CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB Classic HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 20 11 16
80: 144 15 49
40: 665 30 91
20: 517 27 87
15: 636 26 90
10: 65 19 48
------------------------------
Total: 2047 128 381 Total Score = 3,021,933
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Congrats to N2IC and NN1N. Really great to see top contesters in the
"new" Classic category. I especially enjoyed Steve's writeup about
his first-time experience with Classic. While propagation in New Mexico is
quite different from New Hampshire, a lot of what Steve says resonates with
me.
That said, I'm on the fence about Steve's suggestion for allowing Assisted in
Classic. On the one hand, I could have worked a ton more mults with spotting
assistance and it would have eliminated most of the angst over dividing time
between running and S&P. After all, you can grab spots while running at
lower rate and you can really optimize the time spent on dedicated S&P.
On the other hand, the dilemma of choosing when to run and when to S&P is
what makes Classic challenging. Without that, it would be mostly a run and
shoot kind of game, with choice of hours and ability to run high rate the only
differentiating skills. There's certainly some attraction in that, and I can
see doing it every now and then to have a really low-stress experience, but I
would hate to see Classic Unassisted eliminated. If the CQWWCC is willing to
have yet another sub-category, they would get no argument from me. But I
wouldn't support allowing assistance to the existing Classic category.
I wasn't sure if I would do Classic or a 40+ hour SOAB HP until shortly before
the contest. I'm in pretty good shape physically and had gotten plenty of sleep
the week before, but I wasn't 100% motivated for the grueling grind of a full
effort. Work has been very busy lately and I just got back from a cross-country
trip last week. It was my turn to make Thanksgiving dinner this year, so the
stress level the day before the conetst was a bit high and there wasn't much
time to prepare (never did get around to walking the Beverage, which I'm not
sure is working quite right.) Anyway, due to an unexpected interruption I
missed the first 15 minutes of the contest and opted for Classic.
As Steve says, the biggest challenges are choosing the hours to operate and
dividing time between running and searching for mults. Of course, you want to
choose the hours when rate will be the highest, but if you don't periodically
leave the high rate to S&P you'll be short on mults. This is the dilemma
with using one radio -- something we used to do decades ago before SO2R became
the standard for Single Op.
It's a two-edged sword. On the one hand, I often had to push myself to stop
running and go look for mults. On the other hand, it's much less stressful and
fatiguing to use one radio than two (especially when you only operate for 24
hours!)
At the start of the contest, I ran 40 from 0015z-0150z, then S&Ped 40 from
0150z to 0305z. I worked 52 Qs during that hour and fifteen minute window and
got 28 mults. Not sure if it was worth the time, but the rate had slowed on 40
and 80 wasn't open yet. It would have been a lot better if my S&P rate was
higher -- like 70-90 per hour, which I know some of the top contesters can do
(and wish I knew how.) I ran 80 during the 0300z hour, then S&Ped 160 (very
poor conditions here) and 80 during the 0400z hour and part of the 0500z hour,
then ran 40 from 0500z to 0700z (a good EU sunrise opening). I took three hours
off to sleep.
Back on at 1000z, I s&Ped 160, 80 and 40 for an hour before 20 opened. I
ran 20 from 1100z-1230z, then 15 from 1230z-1400z. I checked 10 at 1330z,
working a handful of mults, then went to 20 to work some mults because 10
wasn't open to EU. By 1430z I was back on 15 running at my highest rate for the
contest -- 165 - 200 per hour. At 1500z I tried running 10 again, but after
about 15 minutes gave up and S&Ped for almost an hour (probably too long.)
I S&Ped 15 from about 1630z to 1730z, again probably too long. I took
another 3-hour break at this point, on the theory that absorption would be at
the max. In retrospect, I should have stopped a little earlier and gotten back
on around 1800z to catch 20 re-opening for the afternoon.
I got back on the radio at 2030z and S&Ped 20, 15 and 10 for about two
hours(!) I don't know what I was thinking -- I should have been running 20 most
of that time, which is one reason my Qs aren't up to N2IC's level. At 2230z I
moved to 20 and tried to run for about 10 minutes, but by that time it was too
late and I had to get to 40. I ran 40 at relatively high rate from 2230z to
2349z.
At this point, the rate on 40 was dropping so I went to 20 and ran JAs for
about half an hour. The rate was just under 100/hr, which is pretty good for
JA, but slow compared to what I needed. I went back to 40, which was still
slow, then to 80, which was also slow (0030z is a little early for that band.)
Then it was back to 40 to run for about 10 minutes. The rate had picked up, but
I was running out of operating time and wanted to make sure I had enough hours
for the morning opening on the high bands. I took almost 10 hours off, ate
dinner, watched some TV and got in a good night's sleep so I'd be ready in the
morning.
Having worked a lot of low-band mults the first morning, and with operating
time a precious commodity, I decided to start a little later -- 1045z. I
S&Ped the low bands and 20 for about 40 minutes, which was probably too
long relative to the 15 mults I got, but 20 didn't really open until about
1130z. I ran 20 at high rate for about an hour and then checked 15. 15 wasn't
fully open, so I went back to 20 until 1300z. At that point 15 opened up and I
had the best rate of the contest -- between 150 and 200 per hour. Only slightly
less rate than the first morning, though the band was noisy and signals were
weaker. By 1523z the rate had slowed considerably and I stopped with about 40
minutes left. I decided to take a four-hour break and use the remaining time on
20 during the 1900z hour to make up for not hitting the afternoon 20m opening on
the first day.
