[3830] CQWW CW VA7ST SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 31

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   16     3        2
   80:  305    13       14
   40:  375    21       40
   20:  752    32       62
   15:  315    16       30
   10:   14     7       10
------------------------------
Total: 1777    92      158  Total Score = 950,750

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

* SO1R unassisted
* FT-2000 + SB221 + N1MM Logger (outstanding)
* 3 ele. SteppIR at ~47'
* 1 x 40M SteppIR dipole
* 2 x 80M elevated verticals (JA or US/VE)
* 1 x 160M inverted-L
* 1 x 270' bi-directional Beverage for 160M and 80M 

=================================================

2009: SFI=73  A=2  K=1, no sunspots
2008: SFI=68  A=2  K=0, no sunspots

My attitude going in was: "this is a global massively multiplayer game and I'm
going to love every moment of it." And I did.

Was spotted 27 times, on all bands except 10M and 160M -- the boost is like an
afterburner kicking in. Best clock-hour was 150 (1900z Saturday). Averaged 57
Qs/hour over 31 hours, but there were some real dogs in there.

End of 1st night 1300z:  405 Qs,  46 DXCC, 36 zones for  70,028 points. 
End of 2nd night 1400z: 1200 Qs, 120 DXCC, 76 zones for 493,528 points.
End of contest score:   1777 Qs, 158 DXCC, 92 zones for 950,750 points.

I ended up putting in 31 hours. It was hubris to think I could put in 40 hours
or even get near 2,000 contacts. Due to weak performance on 80M the first
night, on Saturday morning I thought I better retrench back to the
500,000-point fallback target on reserve for just this situation. 

As Sunday progressed, I found more and more unexpected mults while sweeping 20M
and foxholes from which to run Stateside. Landed some juicy DX (for me, anyway),
including R1 Antarctica long-path, Zambia, and Sierra Leone, though couldn't
break through the roaring pileups for Botswana and South Africa.

Disappointments were not finding enough rate to hit 2,000 Qs -- ended up with
1,777 -- and falling just 50K short of the 1-million goal. That's only 5
percent, but a big 5 percent for me. Another hour (or a better Friday night on
80M) would have done it.

       QSOs  Ctry  Zones  Score
2002    675   147   63    313,740
2003    865   115   73    351,936
2004  1,421   146   79    697,500
2005  1,014   126   61    411,587
2006  1,476   163   78    775,297      35 hrs
2007  1,470   129   69    615,582 < HP 32 hrs
2008: 1,580   129   71    670,600 < HP 25 hrs
2009: 1,777   158   92    950,750 < HP 31 hrs 

Goal: 2,000   160   80  1,000,000   
      - 223  -  2  +12  -  49,250   delta: actual vs. goals

Last year, I had 229 3-pointers and 1333 2-pointers. 
This year, I had 293 3-pointers and 1461 2-pointers.

My apologies to K3LR for QRMing by mistake early Sunday morning when the rig
jumped 20 kcs down to 3503. I sent three or four CQs before realizing what had
happened and wondered how I was teleported so far down the band. Figured the
guys would forgive and forget if I disappeared fast. Sorry for the flub.

from the "how were the bands?" dept.:

160M: Almost too noisy to work anyone, even with the Beverage on line. Gotta
fix that by next weekend. The 160M inverted-L is noisy but otherwise playing
very nicely with a big coil across the feedpoint and a few 135' elevated
radials for a groundplane. Limited to 100w on this band, but still hope to have
some fun in December.

80M: This was going to be a 400-Q weekend on 80, but it didn't happen. Friday
night was practically a bust here. Had to stay up till 5 a.m. to wring what I
could out of it, ending the first night with 170 Qs, and the second night
having built that to 305 Qs, 14 countries and 13 zones (down from 377 Qs, 27
countries, 17 zones last year).

40M: While Qs to most of NA are easier in the late afternoon daylight (i.e.
while EU is also open here), I continually find that few can hear me from
around dusk until at least a couple of hours after dark. I hear everyone just
fine, but neither vertical nor horizontal antennas get a signal over the
Rockies. Target was 400 Qs; very happy with 374.

The SteppIR 40M dipole at 47' isn't high enough to consistently punch through
to EU. Managed to get a dozen in zones 13-15 though. The dipole does a good job
on domestic Qs when the band finally does open both ways across North America.
In the 0800z to 1300z hours it really sings. A new RF vector analyzer will help
me get the phasing correct on the 40M twin N-S verticals, so EU won't be quite
so tough to reach (he says once again).

