CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: IZ3NVR
Operator(s): IZ3NVR
Station: IZ3NVR
Class: SO(A)SB15 QRP
QTH: JN65
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 1
40: 7
20: 26
15: 238
10:
------------
Total: 238 Prefixes = 200 Total Score = 72,800
Club: Italian Contest Club
Comments:
Half of it has been fun, the other half has been quite frustrating.
I definitely wanted to take part to CQWPX CW with a serious entry and was ready
for that. Since I need to build and dismantle most of my antenna “farm”
every contest I wanted to make sure to optimize it at its best with respect to
the chosen category (and avoid erecting something useless).
Work has been exhausting lately hence the idea of setting in a full SOAB entry
and be in the office on Monday morning was not exactly my pair of shoes even
though I was really tempted to go All Bands till the very last minute.
Even if 20m would have been the obvious choice to have fun “around the
clock”, I tried my luck and went for 15m QRP to double the WPX SSB entry and
try to improve the result.
Setted up the station the week before the contest with the beam risen and a
second set of antennas to add an “in band” second radio to the equation. On
Friday evening, all antennas were setted up and the shack was rearranged to a
more ergonomic SO2R layout with the FT-950/FT-450 pair. Did some quick testing
especially to see how close I could get with the two radios avoiding
interferences. All was fine thanks to the limited output power …obviously it
is not safe to directly beam the other antennas (and wrote myself a huge sign
with such a warning to be hanged in the shack, just in case). Antenna
separation and polarization diversity (horizontal/vertical) did the rest.
Started the contest Saturday early morning around 5 AM. Band struggled to open
at first but then got to life with a nice stream of Europeans until 10z. A nice
surprise with respect to what I experienced in the SSB leg.
Saturday afternoon brought about a brief (and damn weak) US opening with 18 US
stations worked. They were all big guns and well-known calls but they really
sounded like whispers and the deep QSB made it difficult for both parties to
acknowledge the serials. Ended at 20z with 175Qs.
Sunday has mostly been frustrating. The CME impacted at the early hours and the
K index jumped up to 6-7. Seemed like someone flipped the switch and shut down
the bands, all bands. While frustratingly (and stubbornly) scanning a dead and
empty 15m with one radio, I was scanning 20 with the other just to listen
around. Conditions were down on that band as well.
All Sunday went that way with only 1 QSO at 5AM and the second one at 11. I did
some contacts on 20m in the meanwhile just to kill time and hope for improved
conditions (that did not arrive). Even tried some alternating CQ on 20/40 to
have a taste of what the big guns’ running two bands at once feel. Need to
improve on that, it’s fun.
After hours of alternating endless CQs and up/down sweeps on an empty band, my
being stubborn (and if you run QRP it actually helps to be a stubborn person)
finally paid off when, at 17z, K dropped and 15m came to life with some nice
and unexpected sporadic-E short skip propagation. 56 out of 63 (88.8%) of
Sunday’s QSOs were made during such an opening.
The second radio saved me from boredom on Sunday and helped me with some of the
mults/QSOs on Saturday as well. It was nice to be back to “serious” SO2R
after a while.
15m Second Radio QSOs: 16 (11%)
Not shown nor counted above are the QSOs on 20m (26Q) and 40m (7Q) while trying
alternating CQs on the two bands with around 50W and a “rate” of 52 Q/h.
At 21z I flipped the switch after 32 hours of 15m madness (!). It has been a
nice contest and, given conditions, I am definitely pleased with the result.
Stefano, IZ3NVR
Station:
RTX 1: FT-950 @5W + homemade panadapter
RTX 2: FT-450 @5W
Antennas:
3el
Vertical
Dipole
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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