The Collegiate Championship
Kenneth E. Harker (wm5r)
on
September 26, 2000
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The 1999 Collegiate Championship
By Kenneth Harker WM5R
[email protected]
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Phil N3NGG operating at Georgia Tech
W4AQL during the 1999 Collegiate Championship, phone.
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Many college clubs will get on the air again this November for the
annual Collegiate
Championship Amateur Radio contest. Here, we can take a
look back at the 1999 contest, and a look forward to the premier
operating event of the year for college and university ham clubs.
Contesting and college Amateur Radio clubs seem made for each other.
Most student hams arrive on campus to live in small dormitory rooms
or apartments. If they can afford their own gear, they rarely have
locations that allow for much in the way of antennas. Students tend
to move frequently, go home for the summers, and spend semesters abroad.
All of this conspires to limit the ability of student hams to get on
the air.
Fortunately, there are many active college and university Amateur Radio
clubs that come to the rescue! Most college clubs manage to find one
way or another to get a club station going on campus. The lucky ones
can put up rooftop towers, large wire antennas for the low bands, and more.
Contesting from these club stations is a great activity that allows
students to enjoy focused, high-performance Amateur Radio activity
within a busy college schedule. Contesting can bring club members
together in a common cause to improve on last year's score, or to beat
club rivals.
1999 Results
Stanford University W6YX became the
fifth different university club to win the combined category of the
Collegiate Championship
in the six years in which it has been held! W6YX was most impressive in CW,
with one of only two "clean sweeps" made on that mode, and the only QSO total
over 1,000. In second place, defending champion
Caltech W6UE continues to be a
formidable challenger. Caltech has finished in the top three spots for four
years in a row. Third place this year went to the
University of Arkansas W5YM, up
from a sixth-place combined finish in the 1998 contest. W5YM had an
outstanding CW effort that helped push them into the top ranks for the first
time.
Participation amongst all competitors in the ARRL November Sweepstakes
dropped for the second year in a row. Participation by college and
university clubs also been falling from an activity peak in 1997. This year,
there were only 35 Collegiate Championship entries, compared to 32 for 1998,
50 for 1997, and 44 for 1996. Some contestants felt that improved sunspot
numbers mean more hams are interested in DXing than contesting, and others
blamed the ARRL rules changes and the controversy surrounding them for the
lower turnout amongst college clubs. "I didn't realize you were holding the
Collegiate Championship as a separate (from ARRL) event. I thought the
ARRL had killed this fun part of the SS by eliminating alumni from
participation. This is the reason W6YL (San Jose State Univ.) was inactive
this year."
This was the second year that all submitted contest logs underwent significant
checking for errors. The mean reduction in score after the log checking was
about 10% for CW and 8% for phone. Some schools fared better than others,
and some actually moved up in the CW and phone ranks because of their cleaner
logs. This did not affect the combined rankings when all was said and done,
however. It is unlikely that more rigorous log-checking has contributed to
the decline in activity - none of the participating schools in 1998 knew that
the logs would be checked so strenuously before the logs had been submitted,
and the participation in 1999 is only very slightly better than 1998.
Many schools won their ARRL sections and even divisions in the ARRL November
Sweepstakes this year. Had they entered the School Radio Club category, many
of these college and university clubs would never receive recognition for
outstanding performances that make them competitive with other local,
non-college stations. The best performances were by Stanford W6YX and Caltech
W6UE in the phone competition; W6YX finished #5 overall in the multi-operator
category, and W6UE finished #6 overall! This is the first year that two
Collegiate Championship entrants have finished in the Sweepstakes Top Ten!
There were some regional battles as well. While not winning their divisions,
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
WB9JBF and Michigan State
W8SH finished
in the third and fifth spot, respectively, in the Central Region in the Phone
contest. North Carolina State W4ATC
and Georgia Tech W4AQL
(conference rivals as well!) finished in the third and fourth spots, respectively,
in the Southeast Region, also on phone. These were all fantastic contest efforts!
