CQ WPX - Making It Fun Again

I don't really like the CQ WPX contest and I've said so several times in this blog going back many years. It was one of my favourites decades ago when special prefixes were more rare. Chasing prefixes was akin to chasing countries in CQ WW, which added a lot of interest (in my opinion). These days I enter CQ WPX very casually or for contest practice, or not at all.

I was engaged in casual contest activity on Saturday morning when I noticed that my first 30 or so contacts were all multipliers. That isn't unusual: the rate of duplicate prefixes grows slowly as the QSO accumulate since there are so many available prefixes. For those that accumulate thousands of QSOs the multipliers decline to approximately one third of the total QSOs.

I decided to continue operating with the aim of only working new multipliers; that is, stations with a prefix not already logged. As noted, that's very easy in the beginning and only slowly increases in difficulty. I enjoyed it so much that I kept at it for the rest of the weekend. My operation remained casual, only sitting in the chair when chores and other diversions (such as a DX opening on 6 meters) had my attention. I eventually called a stop when I had logged 500 QSOs, and prefixes.

Why do it?

Why not do it? It isn't possible to be competitive operating this way, so it's just for fun. It's a style of contesting that is used by a minority of competitors in this this contest in others. For example, look at the line scores for ARRL Sweepstakes and you'll find a few stations that achieved a clean sweep by working exactly one station per section. 

You can't work every prefix in CQ WPX or every country in CQ WW, so another milestone must be chosen. Usually it's a round number. In my case it was 500. It wouldn't have been difficult to strive for a higher number.

When you get down to it, the reason we enter contests is because we enjoy it. A contest can be enjoyed without winning, and that's a good thing since winning is difficult and there can be only one winner (per category). The thousands of other participants each have their own objectives to make the time spent worthwhile.

Pick any contest and an objective that tweaks your interest and just do it. That could be working 100 countries or all 50 US states, or whatever else you decide. All that matters is that you enjoy it. You don't have to win to feel like a winner when you achieve your objective. Failing to meet an especially difficult objective can still be very enjoyable since the much of the enjoyment comes from the pursuit.

How to do it

Although it may just be for fun, the operating objective should be well defined. Decide in advance and stick to it; don't switch to an easier objective when you run into difficulty. You can of course operate casually with no explicit objective, but that's different from what I'm talking about. To make it fun and competitive, an objective might be defined as follows:

Maximize score while working only multipliers, either for the full contest duration on all bands, or one chosen band, with or without assistance, etc.

You get the idea. I simply chose an explicit objective similar to the one I casually pursued in CQ WPX CW this past weekend. I stopped at 500 prefixes, but for a truly competitive objective there should be no limit other than what's allowed under the formal contest rules.

Let's run through the specific tactics I used, or that I had to use while pursuing prefixes.

No running: If you hate running, as many do, this objective is perfect. The reason is that you can't control who responds when you call CQ. It would be rude to ignore callers that are not new multipliers. I therefore operated S & P (search and pounce) throughout the contest. There are so many multipliers available in this contest that my rate was close to one QSO per minute. The downside is that you can only work stations that run, and that excludes many casual operators with rare prefixes.

Assistance: Searching for just multipliers by spinning the VFO can be tedious. I enjoy unassisted operation in most contests, but I connected to the cluster to receive spots. Since it's a CW contest, I opted to receive skimmer spots in addition to spots by operators. By keeping the search relatively easy I avoided the risk of fatigue. You might choose differently.

Frequent band changes: Since the solar flux is high, activity is spread over more bands. Indeed, the solar flux is so high that during the northern spring and summer the high bands are typically better at night. When the rate slowed on one band I'd switch to another. Alternatively, I would choose or turn an antenna in another direction (e.g. Asia or South America instead of Europe). Most stations QSY'd often, including the big guns that mostly run, so that many of the spots I clicked on were no longer valid. After I shortened the spot timeout to 10 minutes, stations I clicked on were almost always there.

Difficult QSOs: Not every running station in a contest is an expert at it. As time wore on and multipliers were less common it was necessary to try and work runners who were not very efficient at it. These included operators that had difficulty copying, necessitating many repeats, waiting for them to complete with other stations, inability to pick a call out of several callers, and so forth. Had I been operating SO2R it would have worked others on another band while I waited or repeated the requested info. Early in the contest when new prefixes were plentiful I'd simply click on another spot to avoid waiting. I am not criticizing those stations: they are learning new skills and I am glad that they are active in the contest.

Power: I kept the amplifier off. It was a warm weekend and I didn't want to put up with the exhaust and noise from the amplifier. It was not needed for my style of operating since I could easily skip over stations that didn't hear me or the pile up was to deep. I'd go on to other stations and try them again later. Limiting myself to 100 watts had little impact on my success. Had I been running, the extra 10 db would have made a big difference.

Bands and propagation: Because I could work a station only once, I was not discouraged when propagation didn't allow me to work them. I could catch them on another band where the propagation was more favourable. In this way it was a lot like Sweepstakes. Nearby stations were mostly worked on 40 and 80 meters, while DX was easier on the high bands. There were of course many exceptions. The point is that I could wait until propagation was in my favor on any band. There was no point wasting time when it was difficult. Stations with new prefixes were plentiful and I would likely work the difficult one later on another band.

Overlay contest?

This style of competition is easy to formalize as an overlay category, officially or unofficially. A few minutes of thought was enough to come up with several rules to make the competition fair and interesting to participants. However, I am not convinced that it would receive broad acceptance. I don't even know whether I'd want do it as a competitive effort. 

It was still a lot of fun and I might do it again. There is nothing to stop you or anyone from inventing novel pursuits in a contest and have fun doing it. Other contest participants won't know what you're doing, but they will appreciate putting you in their logs.