[3830] CQ WW RTTY P49X(W0YK) SOAB HP
webform at b4h.net
webform at b4h.net
Tue Sep 30 16:08:48 EDT 2014
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: P40L/P49Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FK52al
Operating Time (hrs): 41:11
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------
80: 153 43 26 9
40: 747 54 66 22
20: 850 55 70 30
15: 1478 55 97 33
10: 1671 56 82 26
------------------------------------
Total: 4899 263 341 120 Total Score = 10,570,400
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Propagation roller-coaster. That’s what the weekend felt like in Aruba. The
sun asserted its influence quite differently here than what I’m reading in
other 3830 reports around the world.
I arrived on Tuesday, expecting marginal conditions and wondering if 10 meters
would even play a role in the contest. The solar forecast was not encouraging.
Wednesday, when I first got on the air, my interest was piqued when there had
solid propagation into Europe on 10 meters. Moreover, Europe was still coming
in solid well after their sunset. At nearly the same time, JAs were rolling in
as well as other Asia and Oceania. Hmmmm, I wondered, maybe it would be an
exciting weekend despite the forecast.
Tuning around shortly before 0000z Saturday and deciding what two bands to
start on, there was no activity on 10 or 15. Even the lackluster forecast
showed both bands open. What was going on? I was about to start on 20 and 40
and at the last minute took a flyer and started on 15 and 20. I figured I
could always move to 40 quickly and Europe would be occupied working each other
at the start anyway, not beaming down my way. Surprise! In the last 30 seconds
before the start, signals started appearing on the bandscope. Launching my
first CQ on 15 and 20 resulted in instant pile-ups on both bands. The first
four hours were the best P49X has ever experienced in this contest, either as
SOAB or M2. There was a 229 hour and several 7-QSO minutes.
As usual, I had detailed statistics from prior years posted in front of me. I
had a table of hourly data (Qs, points, mults and score) from the four best
earlier events, one SO and three M2. I watched in amazement as the real-time
data was pulling more and more ahead of the best score ever posted before, our
2011 4-person M2. Of course, there were 44 more hours to get through, but the
prospects sure looked good.
15 meters didn’t start tapering off until the third hour. Normally, I’d
expect that in the first hour. Moving to 40, rate was OK, but the overall
score differential began to slow down. I fought hard to at least maintain the
margin achieved in the first 4 hours. 20 dropped out in the fifth hour and the
resultant rates on 40 and 80 were dismal. Well, that made sense if the high
bands were so good. Disappointed, I still held hope for high rate the next
morning on 20/15/10. Meanwhile, slogging through the night on 80/40/20 took
its toll on my stamina. In parallel, the current data fell discouragingly
behind our 2011 effort. The initial euphoria was sacked.
Mercifully, daylight came and I began to feel a bit better with some rate on
the high bands. Loads of fun to run Europe and North America with occasional
sizzle from other parts of the world. The thought always enters my mind:
“Where do all these RTTY contest participants come from?” Many of them
weren’t in Super Check Partial and then there were those transmitting FSK
from their K3 by sending CW to the radio. However, now the current data showed
lower rates than some of our prior Saturday daytimes. Discouragement increased
as the Qs and score fell further and further back. 10 and 15 closed down
earlier than normal and I was on 40/20 way too soon for the long night ahead.
Integrating 80 in the mix didn’t helped keep the overall rate low. I was
physically and mentally spent. The early signs of sleep deprivation became
apparent early in the evening. I took a 5-minute bio break and was determined
to power through to around 0800 (4am local) when I’d treat myself to 2-3 hour
nap. Couldn’t last that long. Low-level hallucination set in. My exhausted
brain created a wholly different “story” for what I was doing. I knew the
story wasn’t right, but I could not figure out what I was really supposed to
be doing. That’s scary, but the repetitive motions of contesting are so
ingrained that I was actually working and logging correctly, even if for the
wrong reason. Then, I started nodding off, falling asleep in the chair. It
became clear, even in my foggy state, that getting more than 2-3 hours sleep
was a better trade-off than painfully logging 30-40 QSOs per hour. Worse,
I’d not be in any shape to handle the high bands on Sunday … assuming there
would be much high band action.
