Jon Caputo N2SZL, operating at Cornell University W2CXM in the 2002 phone Collegiate Championship. Continuing to prove that it is one of the most competitive university club stations of all time, Stanford University W6YX is now first-ever four-time repeat champions of the Collegiate Championship! Stanford won both modes handly, and their combined score was over double that of their nearest competition. In second place, Cornell University W2CXM makes it into the Top Three for the first time ever. Cornell also involved more operators than any other club this year. Third place goes to Baylor University WA5BU, another newcomer to the Top Three, with a strong showing in the CW competition. Competition in certain conferences has been heating up in recent years. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, the long-time rivalry has been between Georgia Tech W4AQL and North Carolina State University W4ATC. Now, the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest WF4DD are making waves, even beating W4AQL, the overall third place winner this year, at CW! In the Big 12, for the first time ever, three different schools have won the CW conference championship, the Phone conference championship, and the Combined conference championship! Baylor University WA5BU, despite losing to Texas A&M W5AC in CW and the University of Texas at Austin N5XU in Phone, still had the highest Combined score in the Big 12 conference. The Big 10 has also seen a lot of competitors, with eight of the conference schools entering the contest in the past nine years. This year, only the University of Minnesota W0YC operated, but the Big 10 remains the conference most likely to see four, five, or more school competing for the conference title. Finally, a resurgence of competitive interest from Cornell University W2CXM has led to serious competition in the Ivy League, where Harvard University W1AF had never before lost the Combined conference championship. There were seven fewer competitive entries in this year's Collegiate Championships than last year. The 9 entries on CW was the lowest CW participation amongst college and university clubs since 1995. CW participation peaked in 1997, when there were 20 CW entries! The number has been slowly dropping since, but had always remained in the teens. One highlight of the competition is that this was the first year ever that two different Canadian universities participated in the same year. There were also several universities and colleges participating for the first time ever.

Operators

W6YX:    W6LD, N7MH, N6DE
W5AC:    UA0OFF
W2CXM:   N2YX
WA5BU:   K5LH
VE2CUA:  N1RL
K2CC:    KC2BMG
WF4DD:   NA4P
W4AQL:   N4QX
N5XU:    WM5R

Other colleges and universities heard: W0YC, K5UTD, WA1VMU

"Like so many others, got all sections EXCEPT NL! No packet spotting in the station meant we missed VO1 when they were on the air. We didn't hear any other Ivy League stations." - N2YX (@ Cornell Univ. W2CXM)

"Texas A&M University Radio Club is one of the oldest in this country, founded in 1912. Thus, it was a privilege and fun sending the check of 12. Even though there were numerous fills, I also got many WOWs and HIHIs. There were lots of firsts for me in this effort: my first Sweepstakes, my first attempt at SO2R, and my first encounter with the aftermath of a lightning strike. Thanks to everyone for a fun time. I enjoyed it. There are lots of great CW ops to learn from." - UA0OFF (@ Texas A&M Univ. W5AC)

"Our all-time best effort in Sweepstakes CW from W6YX. We finally got a replacement 40 meter beam put up in September, after our 25 year old, four element KLM lost 1.5 elements in a big windstorm during last year's CQWW CW weekend. One hour before the contest started, we discovered the ACOM 2000A that we planned to use was having filament voltage problems. Inspection revealed a loose connection to the circuit board, but adding a drop of solder didn't fix the problem. We exchanged the ACOM for an Alpha 78, which made for one more knob to turn when switching bands, and a little less power output." - N7MH (@ Stanford W6YX)

Operators

W6YX:    W6LD, N7MH, N6DE
K5UTD:   DK1CM, K5AEA
W1YK:    KB3AWM, N1PFC, N2YHK
W2CXM:   KB9ZUU, KB9YER, KB2ZWZ, N2SZL, KC2HUL, N2YX, N2VR
N5XU:    K5TWj, K5PI, KM5TY
W7UQ:    KL9A, N6HC
W0EEE:   KC9UMR, N4LO, N8YXR, KC5IPN, KI0PX, KB0TCB
W4AQL:   W4EGT, KG4RUO, KG4SJZ, W4JRM
W0YC:    KC0KYN, KC0OBS, N0BYH, KB0PJV, N0NYT
W9YT:    KB9ITE
W5YM:    N5UWY, KB5TFX, KG4VUH, K5KVN, K0LVR, K5FXB
WF4DD:   KG4CZU
W1AF:    WB8ODC, N1EXQ, K1XQ, N1QZY, KC8RXT, KB1GRS
W9UIH:   W0TPO
WA5BU:   K5LH
W7ISU:   W7RSR
VE3UOT:  VE3GD
W5YD:    K4ZAU, KC5OXI, KD5SDT
W4ATC:   KG4JXE, KG4JXF, KE4QIV
W0HSC:   many
K0SAU:   WD0AMA, N9CAI, KA0GOA, KA0CPJ

"We just started a college ham club here at St. Ambrose University, and our new club call is K0SAU. Thanks for offering this event." - N9CAI (@ St. Ambrose Univ. K0SAU)

"We held pretty good rates all afternoon and evening Saturday, even after getting off to a slow start because we didn't grab a good calling frequency before the contest. Special thanks to George, K5GH, for the use of his Drake L7 for the contest. We would have just been another small signal without it. We feel like we made a good showing for our first serious Sweepstakes from K5UTD. We will definitely be back next year!" - K5AEA (@ Univ. of Texas - Dallas K5UTD)

"80M is usually our good band at night, but noise really hurt us. I keep saying we need to put up a low noise receiving antenna. But being in the middle of the city doesn't help. We were battling some sort of chopping noise that was throughout the band. 40M came through as our best band, just like in CW SS. I was shooting for 1600 QSOs to have a chance to put Georgia Tech at the top for the Collegiate Championships. We didn't quite make it, but we gave it a good shot. We CQed for all we were worth." - W4ATL (@ Georgia Tech. W4AQL)

"We only operated for 19 hours due to a concert shutting down our building! We ran our usual multi-single configuration. We had the usual problems - antenna pointing gauge died (interesting in the dark!,) packet disconnected after five hours never to work again, distractions from satellite development group, occasional operator brain fade... See you all again next year!" - N2VR (@ Cornell Univ. W2CXM)

"A great effort by John W6LD, and Dean N6DE, whom I joined for the last five hours of the contest. We finished with about 100 QSOs more than our previous best." - N7MH (@ Stanford W6YX)

Participation by Conference

Conference          CW    SSB    Total
----------          --    ---    -----
Big 12               3     2       5
ACC                  2     3       5
Ivy                  1     2       3
Pac 10               1     1       2
Big 10               0     2       2
UCAA                 1     0       1
SEC                  0     1       1
MIAA                 0     1       1
NEWMAC               0     1       1
Great Lakes Valley   0     1       1
ASC                  0     1       1
Big West             0     1       1
Big Sky              0     1       1
SWAC                 0     1       1
North Central        0     1       1
Midwest Classic      0     1       1

N/A                  1     1       2
                    ---   ---     ---
                     9    21      30

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