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The NAQCC June 2009 Call Sign Construction Challenge


Final Results:

Call - Own call - # (other) Officers - # other members - score
K3WWP  - Yes -  9 - 122 - 671 (certificate)
N8XMS  - Yes - 10 -  50 - 338 (certificate)
KQ1P   - Yes -  9 -  39 - 299
W2JEK  - Yes - 10 -  10 - 137
KB3AAG - Yes -  9 -   0 -  82
N9AKF  - Yes -  6 -   0 -  58
Soapbox:

KB3AAG - This one went well as I had a big list to work with from the sprint. I am sure there are more calls in the list but after the headache from the milliwatt sprint during the worst storm in many years I quit! I think we had the worst lightning and thunder I have ever seen here and this morning I checked the rain gauge and found we got two and a half inches of rain! The little stream by the cabin was flowing full this morning. Besides by sending it in now I will have a high position till the rest of results come in, hi hi! Frank

N8XMS - Completing my own callsign and the officers callsigns was fun, and I slowly worked on that as I made QSOs during the month. But I made a mistake in waiting until the end of the month to start building other members calls. With the good number of contacts that I had during the month, and with the 3000+ members to choose from, the task just became enormous! I plugged away at it for awhile but after completing 50 member calls I realized that it wasn't fun anymore, so I called it quits and went back to the bands! With the number of left over letters that I have I would estimate at least 100 more member callsigns would be possible and perhaps even more. The winner of this challenge should get a special "Persistence and Endurance" award, but it won't be me! I'm looking forward to the poker game in July. 73, Paul

K3WWP - Utterly fascinating. I certainly thank Mike KC2EGL for coming up with the idea for this challenge. It's excellent brain exercise to keep the brain cells alive and ticking. I think one of the biggest and most challenging aspects of this wonderful challenge is figuring out easier and easier ways to analyze the data involved. I use an Excel spreadsheet with the first column containing the calls of stations worked during the month. The next column contains the numbers available from the call, and the third column the letters available from the call, i.e the first three columns in my case would be K3WWP 33 KKWWPP. The fourth column contains the call letters of all our 3780+ members. Columns 5-10 contain the call signs of the stations that make up the call of the member. For example columns 4-9 might be as follows for making my call sign. K3WWP K2EKM WY3H WA9VEE W2SH KQ1P. Of course a 6 character call would use all the columns 4-10.
When I use a letter or number from a call worked, I change columns 2 and 3 accordingly. For example if I use one K, one 3, and one P from my call, then the first 3 columns go from K3WWP 33 KKWWPP to K3WWP 3 KWWP.
As you go along you can eliminate calls from the member column. For example when you use up all your N's, you can't make any more calls starting with N, so that eliminates a whole bunch of calls.
I started out making my own call, then the calls of the other officers. After that I just started making the remaining members in order by number. I made it all the way to #0054 before #0055 stymied me. AJ4AY had 2 A's, and I only had one A left to work with. After I got to a call with a single A and used it, then A became the first letter I ran out of, and that eliminated all other calls starting with or containing an A. The first number I ran out of was a 5, followed by a 7.
After making the calls of 132 members, I could go no further. Actually I could fine tune the list and expand it somewhat by, for example, eliminating calls with two W's so I could use the two W's in two separate calls. However that will take a bit more research to find an easier way to do that. So I quit with 132 calls for 671 points. Still with time left before the deadline, if I find an otherwise boring day, I may do some tweaking to get some more points. I made 85 QSO's during the month, with about 10 eliminated as duplicates, that left me about 75 calls to work with.
I hope everyone had as much enjoyment out of this challenge as I did. This will definitely be an annual challenge from now on, although it may be switched among the months and not be in June every year.

KQ1P - This challenge was fun and I was surprised at how hard it was to find certain letters of the alphabet. I found I, J, and Q to be the least common in my log for the month. Numbers 6 and 7 were also hard to collect. I even had my first reported S0 (zero) contact! 73, John

W2JEK - had fun putting the calls together and making the qso's i needed for the challenge. even worked some dx in spite of poor sunspot conditions. 72 and 73 don younger w2jek #1135

N9AKF - I like the word challenges the most, so I enjoyed this one. I feel, however, given the current band conditions, that this one puts those living in the far west at a disadvantage since they need to work 2,3, and 4 prefixes. Maybe the scoring could be modified so that a completed officer's call, minus the number, would be worth 7 points. Another option might be that the numbers are optional with anyone completing all the numbers earning a bonus point or two. Hopefully, as solar activity increase, westerners (and those around the world) will have a more even playing field.


PREMISE:
This is a re-working of a challenge suggested by Mike, KC2EGL, #1236 and first used in June 2007. Construct members' call signs using characters from QSO's worked during the month.


TIME FRAME:
Jun 1, 2009 0000Z through Jun 30, 2009 2400Z


RULES:
This is almost the same as one of our regular alphabet challenges with the exception that the 'words' are call signs and points are assigned to the 'words.' Our alpahbet challenge worksheet example will work just as well with this challenge as it has with the regular alphabet challenges. You must make the numbers as well as the letters.

Point values are assigned to the 'words' (call signs) as follows:

Your own call sign - 10 points

A club officer's call sign - 8 points. Those calls are:
WY3H
K3WWP
W2LJ
K5DUZ
KD2MX
AA4W
VA3RJ
W5RJ
N9GOD
WB0OEW

Any other member's call sign - 1 point per number/letter (N1LU = 4 points, KB3AAG = 6 points, etc.)

Obviously (I hope), you can't use a station's own call to help make their own call sign. For example you can't work VA3RJ and use anything from his call to help make VA3RJ.

As with all our regular alphabet challenges, the following applies: You can use a letter in a call TWICE. For example, K2ESM's K could be used in K3WWP and KD2MX.

If a call has two or more of the same letters, only one may be used. For example, only one of the three W's in K1WWW could be used for two W's in the 'words' (for example WY3H and AA4W). You can't use the two extra W's for anything.

Only one QSO with a station during the month may be used as a source of numbers/letters. For example, no matter how many times you work K3WWP, you can only get two K's from his call.


AWARDS:
A certificate goes to the two members scoring the most points.


PARTICIPATION AWARD AND WEB LISTING:
You must make at least your own call sign and one (other) officer's call sign and report it to get a Participation Point and a web listing.

However you can get only 1 point this month even if you participate in both challenges.


LOGS:
For your report, list the call signs constructed with the call signs used to construct them along with the point value for each call sign and the total points. You may also include comments about the challenge.

Please preface any comments you want posted with "SOAPBOX:" so we will know what you want posted and what is private.

Send your results to:

E-mail: pix_email_naqcc (1K)

You must type that address into your email program.

Subject must read: (your call) NAQCC (month) Challenge

For example: K3WWP NAQCC January Challenge

Postal mail:
John Shannon, K3WWP
478 E. High St.
Kittanning, PA 16201

All entries must be RECEIVED before July 10, 2009 at 2400Z.