[CQ-Contest] QSO total = zero

Scott Robbins w4pa at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 7 09:48:30 EST 2001



K1EA wrote:

 > > There are not enough channels and there are no
"frequency rights."  There is
 > > almost always someone on every frequency, whether
you can hear them of not.
 > > Pick a frequency for best rate. If K3LR or K1AR is
also on that channel (or
 > > just shows up), your rate may not be optimized.
The good op knows when to
 > > fight and when to fold, it's part of the game. >

Then WE9V wrote:

 >Well, being from the Midwest, one can rarely compete
 >into Europe with the W1 big guns if they wish to
 >ensue a frequency battle. Now that I fly out to the
 >East Coast to contest from a large station (albeit
 >not W1), I see I need to learn this East Coast
 >tactic.  Pick any frequency that I believe I can run
 >off some other smaller station.  Because, as part of
 >the contest 'battle', if I believe I can achieve
 >optimum rate by doing so, it makes it okay. It will
 >take me a while to get used to that one.
 >Chad WE9V


Chad:

Come on down to Tennessee!  Us W4's are used to
routinely being chased off of run frequencies by
interlopers who run us off merely because they "can".
Happens ALL THE TIME in EVERY DX CONTEST.  Read that
sentence again.  The solution is rather simple:
I happily didn't turn the radio on for even 1 QSO
in the ARRL DX SSB this weekend - that way there's
a few less incidents, I figure.  Oh yeah, and quite
a few less contacts for the DX participants, but no
one cares about THEM, right?

Scott Robbins, W4PA



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>From Joe Fitzgerald" <jfitzgerald at alum.wpi.edu  Wed Mar  7 21:06:04 2001
From: Joe Fitzgerald" <jfitzgerald at alum.wpi.edu (Joe Fitzgerald)
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 16:06:04 -0500
Subject: [CQ-Contest] ARRL DX Phone Story K1KI (KM1P op) SOAB(A) [Long]
Message-ID: <023801c0a74a$6d85d600$020101c0 at ls586>


ARRL DX Phone Story K1KI (KM1P op) SOAB(A) [Long]

I called Tom, K1KI on Tuesday to see how plans were shaping up for a multi
two.   Turns out that Tom's possible work commitment ended up being
definite, and the other "usual suspects" had commitments themselves, so I
was offered the run of the station for the weekend.  I had not done a single
op effort for many years, and never from a station with any significant low
band capability.   I thought about it overnight and decided to accept the
challenge, and enter as single op assisted.

I arrived at Huckleberry Mountain Friday at 2230Z or so, a little after Tom
got home from work for station checkout.  Since we only decided to go single
op two days before, the station was still configured as it was for the multi
two operation two weeks before. We moved a bunch of stuff around for an
about an hour or so to try to get all controls together, dropping a
StackMatch control box in the process.  After the fall, the box made an
ominous rattling sound.  Since WX0B was not able to get a flight to Hartford
in time for the 10M opening Saturday morning, we cobbled the thing back
together as best we could with some vinyl tape.   The 160M four square was
known to be limited as 3 of the vertical elements were down due to some
logging activity on a neighboring parcel of land.   The remaining element
had performed adequately two weeks before, but now the amp was completely
unhappy with it.   Tom volunteered to tromp out into the woods to
investigate later that night.  We also swapped out the Alpha 86 for an Alpha
77 as the '86 was acting kind of cranky.   In case you care, carrying a '77
alone leaves nice purple dents in your fingers.


Started off with a good omen . 9M0M answered my CQ while I was establishing
my run freq on 15M at about 2350Z Friday . and he was loud!  He promised to
come back in after 0000Z, but he never did.  I never managed to work them on
that band.  I decided focus on 10 and 15 early on as the solar flux was
relatively low to start with and forecast to decline.  I stayed on 15 for
the first hour, and then moved to 20.  Looking back at the log, I am not
sure why I moved so early . I seemed to have a decent rate to JA at the
time.

