CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: HD2A
Operator(s): OZ1AA
Station: HD2A
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Guayaquil
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 9 5 7
80: 304 21 48
40: 821 24 69
20: 1331 33 90
15: 1174 30 95
10: 2145 30 98
------------------------------
Total: 5784 143 407 Total Score = 9,430,850
Club: Worldwide Young Contesters
Comments:
A huge thank you to station host Alberto HC2AQ for making my dream come true.
Absolutely first class hospitality down here in Guayaquil, a few degrees south
of the equator.
I started contesting when I was 15. Back then my heroes were not football
players or movie stars but the likes of CT1BOH, N5KO, and N5TJ who were running
CQWW pile ups all day long from exotic DX locations. This year, like my teenage
heroes, I found myself in a 3-point location for CQWW CW - and what a thrill it
was.
I arrived at the HD2A QTH on Tuesday before the contest. Unfortunately the old
FT-901 DM radio in the shack would only work on 20 m and down so I didn't get a
chance to do much warm up running. Instead I spent a day putting up a low dipole
on 160. On Friday morning HC2AQ showed up with a Kenwood TS-590 which would be
the contest rig for the weekend. I was pleased to learn that the radio had some
kind of adjustable CW filter. After hooking up the SB-220 amp which would give
500-600 w of output, the setup looked like this:
TS-590 + SB-220
160: Inv V
80: Inv V
40: 2 el.
20: 5 el.
15: 4 el.
10: 5 el.
A few photos over at https://www.flickr.com/photos/oz1aa
I final test on Friday revealed that the 40 m beam had some kind of loose
connection as the SWR would occasionally go sky high. Most of the time it would
be OK, but I ended up not using the amp on 40. The SB-220 also doesn't cover
160.
I managed a 45 min siesta Friday afternoon, and at 7 pm local time the race
began. I started running JA on 10, then moved to 15 and 20 for US. The rate
quickly climbed to 180 and I was indeed having lots of fun. 40 m seamed to work
OK even with the 100 w, but things got tougher on 80. With 59+ local noise I
could only hear the strongest EU callers. I imagine my frequency would have
sounded like quite the zoo over there - sorry if you called and I couldn't pick
you up. As expected the Inv V on 160 was no DX antenna, but with 100 w I
struggled to work even my neighbors in HC8 and HK1NA. I managed 9 QSOs and
decided I would have to be content with that.
During the day 10 and 15 were almost unbelievable. I have never experienced
such deep openings into EU and the US. The 60 min rate peaked at 204 Q/hr which
was nice enough but could have been higher if the EU guys would have listened
more and transmitted less. I liked NN1N @ KL7RA's comment about sending 20 sec
of dits to calm things down :-) Can only imagine what the EU pile up would have
sounded like through the "AU blender" in KL7...
I have tried to do 48 hours for a number of years but never made it past 46.
This year I changed a few things. I don't normally drink a lot of coffee and a
week before the contest I stopped all caffeine intake. My contest diet
consisted of water, sandwiches, and a few pasta/chicken plates ready to eat. No
chocolate, no biscuits high on sugar etc. Also being very fit probably helps. On
the 2nd night as I started to feel really sleepy I had a diet coke and cup of
coffee. This woke me up and I was able continue until sunrise without big
problems. Just before the high bands would open I had another coffee and I knew
I would be able to make it until the end. This in itself was a huge motivation.
On Sunday the rates slowed down considerably compared to Saturday. In the
middle the day it felt as if I was running out of US stations. I should
probably have kept the beam on EU and JA somewhat longer. Another mistake was
not moving multipliers around right from the beginning. I started too late and
not aggressively enough. There is easily another 2-3 mio. points (or more?) to
be found from this location.
All in all it was an absolute blast. Normally a SOAB entry in CQWW, at least in
my experience, requires a certain amount of suffering. Not this time! I never
wanted to quit. In fact I would happily have continued for another couple of
hours to break 10 mio points, or done the contest all over starting on Monday.
Thank you all for calling in and for being a part of this amazing event. Some
huge scores already posted and even more to come. Congratulations to all!
Back then as I teenager my mind had not deceived me - it is good to be doing
CQWW from an exotic 3 point location. I will be back for more in the years to
come.
73,
Thomas OZ1AA
--
http://www.cyclingtheglobe.com
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