[3830] ARRLDX CW CN2WW M/S HP
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Thu Feb 22 07:08:19 EST 2007
ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: CN2WW
Operator(s): CN2NS, CN2PN, CN2WW
Station: CN2WW
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Casablanca
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 216 43
80: 648 57
40: 1178 56
20: 974 59
15: 1100 56
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 4116 271 Total Score = 3,345,495
Club:
Comments:
Operators: Nico SV3SJ (alias F5VIH / CN2NS), Philippe F6IFY (alias CN2PN),
Patrick F6IRF (alias CN2WW)
Station: IC7000 + amp / 500W
160: dipole
80/40: 2elts wire-yagis (matched with a pair of CWS/W2FMU multi-UNUN
transformers)
20/15: 2elts steppIR
10m vertical dipole (on a spare steppIR fiber element) - used for permanent
band monitoring (designed and built-up by Nico in less than 30mn !)
All antennas located about 100' AGL (120' ASL) on the "Beach-House" terrasse,
200m from the Ocean.
IBM thinkpad, N1MM-logger, microkeyer, ICE band-filters, etc.. No cluster and
no internet connection.
Another nice experience from Morocco and potentialy a new M/S African record...
The station, "dx-ped style", was built-up from scratch in one and a half day
and dismantled in half a day after the contest. We arrived Wednesday evening in
Casa airport with our 70kgs of luggages, and friday at 13:00 everything was
operational. Even if we could have done slightly better (we initialy crossed
the remote-cables of the steppIR and spent some time to redo a coaxial
connector on the 40m beam, while the problem was in the MFJ analyzer), it did
not take long to adjust the 2 wire-beams, and we managed to get very low SWR on
both antennas by measuring the impedance, and selecting the adequate ports on
the 2 multi-UNUN's. Both Bandwith and Impedance were found very close from the
NEC2 simulated values, which conforted us in the idea that the 2 antennas would
work as expected. However, we were really surprised by the rates we could get on
80/40 with those simple pieces of wires, and moderate high power. The 80m
beam,designed for high F/R (dipole/director with 8m spacing) thus protecting us
from the high EU-QRM quickly appeared to be a real "killer" in this contest. The
40m antenna, using dipole/reflector arrangement and the same 8m spacing was
optimized for max gain (thus poor F/R), but restropectively I think that a 3
elts using the same "boomlength"(!), would have provided both higher gain and
protection against EU-signals. Unfortunately,it would have required a second
"spiderbeam" fiber-mast and we already had some 10kgs of accompanied luggage
excedent - everything is always a matter of compromise ! Anyway, I think that,
in spite of our confidence in the antenna simulation, none of us had ever
expected to work so many West-Coast stations on those 2 bands, and a few of
them
with incredible signals...
In general propagation conditions have been excellent on low bands with low QRN
levels. 160m was like EME, with low signals, but just the band white noise. The
15m was a real good surprise on both days with such a low SSN and unfortunately
no miracle happened on 10m ! As usual, the transition periods (between day/night
propagation modes) were the most difficult for our nerves, with the rates
droping to low values for a couple of hours. 20m closed very early on Saturday
evening, but remained open one hour and a half later on Sunday, which allowed
us to see the AF-record at our hand.
Equipment-wise, This was the first time that we ever used the IC7000 in real
pile-ups... Despite its "miniature" size it really revealed to be a fantastic
and powerful small toy - everybody loved it !
N1MM-logger worked without a single glitch - as usual - Just a few problems of
adaptation to the N1MM-ESM for Philippe (who managed to ask VY2TT for his
"state agn" while we had him already on the 4 other bands ;-)
In fact, everything worked perfectly without equipment failure or any kind of
problem, despite high thermal winds (the spiderbeam "heavy duty" 12m fiber
mast was strongly bent in the direction of the sea in the morning and the other
way during afternoons, but it resisted).