Here are the things I think I need to do to improve my score in the Classic
category:
1. Run more, S&P less
2. S&P a lot faster
3. Do a lot more hours on the first day
I think the most important change would be to run 20 in the 1800z-2100z window
on the first day. To get those hours, I'd trade the forty minutes of running 20
during 1900z the second day and the two hours of S&P during 2030z-2130z on
the first day. I might also try to shorten the S&P time during the
1600z-1800z window on the first day, though I did pick up 49 mults.
Any suggestions would be welcome. Still trying to figure this one out.
Had one equipment failure during the contest -- the rotor controller for my top
TIC ring blew a fuse. The replacement fuse blew, too, so I quickly turned the
bottom SteppIR to EU, where it would be fixed, and recabled the top and middle
TIC rings to use the middle and bottom controllers (having a patch panel made
that really easy!) During a break I was able to isolate the problem -- a
shorted diode -- and luckily had several replacements. Got the controller back
online and after recabling was able to turn the stack again. I believe that
diode is intended as a fuse for the motor lines. Not sure why it blew. It might
have been creeping lightning damage to the diode from an incident about 8 years
ago.
All in all, I had a lot of fun. That's what I really like about Classic.
Thanks for all the Qs. See you next time!
73, Dick WC1M
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75, trapped vee @90'
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square
20M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
15M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
Tower#1: Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160/80 trapped vee
770-MDP: Force-12 EF-420 (used only briefly the second day)
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515 (not used)
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E
Delta loop hung from a tree
dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees
Equipment:
Elecraft K3 + Alpha 87A, Elecraft K3 + LP-PAN + Acom 2000A, Writelog,
LP-BRIDGE, PowerSDR-IF, YCCC SO2R Box, homebrew Windows antenna
switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"), iPad running TwoMon USB
for touch-screen "button box", K1XM MOAS II USB Switch (Hamation
relay drivers in this contest), KK1L SO2R switches, Green Heron rotor
controllers, microHam Stack Switch and Stackmatch
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
Off
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 72/38 --+-- --+-- --+-- 72/38 72/38
D1-0100Z 1/2 1/2 76/8 - - - 78/12 150/50
D1-0200Z - - 52/28 - - - 52/28 202/78
D1-0300Z 2/3 91/39 6/3 - - - 99/45 301/123
D1-0400Z 10/14 29/8 - - - - 39/22 340/145
D1-0500Z 6/6 5/1 97/3 - - - 108/10 448/155
D1-0600Z - - 132/5 - - - 132/5 580/160
4
D1-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 580/160
60
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 580/160
60
D1-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 580/160
60
D1-1000Z 1/2 4/7 17/20 - - - 22/29 602/189
4
D1-1100Z - 1/1 - 130/45 - - 131/46 733/235
D1-1200Z - - - 85/6 63/31 - 148/37 881/272
D1-1300Z - - - - 162/19 3/6 165/25 1046/297
D1-1400Z - - - 13/4 77/3 10/9 100/16 1146/313
D1-1500Z - - - - - 33/28 33/28 1179/341
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 10/17 15/18 25/35 1204/376
D1-1700Z - - - - 13/14 - 13/14 1217/390
33
D1-1800Z - - - - - - 0/0 1217/390
60
D1-1900Z - - - - - - 0/0 1217/390
60
D1-2000Z - - - - 3/3 4/6 7/9 1224/399
32
D1-2100Z - - - 5/9 12/15 - 17/24 1241/423
D1-2200Z - - 63/2 30/28 - - 93/30 1334/453
D1-2300Z - - 105/1 11/1 - - 116/2 1450/455
D2-0000Z --+-- 10/1 25/3 34/5 --+-- --+-- 69/9 1519/464
D2-0100Z - - 14/2 - - - 14/2 1533/466
53
D2-0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0500Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 1533/466
60
D2-1000Z - 3/5 1/2 - - - 4/7 1537/473
43
D2-1100Z - - 5/6 22/4 - - 27/10 1564/483
D2-1200Z - - - 120/8 - - 120/8 1684/491
D2-1300Z - - - - 154/12 - 154/12 1838/503
D2-1400Z - - - - 101/1 - 101/1 1939/504
D2-1500Z - - - - 41/1 - 41/1 1980/505
36
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1980/505
60
D2-1700Z - - - - - - 0/0 1980/505
60
D2-1800Z - - - - - - 0/0 1980/505
60
D2-1900Z - - - 57/4 - - 57/4 2037/509
25
D2-2000Z - - - 10/0 - - 10/0 2047/509
Total: 20/27 144/64 665/121 517/114 636/116 65/67
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 11 22 34 29 19 15 130 6.4
EU 7 111 583 394 586 26 1707 83.4
AS 0 4 21 73 9 0 107 5.2
AF 0 2 13 5 9 13 42 2.1
SA 1 4 9 14 10 11 49 2.4
OC 1 1 5 2 3 0 12 0.6
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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