Results:
Spring 2004 (Eta Aquarids) North American High Speed Meteor Scatter Rally
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Rules for the 2004 Eta Aquarids NAHSMS Contest

Active Grids During the Rally

Contest/Rally Comparisons

Soap Box Comments from Log Sheets

Unique Calls from Rally Logs...

  Distributions

Final comments from the Contest Managers Awards Posting NAHSMS Page

Code ... Assisted / Unassisted / Grids

                                     
Unassisted Single Band Low Power             Assisted Single Band Low Power          
Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score   Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score
W0AMT EN24 CST 0/6/5 **** **** 18 5 90   N3FZ EN90 EST **** 16/0/16 **** 16 16 256
W0IOH DM78 MST 0/5/5 **** **** 15 5 75   WB2FKO DM65 MST **** 9/2/11 **** 15 11 165
K9SQL EM69 EST 0/3/3 **** **** 9 3 27                    
N6MZ CN87 PST 0/2/2 **** **** 6 2 12                    
KB0USF DM79 MST 0/1/1 **** **** 3 1 3                    
                                     
                0                    
                0                    
Unasssisted Single Band High Power           Assisted Single Band High Power          
Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score   Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score
K2TXB FM29 EST **** 0/13/12 **** 39 12 468   KC6ZWT CM98 PST **** 6/0/6 **** 6 6 36
                                     
                                     
                                     
Unasssited Multiband Low Power             Assisted Multiband Low Power          
Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score   Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score
N5SIX EM42 CST 0/13/13 0/6/6 **** 57 19 1083   AF40 EM55 CST 19/4/23 13/2/15 **** 50 38 1900
WA5UFH EL19 CST 0/13/12 0/5/5 **** 54 17 918   K4MM EL97 EST 11/1/12 9/1/10 **** 26 22 572
AJ6T CM87 PST 0/10/10 0/4/4 **** 42 14 588   WW2R EM13 CST 6/0/6 12/2/14 1/0/1 27 21 567
AA9MY EN50 CST 0/7/7 0/4/4 **** 33 11 363   NJ0U EN71 EST 9/0/9 7/1/8 **** 19 17 323
KI7JA CN85 PST 0/3/3 0/1/1 **** 12 4 48   WA3LTB EN92 EST 1/1/2 11/1/12 **** 18 14 252
AD4TJ FM08 EST 0/1/1 0/0/0 **** 3 1 3   VE7DXG CN88 PST 2/2/4 2/0/2 **** 10 6 60
                                     
                                     
Unassisted Multiband High Power             Assisted Multiband High Power          
Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score   Call Grid Time Zone 50 144 222 Points Grids Score
                    K0AWU EN37 CST 21/4/23 26/2/26 3/0/3 74 52 3848
                    K0RI DM78 MST 17/0/17 16/6/22 **** 51 39 1989
                    K1JT FN20 EST 15/1/16 19/1/20 2/0/2 46 38 1748
                    N8OC EN83 EST 3/5/8 2/13/15 **** 59 23 1357
                    W5SNX EM73 EST 6/2/8 11/2/13 **** 29 21 609
                    K9KNW EL96 EST **** 9/4/13 2/0/2 27 15 405
                    W9RVG EM57 CST 2/0/2 2/1/3 **** 7 5 35
                                     

76 Grids Active During the Rally .... (from the logs)

           
CM87 DM33 EL17 EM12 EN24 FM04
CM98 DM43 EL19 EM13 EN36 FM06
CN84 DM65 EL29 EM21 EN37 FM08
CN85 DM78 EL39 EM25 EN41 FM15
CN87 DM79 EL88 EM32 EN50 FM18
CN88 DN06 EL96 EM39 EN53 FM29
CN90 DN06 EL97 EM42 EN54 FN20
  DN13 EL99 EM45 EN64 FN24
  DN31   EM50 EN65 FN30
  DN41   EM52 EN66 FN31
  DN62   EM55 EN70 FN41
      EM57 EN71 FN65
      EM66 EN80  
      EM66 EN82  
      EM69 EN83  
      EM73 EN84  
      EM86 EN90  
      EM92 EN91  
      EM96 EN92  

