CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1998
Call: OT8T Country: Belgium
Station: ON4UN Operator: RA3AUU
Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator, High Power
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES
160 122 158 1.30 9 58
80 412 828 2.01 21 83
40 594 1542 2.60 30 122
20 954 2353 2.47 39 140
15 1143 2937 2.57 36 145
10 297 758 2.55 29 137
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Totals 3522 8576 2.43 164 685 => 7,281,024
This is the raw score. If there will be any change, it will be
minimal.
On the air time: > 46 hours.
Equipment: two FT1000MPs. one home made amp, one autro-tune/auto-switch amp
ACOM 2000
Antennas: 160: 11/4 wave vert
80: 4-square, elevetaed rad
40: 3 el full-size yagi at 30 m
4-square , elevated rad
20: 5 el (15 m boom) at 25 m
KT34XA at 19 m
15: 6 el, 11 m boom at 22 m
KT34XA at 19 m
10: 6 el, 11 m boom at 19 m
KT34XA at 19 m
Beverages: only 3 directions (instead of usual 12)
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The story:
This year I had not enough time to prepare for a multi-single. Been
too busy with the new book. So we decided for a single op all band.
Harry, RA3AUU flew over for our first single-op all band effort from
OTxT.
This was a handicap contest though: no Beverages. The corn was
planted about 6 weeks late this year (too much rain during spring
time) and as a consequence it is still there, where the Beverages
should be. So no Beverages, what is a great handicap for both 160 and
80 m. Only 83 countries on 80 is definitely below normal standard. I
guess these Beverages are good for about 20 countries. On 160 Harry
could hardly hear some of the strongest W-stations, it was
frustrating!
The station was set up with two FT1000MP's, one driving the old
trusty home made amp, the other FT1000MP driving the new ACOM
automatic tuning amplifier. The new amplifier was a great success. No
need to do any tuning or bandswitching, just say "ah" on a new band,
and you are all set. This was very esential to do what Harry planned.
Work pile ups on the "hot" band, and tune up and down the other bands
with the second radio, quickly looking for the pile-ups. This is
where the rare ones are. The important thing was to be able to change
bands continuously in order to catch those pile-ups before they grew
too large. With the new amplifier this was easy.
This was one of the first contests where we did not get the visit
from Mr. Murphy. That means, not "during" the contest. Of course,
Murphy was involved in having the corn still on my Beverage field,
and he also was responsible in sending the SWR of the second 10/15/20
m antenna, a KT34XA skyhigh a few weeks before the contest. Anyhow,
the KT34XA performed very poor on 10 and 15, ad SWR was way over 2:1
on 10 meters. We will take it down in the next week or so, and hope
to find the problem before the CW contest.
The lack of Beverages has been the reason why Harry did not get 100
countries on 80. It would have been nice making a 5-band DXCC as
single op. By the way, Harry slept just over one hour during the
entire contest! I could not do it any more at my age... Single band
jobs are just ideal for me...
Judging the score, it is clear that Harry laid emphasis on
multipliers, which probably made him loose a few hundred QSO's, but
the multiplier total is quite high, almost as many as we did last year
as multi-single. Of course 10 was better than last year, although
there was no opening at all on Sonday to the US and only a "mediocre"
one on Saturday with no West Coast and only about 100 QSO's
made with the US on 10m.
CU in the CW contest.
John, ON4UN
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