CQ WW DX SSB 2006 analysis
I just finished the status report for the Montserrat group. This is nothing more than a mail message that gets sent to the group highlighting what has been done, what is left to do, and issues we still have to resolve. I find that having a single punch list to work from makes planning, and assessment of our current state, easier to do.
After I finished that task, I decided to give last weekend's contesting effort one last look. The 3830 reflector, which provides a place for contesters to dump their estimated scores so we can all compare notes, provided a summary for the various categories. I was in the "single operator, all band, QRP" category. A few other folks also dumped their score on the rumors list, so we can now do a little analysis. (Remember, this isn't official; this is just data from those who decided to contribute to the list.) Here's the raw data for this year:
I put in a better effort this year (over last), but many others did as well. Here are the top 9 from last year. Note that 2005 scores are 'official' and 2006 scores are estimated.
I clearly win 'most improved' of the three I know about. If I my score from this year in 2005, I would have slid up to 5th (up from 8th). That's cool.
The band-by-band analysis is interesting.
I appear to be pretty competitive on 80 and 40. It is the tribander bands where I get ravaged. In fact, K7HBN, K4JAF, and KR1ST worked those bands exclusively (save 1 QSO on topband). The advantages of having some gain on 10m was especially pronounced. The top 3 had 34-44 QSOs; I had 9.
I competed in this contest with just a single G5RV antenna. What this data tells me is: I'm probably performing adequately from an operator skills point of view. It is lack of an antenna with gain on the top 3 contesting bands that is preventing me from scoring more points; it isn't that I'm not making good use of what I have.
This last point is the important one. I love operating QRP because I love the challenge. I also believe that it is an excellent way to hone your operating skills. These are skills I'll need if I go to some faraway and exotic place!
The other point to make is for all of you with great stations at home: if you go on one of these 100 Pound DXpeditions, you won't be bringing your "A" game. You won't have a tower, tribander, stacked monobanders, or even amplifiers. You'll need to perform well with limited equipment, and limited antenna options. I believe operating in these contests with just wire antennas and low power (or even QRP) are great practice for the kinds of working conditions you'll likely have on your lightweight DXpedition. You can't bring more (and live within the weight budget) so you have to make the most of what you do have.
The ARRL November Sweepstakes SSB is November 18-20. I have an opportunity to do a couple of things for that contest. I could operate low power (100w) and work on my 5 band Worked All States award. I might also try the N1MM logger running under Parallels to see if that is a viable alternative to MacLoggerDX. My intention is still to run with MacLoggerDX while on Montserrat, but I'd like a second option should the QSO rate go too high. This contest gives me an opportunity to try this second option.
After I finished that task, I decided to give last weekend's contesting effort one last look. The 3830 reflector, which provides a place for contesters to dump their estimated scores so we can all compare notes, provided a summary for the various categories. I was in the "single operator, all band, QRP" category. A few other folks also dumped their score on the rumors list, so we can now do a little analysis. (Remember, this isn't official; this is just data from those who decided to contribute to the list.) Here's the raw data for this year:
Call QSOs Zones Cntry hr Score Club
USA SOAB QRP
K8ZT 350 70 184 28.5 231,902 Cuyahoga Falls ARC
N1TM 268 51 142 131,819 YCCC
N7IR 210 54 88 79,094 CADXA
NE1RD 182 48 94 24+? 61,202 YCCC
K7HBN 212 37 67 20 60,320 WWDXC
K4JAF 110 35 63 4 28,714 FCG
KR1ST 100 25 52 a few 20,750
I put in a better effort this year (over last), but many others did as well. Here are the top 9 from last year. Note that 2005 scores are 'official' and 2006 scores are estimated.
Last year we had:
# Call 2005 score 2006 score DELTA
1 KO1H 649,399
2 KA1LMR 495,818
3 K8ZT 193,048 231,902 +38,854
4 N1TM 108,100 131,819 +23,719
5 K3GM/1 50,700
6 N8XA 18,853
7 N3HU 18,679
8 NE1RD 13,275 60,320 +47,045
9 W4DEC 5,408
I clearly win 'most improved' of the three I know about. If I my score from this year in 2005, I would have slid up to 5th (up from 8th). That's cool.
The band-by-band analysis is interesting.
USA SOAB QRP
Call 160m Q/Z/C 80m Q/Z/C 40m Q/Z/C 20m Q/Z/C 15m Q/Z/C 10m Q/Z/C
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
K8ZT 6/ 2/ 2 16/ 7/ 8 20/ 9/ 15 162/24/ 80 106/16/ 54 40/12/ 25
N1TM 2/ 2/ 2 2/ 2/ 2 49/12/ 28 123/17/ 60 57/ 8/ 18 34/ 8/ 18
N7IR 3/ 2/ 3 7/ 5/ 4 4/ 4/ 3 44/16/ 22 108/20/ 38 44/ 7/ 18
NE1RD / / 23/ 6/ 12 18/ 9/ 10 73/15/ 31 59/14/ 35 9/ 4/ 6
K7HBN 0/ 0/ 0 0/ 0/ 0 0/ 0/ 0 108/19/ 30 103/17/ 36 1/ 1/ 1
K4JAF / / / / / / 32/12/ 21 77/22/ 41 1/ 1/ 1
KR1ST 1/ 1/ 1 / / / / 39/10/ 23 41/10/ 24 19/ 4/ 4
I appear to be pretty competitive on 80 and 40. It is the tribander bands where I get ravaged. In fact, K7HBN, K4JAF, and KR1ST worked those bands exclusively (save 1 QSO on topband). The advantages of having some gain on 10m was especially pronounced. The top 3 had 34-44 QSOs; I had 9.
I competed in this contest with just a single G5RV antenna. What this data tells me is: I'm probably performing adequately from an operator skills point of view. It is lack of an antenna with gain on the top 3 contesting bands that is preventing me from scoring more points; it isn't that I'm not making good use of what I have.
This last point is the important one. I love operating QRP because I love the challenge. I also believe that it is an excellent way to hone your operating skills. These are skills I'll need if I go to some faraway and exotic place!
The other point to make is for all of you with great stations at home: if you go on one of these 100 Pound DXpeditions, you won't be bringing your "A" game. You won't have a tower, tribander, stacked monobanders, or even amplifiers. You'll need to perform well with limited equipment, and limited antenna options. I believe operating in these contests with just wire antennas and low power (or even QRP) are great practice for the kinds of working conditions you'll likely have on your lightweight DXpedition. You can't bring more (and live within the weight budget) so you have to make the most of what you do have.
The ARRL November Sweepstakes SSB is November 18-20. I have an opportunity to do a couple of things for that contest. I could operate low power (100w) and work on my 5 band Worked All States award. I might also try the N1MM logger running under Parallels to see if that is a viable alternative to MacLoggerDX. My intention is still to run with MacLoggerDX while on Montserrat, but I'd like a second option should the QSO rate go too high. This contest gives me an opportunity to try this second option.
posted by NE1RD's Blog at 8:33 PM
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