CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: VU2XE
Operator(s): VU2XE
Station: VU2XE
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Hoode, Karnataka
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40: 42 7 23
20: 111 16 43
15: 197 12 51
10:
------------------------------
Total: 350 35 117 Total Score = 141,208
Club: VU Contest Group
Comments:
Sometimes, it is not just about scores, but about the experience. True but not
so true?!. And that is my story about Corona hit CQWW SSB 2020~!
It all started in August, after a long break from operating, thoughts started to
pileup on doing some operation during CQWW outside of home QTH. Gathering
friends posed challenge due to Covid and I considered to be safe to go solo.
Knowing that operating solo at new location would be very strenuous activity, I
considered to going back to some antennas which may be used in future portable
operations and contests. Our earlier success with elevated radial verticals,
they were the choice, but for experimenting I was upto new designs. It is long
story of designing antennas which I will post in an article or blog post in
coming weeks.
Next was the location choice, I wanted a quiet location preferably near to the
Sea shore. Quick check with my friends in Mangalore (Maheshraj VU2FTT) and
Manipal (Sri VU2SBJ) got some pointers on 4 possible locations. National
Institute of Technology campus beach at Suratkal Mangalore, private property on
a secluded beach Malpe, Udupi and two Beach houses north of Malpe. I settled for
a small beach house suggested by VU2FTT which is a great location overlooking
St. Marry's Island and friendly neighbors.
I had designed 3 band VDA for 20-15-10 and 40m VDA to be putup on coconut trees.
>From the design to implementation stage there was much difference (may be due
>to
wires and ground etc) which took almost 2 days to tune single handedly. These
antennas were within 50 feet from the Sea water levels.
I could not find 70 feet tall trees to put 40m VDA and had to bend lower half of
VDA 15 feet horizontal around 7 feet above ground. This performed probably 1/2-1
S unit better than my elevated vertical. But theoretically VDA would have
resulted more than 1 S unit directional gain.
Operating was much fun as 15 mtr and 20mts was wide open on both days. Though my
20mtr was tuned well, for some reason it was performing at much lower levels
than 15mtrs. I had to crash early at nights due to tiring solo ground work which
limited 40m activity. It was joy to hear many SA stations on 15mtrs at night. I
had only couple of short lasting runs on 15mtrs which brought ~100 Qs.
Lot of learnings to carry forward in future contests. Some videos of my
construction techniques and journey will be posted on youtube shortly.
Thanks everyone for the Qs
Stay safe, Have fun !
KIRAN VU2XE
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