[3830] CQWW SSB NK7U M/2 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, KW7J, K7MK, KL9A, W7ZRC, N0AX, AC7GL
Station: NK7U

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   16     7        9
   80:  132    21       39
   40:  207    27       86
   20:  588    32      115
   15:  941    31      114
   10:  406    29       89
------------------------------
Total: 2290   147      452  Total Score = 3,577,827

Club: Snake River Contest Club

Comments:

It was with great anticipation that the NK7U crew awaited the start of CQWW SSB
this year. Our goal was very simple, to set a new M/2 record for the US W7 area.
Actually, we wanted to smash the 3.59M W7DX score from last year. We knew we had
a very, very good chance. We had the following things going for us:
· We assembled a top notch crew of 8 operators. NK7U, K7ZO, KW7J, KL9A, K7MK,
W7ZRC, AC7GL, and special guest and hired gun, N0AX. It has been several years
since we mounted such a serious operation from NK7U with such and experienced
crew.
· Over the summer Joe substantially added to his aluminum farm in Baker City.
Since our World Top Ten M/2 effort in ARRL SSB he as added 32 elements on 20M, 8
elements on 40M, and has his 3 element 80M yagi up.  Joe’s lineup is now: 
    o	10M – 7/7 rotating
    o	15M – 6/6 rotating
    o	20M – 5/5/5/5 fixed EU, 6/6 rotating, 5/5 rotating
    o	40M – 4/4 fixed EU, 4 rotating
    o	80M – 3 element yagi, rotating dipole
    o	160M – ¼ wave ground plane
· Joe also sold off his TS-950’s and upgraded to three new FT1000MP Mark V
Fields.
· And, most important of all was the addition of two Lazy Boys to the shack for
those all important horizontal operating periods.

All we needed was a bit of good propagation and the record was ours.

The pre-contest preparation was surprising relaxed for an NK7U operation. All
antenna work, radio, feedline, and control wiring, PC software and network setup
was accomplished on Thursday. It was hard to believe that we weren’t putting up
the last antenna at 23:45. This was of course until we tried rotating the lower
5 element 20 at about 22:30 and it would only turn one way. Funny, it was
working at 22:00? A frantic teardown of the control box showed it had died of
the building excitement. Luckily Joe had a spare and we wired it in and were
ready to go. This was feeling more like a real contest. 

At this point in the cycle we didn’t really expect 10M to be open to JA. And it
wasn’t. We opened with JA run master KW7J on 15M. Jerry had a good run going
until the band closed around 2:30 with 180 QSO’s in the log. During that time
worked 20 or stations on the second run station on 10M until it closed just
before 1:00. 20M stayed open until 5:30 or so but mostly what we were working
were stations in South and Central America and the Caribbean. That evening
opening into Asia was just not to be found. We just couldn’t get a run going.

As the night wore on we moved into the 40/80/160M period. When conditions are
right we can get good JA runs going on both 40 and 80M. But the evening was
frustrating in the least. The combined efforts of K7ZO, KL9A, and W7ZRC netted
just 12 JA’s on 40M. NK7U, our main 80/160 op had a much better, at least
relatively, night. Netting 23 JA’s on 80M with nice little short runs around
10:20 and 11:30. However, it was a long slow night. During the 0600 through 1300
hours we averaged 18 qsos/hour. 

