[3830] CQWW CW VA3DF SO(A)AB HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

Call: VA3DF
Operator(s): VA3DF
Station: VA3DF

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: ONS
Operating Time (hrs): 35

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  176    15       40
   80:  302    24       80
   40:  517    27      101
   20:  576    27       96
   15:  347    27      104
   10:   54    16       26
------------------------------
Total: 1972   136      447  Total Score = 3,134,791

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

OK, first some background. About this time last year, I decided to revamp my
antennas  for 80 and 160. I just "felt" that I wasn't getting the
performance that I needed and expected. So I pulled down the 160 inverted L at
90 feet and decided to shunt feed the tower. I also wasn't happy with the
inverted V for 80 at 95 feet so I needed an upgrade for that antenna as well!

During the summer (that's when the igloos melt in VE land) I installed a 1/4
wave vertical for 80 with 32 radials each 65 feet long. A couple of weeks ago I
added another 20 radials 65 feet long for the Winter Season.

After removing the 160 m inverted L, I shunt fed the tower which has about 
7000-8000 feet of radials around it - during the Winter.

Having done all this work, I realized that I would not be able to use the
antennas during CQWW CW as a group of us had decided to travel to the Caribbean
for the contest - this was cancelled when Covid raised its ugly head this fall.
The silver lining was, of course, that I would be home for the contest and could
see how they played! Based on my early assessment, the new antennas seemed to be
a big improvement but they had yet to be tested in battle. 

Conditions Friday night were not good, they were stellar! I think I had about 60
countries on 80 by daybreak Saturday morning. Based on that I thought 70 DXCC
might be achievable and devoted some time to make it happen! As you can see from
the summary, the beauty antenna brought me 80 DXCC countries! I am thunder
struck and ecstatic with its performance.

All this focus on 80 led to 160 getting kicked to the side of the road! I felt
bad about that, although the shunt fed tower sure seemed like a winner based on
previous use. Trying to make up for this lack of attention I focused on 160 for
the last 1/2 hour of the contest and was rewarded with a new DXCC country
Svalbard!

During the contest, the high bands were in good shape. Many qsos and lots of DX.
 At this location 20 opened at 7 AM just like clockwork both mornings followed
shortly by 15. Worked a total of 130 DXCC.

Kinda put things in neutral and coasted to the finish line after I hit 3M
points, which was about 2 hours before the end of the contest - but what to do
with the remaining time???

I decided to  not chase qsos but to look for mults instead. Specifically, I
wanted to top up some of the bands to 100 DXCC - I succeeded in doing this on 40
 

Lotsa fun but the planning for next year has already begun. I'm thinking maybe
that 80 m vertical needs a partner so they can operate as two phased verticals.
That might be amazing!!!

As usual, it's a jungle out there...

73,

Doug
VA3DF


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