1999 CQ WPX CW CONTEST
Call used: WC1M
Location: NH
Category: Single Op All Band High Power Unassisted
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Exchanged Information: WC1M RST nr
Hours of Operation: 31:44
band QSOs points
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160 0 0
80 1 6 inv vee @ 80'
40 400 1624 4-square
20 702 1847 TH-7 @ 70'
15 886 2470 "
10 23 60 "
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TOTAL 2012 6007 X 656 multipliers = 3,940,592
Club or Team Name: Twin State Radio Club
Equipment: FT-1000mp / Alpha 87A, FT-990 / LX550-ZC
To make sure I can operate the contests that I really care about (CQWW,
CQWPX, ARRL DX, SS, IARU, FD), I've started to mark the CW and SSB weekend
dates in red magic marker on our family calendar a year in advance. The CW
weekends get marked with a couple of exclamation points, too, which indicate
that I *really* want to work those contests. I'm usually willing to
"sacrifice" a couple of phone contests so that I can be assured of working
the CW contests. The CW portions of CQWW and CQWPX get three exclamation
points, which means "No compromise".
This year, my wife saw the blood on the calendar for Memorial Day weekend
and decided to visit her sister in NJ with our 3-year old daughter. A very
generous move considering that Saturday was our anniversary. Luckily, she
was busy with a choir festival on our anniversary last year, so I got a
guilt-free pass. This would be the first contest I've ever operated with a
free shot at an all-out effort and no distractions. I had high hopes for
operating all 36 hours and posting a great score.
How times have changed. A couple of years ago I would not have believed I
could put up a score of 3.9M points in WPX. Even as recently as a year ago I
would have been thrilled at the idea of making 2,000 QSOs in any contest.
But now I'm oscillating between feeling OK about it and thinking I could
have done a lot better. I guess I was suckered by doing almost 2400 Qs in 30
hours in ARRL DX CW. With the whole weekend devoted to WPX, I had fantasies
of 3K. But I guess I've got a long way to go before I can do that in WPX. I
think I need to put in some time at a multi-multi so I can learn from the
experts. I might need another tower or two as well...
My average QSO rate of only 63/hr was much lower than I expected. Thank
goodness I live in New England, or it wouldn't have been that good. In an
effort to analyze why (and not to make excuses) I chalk it up to the
following factors, in order of importance:
1. Lack of sleep before the contest.
2. Focusing too much energy on equipment repair before the contest
2. Worse-than-normal CW copy (failure to practice as planned)
3. Poor schedule planning
4. Not sticking to scheduled break times
5. Allowing a friend to visit during the contest
6. Strange propagation
7. Lack of a second beam for 20-15-10
8. Half-hour lost due to computer memory problems.
Some might say that my modest antenna farm or the propagation were the real
reason, but I think the operating-related factors were more important.
Lack of sleep and focusing too much on equipment repair had the same cause.
I spent weeks before the contest repairing an LK550-ZC in which a sharp blow
by the previous owner's estranged wife (after an argument!) had broken the
seals on two tubes, which had in turn arced and destroyed the plate choke
and a step start resistor. A 40M fixed capacitor lead had also been broken
by the blow. To confuse matters, someone had fooled with the meter
calibration resistors so the plate and grid current readings were bogus. I'm
no expert in amp repair, so it took quite a lot of time to refurbish the amp
and install it in place of the SB-221 I had been using for the second radio.
The troubleshooting experience was intense and draining (HV scares the heck
out of me) and resulted in many nights with little sleep. I had it ready a
few days before the contest, then smoked the parasitic suppressor resistors
with too much key-down tuning on 10M the night before the contest. I
replaced the resistors, but got only four hours of sleep going into the
contest.
The killer in all this is that I had planned to spend my spare time during
the month of May practicing my high-speed CW copy. With all the work on the
amp, I never got in a single session. To add insult to injury, I didn't use
the second radio all that much in this contest.
All day Friday I planned to take a nap, but never managed it. I had too many
things to do, including getting suitable food (a contesting art that I need
to learn more about), studying propagation, planning my schedule, and so
forth. Two hours before the contest, a major business call had to be taken,
so I was tired, stressed and feeling behind the eight-ball by 0000Z.
