CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VE9AA
Operator(s): VE9AA
Station: VE9AA
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NB
Operating Time (hrs): 41.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 267 10 29
80: 685 17 68
40: 685 22 78
20: 1049 21 86
15: 364 17 62
10: 27 8 18
------------------------------
Total: 3077 95 341 Total Score = 3,212,884
Club: Maritime Contest Club
Comments:
***Final WRTC qualifying event !*** (more about that at the end)
Contest comments ! (first the fun stuff)
Highlights.
JA at greyline. Seldom see that here.
Many CWops members worked.
Almost no frequency fights.
Generally quiet condx.(little in the way of QRN/QRM)
New antennas seemed to work fab.(description @ end)
No RF in the shack or much in the way of equip. failures
0000hrs at contest end !
Working SO9Q on back to back Q’s on 2 bands while SO2R.
Lots of talented ops on DXpeditions (mostly South, thank goodness)
Alternating CQing on 2 bands kept me awake for almost all of Sunday from noon
til contest end. Love this feature of N1MM+ !
Getting called by name during slow times, while S&P-ing.
Lowlights
High K index
sleeping too much on night 2 - oops
No 10m to speak of.
Some EU’s just plunked on top of me (or perhaps 50Hertz away and began CQing
even though they were S9)
Never could get SU9JG to hear me on 40m, even though he had almost (or no)
callers. This was 2 nights in a row !
Knowing even if I get 1000pts for this one (unlikely, as VY2TT and the VE3
multis will beat this score), I am not going to WRTC…hey- I tried.
High SWR due to ice on ZS6BKW feedline on day one. No 2nd radio amp on day one
due to SWR. Day 2 better, but no amp on 10m until the very end (made maybe 3-4
Q’s on 10m with amp all weekend on radio #2)
My call is not VE1AA or VE8AA (or UE9AA)
Why are all these VE’s calling me?
Only worked two Zone 2’s all weekend (160m/80m…same guy)
JT5DX loud, but no busting that pileup. Move on . . .
10m- This is now a VHF band. Remove it from your radio dial. I’ve done better
on 6m in some contests!
15m- Day one; punk/spotty. Day two; better, but everyone had forgotten about
it after day one experience. New antenna best for picking off mults that
running.
20m- bread and butter and better on day two. Just barely got East of EU into
Russia. Needed one more hop for increased fun level. Worked one JY, otherwise,
no 4X4’s etc. Only a couple zone 17 Q’s (sigh)
40m- Wet blanket on night one, decent on day two, but many sleeping in EU on
Sunday night I think.
80m- meh on day one, and similar on day two. Loud west coast USA. (where was
N6RO?
160m- Same as 80m. Only worked the really big boys in W. EU. Felt there
could’ve been more worked here, but many had abandoned it. Good sigs from
Carib however.
There were 493 band changes and 194 (6.3%) probable 2nd radio QSO’s
Gobs of stations worked on 5 bands, but the following lucky stations were
worked on all 6 bands:
HK1NA NR4M PJ4A PJ4Q PJ2T & 8P5A (who was worked with only a few watts with
a dipole on 2nd radio)
Now the semi-serious side of Mike(here we go):
Having done lots of single band affairs and even a couple 24 hr Classic
entries, I was looking for something new and exciting to make contesting
exciting for me again. Enter WRTC qualifications.
WRTC means Wire and Rope Technical Challenge (Ok, no it doesn’t really, hi)
(World RadioSport Team Championship is the real definition)
http://www.wrtc2018.de/en/
The past 2 yrs of contesting were really just a personal experiment to see how
far I could get in the WRTC ranks as a single op given that:
I am not a big gun with gargantuan amps, a seaside location, nor do I currently
have *ANY* towers up at this time. I am just a regular Joe (but named Mike)
I already knew the top (and only) WRTC spot was taken, regardless of what I
(or anyone else in NA#7) does over the following 2 years.*(that’s a whole
subject itself)
My criteria was pretty simple (100w and wires) and expectations were kept
realistic. (I hoped that I would win or place in at least one or two WRTC
events) (I actually did somewhat better; winning 6)
Most of my antennas would be comprised of wire and rope in 35-40' trees quite
some distance from the shack.
All types of antennas would be tried, ending up this fall with a lot of
4-squares in a tiny strip of woods. (I love the quietness of these arrays)
I was not interested in M/S, M/2 or M/M events to artificially increase my
personal WRTC score. I was going it ALONE this time to see what I could do.
This was to benchmark myself, Mike, VE9AA, not some group effort.
(and in that vein, I would only do Assisted in RDX, WAG and WAE where there is
no distinction for assisted vs. non - I barely ever used spots; finding them
distracting for the most part and prefer to find my own DX-a la Olde Skool
style) I was not interested (this time) in travelling to far off mysterious
lands outside my WRTC zone to potentially increase my score.
I would enter mostly LP categories to (try) and avoid an *unbeatable
super-station who usually runs HP. (no sense punishing myself needlessly,
right?)
I embraced ESM in N1MM+ logger and implemented SO2R into my station also. I
would try to be more efficient.
