[CQ-Contest] The NK7U CQWW SSB Story
K7ZO Scott Tuthill
k7zo at micron.net
Mon Nov 6 21:39:39 EST 2000
It was with high expectations that the NK7U team assembled for the year 2000
CQWW SSB contest. Fresh off a 7-land all-time record setting M/S effort in
1999, our goal was clear and simple -- break our own record and set one that
would not be reached until the next sunspot cycle, if ever. 6M points and
3,000 QSO’s were our goals. We had every reason to believe we would do this.
The Station
===========
The NK7U station was in about as good a shape as it ever had been. This
means we had the following antenna arsenal at our disposal:
160M: 1/4 wave ground plane with 3 elevated radials.
80M: Joe's famous 3 element beam at 180'
40M: 4/4 KLMs at 190/92' on TIC rings.
20M: 5/5/5/5 with top one around 180' fixed EU. 6/6 at
about 134/67' on TIC rings.
15M: 6/6/6/6 with top one around 160’ fixed EU, 4/4/4/4
with top one around 140’ fixed JA, rotatable 6/6 at
about 45/90’
10M: 6/6 with top one around 85’ fixed EU, 5/5/5/5 with
top one around 140’ fixed JA, rotatable 7/7 at about
25/60’
This has pretty much been the NK7U setup for a couple of years now. During
the summer we added the 6/6 10M Europe stack and it played very well on
Saturday. Also, we almost began the contest with no working 80M antenna.
Only NK7U’s climb to the top of the tower on Thursday before the contest to
replace the balun on the beam saved us. Of course a rainstorm had to blow in
while Joe was up in the air and he was soaked by the time he got down. The
reward for this effort though was being able to participate in a great 80M
long path opening on Saturday morning.
The Operators
=============
Extracting the maximum potential from this aluminum required assembling a
crew of top notch operators. For the past several years we have developed a
pretty solid core of guys that work well together. However, this core is not
really large enough to run a full blown M/S effort so we are always
recruiting more, and this year we snagged a pretty good one. Our line-up
consisted of:
* NK7U/Joe -- the station owner, tower and antenna architect, and chief
tower guy. His specialties are the nighttime bands and 80M in particular.
Those of us that operate at NK7U get frequent questions as to if it really
is Joe at the mic -- well if you really want to talk with him the best times
are usually at night. We did talk him into putting some seat time into our
15M JA runs, but for the most part he is a night guy.
* K7ZO/Scott -- the co-chief inside guy looking out after the computers,
software, rigs, etc. Scott has been travelling to Baker City, OR from Boise
for contests since 1992 and knows the station pretty well by now. He has
been the main force behind moving NK7U to WriteLog and designed and built
the two-radio interlock system used so much during a CQWW M/S effort.
* K7MK/Jim -- the other co-chief inside guy looking out after the computer,
software, rigs, etc. Jim was the brains behind our WPX SSB “webcam” this
year which we did not have time to get up and going for CQWW. Sorry, maybe
next time. Jim is probably our best long term NK7U recruit and is one of our
main high rate “Run Guys”. He, like K7ZO, suffers from living in a Boise
home and neighborhood that is not very antenna friendly so NK7U has become
his operating home away from home.
* W7ZRC/Rod -- the most experienced of the Boise based contesting gang. Rod
can handle just about any band at any time and has a wealth of knowledge on
everything from antennas, electronics, software, radios, etc. He is our
consultant on just about any issue that comes up keeping a station like NK7U
humming.
* KK7A/Jim -- a regular NK7U operator Jim is rock solid in any operating
assignment. He has the distinction of having the lowest UBN rate from our
1999 operation -- half of what the rest of us were able to manage. (Do any
else of you out there look at the UBN reports? You should. You can learn a
great deal. By using WriteLog we can look back into the log based on the
operator making the QSO and derive operator specific UBN rates.)
* AC7GL/Rod -- a model mult operator who can sit in front of the radio for
hours digging out mults. Rod also brought with him the best selection of new
toys this year for us to play with -- a gorgeous Sony laptop and digital
camera.
