CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: YN5Z
Operator(s): K7ZO
Station: YN5Z
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Nicaragua
Operating Time (hrs): 41.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 4 3 4
80: 235 14 24
40: 556 23 62
20: 1203 27 80
15: 1342 28 85
10: 2972 28 92
------------------------------
Total: 6312 123 347 Total Score = 6,900,070
Club:
Comments:
Another YN5Z Field Day contest is in the books. The station is exactly the same
as used in prior all band contests with the exception of a padded desk chair as
an early Christmas present from my son. Sure beats sitting on a wood dining
chair/bed pillow combo all weekend. This probably had a bigger impact on my
score than putting up stacked beams on all the bands! A description of the
station and link to a Vimeo video tour can be found on the YN5Z QRZ.COM page.
Amazingly in 20+ years of contesting this is the first time I have operated
SOAB in CQWW. Last year I operated Assisted class but I cut the packetcluster
cord this year to see how it would go competing in the Big League. (You fill in
your league of choice -- USA Baseball, English Football, etc.) Overall I would
have to say I am pretty satisfied. Due to the outstanding, though variable,
conditions I actually made 900 more QSOs than last year and increased my score
by 400,000 points. I fell just short of 7,000,000 points courtesy of a one hour
power outage during my 20M over the pole run on Saturday night. It hit just as
propagation was peaking to central Asia and those hard to get multipliers.
Some of the interesting story lines follow.
As a Field Day operation I setup and tear down the station each and every time
I operate. This means I have to identify and adapt to the typical Field Day
issues that show up. This year I had a wall wart powering my microKeyer die but
luckily I had a backup plan in place with a cable and plug to power it off the
station power supply. I know the microHam manual says not to do this but this
is Field Day! It seemed to work just fine. I also continue to have an
intermittent display on the front panel of my KPA-500. I sent an e-mail off to
Elecraft and they got right back to me on what has to be one of the busier days
of the year for them -- two days before CQWW. All the setup and dealing with the
issues is a pain but all of that is forgotten when the guns goes off and QSOs
start filling the log.
Once again I decided to start on 15M which I think was the right place to be.
Rates were respectable but not great. After about 30 minutes I finally figured
out that there was a PY just above me that I could not hear. The QRM from him
was slowing my rate and when I figured it out I QSY'd. Monitoring your rate
versus what you think it should be is one of those learned skills. I had this
same issue last year on 10M and could really see the rate impact when I
analyzed my log a couple weeks later. So, this year I was on the lookout for
it, took time to ask people about the quality of my run frequencies, etc
Despite this opening glitch I got off to a much better start this year than
last. Last year I went to 20 and then 40 way too early and ended up spending a
couple hours essentially S&P DXing -- which can happen in Assisted Class.
In hindsight my first 7 hours last year was a disaster. This year I moved to 20
about the same time but then stayed there until the 0500 hour when I finally
went to 40. As a result when I went to bed the first night I was already 550
QSOs ahead of last year -- representing about half of my QSO gains this year
over last. And I actually had about 20 mults more this year than last even
without the benefit of packet.
20M seemed to be in good but not great shape the first night. Though it might
have been great and I just could not tell. The strength of the North America
stations is so overwhelming that the over the pole Asia stations just get
covered up. Looking back at the log there are a few tantalizing QSOs that
suggest the band was open far and wide but the long distance DX could just not
get through. I devised a strategy to deal with this on Saturday night and it
seemed to work wonderfully.
When I went to 40 on Friday night I had the usual experience operating from
here. First, with my 500W and a vertical I stay away from the 7125-7200 mosh
pit. It is just wasted time. Then if I go above 7200 Europeans bug me to
operate split or go down low. If I go below 7125 then North America wants me to
operate split and/or move back up. I can't win for losing! And as much as I
really like the TS-590 not having two full receivers makes it really difficult
to operate split in a controlled and responsible way. So, I just put up with
the inevitable abuse and operate simplex. But, I did have one of my most
memorable contesting experiences on 40M Friday night. I snuck down low, worked
a few European stations and noticed -- wow does this band seem quiet both from
QRM and QRN. It sounded more like 10M on a non-contest weekend than 40M on a
CQWW weekend. So, I found 7068 clear, called CQ, and was rewarded with 45
minutes of the best Europe 40M run I have ever had. (Remember my life as a
contester has been on the US west coast where even with a 4/4 stack on 40 you
can't generate a Europe run -- and here I am with a vertical.) When the run was
finally over as sunrise swept across Europe I had 61 Zone + Country multipliers
which was respectably close to my whole total last year.
One operating strategy change I made this year was to move my sleep period up
an hour. I went to sleep pretty much when Europe sunrise was complete. This
also meant I did not do much low band operating in the North America evening
hours. Instead I then also got up earlier so I could operate about 90 minutes
before our local sunrise and catch North America in their pre-dawn hours. For
the number of low band QSOs and mults I can make this seemed to work pretty
well -- though it also meant if you are in North America and wanted to work me
on the low bands you had to be on really early in the morning.
Saturday pretty much went according to plan with me bouncing back and forth
between 15 and 10 beaming to Europe and North American depending on the time of
day. I have learned, as have many folks operating out this way, that trying the
beam to the US when the US to Europe path is wide open, is just a waste of
time. The key is to wait until that path closes and then the aim your beam at
the North America hordes just looking for someone to work. The flare that hit
during the 1600 hour was definitely felt on air as my signal reports into
Europe dropped dramatically and my CQ's went unanswered. The flare also hit
just as I went to 15M so my first concern was "crap did my 15M antenna
somehow die, I thought it was working just fine before the contest." Based
on when the flare hit this left a hole in my strategy and QSOs around 15M
operating into Europe that I had to recover from on Sunday -- this story is
coming up.
