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jcrovell at gbsmail.bcs.lucent.com
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Fri Nov 29 10:23:28 EST 1996
>From jcrovell Fri Nov 29 10:14 EST 1996 remote from 580howard
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>From: "John Crovelli" <jcrovell at 580howard>
To: "'Contest'" <CQ-Contest at tgv.com>
Subject: Re: 160 DX Window and P40W - CQWW CW
Date: Fri Nov 29 10:21 EST 1996
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Hi everyone,
The 1996 CQWW CW event was so much fun I wanted to share some of my
observations. BTW, for those who are still hammering away on the 160M
window issue, I vote to dump it! Regulations world wide have been
liberalized to the point that working DX on Top Band occurs everywhere on
the band these days. With good directional rx antennas and generally better
stations the problems of years past are gone. Other than the CQ 160 where
there seems to be significant peer pressure to keep the window open, folks
don't pay attention to what the ARRL says.
OK, now on to the P40W story:
BAND NET QSOs QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES
160 394 1163 2.95 15 61
80 1117 3314 2.97 22 85
40 1026 3051 2.97 29 93 QSL VIA
N2MM
20 1539 4568 2.97 36 111
15 1863 5504 2.95 34 112
10 620 1791 2.89 23 65
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 6559 19391 2.96 159 527 => 13,302,226 pts.
Operation Time: 46 Hours
Location: Santa Cruz, Aruba, approximately 1.2 miles north of P40V,
near center of island on a small hill approx. 160 feet ASL
Rig: TS930S, Alpha 87A, CT 7.19 on 486 Laptop, Heil Proset
Antennas: Single 70 foot Rohn 25G Tower, 15 foot mast, Ham III Rotor
160M Inverted V at 68 feet
80M Inverted V at 65 feet
FORCE 12 Yagis: 2 ele 40 and 4 ele 20 at 70 feet
5 ele 15 at 85 feet
4 ele 10 at 78 feet
750 foot beverage toward Europe
300 foot beverage toward USA
Highlights:
Having set up and operated CQWW SSB a month earlier, there was little
physical work to perform when I arrived back on Aruba on Sunday, November
17th. Bob, P40J/WX4G picked me up at the airport and we discussed my idea
of dropping the FORCE 12 two element 40 - four element 20 combo yagi to
retune the 40M elements. After weighting the pros and cons the idea was
dropped when we considered the risks/rewards of the process. Our collective
years of experience in building and maintaining stations in the Carribean
told us to leave well enough alone - the antenna performed just fine thru a
tuner - the improvement would be marginal in relation to the effort required
and and potential risk of damage during the process (actually I think we
were both looking for an excuse just to be lazy and have more beach time).
So the only real work was setting up the station, adjusting the 80M
Inverted V for operation on the CW end of the band, and making some minor
beverage repairs.
When leaving the island three weeks before, the local power company was in
the process of extending the high tension lines to my host family's driveway
and installing several new stepdown transformers along the road. Low line
voltage has been a cronic problem at this QTH, with readings below 190 volts
in the eventings all too common. Anyway, the work had been completed and
the meter read a nice steady 220 VAC. The Alpha 87A, which automatically
turns itself off when it senses line voltage dips under 185 or so, would
now work just fine.
Not having all that much to do left lots of time over the next five days to
casually operate the bands, make daily visits to the wonder beaches on Aruba
(being very careful not to get too sunburned), and then in the evenings to
enjoy the delights of dining at many of the fine restaurants on the island.
For once this actually seemed like a REAL VACATION in contrast to the
normal race against the clock and frantic efforts to make a station work.
Wow! Now I know why those who fork out the $$ for many of the fine FOR
RENT stations have such a great time.
I got into a pattern of getting up around local sunrise (1040 UTC), checking
out grayline and long path openings for a few hours, and then doing minor
maintenance and other chores. Around noon Bob, P40J and I would head off
for some lunch, maybe a beer or two, an hour or two on a beach, and then
back for another beer or two. The weather most of the week was quiet odd in
that the normally dependable 20+ mph trade winds out of the east weren't
blowing. The winds were light and variable and frequently shifted
direction. We later found out that Hurricane Marcos about 600 miles to our
north was causing the problem which persisted until the Sunday morning of
the contest. In the mean time, without the breeze it was HOT both day and
night. The home of my Aruban host is not air conditioned so at times it was
a bit uncomfortable. Thank goodness for ceiling and floor fans.
It was nice to be able to take such a relaxed attitude while preparing for
what I consider the biggest contest of the year. During the week one by one
the expeditons showed up, creating pileups. K3TUP/C6A always seemed to be
attracting a big crowd regardless of band. Did some DXing, working XZ1N
long path on 20M around 12Z. Also a big surprise to run into N4WW at 5S7B
on 15M about 15Z one afternoon. Had frequent chats with 3E1DX/DL5XX,
8P9HT/K4BAI, PY0FF/OH2MM, 9Y4H/CT1BOH, 4V2A/9A3A, CT8T/N6AA, K5KO/HC8, and
others as we all were checking out our stations and propagation. Kept
checking 10 meters all week and heard very few stations, just a few Africans
and deep South Americans. But did manage a QSO with IQ4A, they must have a
huge antenna.