* W9LT/LaMar -- our newest recruit, LaMar was making his inaugural contest
from the west coast after moving to the Spokane area earlier this year.
LaMar has probably forgotten more about contesting than the rest of us have
ever learned. K7ZO happened to find a contesting book published in 1979 on
NK7U’s bookshelf. W9LT was a major contributor to this book offering hints
on subjects such as innovative paper dupe sheet design. Those were the days
weren’t they? He is incredibly knowledgeable on band openings, station
construction, etc. and has some of the best stories of contesting history
and operators of anyone that has ever visited NK7U. During this year’s CQWW
LaMar was our main “Mult guy” as WriteLog had him off balance a bit and he
got finger tied when running. He promises to fix this and will be back.
Clearly a top notch operator.
The Story (The Summary and Rate sheets are at the end)
======================================================
With this backdrop 00:00 UTC October 28th arrived and we were off and
running on 10M into JA with K7MK at the mic. Jim had grabbed 28432 as a run
frequency which we also found profitable at other times into Europe. KK7A
was doing mult duty. K7MK generated a 162 QSO first hour and powered along
on 10M as the clock moved forward. 10M historically closes about 01:15 into
JA but this year it kept humming along. We were still running above our
100/hour benchmark as the clock passed 03:00. At about this time some of the
operators started heading back to their rooms to catch some sleep. They
would return during the middle of the night to pick up the JA 40M runs and
other such openings. 10M finally did die about 03:10 and we moved the run to
15M generating 111 Q’s during the remainder of the hour. With 10M staying
open so late we expected the same from 15M but it closed on us around 04:20
pretty normal. From there it was on to 20M where were able to generate some
runs and S&P into Europe and South America until 06:00 or so. From here it
was a matter of waiting until 40M opened to JA -- the bands really were not
open to anywhere and the 06:00 hour netted us only 29 Q’s followed by 28 in
the 07:00 hour. We worked our first JA on 40M at 07:56 and we were off.
Working JA’s on 40M is always a hit and miss affair. Sometime the band opens
solidly, sometimes it doesn’t. Also, with the solar cycle peak the JA’s stay
on 10-15-20 working the rest of the world, and don’t get to 40M as much or
for as long as they would otherwise. It seems like our record 40M JA totals
are from the ARRL contest about 4 years ago. Our Friday night JA total was
in the low/mediocre range with us working 65 or so. We did have a brief or
maybe freak opening into Europe at 09:15 working two SM’s. This should have
been some 3 hours after their sunrise, but they found their way into the log
while KK7A was operating.
NK7U spent most of the night in the shack taking care of 80 and 160M duties.
Joe had some brief runs on 80M around 11:45 and 13:15 picking up JA’s, VE’s
and others, but for the most part 80M was pretty calm. That is until dawn
approached and the Europe long path opened up. Joe has spent many hours on
80M and for him to say it was the best long path opening he had experienced,
he really means it. Sunrise for us was around 14:30 and here is what you can
find in our 80M log: 14:05 SM2EKM, 14:10 OH2U, 14:12 RU1A, 14:20 UR5EDU.
As the day dawned 20M opened to EU right at sunrise as it usually does
followed closely by 15M fifteen minutes later. This was a good sign as it
often can be an hour or two after sunrise for 15M to open for us.
As the clock stuck 15:00 we sat at a bit over 1M points -- fully 16% ahead
of last year’ score. At this point things were looking pretty good.
We spent the 15:00 hour doing some short runs on 15M and S&Ping mults and
the like. We generated 79 Q’s. The band got better during the 16:00 hour and
we managed to hit the magical 100 QSO mark for the hour. During that time
10M was starting to open into Europe and we picked off all the mults we
could with W7ZRC at the mic. That hour generated 27 Q’s on 10M with 32
mults, the second highest hourly mult total for any band during the contest.