I crashed at 0400 and set the alarm for six hours later. (I discovered on
Monday that this was an excellent decision due to the solar event during that
time and virtually nothing happening on the low bands.) Less than fully
refreshed early Sunday morning, I fixed a quick breakfast to eat while getting
started on 20 and 15 meters. At least the hallucination was gone and I fully
understood what I was doing at the radios and computers. 20 didn’t last long
before 10 overtook it and I switched bands on that radio. This happened faster
than usual because 20 was rapidly blacking out and by 1400 there were zero
signals to be seen or heard on 20 meters. Checking 20 frequently all day
showed it continued to be totally blacked out. (Truly … zero signals!) On
Monday, I read reports that 20 was playing well elsewhere in the world, though
10 and 15 were generally better by comparison.
Fortunately 10 and 15 played well all day Sunday, though 15 was staggering with
signals fading in and out. Ten meters was clearly the better, in fact, nearly
the ONLY, band that was working well. Europe stayed in late and Asia/Oceania
came in well. As the evening approached, 15 was all but gone and 20 was still
AWOL, so what do I use for my second band? I’d been also checking 40 and at
least there were RTTY signals there. The bigger European stations were weak
but copiable. For the last 1.5 hours of the contest, I was running on 10 and
40, the “best” bands from Aruba. How weird is that? On Monday I found out
from the P40HF guys that 20 did open a bit during this time. But I had quit
checking it after it had betrayed me all day long. I suspect it wasn’t much
better than 40.
At least there was a steady stream of callers on 40, but it was like working 10
or 6 meters when signals are right at the noise level, workable but as weak as
they could possibly be. It was really fun running 10 and 40 simultaneously.
It was also thrilling when new mults come in near the end of the contest. Like
double mult 3V8BCC calling in on 40 at 2326 and final mult CR3L getting in the
log at 2355. The Germans supplied the mult that exactly equaled my 2010 SOAB
HP mult total, though with a slighter higher Q count and score.
With 3-4 hours to go at the end, it was certain that the score would end up in
5th place of all the P49X efforts, 126 Qs lower than 2010. Sure, I was
disappointed, but only because Friday night temporality raised the prospects
for blockbuster conditions. But this didn’t detract one bit from the
exhilaration of CQ WW and working so many familiar and completely new stations
around the world. It seemed like the entire German and Italian populations
were participating.
CQ WW is a grueling contest in several regards, especially for the SOAB
entrant. This weekend confirmed even stronger the value of multiple decoders.
Just like the saying, “You can never have too many antennas”, the same can
be said for decoders. I smile when reading reflector threads about which
particular decoder is “best”. In my experience, all the ones I use are
best at one time or another. And, each is best often enough that it
appreciably saves time asking for repeats. The Hal DXP38 saved the day on
numerous occasions when neither MMTTY nor 2-3 instances of 2Tone got any part
of the call or exchange. The same can be said of the other two. And, 2Tone
has the unique property of perfectly decoding inaudible signals. That sounds
like an impossibility, but I sometimes get perfect copy when I hear no trace of
a signal in the headphones. Numerous times I’d glance at the 2Tone windows
and see a new mults, or station, that was not in the headphone audio. Other
times, MMTTY or the DXP38 will copy perfect and 2Tone gets nothing. I
typically run two instances of 2Tone for Flutter and Selective. Those, along
with the standard MMTTY and DXP38 decoders, have been doing a stellar job in
recent contests.
I love the multiple aspects of radio sport: antennas, station design, hardware
and software, operating strategy and tactic and, of course, the uncertain
vagaries of propagation. The successful contester has to balance all these
disciplines to prevail. For example, when I awoke Sunday morning the 91B
amplifier was powered off. I quickly swapped in an 86 and later determined
that one of the start-stop fuses was blown. It appears to be a power supply
problem, but I haven’t had time to fully troubleshoot it.
