[3830] CQWW CW WC1M SOAB HP

[dick.green at valley.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   29     9       21
   80:  108    15       45
   40:  680    31      100
   20:  418    31       94
   15:  655    29      101
   10:  591    28       98
------------------------------
Total: 2481   143      459  Total Score = 4,288,648

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:

160M  -  trapped vee @65'
 80M  -  delta loop @75', trapped vee @65'
 40M  -  40-2CD @75', 4-square
 20M  -  4-el @70'
 15M  -  5-el @50'
 10M  -  6-el @50'
 
 580' NE beverage

 All yagis on separate tubular towers

Equipment:

FT-1000D + Alpha 87A, FT-1000MP + Acom 2000A, Writelog, TopTen band decoders 
and switches.

It's December 1 and I'm just coming up for air after being immersed in the sweet
bliss of contesting for six weeks. The first half of the season began with an
unexpected trip to 8P for CQWW SSB (long story to follow), then ARRL SS CW the
next weekend (short story to follow), and wound up with my favorite contest of
the year -- CQWW CW (I'll try to be brief... not!)

CQWW is the best. Regardless of conditions, equipment, dumb mistakes and the
tough sleepless hours, by Monday I'm always wishing the contest was still going.
This year was no different.

Conditions were better than last year, but were unusual to say the least. Almost
the entire first day last year was derailed by a flare, but conditions on the
second day were excellent. This year, conditions were horrible for the first six
hours, but improved considerably after that. Even so, geomagnetic disturbances
made for some strange phenomena, at least from my QTH. It seemed like the mults
just poured in, especially on the low bands and especially on 40m. They kept
coming on all bands, except 20m, throughout the contest, resulting in my best
mult performance to date: 602. That's 69 better than 2000, when conditions were
fabulous, and 92 better than last year. Although my 80m country mults were low,
this is the first time I've come so close to 4BDXCC on the high bands, and the
first time snagging over 100 countries on 40 and 15. Heck, I've only broken 90
countries on one band before, 20m. Previous high on 40m was 78 mults. I think
some of this is due to a much better 40m antenna (40-2CD vs 4-square), a little
more operating experience and improved SO2R skills. But most of it had to be
incredible participation by DX and DXpedition stations. Thanks to all who got
on, especially those who traveled far -- it made the contest really fun for all
of us.

Anyway, it was strange getting called by the likes of BV4YI, B4R, A61AJ, VR2BG,
VU2WAP, S9MX, 5N0W, etc. while struggling to maintain a decent run! Could
general participation have dropped off because conditions were bad at the start
of the contest? Was it just a matter of not being able hear the usual hoards of
QRP stations?

The beginning of the contest was worse than last year, which I didn't think
possible. 20m wasn't open enough to run EU and 40m was massively crowded. It
took forever to find a spot to CQ and then I couldn't get a decent run going.
Despite heavy use of the second radio, I only had 100 Qs by the end of the third
hour! Prior to this year, I would have assumed that the 40m 4-square was mostly
to blame. It just can't compete with yagis, and tests have shown my new 40-2CD
to be 6-10 dB superior to the old 4-square. But even the 40-2CD, which is now at
a respectable 75 feet, couldn't get a run going. Nothing wrong with the antenna
-- by 0530z I was able to get a decent run going on 40m and it ended up being my
best band for both QSOs and total mults. I had quite a bit of trouble with rain
static on the 40-2CD the first night, but was able to compensate by listening on
the beverage or switching to the much-quieter 4-square. I found the 40-2CD and
4-square to be a powerful combination for running and S&P. The 40-2CD was
clearly superior for generating runs and breaking pileups, but the 4-square
added directional flexibility and quieter reception.

Despite the disturbed conditions, 160m was good here and my little 160/80
trapped vee at 65' (with beverage) worked pretty well for a respectable 9 zones
and 21 countries. 80m was disappointing: couldn't get a run going and the mults
are at least 20 countries too low. Guess the delta loop at 75' doesn't quite do
it. Could it be time for a 4-square? Seems like a lot of them are popping up
these days -- just in time for the long ride down to the solar minimum.

