet spot site or RBN networks and skimmers, but prohibit other types 
of assistance.  There is no multi op category, so operate alone.  In 
deciding how many times to call a station before moving on to another 
frequency, remember that unique calls are multipliers, so you might want 
to call longer for someone you haven't already worked in a given session 
than someone you have already worked on another band.

40M may well be the big band in this first session.   Any frequency in 
the CW bands is permissible for operation.  I imagine the "usual" CWT 
frequencies of 7027 to 7045 or so will be the most active and the same 
on most bands.  But, you may use any legal CW frequency.  And you may 
work any other CW station who will give you an exchange (QSO# and name). 
  80M will also likely be good as long as QRN from the passing hurricane 
isn't too high.  Same for 160M.  There is always a fair amount of Top 
Band activity in the CWOpen in the US and almost all of it will be 
during this first session.

Remember to mix up search and pounce QSOs with attempts to make QSOs by 
calling CQ TEST.  A station who does not run at all will have no chance 
to work any other station who is just doing search and pounce.  So, no 
matter your power level or antenna, if there are stations on the band 
that you haven't worked and they aren't calling CQ, then you should be 
calling CQ.

Practice being efficient.  No harm in saying "hi" to friends, but if you 
ragchew with many friends, your score will suffer.  Plenty of time to 
ragchew between sessions and after the last session is over.  Try to 
minimize unnecessarily long exchanges.  Generally, no need to use "DE," 
to repeat a call more than once, or to send "NR" before the number or 
"OP" or "NAME" before the Name.  Of course, if the other guy is 
demonstrating a lack of understanding of what is expected of him, you 
would take a reasonable amount of time to explain such as by asking 
"NR?" or "OP?"   If someone (usually a non-contest station) won't give 
you a number or name, you might as well give up.  I usually keep a 
separate log for those I contact, but do not get the contest information 
from, just in case they want a QSL.  That is not required, but may give 
you an opportunity after receipt of a QSL to encourage a new operator or 
new contester.

The second session is 1200Z to 1559Z Saturday.  I like to start on the 
lowest open band during this morning session, as the lower bands will be 
closing soon and at the beginning will likely be your last and only 
chance for some QSOs during this session.  40M will still be good at 
1200Z and it may be a bit early for 20 meters.  This may be your best 
chance during this session for Pacific and East Asian QSOs on 40 and 20. 
  These days, it is hard to predict when and if 15M will open and even 
harder for 10M.  It is possible that 15 and 10M may open during this 
session to Europe and South America and maybe western Asia.  on 20M, 
signals may peak from Europe after the session starts, maybe about 
1300Z.  During the last hour or so, the absorption on 20M may make QSOs 
into Europe difficult from most of the US.  If you catch 15 or 10M open, 
take advantage of any chances for QSOs there.  Sometimes, the big 
signals from Europe may be on a skew path when the band is just opening. 
  Experiment if you have a beam and determine if the signals are 
stronger on the direct path or on a path of about 90 degrees from SE USA 
toward Africa.  If they are coming in on the skew path, you want to call 
them with your beam that way, but you want to be alert to notice if the 
path changes to direct and move your beam with the opening.

There is less of a reason to try to move someone to another band in this 
contest than in some others, since the unique station is the only 
multiplier.  Of course, if you can't find anyone else to work, there is 
no loss in trying to get stations you have already worked to QSY to 
another band.  You will find that stations who answer your CQ are more 
willing to do that than are stations who are in the middle of their own 
run, unless perhaps they are good friends or neighbors.

The third session is 2000 to 2359Z.  Again, I'd suggest starting with 
the highest open band and moving down the bands.  10 and 15 could be 
open, primarily to the West and South.  You may be able to work some NA 
stations on 15 or even 10 backscatter by beaming away from them toward 
the direction of the sun.  20M could be quite good to Europe during this 
session and maybe during most of the session.  40M will probably be good 
during the last 60 to 90 minutes.  80 and 160M may be pretty much empty, 
although it seldom hurts to try these marginal bands when you seem to 
have worked out the other bands. Remember that this is primarily a rate 
contest, so during all the sessions, you are looking for the highest 
rates you can make.  The multipliers will follow.  In this regard, this 
contest is more like CQ WPX than it is like a CQ WW DX or ARRL DX Contest.

Remember.  Do not combine your logs for the three sessions.  Name your 
logs such as k4bai1.log, k4bai2.log and k4bai3.log.  Dupes count zero 
points, but do not remove them from your log.  Upload your logs to 
http:///www.b4h.net/cwops/.  Please also post your claimed scores to 
3830score.com so that everyone can know how you did for each session and 
I can pick up that information for my weekly scoring summary.  On the 
pull-down menu on 3830scores.com, put your usual home contest club, not 
necessarily SECC.  On the team pull down, select whichever SECC&Friends 
team you are on as shown by the receipts that I will send out later this 
afternoon.

Have fun. Good luck to all.  73, John, K4BAI.