CQ Worldwide DX Contest - CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s):
Station:
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 31 9 25
80: 234 14 45
40: 748 21 72
20: 658 32 86
15: 753 31 87
10: 1019 26 86
-------------------------------
Total: 3443 133 401 = 5,344,272
Club/Team: YCCC
Comments:
Equipment: FT-1000mp/87A, FT-990/LK550. SO2R. WriteLog.
Wow. As many have said, conditions just don't get any better than this. That
makes at least three years in a row that propagation has been excellent for
CQWW CW. We're leading charmed lives here at the peak of the solar cycle. I
guess it's the peak of the cycle when 3443 QSOs may not make the top 20 (or
30!) On the bright side, compared with last year it's 450 more Qs, 81 more
mults and 1.3M more points. Progress or propagation?
During the last contest season, I concluded that I needed to improve my
performance on 160M and 80M, especially mults. Since I had no antenna for 160M,
anything that would load up would be an improvement. The 80M antenna was an
inverted vee facing approximately E/W up about 55 feet. This year I put up a
right-angle delta loop (tnx ON4UN and W4RNL) with the apex at about 75-80 feet,
facing 20/200 degrees. Then I turned the 80M vee into a trapped 80M/160M vee --
by far the simplest way to get on 160M, with the bonus of not having to give up
the 80M vee. Finally I added a 580' NE beverage (heading 20 degrees).
I was pleased with the results. The 160M antenna is not a killer, of course,
but I held my own with the bulk of the crowd. Having confirmed only five DXCC
countries on 160M in the past 17 years, I was very happy to work at least 20
more in one weekend. The vee gets out to Europe ok on 160M, although I'm not
going to win in any big pileups.
The delta loop is a terrific improvement to Europe, South America and the
Caribbean on 80M. As expected, the lower radiation angle beats the heck out of
the low inverted vee. Comparison tests before the contest had reports from
Europe such as 569 on the loop and 449 on the vee. One op in G-land said the
loop was 10 dB better. The low 80M vee is, of course, an omni-directional cloud
warmer. It's terrific for New England (worked great in SS), but the loop gets
progressively better with more distance. There's one exception -- the vee is
better to W6 and KH6. I'm sure this is due to the 3dB F/S the loop has to the
west (it can't be E/W directionality of the vee -- it's too low for any.)
The real secret, though, was the beverage. I don't think I would have had 100
Qs on 80M without it. Often I would switch from the beverage to the loop on
receive and completely lose copy on the station! Same deal on 160M. I'd have to
say that the beverage is the cheapest, easiest antenna improvement I've ever
made!
The only station improvements were the addition of a homebrew beam aimer
(preset) box to the HD-73 controller that runs the C3E (tnx again to W4RNL for
his 1991 CQ article), and an external muffin fan on the 87A.
I'm convinced that one of the secrets to doing well in CQWW is to put in a full
effort in the ARRL SS contest three weeks earlier. The brutal SS exchange hones
my CW skills, and the 24-hour operating period is enough to introduce the sleep
deprivation pattern without draining me for the big CQWW effort. Plus, there's
enough rest time in between contests.
In the days before the contest, I had time to sit down and make a detailed band
plan for running and S&P. This was very important. I downloaded all the band
breakdowns and rate sheets for top stations that I could find on 3830, and
compared them with my own from last year. I used all that material to make a
master schedule, then compared it to the propagation prediction tables sent out
by YCCC. Finally, I played around with a propagation prediction program (WinCap
Wizard 2) to validate the schedule and explore long path openings. The results
was a pretty good plan that I stuck to for the most part. Probably the biggest
difference was that bands were opening up to an hour before the time shown on
my schedule (e.g., I planned for 10M to open at 1300Z, and it was wide open at
1200z.) I often used the second radio to check bands well before the scheduled
openings, so I was usually able to catch the earlier openings. All in all, I
was very happy with this plan, but it was optimized for running. Next time, I
need to do more creative thinking on the S&P schedule to nail more of the
exotic mults from Asia, Africa and Oceania.
The break plan was not to sleep or take breaks longer than five minutes for the
first 24 hours. Then I would play it by ear, looking for low-rate windows when
I could sleep on Sunday around 0200-0400, 0800-1000 or perhaps sometime around
1800. I was shooting for 45 hours or more.
My preparation was good from an antenna, equipment and planning perspective,
but I didn't get enough sleep in the weeks before. November was a high-stress
month, with my Seattle Internet voting startup closing a major financing and
the non-outcome of the Presidential election bringing a tidal wave of press and
election directors to our door. A couple of weeks before the contest, I decided
to build the preset box, and that ended up extending into the final week, with
some late nights to finish it. I had planned to nap for 4-6 hours the afternoon
of the contest, but ended up getting only about an hour and a half. That would
come back to haunt me later. The cumulative stress and lack of sleep resulted
in not feeling very well during the first 24 hours. Even though I was working
fast and furiously, I never felt in the groove Saturday. Things got better
Sunday.
