CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: F/W1NN
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: F/W1NN
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Gers, France
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 109
40: 490
20: 563
15: 214
10: 39
------------
Total: 1415 Prefixes = 638 Total Score = 1,840,630
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
This was an expedition to a temporary QTH in the department of Gers, France.
The location is about 100 miles west of the southern city of Toulouse and a
couple of miles outside of the village of Lupiac. It is beautiful farmland
country with rolling hills and fields of wheat and vineyards and very few
people.
The operating site was a 300-year old windmill converted into a rental
property. According to the owner, the property is one of seven windmills built
by the British when they occupied the area. The windmills were supposedly built
on hilltops in order to maximize wind exposure. Sounds like the ideal ham
location, right? You can see some pictures of these windmills by searching for
“List of Windmills in France” on Wikipedia.
On the rental property website I could see that there were lots of trees around
the windmill and the owner gave me permission to put up antennas, so I booked
the place back in February and started to make travel arrangements. I decided
to fly into Toulouse and I had two plane changes to get there, one in Newark
and one in Brussels. My flight from Newark was late arriving in Brussels and
the connection was tight but I made my flight and, just as important, both of
my suitcases also made it. I arrived at the windmill around 5 PM on the
Tuesday before the contest. I would have three days to put up antennas and get
things working.
The windmill itself is not that tall �" perhaps 50-55 feet high at the
peak. The sharply sloping roof was made of wooden slats and they were pretty
old and uneven. I was afraid of snagging my fishing line so I did not use the
building itself as an antenna support except for my 20 meter dipole. The
diameter of the building was only around 25 feet but with three-foot thick
walls, there was not much floor space left. Inside there were four levels.
The upper two were bedrooms, the middle was the bathroom and the ground level
contained a small kitchen and a round dining table. I turned the first floor
into my operating position and four pieces of coax just fit under the door.
These trips are rarely without problems and I certainly had my share this time.
First, I forgot to bring a very essential item �" my slingshot/fishing
reel device to get support ropes over the tops of the trees. I had set mine
aside but somehow failed to put in in the suitcase. I had to spend half of
Wednesday tracking down replacements and I was very fortunate to find a
sporting goods store in a city 35 miles away which had exactly what I wanted.
The second problem was that I found the windmill to be a very poor place for
sleeping. Some birds or other creatures had built nests inside the old
machinery box on the top floor and these animals made scratching sounds all
night long. I would just get to sleep when the noise would wake me up. I
really needed some sleep before the contest so I decided that I would have to
find someplace else to sleep. So in addition to finding a slingshot on
Wednesday, I also had to find a hotel. Again, I was lucky to find a quiet
hotel in a town about 30 miles from the windmill.
The long days in France this time of year gave me until after 9 PM for antenna
work. Fortunately the weather on Wednesday evening and Thursday was perfect
and by the end of the day Thursday I had dipoles for 40, 80, 20 and 10 up in
the trees. They were only about 40-45 feet high but I thought they would be
good enough with my hilltop location.
The contest begins for most of Europe at 2 AM local. I always find it very
hard to get a good sleep before the contest and usually start the contest
already tired. This year was no exception. I couldn’t sleep in the bedroom
due to the animal noises so I managed to get some poor quality sleep in the
car, which, if not comfortable, was at least quiet.
Then on Friday night just before the contest the third problem reared its ugly
head: thunderstorms. These started around sunset and continued for several
hours. The rain let up before the contest but the real problem was QRN. Part
of my strategy was to maximize my 40 and 80 contacts because they are worth
twice what high band contacts are worth. The storms threw a monkey wrench into
this plan and, as expected, 40 and 80 were very tough for most of the contest
and my totals for these bands were well down from previous years when I
operated from Europe.
This was my second expedition to France. In 2013 I operated from a different
rental house. I managed to win the SOABLP category that year with the
second-highest all time LP score. This year my goal was to better my score and
beat the previous LP record but the thunderstorms and bad off-time planning
closed the door on this possibility this year. By Sunday night the storms had
passed and the bands were quieter but I had decided that I would be too sleepy
to drive back to the hotel if I took my remaining off time Sunday afternoon to
operate the last six hours of the contest, so I operated through 9:30 PM local
and pulled the plug. I think I could have done better with a different
off-time strategy but you never know.
The fun thing about contesting is contacting old friends from all over the
world. The highlight of this contest for me was working several of my friends
in Japan. JA from most of Europe is pretty tough with 100 watts and a dipole
so I usually don’t work very many, but this year I did better than usual,
thanks to a good opening on 20. I was especially happy to work JE1JKL
operating from JH1GTV, the station I often use when operating from Japan. I
was also excited to work fellow JSFC club members JH1EAQ and JH5GHM. The later
turned in an excellent score operating at JE6RPM.
73, Hal W1NN & 7J1AAI
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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