84 Unique Calls ... (from the logs)

           
AA7A K0AWU KB0USF N0PB W0AMT WA3LTB
AA9MY K0RI KB4FQ N3FZ W0IC WA4HEI
AD4TJ K1JT KB4ZGO N4ZQ W0IOH WA5UFH
AF40 K2BLA KB9ZTF N5OSK W1IPL WA7ADK
AJ6T K2DRH KC0AMG N5SIX W1JJ WA7GSK
  K2OVS KC5OAO N5SIX/M W4RBO WA8CLT
  K2TXB KC6ZWT N6MZ W4SW WA8RJF
VE1RG K4AL KC7OTV N8CJK W5SNX WB2FKO
VE7DXG K4FJW KE2N N8OC W5UC WB8SKP
  K4KO KE7NR NJ0U W5UWB WB9IIV
  K4MM KI0LE NS7K W5ZN WC4N
  K5CZD KI7JA   W6TMS WD4KPD
  K5GMX KØKP   W8BYA WQ5W
  K7AD KR8L   W9BLI WW2R
  K7BV KU7Z   W9FX  
  K8MD     W9JN  
  K9CEG     W9RVG  
  K9KNW     W9SE  
  K9SQL        

Soap ...

The end of the Rally was slow here, so took the opportunity to complete my log, hi! I wasn't serious ....
just wanted to have some fun! I could've done better if I had really tried, but here's my log anyway.
73's / Jack / N3FZ

Hi Tip - here's my summary for Rally. Thunderstorms wiped out a lot of my time on weekends, and was
away on business trips all week. Tried to concentrate on random contacts to maximize score when I could
get on air

Dave

Tip - here you go. Didn't take long to get my 19 simple qso's together! Sure is too bad I didn't get
to run from Memphis last weekend (or at least completed with W8PAT!) Might have picked up and given out
a few more. Really only had one attempt here that I didn't complete - KB4FQ. He disappeared one AM
after good start.
Bruce

Here is my summary sheet for the Spring 04 NAMSR. Lots of fun as always. Got me back on WSJT for a while.
Things had gotten kinda "slow" lately. Sorry I didn't work you. Heard you being called once but didn't
hang around to try to tailend.
Bill

Enjoyed the rally as much as fly fishing!
Will

Well besides working Saturday night (4 hours 8&9th) at the hospital repairing a fairly major water leak
and then getting up early to do some Rally and fixing coffee without putting the coffee pot underneath
(ran all over the kitchen) I had a great time. Just gave up after that ordeal and went to sleep. Note
log hihi, no qsos after early on the 9th utc.
Charles

I setup two complete stations on 6 meters and 2 meters so that I could operate simultaneously on both bands.
That meant two rigs, amps, antennas, computers and interfaces. I sent the RX audio into a stereo headset
so 6m pings were heard in the left ear and 2m pings in the right ear. The dual frequency setup was a lot of
fun, but sometimes I needed more than two hands to keep both stations going as I clicked back and forth on
the two computers. It was very interesting to listen to a couple of meteors that produced simultaneous pings
(from different stations) on both bands…the 2m burst was much shorter than the 6m burst as expected.

All of my activity from CM87 was unassisted, and that meant a lot of CQing with no replies. I am very pleased
that the WSJTgroup encourages unassisted operation.

I was only active during the two weekends of the Rally since I had to travel to Texas on business during the week. I setup a 6m WSJT station from my hotel room in Waco using just a dipole out the window, but I was not quite able to complete any QSOs as AJ6T/5 in EM11. However, I did come within one RRR of finishing with W0IOH in Colorado.

I was disappointed by the relatively low activity in this MS Rally. The event should have been publicized more
widely (and earlier) in an effort to draw additional operators into the fray. It would have helped out here on
the West Coast if an announcement had been sent to the WSWSS and NWWSVHF reflectors.