Being at the the end of the cycle 23 (or right at the beginning of the cycle24
- who knows ?), we did not think that it would be possible to beat the current
M/S AF-record (EA4KR/EA8) established in 1993, 3 years before the end of cycle
22, but I think we did it !
- Thanks to Mohamed CN8PA for his precious logistic support, for helping us
with the installation and for driving us in the incredible Casa labyrinthe and
road trafic - Once again, without him, the operation would have been much more
dificult!
- Thanks to Andre HB9HLM for renting us his appartment and to the "Beach house"
direction for giving us the authorization to access the various terrasses and
to install the temporary antennas.
- Thanks to my Rabat friends: Said CN8LI, Kacem CN8LR and Said CN8WW for their
assistance, loan of spare equipment, relations with the administration, etc,
etc...
- Thanks to Iberia for not charging us for the luggages excedent and for
delivering the luggage in Casablanca airport in a timely manner - taking into
account the tight expedition time-frame, a single luggage lost in Madrid would
have dramatic for the success of the operation !
- Thanks to Elena and Stefano IK2QEI (the CN3A team) for visiting us in
Dar-Bouazza. It has been really a nice evening; Stefano has so many contest
stories,
and such a talking-talent, that we forgot that we were all a bit tired !
We left Mohamed CN8PA at Casa airport wednesday at 11:00, with the head full of
new exciting projects.
See you soon again from Morocco !
(logs will be uploaded soon to LOTW - Conventional card only via EA7FTR)
For the team
Patrick - F6IRF/CN2WW
Life is too short for contesting from home !
Pictures, video (Nico has abt 30mn of video rushes and is working on a 5-10mn
clip), contest sound-clips, contest stats, antenna designs secrets and more...
S O O N O N
http://cn2ww.blogspot.com/
Sect Total 160m 80m 40m 20m 15m
PA 265 19 41 85 64 56
NY 231 16 38 64 58 55
CA 223 5 38 62 39 79
FL 223 12 35 57 56 63
OH 199 8 28 60 55 48
NJ 191 9 30 48 56 48
TX 183 8 30 63 33 49
MA 181 12 32 48 53 36
VA 173 14 24 49 37 49
IL 169 5 29 53 36 46
NC 156 8 23 46 32 47
MI 134 5 20 42 32 35
MD 121 5 18 32 36 30
MN 121 2 20 26 32 41
TN 112 3 19 31 23 36
ON 110 11 17 27 25 30
CT 99 8 14 27 25 25
WI 95 6 16 24 23 26
NH 92 8 13 26 22 23
AZ 89 2 14 27 17 29
GA 77 8 10 28 12 19
AL 71 2 8 28 14 19
CO 70 2 9 23 20 16
IN 58 1 8 15 17 17
NM 44 1 11 16 9 7
LA 37 2 7 9 7 12
NS 37 3 4 11 10 9
MO 35 5 13 5 12
WA 35 2 7 14 12
WV 33 3 5 9 8 8
QC 28 1 7 6 8 6
AR 27 2 5 7 7 6
OK 27 6 2 7 3 9
SC 27 3 6 6 5 7
MS 26 2 5 8 3 8
VT 26 3 5 7 5 6
IA 25 1 5 5 4 10
DE 24 6 8 4 6
ME 24 2 4 7 7 4
NE 19 1 2 3 6 7
RI 19 1 2 6 7 3
UT 19 1 1 6 3 8
KS 18 5 6 2 5
NF 14 1 2 4 3 4
OR 14 4 5 2 3
KY 13 3 4 6
NV 13 2 4 2 5
NB 11 1 1 3 5 1
PEI 11 2 2 2 2 3
MT 9 1 5 3
AB 8 1 2 5
DC 8 1 3 2 2
ID 8 1 3 2 2
ND 7 1 1 1 2 2
SD 7 2 2 1 2
BC 6 2 3 1
SK 5 4 1
WY 5 2 2 1
KW 1 1
NL 1 1
NU 1 1
Total 4115 216 648 1177 974 1100
Sect Total 160m 80m 40m 20m 15m
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