AmateurRadio.com

Database Contributors KL7RA, K5TR, KM3T, and N5KO

Measuring Continuous Improvement With Help From W6SL

Good morning from my Shell Beach shack with enough radiant solar energy outside to power at least one linear amplifier for a year. I was reading over at Explorersweb an article about 5 ways to get outdoors in 2013 and came across this quote, “what gets measured gets done.”

My goals are still fresh and keeping them sticky through the year is a small objective that leads to ultimate success.

In the meantime, the crew over at the National Contest Journal developed the North American QSO Party (NAQP) database and I can take a ‘big picture’ snapshot in addition to comparing month statistics.

The data suggests that my Q production is up in January and down in August. Is this related to seasonal propagation with skip going long earlier toward the East coast and with solar production on the decrease does this mean moving to the low bands earlier this winter?

Does the data further suggest activity is seasonal with an uptick in operators inside our warm shacks during the winter months in comparison to the summer?

I’ll have to answer my question next weekend when the NAQP CW swell livens up wireless wavelengths on a national scale.

73 from my Shell Beach shack.   

Rick, ZL2HAM created 2011 CQ WW DX SSB Station Distribution Map

ZL2HAM Station Distribution Map

Thank you Rick, ZL2HAM for creating your visualization maps based on logs submitted from the 2011 CQ World Wide DX SSB event. I have a better understanding of why location counts in RadioSport as a result of your hard work. It did not sink in as to the challenge a West Coast station overcomes in order to achieve a DX event Box score.

Now, I can see ‘the why’ because of distance and concentration of stations. However, from the perspective of a national level event like Sweepstakes or NAQP, my location in California has an advantage.

Contest on!