Jon KG6URI, Dennis KT8X, and Bruce KD8APB, operating in the 2004 Collegiate Championship from the University of Michigan W8UM. Even with operators who were completely new to radio contesting, Stanford University W6YX continues to be the team to beat in the Collegiate Championship. This is the sixth consecutive victory for the Cardinal. The University of Arizona K7UAZ took second place, up two positions from their fourth place result in 2003. Coming in third was the University of Texas N5XU, the highest finish for the Longhorns since 1998. The number of logs submitted by college and university club stations decreased again slightly, for the third year in a row. In one conference, though, the competition has really fired up. The Big 10 is the first conference ever to get four university clubs into the contest. All four entered the phone competition only. The University of Wisconsin W9YT won the conference title ahead of the University of Minnesota W0YC, Indiana University K9IU, and the University of Michigan W8UM. When conference rivals get on the air, it's bound to be more fun - hopefully, other conferences will join in the idea and get their radio clubs into some intra-conference competition. Despite lower participation, several colleges and universities entered the contest for the first time ever in 2004. Brigham Young University N7BYU and the team at ITT Technical Institute - Grand Rapids K8ITT both entered both the CW and phone competitions for the first time ever. Entering phone only, but for the first time ever, were Indiana University K9IU, the University of Nebraska N0UNL, the University of Michigan W8UM, and Hesston College K0HC. It is always great to see college and universities entering the contest who have never been active before. There are many interesting results regarding the records and conference champions this year. For the first year ever in the contest, there were no new entries in the top ten CW record scores or the top ten phone record scores. For the first year ever, no team entered from the schools of the ACC or the SEC. The University of Texas N5XU achieved a conference sweep, winning the Big 12 CW, Phone, and Combined titles - the first time a school in the very competitive Big 12 has done so in five years. Only the Big 12 and the Ivy League have had schools entering the Collegiate Championship every year since the contest began.

Operators

W6YX:   KJ9U, K6IF
K7UAZ:  WY7W, N9ZXW, KB7XL
K8ITT:  N8PPQ
N5XU:   AA5BT, W5BEV
N7BYU:  AD7BN

"This is the first year K8ITT, club station for ITT Technical Institute in Grand Rapids compteted in the Collegiate Championship." - N8PPQ (@ ITT Tech - Grand Rapids K8ITT)

"This was my first ever Sweepstakes entry (I operated a token effort a few years ago at a friend's station, but never sent in a log.) It was a lot of fun using W6YX, the excellent station of the Stanford Amateur Radio Club! We made a clean sweep and 950 QSOs, not bad for a non-contester. I was happy that nothing blew up, and no computers crashed - this made all the setup work worthwhile. Conditions were great, except for the huge aurora Sunday evening. Also, my CW skills were greatly improved after the nadir they had reached at the time of the CQ WPX CW contest. By the end of this contest, 30 WPM was not a problem for me." - KJ9U (@ Stanford Univ. W6YX)

Operators

W6YX:   KJ9U
W7UQ:   KC7RSO, KL9A, KD7YBZ, KC7QCS
N5XU:   KM5TY, KD5KOE, Johnny
W8EDU:  AF8A, W8RZ, W8WTS
W9YT:   unspecified
N1JJ:   W0GJ, W0PJ, N0CMJ, KL7YL
W0YC:   N0YNT, KC0TEY, K8GU
W9NAA:  KC9BWW, KC9EYC, KC9EVR
W4BUC:  KG4BCV, KG4UOO, K4PJR, K4SE
K7UAZ:  WA1BZQ, KB7XL
K8ITT:  KB8RFX, KD8APE, Three others
W6YL:   W6CT
K9IU:   KB9QVT, KC9EVN, KC9EVU, KC9GOI, KENNA, N9VKU, NE7I
N0UNL:  KC0RNZ, N0KIS
W9UIH:  W0TPO
W8UM:   KT8X, KA8WFC, KG6URI, KC8YEK, KD8APB, KD8AAG, KD8APA
W2CXM:  KC2FDJ, KC2IAW, N2YYZ, KB2ZWZ, N2TQ, N2VR
K0HC:   W0BH, KD7ZYS
N7BYU:  KD7UPN

Other colleges and universities heard: W4AQL, W6UE, W8SH, VE3UOT

"I had a great time! This is my first entry in this contest. I'm a rookie contester, and I had only operated Field Day until this year. The excellent facilities at W6YX were offered to me, so I jumped at the chance to operate there." - KJ9U (@ Stanford Univ. W6YX)

"What a GREAT TIME!!! The boys at W7UQ came together a week prior to the contest to discuss our antenna situation. Two big items were on our list to do before the contest. First, our TH7 needed to be tied down, this was due to the rotor being broken. Yes, we have a new one, but we have not climbed the tower yet. Second, we needed to get something up that would get us on 40 meters. Both of these items were taken care of the day before the contest. Aaron KC7RSO threw together a 40-meter dipole. Kyle KB5TSS, Chris KL9A, and our one of our club advisors Jeff KD7PHG got the wire strung and the beam tied down. Thanks guys, you made our contesting effort worth while for the club!" - KC7RSO (@ W7UQ)

"We braved the wet weather to come up with 531 QSOs and a CLEAN SWEEP. We had to hunt for New Mexico at the end for about an hour, but we got all 80 in the log. I think Kevin got a good introduction to contesting and TR Log, and I worked a little at picking up my S&P speed." - KM5TY (@ Univ. of Texas N5XU)

"Great contest! This was the first Sweepstakes from our university club station." - (WD0BGZ @ Univ. of Nebraska N0UNL)

"We used this as a training year. Our amplifier didn't work, so we ran barefoot. The rotor indicator stopped functioning, so pointing the yagi was a bit random. We discovered the computers were on different times. *sigh* Thanks to everyone who gave us a contact." - N2VR (@ Cornell Univ. W2CXM)

"This year the club did very well considering the contest was over a school break.... We worked mainly one rig the entire time, and only had General privileges, making it hard to find some of the missing multipliers. Brandon, battling illness, was able to stay, as he was the only HF-licensed one of us there. We were also visited by the local news, and were put on the Sunday news. This was also only the second time our SB-200 amplifier had been on the air." - KC9BWW (@ Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. W9NAA)

"We had a great time!" - K4PJR (@ East Tennessee State Univ. W4BUC)

Participation by Conference

Conference          CW    SSB    Total
----------          --    ---    -----
Pac 10               2     2       4
Big 10               0     4       4
Big 12               1     2       3
Mountain West        1     1       2
Big West             0     1       1
Great Lakes Valley   0     1       1
Ivy                  0     1       1
NSIC                 0     1       1
SCAC                 0     1       1
Southern             0     1       1
UAA                  0     1       1
WAC                  0     1       1

N/A                  1     2       3
                    ---   ---     ---
                     5    19      24

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