OK1RI CQ WW SSB 20m SO/SB
Hello everyone,
I also wanted to come with some remarks on the contest.
Compared to last year our (understand mine and OK1RFs) antennas on 20m were
improved a little bit. We always have had 6Y at 25 m and 4Y at 40m. The second
one was FIX to JA. This yaer the second antenna went up to 52m and is rotary
which created a huge and partly unexpected difference.
The propagation specially on saturday was down to last year - I am of course
not
the first and last one to say so. Here is some quantification. The comparison
can be made only to JAs since the introducing of the "high" ant to the USA made
a huge difference specificaly to zone 3(+200 QSOs !) . This and last year
"claimed" results were/are
1995 3125 40 150 1 478 960 JA 424 W+VE 1565 EU 792
1996 2909 39 165 1 442 688 JA 293 W+VE 1395 EU 826
The propagation to JA was pure, all the stations on the short past (about 50%
of
the lot) were weak and even the big guns did not deliver to EU reasoanble
signal. The rest i.e. about 50% of the stations came on the long pass and only
there were some reasonable signals but the propagation was wery short - only
about 30 min. Interesting was that opposed to my expectations the long pass JA
signals were much better on the low antenna !
The W's were in saturday very weeek and even the biggest guns on this earth
like
KC1XX, K5ZD, W3LPL, N2RM, NQ4I, K3LR, KM9P..... were first half of the
afternoon
relatively week so what can be then expected on the small pistol stations -
they
started to come through only after 1500 Z. Real thrill were the zone 3 stations
on the high ant. They were comming after 1530Z "like lions" and I could hear at
all on the "low" (80ft 6Y) only about 2-3 out of every 10 stations !!!!! On the
other hand the "short" Ws were on the high antenna barely audible again some 3
of 10.
It is hard to guess but I thing that with my last year antennas I would score
less then 2400 QSOs.
I finished in saturday with 350 QSOs less than previous year, in sunday about
100 more. My best hour this year was 154 QSO, with 13 hours over 100 and only 3
hours over 150. Last year it was 191 QSO with 14 hours over 100 and 7 over 150.
In CW part OK1RF will pilote the station again probably on 20m.
73 !
Jiri OK1RI
>From kc2x@nebula.ispace.com (Steve Sacco KC2X) Thu Oct 31 10:00:29 1996
From: kc2x@nebula.ispace.com (Steve Sacco KC2X) (Steve Sacco KC2X)
Subject: KC2X 15M SOHP (Long)
Message-ID: <199610311009.FAA31258@nebula.ispace.com>
I began the contest with an enthusiasm level approaching zero. Although the
gear was all turned on and ready to go, I found myself watching T.V. ten
minutes before the 'test, not even sure I was going to enter the fray.
Dragging myself away from the horrible dreck that is network T.V., I found
myself listening to a profoundly dead band. The only signals heard were
some
stateside stations. I ended up chatting for a short time with Doug, K1DG at
KC1XX.
Saturday morning began as expected - no signals. As daylight approached,
the
usual opening to Africa, followed by the big EU multiop stations began
making
their way across The Pond. For awhile, it seemed that this was as good as
conditions were going to get. I began considering More Productive uses for
my weekend; working on the 80M antenna, laying out a Beverage across my
neighbor's property, mowing the lawn,
waxing the car, trimming my nose hair, and so on.
Slowly, however, the band opened up. I found a spot, and started a run.
Okay, maybe it wouldn't be such a boring weekend after all.
It was only a shallow opening into EU. EA, I, and YU mostly. No long path
openings across EU, like last year - I worked ZM2K that way last year, if I
recall. There was good activity from Africa during the afternoon. The late
afternoon and early evening hours ended with a wimper, except for KH0A and
YC9CCB who I managed to break a pileup of stations I could not even hear to
work!