And then, at 2200z Sunday, the a few keys on the left keyboard stopped working
reliably, most notably the Enter key which I use for CQing and QSLing. Even
the trackball stopped working so the cursor couldn’t be moved. I left a
number of stations hanging in mid air. Before I could get the keyboard and
trackball swapped out, while still running on the other radio, it started
working again. In retrospect, I don’t think it was hardware, but a USB
problem, perhaps RFI, don’t know. For me, this all just illustrates the
richness of our hobby with its multi-faceted aspects we need to conquer.
In terms of operating, there were an abnormally high number of dupes. I hope I
wasn’t working someone else’s pile-up. I don’t think so because almost
everyone sends my call sign with their exchange. The other thing that struck
me was the abnormally high number of call signs that are not in SCP. That is
surely a great sign for RTTY and contesting in general. More of my mult moves
were successful and I really appreciate everyone who tried. Some of you moved
so fast to my other radio, it felt like you were already there with a second
radio of your own.
As I’ve noted before, RTTY transmit bandwidth, aka “key clicks”, is still
a huge issue. Unfortunately, those who narrow their own transmit bandwidth are
penalized with greatly increased QRM from others with signals who can move in
closer to the narrower signals. I fear that this is going to take a long time
to fix. FSK users can’t do much without switching to a radio that has this
problem fixed. Unhappily, today very few radios have narrow FSK bandwidth.
AFSK users have more individual flexibility to keep their signal sufficiently
narrow.
I like to compare my multiplier numbers to assisted Single-Ops and Multi-Ops as
the target to shoot for. I have a long way to go and that challenge is
motivating. I do work the second receiver in each radio while running on the
main receiver, but the intensity needs to be continually increased. This is a
good example of a tough skill development that is easier to learn in the RTTY
mode and then carried over to CW and SSB. I’m really pleased with how well
WriteLog and the K3 work together on very efficient and effective SO2V.
If this diatribe isn’t long enough, the statistics below can be perused.
Thanks to Andy P49Y/AE6Y and John P40L/W6LD for sharing their cottage station
with me. And, thanks to all the participants who were key to my having a
fantastic weekend on the radio. I hope they all had as much fun as I did.
Ed P49X
********************************************************************
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 0 102 114 0 216 216 4.4
0100 0 0 0 118 94 0 212 428 8.7
0200 0 0 42 102 47 0 191 619 12.6
0300 0 0 94 92 0 0 186 805 16.4
0400 0 9 102 45 0 0 156 961 19.6
0500 0 55 73 0 0 0 128 1089 22.2
0600 0 22 60 0 0 0 82 1171 23.9
0700 0 13 37 28 0 0 78 1249 25.5
0800 0 6 25 13 0 0 44 1293 26.4
0900 0 27 18 0 0 0 45 1338 27.3
1000 0 21 38 14 15 0 88 1426 29.1
1100 0 0 0 46 101 0 147 1573 32.1
1200 0 0 0 29 89 33 151 1724 35.2
1300 0 0 0 0 39 94 133 1857 37.9
1400 0 0 0 0 69 119 188 2045 41.7
1500 0 0 0 0 56 107 163 2208 45.1
1600 0 0 0 0 50 107 157 2365 48.3
1700 0 0 0 0 59 89 148 2513 51.3
1800 0 0 0 0 61 100 161 2674 54.6
1900 0 0 0 0 66 85 151 2825 57.7
2000 0 0 0 0 57 74 131 2956 60.3
2100 0 0 0 0 35 71 106 3062 62.5
2200 0 0 0 0 41 60 101 3163 64.6
2300 0 0 18 30 17 8 73 3236 66.1
0000 0 0 60 67 0 0 127 3363 68.6
0100 0 0 40 55 0 0 95 3458 70.6
0200 0 0 53 31 0 0 84 3542 72.3
0300 0 0 8 22 0 0 30 3572 72.9
0400 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 3573 72.9
0500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3573 72.9
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3573 72.9
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3573 72.9
