[3830] K5ZD (W2SC op) ARRL CW (Long)
Georgens, Tom
tgeorgen at ppdpost.ks.symbios.com
Tue Mar 4 23:51:00 EST 1997
Call: K5ZD (W2SC op) Country: United States
Mode: CW Category: Single Operator
BAND QSO COUNTRIES
160 102 46
80 460 65
40 834 87
20 1432 92
15 145 58
10 2 2
------------------------
Totals 2975 350 = 3,123,750
When Randy, K5ZD, announced that he would not be operating the ARRL
DX contests I immediately informed him that I would be glad to put
his station on the air if he was offering. He said that SSB was a
sure thing and he would let me know about CW. Ultimately, both
weekends were available and I was not about to let the opportunity
pass.
I flew out from my current QTH in Kansas on Thursday night to set up
my FT1000D as the primary radio and his 765 as the second radio. I
also wanted to use my own two radio switching arrangement as I tried his
split headphone solution in last year's ARRL SSB and could never use
it effectively. I am impressed by those (K5ZD, N4VJ, et. al.) who can
use this scheme. It did not take long to get the stuff working and
the station was more or less set. Randy had two suggestions however.
First, he wanted to use the computer to run the FT1000D. I did not have
the RS-232 interface for the FT1000D and did not think it was necessary
for CW (On SSB it is invaluable for 40/80 splits). Nonetheless, he had
a KIY box and it worked flawlessly. He also has a problem with his
computer where the CT screen would mysteriously change colors at random
times. He suggested using my laptop at the computer to drive his
keyboard and monitor. Once again he had it running in short order. Despite
the warnings about Windows 95 and CT, everything looked fine.
On Friday, the plan was to do some errands in the morning, have lunch
with a friend, and sleep in the afternoon. When I returned to Randy's
house for the nap, I found that my key did not work and I was locked
outside in the freezing rain. I got pretty soaked as I repeatedly circled
his house trying to find a lock where the key would operate. No amount of
swearing would make it work. Not knowing what to do, I decided to drive
to my house in a neighboring town that I have rented and asked the tenants
if I could crash there for a few hours. Everything worked out and we
all had a good laugh when I got back to Randy's
Everything seemed all set to start the contest when the computer hung as
I tried to program the CW messages. I restarted the computer and the
same thing happened. At this point it was minutes before the start and
I was starting to get concerned. After trying several things, I finally
decided to go back to Randy's computer notwithstanding the funny monitor
colors. It had now passed 0000Z and I was not ready. When Randy's
computer would not send either, I started to panic. Just then, Randy came
home
from work and he got things working. I had not made a Q yet and I was
already mentally spent.
My first Q was at 0015 but I did manage 85 Q's in the first hour. 40
essentially quit at 0130 and I was off to 80. The 02Z hour produced 89
Q's on 80 and I was starting to feel pretty good again. Things played
well all night on 80 and 160 but the 40 meter European sunrise opening
was nearly non-existent.
20 opened at about 11Z and I managed to run off 1237 station in the next
12 hours. Around 13Z I started to listen to the multis attempting to run
on 15. The rate on 20 was huge and but I did not want to miss the 15 meter
opening. I lost last years ARRL SSB partly by passing on a mediocre
15 meters to run on 20 and not getting another chance at the multipliers
when
the band did not open at all on Sunday. I finally jumped to 15 but could
not get much going. I had good but not great rate. I eventually went back
to
twenty and returned to 15 later. As it turned out, there was to be no real
15 meters on the following day.
In the mean time they kept calling on twenty. The continuous action all day
and
the ease at which I could get and hold a frequency were incredible. One
time
when Randy stopped by to check the score, I simple told him that his 20
meter signal was obscene. 20 wilted at around 1930 and it was off to 40
where
I had only had about 200 Q's the first night. I worked around 400 Q's on
40 in the next five hours. I had 1850/272 at the split and things felt
good.
I managed to keep things going on 80 and 160 including running about 30
stations
on 160 in the 5Z hour. The dreaded 8,9,and 10Z hours produced a total of
12 Q's and 8 mults. In this period I took a refreshing 15 minute nap.
Twenty returned at 11Z and things started hopping again. It shut down a
little
earlier on Sunday I went to 40 shortly after 19Z (2PM local). I knew that
W1KM
was going to be tough to beat so I promised myself not to let down and push
full bore to the end. The last few hours finished with 63, 59, 44, and 48
Q's.
I left Randy's not knowing W1KM's score and my anticipation rose until mid
week
when I learned the disappointing news that I had been beaten by about 70K
points.
