MARAC County Hunter Contest, CW
Call: AD1C
Operator(s): AD1C
Station: AD1C
Class: Fixed HP
QTH: Middlesex, MA
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 11
40: 238
20: 557
15: 25
10:
------------
Total: 831 Counties = 546 Total Score = 4,372,914
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Mobile: 499 x 15
Fixed: 284 x 1
DX: 48 x 5
Points: 8009 x 546 counties = 4,372,914
I had been looking forward to this contest for months. Stu KC1F used
a term which described this weekend to a "T" - trifecta. Yes, MARAC
CW, Indiana QSO party and New England QSO Party all on the same
weekend! I don't think I've had as much fun on the air since last
year when I won both InQP (out-of-state) and MARAC CW (fixed
station).
As usual, preparations started by letting the wife know well in
advance that I'd be tied up all weekend. This year her best friend
from Arapahoe, CO decided to visit for the weekend, so I was off the
hook! The weather outside was marvelous, too bad I missed it. Stu
KC1F said to me, "You need help." I probably do.
The station was the same as last year:
ICOM 756pro, Ameritron AL-1200 amplifier (500W when needed)
G5RV dipole with center about 35 feet (10 meters) high
HyGain AV-640 vertical mounted on the shed
15m delta loop about 10 feet (3 meters) high
DX4WIN for logging and sending CQ
This year I tried to improve my strategy (or lack thereof) from last
year by making the following changes:
1. Actively use packet all weekend. I spotted every mobile I worked
in a new county, and a search of DX Summit shows I put out 227
spots. I did this mainly for the benefit of the Europeans I knew
would be on, as well as anyone else active in the contests. As
you'll read later, this caused some grief among the "packet cops".
2. Call CQ more. I decided to take advantage of my status as a
needed New England station and let guys from out of state call me.
Of course this meant trying to extract their home county. For
most guys, this wasn't a big deal, but K4PV really put up a
"fight" before he sent me his county. He wasted more time arguing
with me than he would have just by sending his county!
3. Work the Indiana and New England QSO parties as hard as I could.
Indiana was fairly easy, as I really just chased the active
mobiles around. I worked 83/92 counties in IN (CW only, no SSB
this year). New England was trickier. The goal is to work as
many of the New England counties as possible, but not to work too
many 1-point fixed stations (looking for NEQP QSOs) at the expense
of 15-point mobiles in other parts of the country. On 15 and 20
meters, I could only hear the very close-in fixed stations in NH
and MA. Every mobile on 20 meters was a struggle, but I managed
to work Tom K1KI/M in a handful of counties in VT/NH/ME, and
K1DG/M in a few MA/NH counties (I'm glad they know me and my
call). I was very appreciative when I found the mobiles on 40
meters, where they were much easier to work.
4. Use high power when necessary. I prefer to work counties using
100W if I can, and if a guy couldn't hear me running barefoot, I
turned on the amp for 500W and another S-unit which usually did
the trick. I estimate less than 10% of my QSOs were made with
anything more than 100W.
Conditions were poor on Saturday, a little better on Sunday. This was
mostly a 20 and 40 meter contest for me. Last year, I made a bunch of
QSOs on 15 meters as well, but this year, all I worked were the
Europeans and a few guys in the west and southeast -- NO mobiles this
time! RK2FWA was LOUD all weekend on 15 (and 20) meters, and he was
in for HOURS. Here is a comparison of band QSOs between last year
and this year:
Band 2002 2003
-------------------
80: 8 11
40: 110 238
20: 473 557
15: 156 25
10: 9 0
-------------------
Total: 756 831
One thing I noticed is that most of the mobiles had a distinct
"signature". I could immediately tell when W3DYA, W9MSE, K0ZT, K4MUT
and KD5JWC were running. Last year, KN4Y had a signature but this year
he didn't stand out. Maybe not being in the bayou helped.
When I went to bed Saturday night, I was feeling a little disappointed.
Up to this point, I had missed more new counties than I had worked! I
worked Ed KN4Y in Carroll and Weakley, TN but had missed Jack K0CO in
Hinsdale, CO; NG0T in Hamilton, KS; and Jim K0ZT in Philips, KS. When
you are over the 3000 mark, each one missed is hard to accept! But
Sunday I managed to pick up Ed KN4Y in Houston, TN as well as Larry
NA7W in Lewis and Idaho, ID, so I felt a little better. I worked
almost 100 new counties on CW, and finished a state on CW when I
worked W9LDX/M in Spencer, IN.