As dawn approached things started to look up. 20M opened to Europe about an hour
before sunrise at 13:25. Usually we find it opens right at sunrise so this was a
pleasant surprise. It wasn’t runable for us but KL9A S&P’d at a good rate and
handed things off to N0AX at 14:00. We continued to S&P in the band for the next
three hours working about 100 Q’s. Finally around 17:00 KW7J found an opening at
14305 and was able to get a modest run going working 80 stations in the next
hour. Meanwhile the other run station had been trying to get something going on
15M. We didn’t work our first Europe station until 30 minutes after sunrise at
14:55 when the hard work of K7MK put G3B in the log. Two hours of S&Ping added
50 QSO’s to the log until at 17:00 K7ZO, who had taken over as operator, found
21232 clear and got a run going. He was only able to hold the frequency for an
hour but added 60 QSOs to the log and a half dozen multipliers. KW7J took over
at 18:00 and S&P’d until 19:15 or so when the Europeans died out and we were in
the afternoon doldrums time before the bands opened to JA. W7ZRC was at the 15M
controls when the first JA of the afternoon went in the log at 21:10. By 21:25
he had found a run frequency at 21362 and really started racking up the qso’s.
In the next 30 minutes he worked 30 stations and handed the reins over to NK7U
at 22:00. Joe can work high rate high band openings with the best of them though
he usually chooses to slug it out during the night. As proof his two hour tour
of duty added 180+ QSO’s to our score.

We closed out the first 24 hours with a score of almost 1.49M. This was a bit
better than our 2002 score of 1.41M. We were about 200 QSO’s ahead of last year
but about 45 mults short of last year. The lack of a 10M Europe opening was
certainly hurting our score and our hopes of beating the W7DX score were
certainly in jeopardy.   

As the afternoon wore on we again were not rewarded with a 10M opening to JA.
15M stayed open until only until about 1:30 about an hour earlier than Friday
night. On the other hand 20M seemed to be really hot at this time with the band
seemingly open to all continents with KL9A working them fast and furious. At
2:46 K7ZO found 14176 as relatively clear as you can find a 20M frequency and
got a run going. Soon it was clear this was going to be a pretty good opening
into deep Asia. Almost a “Worked all ..stans” type of opening. The rate was not
high but several UN, EX, UK, OH, UA, and SM stations made it into the log before
the band closed around 5:00. 

Soon after this KL9A took up the challenge of trying to run Europe on 40M.
NK7U’s antennas make easy work of the big EU signals calling CQ on their own and
we work all that are heard and spotted. Getting our own run going is another
matter. KL2A accomplished the fete during ARRL SSB earlier this year adding 50
more Europeans to log than we usually get. Not to be outdone, KL9A duplicated
the accomplishment with a couple of short runs around 6:00. Thanks to IV3BKH,
S52LW, I4JED, HB9LCW, F6CWA, and HB0/HB9AON who answered our CQ’s.

Gab messages during Saturday night conjectured what propagation awaited us on
Sunday as dawn rose. The more positive thinking operators had visions of a truly
epic day. Those more negative among us suggested it already was epic in its own
way. And, they are right. For seven hours during the night not one single hour
was over 20 Q’s. And three of them were under 10. Yes, this was an epic
adventure.

The slow night also led to some good-natured fun and camaraderie among those up
to experience the pain. One of the highlights was instigated by K7ZO. As N0AX
walked into the shack for his morning operating shift K7ZO, who was actually
spending most of his time pressing the F1 in the false hope of a JA to call him
on 40M, suddenly grabbed his headphones tight to his head and exclaimed, “THE
VU4, AGAIN, AGAIN, YOUR SUFFIX PLEASE”. N0AX whipped his head around and a then
a big smile broke out across his face. Such are the depths of contest humor. The
stress and exhaustion of the contest we could tell was wearing on all of the
large operations. At one point or another we heard all of big name east coast
M/M’s trying to work station on 40M on the wrong VFO. Then at one point was the
height of silliness. An unknown stateside station was heard with the following,
transmitting on 7046. “CQ CQ contest beaming Japan listening 7046 dozo”. The
operator had both forgotten that mentioning your own call sign is usually
helpful in calling CQ and was transmitting on the wrong VFO. Finally a operator,
likely one who would also break in and say “Listen up” to a DX station, jumped
in and said “You know you are also transmitting on 7046”. This stopped the
insanity and the night dragged on into morning.

