CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SOAB LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 20 3 2
80: 119 7 10
40: 145 12 15
20: 466 22 68
15: 258 15 29
10: 6 2 2
------------------------------
Total: 1014 61 126 Total Score = 411,587
Club:
Comments:
QSO count excludes 7 dupes.
Gear:
* 1 x 160M Inverted-L (~80' vertical, ~50' horizontal)
* 2 x 80M full-wave delta loops E-W
* 2 x 40M full-wave delta loops E-W
* 1 x 40M rotatable gamma-matched boom dipole at ~50'
* 3 ele. CL-33 tribander at ~50'
* FT920 at 100w
* N1MM Logger (outstanding!)
* N1MMscore.exe (for posting scores to WA7BNM page)
(http://scoreboard.oqp.us/cqww/solp)
* SP5CFD's CW TuneIn (software for visual CW tuning)
=================================================
Short Version:
* 2/3 misery; 1/3 pure joy
* 466 on 20 -- first time over 400Q on a band
* 1,014 Qs -- 2nd-ever highest total for me
* Bands not strong, country and zones totals down
=================================================
Year-over-year comparison:
QSOs Ctry Zones Score
2002 675 147 63 313,740
2003 865 115 73 351,936
2004 1,421 146 79 697,500
2005 1,014 126 61 411,587
=================================================
Before the contest:
Got going for this one the previous weekend, spending the day tilting over the
nested tower to do two things:
1. Raise the CL-33 tribander a wee bit on the mast (now just over 50')
2. Gamma-match the 18' boom for 40M
Got both jobs done in about 2 hours. Spent the next 20 hours filled with
trepidation... With the tower almost vertical and back in the jaws of the
ground-mounted post, the tilt-over cable slipped out of its pulley and broke the
steel pulley guard (a weld snapped and released the cable).
The tower suddenly lurched to about 85 degrees off to the left of the base
post... held erect only by the tilt-over cable going from the winch to the
attachment on the tower (no pulley for mechanical leverage). Yikes. I thought
the whole thing was going to come down -- no contest, no tower, no yagi.
All alone at the time, I frantically did all I could to get many ropes around
the 23' top of the nested tower and guy it against gravity and the wind. By
mid-morning the next day, I had called in the troops and we managed to winch the
tower back to vertical using a pair of ratcheting comealongs. No problem at all
with plenty of hands to help. I will never tilt the damn thing over again alone
-- it's a great system when nothing breaks. But when a little thing goes wrong,
everything goes wrong in a big way.
So, naturally, I didn't get to spend the rest of that weekend beefing up my wire
antenna farm as I had planned. This Friday, I booked the day off work and -- in
a blinding snowstorm (snow started as I went outside at 9 a.m., and we got 4" of
the stuff as I worked in the yard) -- began my job of:
1. Taking down the full-wave 80M delta loop
2. Resizing it to 2/3 size (72' per side)
3. Raising it again, and adding a second loop 40' due west
The previous full-size loop baseline was just too long to fit in our 90'-wide
back yard (so I had to run it from NE to SW, not optimal. 72' base fits N-S in
our yard, and the whole thing is 62' high so the base wire is higher off the
ground, too).
Got all the jobs done, and was at the rig for 0000z Friday afternoon (4 p.m.
Pacific time).
=================================================
The contest:
Four inches of snow fell on Friday; by 4 p.m. the tribander was loaded with wet
snow so I didn't crank it up. Alas, the wet snow also sent the SWR above 2:1 on
20M (rig clamped down power and using a tuner I felt weak). Went to 40M and
began working the Caribbean/SA on the delta loop pair, which is aimed just south
of east.
By 9 p.m., the wind had picked up and temperature rose above freezing... snow
was gone from the beam by 10 p.m. and SWR back to normal. I looked forward to
Sat. morning's EU opening. Cranked up the tower in the dark to try the new 40M
rotatable dipole. It was much quieter than the delta loop array, but also not as
strong. Apparently 18' of end-loaded boom isn't enough, but I'll reserve
judgment for a while. Anyway, neither system was getting out very well Friday
night.
Went to 80M at 11:45 p.m. and ran 70 Qs in 45 minutes on the twin delta loops.
Felt pretty strong with 100W, although missed several good mults who couldn't
hear me.
At this point, I still hadn't replaced a run of dead coax to the 160M
Inverted-L, so I couldn't go to top band. Didn't hear much activity there anyway
Friday night.
