K5ZD announcements

Help Wanted: Log checking & administration

It takes a lot of time and effort to continue the success of the WPX Contest.  Contesting is very lucky to have so many people who are willing to give their time and energy back to the sport by helping with the contest operation. For example, Barry, W5GN, handles all of the certificates.  Doug, K1DG, takes care of all plaques. Ken, K1EA, provides the log checking software. There are many volunteers who help by typing in paper logs (I will list all of them in a future blog post). Not to mention IT help from George, K5TR, and Trey, N5KO.

The one area that I have done mostly on my own is the log checking and results. This was necessary to learn the software, how to manage the logs, the file format for CQ Magazine, etc.  These processes and procedures are now well defined. It takes about 300-500 hours per mode to do everything. With WRTC 2014 approaching along with increasing responsibilities in my job, it is time to seek one or two people who would like to be deeply involved in the administration of the WPX Contest and help share this load. 

Job Description

  • Assist the Contest Director with administration of the WPX Contest.

Duties

  • Communicate with participants to assist with and encourage log submission
  • Correct log errors as needed to support the log checking process
  • Evaluate logs for rule compliance and determine bad callsigns or other log checking tasks

Requirements

  • Demonstrated enthusiasm for contesting
  • Knowledge of callsign structures and propagation
  • High level of computer skills and attention to detail
  • Fluent in written and spoken English. Ideal candidate will also be fluent in one other language (e.g., Russian or German)

If you have an interest in joining the CQ WPX Contest Committee and helping with the administration of the contest, please contact me by email to k5zd@cqwpx.com.

Please respond quickly as I would like to begin the collaboration with the WPX CW 2011 contest.

If you would like to help in some way, but do not want to take on a full role, please let me know of your talents and interests. There are always special projects that can use some extra help.

Randy Thompson, K5ZD
Director – CQ WPX Contest

K5ZD commentary

48 hours to start of WPX CW 2011

We are now less than 48 hours from the start of the 2011 WPX CW Contest. There may be a small chance of ‘cloudiness’ in the solar forecast, but not enough dampen our spirits. Looking for lots of activity and new records again this year.

Rules in 14 languages: http://www.cqwpx.com/rules.htm

Results from previous years: http://www.cqwpx.com/results.htm

67 plaques up for grabs: http://www.cqwpx.com/plaques.htm

All-time records by world, continent, country, and call area: http://www.cqwpx.com/records.htm

When the contest is over, please use the new web form for log submission.

http://www.cqwpx.com/logcheck/

You can upload your log, have it checked for formatting and all necessary header info, make corrections, and then submit directly to the robot. It’s the perfect way to avoid robot anxiety.

Even if you can’t operate the full contest, get on the air for as much as you can. Please submit your log. It shows CQ Magazine how much we appreciate the contest and it helps the log checking.

A few hints:

  • Watch those dits. Letters like S, H, and 5, or V and 4, or B and 6, are often miscopied.
  • Copy the serial numbers.
  • Need motivation? Go to the score database (http://www.cqwpx.com/scorescw.htm?yr=ALL&mode=CW ), select your country and call area, then work your way up the scores. Always feels good when you pass another score on the list.

73 and good contesting!

Randy Thompson, K5ZD

K5ZD results

2010 WPX CW Results now on Web Site

The full results of the 2010 CQ WPX CW Contest are now available on the www.cqwpx.com web site. Go to the Results tab to view pdf files of the writeup and scores from CQ Magazine. Also available is an Excel file with full breakdown of all club scores.

The online database and all time records pages have been updated with the 2010 scores. Now is the time to start looking over the records for your area and setting a goal for the 2011 CW contest on May 28-29.

All submitted logs (except CHECKLOGS) have been made available on the site.  Individual links to log checking reports were sent by email to all entrants back in late February. We hope you take advantage of the reports, public logs, and score database to analyse how you did and how you could do better next time.

Thanks to everyone who braved the poor conditions and submitted a log. Conditions are improving and we have high hopes for more activity, more prefixes, and bigger scores this year. See you there!