At 17:10 we moved the run station to 10M as it seemed ready to go. However,
we might have been a bit early as we only grabbed 67 Q’s on 10M for the
hour. In hindsight we should have stayed on 15M a bit longer. Then at 18:05
we had one of those mythical experiences that makes contesting so fun. K7MK
and K7ZO had been working 10M with short runs and S&P’ing, but not really
getting what we needed. K7MK on the 6/6 stack worked 9A1A on 28422 who
commented that we were 59+40db into Croatia. K7MK sent a Gab note on this
across the network to which K7ZO replied “Find a run frequency at all
costs!”. Obviously the band had finally clicked open for what we had been
waiting for since the last sunspot peak. K7MK again found 28432 to his
liking and we were off to the races. During the next 2 hours we worked 260+
Q’s on this frequency making it the best 10M Europe opening I have ever
seen.
During the next two hours we bounced back and forth between 10 and 15M.
Around 21:00 15M opened to JA and were working JA and Europe at the same
time. Around 21:45 10M opened to JA and we moved the run station there.
While running JA we also had the late afternoon opening into the Nordics and
our log from this time contains many OH and SM’s. Around 23:00 we moved the
run back to 15M as 10M seemed to be not producing and we stayed there until
nearly 05:00.
As the clock struck 00:00 and the first day was behind us our score was 2.6M
points, still 13% ahead of last year.
As we moved into the second day we hung out on 15M generating respectable
hours in the 50-70 range while picking up mults on 40 and 20M. When 15M died
around 04:30 again we S&P’d on 20, not really being able to get any runs
going until K7MK grabbed 14201 around 06:30 and worked JA’s for 45 minutes
or so. When this finally died it was time to wait for a JA 40M opening
again.
Our second night JA run on 40M began right at 08:00, with run master K7MK at
the mic. W7ZRC took over for him about 10:00 and we had a much better
experience working almost 200 JA’s before dawn. Again an examination of our
log shows a series of interesting band openings:
* 08:29 SM3PZG
-- as during the first night, well after their dawn
* 10:57 RL3A, RK3DWH, UP0L
-- we received an e-mail from the RL3A team
commenting on their QSO. Since this is 3-4
hours before their sunset it was quite notable
for them. We worked them 90 minutes before
they heard any other west coast station during
their long path opening.
We did not have the amazing 80M long path opening this morning, but still
managed to get ES9C in the log at 14:32 right at our sunrise.
At 15:00 our score stood at 4.2M points, about 14% ahead of last year. This
seemed to be a pretty steady margin and our projections suggested we would
end up with a raw score just a tad short of our 6M target.
However, as the sun rose into the morning sky we could tell things were not
like they were on Saturday. While the strong European stations were coming
though on 20M there was nothing to be found on 15M and 10M. The impact of
the flare had taken the wind out of our sails. The morning and early
afternoon were more like a contest at the bottom of the solar cycle for us.
For the 8 hour period from 13:00 to 21:00 we averaged an excruciating 25 QSO
’s/hour. By 20:00 we had fallen behind last year’s score. The few Europeans
we did work on 15M were in EA, CT, F, and I representing more southerly
propagation paths. Around 21:30 the bands started bouncing back and W9LT
made a great call to suggest moving the run station to 20M where we had some
good success working Europe for the next couple of hours. When that closed
down 10M opened to JA and we spent a few minutes there before realizing the
15M was even better. We sprinted the last 15 minutes there just crossing the
5M point line by 2 QSO’s as time expired.
Our final score of just a tad over 5M was 4% below last year. What had
looked like a good chance at hitting 6M was just not to be and our 1999
7-land M/S record is untouched. We had also hoped to cross the 3,000 QSO
barrier but we fell short of that one as well. However, we have not seen any
other scores posted that suggest another station beat our 7-land score from
last year, so perhaps it will be a decade before anyone else can get close.
If the cycle holds up we might get a chance next year -- but maybe not.
Thanks to all of you for the QSO’s and mults. See you next time.
Scott/K7ZO for the NK7U crew.