The contest started out well enough, with 80-100 QSOs/hour in each of the
first four hours, working Europe almost exclusively (what else do we do in
1-land?) The 0000 hour was spent on 15M, the 0100 hour was spent on 20M, and
the 0200-0300 hours were spent on 40M. The second hour turned out to be my
best in the contest, with 98 QSOs. Not so good. The 40M QSOs in the third
and fourth hours provided almost half my QSOs on that band. The rate dropped
off considerably in the next two hours, where I struggled to dig out QSOs on
40M and 20M. Heavy QRN on 80M made it a total bust, providing just one QSO.
I went to bed and slept for 6 hours, from 0600Z-1200Z. Not enough, but I'd
hoped to sleep only five hours so I could use an hour for a meal, shower,
etc.
Beginning at 1200Z Saturday, I spent seven straight hours on 15M. The first
couple of hours were quite good, mostly running JAs, Asiatic Russians and a
few Europeans. This was when I first noticed the odd propagation. It seemed
I could work Europeans pretty well with the beam on Japan, and vice versa.
After a couple of hours, I shifted to working Europeans on 15M almost
exclusively. Out of five hours doing that, only one hour was decent. I felt
that the propagation was really poor on all three high bands during that
stretch. 20M was noisy and signals were much weaker than usual. I only heard
a handful of stations on 10M (HC8N, was one, of course.) 15M was really the
only game in town. The GAP vertical I use on the second radio for the high
bands could barely hear anything on 20M. It's not a great antenna, but this
was much worse than usual. I figured the angle of arrival must be pretty
high, so I lowered the TH-7 from 70' to 50' and that seemed to improve the
run rate (could've been wishful thinking.) At the 2000 hour, the rate
started falling off badly, so I took an hour break, then switched to running
Europe on 20M. That went pretty well, until my friend (the previous owner of
the LK550) dropped by to visit and observe. That killed 2 1/2 hours, during
which I yacked with my friend and ate dinner. I shouldn't have done it, but
he's moving away and I won't get to see him much. Besides, the fatigue was
seducing me away from the radio. The next five hours were among the best in
the contest: 0100 and 0200 on 20M, 0300 and 0400 on 40M, and, incredibly,
0500 on 15M!. I can't remember when I've heard 15M wide open in the middle
of the night like that. It was amazing. As the rate dropped off, and fatigue
started to make me see double, I went to bed for about five and a half
hours.
Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday -- eight straight hours
on 15M. The last four hours of the contest were spent on 20M, with a brief
dash to 40M for the last 15 minutes. All in all, the propagation seemed much
better on Sunday.
Most of the comments I've seen on conditions have been very positive, but I
think that was mostly true for 15M, which put on yet another incredible
show. It's the premier band of this contest season. 80M didn't exist, 40M
was tough, 20M was on-and-off and 10M was barely there. Many of the same
comments acknowledged this, so either this is really good for summer
propagation or everyone was so dazzled by 15M that the poor conditions on
other bands didn't get much attention.
Out of curiosity, and a desire to follow in the footsteps of greatness, I
compared my per-band QSO percentages with WW4T (W4AN):
Band Bill Dick
80M 2.5% .1%
40M 18.5% 19.9%
20M 32.5% 34.9%
15M 42.5% 44.0%
10M 4.0% 1.0%
I think it's interesting that the percentages are so close. Bill's got a
much more powerful and flexible antenna system than I do (a major
understatement), with many options on each band. Also 10M tends to be better
in the mid-latitudes than up here in the north country. I've seen much more
difference in our relative percentages on each band in other contests this
year, but it looks like propagation forced most of us Easterners through the
same funnel in this contest.
Another interesting note is that my total score is a little better than
several stations that had quite a few more QSOs and mults. I didn't get
called by very many stateside stations until late in the contest, so my QSO
points must've been relatively good. Could be the F/B on the TH-7 and
4-square.
Amazingly, I placed third in 1-land last year with only 1233 QSOs and 512
mults. Good enough for my first-ever CQ certificate (assuming it actually
gets issued.) Guess I was the beneficiary of non-participation by some big
guns. This year, with 779 more QSOs and 144 more mults, my score may not be
good enough for fourth place. KQ2M and NT1N have already posted big scores,
and I heard that W1WEF was in it this year. Are any of you guys considering
retirement to Florida? The winters are really cold here, you know...
73, Dick, WC1M
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