CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: TI5W
Operator(s): N3KS WX3B NI1N K3WI M0DXR
Station: TI5W
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Costa Rica
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 123 7 11
80: 673 23 76
40: 1662 32 105
20: 1977 35 110
15: 3005 36 132
10: 3501 34 115
-------------------------------
Total: 10941 167 549 Total Score = 18,941,780
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
TI5W CQWW SSB 2013
This was the first attempt at a CQWW DX contest for the Ti5W team. Regulars
N3KS, WX3B, NI1N welcomed newcomers K3WI and M0DXR for this contest expedition.
Although the Ti5W station is optimized for the ARRL DX contest format (i.e. low
fixed antennas on the east and west coast of the USA for 10-20m, low band
antennas oriented north; and only a single rotatable yagi at any height (80ft),
we decided to give CQWW and SSB a try just to do something different. We chose
Multi-Two as the category so that we could hopefully optimize operator radio
time and rate fun.
October is the peak of the rainy season in Costa Rica, and we had our share of
it. Fortunately the antenna work and other setup was able to be done between
rain showers, and the invariable gotchas were manageable. The biggest headache
was logistics �" Ti5W is located in the far north of Costa Rica (not that
any part of Costa Rica is really ‘far’ from any other �" but it sure
can take a long time to drive!) and the best airport to arrive at is Liberia
International which is less than an hour easy drive from the station. However,
due to the fact that it is the lowest of the low tourist season, there were no
realistic flight options to fly into Liberia. So we all flew into San Jose
�" which would be ok, except that various team members arrived on three
separate days prior to the contest. Getting everyone to the shack involved a
three or four hour (one way) drive through the Pan American highway and then
into the interior. But, we all eventually made it �" with Mark, M0DXR
deserving extra kudos for an incredible commute start to finish!
During our setup on Thursday we noticed that the SWR on our SteppIR antenna
(fixed north at 43ft and dedicated to 20m during contests) was off the chart.
The motors appeared to be turning, but it seemed dead. Turned out that the
copper element strip at the driven element was stuck in the retracted position.
The reflector and director appeared to be moving ok. It was not practical to
take the antenna off the tower, or try to remove the fiberglass elements due to
the ‘Christmas tree’ of other antennas above and below it that were fixed to
the tower, so our solution (thanks to Tom �" NI1N for thinking of it!) was
to build a 20m dipole and I climb the tower to install it on the SteppIR driven
element fiberglass element poles. We used u-bolts tied at the ends of the wire
to attach to the elements and light rope to pull the u-bolts and hence the
dipole element wire out across the elements. Fortunately that got us on the
air.
On Thursday night we were feeling pretty good about the station, things seemed
to be playing well and no inter-station interference of any significance
reported.
Friday morning we discovered that there was no longer any water at the QTH.
Not good! Toilets are a must, and the QTH is essentially in the jungle
�" so outdoor options could be a bit dicey �" especially at night.
The rain would not help either. It turns out that the instant hot water heater
had backflowed and melted a cold water line that was not properly installed.
The cold water line had torque on it, and when the hot water softened it
�" it started to twist and eventually ruptured (in the middle of the
night of course �" so nobody really noticed.) That resulted in the
holding pressure tank being emptied, which eventually resulted in the water
pump motor failing. As they say �" ‘to make a long story endless’
�" we were able to re-jig the water piping so that we had cold water only
(a cold shower is great way to start off a shift �" who needs coffee!?)
and get the motor and tank operating again. That chewed up a good part of
Friday.
Once the contest started, we had a blast. Although sustained rate was never as
high as we would have all wanted, we had our moments. We did confirm a few
facts that experienced contesters of course would know:
- Central America seems to provide extra challenge as a QTH in CQWW.
Antennas
needed to be higher than our ARRLDX optimized setup. Every operator wanted to
use our one high antenna (Optibeam OB15-7 which worked really well) when either
running or trying to pounce mults. We could often see 15dB or more difference
between our high antenna and one of the fixed ones �" especially to
QTH’s outside our continent on 10m and 15m. Our fixed NE 10m antenna is only
23ft above the ground �" great for USA east coast according to HFTA
�" but we noticed it was not high enough for contesting effective
European coverage.
- We had a great shot to JA, and worked more JA’s than I can ever
remember in
a contest. However that didn’t make up for being second in line for working
Europe compared to stations east of us.
- Ti5W has a pretty decent low band setup �" a pair of full sized phased
verticals on 80m and a full sized vertically polarized delta loop on 160m.
However that advantage is not the differentiator in CQWW as it is in ARRLDX.
We had two power outages during the contest and one of them happened just as
our low band guru (NI1N) had managed to start working EU split on 80m with
some success. It was difficult to regain that brief momentum after the power
outage knocked him/us off the air for a while. 160m was almost a non-factor
for us �" very sparse even though we could hear quite well on the loop.
Outside the contest we made a lot of people happy on 160m in JA and EU �"
CW of course.
- The OB15-7 at 80ft seemed to work really well on 40m. We could never
successfully crack the 7100-7200 mosh-pit, and noticed that others in our
region were often above 7200 but we had excellent success at around 7080
working DX simplex. We probably could have done even better by listening up
for stateside, but our rates were surprisingly great to EU. It was fun to have
A6, A7, 7O2, and other nice DX like that call us on 40m while we were running.
In the last hour of the contest, we had a power outage that ended one of the
most memorable 10m JA runs any of us on the team could ever remember. Our rate
on 20m was also among the best it had been all contest at that time and we lost
about 30 minutes to the outage. The power did come back, and we finished the
contest with smiles on our faces �" but this was the first time we had
been burned by power outages. It might be time for a backup generator…
For some reason our rotator for the Optibeam started to give erroneous
direction readings. At night that became a challenge and we sometimes used a
flashlight to figure out which way it was pointing.
Thanks to all the participants in this wonderful contest event, and for all the
Q’s.
73,
Kam N3KS
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