[3830] CQWW CW W6YX(N7MH) SOSB/20 LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: SOSB/20 LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 34
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:  882    37      120
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  882    37      120  Total Score = 389,831

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Last year I did SOSB(A) 10 HP from W7RN.  The W7RN station was not really set up
for 2 radios on the same band so operating assisted seemed to be the way to go
to get mults and keep busy.  The W6YX station has antennas with enough
separation that an in-band second radio is feasible so this year I chose to go
unassisted.

I'd done SOSB 20 HP in 2009 from W6YX and broken the existing W6 record for the
category.  I decided to try Low Power this year instead.

Two additional operations from the W6YX station complicated my effort. 
John/K2YY planned a SOSB 15 HP effort.  Our best antennas for 20 and 15 meters
are on the same mast so we'd both be somewhat constrained during times we were
both operating.  The final weekend of the ARRL EME contest meant that our EME
contesters would be rotating their 2-meter az-el array which is mounted on the
same monopole as the C31XR I planned to use as a secondary rotatable antenna. 
The C31XR has its own Tailtwister rotator on top of the rotating pole.

My setup was 2 K3/P3s with 2 computers and a hardware lockout between the K3s. 
One of the K3s had access to all of the station antennas.  The other K3 had
access to the C31XR and a 205CA fixed toward the Caribbean and South America.

K2YY was running high power on 15 meters so I used bandpass filters to avoid
hearing artifacts from him on 20.

10 minutes before the contest start I tuned across the band and heard many US
stations with a few Caribbean, South American, JAs and Europeans.  My first 2
QSOs were with P40L and ZF2MJ which were at the two stations at which I've
operated CQWW CW as DX.  I settled in to CQ with one radio low in the band
beaming JA/Asia.  Run rates were slow and I was working nearly as many on the
S&P radio as the run radio.

When I tuned the S&P radio across my run frequency I noticed that my signal
was choppy with abbreviated dits and dahs.  I wasn't hearing this in the monitor
tone.  I did a quick web search and found that I needed to add a delay between
the PTT and CW to prevent the chopping of the leading part of dits and dahs. 
The other K3 must have been configured differently since it didn't have this
problem.

I only worked 1 EU, II9P, during this initial time as the band quickly closed
to Europe.  The band closed to Asia/Pacific shortly after 0300.  I didn't make
any QSOs from 0309 until 0359 then Caribbean, South America and Africa became
workable.  I left to go home and sleep at 0530 as I'd worked everyone I could
hear and signals were getting much weaker.

I woke up at 1100 and got back to the station and tried to work the stations I
could hear.  There were several Russian stations coming through at S2-3 (RT4F,
RT3F, RT6A that I remember).  A few other Europeans were too weak to move the
meter (9A1A, OK6W, ?).  None of them were workable with low power.  I noticed a
signal at 14070 on the P3 and it was WA7NB CQing.  He was working JAs.  I tuned
my other K3 to 7035 and there was WA7NB.  His second harmonic was loud enough
to be heard more than 700 miles away.

At 1230 the signals from P4, PJ and FY were well over S9 for nearly a half
hour.  I only worked 5 stations in the first 3 hours after returning to the
station, 1 each in zones 8 and 9 plus 3 in zone 7.

EA8 and CR2 were the first non-Americas stations worked at 1426 and 1436. 
Europe became loud just before 1500 and I began S&Ping up the band.  I had
hoped to use 2 radios to both run and S&P but the moon was up and the EME
controller under the C31XR generated noise on 20 meters.  When the sun was
finally out I looked out the window and saw the boom of the C31XR in the
distance and rotated it to point to Europe.  I didn't hear any signals on it so
I just S&Ped on the big 6 element monobander.

I finally found an open spot at 14015 and began running at 1710.  Shortly after
this my S&P computer died with a "blue screen of death". 
Rebooting it was not successful.  Since the C31XR had no signals I was using
the 205CA pointing 90 degrees from Europe to S&P while running.  After the
computer died I began temporarily moving the run radio to the spot frequency to
work stations I'd found on the other radio.  Later I realized I could just call
them with the paddle, log them with the remaining computer and adjust the QSO
frequency in the log.

K2YY suggested switching my second radio to another computer in the adjacent
main console.  I thought this would be too time-consuming and didn't want to
take the time while the band was so good.  I ended up making the switch after 3
or 4 hours and it took less than 5 minutes to do it.  I should have done it
earlier as it was so much easier.

While getting the replacement computer running I briefly went outside and
noticed that the C31XR was actually beaming 180 degrees from Europe.  I
couldn't see the elements from inside the shack so I'd eyeballed the boom to
point exactly opposite where I intended.  The EME guys had left the pole
pointing at the final position of the moon which meant the indicator in the
shack was off by 60 degrees.  By this time I was working into Asia again so I
rotated the antenna toward Asia.

