[3830] CQWW CW ZD8O(N5ZO) SOAB HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: ZD8O
Operator(s): N5ZO
Station: ZD8O

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ascension Island
Operating Time (hrs): 45

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:  189    14       53
   40:  558    22       79
   20:  928    31      100
   15: 2131    33      109
   10:  832    21       76
------------------------------
Total: 4638   121      417  Total Score = 7,425,476

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

Equipment:
K-3 + Alpha 76, SO1R
Cushcraft A3S tribander
Butternut HF2V
N1MM logger

I sometimes have heard wishes that I would write a bit from my trips, so I
decided then this time to write brief report from the trip to ZD8.  This
write-up actually turned out to be longer than I 1st intended.  But here we
go…:

This operation took months to plan.  In fact in Visalia 2009 I first time
discussed of options to operate from ZD8 with Jim N6TJ/ZD8Z.  That time I had
plans already in motion to operate CQ WW in 2009 from elsewhere and it was
getting little too tight to get everything arranged for ZD8 operation in 2009,
so I already then decided to try to go to ZD8 in 2010…

I planned whole simple one radio set-up of the station to the smallest detail
including how to get it up with minimal help and what tools and equipment would
be needed for every screw.  In Ascension, if you didn’t bring it and you need
something on the island it may be extremely hard or likely impossible to find. 
It helped a great deal that Jim was able visit the QTH site during one of his
trips to ZD8 and that Tom K7ZZ decided to operate from same site during his DX
pedition to ZD8 in early October.  Also Jim provided access to his small Alpha
amp and some other stuff that he had accumulated on the island over the years.

I decided on simple station set-up of 33 ft telescopic Spiderbeam mast with big
tripod and Cushcraft A3S tribander, Yaesu rotator mounted at the bottom of the
mast.  For 80/40 I was going to use Butternut HF2V and for 160 whatever wire I
would be able to spread at the QTH.  I also packed K9AY loop system and extra
40 ft fiberglass pole.  All this with lot of wire, coax, rope, ground stakes,
tools and other supplies was procured in US and shipped by boat during the
summer.  It was 8 boxes of stuff.  I even included small first aid kit just in
case (and it did turn out to be useful). 

ZD8S at Ascension received the stuff and stored it there waiting for my
arrival.  It turned out that he had to travel to ZD7 land during the contest,
so I actually never met Stedson, but he had passed my gear to ZD7JP who is also
on the island and Jimmy was also going to help me on setting up the station his
time permitting.  After Stedson had received the gear in ZD8 I asked him to
check out if all the parts were in A3S box.  Of course some U-bolts were
missing, as Cushcraft nowdays does not seem to be shipping right U-bolts with
that antenna, or they they don’t even ship wrong U-bolts as it seems that
they just don’t have one of them.  I tried to get TWICE new complete U-bolt
set for that antenna through HRO where it was bought, and TWICE they sent wrong
parts.  Anyway, at least I knew this in advance and had something with me that I
could use.  Otherwise I may have had to use duct tape to fix the antenna to the
mast…

You get to Ascension by RAF flight out of RAF base in UK.  It is weird flight
operated by Air Seychelles and plane.  You get RAF boarding pass and blankets
on the plane but they have Air Seychelles cabin crew and magazine in the seat
pocket.  More people on that flight are actually travelling to Falklands and
ZD8 is just refueling stop on the way.  Just before the contest RAF changed
flight schedules due to some runway work in VP8-land, and instead of having 2
flights per week schedule each way (flights both during the week and weekend)
now the schedule has those same 2 flights flying down on each Friday and back
up on each Saturday.  This meant that I would get to ZD8 couple days later than
I originally planned (not good for station set-up) and also I would have to stay
on the island few days longer after the contest than I would have liked to. 
Luggage allowance on that flight is also very slim, so one needs to think
carefully what to take and it would be totally impossible to mount the
operation without shipping the stuff to the island in advance as I did.

I arrived to ZD8 on Friday week before the contest and decided to stay 1st
night down in the city, which is just few buildings spread out on lava rock by
the ocean.  I met Jimmy that night and we agreed next day to go to QTH together
with 2 cars and as much gear as we were able to take.  I rented small pick-up
truck and Jimmy had land-rover so we had quite a lot of space for stuff.

