[UK-CONTEST] AFS- statistics

[cris at gm4fam.plus.com]

Hi Clive

Many thanks for sharing those stats with us - very interesting!

73 Cris
GM4FAM


> I'm not at all a fan of AFS as a contest, believing it to be too
> unidimensional, but it certainly generates a very high level of
> activity- this cannot be a bad thing.
>
> I've owned a Perseus rx ( an awesome device) for some time with the
> intention of implementing Skimmer. However, until recently the two would
> not talk to each other. The recent release of Skimmer v1.5 has addressed
> this problem, and as I was not going to be active in the event I decided
> to give the combo an outing. I ran the pair in conjunction with
> Spotcollector from the DXlab suite which generates an Access database of
> the spots. My database expertise is poor to vanishing,  but those of you
> who- like me- are geeks at heart,  might be interested in this
> Moxonesque view of the event.
>
> Rx: Perseus
> Antenna: Butternut HF9V, ground mounted
> Computer: A rather tired Pentium dual core which crashes more than
> Jacques Villeneuve!
>
> Total number of Skimmer spots between 14 and 18z: 3377
> UK stations only in contest segment: 2569
>
> This means that Skimmer was decoding a CW signal on average every 4.2
> seconds
>
> Skimmer was set to ignore the same call on the same frequency within 60
> minutes, so that a frequency hogger would only be spotted a maximum of 4
> times. Equally a QSY'er would be ignored unless he/she moved at least
> 2kHz. These parameters are adjustable but those are the defaults.
>
> Strongest signals: SNR in 700Hz bandwidth
>
> G3UJE +60dB
> GM3POI+59dB
> GM3WOJ+57dB
> GM3JKS+57dB
>
> The weakest signal decoded was +1dB and Skimmer generally won't decode
> below the noise level. Of course the human brain will, and so I estimate
> +1dB at subjectively S4/5. This means that a +60dB signal is, well quite
> loud actually! There is a preponderance of GM signals in the signal
> strength league table which is probably a function of the ( extreme)
> lack of high angle acceptance of the Butternut.
>
> Fastest CW speed decoded: 36 w.p.m. from G3UJE
> Slowest CW speed decoded: 15 w.p.m. from G2AFV who is not normally a QRS
> op. , and paradoxically NOT in QRS alley but on 3515. Speeds in QRS
> alley were generally significantly above this, mostly >20 wpm.
>
> Number of stations spotted at least twice: 386
> This is probably a slight underestimate of the number of stations active
> in the contest.
>
> Most active S&P ers:
>
> By this I mean those spotted the greatest number of times by Skimmer,
> which means at intervals of >2kHz.
>
> G3RXP   18
> G3SEM   18
> G3XMM   15
>
> I must say that these figures seem quite low to me. If I enter super
> geek mode, I could record the actual frequency of each spot for each
> station, but life is quite short.
>
> What Perseus can also do is to record the whole event over the whole
> spectrum, which then can be replayed later " as live". This is a
> marvellous tool for the adjudicators. However, why anyone else would
> wish to do this I really don't know.
>
> OK you can go an have a lie down now!
>
> 73
>
>
> Clive
> GW3NJW
>
>
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