CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: EI/W5GN
Operator(s): W5GN
Station: EI/W5GN
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Spanish Point, Irela
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 77 5 27
80: 391 13 58
40: 762 16 72
20: 569 15 58
15: 102 14 39
10: 2 2 2
------------------------------
Total: 1605 65 256 Total Score = 957,864
Club: North Texas Contest Club
Comments:
I'm very happy with 1600 Qs with no directional antennas, and in spite
of imperfect antenna SWR (3:1 on 40 because it's too high off the
ground, worse on 80 because the 80 Coil has resonance at 3700 in the
3500 switch position), all band were possible and pretty good at that;
much better than 2006 CW when I only had 900 Qs (mostly because I didn't
know I could run on 7001!)
But that won't make the top ten LP from Europe; last year 1.1 Million
made 10th place.
With only the IC756PROIII, a BigIR Vertical (with the new 80 Meter Coil
working, but resonant at 3700, so the Icom Tuner made 80 possible!) and
the 252-foot end-fed long-wire (fed with 35 feet vertical small 300 ohm
twinlead, so it's almost an Inverted L, but no radials), I was able to
run 20, 40, and 80 quite effectively, with 13 hours of over 60 Q's and
two peaks at 125/hr. Fifteen very spotty, and 160 is always a challenge
to be heard with 100 watts in USA, with only 7 zone 5's worked, no 4's.
I heard K5RX several times around 0500-0600 on Saturday, calling others,
tried calling both sides of where I heard him, but he never heard me.
I got up at 4am Friday, so I could sleep Friday evening from 1900 to
2330, operated until 0630-0930 Saturday morning sleep, then until
2300-0630 Sat/Sun, took an hour nap at 1200 on Sunday, plus a couple of
15 minute interruptions for total on air time of about 36 hours -
longest since 1971 CQ WW as KG4CS when I was much younger and did all 48
(but with help from a legal script for Bennies the Navy Dr. for whom I
ran patches: Rx said - use as needed to stay awake!).
Runs on 80 were a REAL challenge with UA's in particular contining to
call over top of directed partial call of USA stations, and the pile-up
was often 8-10 deep during last two hours on Sunday.
DX-Summit shows only eight times I was spotted during runs; I felt two
spots when a new pileup showed up during moderate-rate run periods.
Did a fair amount of S&P for multipliers and only skiped a half dozen
pileups I knew I couldn't break, so doubt I could have done much more
mults unless 15 and 10 had opened, or I have directional antennas, or
go HP. Could not work the HS0 that I heard, never heard BY, JA, or VKs.
But boy oh boy could I be heard in the Carribean, and Atlantic Islands,
almost always on first call.
Band changes were excellent since the Tuner was on ANT 2 slot, and the
Big IR for 80 is at the same (max) length as 40, and also on 10 and 15
(where it is a 3/4 wavelength vert). Only moving to/from 20 took 20-30
seconds to move the metal from 16 feet to 33 feet.
I lost my run freq several times when a louder European station who
probably did not hear me took over; first clue was K1TTT calling for
what I thought was a dupe until I realized they weren't calling me!
Heavy storm on Saturday evening that came up with no warning led to a
real thrill: The twinlead feed to the long wire drops 35 feet to near
the ground for a raindrop loop, then thru a nearly-closed window to a
two-foot section that was solder-spliced to reach the MFJ-969 Tuner,
which is connected to the Icom by a one-foot section of RG58 coax. The
tuner and rig are on the dining room table as the new radio shack
construction is not quite finished. Weather had been very calm on
Friday and during the day on Saturday, so I had forgot to tie the
twinlead to the window handle. A massive wind gust put so much force on
that 35 feet of vertical twinlead that it dragged the tuner off the edge
of the table, and was pulling the ICOM over the table edge as well,
barely grabbed the Icom in time, and then when I grabbed the twinlead at
the back of the tuner to keep it from hitting the floor, the wind was
still so strong that the twinlead separated at that soldered splice!
Sure am glad this happened while I was at the rig and not napping!
73
Barry, W5GN
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