[3830] CQWW CW WC1M SOAB HP
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Mon Nov 28 16:53:00 PST 2011
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 40.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 15 8 10
80: 407 18 67
40: 1190 28 97
20: 490 34 96
15: 885 28 102
10: 879 28 101
------------------------------
Total: 3866 144 473 Total Score = 6,983,206
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Hooray! 10 is back!
According to my CQ WW CW records, and it’s been eight long years since I had
more than 100 QSOs on 10. That was 2003, when I had only 263 Qs on 10 : the
sunspot cycle had already started to decline. I have to go back nine years to
find over 500 Qs on 10. Sure has been a long time, my friends. As is so often
said, “there’s no meters like 10 meters.†It makes the world’s most fun
radio contest even better.
10 was especially fun for me because this was the first major contest in which
I got to fully test the 3-stack of 4-el SteppIRs that I put up in 2007. The
stack has been great on 20, and I found out last year that it works well on 15.
As you might expect, it’s terrific on 10, too. The pileups were so huge, and
the stack worked so well, that I had a personal best clock hour of 188 and best
continuous hour of 192. The rate meter hovered between 189 and 214 during that
stretch. It was really fun to try to keep the ice cube from melting (W2SC’s
description.) 10 was also fun because I decided to install my old 6-el
monobander above the 2-el 40 at 115’ on the “new†tower. The 6-el was on
a 50’ AB-577 back in 2003, but when the cycle started to decline I replaced
it with a tribander and stored it in the garage for eight years. I took a
chance that the sunspots would come back this year and got lucky. Although the
monobander isn’t quite as good as the stack below (115’ is too high most of
the time), it’s a terrific S&P antenna for the second radio and really helped
me to keep a lookout for the band opening both mornings (the panadapter on the
second radio is really helpful for that, too.) Anyway, it was well-worth the
effort to put up the monobander and run hardline to it.
The other end of the radio spectrum was another story: I lost my 160 antenna at
the start of the contest. It’s only a 160/80 trapped inverted vee hanging off
the tower at 90’, but it’s capable of working 50-70 mults on 160 when
conditions are decent (my 580’ beverage does more than half the work.) I made
a few contacts with the vee on 80 the first night, but then the SWR skyrocketed
to about 6:1. I found that if I backed off the RF to about 150W the SWR would
remain normal, but that wasn’t enough to work any stations EU stations on
160. I was able to bump the power on the Acom 2000A up to about 500W without
the amp tripping and work a handful of stations, but I’m sure the antenna
efficiency was terrible. My guess is that there’s a loose connection at the
balun or one of the traps, and it arcs with high power. The connection must
have gotten carbonized over the weekend because by the second day the SWR was
6:1 even with low power.
I was able to switch to my delta loop and continue the run on 80, but the
trapped vee is my only antenna for 160. This was serious: 50-70 mults can make
a big difference in the final score, sometimes worth one or two spots or more
in the standings. Also, it’s often the case that 160 might not be open both
nights. So I figured it was worth taking a trip outside with a flashlight when
the rates slowed down a little at 0400z. I thought it could be something
simple, like a break in one of the ropes holding down the ends of the antenna.
No such luck. I also tried swapping the SO2R switch position at the tower, but
that didn’t help. Clearly, there was either a bad connection, bad coax or a
bad connector, and I wasn’t going to be able to fix it without losing several
hours of daylight operating time. So much for 160. As it turns out, though, my
rough calculation is that the mults I lost on 160 wouldn’t have been enough
to push me up even one spot in the standings. That’s a good lesson for the
future because I had to fight the desire to throw in the towel and quit because
there was no way I could win (assuming six or seven of the other competitors had
equipment problems, heart attacks, etc. ïŠ ) and might even miss the top ten
USA SOAB HP. Turns out I did better than I expected and I’m really glad I
didn’t quit.
Operating standards were pretty good this year, with only a few frequency
heists to complain about (some uncouth people seem to think this is part of the
game â€" it’s not!) Remarkably, I was able to hold frequencies low in all of
the bands for a considerable length of time on both days. I think this was
because multiple bands were wide open most of the time and stations were able
to spread out more. We had the usual crowd of poor fists, poor power
regulation, failure to get into the passband, etc. I’m still getting more
dupes than I’d like, with about 70 this year. Several times a certain station
I had worked would call me, and as soon as I responded with his call and the
exchange, he would apologize and say “QSO B4†and leave. I think he was
wasn’t dupe checking until I sent the exchange. Seems like every contest I
get one or two stations who try to work me four or five times on the same band.
