[3830] IARU KQ2M SOABMixed HP
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Wed Jul 13 19:29:35 EDT 2022
IARU HF World Championship - 2022
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 14.2
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 0 0 0 0
80: 0 0 0 0
40: 313 133 18 21
20: 578 351 33 25
15: 218 159 30 25
10: 74 29 9 11
-------------------------------------
Total: 1183 672 90 82 Total Score = 1,330,592
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
IARU is a strange and wonderful contest and I have very fond memories of it's
forerunner the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976!
Strange because the propagation is fascinating - spectacular at times and
horrible at others in the same weekend, often without warning. It is a magnet
for solar flares, CME's and the like, and that combined with the peak of Summer
propagation + Sporadic E and other modes of propagation, make for unpredictable
and fun openings on 10 and 15 when you least expect them and to where you least
expect, while at the same time compressing the viable operating time for 40, 80
and 160 due to minimal hours of darkness.
Wonderful because the activity is amazing, especially in Europe and with a huge
concentration on CW. This is possibly the only contest where when you operate
mixed mode, you can consistently have better rates on CW than on SSB!
I was not feeling well and was exhausted due to a few 100+ hour work weeks prior
to the contest. My 80 M Comtek ACB80 4-square relay box literally fried a relay
(looks like it actually burned up!)so I did not have 80 and 160 broke apart in a
previous windstorm. I was looking forward to getting some sleep and relaxing.
But I woke up early and decided to listen to the bands ~ 11:45z. Of course that
woke me up and I then decided to operate for a little while. LOL! The keying on
my FT1000MP did not work and it took a few minutes to hunt down the problem and
that working. Then I noticed that I could not key the amp. Another 5 minutes
of frantic actions and the ACOM2000A was getting keyed. I started operating at
1213z and noticed that CNDX on 10 were not very good so I tried to use the 2nd
radio. No keying. UGH. Fixed that while operating and then decided to call
some mults on 15 SSB and noticed that the DVP was not working. (It had worked
just fine in WPXSSB!). I attempted to do surgery while running on the other
radio but that did not work. Ok, pulled it all out and stuck in a Yaesu AD1Y and
plugged the headset into it. That worked but no DVP or processor so I would
have to call CQ on SSB manually. Oy. Not fun. Distracting to do that while
running on CW on another band.
CNDX were not good and I felt weak. Made multiple changes between 10 and 15 and
on both modes with sub-par rates. 10 would open and close and open and close
real fast. I could not sustain anything on 10 even though the band was open,
but it was open to EU marginally and there was spotlight propagation. 15 was
similar but better - still no good rates though. Making the band changes more
cumbersome was the fact that my ACOM2000A kept showing Low Input even though I
was inputting plenty. At times I was running as little as 600w out instead of
the usual high power amount. Making matters worse was the Low Input reading
would also impact its ability to change bands - instead hitting me with other
messages and shutting off. Eventually I figured out that each time I switched
band mores I would need to do a new autotune for that band mode. So a switch
from 10 CW to 10 SSB would require a quick manual tune. A qsy from 10 CW to 15
SSB would also require a quick manual tune with the autotune. I have never
experienced that before and it was a nuisance to have to do it each time but
performing a manual autotune each time was the solution to LOW INPUT problem.
Since I had not planned on operating, I had not taken my medicines or made
breakfast and with mediocre propagation I decided to take a break ~ 1415z, which
was precisely the wrong time as 15 opened well a few minutes after my qrt.
;-)
After breakfast, I relaxed with my family upstairs and spent some time with my
daughter who was going to Baltimore for a few weeks to work and visit friends.
It was nice to spend time with her. Then I looked at the fried ACB-80 relay.
Absolutely black. Board charred underneath and two sealed relays next to it
with either corrosion or lichens growing inside it, or both. Ok, that's why the
SWR was high and the F/B and F/S was degraded. LOL!
About 18:45z I went back downstairs again to see how cndx were. Much better!
15 was mostly gone and I was hearing a few EU on 10 but no volume and little
activity but 20 had good signs but not the level of activity that I expected and
certainly not the rate. The K=3 was not helping nor the flare that hit just
before the contest started. I thought that I would operate another hour or two
and then maybe catch up on some radio related repairs. I moved between 10, 15
and 20 as 10 kept teasing a GOOD opening to EU that never quite materialized.
Ops to the South and in Eastern New England were able to run consistently and
were hearing stations that I did not. I alternated between 15 and 20, cw and
ssb; there would be pockets of good rate and then it would peter out quickly as
though everyone had spread out over multiple bands. Finally at 21z the rate
picked up and stations got louder on 20 but the polar path was subdued and the
few JA's that I heard were VERY weak. The JA's stayed weak all weekend even
when the K index briefly dropped to 0 which was puzzling as some of the UA0's
were very strong. Meanwhile I noticed that 10 and 15 had stayed open to EU -
there were always a few stations still in there - LZ0HQ, HG0HQ, TM0HQ, YT0HQ
regardless of how late it got. I even heard a few EU stations on 10 as late as
2330z, but there were only 2 stations and I could not run anyone. 15 stayed
open to EU longer but again, only a few stations and no run. At 00:30z there
was a brief but good opening on 15 to BY, HS and UA0 and JA - a few mults not
run. Spotlight propagation was the name of the game!
At 23z I split the hour between 20 and 40. 20 was solid and 40 was remarkable!
