CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VK2GC
Operator(s): K5KG
Station: VK2GC
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: VK2MB CLUB STATION
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 55 20 11
40: 537 74 28
20: 939 92 36
15: 677 66 26
10: 139 9 9
------------------------------
Total: 2347 261 110 Total Score = 2,500,000
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Contesting from VK was great. Doing it from ?down under? was reminiscent of
contesting from LU back in the 80?s. Made me realize that the world?s
population is all up north, and the various paths are somewhat unexpected. We
spent a lot of time staring at the great circle map while CQ?ing!
We went into the contest with set up still happening. David, VK2CZ, and Dom,
VK2VNA, managed to complete the final antenna work even after I began the
contest. (The contest began at 11am local Saturday morning, which leaves the
end to Monday morning.) David and I got the rotor cabled up on Wednesday which
left finalizing the 80 inverted vee to be done on Saturday. I managed to sleep
at the shack on Friday night which allowed some time for runs and arranging the
equipment somewhat properly on the bench. Final equipment set up, however, did
not happen until moments before the start.
We were plagued with computer problems. I used N1MM Logger for the first time
along with the microHam CW Keyer and a new FT1000MP MkV. I was never able to
get radio control working with the MP which left it up to me to manually change
bands in the log. I realized a few times during the contest that I was logging
on the wrong band and, of course, had to stop and edit the log by trying to
figure out exactly which station was worked at the time of the band
chan...something you don't want to do in the heat of battle!
Fortunately, CW keying worked well with N1MM, the CW Keyer and the radio, so
keying was smooth...with one exception. During the first two hours, the ?active
antenna tuner? must have been injecting some unwanted 15m RF into the computer
causing keying to quit every now and then. I made a quick hardware change to my
Logikeyer and began manual keying. However, once we realized the keying failure
with the computer was caused by high VSWR on the 15m antenna, I went back to
N1MM keying and did the rest of the contest with computerized keying, but
barefoot on 15m.
Antennas used were a TH6 at 60 ft., a full size half-wave 40m vertical that
played like a hose, and an 80m inverted vee up at 60 ft. Space limitations at
the property prevented a 160m antenna from being strung up. Not being able to
get on 160 was probably not a big loss, as night time QRN was horrific due to
thunderstorms. It was quite difficult to hear anything on 80, so 160 would have
probably not yielded much.
Here are a few comments band by band:
80m ? heavy QRN as mentioned above. Did manage 55 Q?s, however, including a few
in zones 3 and 16. Had lots of callers, and were wishing for a pennant or
beverage.
40m ? the vertical played very well. This is VK2CZ?s design, and I am convinced
that it was the right choice given space limitations. Interesting with the
vertical and being called from many directions at once. A 4-square using these
full size verticals would be smashing! Dream on.
20m ? a LONG PATH wonder. Many times we found LP preferable, and we were able
to pull off two wonderful openings to zones 5, 4 and 3 with pileups a mile deep.
Also had an excellent opening to SA over the South Pole. EU runs both short
and long were also strong.
15m ? a good workhorse band for JA and EU. Managed to work as far NW as zone 14
with a few DLs, EAs and F stations on the second morning. No G, GW, EIs that I
can recall on 15 however.
10m ? good JA UA9 UA0 openings. Surprising that the band was as strong as it
was.
Best DX was AP2, 8Q, A52, PJ2T (of course), J7, TI9M, YV. Lots of BY (BA, BG,
etc.) stations along with many HS, DU, YB and even a few VU?s. As commented by
Charlie, HS0ZCW, these rare Asian countries are common from down here.
The bands seem to die down a few hours before the end of the contest. Sunrise
in VK2 is about 6 hours before the end, and we did have the strong 20m LP
opening to the States after sunrise followed by a good 15m opening into Eastern
EU and west. However, after that, the high bands got really slow, even to the
point where there were no JA?s of any amount on 15m. During the last hour, or
so, 15m again came alive with some JA?s. I suspected a flare.
The final computer insult came after the end of the contest. We closed N1MM and
copied the files to a thumb drive. I then reopened N1MM only to find that I
could not get the contest log to load. I am still puzzled about this, and have
not really had a chance to troubleshoot the problem. "No worries, Mate",
however, as I have been able to confirm that the Access file that contains the
contest QSO?s is in tact.
Special thanks to the members of Manly Warringa Radio Society, VK2MB, for the
use of their facilities. And a special thanks to David, VK2CZ, Bernd,
VK2IA/VK9AA and Dom, VK2VNA, for their personal efforts in welcoming us into
their inner circle and making this operation a success.
73 es OJ, George K5KG / VK2GC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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