[3830] IARU AM1HQ Headquarters HP

Wed Aug 8 08:59:27 EDT 2007

                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: AM1HQ
Operator(s): AM1HQ
Station: AM1HQ

Class: Headquarters HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:   306     45    11       24
   80:   831    574    23       37
   40:  1389   1049    37       44
   20:  1648   2120    40       51
   15:  1051   1093    34       49
   10:   439    847    15       35
-------------------------------------
Total:  5664   5728   160      240  Total Score = 14,632,800

Club: 

Comments:

Over the last few years there has been a change in the way the URE has put the
national society team on the air for this contest, and this year we managed to
organise a fully fledged multi-site operation on all bands. 

Our team was as follows

160M CW: AM2HQ, ops EA2CLU, EC2DM, EA2BNU, EB2BXL, EA2CMY
80M CW: AM1HQ: ops EA1WX, EA1CS
40M CW: AM5HQ, ops EA5BY, EARS, EA5FID
20M CW: AM5HQ, op EA5FV
15M CW: AM4HQ, op EA4TX and EA4DRV
10M CW: AM7HQ, ops EA7RM and EA7TL

160M SSB: AM3HQ, ops EA3QP, EA3IN
80M SSB: AM1HQ, ops EA7TN, EA1FDI, EA1CNV, EB1IVY
40M SSB: AM4HQ: op EA4KD
20M SSB: AM5HQ, ops EA5DFV, EA5FL, EA5KV
15M SSB: AM4HQ, op EA5DY/4
10M SSB: AM5HQ, ops EA5DF, EA5ET

The team coordinator is veteran contester and URE contest manager EA4KA,
assisted by myself (EA5ON) and EA5KY

Putting this event on the air was in principle a daunting task, but I have to
say that working with such a great team of committed station owners, operators,
and expeditioners meant that my job was really quite easy. What would I have
done without EA4TX and the wintest team? Without him and his tunnel, we would
have been working in the dark. All the backup came from EA5DFV, who was
convinced by the operators that used this system in last yearâ€™s event that
this was the way to go. Certainly it was great to be able to see in real time
the evolution of 10 of the 12 stations and have an idea of which tactics we
should be employing at any given time and have realtime contact to keep things
on an even keel. 

There are so many stories to tell and perhaps itâ€™s an injustice to pick one
over the rest, but perhaps the email I received from the 80m SSB team indicates
best of all the spirit which reigned throughout the proceedings. Hereâ€™s my
rough translation:

"Thereâ€™s a lot to say about this weekendâ€™s operation, and not all of it
nice. As you say, I suppose having a fixed station for exclusive contest use is
the most reliable way to go, but take into consideration that weâ€™ve been doing
this since 1998, participating in the big HF contests and all the V-UHF
championships, so the setup routine is well polished. The advantage is that we
are able to use an impressive site right on the atlantic coast and 650m high,
but the thing is that sometimes you can be caught in the middle of a low
pressure system, like this weekend. The setup on Saturday was done in very
adverse conditions: thereâ€™s a 30m high tower without a ladder or security
system, and two of us climbed the tower in wind, rain, and fog, so much fog
that we couldnâ€™t see the top of the tower. I can assure you that had this
been a personal operation, and we didnâ€™t have a commitment with anyone else,
we wouldnâ€™t have participated because there was a big lack of security for
the work we had to do. The tower in itself is not in the best of shape but with
that weather its best not to think about what we did. 

>From the top of the tower we let down two ropes, one to pull up the dipole, and
the other, 120m long, to hold up the full size quarter wave vertical separated
from the tower. We also put up two RX antennas, a low sloping wire and a flag
type with preamp. We had never put up anything as ambitious as this for this
band, in spite of having been doing this for a long time, and the results were
really good. I personally felt quite comfortable although Iâ€™m not a polished
80m op, since I usually operate 10 or 15, although of course having Nacho is
always a guarantee.

The rigs were our veteran â€œsouped upâ€ TS850 with RX antenna input added and
a TS940 as backup. The amp was a 2 x 4-400 made by EA1DAX, shame heâ€™s a CW man
and didnâ€™t join the team.

As for the rest of it, indeed it was great to see everyone pushing in the same
direction. As a negative point, the lack of awareness among EAs regarding the
national society station. Itâ€™s a notable point that on a usually domestic
band, we worked more Americans than Spaniards! I had to laugh when I realised
that a mini pile up of Spanish stations on Sunday morning was because somebody
had spotted on the cluster that I was in a rare town for the DME (Spanish
towns) award!

The four operators were EA7TN, EA1CNV, EB1IVY, and myself, EA1FDI. I am quite
clear that without all of us on the team, this wouldnâ€™t have worked out the
way it did. Thanks for giving us this opportunity."

This is as I say just one of the many stories. 

We have a learned a lot from this, and it is my personal hope that the team is
able to put the lessons to good use and obtain an even better score in 2008.

Thanks to the URE for allowing all of us to participate this year, we hope we
lived up to your expectations.

Some photos are available at: http://cq.uv.es/AMxHQ_2007/FOTOS/

73 de Duncan EA5ON

Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/