CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2SG, K2TW, KU2C, K4ZA, N2EA, N2HM, N2NT, N2OO, W1GD, W2CG, W2GD,
W2NO, W2OB, W2RQ
Station: W2GD
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 39
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1771 State/Prov = 57 Countries = 83 Total Score = 1,106,980
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Location: A salt marsh on Barnagat Bay, West Creek, NJ, ~20 miles north of
Atlantic City.
Run Station: K3, IC-746, Alpha 91B, 1.5 KW
Mult. Stn: K3, Alpha 76PA 1 KW
Software: WIN-TEST
Antennas: 2 element Vertical Wire Beams NE and W, Vertical Dipole, Beverages
NE, S, SW, W, NW
Well, it wasn't quite as great as last year, when we probably had the best 160
conditions in
2 decades, but it was still lots of fun last weekend. Good friends getting
together to play
radio for three days....what can be better than that. And Topband was what we
expected,
wonderfully unpredictable.
First, some history. Many of you know our team has been having these late
January get
togethers in NJ for nearly 25 years Originally, in the mid-80's, we operated
from the
W2GD home QTH. At that time, a shunt-fed 70' tower with 60 radials and a pair
of beverages
NE and W were all that was needed to be very competitive in the Multi catagory.
But as years passed, other teams were making strides with antenna
innovation.....most
notably in our area, the WW2Y team came up with one of the first big
mult-element vertical
directive arrays, hung in the trees behind Peter's Princeton home. The
competition was
getting stronger and stronger and we found ourselves clearly outgunned. So a
search to find
a new location was started, hoping to find a site in close proximity to salt
water that would
level the playing field.
Fortunately for us, a team member Marty, W2CG, was active in the USCG reserves,
and worked
a miracle for us, securing access to the USCG Station on Sandy Hook, just a
dozen miles SW
of lower Manhatten, NYC, and surrounded by salt water on three sides. The new
site proved
to be everything we had hoped. Delta loops hung from two self-supporting
towers and
several 900' beverages out on the sand dunes got us back in the game. But
unfortunately,
9/11 changed the world, and our access to the site ended.
Maybe it was fate, because in the summer of 2001 I ended my 22 year management
consulting
career, and joined a startup communications company which just happened to own
a 24 acre site
on Barnaget Bay, the former public coast staton WSC. This isolated property is
more than half
salt marsh, has a 300' Rohn 55G tower and 950 sq. ft. ranch style building for
operations.
Needless to say it was the perfect place to continue our annual "Field Day in
Januray" maddness.
Since 2001, we've been operating ARRL 160, TBDC and CQ160 CW from the West
Creek site, setting
up our antennas each fall and removing them come spring. Several years ago,
the property was
sold to a local FM broadcaster, who just so happens to be a ham who has been a
very understanding
host for our 160 operations ever since.
Every year is just a little different. The cast of characters changes, band
conditions are
never the same and are predictably unpredictable, and the station is almost
always configured
just a little differently in the hope of improving efficiency, since the
competition is getting
tougher and tougher year after year.
The first two 160 events this year went well, but as noted since tower
renovations were done
3 years ago, which included a total replacement of guy anchors and guy wires
(the new guys are
unbroken EHS steel to the ground) we have noticed a marked dropoff in TX
antenna performance.
As you would expect, EZNEC modeling confirmed for us placing conductive wires
within the near
field of our TX antenna did some bad things to the antenna pattern and gain.
Fortunately,
the pattern to the NE (EU) was largely uneffected, but to the west, forward
gain was reduced
by nearly 80%. In early January we decided to investigate further, using
mobiles to take field
strength readings from locations about 4 miles away in all directions. We
learned that indeed,
our NE radiator was still working well, but much to our dismay, we also found
unexpected major
lobes to the E and SE, and no gain at all to the West. In retrospect, I felt
somewhat better
not knowing how bad the pattern had become with the new guys. But now knowing,
we started
searching for a solution short of reguying the tower.
In the hope of somewhat improving our gain situation to the west, last Thursday
morning a team
of four SJDXA members (and visitor K1TN) erected a 2nd delta loop reflector on
the west side
of the tower. Unfortunately, based up on subsequent field strength
measurements, this did
not significantly change the pattern nor restore gain to the west. Over the
next 9 months
we'll keep looking for a solution.
After the ARRL 160, were we clearly were not working the same number of 10
pointers as our
competitors, it was decided to switch radios, moth balling the IC756 Pro IIIs
and putting K3s
with sub-receivers on the table. Durinng the TBDC we were rewarded with much
better EU totals,
clearly reception in Diversity mode using the K3s made a very significant
difference. Signals
which were unaudible using only the beverages were workable on the K3. So for
those who are
still K3 doubters......be advised the little box is everything people are
raving about.
Personally I'm not all that comfortable with the phyisical layout or the
multi-function buttons.
But it's superior rx performance on 160 (and I'll assume 80 and 40) is enough
to make me ready to
purchase one.
