[CCF] WPX SSB CQ8X(OH6KZP) SOAB HP
Kim Östman
kim.ostman at abo.fi
Mon Mar 31 16:53:32 EDT 2014
Kiitos OH-kusoista, joita tuli sopivasti yhteensä 59.
73
Kim
-----Original Message-----
CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: CQ8X
Operator(s): OH6KZP
Station: CR2X
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ribeira Grande
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 304
40: 786
20: 1111
15: 1777
10: 1609
------------
Total: 5587 Prefixes = 1394 Total Score = 21,216,680
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
This was my third time visiting the Azores, the first two trips being for
CQWW CW 2012 and CQWW SSB 2013. It was different this time, because I felt
that I arrived to a familiar locale with familiar people, routines, and
places (and car!). In addition to the station being in good shape after the
ARRL contests, this lack of the unknown made pre-contest preparations much
less stressful. The Azores is a wonderful place, and I really enjoyed
visiting once again. My usual travelogue follows, so that I can remind
myself later what actually happened...
I set a new European SOAB HP record as my target. It was not to be an easy
target, with the current high of 20.4M having been set by Emir E7DX/E77DX in
the record-breaking year 2011. Accordingly, I devised an operating plan that
took into account the peculiar WPX scoring system and my one-point EU
location in the middle of the Atlantic. In other words, double-pointer
low-band operation was going to be really tough because of distance, the EU
QRM wall, and "everybody" enjoying the post-sunset high bands anyway. The
real strides thus had to be made by maximizing the number of DX (NA) on the
high bands, while still getting all needed EU multipliers. To add into the
mix I also had no receive antenna for 80m.
With those parameters in place, I went on 40m half an hour before the
contest started to find a good spot. I found one, proceeded with making
QSOs, was
getting 59+ reports from both EU and NA, and felt good! So imagine my
surprise when a Central European M/M parks less than 1 kHz above just
minutes before it all starts, with the operator probably being scared to
lose face in his team if he doesn't find a spot to call CQ on. Add to that
another station that strangely starts rattling off numbers less than 1 kHz
below me. Neither pretended to hear my QSY requests, despite their 59+
signals and my received 59+ reports from others in their regions.
So frankly, please somebody tell me what it takes to keep a frequency on 40m
in the worst heat, because obviously 2 x 2el, 1.5 kW, and common courtesy
aren't enough...! And while you're at it, could you also tell me how I can
best deal with SSB contest splatter during the moments I think I'm literally
going insane
:)
Anyway, 20m and 15m were boiling, so after some 10 slow QSOs on 40m I move
there and am off to a nice start. The high bands were in really good shape
all weekend, and I was surprised to work stations from the Far East very
late in my local evenings. I had anticipated working only a few JA stations
(and multipliers), so the coolest thing was an interesting short-path JA
opening on 15m on Sunday evening local time. The good band conditions are
also partially problematic for the Azores: NA and EU are both pointing their
beams at each other and you are caught in the middle of this "highway" at a
suitable skip to both, and thus at times the bands sound like QRM walls. The
bands were very crowded, so a good number of stations must have been on the
air.
I've often had problems with the prolonged contest use of headphones, with
my earlobes becoming sore and the situation easily developing into an ear
inflammation (I seem to be a late bloomer, doesn't everybody get those only
as small kids?). Toni OH2UA suggested a solution involving around-the-ear
Bose
headphones combined with a specially attached boom microphone, and this was
my second SSB contest using his solution after having assembled it.
Wonderful, my ears are happy! The weather was stormy and rainy all weekend,
but fortunately I only got some S9+ static problems for 10-15 minutes on
Sunday evening. The storm continued today with high winds, and it's saying
something when you have to use serious force to pry the hamshack door open.
The end result is a new claimed EU record, but I was shooting for more
margin (21.5M). I was ahead of my target curve when I started my final break
on
Sunday, but things just didn't take off as I had expected in the afternoon.
Also, my targeted pts/Q was 3.18 but I ended up with only 2.72, consistent
with
not reaching my low-band targets. That in turn is perhaps a combination of
my psychological low-band SSB splatter abhorrence and the lack of regular
workable stations there due to good high-band conditions. I can now afford
-3.6% during the log check, so we'll see! Anyway, this was a lot of fun.
