Winter QRP race 2010

This year the race was really wintery. There was a lot of snow, so many hills were impregnable. Sometimes not because they couldn't be reached on foot or on skis, but the nearest place to park the car was several kilometers away. Fortunately, it did not affect the number of competitors that much - although the participation was smaller than last year, but not dramatically. Many stations broadcast "from the hearth" outside the competition. There was still work to do, no long calls without response. The Germans have already learned that there is also activity in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia during the term of their BBT, and they have started filming antennas here. This confirms my opinion that it is not worth succumbing to folk creativity and copying something that has been working for decades.

Some numbers: I counted how many call signs appeared in the logs I got my hands on. At 144 MHz it was 41× DL, 1× HA, 2× I, 3× OE, 2× OK/OE5, 95× OK, 16× OM, 2× SP. At 432 MHz, a little less: 6× DL, 1× OE, 52× OK, 15× OM, 1× SP.

During the evaluation, the most problems were caused by the correct entry of Josef OK1ES/QRP. He used the spelling à la Austria: "OK1ES portable QRP". The QRP behind the brand also confused many, although it is a common suffix on KV. Speaking of Josef, I was also dealing with the problem that both stations that were broadcasting CW had registered the same OK1ES tag. To be sure, I asked him about the method of broadcasting: on CW he did not use a computer or any other memory, except for the one between the earpieces of the headphones, he put on the bug by hand.

Errors in the headers of the diaries were also common - data from previous races remained, such as power 100 W, connection time errors created when copying from paper to computer. I usually emailed the author to fix it and resend it. I don't think it's right to catch contestants on obvious typos (outside of the submitted code) and disqualify them because of it.

Again, I was pleased that an operator sent a log from the plant for the very first time. There was a bit of correspondence about it before he had all the essentials, but next time he would know what and how.

To correct the data in the logs, I recommend using simple editors like Notepad or Wordpad - the fewer functions, the better. A "smart" editor can add quotes or other characters that slow down file processing. When sending the journal for checking, put PSect=Check and write names or addresses without diacritics.

What needs to be improved: data collection. During the last two races (summer Classic QRP and Winter QRP) I always had some diary stray. The problem is mainly that the diaries went to the same email address as the conference. I have to search for them among dozens of emails. The only option is to either change the address for journals or the address for the conference. Even so, I won't get rid of stray dailies completely, because many use their established address. A year ago, I had to partially use my work address to send results because the provider flagged my amateur address as spam. To my surprise, dailies also started going there, although she was not listed anywhere, I just sent out the result sheets through her.

Mirek OK1DOM