After the ARRL 160, we also decided to finally address the ability of our mult
position to hear
through the run station. We've tried several things over the years, but
decided the only real
solution would be locating an RX antenna as far away as possible from the TX
arrays. So the
weekend after Chrismas a team of use braved the cold to construct and install a
25 foot tall
vertical about 2500 feet away from the antennas in the salt marsh. We were
rewarded by this
effort, the mult position can now easily get within a few Khz of the runner
without RX overload.
One other improvement this season was installation of an on-site CW Skimmer.
N4HY, our resident
SDR guru, brought his QSR-1 and computer loaded with all the trick software.
We used the new
remote vertical as the source antenna. The system worked flawlessly,
populating the bandmap
far beyond what we'd previously experienced from cluster callouts. It was a
definite keeper,
and frankly, if you don't have this working at your multi, consider yourselves
significantly
disadvantaged.
OK....what about the contest. Conditions were notably better the first night.
Not only were
EU signals weaker on Saturday evening, we unfortunately were in the bulls eye
of a coastal
snow storm that dumped nearly 7 inches of fresh powder on our QTH by Sunday
morning. As you
can imagine static crashes made reception challenging. But having three pairs
of ears
listening on three seperate receivers made it all work, barely.
At the start of the contest our run rate was on par with 2009, averaging over
100/hr for the
first 8 hours. By daybreak we were essentially dead even with our 2009 effort
in terms of QSO
total, and somewhat ahead in countries worked. Congratulations go to the KC1XX
team, they came
out of the blocks fast and furious, and held a 50K lead on us by the end of the
1st night largely
due to better Q rate. And apparently our rate was very similar to the K1LZ
team out on Cape Cod,
but we were 75 EU contacts short after the 1st night. This trend continued
through the rest of
weekend, the 10 point deficit kept growing.
Apparently we somehow missed ND and SD.....one of the reasons we'll work hard
to improve our
signal to the West by next season. Didn't hear anyone we couldn't
work....eventually. Had a
nice note from Peter, XU7ACY, that he copied us for a minute at his sunrise
Sunday morning,
but unfortunately no copy on our end. Nice to work EY9MM, A7 (K5GN), CX6VM and
a big surprise
when SU9HP in Z34 called in. No ZS, VK, FK, FO or ZL, qne just two JAs on
Sunday morning for
our final mult. Where were you Robert (ST2AR)???
Congratulations to Krassy and the rest of his crew at K1LZ/p up on Cape Cod.
They certainly
earned their huge score, overcoming antenna damage before and during the
contest and having
to make repairs on the fly under difficult wx conditions......our team has been
in that very
same situation many times over the years, both here in West Creek and from
Sandy Hook, so we
have a special appreciation for what your team went through and ultimately
accomplished. Bravo
gentlemen!
Also, a hardy congrats to the teams at W8JI and WE3C for their outstanding
efforts. The great
thing about 160M, we never know beforehand who will have the the right location
to win the
gold....all part of the Topband mystique.
Staffing the three available op seats is always a challenge, and with work,
school, and
social commitments being what they were, it was unclear until the contest
started who would
be sitting in front of our radios. We ended up with many part-timers this
year.
K2TW, N2EA, N2NT and W2RQ came down to operate the first night, while W1GD,
W2NO and KU2C
joined us the second night. W2OB arrived at sunrise Saturday morning to
provide coverage
while the groggy deep night crew headed to a nearby diner for breakfast.
K2SG, K4ZA, N200, W2CG and W2GD were the all weekend anchors who were there to
fill gaps all
weekend long. We have a great team, everyone seems to naturally know what to
do and when.
Some Stats:
EU 500
NA 1236
SA 15
AF 8
AS 8
OC 4
QSOs (without dupes) - By time
| Hr | |
-----------------
|
| 22 | 125 |
| 23 | 93 |
| 00 | 113 |
| 01 | 108 |
| 02 | 103 |
| 03 | 92 |
| 04 | 76 |
| 05 | 93 |
| 06 | 89 |
| 07 | 60 |
| 08 | 26 |
| 09 | 21 |
| 10 | 22 |
| 11 | 36 |
| 12 | 25 |
| 13 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 |
| 15 | 13 |
| 16 | |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | 5 |
| 20 | 16 |
| 21 | 29 |
| 22 | 43 |
| 23 | 31 |
| 00 | 42 |
| 01 | 45 |
| 02 | 36 |
| 03 | 46 |
| 04 | 46 |
| 05 | 60 |
| 06 | 51 |
| 07 | 48 |
| 08 | 22 |
| 09 | 11 |
| 10 | 17 |
| 11 | 19 |
| 12 | 12 |
| 13 | 23 |
| 14 | 4 |
| 15 | |
| 16 | |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | 10 |
| 20 | 16 |
| 21 | 16 |
-----------------
| | 1771 |
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As always, we want to thank the owners of WYRS-FM for hosting our 160M
activities year after year.
And a big THANK YOU to everyone of you who took the time to work us and others
this past weekend.
CU again next season.
73,
John W2GD for THE TEAM
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