[3830] CQ160 CW W2GD Multi-Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2TW, K8NZ, N2OO, W1GD, W2CG, W2GD, W2NO, W2GD
Station: W2GD

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1314  State/Prov = 55  Countries = 71  Total Score = 683,802

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

A (long) story.  Operating stats and other information at the end.

Our 160 contest station is on Murphy Drive in West Creek, NJ, on the seashore
near the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles south of NYC, and 20 miles north of
Atlantic City.  The site is a “dark” Marine Radio Public Coast Station.  Major
assets include a 300 foot Rohn 55G tower, formerly used as a vertical on 500 Khz
CW, and the surrounding salt marshes and bay, more than 500 feet of salt water
in ALL directions from the base of the tower.  

Over the last 10 years our 160 Team has found the “journey” to be almost as
interesting and fun as the contests themselves.  And with a station located on
MURPHY DRIVE, well, we always expect a surprise or two.  

This season was no exception.  We started out committed to operating the ARRL
160, Stew Perry, and CQ 160 CW contests like last year from this wonderful QTH. 
Work began way back in October before CQWW Phone, erecting Delta Loop and
Sloping Dipole transmit antennas on the big tower, repairing damage to the
beverages put up a year earlier, and some experimentation with a pair of
shielded loops for improved reception through the run station.  

After being soundly defeated in the ARRL 160 by the KC1XX team, we knew we had
to make improvements to our transmitting antennas to be competitive with the new
3 element vertical array up in NH, and the four square used at W1KM/W1FJ/NB1B on
Cape Cod, MA.  We badly needed a gain antenna that would best exploit our major
assets, the 300 foot tower and surrounding salt marsh groundplane.

During the slow periods of the Stew Perry we modeled the FVR Spitfire parasitic
array (antenna details on the YCCC website), substituting a vertically polarized
delta loop for the monopole in the design.  The results of this modeling
exercise convinced us the concept was not workable for our site and we began
looking at alternatives.  We needed a design that did not require installing a
ground system.

The K3LR 160 array, four sloping dipoles hung from a 190 foot tower, with the
lower leg of each sloper folded back toward the tower, seemed to meet our
criteria.  But we concluded that building and tuning this antenna in the limited
time available was not practical.  We needed something simpler, that could be
erected in just one day, that didn’t depend on complex cabling and switching
schemes, yet offered gain in the desired directions.  Since all but one of our
operators lives 2 or more hours drive from the site, the work had to be done on
a single weekend.

We settled upon a design that uses a uniquely configured delta loop mounted
nearly flush against the tower as the reflector, and a pair of ½ wave slopers NE
and SW with their lower legs pulled toward the tower as driven elements.  The
models predicted about 6 dbi gain, twice that of the old single delta.  And by
bringing feed lines for each antenna back to the shack, we could combine the
antennas to create an omni pattern approximating that of a single delta.  We
also decided to erect an Inverted L on a vacant pair of shorter towers near the
station building, providing a needed second TX antenna, and a reference for
testing purposes.

Two weeks ago we had a Sunday work party to put up the new TX arrays, knowing
full well there would be little or no time to tune and test anything until the
day of the contest.  With the sun setting in the west, almost everything we
planned got completed, with the exception the SW sloper which still needed major
adjustment.

With most of us living so far away, good planning is critical, just like a
DXpedition.  Forgetting something means a 4 hour plus drive round trip, time
that is simply not available the day of the contest.  Somehow everyone
remembered to bring everything assigned on the day of the contest.

Remember I mentioned MURPHY earlier?  Things started happening Thursday.  The
brakes on K2TW’s vehicle failed while driving home from work.  He can’t make it
to the site until mid-afternoon on Friday.  W2GD/K8NZ pick up his gear on our
way south.  W2NO arrives at the site first on Friday morning to find the
bathroom commode cracked from ice damage (the building is not heated and its
been below freezing for nearly two weeks - inside temperature 22F upon arrival).
 This MUST be replaced (a task completed before the contest begins – a Home
Depot is only 5 miles away).  Finally, while adjusting the SW sloper, the upper
leg wire breaks off at the center insulator, sending half of the element
flapping in the wind among the tower guy wires.  Someone must now climb (on a
frigid windy day – wind chill hovering around -5F) up to the 185 foot mark to
retrieve the pull rope and flapping wire.  And it’s already 1900 UTC.  

All ends well.  W2GD worked up his nerve and climbs the tower to retrieve the
dangling wire and pull rope.  A new SW sloper is built, pulled up and tuned for
minimum SWR near 1830.  The 2:1 points are about 60 KC apart...it looks very
good.  The sun is now nearly setting.  Skeds with VY2ZM, W1FJ, and AA1K to
assess antenna performance have all been missed, we’re running 2 hours behind
schedule.  We attach the sloper feed lines to a pair of  500 foot runs of 7/8
inch heliax that run back to the station building and head in from the frozen
marsh to get warmed up.

