This year provided us with a major challenge. One week prior to departure
our booked hotel informed us they would not be open in time for our trip.
We left Accra, Ghana one day early and drove to Lome to check out other
hotels and find a place to operate. We were successful in negotiating with
the Hotel de la Paix, so we had a place to set-up. The hotel roof was 80
feet up, but it had significantly less space than where we had planned our
operation. We ended up with less antennas in the air than planned and the
spacing was not optimum.
However, the hotel staff was very accomodating, including our usual request
for 60 amps of service. We got everything going by Thursday this year, so
things were a little more relaxed going into the contest.
Here is the result of our efforts in 1998.
CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1998
Call: 5V7A Country: Togo
Mode: CW Category: Multi Multi
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES
160 216 619 2.87 15 49
80 707 2082 2.94 25 80
40 2344 6985 2.98 35 120
20 3604 10759 2.99 38 147
15 4574 13647 2.98 39 152
10 3263 9728 2.98 35 139
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 14708 43820 2.98 187 687 => 38,298,680
All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.
Operator List: G3SXW, G3ZEM, G3VMW, G4BWP, G4FAM, G4ZVJ, GM3YTS, K5VT,
KY7M, KC7V
Equipment Description:Kenwood TS 930's, Alpha 76/78's, Force 12 3 el 20, 3
el 15,
4 el 10, C3, A4, 402-cd, F12 80m rotary dipole, 160 1/4 wave balloon vertical,
inverted vee 160m, 40m dipole, 15m vertical, 80m sloper.
Club Affiliation: Central Arizona DX Association
This is to certify that in this contest I have operated
my transmitter within the limitations of my license and have
observed fully the rules and regulations of the contest.
Signature _________________________________
MAILING ADDRESS:
5V7A
This should hold up for a new African record. Our hearty congratulations
to 6Y2A on an outstanding effort and accomplishment from a 2 pt location.
Comments:
20m died a mid-day both days of the test for nearly 3 plus hours each day.
Very strange from the equator. We have had slowdowns at mid-day in the
past, but never complete like this year. Our qso total was over a 1000
down from 1997.
15m was outstanding. I am not sure of the qso record for this band, but we
are very satisfied with the 4574 qsos in the log. The band was open 24 hours.
10m - Continued improvement. The best part this year was the 4 hour long
path opening to JA from about 1 am to 5 am. We had difficulty though
working the close in other West African multipliers. Our qso total doubled
from 1997.
40m The low bands seem to suffer more from this low latitude as the sun
spots increase. Qso totals were down, yet our multiplier totals did improve.
80m/160m We really suffer from the equator on these bands. The noise
levels are continually high. It takes nearly 2 hours after sunset for
these bands to start opening up where we can get some runs going. We work
hard in looking for mults because running high rates is difficult. We've
tried many different antenna combinations, yet the results always seem to
be about the same. We'll continue to try and improve our LF performance in
the future.
1999- We've already decided to put 5V7A on the air again for the 1999 CQWW
Contest. Our normal operating site should be re-open by then. We are
working on plans to improve our mult hunting, especially on the LF bands.
Thanks for the qsos! We really enjoy ourselves on these trips, even with
the hard work in the high heat and humidity. See you next time.
73,
Mike, KC7V for the rest of the Voodoo Contest Group.
===================
Mike Fulcher KC7V
One of the "VOO-DUDES"
VooDoo Contest Group
CN5N, ZC4Z, ZF2WW, 9G5AA, TY5A, 5V7A
("VooDoo" - White magic from Africa )
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