Contest Quest -- One Year and 17 in a Row

By Dick Stevens, N1RCT n1rct@megalink.net
Originally published in the Digital Journal, October, 1996

IN THE BEGINNING:
      A few months after passing the 13 WPM code test, I stumbled on the '94 TARA contest; and it was hard to miss. It was unclear how I could make some rag chewing contacts so I joined in. In a few hours, I had over 50 contacts in the ARRL logbook but was starting to annoy myself with all the WRK B4 messages I was getting. I was surprised that it was fun; I knew some things you don't have to try to know they will be boring. So I searched my tiny collection of QST and Digital Journal mags, found one ad for RTTY contesting software, and gave this fella Ray WF1B a call.

       It was love at first sight (the software). The '95 RTTY Roundup and IDRS WPX (16th) went very well and my confidence grew by leaps and bounds. Then came the sobering experience: BARTG 95, a DX test with no low power class available. I had a barefoot IC 737A to an X Beam on my chimney, rotating through a slot I had cut in the branches of a large pine tree a few feet from the house. My 38th in the world was probably pretty good, considering. The EA test was even worse, making 50 contacts in many hours of trying to work provinces. The ANARTS was about the same (dismal) and decision time was at hand. Fish or cut bait.

    My village lot is 0.22 acres and 66 feet wide. And there is a very restrictive tower zoning law. But I suspected I had a good QTH, both for DXing and contesting. Soon after, at Field Day '95, we used some Radio Shack telescoping 36' poles. I purchased one, put on a $10 10' extension, mounted it on the side of my detached garage, and guyed it up with 3/16" dacron. Suddenly, my X Beam was at 50' with no trees in the way and on the top of a 50' steep knoll. Not legal to the zoning law but it looked so tiny that no neighbor or inspector has asked what it is. Yet.

     I ordered a Ameritron AL-80B (the only amp in stock) and had 500 RTTY watts a few days before the SARTG '95. I made a mental commitment to work all the contests for a year. Since I only knew of 10 at the time, it seemed reasonable and would force me to learn something about contesting. As this grew to 17 contests by the end of RUS96, my "Quest" became an enduro.

******* Look out World

August, '95 The Scandinavian test: SARTG    Good start, but the new amp died quickly. The band would go very quiet with very few stations to be heard. I bypassed the amp to cure and was back to barefoot 100w but kept plugging. After the test, I took off the amp cover and discovered that the wires to the open frame RX/TX relay were too stiff and hanging the relay in TX. A little bending of wires and the AL-80B has operated faultlessly ever since. Single Band award for W1. Wow.

September, '95 CQWW -- The BIG One:   I had been using the AO antenna optimizer program by K6STI as a learning tool and had gained enough confidence to take down the X Beam and radically change the dimensions to KILL the F/B ratio, raise the SWR to 2, but increase the forward gain by 4 dB. I could now work most USA stations with the X Beam pointed at Europe, due to a F/B ratio of only 10 dB. I also got a little more elbow room from the stateside big guns when my LP back was turned. So the CQWW was the first time I could run a frequency on LP, although well off Broadway. I was having great fun until the results came out; stations with far fewer QSO's beat me soundly. These multipliers are that important?? Still, 9th World, LP.

October, '95 JARTS - Finding out how many call districts in JA    Stopped at 500 QSO to fulfill a promise made on my knees. The exchange is your age and I remember getting a call from my friend Alain:

de FG5GI .... ur 599 001
de N1RCT .... No No I need your age for this one
de FG5GI .... I am 54 54 My dog is 7 7 My cat is 3 3 qsl?

    Some days after the test, I was rag chewing with AA5AU who has adopted many of we young cats and old dogs and he mentioned that I was 3rd on the Internet HCS list. You mean in New England? No, the world, dummy. Well, that position didn't last long but I decided maybe I should get on this Internet thing and savor the glory quickly before it was gone. In the end, 12th in the world against all Single OP's. Hmmm.

November, '95 Worked-All-Europe, the QTC Test Got on the WF1B reflector a few days before the contest and realized that all sorts of info was being shared on how to handle QTC traffic. I had already practiced with a method I developed in a vacuum so stuck with it. Also had enough parts left over from upgrades to put a second monitor station into action. This QTC stuff was a quantum leap in operating difficulty. Part way through, I started asking people for QTC traffic and then put it into a macro; but then I was asking NA for QTC also, a No No. I botched a lot of opportunities and resolved to learn some more about macros. The scores showed the importance of US/VE call districts; having them would have doubled my score. Still 10th in the world and beat all but one DL at their own game.

****** ROOTS: LP SEASON IS HERE

December, '95 TARA Sprints, 4 Hours of GO-GO A special contest; this was my first attempt a year ago, and a welcome return to the low power category. Much more difficult to make contacts with 150 watts though. AA5AU led the way but getting 80% of his QSO count encouraged me to stay in LP for the Roundup and WPX.

January, '96 The Swedish New Year's Day Test This is a weird one. It started at 3 AM New Year's Day here, you can only use 40 & 80 meters; and the exchange is Happy New Year in your native language. Do you have any idea what that looks like in Finnish on a 40 meter screen? But I did make a few contacts and sent in a log. Bo SM4CMG wrote back that it was the first log ever received from North America. Guess what the place was. Guess which award I like to show visitors.

