[3830] CQWW SSB C4W(5B4WN) SOAB HP

Sun Nov 2 04:33:49 EST 2003

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: C4W
Operator(s): 5B4WN
Station: 5B4ES

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Nicosia, Cyprus
Operating Time (hrs): 46.6
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  130     8       41
   80:  376    14       64
   40:  683    24       90
   20: 1375    29      118
   15:  626    28       88
   10: 2721    30      114
------------------------------
Total: 5911   133      515  Total Score = 11,081,448

Club: 

Comments:

A rather longish write-up………………

I would like to begin by thanking the following:
5B4ES for hosting me yet for another year.
5B4XF (Paris) for lending me his 2nd amp and his help with setting up
5B4WS (Agis) for lending me his TA33Jr and rotor
and  especially 5B4AHZ (Nestor) for his help with setting everything up, and my
parents for their understanding of my contesting passion.

The decision to operate CQWW SSB came on the Friday, 8 days before the contest
when my boss in London, gave the “green light” for me to go away for 10 days. It
was a good 4 years ago that I had last operated CQ WW SSB in the SOAB category
and the idea of possible constant pile-ups for 48hrs had lifted my morale to the
sky. I hadn’t touched a mike for several months nor did I know anything about
band conditions, but I was willing to give it a go.

I arrived to Cyprus early Saturday (1 week before the contest) and it was not
until the Monday that I managed to confirm that 5B4ES, my old school, would host
me yet for another year. I have been longing for the day where I would be
technically ready to start the contest a few days in advance for years, but I
usually end up still setting up well into the Friday evening before the contest.
I guess there is a certain amount of fun involved in that!  

The weather in Cyprus was excellent. Temperature ranged from 20-34 degree C
throughout the day and night.

Anyway, following the advice of some of the “great ones”, I decided to try and
improve my SO2R skills. My previous experimentations during the CW leg proved
that having a 2nd yagi (low down) was quite effective in finding new mults and
qsying others. Unfortunately, uncle Ivo (5B4ADA) who was my perennial equipment
supplier had left the island so borrowing his A3S this year was impossible.
Fortunately, 5B4WS came to my rescue by allowing me have his 20+/- year old
Mosley TA33Jr and his rotor. This remarkably light and well constructed beam had
spent the last 10 years on the roof of Agis’ roof occasionally submerged under
water. The driven element was also divided in two. Repairing it proved fairly
straight forward task even though it was time consuming taking up 1 day and  I
was  pleasantly surprised to see a 1:1 SWR on all 3 bands when it eventually
went up! (Thank you god!). Unfortunately, the potentiometer of the rotor was not
working, but as the beam was only 5 m from my operating position I devised a
method using a mirror for determining where the antenna was pointing. It worked
very well!

The rest of the setup was fairly straight forward:
TH5 at 20m
40-2CD at 20m
Sloper 80m
Inv V 160m
2x FT1000MP
Alpha 78 and Heathkit SB1000
Writelog
DX Doubler
Heil Proset Plus (fantastic headset)

I really worked hard for 4.5 days to make everything ready and I was proud that
I had finished everything I was doing 13 hours before the beginning of the
contest. This is a first for me. I decided to celebrate this with a 17km Cardio
cycle ride with 5B4WS to ensure proper oxygenation of the grey matter. I was
very excited! I called Ivo (ex 5B4ADA and now I7/9A3A) to ask for some tips! We
had a long chat about things….it was nice.

I went to bed 7 hours before the contest was due to start but I struggled to
sleep. I turned and turned and turned and eventually managed to get ~2 hours of
sleep. That seemed enough……

I started the contest on 40m (I call it the “zoo” band). I can’t wait until the
time the band is expanded to cover more than 60KHz. The rate of the first hour
was 102 followed by 118 for the second. A few qsys to 80 and 160 and back to 40
were necessary to sustain the rate and get the easy mults. In the meantime
working the odd multiplier using the 2nd radio. 04:00 was the big turn hour when
I moved to 20m. The rate improved and propagation was interesting: working
EU,NA,SA,AS,OC at the same time with good signals. Then moved to 15 and the 10m.
Wow…. Who lit up 10m? It was on fire for hours and hours. Especially into
Europe. FM quality pile-ups and very well behaved Europeans. I quite like the
new Ham Radio classes. I worked so many of them. It was exciting! I had good
rates for hours………

Day 1 finished with 3029 QSOs in the log and lots of mults (a good balance). The
eyes were beginning to flag and I was mixing up my call… It was time for a power
snooze. My experience told me to sleep on the floor and have 2 alarms far away.
It worked! 1 hour later I was a new person (well, almost!). Went back in to the
game scouring the bands for rate and mults. The bands were equally good. I even
had a skip to Asia on Sunday morning on 10m. I was pleased to work Richard,
9M2/G4ZFE who was 59+ for 20-30 minutes. The rate on 10m continued to be good.
It’s amazing how many German and Dutch stations are active on this band. All
well behaved!

Day 2 ended up with 3053 QSOs (despite a lot of dupes). The final score of
11.081.448 is allegedly a new Asian Record BUT even if no one else from Asia
scores higher than me, it will be beaten by K3EST/N6AA+gang unforgiving (but
accurate!) checking algorithm.

Conclusion:
Delighted with the conditions on 10m during the day, neutral about the
conditions on the low bands. Happy with the setup.
Many thanks to those who patiently worked me!

I am in the process of registering for LOTW for QSLing.

CU in the CW leg

73s Marios
5B4WN/C4W/G0WWW

Some Statistics:
-------------------
-6083QSO logged (including dupes)
-Best hour=292     Best 10min=60     Best 1 min=8
-Personal Record operating time: 46.6hrs
-Personal Best ever QSO total  >6000 for SOAB
-8 Hours of 200+ rates
-20 Hours of <100 rates (low bands)

Most painful point:
-----------------------
Being stung by 5 wasps whilst trying to adjust the light to setup the 2nd yagi 2
days before the contest! This caused no major trouble but taught me not to
associate with wasps in the future.

Biggest highlight:
---------------------
Working my friend and ex WRTC partner, Ivo Pezer, I7/9A3A (aka 5B4ADA/C4A) on 3
bands. He had been to Italy for almost a year and had not set-up a station until
Day 1 of the contest. It was nice to see him active again.

Most embarrassing points:
------------------------------
Insisting that VK9XD qsyd on 15m even though I was working him and telling him
that on 21.228!

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