The Collegiate Championship
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Robert K5PI and Johanna W5JLP operating at the
University of Texas N5XU during the 1999 Collegiate Championship, CW.
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The Collegiate Championship was started in 1994 largely
through the efforts of Robert Barron KA5WSS, a recent alumnus of the
University of Texas and active participant in the UT Amateur Radio Club.
The idea was pretty simple: have college clubs participate as multi-ops
in the most popular of domestic HF contests at the time, the ARRL November
Sweepstakes, and compare scores after the results were published in QST.
Throw in a few extra rules to encourage clubs to operate from on-campus
club stations (and not from a local "super-station") and a rule to compute a
"combined" score from the CW and phone scores, and the contest was essentially
set. The combined scores were computed with a formula that Robert
borrowed from the NCJ North American Sprints; it is based on a points system
whereby each CW and phone score is divided by the highest scoring collegiate
score for that mode and multiplied by 1000. The overall combined score is
the sum of the CW and phone points - with a maximum possible of 2000.
This is, incidentally, essentially the same system used in the
World Radiosport Team Championship 2000.
The idea was immediately popular with schools, and even received sidebar
write-ups in the QST Sweepstakes results in 1994 and 1995. In 1998, a
new official entry class was added to the Sweepstakes rules: the School
Radio Club category. Many felt the rules for the new category were
flawed - they didn't allow college clubs to compete against other, non-college
multi-op stations in their own sections, as they had done in the past, and
they didn't include rules for a combined score to determine an overall
Collegiate Champion. Nonetheless, almost all college clubs that operated
in the 1998 Sweepstakes entered the new category. Much to our surprise,
the printed results for the 1998 Sweepstakes included high schools
in the listing, and listed colleges in a combined score table that
was computed by simply adding the phone and CW scores together, much to the
dismay of clubs that had performed relatively better on CW.
There was even more controversy over the 1999 Sweepstakes rules. The School
Radio Club category rules were modified to explicitly allow high schools
into a previously collegiate-only competition, the simple addition of the
phone and CW scores to compute a combined score was written into the rules for the
first time, and non-students were banned from participating. Almost all
of the active college clubs objected to these changes, especially the rule to
ban faculty, staff, alumni, and (in many cases) club station trustees from
operating. College clubs can thrive with active support from alumni and other
"stable" members who can remain involved with the club for more than a
four-year undergraduate college experience. These club supporters often
provide significant financial support, help clubs survive years of low
membership, and elmer young hams through activities like multi-op radio
contests. The rule was changed just before the contest to allow faculty
and staff to operate, but nevertheless, a majority of college clubs entering
the 1999 Sweepstakes did not enter in the School Radio Club category, and the
Collegiate Championship was started up again as a separate competition.
What will the rules for the 2000 Sweepstakes School Radio Club category
be like, and how will they be received by college clubs? Clearly, the
ARRL is very interested in encouraging younger Amateur Radio operators,
and views a "School Radio Club" category as something special. The
League is concerned that alumni participation will harm this end. It
has been suggested that allowing alumni to participate might be like "letting
Michael Jordan return to play basketball for UNC." This issue has been
debated extensively on the [email protected] email
reflector, with some in favor and some opposed, but the majority seem to feel
that the benefits of allowing alumni and students to contest side-by-side
outweigh the potential problems. It's unclear if the League's agenda and
the concerns of the majority of college clubs can find common ground.
To date, neither the Contest Advisory Committee nor any college or university
club has been asked to comment on the Sweepstakes rules as they pertain
to college and university club efforts.
Clubs Get Busy!