20m was terrible here throughout the contest. It opened to EU for brief periods,
then shut tight. I couldn't get a run going after sundown, there was no EU
sunrise opening, the band was open only for a short time at the start of the
morning runs, and the 1900z opening came an hour early and closed much sooner
than usual (my best 20m run lasted one hour starting at 1800z Sunday.) I have a
decent 20m antenna (4-el w/30' boom at 72') that's usually competitive, so I
think propagation was the problem. A scan of the band summary on 3830 shows
that, with a few exceptions, 20m was the worst of the four highest bands for
many stations, even for NT1N at KT1V (one of the exceptions was K5ZD, who,
according to W2SC, "rules on 20m".) I think the numbers were worse for us more
northerly stations, but that's conjecture. It's odd that the "middle band" was
so bad while the lower and higher bands were better. Must have been some bad
timing in propagation.

15m and 10m were OK here. After working only 453 stations in the first 11 hours,
the high bands bailed me out Saturday AM with six straight hours averaging over
100/hr. Best single-band hour was 132 on 10m during the 15z hour, but the best
overall hour of the contest was 142 during the next hour: 128 on 15m plus 14 on
10m on the second radio. Best I've ever done S&Ping on the second radio while
running at a fairly high rate. The best QRATE was 149/hr for a single hour
around 1700z, and 180/hr on the 10-minute meter at about the same time.

I was pleased with my CW copy in this contest. A lot of the time it felt almost
automatic, a real improvement from just a few years ago. Participating in
November CW Sweepstakes helped, too. In that contest I made a point of listening
to both radios in stereo as much as possible instead of switching to mono during
each QSO. I found myself switching to mono less and less in CQWW CW this year,
which I think is a good thing. Of course, there were the usual moments of sleep
deprivation in which I could barely remember my name, much less copy high-speed
CW!

I made two serious bonehead errors in this contest. Having slept only 20 minutes
on the first day, I decided to grab one hour during the 0900z hour on Sunday.
Big mistake. I put the alarm clock on my chest (another big mistake) and must
have shut it off when it rang. I awoke just before 12z, having missed two key
hours: 1000z and 1100z. I took another 15 minutes to wake up and make some
breakfast (a small mistake) and hit the bands. 20m was already done, while 10m
and 15m were not producing a heck of a lot of rate. For the next two hours,
1200z and 1300z, I had trouble getting the rate meter up to 100/hr. Then at one
point I glanced over at the FT-1000D and saw the RX ANT light glowing. I had
been listening to 10m and 15m with the beverage antenna for two hours! I had
forgotten to turn off the receive antenna after using it on the low bands in the
wee hours. Actually, I might have used it for as much as three hours: I have a
vague recollection that I discovered it was on at 1500z instead of 1400z, but
I'm not sure. No wonder I didn't hear the usual second-day QRP and low power
stations. Such is sleep deprivation. Anyway, between these two really bad errors
I must have lost 300 Qs or more. I'm pretty sure the errors cost me a spot in
the top ten. Argggh! It's really hard to play error-free ball in this game.

After that, there were no more breaks beyond quick pit stops and I ended up at
44 hours. Best yet. Next year, gotta go the whole distance. Note to self: NO
MORE NAPS!

I really missed the tribander this year. I had to take it down to free up one of
my portable military masts for the 40-2CD. That left me with four independently
rotatable monobanders for 40m, 20m, 10m and 15m. That's not a bad setup for
S02R, but there were many occasions where a quick switch to a south tribander
would have saved time. I also missed the ability to horizontally "stack" the
tribander with one of the monobanders for a wide footprint when JA and EU were
open at the same time. About the only way I can get the tribander back in is to
sidemount one of the small monobanders on the 20m tubular crankup to free up
another military mast. I don't think it's safe to mount another antenna on a
mast 10' above the 20m antenna -- too much bending moment for the unguyed
tubular tower. So, I'll have to fabricate a sidemount for the 4.5" diameter tube
that's 16.5 feet below the 20m antenna. That will put the small monobander at 55
feet. With this kind of tower the sidemount needs to be very close to the
centerline to avoid pulling the tubing to one side. The 10m would be a lot
easier to mount, but I figure there will be less SO2R interference with the 15m
and 20m on the same tower. It's unlikely, but if the snow melts and it gets a
few degrees warmer I could get this done by ARRL DX CW.

