CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 2536 38 145
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 2536 38 145 Total Score = 1,312,293
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
**NEW US 20 SB UNASSISTED RECORD**
I have been fairly weak on 20 for years, listening in every contest to other
Northeastern stations have great EU/JA runs when I could barely get answers.
So when my towers were repeatedly hit by lightning in August of 2006, I decided
it was time to deal with my 20 and 40 problems. I planned to start my station
rebuild in early '07, but then got seriously ill and did not know if I would be
able to survive, much less hear normally again or operate contests.
After many major diet and lifestyle changes, my hearing mostly returned to
normal over the following 18 months, although the underlying problem
permanently remains. However, I was incredibly fortunate in that it became
clear that I would be able to contest again.
So, this past Summer I began slowly rebuilding my station and started with the
130' tower and new 20 meter monobanders. After many weeks of toil and at least
10 full days with Andy, N2NT on the tower, we complete my 3-stack of HG205Ca's
at 137' (rotatable), 82' fixed NE and 58' Fixed NE.
Although previous stations rebuilds had gone well, these 20's proved to be an
ongoing nightmare. The top 20 took 3 days to get up between repeatedly getting
tangled in the double sets of Guys (Star Guys), breaking an element and other
assorted problems. The middle 20 was a similar battle, but made much easier
due to learning from the top 20 misfortunes. The lower 20 went up well, but
then had terrible noise and we weren't sure whether it was a busted 20 meter
driven insulator, gunk in the elements (that could not be removed) or something
else.
The top 20 did not rotate properly on the Orion 2800. Sometimes it rotated,
sometimes it didn't. Mostly it rotated but not to where the control box said
it was. Constantly recailbrating it didn't really help either.
The I hooked up the 20 meter stackmaster which had been repaired and quickly
noticed that sometimes the relays would pull in and other times not, resulting
in audio "black holes" when I switched to certain antennas.
I was incredibly frustrated two weeks before the contest, that with all the
work I and Andy had done, we had a balky stackmasterm, a top 20 that would not
rotate properly and a lower 20 with noise problems. I was about ready to throw
in the towel on the 20's, but I was pissed off and determined NOT to have a
working station.
Andy came up again the week of the contest and he noticed that the lower 20
touched one of the guy wires when the wind was blowing hard, so we moved it up
and that problem went away. Then after several hours on the phone with M2 to
solve the Orion problem, I decided to make a new rotator cable and try that
with the Orion, and if that failed, then we would replace with a spare T2X that
I had. Faced with the prospect of being replaced, the Orion decided that it
liked the new rotator cable after all, and we left it in place.
The stackmaster however was a different matter. After the relays for the A & B
antennas continued being flaky, the relay for the D antenna died. I spent most
of Thursday afternoon before the contest hooking up a Stackmatch, which kep
blowing fuses and did not work, so it was back to the stackmaster for the
contest and I gritted my teeth for a frustrating weekend.
Realizing that I did not have any directional antennas for 20 (South), I
realized that I better put up a (drum roll........... Dipole). You laugh
now, but a dipole broadside South is a much better South American antenna than
a stack fixed NE!
Since I had three 20's and one of the stackmaster ports had died, it meant that
when I wanted the South Dipole, I had to manually switch between the stack and
the dipole with a 2-position Daiwa swtich. What a pain!
All was finished on Friday morning. I got on for a little while and worked a
small pileup and felt reasonably loud. Although I have felt loud on 10 and 15
before, I have NEVER felt loud on 20. I eagerly awaited the contest knowing
that we had classic bottom of the cycle conditions which meant that 20 would be
positively insane. I also felt some trepidation at not operating seriously for
2 1/2 years and haveing no idea whether my ears would be able to handle 30+
hours of picking through the qrm, qrn, splatter and general "crud".
At the start of the contest it was SA, call them one after another, CQ in
Spanish and hope that we got some band openings. Not much the first night and
super weak Zl/VK. KH6LC and others could not hear me. Even the PY's and LU's
disappeared adter 06z. I had 85 q's and 33 mults the first night.
I went to sleep late and woke up about about 5 AM (09z) and noticed LOUD EU
that could not hear my CQ's but could hear me call them. I went up and down
the band, worked a few good mults and realized that with the A/K numbers so
low, the polar path was wide open for those in daylight (EU/JA/Asia) and they
were busy working each other. The Eu shortskip was excellent and US simply
wasn't being heard. After an hour of mostly S & P, I settled in around 14173
and the band ERUPTED! WOW! Not only was I being heard, but there was a thick
"buzz" of weak EU stations calling continuously - somthing that I had NEVER
experience on 20 from my station before. The 20's were LOUD! HS/EX and other
juicy mults began to call in amid the ratemeter exceeding 200+. However the
joy was shortlived as the qrm closed in and it became a battle of wits with
some of the EU multis who could splatter 10 khz across and other interlopers
would took an s9 noise level as a quiet spot on the band to call cq on, and
then claim that they had been there for "hours".