20M: Big story was poor 20M EU openings: short and shallow Saturday morning,
stronger on Sunday but only for about an hour (1700-1800z) with just a trickle
after that. Wanted 800 Qs here, but 752 feels pretty darn good. The band was
rip-roaring fun for the last few hours with everywhere open at the same time. 

Mostly S&P in the final hour, landing many double-mults in the Pacific and
Asia, and a bunch of Caribbean countries I hadn't found on 20M until then. The
SteppIR's highly agile bidirectional and reverse modes worked extremely well
for this. 

High winds forced me to crank down the tower as soon as the EU opening dwindled
on Sunday morning. Ran the final 8 hours at 27'. The low height sure works well
to the States and Caribbean on 20M-10M due to a near-field 300' terrain drop in
those headings, but hurts into Asia from here.

---------

As I usually do, I concocted many melodramas as the weekend progressed --
little near-term challenges to keep me motivated. With half an hour to go, I
set my sights on hitting 950,000 points... but I would need spectacular 20M
mult-hunting to get there. 

30 minutes left. Land 9V1 Singapore for zone and country multipliers. Then flip
the beam to V31 Belize for another mult, and flip again to 9M2 West Malaysia for
a welcome double-dipper. Put the antenna into bidirectional mode and work
several 2- and 3-pointers (Ws and JAs) as I tune the band for elusive mults.
Find LU1 for a single mult, then stumble across E21 Thailand and put the yagi
in full-forward mode aimed at Asia for a double-mult. Favorite thing in the
CQWW world: green letters in the N1MM callsign box.

Just a handful more points to hit 950K but time is slipping away. Run across a
string of exceptionally loud JA and BY 3-pointers. 1:40 to go. Need about 6
more QSO points -- that's a long shot in search-and-pounce mode because
everybody at this end is doing the same thing and competition is fierce for the
CQer jump-balls. Find a loud WA6O. Work him though I'm aimed at UA0; wonder how
he heard me (I see he was at N6RO: no wonder). Need 4 more points. 60 seconds
remain, tune lower and hear K6TA also off the back of the beam. Got him but I'm
only at 949,500 and still need a 2-pointer (x 250 mults)... just 30 seconds
left. 

Tuning the low end of the band like a cruising barracuda now. Holding breath
and clenching teeth, both of which are well-known receiver boosters. There's a
JA1 ending a CQ... clear channel to him. BAM. N1MM Logger score turns over to
950,250 and I pull off the headphones. I still have a whole 15 seconds left.
Happy, happy. Sponge Bob-like grin in place because I've advanced my
personal-best score by 175,000 points.

Bud's Law: even after a 172,800-second (48-hour) contest the final 60 seconds
will always be a completely heart-thumping, adrenalin-pumping panic :) 

I later rescored and saw that I have 950,750... that last 3-pointer was worth
750, so let's call it insurance :)

---------

15M: Wide open to all of North and South America almost all daylight hours
here. Some JA and Pacific action, but no EU or AF. Wonderful to be called by
VP8NO -- been a few years since the last time. Hoped for 400 Qs; happy with
315.

10M: Decidedly yucky (10 countries and 7 zones excepted) -- only 1 W5, the rest
SAs. I figured 10 countries would be great for 10M under these conditions, and
that's exactly what I got. 

NCJ arrived in the mail Thursday -- discovered the magazine on the kitchen
counter during a break from trying to locate a good contest performance
comparison tool. Well, right on time Pete N4ZR's software column featured
Athena (new software by Carel PC5M). Athena is an awesome tool if you're an
N1MM user. I loaded Athena with logs from the 2006 (previous best) and 2008
CQWW CW as my goals (you can switch easily) and was able to graphically track
progress in real time by band (points, mults, score) and all-bands throughout
the contest. THAT is a motivator!

Check it out at:
www.xs4all.nl/~kvgog/projects/athena.html

So, that's a wrap on the 2009 CQWW CW. Looked forward to it all year, and now
very much looking forward to the ARRL 160M, TARA RTTY Melee, ARRL 10M (what the
?), then OKDX RTTY and concurrent RAC Winter (hmmm. A dilemma), and finally the
Stew Perry TBDC to close out the year. Thanks for the contacts. 

In the noise,

-- Bud VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st


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