K5ZD commentary

CQ WPX Contest 2010 Year in Review

As we prepare for the fun and excitement of the 2011 edition of the CQ WPX Contest, it is an excellent time to look back at the activities of the past year.

  • WPX SSB 2010 experiences excellent conditions on Saturday and good conditions on Sunday. Log entries increase by 16% to a new record of 4,758. CN2R sets new record in SOAB category. DR1A sets new prefix record with 1747!
  • WPX CW 2010 has worst conditions ever and log submissions fall 2% to 3,567. Even so, EF8M sets new SOAB record.
  • The WPX CW and SSB score database now extends back to 1975. All scores for all years of the CW contest are now in the database.
  • High claimed scores pages were redesigned with help from Valery, R5GA. (see blog) 
  • The second annual WPX Contest Survey was conducted between September 6 and 29, 2010. Invitations were sent to 8144 email addresses from logs submitted in the 2010 WPX RTTY, SSB, and CW Contests. We received 4,555 responses to the survey.  Results are presented in 3 parts (go to part 1).
  • The WPX Contest followed the lead of the CQWW Contest to issue Yellow and Red cards in place of disqualifications. Extensive checking was done on single-operator entries that appeared to have used DX cluster or other assistance to make QSOs and did not enter the Assisted category. Yellow Cards were issued to 13 entries in WPX SSB 2010.  There were 12 issued on CW. 
  • Logs for WPX SSB and CW are made public. We do not publish logs that were submitted as CHECKLOG. (see blog)
  • There are no significant rule changes for 2011. Rules are available in 13 languages.
  • W5GN mails 1736 certificates for WPX SSB. 1446 for WPX CW.
  • Private links to log checking reports were sent by email to everyone who submitted a log for WPX 2010. Reports detailed the final score, any score reductions, list of unique QSOs, and information on errors made by other stations working you. Feedback to this new method of reporting was very positive.
  • A new Cabrillo log file checking and submission page was created with the help of LZ2FQ. Participants can upload their log, receive immediate feedback on any errors found, and then have the option to submit their log. (see blog)
  • On March 13, 2011, the PVRC hosted a webinar entitled “10.5 Tips for Fun and Success in the WPX Contest” by K5ZD. A recorded version of the webinar can be see at http://www.pvrc.org/webinar/webinars.htm. 
  • CQ WPX Contest fan page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cqwpx) has 1,519 fans! 

Thanks to everyone who participated on the air or contributed to the operation of the CQ WPX Contests.

K5ZD announcements

New WPX Cabrillo Log Check Page

I am pleased to announce a new tool to help everyone format their logs correctly for the WPX Contest.

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

The Cabrillo Log Check page will check the format of your Cabrillo log file for any mode of the CQ WPX Contest. Use this to check your log before submitting it to the robot.

1. Select the contest mode from the list.
2. Browse to the log file on your computer.
3. Press process to upload the file and start the check.
4. Fix any errors in your log file and repeat. You may go through the process as many times as needed.

Once your log is error free, please email it to the robot address shown.

The new page supports CQ WPX RTTY, SSB, and CW. Logs can be in Cabrillo v2 or v3 format.

I invite as many people as possible to try a test log in the next few days. Looking for any suggestions or problem reports so that we can fix them before the WPX RTTY contest this weekend.

I want to specially thank Tzetzo, LZ2FQ, for his work on the programming that makes this page possible.

K5ZD results

WPX SSB 2010 Results now Online

The results of the 2010 CQ WPX SSB Contest are now available on the CQ WPX Web site. Visitors can read the results article from CQ Magazine and search through the online score database. Check out the score records, which have also been updated.

Results http://www.cqwpx.com/results.htm

Online score database (with online certificates) http://www.cqwpx.com/score_db.htm

It was another record year for WPX SSB entries with almost 700 more logs than 2009.  All logs can be viewed at http://www.cqwpx.com/publiclogs/2010ph/

Log checking reports have been sent by email to everyone who submitted a log.  If you did not receive yours, please contact k5zd@cqwpx.com.

Paper certificates have been mailed to all category winners.  Plaques will be going out in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to everyone who participated and submitted a log. Can’t wait to see what better conditions will bring for both activity and log submissions this year. The WPX SSB Contest will be filling the HF bands with activity March 26-27, 2011.