CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: VK8AA
Operator(s): VK2CZ
Station: VK8AA
Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Darwin
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40: 750 31 80
20:
15: 3 3 3
10:
------------------------------
Total: 753 31 80 Total Score = 220,002
Club: Darwin Surf Lifesaving Club
Comments:
Having realised the most fun in activating zone 29 in past years, and cobbling
together the left over parts from past, 2010 was a real low key operation. The
issues, delays and hassles with flights and rental cars aside were an adventure
by themselves... with rig and luggage and me taking different flights, our
re-uniting in Darwin was very happy.
The venue at the Darwin Surf Lifesaving Club is finalising renovations, and
found just a single AC power outlet active to run the gear. Installing the tiny
vertical on the beach worked well, until I had lunch and found it open circuit..
after replacing the balun, the antenna collapsed during its re-erection, bending
everything into scrap metal. With 40m due to open in under an hour, and the
blazing 34C high humidity weather wearing me down, managed to bend part of the
vertical into a weird wind swept C shape - better suited for an art gallery
than an antenna farm. With judicious use of a tiny ground arrangement into the
wet sand, the VSWR looked excellent across the whole band. The antenna design I
was hoping to mobilise generates a 1000km radius quiet zone, and the cobbled
antenna came very close. While great for DX, it did play havoc so as to miss
the VK0 and most ZL stations.
It is no fun stating out a near all nighter on 40m in a tired and partially
sunburnt depleted state, but thats what happened, and managed some decent runs
early on, so much so I though I was on 15m. Towards midnight, all the heavy
hitters with decent signals had been worked, leaving the low power and QRP guys
to work, and doing that on 40m SSB is seriously hard yakka. Surprise qso's
popped up all the time, working zone 40, 15, 10 and 11 all in daylight at my
end, including some special event callsigns 7,8 and 9 letters long. The second
evening propagation started out a tad later and everything played out very well.
Sadly, the tropical sand flies and mosquitoes wanted their share of unique DNA,
and after emptying a can of fly spray and repellents over a few hours, there
was no choice but to abandon the site around midnight.
Initial count suggests the VK 40m record was matched, and many lessons learned
to improve both antenna, pest control and some of my less than ideal fatigue
planning. Quantitative snapshot shows 750 QSO's, 31 zones, 80 countries and
about 220K points. Verdict was fun, exhaustion with a lot of scrap metal
generated.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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