IARU HF World Championship
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SO CW HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 10 0 4 4
80: 57 0 11 19
40: 614 0 30 34
20: 1172 0 35 40
15: 145 0 19 23
10: 26 0 6 7
-------------------------------------
Total: 2024 0 105 127 Total Score = 1,806,816
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Even though conditions weren't great, this is a personal best for me in IARU,
and the first time I've had over 2,000 Qs in the contest. Second-best mult
total, too. Not enough to win, but I'm pleased with the effort.
Unfortunately, 15 and 10 didn't open well enough to run up big numbers on those
bands. I ran 15 as best I could from 1300z-1500z Saturday, but the rate really
suffered and I had to go back to 20. I probably should have tried running 15
later in the afternoon, but it was really hard to break away from 150+ rates on
20. I S&Ped 15 a lot during the contest, but my Qs and mults are way down on
that band, especially compared with stations further south (the old latitude
effect.) Couldn't run 10, of course, but it was nice to pull in a few EU mults
in the late afternoon. 80 was disappointing, too. There was a lot of static and
I just couldn't get a decent run going. Also, I was reluctant to leave the
strong rates on 40 for very long. Still, I can't help thinking that an 80m
4-square would have been so much better than my delta loop in the trees and
trapped vee on the tower. Got to get that big project going!
Speaking of rates, they were awesome on 20. I had seven straight hours of 100+
rate on that band Saturday afternoon. The 10-minute meter stayed above 150
often, and hit 198 on several occasions. The rate on 40 at 0000z was excellent,
too, though it tailed off after a couple of hours. I was able to sustain an
overall average of about 100 QSOs per hour for the first 15 hours or so, but
then the rate dropped Saturday evening and Sunday morning. 0800z was the low
point, but other than that the rates were decent and there was almost always
another band open to S&P.
Had a few nice DX surprises, like A6HCA calling in on 20 at the start, 9V1YC
calling in on 15, finding ST2AR on 40, and finding/working B4HQ on 20 at 0930z
on Sunday. Also had a good mini-run of JAs on 20 to close out the contest and
get my QSO total over 2000. VK/ZL and Pacific were good on 20 and 40, but no JA
on 40.
All the equipment worked, though right at the beginning I had a minor glitch
that prevented transmission and didn't get it solved until seven minutes into
the contest. Lost a few Qs, but nothing serious. Normally I test everything
before the contest starts, but we had a big thunderstorm come through Friday
night that forced me to shutdown and unplug everything. There wasn't time
Saturday morning to thoroughly test the station because I had to drop my wife
and son off at the bus station at 6:30 AM, then rush home to plug everything in
and get ready for the contest. All in all, the problem was relatively small, and
I was lucky that the thunderstorms passed through before the contest and not
while I was operating.
One antenna change: In the weeks leading up to the contest, I installed a 6-el
10m monobander at 115', about 5' above my 2-el 40m beam (yeah, I'm an optimist,
hoping we're not in another Maunder Minimum.) Though 115' is quite high for a
10m beam, it provides a very effective S&P antenna when the main SteppIR stack
is busy on another band (and, I'm hoping that the low angle might come in
useful for catching early band openings -- we'll see, when and if 10 comes
back.) Previously, I had to use my C3E for 10, and it's in a poor location, low
down and at the end of 400' of LMR400UF coax. I've had the 10m beam in my garage
since early last decade. I had used it for only one contest season before 10m
faded and it made more sense to use the AB-577 it was on for the tribander. It
does my heart good to see the 10m beam no longer going to waste, and it was
very useful this weekend, even though 10 was barely open. I was able to score
some 1/2" heliax and connectors for the run up the tower to the 10m monobander,
so it's a combination of 1-5/8" and 1/2" heliax all the way from the shack to
the antenna (about 335'). Another project that needs to get done is to replace
the 300'-400' of LMR400UF coax that runs to the other S&P antennas with 1/2"
heliax. Got almost everything I need for that, just need to get some pull
soap.
All in all, I was pretty well prepared for the contest. I would have liked to
get a little more sleep this week, but the schedule had other plans. I was a
bit tired during the first few hours, but once the high rates on 20 started
Saturday afternoon, I became absorbed in running and trying to S&P. I love the
format of this contest -- plenty of mults to hunt. After that, I felt quite
good throughout the contest, and thought several times how much easier it is to
do a 24-hour contest than a 48-hour contest (except that it's a bummer only
getting one shot at each opening -- all it takes is one thunderstorm or solar
event to mess up your weekend.) I kept looking at the time remaining and
thinking this is really a piece of cake and I'll have no trouble making it to
the end. Well, almost. When the rates dropped off in the wee hours Sunday
morning, I started feeling the fatigue and looked forward to the end. Still, if
it was CQ WW or ARRL DX I would have been staring another 24 hours in the face.
As for food, I ate very little during the contest, which I think helped. Except
for quickly throwing some dinner on a plate Saturday evening, I spend virtually
all of the time in front of the radio. I think this was my best effort to keep
from "wandering away from the radio." That's got to be one of the secrets of
contesting -- stay in the chair!
Due to summer vacation plans, I haven't always been able to do the IARU
contest, and a couple of years when I was able to do it I had technical
glitches that ended the contest early for me. So it was a real treat to make
it through the whole 24 hours this year.
Thanks for all the Qs, and hope to see you next year.
Stats (for K5ZD :-) and antenna/equipment list follow.
