CQ Worldwide DX Contest - CW
Call: 4M7X
Operator(s): K2KW, N6BT, N6TV, N6BV, KE7X, AG9A, K9ZO, NT1N, W4SO, WA5VGI,
AD6E, BONNIE, DICK
Station:
Class: Multi-Multi HP
Operating Time (hrs): ~42
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 650 23 62
80: 1639 28 98
40: 3251 38 130
20: 3372 40 145
15: 3669 40 145
10: 3504 36 133
-------------------------------
Total: 16085 205 722 = 44.166M
Comments:
Congratulations to CN8WW for another spectacular win.
Now that the team has finally made it back home, we are reflecting on this
operation and one message is clear: even in spite of numerous challenges, the
team had a great time together, and we are psyched up for another adventure
(albeit in 1-2 years, so we can give the XYLs a break after numerous trips in
the past few years).
Did we say this trip was a challenge? The 42 hours of operation should be an
indication of our troubles...
It all started about 3 days before we were about to depart for Venezuela... up
to then, our operating site was under construction (we were to be the first
guests at this new pousada (small hotel)), and apparently everything was ready
for our arrival. Then about 3 days before departure, we got notice that the
hotel was "not quite ready". We really didn't know what that meant, but kept
our operation on track.
The team converged in Miami, Saturday Nov 20, and we were all on the same
flight on Aeropostal Airlines to Margarita Island, Venezuela. A short delay
turned into a 5-6 hour ordeal... in the process Aeropostal had to rent a new
plane (couldn't fix the original one), and further delays ensued when at the
last moment some airline official realized that the plane didn't have the
proper Aeropostal markings on it... ultimately they spray painted on 2" high
letters on the plane, which met the letter of the law.
Upon arrival on Margarita Island (6 hours late), a large portion of our
luggage
never made it. (But thanks to Vincent, YV7QP who works at the Margarita
Airport, all our bags were found the next day). Vincent was also
instrumental
on getting the equipment importation paperwork done and informing the customs
officials about our operation. The ease of getting through customs was only
possible with YV7QP's assistance.
Also at the airport was Ramon, YV5EED, who along with the support of Groupo DX
Caracas, sponsored our operation as 4M7X. By the time we all cleared customs,
we had missed any chance on getting to Coche Island that night, Coche is where
4M7X was located. Coche Island (SA-012) is a small island south of Margarita
Island, and the only way to get there is by a once-a-day ferry, or a small
launch or dingy.
On Margarita, we found a hotel for the night, but they informed us that
Hurricane Lenny had even impacted this area with a large storm surge (yet the
skies were blue). The storm surge had produced such high waves, that the
Coche
ferry hadn't been running for days. On Sunday, the group made it to Coche
on a
small boat (but we were soaked from the waves), but our luggage was stuck on
Margarita since it coudn't go over on the small launch.
Upon arrival at the operating site (where only half of the team was originally
scheduled to stay, with the rest at a nearby resort), we realized what "not
quite ready" meant... the pousada didn't have windows, doors, running
water, or
electricity. What the pousada did have was an unbelievably great location for
vertical antennas, so we chose to rough it on the operation, and make it work.
Luckily, the ferry ran the next day, and all our luggage arrived on Monday.
But at this point, we were already behind schedule by nearly 2 days.
The most pressing problems were getting sufficient electrical power and a
packet connection. There were no generators for rent on Coche, so we had to
bring one over from Margarita Island. We did find a 70 kVa generator to
supply
all our needs, but at a hefty $1045 for a 5 day rental. Though diesel fuel
was
less than $0.12 per liter. The generator arrived on Wednesday evening, and
Ivan, one of the locals, stayed up most of the night installing the 3-phase
feeder and our 220v and 110v electrical system. By late Thursday morning, we
finally had our first 220v power.
