IARU HF World Championship
Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 48 4 7 4
80: 128 17 10 8
40: 600 291 30 30
20: 501 458 20 20
15: 250 9 17 20
10: 32 0 8 6
-------------------------------------
Total: 1559 779 98 92 Total Score = 1,260,063
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
This could have lined up to be a great contest weekend, but sometimes things
simply don't go well. My wife was off helping one of our kids with the
California grand kids, and I was all set to hit it hard. The weather was good,
and the recently installed new twenty meter antenna modification, "the heater,"
a third 205CA fixed on EU and the USA NE between the previous two antennas in
the twenty meter stack, was operational and working well after heroic efforts
by K5OT and N5TW on the tower and K5NA and W5JAW and me on the ground. That's a
long, convoluted story, including a defective new BN4000 HP balun from Hy-Gain.
I was not allowed to climb as I am recovering from knee surgery.
The IARU is a semi-perfect contest, it lasts long enough to be a challenge but
not long enough to be the ham radio version of running a super marathon, and it
has plenty of world wide activity, plus everyone can work everyone for real
credit. There is very good regional competition as well. I was really worked up
and nervous as this would be an opportunity for point credit in the WRTC
qualification process.
I had spent some time in the shack the previous two days making sure all was
well, and had uncovered and "fixed" some unusual TR glitches with the new
CTY.dat file and had relearned how to program the old K1EA DVPs for the unusual
chore of operating some SSB on a serious contest. Finally, all was well. Or so I
thought.
Unfortunately for me, it seems when I get up too high for a contest and get too
worked up, it doesn't bode well. I slept poorly Friday night, waking up several
times. Finally, at 4:30 AM, I threw in the towel, got up, and took a shower and
got something to eat. It was too early to do much of anything but to sit and be
nervous. Here in Texas, the contest starts at 7 AM on forty meters with some
prime Asian conditions before spending the rest of the day on the high
frequency bands with EU and other places. When I moved one of the SO2R stations
to twenty meters at 1243Z, the SWR was sky-high, and everything went haywire. I
checked all the usual obvious things, and the small multiplier yagi on a
separate tower worked fine. There was a problem with "the heater," the antenna
system from hell. It had been working fine after the repairs mentioned above,
and I had used it Thursday night in the NS Sprint. I took off my headphones and
walked around for a minute or two, to clear my head. Unfortunately, that didn't
solve the problem. The previous coaxial phasing box which had been in use for a
long time still was up on the tower, so I had the option of quitting right then
and there, or going up and putting two of the three yagi feedlines back into
that box. I ended up getting out my climbing belt and some stuff and going up
the tower and doing that. It was a calm morning and nice up there, but
definitely not recommended to be on the tower during the contest. Physically,
my leg was OK. It was much worse later on to be sitting down for almost twenty
four hours. So I moved the original two antennas back to the phasing box and
climbed back down. Fortunately, the "old" system worked just fine, and at 1327Z
I got back on twenty meters, all sweaty and in a not-good emotional state. That
was a hectic forty minute off time which certainly was not planned!
Following that, all seemed to work well. The bands were poor, and it appeared
that fifteen and ten would not open at all. Then, slowly and creakily, they did
open to some extent, if only to the stations with very good antennas or in
southern EU. The big EU HQ stations were beacons for hours and hours and TM0HQ
was solid copy on ten meter CW at 2330Z!!
During the late afternoon, I turned the low fifteen meter yagi to the SW to
listen for VK or ZL stations, and it got hung up somehow and became stuck. So
up another tower went good old N3BB, who at this time already had his climbing
gear on the floor nearby. That trip was very quick as the side mount had become
jammed against large bolt threads. One good jerk and it was freed. The view was
nice from up there but again, tower climbs are not recommended during a contest.
That little jaunt was another twenty minutes, so that is the reason my operating
time was 23 hours and not 24 hours. My frame of mind was not great for sure.
The third and final nasty little surprise was when I got on eighty meters and
found my sloper system had very high SWR. I could use it, with about 900 Watts
max output, as the Alpha would fault above that level. It seemed to get out OK,
but clearly something is going on with the matching system, a StackMatch. So
that's another problem on the to-do list.
I knew I would suffer some on the score, and tried very hard to work the second
radio hard to find and work mults the best I could. I had decided not to use a
Skimmer before the contest, and actually my mult totals were pretty good for
me, being the same as K5NA, who usually beats me handily on mults and who was
using a Skimmer. Richard had a great QSO total and a super score, and also
K5PI, who was operating out at the W5KFT ranch station, turned out to be a SSB
fiend, and racked up amazing phone totals. I tried phone and seemed to have
high rates, but the point/QSO and the lack of mults on phone always led m e
back to CW.