I increased my code copying and speed ability a little, partially in thanks to
many CWOps CWT’s (sometimes from the MINI COOPER) and the NCCC Sprints which I
dabble in.
Until the very end, this 2 yr personal experiment was LP until it became
obvious the sunspots were fading very fast and there were increased A's &
K’s disturbances this fall. It was just too much to take in the LP cat. and
this was the major motivator for pushing me up into the HP category HP (just
600w-700w here) where it was definitely easier to RUN and also get DX to hear
you sometimes first call when doing S&P. Besides "The
Experiment", I still wanted to have some fun out there on the airwaves
too...;-D
I am not in the USA but as I went along I would back-of-the-envelope
evaluate/compare my scores against others in W1-New England (and Eastern
Canada) as a kind of benchmark to see how I was doing throughout my 2 yr
journey. (RBN analysis post-test in CW contests cfm'd some suspicions and
revealed a LOT about what was happening in WRTC NA Zone #7 & and sadly also
elsewhere in the world) :-x
It was intriguing (and sometimes frustrating) to see what could be done with a
REAL 100w out the SO-239 connector and some small-ish antennas < 50 miles
from the US border. It was also disappointing to hear other (ahem) 100w
stations on backscatter running stations when I couldn't get a thing going.
I hear lots of talk about how close Maritimers are to EU, but actually I am
only 225miles closer to central EU than K1DG's summer home and roughly 25 miles
closer than W1WMU (both of whom can see the seaweed and smell salt air out their
shack windows I bet). I am about as far west in the Canadian Maritime Provinces
as you can get in SW New Brunswick (FN66). Any hint of brine aroma is to my SE
~65-70 miles away.(oops-wrong direction guys!).
I am near the peak of a nice Ridgetop out in the country which no doubt helps
me somewhat, but the ground here is very poor and rocky, undulating for miles
in all directions and if it weren’t for the terrible electric fence noise
towards EU, with spikes snapping at me every 1.3seconds (which are sometimes
40/9 on 160m)(thankfully this w/e was not quite so bad) I'd actually have a
pretty RF-quiet QTH. (contesting with the noise blanker on when beaming EU is
less than fun in case anyone was wondering if they should try it too--ouch)
WRTC rankings aside, it was still quite interesting to challenge myself and
some credit for this (unique?) idea is given to Gary, VE1RGB for unknowingly
planting the seed some years ago.
I always questioned him why he didn’t buy an amplifier or put up a yagi,
and his generalized condensed answer was that he wanted to see how well he
could do (overall, completely unrelated to WRTC) with 100w and simple antennas.
Gary is also a 100% paddle sent CW op. I don't believe he was at all
interested in WRTC but he placed pretty high in the ranks for 2014 nonetheless,
doing only 100w CW contests. He is currently QRT from radio and I own his old
K3 which was my faithful travel rig to Newfoundland as VO1TTT during a family
holiday. A nice lil' rig, but quite a bit different than the bigger Icoms I've
become accustomed to over the decades.
These last 2 yrs certainly have been a learning experience and I made it my
personal challenge to see if I could do better than my normal half time efforts
or single band entries that I have done in the past. I want to thank all of you
that gave me a Q or two over this time. Lots of great folks there on the
airwaves (and Internet contest forums). I exceeded expectations winning my
fair share of contests and placing fairly well in some others.
Experiment a success !
Had a lot of fun along the way. Won a few, lost a few. Challenged myself.
Made the stn better and hopefully myself into a better contester too. Not sure
what the future will hold or what my next challenge will be. Maybe 70cm QRP
RTTY EME? ;-) Maybe I'll finally put up some towers? Maybe I'll buy a real
amp? Maybe I'll go someplace rare. Who knows. Maybe that is part of the fun.
. .
Thanks for reading all my silly drivel and for all the QSO's. They may be
fleeting, but they are also very welcomed.
Any Team Leaders looking for a WRTC Teammate in Germany in 2018 ?
Any of the 4-square type of antennas can be stackmatched with either the HF9V
or the A3S, which was usually done on 15 or 20m to pick off a 2nd direction.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Antennas for Radio #1:
10m = Is that an HF or VHF band ? ;-D......A3S on a short pipe ..........or
HF9V
15m = Wire 5el K1WA/K3LR SVDA (100% parasitic & homebrew)...or HF9V or A3S
or Delta Loop NE/SW
20m = Wire & Aluminum 4-square (Comtek) ..................or HF9V or A3S or
Delta Loop NE/SW
40m = Wire 4-square in the trees (Comtek) ............or HF9V
80m = Wire 4-square in the trees (Comtek) ..........or HF9V
160m = Wire 2-el array of inverted L’s in the trees (Comtek w/ homebrew
controller)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Antenna for Radio #2
ZS6BKW @avg height ~40' with added 15m inverted vee.......only does
80m/40m/20m/15m/10m & 6m (no WARC or 160m)
No RX antennas
Rigs: 2 x IC-7410’s, YCCC SO2R+ box, N3ZN ZN-9dx paddle, Yamaha CM500
headset, N1MM+ logger (2 small amps when doing HP in select contests)
CU (all of sudden) in the next one!
dit dit
-Mike VE9AA in "NB"
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