[LCC] W5WZ - NAQP CW Aug 2020

[w5wz at w5wz.com]

Thanks to several who offered congrats here - KA5M, KG5VK and AA5AU.

As for the triple crown sweep, I won't be disappointed with #1 SSB, #1 
RTTY, and #3 CW all in the same year.

Here's what we did for NAQP CW:  K5UZ manned the K3 Run1 and W5WZ manned 
K3 Run2 pretty much for the duration of the contest.  WM5H manned the 
in-band S&P station - most of the time it was slaved to Run 2, but when 
we went to 40m we slaved it to Run1.  The interlock worked perfectly.  
We gave the S&P station a higher priority than the run station, meaning 
that any time the S&P transmitted, it interrupted the associated Run 
station.  I took that que from K3LR, who told me that you never want the 
S&P station to have to hesitate to answer a CQing station; those 
answering must fit the time pattern of the CQing station for the best 
efficiency.  The only drawback is the occasional instance where the 
local Run station is struggling with a fill or difficult copy.  At those 
times, the Run and S&P op have to communicate their needs/intentions in 
the station.

The S&P station had a KT34XA at 55 feet, a 40m dipole at 45 feet and a 
80m dipole at 50 feet.  These antenna were 500 feet west of the main 
tower for Run1 & Run2.  Bandpass filters immediately after the S&P 
FT-1000MP transmitter.  Very little interference; mostly only within +/- 
5-10 kHz of the run frequency.  And of course, the 2nd harmonic of any 
operating frequency.

Looking at the numbers, the in-band S&P added on average about 35 QSO 
per hour, or 420 QSOs.  In Raw QSOs, W2FU had 410 more than we did.  If 
we would have had a 4th operator at a 2nd interlocked S&P station, that 
margin may have been eliminated.  Reading W2FU's soapbox, that is 
exactly what they did - 2 Run and 2 interlocked S&P stations.

The W5WZ station is capable; many LCC members have contributed to it in 
some shape or fashion (AA5AU's Rtty website was huge in helping me 
optimize for the RTTY win 2 weeks ago.  Late last year KA5M modeled my 
80m Inv-V and strongly suggested I move it up the tower 35 feet - huge 
difference).  The location for domestic contests is very good, and not 
too bad for DX either.  I just can't seem to get enough operators 
interested to operate so we can really stretch her legs in the contests.

--Scott