[3830] Oceania CW ZL3IO SOSB/40 HP

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                    Oceania DX Contest, CW

Call: ZL3IO
Operator(s): ZL3IO
Station: ZL3IO

Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Waimarama Heights
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:           
   40:  827   399
   20:           
   15:           
   10:           
-------------------
Total:  827   399  Total Score = 1,633,905

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:

The original plan was to do this one with the ZM4T-eam but due to resource
limits we could not make it.

I had pre-planned the weekend and got all needed approvals from the family so I
obviously had to give it a GO.
The question now was which class would I join as all operation would be somehow
limited. My multiband hf antenna at home needs repair.  But I need about 3 more
guys to take down the tower. Unfortunately I can't do it with my girls which
otherwise are used to all kind of antenna work. The other option would be to do
a monoband activity. 40 m monoband was an obvious choice. The conds would allow
for 12+ hours of activity with a reasonable set-up.

We currently build our own house nearby in the Waimarama Heights. 3 phase power
is now onsite and I still have my 15m crank up tower installed from the first
testing last year. Over the week the idea grow to do it from the new site and
to install my 40m hexbeam on the 15m tower. 

Saturday noon saw me on site building assembling the beam and preparing the
station. While I was going to install the antenna a decent wind had developed.
The location is called heights for some reasons. Great views, great radio take
off but also great (strong) winds. When I was trying to installe the beam onto
the tower the wind got so strong that I could not move either way. I had to
wait about 30 min standing on the ladder with the beam in my arms clamping
myself to the tower. In those situations another hand is very helpful. Finally
the wind slowed down for a moment allowing me to install the antenna on the
tower top. later it increased to about 80-100 km/h with top gusts of about 120+
km/h and stayed strong for most of the night. The top segment of the tower is
only a 40mm aluminum tube and would not hold the beam in such a wind. So I
could only bring the antenna up to about 6 m height. Fortunately the tower
stands on the edge of the cliff and the area slopes down very steep towards the
main radio directions.
The night saw me operating with the antenna at 6m height and my caravan shaking
in the wind like a boat. Loud static (wind?) made receiving often a hassle. With
Signals generally loud enough the static crushes made it hard to understand
calls and reports. The runs were slow but steady. Not sure if this was related
to the conditions. Except from a short time during the SP & LP EU peak I never
really had a pile up. A few western Europeans came long path at the beginning
with some nice G/EI's and the constant flow of W's and JA's during the night
until Europe started again via short path. 
Around 4 am local time the wind direction changed from North (warm) to South
(cold!) and it slowed down a bit. That allowed me to bring up the antenna to
around 10-12 m height in the first grey light. Still to much wind to go the
full height, even with guys wires. Also the static was gone and the band was
quite allowing to hear even weakest wisperer. The morning saw me with 600 QSO's
in the log. I got some sleep over the day and made another 200+ QSO's in the
last 3-4 hours of the contest. We were down to 6C ambient temperature when I
disassembled the station on local Sunday night. This is really cold for us
here!

Compared to the SSB part there were significantly less VK/ZL's on the band, I
did not work any VK1/5/7 or 8. VK9 & 0 or ZL7 is not expected but the other
ones are usually possible. ZL3/4 & ZM4 made it into the log as a multiplier
only in the last hour. Thanks Wes (ZL3TE) for 001. 
No AF except from EA8. Some of the SA stations were really booming but there is
no participation. 
I felt sorry for N6RO who had a S9+20 signal here and he called so lonely CQ OC
test...

About 25% of callers gave me 001. I never ever worked some many of them in a
single contest.
73 Holger ZL3IO


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