Here are some of the details:
Call Sign used for Contest:
KJ7BP
Equipment:
Radios
TS-870S
TS-570D(G)
IC-756
Antennas
Mosley Tri-bander
Hy-gain Tri-bander
Cushcraft R-5
Software
TR Logging
2000 CQ WPX Contest Results
PARS members made a concerted second effort this year
in the CQ magazine World-Wide Prefix (WPX) SSB Contest, on the weekend
of March 25-26. The object is to work as many stations and as many different
callsign prefixes as possible, as each unique prefix (K7, K6, JA1, JH1,
9L1, etc.) counts as a multiplier. The fun we had during last year's hastily-concocted
effort convinced us that we just had to do this one again. We operated
in the
multi-operator/multi-transmitter category this year,
setting up three radios and two triband beams on Saturday, already some
18 hours after the start of the contest.
Since K7 is a common prefix, I'd wanted to use something
besides K7PAR for this one. Bob Adams was good enough to let us use his
call, KJ7BP, for the duration of the contest, and I believe it really paid
off for us. Many stations thanked us for giving them a new prefix.
We also made use of a commercial contest logging software
program, TRLog, to avoid making duplicate contacts and to take the drudgery
out of the logging process. We could really have used a PC with each radio,
networked together so that everyone could have instant access to the log.
By 4:00 PM Sunday, we'd logged 264 QSOs, 626 QSO points,
and 215 multipliers for a grand total of 134,590. This was a 74% improvement
over last year's results of 210 QSOs, 164 multipliers, and grand total
of 77,408.
Our tally of DXCC countries, or "entities" worked,
was fifty, exactly the same as last year. Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet states were
well-represented this year: Slovenia, Croatia, Poland,
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Latvia, Macedonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia,
Estonia, and
the Czech and Slovak republics all went into the log.
As for the rare ones, I had the thrill of working Pitcairn Island for the
first time, after sitting through a half-hour pileup. We also worked Cyprus,
Iceland, the Aland Islands, Ceuta (a Spanish possession on the Moroccan
side of the Strait of Gibraltar), Saipan, the Canary Islands, American
Samoa, and Ghana.
My thanks, as always, to those who participated and
especially to those who helped with the setup and tear-down: Al Staples,
Bob Adams, John Heflin (with assistance from harmonic Sophia), Charles
Beckmeier, and Doug Bell. -
de N7UK