While I had a 60 Q edge, I was 16 mults behind. I was clear that I had not
pushed
the second radio hard enough. All it would have taken was 8 more countries.
I actually got to compare notes with Greg on the Thursday before the SSB
'test
(a subject of another story). After a contesters ritual of exchanging
excuses
(he had a computer crash during a 20 meter run, I lost 15 minutes at the
beginning,
he could only do 700 watts on 80, I did not have a gain antenna on 80, etc)
we
compared notes. On the first day, he went to 15 early, got good rate, and
worked
many Q's and mults that I never got. At the midpoint I had a slight lead
but he
had a big hour on 160 at 01Z and worked 30 mults. I never had the lead
again.
It is always fascinating to compare notes. Although 48 hours is a long
time,
every decision is vital and all it takes is a couple mistakes or missed
openings
to spell the difference. It is clear that one must make every minute useful
and
repeatedly reassess whether you are doing the most productive (Score
maximizing)
thing possible.
In the end, there are no excuses, skill and experience prevailed, and that
is the
way it should be. Congratulations to W1KM on a fine effort.
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults K5ZD ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... 85/21 ..... ..... ..... 85/21 85/21
1 . 36/19 40/10 8/6 . . 84/35 169/56
2 . 89/12 1/1 . . . 90/13 259/69
3 19/15 25/2 6/5 . . . 50/22 309/91
4 9/6 26/2 10/6 . . . 45/14 354/105
5 6/5 33/2 3/2 . . . 42/9 396/114
6 3/2 45/5 1/0 . . . 49/7 445/121
7 1/0 9/6 34/6 . . . 44/12 489/133
8 ..... 3/3 12/5 ..... ..... ..... 15/8 504/141
9 . 2/1 8/5 . . . 10/6 514/147
10 . 2/0 4/0 24/16 . . 30/16 544/163
11 . . 1/1 132/22 . . 133/23 677/186
12 . . . 143/7 . . 143/7 820/193
13 . . . 113/2 . . 113/2 933/195
14 . . . 38/1 60/22 . 98/23 1031/218
15 . . . 61/2 32/4 . 93/6 1124/224
16 ..... ..... ..... 89/3 11/3 ..... 100/6 1224/230
17 . . . 86/2 8/8 . 94/10 1318/240
18 . . . 78/1 5/4 1/1 84/6 1402/246
19 . . . 63/2 5/2 . 68/4 1470/250
20 . . 65/9 26/1 4/2 . 95/12 1565/262
21 . . 125/0 . . . 125/0 1690/262
22 . . 86/4 5/4 . . 91/8 1781/270
23 . . 66/0 3/2 . . 69/2 1850/272
0 ..... ..... 54/3 3/1 ..... ..... 57/4 1907/276
1 10/4 31/3 11/1 . . . 52/8 1959/284
2 3/1 30/2 . . . . 33/3 1992/287
3 8/3 7/0 . . . . 15/3 2007/290
4 4/1 33/1 1/0 . . . 38/2 2045/292
5 30/5 . 3/2 . . . 33/7 2078/299
6 4/1 46/1 . . . . 50/2 2128/301
7 1/0 23/1 1/1 . . . 25/2 2153/303
8 ..... 2/2 1/0 ..... ..... ..... 3/2 2156/305
9 2/2 . 2/0 . . . 4/2 2160/307
10 2/1 1/1 2/2 . . . 5/4 2165/311
11 . . . 75/1 . . 75/1 2240/312
12 . . . 110/2 . . 110/2 2350/314
13 . . . 81/2 1/1 . 82/3 2432/317
14 . . . 72/1 . . 72/1 2504/318
15 . . . 65/1 2/1 . 67/2 2571/320
16 ..... ..... ..... 55/2 3/3 1/1 59/6 2630/326
17 . . . 56/2 2/1 . 58/3 2688/329
18 . . . 22/1 7/3 . 29/4 2717/333
19 . . 30/1 11/0 3/3 . 44/4 2761/337
20 . . 60/1 1/1 2/1 . 63/3 2824/340
21 . . 55/0 4/4 . . 59/4 2883/344
22 . . 42/1 2/1 . . 44/2 2927/346
23 . 17/2 25/0 6/2 . . 48/4 2975/350
DAY1 38/28 270/52 547/75 869/71 125/45 1/1 ..... 1850/272
DAY2 64/18 190/13 287/12 563/21 20/13 1/1 . 1125/78
TOT 102/46 460/65 834/87 1432/92 145/58 2/2 .
2975/350s
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