VAA21285
Sender: owner-cq-contest@contesting.com
Precedence: bulk
X-Sponsor: W4AN, KM3T, N5KO & AD1C
W4AN WPX CW 1997
I always thought that keeping in shape helped my contesting. Something
about the pain of working out that makes staying awake for a contest much
easier in my estimation. Unfortunately, this year I managed to blow a tire
on my bicycle going down a mountain pass while negotiating a turn. At 35
MPH, you can imagine what my backside looked like. The accident happened 2
weeks prior to the contest, but at the start I was still sitting on just
one side of my butt and trying not to aggravate my sore ribs.
As usual, I stop drinking and eating caffeine two weeks before the contest
and don't use it during the contest either. It really paid off this time.
I had no problem staying awake or getting up when I did sleep.
The weekend before the contest I spent a great deal of time getting my 80M
4-square ready. This was all for about 50 QSO's the entire weekend.
Still, I had no problem being heard by the Europeans I called. I tried a
few CQ's on 80M, but with no answers.
Last year we were plagued by thunderstorms the entire weekend. On Sunday
afternoon, 20M sounded more like 40M and I packed it in early with the
approach of big thunderstorm. This year my luck changed. Though it was
rainy most of the weekend, there were no major thunderstorms in the area
either night.
I have always started this contest on 20M. This year I decided the big
numbers come from the guys with big low band numbers. And, though I can't
make up for the location advantage of the guys in the northeast, I decided
I would start on 40M this year.
After reading KE2PF (Now N2NL)'s post contest report from last year (what a
great score he had!), I decided that it was time to put up some phased
beverages for 40M to Europe. There is no shortage of land here and the
only thing holding me back was time. I put up two beverages that are 225'
long and separated by one-quarter wave on 40M. They run downhill at a
slant to the NE. They are terminated in a quarter wave wire and a 550-ohm
resister. The beverages have been up for the entire 1996 and 1997 season
and have really played great. I use a Palomar preamplifier so I can
control the gain to my beverages. This prevents toxic shock syndrome when
you switch between your transmit antenna and the beverages. I like the
receiver to sound the same when I switch antennas.
Looking at my points per hour breakdown is revealing. Even Saturday night
with the slow rates I would have been better off to operate straight
through to morning working 2X point QSO's than taking an off time. Next
year I will plan to be on the air all night, both nights, and sleep during
the day.
Hour 1 was 123. Wow! I figured I might be around 90 with the new
callsign. Most of the stuff I was working was in Europe and I felt like I
could hear a pin drop. Absolutely no problem copying any of the stations
calling me. I made 20 2nd radio QSO's on 20M. I was surprised the first
night how strong the signals were on 20M. I knew I could make instant rate
if I went there. Instead, I stayed with 40M the entire first night. I
made 2nd radio QSO's on 20 and 80 when I could. By the way, the first hour
was the only hour over 100 for the entire contest.
The first night looks something like this?
UTC 160 80 40 20 15 10 rate total
----------------------------------------------
00Z 0 0 103 20 0 0 123 123
01Z 0 0 72 18 0 0 90 213
02Z 0 12 83 3 0 0 98 311
03Z 0 13 66 0 0 0 79 390
04Z 0 2 63 18 0 0 83 473
05Z 0 0 50 9 0 0 59 532
06Z 0 5 36 4 0 0 45 577
07Z 0 0 42 5 0 0 47 624
08Z 0 0 18 1 0 0 19 643
09Z 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 644
10Z 0 0 8 32 0 0 40 684
I CQ'ed on 40M the entire first night. I tried a few CQ's on 80M but with
no luck. The longer in to the contest it is, the more lazy I get with the
2nd radio. You can see that I make almost 20 QSO's per hour on the 2nd
radio at the beginning but later in the contest the number drops in half.
Generally I think I can make between 15 and 20 QSO's per hour on the 2nd
radio. The key is always listening to that radio and using your mind to
filter which radio you actually want to listen to. I will switch to only
one of the radios if I'm having difficulty hearing a station.
Interestingly I found that I was still running Europeans in the 0600Z hour
on 40M. This is well past sunrise for most of Europe. Most of these
stations were in far west or southwestern Europe. I also started getting
called off the back of the beams by VK's and ZL's.
