N2IC/0 CQWW Phone Long Report
n2ic at bighorn.dr.lucent.com
n2ic at bighorn.dr.lucent.com
Mon Nov 11 21:49:46 EST 1996
After reading the very interesting CQWW Phone reports from K3ZO, YB9BV and
K5ZD/1, I think it's time to add the black hole perspective .....
Two weeks before the contest, I was notably unenthused. Last year, we
had exceptional conditions, considering the solar flux. However, this year
we were in the middle of the longest spotless period in 52 years ! On
top of that, we were plagued by recurrent coronal holes injecting their own
flavor of charged particles into the ionosphere.
Saturday night before the contest, a very strong line noise suddenly
appeared. We're talking about S9+40 dB on 80 meters listening on the dipole,
and even S5 or higher on all of the beverages ! This is terrible ! On
Sunday I dragged the XYL around the area, and isolated the problem to a
line of poles about a mile away. I tried gently tapping on the poles with
a sledge hammer (not recommended...you didn't really hear me say that !),
but the noise was unaffected. On Monday morning, I was on the phone to
the local power company. On Tuesday, they committed to
coming out to look at the problem on Wednesday afternoon. This is cutting
it close. After tightening hardware on a pole in my yard (which I knew
wasn't the cause of the noise), the power company agreed it was a
particular pole about a mile away. Unfortunately, they needed a different
crew to work on a "hot" pole (it serves an industrial park which could
not be subjected to a power outage). On Thursday morning I was on the phone
to higher management at the power company - they sent a properly trained
crew out on Thursday afternoon and replaced a defective lightning arrestor.
Thankfully, that was the end of that noise. Thanks are also due to K0RF
for lending me an "SEM QRM Eliminator" - a box similar to an ANC-4 noise
canceller. It works very well over a narrow frequency range when carefully
adjusted.
After the line noise scare, I just HAD to get serious about the contest.
>From here in Colorado, CQWW always begins with running JA on the highest
open band(s). In fact, it is quite normal to have a higher score than
the east coast for the first 12 hours. Then, of course, their Europe
openings let them run away with the contest. 5 minutes before the start,
there was lots of Pacific and South America on 15, but absolutely no JA.
I started on 20 meters - 14151 to be exact - with one of the best hours
I have had from Colorado. I had 40 QSO's in the first 8 minutes, and 153
QSO's for the hour. I never came close to breaking 100 QSO's in any of the
remaining 47 hours. In addition ZF, YB9BV, 9M8R and DU were good mults.
I also worked AH8A on the 2nd radio on 15. Before the end of the first
hour, 20 virtually died to JA. I spent a few minutes just after 01Z
working a little Europe on 40 (before the MUF dropped too low), as well as
FR5DX for a nice double multiplier. Then it was back to 20 to S&P
South America and Carribbean until 0200Z.
I spent the 02Z hour doing S&P on 20 and 40 - nothing really exciting.
Europe was gone on 40. It was nice to get ZS and Zone 38 out of the way
early on 40. Some years this has been tough. Just before 0300Z, I
jumped to 15, and was very surprised to find some signals. Nothing very
loud, but I did work JA, VK6, FK5 and DU for multipliers. I also made my
first trip to 160, but it wasn't very productive - just PJ9E and V26B
worked. I spent the rest of the 03Z hour working South America on 40.
I finally hit 80 meters seriously for the first time at 0432Z. I don't
like going to 80 too early - the pileups on common DX aren't worth
wasting time on until the propagation starts to favor those of us with
low gain antennas. I heard absolutely nothing on 80 from Europe. Maybe
EU sunrise will be better. I spent the 05Z and 06Z hours S&Ping on
160, 80, 40 and 20. CP, KH8, VK9NS and ZS1ESC were good ones on 20.
Nothing exciting on 40. EA8 and CT3 were as close to Europe as I got
on 80. A bunch of Carribbean was worked on 160. Europe sunrise was a
non-event on 80. I heard ON4UN and EA7BA for a 5 minute period at their
sunrise. No QSO !
0644Z to 0707Z was fun - I worked 26 stations on 20 - mostly VK/ZL, and
calls from VP8 and A3. Around 0730Z I noticed the JA's seemed louder than
usual on 80. I sat on 3794 for about 20 minutes and worked 16 JA's as
well as ZL, KH8 and KL7. Moving NL7J to 160 was fun ! I spent the 08Z
hour running a little more VK/ZL on 20, with T30EG calling in. Moved
him to 40 ! It seemed that the JA MUF was below 40 meters - only the
big guns were heard. As often happens, the JA MUF bounces up and down
through the night around 40 meters. I finally got a fair run (more like
a crawl) going to JA on 40 at 0926Z, continuing until 1206Z. We're not
talking big rate here - those 2.5 hours only earned about 90 QSO's, including
a number of 2nd radio QSO's on 80 (VK9NS being the best catch).
Around 10Z, I noticed some precipatation static come up - the pop-pop
kind that is easily taken care of by the noise blanker. It was raining
for a change (October averages less than 1 inch of precipatation). Over
the next two hours, the noise got worse. Suddenly, at 1215Z, I had
S-meter pinning static and hiss on all bands. I looked outside to see
a genuine blizzard - visibility of about 100 feet and sideways blowing snow.
