[3830] CQ/RJ WW RTTY VE7ASK SOAB LP

Tue Oct 1 01:20:55 EDT 2002

                    CQ/RJ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: VE7ASK
Operator(s): VE7ASK
Station: VE7ASK

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts  State/Prov  DX   Zones
-----------------------------------------
   80:   46   95       22       6     7
   40:   46   97       22       8     9
   20:  101  260       22      35    16
   15:  101  241       26      23    16
   10:  103  266       23      31    14
-----------------------------------------
Total:  397  959      115     103    62  Total Score = 268,520

Club: 

Comments:

Absolutely the best radio weekend ever! (OK, in a long time). I planned for this
one for weeks -- even got the wire antennas up to a decent height at the
"contest" QTH, and what a difference 60 to 70 feet in the Ponderosa pines makes
compared to the 30 feet I can get at home.

I managed over 100 more contacts in this one than my total for ANARTS, SARTG and
SAC combined. All hail high wires! (Alas, I can't use 'em for every contest).

Excuse the long post, but there was a lot to note over this weekend. If you're
not up to reading a novel, the highlights are:

-- Wow!
-- Wall to wall signals 40-10. And 80 was no slouch.
-- The station's still no hell.
-- Me and the gear are getting better every time out
   (and that's what matters, right?)
-- RF makes funny noises in a undersized tuner.
-- Too much sleep, not enough awakeness.
-- Check your station clock (i.e. computer). If you
   find it is, let's say, 12 minutes fast, correct it early.
-- Points/QSOs on 80/40 were amazingly equal.
-- Points on 20/15/10 were amazingly equal.

Setting Up:
===========
Preparation started Thursday night -- early to bed, gear packed in the truck. I
left work an hour early Friday afternoon to drive straight to the weekend site
(my parents' country farm, with great big pines). Arrived at 23:30z (4:30 p.m.)
and immediately ripped down the experimental Lazy-H antenna to throw the
supports an extra 20 feet into the treetops. 

The slingshot worked just fine, but the rod and reel I was using didn't. Two
hours after the contest start, I had the Lazy-H at about 70 feet -- wires
running about east-west with a great shot to the south and north over the pole.
I would have taken another 30 minutes to string up the ready-to-go G5RV, but it
was dark and I was already behind. I would regret that decision later.

I spent a frenzied hour unloading the truck (radio, cables, tuner, software,
keyer (just in case), PS, etc.), installing software in the "guest" computer
(Celeron 500) and getting the first QSO under my belt: KL7AC, Andre up in North
Pole, Alaska. Not DX from BC, but at least the Lazy-H was working on 15M.

First Night Blues:
==================
The high bands were falling away by 10:30 p.m. local, so I moved to 40M just
before 11 p.m. to work Don, AA5AU, and stayed there. The Lazy-H is a great
antenna, but really needs a hefty tuner. All I had on hand was a Heathkit
low-power unit that tried its best but just couldn't cut it with more than 30
watts. RF was buzzing and snapping when I pushed things too far, so low power it
was for the night. With just 50 QSOs logged, I decided to sleep a while and get
the doublet into the trees at first light.

Should have set the alarm. Woke up at 7:30 a.m. Too long away from the rig.
Spent a long hour with the slingshot to put up the G5RV -- managed to get it 60
feet at one end, nearly 90 feet at the other (flat top, over sloping ground)
running from SE to NW. Somehow, on receive it was an improvement over the
Lazy-H, and the FT920 liked it much better on all bands. With adequate height,
the antenna actually has direction (at home, 30ft means it's pretty much
omnidirectional). Unfortunately, while the antenna generally aimed a signal at
Europe it also made Stateside QSOs harder off the ends. I will put up a second
one next time, aimed at the Midwest and Eastern seaboard beyond.

It is a very modest antenna setup, but at times that high hank of wire allowed
me to work everything I heard -- from the Canary Islands to Uruguay. It's the
first time I have experienced that in 20 years, and it was great!

The Rest of the Way:
====================
Despite having a fun run all day Saturday, the quiet bands lulled me to sleep at
1:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Lesson not yet learned, once again I slept way too
long, waking up at 8 a.m. swearing at the alarm clock I didn't set.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the running totals, but was surprised to see
my 80/40 QSO count ended up almost identical (46 Qs each, with 22 State/Provs
each). My 20/15/10 count was almost identical, too (101, 101 and 103). Goes to
show how steady the bands were.

Some time Sunday morning I paused: the QSO count was at 319. Equal to my
best-ever contest -- a CQWW CW test years ago. Like the guy in Lord of the
Rings, I reminded myself that if I took another step I would be the farthest I
had ever been. Then I kept going.

The End-Game:
=============
Seeing the computer clock ticking down to 23:50z on Sunday, I felt that
now-familiar panic -- only 10 minutes to go.... And I was at 389 Qs. Could I
break 400? I sure tried, but by 23:59z I was only at 392. 

At 00:00z, I expected 20M to go totally silent. It didn't. Minutes after we
should all bave been sitting back wishing we could do it all again, stations
were still running strong. 

I ran upstairs and checked the clock on the stove. Should have said "5:03 p.m."
but it said "4:51 p.m." The computer's clock was 12 minutes fast! It ran back to
the radio, but the frenzy on 20M was so hot I didn't know who to work. Everyone
seemed to be in mid-QSO. No time to listen, just tune to the next. Who's calling
CQ? K9JY for #395. MW2I in Wales gave me 396. Then, in a dazed flash, I realized
I was going to have to MANUALLY subtract 12 minutes from every QSO time. I
recovered with moments to spare -- working LR0N in the final minute for #397. I
was trying to get VE7SW for a new mult when the real zero-hour arrived, and 20M
fell silent at last.

Later, I ended up exporting my log as text and using Excel to do the time
recalculations and formatting to cabrillo.

Summing Up:
===========
Every band was wide open, and plenty of semi-rare stations and great ops made it
a pleasure to be on the air. Thanks to all for the QSOs. I know most stations
worked more QSOs and got higher scores, but I am pretty sure no one had more fun
in this one than I did. If anyone enjoyed it more, I hope it was you.

Surprises: HC8N on all bands, no VKs, 1 ZL, few JAs. Worked lots of new DX
including JY9NX, EA6BH, Z37M, CX4SS, EC8AUZ and so many more.

See you in the PSK Rumble, California QSO Party, NA Sprint, WAE RTTY, JARTS
RTTY, November Sweeps, CQWW CW.... Oh, what a great time of year!

-- Bud, VE7ASK

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