[3830] IARU N3BB SOABCW HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    IARU HF World Championship - 2019

Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB

Class: SOABCW HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 23.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    34    0       7       7
   80:   163    0      19      11
   40:   789    0      32      24
   20:   688    0      21      23
   15:   305    0      18      12
   10:    40    0       3       2
-------------------------------------
Total:  2019    0     100      79  Total Score = 1,140,767

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Other than the big Sprint (4 hours) and the NS (30 mins) this is my favorite
contest of them all, since everyone can work everyone, the rate is good, and the
mults are varied. In addition, the length is reasonable for a tough go at 24
hours, which is strenuous but doable. The IARU starts at noon GMT, not a
will-busting midnight GMT, so we get it at 7 am Central Daylight time, and we
can s start with a more-or-less full night's sleep.

Even with the three years the IARU does NOT align with an embedded WRTC, the
participation is very good, both casually and for the serious players. 

Unlike last year, when the antenna on one of my towers were down, all the
antennas were QRV, but I just do not "feel loud" with my Opti-Beam
tri-band yagis that I use on 15 and 10. Maybe it's just me. 

Also, one of my Alpha 87As had problems, including a blower fan that had to be
replaced plus other things, and it took a couple of back-and-forths to Colorado
to get it in shape. But it worked flawlessly as did the other one. Both are old
veterans now of many radio-sporting wars. 

Here is my 24 hours broken into main segments of timing/bands:

12:00-12:30 An initial attempt to run 40 into Asia. Pretty much a bust with 9
JAs and 1 9M8.

12:30-13:30 Runs on 40 and 20 to mainly NA. While running on one, was S&Ping
on the other. 

13:30-16:45 Runs on 20 and 15. Mainly NA, with rarely someone else worked on the
second radio. Same strategy as above. Very little non-NA.

First break 16:20-16:38 to check on XYL. 

16:45-18:30 Primarily running 15 with 2nd radio S&P on 20. Some limited EU
on 15. The EU HQ stations were weak and I could not get through. Frustrating. 

Second break: 17:53-18:18. Our son came over and took Diana out to lunch, then
came up and we talked. Nice support. 

18:30-45 A little burst running on 10 meters. All NA. Not gonna work!

18:45-21:00 On 20 and 15, running one band and S&Ping the other. Stuck with
it. A slog. A smattering of EU on each band, but mostly a Zone 8 slug-fest. 

21:00-23:30 Mostly running 20 meters, with (very) occasional S&Ping QSOs on
15. Some EU on 20 calling me. Very limited 15. EU improved a bit, to maybe 25%
of the run callers. 

23:30-01:00 40 and 20 alternating. EU on 20. 40 seemed one-way about 00:00, and
I was unable to get many EU stations. Frustrating. Gradually 40 became better to
EU. 

01:00-03:30 Mainly 40 now. Running with EU and NA answering. Based on the freq
read-out, the stations came to me on my run freq. At 01:20 I had a "really
big pile up"  according to a note in the log. I could tell when someone
spotted, as things would go crazy, then subside.  I noted my "sunset
bounce" at about 01:35 as my my results on 40 were good to EU. That 40
meter run to EU was my best of the IARU contest with mostly EU stations calling
by 02:45. 

03:30-07:30 Eighty meters now became workable, and to this period was running
one band and S&Ping the other. By this time, EU was mostly in the sunlight,
and they were off to 20 meters. But eighty meters yielded some good EU for a
while on S&P, with EU HQ stations in the log before the sun came up too much
over there. I also S&Ped a bit on 160 while running 40, which by now was
mainly a Zone 8-fest to the East of NA. The log does show some very late EU on
40 from very western and southern EU stations.

At 06:35 I tried to move the first station: VE5MX from 80 to 160 for Zone 3. He
was S8 but never could hear me. Fortunately, we did this and succeeded later.
Still not sure why he didn't hear me this time. 

at 07:23 Dave, K1ZZ called me on my 40 run freq, and I asked him to move to 160.
It went smooth and fast. Thanks Dave. 

At 07:26 I asked VK2GR to move from my run freq on 40 to 80, where the QSO was
fast as well. By this time I started looking to move stations who called me on
my CQ run freq. But there were not that many occasions. 

At 17:38, VE5MX called me on 40, and I asked him to try 160 again for the Zone
3, which I needed. This time it was smooth and quick. Thanks for the second
try.

07:30-12:00 (the rest of the contest) 40 meter runs with some S&P on 80 and
160. At this point a few JAs had started to call me on my 40 meter run freq. The
Geochron clock showed the JA Sunset was several hours away, but a few started
popping in. Mostly this period was a lot of NA, with all three US Zones and VEs.
The JAs became more and more numerous in the log and by 09:00 it was mainly JAs.
The rate was not great, around 60/hour for all contacts. I kept the big 3
element yagi brute on JA and the small 2 el 40 yagi to the SW so any Pacific and
VK/ZLers would hear me and I would hear them. Most of the time, I was feeding
half the power to each one and could hear from both at the same time. This
seemed to pay off with a reasonable number of both VKs and ZLs calling me
between the JAs, including, finally VK6IT out in western VK for Zone 58.

At one point, I had tons of JAs on 40, but "nary a one" on 80, and
started to get nervous. I kept listening on 80, but did not hear a single one!
So about one hour before the end, I went to 80 and luckily found a nice clear
spot on about 3510 and started calling CQ hoping for a JA. I got called by
JA1CJP but instead of zone 4, he sent me "R3" and I realized he had
called me on several other bands. Hurrah, but no Zone 44 cigar yet. So I kept on
and then was called by JA8DNV and JL1MUT for an insurance contact. So now I have
the R3 and Zone 44. I'm a happy camper. Then ZM1A calls with Zone 60,  Now I'm a
happier camper. So I keep going and a Hawaii station calls next with Zone 61.
I'm a really happy camper now! One more state-sider calls, and I'm ready to go
back to 40; then a very weak station calls. After what seemed like three minutes
of ?? over and over, I finally dredge out 8N1HQ and can hear the weak
"JARL." Yeah. One or two more regular JAs called, then a mult Zone 2
VE7, and I went back to 40. The whole length of time on 3510 calling CQ was
10:39 to 10:54. It was a good decision to go there and CQ a bit. In general, 80
was sucky.

If you have read all the way to the end, thank you! But this is the way I can
remember what "went down," and maybe it will help someone else. I am
fortunate to have a really good antenna in a good location for 40 meters, and my
20 meter stack of five-element yagis is good also. In a contest like this one,
with 40 and 20 meters the two work bands, it matches up well with my station
strengths. 

Thanks to all who labor manning the HQ stations worldwide, and those who support
the IARU with log checking and software. The operators in this contest are
generally very good. I did get a fair number of pretty slow ops who called me,
and I always slowed down to their speed with my simple "5NN 7"
response. Otherwise I was at 35 WPM for most of the first half of the IARU, and
more like 32 WPM the second half. 

Thanks to all for a very tough weekend. I'm 77 years old now, and my XYL is not
in good health. One never knows how much longer this will go on, but it's good
to get one more in the great logbook in the universe. 

73, Jim N3BB


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