[3830] CQWW CW VE7F0(VE7FO) SOAB LP
jimsmith at home.com
jimsmith at home.com
Thu Nov 29 02:25:31 EST 2001
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VE7F0
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: bc
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160:
80: 28 4 3
40: 51 8 8
20: 95 22 39
15: 230 22 41
10: 448 28 48
-------------------------------
Total: 852 84 139 = 455,812
Club/Team:
Comments:
CURRENT STATUS:
Found some extra rotor cable so don't have to run out into the basement to
access the control box which was sitting on the clothes dryer during last
week's SS. Cable still not long enough for the box to sit where it should on
the op desk but I only had to move a couple of feet to reach it.
Some of those who read my SS SSB story on 3830 may be wondering about the
neighbour's RFI problems which surfaced during SS. I took a line filter/power
bar over and plugged the daughter's computer and phone line into it. Left
strict instructions that if her internet connection gets dropped again while I
am on the air that they are to phone me immediately, regardless of the time.
Cable TV guy comes tomorrow to check out their installation. Going to try to
blame cableco for the TVI and put the onus on them to fix it. After all when
you disconnect the cable from the TV the problem goes away.
Love the new basement shack but the family is complaining about separation
feelings. The old 2nd floor shack was right at the top of the stairs and when
anyone went by they would stick their head in and say hello or good night (and,
somtimes, good morning) or whatever. Now the only time that happens is when
someone is doing laundry. An unanticipated side effect of the move.
PREPARATION:
Put some more effort into fixing the sound card problem (can't access it,
Volume Control only occasionally appears in SysTray when I reboot). No luck.
Posted a message detailing my problem on the Creative support site.
Recognizing that I'm never going to do well in cw contests until I get my
ability to read calls up to 35 wpm or so, I decide to practise. For cw
practice I use the TRLog contest simulator with a database of all the calls out
of my DX contest logs. It's great, just like working a contest including
scoring and complaints when I get the call wrong. Damn, it uses the sound
card.
WHAT HAPPENED:
The daughter next door didn't phone. Will find out tomorrow if the filter
solved her problem or if she just didn't try to access the net. Cross your
fingers, everybody.
I have come to realize that even with my modest LP setup (the rig isn't modest
but everything else is) I can run stations for fairly lengthy periods and, of
course, Rate is King. In SS SSB got my best rates ever with a one hour total
of 84.
So, pick a frequency on 10 and hit the auto cq button.
For local time here, subtract 8 hours.
0059Z - 45 Qs, 14 mults.
0159Z - 117 Qs, 23 mults.
0259Z - 180 Qs, 26 mults. Have never averaged 1 Q/min for 3 hours in a row
before. Hoo Boy, I'm on my way to breaking 1 kQ for the first time ever. Just
think, 60/hr x 48 hrs = ... well, that's not realistic as I probably won't
operate much more than 30 hrs so 60/hr x 30 = .... well, not likely to maintain
60/hr the whole time so, say, 50/hr x 30. Should make 1 K easily at this rate.
Some good dx here. EX, YB, 4W. Two new ones.
0359Z - Oh, oh. 204 Qs and 33 mults. Guess it's time to move to 15.
0459Z - 213 Qs and 48 mults on 15 and 20. Hmmm.... 43/hr x 30 isn't looking so
good. 43 x 35 could work, though.
0559Z - 240 Qs and 63 mults on 20 and 40. What a marvellous hour. Forgot I
was in a contest and chased dx on 20. 0620 to 0716 yielded P3A/20, HG6N/15,
UR6F/16, YT1BB/15, 4L2M/21, PT0F/11, VP5G/08, LY6M/15, CE3U/12, 6Y2A/8 and, of
course, HC8N/10. 16 new mults with only 11 Qs and all over the map. Back in
ham heaven again. Who cares about rate, isn't this a great contest?
0928Z - 271 Qs and 87 mults, including some described above. Descended from
heaven at 0721 to 40 and 80. Nice to work HC8N on 40. Also worked them on 80
in a previous contest for all 5 bands but only 4 bands this time. Although it
was a double mult, it was the only Q in a 70 min period. Spent some time
listening to eastern seaboard stations working Eu and gritting my teeth.
0942Z - 273 Qs and 87 mults. Took a peek at 20. You never know ......
1001Z - (0201 local time) Well, well, 20 was open. 278 Qs and 95 mults. VK,
DU, P4 and, on 15 no less, J3. All double mults. Off to bed, worrying about
rate again. Was going to go to bed way earlier to get up in time for the
morning opening to Eu mult factory (even though in a year of contesting the
fabled grey line has never seemed to work for me) but I got trapped again in
the late night fun. Besides, I'm a night person and don't really hit my stride
until around 10 pm.