I always work them because they might have copied my call wrong the first time
(or the second time, or the third time, etc.) Someone needs to tell this to
stations like UW4I, who refused to work me because we had a “QSO B4â€, even
though I insisted that the contact wasn’t in my log. It took him more time
for that interaction than if he had just worked me and logged the dupe. I think
one of us is going to get a NIL, and it isn’t me!
Big congrats to K1DG for an outstanding effort, likely a new record, and the
first USA SOAB HP score over 10 million points! Also congrats to K5ZD for
breaking the 10 million barrier too. In fact, once again it’s a horse race
between those two, and the UBN check could well determine the winner. I feel
honored to count both of these terrific ops (and great guys) among my friends
and colleagues in the world of ham radio. After this year’s amazing efforts,
maybe they’d like to take a year or two off… ïŠ
As Randy noted, it’s really difficult to use the second radio when the run
rate is high. I worked it hard after the rate calmed down the first night, but
was not able to do much with it when the rate took off Saturday morning. Still,
I was able to do about 7% of my contacts on the second radio, which is decent
for me (I usually do about 5%; K5ZD does more like 10%). This was also my
personal best in QSOs, mults and total score in CQ WW CW. Even though I came
very close to working 4,000 Qs for the first time in CQ WW, my total is a bit
lower than other USA SOAB HP stations with similar scores in New England. It
was the mults that saved me. Anyone who reads my write-ups knows that I’ve
complained about my mult performance for years. Well this time my mults are
comparable to other stations near me in score, and that makes me feel that
I’m finally getting the hang of this contest. It’s all the more satisfying
because I probably lost at least 40 mults on 160, plus the mults I would have
worked while troubleshooting the 160 antenna.
Speaking of off time, that’s an area where my performance this year was
disappointing. I’ve been doing 43-44 hours pretty consistently, and even did
46 hours in 2003, but this year only managed 40.5. The antenna troubleshooting
was costly, and I slept and took meal/shower breaks totaling about four hours.
The rest seems to have disappeared in smaller breaks when I just had to get
away from the radio to maintain sanity. I think a lot of this had to do with
not being in the best physical shape (i.e., fatter than usual), not getting
enough sleep in the weeks before the contest, getting older (yes, I said that),
and the almost constant high rates, which I’m not used to. But probably the
biggest factor was not sleeping at all for the first 26 hours or so. I felt
that I had to stay up the first night because the bands were hopping with rate
and mults straight through until sunrise. I worked many low band mults during
the hours that I’ve usually slept in past years (like 0800z-1000z). The
result was feeling really awful during the first morning runs, and not so great
through most of the first day. This led to taking breaks later on. I’m not
sure how to solve the CW WW puzzle when the world is wide open almost every
hour of the contest. I think at least 90 minutes of sleep before the morning
runs is essential for me, but the question is how much that will cost in
Pacific and Asian mults on the low bands. Maybe I can get by with 45 minutes
the first night. I can certainly lose some weight and get in better shape, and
I can sleep more in the weeks before the contest. But this aging thing is
relentless…
As for station performance, this is the first time I’ve felt that when
conditions are good, my location and antennas on 40-10 are good enough that the
operator is the main limitation. The same goes for radios, amps, and all the
other equipment. This year the station gave me more than enough opportunities
to score QSOs and mults on 40-10 (160 was out and 80 still needs a better
antenna.) It was simply a matter of listening skills, typing, endurance and
propagation knowledge. I still have a lot to improve in all those areas. But
more important is that I had a ton of fun in this contest, which remains, as
ever, the King of Contests.
See you next year!