I started out on 40M with 102 QSOs in the first hour and thought I was off to a
good start. Then the rate just plummeted, to 78 in the second hour and 40 in
the third. Meanwhile, top ops were running over 100 per hour during the first
three hours. I'm still trying to figure out what happened. Also, I lost about
20 minutes around 0400, and can't remember why. After that, things settled down
and the Qs started building up. I knew that I was far behind the leaders, but
well ahead of my performance last year. I learned that when propagation is
good, a lot can be happening during the wee hours (0700-1000), when I've slept
during other contests. I had a ball on the low bands. As the end of the night
progressed I cruised from 40M to 20M to 15M right into heavy runs on 10M at
1200z Saturday morning.
Wow! I've never, ever run so many stations. I had three and a half hours of
sustained 150+/hour rate, obliterating my previous high rate marks. I had so
many pileups I felt like I was on a DXpedition! I took K5ZD's advice, and in
this contest boosted my CW sending speed significantly. That really helped the
rate on all bands, especially 10M. For some inexplicable reason, I took a half
hour break at 1530z. I think the rate had dropped off and I was on the verge of
hallucinating. One indicator is that I can't remember now why I would take a
break right at the peak of the contest! Anyway, I was back in the chair at
1600, and ran off another 100 Qs on 15M, while grabbing 19 on 10M on the second
radio. That's the best second radio rate I've ever had during a high rate
period on the run radio. When the morning 10M and 15M runs were done at about
1830z, I took a 20 minute nap. That was very refreshing, setting me up for 7
more hours running on 20M and 40M. I took a 45 minute nap just before 0200,
with the break extending to almost 70 minutes. I've discovered that any time I
spend away from the radio naturally extends into a longer and longer break --
it's an unconscious desire to end the pain! The only way to beat this is to
*run* to the bathroom and back.
The rate was much lower on the low bands during the wee hours Sunday morning,
as conditions became unsettled. Not much happened on 160M, but I was able to
get some decent numbers going on 80M again. At about 0815Z, I decided to take a
90 minute nap. Big Big Mistake. This ended up being a 3.5 hour break! I set an
alarm clock across the room, and when it went off I must've staggered over to
it and turned it off. I awoke at about 1115Z, thankfully before 10M opened, but
having missed good action on 20M and 15M. I took a few more minutes to brew
coffee, hit the bathroom, and choke down some food. Then it was off to the
races on 10M for over three hours. This time the rate was lower, but still in
the 120-145/hr range. The pattern from the day before was repeated, moving down
to 15M at 1530Z and to 20M around 1930z. The most exciting event was the very
brief SID at about 1700z, which wiped out 15M and greatly attenuated 20M, but
didn't touch 10M! At first I thought the antenna was broken, then I thought the
radio was broken. Then I thought it was a SID, but couldn't understand why 10M
was still hopping. By the time I figured it out, it was over and we were back
to the races. Lots of funky polar path warble to JA and Russia after that. The
rate really dropped off in the last three hours, so I decided to concentrate
more on S&P to pad my mults. The entire last hour I just hunted for mults.
Probably a mistake not to CQ at the same time on the other radio, but by that
time my mind was mush.
What was good:
1. The propagation
2. The plan (mostly)
4. CW speed (mostly)
5. Writelog
6. Splitting the beams, working EU/JA at the same time
7. Working almost 3600 Qs (including dupes)
What was not good:
1. Feeling lousy Saturday
2. Periodic hallucinatory lapses in copy
3. Inexplicable breaks
4. Oversleeping
5. Working almost 100 dupes!
6. Mults are still way too low
Next year? More practice, practice, practice and learn more about propagation.
Gotta learn how to dig up mults more effectively. For antennas, I'm thinking
about putting up monobanders on 10M and 15M on 50' military surplus towers
(like the one the C3E is on), and replacing the TH-7 with a 20M monobander.
Inside the shack, I'm *thinking* about another autotune amp (tough to justify,
but I know it will help) and maybe replacing the 990 with a used 1000D (if I
can find a good one.) I think the poor AGC circuit in the 1000mp may have
slowed my rate when I had pileups on 10M. Finally, plan to get lots of sleep
during the two weeks before the contest, nap all afternoon Friday, don't nap
during the contest, and don't take any breaks longer than 2.5 minutes.
Well, that's it. If you don't like long-winded stories, I hope you didn't read
this :-) See you next time!
73, Dick WC1M
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