Woke up later than I meant to and, horrified by the possibility that I had
missed a zillion Qs already, did a quick listen on the bands before having
breakfast. Nadah. (Nadit either) Smugly congratulated myself on the wisdom
of my strategy of staying up late and went back to bed.
2031Z - Quick check of 10. KH6TO and not much else. Work him and down to 15.
Bounce around between 15 and 10 for a while. Can't generate any rate.
2359Z - 326 Qs and 124 mults. Half way. Half of 1 kQ is 500. The late night
euphoria has dissipated. "Who cares about rate?" I do.
0159Z - 391 Qs and 132 mults. Still bouncing between 10 and 15 but now mostly
15. Rate has improved a bit.
0259Z - Ugh. 399 Qs and 141 mults on 10, 15 and 20. All mults are
South/Central America except ZD9 and KH2.
0431Z - 436 Qs and 151 mults, all on 20. Switch to 40, then 80, then 40.
0646Z - 449 Qs and 159 mults. Gotta get something better than a dipole on 40.
Check out 20. You never know....
0837Z - 473 Qs and 172 mults. Wow, no sooner switched to 20 than heard 9A6A.
About S2 and pretty raspy. Didn't get too excited. Have heard Eu on 20 at
this time plenty of other times. None of them ever heard me. Called him
anyway and he came back on first call! Quite a few more Eu Qs the same way.
Found a way to get aurora mangled stations to notice and then work me. See the
Summary Section below. 20 drying up so back to 80.
0907Z - 491 Qs and 173 mults. W3LPL responded to my 20 wpm cq for Zone 05
mult. Knowing that you're not likely to even get in the door at LPL if you
can't copy 30 wpm, I derived some amusement from responding to him at 30. I
wonder if he noticed. Determined to get up for grey line so off to bed. Lie
there calculating... 491 Qs in 21.5 hrs of op time = 23 Qs/hr. 23 x max of 10
hrs left = 230 Qs. 230 + 491 = damn, 721 Qs, 280 short of my goal.
1428Z - Back at it. S&P while I eat breakfast. Thinking it would be nice to
have remote capability in the shower. Nothing much happening on the higher
bands so get on 40 hoping to work JAs. Worked one. 20 starting to happen so
go there.
1459Z - 503 Qs and 173 mults. On 20, watching 15. 15 getting hot. Go there.
1550Z - 507 Qs and 176 mults. Glory, halleluja, for the first time in the year
I have been back on the air I can crack Eu at the morning opening. Harvest
mults with S&P. Keep an eye on 10.
1740Z - 534 Qs and 200 mults. Now on 10.
1859Z - 547 Qs and 211 mults. Some nice ones here. For some reason I seem to
have difficulty working UK and S Af so was pleased to get a G, an EI and a ZS.
Was really pleased to get MU/NL2OBF. Sure hope I got his call right. Five
hours left. Need 450 Qs. 90 Qs/hr. Well, best ever 1 hour rate so far in a
contest is 84. Maybe I can do it. Point the beam a bit S of NYC and offer
myself up as fresh meat on 10.
1959Z - 633 Qs and 212 mults. Yee Haw, an 86 hour and also snagged the rare VE
mult. All 2 pointers except the VE.
2146Z - 706 Qs and 217 mults. Getting too slow. Check 15. Hey, JAs. Go
there.
2332Z - 822 Qs and 222 mults including FY. Had hoped to run JAs. Called a few
off the back of the beam to make sure they can hear me. No problem. Pointed
beam at JA. Worked mostly Ws. Decided that high rate 2 pointers were better
than low rate 3 pointers so pointed the beam at 105 to burn a path across the
US and part of S Am. Called by quite a few JAs. Wonder if I will ever really
understand this stuff. A rather frightening event occurred at 2300. I was
called simultaneously by WV1M, K2UA, N0XB, N2RM, KN2M, N6AW, K0RF, W4MYA,
JH5AVM, K3II, K1RX, W7CT, K3ND, K9JE, K6ZM, N4NO, K5OGO, N0NI, K3NM, JI3BFC,
JA3EOG, W3PP, JE1REU, N2CU, K1ZZ, and, I presume, others. I sat there,
paralyzed, listening to all these guys at about the same strength and pretty
well on the same frequency, wondering if I should quickly QSY to 10 before I
make a fool of myself. Well, they are Qs so I start nibbling at the pile, a
part of a call at a time. Took me 10 minutes to clear the pile and then.....
silence. I felt as if I had been gang-raped. Still, they are Qs. I can only
conclude that I had been spotted. Nothing like 10 minutes of feeling and
displaying gross incompetence to make one humble, as well as increasing the
total awe in which I hold the ops at stations like HC8N.
