Author: NØHJZ

Categories
Scores

Club Competition Update

As many have said, last weekend was one of the best DX contest weekends we’ve had, in a looooong time! There were times where we had four bands open at the same time. What a weekend!

Despite the great conditions, our club score of almost 35 million points was down over 25% from last year. I think we had more stations on the air last year. Despite a lower score, it seemed like everyone had a ball!

In the Team Competition, Team 5 expanded their lead with their second win of the season. Team 4 finished second for the second time this year and held down the #2 team spot. Here are this weeks results:

  • Team 5 – 10,580,739 Points – 5 Pts
  • Team 4 – 7,931,915 Points- 4 Pts
  • Team 3 – 7,898,280 Points – 3 Pts
  • Team 1 – 4,855,492 Points – 2 Pts
  • Team 2 – 3,632,173 Points – 1 Pt

No one should feel discouraged with their team. The season is young and there are a LOT of contests still to come. Our teams have different skills too. There are some teams that will excel in the next few weeks in SS. There is a lot of fun, and competition, to take place in the weeks and months to come. As my favorite coach, Jim Valvano, once said “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!” Here are the Team results through three events:

  • Team 5 – 14 Points
  • Team 4 – 10 Points
  • Team 3 – 9 Points
  • Team 2 – 7 Points
  • Team 1 – 5 Points

Saturday and Sunday is the ARRL Sweepstakes CW. Organize your team, help each other and make sure you all get on the air! Last year we scored 2,489,316 points as a club. Can we hit 3 Million points?! It seems doable!
Congrats on a great contest and good luck in SS!  Go MWA!

73,
Rich NØHJZ

Categories
Members

How To Win The Pizza-A New Way

We’ve come up with a new way to “win the pizza” for this season! In an attempt to have some fun, increase MWA scores, and level the playing field between contests, the MWA Team Competition has a new method for the 2015/2016 contest season. This was announced at the MWA meeting but I wanted to get the word out to everyone in the area.

Previously we used the percentage gain for the entire year as the determining factor for the winning team. Whoever increased the most over the entire season won the pizza. Simple!

As we analyzed the results, we found that the DX contests really drove the season. Why operate the little contests when you can create a large score in CQWW or ARRL DX? We looked at a way to make ARRL 160 or MNQP mean as much as the CQWW events.

Here is the result:

  • Each of our 11 contests will be separate events. Each contest will be worth one point (11 points total). The team that improves their score percentage the most (year over year) in each event will be awarded one point. Sweepstakes Phone is now worth the same as CQWW DX CW or ARRL RTTY Round-Up! Eleven separate points will be awarded for our eleven contests.
  • Each year we will also give out a bonus point for a specific event or set of contests. With this one bonus point, there are 12 points available throughout the entire contest season.
  • If teams are tied at the end of the season, the tie breaker will be the team that improved their score percentage (year over year) in the Minnesota QSO Party.

This new scoring method will hopefully get more stations active in more events. We’ll see increased activity, more QSO’s for each of us, and larger scores for MWA! I’ll have the first results out soon. Let me know if you have any questions.

73 Rich NØHJZ

Categories
Scores

One Million Points

A few of you asked me to share how to get to a million points in the contest season. You need to make an effort to be active in all 11 contests in our contest season. I think that, with a minimal station, and some BIC time, everyone in MWA could do this. Here is the formula:

  • CQWW RTTY – 300 QSO’s x 75 mults (average QSO worth 2 pts) = 45,000 points
  • CQWW DX Phone – 400 QSO’s x 200 mults (average QSO worth 2.5 pts) = 200,000 points
  • Sweepstakes CW – 350 QSO’s x 75 mults (QSO’s worth 2 pts) = 52,500 points
  • Sweepstakes Phone – 350 QSO’s x 75 mults (QSO’s worth 2 pts) = 52,500 points
  • CQWW DX CW – 400 QSO’s x 200 mults (average QSO worth 2.5 pts) = 200,000 points
  • ARRL 160 Meter Contest – 250 QSO’s x 50 mults (QSO’s worth 2 pts) = 25,000 points
  • ARRL 10 Meter Contest – 300 QSO’s x 60 mults (average QSO worth 2.5 pts) = 45,000 points
  • ARRL RTTY Round-Up – 400 QSO’s x 50 mults (QSO’s worth 1 pt) = 20,000 points
  • Minnesota QSO Party – 400 QSO’s x 60 mults (QSO’s worth 2 pts) = 48,000 points
  • ARRL DX CW – 350 QSO’s x 150 mults (QSO’s worth 3 pts) = 157,500 points
  • ARRL DX Phone – 350 QSO’s x 150 mults (QSO’s worth 3 pts) = 157,500 points

FULL YEAR TOTAL = 1,003,000 points

You’ll need to work all three modes. You can go with low power or high power. You can run assisted to add to your multiplier count. You just need to get on the air and spend some time making QSO’s! If anyone needs more help getting their station ready for the contest season, let me know.

I hope this helps more stations earn their certificates at next years meeting and enjoy the contest season more!

73, Rich NØHJZ