CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 32
40: 816
20: 1313
15: 520
10: 16
------------
Total: 2697 Prefixes = 870 Total Score = 7,071,360
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @65'
80M - delta loop @75', trapped vee @65'
40M - 40-2CD @72', 4-square
20M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50'
15M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4el SteppIR @75', C3E @50'
580' beverage aimed 20-degrees
All yagis on separate tubular towers (no vertical stacks)
Equipment:
Orion + Alpha 87A, FT-1000D + Acom 2000A, Writelog, TopTen band decoders
and switches.
(WARNING: another long story follows...)
Great contest and more fun than I can ever remember in a CW slug-fest. I've
always liked my call sign, but this contest makes me love it. It's nice being
rare from home!
Congrats to AK1W (K5ZD) for a mind-boggling performance, sure to be a new
record. Looks like KC3R (LX4AX) will be second with a great effort -- and the
funniest writeup so far. I'm flattered that I was among the stations that made
him push the second radio harder. He did the same for me, though it was clear I
wouldn't be able to catch up on QSOs. Unfortunately, Alek may have to put up
with the same humiliation I experienced in 2003 when CQ magazine pointed out how
the first place station (K1TO) crushed the second place station by over a
million points!
Hats off to all the other great scorers out there -- especially KL9A for his
incredible feat from W7.
This was my personal best by over a million points, plus over 100 Qs and 100
mults more than my previous high. For a change, I'm very happy with my four
little tubular masts with no stacks! The antennas may not be high, but they
offer good flexibility.
Excellent conditions on Saturday made for a big start, which is essential in
this contest because of the "work mults once" rule and participation dropping
off the second day. Averaged about 100/hr during the first 18 hours of
operating, the best I've ever done. Hit the second radio very hard to boost the
QSO count, which helped the mults too. The mults come to you in this contest: as
K5ZD, says QSOs=mults in WPX. You really have to work everything you can on the
second radio.
A couple of weeks ago I got psyched to do this contest. I was feeling pretty
good, I'm healthy, and no repairs were needed to antennas or station. Spent some
time studying rate sheets and solidifying my band and break strategies. Got
plenty of sleep the week before and had food all worked out (WPX breaks make it
easier to take care of personal maintenance without losing time at the radios.)
Propagation was unexpectedly good leading up to Friday -- low A and K indices
with low-moderate solar flux made for wonderful conditions on 40, 20 and 15, the
money bands in this contest. But Friday's reports indicated a coronal hole would
give us trouble on Sunday. This indeed came to pass. Evidently, something called
a "Geomagnetic Sudden Impulse" happened early Sunday morning. The K index was 1
most of Saturday, hit 4 on Sunday, then hit 5 between 2100z-2400z Sunday.
Got off to a good start, but about 20 QSOs into the contest, the rate meter was
hanging at about 48/hr when the actual rate seemed more like 100/hr. Strange.
Then I noticed the On Time displayed by Writelog was negative and surrounded by
junk characters. I looked at the dates and, sure enough, Writelog showed the
contest starting on October 27, then back to May 27 about 15 QSOs later. This
must have happened when I used the Windows XP Internet time sync about five
minutes into the contest (hadn't synced in a while.) The utility reported an
error and I didn't check the result, assuming the time wouldn't have changed.
Not! Yet another bug, Mr. Gates. I quickly synced with another utility (BT Time
Wizard from Tabor Soft) and edited the QSOs on the fly. This was a little like
repairing the plane while taking off, but it was worth it -- the rate meter is
important. It jumped to 120/hr when I fixed the last QSO. What would a contest
be without glitches like this?
In spite of the confusion I had a good first hour on 40, with a few second radio
QSOs on 20 thrown in for good measure. Spent the first six hours running 40, and
managed to develop a good S&P rate on 20 on the second radio. In other contests,
the second radio is primarily a mult machine. In WPX, the second radio is
critical for boosting the QSO rate, which in turn boosts the mult count. Anyway,
I was pretty happy with the good start, which is important for me -- my team
isn't very good at coming from behind.
My notes at 0227z say, "3rd hour -- lids!!!". I can't say what prompted this,
but I'm sure you can guess from among a number of idiotic operating practices in
modern Amateur Radio.
Given the dire propagation prediction for Sunday, I had considered operating
straight through the first 24 hours. In retrospect this might have been the
right thing to do. I think Randy made a good trade jumping to 20 for a 115 hour
at 0400z and making up the lost Qs on 40 between 0600z-0700z. Instead I took a
break between 0600z-0930z. The rate had declined a bit, I was tired, and I
wanted to be in top form for running the high bands in the morning. Given the
decline in propagation, I could have used those extra two hours for break on
Sunday. Might not have been very fresh for the Saturday morning runs, though.