The key to working a decent rate was to figure out how to time the end of a cq
or qrz so that the weak EU station would txmit when the loud EU splatterer
would be listening. It was possible to maintain 100-150/hr rates like this but
it was exhausting and frustrating. Still, being able to hold a freq. on the low
end of 20 and having endless callers, was a completely new experience for me at
my station and the excitement kept me going.
The qsb was rapid and deep and often a station would disappear after two or
three letters of the call making for endless repeats, which would then provide
the opportunity for a Eu or US station to think that the 3 second silence meant
a clear freq., and another 1-3 minute would be wasted with "Freq. in use -
please qsy". At point it reached absurdity as I spent almost 5 minutes
continuously fending off Eu and US stations that would cq on either side of me
300hz - 500hz away and then not move. It was 20 meters at the bottom of the
cycle with nowhere to go! UGH!
Between the splatter, the qrm and the qsb, copying signals was almost
impossible at times and I started experimenting with the controls of my
FT1000MP's - I found that between alternating between a combination of the IPO,
6-18 db attenuation and the notch filters as well as the 2.0khz filters, I could
usually dig out a station lond enough to qso them before they got buried again.
I didn't have time to get bored - each qso became a new adventure! :-)
The rates continued as I bounced around the band, trying to find holes where I
could here. I found that when I pointed the top antenna at Africa, africans
would call in, and when I pointed it at SA, South Americans would call in.
This was a new and exciting experience for me indeed! The South Dipole came in
handy when a Caribbean or SA station would open up on my freq. and try to drive
me away. I won most of the battles, but in the world of contesting, a new SA
mult is a lot more interesting to an Eu station than a KQ2!
There were several massive fadeouts on 20 during the day as the absorption
deepened - first around 1400z and then worse around 1700z. I used these
opportunities to experiement with different combinations and pointing the top
20 in different directions. There was very little longpath or skewpath and a
noticeable absence of Asian/african mults. I had a good Eu qso total, but no
great hopes for a big score.
I was keeping an eye out for a nasty rapidly developing coastal storm that was
aleady blowing 40-50 mph on gusts and threatened to get much worse. At 20z I
had trouble rotating the top 20 with an Orion! and the noise from the trees
outside was beginning to be heard over the headphones!
I swung the top 20 East and was rewarded with some juicy African calls V51YY,
TJ3SL, FR5MV and LP ZL/VK stations and a few JA's. I had a good freq and I
felt loud. THIS WAS FUN!!! At 2045z I swung the top 20 North and began my
first 20 meter JA run in many, many years. With my clear freq. I could hear
super weak stations calling me and when I switched to the South Dipole, I could
easily copy copy the SA and Caribbean callsigns. Shortly after, an HL1VAU and
9M8Z called in, followed by UA0IBX in zone 19 and a frwe more JA's. At 2230z
the wind was gusting savagely and a vicious squall line set up. The power was
"blinking" and I new that I would be off the air soon. The only question was
whether or not the power would fail and my contest would end. At 2337z I went
qrt with about 1440q's 35 zones and 127 countries. For the first time I began
to think about the possibility of breaking the 20 meter record which the late
KC1F, my friend Stu, had set in 1985.
The storm hit and fortunately I disconnected everything. We had a few more
power blips and at 03z I reconnected everything and was back on to a dead band.
I had left a wide open 20 at 2337z, but now there was nothing to work.
I checked back at 05z, but the band was dead here. Not a good sign for the
morning. I went back to sleep. My hearing wasn't doing so well, but it was
manageable and that was a joyous relief.
I awoke at 09z to a dead band. Nothing much happened until about 1025z when i
could s & p a few Eu/african stations. I realized that 20 was in poor shape
but the EU shortskip was loud. My only possibility of being heard was to go
high in the band, hope to find a clear spot and get lucky. 14331 was a good
freq. I could hera a "pin drop", but not for long as the Eu multis and US SO's
quickly were drive up to the high end of the band in frustration. The din was
incredible and NO ONE would move away. Apparently the frustration level had
been reached and people put down roots regardless of who was there or not.
Then the nets started up. By their frequency "entitlement", you would think
that they had discovered and bottled the cure for cancer!
I stuck it out for as long as I could, but knew that I was trapped on 20. I
found a (relatively) "clear spot" on 14181 and got a good run going juggling
the IPO, attenuators, notch and SSB filters to hear each caller until OX2A
parked on me. He wouldn't leave and all of EU and the US started calling him.
I moved again but finding another spot was nearly impossible. I bounced around
between 14167, 14331, 14199 and other places with death to my rate. The only
place to be was in multi-multi land between 14150 and 14160 where no one
bothered the multis who "lived there" and who had clear spots to listen on.