I found an open spot at 14160, and stayed there for an hour or so, then
moved down to 40 and 80.  Somewhere around this time, Tom reported that his
reconnaissance of the 160M antenna revealed that the lower 40M yagi fixed on
Europe had become "unfixed", and tangled itself with 160M wire vertical.  No
160M that night!  I continued on with working whatever I could find on 40
and 80 until 0500Z.

My sleep strategy was to take two 5 hour breaks.  One a little earlier on
Saturday, and one a little later Sunday in the hopes that the 160M ant was
fixed.  Previous efforts I had made involving minimal sleep were sometimes
disastrous . I remember a final exam fiasco in college after an all-night
cram session, as well as a contest effort that I gave up on at about 1500Z
on a Sunday morning because I felt so miserable.

First European worked on Saturday morning was TM0F at 0954Z.   I moved to
15M at 1100, and to 10M at 1230.  I concentrated on rate, ignoring most
spots.  I only chased after stuff I though might not be around all weekend
like 5U, 5B4, OD5 and a couple of others.  Had I done my homework, I would
have known that some of these were big operations and were around all
weekend.  At one point, I went to chase an African mult, but he was a casual
guy just handing out a few Q's.  He went into 45 second apology to the
pileup because he wanted to go.  Seizing an opportunity to get a nice clear
run frequency, I started calling "CQ Contest" the moment he signed off.
Since half the pileup just kept calling the poor guy while he was on his
soliloquy, they figured I had run him off.  It was kind of fun to hear them
yell at me.   Dxers,  remember: listen, listen then listen some more.   I
bounced back and forth between 15 and 10 all day until I moved to 20 at
2145.  Rates were steady all day, and I had good success keeping a good run
frequency.  I found other stations, both US and DX very happy to move off if
they encroached on my frequency.  I think the key was to ask them to move
off before anyone had answered their CQ . I also tried to be extra polite.
Out of probably 20 requests over the course of the weekend, I think 19
complied . fantastic!  Thanks for your cooperation guys.

Tom made a trip up the tower Saturday evening (antenna work is best done in
the dark) and freed the 160M vertical wire from the 40M yagi.  The amplifier
was perfectly happy now.   Unfortunately, conditions were rather poor, and I
only managed 5 Q's on top band.  On one trip to the band, I called C6A/N2VV
unsuccessfully for a couple of minutes.  K1ZM worked him easily, along with
several other stations.  For some reason he just couldn't hear me.  I tuned
around and found EA8BH, but he just CQ'ed in my face.  I spotted him to see
who else could work him, and along comes W1WEF and several others who worked
him on the first or second call . what is wrong?   Oops! I was transmitting
into the 80M four square!  Turned the antenna switch, touched up the amp and
90 seconds later had two more mults in the log.

Sunday morning I got of to a bit of a late start at 1049Z after hitting the
snooze button a couple of times, but overall felt pretty good.  Solid,
steady runs kept me pumped up all through the morning.  I started on 20M,
moved to 15M  at  1112, and was on 10M at 1224.  Runs were great, and 10M
was still going strong.  I felt loud, beating KC1XX in several pileups.
Found out that CT does not allow a "." in the power field when G0LIC called
in with 59 100 milliwatts.

I know K1AR says "phone sucks", but some things happen on phone that you
just don't get on CW.  Like YV5LIX exclaiming "My god ... you're 50 over
9!!!"  Then there is  I3XKJ Marcellino who called in at 1600 Sunday and for
some reason, seemed absolutely overjoyed to work me. He wanted to know my
county, 10-10 number etc, but he was so darned happy and enthusiastic, I
felt bad about sending him on his way.  We chatted for 5 minutes or so, and
I enjoyed the change of pace, as by this time some signs of fatigue were
setting in.

