[3830] CQWW CW RM3F(N5ZO) SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: RM3F
Operator(s): N5ZO
Station: UA3DPX

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Dmitrov
Operating Time (hrs): 45+
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  176     9       47
   80:  397    11       57
   40:  633    24       79
   20: 1007    23       84
   15:   99    17       44
   10:    1     1        1
------------------------------
Total: 2313    87      312  Total Score = 1,370,166

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

First big thanks to Andy UA3DPX for letting me operate his station from zone
16.
His QTH is in Dmitrov, about 60 km North of Moscow.

Station is in middle of repairs due to past ice storm and lightning damages, and
Andy has been doing less contesting in last couple years, so I did not have
quite all the usual weapons available, but there was still plenty to work with. 
With Andy's workers and some other local hams we re-built and raised 5 element
40 m yagi with 28 m boom during the week and it went 20 m up the tower few hours
before the contest.  It was important antenna as the only other 40 m antenna was
fixed yagi to Europe.  After antenna went up we found SWR to be 3-4 on CW band
and resonace somewhere above the band, but it seemed to have pattern and I was
able to feed it with tuners in radios.  Don't know how many watts made it to
antenna but it seemed to work well to direction it was aimed to.  Turning of it
was problematic, as at 20 m height it was only half way where it will eventually
be, and guywires of the other towers got on the way.  Basically we turned the
beast East for the beginning of the night and West for 2nd part of the night by
loosening bit the guywires of the other tower.  It really needed to be few
meters higher to be able to turn it around, but there was no time on Friday
night to complete all of that work.  

There was also some problem (SWR=10+) to operate 80 m with right radio which I
found just before the contest, and because of that and other built-in antenna
switching at the station I then had to do 80 m on left radio.  If I wanted to be
on 40 same time which was usual night time situation, then it had to be done on
right radio.  However, right radio could only use main antenna on any band it
was on, so that effectively caused me to NOT be able to use that fixed 40 m
European yagi at all. 

The other missing antenna was 20 m 6-o-6 to North America, which will eventually
go on same tower with that 5 el 40 m yagi.  There was another single 6 el 20 m
yagi that was main antenna for that band, but it also had rotator display blown
up by lighting and we also turned it manually to East for the morning and West
for the evening.

None of the amplifiers at the station were in working condition, and as efforts
to find some reasonable replacements did not work out, other than single 700 W
box, I decided to enter into LP category.  

I could not integrate my custom designed (by K6AM) auto headphone switch I took
from home to the station and ended up using old DXD with manual headphone
switching.  It wasn't quite optimal for SO2R and especially for dual CQs and I
went back like 2 years in time what I used to do at my home station.  But at
least I was familiar with the situation, as that was headphone switching method
I used when I started to learn SO2R few years ago.  After this last weekends
experience in going back, I firmly believe that one wants to automatically
switch both of those ears to non-transmitting radio if doing SO2R or radios if
having more radios.  It will really improve flow of the operating.

Contest itself was interesting.  I think last time I did LP was decade or so ago
from SU/zone 34.  The antennas I had available worked very well and I did not
have to wait around too much to get through pile-ups.  Andy said that best
amplifier is at the top of the tower, and he is right.  I almost felt like I was
having HP when I called stations, I only walked away from couple pile-ups. 
Looking at the result, I could have done bit more multiplier hunting and S&P
as I was just another UA3 and nobody needed to find me for the multiplier. 
Also, 40 and 15 were bit weaker than I thought and I may have done some mistake
in not turning 15 m yagi to Europe earlier, especially on 1st day.  There was
just one clock hour that I had more than 100 Qs, so it was rather steady slow
going whole contest.  I took 2 hours nap before sunrise on 2nd day, which I'm
sure made huge difference for remaining part of the contest.

At least skimmers keep reporting even regular UA3 stations that nobody needs for
multiplier, so even LP from UA3 can be fun to operate with good station.  I
think it would be more challenging on SSB...

246 Qs to zones 3-5
75 Qs to zone 25 - seems like JAs are really gone from contesting, I had similar
result last month from ZM4T...
Lots of German and Ukrainian stations in the log.  And LYs, how many hams can
there be in that small country ? 

It also felt strange to hear all those Europeans, even close by like in Ukraine
or anywhere bit more South work USA stations for hours when I cannot hear any of
the stations they have QSOs with, even when I knew I probably had much bigger
antennas.  In UA3 one is really on back side of the Europe what comes to
propagation to North America and openings were rather limited.

It was interesting to work N6NC on 20 m as one of the first zone 3 stations with
very good signal.  He was remoting to my simple home station in CA using KPA500
there.  Also VY2ZM was blasting in on 160 m both nights.

It is always fun to do this contest from different places around the world and
meet all the regulars each year on the air.  I have now operated it from all 4
Russian zones and 27 zones total.  Maybe I will be able to eventually work them
all.  Hope to see you again next year from some place interesting.
73 de Marko N5ZO


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