73, Dick WC1M
QSO/ZN+HQ by hour and band
Hour 160M CW 80M CW 40M CW 20M CW 15M CW 10M CW Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-1200Z - - - 95/12 5/5 - 100/17 100/17
D1-1300Z - - - 23/2 50/9 5/3 78/14 178/31
D1-1400Z - - - 14/12 52/7 - 66/19 244/50
D1-1500Z - - - 7/1 19/6 15/6 41/13 285/63
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 111/5 6/4 --+-- 117/9 402/72
D1-1700Z - - - 110/2 4/3 3/1 117/6 519/78
D1-1800Z - - - 118/0 - - 118/0 637/78
D1-1900Z - - - 128/0 3/3 - 131/3 768/81
D1-2000Z - - - 121/8 - 1/1 122/9 890/90
D1-2100Z - - - 97/3 4/3 2/2 103/8 993/98
D1-2200Z - - - 100/8 1/1 - 101/9 1094/107
D1-2300Z - - 28/25 16/3 - - 44/28 1138/135
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- 133/16 --+-- --+-- --+-- 133/16 1271/151
D2-0100Z - - 93/3 9/5 - - 102/8 1373/159
D2-0200Z - 27/22 29/1 3/0 - - 59/23 1432/182
D2-0300Z 9/7 1/1 40/7 - - - 50/15 1482/197
D2-0400Z - 2/2 94/1 13/4 - - 109/7 1591/204
D2-0500Z - 3/2 67/1 12/3 - - 82/6 1673/210
D2-0600Z - 3/1 38/2 23/1 - - 64/4 1737/214
D2-0700Z - 18/2 44/3 5/3 - - 67/8 1804/222
D2-0800Z 1/1 --+-- 27/3 5/0 --+-- --+-- 33/4 1837/226
D2-0900Z - 3/0 21/2 26/1 - - 50/3 1887/229
D2-1000Z - - - 59/1 1/1 - 60/2 1947/231
D2-1100Z - - - 77/1 - - 77/1 2024/232
Total: 10/8 57/30 614/64 1172/75 145/42 26/13
Continent Breakdown
160M CW 80M CW 40M CW 20M CW 15M CW 10M CW Total %
EU 2 19 363 844 64 6 1298 64.1
NA 7 33 221 251 71 18 601 29.7
SA 0 3 9 15 6 1 34 1.7
AS 0 0 3 47 2 0 52 2.6
AF 1 2 7 2 1 1 14 0.7
OC 0 0 11 13 1 0 25 1.2
Mult Breakdown
4J 1 1
4L 1 1 2
4O 1 1
4X 1 2 3
5B 1 1 2
5H 1 1
9A 2 7 12 1 22
9V 1 1
A6 1 1
BY 1 1
C3 1 1
CE 2 1 3
CM 1 1 2
CN 1 1 2
CT 1 1 4 6
CX 1 1 2
DL 1 64 148 6 1 220
E7 1 2 3 1 7
EA 10 20 7 1 38
EA8 1 1 3 2 1 1 9
EI 4 6 1 11
ER 1 5 6
ES 2 2
EU 5 12 17
EX 1 1
EY 1 1
F 1 1 10 11 3 2 28
FO 1 1
FP 1 1 1 1 4
G 1 19 43 1 1 65
GD 2 2
GI 1 1
GJ 1 2 3
GM 3 5 8
GW 3 3
HA 1 11 21 1 34
HB 1 7 8 16
HB0 1 2 3
HI 2 2
HK 1 1 2
I 2 21 33 7 1 64
IS 3 3
JA 20 20
K 5 24 191 216 64 15 515
KH6 3 3 1 7
KL 1 1
KP2 1 1 2
KP4 1 1
LA 1 9 10
LU 1 2 4 2 1 10
LX 1 1 1 3
LY 1 8 16 1 26
LZ 10 14 4 28
OE 1 2 3 1 7
OH 7 14 3 24
OH0 1 1
OK 22 44 4 70
OM 1 4 16 21
ON 2 9 13 1 25
OY 1 1
OZ 1 9 10
PA 7 31 38
PJ4 1 1 2
PY 1 4 7 2 14
S5 1 9 17 5 32
SM 9 20 1 30
SP 1 21 61 4 87
ST 1 1
SV 1 5 6
TA 1 1
TF 1 1 2
UA 21 84 2 107
UA2 1 2 3
UA9 15 15
UN 2 2
UR 28 80 2 110
V5 1 1
VE 2 6 24 25 5 2 64
VK 3 5 8
VP5 1 1 1 1 4
VU 1 1
XE 1 2 3
YL 7 5 12
YO 1 12 28 2 43
YU 1 10 22 3 36
YV 1 1
Z3 2 1 1 4
ZA 1 1
ZF 1 1 1 3
ZL 5 4 9
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75, trapped vee @90'
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square
20M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
15M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
Tower#1: Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160/80 trapped vee
770-MDP: Force-12 EF-420
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E
Delta loop hung from a tree
dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees
Equipment:
Elecraft K3 + Alpha 87A, Elecraft K3 + LP-PAN + Acom 2000A, Writelog,
LP-BRIDGE, PowerSDR-IF, YCCC SO2R Box, homebrew Windows antenna
switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"), Hamation Relay Drivers, TopTen and
KK1L SO2R switches, Green Heron and Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack
Switch and StackMax
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|