Climb to QTH which was about 2500 ft high was narrow road with I counted 18
hairpin turns.  It felt bit scary 1st time but before I was leaving the island
I was driving it up mostly on 2nd gear.

Once at the QTH we needed to haul all the gear for last 50 meters due to gate
that was blocking drive access to the cottage.  It was quite a lot of carrying
stuff.  That night I also made 2nd trip down the mountain to get some more of
Jim’s ZD8Z stuff up on the mountain so that I would not have to go down for
some small missing item.  QTH was just spectacular with clear shot over the
water to all directions North from about 250 degrees to 80 degrees.  Mountain
immediately on my behind was climbing another 300+ feet, so any contacts to
South, especially to VK/ZL would be impossible via short path.  I also did not
work single ZS which clearly was due to the mountain.

On Sunday I built the yagi and mounted everything so that it was ready to be
raised on the telescopic Spiderbeam mast.  During this work there was also 50+
people watching me on the lawn as earlier that morning they had annual Dew Pond
Run in ZD8-land where they touch the water on the ocean and race up the mountain
and touch the water again at the dew pond located at the very top of the
mountain.  Makes me were tired to think of running up that mountain…  Anyway,
award ceremony and some hot dog eating took place after the run on the lawn of
the cottage and there were some 50+ visitors there.  It was obviously main
event for the islanders as there are only few hundred people on the island. 
Everyone on the island definitely knew about some weird radio operation at the
cottage after the event.  

On late afternoon Jimmy arrived with Sharon and Shelley and four of us were
going to lift the mast up.  I was not able to quite lift the mast to total
available height of 33 ft, but I think it got close to 30 ft anyway.  There was
one moment during the push up that it all almost came crashing down.  It had got
very windy up on the mountain and weather there was changing extremely fast. 
Tower crew was perhaps not best trained but with some luck we were able to
prevent the crash.  I hooked up the coax and made few contacts barefoot that
night on 15 and 20 and it was obvious that at least high bands were going to
work great from that QTH.

On Monday I built the Butternut and before nightfall Jimmy came again to the
mountain and we put it up on the lawn.  I spreaded just few radials for it and
then tried to adjust/tune the coils.  It took very very long time to get
Butternut tuned, and I was out in dark and cold late that night trying to
finish the job.  I had schedule on mind for each day and did not want to fall
behind.  Finally I was able to figure it out and antenna tuned beautifully on
both 80 and 40.  I think that without RigExpert’s antenna analyzer it would
have taken another day.  It was very useful piece of equipment for vertical
tuning.  Again I hooked up the coax and made few contacts on both bands.  Thing
worked great.  I was able to work both, some NA and lot of EU easily, that time
I had also set up Alpha, and I felt pretty good about the antenna.  I thought
80 was not that great but 40 was clearly getting out nicely.  But then I did
not have many radials on the Butternut yet.

On Tuesday I set up to figure out what to do with 160 m.  I decided on end fed
sloping wire, simulating something like vertical.  I would use same radials for
that antenna as for Butternut, ie antennas were fed by separate coaxial but feed
points were next to each other.  Day before I left to ZD8 I had received EZ-Hang
sling shot that I had never before tried.  I had decided to buy one due to
comments that Tom K7ZZ made after his DX pedition to the same QTH.  He
mentioned that he thought that with sling shot I could try to get rope on the
tree that was immediately behind the cottage on South side on steeply upwards
sloping hill.  I decided to take my 1st shot from that upward sloping hill
shooting from behind the tree Northwards towards the property.  I took just one
shot and actually got the line pretty much where it needed to go.  It took many
climbs up and down that slope, that was rain forest/jungle and extremely
slippery and hard to go either up or down, but I did finally get my wire high
up on that tree and just needed to make small angle on it by simple pulley
system on the lawn to fit that 40 m long wire.  Amazingly it seemed resonant at
1.830 without any adjustments.  Right where I had planned.  That night I had
less than 10 short radials on that antenna and Butternut, nevertheless I made
more than 100 contacts on 160 during one hour from 22-23 Z.  I was feeling very
good of the set-up at that point.  I think 160 m worked actually better than my
80 m.