I had no choice but to QRT, disconnect all antennas before front-end damage
occurred and wait out the storm. How frustrating to miss the critical
sunrise period ! I finished the first 12 hours with 531 QSO's.
I was back on at 1338Z. Still couldn't hear anything on 40, but the KT-34A
spotting antenna was pretty quiet. The KT-34XA stack was even quieter -
so quiet, it had 3:1 SWR, and a negative F/B ratio ! The blizzard put
a thick coating of snow/sleet/slush all over it. All I could do was
work what I could on the KT-34A, wait and hope !
The 20 meter Europe opening was nothing to brag about. All I could do
was S&P the big guns. At least there are a lot of them. I caught the
massive 15 meter EU opening beginning at 1524Z. Thanks goodness for all
the EA and CT activity, because that was all that I worked in Europe.
Made my first 10 meter QSO's at 1530Z. I should have spent more time then -
the band was open to Carribbean and South America. I erroneously assumed
that 10 would still be open in the afternoon, when there was no Europe
to work on any band. I never heard any of the Africans on 10 meters that
K5ZD spoke of. Lots of good African multipliers on 15, however - S0,
3DA, FR, 9J, 7P, CN, ZD8 to name a few. The last of the 15 meter EA's was
worked at 1643Z. I spent the next few hours grinding out S&P QSO's on 20
and 15. Nothing on 10 ! The closest thing I had to a 20 meter EU run
was 13 QSO's on 14326 from 1831Z-1849Z and 38 QSO's on 14251 from
1917Z-1951Z - 5R8EE and GD4PTV did call me for great multipliers, however.
I spent the next 90 minutes doing S&P on 20 and 15. It was amazing to find
5H3CA on 14328 and 5H3JA on 14331 at the same time - neither with a pileup.
5N0MVE was 2 kHz about 5H3JA, also.
20 meters took off to JA beginning at 2121Z. I did nothing but run JA, and
S&P on the 2nd radio on other bands from 2121Z until 0030Z. KG4AN called
me during the JA run, saving me the agony of his unseemly pileups. While
the JA opening was great, the opening didn't go deeper - absolutely nothing
called me from DU, VS6, XX, HS, BY. Wierd. I caught the 8 minute 15
meter JA opening at 2215Z. Then they were gone. RA0BK called on 20 at
2250Z for Zone 18. Day 1 ended with 1060 QSO's.
The JA opening died promptly at 0030Z. I found Marti at XX9X at 0043Z.
The opening stunk - he was S4. I called for 5 minutes before I got a QRZ
out of Marti. He picked up on the "N2" right away and then started guessing
calls until he guessed "N2IC" and I said "Roger Roger Roger". He commented
that I was the weakest he had ever heard me. Great for my morale ! I
spent a few more minutes doing Europe S&P on 40 before collapsing for
4 hours (except for the blizzard, my first and only off time).
I felt really good after 4 hours of very sound sleep. I checked 80 at 0500Z
and worked a very loud TM1C. Maybe the EU sunrise opening will be good !
Wrong - as sunrise marched westward, the EU stations got weaker. TM1C
was to be the only EU worked on 80 - the worst showing I have had on 80
ever. I probably slept through the best Europe. ZD8Z was a nice 160 meter
catch at 0510Z. The rest of the 05Z and 06Z hours were slow. Another
nice 20 meter VK opening cheered me up from 0730Z to 0800Z. At 0824Z
I noticed that 3794 was clear, and the JA's were strong. 45 JA's were
worked in the next 45 minutes. A Zone 2 VE8 also called. Not bad for
a low gain antenna. I started a good 40 meter JA crawl at 0913Z.
DU9RG called at 0916Z. I moved him to 80 for a great QSO - I have never
heard him stronger on 80. YB1AQS called on 40 at 1059Z - thanks !
I finally heard my first VK at 1135Z - VK6HD on 3694 listening up. He
was not strong then, but was much better near our sunrise (around 1325Z).
The 12Z hour was unusually poor - only 9 QSO's. In fact, I see a 33
minute period with no QSO's - Did I fall asleep ? I don't remember.
I ventured a few CQ's on 160 at sunrise hoping for VK/ZL, but "only" scared
up KH8AL for a double multiplier. I had 1284 QSO's at 1200Z.
I had an easier QSO with XX9X on 40 meters at 1314Z. I heard XX9X on 80
meters for a lengthy period around sunrise, but couldn't even get a QRZ
out of him. 40 meter long path yielded no QSO's, but I heard a few
Russians who weren't listening in the USA band. This was also the only
time I heard HS1AZ the entire weekend. He was listening 7190, but the
propagation just wasn't there.