By that time, most of the antennas were installed, so we were pretty much
ready
for our first key-down test. Unfortunately, we quickly realized that when the
40m station transmitted (even with 5 watts), it completely wiped out all the
other bands. The team frantically tried to fix the problem, but late into the
evening, we were no where closer to solving the problem. At this point, we
were even questioning if we would compete.
A tired and stressed out team went back to the sleeping hotel and got up a few
hours later to begin attacking the interference problem again, the day of the
contest! By mid Friday morning, it became apparent that a new diode switching
matrix out at the high band antennas were re-radiating energy when excited by
the 40m signal. By lunchtime, all the switching control leads had torroids on
them, and the problem was solved. Unfortunately, the team was physically and
mentally wiped out by then.
The rest of the station was hastily put together with little time to spare.
The contest started off uneventful, but the last 2 days of stress had taken
their toll - everyone started going to sleep around midnight!
Early Saturday morning, the REAL problems started to hit: the generator
became
very erratic at sunrise (one of the best rate times), and the voltage was too
low to power any equipment. We frantically tried to get the generator going
again, but none of us had diesel experience. After nearly 2 hours, the
generator was somewhat stabilized, at least for the time being. During this
time, very few QSOs were made, and the generator was completely off-line for
most of the time.
Once we got the generator back on line, it was very unstable, and often we
were
only running 100w. Then around noontime, a Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance
(SID) hit, and completely wiped out all the bands. 10m recovered the
quickest,
but 15 and 20 took a long time to get back. For the remainder of the
afternoon, the generator continued to be unstable.
Then late in the afternoon, a large storm front rolled in, and all the
stations
were forced off the air due to 20 over S9 rain static. Rain? Coche is a very
dry island, and rarely gets rain. The rainy season ends in October, and rain
is virtually unheard of in late November. So much for statistics, as it
rained
every day we were on Coche. Besides the rain, there was lots of lightening,
which produced high QRN on the low bands. We must apologize to all the 160m
stations who called us! We knew you were calling, but often we couldn't copy
even one letter from the QRN. 4M7X was definitely an alligator on 160m.
Then around sunset on Saturday (another prime rate time) the generator
completely failed. We were off the air again. This time, we hastily found a
diesel expert on Coche Island, and he was there in about 30 minutes. He
ripped
apart the fuel system, and found that the fuel pump was bad. To get the
generator started, he had to bypass the fuel pump, and rigged up a system
where
a large plastic fuel tank was elevated, and gravity took the place of the fuel
pump. To get the fuel system primed, the diesel expert took a mouthful of
diesel fuel! This episode kept us off the air for over 2 hours, though a few
QSOs were made in this time when we temporarily got the generator up for
testing. For the next 24 hours of the contest, we ran the generator with the
gravity-fed fuel system, and didn't have any additional problems... except
when
we forgot to add fuel, and the generator quit since there was no fuel!
Sunday brought a different kind of problem: high wind, and high tide! The
combination was deadly for the verticals, which were just a few feet from the
sea. Verticals were dropping like flies, and individual bands had to QRT
while
we repaired the antennas. Some bands were off the air a few times on Sunday.
One of the MULT Yagis fell 4 times on Sunday, and the boom and a few elements
got crushed (we used Yagis on the MULT antennas, though all the run antennas
were verticals).
On Sunday, most of our antennas were in about 6" of water due to high tide.
The waves weren't the problem, as we found out the operating site is on a
large
flood plain, and the salt-water seeps in from the sea when there is high
tide.
This actually helped our signal, as our antennas were completely in salt
water,
but the water caused the guy systems to fail.
On 10, 15, and 20m, we used WX0B Stackmatch boxes to feed multiple arrays on
the same band. On Sunday afternoon, two of the Stackmatch boxes fell over,
and
were submerged in salt water... needless to say, they arced, and we had to
bypass our multiple-beam antenna system, and run on limited antennas for most
of Sunday afternoon.
In total, we were effectively off the air for around 6 hours. On top of this,
we lost about an hour per band based on antenna down time.