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3573 72.9
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3573 72.9
1000 0 0 0 14 14 0 28 3601 73.5
1100 0 0 0 42 41 0 83 3684 75.2
1200 0 0 0 0 40 78 118 3802 77.6
1300 0 0 0 0 53 88 141 3943 80.5
1400 0 0 0 0 18 67 85 4028 82.2
1500 0 0 0 0 28 90 118 4146 84.6
1600 0 0 0 0 49 96 145 4291 87.6
1700 0 0 0 0 39 73 112 4403 89.9
1800 0 0 0 0 60 72 132 4535 92.6
1900 0 0 0 0 49 50 99 4634 94.6
2000 0 0 0 0 33 43 76 4710 96.1
2100 0 0 0 0 28 28 56 4766 97.3
2200 0 0 18 0 16 24 58 4824 98.5
2300 0 0 58 0 0 15 73 4897 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 153 747 850 1478 1671 4899
Gross QSOs=4997 Dupes=98 Net QSOs=4899
Unique callsigns worked = 3018
The best 60 minute rate was 229/hour from 0031 to 0130
The best 30 minute rate was 236/hour from 0029 to 0058
The best 10 minute rate was 252/hour from 0026 to 0035
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 7 times.
5 QSOs/minute 54 times.
4 QSOs/minute 269 times.
3 QSOs/minute 526 times.
2 QSOs/minute 652 times.
1 QSOs/minute 627 times.
There were 2781 bandchanges and 1750 (35.7%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 0 131 407 633 471 865 2507 51.2
South America 0 2 8 10 19 54 93 1.9
Europe 0 20 309 144 861 700 2034 41.5
Asia 0 0 17 54 109 31 211 4.3
Africa 0 0 2 5 8 12 27 0.6
Oceania 0 0 4 4 10 9 27 0.6
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 153 747 850 1478 1671 4899
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
2 1
3 17
4 1504
5 1963
6 1361
7 20
8 16
9 9
10 7
------------------ C o u n t r y S u m m a r y ------------------
Country 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3A 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
3D2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
3V 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0.1
4L 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
4X 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0.1
5B 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
9A 0 0 3 2 9 5 19 0.4
9M2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
9M6 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
9X 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
A6 0 0 1 1 1 2 5 0.1
A7 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
BY 0 0 0 3 2 0 5 0.1
C3 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.0
CE 0 1 0 1 1 8 11 0.2
CE9 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
CM 0 1 3 7 3 3 17 0.3
CN 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
CT 0 0 2 2 3 10 17 0.3
CT3 0 0 1 2 1 2 6 0.1
CX 0 0 0 0 1 4 5 0.1
DL 0 2 58 20 174 166 420 8.6
DU 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
E7 0 0 0 0 3 3 6 0.1
EA 0 1 7 13 34 33 88 1.8
EA6 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
EA8 0 0 0 1 2 5 8 0.2
EA9 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
EI 0 1 2 1 7 4 15 0.3
ER 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0.1
ES 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.1
EU 0 0 2 0 4 3 9 0.2
EY 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
F 0 4 13 8 32 35 92 1.9
FG 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 0.1
FM 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
G 0 1 12 5 50 34 102 2.1
GI 0 0 1 2 3 2 8 0.2
GJ 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
GM 0 1 4 0 10 3 18 0.4
GU 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
GW 0 1 1 1 3 4 10 0.2
HA 0 1 4 4 12 13 34 0.7
HB 0 0 5 1 10 2 18 0.4
HB0 0 0 2 0 3 0 5 0.1
HC 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
HI 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
HK 0 0 2 1 1 0 4 0.1
HL 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.1
HP 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
HZ 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
I 0 1 28 17 118 105 269 5.5
IS 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0.1