Lots of tradeoffs in this contest.
Three and half hours later I was back at the radios. Although I knew 20 would
open at sunrise, I was concerned that the rate wouldn't climb until later.
That's the way it happened. Unlike CQ WW or ARRL DX, it isn't all that critical
to be up early to work Asia on 40 -- all mults are created equal in WPX. Next
time I'll try to remember to start no earlier than 1000z (and that will be the
year 20 opens early!)
Spent about three and half hours on 20, from 0930z-1330z. As expected from
earlier in the week, JA came rolling in just after 1000z and I had run about 70
of them by 1130z. They were still coming in as late as 1247z! The JAs usually
help the prefix count a lot, but this year it didn't seem like there were as
many different JA prefixes on.
At 1330z I was delighted to find 15 open to EU, and spent the next four hours
running there. The rate wasn't huge, but second radio Qs on 20 boosted the
overall number. Yet K5ZD's rate sheet for AK1W makes it look like we were
operating on different planets! His rates were *much* higher on both bands and
15 opened an hour earlier for him. Guess some of this is the difference between
stacks at reasonable height and single yagis at low heights, but maybe location
has something to do with it too. That, and Randy's legendary operating skills
(as KT1V says, he has a third ear.)
Took a one-hour break at 1700z as the rate dropped on 15 and 20 hadn't opened
yet. Things took off on 20 again at 1800z, and I spent another six hours running
there. This time I S&Ped 15 on the second radio to good effect. I was getting a
little tired by then -- my notes at 2048z say I copied my own serial number
instead of the one sent to me. That's what happens when you zone out!
I tried to make the jump to 40 at 2300z, but it just wasn't open here. Looks
like it wasn't open for AK1W either. Spent another four hours running 40, S&Ping
80 at the end. I don't think I ever called CQ on 80. In WPX, it's almost always
the case that you can run EU better on 40 than 80, and the mults only need to be
worked once. I suppose there are some EU prefixes that hang out primarily on 80,
but S&P on the second radio can pick up most of them. Worried about picking up
US prefixes on 80? Well, you can S&P the runners on 80 and a shorty-forty has
such poor F/B that US prefixes will be plentiful on 40! (all this talk for East
Coasters only.)
Took an unplanned one hour break for dinner at 0400z (midnight local) because I
didn't want to miss running the 6-pointers on 40 and decided to miss dinner
instead. Got back on at 0500z, which was probably a mistake -- propagation was
in the pits by then and I only managed 36 Qs. Went to sleep at 0600z, and this
time I didn't get back on until 1000z. Unfortunately, the ionospheric
disturbance was in full swing by then, and the high bands dropped off a cliff.
Not fun. The morning was a real grind and I was very happy to have run up the Qs
and mults the day before. My notes say things like "eu vy slow, trying asia"
(huh?), "lots of QSB this AM", etc. 20 was awful for about four hours, then
picked up at about 1400z. 15 wasn't runnable to EU here until 1900z, very late
for that band. My notes say, "working weak eu on 15 -- tuning for eu qsos
instead of mults!", "15 is esp", "so is 20", etc. Thought I would be very late
getting back to 20 at 2030z (it normally opens at 1800z here), but it didn't get
going again until 2100z.
At about this time, I started hearing my neighbor's muzzle-loader popping off
down the hill. Not unusual for a weekend, when he likes to do target practice.
Then I heard a tremendous boom and the house shook. For a minute I thought my
neighbor was using surplus grenades, but then realized a T-storm was in the
area. Funny, because QRN wasn't all that bad. I'd heard static crashes most of
the day, but nothing terrible, and this close storm wasn't affecting the run
much. Perhaps that's yet another advantage of the Orion receiver. There were no
clouds over my house and the lightning flashes seemed far away, so I kept
operating. Besides, I designed the station like a BC station to stay on the air
all the time, with an extensive ground system and suppressors on every wire
(spare me the warnings, please -- there are differing theories on this and my
area has very low T-storm activity.) Anyhow, the radios went nuts for about 15
minutes after the storm came through, further dropping the rate.
With an hour and 15 minutes of break time left, I decided to gamble on picking
up a few more 6-pointers on 40 during the 2300z hour. It seemed like a big
gamble -- the band hadn't opened until 0100z the day before. All the same, I
took a break at 2245z and got back on at 2300z for the last hour. The gamble
paid off as I was able to run off 36 Qs on 40, 19 of them 6-pointers. I had
taken my last break at 6.89 million points and thought it would be a long shot
to push the score over 7 million in an hour. But those 6-pointers are worth
about 5,000 points each and the seven mults I worked were worth over 10,000
points each. This is one thing that makes WPX fun the second day, when it's
otherwise a grind. Added almost 200,000 points the last hour.