As usual I could not sleep on the afternoon before the contest. Guess I get
too keyed up. Normally I also develop a detailed band plan to follow. This
time I started the contest WITHOUT a set plan of attack, just a general
notion that I would follow the MUF and frequently change bands.. With the
experience of having operated from the same place for 11 years you do
collect a lot of useful knowledge on propagation and I suppose at this
juncture I conciously or unconciously capitalized on whatever I have stored
up over all those years. Another big factor of course is to keep my sleep
time to a very minimum. The last few years oversleeping has cost me mega
points so this time I was determined to sleep only 2 hours during the
contest. As it turned out I sat in that chair for the first 34 hours
without moving even once! So when I took a planned 2 hour nap Sunday
morning at 0945Z, I had already been awake 46 hours since arising Friday
morning. Not having other active P40 stations seemed to make me much more
attractive to all those multiplier hunters out there, it was me or nothing
so I suppose some percentage of the score can be attributed to rarity this
time around.
Conditions were very interesting. At the beginning of the contest 20 meters
was absolutely dead, not even an LU to hear/work. Forced me to start on 40
which wasn't exactly what I wanted but again the idea was to take what the
bands had to offer. Managed a 403 contacts in the first two hours, which is
OK but not the 450 or more I was hoping for if 20 had been open. Anyway by
0200 I was off to 80 and then 160. The low bands were simply great, good Eu
and As. In retrospect I spent too much time on 80/160 and not enough on 40.
My love for 160M clouds my judgement I guess. The QRN level Friday nite
was only moderate so working stations on top band was relatively easy. As
the hours went by followed grayline across Eu moving up in frequency. The
only time during the first 34 hours I really wanted to sleep was just before
dawn Saturday morning but managed to fight it off. Between 10 and 13Z
worked some good PAC/AS on 40 and 20 and LP on 15. Then off to the races
working Eu in earnest on 20 and 15. Kept a close eye on 10M....worked a few
AF and US but no real opening. Later in the day moved PAC (KH8, ZL, etc)
from 15 to 10 with success. Rates were about normal in the in 155 to 200
range most of afternoon and pileups for the most part were quite manageable
and thats what I like, ideally one station at a time. When the pileup gets
too big it just slows down too much. By the end of the first day the
totals were as good as I have ever accomplished so figured I certainly I had
a shot at breaking 6000 Q and doing well mult. wise.
Saturday nite 40, 80 and 160 were even better than the Friday. There was
virtually no QRN, it was absolutely the quietest evening I have heard in all
my trips to P40. You could listen to the Eu stations on 160 using the xmit
antenna and then you were hearing the 2nd and 3rd layer guys! Wow, great
conditions. After being duped by XZ1N earlier on 40M I was feeling pretty
good and running on 80 was really a blast. Nice JA run on 80M about 06Z
told me conditions were near perfect, I just had to not sleep too much later
on to be in the running. 9Y4H and I exchanged some numbers and he was a bit
behind in mults but it was early yet.
Between my multiple alarms and my host I managed to keep my sleep time to
just under 2 hours. Of course I was disoriented when awakened but it wore
within an hour and I was ready to run run run run all day Sunday. QSOs win
contests and I wanted to make the rate chart flat at 150 or more all day.
Kept a close ear again on 10M and was rewarded with a short Eu opening to
G/F/PI/ON/I/EA/YU, etc. and then a more general opening to Af and USA. Ten
was open to most of USA but activity seemed low. But in a few sprints I
managed 600 Qs. It was particularly nice to work many Carrib. stations
that were really loud and surprises like YB, HZ, and other goodies from
zones 38, 39, etc. The goal Sunday was run like hell and move mults
whenever possible which 95 perecent of the time worked just fine. Thanks to
everyone who was willing to QSY!
Anyway, as you will see from the summaries (see 3830 Reflector for rate
chart) the mults where there and the strategy worked. My 40M antenna
failed in the last hour (burned up a barrel connector) but it really didn't
hurt all that much. The beverages worked GREAT on 160 thru 40 and made
listening so much easier.
The raw score is about 80K better than the existing SOAB record by
EA8EA/OH2MM back in '91 near the top of the cycle. Most likely Ville will
retain the record once the log checking is done but it sure was fun coming
so close at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. Guess it goes to show you just
never know what to expect. The rise in flux to near 100 over the course of
the weekend sure made a huge difference. Can't remember working so may
PAC/AS multipliers in prior years.
As you can tell I thought this was probably the most exciting contest I have
ever operated. Everything just seemed to fall into place at the right time.
I want to thank Bob, WX4G/P40J for his constant encouragement, and my hosts
Humphrey and Corrie Kock, for their efforts on my behalf.
73, John W2GD/P40W
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