CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2020
Call: ZF2WF
Operator(s): W9KKN
Station: ZF1A
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Grand Cayman
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 395
40: 968
20: 868
15: 286
10: 0
------------
Total: 2517 Prefixes = 801 Total Score = 7,188,174
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
As always, thanks to the generosity of Andrew ZF1EJ for the use of the ZF1A
station with numerous others (Dan N6MJ, Tim N6WIN, Marty NN1C, and John K6AM)
for the support.
After WWSSB, Dan N6MJ and Tim N6WIN had discussed possibly letting me join them
and K6AM (who I hadn't met off-air) for ARRL DX CW this year at ZF1A. But now
that the secret is out, I was hoping to attempt another single-op RTTY contest
again after so many issues with my radios in ARRL RTTY Roundup, and darn it,
wouldn't you know that WPX RTTY just happens to be the weekend before ARRL DX
CW? This would allow me a few days to work on stuff at the station as well as
chance to figure out anything we need to work on before ARRL DX CW.
If you recall, during ARRL RTTY Roundup, I had some real problems with my Flex
Radios to the point where both were essentially dead. Flex was kind enough to
take a close look at the issues, taking my concerns quite seriously and thanks
to the wonderful support of Dan Quigley at Flex (and N6WM for getting me in
touch with him), the team was able to get my racehorses back in working order in
time for this trip.
So how did it turn out? I am happy to report that this one went a lot better!
I was only able to get to the station Thursday with not enough rest, but getting
everything set up with gear that I am familiar with was quick work. I didn't
have as much time to test everything out, but I'm happy to report it was all
mostly working.
Propagation:
At this point in the Solar Cycle, our friends south of ZF1 tend to get a bit
more out of the higher bands than we do, but we are very loud on 40/80m,
particularly into Europe. I should have worked a bit harder on the upper bands,
but I'm pretty sure that P49X had full rate on 15m at least a full 90 minutes
before anyone could even hear me. It's pretty consistent, but not completely; I
had reports that on Sunday I was occasionally louder on 15m, but with less
traffic of course. I'll have to look closely at the RBN reports to know for
sure.
Station Upgrades:
- I was able to bring full GHE control online for the antenna switches and stack
matches. This means that my hands never had a reason to leave the keyboard
during the contest. It also means we'll be able to do this from every operating
position during WW SSB.
- The LBS stacks we put in place in October rock.
Station Issues:
- Turns out that the 80m beam is arcing above certain power levels -- we can now
see what's going on though!
- A few of our rotors are not turning reliably (still) -- in particular, moving
the 80m beam which was stuck on Europe would have been useful the first night --
however, being stuck on Europe wasn't so bad.
Given the standard "continent affiliation bonus" present in CQ contest
scoring, this is looking like a North America win and possibly 3rd or 4th
worldwide. I'm happy with the result and will keep at it!
There are a lot of stations that could use some help on their macros... in
particular, a few things:
1) Stations that send the exchange first to the running station
2) Stations that use "5NN <NR>" instead of "599
<NR>" -- the problem is that when you switch between figures and
letters in RTTY, you're increasing the chance that we'll lose the bits that do
so and the rest of your transmission will be figures or letters
3) Stations that send "599 <NR> 73" -- which one is your
number??
4) At least a couple cases where some software was sending two numbers
incremented ie: "599 123 124"... I don't even know what to do with
this one
Also, be ready for DX stations to stack calls! I'll generally try to pick at
least 3 of you out if I can.
Thanks for the Q's everyone and team ZF1A will see you this weekend in ARRL DX
CW.
Oh, btw, for those wondering, I finally have LoTW sorted on the new call and
will upload shortly...
73,
Bill W9KKN/ZF2WF
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