CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: ZC4DW
Operator(s): G0DEZ
Station: ZC4DW
Class: SOSB/80 LP
QTH: Eastern SBA
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 712 14 68
40:
20:
15:
10:
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Total: 712 14 68 Total Score = 165,886
Club: Chiltern DX Club
Comments:
What a difference a day makes? 24 little hours?
CQWW this year came one day too soon. On Saturday, condx on 80m were appalling
because 150 million kilometers away, the sun became angry.
And to make matters worse, closer to home, Saturday on the Eastern Sovereign
Base Cyprus, we had major thunderstorms for the entire day.
Only the mentally insane would consider working single band 80m in these sort of
conditions. I was there.
It was impossible to get any runs going on the first night. Everything was
search and pounce. There was not much DX to be found on 80, 3V8BB was a rare
double-mult. As daybreak approached I scoured the band for the USA at my
sunrise, but polar absorption was so severe that the 2 or 3 US big-guns were
weak and watery and not copying me.
The second session started just before my sunset on the first day; I frantically
searched for evidence of improved condx, but found none. There were no W6 or
Zone 3 to be heard on the longpath. Things continued rather slow, and at the end
of day one I?d worked only 250 stations, mostly EU virtually all S & P.
At 01:30 local time, I came to the conclusion that I really had worked everyone
on 80m that I could hear ? except for IG9A and 4U1ITU who had big pile-ups. It
seemed the same usual suspects were on the band each time I trawled, so I called
it quits, went to bed and didn?t even bother waking up for Sunday sunrise.
Single band 80m is very good socially. I had ample time to watch the soccer game
and eat sensible meals during the weekend.
As Sunday sunset approached I almost lost all hope that condx would somehow
improve. I just kept telling myself they couldn?t get any worse. And they didn?t
when the 3rd and final session started.
Almost bang on sunset I heard a couple of flurries of activity towards the
bottom end of 80m. A closer listen revealed WA5VGI (Zone 3) on the longpath.
After 10 minutes of calling, signals peaked and the first US station was in the
log. At last, game on! Shortly after, I found VQ9X for another nice
double-mult.
Anyone who works SB 80m knows just how precious the much talked about
double-multiplier is!
Sunday evening condx proved much better, and at last I managed to get some rates
going. 100 Watts and a ?cloud warmer? produced a steady run of Europeans, and it
was especially nice to be called by D44TD for another double-mult. Thank you.
And then as I?m working my steady pile-up, some idiot starts calling S9MX and
chaos breaks out. I don?t know whether S9MX had QSY?d onto my pile-up, or he had
been miss spotted, but things settled down eventually, and my rate picked up
again.
But with only 2 or 3 hours left I still hadn?t worked Zone 5 because of the high
Ap index. I hung on and hoped that someone would spot me on the DX cluster. As
the contest drew to a close, 80m began to open Stateside, and I was very
relieved to work a couple of the big guns in Zone 5 and it was a welcome
surprise when WI5A from Texas called in 30 minutes from the end.
Conclusion:
A real test of stamina, especially with the static crashes for the whole of day
1. Only worked one JA, and didn?t hear any VE?s.
FT-1000MP
600 feet horizontal loop @ 30 feet up
100 Watts
Writelog
P.S.
For CQWW next year I won?t have a shack to operate from, so I?m available to
join a M/M or M/2 team.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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