CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: V31RG
Operator(s): K4VU
Station: V31RG
Class: SO(TS)AB HP
QTH: Belize
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 2
80: 104
40: 508
20: 1479
15: 1121
10: 18
------------
Total: 3232 Prefixes = 780 Total Score = 6,379,620
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Station:
poorly filtered TS850
400 watt Ameritron ALS-600
2 el quad @ 40 feet (leaning about 10 degrees on the mast)
three verticals (one in salty lagoon, one in a marsh)
I originally made plans for WPX SSB from V31 because it was the only weekend
all season that worked out (I'd much rather had a CW weekend). Also, the XYL
loves it down here, so Belize is an easy sell.
I arrived the Wednesday before, finding that things needed a little work at
V31MD's. By Thursday evening, everything was sorted out for the most part.
Seeing that the old TS850 wouldn't work with my Rigblaster Pro, I had to resort
to an MFJ voice keyer which was (thankfully) nestled away in a cabinet under the
rig.
About three hours before contest, I started getting symptoms for something I
hadn't experienced since I played lacrosse years ago: the pre-game nervous
stomach. Well, you know what that means. :) But it was a good sign that I
was in the right frame of mind, so I just went with it.
The best sustained rates were the first two hours on 20m, then on 15 Saturday.
An EU run on 20m Sunday was close third. By far, 20m was the most productive
band, but I could barely stand the crowds. It was nearly impossible to find
and keep a frequency. Once, I found myself being intentionally jammed by one
of the pig farmers on 14.282, where a brief 'scuffle' ensued. I gained my
senses pretty quickly (realizing that when you fight with an idiot, you are an
idiot) and tuned away. It was harmless, but I did have to get up and walk away
from the rig for a few minutes.
40 meters was really tricky for me on fone. This is where an experienced ssb
operator really shines, but I pretty much had to make due. Doing split and
listening on your own frequency is pretty cumbersome on the 850, and I quickly
put that idea aside. Figuring I would pick up the EU mults on 20m, I decided
to go above 125 and stay below 200, just to work stateside simplex. It worked
out pretty well, with a few EU coming up too. On Sunday, I went below 14.150
and had a really nice EU run, picking up many mults, while simultaneously
avoiding the zoo above it.
Ended the contest with a nice run on 15m. I was really happy to see the clock
hit 0000 on Sunday evening.
My goals were modest:
+ get the 'first million' monkey off of my back as soon as possible, as I have
never had a million point outing as a single op. That was taken care of in
pretty short order, and was a huge confidence builder.
+ post a reasonable score: 4M seemed reasonable, 5M if I could make myself sit
under the headphones and listen to weak SSB signals and a din of constant hash
for 36 hours. 2500 Q's seemed reasonable, 3000 if I could pull a K6AW and go
iron-man style. Even for someone who doesn't even own a decent microphone, it
seemed reachable.
What I would do differently:
+ arrive a couple of days earlier in the week, to take care of whatever needs
to be taken care of. The quad is not on its mast very well, and is off about
60-90 degrees (depending on the wind) from what the control box says, so I had
to spend time running outside to see where it was really pointing. It would
have made sense to just fix it beforehand rather than doing the Broken Rotor
Two-Step every hour or so.
+ bring my own rig, headset, etc. while the 850 is just fine for casual DX-end
pileup running, or a CW contest, it just doesn't cut it on fone. it pays to be
intimately familiar with your gear in this situation.
+ build at least one receive antenna and point it north. the verticals really
get out, but I couldn't hear anything below S7 much of the time 40m and below
because of the tropical storms.
+ get more stateside casual (and competitive) experience in fone contests,
particularly on the low bands. A decent fone op could've likely made 8-10M
from this shack over this past weekend.
+ plan a better Red Bull strategy. I'm not a coffee drinker (typical
Southerner), so this is very important. I started sliding downhill on Saturday
evening until the XYL made an emergency 'Bull run into town.
+ SO2R. it is the only way to go if you want to really be competitive, and I
truly found that out this weekend. I missed a LOT of mults. I can't believe I
missed the 9K2. Got ST2T, but missed the Kuwaiti group. And they made like a
gazillion Q's. Go figure.
What I did right:
+ got prop charts from Dean/N6BV (thanks, Dean!) I posted them right above the
computer, and they were pretty much on, and guided how I ran things.
+ brought the XYL. she was pretty good at keeping food and sodas coming at
me.
+ made myself sit in the chair all day Sunday. Five minute headphone breaks
were all that I would allow myself. When 20m just got to be too much, I would
go up to 15m and call CQ. While the 15m rate was about half of the 20m rate on
Sunday, it was much easier to just go up there for 30 minutes, run a few, then
when it dried up, drop back down to 20 for half an hour or so. This worked out
pretty well, and was pretty much what I had to do in order to not throw the
headset across the shack.
In closing, the final verdict is that I likely won't do a serious SSB SOAB
effort for a while. A serious CW effort from here is the next big project.
Thanks to everyone for the Q's, and in particular, thanks to the entire Radio
Oakley crew for all of their pre-contest support and advice.
73, Robin - K4VU/V31RG
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