VY2ZM
CQWW CW 2007
Here's my score:
160 879/19/74
80 1075/26/90
40 1071/25/96
20 1462/23/96
15 273/23/86 (PAINFUL ON THIS BAND!)
10 17/9/11 (I heard several stations who did not copy me)
Totals 4777/124/453 7,346,941 points
This contest presented absorbed conditions impacting the higher latitudes -
(often experienced by the OH contesters in Finland) - where a kind of auroral
"blanket" absorbs RF on the higher bands (rendering them highly disturbed with
marginal openings) - and even impacting lowband signals - (yielding lower
signal levels on 80 and 160M).
When this happens, the following is experienced at VY2ZM:
1) 20 opens LATER than NORMAL - (this time it opened AFTER my sunrise by 15
mins) - usually 20 opens to EU about 45 mins BEFORE my sunrise -even with low
sunspot levels - but NOT THIS TIME
2) 15 hardly opens at all here in the Maritimes - but is RUNNABLE in
Massachusetts and places further South
3) 10M is all but unusable!
As a result, total contacts and multipliers TAKE a BEATING!
New Wrinkle: Low power stations in the Caribbean make unusual RELATIVELY
HIGHER SCORES than their Hi Power rivals in the high latitude locales - and
they
manage to make it into the TOP 10 Box - even against their HI Power
competitors - and they deserve SPECIAL PRAISE for their achievements.
My hat is off to the three low power SOAB stations I am aware of so far:
V26K, P40A and HK3AR - all of whom look like they will place in the top 10
world
- they deserve to be recognized for this result - irrespective of conditions -
they earned it!
The VY2ZM story:
What a difference 30 days makes between SSB and CW modes of CQWW!
Hurricane Noel came through between the two contest weekends (it was a 75MPH
storm here & about 110MPH when it reached Newfoundland) causing damage to
K1ZM/1 and VY2ZM requiring some repairs at both locations. On Cape Cod, my
lower
40 went vertical from the storm and my back tower mast was pin-wheeling in the
rotor when I got there. I did temporary repairs to both systems - more work
will be done in better weather.
Arriving at VY2ZM one week later wasn't great either:
1) Both my two new 3el 40M yagis took a hit - the upper one has a bent
reflector but is still usable. The lower 40 has a reflector that spun on the
boom a
bit - and is askew - but they both are usable - that's a major summer project
to repair! Not now in this weather.
2) Two of my 160M system Rx verticals had broken guy ropes - they snapped in
the storm - too much tension on the ropes I guess. I fixed this the Friday
before SS phone.
3) All the supports on my NE beverage snapped off at ground level and these
required new poles and temporary lash-ups to get the wires back up in the air.
This too was done on the Friday prior to SS phone.
Hidden damages:
During CQWW CW on Friday night, I happened to see something out of the corner
of my eye - the 20/40m rotor was incrementing ON ITS OWN slightly and, since
I had not triggered any rotation myself, this meant TROUBLE! Real trouble!
It was about 3AM local when this was observed and I had to wait until
daylight on Saturday morning to go outside to see what happened. Just before
20M
opened, I did so and the rotor (which was SUPPOSED to be AIMED at 55 degrees
was
aimed at 18 degrees. (This meant I was probably CQ'ing some of the time on
Friday night into Svalbard (JW5 land) instead of into the heart of Europe - NOT
GOOD!)
Just before I started on 20M on Saturday morning, I interpolated to 55
degrees, rotated the yagi towards Europe and continued mentally adjusting the
correction needed - in order to have the upper 20 and 40 aim where I wanted the
RF
to go - as I could no longer rely on the indicator box. This worked reasonably
well....
The rest of the contest was uneventful from a failure
standpoint....everything else worked - except for conditions being wierd up
North. I thought I
operated as well as I could - I ran Europe whenever possible and delayed
running
the USA until Sunday afternoon basically. Of course USA stations were calling
in
much of the time, the point here is that I did not intentionally attempt to
AIM my antenna towards the states and RUN THEM - but they did of course call in.