During the day, I had no "feel" for how well or poorly I was doing. A brief
swap of 15M QSO totals, and pep talk with KM9P made me feel a little bit
more
optimistic. Later in the evening, I heard a couple of guys swapping reports
of one of the M/M's 15M QSO totals, and realized that I was not far off of
their pace. This was encouraging; I always use the M/M's as my target,
because it is almost guaranteed that they will beat my effort, but not by so
much that it's not a horse race.
I expected that Sunday morning would be a repeat of Saturday, but soon
realized that conditions had improved quite a bit over the previous day.
6W, 9J were put in the log, adding some nice mults. The band opened into
northern EU, and many G's DL's and F's were put in the log.
At this point in The Cycle, I am thankful for one of the characteristics of
my QTH: a swamp directly in front of my EU stack, and mostly swamp and
wetlands (and almost no human existance) between the antennas and the 30-odd
miles until the Atlantic Ocean is reached. The Sun rises South of this, out
of the main lobe of the stack, and this in combination with the swamps helps
to keep the noise level down very low. Some of the EU stations worked were
at near-ESP levels, but were not difficult to hear!
I kept a sharp lookout for African multipliers - I'd missed 5H3JA on
Saturday, and didn't want to miss him again. Sadly, I did not hear 5H3JA
Sunday, but I was lucky to work J28, XT, S9, FH, 9X. I'd been super lucky
to have
FR/t (Tromelin) call in on Saturday.
No VK was worked on either Friday or Saturday and only five JA's on Saturday
.
I had assumed that there would no JA in the log at all this year, so I was
one happy contester!
Late in the afternoon, I turned my attention and antennas West. Noise from
the Sun was quite loud, and would mask an REALLY weak signals, so I turned
the antennas to the North a bit, to get the Sun noise in a null. This was a
Good Move. Soon I'd worked VK2ARJ. And then a short JA "run" - about 40
stations - followed. The remainder of the evening was spent calling "CQ"
and listening for anything that DIDN'T sound
like atmospheric "hiss".
The very coolest QSO of the weekend was Sunday's V85HG contact. He was so
close to the noise level that I couldn't believe he would actually be able
to hear me, but he did! I heard him for about 10 seconds before, and 90
seconds after our QSO, and never heard him again! The other cool QSOs were
with RA0FW, for zone 19; he called me while I was CQing, was very weak, but
as I'd no expectation for zone 19 this year, I was psyched!
The previously mentioned YC9CCB QSO rates up there, too! He sank below the
noise level shortly after I worked him.
This stuff is fun!
The late batch of JA/VK/ZL and miscellaneous mults worked bumped the QSO
total
to 1,322, close to last year's 1,460. I was happy with the Zone total of 31
, considering Conditions. With 144 countries worked, I was well ahead of
last year's 133, and in general, was not too far off of the M/M totals
posted by KC1XX and N2RM.
Overall: A Good Weekend. I'm glad I let the nose hair trimming wait until
after the 'test.
73,
Steve KC2X
--
<< kc2x@nebula.ispace.com | http://www2.ispace.com/~kc2x >>
>From rrossi@btv.ibm.com (Ronald D Rossi) Thu Oct 31 11:54:31 1996
From: rrossi@btv.ibm.com (Ronald D Rossi) (Ronald D Rossi)
Subject: Detailed Info on USGS Maps...surfs up!
Message-ID: <9610311154.AA32495@btv.ibm.com>
>>>Steve Runyon WQ5G 512-838-7008 said:
...
> My local map company sells them for $6, but last time when they were
> out of a map that I needed, I managed to get the phone number of the...
How about http://www-nmd.usgs.gov/esic/usimage/dealers.html to get at a list
of dealers of USGS products. A complete list and description of products is
at http://www-nmd.usgs.gov/www/products/1product.html.
--
73 de N1PBT...ron (rrossi@btv.ibm.com) <><
Ron Rossi H/P SRAM Engineering -- IBM Microelectronics
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