I stayed at the shack until 0300.  My runs to JA/BY had dried up and the few
stations I could still hear I'd already worked.  I decided to head home and
catch the last quarter of the Stanford-Notre Dame football game, avoiding the
game traffic.

After the exciting conclusion to the game I returned to the shack at 1100. 
There were several zone 17 stations coming through, mostly UA9s and UN9 which
was a mult I needed.  Some were peaking at S6 so I thought I had a chance to
work them but no luck.  With high power these would have definitely been
workable.  I also heard a weak A45XR.

Zone 17 faded out as the same zone 16 stations from the previous night were
again heard but I'd already worked most of them.  Then the P3 lit up with many
EU signals from S5 to S7.  I'd already worked all of them except for OM0M.  I
tried calling and he gave me a ? a couple of times but no QSO.

I read the report from VA7ST that he had a strong opening on 20 to Europe at
0830Z on Sunday.  I know these openings sometimes happen so if it came as far
south as CA I missed it since that's when I was sleeping.

I worked exactly 1 station in the nearly 4 hours from 1100Z until the band
opened and I worked my first EU at 1442.  Even though I only worked one station
there was a lot of activity and I was busy filling up the bandmap just in case
the signals got strong enough to be workable.  I was sitting at the radios for
a total of 34 hours but calculating my operating time from the log will
probably be closer to 28 hours due to several gaps of more than 30 minutes.

After making a few S&P Qs I found a clear spot high in the band at 14114
and had a decent run right away, probably due to RBN.  I was S&Ping down
the band while running and found another open spot at 14091 and stayed there
briefly.  I was forced to move when my run briefly dried up and without my
callers someone started running on the frequency, apparently not hearing me.

My next run frequency was 14053.6, memorable because when my run dried up I
noticed someone had started CQing - ZF2MJ.  I briefly CQed on my South America
antenna to let Dan know I had been on the frequency for over 10 minutes before
he showed up.  I worked 2 or 3 more stations more before Dan's pileup
overwhelmed the frequency and I was forced to move.  I think that Dan stayed on
that QRG for the rest of the contest.

I hadn't worked either zone 30 or 32 with 2 hours left in the contest.  I had
periodically listened in that direction but never heard anyone in zone 32.  The
only zone 30 I'd heard had been VK3JA, long path, who announced he was QRT just
as I was about to call him.  I also needed zones 21, 22 and 23 which I had no
hope of getting at that time of day.

At 2210 I managed to break the pileup to VK2IM and get zone 30.  K2YY reported
that he had just worked a ZL on 15.  Thanks, John...

Rates were quite low in the last couple of hours.  I pointed the C31XR at the
Pacific and tuned the entire band for ZLs or any other zone 32 - nil.  I then
power split between the main Yagi beaming JA and the C31XR beaming ZL for 40
minutes.  Several JAs answered but no zone 32.

Dave/AA6XV showed up at the shack and I mentioned to him and John that I only
needed 4 zones.  I'd heard stations in zones 21 to 23 but hadn't been able to
work them.  Then with 2 minutes left the miracle happened - A45XR answered my
CQ for zone 21 and a double mult.

I'd been hearing an OA8... station who was sending six dits as one of the
characters in his callsign but not knowing how to log this I didn't call him. 
After getting zone 21 I decided to call the OA8 and take a chance on his
callsign.  I worked him as time expired.

Running unassisted gives a completely different feel of the contest than
assisted.  When I ran assisted last year I had little idea who else was
mounting a serious effort, particularly from the US, since I was filtering out
spots for US stations.  This time I kept tuning across the same stations
calling CQ, these were either Single-Band or in a Multi category.  Low power
kept me in pileups longer so I also heard the same stations in many of the
pileups.

I worked exactly the same number of zones (37) as I had when I ran high power
in Single Band 20.  I had 7 fewer mults.  There were 8 mults that I heard and
didn't work in this contest.  I couldn't break the pileups for JU1WP, 3B9HA or
JW7QIA the one time I heard each of them.  I heard an FG station calling
someone.  I also heard several HI stations (HI3K, HI3PP, HI3/?) doing S&P
but never heard them call CQ.  I came across VP9/N3AD several times but he
never heard me and CQed in my face.  I heard UN9GD late at night during the
zone 17 opening.  On the first evening I found 4S7AB CQing and called him but
he never heard me and had no other callers.

Thanks to everyone for the Qs and for dealing with my low power signal and all
of the extra repeats.

73,
-Mike, N7MH


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