73, Dick WC1M
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 140/40 1/2 --+-- --+-- 141/42 141/42
D1-0100Z - - 88/11 7/8 - - 95/19 236/61
D1-0200Z - 1/2 50/5 12/15 - - 63/22 299/83
D1-0300Z 2/3 69/31 10/0 4/6 - - 85/40 384/123
D1-0400Z 2/2 - - - - - 2/2 386/125
49
D1-0500Z 4/7 81/9 - - - - 85/16 471/141
3
D1-0600Z 3/3 88/9 2/1 - - - 93/13 564/154
D1-0700Z - 53/4 18/19 1/2 - - 72/25 636/179
D1-0800Z --+-- 12/6 48/15 --+-- --+-- --+-- 60/21 696/200
D1-0900Z 1/1 5/5 86/6 - - - 92/12 788/212
D1-1000Z - 4/6 14/12 - - - 18/18 806/230
D1-1100Z - - - 28/20 49/25 - 77/45 883/275
30
D1-1200Z - - - - 28/2 135/35 163/37 1046/312
D1-1300Z - - - - - 188/8 188/8 1234/320
D1-1400Z - - - - 77/10 77/2 154/12 1388/332
D1-1500Z - - - - 59/15 58/3 117/18 1505/350
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 138/12 --+-- 138/12 1643/362
D1-1700Z - - - - 36/0 12/20 48/20 1691/382
D1-1800Z - - - - - 21/30 21/30 1712/412
D1-1900Z - - - 63/10 - 9/9 72/19 1784/431
D1-2000Z - - - 97/16 12/18 - 109/34 1893/465
D1-2100Z - - 114/3 16/3 6/7 - 136/13 2029/478
D1-2200Z - - 140/3 - - 2/4 142/7 2171/485
D1-2300Z - - 18/0 13/16 13/9 - 44/25 2215/510
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 3/4 --+-- --+-- 3/4 2218/514
52
D2-0100Z 1/1 14/3 27/0 - - - 42/4 2260/518
9
D2-0200Z - - - 2/2 - - 2/2 2262/520
47
D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2262/520
60
D2-0400Z - 28/1 16/1 1/0 - - 45/2 2307/522
15
D2-0500Z - 42/0 40/4 - - - 82/4 2389/526
D2-0600Z - 4/2 100/1 - - - 104/3 2493/529
D2-0700Z - 5/5 97/0 - - - 102/5 2595/534
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- 2/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 2/0 2597/534
7
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2597/534
60
D2-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 2597/534
60
D2-1100Z 2/1 1/2 - 72/9 2/0 - 77/12 2674/546
8
D2-1200Z - - - - 126/11 46/2 172/13 2846/559
D2-1300Z - - - - - 165/6 165/6 3011/565
D2-1400Z - - - 1/2 67/2 39/0 107/4 3118/569
D2-1500Z - - - - 3/4 111/2 114/6 3232/575
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 119/4 5/0 124/4 3356/579
D2-1700Z - - - - 100/4 3/2 103/6 3459/585
D2-1800Z - - - 4/0 41/1 4/3 49/4 3508/589
D2-1900Z - - - 125/4 - 2/1 127/5 3635/594
D2-2000Z - - - 31/2 6/6 2/2 39/10 3674/604
D2-2100Z - - 53/0 6/6 - - 59/6 3733/610
D2-2200Z - - 39/0 3/3 3/0 - 45/3 3778/613
D2-2300Z - - 88/4 - - - 88/4 3866/617
Total: 15/18 407/85 1190/125 490/130 885/130 879/129
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
EU 4 337 1075 407 800 816 3439 89.0
AS 0 1 26 23 22 7 79 2.0
SA 2 7 9 14 12 13 57 1.5
AF 0 4 19 10 10 14 57 1.5
NA 9 55 53 31 34 22 204 5.3
OC 0 3 8 5 7 7 30 0.8
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
3V 1 1 2
4J 1 1
4L 1 1
4O 1 1
4X 2 1 3
5B 1 2 1 2 6