0000Z - Switched to 10 for the last half hour, secretly hoping the gang would
come back. They didn't. Ended up with 854 Qs and 223 mults. 87 Qs in the
last hour.
SUMMARY:
Well, still not 1 kQ but getting closer. Looks like I may not be in the bottom
third for a change.
During S&P found some stations running at 35 wpm. After listening a while to
get their call and exchange I would respond at the same or slightly higher
speed, hoping that would make me feel like a competent op. As I don't even
have a key plugged into the rig and do everything from the keyboard, it felt
more like cheating. Was kind of fun, though, to go brrrpppp to the guy, get a
brrrppp back and the Q is done.
As always, there are folks at the bottom of a pile up who don't send their
calls for 10 or more Qs. After my experience at 2300 when I didn't send my
call much either, I can sympathize with their desire to not have even more
stations calling them. At the same time, I view this as being somewhat selfish
as my time is important too. (Sound of sobbing violins off stage.) I was
listening to one such station when someone sent a ?. I happily chimed in with
one too. At this point a solution to this problem occurred to me. You are
part of the solution. Let's say that 3 Qs without a call sign is perfectly
acceptable. After all, it does clear the queue faster. After that, everyone
who doesn't know what the call is sends a ?. If he works someone and still
doesn't ID then we all send another ?, maybe even several. If he sends his
call at 45 wpm, all of those of us who didn't get it send another ?, but this
time 3 wpm slower. If he doesn't understand, we all do it again but 3 wpm
slower yet. Eventually, even the most psychopathic will start to meet our
needs. So this slows down his rate, why should we care? He doesn't care about
ours. "Lids Of The World, Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Mults." I
forgot who said that, but it might have come out of Zone 21 or 23.
This should also work for those guys who prefer the sound of themselves sending
cq at 45 wpm to actually making Qs.
In one such case, I had been sitting for 5 min trying to figure out an Eu call
in a pileup when VE7SV, a WRTC level competitor, swooped in, worked him on the
first call and left. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. Sigh.
I have seen on 3830 other people expressing the same frustration that I feel
when Eu stations are coming strongly through the auroral hamburger grinder
doing 30 wpm. It seems nuts to me that anyone who hears auroral flutter on the
sigs they are hearing haven't the sense to slow down. It may be that they are
working lots of eastern US stations and just think that propagation is no good
to Central and Western NA as they are getting no calls from there. I have
heard S9 +10 sigs calling endless CQs that were totally unreadable due to
auroral smear. If they slowed down, they would be copiable and would get
answers.
I have 3 solutions to this problem. One involves "social engineering", one
didn't occur to me until I was writing this, and one actually worked for me
during the contest.
Social Engineering:
You folks who have good contacts within the Eu contesting community should
explain the problem to them, tell them that if they slow down when they hear
aurora they will make more Qs, and exhort them to publish this info as widely
as possible. This, of course, ignores the vested interest of those who like
the fact that Central and Western NA don't do as well into Eu.
What Worked For Me:
In those cases where I could finally figure out the call, I tried answering at
the speed that I wanted him to come back at. The general result was to hear
him CQ before I had even finished. Then I tried answering at his speed.
Mirabilu dictu, or however that is spelled, many times there would be a pause
or a ?. People must have some kind of a speedpass filter such that, if you
send too slow, they don't even recognize that there is a signal there. Anyway,
I would send my call a couple more times at the same unreadable speed he was
using, then do it again but 3 wpm slower, then do it again 3 wpm slower yet. I
kept doing this until he got it and responded. Sometimes he would slow down
too. If he didn't, dropped another 3 wpm and send a few, "agn?"s. Made lots
of Qs and mults that way that I wouldn't have otherwise.
What Just Occurred To Me:
Instead of hanging around trying to figure out his call, why didn't I do the
same thing as described above except just send a few "?" or, maybe, "PSE QRS",
starting at his speed and then slowing down in 3 wpm increments until he got
the message? Sure hope I remember to try this next time.
Another hugely enjoyable contest. It is obvious (at least to me) that I would
have made my kQ if there hadn't been a propagation crash. Thanks everyone.
Hope to see you in TARA RTTY and ARRL 10m. (Just got a new secret weapon for
RTTY so, watch out.)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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