[3830] CQWW CW VE2IM(VE3DZ) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022

Call: VE2IM
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: VE2CSI

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: QC
Operating Time (hrs): 43
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  448    13       44
   80: 1259    20       80
   40: 1423    29       90
   20: 1645    30       92
   15: 1597    26       86
   10:  752    24       82
------------------------------
Total: 7124   142      474  Total Score = 10,928,456

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

Usual drill which is being done for the last 24 years: leaving Monday morning
driving 1,700 from Niagara, ON to Sept-Iles, QC with overnight stop at Quebec
city, arriving safely, but very tired and barely standing on the feet on Tuesday
night. Then, for 2 and a half days - setting up a SO2R station, repairing
antennas, rolling the beverage and solving all kind of equipment issues. Short
(1- 1.5 hours) nap before the contest on Friday late afternoon, then the contest
itself, then on early Monday morning: packing up the station, rolling back the
beverage and then driving back with the same overnight stop (actually, the same
hotel).
Home - late Tuesday night.
I should say I'm satisfied with my score, but as always, I think not about what
was done, but what could be done if... So, my favourite topic: excuses and
complaints. :-)
1. Couldn't stay all 48 hours. After driving such a long distance, and
especially in a winter-like conditions, people our age (I'm over 60) need at
least a couple of days to recover. Unfortunately, it's not the case here. 2 days
are needed to set-up the station and antennas. Initial plan was to rest 3, well
maybe 4 hours at most, but then I overslept on Sunday morning and got up when 20
and 15 were open to EU at full swing. So, lost 5 hours = at least 700-800 Q's.
2. Setting up a competitive and "clean" SO2R station normally takes
weeks, if not months. I only had 1 full day for that. Having only one Tribander
requires the use of triplexor and high power filters, meaning a lot of extra
connections and potential weak (failure) points. Add here potential computer,
interfacing and software issues. In my case I had a failure of 2 ports of my 2 x
6 switch just few hours into the contest, so I decided to use existing manual
band switch  which is hanging on the wall here for one of my radio. Half way
through the Contest I start to experience cross-band interference. I really like
the challenge of troubleshooting "on the fly", but it doesn't
necessarily contribute to the high rate. By the end of the Contest my SO2R
operation became almost non-existent. Now, listening to my recordings, I am
amazed how could I even operate like that... Only after the Contest I found that
the cause of the interference was the arc inside that switch. If you want to
have a good, reliable HP station, you should avoid the use of anything that has
"MFJ" abbreviation on it.
 :-(
3. Antennas and noise. Antennas are practically not maintained during the year.
There is only one guy who operates on HF from VE2CSI, it's Steve VE2TKH and he
is disabled. Sometimes he waits for months for me to come so I would fix
something or (for instance) install a 30 m antenna and such... Usually Frank
VA2FGG is pretty helpful with resolving any antenna issues prior to my visit,
but he has now resigned from the President position which I'm sure is a big loss
for the club. This year I was pretty lucky with not having any major antenna
failure this year, but the power line noise which is coming from 70...100
degrees azimuth is not getting any lower. 
This time I had one computer failure which resulted in rebooting and 15 minutes
loss, but that's probably because the poor thing had too much on it, all the
hardware + N1MM logger. This year I didn't even forget to re-launch a recording
program right after the reboot. :-)
Now about highlights. I was able to find and uncover from under 15 inches of
snow the feed point of the EU beverage. It took me less than 3 hours to
completely re-install it: last year I rolled a part of it, coiled and fixed to
one of the pine trees. Needed to do that to avoid any damage or accident because
a lot of crazy snow-mobile riders are using those woods to enjoy races.
And - oh boy! - did it really work! Big help to 160 and 80, you may tell by
looking the numbers. 80 sounded like 20 at times with a lot of huge EU signals.
Of course, I overstayed both nights on 80, and my high band totals suffered
because of it.
Can't say enough good words about VA6AM HP Triplexer and BPF's. Solid, very well
designed and built. Extremely reliable. I know Pavel doesn't need advertisement,
but to my it was one of my best $1,000 (or so) spent. Last year I made big
mistake by not bringing them over.
Also, very simple and reliable front end saver built by my friend UW7LL
(hamdevices.com) helped a lot. It was a custom order, built specifically to my
requirements, but hopefully he will start producing them for general sale.
And finally, "the beast" - ACOM2000A. Another reliable piece of
equipment, which  does what it's supposed to do and gives you no troubles.
Overall conditions were good, though 10 meters never opened on Saturday and only
really opened on Sunday to EU for about an hour and a half. But I can't
complain, have a lot of 6-banders, too many to list here.
I know I underachieved multiplier numbers on high bands, but to be honest I
never expected such high numbers on 40, 80 and especially 160 m. Simple antennas
performed pretty well even though I had a lot of repeat requests. 95% of my
operation was on Dual CQ, so I didn't move a lot of people from band to band,
but thanks to all who agreed to move for me and special thanks to Nick VA2VT and
Chris VO2AC for the easy Zone 2 multiplier (which normally is a problem for
me).
Like I said, I'm doing Zone 2 for 24 years now and I don't know how long I will
be able to continue... Driving is becoming more and more problematic. Also it
wastes 4 days of your valuable time. Flying is very expensive, less flexible and
one can't get a lot of gear in the luggage.
Since late Phil Goetz, N6ZZ gave me this idea in 1998, I invested so much of my
time, resources, money and energy into this, so it became like and old favourite
suitcase for me: too heavy to carry, but too valuable to drop. Will see...
Thanks again to all for the contacts and I hope everyone had as much fun as I
did.
Let's hope the conditions will be even better in 2023.
Few words in conclusion that I want to say about UW5Y. The guys from Ukraine
managed to get together and despite the war operated in the CQ WW under the
russian bombings and almost total blackout, using portable generator most of the
time. That's  what I call passion and dedication. You are my heroes!
Glory to Ukraine!

Thanks for reading.


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