Thanks to KH6NF (80 to 160) and VE1ZJ (40 to 80) for two successful moves. I
could have tried more moves, but just didn't. I did ask HL2AEJ to move from 40
to 80 at 1037Z. He said "I have only a dipole" but agreed to try it. I could
hear him tuning up on the 80 meter frequency, and thought we had it made. He
then came on and called me, then a CQ. I called and called him, but he was not
able to hear me. What frustration! But he was very nice to try.
I was able to work the JA HQ station on 80 with no problems, but was unable to
work a JA for Zone 45. JA7COI was on CQing on 3501 in the final ten minutes of
the contest and I spent my final ten minutes calling him and listening to "TV
Bob," N6TV, Skimmer and all, swoop in and work him easily. We just did not have
good propagation to JA on 80. On the other hand, the conditions to JA on 40 were
really excellent Sunday morning.
All in all, I am glad I didn't throw in the towel, and stuck with it. The off
times were just one of these things. Usually, we get a storm and are off for an
hour, so it seems "the bear" always gets his one hour one way or another.
Congrats to K5NA and K5PI at W5KFT for terrific scores and efforts. Both guys
beat me and did a fantastic job. The N5DX results were just amazing. I hope our
friends on the east coast realize just how amazing this score is from W5. I
don't think enough people understand how difficult it is in these
European-centric contests to do that well from the midwest/south.
I was so tired toward the end in the IARU this year, at least before things
started to heat up as daybreak approached and the bands picked up, that I had a
hard time staying awake. In fact, at 0755Z, on one-sixty, I tried a CQ and
actually fell asleep for a microsecond working W7AT. I "woke" to find him
calling me looking for the report, and I pressed the key and sent it, realizing
I had dozed off after entering his call but before pressing the key to send him
the report!
I slept for two different five hour stretches today, on Sunday. Sorry for
getting this report out a bit late.
Thanks to all the great operators out there on both CW and SSB. Such talent all
over the world.
Here are a few numbers:
RATE
HOUR 160CW 160SSB 80CW 80SSB 40CW 40SSB 20CW 20SSB 15CW
15SSB 10CW TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
------ ------ ----- -----
12 0 0 5 0 74 0 1 0 0
0 0 80 80
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 1 0
0 0 33 113
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 174 3
0 0 177 290
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52 20
0 0 72 362
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 54 17
1 11 83 445
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 51 57 19
0 7 134 579
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 102
3 14 119 698
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 68 67 1
2 0 138 836
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 77 0 25
3 0 105 941
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 30 32
0 0 92 1033
22 0 0 0 0 2 0 37 1 31
0 0 71 1104
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 79 22 0
0 0 101 1205
0 0 0 0 0 25 0 92 0 0
0 0 117 1322
1 0 0 0 0 76 0 31 0 0
0 0 107 1429
2 0 0 0 0 97 25 3 0 0
0 0 125 1554
3 0 0 0 0 0 173 0 0 0
0 0 173 1727
4 7 0 4 0 48 3 0 0 0
0 0 62 1789
5 1 2 25 0 0 76 0 0 0
0 0 104 1893
6 16 1 28 11 8 14 0 0 0
0 0 78 1971
7 5 1 36 0 38 0 0 0 0
0 0 80 2051
8 14 0 6 0 47 0 0 0 0
0 0 67 2118
9 3 0 10 0 61 0 0 0 0
0 0 74 2192
10 1 0 5 6 58 0 0 0 0
0 0 70 2262
11 1 0 9 0 66 0 0 0 0
0 0 76 2338
TOTAL 48 4 128 17 600 291 501 458 250
9 32
08IARU N3BB Mult Summary
160BTH
arrl ure 08 02 rac 61
07 37 iaru 04 06
80BTH
06 04 02 14 rccr rcu rac 11 rcv
07 08 iaru ure 12 arrl 61 09 jarl
40BTH
07 60 sara pzk frr arrl 02 rsgb nzart 01
06 11 28 rep ref 37 03 bh 46 55
08 34 04 uarl ari mrasz 61 iaru 58 44
12 ure zrs 29 srs 27 uba fmre 64 54
45 darc bfra crc rac 15 ovsv 10 aarc jarl
59 09 uska hrs 39 14 irts rccr r3 16
20BTH
rac 12 crc 61 ref rcv sara 15 01 18
08 07 iaru 13 veron pzk bh 46 ac ari
04 11 rsgb 10 66 hrs rl srs 45 30
17 28 06 frr mrasz 39 ovsv fmre srr 14
09 02 03 37 27 zrs ure darc uba 31
15BTH
cars rsgb 36 66 18 mrasz uarl ovsv 39 45
07 hrs 11 37 27 pzk crc arrl 06
08 srs ari ref uba bh zrs 29 02
04 rca ure darc 28 veron sara 09 01
10BTH
09 08 07 darc ari 28 hrs
ure 37 27 ref 06 bh
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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