Static was pretty bad on 40 at the end, probably due to receding T-storms. This
brings up a strange anomaly. In the weeks before the contest it seemed like my
NE beverage wasn't working as well as in the past. While it did reduce noise,
the forward gain seemed much lower than usual and signals didn't "pop out" as
they usually do. In fact, copy was always better on the transmit antenna. This
was especially true on 40, and I wasn't able to test on 80 or 160 because there
was no EU activity on those bands when I listened. I checked the transformer and
resistor terminations, checked the wire for sags and breaks, checked the coax,
etc. Everything was OK. During the contest I switched in the beverage on 40 many
times, but usually it didn't make as big a difference as I would have hoped.
Then, in the last hour, when the static crashes were making it all but
impossible to copy low power stations, I switched in the beverage and the
signals "popped out" like magic! Almost no static and Q5 copy on just about
every EU station. Guess the beverage is working, but I don't understand what it
was doing earlier.
At 0000z I switched off the station feeling very satisfied. I was often "in the
zone", my CW copy was good, I was mostly in the right place at the right time,
and made fewer mistakes than usual. I always want to win, but it feels just as
good to have done my best.
Best prefix was 4J60WWF -- a real mind-boggler late in the contest! My addled
brain speculated that he must be wrestler...
Haven't written about my beefs in a while, so here are my top 10. I hope the
following is taken as helpful advice (that'll be the day...):
1. Please learn to zero beat your radio! Many stations called me so far out of
my passband that I didn't hear them except when tuning around to see what was
next to me. We're talking hundreds of Hertz here. Remember that crowded bands
mean the station calling CQ is probably using narrow filters.
2. Please learn to zero beat your radio! It's worth repeating. Many stations
called other stations adjacent to me, and they were so far off frequency that
they transmitted right on top of me! Small wonder they kept calling and calling
-- the station they were trying to call had narrow filters, of course! I imagine
people who aren't zero beat when they answer a CQ aren't zero beat when they
call CQ. No wonder they're surprised and angry when others instantly jump down
their throat with "QRL QRL!" People who aren't zero beat must not be at all
aware of the havoc they cause.
3. Please learn to zero beat your radio! It's a simple procedure. Follow the
alignment instructions for your radio if you have them. Otherwise, have a friend
with an accurate frequency readout listen to your signal. Do this right before
the contest. You might discover your radio is in need of repair. In this contest
one station was chirping so badly I couldn't copy. Another had CW so broken up
it was impossible to get the call sign. Sounded like his internal keyer was on
at the same time as the computer was keying his rig. Of course, he kept
transmitting, even though I kept sending "UR rig broken." Had to slow down to 15
WPM for him to copy and get off my back.
4. Learn to copy more than your call sign. It's clear that many stations out
there only know enough CW to copy their own call sign. They keep calling and
calling, even when I've come back to another station, and even when I say "ONLY
<callsign> ONLY <callsign>", and even when I slow down to 15 WPM. Sometimes it
works to say "<callsign>" AS", but some people don't even understand the standby
prosign.
5. Please send your callsign and report only once, please don't send my call to
me unless an adjacent station thinks you are trying to work him instead of me,
and please don't send a lot of extra stuff like "TNX 73 OM 88 CU ES GL". It's a
CW contest, not a ragchew. When I ask for a fill, repeat only once. I'll ask
again if I need to. The ideal exchange goes like this:
me: TEST WC1M WC1M
you: KT1V
me: KT1V 5NN 4569
you: 5NN 2069
me: TU WC1M
(This exchange will take place when my two 100-foot towers go up sometime next
millennium. Ted, of course, will be way behind in spite of his new 300-foot
tower :)
6. Don't use cut numbers unless you can copy them. I generally dislike cut
numbers, but this time experimented with them for a while. I do believe they
improve the rate, but when my numbers got to the 900 range, suddenly people were
asking for a lot more fills until I turned off the cut numbers. Guess that
leading "N" can be confusing after "5NN". People couldn't copy 1000-range
numbers, either, so I turned the cut numbers off then, too. It helped a little
when I changed the cut-number for zero from "T" to "O". Once my numbers got over
2000, the fill requests were so frequent that I turned off cut numbers for good.
I also programmed a function key with a slow version of the serial number. That
worked every time. Anyway, it was amazing how many people who use cut numbers
can't copy them.