The 20 meter Europe opening was much better on Sunday. I had decent
runs from 1438Z-1518Z and 1637Z-1834Z. It sure was nice of the east
coast to go to 15 meters and leave a few holes for us on 20 ! Lots of
new mults went into the log during these runs - ES, HB0, C3, EX, 5B,
LZ(!), LA, PA(!), EU, UK8, 4X. Nothing like the stuff that called Randy,
however. 15 did open a little to Europe - mostly a weak opening. If
you draw a line from England to Slovenia, I worked most countries west
of that line. East of that line I worked nothing - not even a DL !
It was frustrating listening to 5Z4RL go by call areas on 15. Never did
work him or any Zone 37 on 15. Zone 37 can be tough from here - It's
more like a Europe path to the northeast than an African east-west path.
NH2G called me on 20 at 2039Z, and we moved to 15 - he was loud - maybe
there is hope for a good JA run on 15 to finish the contest. Also worked
WH0AAV on 15 about that time.
Started a JA run on 20 at 2141Z, with the 2nd radio tuning 15, waiting
for the JA opening. It never happened ! It was particularly frustrating
listening to KC7V (Arizona) and KC2X/4 (Florida) working JA's I couldn't
tell were there. The 20 meter far east path finally opened in the last 2 hours
with back-to-back QSO's with VS96BG and VS6WO. I also found BY4SZ at
2340Z. The last 10 minutes of the contest were the grand finale on 40
meters - HA, CT and LZ (double mult) were new multipliers. Of course, I
did dupe EA6IB in my excitement.
All-in-all it was a fun contest. Not as much fun as last year. At least
the 5 beverages make the low bands tolerable, and my transmit signal is
good enough to work most of what I hear on all bands. Maybe another
top-10 USA performance - that's what I really strive for. Thanks to many
of the east coast guys who go to M/S and M/M stations, allowing a few
of us west of the Hudson River to sneak into the top-10 !
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults N2IC CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... 3/2 144/16 6/5 ..... 153/23 153/23
1 . . 7/6 40/8 . . 47/14 200/37
2 . . 19/16 11/0 2/2 . 32/18 232/55
3 4/4 1/1 14/7 8/1 5/4 . 32/17 264/72
4 2/2 10/10 5/3 11/3 . . 28/18 292/90
5 7/5 10/7 5/2 6/5 . . 28/19 320/109
6 6/5 11/6 . 19/3 . . 36/14 356/123
7 5/2 23/6 11/7 6/1 . . 45/16 401/139
8 ..... 5/2 12/6 14/1 ..... ..... 31/9 432/148
9 2/1 4/4 30/4 . . . 36/9 468/157
10 . 5/0 14/2 . . . 19/2 487/159
11 . 3/1 37/1 . . . 40/2 527/161
12 . . 5/0 . . . 5/0 532/161
13 . . 1/1 7/4 9/8 . 17/13 549/174
14 . . . 54/30 . . 54/30 603/204
15 . . . 21/4 10/7 6/6 37/17 640/221
16 ..... ..... ..... 2/0 23/14 ..... 25/14 665/235
17 . . . 9/1 20/9 6/1 35/11 700/246
18 . . . 24/3 11/5 6/3 41/11 741/257
19 . . . 35/4 9/6 . 44/10 785/267
20 . . . 11/6 26/2 2/2 39/10 824/277
21 . . . 81/5 . . 81/5 905/282
22 . . . 68/3 7/1 . 75/4 980/286
23 . . 3/3 69/1 . . 72/4 1052/290
0 ..... ..... 6/4 16/1 ..... ..... 22/5 1074/295
1 . . . . . . . 1074/295
2 . . . . . . . 1074/295
3 . . . . . . . 1074/295
4 . 1/1 1/0 . . . 2/1 1076/296
5 3/2 7/1 3/1 . . . 13/4 1089/300
6 1/1 8/5 5/2 . . . 14/8 1103/308
7 . 2/0 4/0 11/0 . . 17/0 1120/308
8 ..... 30/1 19/1 3/0 ..... ..... 52/2 1172/310
9 . 12/2 39/0 . . . 51/2 1223/312
10 . . 36/2 . . . 36/2 1259/314
11 . 4/1 8/2 . . . 12/3 1271/317
12 1/0 1/0 5/0 2/1 . . 9/1 1280/318
13 3/1 2/1 4/1 11/3 . . 20/6 1300/324
14 . . . 59/6 . . 59/6 1359/330
15 . . . 18/1 25/11 . 43/12 1402/342
16 ..... ..... ..... 37/2 2/1 ..... 39/3 1441/345
17 . . . 62/1 2/2 . 64/3 1505/348
18 . . . 21/1 5/3 . 26/4 1531/352
19 . . . 13/2 5/1 . 18/3 1549/355
20 . . . 9/2 8/1 . 17/3 1566/358
21 . . . 25/2 4/1 2/1 31/4 1597/362
22 . . . 57/2 3/2 . 60/4 1657/366
23 . . 7/3 39/3 . . 46/6 1703/372
DAY1 26/19 72/37 166/60 640/99 128/63 20/12 ..... 1052/290
DAY2 8/4 67/12 137/16 383/27 54/22 2/1 . 651/82
TOT 34/23 139/49 303/76 1023/126 182/85 22/13 . 1703/372
--
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