CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N4GN
Operator(s): N4GN
Station: N4GN
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Kentucky
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 30 9 20
80: 81 17 52
40: 292 29 100
20: 328 34 98
15: 377 31 94
10: 541 26 100
------------------------------
Total: 1649 146 464 Total Score = 2,754,150
Club: Kentucky Contest Group
Comments:
This was my first contest effort since Joana, my YL from DU1, came to
Kentucky. So I guess this was a big "test" for her as well as myself.
I'd say she did better than I did! While I was struggling to put contacts
in the log, she spent much of the weekend with my family, stopping by the
shack from time to time to bring food and drink, and to give me a little
back massage. I'll bet I was the only guy in the contest eating chicken
pork adobo, shrimp pansit, lumpia rolls and leche flan. What a deal!
Sometimes Joana would sit in the shack next to me, working on her cross-
stitching while I operated. She even listened on the second set of
headphones for a while, even though the only CW she knows is "dah-dah-dah-
di-dit dah-dah-dah-di-dit" (that's the ring tone she hears when I call her
Nokia phone!). She was impressed to hear the big pileup on 4G1A from her
homeland.
As far as the numbers go, I was a bit disappointed. In 2000 (last time I
operated from home in WW CW), I did right at 4 million points with
basically the same station setup. So I figured a reasonable goal this
year might be 5 million, if conditions were really good again. But I
could tell before the contest even started that wasn't going to happen, as
the bands really didn't sound good.
In 2000, we started off with tremendous JA runs on 10 and 15. This year,
I struggled to work just a few at the start on 15, and not a single one on
10. In 2000, we had awesome all-night openings on 20, with great EU runs
from 0500Z to well past 1000Z. Nothing like that this year, so we were
forced to slug it out on the low bands all night. Ugh!
With a busy schedule before and after the contest, I had to get a lot more
sleep than usual this year. If 20 had been open all night, I would have
forced myself to stay awake, but as things were, I didn't feel like I was
missing too much.
The result, like I've already seen on several postings, is that QSO
numbers were WAY down, but mults were actually up a bit. I thought 40 was
in pretty good shape during the middle of the contest. This is the first
time I've ever actually worked DXCC on that band in a single contest.
Pretty cool! We had a nice LP opening on 40 well before 2200Z Saturday
night (about 45 minutes before my sunset), but there weren't enough guys
on the other end of the path that I hadn't already worked. T88JA was the
only good mult that came from that opening.
The coolest QSO has to be my buddy James, 9V1YC calling in on 15 via LP
while I was running Europeans Saturday morning. I like to keep one
antenna in the stack pointed SSE when I run Europe on the high bands. It
helps to lure in the odd South American, but this is the first time it's
paid off with a check-in from halfway around the world!
The other interesting QSO that I need to ask the propagation experts about
is R1ANZ at around 1300Z Sunday on 40. According to the coordinates I
have for Mirny Station, he should be within a half degree of due south for
me, directly across the south pole. But I swear he was peaking to the NE,
at around 30-40 degrees. And he was amazingly loud, especially since the
path was apparently crossing the auroral zone twice! I guess this kinda
thing is still part of the magic that I never get tired of.
The flare at around 2130Z Sunday was also very evident. It was like
having a big attenuator switched in. When HC8N sounds kinda puny, you
KNOW something's up! Fortunately, it wasn't a very big flare, and the
effects were soon gone.
The only hardware problem was a failure in the all-band vertical, which,
as sucky as it is, is my primary second-radio antenna. I haven't
investigated yet, but I assume the feed attachment broke again, which
seems to happen far too often. Luckily, it broke in the middle of the day
Sunday, so I could limp along as SO1R until 40 opened, giving me something
useful to do with the second radio again. Not having a "real" antenna for
10-20 for the second radio is probably the biggest shortcoming of my
station now. But I have a plan for fixing that!
All in all, it was a great weekend, even though I barely made half of my
scoring goal. Hopefully I'll be back next with the second tower and a
bunch more antennas!
Station setup:
Radio 1 - Mark-V Field and Acom 2000A
Radio 2 - IC-746 and Ten-Tec Hercules II (500 W)
WX0B SO2R box
TR Log
Antennas (yes, still only one tower!):
C3 (10-20 meters) at 40 ft (rotates SW through N to SE)
C3 (10-20 meters) at 65 ft (fixed on EU)
C4XL (10-40 meters) at 90 ft (full rotation)
Above three antennas switched via WX0B Stack Match (10-20 meters)
80-meter inverted V, apex at 80 ft
160-meter inverted L, 70 ft vertical
Butternut all-band vertical (for second radio)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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