6W 1 1 1 1 4
6Y 1 1 1 3
8P 1 1 1 1 1 5
9A 2 15 5 6 12 40
9G 1 1
9H 1 1
9L 1 1 2
9M6 1 1
9Y 1 1
BY 3 2 1 6
C5 1 1 1 1 4
C6 1 1 1 1 1 5
C9 1 1
CE 1 1 1 3
CM 1 1 1 1 4
CN 1 2 3
CT 1 3 2 2 1 9
CT3 3 1 1 2 7
CU 1 1 1 1 4
CX 1 1 1 3
D2 1 1
D4 1 1 1 1 1 5
DL 1 69 180 75 150 143 618
DU 1 1
E5/s 1 1
E7 1 6 3 4 5 19
EA 5 35 32 27 22 121
EA6 1 2 1 4
EA8 2 6 1 1 1 11
EA9 2 1 1 1 5
EI 1 4 1 2 6 14
EL 1 1 1 3
ER 5 5 4 14
ES 1 4 1 5 9 20
EU 7 18 1 12 6 44
F 1 16 36 19 21 28 121
FG 1 1 2
FJ 1 1 2
FK 1 1
FM 1 1 1 1 1 5
FY 1 1 2
G 24 49 31 33 49 186
GD 1 1 1 3
GI 2 3 1 3 9
GJ 1 1
GM 13 7 9 7 36
GU 2 2
GW 3 5 2 2 12
HA 6 26 10 20 24 86
HB 2 17 5 8 9 41
HC 1 1 1 1 4
HI 1 1
HK 1 1 1 1 1 5
HP 1 1
HR 1 1 1 3
I 5 57 33 44 33 172
IG9 1 1
IS 2 2 1 3 8
IT9 3 2 2 7
J2 1 1
J6 1 1 2
JA 4 4 10 1 19
JT 1 1
K 2 17 8 2 7 2 38
KH0 1 1 2
KH2 1 1 2
KH6 2 2 1 1 1 7
KL 1 1 1 1 4
KP2 1 1 2 1 1 6
KP4 1 1 2
LA 6 12 5 8 8 39
LU 1 1 3 5
LX 1 2 1 4
LY 13 16 7 14 16 66
LZ 3 16 9 13 17 58
OA 1 1 2
OE 2 3 2 8 4 19
OH 10 23 6 19 9 67
OH0 2 2
OK 1 27 67 25 63 45 228
OM 7 24 5 13 18 67
ON 6 17 4 5 10 42
OX 1 1
OY 1 1
OZ 2 9 2 9 7 29
P4 1 1 1 1 1 1 6
PA 12 30 16 23 33 114
PJ2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6
PJ4 1 2 1 1 1 6
PJ5 1 1 1 1 4
PJ7 1 1
PY 1 4 1 1 1 8
PZ 1 1 1 3
S5 12 30 18 22 26 108
SM 19 30 9 16 22 96
SP 30 63 18 57 44 212
SV 2 2 1 2 1 8
SV9 1 1
T7 1 1
TA 1 1 2 1 2 7
TA1 2 1 3
TF 1 1 1 1 1 5
TI 1 1
TK 1 1 1 3
UA 21 95 16 76 81 289
UA2 1 2 2 2 7
UA9 10 8 5 1 24
UN 4 1 1 6
UR 13 86 9 50 69 227
V2 1 1 2
V3 1 1 2
VE 5 22 29 12 11 2 81
VK 1 2 2 1 1 7
VP2E 1 1
VP2M 1 1 1 1 1 5
VP2V 1 1 1 3
VP5 1 1 1 3
VP9 1 1 1 3
VR 1 1
VU 1 2 3
XE 1 2 1 2 1 7
YA 1 1
YB 2 2
YL 2 7 1 2 5 17
YN 1 1 1 3
YO 1 22 8 18 17 66
YS 1 1
YU 3 27 6 18 6 60
YV 1 1 2
Z3 1 1 1 1 4
ZA 1 1 2
ZB 1 1
ZD8 1 1 1 3
ZF 1 1 1 3
ZK2 1 1 2
ZL 1 1 2 4
ZP 1 1
ZS 2 1 3
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75, trapped vee @90'
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square
20M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
15M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
Tower#1: Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160/80 trapped vee
770-MDP: Force-12 EF-420
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E
Delta loop hung from a tree
dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees
Equipment:
Elecraft K3 + Alpha 87A, Elecraft K3 + LP-PAN + Acom 2000A, Writelog,
LP-BRIDGE, PowerSDR-IF, YCCC SO2R Box, homebrew Windows antenna
switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"), Hamation Relay Drivers, TopTen and
KK1L SO2R switches, Green Heron and Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack
Switch and StackMax
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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