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[3830] CQWW SSB M6T(G4PIQ) SOAB HP

To: 3830@contesting.com, g4piq@btinternet.com
Subject: [3830] CQWW SSB M6T(G4PIQ) SOAB HP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: g4piq@btinternet.com
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:20:36 -0700
List-post: <3830@contesting.com">mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: M6T
Operator(s): G4PIQ
Station: G0KPW

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: JO02RF
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  275    14       59
   80:  933    23       88
   40:  830    29       95
   20: 1865    37      113
   15:  859    31       99
   10:   25     3       20
------------------------------
Total: 4787   137      474  Total Score = 6,255,418

Club: 

Comments:

Rig : 2 x FT1000MP + Alpha 87A

Ants
160 â?? Dipole @ 26m
80 â?? 4 square + Dipole @ 23m
40 â?? 402CD @ 30m + Vertical
20 â?? 204CD @ 28m + TH5 @ 28m
15 â?? Extended 155BA @ 30m + TH5 @ 28m
10 â?? 105CA @ 30m

This didn't turn out to be a great contest for me. I had hoped to do at least 
a little work on the station before the contest, but I had a dreadful week at 
work with late nights, early mornings and senior escalations and didn't get 
clear of all that until nearly midday Friday - in fact for most of Friday 
morning I didn't even think I'd get to do the contest - I could see a weekend 
of work looming, but then we got a plan! 

So, with all that clear I drove to the G0KPW contest site and started to wind 
up the 4 towers. All this seemed to go well enough and by 1700 I was able to 
send a text mesage saying, all antennas up and working and was feeling pretty 
positive. I then turned to the shack to fix a few small faults which needed 
attention. During this testing I found that one of the FT1000MPs was about 
10dB deaf and couldn't really detect band noise on a quiet HF band, so 
swapped the filters out of that radio into another one. 

About this time however I also found that a fault had apeared on the 20m yagi 
and realised that the 20/10m tower would have to come down and get luffed over

and worked on. I still had no food for the weekend (having wanting to make 
the most of daylight for antenna work) and had left some critical items at 
home in the late morning rush to get out, so then had to take 2.5 hours out 
to drive to late night shop, get food, drive home and then drive back to site.


Once back on site it was time to take down the tower and fix the antenna and 
then wind it back up. I completed all this just about on the stroke of 
0000 UTC. The it took me about 30 minutes to finish configuring the station 
and make a start at 0031. 

I chose to start on 80m and that ran well with 123 QSOs to EU and the US in 
first 29 mins to the top of hour and then at about 0110 I saw that 40 was 
still really pretty well open to the US and went there and ran pretty well 
there to the US until about 0300. By this point I was already starting to 
suffer the halucinations of a lack of sleep - not a good sign on night #1 
so had to take 15 minutes out to make a flask of tea to keep me going and 
sort out some other domestic things - had just not had a any time to get 
this straight before the off. Back then to 80m to US/EU with a dip out to 160m

around dawn. For me 160 wasn't in super shape - only a handful of the big gun 
East Coast US stations worked and none very loud â?? none of the West coast
stuff 
reported by Tonno. After a quick trip back to 80 and 40, it was off to 20m at 
0730 and a useful spattering of JAs amongst the rest of Asia and Eu. I also 
tried a bit on 15m but it didn't run well for long and of course kept checking

10m, although the lack of stubs on the 20m system (something else I had 
planned to fix, but timed out on) made it impossible to listen on 10m while 
transmitting on 20m since the antennas were only 2m or so apart. 



The US opening came on 20 and brought decent rate. There were also US signals 
on 15, but not enough to make it worth scarificing the rate on 20. Up until 
about 1400 I'd been able to make decent use of the second radio, but now - 
mid afternoon unusually - the tierdness really started to hit me - I felt 
ill, had a headache, didn't want to eat and just wanted to go to bed! I 
struggled on working Ws, but almost in my sleep some of the time - falling 
asleep at the keyboard, and there's over a 4 hour period in my log where I 
just ran on 20 (at reasonable but not great rate) and didn't touch the second 
radio - many lost opportunities for mults there. To clear my head a little 
and allow me to carry on pushing through to the early hours I took a couple of

20 minute breaks in the 1800 hour and then knuckled down again. 20 stayed 
open until about 2000 and I then tried to go to 40m, and after a little 
struggle I managed to make some progress, mostly working Europeans. Again - 
I wasn't feeling up to using the second radio much, but I found the JA double 
mult on 80 more or less by accident as I just switched the headphones over 
to use the second radio on 80 at one point and there was JR5VHU calling CQ! 

