PROOF THAT EVERY SINGLE CONTEST QSO COUNTS

By Jamie Dupree NS3T 

Escondido, California and Mason, New Hampshire. You can't get two more different places than that on the West and East Coast of the United States, and yet they produced a tie for first place in the US IARU single operator high power CW only category.

Both Bob Raymond WA1Z (@KC1XX) and W6YI operated by Dan Craig N6MJ ended up with 1,528,804 points.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw that WA1Z had the exact same score as me," said Craig. "What are the odds of that happening?"

"Having a dead tie with Dan N6MJ is amazing," said Raymond. "Dan has no doubt established himself as an elite contester. I'm just happy to match him point-for-point on this one."

Both WA1Z and W6YI had 229 multipliers. They put together their 6676 QSO points a bit differently, as WA1Z had 2,088 contacts, while N6MJ rattled off 2,163.

Both men started off differently because of the time difference. The IARU starts on the East Coast at 8am local time - but out in California, sunrise was still on the way at 5am Pacific Daylight Time.

WA1Z began with 140 contacts in the first hour, 135 of them on 20 meters, where he ultimately made 1,039 Q's. N6MJ meanwhile opened up with three hours in the 90's, moving from 80 to 40 to 20 and then to 15 meters in the 1500z hour.

"Once 80 dried up, I had no other choice but 40 meters," said Craig. "I made the jump to 20 meters around 1400z and found that 15 meters was also open nicely by that time to the rest of the US. That made for some good SO2R action."

While 15 meters produced 388 contacts for N6MJ, WA1Z could only churn out 227 Q's, as 20 meters was much more productive from the East Coast.

"When you figure it's Solar Minimum, and the K-index was 3 or 4, it's no surprise though. I found 20 to be OK," said Raymond. "I was disappointed with European propagation on 40 meters and 15 meters, but this wasn't unexpected."

A look at the raw numbers makes it all the more amazing that these two top operators ended up in a tie. WA1Z worked 549 European stations on 20 meters, N6MJ found only 46.

71% of N6MJ's contacts were with US, Canadian or other North American stations. WA1Z was just over 51% North Americans, while 42% were from Europe.

After the first three hours of the contest, WA1Z had 337 contacts to 292 for Craig. Then the next three hours, Craig worked 10/15/20 hard from California and suddenly led 678 to 602 contacts.

"The rest of the morning and early afternoon I just switched between 10/15/20 running stateside as no EU opening was detected," said Craig N6MJ.

Craig's numbers began to wane as the afternoon went on, with 69, 73, 48 and 56 contacts in the 20-2300z hours. Raymond meanwhile broke out of his late afternoon doldrums with 81, 123, 97 and 117.

With the contest 12 hours old at 0000z, WA1Z had 1210 contacts, N6MJ was at 1,090.

One of the biggest differences between the two operations was their setup. Raymond WA1Z was working at KC1XX, a station that's not set up for single operators at all.

"(T)he positions are spread across a large room for multi-multis," said Raymond. "I struggled to decide when the right times were to jump from band position to band position."

Meanwhile, across the country, Craig N6MJ was going full bore with SO2R at W6YI's station. "The second radio played a big part in making this score happen," said Craig. "I worked a total of 585 contacts on the second radio, which is 27% of my contacts."

For WA1Z, that would have been just fine, too. "I would have loved to have SO2R capability," said Raymond, "because I had to walk away from some high rate runs, particularly on 20 and on 40 meters, to go search for mults or other openings on the bands."

In the second half of the IARU, Raymond had only one hour of over 100 contacts at 0100z, where he cobbled together 115 Q's, mainly from 40 and 80 meters. After 89 contacts in the 02z hour, WA1Z was at 1507 contacts.

At 0200z, Craig was over 170 Q's behind, but N6MJ was just getting into a groove, with four straight hours of just over 100 contacts, using all four bands between 160 and 20 meters.

"Finally around 0600z, 20 meters opened to Japan and I had my first real run of DX," said Craig. "20 meters would stay open for the rest of the contest to JA, so I kept coming back for more."

With three hours to go, WA1Z had 1939 contacts, N6MJ 1929. Now it was just a battle of who could squeeze out a few more multipliers and a few more points.

While both men finished with the same number of mults, WA1Z had a higher point value for his 2,088 contacts. N6MJ would finish with 2,163. Raymond ended the contest strong on 20 meters, while out West, Craig was busy on 40 and 80 meters.

"A quick trip to 80 meters in the last hour for one last run netted a few more multipliers," said Craig, "and then the contest was over."

"Looks like we will have to wait for the log checkers to settle this one," said Craig.