IARU and WRTC

I did not make a substantial effort in the IARU contest this weekend. Not only do I not enjoy warm weather contesting -- too many opportunities to do things outside -- ongoing cabling and switching work meant I had just the TH7 at 21 meters and an inverted vee for 40 meters. The bigger antennas are not currently connected to the shack.

Despite all of this I did operate for several brief periods as CW LP. If not for this also being the WRTC contest-within-a-contest event I doubt I would have made any effort to be active. With some amusement I note that, apart from 80 meters, my station as currently configured is quite similar to what the WRTC competitors used. By accident I also used the same power -- 100 watts -- which I selected out of habit. IARU, being an ARRL sponsored contest, permits 150 watts in the low power category.

What I will do in this short article is provide my thoughts on how the competition may have played out. Of course I could be completely wrong. It is nevertheless interesting to test my understanding and make a few speculations. Eventually the full story and the facts will emerge. For background on competitor strategies and choices I recommend N3BB's excellent book, Contact Sport.

QSO totals

Compare the WRTC scoreboard and raw scores on 3830 and you'll immediately notice just how much higher the QSOs and scores are for the WRTC competitors. Their modest stations were no impediment. Like rare multipliers in any contest they attracted a lot of attention regardless of signal strength.

For this reason it is no surprise they spent the bulk of their time running. Indeed, despite spending half of my short time in the contest running I did not get called by any Y8. This continued to be true in the final 30 minutes of the contest when I'd expect their rates to be relatively low. Clearly they knew how to best utilize their time and energy.

Since there are 1,440 minutes in a 24-hour contest it is easy to calculate their overall QSO rates. The top placers were all above 4 QSOs per minute (240 per hour) averaged over the full contest period, with two stations and two operators. That's impressive! The high power multi-op stations could not match this level. I doubt the HQ stations (which are multipliers) fared any better.

Activity level and low power

In most contests those with low power and modest stations (especially QRP) usually must go high in the CW band segments to run. Big guns tend to congregate towards the low end of the band where it is difficult for smaller stations to run and be heard. Yet in this contest the low power Y8 competitor stations appeared to be evenly distributed across the band and could even be found hugging the bottom band edges.

Perhaps they could do this due to their starring role in the contest. On the other hand it is summer in the northern hemisphere when many contesters are loathe to spend time in the shack. I know I am. Despite midsummer conditions with its many attenuated propagation paths it seemed that the overall activity level was not high. That makes room available for smaller stations. Of course many of the big gun operators were congregated in Germany, not at their usual operating positions.

SSB

N3BB points out in his book that choosing the split between CW and SSB modes is a key strategic decision in WRTC. CW has the advantage of favouring low power and being picked up and spotted by the global skimmer network. SSB has the advantage of faster rate and a pool of operators who do not operate CW. In 2014 the competitive advantage appeared to favour those who emphasized CW.

From the scoreboard it appears that the CW advantage was suppressed in this year's competition. SSB totals are generally though not universally higher among the top scoring teams. If this is true why might it be so?

In 2014 the competitors were in W1 where the bulk of the valuable QSO points come from Europe. There remains a strong CW culture among Europe's contesters. From Germany looking west towards North America there may be proportionately fewer CW operators due to the now longstanding migration to SSB due to no-code licensing. Outside of the US, Canada and Europe the use of CW is even lower.

From central Europe I would expect that inter-continental QSOs favour SSB toward Central America, South America and east Asia. East Asia does not contribute many QSOs from W1 but it is a productive path from Europe. There are, for example, many non-CW operators in E2 and YB.

Could this have been a factor? I notice that North American teams are lacking among the top scorers. European operators may have better understood the need for SSB for racking up contacts on the available propagation paths beyond Europe and North America.

Low bands

Europe is a hotbed of amateur radio activity, including contesting. Pay close attention to the standings after any major contest and you'll notice that even the QRP participants in Europe work an enormous number of other European stations on the low bands, day and night. Did enough of the WRTC competitors from outside Europe understand the importance of the low bands? Intra-European contacts are worth less but there are so many more available.

In North America the low bands are mostly a wasteland during daylight hours, except in late afternoon and early morning during domestic contests, and then only in the eastern third of the continent. Europe is different.

Time will tell

Don't take my analysis too seriously. It is mostly speculation based on limited data. Time will tell whether I am right on any of my suspicions.

Being wrong does not worry me. In any competitive endeavour it is beneficial to study the competition to see what can be learned, whether to emulate or avoid the tactics they use. Answers may always remain elusive since the competitors themselves may be uncertain about what exactly they did right or wrong. Sometimes it is merely a matter of luck, be it good or bad luck.

For me contests are fun rather than a serious competition. I have no aspiration to compete in a WRTC. It is an opportunity to learn and to watch the masters in action. We should all always be learning.