While I was feeling much more awake than I expected to be, I still started
to make mistakes.  I somehow got the Charlie Kilo disease, where I kept
starting to send my exchange as 59 Charlie Kilo.  I think I caught myself
each time, but I would not be surprised if there aren't a couple folks out
there trying to figure out which state "CK".  Another malady was Zero Zulu
syndrome which manifested itself whenever a caller had both a  0 and a  Z in
his callsign.  I had to QRS to about 5 WPM as my tongue just could not form
the phonetics properly.  I also made about 150 QSOs on 10 meters with the
amp's bandswitch set to 15,  and for a while the 20M tower appeared to be
falling over.


Sunday was almost a carbon copy of Saturday until I decided that I did not
have enough mults on 20M, so I moved there at 1854, with the hope that some
of the "easy stuff" would call in.  Sure enough, they did including YB and
DU. Late that afternoon the rate tapered off, and I could not get any runs
going anywhere.  I spent a fair amount of time pointing and shooting at
spots as they came in, and managed to keep the last 10 QSO rate meter above
100 for quite a while.


During the contest, nothing broke, except Tom's wife's car.  After backing
out of the garage, the engine died, and wisps of smoke came out from under
the hood.  I may have had had the 7 ele 10M beam pointed at it at the
time.Oops.

Things to improve for the future are to make sure the station is configured
for easy band changes.  I probably missed 30-50 mults as I was afraid to
leave my run frequency for the many seconds it took to flip bandswitches,
tune amps etc.  Other ergonomic improvements will include putting the rotor
control boxes in the same room as the radios.  I also might try to shorten
my off times.  I thought I did pretty well at avoiding the urge to be a DXer
rather than a contester when juicy spots come along, although I did spend
too much time chasing VP8 and the infamous TG Sunday evening.  And I will
talk to Marcellino BEFORE the contest.

Last Q in the log was EA3JE at 2359 on 80M.  When the dust settled I had
worked 2750 QSO's,  426 countries, 10 states and 3 Canadian provinces.  Wow.
I didn't know I had it in me.  A big thank you goes out to K1KI who
suggested I do the single op effort in the first place;  his wife Kacy who
fed me all weekend, N1RR for research and advice before the contest, and all
the spotters who fed me mults.

-Joe KM1P


***************************************
                               Continent Statistics
   K1KI   ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST    Single Unlimited     04 Mar 2001
2359z

                  160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America   SSB    4   11   12   29   38   46  140     5.0
South America   SSB    0    5    3   31   39   68  146     5.3
Europe          SSB    0   50   99  470  598  996 2213    79.6
Asia            SSB    0    0    2   42  117   31  192     6.9
Africa          SSB    1    2    2   13   15   15   48     1.7
Oceania         SSB    0    0    0   11   13   16   40     1.4

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  K1KI  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single Unlimited

