CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: VO1AU
Operator(s): VO1AU
Station: VO1AU
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Newfoundland
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 44 10 27
80: 541 15 63
40: 398 17 75
20: 694 25 91
15: 429 22 75
10: 179 12 48
------------------------------
Total: 2285 101 379 Total Score = 2,974,080
Club: East Coast Canada Contest Club (ECCCC)
Comments:
I'm quite disappointed, mostly with myself. I failed to adapt to the changing
conditions, and I made too many errors.
On the high bands, it appeared that Sporadic-E was a present in profusion both
days. Extremely short skip on 20 and 15 meant that Europeans were hearing each
other far too well, and I found it tough to get heard in the extreme crowding.
That frustrated me when trying to get runs going, and I stuck to S-and-P-ing far
too much. The plus side of that was the 10m opened moderately well from here to
Europe and as far east as Israel.
The low bands were great, although the first night was disappointing. I was
really pleased with 160m.
For the first time, I had SO2R working quite well. Two good rigs, two good
amps, good switching, good filtering - it was all working well, but the operator
still needed training. I did a lot of training in this one, certainly too much,
as it depressed my score.
I have one important, but flaky antenna. I have two KT-34s each on its own
tower. One of these is fixed on Europe and works well enough on all three
bands, but the other is fully rotatable. The rotatable one works well on 10 and
15, but there is something amiss on 20, and I can't quite sort what it is. That
was a big limiting factor. Just before the contest, I replaced a couple of
feedlines, and that certainly helped a lot - about an s-unit.
My biggest failure, one which I'm beating myself up over now, is that I didn't
try hard enough to run, run, run. The early Saturday crowding and the trouble I
had getting heard through the intra-European short skip caused me to lose that
psychological focus, and I never regained it, even much later on 80m, where I
have a real advantage into QSO-rich Europe. I reckon that absence of focus cost
me about 2Meg.
For all that, I did have fun. I only took a few short breaks, and the 44 hours
I spent passed really quickly. While my body felt stiff and sore by the end of
it all, I didn't feel exhausted. I could have gone a few more hours.
So, before the CW, either I get that second tribander sorted or replace it with
something else. I should also get that dead rotor fixed, too. There's always
something to do, even with a middling station like mine.
Rigs: Kenwood TS-950SD, TS-850S
Amps: two Kenwood TL-922s
SO2R box: ZS4TX's SCK-II (a great piece of gear. Bravo, Bernie!)
Antennas: 10/15/20: Two KT-34s @17m, HB multi-band vertical
40m: 2el quad @15m, three-element wire yagi @15m, vertical dipole
80m: wire vertical with four elevated radials
160m: shunt-fed tower, 17m tall + KT-34 for top loading
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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