Through good luck and a great deal of kindness & help from local hams, I
was able to operate about 14 hours of WW Phone on Sunday from HZ1AB.
(Thanks, guys!) Notes on the contest...
Saturday: I have to work. By the time I rent a car Saturday evening,
it's too late to get to the station. At 5am Sunday I leave the hotel for
the 450km drive to HZ1AB. By 10:30am I've cleared security and been
escorted to the station.
0730z 10m QSO#210:
Other operators worked 20m and 40m yesterday. I start on 10m, figuring
to pick up lots of 3-point Europeans and many multipliers on an un-used
band.
Spend 10 minutes S&P to see if any unusual multipliers can be easily
found. But it is slow to break pileups one by one, and none of the
multipliers are particularly rare. Call CQ: lots of Europe, Africa,
central/northern Asia... nice rates... good signals... a conventional 10m
opening: time to bulk up the log with 3-point QSOs. No point in searching
harder for multipliers - there's almost nothing to multiply yet! Add 100
QSOs to the log here.
0815z 15m QSO#318:
And the 15m log is empty too. Take time to add QSOs on this virgin band.
Too early for the US. I'm surprised at the number of Indonesian stations
active: dozens (unlike the "few" that I hear from a US east coast location).
Old east coast habits intrude: I get a little thrill when a YB calls and
says "Zone 28", even after the 25th one. After 200 QSOs with steady rates,
I become increasingly uneasy about neglecting 10m for so long. The time to
build up QSO volume is limited on 10m. Openings can be short to new
multipliers.
0930z 10m QSO#530:
Rates are slower: another 70 Qs in 30 minutes. At 10z my chaperon has to
go to work. This is a military base and I'm not allowed to remain at the
station unsupervised. A new chaperon will be available in 3 hours. I leave
the base for lunch at a hotel and nap on the lobby sofa, with an issue of
"QEX" open on my lap to an article on DSP transceivers (a.k.a. Kachina).
1330z 10m QSO#602:
Back in the shack. Propagation is great for 10m: some Caribbean
multipliers are already around as daylight works its way northwest across
zones 7 & 8 towards North America. YBs, 9M8R, and K9AW/DU6 call in: wow!
It's 3 hours after sunset there, and they can still work on 10m! Then KC1XX
calls at 1338! WOW! 10m opening to the USA! Seven minutes later I realize
the radio powered up on 15m, not 10. Taking that nap was apparently not a
good idea: still fog-brained. Fix the log, change bands to the real 10m,
feel stupid.
1345z 10m (really!) QSO#641:
Opened to North America already, with K4LM calling at 1358z. But no
other North Americans call until VE1YX at 1438z. I was initially very
surprised to start with someone that far north... until I looked more
carefully at the map. The entire east coast, from Florida through Nova
Scotia, has the same beam heading to/from HZ: 46 degrees/314 degrees. If
the North Atlantic will open up for 28 MHz to HZ, then probably everyone
along the coastline will be able to work us, with the Canadian Maritime
provinces at the near end. N4TO, WB4OSN, VY2SS, K1ZM, and WA4MSU all showed
up in the next 15 minutes. And that was it for North America! The band
shuts down in that direction (over Europe) quickly... by 1500z I couldn't
even work Europeans any more. No big packet-cluster driven pileup from
the USA. It really reinforced the lesson of how short 10m openings can be
to some parts of the world! I have no idea where the US multi-multis were
during those 15 minutes...
Local sunset occurred just a few minutes after 15z. I hunted around for
the rest of the South American and African multipliers.... and ran out by
1530z. No worry: 15m should still be working.
15m 1530z QSO#822:
Wrong! Worked C56T at 1538 and that was it. No Europe. No US. Boy,
when the sun sets, the bands close and they close quickly! I really had
expected a lingering F-layer ionization over SE Europe to have kept 15m open
a bit longer. This leaves the log heavy with 110 more QSOs on 10m than on
15m... and disproportionately light on 15m multipliers: 74 on 15m (one for
every 3.4 QSOs) but 92 on 10m (one for every 3.9 QSOs). Too late to do
anything about it now... and it was worth the risk: great to have picked up
North American multipliers on 10m.