January, '96 ARRL Rtty Roundup Who has time to remember much about the Roundup? Suddenly it was over. I was the only ME station which made me popular and could work Europe very well. Only 70% of AA5AU's record 1015 QSO on LP.. But a few more multipliers! One must find victory in small places when competing with Don. Replaced the G5RV for the low bands with a RadioWorks Super Loop III. Lovely wire.   

February, '96 ADRS WPX Prefix Test For several weeks I had been trying out the new RITTY by K6STI, was very impressed and had many talks with Brian. Seems he had been using my interminable daily CQ DX signal as a beacon while developing RITTY. But it was not usable for contesting as, while it did do Windows, it did not do logging. A few weeks before, Ray and Brian announced the RTTY/K6STI combo for the best of two worlds. But it had never been used in an actual contest and there were questions about what would happen to the weak signal king when big dog signals were 500 hertz away. Bottom line: it performed superbly and helped dig out a lot of QSO's, including DJ4PN/QRP #001 during a snow storm. What else is there? First wood, too. Thanks, Guys.

******** Only The Strong; Back to High Power

February, '96 DARC HF Contest Ever give a party and no one came? Only Lars SM3KOR and I calling CQ. We double-checked the date, swapped exchanges, mugged a few civilians, and I went back to bed. Sent in a log, though. Haven't heard a word since.

March, '96 BARTG The British Open Gave it a good effort, but lost about two places when I failed to work one of the continents. Who worries about that? I have never worked Antarctica anyway. Isn't Australia a continent? Fat chance. How did all these guys work them all? Decided to read up on what the continents were in contests. Very red face. Never again. Also added two new mono X beams for 15 and 10 meters in the pine tree slot vacated by the 20 meter beam. Beats the R7.

April, '96 EA Spanish Province Hunting for Don Quixote My experience last year with the difficulty of working about 100 LP verticals in EA land, all calling CQ, led to a low key effort, 20 meters only. Some rare DX took over the band anyway. Didn't have a big enough signal to work the pileups for them. Wish I had entered the all-band instead .. Results show what a minimum effort gets me. Spring should be here soon.

April, '96 SP TEST Same Thing in Polish An interesting contest. Many of the top dogs passed on this one, another 48 hour province hunting test. There was conflicting information about the exchange. The Americans worked alone Friday night using our version and when the Euros came thru Saturday morning with a different exchange, the stage was set for chaos; but then director Chris came on the air with some direction and the Internet helped to spread the news real time. Was deliberately jammed for abt 90 minutes by a wacko who followed me around. Got two new countries and worked all the continents this time. Climbed into bed and heard the first loons of the year out on the lake. Spring is here.

May, '96 ARI Test --- In Italian this time. The Italian province hunting test ... just opened up to RTTY this year. But I was called by FT5WF, a new callsign from a rare place. This generated much more Inet interest than my score. Getting tired of the hand scoring of these non-WF1B supported tests. But heard very few USA on .. Maybe, maybe.

May, '96 VOLTA The Italian Classic     A fairly slow contest, but the scoring system creates huge scores from few contacts. It goes up by the 3.2 power; an unnatural act. At the end, I was approaching 1 million points per new multiplier, I think. Felt like Adam when he said to Eve the first time "Better stand back, Honey, I have no idea how big this thing gets." WA7EGA holds the NA record at 78 Million. I have 99 mil. Think about asking the Post Office for insurance on the log.

June, '96 ANARTS Are there really TNC's Down Under? Same scoring table as the Volta. Made a lot of east coast contacts that had very little point value. Quit at 400 contacts with 20 minutes to go. Discovered later that WA6VZI/7 was a few points behind. Good decision. Won't do it again. Distant 2nd to AB5KD on the HCS list. Not bad.

********** Won't this END ??

June, '96 Field Day; Checklog time We didn't have had a RTTY station at the Mountain Valley ARC setup, but I drove home Sunday AM to hand out a few to the deserving. Only found home stations like myself. Went to bed. It's not really a RTTY contest, right?

July, '96 NAQSO Party - Duck Soup, Right? Reality check time. Who are all these guys and how are they making so many contacts? 20th place on the HCS list. Did everything perfectly. Noted callsigns that were plus 40 over while AB5KD was S9 and AA5AU S7. But they were not on the HCS list. Still looking for an excuse. Can you say fif-teen me-ters? There is a contest where ME is not the best QTH? Loooong exchanges are not always best? Revenge will be mine, CUL QRZ.

July, '96 1st Russian RTTY Test Gave it a full time effort and managed to work 5 of 92 oblasts. 48 hours is a little long for a new provincial contest. I do better in them but a contest should be not quite long enough to work everyone. Looks like 1st USA on the HCS. A looong weekend to finish my year.

****** My Lessons

It took 5707 QSO's, many liters of Diet Pepsi, and 17 logs submitted to get thru a year of workin' em all. I learned a lot about limited resource contesting in an unlimited world which I hope to write about in the future. But the important things were very simple:

* The most important factor is how many hours you work. Never give up.
* The bigger the contest, the more the fun.
* The smaller the contest, the more the wallpaper.
* Never pass up a fishing trip to work a contest (unless it's a fun one or good chances for wallpaper).

73 de Dick, N1RCT