>From about 2200 I started to run the US well on 40m and I pushed on at that 
until about 0100 when I went and ran a load more on 80. All along while I was 
feeling shattered I had a plan to push through to 0200 and then sleep until 
30 mins or so before sunrise at about 0630. I could see that the bands looked 
in better shape on that second night and I'd have liked to have stayed on, 
but I just had to get some sleep. 

I woke up about 0600, felt much better, made another flask of tea and came 
back to the bands about 0620 and found them again in better shape. Had a 
good short run to the US on 80 then went to 160 for sunrise. Here I heard a 
load of mults I couldn't raise (HC8A, KP + 3 or so other Caribbean I forget 
now) but worked YV4A, HQ3Z, PJ2T and others. I need a better 160 Tx antenna. 
Receive 160m on the 80m 4 square was a great help, but eliminated any 
chance of doing SO2R between 80 & 160. A return to 80m brought some good 
West Coast QSOs with W6/7 and VE7 and a little string of 5 ZL stations, 
but I didn't see 160 in decent shape to the West (which Tonno, ES5TV 
reported) and couldn't persuade any of the ZLs to go to 160.  I left 80 
at about 0745 to go to 40 for 30 mins and then went straight for 15 to 
try and fill some of holes in my mult table. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find the band open to JA and I stayed running 
on 15 until about 1020 when it had got a bit quiet and I went back to 20 to 
work Asia and then onto the NA opening. During the start of the NA opening 
I was hoping that 15 would open and release me from the hell of 20m QRM, but 
it didn't look promising when at 1330 KC1XX was only S9 on 15. However, the 
next signal I came across was W3LPL who was peaking 30dB louder and so it 
was clearly time to go to 15. This opening seemed quite selective with the 
W1 and W2 folks seemingly being behind a curtain. This gave some of the best 
instantaneous rate of the contest with a perfect pile-up for a while and 
500+ last 10 rates. Of course, it never lasts and the volume wasn't there to 
sustain for more than 15 minutes or so. I stayed with 15 through to 1642 
where it went slow and quiet and returned to the 20m for for a couple more 
hours of log filling. The 1900 hour saw a return to 40 with some pretty 
reasonable rate and some very loud JAs. Also managed to move both VK zones to 
80 in this slot. and then ran a bit of 80, but only really to Eu until 2105. 
At this point the 160m log was looking very neglected so went there to work 
some of the obligatory missing easy mults and stayed with good rate for nearly

2 hours before going to 80 (mistake) and then to 40 for the last 45 minutes 
and a useful pile of extra 3 pointers. Most interesting set of QSOs of that 
period was a 6 band move from 160 through to 10 of OH0E with good forward 
scatter signals on 15/10 over the optimal 1500km or so path - thanks for 
that!

So - overall - good fun - though it didn't feel much like it on afternoon / 
evening 1, but rather disappointed with the final result. Had I been on 
better form I'd like to think I could have been in the mix with Tonno, ES5TV 
& Ben, DL6FBL/SV9CVY around 7M, but I wasnâ??t and Iâ??m not and
congratulations 
to them for great results - each within their own station / propagation 
limitations. As to Toni CU2X/OH2UA - wow - I expected a big score - and he 
sounded commanding every time I heard him over the weekend - but a new Eu 
claimed record with no 10m is a great result. It makes trying to do SOAB for 
WRTC qualification points from this bit of Europe a bit of a waste of time 
though! Comisserations to Ranko $o£a as well - cut off in his prime. Looking 
forward to seeing who else has a big score too.

Usual thanks to Bob, G4BAH for the use of the station, to Jiri, M0ITY and 
Petr M0WTF, for fixing the 40m yagi after WAE SSB, and to Julie for looking 
after Anna all weekend again. Thanks also to everyone for the QSOs and moves. 

73 & see you in some form for the CW leg

Andy, G4PIQ


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