[CQ-Contest] W9RE (N9RV) CQ WW CW Story (long)

[Patrick Barkey]

CQWW from W9RE de N9RV

I was very surprised to be asked by W9RE to operate the 1997 CQ WW CW
from his house.  In years past I have operated from Mike*s, but only
after *paying my dues,* by helping him rebuild his station from an
ice storm in 1988.  Since then Mike*s station has gotten bigger, but
I*ve only been down a few times helping him out, being too busy
working on my own place (with his help).

Since I had already committed to K3LR*s for CW in 1997, I took a
rain check and planned to do my first SOAB in six years in 1998.  What
a lucky choice that turned out to be.

For a guy whose only decisions in contest for the last six years in a
M/M was mostly when and how hard (when a W1 tries to take the
frequency) to hit the F1 key, operating at W9RE*s was a fairly
daunting task.  Not only were the seventeen yagis, nine rotor
controls, five wire antennas and a bunch of beverage antennas a lot to
try to comprehend and control, I had to somehow use two radios (which
I had done for the very first time three weeks earlier in CW SS), and,
worst of all, try to figure out a winning strategy of how to use
them.

Woke up from my pre-contest nap (a suggestion made by K5ZD ten years
ago that I*ve followed ever since.  Every time I read one of
Randy*s write-ups it seems like I get a couple more good ideas)
and was startled to hear a gigantic pileup of JA*s calling W4AN
before the contest on 10 meters.  Wow!  This contest was going to be
different.

The dilemma of how and when to start was instantly solved at the
beginning of the contest by simply keeping moving.  I ran 20, 15 and
40 meters at the beginning, in nearly equal amounts.  I was surprised
to immediately find a decent frequency just above 7.030 towards the
end of the hour, and ended up keeping a radio CQ-ing there almost the
entire night.  The frequency was peaceful and productive, both aspects
being very unusual from W9-land in the beginning of a WW on 40. 
Usually the only way to start with a bang from back here is to have a
three or four hour long JA run on the high bands.

In fact, all of my battles with frequency cohabitants the entire
weekend were incredibly polite, or at the very least, brief.  Not all
were resolved with my keeping the frequency.  As a SOAB (as opposed to
M/M), I often had no idea of the frequency *history,* and it was
always more productive to flee than fight.  The only battle I had was
with SL3ZV on 40 on Sunday night, who quite properly determined that I
was sliding up on him, and retaliated the way a good M/M op should,
and sent me packing.

The rates all evening were very good, but I will confess that I had
no idea how good until after the contest the hourly rate sheet was
examined.  The first foray down to 80, however, brought out the only
real problem I had in the entire contest.  Noise to Europe on the
phased bobtails, the best antenna Mike has, was almost S9.  The noise
on the southeast beverage was also very high, on both 80 and 160. 
Switching to the EU beverage was OK for noise, but it became apparent
sometime into the evening that it wasn*t hearing signals very well. 
The few CQ*s I tried on 80 proved me to be a serious alligator.
It wasn*t until about 0500z that I tried to listen on Mikes 80
meter zepp, a horizontally polarized antenna that thankfully took the
noise down a bit.  Now I could hear a few more answers, but it was as
slow as molasses compared to 40.

A few forays to 20 during the night found only a very loud RZ9AYA to
the northerly direction, so 40 became the only show in town.  And what
a show it was.  Even after giving up on Europe after 1000z and
cranking the beam towards Asia, the high latitude boys in EU were
still squeaking through almost up to local sunrise.  There was
absolutely no let up in rate, and any thought of fatigue seemed light
years away.

As things got towards sunrise, and requisite duties like working a JA
on 80 and VK6's wherever I could find them were performed, it was on
to the morning races.  Even as far west as K3LR, and certainly for a
station like W9RE, the pattern of the morning opening determines
one*s competitive position, pure and simple.  If the bands open
with a slow trickle of gradually building signals, then forget it. 
But if they open with a bang, then you are in the hunt.  

Fortunately for me, the latter was the case.  After running for a
while on 20, it was my distinct pleasure to QSY to 15.  I say that
because as a 20 meter M/M operator, I usually felt like a stranded
motorist on the side of a deserted road at this time of the contest,
wondering where all the cars went.  As a SOAB, I could *follow the
crowd,* up the bands, and cash in on what had to be some of the
finest opportunities for making lotsa Q*s you could ever ask for.

I*ve got to say this about the European operators.  You guys are
really good.  The first three layers of European op*s have gotten so
sharp on CW in the last decade that it almost takes your breath away. 
When the band opens you can go very, very fast.

The limiting factor in rate for me seemed to be my ability to pick
out calls from pileups, especially when stations were nearly
zero-beat.  Certainly I would stress to anyone who is trying to
*break through* to be able to
run higher QSO rates during contests that copying complete callsigns
is absolutely essential.  Coming back to a partial call always
lengthens the QSO by 100 percent or more.

The first hour on ten meters was about the only time period where I
simply could not pay any attention to the second radio.  I don*t
think I ever even called CQ, things were that good.  Almost as good as
the WRTC, but without my good friend K3LR to share the experience. 
All other hours found good grazing with radio number 2, keeping me
informed about propagation at the very least, and netting me regular
mults as a bonus.

On W9RE*s pre-contest advice, I hit ten meters almost exclusively
when it was open, as the band openings have not lingered much into the
afternoon in the past weeks.  Fifteen, however, seems to be an endless
provider of weak southern Europeans well into the afternoon, and I put
off going to 20 meters, usually the bane of we zone 4 types, until
1930z or so.  Like the rest of the contest, things prove to be better
than expected, and the QSO train rolls along.

