1997 CQ WW CW (Nov. 30 - 31)
During November it became apparent that the noise from the Chemical plant
Fabelta on 160, had worsened to a degree that made any "real" DX-ing on 160
totally impossible. The noise was S7 on the vertical, approx, 30 uV ! A
complaint was made with the relevant authorities, but it appeared
impossible to do anything about it before the contest. That would be a
serious handicap in the CW part.
Harry, RA3AUU had set out to put together another ex-USSR crew of eminent
CW operators like last year. After the usual problems in getting the visa,
Jerry, UT4UZ, at the very last moment cancelled his participation. So they
came three, Harry, RA3AUU, Nick, RU3FM and Pavel, RA3AUM. We had old trusty
Klaus, DJ4AX, as well as Luk, ON5UK, who?s been on the team for a number of
years, and Mark, ON4WW, back from 9X, and I operated a bit as well. Six
operators made it easy to make a planning. AS we did win (Europe-wise) last
year, I decided to use exactly the same operator schedule, with only 3
operator names changed. This meant in principle 6 hours operating, 6 hours
listening and 6 hours off.
I had decided to do some work on the old 4CX1000 linear as well as the new
GU84 final. The old one had developed instability problems on 10, and
seemed to be marginally stable on 15, while the GU84 rig had never been
made to work on 10 and 15 yet. So I spent most of my time in the weeks
prior to the contest doing linear amplifier work. The 4CX1000 was quickly
repaired to work in a stable manner on 15, but 10 remained a problem. I
have just ran out of good 4CX1000?s, and they are far too expensive to
replace with new tubes. Getting the GU84 linear to work well on 15 took
some doing, but paid off as well, and getting it to perform equally well on
10 is just a matter of time. In the contest we would use the MLA 1500 from
DL2CC on 10 meters, though.
After have "repaired" two Beverage antennas, of which vandals had destroyed
the bamboo supports and stolen the wire, all seemed to be ready for the
battle.
Harry, Nick and Pavel arrived on Thursday noon time. On Friday morning the
40 meter 4-square acted up: bad SWR to the South East. Murphy stroke again!
It soon appeared that the N-connector at the antenna feed-point near the
ferrite UNUN had developed a short. Why does a thing like that happen one
day before the start of a contest? Why? Anyhow, after two attempts, and
thanks to Noel, ON5UI, who supplied us with super crimp N connectors, and
the help of ON4WW and ON4MA, all was soon back in order (of course all
repairs had to be done in pouring rain...). In the mean time Klaus, DJ4AX
was in charge of discussing the strategy, the operating roster and all
other relevant issues with our Russian friends. The rest of Thursday was
used to familiarise with the station set-up.
Besides the operators proper, we would have ON4MA, ON4AFZ, ON4JO and ON4UN
acting as MOC (master of ceremony) and ON4JO was, as usual responsible for
the PC?s, the networks and the packet infrastructure.
We all went to bed about 4 hours before the contest, and were ready and
willing, and able, and in good shape at 23:00z on Friday night.
The contest:
Harry, RA3AUU started on 40, with Klaus, DJ4AX manning the multiplier
station. The run on 40 was just short of spectacular, which means
significantly better than last year. Forty was booming! In the first hour
222 Q?s were made, and 201 in the second hour, which certainly is not bad
for a "low" band. These were the best hour-runs we had, better than what
we would do on the "high" bands. In those first hours we developed a lead
of about 100 QSO?s over our 1996 QSO count, and that?s the lead that we
would appear to keep until the end of the contest.
After 4 solid hours of 40 meter run, we tried a short 80 meter run, which
was not bad (115/hour). The sunrise peak on 40, 80 and 160 was not
pronounced at all. Where you would have expected a peak in multipliers, the
06:00 to 07:00 time period (the hour prior to sunrise) showed the lowest
number of mults! Especially 80 and 160 were deceiving, but on 160 the noise
from the chemical plant was an unmistakable factor, although a few good
multipliers from the Carribean area were logged.
During the morning hours the run station switched periodically between 15
and 20, and hour rates of just over 100 were realised. Ten meters remained
deceivingly "dead". We also could not develop any runs of any significance
either on 15 or 20 with Japan, which was too bad.
While we expected 20 to open up to the USA around noon, this band remained
very quiet, and we only started runs, worth the name once 15 meter opened
at 13:30z. A short attempt to do "some" work on 20 during mid afternoon was
a failure, as no rate better than 65/hour could be realised. What a
disappointment! Finally twenty opened somewhat around 17:30, but after
just over one hour this band died without really have been alive at all!
