07/12/2005 | W1AW/5 CW W1AW/5 80 through 10 meters CW

The IARU HF World Championships from a Teenage CW Operators Perspective

My name is Rebecca and my callsign is KBVT. I am presently 17 years old, and I enjoy CW contesting. Stan, K5GO and the group, invited me to his station to operate the IARU HF World Championship contest under the call W1AW/5. The station is located about 2000 feet above sea level on top of Gaither mountain that overlooks Harrison, Arkansas. The IARU HF Championship was the first Multi-Multi Operation I had been involved with since the AE9B WPX phone Multi-Multi operation in 2002-2003 where we placed 4th in the nation two years in a row. On top of that, it was the first Multi-Multi CW Operation I had ever done, and the first Multi-Multi Operation I had done from a permanently designated Multi-Multi station (K5GO). On the way down to Harrison, Arkansas, my family and I stopped to visit the Silver Dollar City theme park in nearby Branson, Missouri. I rode the new "Powder Keg" roller coaster and got soaked on the Water Toboggan! We also stopped at a hot dog vendor called "Mickeys" in Branson (note: it is not associated with the famous Chicago suburbs Mickeys on Mannheim Road in Bellwood, Illinois). It was pretty good. Mom and I ordered the classic Chicago Style Vienna Dog while Dad ordered the Italian Beef and Sausage Combo (Yum!!). After a day in Branson, Missouri, we drove to Harrison, Arkansas. The next morning my family and I woke up at 5:00 in the morning (Yikes!) and met Stan, K5GO, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express at 6:00am. We followed Stan up the mountain to his station. On the way up my dad was a little worried, since the group had not operated with me before, that I might be stuck running 10 meters most of the day which might not be very fun. On the top of the mountain we were met by quite an antenna farm that was beginning to glisten from the sunrise! When I arrived, I met Stans son Kevin, N5DX; Rob, W8YRB; Les, K5LG; and Mickey (the cat). After I took a few minutes to become used to NA (I usually use Writelog), we all started the contest at 7:00 AM CST. I started the contest on 40 meters with the big Yagi pointed to the Northwest. While working on 40meters, I had my first experience with Beverage antennas. They seemed to help a lot on several occasions. Kevin, N5DX, a 25 year old experienced CW operator, started on 20 meters while Rob, W8YRB, started the contest on 15 meters. Poor Les, K5LG, was trying to get something going on 10 meters. Stan K5GO was filling in for people when needed, but mainly he was busy making sure his big station was fully operational. The only real problem we were having was less than ideal summer propagation along with some inter-station interference. Several minutes into the contest I took a short break and my dad KGS relieved me on 40 meters. Stan had relieved Kevin and was working 20 meters on my return. I was getting ready to go back to 40 meters when Stan said "Rebecca, come operate over here. This is much more fun!" Well, he did not have to ask me twice to operate on 20 meters with two stacked Yagi antennas. I spent the next several hours operating on 20 meters, and it was very exciting. After a while, Steve, KU; Chuck, KM5G; and Art, KC2G, arrived to participate in the contest. Steve was able to get something going on 10 meters and eventually operated on most of the other bands. Rob did a lot of operating on most of the bands. Kevin made a lot of contacts on 20 meters and also took care of a big Pacific rim pile-up on 15 meters. Chuck took care of some of the 15 meter pile-up and is said to be a wizard at digging out people on 40 meters. Art spent most of the night on 80 meters and he brought a Cappuccino machine to help everyone stay up all night including the operators that were trying to nap. .... .. .... .. Sunday eventually came, and I decided to call it quits a little after 05:15 Zulu. I was very tired after a full day walking around a theme park in hot weather only to then get up very early the next morning to work nearly three fourths of the contest. We had a little trouble finding our way back to the Holiday Inn Express and when we finally got there I basically passed out! All in all the contest was really fun and I had a great time! I only regret that I do not have a photo of Stan or Les to show on the Soapbox. I would like to say thanks to Stan, Kevin, and the group for inviting me to represent the ARRL and operate at such a fine station.

Thank you, Rebecca :) -- KB0VVT