Author: NØHJZ

Categories
Scores

Club Competition Update

We’re two contests into the contest season and we’re doing great as a club! Scores are up and activity levels have moved upward as well! It’s been great to see the increase in MWA activity!!


Last weekend was the California QSO Party. Phil, KB0NES, was pushing hard for us to defend our Club Championship….and we didn’t disappoint! Last year we turned in 33 logs and had a score of about a million points. This year we are well over 50 logs and our score increased by 18.60%! Thanks Phil for pushing the club to be active! No other club will be near us on our score!

Here are the top scores from the California QSO Party:

  • W0ELT 85,728
  • W0PI 75,980
  • N0HJZ 65,656
  • K0AD 58,368
  • N0AT 54,780
  • K4IU 53,998
  • N0BUI 49,500
  • K0TC 49,290
  • K0MPH 44,010
  • N0KK 41,764
  • K0CN 41,446
  • K0SIX 40,926
  • KB0NES 40,095

After two events, the teams are falling into alignment. People are starting to communicate better with their teams and share activity, plans, ideas and other hints for success. If you’re not communicating with your team, take the initiative to pull your team together. Get a reflector going, send an email to the team……get them fired up and on the air!!

Activity is where it’s at. Activity equals points in the contest and those points equal points in our team competition. The teams that have activity (and can keep the BIC) are rising to the top. The teams that aren’t communicating much, and aren’t turning out people to operate, are struggling. Let’s not read too much into the results. We’re only two events into the Contest Season.

Here are the results of the California QSO Party:

  • Team 1 – 266,651 points – 8 members active (10 pts)
  • Team 9 – 195,116 points – 6 members active (9 pts)
  • Team 7 – 176,839 points – 7 members active (8 pts)
  • Team 8 – 132,767 points – 5 members active (7 pts)
  • Team 2 – 113,833 points – 6 members active (6 pts)
  • Team 5 – 96,163 points – 4 members active (5 pts)
  • Team 4 – 66,388 points – 6 members active (4 pts)
  • Team 6 – 65.118 points – 3 members active (3 pts)
  • Team 10 – 59,578 points – 4 members active (2 pts)
  • Team 3 – 44,008 points – 5 members active (1 pt)

The margin between certain teams was very small. Team 10 could’ve moved up to spots with one more member active (scoring 7,000 points). Even higher scorign teams could change spots based on one extra team member getting on the air.

After two events, here are the standing in the Team Competition:

  • Team 9 – 19 Points
  • Team 1 – 18 Points
  • Team 7 – 13 Points
  • Team 2 – 13 Points
  • Team 6 – 12 Points
  • Team 8 – 10 Points
  • Team 4 – 10 Points
  • Team 5 – 9 Points
  • Team 10 – 4 Points
  • Team 3 – 2 Points

Next up is the CQ World Wide DX Phone Contest on October 26-27. Get your team fired up to be on the air! Let’s shake up the standings!

Congrats to everyone on a successful start to the 2024-2025 Contest Season!

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