Life After WRTC: Next Steps for the Contest Crew

WRTC may be over, but for serious contesters, the work that determines the next season is already underway.

I'm joined by Randy Thompson K5ZD, Chris Hurlbut KL9A, and Bill Fehring W9KKN for another Q5 Contest Crew roundtable, starting with the still-unresolved WRTC results and moving quickly into a remarkable August NAQP CW. Randy worked roughly 650 stations in only four and a half hours, while the crew looks at huge rates from 8P5A, KP2M, and young Q5 regular W0AAE operating from Iowa.

But the larger story is what happens when the contest ends. Chris is planning more towers and switching work, Randy is digging the base for a third tower, and both make the same point: summer is when serious stations get built, tested, broken, and fixed. Waiting until contest season means waiting too long.

Bill also reveals a particularly interesting post-WRTC project: a wideband recording of the event that he can search by time and frequency—and even search through decoded CW. The crew also looks ahead to CQ Worldwide operations from ZF and V4, youth mentoring in the Caribbean, and the station work that has to happen before fall.

For contesters, builders, and operators planning their next station improvement, this is a useful look at the work that happens long before the first CQ of a major contest.

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Thanks to DX Engineering for supporting Q5 and the operators who keep building, testing, and improving their stations between contests. Their support reaches across the amateur radio community—from contesters and DXers to POTA operators and builders putting the next idea on the air.