CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 1504 32 117
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 1504 32 117 Total Score = 623,416
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Antennas:
20M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50'
Yagis on separate tubular towers (no vertical stacks)
Equipment:
Orion + Alpha 87A, FT-1000D + Acom 2000A, Writelog
I'm not a big fan of phone contests, but I do love CQ WW -- it has the best
format and the best participation of any contest. My favorite way to do SSB is
as part of a multi operation, so for the past six years I've participated in
this contest from multis at K1RX, KR1G (twice), 8P8P, NT1Y and KT1V (ex-KR1G).
When possible, I've added points for the club on Sunday after returning home.
This year I didn't have my act together and found myself in mid-October with no
plan for CQ WW SSB. For various reasons, I decided to do the contest SO from
home, mainly to rack up a few points for YCCC and see how my antennas fare in
this toughest of all contests for a small station.
This was my first (and perhaps last) attempt at a single-band entry. SB20 from a
small station at this point in the sunspot cycle is pretty-much a masochistic
exercise. My hat is off to anyone who tried it LP -- must have been brutal.
Despite a 4-el monobander and high-power, I had great difficulty finding and
holding a frequency, particularly during the morning opening. 20 opens a little
earlier for New England, which usually allows us to grab a frequency before the
rest of the US gets going. But this year loud Europeans were firmly entrenched
every few hundred KHz from 14150-14350 by the time I could work Europe. It would
have taken a high stack to get in there early.
I spent way too much time S&Ping up and down the band trying to find even the
tiniest opening for a run frequency. Unlike CW, there's a limit to how far the
BW can be narrowed or the PBT shifted to block the grunting frogs below and the
quacking ducks above. The Orion does a better job of this than any other radio
I've tried, but couldn't completely overcome the massive splatter. It was hard
to work even 100W stations, let alone QRP. Conditions were actually pretty good
-- when the QRM would abate for a second or two I had excellent copy on LP and
QRP stations.
When I found a frequency, I could push the 10-minute rate meter to 100, 120 or
even 150, but my run would last only a few minutes before I was forced off the
frequency by horrendous adjacent QRM or a loud station simply plopping down on
top of me. It seemed the only US stations that had any success were the big M/Ms
and a handful of big single-op stations.
There was often layer upon layer of stations on a given frequency, each calling
CQ, oblivious of one another. Several times when running at high rate, I
realized there was a US station calling underneath me. How could that op
continue to call and call when large numbers of loud Europeans were working me
in succession? One answer was that some of them were west coast stations calling
in a different direction. I found that out when moving my beam to the north to
pickup Asia and got an earful from a W7 who said he'd been on the frequency for
an hour. I'd been there nearly that long running about 100 EU stations!
I did quite a bit better as soon as 15 opened. US and EU stations left 20 in
droves and I had a little bit of time to run at high rate before 20 flattened
out. Then it was grind, grind, grind until the band opened up again at
1700z-1800z. Rate was generally better in the afternoon, not because of better
propagation but because of less QRM.
My mults aren't great, but not for lack of trying. I'm not too far off the east
coast competition on zones, but somewhat down from them on countries. W7WA seems
to have a lock on this category, putting up incredible mult totals. Nice work!
I think more Asian mults called me in this contest than any I can remember.
Always a thrill to be called by HS, HL, BY, DU, etc.
One nice thing about single band is you can spend a lot of time doing dedicated
S&P (i.e., not SO2R) without worrying too much about falling behind on Qs.
During my S&P sweeps I was able to really dig deep for mults.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could work 20 SO2R. My two
beams are at least 350 feet apart, and the antenna I use mostly for running, the
SteppIR, has excellent F/B and F/S on 20. This allowed me to point the C3E S,
SW, NW, or N and scan for stations while CQing. I could get within 5 KHz or so
of the run radio frequency and still hear pretty well. While most of my mults
came from running and dedicated S&P, a few good ones came SO2R and I was able to
pad my QSO total a bit as well. Fun.
My overall score was greatly helped by good JA openings on Saturday and Sunday
afternoon/evening. Ran about 120 JAs between the two openings. Not a huge
number, but they were coming in strong and steady. Wish more JAs would
participate.
So, guess I can say "been there, done that". Probably don't need to do SB20
again. Hopefully next year I'll find my way to a multi -- much more fun and
definitely more sociable!
See you in CW.
73, Dick WC1M
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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