[3830] CQWW CW K0DQ(@K8PO) SOAB HP
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Thu Nov 28 02:11:32 EST 2013
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K0DQ
Operator(s): K0DQ
Station: K8PO
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Maine
Operating Time (hrs): 44.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 54 12 33
80: 460 18 67
40: 1697 31 104
20: 1227 36 106
15: 986 21 102
10: 1192 26 93
------------------------------
Total: 5616 155 505 Total Score = 10,847,760
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First, thanks to Paul, K8PO, for letting me sail his Maine Battle Cruiser into
radio combat. Paul is a gracious and engaging host and his hospitality if
first class.
K8PO/1 is a well executed version of the classic contest model: Stacked
monobanders for 10, 15 and 20 on separate towers with a two or three stack
fixed on Europe and another top antenna rotatable; a two stack of shorty fortys
(top rotatable) shares the 10 meter tower; 80 meters has a 4-square and 160
sports a full size vertical with ample radials. Receive antennas include a
4-square and two reversible beverages. Woody, WW1WW, and I had visited briefly
but I had never operated and wasn’t sure what to expect. The word on the
street was that Paul got out well on the high bands as well as 80 and 160 but I
was a little concerned that the shorty fortys might not stack up (pun
intended).
1700 QSO’s later, that worry was put to rest. Overall, the station is
magnificently engineered and played extremely well in the excellent
conditions.
Looking at the propagation forecast, I went into the contest expecting a
virtual replay of the 2011 CQWW CW which had similar solar numbers.
Accordingly, I kept Doug, K1DG’s, claimed and final numbers posted in front
of me all weekend. I knew Doug, Alex (K3CR) and Dave, NN1N, would be major
competitors with Randy, K5ZD, an unknown as to category. Always keeping his
options open, Randy was making noises about going assisted but also said he
might go unassisted to provide me some “encouragement.” (Which he did.
Thanks, shipmate!) Further south, my PVRC colleagues K4ZW and NN3W were also
manning big stations and were dangerous, especially if they got the 20 meter
nighttime opening and we didn’t (which NQ4I did for at least an hour on
Sunday morning). So it looked to be an interesting weekend.
Confessions of a rate junky.
Having broken the 5000 QSO barrier in ARRL DX CW and knowing I wasn’t as good
as the locals in finding multipliers, I decided to operate in the P40Q mode and
run for my life �" hopefully to at least break the 5K single op
barrier
in this contest even if the score suffered. And, given the final ratio of one
multiplier being worth 8 QSO’s, it wasn’t a completely naive strategy if I
could keep the rates high.
As it turned out, the contacts just kept coming. The first 24 hours yielded
3381 QSOs (compared to 3343 in ARRL). On Sunday morning 20 opened 90 minutes
later than Saturday but rates were good and contact #5000 went in the log at
1700Z Sunday. At that point rates were hovering around 180 per hour and it
looked like even 6000 Q’s and 11 million points might be possible. Shortly
thereafter, however, there seemed to be a “disturbance in the force” and 10
meters suddenly lost its umph (reportedly the A index spiked to 8). 15 also
seemed a bit punk and I ended up going to 20 earlier than expected, leaving
several hundred planned 15 meter QSOs on the table. The final QSO count (with
dupes) was 10 short of 5800 which translated to 5616 after dupes. Multipliers
were good but not great (amazing how easy it is to miss a KH6 on 20!). Either
through laziness or stubbornness I only moved one contact (8P5A to
160�"
thanks Tom, wouldn’t be a contest without working you on six bands) and set
up one sked at 2355 (ZD8W on 20. Thanks Oliver. N6TJ will buy you a beer for
me).
ARRL DX at WW1WW had also yielded a personal best hourly rate from the US of
243 Q’s for 60 minutes and I hoped to beat that with the shorter exchange in
CQ. Things were looking good on 10 meters Saturday morning until an Eastern
European with a dirty signal opened up CQing in the middle of the run and blew
a hole through the momentum. After he finally left I managed slowly to edge
the last-hour rate up to 237 before the propagation tide changed but could
never recover from the lost time (at 4 Q’s a minute the margin for error is
small!). Life will continue.
The major scare came on 160. Doug had managed 68 countries on top band in 2011
and, with Paul’s top band reputation, I was hoping for a similar number.
However, the first night ended with only 24 QSO’s and 19 mults. My
unexamined assumption was that the band was simply punk. When Saturday night
rolled around I started to worry when I realized that I could hear better on
the transmitting vertical than the beverage. That, combined with the fact that
on 80 the beverage was much noisier than the receive 4- square, made me wonder
if there was an equipment problem. Having razzed Doug about sending the SEALs
to cut his coax I briefly entertained thoughts he might have had the Delta
Force
guys put a noise generator next to the beverage (for the conspiracy crowd, that
is an inside JOKE). After resetting all the connections and it seemed a bit
better as the night went on but there was a nagging worry that I was 40 mults
behind Randy and Alex on 160, not a great scenario. Looking at early returns
it looks like 160 reverted to high SFI norm and wasn’t a big band.
In a high rate SO2R contesting the software is critical. Thanks to Bob, N6TV,
and his patient and generous provision of new tweaks, each contest has seen a
marginal improvement in the Win-Test suite. My keyboard is hardly recognizable
behind all the sticky labels on redefined functions. Thanks, shipmate.
Finally, thanks to Mrs. Admiral for graciously giving me another hall pass this
year. I suspect I may not be around (or at least not contesting seriously)
whenever the next CQWW CW “not on a Thanksgiving weekend” rolls around. So
maybe I’ve got a good argument for another pass next year.
All that said, 24 hours after the contest with K5ZD, K3CR and K1DG accounted
for (Doug had station issues and didn’t operate), it looked like I
might/might have finally won my first U.S. win in CQWW. This contest has been
my toughest nut to crack and is the last one on my contesting bucket list. My
hopes were rising, but cautiously, because I’ve seen this movie before,
having played Avis to K3CR last year.
Sure enough, NN1N just posted at 10.998M.
At least it’s another Navy guy! Somehow, I don’t think I can pull rank on
the log checkers.
Congrats, Dave!
---------------------------------
Hr 160 80 40 20 15 10 TOTAL
00 160 5 165
01 21 94 115
02 76 54 2 132
03 2 103 23 128
04 6 38 42 1 87
05 5 7 133 145
06 9 11 81 101
07 11 97 12 120
08 2 3 102 13 120
09 3 25 69 97
10 1 14 62 77
11 1 1 26 103 131
12 55 166 221
13 220 220
14 205 205
15 89 98 187
16 180 180
17 145 41 186
18 155 9 164
19 141 8 2 151
20 17 78 1 11 107
21 144 13 157
22 111 11 122
23 62 8 2 6 78
00 3 92 21 5 121
01 4 5 9
02 20 4 3 27
03 3 3
04
05 1 3 4
06 56 2 2 60
07 22 57 3 82
08 70 3 73
09 1 2 46 2 51
10 1 1 14 12 28
11 122 22 144
12 190 1 191
13 80 90 170
14 2 196 198
15 5 156 161
16 114 18 132
17 142 32 174
18 97 6 5 108
19 85 16 101
20 77 21 1 2 101
21 119 4 3 1 127
22 67 1 9 6 83
23 61 8 3 72
54 460 1697 1227 986 1192 5616
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