For Wednesday I was set up to put many more radials for the low bands.  I had
shipped lot of wire to the island and Tom had also left me some more.  I
decided to set up radials until 3 pm and did not count how many I had.  (I
counted them when I rolled them back after the contest and I had put out 70
radials on the lawn.)  However, tuning of the Butternut changed quite
dramatically after adding those radials and I spent another cold and dark late
night outside figuring it out.  Radials did not change 160 m tuning. 
Eventually I found new settings for Butternut and everything was all set for
the contest outside the shack that night.  I also made few more contacts on 80
and 40 that night and I felt things were working somewhat better on 80 now. 
W6YA from San Diego where I live also reported that I was much stronger on 40 m
than 2 days prior with much less radials.

I never set up loop antenna or needed extra pole I had shipped, as I felt I
heard quite well on low bands at that QTH.

On Thursday I just set up shack inside and did some light operating (also on 10
m which I had not tried before).  It was clear that I was going to get some 10 m
openings from my geographical location.  I also made another trip down the
mountain just to find out that food store was open only half day that day of
the week.  So I had to go back down on Friday to buy some supplies for the
weekend.

It got quite windy up at QTH and on Friday I discovered one of the top loading
wires of the Butternut broken so I changed all of those on Friday.  I was very
tired on Friday, even when I was able have 1st good sleep during whole week
from Thursday to Friday.  It had just been very busy week with lot of physical
activity on setting everything up.  Contest start was approaching and I tried
to take couple hour nap on the evening but could not really sleep due to some
anxiety and mosquitoes in the bed room. 
    
Just before the sunset on Friday I did final check outside and everything was
fine.  Then later I checked out the tuning marks on Alpha and all seemed to be
OK but 160 m which just did not tune.  Also when keying down on 160 m I smelt
something burning and I thought that perhaps I had cooked toroid in Alpha, but
situation seemed to be slightly better (no smell) with lowered power.  Anyway
contest was starting and there was not much I could do.  

Then to contest:
Contest started at midnight in Ascension, and I had nice rates all through the
night at start on 20 m and during the night on 40/80.  Several times during the
night I ventured to 160 but could not get anything going on that band and nobody
also answered me on S/P.  But I was so busy on other bands and it was half night
anyway that I did not think too much of it and planned to operate 160 m on
main/full night after all Europeans had worked each others.  

Just before the sunset on Saturday I took a small break and ate something and
also ventured out.  It is then when I saw my 160 m wire on the ground and cut
end of it all charred and burned.  This is what I figured out: I had lost that
antenna sometime after the sunset on Friday and before beginning of the contest
and the smell I had felt when trying to tune it was coming from the wire that
had fell from the tree on the radials on the ground and RF was burning the
plastic insulator on the wire when I was trying to transmit with it.  But I
only discovered this 45 mins before sunset on Saturday night, so there was
nothing I (or anyone else for that matter) could do at that point.  It would
have taken anyone ½ day to get the rope back on that tree and it was coming
dark in half an hour.  I then decided that I could only try to tune Butternut
for 160 m with old Drake antenna tuner that I had from Jim, and if that would
not work I would have to forget the top band.  It was definitely low point of
the contest, but there was nothing else I could do.  And it turned out I was
not able to get SWR to anything manageable with Drake tuner.  I did not make
single contact on 160 m.  Really a shame as that antenna seemed to work really
well before the contest.

Somehow I did feel bit relief as I also decided that perhaps I could get some
sleep during upcoming night as now I did not have 160 m to worry.  I was so
fatigued just after 8 hours into the contest due to all the work and lack of
good sleep during the week before so I was really afraid of Sunday.  That nap
0450-0620 z made huge difference on Sunday. 

I had number in my mind of 8-9M for rather modest set-up but in excellent QTH,
and also for CW that I feel more like recreational mode for me.  I got to 7.4M
which I think is quite OK compared with the goal and lost 160 m multipliers.  