They had cool air and great rate while I was breathing splatter.
Then I lucked out and found a hole on 14157 and I had a great run for two hours
until VE2XAA and a few other interlopers crashed the freq. It took a lot of
effort and excellent timing over 20 minutes to finally encourage VE2XAA to go
away and the freq. was clear again. I was now working S2 Eu stations on a
perfectly clear freq. With any line noise (which came and went all weekend) or
the slightest hint of splatter, the hole would close and I would have to call cq
again and hope for someone louder to call me. I began to notice something
odd... The low 20 at 58' was hearing the weak I and G stations about 2 sunits
better than the middle 20 at 82'. I thought that maybe there was a high angle
path that was open, but was puzzled. The tack of 58' and 82' was always worse
to Eu, something that made little sense. This continued and the 82' antenna
became a "black hole" to EU. I swung the top antenna to the East hoping for
Africans and a few ZS's were kind enough to call in with 3V8SS, but little
else. From time to time a loud UA0 in zone 18 would call in, and would
disappear on the 58' as well as the 137' antenna, but the stack would hear them
best. Propagation was sure head-scratching but I stayed with the stack just in
case something strange had happened. (Something had - I just didn't know it
yet).
I was getting close to the record now, but cndx were fairly punk and the rate
was really, really slow. I kept cqing with the stack split between Africa and
EU and CN, JY, 9H and a few other mults called in along with the very steady
but very slow trickle of G, 2E0, I, EI, PA and other NW European stations.
With a clear freq and MUF dropping below 14 mhz, many other stations were on
other bands so there was little competition for my freq. I was comfortably
nestled between NQ4I and W3LPL at a "safe" distance from both and we all
prospered and protected each other over the next few hours. Occasionally
someone would try to sneak between W3LPL and myself and we would both pounce on
them. They would leave quickly. :-))))
I finally turned the top 20 to Japan and nothing happened. So I swung it back
South and TO5DX immediately called me follwed by 5H3EE and a few more ZS' and
longpath VK/ZL Caribgean stations. The rate was a steady one per miinute and
the points continued to pileup hour after hour, slowly and steadily. In the
20z hour J39BS and HP1ALX called in for new mults and the trickle of Italian
stations continued along with the occasion Zone 33 and VK station. I swung the
antenna back to JA, still running the 3-stack and the JA' started to slowly
call. I was now at about 2400 q's with 37 zones and 136 countries for 1.17 meg
and a **NEW US RECORD** with three hours to go!
At 2058za weak KG6DX called in for a double mult. I was very exceited until I
realized that I had switched to the South dipole to work ZX2X so KG6DX had
heard me and called in on my 40 foot high 20 meter Dipole! WOW! amazing what
a clear freq. can do for you! Feeling pretty foolish, I switched back to the
3-stack and began a nice JA run with Zl/VK/VE and occasional zone 14 and 33
stations calling in. At 2201z T8IC called in for another mult followed by
DU3NXE, CP1FF and YB2DX for a few more. 20 had finally opened to Asia other
than JA and I was working new mults at a fast clip! At 2300z the first big
fade hit, a sign that the JA run was going to end rapidly. I ran up the band
and worked everything that I could hear including TG9ANF and BV0J for new mults
and a few more China and JA stations. All the Asiana stations were hearing me
right through the big pileups - I was LOUD!
Final Score and NEW US Record:
2536 38 145 = 1.312,293 before UBN's
Old record:
2176 36 140 = 1,131,328 KC1F @ K1OX (1985)
I feel very fortunate to have beaten Stu's record and I congratulate him again
for setting a standard that has stood for 23 years! I enjoyed competing
against him for many years when he was at K1EA and I was at KM1H. He was a
great op and friend and I will miss him.
Epilogue:
Monday morning dawned and I found out why the 82' antenna had become a "black
hole" for EU. The 70+ mph wind gusts Saturday night had blown the antenna from
45 degrees to 10 degrees. This explains why the low 58' antenna was best for EU
all day on Sunday and why I worked ONE Zone 19 and almost no zone 17/21/22
stations on Saturday compared to 7 zone 18/19 stations plus a raft of zone
17/21/22 stations on Sunday!
Since I was on the 20 before first light on Sunday, I did not realize that the
antenna had been blown so far off course. I would have operated differently on
Sunday had I realized what happened. As it turns out, one of the power blips
resulted from a tree falling on my road and taking out a power pole. Down the
hill from me 40 homes on my street lost power but I thankfully did not. I was
very lucky!
Thanks for all the q's and for the Dxpedition stations this past weekend. This
was one of the most memorable and fun contests for me in 35 years of operating!
It was great to say hello to many old friends.
CU in CQWW CW!!!
73 Bob KQ2M
kq2m@earthlink.net
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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