[3830] CQWW CW N9NC SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N9NC
Operator(s): N9NC
Station: N9NC

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 33

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:   66    12       37
   40:  642    21       82
   20:  264    28       83
   15:  300    32       96
   10:  835    32      107
------------------------------
Total: 2107   125      405  Total Score = 3,245,720

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Be careful what you wish for...

I've been a vocal advocate of packet and how much fun and competitive assisted
operation can be.

This CQWW, however, I succumbed to the 'packet is the devil' mantra, and went
to the dark side.
Literally.

So it was Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  All CQWW antenna work complete - new
80m bobtail added to the existing extensive farm consisting of a 70' open wire
fed dipole and 5 el OWA 10m yagi way up at 1 wavelength.

The first real snow for the season was on its way, 5-10 inches predicted.
As I was finishing up cleaning the yard, the first wet flakes began to fall, it
was still about 36 degrees F.

A fleeting thought crossed my mind  - this snow looks pretty wet and heavy.
What if... what if wet snow loads up the trees like a few years ago, and takes
out power, then the neighborhood would go quiet - no computer noise on the low
bands, that might be good for the contest.

Nah - it is Wednesday, it would take a multi-day outage over a wide area to
keep things quiet through the weekend.

That was all it took.  I just didn't know it at the time.  

Exhausted from days of preparation, and wanting to be in good shape for the
event, I took a nap.

An hour later, my wife woke me up with 'your antenna is leaning over'.
In that short hour, enough super wet snow had accumulated on the bobtail mast
guy wires and antenna itself to bend the mast over 90 degrees.  Normally the
heavy wall fiberglass can withstand this for a while, indeed, it had probably
been bending for over 30 minutes.  
But enough was enough, moments before I was able to remove the full weight,
having already loosened the far end of the bobtail, a nice resonant 'klonk'
signaled that the weakest point had given way.

Fine, no new bobtail this time, I'll just use the back up 'reference' 80m wire
vertical in the trees, with 4 ground radials.  No problem.  Right.

Over the coming 4 hours, while in the shack tweaking things for the test (it
was still Wednesday evening), the lights flickered about every 15 minutes.
Around 9pm, whatever branch or branches (I later counted 3 actually) had broken
or shorted out the main power line on our road.

As imagined , the neighborhood went quiet.  S0 noise on all bands, save a small
handful of buzzes from the couple of places with automatic propane fired backup
generators.

Again I thought, surely they'll have this back by Friday.
However, as reports came in over Thanksgiving day, ~200K were without
commercial power in NH.
The assuring words from the suppliers:  'We have crews working around the clock
to restore service, however, expect a multi-day outage.'

For avoidance of doubt, my cable internet was also down.

To make what could be a much longer story much shorter:

No power - no amp. (I do have gas generator, but to ensure safe continued
operation of water pump and furnace, the amp had to go.)

No internet - no SOAB Assisted.

What to do?  
Embrace it.  SOAB low power*.  See how it works.
I had continued to wonder, is that dipole really as good as I think?
Was the received wisdom actually valid, 'you really need a yagi to do any
good', and probably an amplifier as well.

* by cutting my power 10 dB, from 1500W to 150W, I would have a good idea what
the DP vs. typical 'big' yagi system might do, all else being equal.  So yes,
the submitted category is SOAB HP.   OK, reality is my old FT1K MK V won’t do
200W on all bands anymore, and I didn’t want to try to measure an accurate
100W.  OK. Really, I confused CQ with ARRL low power rules and ran 150W usually
[the part above is true, the rig only does 100W on 10 meters] I’m sure no one
else makes this mistake, no sense aligning things here, CQ/ARRL,  nah…)

How did it work out?
Better than I could imagine.  
2013 HP (same DP + 10m yagi):  2200 QSO's.    
2014 LP (same DP + 10m yagi):  2100 QSO's.

Of course being internet dark, mults were way down. 
But �" those mults that I did find, were if anything, easier to work -
coming across them at random times instead of mid-packet pile.  No amp needed. 
And for those more busy piles, I sharpened my skills.

And, there was a nice retro feel of the good old days, that only those brave
(stubborn? Luddite? wise?) souls who continue to operate un-assisted
experience:

The thrill of working ~15 new mults in the last 30 minutes of the contest...
4 of them double mults.
1 of which called me (VP8KF - thanks!).
1 of which being the last Q in the contest for both (A71BX 40m - thanks!).

Summary:

Faith in the value of time proven dipole technology - again confirmed.

Amp required - no (others this round have also shown this with newly
spectacular LP scores).

Packet required �" no.

BUT: Heisenberg applies here - no doubt, the high CQ rates achievable are a
result of skimmer spots drawing callers to otherwise relatively weaker signals.
 

Which is the best/right class in which to operate?
Which ever one you fully embrace, even if somewhat forced in your choice.   And
BTW, while the low bands were quieter, I don’t think it made any difference. 


So having gotten what I wished for this CQ WW, I shall be very very careful
next time.

TU 73,

Tom N9NC


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