You better believe that many college and university clubs are getting excited
about the future of the Collegiate Championship! Many have used the Sweepstakes
as a motivation to improve their stations and their operators. The operators
at North Carolina State University
W4ATC added a 40M yagi to their antenna selection in 1999. As Jim N3QYE
reports, "Our contesters were very happy with it, and it was definitely
worth the effort." One of the most improved stations this year was
Harvard University W1AF, also
celebrating its 90th Anniversary as an organized Amateur Radio club. "We made
quite a number of improvements before the 1999 Sweepstakes. A second tower, a
new second operating position, new 80M inverted vee, new TNC for packet, new
computer for logging. This was all part of a year long renovation..." says Mike
K3UOC. Brad KC0CDG, at the University of
Missouri-Rolla W0EEE reports, "We just obtained a Yaesu
FT-847 as our newest radio. It does an excellent job on all of its operating
bands. We also have two other improvements planned before the 2000
Sweepstakes. In August, we will be building a new console that will be
more friendly to two separate operating setups. The final touch to the
setup out here will come when we build a 160 meter antenna of some kind for
better 160M operating. We will be out in full force, ready to have
some fun during SS."
Numbers
CW Results
Call School QSOs Sections Score Conference Power Won
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
W6YX Stanford Univ. 1006 79 158,948 Pac 10 H S
W5YM Univ. of Arkansas 972 77 149,688 SEC H
W6UE Caltech 946 78 147,576 SCIAC H S
W8EDU Case Western Reserve Univ. 859 79 135,722 UAA H
W1AF Harvard Univ. 807 77 124,278 Ivy H S
N5XU Univ. of Texas 681 78 106,236 Big 12 H S
W4ATC North Carolina State 664 77 102,256 ACC H
N9UC Univ. of Chicago 470 75 70,500 UAA Q
W4AQL Georgia Tech 438 77 67,452 ACC H S
W0EEE Univ. of Missouri-Rolla 283 71 40,186 MIAA H
WA5BU Baylor Univ. 158 65 20,540 Big 12 L
W1KBN Northeastern Univ. 47 20 1,880 AEC L
W7UNR Univ. of Nevada-Reno 15 11 330 Big West L
Phone Results
Call School QSOs Sections Score Conference Power Won
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
W6YX Stanford Univ. 1659 79 262,122 Pac 10 H SDT
W6UE Caltech 1597 79 252,326 SCIAC H SDT
N5XU Univ. of Texas 1265 79 199,870 Big 12 H S
W4ATC North Carolina State Univ. 1186 79 185,016 ACC H
WB9JBF Univ. of Wisc.-Milwaukee 1164 79 183,912 MCC H
W4AQL Georgia Tech 1136 79 179,488 ACC H
W0EEE Univ. of Missouri-Rolla 1097 79 173,326 MIAA H S
W8SH Michigan State Univ. 1017 78 158,652 Big 10 H S
W7ASU Arizona State Univ. 893 79 141,094 Pac 10 H
W5YM Univ. of Arkansas 879 79 138,882 SEC H S
W1MX Mass. Inst. of Technology 816 79 128,928 NEFC H S
W1YK Worcester Polytech. Univ. 508 79 80,264 NEWMAC H S
W7ISU Idaho State Univ. 473 79 74,734 Big Sky H
W1AF Harvard Univ. 475 79 74,100 Ivy H
W5GB New Mexico State Univ. 398 76 60,496 Big West H
WA5BU Baylor Univ. 398 74 58,904 Big 12 L
W9UIH Southern Illinois Univ. 259 73 37,814 GLV H
W7UNR Univ. of Nevada-Reno 203 67 27,202 Big West L
WB4TOP Wake Tech. Comm. College 195 65 25,350 L
W9PU IUPUI 180 67 24,120 Mid-Cont. H
W3AJ Swarthmore College 126 64 16,128 Centennial H
W5CBC Central Bible College 96 49 9,408 H
Combined Results
Call School CW Phone Total
---------------------------------------------------
W6YX Stanford Univ. 1000 1000 2000
W6UE Caltech 928 963 1891
W5YM Univ. of Arkansas 942 530 1472
N5XU Univ. of Texas 668 762 1430
W4ATC North Carolina State U. 643 706 1349
W4AQL Georgia Tech 424 685 1109
W1AF Harvard Univ. 782 283 1065
W0EEE Univ. of Missouri-Rolla 253 661 914
WA5BU Baylor Univ. 129 225 354
W7UNR Univ. of Nevada-Reno 2 104 106
Participation by Conference
Conference CW SSB Total
---------- -- --- -----
ACC 2 2 4
Big 12 2 2 4
Pac 10 1 2 3
Big West 1 2 3
UAA 2 0 2
Big 10 0 2 2
SEC 1 1 2
SCIAC 1 1 2
Ivy 1 1 2
MIAA 1 1 2
AEC 1 0 1
NEFC 0 1 1
NEWMAC 0 1 1
Big Sky 0 1 1
Great Lakes Valley 0 1 1
Mid-Continent 0 1 1
Centennial 0 1 1
N/A 0 2 1
--- --- ---
13 22 35
The Won column lists the ARRL award the station won.