Working JA*s on 15 and 10 tapped into another whole population of
hamdom, which was fun, if not quite as fast as the machine-gun style
European speedsters.  Because Sunday night seems always bad to Asia, I
stayed on the high bands Cqing until almost 0330z, hitting 80 for some
much needed multipliers for a half hour before settling in to CQ EU on
40 once again.  At this point I already had over 600 Q*s on 40 from
just the previous 24 hours, but it was still a risky choice to wait
this late.  Still, CQ-ing to Asia for two and a half hours on 20 in
the early evening was really fun, netting lots of polar QSOs that I
feel W9 land is very well positioned for.  And the rates continued to
be very good.

But 40 meters had lots of life left in it, too.  After finding
another frequency with surprising ease (this is going to spoil me), it
became another nonstop producer, and I left the CQ radio there for
almost the entire night again.  Tuning 80 and 160 with the second
radio now became more tough, as I was getting a bit more fatigued. 
But the bands were quieter, and Mike*s antennas seemed to be getting
out better, for some reason.

Nearing 0800z, and a tough situation is emerging.  I am getting
drowsy, and the bands are wide open.  Not only has the pace of 40 not
slackened a bit from the 75-ish per hour rate its been at all night,
but now 20 meters is open too.  I found the adrenaline to push to the
top of the hour on 40, then switched to 20 to CQ there and let me tune
40, for the first time in about six hours.  I hear W4AN going to town,
but I*m not doing as well on 20.  The loudest EU signals are only
s8, but they are very pure and definitely coming in direct.  But with
two bands going, things are, if anything, going better than before. 
And I*m still getting sleepy.

What I have learned about my body and sleep in prior contests is that
(a) short naps are better than long ones, especially in the waking up
phase, and (b) bright light in one*s sleeping area is essential.  So
I prop a chair against the wall, and sleep sitting down under a bright
flourescent light in the shack for 45 minutes, getting up without too
much difficulty.  

But what I learned in this contest is that sleeping sometimes brings
on as many problems as it solves.  Even though my drowsiness is
lifted, it has been replaced by a mental sluggishness that dogs me the
rest of the contest.  Copy complete calls?  How do you do that?  I
obviously forgot.

Things are very good the 10z hour.  JA*s are coming in direct on
40.  This happens about once every tenth contest.  Usually they are
skewed, and there*s little hope of copying calls beyond the first
layer or two.  But I am not being very decisive, and can*t figure
out what I want to do, so I try to do it all.  In my mind I am going
to have a 100 hour to JA on 40, while working the band dry of exotic
zones on 80 and 160.  In truth I can*t concentrate on either task,
and end up with a couple of very ordinary hours on 40, with virtually
nothing of note on the lower bands.  Still, its fun, and a heck of a
lot better than the pre-dawn hours are in the second day of any other
contest.

The sunrise 20 meter pace was much slower than the previous day,
making me think that this would be a much more ordinary day.  Usually
I make about 2/3 of my QSOs in a contest during the first day, either
because I*m going crazy trying to gather in mults, or things are
just that much slower.  But as soon as I get to 15 I am proven wrong
again.  Mike*s 4 high stack lights things up on that band, and has
put his old stack of 5 ele quagi*s into permanent retirement.  This
is the second day?  Things are very good, again, and thanks to the
second radio I don*t have to stop and tune for multipliers.

Of which I need many.  My multiplier, which ends the contest being
merely bad, is at this stage of the contest completely pathetic. 
I*ve been moving people whenever I
could.  Almost one out of every two moves works, but only one in every
ten people I ask actually move for me. [Gee, maybe if I wrote a
contest column for CQ I*d do better than this?  Or maybe my CW is
just plain ugly!] My most successful move was taking VP9NC to four
bands late Saturday afternoon.  Hooking up with Tom, N9NC/3A on 80 was
also a thrill.  But none of that exotic kind of stuff makes up for the
fact that I need HC8N everywhere, and even automatic mults like P4 are
strangely missing from my log on some bands.

Of course, when you*re missing so much you can be very productive. 
So as I CQ*d on 20 on Sunday afternoon I raked in such exotic things
as VK*s, XE*s, and other desperately needed doubles on the higher
bands.  Since Mike*s second radio experiences a strange overload
everywhere on ten meters when the first radio CQ*s, I spend the only
fifteen minute period of the entire contest where I did not call a
continuous CQ tuning that band during the 21z hour, adding more much
needed mults.

The end contest strategy is different in W9 land than in points
further east.  You don*t go to 40 meters expecting to knock off big
hours, thatetti*s for sure.  The absorption and one-way propagation
have to be experienced to be believed * not only will EU not come
back to your CQ*s, they*ll more than likely just drift right up to
your frequency and flat out take it over, while you and your wattmeter
have a long, pleasant chat.

Fatigue is making it tough to pick out calls on 20 meters * its all
fuzz, but its the only band going.  Finally, at about 2245z,
everything happens at once.  I start getting a respectable rate on 40,
signals get stronger and easier to copy on 20, and 15 meter JA*s
come in in surprising numbers.  So I close out the contest again,
keeping moving, alternately Cqing on 20 and 40, and picking off JA*s
on the second radio on 15.

Things end pleasantly * Tom, N9NC/3A finds me on 20, and XU1A
convinces a very tired and groggy operator in Indiana that he is
indeed in zone 26 and is thus making another frenzied contester very,
very happy.

How did the rest of the competition do?  I never think about such
things during the contest, but Mike shows up to put the radio on 3830
to find out.  Sadly, things are disorganized as ever, and while
hearing the M/M results is nice, the population of SOAB*s is mostly
mute, beyond the few that can always be counted on.

This is certainly a contest that will spoil us all for the next
several seasons, but, who knows?  Maybe things will get even better? 
Its hard right now to see how they could.


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