It is pretty easy to see how the "OH effect" impacts scores to the North -
just take a look at the breakdowns of K3CR and K5ZD - and that's all you need
to
know. Both are, of course, great operators - and even under ideal
conditions, it is always a challenge to stay anywhere NEAR THEM in the
multiplier count
- HI. Both guys are very good at this stuff - and always wind up near the
top.
A little humility now and then (eg: getting your hat HANDED TO YOU!) - goes a
long way to shock you into reality. (It's always 5 o'clock somewhere - and
this time it was not in VY2 - HI HI!)
I said before the contest that CW weekend usually presents less than ideal
conditions when compared to those of SSB mode (especially at this time of the
sunspot cycle) - but I did not expect it to be this BAD!
Contest Epilogue: I happen to use ORION 2800 rotors and I highly recommend
them for up to 36 foot boom 20m and 40m yagis. They are rugged in their
mechanical design and will not "stall" during the windy conditions I experience
here
on PEI.
They (like most rotors) do have their weak points, however - and in this
case, it is the digital "pulsing system" that is used to keep the motor and
the
controller inside the shack "in sync."
Over many years in talking with M2, I have learned that rotor cable lengths
of up to about 225 feet will work okay with all 4 wires in the cable bundle.
At lengths GREATER than this amount, there is an increasing likelihood that at
SOME POINT, the pulsing mechanism will get "confused" and start to drop pulses
- causing misalignment problems - especially after long rotation runs - like
from 010 degrees all the way through South over to 336 degrees to JA, for
example. In that my rotor cable runs are all 400 feet or more - one is 600
feet!), this requires unusual measures to compensate for this anomaly.
At VY2ZM most rotor runs are SPLIT up using two cables as a result - one
cable to work the motor and a separate cable for the pulsing switch. On my
20/40m
tower - which has a run of just about 400 feet I had been barely "getting by"
with a single cable - but finally Murphy struck on Friday night during the
contest and created the "out of synch" condition I described earlier in this
report. Dropping pulses were the issue - caused by a single cable bundle that
was right at the critical length where problems eventually show up - in my case
it was after 5 YEARS!
This required an ALL DAY JOB on the Monday after the contest - I had to run a
second line up the tower and swap out the connections at the motor for the
pulsing switch - and also do a rewiring inside the house - wiring in the new
cable along with the old at the rotor controller box.
This was done in cold (but not FRIGID) weather with ALOT OF WIND (greater
than 45 MPH most of the time.) On the second trip up the tower I thought I
needed to reset the mast in the rotor and did so.
BIG MISTAKE! When I had completed the inside wiring and re-aligned the rotor
and the controller, I found I had misaligned the mast by 25 degrees and on
Tuesday IN THE RAIN and a howling wind, I climbed the big tower to reset the
mast in the motor (yet again!) This time I got it nearly dead-on - and with
the
separate cable on the pulsing switch, I think my problems with this system are
probably over.
By the way - I happen to use twin runs of ROMEX to do this stuff - it is not
too expensive and holds up pretty well.
Tuesday in the rain with a howling wind may sound NUTS, but getting a little
WET was far preferable to what came in here on Wednesday! It sleeted, snowed
and then froze a sheet of ice here all over the tower and WED and Thurs would
have been impossible conditions in which to do this work. I knew what was
coming and took a chance doing it in the wind and rain on Mon/Tues in advance
of
the bitter weather. It was a GOOD GAMBLE and I suspected it at the time.....
So that's the VY2ZM story - probably not a top 10 finish - but I feel I
operated as well as I could and probably did not lose all that much due to the
misalinged rotor on Friday night. 20M was DEAD at the time and I had other 40M
systems in play as well that night - so I have nothing to complain about - no
excuses.
What hurt me more was almost a total wipeout on 21Mhz - I could not hear much
most of the time and CQ'ing was all but impossible.
Let's hear it for SOME SUNSPOTS going forward!!!
Congrats to P40W, K5ZD and to all the low power guys who look like they will
make the top 10 box this year - richly deserved kudos to all of these fine ops!
CU this weekend I hope - I will be operating in the ARRL 160M contest tonight
and hope to find many old friends in the log along the way.
73 JEFF VY2ZM
K1ZM@aol.com
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