*IT9 0 1 5 2 7 8 23 0.5
J3 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
JA 0 0 9 22 88 21 140 2.9
K 0 108 361 559 415 790 2233 45.6
KG4 0 0 0 4 2 3 9 0.2
KH2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
KH6 0 0 3 1 2 3 9 0.2
KL 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
KP2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0
KP4 0 0 2 3 0 1 6 0.1
LA 0 0 4 2 10 3 19 0.4
LU 0 0 3 0 4 17 24 0.5
LX 0 1 3 0 4 2 10 0.2
LY 0 0 5 1 6 2 14 0.3
LZ 0 0 4 3 4 4 15 0.3
OA 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
OE 0 0 3 1 11 9 24 0.5
OH 0 1 10 2 15 0 28 0.6
OH0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
OJ0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
OK 0 0 8 3 28 22 61 1.2
OM 0 0 3 1 5 5 14 0.3
ON 0 1 9 2 19 19 50 1.0
OZ 0 1 5 1 9 6 22 0.4
P4 0 1 1 1 0 1 4 0.1
PA 0 0 15 1 34 29 79 1.6
PJ5 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0
PY 0 0 1 5 7 20 33 0.7
PZ 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
S5 0 1 8 4 14 19 46 0.9
SM 0 0 8 3 13 4 28 0.6
SP 0 1 17 3 56 29 106 2.2
SV 0 0 3 2 8 9 22 0.4
SV5 0 0 0 1 2 2 5 0.1
SV9 0 0 1 0 2 1 4 0.1
*TA1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0.0
TF 0 0 1 2 1 0 4 0.1
TG 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0.1
TK 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
UA 0 0 24 14 51 35 124 2.5
UA2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
UA9 0 0 5 20 6 2 33 0.7
UN 0 0 0 3 3 1 7 0.1
UR 0 0 15 9 40 43 107 2.2
VE 0 17 33 53 38 59 200 4.1
VK 0 0 1 0 3 2 6 0.1
VP8 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0.0
VP9 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
VU 0 0 1 2 2 0 5 0.1
XE 0 1 2 2 4 3 12 0.2
YB 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 0.1
YL 0 0 3 5 7 4 19 0.4
YO 0 0 3 2 19 10 34 0.7
YS 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.0
YU 0 0 5 1 6 4 16 0.3
YV 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0.0
Z3 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
ZA 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
ZD8 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.0
ZF 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.1
ZL 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0.1
ZP 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.1
ZS 0 0 0 0 2 3 5 0.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 153 747 850 1478 1671 4899
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
05 0 51 180 260 214 339 1044 21.3
14 0 14 152 64 420 360 1010 20.6
04 0 53 134 242 167 296 892 18.2
15 0 6 102 47 306 232 693 14.1
03 0 21 80 112 71 214 498 10.2
16 0 0 41 24 100 81 246 5.0
25 0 0 9 23 90 21 143 2.9
20 0 0 12 8 36 30 86 1.8
08 0 4 9 12 7 6 38 0.8
11 0 0 1 6 8 21 36 0.7
13 0 0 3 0 6 21 30 0.6
17 0 0 5 13 6 4 28 0.6
33 0 0 2 4 5 9 20 0.4
06 0 1 2 2 4 3 12 0.2
18 0 0 0 9 2 0 11 0.2
09 0 1 4 2 2 2 11 0.2
12 0 1 0 1 1 8 11 0.2
21 0 0 1 2 3 4 10 0.2
31 0 0 3 1 2 2 8 0.2
28 0 0 0 2 4 1 7 0.1
38 0 0 0 0 3 4 7 0.1
07 0 0 0 1 3 2 6 0.1
02 0 0 1 1 2 2 6 0.1
30 0 0 1 0 3 2 6 0.1
22 0 0 1 2 2 0 5 0.1
40 0 0 1 2 1 0 4 0.1
24 0 0 0 2 2 0 4 0.1
01 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 0.1
32 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 0.1
10 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0.1
19 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
27 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
36 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.0
29 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
23 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 153 747 850 1478 1671 4899
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1875
2 bands 659
3 bands 285
4 bands 144
5 bands 55
6 bands 0
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 0 26 199 289 649 712
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