How to Win an ARRL 160m Contest for WTX

Yesterday, 10/27/09, when I opened my mail, I received a pleasant surprise from the ARRL. There was a certificate for winning 1st place for the 2008 ARRL 160 Meter Contest, while running Class A (QRP) from the WTX section.

After I bask in all that glory for a few moments, it occurred to me to check and see, how my scores compared to other stations who also played in the 160m contest.

First I found that out of 1280 entries I placed 1121st

Next I found I placed 65th out of 77 class A (QRP) entries.

Summarizing, my points score was 1,428, made 45 QSO's, contacting 17 multipliers/sections. Looks like I blew 7 contacts, loosing 2 additional sections, to lose 510 points from what I thought I had scored at the end of the contest. QRN, QRM, op error, who knows, it happens.

To see the scores for the WTX section I used the ARRL's Interactive Contest Scores page.

Scores Table Key

Class
  A - Single Op QRP
  B - Single Op Low
  C - Single Op High
  D - Multioperator

Entries 1 to 5 of 5 listed

#	Call	Score	QSOs	Mult	Class	Section	Club	Ops
1	KA5OAI	1,428	45	17	A	WTX
2	N5DO	39,910	308	65	B	WTX
3	W5JMW	35,564	266	68	B	WTX
4	NZ5M	598	23	13	B	WTX
5	W5ZO	41,536	331	64	C	WTX

and to summarize and conclude today's lesson, in how to be the winning QRP station for the WTX section, for the 2008 ARRL 160 Meter Contest.

/insert drum roll please /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/

*** Be the only person silly enough to enter a 160m contest from WTX running QRP with *65mw* into a *13.5* foot tall antenna @ 20 feet! ***

P.S.
Here were my soapbox comments after the contest:

KA5OAI -- Dec 9, 2008 13:21 ET

It seems I was one of perhaps 9 stations that put our WTX section on the air in last weekend's ARRL 160m contest. N5DO, NZ5M, K6SXA, W5JMW, K5TDA, K5XM, W5ZO, KD9KC, KA5OAI

Heres a summery of play time from the San Angelo, Tx. side of WTX

"Modest WTX QRP effort"

I finally got to play in my first 160m contest since becoming an apartment dweller many years ago. It took 5 years to get the landlords approval for *any* antennas allowed, and then 2 more years to get a Hi-Q 5/160 antenna installed for 160m on the apartment buildings second floor roof at 20 feet.

The Hi-Q is an excellent antenna. Above the 5/160 coil my installation has a EB-8 tophat and a 102" whip, so it's all of about 13.5 feet tall. For the ground plane there are sixteen radials each 13 feet long, with a wire connecting the outer ends of the radials. There is one radial each for 160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, and 30m thrown in there for grins, all laying on the tar and gravel roof at 20 feet.

If you take my Elecraft K2's 5 watts output, times the Hi-Q's 1.3% efficiency on 160m, we end up with an approximate effective radiated power of about 65 milliwatts. Can you say, WTX section powerhouse, *NOT* hi hi.

By about 1AM local time of the first night I had worked everyone that could hear me, all 25 of them. Saturday morning added about 14 more to the log Sunday morning, 4AM local started with about an hour of no Q's, I figured I was done. Then came KF4T, who deserves a very big thanks for working so hard to dig me out of the noise. He broke my no contact streak, and I managed to get another 10 stations in the log by daybreak.

End result 52 Q's, 19 sections, and 1,938 total points, all with 65 milliwatts and a 13.5 foot tall vertical at 20 feet. Who said you can't have fun on 160m from a mid town apartment, next to a power utilities sub-station, while surrounded by lots of commercial store RFI?

Maybe next time I can get the locals to give me a contact for WTX, I never heard any of the other ones on the band all weekend. It's a pretty simple exchange, all you need is "599 WTX" only 6 letters to learn in cw.

It seems my best contact of the 160m contest was with W4MYA 1345.56 miles away from San Angelo, TX in Goochland, VA (no I didn't make that up) which turns out to be 20700.97 miles per watt.

Pics of the Hi-Q installation can be found on links from my home page http://pages.suddenlink.net/k5oai/index.html#ant

P.S. My hats off to all those that did all the hard work copying my peanut whistle, those guys/gals were the greatest! -- KA5OAI

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