I was really working it hard as there were only a few hours to get the EU
stations before their sunrise. The loudest stations that I heard all weekend
were on 40, both US and Europe. I was amazed at the number of 599+++ EU
stations that called on 40 cw and was puzzled why NONE of them were that loud on
20 or 15? 40 provided my best rates in the contest with an average of 146/hr
for 3.1 hours but I couldn't stay too long there either as 20 was hot into
Europe, VK and everything except for JA and Asia. I qsy'ed to 20 for some solid
runs on both CW and SSB and although I got the last 10 over 400 on SSB and up to
372/202 last 10/100 qsos on CW, the propagation would change and the rate would
die quickly without warning as more flares hit. At 03:45 I again went upstairs
to spend a little time with my daughter and XYL (we had celebrated out 29th
wedding anniversary on July 4th) and then came downstairs for some more good
rate on 20 until it died again ~ 0645z. I qsy'ed to 40 to pickup some mults but
40 was a wasteland with no one there!
It was time to get some sleep. I debated whether to wake up ~ 0930z and finish
the contest or get a few more hours of sleep and then be able to stay awake for
the Wimbledon Men's finals with Djokovic vs. Kygrios which promised to be an
excellent match. I opted for the sleep and got up at 12z. Of course I missed the
best hour of propagation in the contest which was on 15 at 11z.
2014 was the last time that I operated IARU. I had forgotten how much fun it
was how interesting the propagation could be with 15 staying open all 24 hours
and 10 open almost 24 hours even if there were only a few people that could be
worked between 20z - 10z.
I was reminded of how many operating mistakes that I had made that only became
clearer after some sleep. Band openings missed, forgetting to rotate antennas
in specific directions, spending more time on certain bands and less on others,
hunting mults more proactively, etc. I have made notes to remind me in the
future although if propagation is significantly different they may be of little
use. LOL!
I hope to be back next year with 6 working bands and 2 working stations at the
start of the contest. :-)
Tnx for the qsos and the mults!
73
Bob, KQ2M
kq2m at kq2m.com
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults KQ2M IARU HF Championship Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
12 ..... ..... ..... 60/13 21/7 27/6 108/26 108/26
13 . . . . 94/6 33/6 127/12 235/38
14 . . . . . 21/1 21/1 256/39
15 . . . . . . . 256/39
16 . . . . . . . 256/39
17 . . . . . . . 256/39
18 . . . . 27/7 . 27/7 283/46
19 . . . 122/10 5/5 1/1 128/16 411/62
20 ..... ..... ..... 40/1 51/6 2/1 93/8 504/70
21 . . . 117/11 9/1 19/4 145/16 649/86
22 . . . 44/4 90/8 . 134/12 783/98
23 . . . 76/5 63/10 1/1 140/16 923/114
0 . . 83/18 47/2 15/4 . 145/24 1068/138
1 . . 151/9 . . . 151/9 1219/147
2 . . 139/6 . . . 139/6 1358/153
3 . . 72/6 45/1 1/0 . 118/7 1476/160
4 ..... ..... ..... 18/2 ..... ..... 18/2 1494/162
5 . . . 148/5 1/1 . 149/6 1643/168
6 . . . 147/4 . . 147/4 1790/172
7 . . 1/0 61/0 . . 62/0 1852/172
8 . . . . . . . 1852/172
9 . . . . . . . 1852/172
10 . . . . . . . 1852/172
11 . . . . . . . 1852/172
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1852/172
13 . . . . . . . 1852/172
14 . . . . . . . 1852/172
15 . . . . . . . 1852/172
16 . . . . . . . 1852/172
17 . . . . . . . 1852/172
18 . . . . . . . 1852/172
19 . . . . . . . 1852/172
20 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1852/172
21 . . . . . . . 1852/172
22 . . . . . . . 1852/172
23 . . . . . . . 1852/172
DAY1 . . 446/39 925/58 377/55 104/20 . 1852/172
DAY2 . . . . . . . .
TOT . . 446/39 925/58 377/55 104/20 . 1852/172
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr KQ2M IARU HF Championship Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
12 ..... ..... ..... 32/114 14/88 15/111 61/107 61/107
13 . . . . 31/180 28/70 60/128 120/117
14 . . . . . 9/137 9/137 129/119
15 . . . . . . . 129/119
16 . . . . . . . 129/119
17 . . . . . . . 129/119
18 . . . . 21/78 . 21/78 150/113
19 . . . 57/128 2/196 0/277 59/130 209/118
20 ..... ..... ..... 24/98 35/88 1/114 60/92 270/112
21 . . . 50/141 3/173 6/177 59/147 329/118
22 . . . 19/136 40/133 . 60/134 389/121
23 . . . 22/204 36/104 1/43 60/140 449/123
0 . . 30/165 19/151 11/79 . 60/144 509/126
1 . . 60/152 . . . 60/152 569/129
2 . . 60/138 . . . 60/138 629/130
3 . . 28/154 20/135 0/257 . 48/147 677/131
4 ..... ..... ..... 6/189 ..... ..... 6/189 683/131
5 . . . 60/149 0/180 . 60/149 743/133
6 . . . 60/147 . . 60/147 803/134
7 . . 5/11 44/83 . . 50/75 853/130
8 . . . . . . . 853/130
9 . . . . . . . 853/130
10 . . . . . . . 853/130
11 . . . . . . . 853/130
12 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 853/130
13 . . . . . . . 853/130
14 . . . . . . . 853/130
15 . . . . . . . 853/130
16 . . . . . . . 853/130
17 . . . . . . . 853/130
18 . . . . . . . 853/130
19 . . . . . . . 853/130
20 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 853/130
21 . . . . . . . 853/130
22 . . . . . . . 853/130
23 . . . . . . . 853/130
DAY1 . . 3.1/146 6.9/134 3.2/116 1.0/102 . 14.2/130
DAY2 . . . . . . . .
TOT . . 3.1/146 6.9/134 3.2/116 1.0/102 . 14.2/130
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