(S=Section, D=Division, T=Top Ten)
Soapbox
"Not a bad little contest from here at GA Tech. We've just got to train a
few more CW ops. And we got the clean sweep so it's time to buy a new mug.
Hopefully they'll be a nicer color than last year. There were some unusual
"rare" ones this contest (NE, WY, EWA, WWA) in addition to the ever-present
VI and NWT..." - KE4QLI (@ Georgia Tech W4AQL)
"High point was outlasting the pileup for VY1JA. Our first use of the
University of Chicago club call, N9UC, for a contest. Worked a number of
other clubs, including W1AF, W1YK, W2CXM, W4ATC, N5XU, W5YM, W6BAB, W6UE,
W6YX, and W8EDU." - WO9S (@ University of Chicago N9UC)
"Best tongue-in-cheek quote in SS: 'Let's work'em off the back of the
dipole!'" - KI0MI (@ Univ. of Missouri-Rolla W0EEE)
"We had more operators in this year's CW Sweepstakes than any since 1989.
At one point Saturday night, nine people were in our shack at once, and it
was crowded!" - KM5FA (@ Univ. of Texas N5XU)
"The check of 09 really slowed things down. At the beginning, it was a
guaranteed fill. Throughout the contest, the answer to any question was
"09 09." What is so strange about being first licensed in 1909?" - KT1D
(@ MIT W1MX)
"Lost quite a bit of sleep, and had a midnight antenna install (what
contest would be without one?) Overall, a fun experience." -KE4QLI
(@ Georgia Tech W4AQL)
"I was dreaming last night that I was in South Dakota, climbing orange
trees, and not getting any points for it." - KT5I (@ Univ. of Texas N5XU)
"A few of our number insist on trying to rotate those wire dipoles. :-)
We'll get them retrained eventually." - KB8ZQZ (@ Michigan State W8SH)
"As I keyed the mic at 4:01PM to make the first QSO, the power went out
in the entire city of Worcester. Apparently, a mylar balloon hit a
substation supply line and knocked everything out!" - N2YHK (@ Worcester
Polytech W1YK)
"Stiff competition from our collegiate brethren up north. Looks like we
will need to get serious." - W4EF (@ Caltech W6UE)
Conclusion
College and university clubs have produced many fine operators that have
gone on to become world-class contesters. College club stations and
multi-op contest efforts provide a great environment for learning the
art of radio contesting. Support your alma mater or local college club
this year!
Keep it going
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Reply
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by K5ZD on September 27, 2000
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This is the coolest thing! I hope it is able to continue happening and attracts even more participation. I know the alumni are always happy to hear the club call show up on the band (as a UT-ex, I am always thrilled to hear N5XU).
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arrl awards
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Reply
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Anonymous post on October 3, 2000
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I thought that the arizona university also won some category in the contest. Don't remember if it was division, section, top ten or what.
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RE: arrl awards
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Reply
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by wm5r on October 31, 2000
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As far as I know, the University of Arizona K7UAZ did not enter the 1999 Sweepstakes in either mode.
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