[Elecraft] OT-VP6DX Operation

[T. David Yarnes]

Hi All,

I just took a look at the QSO statistics for the VP6DX 
operation.  It is available on their website.  This may not 
be the final tally, but it is close.  According to their 
website, by now the east campsite has been dismantled. 
There still may be operations this evening until about 1430Z 
Thursday, after which the remaining equipment will be packed 
up.  So, you still "may" have a chance to get them on 160, 
80, 40, or 30 meters.  Apparently the 80 meter and 30 meter 
operating position is a shared one, so probably you won't 
hear them on those two bands simultaneously.

The statistics are interesting, and you can draw some 
interesting assumptions/conclusions from them.  They had 
planned 22 operating slots, but apparently there were no 6 
meter contacts.  So, 20 slots are all you could get.  Well, 
that's not exactly true for 1 person!  There was 1 RTTY QSO 
on 40 meters, so that person could have worked 21 slots, but 
hasn't done so as of now.  Over 181,000 QSO's were made, 
which is a new DXpedition record.  I think it is safe to 
assume that a K3 was involved in every one of those QSO's, 
and many times there was a K3 at both ends.  Elecraft's 
advertising department should be able to make some noise 
with that!

The total QSO's by band and mode are interesting as well. 
About 95% of all QSO's were on either SSB or CW--not a big 
surprise perhaps.  But I think it is important to note that 
just about exactly half of that 95% were CW QSO's.  CW 
"ain't" dead folks!  I should note, however, that because 
there is no SSB on 30 meters the CW total got a nice boost 
from the nearly 10,000 CW QSO's made there.  But on both 80 
and 160, CW QSO's exceeded SSB QSO's.  The ratio was over 
3:1 on 160, so you top band DX chasers best keep your CW 
skills honed.  And the total CW QSO's was very close to the 
total for SSB on both 40 and 10 meters.

20 meters was the top producing band with over 33,000 QSO's 
(about 38% CW and 51% SSB).  It was a little surprising to 
me that the next highest total was on 17 meters (over 31,000 
QSO's with CW about 38% and SSB about 53%).  I've long 
thought that 17 meters was a great band (that's why I have 
my K-1 set for 17 meters instead of 15 meters), but this 
suggests it is even better than I thought.  40 meters was 
next (nearly 29,000 QSO's, and about 50/50 CW and SSB), 
followed closely by 15 meters at nearly 28,000 QSO's  (4:3 
SSB).  160 meters was the low producer (not counting 6 
meters) at about 6,000 QSO's.  10,000 RTTY QSO's were nearly 
evenly divided between 17, 20, and 30 meters.

I don't have any statistics on QRP, but I am confident that 
the lion's share of those contacts were made on CW.  But I 
think anyone who made a QRP contact on SSB can crow a bit. 
I only tried it on 17 meters, because it was pretty easy to 
do from here.  On the other bands the "KW" competition just 
seemed too great.  I was tempted to try it later on during 
their operation on other bands, but I don't think they 
appreciated duplicate QSO's, and it might slow down the 
others trying to get their first QSO.  But the "ERP" for my 
160 meter QSO's had to be almost equivalent to QRP 
considering the antenna I was using.

Anyway, I think it's kind of fascinating how the QSO's were 
divided by band and mode.  It certainly galvanizes my 
convictions about the ongoing viability (and use) of CW.  At 
least when it comes to chasing DX, you are only playing with 
half a deck if you don't "do" CW.  A little K3 "mojo" 
doesn't hurt either!

If any of this trivia intrigues you at all, you might go to 
the VP6DX website and draw your own conclusions.  There are 
several other compilations available there as well.  It's 
really quite a website.  My apologies to anyone who thinks I 
have too much time on my hands, but I guess that comes from 
my career as a "beancounter".  Hmmmm!  Not much going on 
today, so maybe I'll try and graph this stuff!

Dave W7AQK