CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: N5IA
Operator(s): N2IC, N5IA, WA5Y, WA6CDR, W7MCO
Station: NA5NM
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: NM
Operating Time (hrs): 33
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1333 State/Prov = 58 Countries = 46 Total Score = 396,656
Club: Cactus Radio Club
Comments:
Location is everything! LOCATION IS EVERYTHING!!!!!!! It has been interesting
to read the 3830 postings the past 24 hours regarding first night vs 2nd night;
this year vs last year; northern latitudes vs farther south, etc., etc.
Well, this team and this location will never win any scoring contest other than
instate bragging rights; not even a Zone plaque. BUT, our LOCATION is good for
the continental Q's. One of our little contests within the contest is to see
how quickly we can do WAS. This year we set a new record for our team;
accomplishing contact with all 50 US States in 4 hours, 37 minutes and 17
seconds from the start of the contest.
Although it has not been a thing to look at in the past, we decided to look at
how quickly WAC was done. PJ2T was worked at 0142 for South America. ST2A was
worked at 0505 for Africa. T32MO was worked at 0508 for Oceania. DR1A was
worked at 0602 for Europe. JA3YBK was worked at 0804 for Asia. Not too bad,
but I'm sure others do it more quickly.
Our little EU run started with DR1A and ended at 0744 with MD4K. But 18 of the
23 1st night EU contacts were made during a 37 minute window from 0623 to 0700.
During that time we stopped the run position and had it and both S&P positions
hunting the EU stations. So, three very experienced operators made 18 contacts
in 37 minutes. And we felt GREAT to have that little opening.
The JA "run" began with JA3BYK at 0804. 8 of the 39 JA's worked the 1st night
were made in the 1 hour right at JA sunset before the dragon had propagation.
A mini-run of 17 more were logged from 1246 to 1314. A group of 9 were logged
from 1352 to 1416. The other 5 were singles during the intervening times.
The highlight Q of the 1st night was with ST2A, a first ever for this station.
The 2nd night was real un-spectacular. A total of 9 more EU stations were
logged, but two of them were among the 6 mults added during the night. Ten
additional JA stations called in or were worked via the split operation to
1.940+. The real operating highlight was having WA6CDR, Robin, on the 3rd
operating position working the east and west greylines. In 56 seconds he made
back to back Q's with ZL4AA and G3TXF. Now that is operating Topband.
I want to include the following E-mail message which I received Sunday morning
after the Saturday night of operating. I was the operator for the QSO
mentioned in this message. I am thankful that I was the ONE who was able to
make Joe's day (night).
"Hello Milt,
Thank you for the 160 meter contact tonight. Thanks for working so hard to
pull me out... I do not have a good antenna for 160...I was on a dipole with
44' legs and fed by ladder line. My rig was an Elecraft K2 and at about 7
watts...so you had your work cut out for you! I just happened on 160 M and
the band was alive with good strong signals...so I had to try some...tried
several...but you were the only success. I now have the bug to get on 160...I
love CW and have been trying to get back on the air by making a contact a night
if I can. You are my first 160M contact though I have been a ham for many
years..I have not tried 160. I will send a QSL and hope for one from you.
Thanks es 73 Joe KK5NA"
Among the new things tried this year was graduating to a windows based logging
program. Steve, N2IC, had gotten his feet wet using N1MM Logger at his home
station this year so we decided to try that one. All in all, it went well. As
with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages. Only this operator was
able to lock the program up. Resetting the radios cured the problem two
times.
The networking of the three PCs at the three operating positions was easy.
Only two Winkeys were available at the start and a third one was constructed
the first evening and interfaced to station 3 for the 2nd night.
Phased Beverages were added to the arsenal of RX antennas for the prime
directions to EU and JA. When compared side by side with the regular
Beverages, 90% of the time there was a discernable increase in signal level
and/or readability with the phased configurations.
The 3rd new thing was for the first time we decided to see if it was worth it
to fire up for an hour of broad daylight operation at the very end of the
contest. I guess it was; as 11 Q,s from local areas (AZ, CA, CO, NM & TX)
along with 3 dupes were logged in the one hour from 2300 to 2400.
This group of operators still cannot understand why the operating times of this
contest were changed to allow the Central, Eastern and Atlantic time zones a
THIRD shot at working EU and additional locals. ??????????????? The Mountain
and Pacific time zones are already at a disadvantage; why exacerbate the
situation? Or why not make the contest run until EU sunup so we all have the
same opportunity??? The only thing I learned is that CN2A is a super station.
He was good copy here in SW New Mexico from 2330, a full hour before sundown,
until he QRTed at 2400.
Thanks for all the Q's. It was great, and we are already planning the
improvements to be implemented for next year's event. And an apology to those
we could not pull out of the noise floor. There were few of these this time
around as both nights were QRN clear. We certainly were outhearing our TX
capability. The 7X, 3W and BA stations were good copy but all we got was a CQ
in the face.
And for all of you that have read the dribble to this point, the California
stations provided 154 contacts for us; 11.4% of our total. The Texans once
again came in 2nd place, providing 73 Q's for 5.5% of our total Q count.
Thanks guys, for being there.
Milt, N5IA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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