CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 29
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------------
80: 205 398 46 9 10
40: 204 441 42 34 19
20: 358 876 39 64 22
15: 17 35 8 4 4
10:
------------------------------------------
Total: 784 1750 135 111 55 Total Score = 526,750
Club:
Comments:
* FT-2000, SB221
* FT-920 second radio
* N1MM Logger + MMTTY
* 3-ele CL33 at 35' (low due to wind)
* 40M twin reversible half-squares (US/JA)
* 40M two-vertical array (N-S)
* 80M two-vertical array (SE-NW, broadside NE-SW)
* 80M Beverage 180' aimed due east
* No cluster
2008 Flux: 67 | Ap: 3 | Kp: 1
2007 Flux: 65 | Ap: 26>13 | Kp: 4>1
Solar indices were kinder this year than last. The low bands were dramatically
better than 2007 -- doubled my 80M Qs, and states soared from 37 to 46 thanks
to having a listening antenna for the first time, and the wire vertical array.
On 40M I improved Qs by more than 25 percent, and countries soared from 13 to
34, thanks to EU antenna improvements. QSO total and states on 20M were about
the same as last year, but the strong EU openings boosted my country count from
48 to 64 this year.
Figured I'd give SO2R a whirl, with the amp on whatever the running band was,
and barefoot on another. Worked just fine, but I only made handful of
second-radio Qs because the only times two bands were actually useful at the
same time here also happened to be during peak rate times on one of them. I
found it slowed me down while running, so ended up just casually poking around
on Radio 2 during the Radio 1 CQ lulls (mostly 80M/40M).
I can attest that the 80M ICE filter #404 is one tough bit of kit -- it took
high power on the amp output for quite a while. It got hot before I realized
the mistake -- pulled it out of line to cool down and it worked just fine
later.
Woke up on Saturday morning to find a nice e-mail from Ed, VE4EAR, who
unfortunately had to spend the weekend getting his brand-new tower and antennas
ready before the snow flies in Winnipeg. "C'mon you slacker. Get up!" he told
me, having noticed that my Livescores.org real-time score info was 4 hours old.
>From as far away as Manitoba, he detected me sleeping longer than a contester
should in a 48-hour test. Thanks for the encouragement, Ed. Hope the new
antenna farm (yagis for 40M-10M) works out fantastic -- we all needed VE4 this
weekend!
I'm always surprised at how quickly a contest weekend goes by. Had a really
good time, and everything worked about as well as it could. Here are the
band-by-band accounts of the weekend.
80M ----------------------------------
This was the weekend I discovered the power of a receive antenna. Wednesday
evening, bored, I realized I had part of a roll of twisted-pair wire just
sitting there doing nothing -- a shameful waste of copper before a major
contest. (The rest of the spool is suspended as radials for the 80M
two-vertical array). So, knowing I had trouble with noise on the 80M and 40M
verticals, I went online to refresh my memory about short Beverage antennas.
Armed with "just enough" info, I used a small binocular torroid core (busted
free from a 300>75 balun and turned into a 9:1 transformer), and ran my remnant
wire down a fence line and into the woods. Wire runs due east from the feed, and
so far is not terminated. Estimated length: just 180', about 6' off the ground.
Hooked up some RG8 to the shack, and had a listen.
Though it's too short to be a real Beverage, it made 80M come alive for me.
Noise is gone, signals pop out. I guess all those stations have been calling
all along, but I couldn't hear them. Sorry for the delay :) The Beverage let me
work the Canary Is. when I couldn't hear him at all on the vertical "two-square"
transmitting array. Worked almost 100 more stations and 9 more states this year,
vs. the full-size delta loop in the air last year. Will tack on a bit more wire
to get 250' or so on the Beverage and see how it plays then.
Given the narrow but long property here, any Beverage pointed at EU will have
to be a Beverage-on-ground through neighbour's deep forest, but I'll give that
a try, too. I'm sold.
Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN Sec
2008 >> 3.5 205 398 9 10 46
2007 >> 3.5 106 209 7 8 37
40M ----------------------------------
On Tuesday night doing my contest-prep listening around, 40M was so noisy I
could barely hear through it on the phased verticals pointed north. Hence, the
Beverage experiment. Alas, the receive antenna doesn't do as well on 40M as on
80M (if it works on 80M and is actually too short, shouldn't it also work on
40M? Hmmmm). Fortunately, 40M was not too noisy over the weekend. Had good
openings to EU on Fri and Sat evenings. Sunday morning I slept a bit too late,
but caught the tail end of a strong Asia opening, though only JA and HL worked
before the band faded.
Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN Sec
2008 >> 7 204 441 34 19 42
2007 >> 7 145 296 13 11 36
20M ----------------------------------
Hate it. Love it. Tribander picks up a lot of noise on 20M; mostly it's BC
Hydro power line noise. Morning openings to EU were good both Sat and Sun.
Saturday's opening was from 1600Z (maybe earlier) to 1830Z. Secondary opening
at about 2000Z, then Asia opened up at 2100Z. On Sunday, EU was open at 1500Z
but weakened by 1700Z. I moved to 15M for an hour, and when I returned to 20M
the EU stations were strong again at 1830Z. Stayed that way until 2040Z, and
they never really went away.
Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN Sec
2008 >> 14 358 876 64 22 39
2007 >> 14 320 726 48 20 39
15M ----------------------------------
Nearly useless on Saturday, with just two weak SAs worked plus loud HC8N. Went
there at 1700Z Sunday and heard stations! Not alot of 'em, but some! Eeked out
8 states. Called CQ for nearly an hour in total, but most contacts were
search-and-pounce. Wish guys would look northwest more often.
Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN Sec
2008 >> 21 17 35 4 4 8
2007 >> 21 28 64 6 7 7
----------------------------------
TOTALS QSOs Pts Cty ZN Sec Score
2008 Total >> 784 1750 111 55 135 526,750
2007 Total >> 599 1295 74 46 119 309,505
----------------------------------------
Year-over-year Qs Mult Score
----------------------------------------
2008 CQWW RTTY SOABHP 784 301 526,750
2007 CQWW RTTY SOABHP 599 239 309,505 (1st HP entry)
2006 CQWW RTTY SOABLP 561 242 300,322 (Note: 102,480 as SOSB/20)
2005 CQWW RTTY SOABLP 365 221 189,840
2004 CQWW RTTY SOABLP 760 220 482,062 1st contest w/tower
2003 CQWW RTTY SOABLP 257 168 101,304
73 and see everyone in SSB and CW CQWWs. Can hardly wait.
-- Bud, VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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