ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 44.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 105 46
80: 463 71
40: 564 75
20: 971 86
15: 942 79
10: 86 44
-------------------
Total: 3131 401 Total Score = 3,756,969
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @65'
80M - delta loop @75', trapped vee @65'
40M - 40-2CD @72', 4-square
20M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50'
15M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50'
580' beverage aimed 20-degrees
All yagis on separate tubular towers (no vertical stacks)
Equipment:
Orion + Alpha 87A, FT-1000D + Acom 2000A, Writelog, TopTen band decoders
and switches.
Very good contest. My numbers are similar to last year, with slightly fewer Qs
and mults overall. Looks like I'm hangin' on to the top ten by a thread again.
And once again, I'm the beneficiary of low participation by top-guns in W1. I
haven't read the NCJ article on CSS, but I can infer what it is. Being newer to
the game, guess I'm not there yet.
Wonder if I could have done a better job running 40 in the first hour, but the
rate just wasn't there -- only had an 84 hour. I get the sense others weren't
running 40 like crazy then either, so it probably opened and closed earlier than
last year. 80 was certainly spectacular Friday night, so maybe I should have
started there instead and tried to pick up EU on 40 late afternoon Saturday and
Sunday. I'd be interested to know if others had success with that strategy. The
other area where I'm sure I lost Qs was the high-band runs -- at times I was so
fatigued that I had to ask for a lot of fills, eroding the rate. I never got the
10-minute meter above 185 or so. I did have a couple of 130+ hours and one 150+
hours, but felt I could have done better with a clearer head.
As for mults, I hit the second radio as hard as I could throughout the contest.
The numbers are still disappointing, so either I'm not loud enough or I simply
have a lot more to learn about propagation and searching for mults. I have a
project pending to compare K5ZD's WW CW log with mine to get some clarity on
this. I did try moving stations, but had little success getting a positive
response. How did other fare in this department?
My continent breakdown was 90.4% EU, significantly higher than usual and higher
than reported by others (more like 86%.) Asia was only 2.5%, Africa was only 1%
and Oceania was only .4%, so that's where I missed the mults. I worked JA and 9V
on 40 (longpath at 1126z), a bunch of loud JAs on 20, and DU3NXE called me on 20
Sunday. That was about it for Asia. SU9NC called me on 80, 20 and 15, A45WD
called me on 40, worked 5H on 15 and 10, and ZS on 20 and 15. Worked VK only on
20, ZL only on 40 and 20 and KH6 on 80, 40, 20 and 15. I certainly swung the
beams in those directions, so I guess either the propagation wasn't there or I
wasn't in the right place at the right time.
Band-by-band:
160 was terrific, with EU as loud as I've ever heard it. I don't think I've CQed
160 in ARRL DX or CQ WW, so it was a real thrill to actually get some rate going
to EU on top band. Got the 10-minute timer up to 60/hr at 0630z Sunday. Had a
best-ever 105 Qs and 46 mults. Not bad for a trapped inverted vee at 65'!
80 was downright spectacular, with EU loud and clear and QRP stations easy to
copy. Don't think I've ever worked so many 5-watters on 80. Both 80 and 160 were
open much earlier to EU than in previous years.
As mentioned, 40 opened quite early -- 20z or 21z -- and was pretty punk by
0000z-0100z. I didn't try the afternoon LP opening, but at least one W1 said it
wasn't there.
20 was the money band, with the most mults and Qs. Had an unexpectedly early
mini-run of about 30 EU stations on 20 beginning 0830z Saturday. The band fully
opened at 0930z and I was off to the races. The band was open about as early
Sunday morning, but I didn't get a good run going until about 1030z. Afternoon
openings were good between 1700z-2100z, though it was tough to leave 15 at one
end and had to get to 40 on the other end.
15 was excellent, producing huge runs Saturday morning and the best hour, 151.
Africa was there, but no Asia, no JA.
Unfortunately, 10 never fully opened to EU. I was able to S&P about a dozen
strong EU mults between 1400z and 1500z Saturday, but the rest came from the
Caribbean and South America. It looked like 10 would not open at all to EU on
Sunday morning, but around 1630z I worked a handful of very loud stations on the
west coast of Europe and heard some US stations CQing. They weren't getting any
action, but I decided to hang around and listen for a while. At about 1645z, the
band opened and I got a small run going that was good for another dozen EU
mults. All the stations were weak, but workable -- even QRPers. I tried peaking
EU to the east and southeast, but that didn't help. Evidently, north was the
right direction but I didn't think to try that. The band slammed shut by
1745z.
Although we had legions of EUs, my sense was that worldwide participation wasn't
huge in this contest. I don't think it was significantly lower than last year,
but it certainly wasn't higher. The big difference was tons of QRP stations on
all bands. It's a real rush to work a 5W station on 160 or 80, or on 10 when the
band is barely open. The copy on QRP stations was pretty decent -- while some
took extra concentration, I didn't feel like I was using ESP all that much this
year.
