[3830] CQWW CW C6ATA(K2KW) SOSB/80 LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: C6ATA
Operator(s): K2KW
Station: C6ATA

Class: SOSB/80 LP
QTH: Bahamas
Operating Time (hrs): 29

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80: 1811    26      103
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1811    26      103  Total Score = 573,534

Club: 

Comments:

Another fun Team Vertical trip with N6BT and KE7X!

Long text...

My score should hold up for a new 80m LP World Record.  This is amazing, since
less than an hour into the contest I was ready to quit since nobody heard me!

The first hour on 80 was frustrating:  nobody heard me.  Worse, the entire
first night was the same:  I felt like I was using a dummy load for an antenna.
 I would call 10-20 over S9 EU stations and they would CQ in my face.  After
about 45 minutes, I asked N6BT (who did 160m LP) if he wanted to shut down and
go drinking, as our hopes for new LP world records looked impossible.  160m was
just as bad.

I nearly gave up after the first hour, but I sat in the chair (yes, there is a
happy ending…) I had 25 QSOs in each of the 2nd and 3rd hours.  Something was
very wrong.  Was it propagation?  Was it our antennas?  We didn’t know.  Both
N6BT and I set world records for QRP and LP on both 80 and 160, and we have
never had this much trouble working guys.

At the end of the first night, I had about 850 QSOs and 200k points.  My target
for the first night was 1200 QSOs.  My score was not looking good for breaking
the world LP record.  

As the sun was setting on the 2nd night, things were the same:  10 over S9 EU
stations would CQ in my face.  N6BT and I scratched our heads thinking of what
was different this year (and different from the first 2 days we had 80 on the
air this week).  We’ve used these antennas before.  We’ve used this QTH
before.  They were both world-class. I finally realized the only difference was
either propagation (which didn’t make sense since the K index was so low AND I
heard so well) or we had some weird transmit problem on both 80 and 160. 
Finally I realized I installed new baluns on both 80 and 160 (torroid chokes
based on  K9YC’s information).  I removed the balun, and shortly after I had
a EU pileup on 80 and things looked right again.  Was the problem the balun? 
Propagation? I still don’t know. 

The 2nd night turned out to be very productive, and I had a good run into
UA/UR, Eastern EU and the Scandinavian countries.  I put over 500 EU QSOs in
the log that night (as compared to 180 the first night).  Around 65% of my 2nd
night’s QSOs were 3-point QSOs which quickly propelled my score to where it
should be.  My 573k claimed score should hold as the new world record (unless
someone else beat it this year).


EQUIPMENT:
TS-850
ANT 1: 2 ele vertical parasitic array on the beach (converted 40m verticals
with top hat wire loading)
ANT 2: Dipole with an effective height of 100’ 
ANT 3: single vertical (last 3 hours of contest only)
Stack Match to combine the above antennas while transmitting
N1MM Logger

The dipole had a commanding signal into the Caribbean and Central/South
America, and enabled me to work nearly all the mults who were active on 80m in
those areas (I missed V2, CE, FJ and VP9).  The verticals were better to EU, US
and JA.  Heard but couldn’t work: A45, all TA stns, VK, ZL, zone 18, 4O, Z3,
YB, and TO3.  I was disappointed I never worked zone 29, 30, 32, 38 (all should
have been easy) and 39 (I worked VQ9LA a few times before the contest..).

On Sunday afternoon N6BT converted the 55’ 160m vertical to a full-size 80m
vertical just to see how it compared to the short 2 ele array (N6BT wasn’t
feeling good, so he only operated 160 the first night).  While checking the
difference between the two 80m antennas, we discovered the combination of the 2
ele vertical plus the single vertical were louder than any single antenna into
EU!  The antennas happened to be spaced about ½ wavelength on 80, were
broadside to northern EU, and the coax obviously worked out to be about the
correct length for a broadside array!  In an optimized broadside array, we
should have seen about a 2dB gain, though I typically saw 1- 2 S-units gain
into EU on receive, and lower signals into JA.  You should always experiment
with antennas!

Many thanks for everyone who got on to make this a great contest!  And thanks
to everyone who called me.  QSL via WA4WTG

Congratulations to Fred KE7X signing C6AKX on beating his own 20m LP NA record
by a sizeable margin.  He came close to the 20m LP world record this year.  

73, Kenny K2KW – C6ATA


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