Saturday morning, I woke at 7 a.m. to hear lots of 20M activity, but I was weak
into EU and had a dissappointing morning, missing more mults than I could count.
Saturday pretty much went that way on all the high bands. Unremarkable. 80M and
40M weren't hot Saturday night, and only made 20 Qs on 160 after getting the
Inv.-L going with new RG8.
Point of interest: I thought 40M was quite punky Sat. evening, till I decided to
see what I could work using the 160M Inv.-L. On the delta loops I heard noise
and the usual signals from stateside -- no DX other than the VP/P40 guys.
Switched to the L, and suddenly I was hearing a completely different layer of
signals -- European stations all over the place, although I guess with my 100W
and limited radials (2 + 300' of chainlink fence) they couldn't hear me. I've
never before experienced for myself that a vertical really does do DX
differently. Will be experimenting a bit more on that. (Yes, the delta loops are
all fed for vertical polarization, but they still don't hear EU very well,
facing E-W).
Sunday morning was a blast on 20M. Worked 30 countries back to back and, though
I had to repeat my call for a lot of stations, it was much better than Sat. a.m.
Found ZS1EL working a pile on 20M at 2105Z, and just as I started joining in, he
said "QSY 7". He was leaving. In a final attempt through a thick dogpile I tuned
down 20hz and dropped in one last call, and Lo! he came back to me for the
double mult (and Zone 38 is a tough one from here).
Question: what was with all the OH stations on 20M Saturday afternoon when no
other polar signals were making it? Heard half a dozen of them, and that was
with the beam aimed at North Dakota. Got a call from SM near mid-day while
working South America, too. That's a heck of a skew.
I went into the weekend with high expectations. I figured having two 40M loops
gave me some gain to build on last year's total, and the 160M L would raise my
total on top band (vs. nothing in the air last year). Lofty target had been
2,000 Qs and 1 million points, up from ~1,400/700K last year. The bands aren't
what they used to be. Goals were readjusted several times, and going into Sunday
I was aiming for 1,000 Q and 400K -- both far away at the time.
At last, 15M was cooperating Sunday morning and early afternoon. I added 100Qs
over an hour or so, then went to 20M and had my best run of the year -- 109 in
50 minutes. N1MM's 10-minute rate peaked over 300 for a little while, and I was
happy as a pig in coleslaw.
Final hour... the clock was ticking down and I was still 70 Qs from 1,000, on a
20M band where calls were coming slower and slower (466 Qs is about 100 more
than I've ever managed on 20). I took a chance, and at 2335z moved to 40M
needing 26 contacts to hit my target. I had 106 Qs on 40M at this point, and
figured I'd find more takers there than on 20M. But, 40M is horrible from here
before pitch dark, so I really was taking a chance that I'd burn up the last
minutes with no result.
It was slow going at first, but built to a fever pitch with lots of callers
(thanks all) and at 2355z I worked N0VD for #1,000. In the final five minutes I
added a mult (VE3OU for Canada, of all places) and worked 14 more Qs for good
measure. The 40M loops were worth their weight in gold (OK, they're light Al
fence wire) for the 102Q/hr rate at a time of day I usually can't work anyone on
40.
Post-contest:
Sure enjoyed using the WA7BNM N1MMscore.exe software and website for real-time
scores. Only myself and N7OR in the SOABLP group there, but I watched Craig's
score steadily. Looked like he was in and out a few hours at a time. It helped
keep my butt in the chair, actually. I think real-time posting will be great fun
and a motivating addition to contests like this.
N1MM users, check out WA7BNM's info here:
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2005-11/msg00681.html
K1TTT has another system for N1MM Logger, info here:
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2005-11/msg00677.html
Both systems can be used at the same time. I didn't use the K1TTT system but saw
on the web that it was working.
To-do's:
I don't think adding the 80M reflector delta loop did much (I've said that
before, and put it back up for this weekend). Will take it down when I get a
chance. On Thursday night, I worked Senegal on my old full-size delta, but
didn't hear any real DX with the 2/3 size pair of loops over the weekend. Will
have to see how the single 2/3 loop works over time -- may have to revert it to
full size.
The experience hearing EU on 40M using the 160L was intriguing. Will lay out
more long radials and see if I can actually work all that DX with it.
So, all in all it was a great weekend. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Next year will be tougher still, I think, but I am patient and having maximum
fun as we watch the solar minimum roll in.
Thanks for all the contacts, and thanks to CQ Magazine for sponsoring this big
'ol contest.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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