The HF contest station at Texas A&M University W5AC The seventh running of the Collegiate Championship ended up very similar to the sixth competition. In the combined category, the top four places were held by the same universities as in 1999! Stanford University W6YX won the combined competition again this year, for the second year in a row. Stanford is only the second university to win two years in a row. They might very easily have won the number one spot in CW this year as well - after the log-checking was done, though, Caltech W6UE held out with a seven QSO margin over Stanford! Caltech is a consistent top performer, and their teams have been in top three combined finishes five years in a row now. Rounding out the top three, in the exact same position as last year, is University of Arkansas W5YM. They produced an outstanding score in CW to help retain their third place standing. This year, there was a tight battle for position in the combined category. Positions five through nine were separated by less than ten percentage points. Surprisingly, those clubs mostly performed better on CW than phone, but fifth place University of Idaho W7UQ had the best balance between them. Unfortunately, participation in the November Sweepstakes by college and university clubs has been steadily falling from an activity peak in 1997. This year was no exception, as there were only 33 Collegiate Championship entries across both modes, compared to 35 for 1999, 32 for 1998, 50 for 1997, and 44 for 1996. The trend this year was for more clubs to get on for both modes (twelve clubs were eligible for the combined category this year, up from ten clubs last year) so not only are the overall number of club entries lower, but the number of clubs participating in either mode has dropped. The number of conferences with schools participating has also dropped, and the Big 12 became the first conference ever to submit six entries in the contests. 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 again by Stanford W6YX and Caltech W6UE in the CW competition; W6YX finished #4 overall (up from #5 last year) in the multi-operator category, and W6UE finished #6 overall! This is the second year that two Collegiate Championship entrants have finished in the Sweepstakes Top Ten! Stanford W6YX also finished #5 overall in the phone competition! Outstanding! Other schools that won their sections include Case Western Reserve University W8EDU, Harvard University W1AF, and the University of Texas N5XU.

Operators

W6UE:   N6VI, W6GRV, KA6SAR
W6YX:   N7MH, W6LD, N6DE
W5YM:   N5DX
W8EDU:  AF8A, W8WTS, W8RZ
W1AF:   K3UOC
N9UC:   WO9S
WA5BU:  K5LH, N5VHO
W7UQ:   KL9A
W7ASU:  KC7EFP
AA8UP:  AA8UP
N5XU:   N3TNN, W5JLP, KB5LBN, KT5I, WM5R
W4AQL:  N4QX
NA4P:   NA4P
W5AC:   KD5GNO, KD5JBS, W1AGG, AG5U
W4ATC:  WW4M, KF4RDN

"10 and 15 meters were the ideal bands to reach both coasts, Great Lakes region and Canada (where most hams live, after all) from Texas. Surprised about poor propagation into Florida from here. Dipole appeared ideal antenna for this kind of contest, with power level not as significant as in other competitions." - K5LH (@ Baylor Univ WA5BU)

"Since I couldn't stay the whole time, and didn't feel like operating continuously, I decided to handicap myself further by operating QRP. Nevertheless, I nearly sextupled my A-class score from 1998." - N4QX (@ Georgia Tech W4AQL)

"Congrats to all collegiate stations worked this past weekend! There were some big serial numbers heard. I missed NWT and MAR in the contest. Never heard either one. Thanks to KO1O who operated the SSCW for W1AF last year. I used his score as my incentive this year -- it was a tough one to beat!" - K3UOC (@ Harvard Univ W1AF)

"We have a feeling that the Collegiate Championship title will be decided by log checking! We are looking forward to the SS SSB weekend." - N6DE (@ Stanford W6YX)

"The contest went pretty well. I'm not a heck of a CW op, but I enjoy the mode and the rush of starting a run now and then." - AA8UP (@ Ohio Northern Univ.)

Operators

W6YX:    N7MH, W6LD, N6DE
W9YV:    KA9WXN, NI9E, N9FH, N9SD, N9VA, WB9UAI
N5XU:    N3TNN, W5JLP, KB5LBN, K5PI, KT5I, WM5R
W6UE:    N6VI
W9PU:    KE9R, KB9MWE
W7ASU:   KC7EFP, KC7MOD, KC7MOC, KC7RZR, KD7LCT
W4AQL:   W4EGT, WJ2RM, KG4JKG, KE4QLH
W5YM:    KB5ZYC, KC8ATF, K5GOE, K5AS, AC5RR, K5FXB
K4KDJ:   K4EP, N1KH, KF4YLM, KB3DGF
W7UQ:    KL9A
WA5BU:   N5VHO, KK5KN, KC5AMA, KC5QYO, KB0QMP, KD5IMS
N9UC:    WO9S
W9YT:    AA9RB, WO9U, K9EV
W9UIH:   W0TPO
W5AC:    KD5GNO, AG5U, W1AGG, KD5MAH
W1AF:    N1QZY
WA1ABC : W1HI, N1SMK 
W4ATC:   KE4QIU, KG4JXE, KG4JXF, KF4RDN

Other colleges and universities heard: W0EEE, W8SH, K5UTD, W9NT, K3CR*

"It's midnight. It's cold. It's raining. Time to install another antenna!" - W4EGT (@ Georgia Tech W4AQL)

"This is the first contest from our new location. We got booted out of our previous location in the basement of Electrical Engineering (complete with 500' coax runs) and by means of many proposals, begging and fundraising, we are now located in the 16th floor penthouse of Engineering Research." - WO9U (@ Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison W9YT)

"Our three newest contest operators are Monique N3TNN, Johanna W5JLP, and Louisa KB5LBN. All three are getting much better at handling the run frequency, getting calls out of the noise and QRM, and are getting over their hesitations while operating. This was a very cool thing to hear." -WM5R (@ Univ. of Texas N5XU)

"Lot of fun switching bands/antennas and determining signal hop distance by listening to section reports. I even listened on 160 but nothing there. It's good to have a lot of antennas!" - N1QZY (@ Harvard Univ. W1AF)

"This weekend we found that our higher antennas often outperformed the lower ones... the reverse from the CW weekend. We just feel fortunate to have that problem!" - N6DE (@ Stanford W6YX)

Participation by Conference

Conference          CW    SSB    Total
----------          --    ---    -----
Big 12               3     3       6
ACC                  3     2       5
Pac 10               2     2       4
UAA                  2     1       3
Big West             1     1       2
SEC                  1     1       2
SCIAC                1     1       2
Ivy                  1     1       2
OAC                  1     0       1
Big 10               0     1       1
Great Lakes Valley   0     1       1
Mid-Continent        0     1       1
Big East	     0	   1	   1
MCC                  0     1       1

N/A                  0     1       1
                    ---   ---     ---
                    15    18      33

The Won column lists the ARRL award the station won. (S=Section, D=Division, T=Top Ten)

* The K3CR callsign was used by a single-operator at an off-campus location when an on-campus club station exists, and was therefore ineligible for the Collegiate Championship.