Per standard practice we opened on 15 and 20 and had reasonable runs going. By
14:15 KL9A found 14319 clear and got a good run going. Closely followed by N0AX
who at 14:30 had settled in around 21430 and had his run going. By all accounts
this was going to be the pattern for the morning until things died to Europe. At
14:55 K7ZO sat down at our hunter rig, rotated the 7/7 stack to 40 degrees, and
flipped it to 10M. To his amazement there were Europeans on 10M! This was going
to be an epic day! He quickly worked DJ4PT giving him his Zone 3 mult. Fifteen
minutes later OE5T was 5 over 9 and it was time to find a run frequency. KL9A
was handed ownership of the task and he was off to the races. In the next 90
minutes we added 65 hard won 10M Europe QSOs and 15 mults into the log. Nice
catches were ZA1A, and Africans S9Ss and 5U7JB. Many operators also thanked us
for their first Zone 3 10M QSO. The 15:00 hour was our second best of the
contest with 138 total Q’s. To those of you in more easterly and southerly
locations this does not seem like much as you have a real propagation advantage.
But to us in the Pacific NW, this was a real rush. 

After 10M closed we settled in on 15M with a good steady rate into Europe. Then
at 18:10 it was like someone flipped a switch and signals disappeared as the
X1.2 flare hit. Over the next two hours we had a grand total of 20 Q’s.  

With the impacts of the solar flare wearing off and the bands returning it was
obvious our chances of breaking the W7DX record had suffered a severe blow. Our
score stood at a bit over 2.9M with 4 hours to go. Our only hopes were if the
short but sweet 10M Europe opening we had that morning would return for a high
run rate JA opening as we ran through the tape. This would be the epic end to
the contest we had dreamed about the night before.

A little after 21:00 15M opened to JA and we started working those operators who
were not having to head off to work for what is now Monday morning in Japan.
KW7J was happily entering them into the log at a pretty good clip. On the other
station we were picking off the random mult or otherwise unworked station on 10
and 20. K7ZO was dozing off in one of the LazyBoys. “Making horizontal QSO’s” as
we called it. At one point he had one of those subtle dreams of hearing a JA
calling CQ on 10M. It was if he could hear it. Faintly, but it was there. Almost
like the audio was being broadcast from a pair of headphones laid aside on a
desk. Around 21:50 this fantasy shook him awake and he looked at our hunter
station laid on the table in front of him. It was on 10M. And there was a pair
of headphones that AC7GL had just laid down as he went to rotate the beams. He
had just worked the first JA of the contest on 10M. 10M was open to JA! We
quickly moved 10M to the second run station and gave the mic to K7MK who
instantly had the hordes calling. This was not just an average 10M JA opening
but a full fledged 10M afternoon opening we get on the west coast. This means we
can work into Scandinavia at the same time as running JA. And sure enough OH1XX,
OH1F, RU1A, OH6QU, LA/N0HJZ, and OY9JD all made it into the log. The NK7U
regulars know this opening very well. RU1A makes a appearance rarely in this
opening, but OY9JD was a unique and pleasant surprise. 

The last two hours of the contest generated our 3rd and 4th highest rates of the
contest. As we racked up the qso points and added to the multipliers our score
rapidly climbed. We passed our last year’s score with two hours to go. The W7DX
score was actually in sight and maybe in reach. Something no one thought was
possible when the flare hit earlier. As the clock turned to 0:00 and the Enter
key was pushed for the last time we stood at 3.58M. Just 18,000 points short of
the W7DX score. With our final mult total we were just 10 Q’s short of what we
needed. (Of course after log checking we would see our score reduced and we were
in fact probably 250K points short.) As they say, “Close but no cigar”. 

Will next year bring conditions good enough for us to make another run at the W7
M/2 record? Or, will we have to wait until 2010? Only time will tell.

Thanks to all of you for the QSO’s and we will see you in the next contest.


K7ZO and one of the NK7U crew.


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