I've put some
statistics below. Live scoring and audio/video streaming were in action as
usual.
Thanks to the entire Radio Arcala team for making this operation possible.
In particular, my appreciation goes to Juha OH8NC and Martti OH2BH for their
special support, and to Toni OH2UA for station engineering. Thanks to José
CU2CE and Francisco CU2DX for the local support, and to all of you for the
QSOs!
Kim OH6KZP
-----------------------------
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat
CONTEST: CQ-WPX-SSB
CALLSIGN: CQ8X
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
OPERATORS: OH6KZP
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 17 168 2 0 187 187 3.3
0100 0 0 0 73 132 0 205 392 7.0
0200 0 64 1 0 105 0 170 562 10.1
0300 0 43 57 13 3 0 116 678 12.1
0400 0 39 94 0 0 0 133 811 14.5
0500 0 81 70 0 0 0 151 962 17.2
0600 0 37 58 0 0 0 95 1057 18.9
0700 0 1 79 4 2 0 86 1143 20.5
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1143 20.5
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1143 20.5
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1143 20.5
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1143 20.5
1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1143 20.5
1300 0 0 0 0 0 114 114 1257 22.5
1400 0 0 0 0 0 220 220 1477 26.4
1500 0 0 0 0 3 156 159 1636 29.3
1600 0 0 0 0 130 38 168 1804 32.3
1700 0 0 0 0 206 0 206 2010 36.0
1800 0 0 0 0 8 212 220 2230 39.9
1900 0 0 0 0 0 211 211 2441 43.7
2000 0 0 0 0 0 225 225 2666 47.7
2100 0 0 0 0 34 129 163 2829 50.6
2200 0 0 0 88 76 0 164 2993 53.6
2300 0 10 2 17 91 0 120 3113 55.7
0000 0 0 87 0 21 0 108 3221 57.7
0100 0 0 28 31 0 0 59 3280 58.7
0200 0 0 0 195 0 0 195 3475 62.2
0300 0 0 0 170 0 0 170 3645 65.2
0400 0 0 58 89 0 0 147 3792 67.9
0500 0 0 135 0 0 0 135 3927 70.3
0600 0 29 74 0 0 0 103 4030 72.1
0700 0 0 25 0 3 0 28 4058 72.6
0800 0 0 0 0 83 13 96 4154 74.4
0900 0 0 0 7 44 7 58 4212 75.4
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4212 75.4
1100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4212 75.4
1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4212 75.4
1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4212 75.4
1400 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 4215 75.4
1500 0 0 0 0 16 155 171 4386 78.5
1600 0 0 0 0 89 72 161 4547 81.4
1700 0 0 0 2 56 50 108 4655 83.3
1800 0 0 0 2 192 0 194 4849 86.8
1900 0 0 0 2 157 3 162 5011 89.7
2000 0 0 0 6 151 2 159 5170 92.5
2100 0 0 0 128 39 0 167 5337 95.5
2200 0 0 0 8 116 0 124 5461 97.7
2300 0 0 1 108 15 2 126 5587 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 304 786 1111 1777 1609 5587
Gross QSOs=5648 Dupes=61 Net QSOs=5587
Unique callsigns worked = 4248
The best 60 minute rate was 233/hour from 1341 to 1440
The best 30 minute rate was 244/hour from 0027 to 0056
The best 10 minute rate was 270/hour from 0027 to 0036
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 15 times.
5 QSOs/minute 137 times.
4 QSOs/minute 409 times.
3 QSOs/minute 563 times.
2 QSOs/minute 553 times.
1 QSOs/minute 381 times.
There were 250 bandchanges and 103 (1.8%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 27
4 1692
5 2266
6 1534
7 22
8 23
9 14
10 9
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 3362
2 bands 572
3 bands 199
4 bands 91
5 bands 24
6 bands 0
------- S i n g l e B a n d Q S O s ------
Band 160 80 40 20 15 10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs 0 136 362 629 1119 1116
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