While we got hit with every kind of problem imaginable, our team kept going
through the hardship. This quality is what makes Team Vertical so special
- we
are committed professionals! After we all got home, we all agreed that we
were
ready to head out again on another expedition! Though we think we will give
the XYL's a break, and not go out next year.
Even through the hardship, there were many highlights:
Contest highlights:
* NT1N averaging over 200/hr for the first 7 hours on 40m
* K2KW having a 237 clock hour on 10m, with a 248 QRATE hour, his personal
best
* Over 200/hr for multiple hours on multiple bands
* Great teamwork!
* Watching others team up to solve problems (which we weren't short of!)
* Successfully implementing in-band MULT stations, with no QRM between the
stations
* The new vertical antenna systems designed by N6BV were awesome!!!!!
* Making new friends, especially with the locals on Coche Island.
* Using two JRC JST-245 radios on 40 and 160m. They proved they were contest
and pileup capable! These are definitely underrated radios.
* Computer network was flawless
* Great vertical transmitting location
* Good home cooking at the El Oasis Restaurant, where our station was located
Photos and lessons learned will be posted on the Team Vertical web site in a
week or so. We will send an announcement to the 3830 and Contest Reflectors
letting you know when the information is available.
SPECIAL THANKS:
This operation could not have happened without the assistance of many people:
* Ramon, YV5EED for serving as our chief contact and information source
* Vincent, YV7QP for organizing the customs forms, and assisting with the
rental of the generator, cellular phone, and local supplies.
* Groupo DX Caracas for sponsoring our expedition, the use of the 4M7X
callsign, and loaning us materials
* Ivan, our local electrician. Without Ivan, we doubt we would have been on
the air.
* Force 12 Antennas, who supplied all of the antennas
* QRO Technologies, who loaned us an HF-2500DX amplifier which was used on 40m
(and produced a flawless 1500w output)
* Comtek Systems for the loan of two 4-square phasing systems for 40 and 80m
* Array Solutions for the donation of a WX0B StackMatch
* Nemal Electronics for the donation of some of the coax requirements
Equipment:
160m: JRC JST-245, Alpha 76
80m: Yaesu FT-1000MP, TenTec Titan
40m: JRC JST-245, QRO Technologies HF-2500DX
20m: Icom 765, Ameritron AL-1200
15m: Icom 765, Alpha 87A
10m: Yaesu FT-1000MP, Alpha 78
Antennas: All antennas were provided by FORCE 12 ANTENNAS
160m: 2 element parasitic array, fixed north. 60' high elements
80m: 4-square, using Comtek Systems phasing system. 38' high elements
40m: 4-square, using Comtek Systems phasing system. 16' high ZR verticals
20m: Large vertical array, WX0B StackMatch
15m: Large vertical array, WX0B StackMatch
10m: Large vertical array, WX0B StackMatch
Operators:
160m: N6BT, K2KW
80m: K9ZO
40m: NT1N
20m: N6BV, W4SO
15m: AG9A, KE7X
10m: N6TV
MULT Stations: WA5VGI, AD6E
The above list are the main ops. Most ops got the chance to put in time on
the
other bands...
Location:
Site: El Oasis Restaurant (and underconstruction pousada), Coche Island,
Venezuela
Sleeping: Coche Speed Paradise Resort Hotel, Coche Island, Venezuela
Coche is IOTA SA-012
QSL:
4M7X via WA4WTG
K2KW via WA4WTG
W4SO via WA4WTG
Others: via home call
SIGNAL REPORTS? If you happen to note our signal compared to PJ4B, please
drop
Kenny, K2KW a note (k2kw@prodigy.net). We would like to hear your comments.
