CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: C5A
Operator(s): OK1DIX, OK1DO, OK1FFU, OK1NY, OK1RI, OK8WW/OM2TW, OM2RA, OM5AW,
OM6NM
Station: C5A
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Banjul
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 829 22 83
80: 1668 31 103
40: 3487 36 128
20: 4069 40 154
15: 3315 38 156
10: 2034 29 134
-------------------------------
Total: 15402 196 758 Total Score = 43,755,210
Club:
Comments:
The idea to go to C5 started just after CQ WW OL4A 2009 operations. Some of the
OL4A operators were in Gambia in 2007 for the CQWW SSB M/2(C50C), so we do have
the knowledge of the QTH and the contacts for some local support. We decided
already in the beginning that we will go for M/M so that all the operators will
have a lot of fun and that we will carry all the needed â??junkâ?? as our
luggage. All together 23 pcs of 680 kg total was assembled of course not
speaking about the â??carry-onsâ?? being well over 150 kg together (please do
not tell the Brussels airlines). We had 6x OM2500, 22m vertical for 160m, 21m
vertical for 80m, 4SQ for 40m, 4SQ of vertical dipoles for 20m, 5Y/5Y (8m
booms) @14/7m on 15m and 5Y/5Y (6m booms) @14/7m on 10m + the â??Spiderbeamâ??
+ some RX antennas for the Low-Bands, well over twenty of several filters,
switching boxes�., 8 notebooks, router and also some transceivers��no
rotators.
The core of the party was the HF OL4A crew + we invited a couple of other
friends both from OK and OM with us and arrived in Tuesday NOV 15th to Banjul.
The first antenna we erected already during Wednesday was the 15m stack and it
worked fine - the biggest â??negativeâ?? shock was the HUGE jam (around S9 on
the meter) coming from 210 degrees. Well there was nothing we could do about it
(we tried to butâ?¦.) just to accept it and bee happy it is not towards more
significant directions. Later we have set the other antennas, moved the 20m 4SQ
three times to get it as far away from the jam as possible â?" finally it was on
150m of the Belden H155 cable i.e. only around 600W was on the antenna. We have
moved the spider beam away ( 170m !!! ) too, hoping to get the jam to different
angle specifically on 15m where the jam was the worst. We have also moved the
RX antennas around the beach (each one was erected several times) and finally
they ended on a 350m of 5mm coax very close to the sea and as far away from the
jam as possible. Later we found it was too close (it was 40m from the line the
sea came during high tide in last 10 days â?" but during the contest almost 3
m high waves arrived and damaged the RX antennas around 0300 GMT Saturday â?"
we fixed it during the day and once more around 0400 Sunday â?" fixed once more
during Sunday â?" i.e. we lost most of the pileups to the US on the low bands
and were listening not as good as we did towards EU. The 160m vertical more
than 100m from the line of the sea was distorted and had to be re-erected in
Saturday. In Monday the sea moved back to its original place !?!
I was very happy to compare my babies - the 5Y/5Y on 15 + 10m with the spider
beam â?" the difference was bigger then expected around 3S, the switching also
worked fine. The 4SQ of vertical dipoles on 20m performed a lot better than the
Spiderbeam, which was hoped for.
The original plan was :
160m OK8WW
80m OM2RA
40m OK1FFU + OK1DIX
20m OM6NM + OK1DO
15m OK1RI
10m OM5AW
OK1NY to help where needed.
The reality made it much more variable so almost everyone was on more bands
than planned. I was mostly on 15m as planned but spent a few hours on 20m, some
time on 80 + 40 + 10m, OM5AW spent above his prime band 10m a lot of hours on
40m, OK1DIX was of course on 40m and also a lot on 20 and some on 15m, OK8WW on
160 + 15 + 10, OM2RA mostly on 80m and some on 15 + 10. OM6NM + OK1DO spent some
time on 40 +15 + 10 + 80. I believe OK1FFU was the only one sticking to 40m only
â?" but I might be mistaken.
OK1NY spent some time on all bands. And not least completely everyone spent
some not negligible time on fixing the antennas damaged by huge waves + fixing
some results of Murphy visits we of course got. We lost close to an hour on 20m
due to AMP failure â?" which we could fix, all the rest was minor.
As mentioned above the pass on L/P to â??JAâ?? or to South America was
distorted by the â??JAMâ??, S/P to Far East on High bands was practically
non-existing. The propagation to EU and NA was good on most bands and we are
most happy with the results achieved.
It was a different experience with the multipliers to what I/we are used from
Brezina â?" you hear the mult you call it once or few times and it is done, not
from C5 with portable setup - to beat through the pileup was always tough. If
the Caribean multipliers did not call us or we did not made it up to 1400 GMT
it was a lost cause â?" to get through the US or EU pile up after 1500 GMT was
like forget it even if the station was 59+20. To get through the pileup of most
of the Far-Eastern stations was just IMPOSSIBLE.
The pity was the propagation on the High Bands went down so rapidly during the
contest. For instance just prior to the contest in Thursday the propagation on
21 MHz to the USA closed in 2230 in Sunday in 1830 !!!!!
We do thank for a call to everyone, we do apologize to those we could not
pick-up in the pile or to those we could not hear.
Everyone loved the expedition and we were for sure not the last time in Gambia
!
73 !
Jiri
OK1RI + the whole crew
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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