CQ Contest
3830 Scores
A Complete Contest Calendar by WA7BNM
National Contest Journal
Welcome to my contest page. Hope you enjoy my comments here every little while on my activities and observations during the contest season. The season is all over with IARU in the books. Looking back I can say it is sure nice to see the sunspots coming back!! 73 for now de Craig, N6ED.
IARU HF Championship -- 1998 Call: N6ED Category: Single Operator Mixed Mode HP BAND QSO QSO-PTS PTS/Q ZONES HQ STNS 160 2 2 1.00 1 0 80 32 70 2.19 6 2 40 149 537 3.60 17 3 20 979 3439 3.51 45 23 15 369 1289 3.49 29 14 10 35 113 3.23 9 2 --------------------------------------------------- Totals 1566 5450 3.48 107 44 Score: 822,950 points IARU is always fun no matter what! I think the summer time contest format is unique where the bands have a much different make-up than during the winter. This puts a real twist on the strategy which I find to be a lot of fun. I noticed a lot of the same propagation woes that many of the others have already stated. I especially took note of the degraded polar coditions to EU on 20m from earlier in the week although 15m did well to that area in the morning. I found the JA opening on 15 to be only about 2 hours long with poor rates. I also took note of the decreasing JA participation over past years. In spite of this fact, JA on 20CW gave me a real thrill from 700z till 1000z with very acceptable rates. I actually found good NA runs to fill in the gaps which sure helped my spirits. The biggest shocker was that South America was almost non-existant!?!?! A lot of easy SA mults were MIA. Overall, a very fun contest. I am going to be back for my 6th time next year for sure! Biggest Pile-up heard: HC8A (Congrats Rich!) Biggest signal heard: K3ZO on 80m (Awesome 3el on 80 Fred!!) Biggest suprise: Actually waking up at 3:30am!!!!! Biggest mistake: Not having 3 elements on 80! Lessons Learned: Move to the East Coast and put up 3 el on 80! See all of you in the next one and TELL A FRIEND!!!!! 73 de Craig, N6ED
Insert WPX CW
CQ WORLD WIDE PREFIX CONTEST -- 1998 Call: N6ED Country: United States Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator High Power Tri-band class BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q PREFIXES 160 0 0 0.0 0 80 39 68 1.7 18 40 176 992 5.6 56 20 755 1203 1.6 356 15 396 810 2.0 136 10 114 298 2.6 62 -------------------------------------- Totals 1480 3371 2.3 628 = 2,116,988 This was a fun contest to play in even though the conditions continually worsened throughout the duration. Many of the openings on the high bands were weak and variable unlike the ARRL DX test. I ended up turning the knob a lot more often than I wanted to since the runs just weren’t very good. A big surprise on 15m at 2030z was found tuning the knob onto 3B8/DL6UAA with a solid 5-6 signal. This is 1230pm here! He told me he was running 100w. Just incredible but hey, that’s what this is all about!
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1998 Call: N6ED Country: United States (LAX) Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator High PowerBAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES 160 1 3 3.0 1 80 37 111 3.0 23 40 110 330 3.0 54 20 433 1284 3.0 88 15 695 2082 3.0 97 10 93 279 3.0 26 -------------------------------------- Totals 1369 4089 3.0 289 = 1,181,721Soapbox: First off, I spent way too many nights and mornings awake chasing the KH9 and KH1 guys and not focusing on the contest preparation. Sleep was a major factor for me in this one with only 37 hours on for a 24 year old is not that great! I shoulda done better!! Propagation was exceptional on 15 meters with decent runs into Europe working mobiles and lots of 100 watt stations on Sunday morning. Even 40m worked well on Saturday night to EU. Both evenings were blessed with polar openings that were increadible with 46 UA0/9's and 8 UN's. Really missed the EX/EY's I worked during the week on this path but none were to be found. The only real dissapointment was 10 meters with noise level at 0 and propagation a big ZERO, even SA was tough. Overall a great time for me, but I am glad it is over. I am already looking forward to next year with 3 bands open to EU at any given time for us out here on the Left Coast. The glory days are coming! See you all in WPX!!!! (obviously not using my own call)
NCJ NORTH AMERICAN SPRINT Call used: N6ED Location: CA Category: Single Op All Band Mode: SSB Power: 1500W Callsign of Operator: N6ED Exchanged Information: N6ED nr CRAIG CA Hours of Operation: 03:56 band QSOs points ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 75 85 85 40 111 111 20 86 86 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ TOTAL 282 282 X 44 multipliers = 12,408 Club or Team Name: SCCC Team #1 This was my first major effort in Sprint. It took a little getting used to the style of the thing but once I got the hang of it, all went well. There is a lot to learn as far as strategy goes so maybe next time I will be better prepared and break the 300 mark. Was great to hear N7TR, K6LL, VE7NTT, et al kicking some butt and hope to get there too real soon. Thanks all the the Q's and the 4 hours of fun!! C U all in the next one!!