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults 4M7X CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Multi Multi
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 59/19 100/39 196/48 199/46 177/33 34/24 765/209 765/209
1 51/7 95/14 199/8 181/25 152/12 23/12 701/78 1466/287
2 67/4 92/11 213/13 205/11 152/7 21/7 750/53 2216/340
3 60/6 139/6 228/7 176/12 48/7 13/6 664/44 2880/384
4 64/8 89/5 213/8 154/6 13/6 25/9 558/42 3438/426
5 55/8 99/1 187/8 66/12 9/2 18/2 434/33 3872/459
6 44/2 114/6 174/10 119/11 4/1 5/0 460/30 4332/489
7 19/3 83/5 135/6 46/4 . . 283/18 4615/507
8 17/2 53/5 116/10 9/0 ..... ..... 195/17 4810/524
9 15/2 49/4 88/3 64/6 5/7 1/1 222/23 5032/547
10 1/2 26/1 82/1 59/0 125/33 116/29 409/66 5441/613
11 . 1/0 34/1 56/4 160/7 187/13 438/25 5879/638
12 . . 12/0 31/0 85/6 119/1 247/7 6126/645
13 . . . 35/1 115/9 137/10 287/20 6413/665
14 . . . 16/1 156/11 154/6 326/18 6739/683
15 . . . 9/2 154/3 145/8 308/13 7047/696
16 ..... ..... ..... 19/2 112/5 112/4 243/11 7290/707
17 . . . 77/2 119/4 211/4 407/10 7697/717
18 . . . 107/0 114/1 237/6 458/7 8155/724
19 . . 2/1 139/6 169/2 203/0 513/9 8668/733
20 . . 50/8 95/6 128/4 163/6 436/24 9104/757
21 . . 31/0 25/0 40/0 9/4 105/4 9209/761
22 2/0 6/2 6/2 15/0 18/0 1/0 48/4 9257/765
23 19/1 23/2 80/1 70/2 54/3 2/0 248/9 9505/774
0 31/1 56/3 104/4 112/2 61/3 7/1 371/14 9876/788
1 42/1 77/0 114/3 96/0 60/4 5/0 394/8 10270/796
2 16/2 73/2 81/1 111/3 102/0 . 383/8 10653/804
3 18/4 69/4 75/3 86/1 12/0 . 260/1210913/816
4 30/9 92/0 155/1 108/1 19/2 1/0 405/1311318/829
5 6/0 83/0 92/0 80/3 15/0 . 276/3 11594/832
6 8/2 86/3 82/1 44/0 . . 220/6 11814/838
7 . 45/0 57/2 1/0 . . 103/2 11917/840
8 1/0 2/0 65/1 3/0 ..... ..... 71/1 11988/841
9 2/0 17/3 35/3 67/0 3/0 . 124/6 12112/847
10 4/0 21/2 76/8 47/1 120/1 96/3 364/1512476/862
11 . 6/0 17/1 17/2 66/2 150/1 256/6 12732/868
12 . . 8/0 26/1 100/1 167/0 301/2 13033/870
13 . . . 19/1 93/2 155/1 267/4 13300/874
14 . . . 8/2 100/2 113/3 221/7 13521/881
15 . . 1/0 3/0 118/4 140/0 262/4 13783/885
16 ..... ..... ..... 1/0 44/3 129/3 174/6 13957/891
17 . . . 26/0 50/0 114/0 190/0 14147/891
18 . . . 53/1 87/1 107/0 247/2 14394/893
19 . . . 87/2 120/1 108/2 315/5 14709/898
20 . . 14/1 122/1 110/1 81/0 327/3 15036/901
21 . 4/1 94/3 95/4 77/3 76/0 346/1115382/912
22 1/0 16/3 59/1 86/1 114/0 68/3 344/8 15726/920
23 18/2 22/4 75/0 102/0 89/1 51/0 357/7 16083/927
DAY1 473/64 969/101 2046/135 1972/159 2109/163 1936/152 ..... 9505/774
DAY2 177/21 669/25 1204/33 1400/26 1560/31 1568/17 . 6578/153
TOT 650/85 1638/126 3250/168 3372/185 3669/194 3504/169 . 16083/927
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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