The antennas worked well. I have no complaints about my transmit signal on the
low bands. Propagation on 160 and 80 was so good that my trapped vee and delta
loop did just fine against the 4-squares. The beverage was useful, but less for
dealing with band noise than for nulling QRM from the US. I continue to be
pleased with the 4-el SteppIR, especially on 15 and 10. Several times I was
unable to bust pileups with the C3E or 5-el 15 1t 50', but was able to get
through on the first call with the SteppIR. My homebrew PIC-based SO2R interface
for the SteppIR worked very well (description and photos at www.wc1m.com), aside
from one minor bug in my code.
Most of the time my CW copy was OK, but this wasn't my best performance. I
became particularly dyslexic on receive during the slow periods. Fatigue was a
factor as usual, but overall I felt reasonably good for nearly 45 hours in the
chair. The hardest part for me is always around 0700z-0900z the first night.
After that, either exotic mults come in on the low bands or 20 opens up early
and there's some excitement to perk me up. I always feel better on the second
day, when the score increases more rapidly and my body knows sleep isn't far
away. Again, the 50lb weight loss last year has paid big dividends in stamina. I
could have gotten more sleep the week before the contest, though.
This contest kinda snuck up on me -- been real busy and hadn't been thinking
much about the upcoming contest until about a week before. I was reasonable
psyched, but didn't feel like I had a long buildup to prepare. I managed only
about a two hour nap on Friday. I always plan on at least a four hour nap, but
somehow always run out of time taking care of little details. Gotta work on
this. I was happier with the food situation than WW CW. Prepared some things in
advance and took only minimal time to get them out of the fridge. I ate at
pre-determined times and did not eat a whole lot. This year I used a small
electric water boiler to make tea, decaf most of the time, caf just before each
morning run. That was nice.
My first break came at 0200z Sunday -- 26 hours into the contest. I took an
hour-long sanity break, during which I heated up a meal, spoke with my family
and took a shower. The previous hour's rate had been pretty low, so I think this
was a good time to take a break. The 0100z hour might have been slightly better
-- probably could have run 80 better during the 0200z hour. The second break was
a two-hour nap in the chair during the 0700z and 0800z hours Sunday. Again, the
rate was pretty slow and I wasn't hearing Asia or Oceania coming in on 40 and
80. I checked the bands once during this time and didn't think it was worth
giving up sleep. In retrospect, I'm not sure I should have taken this break -- I
think there were enough Qs and mults available that I could have moved up one or
two spots in the standings. On the other hand, the nap really helped my
performance in the early morning high-band runs. Trade-offs!
Had two repair jobs in the weeks before the contest. The delta loop came down
for the umpteenth time in January and I had to fix it when there was a lull in
the snow and cold. That was more-or-less uneventful. Then, three days before the
contest, I took a tour of the antennas and discovered that a top guy was missing
on one of my 50-foot AB-577 masts! This "tower" holds up the 5-el 15 monobander
and Ham IV rotor. There it was, with just two guys at the top. I'm sure a sharp
gust of wind from the wrong directions would have brought the whole thing
tumbling down. I found the guy laying on the ground. Evidently, the cast
aluminum clip attaching to the top guy ring snapped. I had this problem once
before on a bottom guy. Some of these masts use forged steel eye-hoist hooks,
while some use the cast clips. Looks like I'll have a project replacing all the
clips this spring. Anyway, I made the discovery at 4:15 PM and instantly decided
to crank down the mast. I raced up the hill to get the winch and a temporary
steel link for re-attaching the guy. Moving quickly, I was able to crank the
tower down, fix the guy, crank it back up, and adjust the guys just as the last
bit of daylight disappeared. Whew.
I had a few more-or-less annoying technical problems during the contest. Once or
twice it seemed like the Top Ten SO2R matrix wasn't switching on certain bands.
Saturday night I lost the 4-square, but it returned the next day. It seems as
though the relays are freezing at night and thawing out during the day. Kinda
strange, because I've had the switches installed for about six years and the
relays are sealed. This one bears further investigation.
Saturday evening the 87A started getting faults on 40, which I could sometimes
clear by cycling the band switch. This forced me to run 40 on the 1000D, which
just doesn't have the filtering and IMD-rejection of the Orion. It was adequate,
but I was pining for the Orion (hope W2JVN gets those 1000D roofing filters done
soon!) Meanwhile, fixing the 87A is a new priority. Had a similar bandswitch
problem on 10, solved by patching the firmware to park the bandswitch in the 12m
position. Can't do that for 40, so I'll have to get to the bottom of it. I think
it's the input bandswitch wafer, and I've got a replacement input board on the
bench to try.
Did one interesting experiment. I use Bose noise-canceling headphones, but as
with any headphones they became uncomfortable after 24 hours or so. At one point
I simply pulled the headphone plug and started running a pileup from audio on
the Orion speaker. I was pleasantly surprised how well this worked. I've always
been under the impression that headphones were absolutely essential for focusing
concentration, but the speaker was an effective break from the headphones. I
tried connecting the headphone output to my PC speakers so I could use the
Orion's Binaural audio feature, and while this worked, it was so different that
I went back to the headphones. I think this technique has promise but requires
practice copying CW.
So, that's it. Thinking about what to do for ARRL SSB and thinking even more
about WPX CW. Hopefully, CSS won't set in by then!
73, Dick WC1M
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