Depressed Band Conditions Make For Some Different Strategy Choices in 2008 CQ WPX CW

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted May 19, 2008

After struggling through depressed conditions in major contests so far in 2008, top competitors tell radio-sport.net they're once again ready to do battle on a limited set of bands in this year's CQ WPX CW contest.

"I expect it will be a lot of 20 meters with some 40 runs at the right evening times," said Ed Sawyer N1UR, who won SOAB Low Power last year in the US using the call NV1N.

"160/80/10 won't be for much, similar to last year," added Sawyer, who told radio-sport.net that he would be monitoring propagation closely in the days leading up to the test.

"I expect it to be a 2 band contest – 20m & 40m with some 80m," says Ken Widelitz K6LA/VY2TT, who had the top single operator score in North America in 2007 from his outpost on Prince Edward Island.

"I anticipate operating from the start until 15 meters dies to Europe in the AM, unless 15m never opens to EU and then I’ll take a break when 20m dies to EU," Widelitz told radio-sport.net.

That's a reminder of one of the interesting rules of the WPX contests, which limit single ops to 36 hours, making your off-times a very important and strategic choice.

"This time I will have my off time well allocated," said defending World Low Power champ Filipe Lopes CT1ILT, "so I don't lose as many points as I lost in WPX SSB."

Lopes told radio-sport.net that he expects propagation to be much the same as in recent months, with 40 meters playing a big role for all.

"I noticed during CQ-M contest, which I made about 200 QSO's on 40 meters, that signals were extremely loud, especially from USA," said Lopes.

"I was working US while I was beaming Europe and they were 599+!!"

The other rule of note is that contacts outside your continent count for twice as many points on the low bands of 40, 80 and 160, which makes for the interesting choice of whether to press for DX and extra points or just run stations in your own continent.

For the first time I really tried to operate this contest by watching the points per QSO rate and not just the QSO rate," wrote George Fremin K5TR after this year's WPX SSB test.

"As a result I improved my points per QSO average over last year," Fremin added.

Another who tried to press an advantage on the DX side in WPX SSB was Terry Zivney N4TX, who had one of the best low power USA scores back in March as NS9K.

"I decided to try to favor the DX stations whenever possible," said Zivney on 3830. "I seem to have been moderately successful with this DX first strategy."

One final post-WPX SSB points review came from Jim George N3BB, who was still shaking his head about the contest during a discussion in the Contester Suite in Dayton.

"If I ever do a WPX again," George wrote on 3830, "I'll plan strategy around points."

"One can have a better hour in the middle of the night working 15 or 20 six pointers than running Ws on 40 meters or 20 meters in the afternoon or evening at one point per contact," George acknowledged.

Meanwhile, down in the Carribean, one team is ready to take whatever the bands offer up.

"I don't anticipate conditions being any better than they have been for the past year," said David Kopacz KY1V, who will be anchoring a Multi-Two effort from his 6Y1V station in Jamaica.

"With the low bands providing a higher point per contact value, we need to focus on low band Q's, particularly to Europe," Kopacz told radio-sport.net.

"The 40 meter band is our bread and butter for low band European Q's and the SteppIR MonstIR stack of 3/3 provides a significant advantage over other NA stations," Kopacz said of his station.

"The four square on 80 meters provides a significant adavange over other Caribbean stations. As long as the noise is low, we should be able to work a lot of Europeans on 80 meters," he added.

As for the high bands, "We really need 15 meters to open up early to Europe on Saturday to do well."

And what about ten meters? Kopacz had an answer that hopefully will be a distant sunspot memory soon enough.

"I haven't heard Europe on the ten meter 7/7 stack for more than a year."