20m 1540z QSO#823:
The expected European pileup. A few USA west coast weak but calling in
on the long path: a cool opening that worked until at least 1630z and which
I remember learning about at YK0A. But it never opened further east than
zone 3. And no one on US east coast is calling me, even though it is Sunday
morning and I should be fresh meat. Run Europeans and western Asia, with
the occasional JA. In 45 minutes European signals get very weak... and the
band then closes to Europe. Wow - very sudden & distressing. The QSO total
here is less than on 10m and 15m! But it's good motivation to get on 40m:
totals are low on that band too and now it is really dark from Europe across
Asia.
40m 1630z QSO#926:
VR2HK is first QSO on the band - easy double multiplier! Run Europeans
and the occasional Asian.
80m 1745z QSO#1029:
No QSOs on this band to date. Call hard to work OK2RZ; can't work anyone
else... even loud S5's and IT9's ignore me. Conclude that the antenna is
ineffective. Paul G7SLP, my chaperon and logging companion, rigs an 80m
inverted L in the dark between two towers. 45 minutes later running Europe
and west Asia at a modest rate but everything is a multiplier. No real
propagation surprises. Run out of multipliers and quit the band as the rate
isn't fast enough to justify staying longer.
40m 1855z QSO#1052:
Slow slog. Keep nodding off in front of the radio (and Paul) - very
embarrassing. Step out for fresh air. Chug along.
80m 1940z QSO#1088:
Back for more mults, knowing that this band will finish very short on
QSOs relative to the others. Rate is higher than last time on this band and
signals from western Europe are louder as D-layer evaporates. Try 160m at
20z but can't raise anyone on the 80m antenna. No 160m antennas.
40m 2100z QSO#1161:
One more time. Maybe US will open early. Nope... very slow for a
half-hour. Give up. Not enthused about beating my head against the wall on
80m either. Check 20m for any fluky after-midnight openings.
20m 2130z QSO#1171:
Work CU3DJ. Find a few South Americans, some Caribbean mults:
fortunately it is Sunday so the big guns have worked down their raging North
American pileups of Saturday afternoon and there are little gaps when I can
be heard. Surprised to work N4TO and W4AN. Maybe should check out 15m?
15m 2200z QSO#1182: Was a nice idea, but... Work CP8XA and CP6AA for
multipliers. Nothing else. Don't really want to beat my head against the
wall on 40m again. Back to 20m.
20m 2210z QSO#1184: Call CQ. Some Europeans... then W4MYA, K3LR (dupe),
W9RE (dupe), K2TR, W4AB, W3BGN (dupe)... Nice to hear the US, but strange:
North America is Very Loud. Then the packet-cluster hurricane begins. Rate
meter goes up as far as 500. Now I remember: This is the "agony opening"
from the US end. 46 hours into the contest, and suddenly a new multiplier
shows up from the night side of the globe on 20m. Huge pileups form on the
few rare stations: do you keep trying to break through? Check back later,
hoping that the pileup is smaller, the multiplier is still there, and
propagation is improving?
There are a few Europeans, but probably most Europeans are on the lower
bands. The real signal strength is to the Americas. And the Australians
also show up at their sunrise long path opening to the east coast of North
America, and work me along the way, too. It stops abruptly: at 2357z I
worked 8 US stations in that minute. At 2358z I work only OL7W. Nothing
after that. Was fun!
40m 2300z QSO#1333: Run Europeans and some North Americans on 40m till the
end. Then Paul and I step outside: it's 3AM. Everything is quiet on the
base. The moon set already but I admire the antennas in the starlight. We
shake hands and drive off. I retrieve my passport from the guard office and
start west across the desert towards Riyadh. Twilight forms in the rear
view mirror. Home is far away, but the contest has made my radio friends
seem nearer.
totals:
band Q z c
160 0 0 0
80 96 10 35
40 296 16 63
20 388 28 84
15 254 19 57
10 361 20 72
==============
1,394 93 311 = 1,576,408
==========
I'm real curious about this late night 20m opening. Why does the band
close for almost 5 hours, and then re-open at 2 AM? Why are US signals so
much louder during this opening, compared to the "normal" full-daylight
path? Europeans are a lot weaker at this time. I suspect there is some
interesting ray geometry occurring at this time. Has anyone looked into
this?
-- Eric R3/K3NA
scace@uu.net
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