Author: NØHJZ

Categories
Scores

Club Competition Update

The dust is settling on the official contest season and it’s time to announce the winners (based on preliminary results). First, let’s look at the results of the ARRL DX Phone Contest:

Conditions were a mixed bag for the contest. Great conditions mixed with periods of mediocrity. Among all the lessons learned, Al, K0AD, summed it up best – “Don’t put a handful of peanuts in your mouth and then hit F1!” It’s nice to see a seasoned contest veteran still learning new tips!! Despite lower participation, the MWA club score ended at 17,962,253 points, up 14.85% over last year!

The team competition really divided the teams. Here are the teams by score:

  • Team 7 – 3,866,878 Points – 10 Pts
  • Team 9 – 3,322,223 Points – 9 Pts
  • Team 8 – 2,050,370 Points – 8 Pts
  • Team 10 – 2,025,146 Points – 7 Pts
  • Team 2 – 1,894,818 Points – 6 Pts
  • Team 4 – 1,482,476 Points – 5 Pts
  • Team 5 – 1,353,294 Points – 4 Pts
  • Team 3 – 1,076,613 Points – 3 Pts
  • Team 1 – 454,290 Points – 2 Pts
  • Team 6 – 336,045 Points – 1 Pt

Team 7 roared to a first place finish and the top 10 Points! They entered the weekend in 5th place and needed a big finish to end in the medals for the year. They sure delivered!!

The top team for the year is Team 9! COngratulations to Team 9 for an outstanding year! They won four events and came in second three times! Consistency was key to winning the Gold Medals! Congrats Team 9!! Team 1 came in second place for the SIlver Medals! Team 1 won twice during the year and took second place once. Being “middle of the pack” most of the year kept them high in the standings. Team 7, with a strong finish, took the Silver Medals! Team 7 finished first twice and in second place twice. Not too shabby! Here are the results for the year:

  • Team 9 – 96 Points (Gold Medals)
  • Team 1 – 81 Points (Silver Medals)
  • Team 7 – 72 Points (Bronze Medals)
  • Team 8 – 71 Points
  • Team 2 – 70 Points
  • Team 5 – 65 Points
  • Team 4 – 63 Points
  • Team 6 – 58 Points
  • Team 10 – 48 Points
  • Team 3 – 36 Points

Congratulations to everyone in MWA! We worked hard as a club and had a 28% increase in our club score for the year! Incredible!

Summer is getting close. Let’s get those antenna/station improvements made and get ready for the 2025/2026 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