7. Listen and ask "QRL?" before transmitting on a "clear" frequency. Got stepped
on many times. I have a function key that says "QRL QRL PSE QSY TU". Most people
responded to being asked nicely, but some people totally ignored me -- even some
who were 20 over S9 here. That's just plain obnoxious. I suspect they think
"all's fair in love and contesting", but stealing a frequency isn't good
sportsmanship. I know frequencies don't belong to anyone, but at least in the US
it's not legal to take a frequency that's in use. If someone says QRL, don't
fight with them unless you've been on the frequency for more than a few
minutes.
8. When running, give your callsign at least every couple of QSOs, and
preferably every QSO. "Rare" DX stations are notable for this poor operating
practice, which results in more QRM, lower rate for everyone (including the rare
DX), broken packet spots, and lots of UBNs for all. It's certainly OK to omit
your call for two or three QSOs to thin a huge pileup, but more than that simply
increases the chaos.
9. Please learn to zero beat your radio!
10. Please learn to zero beat your radio! (Have I made my point yet?)
Excuse the rag. My desk has a dent from all the times I hit it in frustration
this weekend. Still, all is forgiven for those who got on the air and
participated. Thanks for the Qs and mults. See you next time!
73, Dick WC1M
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 108/91 7/7 --+-- --+-- 115/98 115/98
D1-0100Z - - 75/47 25/22 5/5 - 105/74 220/172
D1-0200Z - - 72/40 10/8 - - 82/48 302/220
D1-0300Z - - 90/49 16/11 - - 106/60 408/280
D1-0400Z - - 79/34 14/7 - - 93/41 501/321
D1-0500Z - - 60/27 17/12 - - 77/39 578/360
D1-0600Z - - 1/0 - - - 1/0 579/360
D1-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 579/360
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 579/360
D1-0900Z - - 2/2 33/12 - - 35/14 614/374
D1-1000Z - - - 92/54 1/0 - 93/54 707/428
D1-1100Z - - - 113/40 1/1 - 114/41 821/469
D1-1200Z - - - 98/27 2/0 - 100/27 921/496
D1-1300Z - - - 34/11 85/26 - 119/37 1040/533
D1-1400Z - - - 6/2 92/24 - 98/26 1138/559
D1-1500Z - - - 10/2 77/22 - 87/24 1225/583
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 17/4 62/13 --+-- 79/17 1304/600
D1-1700Z - - - - 4/0 - 4/0 1308/600
D1-1800Z - - - 83/16 7/3 - 90/19 1398/619
D1-1900Z - - - 65/8 17/7 - 82/15 1480/634
D1-2000Z - - - 77/15 12/5 - 89/20 1569/654
D1-2100Z - - - 79/11 12/6 - 91/17 1660/671
D1-2200Z - - - 69/14 6/3 5/3 80/20 1740/691
D1-2300Z - - 11/1 53/12 9/3 1/0 74/16 1814/707
D2-0000Z --+-- 1/1 87/17 1/0 1/0 1/1 91/19 1905/726
D2-0100Z - 7/3 65/12 1/1 - - 73/16 1978/742
D2-0200Z - 4/4 48/7 14/8 - - 66/19 2044/761
D2-0300Z - 16/3 41/7 1/0 - - 58/10 2102/771
D2-0400Z - 4/0 - - - - 4/0 2106/771
D2-0500Z - - 32/9 4/1 - - 36/10 2142/781
D2-0600Z - - 1/1 - - - 1/1 2143/782
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/782
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2143/782
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2143/782
D2-1000Z - - 8/1 37/10 - - 45/11 2188/793
D2-1100Z - - - 38/3 7/1 - 45/4 2233/797
D2-1200Z - - - 27/2 13/1 - 40/3 2273/800
D2-1300Z - - - 42/6 6/0 - 48/6 2321/806
D2-1400Z - - - 59/7 8/1 - 67/8 2388/814
D2-1500Z - - - 34/6 18/4 - 52/10 2440/824
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 5/2 4/0 --+-- 9/2 2449/826
D2-1700Z - - - 7/1 16/3 - 23/4 2472/830
D2-1800Z - - - 30/5 8/3 3/0 41/8 2513/838
D2-1900Z - - - 16/4 24/4 2/1 42/9 2555/847
D2-2000Z - - - 28/4 20/3 - 48/7 2603/854
D2-2100Z - - - 41/7 3/1 4/1 48/9 2651/863
D2-2200Z - - - 1/0 - - 1/0 2652/863
D2-2300Z - - 36/5 9/2 - - 45/7 2697/870
Total: 0/0 32/11 816/3501313/364 520/139 16/6
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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