At one point on Saturday afternoon I managed to get my 10M run going on 28300.5
and was rewarded with the two best hours of best rates of the weekend. I still
can't seem to break that magical 300/clock hour barrier though there might be a
best 60 minutes above 300 in there. At a couple of points I noticed the last 10
meter above 500/hour -- that was pretty motivating.
Saturday night I once again moved to 20M as 15M closed down. In the evening I
just aim the Spiderbeam to the North and see what calls in. This was a strategy
I learned from NK7U and it certainly worked last year when I encountered several
hours of an amazing over-the-pole opening. When I jumped on 20 Saturday night
this year I could tell right away I was in for the same experience. After
working a few US stations Western Europe started showing up in the log. Then 30
minutes later Zone 18 and 19 started showing up and I knew the opening would
progress across Asia and Europe as sunrise worked its way west. The challenge I
was still having is giving a chance for those 3 point QSOs and mults to be heard
over the North American stations. A shout out goes to KU8E who told me a JT
station was calling me and was -- but I could not count on that kind of help
all night. So, as those of you that heard me on the air noticed, I decided to
make directional CQs. After 10 or so QSOs I would make 5 CQ's "Europe and
Asia Only" and then carefully count down each QSO on air until it was time
for "Anyone Anywhere". This seemed to work well -- for me at least.
The North American stations stood by patiently and many good mults went into
the log. Unfortunately in the middle of the run the power went out for an hour
-- which in the big scheme of things in YN it is not too bad. I just took a
short nap and if there was one bright side when I turned the radio back on my
prior run frequency was still more or less clear and I was able to starting the
run back up immediately. But, that lost hour probably cost me 200,000 points or
so and, and from the looks of early results that will represent several spots
in the standings.
On Sunday I knew I needed to spend some time on 15M into Europe since the flare
Saturday took out my plans there. So, I went to 15M with the Spiderbeam aimed at
Europe about 45 minutes after sunrise. The result was the absolute worst pileup
I have ever experienced -- and I am starting to be relatively well experienced
on this sort of thing. In hindsight the band was probably not as open as it
needed to be which meant I was not loud enough to control the ridiculous
pileups that resulted. As a comparison the JA pileups can be trying as you know
there are 100+ stations calling with 100W into a dipole antenna and no single
signal stands out. But, at least they are well behaved. This one was terrible.
It was a case of mutually assured destruction -- if a single station could not
make a QSO they would just make sure no one else could as well. The idea of
standing by so that I could pull out a full callsign and make a QSO was not on
their agenda today. Because I was not loud enough I would have to repeat a
callsign three or four times to make sure the station on the other end could
hear I was calling them through all the other callers. At one point I even
contemplated going split but figured I would subject myself to endless wrath on
the contest reflectors. So I and the rest of the pileup suffered through the
inevitable slow QSO rate until the worst offenders were logged and they could
head off down the bands. In the first 30 minutes I made a grand total of 40
QSOs. The rate did pick up from there but it was still never what it should
have been. As a future strategy, if I suspect this condition exists again, I
could spend some time and S&P the major contest stations before calling CQ
to make sure they don't jump into the pileup once I start running.
After the 15M debacle I moved back to spectacle that was 10M this weekend. By
the time I got there it was packed as far as the eye could see. However unlike
40M where I know not to try to fight the 7125-7200 gang I knew I could make
something work in the 28300-28500 space and this would be very important for my
score. So, I managed to wedge my way in on 28318 and stayed there as long as my
bladder would allow -- which was for about 6 1/2 hours and well over 1,000
QSOs. The pileups were endless. At one point while pounding the QSOs in the log
like a robot my mind started wandering - which if you have operated full bore
SOAB you know can start happening on Sunday afternoon. My thought was "why
are all these people still bothering me?" And for some reason I started
thinking I needed translate the classic "G" calls from England into
the newer "M" calls. Luckily I recognized what was going on, downed
my last 5 Hour Energy, and in a few minutes I was back in the groove. About
this time I could tell I was really working the pileups down as the calls were
no longer showing up in the Super Check Partial screens. I have learned from
looking at my past RBN reports that many of my busted calls were in fact in the
SCP database if I paid attention to it. So, I have a habit of double checking
calls that I log that are not in the SCP database. But, by this time there were
just too many of them to do that. And, Writelog was bogged down with my QSO
count to the point where I would be ready to log the QSO before the SCP screen
would update.
That's about it for the stories. If I can ever get a full permanent station
here with more power and antennas that can break pileups to rare mults then
look out - I can move up the standings. There were many many mults that I heard
this weekend while on my mult hunting tours where I could just not break the
pileup. I learned this last year when operating SOAB(A). And if you operate (A)
you better be able to work mults. So, from an overall score strategy my approach
is to maximize QSOs and QSO points --and from the looks of early score postings
I seemed to be doing well on that front. I know this does not maximize score --
but it does maximize fun!
Finally I issue a challenge to the CQWW folks to educate the masses, well maybe
not the masses but part of them, on CQ Zones. I would say 70% of the folks that
called me this weekend who had no idea what their CQ Zone was were in a band of
US States stretching from Louisiana to Alabama. Focus your efforts there.
If you are interested in rate sheets, mult lists, etc send me an e-mail and I
will send them to you.
Scott/K7ZO/YN5Z
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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