The scoring for this Rally gave equal QSO point values for contacts on 6 and 2 meters. Since pings are so much
less frequent and shorter on 2 meters compared to 6 meters, I think more credit should be given for QSOs made
on 2 meters. I suggest a scoring scheme like this:

50 1 point
144 3 points
222 5 points
432 10 points

It would be helpful if the WSJTgroup provided some additional guidelines for standard procedures for moving a
station from one band to another. In particular, if a contact on 6 meters concludes with a request to “QSY 2m”
should the attempt on the higher band be made in the same sequence used on 6 meters, even if the 6 meter contact
had been made on the “wrong” sequence (i.e., with the westernmost station transmitting 2nd)? I think the QSY
procedure should be for the stations to use the “standard” sequence (western or southern station first) on the
new band, regardless of the sequence used on the first band. This is worth some discussion by the WSJTgroup
members since it is so important not to waste any meteors on the higher frequency bands where pings are infrequent.
Walt

Not good conditions for the Rally here on the West Coast. I made a total of 4 contacts over the 10 days.
Stations that I have worked before.
Bruce

Was fun while it lasted!
Now going through withdrawal symptoms..hi..hi... Atleast 6M opened up a couple times over last few days
and worked a few there....
Terry

I hope I laid this out correctly and figured it out right. I may have had another random, but I never
bothered to log it as such, so I can only claim the one. Thanks for a fun time.
Marshall

Thanks for organizing the Rally. Unfortunately I did not have much time operate this time, I'll try to be
on more for the next rally.
Gabor

The contest was fun. I started out attempting to do all my CQ calls on my specified frequency, thinking I
would avoid the interference on 140. Well by the second day it was obvious there were no pile-ups on 140
and I was getting no answers down on 105, so I switched to calling CQ on 140, with D35. That worked pretty
well but I really think there should have been more activity on the calling frequency. I suspect that a
lot of operators didn't spend much time monitoring there, and instead concentrated their efforts on the
PJ Page. Hopefully for the next Rally, the word to monitor 140 between contacts will get out better. I
missed the last day because of it being Mother's Day and family doings out of town.
Russ

I called CQ or monitored 9 days of the rally on six and two meters and heard only a handful of stations, one of which was
K2TXB, who was on ground wave so I couldn't work him for a valid contact. The others heard were: KE2N, N8OC, WA8LCE,
N5SIX ( i worked ) and W5SNX and AF4O. I hope others had more susccess that I did.
David

Final Comments from the contest managers...

The Spring Rally has three main objectives. First is to  promote the use of HSMS during the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. The next is to establish a “Rally / Contest” atmosphere where HSMS operators can enjoy themselves making contacts via meteor scatter propagation and to provide spirited and friendly competition. All three of these objectives were meet.

Thanks to all who participated during the rally! Thanks to Mike WB2FKO for providing a web page for pre-posting / rumored scores and thanks to Russ K2TXB for reworking the Rally rules.

The total number of stations who choose to operate “Unassisted” was twelve vs sixteen "Asssited". The new rules allowed for “Assisted” stations to make random contacts for an additional credit. This part of the rules was not fully utilized in my opinion by those who operate assisted. Perhaps in future contests participants should consider taking advantage of this in order to enhance their scores and satisfaction. It does appear that more stations are working the "Unassisted" method!

The NAHSMS Contests continue to use “Time Zones” for determining geographic high score winners. This method provides an opportunity for all operators by “leveling” the playing field.

Participation was down from previous events and some “well known” stations choose not to participate. However, meteor scatter contesting continues to be enjoyed by many operators with 84 known participants having taken advantage of the last rally.

On the positive side of things, the West Coast participation is up and new comers to WSJT are engaging in meteor scatter contesting.There were 76 unique grids from the logs received which is down from previous contests but not a major concern.

In my estimation, The NAHSMS Rally was a success. Even though greater participation by the entire community and more logs submitted would be nice; numbers are not everything! The event was organized and the participation again demonstrated that HSMS operators or “Best In Class”. Congratulations to all …

Russ  K2TXB ; Joe K1JT ; John N6ENU ; Tip WA5UFH