1998 ARRL DX CONTEST
Call used: K8CC/C6A Location: C6A
Category: Multi-Two Xmtr Mode: CW Power: 1500
Operators: K8CC, K9TM, KR8V, W8UA
Club or Team Name: Mad River Radio Club
band QSOs points mults antenna
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160 463 1389 55 Inverted-V @ 40'
80 823 2469 57 Inverted-V @ 40'
40 1286 3858 58 Quarter wave sloper from 40'
20 1245 3735 57 TH5 @ 55'
15 1084 3252 57 3L yagi @ 30'
10 443 1329 47 TH5 @ 55'
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TOTAL 5344 16032 331 SCORE: 5,306,592
Rig #1 (80/20/10): IC-756, AL811H, Dell laptop
Rig #2 (160/40/15): IC-756, AL80A, IBM Thinkpad
We operated from the rental QTH owned by Ken Helton, KC4SZE on Treasure
Cay,
Bahamas. It is a very nice QTH right near the water with facilities well
suited for a two transmitter effort. The station has a 45' Rohn 25G tower
with a 40-2CD and TH5 beams, plus dipoles for 80 and 160 meters. An IC-751
and AL80A amplifier are available for use, but we brought our own
transceivers
and a second amplifer to equip two stations.
Problems arose shortly after we arrived the Wednesday before the contest
when
we discovered the 40M beam was not at all well. When K8DD and crew
operated
from this QTH in CQWW CW this past November, prior to their arrival rumor
had
it the beam was broken. They replaced a PL259 in the shack, then took SWR
readings on the beam which showed minimum SWR around 7400. They chose to
fix
the SWR problem with an MFJ tuner that was on site. We could not find the
tuner, which we later found out had been taken back to the states by KC4SZE
the week before. In its place was a small 300W B&W tuner that would break
down with anything over 100W applied to the antenna.
Ultimately, the tuner would not have helped. On Thursday night before the
contest we had a big rain and the SWR on the 40M beam dropped near 1:1 on
the
MFJ SWR analyzer! Unfortunately, with power applied the SWR varied wildly.
K9TM called twenty CQs on 40 CW without an answer just after sunset - not a
good sign. On Friday morning he climbed up the tower and reported that the
coax braid to the Cushcraft's driven element was bright green with
corrosion.
Also, he could see that the end of the coax did not appear to be sealed.
Our problem appeared to be water in the coax - worse yet, SALT WATER in the
coax.
A previous visitor to the QTH had left behind a 40M dipole, so we tried to
install this as a half wave sloper from the tower. Few things are more
depressing than stringing a 40M wire antenna with a useless 40M beam only a
few feet above. The sloper would not tune up at all, probably due to the
nearby presence of the beam. There was also a Cushcraft R-7 vertical at
the
QTH which we tested on 40M, but it was resonant at 7100 with a 2:1
bandwidth
of plus or minus 30 KHz. (The B&W tuner did not like this antenna either
at
power levels over 100W). As a last resort, the sloper was cut in half to
make a quarter wave sloper which tuned up OK to the relief of the
operators.
Our only other antenna project was the 3L 15 that we brought with us and
installed on the side of the tower. From start to finish that entire task
took only about 90 minutes.
We started the contest with one rig on 20 and the other on 15. 20 produced
a pileup immediately, while no stations answered the CQs on 15. This
tactical error led to an immediate bandchange where K8CC was met with
extreme
resistance as our 250W (the C6A limit) and little sloper was no match for
the
hordes battling for 7027. Things were better on 7037 and we started to
roll.
20 did not last long, so a QSY to 80 produced an immediate pileup. After a
couple hours the Europeans were peaking on 80 which cut down responses to
our
CQs, so W8UA took rig #1 to 160 where the QRN was low and stations were
loud.
Demand seemed higher on 160, which we surmised was perhaps due to the other
C6A station we'd heard not having good antennas for the band.
Saturday morning produced the first realization that our location
relatively
close to the USA was going to work against us. 20 opened on time, but the
rates were not at all spectacular. Worse yet, 15 did not producing any
real
rate until 15Z. About the time 15 started to pick up 20 started to go flat
and 10 was completely empty. Later in the afternoon stations started to
appear on 10, but we ended Saturday with a pitiful 124/26 on 10.
The second night the low bands were much noisier which made for a long
night.
The occasional new multipler kept us going and we were pleased with our
final
counts considering our modest power and antennas.
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday as untold numbers of CQs went
unanswered on both 20 and 15. A total of only 215 QSOs were logged with
both
transmitters from 12Z to 16Z - this is the Caribbean? Around 17Z we
decided
that we had to make 10 work no matter what to get the mults so rig #1 went
to
28030 and stayed there. Condx were really strange - for long periods all
we
could work was CA and MN. However, we knew we were doing the right thing
because stations would come by on 15 and ask for our QRG on 10. In the end
we made up some ground but managed a less-than-stellar 47 mults on the band
and some awfully easy stuff was missed.
