[CCF] ARRLDX CW OH6NIO SOAB HP Assisted (long)

[Teijo Murtovaara]

                 ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 2002


      Call:      OH6NIO
      Category:  Single Operator Assisted
      Power:     High Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      CW
      Country:   Finland

      BAND     QSO    QSO PTS    STATES/PROV


      160        0        0           0
       80       32       96          16
       40      119      357          37
       20      626     1878          58
       15      766     2298          55
       10      744     2232          57
     -----------------------------------

     Totals   2287     6861         223  =   1,530,003



All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Equipment Description:10m 5el @128ft, 15m 5/5el @108/138ft, 20m 4/4el
@75/118ft
40m 2el @70ft, 80m inv vee apex @92ft


Club Affiliation: CONTEST CLUB FINLAND

Comments:

I really did not have any serious plans for this contest but I decided to
work a few QSOs anyway. I had been very busy and occupaid with some other
things so a relaxing weekend just working some QSOs in the contest sounded a
really good idea. I did not expect to have any big scores because I did not
have any time to prepare for the contest weekend. Luckily I had just
repaired my 80 antenna so I could have fun on all bands except for 160m
where my amplifier does not work. Last year I worked both CW and SSB on 15m
single band and I did not feel like doing it all over again.

Because I was not too serious about the contest I did not have any sleep
before the contest. Here in Finland the contest start at 02AM. Just before
the contest started I was amazed to hear some stations on 10m and I searhed
for a clear spot. 15m would probably have been a little better choice
because the signals were not extremely strong and my setup on 15m is much
better. Anyway I had fun on 10m for 30 minutes before things turned into
slow motion then it was time to QSY to 15m. The band was incredibly hot.
QSOs just kept on coming until about 0253Z when I moved down to 20m. The
band was wide open so the next hour resulted in astounding 155 QSOs on CW!
The next hour 04-05Z was not far behind with 147 QSOs. Then as a sum of
degrading band conditions and sleep deprivation 05-06Z netted in 92 QSOs. At
0622Z 20m was still good enough but I feared that it might be too late for
80m because the sun had already risen. So it was the last chance to snatch
some good multipliers on 80m. Then I QSY'd to 40m at 0653Z until about 08Z.
There were still some stations with decent signals on 15m at that time but I
could not get any good runs going. 0826Z I was already very tired but I
heard strong signals on 20m so I just pushed away until around 10Z. Finally
I took a needed nap and I woke up to start on 15m at 1150Z. After a while I
realized that it was very difficult to get a good run so I decided to take a
try on 10m. I workwed on 10m until 1324Z when I tried to get a good run on
15m but at 1456Z I had to QSY again to 10m.

I was not very pleased on what I had gotten on 15m. It seemed like my
antenna system was shooting over because it is a quite high stack (108/138ft
or 33/42m). Probably the take-off angle of my stack was way too low on the
prime opening. I had already had similar observations from some other
contests. On the computer analysis by AO I can see that the first null off
the vertical pattern occuring at 11 degrees. On 10m I have a single 5
element yagi at 128ft and I believe that I was using the second vertical
lobe of the antenna on the prime opening. That is why 10m worked much better
at that moment. So it seems that there is some antenna work to be done
before CQWW.

10m band was good enough until 1655Z when the take-off angle on 15m was a
little bit lower suiting my antenna system. The propagation was not
exceptionally good but I managed to work the next 2 hours 17-19Z 65 and 60
QSOs. Then 15m took a dive and the things turned a bit slow. At 2203Z 15m
was very poor so I tried 20m but the propagation did not peak up. Finally at
0059Z I made a last try on 15m and after 48 QSOs I passed out at 0141Z. At
that moment after more than 1600 QSOs I was exhausted but also thrilled. I
wished that I had slept before the contest.

After 05Z I finally woke up and turned my rig on 80m at 0526Z. This morning
I was 1 hour earlier so I thought I could grasp some more multipliers on
80m. At 0609Z I had 16 states including OH and MI worked and I was quite
pleased. It is not so much when compared to the numbers of the mults that
the guys in central or west europe work. The plain truth is just that there
is a big difference in the propagation between us. Just like day and night.
Running 100W into a low dipole in western europe usually beats us badly
anytime.

0620Z I started on 40m and I knew that while I was sleeping I had lost many
multipliers. Then at 0749Z I made a handful of QSOs and then I was more than
ready for my beauty sleep. After some 4 hours of sleep I went right away to
10m. The propagation was down from saturday but still good enough for some
40-60 QSOs/h. At around 17Z the propagation on 10m was marginal and I tried
to QSY to 15m and without much of luck then back to 10m for 45 minutes and
then at 1755Z 15m started to produce QSOs. 15m remained workable (50 Q/h)
until 2111Z when I realized that 10m was hot. The last 3 hours of the
contest were something that I could never have imagined. 21Z 90 QSOs, most
on 10m; 22Z 100 QSOs on 10m and 23Z 91 QSOs. 2332Z I made my final band
change from 10m to 15m where I managed to work 48 QSOs in 28 minutes (rate
more than 100 Q/h). I could have worked even more stations because 15m was
still wide open.

The cw-weekend started with the idea of working some casual pile-ups ending
up to 2287 QSOs and 223 multipliers breaking 1.5M. I was more than pleased
with my result although I ended up sleeping more than 9 hours during the
contest and I probably should have paid more attention to the low bands. I
sure had a lot of fun. Thanks for the QSOs!