There were a lot of great moments in this contest: getting called by B4R, VR2BG,
3B8CF and lots of other semi-rare ones, breaking big pileups like 3C2MV with one
call, beating big guns on 160m with my wimpy trapped 80/160 vee at 65 feet, and
so forth. The high point came at 2315z on Sunday. This is the first contest in
which I tried to move multipliers, but I was singularly unsuccessful. First, I
missed asking a bunch of good ones to move. Second, everyone I asked refused to
move! Finally, KL7RA worked me on 15m and cheerfully agreed to QSY to 20m. Using
the second radio, I quickly scanned 20m high in the band for a clear frequency
and found one at about 14080. But no sooner had I started swinging the antenna
and calling KL7RA than I discovered a JA holding forth in a pileup on the same
frequency! I tried a few calls off frequency, but no luck. After a couple of
minutes I went back to running 15m. You can imagine my surprise when five
minutes later KL7RA returned, informed me that the frequency I had suggested was
busy with a JA pileup, and suggested we try 14100. Not only had he taken the
time to return to 15m, he even picked out a clear frequency for us! Got the 20m
contact in the log at 2321z. I should mention that KL7RA was also a trooper for
us at the 8P8P operation -- he moved several times and tried again when we were
not successful. What a guy! Now that KL7RA has so graciously helped me to break
the ice, I have to get a lot more serious about moving mults consistently.

I was pretty well prepared for this contest. Finished antenna work weeks ahead.
The big job was installing the 25' extension kit on one of the AB-577 portable
military masts to push the 40-2CD up to 75' (if you haven't seen a 40-2CD with
rotor swinging back and forth on top of a wet noodle before, it's really quite a
sight.) Other than that, all I had to do was fix the 80m delta which broke for
the third time in high winds this year, and repair the beverage which got
whacked by deadfalls a couple of times. I got a reasonable amount of sleep in
the weeks and days before the contest, had plenty of time to review past results
for top-ten stations and myself, prepared a decent game plan (which went out the
window right at the start), and got the food situation set up in plenty of time.
I didn't manage to arrange things so I could sleep for a few hours right before
the contest, but was able to sleep late Friday AM. Next year, I'd like to sleep
Friday afternoon from about 1PM to 5PM -- I think this will help with the
first-day fatigue that normally hits me early Saturday morning and late
afternoon. I have a lot more trouble in the first 24 hours than in the second 24
hours. I think it's largely psychological: during the first day I'm very aware
that a lot of tough hours lie ahead. Once the halfway point has been passed, I
know I can make it to the end and get psyched. Having a bunch of Qs and mults in
the bank and watching the score go up by larger and larger increments helps,
too.

This year's food plan was different. I decided that it's best not to eat very
much during the contest because eating always slows me down and getting full
doesn't help alertness. W2SC has written about drinking Gatorade and Slim Fast
at 8P5A, but that's a different situation -- high humidity demands replenishment
of electrolytes. Also, those products are loaded with sugar, which results in
too many ups and downs during the contest. I did get a couple of bottles of
Gatorade in case I felt dehydrated, but didn't use one until Sunday morning. I
drank water, but not a lot of it. Instead of Slim Fast, I got a couple of cans
of flavored high-protein powder. When mixed with skim milk in a blender the
result is a super-thick vanilla or chocolate shake that tastes pretty  good. The
version I bought had the fewest grams of sugar of any brand in the store. I
supplemented this with some hard salami, pepperoni slices and aged cheddar
cheese (from a study that recommended aged meats and cheeses as keep-awake
food.) This year, I pre-sliced everything and kept it in a tupperware container
in the cooler. Very quick and easy to eat. I made way too much protein drink (32
oz of each flavor.) I ended up drinking only about 8 oz of each. The stuff is
incredibly filling and I wasn't hungry for many hours after drinking only a cup
or so. I had planned to eat a normal meal consisting of rotisserie chicken and
salad a few hours before the contest, but one thing led to another and I ended
up wolfing it down only 30 minutes before the 0000z hour. Aside from that, the
system worked pretty well -- I was alert most of the time, wasn't hungry and
never felt bloated. I did supplement the diet with three soft boiled eggs, six
strips of bacon and a slice of wheat toast Sunday morning, after my huge
oversleeping error, but could easily have skipped that. I think I was so bummed
out about missing the 1000z and 1100z hours that I drowned my sorrows in food
;-) As usual, I drank one large mug of coffee at my normal times, right before
the morning high-band runs. There's a little bit of a letdown  in late morning,
but I've found it preferable to going cold turkey (or, heaven forbid, drinking
coffee throughout the contest!)

All in all, this was a much more satisfying contest than last year, but not as
much fun as 2000. Hope we get some good conditions next year, but I'll have to
get the tribander back in and improve the low band antennas to be competitive.

Thanks again to all participants, especially DX and DXpeditions. Now that I know
more about what it takes to operate from a DX location, I have even more respect
and esteem for those who take up this challenge and make this the best contest
of all. See you next time!

73, Dick WC1M


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