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT

    0    .....    .....    .....    .....    85/12    .....    85/12   85/12
    1      .        .        .      44/26     4/0       .      48/26  133/38
    2      .        .      13/13    21/13     2/1       .      36/27  169/65
    3      .      15/13    17/10      .        .        .      32/23  201/88
    4      .      12/7     19/8       .        .        .      31/15  232/103
    5      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    232/103
    6      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    232/103
    7      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    232/103
    8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....  232/103
    9      .        .        .       7/4       .        .       7/4   239/107
   10      .        .        .     142/19      .        .     142/19  381/126
   11      .        .        .       1/0    141/40      .     142/40  523/166
   12      .        .        .        .      66/5     60/30   126/35  649/201
   13      .        .        .        .        .     155/14   155/14  804/215
   14      .        .        .        .       2/1     76/20    78/21  882/236
   15      .        .        .        .       4/3     50/13    54/16  936/252
   16    .....    .....    .....    .....     9/4     65/4     74/8  1010/260
   17      .        .        .        .      49/7      1/0     50/7  1060/267
   18      .        .        .        .     100/6       .     100/6  1160/273
   19      .        .        .        .      16/0     66/9     82/9  1242/282
   20      .        .        .        .        .      53/12    53/12 1295/294
   21      .        .        .      22/1     27/11    19/2     68/14 1363/308
   22      .        .        .       7/1     22/5      9/4     38/10 1401/318
   23      .        .        .      44/7      8/0       .      52/7  1453/325
    0    .....    .....     3/0     19/1      8/2     .....    30/3  1483/328
    1      .        .      27/4       .        .        .      27/4  1510/332
    2      .        .      10/1     19/4      1/0       .      30/5  1540/337
    3      .       4/2     11/5     21/10      .        .      36/17 1576/354
    4     3/3     21/14     1/1      4/0       .        .      29/18 1605/372
    5     2/2      7/5      7/1       .        .        .      16/8  1621/380
    6      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1621/380
    7      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1621/380
    8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 1621/380
    9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1621/380
   10      .        .        .      11/0       .        .      11/0  1632/380
   11      .        .        .      12/0    122/0       .     134/0  1766/380
   12      .        .        .        .      51/3     86/4    137/7  1903/387
   13      .        .        .        .        .     124/4    124/4  2027/391
   14      .        .        .        .       1/1    100/0    101/1  2128/392
   15      .        .        .        .        .     106/0    106/0  2234/392
   16    .....    .....    .....    .....     1/1    112/0    113/1  2347/393
   17      .        .        .        .       1/1     69/0     70/1  2417/394
   18      .        .        .      10/0     72/2       .      82/2  2499/396
   19      .        .        .      87/4       .        .      87/4  2586/400
   20      .        .        .      82/3       .        .      82/3  2668/403
   21      .        .        .      25/1     14/4      8/0     47/5  2715/408
   22      .        .       3/2      5/4      4/3      1/1     13/10 2728/418
   23      .       8/4      7/3      7/1       .        .      22/8  2750/426
DAY1    .....    27/20    49/31   288/71   535/95  554/108    ..... 1453/325
DAY2     5/5     40/25    69/17   302/28   275/17   606/9       .   1297/101
TOT      5/5     67/45   118/48   590/99  810/112 1160/117      .   2750/426

BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr  K1KI  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single
Unlimited

HOUR    160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT   CUM TOT

    0   .....    .....    .....    .....    67/76    .....    67/76    67/76
    1     .        .        .      48/55     5/53      .      53/55   120/66
    2     .        .      13/58    41/31     6/21      .      60/36   180/56
    3     .      23/39    25/40      .        .        .      49/40   229/53
    4     .      24/30    29/39      .        .        .      53/35   282/49
    5     .        .        .        .        .        .        .     282/49
    6     .        .        .        .        .        .        .     282/49
    7     .        .        .        .        .        .        .     282/49
    8   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....   282/49
    9     .        .        .       6/68      .        .       6/68   288/50
   10     .        .        .      61/140     .        .      61/140  349/66
   11     .        .        .       3/21    57/149     .      60/143  408/77
   12     .        .        .        .      28/139   31/115   60/127  468/83
   13     .        .        .        .        .      61/154   61/154  528/91
   14     .        .        .        .       2/77    58/79    60/79   588/90
   15     .        .        .        .       4/64    56/53    60/54   648/87
   16   .....    .....    .....    .....    14/39    46/85    60/74   708/86
   17     .        .        .        .      59/50     1/47    60/50   768/83
   18     .        .        .        .      60/99      .      60/99   828/84
   19     .        .        .        .      14/69    45/87    59/83   888/84
   20     .        .        .        .        .      61/52    61/52   949/82
   21     .        .        .      13/104   26/63    21/55    59/69  1008/81
   22     .        .        .       8/54    26/50    26/21    60/38  1068/79
   23     .        .        .      43/61    17/29      .      60/52  1128/77
    0   .....    .....     6/32    21/55    17/28    .....    44/41  1172/76
    1     .        .      59/27      .        .        .      59/27  1231/74
    2     .        .      26/23    31/37     2/27      .      59/31  1290/72
    3     .       6/38    31/21    22/57      .        .      60/36  1349/70
    4    7/25    24/52     2/39     5/49      .        .      38/46  1387/69
    5    7/17     7/61     5/78      .        .        .      19/49  1406/69
    6     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1406/69
    7     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1406/69
    8   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....  1406/69
    9     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1406/69
   10     .        .        .      11/60      .        .      11/60  1418/69
   11     .        .        .      12/59    48/153     .      60/134 1478/72
   12     .        .        .        .      24/127   36/144   60/137 1537/74
   13     .        .        .        .        .      60/123   60/123 1598/76
   14     .        .        .        .       0/212   59/101   60/101 1658/77
   15     .        .        .        .        .      64/100   64/100 1721/78
   16   .....    .....    .....    .....     1/43    55/122   57/120 1778/79
   17     .        .        .        .       3/22    59/70    62/68  1840/79
   18     .        .        .       7/90    52/83      .      59/84  1898/79
   19     .        .        .      60/87      .        .      60/87  1958/79
   20     .        .        .      60/82      .        .      60/82  2018/79
   21     .        .        .      32/47    25/34     9/53    66/43  2084/78
   22     .        .      14/13    15/19     9/26     3/19    42/19  2125/77
   23     .      11/44    12/36    13/32      .        .      36/37  2161/76
DAY1   .....   0.8/34   1.1/43   3.7/77   6.4/84   6.8/82    .....  18.8/77
DAY2  0.2/21   0.8/50   2.6/27   4.8/63   3.0/91   5.8/105     .    17.2/75
TOT   0.2/21   1.6/42   3.7/32   8.5/69   9.4/86  12.5/92      .    36.0/76

