[CQ-Contest] ARRL PHONE CONTEST AT ON4UN (80M)

Mon Mar 3 22:08:33 EST 1997

Call: ON4UN
Operator: ON4UN
Station: FT1000MP + 2 KW amp
Antennas: ON4UN 4-square + Beverages

QSO's: 580
Multipliers: 45
Score: 78,300 points

THE STORY:

Normally when I operate a contest that I've done before, I have the log of
the previous participation with me. Last year I set a new European record on
80 m single band with 188 Kpoints and 1,208 QSOs. So that was the target.
Last year I also made 132 QSOs in the first hour. That was something to
shoot for as well. Last year I sat inside the window the whole contest long,
and practically made no QSOs listening above 3800. That's how good the
conditions were.

SO I installed myself between 3780  and 3790, on a clear spot (that is with
S9 plus splatter QRM from all over...) and got going. After 1 hour I had a
meagre 91 QSOs in the log.  It did NOT feel good at all. After 2 hours I was
already lagging 100 QSOs behind last year, but still struggling in the
so-called DX-window. Until around 02:20 J75T started right on top of my
frequency. He is the back-door neighbour to all US stations, so this time I
was the looser, I had to give up "my" frequency! That felt bad...

It was clear that conditions were just poor. Last year I had 41 multipliers
after 2 hours, now only 26!

At 0646, 10 minutes after local sunrise I made my last QSO: # 287. In 1996 I
had 587 QSOs by then. Just a very few Mid-West stations were logged: some
W9's, a few stations from Texas and again K0HA (Neb) as first REAL Mid-West
station. Several times during the night I felt like quitting... But then, of
course, conditions were poor for all participants. TM1C seemed to do a
little better, but he has the advantage of being 500 miles closer to North
America and right on the Atlantic coast. They kept running from inside the
DX window (on or near 3799) most of the time.

Running from a spot like that has the advantage that this is were the casual
participant probably looks first for a few QSOs. This is where he expects
the big guns to be. Like the Europeans expect the North American big guns to
be there. Although few really are. Most run between 3800 and 3830 and listen
way down in the band sometimes as low as 3650. An extreme split like this
has the disadvantage that for some stations this is outside the "working"
range of their antennas. Fact is that just about all of the Caribbean and
South American stations are hanging out between 3750 (3775) and 3800, and
when conditions are bad like they were for the European stations, these
stations cover us up like hell, and our rate becomes extremely poor.
Anyhow, these are some of the reasons (excuses?) why I decided to go below
3750 and run from there. This is absolutely the opposite strategy from what
I used last year when conditions were superb. In 1996 nobody could harm my
signal inside the DX window. Now  I really was an easy target. 

What always amazes me is why some European stations run continuously split
from INSIDE the DX-window. This really makes no sense. It wastes two
frequencies, and the guy is likely to be transmitting in the middle of the
QRM. When running split from below 3750, I very frequency asked if my
frequency was clear (important thing to do), and I am sure I must have
worked a large number of stations that would never have heard me if I was
transmitting from inside the window with all the US, Caribbean and South
American QRM. I listened mostly between 3830 and 3840 during the first
night, where some good clear frequencies were available, and where I could
dig out really weak signals.

The second night should be much better. Could not be worse, anyhow.... I
first installed myself on 3785, where the VO1 net gathers (at 22:30), as I
know that I can then give them their net frequency in return for some VO1
QSOs... It works every year! And sure, that's how it went this year as well.
But the evening start was SLOW and painful. A measly 15 QSOs between 22:00
and 23:00, and even less (17 QSOs) between 23:00 and 00:00. By then I had
already moved outside the DX win-dow, also being driven away by the
horrendous splatter from some stations. An interesting note was that at one
time (approx. 22:30) I checked who the bad QRM came from, and noted down the
call as S57O. A while later I checked again, and now it was S53O. Apparently
these guys were using two different callsigns from one and the same
station...??? 

At 23:30 I worked my first new state: Iowa (NR0X). Maybe conditions were
going to im-prove after all? Unfortunately I had to wait until 01:45 to work
another new state, with KV0Q (Co). It was between 01:45 and 03:00 that the
band lifted a little bit: in that time frame I worked two California
stations (W6RJ -who else- and AJ6V.), two more stations from Colorado N2IC/0
+ N0KV and N0XA (Ks) for a new multiplier. Then, at 03:00, the door closed:
very few and very weak signals until sunrise, with only one more multiplier
(W0FP from Missouri), my only Mo station in the entire contest!  At sunrise
(06:46) I had made 500 QSOs with only 42 multipliers, as compared to 1,100
QSOs and 52 multipliers last year. It was very deceiving. It is interesting
to note that on the second night I had to listen as high as 3880 at times to
find a good spot. There seemed to be a lot of strong slow scan around 2540
and 3550, as well as some AM smash on 3850, with very bad sideband splatter.
It made that section sound like 40 meter in the middle  of BC QRM.

But in this contest we have a third night, or at least a couple of hours of
a third night (22:00 - 00:00). Last year those two hours brought me another
100 QSOs (no new multipliers, I had worked just about everything that was
within reach). This time I have some good news: the last two hours I ran
from inside the DX window (around 3773) and this brought me 3 new
multipliers: I worked 2 stations from Labrador (VO2WL and VO2NS), 3 or 4
stations from Kentucky (they were all sheltering from the bad storm the
nights before?) and W3USS from D.C. With 92 QSO's in these last two hours,
the third "night" was a successful one. This proves you should never give up. 

I ended up with 580 good QSOs and 45 multipliers, good for 78,300 points,
which is exactly 41.5 % of my last year score. 

Summary: after two excellent CW weekends (CQ 160 CW and ARRL CW), we had two
very deceiving Phone weekends (CQ 160 Phone and ARRL Phone). But you can't
win'em all, can you? At least, I am pretty confident, no one will have
beaten my  European 75 m records that was made last year. 

73

John, ON4UN

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
john.devoldere at innet.be
Call us in all major 1997 contests: ON4UN or OT7T
John Devoldere (ON4UN-AA4OI)
POBOX 41
B-9000 Ghent (Belgium)

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