I was off the air totally about 2.5 hours, 30 mins when I discovered the
problem with 160 m, did some eating and thought through the options and
mentally adjusted to new scenario.  Then I was off the air again 0335-0405Z and
eventually then decided on that nap for 1.5 hrs to get back on chair for 2nd
day.  I probably took another 20-25 min break sometime on 2nd day to clear my
head but otherwise operated entire contest.  During last hour I only chased
mults on 80 and 40.

All in all it was blast.  I do not like of thick pileups (they are not
efficient) and quickly went to work small split on most bands and situations. 
It helped a lot but was still challenging.  I was also usually staying very
high on the band trying to stay away from main thick of it.  I moved lots of
mults on Sunday.  I should have started that bit earlier.  It was very
effective and boosted score greatly every time I moved someone.
 
Lot being discussed of IDing.  I know I did not ID enough.  (In fact I had big
note glued to my computer that said SEND CALL.)  Next year I will somehow set
to ID more and see what it does.  I'm not sure if it will help me.  I also did
not want any more guys calling me and if they were asking who I was I always
sent my call at least twice at that time...  But my intention was to ID more
than I did.  For next time I will find contest program where you can set
interval after how many QSOs you ID.  I remember there is one where this is in
the menu and perhaps it is best to find “automatic solution”.  I do not
believe on IDing after each QSO.  Also, in this year when operating from ZD8
and being quite rare in the contest I would have been completely OK if you had
moved on as I did not ID and you did not know who I was.  I already had more
people calling me than I could handle, so no hard feelings from my side.  But
critique on this issue is received and I will try to correct it on my own
operating next time around. 

After the contest I further investigated what had happened to that 160 m
antenna:  It looks like top of the wire that ended on dog-bone insulator high
on the tree was somehow touching wet tree branched and some charring and
burning was visible also on the insulator and remaining piece of wire that I
pulled down from the tree after the contest.  Wire had cut up near the
insulator and fell to the radials on the lawn.  When I was trying to tune the
amp before the contest I was then smelling the insulation on the wire burning
outside through open windows on the shack.  Wire had fallen right outside of
the shack.  Also, I had one 1.6 mm aluminum radial cut to 2 pieces with some
burn marks.  So there had been some real sparks on that lawn.

After the contest I did not find it very intriguing to operate just QSOs
outside of the contest.  I like that thing has beginning and end.  I always
need to push myself to do QSOs before and after, especially after, even if I
would be interesting DX to all.  I guess if my 160 m would have been up I would
have done some DXing on that band, but I was just too tired to put up anything
new on that tree.  I then decided to take the station down already on Wednesday
and by 3 am on Thursday had most of it packed on the boxes and then I spent
Thursday hauling stuff down from the mountain.  I also moved down from the
mountain already on Thursday and stayed last 2 nights in the “city” and
flew out back to UK on Saturday.  On Friday I was able to tour the island a
bit, which really did not take more than couple hours as place is rather small.
 There are many interesting antennas on that island…

In conclusions, it was great experience and I think “concept” got proven
for mounting this kind of small contest expedition on the ZD8 rock, even when
there are many obstacles on getting stuff down there.  Also, I think it may
very well be best radio location in the world I have ever operated from, and I
have been in most of the “hot” contest zones.  This was 17th zone for me in
my own lifetime goal of operating CQ WW DX contest from all 40 zones.  It was
probably one of the more challenging ones to execute and I’m happy it is
checked.  But again, just like after last year in 5R, I feel like I would like
to return next year.  But I will probably end up going somewhere else
interesting next year…

Thanks to especially following friends who were great help on making this
possible:
N6TJ/ZD8Z for great advice, Alpha and other gear
K6NA/ZD8A for great advice and fabrication few custom items for making antenna
set-up easy
N6KI for borrowing me K-3 to take with me as my own that I ordered to take for
this operation had to be sent back to Elecraft as it had few issues out of
box.
K7ZZ for great advice and leaving couple items for me to use after his
operation
ZD8S for receiving and taking care of my stuff
ZD7JP, Sharon and Shelley for helping hands with setting up antennas at the
site.
I’m probably forgetting someone but thank you too!

73 de Marko N5ZO/ZD8O


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