[3830] CQWW CW M6W(G3WW) SOSB(A)/40 LP

[webform at b4h.net]

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: M6W
Operator(s): G3WW
Station: M0NKR

Class: SOSB(A)/40 LP
QTH: Suffolk
Operating Time (hrs): 38:00

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40: 1503    36      130
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1503    36      130  Total Score = 381,800

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

3rd year running doing this category and I’ve learnt a lot about 40m which can
be fickle at times and I don’t really regard it as a low band. I think it’s
well established that 80 and 160 come into their own during the low part of the
cycle but it’s not necessarily the case for 40.

In recent years I’ve operated from my father’s (G4EHT) in the central
England using his Butternut vertical and achieved quite a lot considering. So
when Andy, M0NKR invited any takers to operate from his QTH which is slightly
closer to me in eastern England, it seemed like an opportunity to try 40 with a
more competitive antenna. Andy has a 40m rotary dipole up at 70 feet - plus
antennas for other bands.

With work schedules for both being unfavourable in the fortnight before the
contest, it was not possible to meet with Andy beforehand to get to know each
other. Instead we discussed my plans via e-mail during the preceding days.
Whilst Andy had offered full use of his wonderfully modern Icom station with
QRO, I brought my aging 20 year old FT1K to go barefoot. This is mainly due to
already having lots of Win-Test lua scripts set up for my Yaesu and operating
style.

The Friday evening 60 mile journey over to Suffolk was uneventful �" just
the usual commuter traffic. I arrived around 8pm and was warmly greeted by Andy
& XYL Laura (M0LJD, that’s Lima Juliet Delta). Oh, and not forgetting
their two very friendly and well-behaved dogs!

The station was setup over the next couple of hours and that’s when the
gremlins surfaced. The bespoke 30v/15v PSU for my FT1KMP was dead, something
which has never happened before. After repositioning it off the floor and onto
the desk it burst into life so the car journey had caused an intermittent. This
really didn’t bode well as I don’t have a spare dedicated Yaesu PSU and
neither did Andy being set up for Icom. I kept thinking was it going to last?

Furthermore, the bandpass filters were also misbehaving and as Andy was hoping
to work the occasional band-slot towards the annual DXCC leagues, it meant we
had more station interaction than we wanted. Sadly we didn’t have enough time
to shake out all the little niggles but made best do with what we had.

Once the clock turned midnight I quickly got into search & pounce mode and
started off with a decent 1st hour. 40 dipped during the period before dawn,
and between 0400 to 0600 I was already beginning to feel tired. This was mostly
self-inflicted as I’d stupidly been up to 0300 the night before buying Black
Friday Christmas presents under instruction of my XYL.

As dawn approached, the band came back to life again and I ended at 1130 for a
break and around 550 QSOs in the log. After a short nap I resumed at 1400 to
find the band open nicely to the far east and also KH6 long-path. I got into
the pattern of working all the spots I could from the bandmap then CQ when
there was nothing more to work. With low power, the only place I could gain any
traction running was high up the band and during the whole contest I spent
around 10% to 15% running with 85% to 90% search & pounce.

The Saturday evening stint brought a number of east coast US stations as
expected but not the quantity of say 2 years back in the solar cycle. US
signals were somewhat weaker than normal but they did seem to have great ears.
On the contrary, the JA’s were booming and it was a pity I could only find
just 10 of them on 40m.

By 0300 Sunday morning with the QSO total sitting at exactly 1000, I was
feeling sleepy again and chose to grab a few hours, setting the alarm to catch
the grey-line. The 0700 to 0800 hours brought another great opening and I
finally nailed HC0E in Zone 10 for the double mult. The pileup was much less
fierce than earlier in the contest. Alaska also came through around breakfast
for another double multiplier served up with hot buttered toast.

Again I broke off around 1100 to be fresh for the final Sunday evening push.
Andy then took the opportunity to work some more band-slots whilst I was
catching more zzzzz’s

Resuming at 1400 I always find the final stint to be a real struggle doing
single band. With most of the stations already worked, I had little new stuff
on the bandmap and spent quite long periods of fruitless CQ-ing. The final
session brought AH2R for Zone 27 which was my 36th and final Zone. A clean
sweep of WAZ was perhaps a little ambitious. The four zones missing were 34,
36, 37 and 38. Three of them I never heard but two Zone 37’s showed up with
huge pileups which I knew better than to get involved in.

As midnight approached the QSO total nudged 1500 and after backing up the log
and e-mailing a copy to myself I hit the sack dreaming of the next one.

Andy & Laura were the prefect hosts and it is clear to see that Andy is
establishing a very nice contest station. Full credit to him. Thanks do indeed
go Andy and Laura for their generous hospitality and my very understanding wife
who let me disappear for the weekend.

FT1000MP, 100 Watts
Rotary dipole at 70’
¼ wave vertical as backup
Win-Test 4.25

Dez, M6W / G3WW


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/