Author: NØHJZ

The weekend of diddling is over and the dust is settling. To start with, our reported club score is 1,892,294 points! This is an improvement of 20.93% over last year! Our difference?! I didn’t see any of the top scores that were too different from last year. I believe it came from increased participation! Congrats MWA on a great effort……a great club effort!

Some felt that conditions were so-so last weekend. I felt they were stellar. The high bands were open, there were great rates on 20m, and the low bands had long, deep runs for hours. A great five-band contest! Some efforts of note: Dan, K0TI, ran low power, unassisted, and blew everyone away! What a great effort, Dan! Jon, W0ZQ, ran high power, unassisted and took top honors in the club! Kees, W0AAE, flew under the radar (pretending to be just low-power) and took the low-power assisted title! Great score Kees! Ron, N0AT, got to watch the Grandkids play basketball and still managed to top the club in the high-power assisted title! Larry, W0PR, also had an awesome score (and effort)! Doug, AA0AW, assembled a crew in Duluth to claim the top Multi-Op spot! Congrats to all!

The top two spots in the Team Competition were tight. After six weeks without a victory, Team 5 pulled out a bunch of Ops to edge out Team 4. Here are the team results:

• Team 5 – 595,130 Points – 5 Pts (16 active members – 59% of the team)
• Team 4 – 515,318 Points – 4 Pts (9 active members – 31% of the team)
• Team 3 – 309,602 Points – 3 Pts (8 active members – 29% of the team)
• Team 2 – 241,964 Points – 2 Pts (12 active members – 43% of the team)
• Team 1 – 230,280 Points – 1 Pts (6 active members – 22% of the team)
• OVERALL MWA – 1,892,294 Points (51 active club members – 37% of the club)

The Team Competition is starting to spread out a bit but no team is out of it. We’re only half way through the contest season. Teams 1 & 2 – are you feeling discouraged? Don’t be! Get people on the air, keep the butt in the chair and you’ll pick up points each week! Any team can still win the top spot (and drive the MWA score higher!)!

Here are the overall scores for the Team Competition:

• Team 5 – 38 Points
• Team 4 – 36 Points
• Team 3 – 31 Points
• Team 2 – 17 Points
• Team 1 – 13 points

This weekend is the NAQP CW Contest. Personally, I’ve never even tried this contest. I’ll be representing the club with the W0AA call. I hope everyone will give it a try. It’s just your name and state. I hope to hear all of you on the air tomorrow!

73 & GO MWA!!,

Rich NØHJZ

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