Score Summary
=============
CQ Worldwide DX Contest - SSB
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, K7MK, W7ZRC, KK7A, W9LT, AC7GL
Station: NK7U
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Baker, OR
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 12 10 10
80: 61 25 44
40: 349 29 62
20: 534 37 131
15: 914 37 122
10: 980 35 131
-------------------------------
Total: 2850 173 500 = 5,011,831
Club/Team: Snake River Contest Club
Rate Sheet
==========
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 7/12 17/30 162/37 186/79 186/79
D1-0100Z - - - 6/6 7/11 115/11 128/28 314/107
D1-0200Z - - - 16/24 5/6 100/7 121/37 435/144
D1-0300Z - - 8/16 5/7 111/21 24/0 148/44 583/188
D1-0400Z - - 4/4 50/23 26/1 - 80/28 663/216
D1-0500Z - - 5/5 57/20 - - 62/25 725/241
D1-0600Z - - 7/11 22/8 - - 29/19 754/260
D1-0700Z 5/7 4/7 15/9 4/2 - - 28/25 782/285
D1-0800Z --+-- 9/13 47/11 --+-- --+-- --+-- 56/24 838/309
D1-0900Z 1/2 - 23/6 3/3 - - 27/11 865/320
D1-1000Z - 1/2 15/4 2/2 - - 18/8 883/328
D1-1100Z - 12/12 13/2 - - - 25/14 908/342
D1-1200Z - 2/0 1/1 4/2 - - 7/3 915/345
D1-1300Z - 9/5 - 20/2 - - 29/7 944/352
D1-1400Z - 5/8 - 18/4 17/18 - 40/30 984/382
D1-1500Z - 1/1 - 2/2 74/24 2/4 79/31 1063/413
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 100/7 27/32 127/39 1190/452
D1-1700Z - - - - 14/2 62/14 76/16 1266/468
D1-1800Z - - - - 3/4 131/11 134/15 1400/483
D1-1900Z - - - - 5/5 140/12 145/17 1545/500
D1-2000Z - - - 3/3 37/2 32/7 72/12 1617/512
D1-2100Z - - - 6/7 26/2 40/5 72/14 1689/526
D1-2200Z - - - - 11/3 74/5 85/8 1774/534
D1-2300Z - - - 2/2 85/2 - 87/4 1861/538
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 6/6 97/3 1/1 104/10 1965/548
D2-0100Z - 1/1 - 1/2 53/5 1/1 56/9 2021/557
D2-0200Z - - 6/6 2/1 30/0 - 38/7 2059/564
D2-0300Z - - 1/1 15/2 48/5 - 64/8 2123/572
D2-0400Z - - 2/3 2/3 47/2 - 51/8 2174/580
D2-0500Z 1/2 3/4 - 25/7 - - 29/13 2203/593
D2-0600Z - 5/4 - 39/3 - - 44/7 2247/600
D2-0700Z - - 2/2 16/0 - - 18/2 2265/602
D2-0800Z 2/3 1/2 47/1 --+-- --+-- --+-- 50/6 2315/608
D2-0900Z 3/6 3/5 40/0 - - - 46/11 2361/619
D2-1000Z - 1/1 39/0 - - - 40/1 2401/620
D2-1100Z - 1/1 13/4 - - - 14/5 2415/625
D2-1200Z - 2/2 42/3 3/3 - - 47/8 2462/633
D2-1300Z - - 18/2 1/1 - - 19/3 2481/636
D2-1400Z - 1/1 1/0 9/1 - 1/1 12/3 2493/639
D2-1500Z - - - 10/3 - 6/6 16/9 2509/648
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 22/3 --+-- 3/3 25/6 2534/654
D2-1700Z - - - 28/2 - 4/4 32/6 2566/660
D2-1800Z - - - 11/0 23/0 1/1 35/1 2601/661
D2-1900Z - - - - 7/3 29/1 36/4 2637/665
D2-2000Z - - - - 20/2 6/0 26/2 2663/667
D2-2100Z - - - 41/0 22/0 1/1 64/1 2727/668
D2-2200Z - - - 56/1 1/1 2/2 59/4 2786/672
D2-2300Z - - - 20/1 28/0 16/0 64/1 2850/673
Total: 12/20 61/69 349/91 534/168 914/159 980/166
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