In the end we wound up making significantly fewer QSOs than we expected.
No
doubt losing the 40M beam set us back tremendously, but the poor showing on
the high bands was what really hurt. The answer came when looking at NA's
QSO per multiplier breakdown - we had over 700 QSOs with CA with only one
other state over 300 (NY). The usual midwest and east coast states that
provide big totals just weren't there for us.
We were somewhat amused about one of the other C6A writeups that made a
comment about Bahamian customs. Between the four of us we had three
transceivers, three power supplies, three laptops, one amplifier, and a
yagi
in a tube and the only thing inspected were our briefcases.
One piece of advice for contesters going to the Bahamas is to apply early
for the license. The BATELCO people are very amicable but things just take
time due to the mail and whatever. W8UA sent his in mid-December and
received it the week before we left. Poor K9TM just about had a nervous
breakdown trying to get his and my licenses expedited which had been
applied
for in early January. Ultimately, faxed copies were sent to the BATELCO
office on Treasure Cay just in time for the contest. My original license
arrived the Saturday after the contest.
Speaking of licenses, ours very clearly show the callsign has the /C6A on
the
end and not at the beginning. We would have much preferred signing
C6A/K8CC
but the license reads otherwise.
In the end, the rigs and operators survived the contest and the travel and
Treasure Cay was a beautiful place to visit so it was a successful weekend.
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs.
73,
K8CC, K9TM, KR8V and W8UA
QSO AND RATE BREAKDOWNS
UTC 160 80 40 20 15 10 rate total
----------------------------------------------
00Z 0 0 70 109 0 0 179 179
01Z 0 0 116 85 0 0 201 380
02Z 0 106 131 0 0 0 237 617
03Z 0 138 112 0 0 0 250 867
04Z 1 66 123 0 0 0 190 1057
05Z 105 0 96 0 0 0 201 1258
06Z 99 58 8 0 0 0 165 1423
07Z 73 78 0 0 0 0 151 1574
08Z 12 57 38 0 0 0 107 1681
09Z 29 30 16 0 0 0 75 1756
10Z 7 32 24 0 0 0 63 1819
11Z 35 38 25 0 0 0 98 1917
12Z 0 0 47 40 0 0 87 2004
13Z 0 0 0 42 19 0 61 2065
14Z 0 0 0 63 9 0 72 2137
15Z 0 0 0 86 60 0 146 2283
16Z 0 0 0 15 59 0 74 2357
17Z 0 0 0 35 84 0 119 2476
18Z 0 0 0 28 137 50 215 2691
19Z 0 0 0 0 129 65 194 2885
20Z 0 0 0 92 95 9 196 3081
21Z 0 0 0 120 87 0 207 3288
22Z 0 0 0 53 28 6 87 3375
23Z 0 0 15 73 1 0 89 3464
00Z 10 0 22 107 0 0 139 3603
01Z 63 0 0 61 0 0 124 3727
02Z 25 13 18 15 0 0 71 3798
03Z 0 53 74 0 0 0 127 3925
04Z 0 55 68 0 0 0 123 4048
05Z 0 30 58 0 0 0 88 4136
06Z 0 24 26 0 0 0 50 4186
07Z 0 11 37 0 0 0 48 4234
08Z 0 7 11 0 0 0 18 4252
09Z 0 5 17 0 0 0 22 4274
10Z 2 9 19 0 0 0 30 4304
11Z 2 13 32 0 0 0 47 4351
12Z 0 0 30 7 0 0 37 4388
13Z 0 0 9 33 2 0 44 4432
14Z 0 0 0 15 8 0 23 4455
15Z 0 0 0 10 22 1 33 4488
16Z 0 0 0 39 39 0 78 4566
17Z 0 0 0 8 35 32 75 4641
18Z 0 0 0 0 68 56 124 4765
19Z 0 0 0 0 52 68 120 4885
20Z 0 0 0 0 64 62 126 5011
21Z 0 0 0 0 65 66 131 5142
22Z 0 0 7 17 21 28 73 5215
23Z 0 0 37 92 0 0 129 5344
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tot 463 823 1286 1245 1084 443 ---- 5344
QSOS PER MULTIPLIER BREAKDOWN
Mult QSOs
CT 102
MA 238
ME 26
NH 87
RI 29
VT 27
NJ 210
NY 318
DC 2
DE 24
MD 141
PA 285
AL 38
FL 122
GA 51
KY 42
NC 72
SC 18
TN 76
VA 123
AR 34
LA 28
MS 9
NM 35
OK 31
TX 261
CA 743
AZ 139
ID 37
MT 29
NV 28
OR 89
UT 42
WA 228
WY 21
MI 215
OH 210
WV 45
IL 229
IN 71
WI 133
CO 118
IA 56
KS 36
MN 98
MO 79
NE 26
ND 16
SD 9
NS 21
QU 20
ON 111
MB 8
SK 10
AB 35
BC 22
NWT 1
NB 7
YT --
PEI 2
NF 10
LB --
--
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