What follows is some statistics from my log. I worked 48 states,
missing HI (a KH6 was spotted on Friday night, no copy) and MT (heard
someone give out the MT multiplier, but didn't hear who it was).
Thanks to Jerry W0GXQ for putting out ND and newcomer K7RE who put out
SD and WY.
Top Mobile QSOs:
W9MSE 65
KN4Y 54
W3DYA 44
KF9D 27
Top counties/state:
IN 84
TX 66
TN 41
IL 38
Most popular counties:
12 Middlesex, MA (home county)
9 Rockingham, NH
9 Essex, MA
7 Grant, IN
6 Windham, CT
6 Hillsborough, NH
5 Tolland, CT
5 Howard, IN
5 Greene, IN
5 Cook, IL (rare!)
I'd like to publicly acknowledge all the mobiles I worked. This
contest would be nothing without them, and I sincerely appreciate the
time and effort they give to this part of our hobby:
K0CO/M K0PC/M K0ZT/M K1DG/M K1EP/M K1KI/M K2HVN/M K3MD/M K4CNW/M
K4MUT/M K4PI/M K4UK/M K4XU/M K7IA/M K7RE/M K9WX/M K9XV/M KB8KIK/M
KD5JWC/M KF9D/M KG6ECI/M KJ9C/M KL7MF/M KN4Y/M KS5A/M KT1V/M KT5H/M
N1QY/M N1RL/M N3HOO/M N9JF/M N9NE/M NA7W/M NG0T/M NN9K/M NS7B/M
NY4N/M W0ETT/M W0GXQ/M W1NN/M W1XX/M W3DYA/M W4YE/M W6PH/M W9HB/M
W9LDX/M W9MSE/M W9UCW/M WB9CIF/M WN9O/M WT9U/M
Thanks also to Scott N9AG, Bill K2NJ and Jim NW6S for keeping me
company on the bands.
Finally, a few (?) words about packet.
Because the InQP and NEQP sponsors encouraged packet spots, I decided
to oblige (I operated those contests in the multi-operator class). I
made a decision to spot every mobile I worked when they arrived in a
new county. This almost worked to my disadvantage, as Scott N9AG was
calling CQ on 40 meters all weekend and picking off the spots I was
putting out on 20 meters! However, the "packet cops" didn't take
kindly to the spots:
>From the K1EA node:
7000.0 AD1C 4-May-2003 0219Z give it a rest <W2GI>
14000.0 AD1C 3-May-2003 1911Z Get a life This is DX cluste <N9EUO>
14002.0 AD1C 3-May-2003 1913Z Sri Mine syas Dx Cluster <N9EUO>
14001.0 AD1C 3-May-2003 1913Z Dx Contests! <N9EUO>
14000.0 AD1C 3-May-2003 1409Z Please DX...!! <KG9Z>
>From DX Summit:
DX-ER-@ 14000.0 N0N-DX AD1C - We DON'T need this non-1420 03 May 2003
N4CE 14013.2 TX4PG AD1C PSE STOP! 1454 03 May 2003
W-K-@ 14040.0 N0N-DX AD1C-we don't NEED ur spots! 1522 03 May 2003
W-K-@ 14040.0 N0N-DX AD1C- quit the useless spots p1655 04 May 2003
K-W-@ 14041.0 N0N-DX AD1C likes to see own call !! 0037 05 May 2003
I received a couple of E-mail as well (one personal, one to the QSL
reflector):
"You certainly are a persistent SOB. /M.... /M...etc. KR4OJ"
"Where in the past it has taken the efforts of many, you have singly
rendered the 20M "DX" cluster useless for those trying to chase DX
this weekend. Hope you have a great weekend sending posts. We will
have to find something else to do besides radio 73 KI6HT"
What some people don't seem to realize is that Dick AK1A wrote the
original PacketCluster software in the mid-80's for aiding multiplier
spotting in contests! If you're curious, you can read the whole
thread in the QSL reflector archives:
http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/dx-qsl/2003-May/thread.html
Look for the title "CONGRATULATIONS AD1C!!!"
Thanks to the guys on the QSL reflector who stuck up for me, as well
as K2NJ and N9AG who took some of the heat off me by putting out their
own packet spots! DL6KVA especially spotted a lot of stuff on 15
meters which I could not ever hear! OK2PAY commented late on Sunday,
"Thanks for all the spots."
I'll be at Dayton, so I will miss the phone portion of the contest.
I hope it's successful. Maybe I'll see some of you CW-types there!
73 - Jim AD1C
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