At 0707Z my first JA called me with the antennas still pointing to Europe.
This is also interesting because at 0700Z the sun is still not down in JA.
I quickly turned the top antenna to JA and began a run of JA's. I take a
30-minute off time at 0810Z (big mistake in hindsight). When I get back on
I continue to run more JA's on 40M. I continue this run until 0900Z when I
take another off time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. I think I should have
gutted it out the entire first night and stayed with whatever rate there
was to JA on 40M even if 20M were opening to Europe. After that I
operated straight through until 0600Z Sunday morning. I really didn't have
much problem staying with it. The motivation seemed to stay with me this
time. I knew I wasn't going to win the contest with KQ2M at K1TTT and N2NL
and N2RM, but the motivation came from doing the best I could. Maybe I
could set the W4 record. Maybe I can beat KT3Y and K3ZO this year. Maybe
it's just fun.
The morning hours are filled with working JA's and Europeans on 20M. I
pointed the 5 element 20 at Japan and used the stack of 204BA's for Europe.
I power divide between the antennas. It really makes a difference when
the bands are open to both JA and Europe at the same time.
By 1300Z it starts to slow down. Only 33 and 35 QSO's on 20M during the
1300 and 1400 hours. The only thing that saved me were 2nd radio QSO's on
15M of 28 and 16 respectively. I'm feeling really good and decide to stay
on regardless of the rate. Even now I feel like that was a pretty good
idea. The first day is always better than the 2nd. At some point in the
morning I wonder across N2NL on 15M. He is running Europeans that I can't
even begin to hear and at a good rate. This is pretty demoralizing and I
decide move on rather than listen to him doing well. J Later in the
afternoon we get a pretty decent opening on 15M to Europe that occurs after
European sunset. During 2000Z and 2100Z I work a total of 100 QSO's with
mostly Europeans. I believe the rate suffered some due to people not
actually checking to see if 15M were open.
At 2200Z I find the bottom of 20M's vacated by KQ2M and decide it's
probably worth leaving 15M for the choice frequency I think it worked out.
I managed 65 QSO's during the 2200Z hour on 20 and another 50 during
2300Z.
I started Cqing on 40M at 0000Z. Before that I don't think I could have
gotten anything going. This seemed to be the case on Sunday night also.
The band really didn't start producing QSO's for me until the 0200Z hour
and stayed fairly consistent through the 0500Z hour. At 0615Z I decide to
take my first major off time of the contest. Again, I know now that I
should have stayed with it and worked the JA's until sunrise but I was
feeling pretty tired at this point and felt like I needed the rest. I got
back on the air at 1045Z and started calling CQ on 20M with very little
luck. I could tell conditions were not the same as Saturday and felt like
it might be a long day. I was glad I had saved 5 hours of off time for
Sunday (day).
1100Z were only 40 QSO's and all but two on 20M. 1300Z were worse with
only 14 QSO's for a full hour's effort. This is really when it sunk in
that I should have stayed awake both nights. With only 28 QSO's in the log
for the 1400Z hour I decide to take the last of my off time in one big
chunk until the afternoon. This worked out pretty well because when I got
back on the air 20M sounded like a totally different band. Signals were
strong from Europe and runs were again possible. I finished the contest
with almost 5 hours of nothing but Cqing on 20M. The 2100Z hour was only
28 QSO's because of OH6HA who blatantly attempted to steal my frequency
with total disregard for my having been there. Only after some very heated
exchanges did he move. He seemed to indicate in our exchange that we
Americans feel like we own the band or some such. Never mind that I had
been there for an hour. It must have been his turn.
I tried Cqing on 40M during the 2300Z hour but with absolutely no luck. It
was frustrating to hear K3ZO and KT3Y working Europeans that I could barely
hear but that I knew would not answer my CQ's. So, I stayed at 14.000.4
for the entire afternoon right up to the end. I worked a few Europeans on
the 2nd radio on 40M but mostly it was the same crowd.
Great contest. Great conditions. Still think 30 hours was more
interesting though.
73
Bill, W4AN
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|