January 1997 NCJ NORTH AMERICAN QSO PARTY Call used: N6ED Location: CA Category: Single Op All Band Mode: SSB Callsign of Operator: N6ED Exchanged Information: N6ED CRAIG CA Hours of Operation: 09:58 band QSOs points mults ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 160 7 7 2 75 77 77 30 40 148 148 43 20 275 275 53 15 212 212 48 10 17 17 12 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ TOTAL 736 736 188 SCORE: 138,368 Club or Team Name: SCCC Team 2 Comments: I wasn't even really into doing this contest so I just played around a bit and ended up doing the 10 hours. It was fun enough to think about trying seriously next year. Hopefully 10m may even play a bit as well. Thanks to all for the Q's and a fun time. 73 de Craig, N6EDARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 1997 Call: W6TG (N6ED-OP) Section: SJV Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator High Power BAND QSO QSO PTS SECTIONS 80 182 364 - 40 466 932 - 20 643 1286 - 15 661 1322 - ----------------------------------- Totals 1952 3904 79 Score: 308,416 Hours of operation: 24
N6ED's 1997 CQWW SSB Activity: Operated Multi-Single as N6ED with W6UC, NO6X and others. Score Breakdown: Band: 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total ---------------------------------------------- Q's 22 77 406 422 717 191 1835 DX 6 38 55 76 83 45 303 Zones 7 19 25 30 29 18 128 ---------------------------------------------- Total Score: 2,094,229 Lessons learned: Next year we will have a mult radio! Better Lesson: I better BE the DX next year!!! The only casualty was a power supply.
First of all thanks to all the guys and gals out there who called a
bunch of hungry Californians. What a bunch! I had by far the best CQP
ever this year as my first single op outing.
CALL USED: N6ED
LOCATION: LAX SECTION
CATEGORY: SO HP SSB ONLY (I will explain this below)
STATS: BAND SSB Q'S
160 14
80 135
40 218
20 913
15 607
10 39
VHF 1
-----------------------
TOTALS 1927 X 58 = 223,532 PTS
First off, I got sweep @ 0235 the first day by WA7ITZ in UT. (Too bad
no award for first CA to sweep, I may have been a contender!! :)
I was very happy to see good conditions on 15 and 20. I worked 230 DX
stations and was suprised to hear mini EU piles on 15. Probably the 2
best moments; being called by XT2DP and ZB2CF, both for all-time new
countries! Just a step from Honor Roll now. It was amazing to have
such rare Q's with XU2A, V51's, and HS0. Kind of refreshing.
I knew I had my work cut out for me after visiting Ken, K6LA and well
known Larry K6RO whom I have operated from and helped erect his new
tower and 2 tons of aluminum! This LAX section is a real bear! It begs
the question; WHY DID I MOVE HERE????? Good question. The competition
was great as I worked Ken and Larry for the first times in which I had
slight leads, of course not to last long with phone only. This was my
real stumbling point since I tested the CW interface the night before
and it was DEAD! To top things off, I was unable to use my TS850 with
the DVR and instead had to go with the TS940 without! I must admit this
was totally Mental! Thanks to all the guys who put up with the raspy op
at N6ED who was completely incoherent by 2200z!!
I made a few mistakes during the contest by not realizing the 10m band
opened early enough sunday. Missed at least 80 Q's there and didn't get
on 40m early enough either. Hey, 15 and 20 were still hopping! This
would have put me over 2000 for sure. Oh well, lessons for next year.
Thanks to all out there who complemented, and my complements go to K6LA,
K6RO, W6GO, K6NA and all the rest for a hell of a run. Most importantly
to K6RO for loaning me an 80/160 antenna on Wednesday before the test.
My goal was to get top 10 and the wine, (modified to top 10, wine, and
SSB trophy). Hopefully something.
Needless to say the W9XT DVK board is being ordered tomorrow!
Next year is going to rock, hope to see even more ops turn out.
Will look for u all in SS! (and if invited to a place, for CQWW)
73 de Craig, N6ED