K5ZD commentary

So many club names!

As we started the log checking for the CQ WPX Phone contest, WX5S and I were suprised to discover over 900 different club names listed in the Cabrillo files! Many of them were abbreviations so we were having to do extra research to figure out what the club name really should be. Others were for national organizations such as DARC or ARI that are not eligible for the club competition.

Our goal is to prevent errors by automating the score collection and reporting process. To do this, we need your help in providing accurate log files so we can minimize the amount of manual processing that is required. There is a saying in the computer business, “Garbage In = Garbage Out.”

I have created a web page with a list of known club names. If you are a member of one of these clubs, please take a moment to spell out your full club name in the Cabrillo file. Feel free to cut and paste the exact name from the web page.

Don’t worry about resubmitting a log if you have already sent one. We are already well into the process of sorting it out for this year, but please keep this in mind for your CW log or for the future. Perhaps we will add club name checking to the robot some day.

At 7 days after the WPX CW contest, we have already received over 1850 logs. With a few paper logs still to process, the WPX Phone contest has 3525 logs. Please keep them coming. The more logs we have, the better the log checking. Received log numbers are a great indication to CQ Magazine how much we appreciate their sponsorship of the contest.

We accidentally left out the World High plaque for the Multi-Two category for the WPX CW contest. This is the UA1DZ Memorial sponsored by W3UA.

K5ZD commentary

Good conditions for WPX CW

The WPX CW contest is in the books and conditions were the best so far this year. We had the summer type openings over the pole at night on 20 meters. 40 meters was incredible with DX signals still workable hours after their sunrise (or hours before sunset). From here in the Northeast USA, 15 meters was open to Europe all day on both Saturday and Sunday. I could hear OL7R and DR1A every time I tuned across the band! Even 10 meters produced lots of QSOs by sporadic E. I heard many stations sending very high QSO numbers as a result.

I hope everyone who participated in the contest will submit their log. Only 36 hours after the end of the contest we have already received 1100 logs!

Logs should be sent to the robot at cw@cqwpx.com. If you are having problems submitting your log to the robot, send those to questions@cqwpx.com. Log expert K1AR will help you through the process.

If you have questions about the rules, send them to director@cqwpx.com.

K5ZD announcements

2007 CW results and 2008 rules questions

The full score listings for the CQ WPX CW Contest 2007 are now available on the site. Visit http://www.cqwpx.com/results_2007_wpx_cw_scores.htm

There have been several questions about how multi-single stations are to issue serial numbers. The magazine rules say one thing and the web site says another. The good news is that the log checking software can handle either case. Our preference (and the correct rule) is the one published on the web site. “Use a separate serial number sequence for each band.”

Skimmer is a new software application designed by VE3NEA. Using a software defined receiver, it can copy and report callsigns across up to 96khz of a band. Pretty amazing technology. It also could have a dramatic impact on the game of contesting – especially on the single operator category!

The rules define single operator as “One person performs all of the operating, logging, and, for the Assisted category only, spotting functions.” The definition of single operator assisted says “Same as [single operator] except the …[use] of DX spotting nets or other forms of DX alerting is permitted.”

The confusion occurs over the definition of DX alerting. Some people feel strongly that skimmer is providing this. Others feel that since skimmer is a piece of station equipment it does not fall into the traditional definition of assistance.

We can’t change the rules after they are published. Given the wording above, the WPX Director (me) has decided to allow the use of skimmer by single operators — only if it is contained within their stations. Use of a skimmer that is remote or connected by Internet continues to place a station in the assisted category. Multi-operator entries are unaffected.

The single operator rules will be clarified for 2009.

Good luck to everyone in the contest this weekend!