BREAKDOWN in kilo-points by hr  K1KI  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single
Unlimited

HOUR    160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT   CUM TOT

    0   .....    .....    .....    .....     101     .....     101      101
    1     .        .        .       133        3       .       135      236
    2     .        .        62       67        5       .       134      370
    3     .        63       52       .        .        .       115      484
    4     .        36       45       .        .        .        81      566
    5     .        .        .        .        .        .        .       566
    6     .        .        .        .        .        .        .       566
    7     .        .        .        .        .        .        .       566
    8   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....     566
    9     .        .        .        21       .        .        21      586
   10     .        .        .       169       .        .       169      755
   11     .        .        .         1      254       .       255     1009
   12     .        .        .        .        63      161      224     1233
   13     .        .        .        .        .       156      156     1390
   14     .        .        .        .         5      130      136     1526
   15     .        .        .        .        15       85       99     1625
   16   .....    .....    .....    .....      22       58       80     1705
   17     .        .        .        .        60        1       61     1766
   18     .        .        .        .        88       .        88     1853
   19     .        .        .        .        10       76       86     1939
   20     .        .        .        .        .        83       83     2022
   21     .        .        .        18       61       20      100     2122
   22     .        .        .         9       35       22       65     2187
   23     .        .        .        57        5       .        62     2249
    0   .....    .....       2       16       13     .....      31     2281
    1     .        .        33       .        .        .        33     2314
    2     .        .        10       27        1       .        38     2352
    3     .        11       28       54       .        .        93     2445
    4     14       71        5        3       .        .        92     2537
    5      9       25        9       .        .        .        43     2580
    6     .        .        .        .        .        .        .      2580
    7     .        .        .        .        .        .        .      2580
    8   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    2580
    9     .        .        .        .        .        .        .      2580
   10     .        .        .         7       .        .         7     2587
   11     .        .        .         8       78       .        86     2672
   12     .        .        .        .        45       71      116     2789
   13     .        .        .        .        .        96       96     2884
   14     .        .        .        .         5       64       69     2953
   15     .        .        .        .        .        68       68     3021
   16   .....    .....    .....    .....       5       72       76     3097
   17     .        .        .        .         5       44       49     3146
   18     .        .        .         6       54       .        61     3206
   19     .        .        .        72       .        .        72     3278
   20     .        .        .        64       .        .        64     3342
   21     .        .        .        20       25        5       51     3393
   22     .        .        10       20       15        5       49     3442
   23     .        21       17        9       .        .        47     3489
DAY1   .....      99      158      473      726      793     .....    2249
DAY2     24      128      113      306      245      424       .      1240
TOT      24      227      271      779      971     1217       .      3489


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