What a shame. Well, if it?s bad, there is always room for improvement,
things can only get better...
It was amazing that 10 meters had been so poor on Saturday. We only made 40
QSO?s during the entire day, and nothing was heard from North America, and
barely some weak signals from South America.
Most of the night the run station was on 40, but the rate was no much lower
than yesterday, not really because the conditions were down, but more
likely because we had already worked so many W?s on that band. A few short
runs to the US were tried during the morning hours on 80, with reasonable
rates (75), but it seemed the was quickly exhausted.
Just like on Saturday, fifteen meters seemed to open up together with 20,
and appeared actually to be in better shape than twenty! The morning
scenario was much like on Saturday though, without any runs to JA and with
total hourly rates between 50 and 75.
Then came the big surprise: at exactly 12:00 z 10 meters popped open, like
a box full of fire crackers: W?s at noon time! This US opening lasted a
solid four and a half hours, with hourly rates of 85, 100, 136 and 146!
Talking about a big surprise, that sure was one.
Another surprise was that 15 meters folded less than one hour later, and 20
followed soon as well. Twenty would became the most deceiving band, by far.
We had barely made 600 QSO?s, while last year we made almost 1,400 QSO?s
on that band. While we had expected to be able to run on 20 until about
20:00 gmt, now we had to call quit at 18:30 !
>From now on, we would drag ourselves to the line, as usual tying to move
people, make "last minute" skeds to work those last multipliers we missed.
Despite the low QSO number on 20, we were still 100 QSO?s better than last
year, but our multipliers were down. Whereas 10 proved to show this
extraordinary opening to the US, the band did not produce the number of
multipliers one might have expected (85). Our dream to make a 6-band DXCC
would remain a dream, at least for another year. We did not even make it on
five bands. For one-sixty we may have the noise excuse, but activity on top
band certainly was a long cry from what it was last year when we worked 102
countries in 32 zones, while now we managed only 86 countries an 20 zones.
The 32 zones of 1996 may be a unique feat, that will be very hard to
repeat, but twenty is certainly too low for this station!
A comparison with the phone contest is very interesting. During the phone
contest, 20 was the best band, and 40 was deceiving. This time we made the
same number of contacts on 40 as we did a month ago on 20,and vice versa
for 20 meters!
Comparing with 1996, when we ended 1st Europe and set a new all-time record
for zone 14, there were some striking similarities as well as differences:
· our score is almost identical, be it with slightly more QSO?s (2.5 %) but
slightly less multipliers (also 2.5 %).
· this year 40 meters was the band by excellence, and 20 was
non-existent, In 1996 it was exactly the other way around.
· 80 and 160 were significantly down form last year
· 10 produced a spectacular opening to North America, but failed to
produced high number of countries, as was the case 1 month ago in the phone
contest (85 vs. 120 countries)
The figures:
band QSO PTS PT/Q ZONE DXCC
160 144 227 1.58 21 87
80 677 1328 1.96 33 112
40 1587 3745 2.36 38 135
20 629 1408 2.24 36 122
15 941 2230 2.37 36 130
10 590 1544 2.62 26 85
total 4568 10482 2.29 190 670
TOTAL SCORE: 9.014.529
TOTAL MULTS: 860
____________________________________________________________________________
_______
operators: RA3AUU, RU3FM, RA3AUM, DJ4AX, ON4WW, ON5UK, ON4UN (at keys)
ON4JO, ON4MNA, ON4AFZ (MCs)
Station: three FT1000MP's
home made finals, 2 KW out
Antennas: 160: 1/4 wave vert
80: 4 square ON4UN, elevated feed
40: 3 el yagi full-size at 100 ft
4 square elevated feed
20: 5 el yagi (46 ft boom) at 85 ft
KT34
15: 6 el yagi (40 ft boom) at 70 ft
KT34
10: 6 el yagi (40 ft boom) at 60 ft
12 Beverages, one every 30 degrees
Logging: CT network, Pentium PCs
Packet: home made system for multiple connections and filtering
***************************************************************
* John Devoldere, ON4UN, AA4OI, OT7T *
* e-mail: john.devoldere@innet.be *
* address: Poelstraat 215 *
* B9820 Merelbele *
* Belgium *
* mailing addres: P.O.Box 41 *
* B9000 Gent, *
* Belgium *
***************************************************************
* *
* PLEASE CALL US IN THE CONTESTS (ON4UN OR OT7T). THANK YOU! *
* *
***************************************************************
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