After hooking up the antennas to the combiner box, we anxiously listen.  To our
relief, there is obvious directivity and gain to both NE and SW, when compared
to the reference Inverted L.  And the Omni position sounds equal to if not a
little better than the L.  How very well the new antennas would actually perform
will shortly become clear.  Over the air tests confirm what we have been
observing on receive.  There is a huge collective sigh of relief....and someone
orders several pizzas for dinner!  The contest starts in just an hour.  There’s
nothing like “just in time” station prep.

We found band conditions both nights just fair, not great.  The openings to EU
came in waves, signals often peaking just long enough to grab the call.  The
best EU runs came between 05-07z both evenings.  By sunrise the first day we had
136 ten pointers, 48 five pointers, and over 50 countries in log. 

The second night signals from EU were somewhat stronger and more consistent,
with good runs early, especially between 00 and 0130.  The second peak between
05 through 07z was our most productive period for DX.  By the end of the second
night, another 200 ten pointers and 24 five pointers were added to the log.  A
handful of additional EU were worked during the last few hours of the contest.

We had pre-announced our intention to operate only 36 hours, and were very
pleased to see all multi-ops reporting thus far did likewise.  We didn’t miss
the boredom of pressing F1 all day long.  Our six hours of scheduled daylight
operation were not particularly productive.  Maybe a 30 hour time limit for all
stations is the right answer.  It would introduce an element of strategy not now
present for multi-ops.

Congratulations to the teams at VY2ZM, PJ2X, 9A1P, KC1XX and W1FJ at W1KM, and
single-ops W4AN, K4MA, AA1K, and N2NT for outstanding scores. 



Equipment:

Run Station:  IC756ProII, IC765, Alpha 87A  1.5KW
Mult Station: IC781, Alpha 76PA  1 KW
4 Networked Computers, Telnet, VHF Packet, CT 9.48
All Radios can access the RX Antennas

Antennas:

TX:  2 Element Vertical Array NE/SW plus Omni
     65ft. high Inverted L with 4 elevated radials
RX:  Two 1000 ft. phased beverages toward Europe
     580 to 800 foot beverages East, South, SW, West, and NW
     Two shielded receiving loops

Continental Breakdown (approximate):

North America    963   73.3   CM FG FM HI KL7 KP2 KP4 TI V3 XE ZF
South America     12    0.9   FY P4 PJ2 PY PY0F YV
Europe           318   24.2   42 countries
Asia               7    0.5   4L 4X 5B A9 OD
Africa             5    0.4   CT3 D4 EA8 S9
Oceania            9    0.7   KH6 VK ZL

W/VE Missed:  DC, WY, VO2, VE4, VE6, NWT, YUK
DX Heard and Missed:  D88, IS0, JY9


Rate Sheet:

HOUR    160     HR TOT   CUM TOT  

  01   100/32   100/32   100/32
  02   106/20   106/20   206/52
  03    67/10    67/10   273/62
  04    76/13    76/13   349/75
  05    71/12    71/12   420/87
  06    57/9     57/9    477/96
  07    66/2     66/2    543/98
  08    64/4     64/4   607/102
  09    45/1     45/1   652/103
  10    22/1     22/1   674/104
  11    23/0     23/0   697/104
  12    16/2     16/2   713/106
  13    27/1     27/1   740/107
  14    20/0     20/0   760/107
  OFF 14z – 20z    .    
  21    12/0     12/0   772/107
  22    26/0     26/0   798/107
  23    27/0     27/0   825/107
  0     37/1     37/1   862/108
  01    45/6     45/6   907/114
  02    37/3     37/3   944/117
  03    43/2     43/2   987/119
  04    35/1     35/1  1022/120
  05    33/2     33/2  1055/122
  06    65/0     65/0  1120/122
  07    51/0     51/0  1171/122
  08    24/2     24/2  1195/124
  09    13/0     13/0  1208/124
  10     6/0      6/0  1214/124
  11    12/0     12/0  1226/124
  12    13/0     13/0  1239/124
  13    16/0     16/0  1255/124
  14    11/0     11/0  1266/124
  OFF 14z – 20z    .   
  21    19/0     19/0  1285/124
  22     6/0      6/0  1291/124
  23    15/1     15/1  1306/125
  00     8/1      8/1  1314/126
DAY1   862/108          862/108
DAY2   452/18           452/16
TOT   1314/126         1314/126


w2gd at hotmail.com


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