[3830] VK3TZ 1999 CQWPX SOAB TS HP SCORE

[Jenny Burt]

OPERATOR : 	TONY BURT VK3TZ

SCORE:	  	1708 QSOs, 5292 points, 652 prefixes,     3,450,384 points

OPERATING TIME: At Rig 28.5 hrs		Contest rules : 34.5 hrs
	
EQUIPMENT:	FT-1000MP, FL-2100z (approx 300 W PEP), 486-66, sound card auto CQer

ANTENNAS :	TH6DXX at 50 ft, 40m Rotary Dipole at 54 ft, 80m Sloper

BAND BY BAND:	Area	All	10m	15m	20m	40m	80m	160m

		USA	846	528	82	177	58	1	0
		VE	53	19	13	12	9	0	0
		JA	212	86	54	70	2	0	0

		NA	930	560	103	195	71	1	0
		SA	39	12	13	14	0	0	0
		AF	3	1	1	1	0	0	0
		EU	346	22	20	300	4	0	0
		OC	108	42	28	25	12	1	0
		AS	282	90	69	118	5	0	0

		ALL	1708	727	234	653	92	2	0

MY STORY 1999:

Preparation commenced weeks before but as usual only ended the night
before. My home brew dipole for 40m was rebuilt after the cockatoos
(large birds) destroyed it a couple of years ago. For two years it
looked more like an inverted vee. The birds had sat on it and broken
parts of it. It swung around in the breeze for months and was about to
fall down when I dropped the tower and removed it. The support pole
was worn through in parts.

The neighbors were duly briefed a few days before the test and to my
surprise they all thought it was nice of me to tell them. No
complaints during the test. 10m kills their TVs, telephones, radios
and stereos. EMI regulation in this country is pathetically
inadequate.

30 minutes into the contest my rotator failed... stuck. The antenna
maintenanace had probably stressed it. Four times I climbed the tower
and got it moving a bit but eventually it stopped. Climbed the tower
in the dark and set the TH6 at EU/JA and the 40m dipole on NA/JA. At
1.00 am Sat night checked the spare rotator I had purchased second
hand a year ago. I removed it from the elevation rotator (OSCAR
stuff), re-greased it and set it for where the beam was currently
pointing. Vague thoughts of changing over the rotator in the dark were
dismissed. I went to bed at about 2.30 am and was up at 6.30 am.

It had hailed overnight... the hail was still in the garden... summer
had only ended a day ago, I thought. Skies were threatening. Rotator
in bucket, rope, tools, climb tower. I removed the old rotator insitu
and replaced with the new one. I don't own a harness although I soon
will as my forearms still have bruising from holding on and trying to
undo nuts, bolts and screws. The worst was the cable securing
screws. After about 30 minutes, slight rain. 10 minutes later heavy
rain, ...... I tried to keep positive. At least its not hailing. 10
minutes later hail, but I was determined not to let my bad temper get
to me. It would only lower my score even more. I only dropped one
washer! The job was done in an hour and a half. UUMMMMMM plus a half
hour shower to warm up.

I had borrowed a spare amp, I have a spare rig, computer, mics, leads,
even a spare TH3jnr, but the rotator was the hardest to change over. I
probably lost 3 - 4 hours of good operating time.

In the end I am very happy with the result as I made more Qs than ever
(1705 in 1994).  However, the score was a bit better in 1994 by about
70k. VK4EMMs observations on working everyone off the back or side is
confirmed here. At least one DL who had spent some time in VK
acknowledged how hard it is from VK. BUT I AM AT FAULT TOO.  WHERE DO
I BEAM MOST - USA, JA EU of course. However, I looked for Africa at
time s and called CQ SA quite a bit but only a few signals.

As usual hard to work EU. My antennas don't seem to work on 15m. I
would expect that I would have more Qs on 15m than 10m but could not
get a run going to JA, NA or EU.  The key to a good score from VK is
to work more EU for the prefixes. Note that an equivalent QSO total in
the USA would rate about 100 more mults.

The 1 point rule seems to me to be a great leveller for the USA
stations and a good move as USA now seems on a par with EU for 1 point
QSOs. Pity the rest of us though as I worked only 29 VK stations for
an increase of only about 50k above if they were 0 points. Sorry to
say 99% of VKs who heard me would not know that they would help me if
they worked me.

Despite the solar flus at 105 10m seemed to be in great shape. At last
some huge signals out of USA on 10m. Thanks to all who helped me get
over the wire in the last 10 minutes of the test with a rate of over
200/hr. 40m was dead this year, in 1995 I worked over 300 Qs on 40m.

Interesting to see the LY2 band breakdown and compare. 

Thanks to my wife for taking the kids to Grandma's for most of the test.

See you next year

--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions:              3830 at contesting.com
Administrative requests:  3830-REQUEST at contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-3830 at contesting.com